Yup, this is what we do with our long weekends in this house...

[mstakenidentity]

As many of you know, Omniprop Productions will be performing Aristophanes Lysistrata at the Melbourne Fringe Festival later this year. It will be represented in the Fringe Guide by this image:



The question is, should we also use this image for the poster? So far we think yes if only because we can't be arsed doing that much work on it again. We though we should get some quick opinions from others, so I said I'd ask the internet.

Internet? Think this would make a good poster?

Comments

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it works and it suits the play's plot line.

[naturalredhead.livejournal.com]

Provided you keep the text to the top left and the bottom right of the poster, that would be awesome.

Also: I know nothing about the story, but I'm guessing it has something to do with men going to war over a woman/women in general...

[mstakenidentity.livejournal.com]

Cool, I wasn't sure if the point came across or if the soldiers were properly distinguishable as soldiers. It's hard to tell after thinking about it and staring at it for ages. :-)

We were thinking of painting a map of Greece on the stomach to ram home the point, but it would probably complicate the shot too much visually. Plus neither of us can draw.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

Naw, I'd say no map. A bit of overkill. For the people that don't know the story of Lysistrata, they'll learn from any write ups on it or the play itself. But the art does get the basic plot of the story across.

[shehasathree]

i immediately recognised them as soldiers (and was intrigued!).

[blinvisible.livejournal.com]

Clearly exploitative. The use of phallic weaponry especially so. It says that women are nothing more than something to stick your sword once battle is done and puts feminism back several generations. Obligatory comment about the patriarchy.

[delphaeus.livejournal.com]

The internet says yea. Why? Because random male passerby of computer screen was intrigued enough to read my LJ to find out what it was.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

I like it. It's clean, visually clear and they're very clearly soldiers. I think it might need slightly lighter mid tones or something, especially on the stomach, but that's just me. But seriously, it's awesome. I really like it.

Having the text in the upper left and lower right will work, too, since there's not much going on there, especially on the lower right. uh, how will text come out over the sheet? (If that's even where you're going to put it.)

I think it really works.

[mstakenidentity.livejournal.com]

Good. Since that is sort of the point of the play ;-P

[mstakenidentity.livejournal.com]

Awesome, that means (hopefully) people will stop and read the description in the guide.

[whooz-queen.livejournal.com]

Im going to be the naysayer. I don't like it because of the lingerie. I could live with it if the female figure had white drapes instead of modern lingerie.

I wish that less female submissive photography would be used for this type of thing, Im tired of it in modern advertising. Yes it gets attention quickly and easily, but is it really the message we want to put out there?

[reallyedbrown.livejournal.com]

Cropped in all the wrong places!!! jks :)


And yeah, it's awesome. As someone who knows nothing about the play, I'm gonna guess it's about people going to war over a woman. Possibly, quite literary.

Or it's Gulliver's Tales, the X-Rated version where Gulliver is actually a hot semi-nekkid chick.

I like both possibilities.

[mc-shamo.livejournal.com]

Thanks Lisa,

I made the adjustments you suggested (I think - I really don't know what 'slightly lighter mid tones' are, but I made the stomach less red, so it looks a bit more natural).

Looks better - thanks for the suggestion!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

t's essentially keeping the highlights and shadows as they are but making the tones in between them a leeetle bit lighter. Sorry. I talk crap a bit.

What sort of text are you thinking of using on it?

(AKA, I am really interested in all of this but OMG, I don't have much time at the moment.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

Sorry to jump in here, but I actually like the lingerie. It makes a wonderful series of contrasts - against the sheet, the model and you've got this awesome split between this ultra-modern clothing and the wee little Greek soldiers. Finally, I think it would have really washed out the model's skin to have her only in white, on a white background - she's already quite pale and there's a good change that she'd come across as even paler that way.

[mstakenidentity.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thank you. It is good to know how the image comes across to others.

I actually liked the lingerie because there is a bit of fuss made in the play about the women putting on their "see-through underwear". I'm a classics nerd- I like referencing the text in the image :-)

The way I hoped the shot would come across, is that women's bodies- and their sexuality- are a battlefield. In the play the women deliberately and overtly exploit their usually submissive sexual role and use it to invert their political and military roles. The woman is big, strong, alive; the men are small, impotent plastic figures- game pieces if you will.

And in the last scene of the play a naked women is brought on stage and the soldiers use her as a map of Greece to work out boundaries, which we were trying to reference, but if we had her naked it would limit where we could advertise our play (and frankly, as the model, I wouldn't do it).

I think for now we'll stick with this image, but sincerely, thank you for the feedback- I will keep thinking about it, and about other ways to get the same ideas across.

[laurenmitchell.livejournal.com]

Oooh, it worked so well! Yay!

And yes, I think you should use this image for the poster.

[mc-shamo.livejournal.com]

I haven't thought that far ahead yes. The image is being done now because I have to submit it as part of the registration for the festival.

But it'll have to be dark, maybe even something matching the colours of the solders... I dunno.

[whooz-queen.livejournal.com]

I know, its hard, and I can appreciate the work that you've put into it.

I guess that to me that the image is not 'big, strong, alive' woman. She (you) is lying down, faceless, soft, submissive, secondary to the action on the stomach. If you'd used a board and had the female's face scowling over it, I would call that more female dominant as an image. Or two women facing each other, side on, over a battlefield/chess board situation. Ideas, bum, pulling them out thereof. :)

[mc-shamo.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I just posted an adjusted version of the pic on the Omniprop Facebook Group. Feel free to have a looksie!

[harkon.livejournal.com]

Actually the image looks fairly different if you rotate it clockwise. The only thing that makes it look a bit wrong is the position of the little men.

[onceler21.livejournal.com]

First thought: So, what would happen to those soldiers if you laughed? You'd better not laugh.... *tickle*

The soldiers are definitely soldiers. I'll leave comments about the imagery to those more qualified to make them, and just let you know it looks good.

[mstakenidentity.livejournal.com]

So, what would happen to those soldiers if you laughed?

They fall off, and we swear, I apologise, and we have to re-set.

The whole shoot took about an hour, during which I had to stay still, by the end I was sore and grumpy and very cold, so not much in the mood for laughing :-)

[impostinator.livejournal.com]

I like it - it's visually interesting (tiny plastic men!), and it works well with regard to the content of the play.

(I dragged Chris over to look too; he concurs)

[mstakenidentity.livejournal.com]

Whee!

And excluding myself and mc_shamo, you guys are the first of the Classics Society's 2002 Lysistrata cast members to give and opinion! Yay!