What If ? Metropolis: Thumbnails: 12- 15

Logo_Animation

Here I took a Logo, and imported into After Effects, I then animated with a motion.

Animation Lesson #5 (Ball Animation) #1

Here I looked at making the ball speed up as it got closer to the ground, to give a sense of gravity to the animation.  but also looking at the weight of my object, so I adjusted to make the animation to either faster or slower.

What If ? Metropolis: Thumbnails 1-11

here I looked at some structures that could potentially be in my final piece.

Here I thought of designing the centre piece and certain close ups of my ideas.

Here I looked into adding some colour to my work, I looked at images of bruises to get an idea for the flooring of my world.

What If ? Metropolis: Artist Research: Hieronymus Bosch

Art of Hieronymus Bosch

Life Drawing #3

For my third life drawing lesson, a theme was added which was the mexican day of the dead, The life model was clothed and this was a n obstacle for me as clothing tends to always be in a different shape compared to a the body which stays roughly the same, I found the day enjoyable and helpful in developing my skills.

Film Review: 2001 a space odyssey

Fig.1 2001 a space odyssey

2001 a space odyssey(1968) is a sic-fi film which was produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick.

The film comes across as a film about evolution, and alien like technology. During the beginning of the film apes find a mysterious black sculpture which seems to make the apes evolve into a more human like persona.

Here is a review by Rob Humanick (2007) talking about the opening scene "The first step toward the stars comes when mankind, presented as the aforementioned ape-men roaming the Earth millions of years ago, realizes that a bone needn't be just a bone. This first (and simplest) tool gives way to an orbiting spacecraft."

The film gives off and makes the mind think what really is going on in the film , some interesting scenes in the film was where the apes had now evolved and learned to fight, the un evolved apes come to share the water hole in which all of of the apes a residing, this scene then carries on into the evolved apes killing an undeveloped ape, as if to show that the newly evolved is killing off the old.

 The ape  scene is very similar to a scene further on in the film. This is where the film is set in the space age. In this stage of the film men had found the mysterious marker and evolved them into creating the Hal 9000, this could be seen as the next evolution stage; where machinery is the new life.

During the movie Hal 9000 starts to kill off the humans, as if to show just like the ape scene, the more evolved creation is trying to kill off the old, just like a cycle of life, the old must be smothered for the new to strive.

Fig.2 Film Still

when the film is at the point in where the antagonist is entering Jupiter everything becomes very strange and obscure, all that is shown is a variety of shapes and colours and strange music is played, as if this is a 4th dimension, the space outside of the 3rd dimension of reality, where time has a mind of its own and evolution is created.

Tim Durks : "The only survivor of the mission - a human specimen, it appears that he is in an observation chamber or tank, scrutinized by alien, extra-terrestrial superior intelligences or beings - symbolized by the black monolithic slabs - who decide that he should be reborn. The film's many reproductive allusions: procreation, gestation, birthing, and nursing, are further visualized throughout this final sequence. The alien beings assist him in making a basic symbiotic change in consciousness toward a more completely civilized human being, with a universal knowledge of existence. The end result of the space odyssey is not a greater and more infallible machine, but a greater, more fully-realized being produced in a second childhood."

near the end of the film there is a variety of scenes were the antagonist is evolving, time jumps as if the room is a testing room for a new type of evolution, subjects are studied and work is calculated to eventually get the next stage of the human evolution.

Fig.3 Interior shot of space ship/film still

At the very end there is the newly evolved Dan (The antagonist) who seems to be a new style of life, a way that perhaps the newly evolved has been sent back to get rid of the previous evolved and start a new, or maybe, it is there to guide the un-evolved to further their development.


This is a quote explaining the ending of 2001 a space odyssey, Roger Ebert(1997) "The film did not provide the clear narrative and easy entertainment cues the audience expected. The closing sequences, with the astronaut inexplicably finding himself in a bedroom somewhere beyond Jupiter, were baffling. The overnight Hollywood judgment was that Kubrick had become derailed, that in his obsession with effects and set pieces, he had failed to make a movie.

What he had actually done was make a philosophical statement about man's place in the universe, using images as those before him had used words, music or prayer. And he had made it in a way that invited us to contemplate it -- not to experience it vicariously as entertainment, as we might in a good conventional science-fiction film, but to stand outside it as a philosopher might, and think about it."

Bibliography:


Quotes:

Rob Humanick (2007) : http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/2001-a-space-odyssey

Tim Durks: http://www.filmsite.org/twot.html

Roger Ebert (1997) : http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-2001-a-space-odyssey-1968



Images:

fig. 1 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/

fig. 2 - http://www.bfi.org.uk/whats-on/bfi-film-releases/2001-space-odyssey

fig. 3 - http://whatculture.com/film/what-does-the-ending-of-2001-a-space-odyssey-really-mean.php

Digital Painting Lesson #4

Here I had to take two completely random objects and combine them together to make one life form/object

Invisible Cities: Crit with Text

Invisible Cities TEXT Crit

Invisible Cities: The Art Of

Zirma Art Of

Invisible Cities: Crit

Invisible Cities Crit

Zirma, Invisible Cities: Low Exterior Shot

Here I tried to create a built up area, that comes across as normal at first glance, but if someone would look closer they would become unsettled as the area would give of a feel of nothing... a sense of quietness that makes someone nervous and on edge.

Zirma, Invisible Cities: Interior Shot

Here is my interior shot for my city zirma, for the research of these I looked into asylum corridors and gathered that many of them narrow down to a point, so I decided to make my interior narrow to  a point to give a sense of the walls coming in and make a person un-easy.

Zirma, Invisible Cities: Exterior Shot

Here is my exterior Shot For my city Zirma, I hoped that this piece would achieve and give the viewer a feel of seclusion and emptiness, the idea for my city is that people do not need glamour and bright lights to live in there city, just plain skyscrapers and flats, repetition was a big part of my city so I did not change the colour of the buildings but added some colour just so everything was not so black and white.

Pen Exercise

Here I started to use the Pen tool for the first time, and just practiced to see how the tool worked.

 

 

Here I took an image and imported it into Illustrator, I then used the pen tool to draw around the Image. 

Animation Lesson #4

 

For my fourth lesson I worked on extending my previous animation from my last lesson and worked on making the frames longer so that the imagery was easier to see.

Animation Lesson #3

In my third animation lesson I was taught how to make a morphing animation.

I found the lesson interesting and helped boost my skills in this software.

Animation Lesson #2

 

Here was my first go at using flash to produce an animation, I found it interesting as it was a new experience.

Life Drawing #2

Here is my work from my second life drawing lesson. in this lesson we drew a male model In a variety of long and short drawings, the model also used props in some of the poses.

Animation Lesson #1

Here was my first lesson on animation, I had to draw a short moving object onto a strip of paper and use it in a Zoetrope.

Life Drawing #1

 Here was my first life drawing lesson, For this lesson we had to draw a structure, we used black and white paper to see the different effects the background had and for my work I had used a variety of materials such as, ink, permanent marker, graphite pencil, charcoal and chalk.

Logo Design #1

Here is my First Lesson on Logo design, I found this very interesting, especially because this was my first time using Adobe Illustrator, I found the software interesting and easy enough to use.

Digital Painting Lesson #3 Abstract

 Here is my work from my third digital painting lesson, I found this lesson helpful as I believe it will 

help me with my backgrounds for my project.

Influence Maps #2

Here are my second set of influence maps, exploring and trying to grasp a sense of what a mad reality/city would look like, such as what textures and design a mad world would have.

Invisible Cities: OGR

Invicisible Cities 2

'Invisible Cities' Thumbnails 46-54

Here are the thumbnails for the city Argia.

Invisible Cities: OGR ( OLD )

Invisible Cities

Concept Artist, Who's Who ? James Clyne

Whos who ?

'Invisible Cities' Thumbnails 37-45

Here are my thumbnails for the city Zirma.

'Invisible Cities' Thumbnails 28-36

Here are my thumbnails of Zenobia, I enjoyed exploring this city as It gave me an idea of a native tribal settlement, which seemed to be secluded but also had a certain sense of abandonment to it.

'Invisible Cities' Thumbnails 19-27

Here I made further thumbnails on my study of the city Thekla.

Film Review: Metropolis (1927)

Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' (1927 )

Fig 1. Metropolis Poster

Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' (1927) is a German Science - Fiction film set in a futuristic city. The city seems to be full of life as there is always something going on in either the background or the main focus. The city's structure seems to resemble a high earning settlement where it is controlled by one man Joh Frederson (The main characters father).

The Main character of the film is presented to the viewers as a hero, some may seem him as a martyr, others may see him as a freedom fighter via the use of his position and voice, there is also a religious aspect, where people see him as a symbol of hope, the saviour of the city and the people who are stuck down in the working class area.

Peter Bradshaw: "one of the biggest, strangest, maddest films in cinema history returns, with missing footage restored:

 a textual enlargement that of course "explains" nothing about the film, and just makes it bigger, stranger and madder than ever. Fritz Lang's 1927 film is a crazed futurist epic, a mythic sprawl with something of Jung and Wagner, and dystopian nightmare about a city-state built on slave labour, whose prosperity depends on suppressing a mutinous underground race whose insurrectionist rage is beginning to bubble. Metropolis predicts the ideologies of class and race of the 20th century, and there is a perennial frisson in the way the workers' leader Maria longs for a messianic figure who can find a middle way between the head and the heart, the bosses and the workers: he will be the Mediator, or the "Mittler" – a word that has a chilling echo with another real-life leader who at the time of Metropolis's premiere had a few seats in the Reichstag. The "Maschinenmensch" robot based on Maria is a brilliant eroticisation and fetishisation of modern technology and the current crisis in Dubai, whose economic boom was founded on a colossal import of globalised labour, makes Metropolis seem very contemporary."

Characters to focus on are Maria ( The Heroin ), C.A Rotwang (Mad scientist), Joh Frederson, Freder ( Main Character/Hero). All these characters have a specific focus onto them such as Maria who seems to be the voice of the working class, a symbol to them which makes them want to fight for their freedom through the means of peaceful actions. C.A Rotwang is a mad man who has suffered great loss of losing a woman who left him for Joh Frederson and eventually died giving birth to Freder, and thus has become dependant and driven insane with building a life like replica of Hel . Joh Frederson is the head of the city and is set on power and control. It seems the pyramid effects comes into play with his mind where Upper class can never mix with the lower class and thus an ongoing War is formed between right and wrong. And lastly Freder who seems to believe that his father is blind to his beliefs and believes that all people should be equal and work together. He seeks out to try and bring everyone together by his own hands using his position of power and belief in the system that is corrupt.

Fig 2. Still of the metropolis.

Roger Ebert: "Generally considered the first great science-fiction film, "Metropolis" (1927) fixed for the rest of the century the image of a futuristic city as a hell of scientific progress and human despair. From this film, in various ways, descended not only “Dark City” but “Blade Runner,” “The Fifth Element,” “Alphaville,” “Escape From L.A.,” “Gattaca,” and Batman's Gotham City. The laboratory of its evil genius, Rotwang, created the visual look of mad scientists for decades to come, especially after it was mirrored in “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935). And the device of the “false Maria,” the robot who looks like a human being, inspired the “Replicants” of “Blade Runner.” Even Rotwang's artificial hand was given homage in “Dr. Strangelove.”

The entire story gives off many thoughts on what the directer is trying to base the story around, Is it religious terms, Equality rights, a man blinded by power who people seek to conquer, or is it just simply a film about rebelling.

Fig.3 Still of Joh Frederson and C.A Rotwang.

Mick LaSalle: "Seeing it is a time-bending experience, a way of visiting the past and glimpsing the past's idea of the future. A masterpiece of art direction, the movie has influenced our vision of the future ever since, with its imposing white monoliths and starched facades. In "Metropolis," the upper class inhabits the city's surface, while workers, held in little better than slave conditions, live and work in underground mines."

Brigitte Helm plays a saintly figure named Maria who rallies the workers and acts on their behalf. But she is imprisoned by the ruling powers, and a replica robot Maria is sent down to the mines to incite the workers to a self- destructive riot.

Around the time the film was being produced the Ruhr Uprising was happening which was a Left- wing workers revolt. This may of given the director an idea for the film and so based the film on  his research and experience into the Ruhr Uprising.

Overall the film contains many strong characters with a wide range of personality and beliefs.

The camera angles used in the film was very clever, The wide camera that was used, was to show the pure size of the fictional city Metropolis. When the destruction of the city was happening at certain points, a handheld camera was used, in which the camera shuddered forward at certain points as if to make the viewer feel like they were in the destruction of the city as it was happening.

Bibliography:  

Quotes: 

Peter Bradshaw, (2010), Metropolis Review, http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/09/metropolis-restored-film-review

Roger Ebert, (1998), Metropolis Review,

 http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-1927

Mick LaSalle, (2002) , Metropolis Review, 

http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/FILM-CLIPS-Also-opening-Friday-2779282.php

Images:

Fig. 1, Metropolis Poster, (2009),  en.wikipedia.org

Fig. 2, still of film, (2013),finzi22l.wordpress.com

Fig. 3, Still of film, (2012), www.myfilmviews.com

'Invisible Cities' Thumbnails 10-18

Here I did thumbnails for the city Isaura, I again did some textures and structures for the description of the city.

'Invisible Cities' Thumbnails 1-9

Here are my first thumbnails for the invisible cities project, here I did some thumbnails which includes textures and structures based around the description of Fedora.

Film Review: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Robert Wiene's 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1920)

Robert Wiene's 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1920 ) is a German silent film. The film is said to be one of the classic forms of German Expressionism in Cinema. The films settings and surroundings seem to be very daunting and off putting as the entire set seems to be disfigured as if the film is set in a different reality, were all is not what it seems.

Roger Ebert describes the set " The first thing everyone notices and best remembers about "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) is the film's bizarre look. The actors inhabit a jagged landscape of sharp angles and tilted walls and windows, staircases climbing crazy diagonals, trees with spiky leaves, grass that looks like knives."

Fig 1. still of the set 

During the film the camera is always set in the same position, which is straight, this makes the film become more of a stage like feel and so with the over exaggerated acting it seems to be more of a performance than a film.

Fig 2. Cesare

One particular scene seemed to catch my interests, this was when Cesare ( somnambulist ) went to kill one of the characters in the film. This became of interest to me as in this scene, the camera for a small period of time just focused on Cesare's hands coming closer to the screen, by doing this, it seemed to break the scene up from just having the same still positioned image and creates more interest for the viewer, a kind of refresh button for the mind.

Fig 3. Dr. Caligari

The story of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, is very confusing at most, I found that the films story line at first seemed to be obvious ( Dr. Caligari was controlling the somnambulist (Cesare)... to murder )

This seemed to give the storyline a dull tone at first, although this did not matter as viewers were more taken by the over exaggerated acting and set designs.

However near the end of the film there is a huge plot twist, which tells us that the entire film up to a point had been the imagination of a mad man ( the main character ) this could explain why the set design seemed to be disfigured and disturbing as who knows what a mad mans mind could look like, by giving the viewers this interpretation it shows that this world is twisted and disturbed by reality its self and reflects the basic principles of a mad persons persona.

(A less positive review ) this review is talking about the storyline of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Julia Merriam "Overall, the plot seems almost stagnant, as if it has nothing new to offer. It seems obvious from early in the film that Caligari is controlling Cesare in order to commit these murders. It’s hardly a surprise when Cesare attacks Jane, the only pretty woman on the screen available for damsel-in-distress duty, and the shocking twist ending is so predictable you’re almost surprised they actually follow through with it. However, while Caligari may seem mundane, it’s imperative that we remember this was made in 1919."

For the lighting of the film, yes its a black and white movie but lighting work still comes to play, an obvious one would be to show night and day as when it is day time the set is lit up and when it is night the lighting seems darker, the transactions also come into play and don't always just go to a black out, but instead shrink down to focus on key characters in the film, such as one seen when Dr. Caligari seemed to be plotting something at the end of the scene the screen shrunk down and focused on Dr. Caligari as if to say this was an important moment in the film. A way of helping the viewer keep up with what is going on within the film.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a landmark for the horror genre that we see today, The scenes, camera effects and even plot twist have been influential in an entire genre of Film.

Merrick Doll "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has become synonymous with cinematic expressionism. The visuals in the film pay homage to the expressionism in painting as practiced in the 1900s and 1910s (Reimer 71). Reality is reproduced as if it were reflected in a fun house mirror. The distortions, however, do not obscure the objects but instead render them in distorted shapes. Elongated shadows are painted onto set walls, and the streets wind crookedly past houses that are equally crooked. "


Bibliography:

Reviews:

Roger Ebert review: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari-1920

Julia Merriam review: http://classic-horror.com/reviews/cabinet_of_dr_caligari_1920

Merrick Doll: http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/The_Cabinet_of_Dr._Caligari


Images:

Figures 1 and 2 : http://theredlist.com/wiki-2-20-777-778-view-1900-1920-profile-1919-bthe-cabinet-of-dr-caligari-b.html

Figure 3: http://www.davidjrodger.com