For the first part of this exercise, I had to read an extract from the Daffodil affair and answer a q&a.
Below are the questions and my answers:
• If this were to be made into a film what would the main character be like?
I imagine the character would be portrayed as someone broken, bitter and angry by what they have seen in the world. Being in a job designed to help people, I also imagine a proud man being humbled by their work and surroundings.
• What clothes would the character be wearing?
Being that this novel is set in 1942 London, I would assume that this character would likely wear a police uniform. As an inspector, his uniform may differ slightly to a standard policeman uniform of that era. Maybe a smarter, suit style of attire.
• What furniture is in the main area in which the action takes place?
There is only mention of a desk in the excerpt. The room is described as large and empty with a large window overlooking war-torn London. I believe this is the writer setting the scene in the reader’s mind but adapted to film, you would more than likely see very few items in the room to give it an empty feeling.
Next, I gathered some reference images from the time that the book is set. I made a mood board of uniforms, surroundings and interiors taken from the extract:
For my final image I decided to create the room in which the scene is set. Using my reference images I created an outline drawing of the room overlooking London.
I then selected individual parts of the building and using a clipping mask, pasted the textures from the mood board into the image. Once the image was how I wanted, I grayscaled the image to discard all colour. I wanted the image to black and white to fit in with the set time period of the book.
I then added the silhouette of the inspector overlooking 1940’s London.
Below is the image as it might look on a book cover.
Conclusion:
I think the final image works quite well. I am happy with the use of my reference images and I like how they provide a different perspective on the destruction of 1940’s London. Had I tried this exercise again I think I would have revisited the perspective of the room, as when placed on the book cover, it looks a little strange and misplaced.