Developement

I felt that my final idea was the strongest and have now decided to work more on it to see if it will work. I thought I'd start off by creating a photo montage of the drawings and images of things I would draw to get more of an idea of what it would look like.

After mapping out where I wanted everything to go I realised that I wanted to have Shakespeare and Garrick closer to the viewer. This meant bigger and also I wanted them big enough to be a good size for A5 as the poster was meant to work in A5 as well as A3. This did mean however that I would now have to leave out alot of components I wanted to include with the zombie actors on the stage and so on. After the curtains the title Shakespeare and Garrick there wasn't much room left. my tutor also mentioned about the zombies coming out at the viewer. He thought that by having the hand reach out this worked well but however the hands perspective was wrong and could be larger and coming out more.

I changed that sizing of the hand and drew a rough outline of the hand. I think this does work better and will ajust the drawing to have the larger hand. Also tried including a couple more elements The skulls I feel are a nice addition and will use these. The triangle however I think needs to be taken out. A few people suggested that the liked the rough photo cut look and the white backing. This however wouldn't be very classical of the style that the courtyard has asked for. Maybe I will try to show both to see what they think.

Being as I had already drawn this compoent of the drawing out already I thought it could be useful to draw the image up out of different layers. This was differnt to how I had done it before as I usually try to get it all on one piece of paper. The problem with that is that before if I made a mistake I didn't want to go back and redo the whole drawing. This way I felt more confident of my time.

I drew out the differnt copoents in this two tone affect and then layered them in photo shop. This working process was time saving and alot let stressful than what I am used to.

I then tried out didn't colours and textures on photoshop

After trying out verious ideas I thought I take this one to show as my piece

The client was very pleased with alot of the entries but luckily for me I got picked with a couple of others to be included. I mine was to be included in the courtyard as the poster while someone elses was to be the flying.

The client said that she would show it to the actors in the production to see what they thought and although they liked it they wanted to change the colour of the text to the same as the eyes, as they felt it stood out more. I thought it was a very simple request and was happy to change the design. Photoshop made it very simple and quick to accomplish this.

Intial drawings

First off I wanted to get a grip of drawing zombies. I drew from the pictures and tried to make them more zombie like. The imagery sort of worked. I found that some people were more effective than others. I tried using pictures of other zombies to look at the features they had exaggerated and disformed to apply them to other people. Looking at the design of the zombies from the game left for dead they described there design of the injuries and deformities were inspired by thinking what they did in there life and then applying the sort of accidents they might have in there everyday life while applying the bite and scratch wounds from a zombie attack. Applying this to my drawings may help.

This was a lay out idea I had where I thought about using the front of the courtyard in a zombie apocalyptic environment. I thought I could have a bill board outside that could have the information written on to incorporate the text with the image. Then I though if I had zombies and dark clouds about the image it would help to give it the horror look. I would have to think of a way to use the hammer horror style in my work to make it fit in with what the client wants. Having it at night would mean I could put the large amounts of black into my design which is classic of the design I need to incorporate.

In this idea I thought having a shot down the theatre over the seats looking down the stage would be a good perspective. I imagined it would have zombies crawling over the seats trying to get to the viewer, with maybe the title and info in between the curtains. I thought the character at the front could be a zombie Garrick inviting you into the theatre.

this is a few drawings done by my tutor to help give me ideas. We looked over the ideas of have Garrick inviting the viewer into the theatre and how the text could be laid out. Possibly up his arm or in hair? He suggested having the characters close up to have a sense of immediate doom hanging over. This I feel would draw more attention and help create that sense of fear abit. Also he said about creating a more characterised zombie to help my style. I think If I can do this it will help create better zombies rather than the more photo realistic ones I've been going for. I need to experiment with this more as my poster will be based around them.

Quick study of Garrick's features

study of Garrick again trying to look at his features and apply them to my own drawings. I need to try more to characterise him rather than just draw him.

Here I managed to characterise him more as a zombie. Also looked at the idea of doing Shakespeare in a skeletal way to zombie him

Zombie version of Shakespeare done for the T.V series "The Simpsons"

more ideas on what my zombie Garrick and Shakespeare could look like. I like the idea of Shakespeare clambering on Garrick as he welcomes the viewer in with his outstretched arm. I feel that I've got enough of an idea now to draw up what I want character wise.

This idea for layout I think is the best one yet. I thought instead of having the viewer look over the chairs of the theatre that maybe they could look out to the chairs though the theatre curtains. This would create a nice boarder to focus the eye in as well as have the theme of theatre. I also thought if the audience was in darkness then it would create a nice black background on with the title and information could go onto. On the stage I thought I could have Garrick and Shakespeare amongst zombies acting out roles in costumes but also doing strange zombie like acts. One idea I had was to have a actor talking to a skull as is famous of practicing actors but instead of a skull he found it could be his own head. This kind of humour I thought would fit in with the humour the play was trying to create. I will see how this goes done.

Shawn of the Dead

This film was particularly mentioned for its style of joke zombie and also graphically. I watched the film again to get an idea of  the sort of humour they were interested in and looked into the style that they used to get a solid idea of the style approach I would go for.

• The hard chunky writing they used for the piece is classic of the zombie culture and I want to use the same or similar type face.
• The logo like hand rising up is included cleverly in the type. Clever way to incorporate.
• The slogan "ever felt like you were surrounded by zombies helps communicate its a comedy and creates amusement. If I could come up with something for "The Theatre of Doom" this could well help my chances.
•  Wall of zombies is offend used and may be a useful idea to incorporate.

The humour in the film looks into the abserdness of the situations and looking at dark subject in a light hearted manor. Using everyday events and situautions in a less than ordinary situation helps it relate with the audience and make them laugh. If I can do this then I can perhaps create more interest in the play and my poster as well as communicate the humour in the play.

 

Theatre

These are some elements that I thought could be Incorporated into my work to help communicate that it is a theatre production.


Rows of seats and the grand architectural pillars and boxes are classic of a theatrical setting. Also the colour red is used alot in theatre to communicate the life and extravagant of the theatre.

The happy and sad masks are often related back to the theatre. I thought maybe putting one on a zombie might be a amusing element to a image.

Theatre curtains are again often used in red and relate back to the topic. They could be a nice border to

the imagery.

Theatre wigs were classic of Garrick's time and will help communicate a era in time the play looks at.

Theatre costumes on zombies could be amusing and again communicate the time.

Having a set would again increase the theatre aspect and also I thought create a apocalyptic set would help marry the idea of theatre and zombie Apocalypse together.



Zombie

Thought taken a brief look at zombie culture in general might help inspire some ideas.

Zombie culture seems to be more than often very jokey anyway. There is alot of satire that looks back at the old zombie films and the what now seem funny special effects. It is very gory but this would have to be possibly toned down as the client has asked it isn't to gruesome for kids. Silhouettes are often used of disfigured people which I think could possibly be a good idea to use.

Zombie Logo

The image of the hand coming up from the ground is a recurring image tat is used over and over again in zombie imagery. This image has been related with the idea of zombies and the rising of the dead and is almost like a logo for the culture. Putting this into my work will help communicate the theme of the play as well as attracting zombie fans and creating a strong image.

Zombie culture as does other horror cultures has its own issues that it tackles. As does Vampirism look at cultural worries of the spread of disease and the lose of religion zombie culture usually looks into the fears of the calapse of human civilization. Weather or not this is relevant to the play that the youth group have written I'm not sure. Also I'm unsure weather or not it would help the design. Finding out about the script of the play if aloud may help me to get more of an idea weather these things would be relevant to my design.

David Garrick and other famous actors.

Although it hasn't been explained what the plot is for the play they have pointed out that they are very keen to include David Garrick into the design of the poster. (possibly as a zombie) I thought I'd get more of an idea of what he did and who he was as he would be a strong edition to the poster as he is appealing not to just the general audience but particularly the local Hereford community.

There is allot of source material of paintings and drawing of Garrick that I can source from on google. The imagery of him is generally of him wearing quite elaborate clothing using a wig on his head which was popular of the time. Often in theatre dress which I may well incorporate into the design.

• Pupil and friend if Dr Samuel Johnson
• Was in a number of productions, but most famous for his role in Shakespeare "Richard III"
• His theatre rose to be known as one of the leading theatres in Europe.  
• He was buried in Westminster Abbey laid in Poets Corner. He had a lavish public funeral (possibly relevant to the zombie side of the story?)



These actors were suggested as a good idea to include in the work as they were relevant to the time. I'm thinking of putting them all into the design if I can but I don't want to over complicate it. Including a Garrick or a Zombie Garrick I think I'm set on for the design but I am unsure on what actors otherwise I will include. I think Shakespeare would be the most important addition as he is so well know and respected for his work that he may well draw alot of interest.

Thumb nailing out ideas of these actors I think will help to decide who I will include and possible give me some ideas for other componants of the posters or possible jokes.