#avantegardeart

Week 10 The filming of ‘Bojo’s buses’

| harussell1

Following on from last weeks prop making I started filming ‘Bojo’s buses’. I had originally planned on having the union jack on the wall behind Bojo but realised that it was better placed as a table cloth as it being behind Louis was far to distracting and almost visually ‘drowned him out.’I decided to have part of my quite regal looking mirror in the background as a sign of grandeur and have him sat on quite a country looking chair which occurs in the ‘batshit crazy old lady’ video’s.

  • Louis decided (of his own accord) to fill his cheeks with some of the wadding used for granma’s hair to pad them out and to help him mumble his speach
I felt that the air pockets padded the outfit out really well as i was able to wrap them round his body as opposed to using a pillow which we would only be able to use on one side.
It seemed a really obvious idea to have a jubilee commemoration mug which Louis had picked up from Burn’s yard one of our favourite places to resource scraps etc.

I wanted to make him as bumbling and childish as possible. Looking back, I do think I should have scruffed the top of his hair up a bit more bojo style. I then decided that to trial two end scenes one where Grandma has her normal glasses and the other where she has her surreal bug-like eyes and is feeling the picture with her eyes in order to connect to ‘her maker’; the almighty Bojo. I decided to give her some 18th century cupid’s bow lipstick. I felt that pulling that certain facial expression reminded me of Mrs Doyle especially with the red lipstick on. I also feel that due to the nose overshadowing her mouth the lipstick is needed so that you can see the expression on the mouth.

Overall I liked this video but not as much as bus shit-crazy old lady as i felt that that video was more atmospheric with the red lighting etc and i think i preferred the darker feel to the video. I am currently still gathering feedback on this video to see what people think in general. However, I do think that this video was a key stage in the characters development as seeing her with the bug-eyes and the lipstick on I easily envisioned her as a giant puppet like character and she reminded me of an artists work I saw online a few years back.

I feel that the character really needs stilts but I don’t really know how to approach this as I have little to no balance but I may ask around and see if there is anyone I know that does it or make stilts that I am able to stand on myself!

Also inspired by some characters I saw whilst watching Borat 2 and Frank I would like to create her a paper mache head with 3D eyes. I plan to work on these ideas in my reflective sketchbook over the holidays then start making at the start of the new semester.

Overall, I believe my project so far has been really successful, especially as I have never done any kind of comedy sketches before.

I’m unsure if I want to develop Boris’s character further or use his character again but I definitely want to progress the old lady’s character further.

If the pandemic was non-existent i would plan on making some kind of bus and projecting onto it. If money was no option I would use a real bus to project onto, or have people be able to climb onto the bus and watch different performances on different 1970’s style television screens with headphones but make the bus as surreal as possible so that the person journeying around the bus almost became part of a fully immersive experience.

Bibliography

Frank. (2014). How to create a head like Frank’s.. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UphC6JAqd5E&t=25s. Last accessed 8th december 2020.

Watts M. (2013). Giant puppets liverpool. Available: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=giant+puppets+liverpool+2019. Last accessed 8 december 2020

Week 8 ‘Bojo’s buses’

| harussell1

A lot of people had asked me ‘what is bus shit crazy old lady’s backstory?’ and it’s been at the back of my mind for a while now.My partner who is also on the course is passionate about politics and often does impression of Boris Johnson (Bojo) it just so happened that one day he was doing an impression of him when he was interviewed about his hobbies and talked about making buses from wine carriers. It then occurred to me; Bojo created her!

The absurdity of this man and the fact he is prime minister makes him the perfect creator of ‘bus shit crazy old lady’ on her bus.

I didn’t have a wooden wine carrier (I’m not Bojo after all) but I did have a cardboard box and an egg box and some foam which i used for the seats.I wanted the bus to look as childish as possible but also link materials to the wig/eyes.The wires are from the eyes/wig and follows on with the theme of ‘the cable connects’ Bojos son ‘Willy Johnson’ is of course included. His eyes are triangles which will connect with the short film I am about to make of which the bus is a prop for. The film will of course show Bojo making the bus, but an abstract/surreal version of Bojo which will connect with the characters through the reoccurring use of materials. This will be a collaboration with my partner Louis as his theme for his project is mostly political and features Bojo in some parts so this fits in really well. It also really helps having Louis there to bounce ideas off of. Especially when there are very few people in the studio. We want to get across the absurdity of Bojo in a avant-garde fashion and also identify his racist traits. I want him to almost be like the creator of Frankenstein.

A couple of sketches related to the short film and prop or costume design. I intend to make Boris’s wig from the sheep’s fur included in batshit crazy old lady’s wig. I want to include him pulling a bit of his hair out and adding it to the props head.

Bibliography

The Guardian. (2019). Boris Johnson says he makes models of buses to relax. Available: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bojo+making+buses. Last accessed 29th Nov 2020.

Movieclips. (2011). It’s Alive! – Frankenstein (2/8) Movie CLIP (1931) HD. Available: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=it%27s+alive+frankenstein. Last accessed 19th November 2019.