The Proud and Damned (1972)
The Proud and Damned is a 1972 American-Colombian co-production western film directed by Ferde Grofé Jr. Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Ferde Grofé Jr. is the son of arranger and composer Ferde Grofé who was a fixture in popular orchestral music from the 1920-50's.
With a working title of The Proud, Damned and Dead, the production was filmed in 1969 in Villa de Leyva, Colombia. This was unusual for a Ferde Grofé production since it was his first feature film production outside of the Philippines. Unable to distribute the film through his usual industry channels, it took Grofé another three years to sell the film to the Texan entity that eventually distributed it.
With a working title of The Proud, Damned and Dead, the production was filmed in 1969 in Villa de Leyva, Colombia. This was unusual for a Ferde Grofé production since it was his first feature film production outside of the Philippines. Unable to distribute the film through his usual industry channels, it took Grofé another three years to sell the film to the Texan entity that eventually distributed it.
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The film is set in 1870, following five ex-Confederate mercenaries and American Civil War veterans, Sgt. Will Hansen, Ike, Hank, Jeb, and Billy, who have just emigrated from their home state of Texas to Colombia in South America. Upon their arrival they are approached by Colombian soldiers who forcibly take them to meet their countries dictator, General Martinez. Sending them to a town in San Carlos, they are ordered to live among the rebels that reside there and report back what they learn to Martinez about the towns' preparations to start a civil war against his army. On their way to San Carlos, they run into a family travelling to the same town. Will escorts them there, taking interest in the daughter Mila who he spends the night with. Finding out about this, Mila's father is furious and cuts her ear off, leading to Will shooting Mila's father and sustaining a knife wound to the chest. Unable to report back to Martinez, Will and his men are detained over the killing and Will is later banished along with Mila. Martinez captures the two, hanging Will for disobeying his orders. Mila rides back into town to Will's gang and they join the rebels in the battle with Marinez's army. Later ambushing Martinez and his surviving soldiers in a canyon, Martinez is killed along with everyone except Billy. |
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Isle of Dogs
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Wanting to know more about how models are made, I watched a video about the creation of Isle of Dogs, a 2018 stop-motion film written, produced, and directed by Wes Anderson.
Although the techniques they use are design mainly to allow motion for each model and are highly advanced, it is helpful to me as it would allow me to create multiple different poses with the same model by using a wire frame beneath clothing. |
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I used wire to construct the basic form of the figure, strengthening it by twisting the wire so it was more rigid and could hold itself up. I then used Fimo modelling clay to model a basic head for the figure. Despite the nice smooth finish it gave, this proved tedious and time consuming as the clay was tough and difficult to work with since most of my time was spent softening the clay into something moldable. I originally planned to make his clothing out of felt but creating the pattern for each item proved to be a difficult task at the scale I was working and just making them out of clay would be much easier. Despite this, if I do go down this route of creating a model I would want to try again with a different material and more time spent working out the clothing patterns. |
Moving on from the modelling clay, I found some playdough I hadn't used and molded a very quick head which went much more smoothly that the first time and looked much better.
Alex Eckman-Lawn
Alex Eckman-Lawn, Passage
Alex Eckman-Lawn
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Using some cardstock, I created a quick mockup of a thumbnail of a possible way to make it three-dimentional as an alternative to clay. It could also be a method of creating the background scene in combination with the clay model but on a greater scale and with more detailed and further spaced layers.
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Moving on From the Past to Start Anew
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The film focuses on the five ex-confederate soldiers moving on from their home country in order to have the freedom to start a new life. Despite this newfound freedom from their own country's civil war, they get caught up in the beginning of a new one. The idea I had was to convey the characters trying to escape their past only to still be under the control of another leader and never really achieving freedom.
Map/Board Game
This concept was to focus on the journey they were making across their country. When thinking of how to create this I had the idea of visualising it as the top-down view of a board game. I was inspired by Simon Stålenhag's map illustrations in his art book The Electric State with the colours and texture he adds to what otherwise would be a simple map. In addition, the well known board game Risk inspired me as it uses pieces to convey the different armies which could be used to convey the different characters in the story.
Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State, 2018
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Risk Board Game
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Propaganda of the Dictator
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When thinking of key characters that move the plot along, the biggest one would probably be the dictator General Martinez. The concept for this would be creating the poster in the style of propaganda either in favour of the General or of the San Carlos town. The posters mainly use red so I think that my version would use bold, more stylised colours opposed to realistic ones.
Published in Made in North Korea, New Year Card designed in 2006
Poster depicting 1984's Big Brother
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Purposely Looks Fake
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My idea for this concept would be to play on how old western movies had flat sets that were just painted on. Creating this I would make detailed illustrations of each item which would consist of the characters, buildings and background scenery of the mountains but have cardboard visibly stuck behind them in a very obvious way. |
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Being Told What to Do vs Making Own Decisions
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The idea for this came from the group of ex-confederates leaving the States because they wanted to do their own thing, only to be told by another leader what to do. It focuses on the ideas of freewill and fighting against higher powers who have control over your decisions and instead fighting for what you believe is right. |
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For my puppet, I created a base structure out of metal wire, making sure to create connecting loops that would allow movement between the limbs.
I then began to build up the shape using tinfoil so that less clay would be needed. |
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I begun adding silk clay over the foil. Using this clay allowed the model to stay light rather than heavy like normal clay which makes it much more practical for hanging from string as the puppet.
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For the mountains in the background, I want to take the map idea I had and overlay it onto them, making them more three-dimensional. To add further texture I plan to mix sand with glue to create a rough surface.
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After the feedback session I went back to my model, tweaking and adding further details to the piece to create a more authentic cowboy appearance. I painting string red as it heavily contrasted the green background it would be shown on and tied it to the main joins of the puppet that would be used when hanging.
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To create my set and background, I used thick card and painted it using gouache. I stood it up using small inserts at the bottom of both the mountain and sky layers. I think that the green of the mountain compliments the brown earth tones of the model. |
A collaborative effort
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Trying to pose the model was extremely difficult and time consuming with it further being made troublesome by having to have the background and text laid out in the correct position at the same time.
The title was layered with sand to create add texture to contrast with the smoothness of the painted backgrounds and the clay. I taped each letter to wire in order to suspend it across the bottom of the poster. I tried out various positions of the hand, ultimately deciding that the best visible outcome was having it looming from over the mountain and before the sky, adding an extra layer of depth. I corrected some of the colours in the photograph that got washed out and didn't appear as vibrant as in real life. |
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I experimented with different text layouts, deciding that an extra tagline would help fill the space left between the hand and puppet.
Final Poster
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Looking over the poster, I found that the red of the string and the orange of the sand didn't feel as analogous as I had hoped so I added a slight red hue to the bottom of the title. I think that this minor change helped complete the poster as the adjustment needed to be subtle since adding more stark red tones would make the overall design look too complicated and busy. Overall I think that this poster came together well and the shadows formed by the lighting help make it appear more dramatic and visually interesting. |
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After receiving feedback from this project, I agreed that the movie poster works best and is more impactful without the additional digitally added text to it. This prevents the poster from feeling overcrowded or taking away from the three-dimensional design.
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