Week 2: 08/02/16

By Tuesday I had narrowed it down to Arthur and Merlin and the different stories within stories. In my research I found lots of films such as the animation Sword in the Stone (1963), comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) my favourite TV Series Merlin (2008-12), lots of literature and paintings such as the Lady of Shallot and Tristan and Isolde.

Studying all these different interpretations led me to realise that my favourite one was the show Merlin. The only difference is that Merlin is a young man trying to find his way in life, instead of an old wizard, however they both still advise Arthur. This soon led me to the idea of recreating the show as a film trilogy (much like The Hobbit) and I could design film posters for each one.

I wrote down the main events of the TV Series and saw how it divided into 3 clear areas: Arthur and Merlin finding themselves as young men, secondly the Golden Age of Camelot and finally the end when betrayal brings Arthur and Camelot’s downfall.

I looked at some of the films and clips on YouTube.

I began my draft proposal ready for next week back in college. On Thursday I felt better especially as I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do and how I could develop it. I started to make notes and some sketches for initial ideas and looked on the internet for inspiration and one artist who caught my imagination was John William Waterhouse.

I watched some of my favourite episodes on the show apart from the end (it makes me cry) and I could see how I wanted to develop this.

On Saturday I watched Excalibur (1981) which although was very different from the TV Series, still had lots of common themes such as magic, mystery, love, honour and betrayal.

Over the weekend my research was very enjoyable and I began to get some good ideas. I wrote my draft FMP Proposal ready for college.
http://ceramicsworkshop1.blogspot.com/georgielee