Week 1 – Film Research and InDesign
19/1/24 – Digital Skills Workshop
This week was the first week of ‘Interior Design 2B- Change of Use’ course. On Tuesday of week one we were given the project brief and a series of tasks for the following week. The project involves designing a hotel based on a film. I chose the film ‘Diamonds are Forever James Bond’ which is the seventh film in the James Bond series. I chose the film because I hadn’t watched it before but have watched many other James Bond films and thoroughly enjoyed them. After some initial research into the film I found I was really attracted to the locations the films were set and the architecture and colours in that time period. The film was set in 1971 and follows Bond on his journey to uncover a diamond smuggling conspiracy, where he impersonates as a diamonds smuggler ‘Peter Frank’ that leads him to California where he unravels a mischievous plot.
Diamonds Are Forever Film poster:
Researching colour palettes:
In week 1 there was a digital workshop where I learned the basics of using the software ‘InDesign’. After the workshop, I started a design report using InDesign for the film ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ which covered 5 research topics, the time period, materials, spatial arrangement, colour palette and the film props. I created a 6 page document with a title page, page numbers, titling, images, text and colour to display the research for my film ‘Diamonds are Forever’. I found researching the film really interesting due to the set design and the time period of the film being in 1971. In my research into the time period of the film I looked at what type of clothing they wore and the architectural style at the time. I also researched about the plot of the film because it was important I had a good fundamental knowledge of the film that my hotel design was going to be based on.
I enjoyed looking into the colour palettes and materials chosen in the different sets of the film as another part of my film research. The colour palette during the 70s consisted mainly of oranges and browns. I also looked at the set design of the filming locations of ‘Diamonds Are Forever’. A lot of the sets were unique, large and open and very glamorous to reflect the lifestyle of James Bond. The design style at the time was mid-century modern with lots of burnt oranges, blues, yellows and browns so these colours appeared frequently in the sets of the film. Researching and watching the film ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ helped me a lot to forward and start to develop an initial design for a hotel room based off the film. I was very inspired by ‘Elrod House’ which is one of the sets in the film, because of the circular shape and the interior design by Arthur Elrod.
Time period research:
Spatial arrangement research:
As another part of my design report I looked at the props and details of the film. Because James Bond is a spy character he has multiple spy gadgets that he is seen using across the course of the film. The iconic props such as his gun and his car are also key parts of the film and the ‘James Bond’ character. It was important I considered these details when designing my proposed hotel room design.
Props and details research:
