Monday 29 February 2016

Fantastic Voyage - Type Development


As this project is going to be quite heavy with info graphics and explanations, just trying to make some interesting typography that a pizza eating teen might like.

Life Drawing






Sunday 28 February 2016

Fantastic Voyage - Idea Development



Above are a couple of concept paintings so I could get a sense of the colour schemes I'm thinking of using and if they work. I do intend to try a Indie game style animation with low poly modelling, so the paintings above are not a representation of what I intend to do.  

I wanted to see if my ideas would be viable in the time frame given - So a quick test model was made to see what the low polygon modelling would look like and what sort time it would take. The model below was kind of a speed model and will be refined if the green light is given.











Soundscape - Submission















Duel - Script to Screen


Man versus machine with a hint of supernatural prowess, Steven Speilbergs, 1971 ‘Duel’  is a simple premise of a paranoid American man who is teased and tortured on the open road by a menacing eighteen wheeled articulated truck that seems to breath polluted fumes and a roar  with the intent to consume its prey for no apparent reason. With no real monologue and only seeing the truck drivers Cowboy boots and elbow “Duel” could of been a silent film with the real stars being the truck and Plymouth Valiant. ‘’building excitement from the most minimal ingredients and the simplest of situations”. (Maslin, 1983)

From start to finish ‘Duel’ is a highway roller-coaster of tense cat and mouse action, dominated by the aggressive truck that always seems to fill the screen (Fig. 01), with low camera angles (Fig. 02) and wide focal lengths, the truck dominates “an invader of the frame” (Muir, 2010), there is always a intense presence that this is not just a truck but a primevil hunter, a living possessed creature - how else can a oil smoking truck posses  so much pace. “Is the truck driven by the Devil?  Is it purely and simply Evil on 18-wheels”? Mann. (Fig. 03)


Speilburgs camera work diminishes the presence of David’s Winy weak powered Plymouth Valiant  that in itself has been stripped of all its masculine attributes. 

(Fig.01)                                              (Fig.02)                                          (Fig.03)

The characters seem to be second thought in this film, little is made clear about David’s background and what he is doing, but we do know that this guy has serious Man issues. He seems to be battling with his masculinity from the very beginning As David pulls into a gas station after his first encounter with the truck, the attendant refers to his request with “your the boss” and Mann’s simple response back “not in my house i’m not”.  Also when Mann enters the gas station to use the telephone he takes a very Masculine stance in shot (Fig. 04), but this seems to be stripped away by the use of compositional choice and the Laundry room aesthetic that he is in. “Mann’s exaggeratedly masculine pose is  suddenly and totally eclipsed by a symbol of domesticity (and again, stereotypical “women’s work)”. (Muir, 2010). Enhancing this man in a womans world, a females hand opens the washing machine framing David in the bubble of the door totally framing him in domesticity (Fig. 05).  The film consists of powerful subtext about the state of masculinity in 1970s America, at the rise of the nascent women’s liberation movement.
                                    (Fig.04)                                                                 (Fig.05) 

David’s masculinity is also challenged in a Roadside Diner that is filled with the typical “All American man” - Cowboy boots in force, moody stares and sweaty men that could clear the best of backstreet bars. David’s Anxiety overwhelms his senses, forcing him to question his purpose and confront his problems. This is true for David’s problem with the truck also, as he tries to hide in his Plymouth and wait it out , as soon as his wheels hits the tarmac, the Truck is there laying in wait ready to ambush at the first chance it can. forcing David to finally “Man-up” to the truck and in a western style suit-up scene, face his fears and the ultimate enemy head.

But with the small monologue of this film, we never see the driver and or if he survived, cementing the fact that the stars of the film are infarct the vehicles and you are left with the dieing 18 wheeled beast.

Bibliography:
Thomas, W. (2009) Empire Essay: Duel At: http://www.empireonline.com/movies/duel/review/
Muir, J. (2010) Duel (1971) At: http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/cult-tv-movie-review-duel-1971.html
Maslin, J. (1983) Duel Review At: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9804EFD81138F936A25757C0A965948260

Illustration List:
Figure 1. http://moria.co.nz/horror/duel-1971.htm
Figure 2. https://mossfilm.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/steven-spielbergs-duel-feature-review/
Figure 3. http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/spielbergs-first-full-length-movie-1971-duel-on-just-released-blu-ray-now-spinning.436382/ 
Figure 4.http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/cult-tv-movie-review-duel-1971.html
Figure 5. https://http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-ray_reviews_63/duel_blu-ray.htm

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Fantastic Voyage - Initial Ideas


Initial thoughts for Antibodies and Bacteria - Took my influence from "Innerspace" and how the little mech pods interacted in the body. I thought it would be quite cool if the Antibodies could suit up before going into battle - I think I can get the science of how Bacteria is destroyed in quite a fun way that could interest teenagers and their gaming worlds.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Thursday 4 February 2016

Script to Screen - The Birds


“The Birds” (1963) by Alfred Hitchcock was directed at the pinnacle of his career, gaining trust and freedom from his movie sponsors with the success of Psycho (1960). Hitchcock had free rain to produce a movie that disposed of  the formal structure that movie goers where used to seeing.  Using his misdirection trope of fooling the audience into thinking they are watching one genre of film, only for it to flip into another adding to the thrill and also leaving a unresolved ending to a movie. Why did the this happen and what was the reason? “Actually I have no idea what draws the birds and turns them bad and it seems that nobody else does either”. Melanie Daniels

The opening scene shows the flirtatious bickering between a pristine female socialite Melanie, oozing with confidence, taunting a smart mouthed lawyer Mitch, equally showing high regard for himself. Filled with sarcastic flaunts and practice jokes (Fig. 01, Fig. 02), Hitchcock starts his trickery into fooling the viewer into what seems a light-hearted and fun comedy.  However, things take a turn for the weird, Firstly with a unprovoked bird attack on Melanie to the unsettling behaviour between Mitch and his possessive widowed Mother, Lydia.  “Mitch calling Lydia “darling” and “dear” is just plain odd. It made me think that a little something more was going on between them than the typical mother/son relationship.”

(Fig. 01)                                                                   (Fig. 02)

As Melanie appears on the scene and recieves Mitches full attention, you can see the fear in Lydia and the possibility of losing her status as being the dominant female in her Sons life. (Fig. 03). This dependancy of the female attention seems to affect the attacks of the birds, Perhaps a symbolic symbol of the pecking and neediness of females in Hitchcocks life. The bird attacks seem to occur when Lydia, sees Mitch and Melanie’s emotions getting closer and thus the bird attacks grow in intensity as their relationship becomes grounded. However as the attacks grow more brutal and murderous, the crumbling of Melanies confidence seems to mirror the Mothering that Lydia presents to her and by the end of the film Lydia, protects and nutures melanie. (Fig. 04).

(Fig. 03)                                                                   (Fig. 04)

Hitchcocks use of the camera throughout the film reflects the moods and emotions that he pushes onto the viewer. The seemingly calm and playfulness at the beginning of the film, is framed with beauty shots and lighting to suit. But as we get into the guts of the film, the angles are cranked and the shadows are unforgiving even for the most photogenic of actresses and actors (Fig. 05, Fig. 06 , Fig. 07), showing their transformation of the powerful to the vulnerable. symbolistic of the birdcage at the begining of the film, with the main characters laughing and joking over the two love birds locked up in their cage - to them eventually being the ones locked up in their house as the birds are attacking unable to escape...

(Fig. 05)                                                    (Fig. 06)                                       (Fig. 07)

Bibliography:
Brooks, X. (2012) My Favourite Hitchcock: The Birds At: http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/31/my-favourite-hitchcock-the-birds Accessed on: 26/1/2016
Bovberg, J. (2013) The Birds (1963) At: http://www.jasonbovberg.com/hitchcock-conversations-the-birds-1963/ Accessed on: 06/8/2013

Illustration List:
Figure 1. The Birds [Film Still] At: https://mystery756.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rod-taylor-tippi-hedren.jpg
Figure 2.  [Film Still] At: http://www.gudrunstights.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/the-birds.jpeg
Figure 3. Jealous Mother [Film Still] At:https://martinseay.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/lydia-thebirds.jpg
Figure 4. Ending [Film Still] At:https://crazycraig524.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/00246069_medium.jpeg

Figure 5. Attack [Film Still] At:http://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/blogs/cinema-em-casa/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2013/07/The-Birds.jpg?410996
Figure 6. Attack [Film Still] At:https://crazycraig524.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/00246069_medium.jpeg
Figure 7. Attack [Film Still] At:http://the.hitchcock.zone/files/articles/TheMakingOfTheBirds/birds010B.jpg