My Introductory Digital Photography class is winding to a close, and the Final Project is officially assigned. We're expected to turn in a minimum of six images, topic and technique at our discretion. I have quite a few ideas, but I'm waffling- and this where you good people come in!
IDEA A: (and the one I'd most like to accomplish; simultaneously the one that presents the greatest difficulties) A narrative with three pages, six images to a page. Originally, this was a concept dreamed up to accompany the Radiohead song "Black Star." It would be bound comic book style with a front and back cover, possibly accompanied by a burnt copy of the song (I like the idea of engaging as many of the senses as possible. My professor will be lucky if it's not scented as well...).
As the story opens, a full moon is shadowed by a bizarre, orb-like satellite, pinwheeling across the sky over a peaceful rural farmhouse. We zoom down to see a small boy, faced pressed to his bedroom window. As he watches the "black star," he notices what he thinks is a fly buzzing against the glass, but as he looks closer he realizes it actually has the body of a woman. He clambers onto the windowsill and strains to reach it. He loses his balance and pitches forward, knocking the window open. The strange creature quickly escapes, and spirals towards the sky as the boy looks on, longingly.
Years later- the same boy is on some sort of camping expedition, like the Boy Scouts, roasting marshmallows at the edge of a lake. He sneaks from his tent after everyone has gone to sleep. On a large rock in the center of the water, he sees the same woman- fish-tailed this time- but as he plunges towards her, she vanishes once again. The "black star" is high overhead.
A young man now, he stands patiently on a subway platform, waiting for the train. A sliver of sky is visible through the doorway at the top of a short flight on stairs. Through the bustling crowd, he sees the woman staring at him from the opposite platform. He drops his coat and bags and races to the edge of the tracks, then, without hesitation, makes the flying leap across. The lights of the oncoming train silhouette him for an instant, before the scene goes wholly white..... The "camera" pans upward, towards the open air, and, as a horrified crowd gathers below, two tiny, winged figures sail together towards the satellite.
PROBLEMS: Egad, eighteen images, at least. Also, where am I gonna find three fellas of the appropriate age who look enough like one another to pass as the same person? I could collage images from external sources, merging them by hand and then lighting the scene and photographing the results- that could work, and be interesting... but it's not exactly the story as I see it.
IDEA B: Six images, also using collage techniques, illustrating the evolution of man's ideas about the Devil. Starting from biblical sources and moving forward through the many different fears man has embodied and tagged with this diabolical label.
Got a few more, but this post is already faaaaar too long....
