Conclusion

Time management and planning skills were more that adequate for this brief. The only real test was perhaps a test of patience when it came to trying to unravel the book itself. The only thing that would be changed if the brief was given again would be trying to avoid the unavoidable bad luck experienced when it came round to shooting both the main idea and the back-up idea. Besides that, all went well.

This assignment did give more experience in using film. It is not a preferred medium, however it does result in broader knowledge when it comes to image making. More work on film will be undertaken.

Evaluation

The initial reaction to the assignment was a very negative one and it did take a while for it to be enjoyed. Having jumped in headfirst it was soon clear that there were a lot of possibilities for different directions and styles to be used.

The assignment was researched thoroughly. Trying to gather as much information on the book as possible from as many different sources as was available. This however proved to be very little help in deciding where to go when it came to planning for a shoot.

The idea arose to examine previous book covers and to use them to try to gain inspiration. Analysis of those did indeed provide some ideas. Combine that with a reexamination of the research on the book brought to mind one good idea that could be adapted and simplified depending on time, props models, and any unforeseen occurrences. Further development arose through looking at black and white images of pub scenes.

Overall the research and planning side of the assignment went well. The book is known to be quite intricate and confusing at the best of times, so it is no wonder that inspiration was hard to find. A book as complex as that is difficult to sum up in one composition.

With the problems of locations, model and props, the main idea and back-up ideas could not be shot. This left the last-resort idea as the only option. It was staged simply and carefully, so it could easily be repeated if needed. The idea was perhaps too simple, but there was little choice.

The results were however very pleasing, there were a number of good images to choose from, even after those that were unsuitable were removed as options. The editing was kept to a minimum so the film quality of the compositions remained.

Final Covers

Below are the six final covers that have been submitted into the competition:

Editing the images

Each of the suitable images was in turn dropped into the template. Each was resized and repositioned to make best use of the space around the text. The levels, brightness and contract were then altered to bring the best out of each composition. Dodging, burning and cloning was undertaken to highlight details and to remove any unwanted details or imperfections.

The resulting composites were saved as psd’s for possible future editing. When happy with them each final submission was then flattened to a jpeg ready to be entered.

The Results

When the films were collected and the prints examined, it was clear that the idea of the still life had been a successful one. Although not all the compositions were focused as intended and in a number of cases they images were underexposed, the shoot produced a number of good images. Please see the contact sheets below.

Film1:


Film2:


The strongest of the photographs were selected and examined for how well they would fit in to the At Swim Two Birds template. The result of this is that one or two images were unsuitable to further editing. Either the focus of the images was too big in the frame or the text fell where the froth of the pint was and re-sizing it could not help.

The shoot

The simplicity of the idea meant that very little could go wrong. 

It was staged in a bedroom, with a dark covered draped between 2 chairs to form a dark background to the composition. A small table was place in front of the cover. 

On the table was placed the Guinness, the 2 birds and the manuscript with pen. The scene was lit from the left side using an adjustable brightness lamp.

The camera was set up on the tripod. It was set to f.4 and a shutter speed of 2 seconds. The brightness of the lamp was altered to keep keep the light readings within a suitable range.

Both the height and distance from which the compositions were taken was altered, as was the arrangement of the objects on the table. At one point one of the paper birds was placed into the pint glass, sitting on the froth of the Guinness.

Once both roles of film had been shot the scene and camera was tidied away. The next day they were dropped in to be developed.

Ready for the shoot?

Everything was set for the shoot, however everything that could go wrong has done. The planned locations have fallen through. The back-up plan which was to shoot in the home of the model using the props he has agreed to lend has gone belly up do to an unforeseen illness. This has left the idea up in the air.

Luckily there was a last-resort idea. This now has to be used as there is little time left for much else, given that the film needs to be process and the images need to be edited in photoshop before the deadline in 8days time.

This idea is to set up a simple still life with a pint of Guinness, two origami birds and a handwritten manuscript with a pen placed on top.

Important: Something to keep in mind

When setting up for the shoot and composing the photographs, it will be important to keep in mind the layout of the book cover. The images have to fit inside a set template. The template can be downloaded from the website.

The template is shown below:

Although the compositions can be altered in Photoshop the template cannot be altered; no drop shadows or outlines around the text, no nothing.

This means that the image has to be composed so as not to blend in with the writing, it has to be readable for it to be considered.

The focus of the composition cannot be behind the text as this would affect the strength of the cover when it is all composed. It is pointless coming up with a good idea if when it is shot it cannot be seen or the imagery is misinterpreted. 

Where now?

Now a location, model and props have to be found:

It is lucky that a gent is known and that upon consulting with him, will model and can also get his hands on a pipe, flat cap and old reading glasses.

The hand written manuscript can easily be produced as can two white origami swans (these will be made using the instructions from http://www.marcels-kid-crafts.com/origami-swan.html).

The location may be a bit more difficult to secure:

The hope is to use either the 'Burnt Tree' in Anslow or the 'Star and Garter' near the town hall in Burton-upon-Trent. As both of these poses a fireplace, mirrors with enough natural light and space to shoot.

Idea Development

Upon reviewing the initial idea it is clear that if it was combined with the inspiration gained from the review of the fie selected images, that it could work very well in fulfilling the brief.

Idea for the book cover now stands at this:

To have a gentleman seated at a table in a pub in front of a fireplace or mirror. He will be wearing a flat cap and it will partially obscure his face.

On the table in front of him will be his pint of Guinness, his pipe, his glasses and part of a handwritten manuscript. (The arrangement of the items will be experimented with as the shot is set up).

His posture and facial expression will be that of someone who is engrossed in what he is doing. Other ideas may well be played with. The scene may be shot with him with his pipe in mouth and him staring off into space as if seeking inspiration.

He will be sat with his back to the window so that the light will only pick out certain desired details of the set-up.

On the table will also be found two white birds, probably origami swans.

Further Research

With few ideas available it was decided that more inspiration was needed. The conclusion was that following on from the one idea available that google images would be searched for  parallels in hope of coming across ways to develop the idea.

The images below are the ones that grabbed attention:

(i) A gent in his local, in his flat cap with a pint of Guinness. He looks unapproachable, like he has turned to snap at someone. The lines on his face give him character, he fits into the stereotype of a 'typical old man' down the pub. This works very well as a black and white image. the emphasis is on the details of his face, the surrounding and his demeanor.

(ii) There is an unescapable are of separation in this image. The two men are sitting no more than two meters away from each other yet neither are making any effort to interact. Both are in there own world. Although this is a contemporary image shot in black and white, (with the camera rested on the table) this is the impression brought to mind when considering the author of 'at swim two birds'. That he is by himself fully focused on his creation, not interacting with anyone.

(iii) This is the strongest of the images that were taken off google images. The fact that the gentleman in the picture is obscured by the glass screen adds a whole other dimension to this composition. There is no way of knowing how this gent is, what he is thinking or how he is feeling. Everything we know about this gentleman will be created by our own experiences on how a man on his own in a pub is, thinks and behaves. The two stools in the bottom right of the image emphasise the fact he his by himself.

(iv) The figure is blurred where he is moving, yet in focus where he is still. this is a moment captured perfectly. Despite this however, that is not the reason it was chosen. It is the wooden surrounding of the public house that he is in that is the interest. The tones, shapes, patterns and textures of the wood combined with the smooth metal adornments create many points of focus, if the image is being thoroughly explored.

(v) The fifth image compared to the other four is an odd choice. This is a very busy composition, everywhere the viewer looks something is happening. this could be the man smoking his pipe, the gent and his dog interacting, the man who is watching what is happening or the three chaps that are leaving the pub. This has been included because of how the light from the window has highlighted certain figures or items. Because of the light, the focus is on the silhouetted figure of the man with his pipe and the man giving his dog a drink. The eyes start on the dog, switch to the silhouette then move from right to left picking up every detail. The available light if used correctly could be very effective when shooting for this brief.

Ideas

Due to the confusion surrounding the book there are few ideas floating about.

So far all that stands out from the research is ‘a public house’ and a list of items: A pint of Guinness, an old smoker’s pipe, handwritten papers / manuscripts, writing implements, pair of spectacles, and 2birds.

Where to go from this starting point is the problem. There is one idea that combines all the points above, but that may be too simple: Sitting a gentleman in a pub with his pipe and pint and having a few sheets on manuscript on a table with a pen or pencil near them.

More thought is obviously needed.

Previous Covers

i) Definitely looks to be the oldest cover, very plain, very simple. It says nothing of the book itself, so is of little help. Still, it does show how long the book has been about, and with it being re-printed again, it must be worth reading.

(ii) Holds reminders of ‘Step-toe and son’. So therefore has a personal comical association. It is feared however that this distracts from the intentions of the original designer and photographer of the cover. It shows two gents in a public house in the 1950s / 60’s, the age range similar to that of a father and son. There is a pint of Irelands finest and an ash tray on the bar. The composition does not show the gentlemen interacting with each other; they are looking out of frame as if talking to other friends. The theme of alcohol runs very strongly throughout the book and the image of an ashtray may help with ideas.

(iii) This is a very 60’s in-your-face design. It is extremely bold and brash, not something that would be seen on a Penguin Classic book of today. It is composed of four squares of colour making up the bottom two-thirds and a banner of blue at the top which holds the title. Within each of the squares appears to be a bird-at-swim, again of differing colours. The theme of the birds-at-swim appears.

(iv) A simple idea of a bowler hat on top of sheets of a hand written manuscript. This gives the imagining of an old-style gentleman sitting down at his table, removing his bowler hat, getting out his writing equipment and focusing intently on composing his book. The intriguing point about this cover are the figures that have been made from out of sheets of the manuscript; there are three figures that seem to be running menacingly towards the hat, almost rioting, rebelling against something.

(v) A table surface, with a pencil and a glass on it. Does not really seem very indicative of the story, at least not until closer attention is paid. There are three marks on the table where the glass has been, two of the marks are in the shape of birds; birds formed of condensed water from the outside of the glass – very clever. It could represent the sight that would be seen by the author in the book when he looks down at the table in front of him.

Thoughts on the book

Where to begin!

It took a long time to get any real grasp on this book what-so-ever; this would not be something that personally would be read as it would take a while to truly get into it.

There are three separate beginnings, which as the books progresses all intertwine and interact. There three story lines are each based around one character. The third is a student who spends more time drinking, lying in bed and writing his novel than going to lectures. The characters end up rebelling on the author who creates them and it ends seemingly rather abruptly.

Madness!

The more that is read of and about the book, the less it is understood. It is definitely going to be worth looking at previous covers and seeing if suggestions from them and further reflection on the book can help to create any initial ideas for a cover.

Book Extract 4

Now listen, said Shanahan clearing the way with small coughs. Listen now.

He arose holding out his hand and bending his knee beneath him on the chair.
When things go wrong and will not come right,Though you do the best you can,When life looks black as the hour of night –A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

By God there’s a lilt in that, said Lamont.

Very good indeed, said Furriskey. Very nice.

I’m telling you it’s the business, said Shanahan. Listen now.

When money’s tight and is hard to getAnd your horse has also ran,When all you have is a heap of debt –A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.
When health is bad and your heart feels stranger,And your face is pale and wan,When doctors say that you need a change,A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

There are things in that pome that make for what you call permanence. Do you know what I mean, Mr Furriskey? There’s no doubt about it, it’s a grand thing, said Furriskey. Come on, Mr Shanahan, give us another verse. Don’t tell me that is the end of it.

Cant you listen? Said Shanahan.

When food is scarce and your larder bareAnd no rashers grease your pan,When hunger grows as your meals are rare – A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

What do you think of that now?

It’s a pome that’ll live, called Lamont, a pome that’ll be heard and clapped when plenty more…

But wait till your hear the last verse, man, the last polish-off, said Shanahan. He frowned and waved his hand.

Oh it’s good, it’s good, said Furriskey.
In time of trouble and lousy strife,You have still got a darlint plan, You still can turn to a brighter life –A PI NT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

(From fujifilmstudentawards.co.uk)

Book Extract 3

O hag, said Sweeny, searing are the tribulations I have suffered; many a terrible leap have I leaped from hill to hill, from fort to fort, from land to land, from valley to valley.

For the sake of God, said the hag, leap for us now a leap such as you leaped in the days of your madness.

And thereupon Sweeny gave a bound over the top of the bedrail till he reached the extremity of the bench.

My conscience indeed, said the hag, I could leap the same leap myself.

And the hag gave a like jump.

Sweeny then gathered himself together in the extremity of his jealousy and threw a leap right out through the skylight of the hostel.

I could vault the vault too, said the hag and straightway she vaulted the same vault. And the short of it is this, that Sweeny travelled the length of five cantreds of leaps until he had penetrated to Glenn ne nEachtach in Fiodh Gaibhle with the hag at her hag’s leaps behind him; and when Sweeny rested there in a huddle at the top of a tall ivy-branch, the hag was perched there on another tree beside him. He heard there the voice of a stag and he thereupon made a lay eulogizing aloud the trees and the stags of Erin, and he did not cease or sleep until he had achieved these staves.

Bleating one, little antlers,O lamenter we likeDelightful the clamouringFrom your glen you make.

O leafy-oak, clumpy-leaved, You are high above trees, O hazlet, little clumpy-branch – The nut-smell of hazels.

O alder, O alder-friend, Delightful your colour, You don’t prickle me or tearIn the place you are.
O blackthorn, little thorny-one,O little dark sloe-tree;O watercress, O green-crowned,At the well-brink.

O holly, holly-shelter,O door against the wind,O ash-tree inimical,Your spearshift of warrior.

O birch clean and blessed,O melodious, O proud,delightful the tangleof your heard-rods.

What I like least in woodlandsFrom none I conceal it –Stirk of a leafy-oak,As its swaying.

O faun, little long-legs, I caught you with grips,I rode you upon your backFrom peak to peak.

Glen Bolcain my home ever,It was my haven,many a night I have trieda race against the peak.

(From fujifilmstudentawards.co.uk)

Book Extract 2

Further extract from my Manuscript wherein Mr Trellis commences the writing of his story: Propped by pillows in his bed in the white light of an incandescent petrol lamp, Dermot Trellis adjusted the pimples in his forehead into a frown of deep creative import. His pencil moved slowly across the ruled paper, leaving words behind it of every size. He was engaged in the creation of John Furriskey, the villain of his tale.

Extract from Press regarding Furriskey’s birth: We are in position to announce that a happy event has taken place at the Red Swan Hotel, where the proprietor, Mr Dermot Trellis, has succeeded in encompassing the birth of a man called Furriskey. Stated to be doing ‘very nicely’, the new arrival is about five feet eight inches in height, well built, dark, and clean-shaven. The eyes are blue and the teeth well formed and good, though stained somewhat by tobacco; there are two fillings in the molars of the left upperside and a cavity threatened in the left canine. The hair, black and of thick quality, is worn plastered back on the head with a straight parting from the left temple. The chest is muscular and well-developed while the legs are straight but rather short. He is very proficient mentally having an unusually firm grasp of the Latin idiom and a knowledge of physics extending from Boyle’s Law to the Leclanche Cell and the Greasepot photometer. He would seem to have a special aptitude for mathematics. In the course of a brief test conducted by our reporter, he solved a ‘cut’ from an advanced chapter of Hall and Knight’s Geometry and failed to be mystified by an intricate operation involving the calculus. His voice is light and pleasant, although from his fingers it is obvious that he is a heavy smoker. He is apparently not a virgin, although it is admittedly difficult to establish this attribute with certainty in the male.

Our Medical Correspondent writes:

The birth of a son in the Red Swan Hotel is a fitting tribute to the zeal and perseverance of Mr Dermot Trellis, who has won international repute in connexion with his researches into the theory of aestho-autogamy. The event may be said to crown the savant’s lifework as he has at least realized his dream of producing a living mammal from an operation involving neither fertilization nor conception.

(From fujifilmstudentawards.co.uk)

Book Extract 1

HAVING placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes’ chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression. I reflected on the subject of my spare-time literary activities. One beginning and one ending for a book was a thing I did not agree with. A good book may have three openings entirely dissimilar and inter-related only in the prescience of the author, or for that matter on hundred

Examples of three separate openings – the first: The Pooka MacPhellimey, a member of the devil class, sat in his hut in the middle of a firwood meditating on the nature of the numerals and segregating in his mind the odd ones from the even. He seated at his diptych or ancient two-leaved hinged writing-table with inner sides waxed. His rough long-nailed fingers toyed with a snuff-box of perfect rotundity and through a gap in his teeth he whistled a civil cavatina. He was a courtly man and received honour by reason of the generous treatment he gave his wife, one of the Corrigans of Carlow.

The second opening: There was nothing unusual in the appearance of Mr John Furriskey but actually he had one distinction that is rarely encountered – he was born at the age of twenty-five and entered the world with a memory but without a personal experience to account for it. His teeth were well-formed but stained by tobacco, with two molars filled and a cavity threatened in the left canine. His knowledge of physics was moderate and extended to Boyle’s Law and the Parallelogram of Forces.

The third opening: Finn MacCool was a legendary hero of old Ireland. Though not mentally robust, he was a man of superb physique and development. Each of his thighs was as thick as a horse’s belly, narrowing to a calf as thick as the belly of a foal. Three fifties of fosterlings could engage with handball against the wideness of his backside, which was large enough to halt the march of men through a mountain-pass.

I hurt a tooth in the corner of my jaw with a lump of the crust I was eating. This recalled me to the perception of my surroundings.

It is a great pity, observed my uncle, that you don’t apply yourself more to your studies. The dear knows your father worked hard enough for the money he is laying out on your education. Tell me this, do you ever open a book at all?

I surveyed my uncle in a sullen manner. He speared a portion of cooled rasher against a crust on the prongs of his fork and poised the whole at the opening of his mouth in a token of continued interrogation.
Description of my uncle: Red-faced, bead-eyed, ball-bellied. Fleshy about the shoulders with long swinging arms giving ape-like effect to gait. Large moustache. Holder of Guinness clerkship the third class.
I do, I replied.

He put the point of his fork into the interior of his mouth and withdrew it again, chewing in a coarse manner.

Quality of rasher in use in household: Inferior, one and two the pound.

Well faith, he said, I never see you at it. I never see you at your studies at all.

I work in my bedroom, I answered.

(From fujifilmstudentawards.co.uk)

Summary 2

The story of an Irish college student who - half to amuse himself and half to avoid work - writes an irreverent novel about the figures of Irish myth and legend in which characters come to life and riot against their author, At Swim is a wildly comic send-up of Irish literature and culture. O'Brien opened up a whole new world of possibilities for fiction and subsequent novelists have played with his zany ideas, chief among them being the idea that characters in fiction have earned the right to be "recycled" - after all, they've proven their reliability as characters! - not retired once their stories are finished.

The story of an Irish college student who -- half to amuse himself and half to avoid work -- writes an irreverent novel about the figures of Irish myth and legend in which characters come to life and riot against their author. At Swim-Two-Birds is a wildly comic send-up of Irish literature and culture and has had a major influence on writers coming after O'Brien, including Anthony Burgess, Gilbert Sorrentino, and William H. Gass.

(From Flipkart.com)

Summary 1

At Swim-Two-Birds presents itself as a first-person story by an unnamed Irish student of literature. The student believes that "one beginning and one ending for a book was a thing I did not agree with", and he accordingly sets three apparently quite separate stories in motion. The first concerns the Pooka MacPhellimey, "a member of the devil class". The second is about a young man named John Furriskey, who turns out to be a fictional character created by another of the student's creations, Dermot Trellis, a cynical writer of Westerns. The third consists of the student's adaptations of Irish legends, mostly concerning Finn Mac Cool and mad King Sweeney.

In the autobiographical frame story, the student recounts details of his life. He lives with his uncle, who works as a clerk in the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. The uncle is a complacent and self-consciously respectable bachelor who suspects that the student does very little studying. This seems to be the case, as by his own account the student spends more time drinking stout with his college friends, lying in bed and working on his book, than he does going to class.

The stories that the student is writing soon become intertwined with each other. John Furriskey meets and befriends two of Trellis's other characters, Antony Lamont and Paul Shanahan. They each become resentful of Trellis's control over their destinies, and manage to drug him so that he will spend more time asleep, giving them the freedom to lead quiet domestic lives rather than be ruled by the lurid plots of his novels. Meanwhile, Trellis creates Sheila Lamont (Antony Lamont's sister) in order that Furriskey might seduce and betray her, but "blinded by her beauty" Trellis "so far forgets himself as to assault her himself." Sheila, in due course, gives birth to a child named Orlick, who is born as a polite and articulate young man with a gift for writing fiction. The entire group of Trellis's characters, by now including Finn, Sweeney, the urbane Pooka and an invisible and quarrelsome Good Fairy who lives in the Pooka's pocket, convenes in Trellis's fictional Red Swan Hotel where they devise a way to overthrow their author. Encouraged by the others, Orlick starts writing a novel about his father in which Trellis is tried by his own creations, found guilty and viciously tortured. Just as Orlick's novel is about to climax with Trellis' death, the college student passes his exams and At Swim-Two-Birds ends.

(From Wikipedia)