Saturday 29 October 2011

Influence Map

A few films and a game what as influenced me so far.
Films -
King Solomon's Mines - 2004 version
The Decent
The librarian Return To King Solomon's Mines
India Jones And Crystal Skull

Game -
Uncharted 3







Wednesday 26 October 2011

Metropolis Review


 Fig one - Poster


Metropolis is a Science-fiction expressionist film from 1927 and directed by Fritz Lang. The film is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and metropolis society is split up into two classes, the managers who live in nice big skyscrapers and the workers living underground. “The story tells of a great city whose two halves--the pampered citizens of the surface and the slaves of the depths.”  (Roger Ebert, March 1998)  

Metropolis was founded and built by Jon Fredersen but the main protagonist is Fredersen son Freder who lives a luxurious life with all the other sons of the managers.

The scene when Freder is in the eternal gardens he sees a young woman (Maria) who has a load of workers children to show the upper class what the working class is going through. Stunned and intrigued by the woman, Freder who was unknown and blind to what goes on in the working world goes down and sees what going on in his father’s city, searching for the woman. “The city leader’s son on an odyssey to the depths in pursuit of saintly workers’ advocates Maria. (Peter Bradshaw. September 2010).

Lighting is used effectively in Metropolis, the scene when Maria is running away from Rotwang, he chases her with a spot light/torch and even though its just a light moving around her, she’s scared and shows this well in her acting.

“There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator”. (Maria, Metropolis). The workers are the hands and Jon Fredersen being the brain, have no connection with each other until Freder goes into the depth to look for Maria and becomes the heart and connects them.

Fig Two - Scene 

Freder’s character is a noble caring man who shows this when his father fires Josaphat and Josaphat doesn’t know what to do and decides to kill himself but just before he does Freder stops him and helps him out. Then at the head shows is heroic side by risking his life to save the children from drowning.

Make-up plays an important part in this film especially when Maria is pure and innocent she has little make-up to show purity but when her double is made from the robot her make-up is dark and gothic around her eyes to show evil and help the audience tell the difference between them both.

Narrative logic takes a backseat to rampant expressionism”. (Nev Pierce, January 2003). The movement of the actors were in sync with the music beat.  Also the way the actors move and run was very theatrical and over the top.

Overall the film has a lot of similarities with “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” obviously for both are silent horror films from the 1920’s but they both use music, make up and acting to make both films understood without speaking.  

Illustrations


Bibliography


Tuesday 25 October 2011

King Solomon's mines Book

File-KingSolomonsMinesFirstEdition.jpgKing Solomon's Mines (1885) is a popular novel by the Victorian adventure writer and fabulist SirH. Rider Haggard. It tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the missing brother of one of the party. It is the first English adventure novel set in Africa, and is considered to be the genesis of the Lost World literary genre.

The book was first published in September 1885 amid considerable fanfare, with billboards and posters around London announcing "The Most Amazing Book Ever Written". It became an immediate best seller. By the late 19th century, explorers were uncovering ancient civilisationsaround the world, such as Egypt's Valley of the Kings, and the empire of Assyria. Inner Africa remained largely unexplored and King Solomon's Mines, the first novel of African adventure published in English, captured the public's imagination. It is now classified as children's literature but was originally read by adults.

Information from
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Solomans_Mines  

Monday 24 October 2011

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari Review


Fig One - Poster

 Fig Two - Scene from the film


The cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is a silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene. The film is about the deranged Dr. Caligari and his faithful sleepwalking Cesare, who are linked to a number of murders in a mountain villiage.

“The first thing everyone notices and best remembers about "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) is the film's bizarre look.”(Roger Ebert, June 2009).  The setting of the film is what is the most unique thing about it, everything is asymmetrical and odd looking, buildings and streets are more like canvases for scenery and objects.

“It is difficult to imagine the film done better with the benefit of sound, colour, or any innovation since.  (Nick Hilditch, March 2001). The music plays a massive part in the film, setting the scene and emotion of the film. There’s a scene where Jane is anxious so the music picks up speed to show this to the audience as the actors can only portray so much emotion in the acting.

“A ghostly looking Francis (Friedrich Fehér) recounts to an equally pale friend his strange tale of woe involving his fiancée Jane (Lil Dagover).” (Cole Smithey, October 2011).  The make up in the film on the main protagonists is heavier around their eyes to make their eyes stand out more to help caption emotion their feeling, which also gives the film a gothic feel towards it.  

Drama staging rules are present in the film as the actors never really have their backs towards the camera, the drama rules mainly stood out near the end an actor goes to grab another actor to his right so naturally he would use his left arm but so he doesn’t show his back towards the camera he uses his right arm to grab the other actor instead.

Overall the film is unique with, no other film like it. Over the top acting and music to set the emotions in the film, there’s elements of gothic in the makeup which is also used to help show emotion through the actors expressions.

Illustrations 





Bibliography

Thursday 20 October 2011

Presentation For Unit 1

Presentation for Crit

Anatomy Final Image


Life Drawings













All my life drawings so far, a mixture of pencil, charcoal, and small quick drawings of different poses.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Black Swan Review


 Fig one - Black Swan Poster

Black swan review
The black swan directed by Darren Aronofsky, is about a young girl called Nina who is a ballerina and has always wanted to play the main part in the play “swan lake” and finally gets her chance but at a cost.

But to master the role, Nina must perform as both the rigid and timid White Swan and the unbridled and passionate evil twin, the Black Swan”. (MATT NEAL 6th February 2011). Nina pushes herself to the limit of perfection throughout the film but lacks passion of lust in her performances which is noticed by her director and he begins to flirt with. Getting more progressively more vigorous with her by rubbing her sexually or forcing a kiss upon her, she refuses him and he tells her to have sexual encounters or masturbate to show feeling in her performance. 

Fig Two - Scene from Black Swan

The camera lurches, leaps, and pirouettes; in some scenes, it feels as if it's being tossed around the stage along with Portman”. (J.Hoberman, December 1st 2010). Camera angle shots in the film make the viewing claustrophobic, through the film there is never a decent view of the scene its always close to the actors also following Nina from behind never getting a clear view where she’s heading.

“psycho-melodrama is a glittering, crackling, outrageously pick-able scab of a film”.(Peter Bradshaw, Thursday 20th January 2011)  physiology  plays a big part in the film, throughout the film Nina keeps seeing her face on other people this is a sign of death coming, her mum is a very possessive woman controlling every think Nina does, this is mainly because Nina is living her mums dreams as her mum gave up her dreams to have Nina. Yet at moments her mum seems to want to ruin her daughter by buying a massive cake and trying to serve a big slice to Nina even though they both know Nina can’t eat much because she has to maintain her figure for ballet.   

Illustration



Bibliography
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/20/black-swan-review

Thumbnails - 31 (51 All Together)













31 thumbnails of parts for my idea of my final hybrid and other ideas of what it my look like.

adding all my thumbnails together I have done 51.

Face Drawings




















































I decided to only spend 30 mins each on each face, which is probably why some look slightly different from my actual face, also i have done 6 because i cant count.

Feet Drawing














My feet studies, roughly took 30 mins each to draw.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Final Image Progression




















Starting off with a white silhouette to get a basic structure and posture of my hybrid. Then progessing with little detail on where my hybrid is and slight shading. the third image I start to go into colour with the skin and fourth image just progessing with the image and changing where one of the wings is postioned.

Monday 17 October 2011

Maya - Materials







1. White
2. Silver
3.Chrome
4.Plastic
5.Gold
6.Glass
7.Glow
8.Glow in the dark

These all roughly took me 10 -20 mins to finish.