Monday 19 December 2016
Film review : Black Narcissus
Fig.1 Black Narcissus Poster
A group of nuns travel to the Palace of Mopu which is located in the remote mountains of the Himalaya. The nuns are tasked with setting up a school and hospital for the local people. As the story progresses the nuns start to find themselves increasingly seduced by the sensuality of their surroundings and by the local British agent Mr Dean.
Keith Uhlich describes the surroundings in his review : "there’s something truly unearthly about this place of howling winds, yawning chasms and atmosphere thick with temptation. Sanctity, it will be proven, is no match for sin." (Uhlich, December 31st 2012)
The opening scene of the film is of a nunnery in which sister Clodagh is being assign to go to the palace and take a group of nuns with her to help set up the necessary needs for the people, we find out that one of the nuns "Sister Ruth" Is ill and so the nun superior insists sister Clodagh takes sister Ruth so that she may recover.
When the nuns arrive at the palace they are greeted by Mr Dean who in a way is as manly as a man could be (so to speak) the nuns have no choice but to interact with Mr Dean as he is there agent.
As the story progresses the nuns are introduced to the young prince who wishes to study at the covent, the nuns at first do not wish to allow this as there rules are to only teach children and females, the nuns however decided to allow the prince to study at the covent.
As sister Clodagh interacts with Mr Dean more she is reminded of her past life in Ireland in which at the time she was with a man, and begins to loose focus on the over mission, sister Ruth also starts to become effected with constant interaction with Mr Dean, Sister Ruth eventually gains feelings for Mr Dean and wishes to remove her vowels of being a nun so that she can be with Mr Dean, Sister Ruth also becomes jealous of sister Clodagh as she believes Mr Dean and Sister Clodagh have an intermit connection.
Roger Ebert saids : "This emotional conflict is one of many that eats away at nearly all of the film's characters. Clodagh's relationship with Dean reminds her of her ill-fated longings for a former friend. Ruth, who was emotionally disturbed even before joining the expedition seems to become completely unhinged once Dean shows her an act of kindness which she might have been seeking for so long. And Dean himself, a charming cynic who has seen-it-all, appears to surprise himself with how much he grows to care and admire Sister Clodagh's resolve, however misplaced it may be." (Ebert, March 5th 2010)
Sister Ruth's affection eventually causes her to become tormented by the jealousy of seeing sister Clodagh and Mr Dean together and falls into the demise of madness. In one scene sister ruth is seen wearing a red dress and seductively putting on red lipstick, as for the colour aspect red can be a representation of lust and sexual desires.
Keith Uhlich "The exotic place and the constant wind lead Sister Clodagh to bask in memories of her past as a young woman of privilege in Ireland. Meanwhile, Sister Ruth plunges even further into her sexual reverie by convincing herself that she loves Mr. Dean, even though he has barely spoken to her."(Uhlich, December 31st 2012)
at the climax of the film sister Clodagh goes out to ring the morning bell, while sister ruth attempts to sneak up to sister Clodagh and push her off the mounting side, Sister Ruth fails to do so and ends up with both sister Clodagh and sister Ruth fighting for there safety, sister ruth eventually falls off the mountain to her death.
Keith Uhlich, December 31st 2012) https://www.timeout.com/us/film/black-narcissus-3
Roger Ebert, March 5th 2010, http://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/black-narcissus-which-electrified-scorsese
Film Review: The Shining
'The Shining' was directed by Stanley Kubrick and was based off the Novel " The Shining" by Steven King.
Roger Ebert said : "Stanley Kubrick's cold and frightening 'The Shining' challenges us to decide: Who is the reliable observer? Whose idea of events can we trust?" (Ebert, June 18th 2006)
While watching The Shining, I came to the conclusion that a big part of the movie was the design aspect, The hotel being the main scene in the film, from what was shown seemed to be designed like a maze with tight long corridors, this gave a sense of isolation as the rooms were wide and tall.
Scenes in which a single person would be in standing in a room gave off a big sense that this person was truly alone. Another aspect of design would be the patterns and colours of the rooms, the walls of the hotel were mainly painted red which is a similar colour to blood and bruises. As for the patterns, the floor style and walls had an art deco design but also the symbols on the floor looked very similar to a maze, something I had noticed at the start where the main protagonists home was shown, was that all their walls and furniture was coloured white, just a theory of mine but this may be a possible look at good and evil as the colour white is generally depicted as good as for the alternative would be red depicting evil.
Anne Billson "In years to come I would begin to appreciate Kubrick’s film for what it was, rather than what it wasn’t. The Steadicam shots of Danny riding his tricycle around the hotel corridors are a masterclass in building tension." ( Billson, october 27th 2016)
The hotel as we are told began construction in 1907 and was finished in 1909, the area in which the hotel was built on, was previously an old indian burial ground, as the beliefs of the indians this ground would be classed as cursed ground.
The story also has aspects of supernatural powers and a theory of reincarnation, in the film we are told that the protagonists son has a power called shining, which is in a way seen as a sixth sense of being able to see darkness in the future but also is known to allow someone to see the past, it is not told but from common knowledge of what the film has told us, Jack also has the power of shining, this is how he is able to see the past and interact with the lost memories of the hotel.
I believe that the shining is truly the reason Jack goes mad, and possibly might be the way in which reincarnation is shown, the isolation and claustrophobia of the hotel was a way of keeping jack inside so that the old spirit of Delbon Grady could influence and posses Jack, Delbon Grady; who as we find out at the end of the film was the old reincarnation of jack. In achieving the corruption of Jacks mind the end goal would be to eventually create an endless cycle of all the reincarnations of jacks past and future versions of his spirit being influenced into going to the hotel and resulting in a tragic event.
Jack wishes to stay at the hotel forever and one spiritual way is that your spirit is stuck at the place you have died and so if jack murdered his family and himself his spirit and his families would be in a permeant loop of murder at the hotel.
Jack wishes to stay at the hotel forever and one spiritual way is that your spirit is stuck at the place you have died and so if jack murdered his family and himself his spirit and his families would be in a permeant loop of murder at the hotel.
Another theory would be going back to the indian burial ground that in their tradition they would have had blood sacrifices and Jack may just be being influenced to carry out this tradition without even knowing what he is truly doing.
conclusion
the entire aspect of the design and story of the film is that it is a maze, as this all leads up to the finale of the film in which they have the final show down in the maze and the truth is finally revealed.
Roger Ebert, June 18th 2006, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980
Anne Billson, October 27th 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/27/stanley-kubrick-shining-stephen-king
conclusion
the entire aspect of the design and story of the film is that it is a maze, as this all leads up to the finale of the film in which they have the final show down in the maze and the truth is finally revealed.
Roger Ebert, June 18th 2006, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980
Anne Billson, October 27th 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/27/stanley-kubrick-shining-stephen-king
What if ? Metropolis : Art Of
What if Metropolis Art Of by Sam on Scribd
( Apologise for bad Image quality but this situation could not be corrected until Wednesday, as soon as I have the better quality images I will re-upload)
Thursday 15 December 2016
Friday 9 December 2016
Animation: four legged walk cycle: Polar Bear
Monday 5 December 2016
Maya Tutorial: House
For this maya tutorial I had to add lighting effects to my scene and add a gradient background for the sky.
Friday 2 December 2016
Animation: Throwing Animation
For this lesson we had to get into groups and record ourselfs either jumping or throwing something, we then had to draw out the process on paper and then animate it on the computer.
Sunday 27 November 2016
@simon Maya Tutorial : Monster ( Error has deleted my work )
This is evidence of the error that has occurred with my Maya, I had almost completed the tutorial for this section but unfortunately my Maya had an error and has not saved/deleted all my progress.
I am posting this to say that I will attempt to redo the tutorial for Monday but if not completed this is the reason why.
Wednesday 23 November 2016
Thursday 17 November 2016
Sunday 13 November 2016
Friday 11 November 2016
After Effects animation Cube Design
Here we took our previous Cube design and imported the file into After Effects and added animation to certain aspects of the cube design, We then saved the file as a video but also an image sequence so that we are able to go into Maya and add animation onto our 3D cube design.
Animation Lesson: Stickman Walking
For this animation lesson we had to animate a stick man to walk across the screen, I colour coordinated the left arm and leg different to the right arm and leg so that it will be clearer to show the movements in the animation.
Edward Scissorhands : Film Review
Fig.1 Poster for Edward Scissorhands
Edward ScissorHands was directed by Tim Burton(1990)
The film is set in a 50's styled American suburb, the colours used in the film was based around commercial advertisement that was around in the 50's.
Beyond the town is a mysterious and very dark mountain which really does not fit into the time or place that is set in the film. On top of the mountain was a European gothic looking mansion which was home to the main character "Edward Scissorhands".
The film opens with the classic sales woman (Peg) who goes door to door trying to sell products. Peg was un-successful in her attempts to sell products. Peg decides to go to her car, when she notices the mysterious house in her car mirror.
The camera angle for this scene was very clever in the way that it was shown, the camera was angled towards the side mirror of the car, as the women moved the mirror to focus, and the gothic house came in to view as if this was in the normality of the town.
The scene then cuts to the Peg driving up to the house, and comes into an opening, were everything is beautifully created with shrub sculptures and a pebbled white path, As if to depict that you should not judge a book by its cover theorem, and shows that something dark and un-nerving can open up to something beautiful and creative.
Fig.2 Edward and Kim
Roger Ebert(1990) ”The movie takes place in an entirely artificial world, where a haunting gothic castle crouches on a mountaintop high above a storybook suburb, a goofy sitcom neighborhood where all of the houses are shades of pastels and all of the inhabitants seem to be emotional clones of the Jetsons. The warmest and most human resident of this suburb is the Avon lady (Dianne Wiest), who comes calling one day at the castle - not even its forbidding facade can deter her - and finds it occupied only by a lonely young man named Edward (Johnny Depp).” Ebert(1990)
The actual character of Edward Scissorhands is of which seems to be man with a childlike attitude, Edward was an invention of a scientist who lived in the gothic home and so was just like a new born baby, where he would have to be taught as if he was growing up. However the scientist died before Edward could ever be fully developed and this is why he has a childlike attitude and not knowing right from wrong. Edward was also undeveloped, as for hands he had Scissors, although the scientist had made hands for Edward, he died and the hands were destroyed, Edwards was left un-finished and without hands.
Owen Gleiberman (1990)Edward lives in an old gray horror-movie castle that looms up absurdly over the tract houses. It’s there that he was created by the Inventor (Vincent Price), a kindly Gepetto figure who neglected to give him human hands. When the local Avon Lady (Dianne Wiest) pays a visit there and finds Edward sitting alone, she takes him back and makes him a part of her family. The movie turns into a fish-out-of-water comedy, like Splash or E.T., with Edward the humanoid visitor struggling to fit into his new world. Most of the neighbors are amusingly nonchalant about having Edward in their midst. Gleiberman (1990)
Edward in a way comes across as someone who may have an aspergers like personality. Edward struggles with talking to anyone and so has hid away in the house without contact from the outside for many years, Edward also cannot speak clearly and seems to struggle with his words as if he never knows what to say to people. Finally Edward seems to have a creative brain, were his socializing skills and human contact lacks, he has taken up creating magnificent sculptures out of garden shrubs with his scissor hands.
The director could be getting across a message to people, to say that even though everyone is not perfect, people can work with their problems and make a negative into a positive.
Near the beginning of the film Edward is found by Peg, who sees that Edward is not all there and alone, out of sympathy Peg takes Edward into her home to live with her and her family.
Edwards also finds love in the film, the daughter of Peg (Kim) comes home and immediately Edwards start to get feelings for her. It comes as a problem to Edward as one point in the film Edward is asked to break into a house, Edward knew this was wrong but still goes ahead as he loves Kim who asked him to do it.
The breaking in leads to Edward being arrested and so is scared from the traumatic experience. Edward seems to be on edge throughout the rest of the film, as if Edward is going into a dark hole and soon would not be able to come back from it.
Fig.3 Movie still of town
The Towns people in the film is shown mainly of the common house wife of the 50's era, Were the woman would stay and work at home doing cleaning and the odd local job. All the woman as well seem to be connected, as this is a small town, everyone knows everyone, and anything new or exciting that happens in the town is heard about. This is why everyone is suspicious when Peg takes Edward back to her home. Everyone decided that they want to meet Edward as if he's something new in town and everyone wants a piece of him.
The ending of the film is a tragic scene were Edward accidentally hurts Kim's Brother this leads to one of the boys in the movies to start a fight with Edward, Edward accidentally cuts the boys arm and Kim tells Edward to run. Edward returns to his home but is perused by the boy who then tries to kill Edward, Edward retaliates and stabs the boy in the stomach and throws him out the window.
Kim then shows the town people a spare hand of Edwards and tells the Towns people that Edward was killed, From this point on Edward could never return to the town.
The film seems to be a film about love, trickery and loss. Edwards is in love with Kim, The towns people trick Edward into think they like him, but really are just using his gifts for their own interests, as soon as Edward shows signs of struggle, they turn and are against Edward trying to get him out of town. and lastly loss, this is can come into a lot of things in the film, such as the loss of Edwards creator, The loss of Edwards emotional and human like nature that turns him into more of an object rather than a human and lastly the loss of all that Edward had gained while in the town.
Raceme(site) 'This is a wonderful tale about love and kindness, but also about rejection and estrangement. It shows the limits of people's tolerance for what is different from them and how strangers, those who stray from the norm, commonly named 'misfits', awake mockery or fear from a society which will use them and ultimately reject them, thus breaking their innocence and goodness. Though a harsh satire of people's vices, such as deceit, gossip, jealousy, hypocrisy, as well as a tragic witness to the pain and frustration linked to being unable to be accepted as one is by others, the tone is still infused with an ever constant sweetness, gentleness and innocence.'
Bibliography:
Quotes:
Roger Ebert (1990) http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/edward-scissorhands-1990
Owen Gleiberman (1990) http://www.ew.com/article/1990/12/07/edward-scissorhands
Raceme(site) ceme.org/films/edwardscissorhands/review.php
images:
Fig.1 :grimmfest.com/grimmupnorth/2015/01/edward-scissorhands-tim-burton-season/
Fig.2 http://images.hellogiggles.com/uploads/2015/12/13/Edward-Scissorhands-movie-still.jpg
Fig.3: https://designingforhumanbehavior.wordpress.com/category/01-movie-set/
Monday 7 November 2016
Maya Tutorial: Robot Rigging
For this tutorial, I had to rig a robot model so that it would move on a path and at the same time move its arms and head.
Maya Tutorial: Car animation
For this tutorial I was given a modeled car already and then had to go into Maya and rig the car for animation
Wednesday 2 November 2016
Tuesday 1 November 2016
Tuesday 25 October 2016
What if ? Metropolis : Romain De Tirtoff: Influence map 1
For my What if ? Metropolis, project I was given the artists : Romain De Tirtoff.
Romain's work from what I can see from my initial research is that his work seems to be a mix of illustrative artwork combined with fashion design.
I also feel that his art design seem's to be based around Middle eastern culture and design.
My initial thoughts are to look more into Arabic/middle eastern art culture, to see where Romain De Tirtoff could of possibly gathered influence from.
I have also gathered some websites, That I will gather further research from:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/erte-romain-de-tirtoff-1066
http://www.rogallery.com/Erte/erte-biography.htm
http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/fashion-biographies/erte
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/341607
Monday 24 October 2016
Maya_Rigging
Here I took a basic human model and rigged for animation in maya, my model would be a MMA fighter.
Thursday 20 October 2016
Wednesday 19 October 2016
Monday 10 October 2016
Creating_Gifs
Here I went into Photoshop and created a series of stage layers of an already complete drawing and then I export the image as a gif, to show the different stages of work in this drawing.
Friday 7 October 2016
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