Minor Project: Homes of 1970s Britain

Homes of 1970's Britain

I've put together a couple of brief influence maps, summarising the general appearance of British homes in the 1970s, both inside and out.
Whilst I'm unlikely to use a living room area in the animation, it provides me with a rough idea of the interior design of the time and sends me in the right direction for areas of the home I end up creating.
I think the next step would be to determine an aesthetic for the second act which contrasts the neutral tone of the setting.

Interiors of 1970s British Homes

Interior design of the time appeared to favour tessellated patterns, feature walls and somewhat mismatched furniture. A strange combination of cosy and tacky.

Exteriors of 1970s British Homes

Building exteriors of the time had a prominent post-war feel, with the architecture staying fairly consistent from the late 1940s up until the late 1970s. Whilst the exteriors above weren't necessarily constructed in the 1970s (with the exception of the block of flats in the top left), they're iconic of the time regardless. 

Minor Project: Researching an Aesthetic

Researching an Aesthetic
I began to research the 1970s, specifically popular culture of the time. This led to me looking into various contrasting areas of popular music. Through this research, I stumbled on somewhat of an idea, which plays to the three-act structure of the story, as well as saturating the animation in the iconography of the setting.

Act Specific Style Possibilities

There is a huge contrast of tone between the acts. Because of this, I'm toying with the possibility of using this contrast to reflect particularly aspects of the time period. I've started looking into subcultures of the 1970s, specifically, various genres of pop music of the time. 

I had already had conversations about revealing the main character to be a closet Glam Rock aficionado, so I began to look into what could be considered extremes of the genre, in terms of appearance, as well as what would be the complete opposite.

Act One - Family Bands and Easy Listening

Act Two - Heavy Metal and Punk Rock

Act Three - Glam Rock and Disco

An example of these particular styles applying to the three-act structure would be,

• Act One - Family Music, The Osmonds, The Carpenters
• Introduces Frankie as innocent, non-threatening
• Act Two - Heavy Metal and Punk Rock, Black Sabbath, Ramones
• Reinforces the impression of Frankie as a twisted, unusual child
• Act Three - Glam Rock/Disco, David Bowie, T.Rex, The Bee Gees
• The contrasting reveal is complimented by a contrasting musical and visual style

Environment: Research- David Hockney

Hockney isn't a tableau vivant style artist as such, but his photomontages present a scene in a very unique way. When looking at them, it is clear that each photograph makes up a portion of a whole image, but the arrangement tends to force your focus on a specific area. The noticeable clipping of some of the photographs could be considered both accidental or intentional. Did Hockney simply make a mistake, or is he deliberately masking portions of the whole picture to keep something from being seen?

Here are a few examples of Hockney's photomontages.