Heather Pollington: From Hollywood to The Symbolic World

  Рет қаралды 15,268

Jonathan Pageau

Jonathan Pageau

Күн бұрын

Heather Pollington is a UK-based Lead Graphic and Surface Designer working in the Film and Television Industry. She has been involved with many popular films like Hellboy 2, Skyfall, Maleficent 2, Marvel's Eternals, and more. She designed the new Symbolic World logo and will be working with me to publish a series of fairy tale books, starting with Snow White.
In this discussion, Heather takes us through the creative process of her work in various film projects and finally, we discuss the unique design of our new Symbolic World logo.
Heather's website: www.heatherpollington.com/
Instagram: / heather.pollington
-----------------------
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Coming up next...
00:01:19 - Intro music
00:01:43 - Introduction
00:02:30 - How did you come to your profession?
00:04:39 - Encountering The Symbolic World
00:05:56 - Hierarchy in film-making
00:10:56 - The guiding question
00:12:43 - Where she started
00:13:40 - Hellboy 2: Context is everything
00:19:39 - Bond films: setting up a contrast
00:24:31 - The emotion
00:26:28 - The Medieval aesthetics in films
00:29:25 - Mary Poppins: memory
00:31:51 - Maleficent 2
00:38:13 - How much technology defines art
00:41:39 - Subtle coherence
00:46:21 - ~budget and design in church
00:51:30 - The Symbolic World logo
00:52:47 - Build on what's already there
00:54:53 - The Peridexion tree and the dragon
00:56:30 - First drafts
00:59:09 - Lettering
01:03:43 - The dragon
01:05:54 - Suggestion
01:06:59 - A hybrid dragon
01:09:17 - Snow White
-----------------------
💻 Website and blog: www.thesymbolicworld.com
🔗 Linktree: linktr.ee/jonathanpageau
🗣 Join The Symbolic World Community for discussions about symbolism: thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe
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Our website designers: www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

Пікірлер: 65
@regpharvey
@regpharvey Жыл бұрын
Interesting that Heather's design is often the only redeeming element of the films to which she's contributed. Put another way, the ONLY reason I would watch some of these films (not all, but most) would be to see her design. Hopefully she will have opportunities to work on better projects in the future!
@mosesgarcia9443
@mosesgarcia9443 Жыл бұрын
Wow. That was a MASTERCLASS Quality Video for FREE....Thank you Heather Pollington is at the top of the Hollywood game. Her work is amazing. The Symbolic World is now reaching into Hollywood. 😆 🙏
@SirBlackReeds
@SirBlackReeds Жыл бұрын
Eh, I'll be impressed if she manages to nail the look and feel of the Western.
@ethanb2554
@ethanb2554 Жыл бұрын
38:57 "Technology defines art" This is the same reason why for example a violin sonata will sound different (and will be written differently) than a flute or cello sonata. The term "material cause" was coined by Aristotle to describe this.
@ShowMeMoviesInc.
@ShowMeMoviesInc. Жыл бұрын
Thank you Pagaue and thank you Heather for all the awesome work. This is organic 100% gmo free food for thought!
@infinitestare
@infinitestare Жыл бұрын
um... actually it's Paguaeult
@infinitestare
@infinitestare Жыл бұрын
...Peugeot
@orthodoxpraxis2133
@orthodoxpraxis2133 Жыл бұрын
As someone who is an Orthodox graphic designer/filmmaker, this was super intriguing! thank you!
@betrion7
@betrion7 Жыл бұрын
What films did you made?
@vimalpatel4060
@vimalpatel4060 Жыл бұрын
What does an orthodox filmdesigner do, if you don't mind me asking?
@juliepaine532
@juliepaine532 Жыл бұрын
This was like going to an amazing field trip in the spring of the year with all of your high school classmates! So interesting and insightful and meeting Heather was like meeting someone you never knew existed before. I’m not explaining myself very well, but I’m grateful for the two of you and I think God has blessed The Symbolic World with a true treasure in Heather, both as a person as well as her brilliant, stunning talent.
@benjaminledford6111
@benjaminledford6111 Жыл бұрын
That was wonderful. The new logo is so beautiful. I think one reason that churches are reluctant to invest in hiring artists and designers is that we're not confident that the person we hire will actually give us what we're looking for or even something that we like. We just see so much ugly and sub-par and even degenerate art around us that it feels like if we hire an artist they'll probably want to take the project in their own direction and we'll have to negotiate with them and end up having spent money on something we're ambivalent about. I say that as an architect where some of the same dynamic is at play. Examples like these from Heather's work really help to open up eyes to the possibility of how a skilled designer can take your idea and make it something that is even better than you were hoping.
@das3841
@das3841 Жыл бұрын
Fascinating, thanks. One of the most interesting interviews yet!!
@Bartisim0
@Bartisim0 Жыл бұрын
This is incredible.Thank you Jonathan and Heather.
@Xanaseb
@Xanaseb Жыл бұрын
Brilliant video, thanks, particularly for the 2nd half. The new logo and title all make sense now.
@ThatLauraPerson
@ThatLauraPerson Жыл бұрын
Wonderful conversation, Jonathan. So great to see these two worlds combined!
@ZeroCartin
@ZeroCartin Жыл бұрын
Absolutely fantastic chat. Thanks for sharing and I love your work!
@oekmama
@oekmama Жыл бұрын
Thanks Jonathan, thanks Heather! I saved this video for a time when I could take time to sit and watch. You all have hit the nail on the head about how I watch films. I love and appreciate the design work that goes into these films. Sometimes I find the behind the scenes more interesting than the film… like del Toro’s Pinnochio! What she said about the Bond in the bunker, I‘m so glad she said that because I‘m usually the only one thinking, „this reminds me of…“ Vindication!😅
@Wingedmagician
@Wingedmagician Жыл бұрын
Jonathan: that tree was fantastic Her: that tree was the only part I didn’t do Jonathan: 😬 (All jokes aside she’s amazing and I’m loving this!)
@ConnieM.
@ConnieM. 11 ай бұрын
LOL! 😂
@cidklutch
@cidklutch Жыл бұрын
Excellent insights on storytelling hierarchies. Thank you for this discussion, as always.
@Ivannah75
@Ivannah75 Жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for this interview! I feel so inspired. I can't wait for Snow White to come out. I will probably buy more than one copy so that I can tear pages out and frame them :)
@gusimation
@gusimation Жыл бұрын
Enjoyed this, thanks!
@Jacob011
@Jacob011 Жыл бұрын
I really love the gold circle defining the attentional span, landing on the dragon as that which is relevant and in the center of our attention when we are confronted with a predator, but also the branch breaking in through the metal circle from the "other world" reminding us that there is always more vitality to see. It's also probably not coincidental that the dragon's tail has a root-like brambly quality, harkening to the tree. The gold of the circle gives it nobility and solidity, while, if you look closely enough, you see the mosaic pieces chipped, suggesting to me that the circle is subject to change. Heather is brilliant!
@Jer.616
@Jer.616 Жыл бұрын
This was fantastic. As another said, this was a masterclass. We need more online courses teaching this kind of stuff. I disagree with the comments on Dune and The Chosen. The story always trumps the visuals. If the story is lacking (as in Dune), I don't care about the visuals. The visuals can't overcome a bad story. (Not that Dune was bad, but for me it was lacking.) Movies like that bore me and irritate me. If the story is fantastic (as in The Chosen), I can forgive the lack in visuals. Of course, the best is when the two come together to tell a story. You can watch a play with NO visuals and if the story is compelling, you don't even care. I say that as an artist. Jonathan, your channel and website have become popular even though you knew that the visuals needed work. Perfect visuals without the content, however, wouldn't have created a following.
@missh1774
@missh1774 Жыл бұрын
I miss the artistry of older films, even fake rocks came alive. Its hard to spot the hierarchy. Love the dragon. Does Heather use VR or AR to prearrange the settings she works in? Medieval stories such the titan battles are really hard to make relevant to todays audience, yet true to the time period. Thank you for this very interesting and inspiring topic!
@SirBlackReeds
@SirBlackReeds Жыл бұрын
It depends on the older film, really, doesn't it?
@ibelieve3111
@ibelieve3111 4 ай бұрын
Thanks
@nancyd001
@nancyd001 Жыл бұрын
Fascinating and inspiring! Thank you, Jonathan and Heather.
@mattisamattisa
@mattisamattisa Жыл бұрын
Cappella Palatina in Palermo has tons of typography reference and also Palace of the Normans
@OneMansOdyssey
@OneMansOdyssey Жыл бұрын
13:36 - simulacra!
@LucaMahler95
@LucaMahler95 Жыл бұрын
Enjoyed this episode so much! But why the focus on the dragon instead of the tree?
@anatomicallymodernhuman5175
@anatomicallymodernhuman5175 Жыл бұрын
As Cyril of Jerusalem put it, "The dragon sits by the side of the road, watching those who pass. Beware lest he devour you. We go to the Father of Souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon."
@hast3033
@hast3033 Жыл бұрын
What are worthwhile movies for someone who has never perused them very much, besides star wars and lotr?
@peterc3262
@peterc3262 Жыл бұрын
Ben Hur. Spartacus. China Town. I thought Arrival was excellent more recently.
@crystallogic2543
@crystallogic2543 Жыл бұрын
Terminator 1 & 2, Forrest Gump, Back To The Future & The Matrix trilogies, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Apocalypse Now, (Rambo) First Blood, Stand By Me.
@manuelmontiel8085
@manuelmontiel8085 Жыл бұрын
Jonathan, thank you for elucidated my uneasiness with The Chosen! Always felt off with it, especially the Roman soldiers uniform
@vimalpatel4060
@vimalpatel4060 Жыл бұрын
What would happen if one never consumed Jesus related visual media. I am talking about movies and art, not iconography. Would the worldview be more phenomelogical?
@coffeecupenglish
@coffeecupenglish Жыл бұрын
This is so amazing!
@muadek
@muadek Жыл бұрын
She's exteremely good at what she does.
@Witsius
@Witsius Жыл бұрын
Wow!
@muadek
@muadek Жыл бұрын
Good to learn Jonthan has finally seen Dune :D
@JohnSaber
@JohnSaber Жыл бұрын
Great topic. Interesting guest. Thanks.
@AlxRamirz
@AlxRamirz Жыл бұрын
excellent guest! Heather's comments on setting construction in film, and human perception was well spoken towards
@SempreGumby
@SempreGumby Жыл бұрын
I watch the backgrounds. My favorite was in the "Milagro Beanfield War". The heroes are having an intense discussion with a store owner. In the background an older woman is picking bottles off a high shelf and looking at them. She is not the object of the scene but is background. When she picks up a bottle of Newman's Own salad dressing, the owner of the store breaks from the discussion with the heroes and tells the woman she doesn't want that one! It's a tiny moment in time when the director of the film tweeks the nose of his longtime friend. I laughed in a silent movie theater full of people - A wonderful moment in a lovely film I was fortunate to be part of..
@thesecondlawandthetowerhou6026
@thesecondlawandthetowerhou6026 Жыл бұрын
52:00 Jonathan’s use of the word ‘desire’ is so key. Desire/longing/belonging.
@tomek9401
@tomek9401 Жыл бұрын
Mind you, for Central European this is true end of the world stuff - Hollywood artist combined with Orthodox art. Just the kind of monster we need these days 🙏
@brendonlake1522
@brendonlake1522 Жыл бұрын
At my church
@vimalpatel4060
@vimalpatel4060 Жыл бұрын
Bony pageau refused the naked Adam. Anathema.
@Cavirex
@Cavirex Жыл бұрын
I find Dune 2022 really bland and boring in visual terms. Things are grey and square, the suits look banal, the shields look silly. Also, the actors make the visuals blander with their monotone delivery. Unless Jonathan is referring to Lynch's Dune which is a bad adaptation but visually striking
@lausdeo4944
@lausdeo4944 Жыл бұрын
Hmm... I have literally the opposite view. The dark colors/square shapes are utilitarian and hyper-synthetic (the juxtaposition between the modern-world and the magical one). The actors very much deliver in the style of the book (which one could argue was bland and banal).
@universalflamethrower6342
@universalflamethrower6342 Жыл бұрын
The first Dune was flawed and some consider it over the top, for me it hits the atmosphere of DUNE. The second dune not so much. Take the Baron in both movies, one utterly evil and menacing one is a bold fat man in a bathtub.
@Cavirex
@Cavirex Жыл бұрын
​@@lausdeo4944 yes, but then the problem is that they are too faithful. Not all choices which work in a book also work in a film. I had zero emotional connection to any of them whereas I at least felt invested in Paul's faith and shocked by betrayal and the massacre of the Atreides. Here it felt all very by the numbers. And I'd be ok with the blocky shapes (after all they are Harkonnen colonies, they might as well look like a super depressing place, like an interstellar Soviet block) but the problem is that the desert also feels bland. The final scene (I was watching at an iMax) felt like when you watch a video on your phone with the brightness turned all the way down. My wife described the scene this way, which I found hilarious, and she actually liked the movie a lot more than I did, despite not knowing the book. It's not terrible but I think that it's massively overrated (the same grey and bland design is also in Arrival; literally two three legged faceless squids behind a foggy glass in a featureless room).
@Cavirex
@Cavirex Жыл бұрын
​@@universalflamethrower6342 the parts at the beginning with the Bene Gesserit ship and the Imperial delegation are actually kinda cool, wish they went more for that 16th century pseudo-Catholic fantasy scifi look with a mix of Soviet/Roman Harkonnens and a pseudoislamic Fremen aesthetic. The Fremen suits were the worse offenders for me. They're a ripoff of Lynch's, yet somehow worse. I wished they had a lot more cover (moisture!) and maybe colour too. Definetely jewellery, tattoos, and the blue of eyes needs to be brighter. For some reason the dark blue they chose gives me more of an impression of fakeness than anything.
@universalflamethrower6342
@universalflamethrower6342 Жыл бұрын
@@Cavirex Dune is a bit like the LOTR and the Bible, very good reading material. But not neccasarily a good movie, probably best when read out loud. I say this as someone who likes the LOTR but still thinks it is flawed and misses much what Tolkien put in his story. So far as the Bible is concerned, I enjoy JCS the most although it takes big liberties with the message. Dune somehow can not be visually great and narritivly sound. It is usually on or the other or neither.
@SirBlackReeds
@SirBlackReeds Жыл бұрын
The Lord of the Rings to King Kong was a terrible example. Peter Jackson still had superiors to answers to, which is why there's an extended cut in the first place. Additionally, Peter Jackson became more and more comfortable with CGI with each entry. A far superior contrast would have been Martin Campbell's Quantum of Solace vs Green Lantern. Oddly enough, he has directed sci-fi before. Film hierarchy is still alive, otherwise no movie would get made. What has been going the way of the dodo are directors, producers, writers, etc. who are serious about their craft. I'm skeptical on Dune. Villeneuve said he wanted to make it look as Frank Hebert envisioned, but then he casts Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, which I can't help but feel was done in order to get Zoomer women's butts in seats. Lastly, out of all the films she could have cited, why did Pollington choose Maleficent 💩? That movie sucks.
@thesecondlawandthetowerhou6026
@thesecondlawandthetowerhou6026 Жыл бұрын
Nothing compares to Norman Sicily, that’s for sure.
@3VLN
@3VLN Жыл бұрын
I would love to have a symbolic break down of the new logo, Jonathan. Im sure im not the only one :)
@SiccazHD
@SiccazHD Жыл бұрын
That's been uploaded already
@hellomate639
@hellomate639 Жыл бұрын
I wonder if I'll ever end up working with you guys. Maybe if I can get moving along faster at my artistic pursuits. I've had some pretty weird visions that would make for great films. I'll share one... I imagined that I used to be an angel in Heaven, but when the fall happened, I went into a rage at all the fallen angels, slashing at them with a flaming sword. But, as the flames died out, I found my hands and wings charred from the flames, and found myself cast out into the same pit as all the fallen angels, who are all screaming in a deeply resentful agony, as if Paradise had been ripped from them, filled with a horrific combination of despair and rage at God. I saw myself as ashamed that I had lost my temper, though this image stopped flowing after this point. It was also kind of crazy how I pictured the fall happening - it was like a shadow was spreading like a rumor through Paradise, and all of these beautiful angels were just somehow darkened a little, whispering to one another. Underlying this was a sort of youthfulness of both myself and the fallen angels that I encountered. I've also had a strong vision of what I understood to be an angel that wasn't fallen - bright dark purple skin, golden glowing eyes, but where the whites of her eyes were black, as if it was an inversion of what people are. But it wasn't a scary image. Though, this allowed me to get a perception of how scary fallen angels might be when they appear so brilliant but are also corrupted. I'm not schizophrenic or anything like that... these things usually happen just in the shower, sleeping or when listening to powerful music like Bach. A couple esoteric sources I'm aware of treat angels as beings that go in the opposite direction of us mortals, where they start out in this harmonious, heavenly perfected state, but gradually shrink in their level of consciousness. To me, this would speak to the nature of the image of these eyes that had glowing golden irises and black "whites" of the eye, literally seeing reality with eyes that are the opposite of our own. It also seems to me that such eyes are what are needed to see the full hierarchy of reality all at once, from the light to darkness. I don't put too high of weight on the reality of these dreams and experiences in terms of trying to analyze them or interpret them literally (nor do I rule them out, because they seem to reflect direct experience), but the way I experience these things creates imagery that is so foreign and profound that at this point I really need to get it out of me in art, narrative and music, burning inside of me. Can you imagine if people with top level taste and talent did a movie for Paradise Lost? People who truly appreciate the poetry, music, and condensed all of it?
@rachelmariatsiganos3524
@rachelmariatsiganos3524 Жыл бұрын
It’s a cool design but I miss the very obvious Orthodox icons.
@SiccazHD
@SiccazHD Жыл бұрын
Us Patreon supporters who got the breakdown and reveal of the new logo almost 2 years ago😎😎😎
@carlotapuig
@carlotapuig 10 ай бұрын
CGI is so obviously fake to me that I can't watch those films, it's impossible to me to believe the stories. I don't understand how people can watch such films.
@mattisamattisa
@mattisamattisa Жыл бұрын
Sicily mediavel typography reference yourguidetoitaly.com/slowitaly/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/palatine-chapel-palermo-2b.jpg
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