Week 2 of Another World saw us experiment with establishing worlds with a limited number of visual prompts in the form of 6-8 images that would form a coherent plot or story.The key source of inspiration that prompted this exercise was this quote:

“It is characteristic of the vast majority of cities in the movies that they focus not on architecture per se, but on architecture as it affects, and is interpreted by, citizens”

After discussing in the classroom some specific examples, with our table focusing on the vast array of Batman films as well as other city landscape features like Coming To America and Chicago, we concluded that location and visuals are often used to bolster tone or imply narrative emotion, the best example being in Coming To America where Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) arrives in Queens, NYC to a dismal and backwater part of the suburbs that from the viewer perspective looks dank and unwelcoming however to his character based on his physical response he stills loves it and idolises its beauty, a clear contrast to viewer expectations.

 

From the group exercise, myself, Andrew and Ella made a short series of images that told the story of a medical accident that at first misleads the audience through assumption as to thinking the character is reading about hurting himself when really they are trying to help their friend, we liked the idea of playing with this concept as we believed that world exists both within and outside of the cameras focus but it only through what is presented (visually/audibly, etc) that helps audience understand the conventions and narrative of the world.