For this term, I’ve decided to partake in the British Medak Art Society, for this project had to give my medal a theme of my choice as long as it connected to the real world.
For my theme, I’ve decided to base my medals on the obscure work of Edward D Wood Jr.
Brief History
Edward D Wood Jr (October 10th, 1924 – December 10th, 1978) was an American filmmaker and former World war II corporal, now he was different compared to other filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Wise etc, while those filmmakers made some of the most successful, influential and recognizable movies of all time, his movies, on the other hand, were unsuccessful, poorly made and left little to no impact to anyone, his movies were low budget with cheap special effects, stock footage, corny acting, and ridiculous stories.
Even though he never got much attention and his movies were never a critical or commercial success, his movies and life story started getting the publics attention years after his death in 1978, his movies then became cult classics and people these days consider his movies to be so bad there enjoyable, and the story about his film making career even inspired Tim Burton to direct a film biography about him.
What’s my idea?
I think of Ed Wood as the Van Gogh of moviemakers, the story of there carriers is similar but with opposite results, Van Gogh was poor and didn’t get much attention for his artwork and after his death, his paintings grabbed the publics attention and he posthumously became one of the most famous artists of all time, Ed Wood’s story is similar he barely had enough money, his went by unnoticed and unappreciated and he died a penniless alcoholic and years after his death his work caught the attention of the public, however his work was still considered to be bad and even to this day he is historically known as one of the worst film directors of all time, but his life, his film making career and perseverance became something of interest to the media.
So my idea is to create a medal based on his work, on one side I will capture a scene from one of his movies, (e.g Plan 9 from Outerspace, Bride of the monster, Glen or Glenda etc) and on the other side I will include a quote that relates to posthumous success and this quote(s) will have relevance to Ed Wood’s work.
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