Surrealism Movie Poster Inspired by Alice in Wonderland
For our surrealism weekly assignment, I decided to switch things up and make a movie poster. I've always loved Lewis Carroll's works, the perfect embodiment of surrealism in art and literature. I think it's one of those books that anyone at any age can read, and you'd interpret it differently every time. In fact, conspiracy has it that Lewis Carroll was a pedophile, the way he's only ever comfortable with children and is very awkward with adults and all that.
Anyway, I've always loved Alice in Wonderland and Through A Looking Glass, and I've always wanted to put a modern twist on it---maybe something like Alice going through puberty, Wonderlands grows up, a Harlem version, a midlife crisis version, or something.
"Otherland" is a psychological thriller version of it, riddled with madness and dark humour. The original books are already full of it anyway. The idea was to create a tangle of limbs, with a Lifesavers as an iris, to symbolise the loss of childhood and everything.
I did a bit of research on surrealist movie posters:
Click on image to enlarge.
Here are a few process screenshots:
Surrealism is very popular among students, with three people in our class doing it for their final assignment. It's not because it's easy, per se, but anything can be surrealism---for example, it's surreal how messy my room is. Exaggerate a mess a little, throw in a blown-up squirrel in there, and surrealism. I can definitely see the appeal.
By the way, I'm choosing the New York School as my movement. It's not really a school, just a group of artists, and it's related to abstract expressionism, surrealism, bauhaus, as well as editorial print and branding. I think the New York School was a key moment in the history of design. The key word I chose is "identity". Not only did it develop America's identity in the world of graphic design (where before it was Europe-dominated), but it also developed the identity of graphic design worldwide. It explores a lot of possibilities concerning composition, colours, and creating things outside the box. Graphic design became its own form of art. Plus, I've never learnt of it before, which is why I want to know more about it!
And that is all for today, stay tuned for more. And wish me luck on my assignment!
PS: let's see if you can notice the easter eggs I've put in the credits ;)
