Montage It!

Week 1


Aim:
To create a studio for the impressionist composer, Claude Debussy


Concept:
I want this studio to provide a space for Debussy where he can create music inspired by the evolving world around him.  So with discussion with my tutors, I decided to design a glass box with only one element inside it. A grand piano.  And by using glass, the grand piano becomes the main focal point, highlighting Debussy's treatment of his piano music, which is pure and truthful to the sounds of the piano.




Possible Landscapes:

I want the landscape to be evocative and inspirational, where the glass box becomes a place of 'escape.'

Model:
Materials - Thick acetate, white card, balsa wood

I have decided to add thin, delicate lines on the side of the studio to represent the most important element of the piano, which are the copper strings.  By adding this design element, it also plays with shadow and light as the shadow of the lines change continuously throughout the day.  This idea runs parallel to Debussy's constantly evolving music inspired by the evolving world around him.


Week 2 - External photographs

The two images are different in the way that I have played around with photoshop effects, brightness and contrast.


Week 3
Own pictures of Bondi beach which I will incorporate into my daytime external photomontage:

Draft of the landscape I will use for Debussy's studio:

External photomontage daytime:

 External night time landscape:

External photomontage night time:

Internal photomontage daytime:

Week 4 - Final Presentation

Process External Daytime Photomontage (Main Layers):

1. Chose the main background incorporating elements of Bondi Beach
2. Merged other parts of landscapes taken from the internet
3. Added a more dramatic sky and rough waves to symbolise the piano studio as a place of sanctuary
4. Carefully placed the studio using the erase tool (50% opacity) and opacity tool to blend it nicely into the background
5. Add a person sitting at the piano and used the 'birds' photoshop brush
6. Cropped the image and used 'effects' to blur the background to accentuate the sharper edges of the foreground of the image (studio)

Process External Night-time Photomontage (Main Layers):

1. Chose the main background; deciding to use a pier
2. Moved and resized elements of the image like shrinking the size of the wooden pier to make it look more like it was sitting in the background
3. Added stormy clouds and more lightening bolts to create a dramatic background
4. Placed the studio using the erase tool (50% opacity) and opacity tool to blend it nicely into the background, whilst also adding more poles underneath the studio to make it appear as though it was sitting above the ocean rather than placed on the ground
5. Add a person sitting at the piano
6. Cropped the image and used 'effects' to blur the background nicely with the ocean and clouds

Process Internal Daytime Photomontage (Main Layers):

After discussing it with the tutors, I decided to create many internal shots that purely focused on the grand piano.  This involved taking images 360 degrees around the piano and then making them all black and white.

Week 4 - Final Montages

Final Poster