Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Adobe Audition | Experimenting with Pitch, Panning Sound and Creating Sounds
Monday, 25 January 2016
From Script to Screen | Influence Maps | Nice Grannies, Gardens and Plants
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| Influence Map For Happy Grannies and Old ladies (Executioner) |
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Influence Map For Gardens and some Plant Life |
Cutting Edge | Film Review | Rope
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| Fig 1. The movie poster used for 'Rope' |
'Rope' (1948) is an Alfred Hitchcock film that was based upon a play that also goes by the name of 'Rope'. Throughout this films a variety of different shots have been used to make the audience immersed into the story, most of the shots used within 'Rope' were experimental and were exploited to add effect to the film. For example Hitchcock wanted 'Rope' to seem like one whole continuous shot "All of the events had to take place in one uninterrupted act, and he arrived at the novel idea of shooting the movie without any visible cuts." (Ebert, 1984) Other pieces of clever camera work are used throughout 'Rope' an example would be the fact that Hitchcock ensures that he points the camera and all of the useful information throughout the film.
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| Fig 2. Brandon and Phillip murdering the man with rope. |
'Rope' begins with an ear piercing scream of a man being murdered in cold blood by Brandon and Phillip. As we get in closer to the scene of the murder it's clear that the murder weapon that is used is where the film got its name from. (See Fig 2.) After killing the man, his corpse is thrown inside of a storage space and covered with a table cloth and candles to mask the make shift burial (See fig 3.) and "Instead of hiding themselves, or the evidence of their crime, they throw a party, inviting the dead man's loved ones to sip champagne and make small talk." (Hutchinson, 2012). It's almost as if Brandon and Phillip are hosting a funeral for his unsuspecting family and to make the whole situation colder he is not showing any remorse but instead talking with the family and friends as though nothing has happened.
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| Fig 3. Brandon and Phillip standing above the hidden corpse |
It may feel like a painstakingly long time that we are waiting for justice to be served to the killers in 'Rope', but this is the way that Hitchcock builds the immersion that we as a crowd get drawn in by, with each moment that goes by, Brandon feels he is growing ever closer to escaping and not being revealed. But it is his friend Phillip that begins to crack under the pressure and eventually confesses to the last remaining guest, this comes as a sort of release for the audience as throughout the film there are small hiccups that suggest they are going to get caught, which keep us on the edge of our seat. When they are finally caught a gunshot is fired to alert the police the character sit and await justice. The film ends there.
During the 1940's it was a very controversial thing to be homosexual. It's in this movie that we can see a large amount of homosexual subtext that has been written in for Brandon and Phillip. "The film is crammed with submerged gay imitations" (Croce 2006) The cigarette that is lit and smoked after the murder has been carried out is a huge piece of homosexual sub context, its almost as if the moment that Brandon and Phillip shared together when they murdered the man was so sensuous and intimate that one of the men felt a cigarette was needed, much like people tend to do after finishing intercourse. (See Fig 4.)
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| Fig 4. The moment when Brandon lights a cigarette after the murder |
In conclusion it can be said that 'Rope' is an unsung hero in terms of Hitchcock movies. What Hitchcock was trying to achieve with his continuous shot was ahead of it's time and sadly couldn't be achieved in those times due to a technological disadvantage. Some can agree that if 'Rope' was to made with today's technologies it would make for a more immersive and great suspenseful movie.
Bibliography
Ebert, R. (1984) 'Rope' At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rope-1948 Accessed 23/1/2016
Hutchinson, P. (2012) 'My Favorite Hitchcock: Rope' At:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/27/my-favourite-hitchcock-rope
Accessed: 23/1/2016
Croce, F. F (2006) 'Rope' At: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/rope Accessed: 23/1/2016
Image Sources
Fig 1. Film Poster for 'Rope'; (1948) [poster] At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(film) Accessed 23/1/2016
Fig 2. Brandon and Phillip strangle man: (1948) [Film screenshot] At: https://thehitchcockreport.wordpress.com/tag/rope/ Accessed: 23/1/2016
Fig 3 Brandon and Phillip are standing above the hidden corpse (1948) [Film Screenshot] At:. http://criticsloft.com/rope-1948/ Accessed 23/1/2016
Fig 4. Brandon smoking a cigarette after the murder (1948) [Film Screenshot] At: https://pittqueerfemfilm.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/film-noir-the-rope-that-binds-uncertainty-sex-and-murder/ Accessed 23/1/2016
Sunday, 24 January 2016
From Script to Screen | Post-OGR | Re-Invented Story Idea
After the OGR feedback, it has been made clearer to me that my story needs to become a bit simpler. This is going to be done by changing the story layout into two takes that both depict polar opposites of the perspective for a human and a plant. To help with writing the script and progressing further i have re wrote my Premise, Logline and Step-Outline.
Premise
A lovely old lady wins local flower show through both the
human and plant perspective.
Logline
A lovely old lady wins a flower show for her exquisite gardening
skills, she is hailed for her work. Although through a plants eyes she is a
bloodthirsty demonic being.
Step-Outline
The start begins with the old lady wondering into her
beautiful garden, the birds are singing, bees are buzzing and the sun is
shining. Everything is jolly and joyous as she is walking down her garden path
with her secateurs and trug at the ready to pick her best flowers that will be
put forward for the best flower arrangement. She quite happily sifts through
the plants and cutting away to throw the needed ones into the trug. She comes
inside to begin arranging the flowers, the door shuts before the camera enters
the house. Then going straight into a shot of the old lady winning 1st
prize in the flower show, her smile is beaming. The photographer for the Blecksville Bugle is there so he can capture some lovely pictures of the old lady in all
her happiness so that it can be put into the newspaper. The camera then cuts to
some photos of the old lady and her arrangement. The screen fades to black to
then welcome the viewer with a joyous song.
The screen then opens with the exact same shot as the first
scene, The old woman is on her way to select and cut the needed plants. Instead
of following her the camera instead goes backwards into the perspective of a
sunflower plant. The sky darkens and becomes a dark bloodish red color and all
of the surrounding scenery becomes morphed, sinister and obscure. The old woman
doesn’t look so joyous and whimsical anymore, instead in the flowers view she
is a monstrous hag woman, when the flowers are cut they are instead mauled,
sliced and primed for the slaughter. Blood of the plants flies in different
directions as the old lady builds her flower corpse collection, the groans grow
louder and louder as the sound is piercing and unbearable to hear. Once again
the old lady heads inside to take her gardening wares off and throws the trug
on the side, the camera rolls up and cuts to the same flower show from the
first scene, the old lady is accepting her first prize and the photographer
takes pictures again, but this time they appear on the screen looking like
photos that would be taken in a crime scene, the pictures are black and white
and they depict the old lady as her demonic alter ego. The camera zooms in on
the face of the old demonic lady, it freezes for a moment and then cuts to
black, then shortly after the same song for the first cut to black will begin
to play.
Saturday, 23 January 2016
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
***Feedback Needed :)*** From Script to Screen | Rough Storyline
For the 'From Script to Screen' Project, i rummaged in the mysterious blue box i came out with An Executioner, A garden and a camera. So after talking to Phil he suggested the idea of making the story mostly through a flowers perspective and what attrocities they would see, how the gardener/grandma would instead look like the executioner to them and how it should be for a flower show or a vegatable growing show. Below is a rough idea of a story for this scenario.
The story begins with us seeing an old lady looking through the morning newspaper and spotting an advertisement for a local flower show, they are looking for some flower arrangements to be photographed and entered into a competition, which has a grand prize of appearing on the infamous Dahlia flower show. The old lady quickly decides that she wants in and goes straight to the tool shed to grab her gardening tools so that she can cut down some of her flowers so that she is able to arrange them to ready for a picture to be taken that may win her the competition.
The story begins with us seeing an old lady looking through the morning newspaper and spotting an advertisement for a local flower show, they are looking for some flower arrangements to be photographed and entered into a competition, which has a grand prize of appearing on the infamous Dahlia flower show. The old lady quickly decides that she wants in and goes straight to the tool shed to grab her gardening tools so that she can cut down some of her flowers so that she is able to arrange them to ready for a picture to be taken that may win her the competition.
Once the old woman has entered the shed we cut to the POV of one of the flowers that is going to be cut to be arranged. It’s in the flower’s perspective that everything is a desensitized version where flowers have true emotions and can go through pain much like humans. The way we once seen the old lady has completely changed, instead in the flower’s eyes she is an executioner. She is the person who brutalises the plants, therefore she also has the look to match and she is a demonic looking woman with plant blood splattered up her and the heads of daisies gathered round her neck, like badges of war. The camera pans from her feet to her head and then quickly to her hand as she removes her first weapon and deals a deathly strike to the roses, the sound of slicing can be heard almost as if it was like a human limb was severed. The Sunflower witnesses the whole tragedy, then swiftly turns its head 180 degrees to see his fellow daffodils being uprooted and having their roots torn off, their stems crushed and stuffed into a bag. The Sunflower is isolated and alone, it knows it is next. The old lady pulls out a machete and chops the sunflower down without hesitation and throws it also into the large bag. The revolting sight of many dying plants are now seen within the bag, it’s almost like a mass grave.
The old lady takes the flowers inside and begins to condition the flowers and ensuring that everything is placed into the oasis properly, she assembles the arrangement in quick time with movements so quick it seems they are blending together. After the arrangement is finished she takes several photos of the completed piece to send in to the newspaper, she tries many angles and produces many pictures, we see all of these photos laid out onto a black background, at this moment we see what the arrangement looks like from the old ladies POV. Once the pictures are finished and sent she covers up the plants and it cuts to black. The next day begins and she finds out that she has won. Everything is still black, the sound of a car beginning to start becomes the only thing that can be heard until the flower show has been reached. Crowd noises become louder and louder as the flowers are taken into the Dahlia flower show, when the cover is taken off so that the old lady can show the judges her arrangement, the judges don’t like it and give her low scores. She does not like this and goes home and disposes of her arrangement into a big compost heap, this is seen from the flowers point of view as it is being taken to the compost heap and when it is tossed onto it. This is when the camera cuts away from the flower’s POV and the camera spirals up to the sky whilst looking down on the sunflower that is beginning to wither and die on top of a mound of flowers. The flowers look normal for this shot but when the flower see the compost heap it sees it as a corpse pile as such.
Monday, 18 January 2016
Friday, 15 January 2016
Adobe Premiere | The Punisher | Animatic
Today in Adobe Premiere we ensured that we first got to grips with the basics. After doing this I went through trimming also the timings of each frame to ensure that the animatic flowed better. Unfortunately I wasn't able to add a huge amount of effects to the animatic, but I will certainly add effects and some more frames for the storyboard.
From Script to Screen | Like for Like storyboard | The Punisher
For my 'Like for Like' Storyboard I have chosen to pick out some of the key frames from the ice lolly scene in 'The Punisher'. It involves the punisher chain up a victim he wants to interrogate. He uses a blowtorch to burn meat and an ice lolly to prod him to give the impression that the blowtorch is that hot that it makes the victim feel cold.
Flash | Raspberry Yop Taste
In todays lesson the aim was to animate a taste of our choice. I tried to make my animation give the impression of a flavor that is overpowering and very tasty to a taste that pretty much fades away into just a creamy texture that has no real raspberry taste anymore.
Cutting Edge | Film Review | La Jetée (The Pier)
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| Fig 1. The Movie Cover/Poster of La Jetee |
La Jetee (1962) is a French science fiction movie that was directed in 1962 by Chris Marker "whose work fell into the category of thoughtful and challenging" (Patrick Samuel - 2013). It can be said that La Jetee is somewhat of a marvel within the science-fiction movie world. It is also the film that inspired Terry Gilliam to create the movie '12 Monkeys'.
La Jetee does a wonderful job of setting the scene and creating an interesting short movie with the use of purposeful and smart sounds where "The sound effects are minimal and usually represent familiar concepts such as airport sounds or footsteps."(Filmslie.com- 2012) and the use of nothing but still images to depict what is going on throughout the movie. With a runtime of 28 minutes it still manages to tell an interesting story. A story which takes us to the events during the aftermath of World War 3, the whole of Paris has been bombed and nothing remains but a smoking wreckage (See fig 2.). The survivors that we see in this film dwell underground located in the Palais de Chaillot galleries. It's down within these pits where people are conducting experiments on people in the name of discovering something in time travel. It's when we discover that the experiments aren't working on their current human guinea pigs that we meet the main character who is never given a name throughout the movie.
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| Fig 2. Paris destroyed after World War III |
This man is the only man who is able to cope with the effects of the experiments, He willing undertakes the strenuous experiments because he is unable to escape a haunting image that he stills reminisces frequently, a haunting image of a man dying and another image of the woman who watches said death with him. Most of all it is the woman's face that has been etched into his memory (See Fig 3.).
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| Fig 3. The woman who is always seen by the unnamed man |
Because of the horrific views that can be seen across Paris the scientists send the unnamed man to both the past to the time before the war. The future is also where the unnamed man is transported to. This is so that the present time can return and can be rescued from the disaster that they have been inflicted with. It's when the unnamed man is hurdled into the pre-war era that he meets the unnamed woman and begins to meet her on many occasions, so that he is able to discover what life was like before the war. But through these frequent visits he and her subsequently start to become drawn to each other. The unnamed man is then given a hard choice of fleeing to the distant future of travelling backwards into the past to avoid his execution of which he has now become fully aware of.
The actions that the unnamed man undertakes lead him round in a cycle to a point where he is witnessing the events that first occurred when he was a young boy, which is the point that it is discovered that the man who was seen as young boy was in fact the unnamed man, thus backing up the theory of time and that if an event is to occur it cannot be outrun or changed. The film leaves a purposeful message to the audience, a signifier that we as humans are taking the world for granted and a great "abundance to the past" (Andy Taylor - 2003)
It can be said the La Jetee proves that to make a impacting, memorable film it doesn't take special effects. It just needs a gripping storyline, a mastery of sounds used and of course the use of still images.
Bibliography
Filmslie.com (2012) Chris Marker’s La Jetee Analysis: Mortality and the Illusion of Time
At: http://filmslie.com/chris-marker-la-jetee-analysis-temporality/Accessed 14/01/2016
Samuel, P. (2013) La Jetee (Short Film) Review At: http://staticmass.net/world/la-jetee-1962-review/ Accessed 14/01/2016
Taylor, A. (2003) Andy's Anachronisms - Time Travel Movie Reviews - La Jetee At :http://www.timetravelreviews.com/movies/la_jetee.html Accessed: 14/01/2016
Image Sources
Figure 1: La Jetee Film Poster (1962) [Poster] At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jet%C3% Accessed 14/01/2016
Figure 2: Paris Destroyed after WWIII (1962) [Film Screenshot] At: http://rebeccalpatterson.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/film-review-la-jetee.html Accessed 14/01/2016
Figure 3: The woman from the unnamed mans memories (1962) [Film Screenshot} At: http://theseventhart.info/tag/la-jetee/Accessed 14/01/2016
Thursday, 14 January 2016
Feedback Needed | From Script to Screen | Initial Ideas
- · Garden executioner is hired to kill weeds that have grown out of control, so much so that they’re alive and deadly. He takes pictures of each one he Kills
- · Executioner used to kill people but has now retired and wants to own a lovely garden to have in picture taken in the newspaper for monthly competition but he is too used to handling large weapons to carefully craft his garden
- · The executioner is the villain and the story is a horror slasher story through the eyes of a handheld camera. His domain is a garden filed with poisonous and a dangerous plants.
- · Executioner is a ghost, camera must be used to properly see him. Needs to be freed and secret lies in houses garden
- · Guy who has been reincarnated into modern day with the memory of being an executioner in the past. Every time he awakes from sleep he is in the garden although going to sleep in bed. He has a photographic memory and therefore remembers horrific events and wants to discover his past life.
- · Instead of a killing executioner. It is instead someone who executes an action such as a party organizer who takes pictures of all their events and this time specifically organised a large garden party.
- · Life is seen from the flowers perspective, the executioner is instead the grandma/gardener. Flowers are being ‘brutalised’ in preparation for a renowned flower show. The only time we see the flowers from a human view is when a picture is taken of them. Essentially this story would be to show us what a livng flower goes through
- · A vegetable show is arising and to ensure that they are ready for pictures for the competition we see them being overfed and each vegetable that isn’t good enough being killed in brutal ways. In return making the gardener/grower the ‘executioner’ again
Above are all of the current ideas that i have been able to generate from my given character, prop and environment. 'Executioner', 'Garden' and a 'Camera' were the three things that i picked out of the mysterious blue box. So far i feel like some of my ideas are getting there, Some feedback would be greatly appreciated :)
Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Adobe Audition | Intro Lesson | Basic Tools
In todays lesson we learnt some of the basics behind working with Adobe Audition. Essentially today was a lesson where we took the time to grasp hold of some of the tools, therefore we were given some animal sounds and other random sounds to mess about with. Below is the outcome i got from changing the pitch and stretching the files of a dog growling, a dolphin and a sea lion.
Monday, 11 January 2016
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Monday, 4 January 2016
Maya Tutorial | Intro to Texturing | Networks ( Double-Sided Shader)
In this short tutorial we learnt how to use the conditioning node and how to use the sampler node to be able to apply two images to an animated page within a book. To ensure that if within my projects I ever need to repeat this process I have saved the node I created into my shading networks for future use.
What If? Metropolis | Final Render
It has recently come to my attention that the only present copy of my finished render was in fact only on my crit presentation. Therefore I have made sure that it has been uploaded before the brief begins.
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