Blog Post 3
Through the lectures and classes I have partaken in during this unit, I have learned significantly more about what it means to represent people. How this can impact societal views and influence new waves of acceptance due to the capability of creating fictional beings that the public somehow relate to and/or sympathise with.
To me, the coronavirus outbreak has demonstrated more than anything the lack of care that our conservative government has for the people of this country. With months of reports from other affected countries to respond from, their complete disregard of the threat of the virus hitting the UK is what I believe has lead to us becoming the worst hit country in Europe. Ministers stand at a podium praising the NHS as though they haven’t spent years abusing it. They treat our country as a business with complete disregard for human wellbeing, merely showing concern and making flashy Churchill-esque statements whilst the cameras are rolling in order to keep the votes rolling in. I chose to reflect these beliefs of the establishment’s ill-treatment of those without a booming media presence in my character design.
The Louisiana Cigarette Man lives by New Orleans, a mile or so from Cancer Alley, an area by the Mississippi river that houses multiple industrial plants. He is an African American man of low income and has spent his life in relative poverty. Every morning, he sits on his deck chair at the front of his house and smokes a cigarette. Over time, and without him noticing, toxic fumes from the plantations neighbouring his low-cost home have mutated his anatomy to form one with his chair. As well as his respiratory system warping to form multiple mouths within his beard, each functioning only to smoke cigarettes.
Such emphasis on cigarettes is brought upon by my understanding of impoverished people feeling so overlooked that they give up on the idea of bettering themselves. Instead turning to drink, drugs and gambling for short-lived bursts of satisfaction which ironically seem to place money back in the pocket of the rich man. Betting shops and pubs make up for a large quantity of businesses along poverty-stricken areas where I live in Liverpool.
Although the subject matter is quite dark, I wanted to counteract the grittiness with more innocent and creative aspects inspired by Studio Ghibli. For this reason, the beard is shaped like a cloud of smoke and the face is comically wide. I did this because we are often more heavily impacted by lighter forms of media. A film intended for children is likely to teach a more impactful lesson than a horror film (excluding Get Out), so I created aspects of the Louisiana Cigarette Man that were digestible and visually appealing. After all, he’s a victim not a villain, he needs to be loveable.