Experiment - 3. Titanic - Directed by James Cameron

To investigate into how altering elements of an image can affect the feelings that are being portrayed and therefore the feelings the viewer is experiencing.

I am going to investigate into how changing parts of an image taken from a scene from the film 'Titanic' effects the feelings that the viewer is experiencing through looking at the image and whether it effects the viewers impression of the image in either a good, bad or neutral way.

I  have decided to take a frame from the film at the time when the ship crashes into an ice berg and the two main characters are experiencing shock, fear, confusion and apprehension. This in turn makes the viewer also experience these feelings. I will replace the characters expressions with expressions that communicate a different feeling and see how it effects the feeling of the image as a whole.


'Titanic' - James Cameron 1997

Above is the original image I have taken from the scene of the film.






In this image I have swapped the male characters face. Having a smiley, happy face next to one of concern and concentration mixes the image up. It's like the two characters are looking at two separate things and this is confusing for the viewer.

 Similarly, changing the female characters face to a happy one, confuses the image just as much as the previous. The two expressions are counter acting each other and changing the original feelings that should be felt at this moment of the film. When someone is smiling at a point when they should appear fearful, the whole impression of the scene is changed and the viewer is left questioning, is this scene as serious as you first thought?

In this image I have changed both characters expressions. This changes the whole feeling of the image and what it should be reflecting in the film. With the male character looking angry and the female character looking concerned, it seems like something far worse should be happening in the scene. At this point in the film, the characters do not know the extent of the damage that the ice berg hitting the ship has made. So these expressions are much more serious than they need to be for this point in the film. This would make the viewer feel concerned as to what is actually happening in the scene and if they are missing out on something.

I created a gif to show some of the facial expressions present in this part of the film, this shows the array of emotions that the characters felt in this part of the film.

I created another gif, using positive facial expressions as this will help me to create the expressions to use on my illustration to translate the positivity of overcoming anxiety.

This will help me in creating my illustration as I can simplify the expressions on my face and adapt them to be more of a cartoon expression for my characters.

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Every day we talk to people and animals and their faces are full of expression and this is what is familiar to us. Our own emotions then reflect off of the expressions we see in the faces of other people. After studying the use of expression in 'Titanic', I think that it is a very important part of showing emotion and feelings and how it is translated in relation to other people around them is also important.
I did some experiments with drawing different expressions to see which way of drawing faces is the most effective and leaves the biggest impression of what the characters are feeling in relation to the quote 'Be who you are and say how you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.'

After selecting my favourite, I have changed my original illustration so that the characters are showing a much happier expression on their faces.

I think this illustration reflects the quote well. Their expressions show that they are happy in themselves and in each others company and they aren't thinking about what others may think about them as one is dressed as a snail, and the other is feeding him lettuce. I found that the open mouths are really good at showing their happiness, as when people laugh and smile, their mouths are open, and this is something that everyone can relate to.