Creating moodboards - Warhorse - 03/10/2022

Creating moodboards - Warhorse 

Daisy Jackson / 03/10/2022

To further our understanding on the chosen narrative, it was tasked to us to create a moodboardbased off our chosen books. Creating moodboardsare helpful as they can allow you to understand and seperate different elements. 

In this case, rather than creating one moodboards, I decided to create several based off the key elements I took from the audiobook.

In this case, I was really fascinated by Albert and Joey's bond and looking at the progression of both characters.

Here is my first moodboard:

When creating this moodboard, I wanted to focus on the bond between both characters and how it has changed throughout the book/movie. As you can see, Albert has grown up quite a lot in several photos as well as Joey the horse. You can also see the change in body langauge as in some photos Joey looks less comfortable. 

I feel like this relationship would be interesting to develop as I feel as though I can create so much with it. The bond between Albert and Joey could be expressed emotively which could be hard hitting for the audience depending how I approach it. 

Here is my second moodboard:

With this moodboard, I still wanted to focus on the relationship between Albert and Joey but I wanted to dissect particular scenes that I found there was a large emotional connection in. To me, these images show progression in the relationship which I really want to focus on.

The three scenes I chose to focus on was the beginning scene where Albert met Joey for the first ever time as a foel. The second scene when Albert was able to train Joey to listen to him. And the third scene where Albert and Joey were racing a car which I found quite a sweet and cute moment shared between the two. Unfortunately after this, Albert was flung off of Joey but to me this showed the relationship between the two still being in progress.

In this moodboard, I focus on the love that Albert and Joey have for each other, and most importantly, trust. As well as this, there is also hesitancy which strengthens the relationship. Looking at this bond through different imagery not related to Warhorse is helpful as it allows me to generate new ideas without being influenced by something that is already visually made.

Here is my third moodboard:

When watching and reading Warhorse, I noticed that fear was a common emotion by so many characters. For example, Ted (the father) had a fear of losing the farm and everything he had, same goes for Zoey (his wife). His PTSD from the war led him to drink which also affects his daily emotions. Albert had a fear of losing Joey especially so soon after Ted buying him at the auction. Joey I noticed was constantly in fear even when it appeared he didn't. My favourite scenes focusing on Joey's fear is when he was first brought to the farm. In the audiobook Joey mentioned he was quite scared until Albert 'soothed his spirit' and he felt calm for the first time during the whole encounter. I also took images from the war scenes which also focus on Joey's fears especially when stuck in wire. 

This fear that Albert and Joey both had bring me back to their relationship which is an interesting development throughout the movie/book. 

These three scenes combined into a moodboard really emphasise the escalation of their relationship which I would love to focus on within my work as I can create quite emotive pieces that many may be able to resinate with. 

Here is my fourth moodboard:

Due to my other moodboards only containing screenshots from the film Warhorse, I thought it would be best to create several moodboards that consist of other imagery. In this moodboard, I have once again concentrated on fear as I feel like this is a key element in the book. I gathered photos which focus on the eyes of the horse to show emotion as well as focusing on imagery that observes body language. I also included a photo from roughly the same time period (around 1910) of farmers at a horse auction - one of the many scary encounters that Joey had to suffer through. 

I have noticed that body language is a large giveaway for fear. We express the emotion in more ways than we can imagine. If I decide to focus on this element, focusing on body language as well as emotion would be interesting. 

Here is my fifth moodboard:

In this moodboard I focus on the relationship between Joey and Topthorn. These two horses have been together since the very beginning when entering the war. Topthorn acts as a close friend for Joey during Albert's absence. Joey protects Topthorn throughout the whole book which is very admirable. They have a very cute and loving relationship as you can tell they clearly care about one another. It is also interesting as Joey was originally the 'underdog' out of the two, when in reality, Topthorn is much more scared than Joey. This also shows character development as Joey has progressed in many ways including bravery.

If I do not focus on the relationship between Joey and Albert, instead I will more than likely focus on the relationship between Joey and Topthorn.

Conclusion:

Creating these moodboards has really allowed me to understand what I want to focus on within my project. To me, Albert and Joey's relationship stood out the most and I really want to capture that in my own work. Now all I need to figure out is how I am going to do that.

As well as this, the relationship between Joey and Topthorn stood out to me. 

Plan of action:

To understand what art I want to create for this project, I will look at a range of art created for Warhorse. This way, I can gather ideas from other artists and understand what areas they focused on, which I can then reflect in my own work. This will give me more inspiration for my project and ideas for methods.