Sitting down and having another rethink about my ideas, now I think that I have got a potential idea that with some work on it, could be a story that I am happy with.
It starts with a little boy aged about 5 years old climbing the stairs to the attic, where he has turned it into his own den. The attic itself is a big place and just the place for a 5 year old boy to create an den. He is obsessed with space and when he grows up he wants to be an Astronaut. So he spends his days after school in the attic, playing in the den that he has created from bits and bobs around the house that he has collected over time. When we are introduced to the attic to us it is just random objects but to him they represent something. For him the objects are part of his own space ship and we see what they in his imagination. He has used boxes that he has found in the loft to create the inside of a space rocket and on the boxes themselves he has drawn on the buttons ans dials. He uses an old unicycle that he found in the back of the attic and to him it is some kind of machine that he can drive on a planet. He has also made his own uniform from pieces of clothing that he found and he wears an motorcycle helmet that he found. All the things that are there all have a meaning to them somehow and are revealed throughout.
As the boy starts to grow, he starts to spend less time in there and it slowly starts to become dusty and abandoned. The next time we see the boy he is a 30 year old man and has been made to clean out the attic by his wife. As they have moved into the houses after his mother and father died. We watch as the man enters the attic, turns the light and sees that his mother and father never got rid of his den he created. He starts to throw all of his creations away until he spots the unicycle. Still thinking that he is still a 5 year old kid he decided that he shall have a go. So as he starts to rid around, we see the man in his space suit just like we did when he was a little boy riding around on the his make believe planet. Then all of sudden the attic door swings open with a massive bang, startling the man. Ending with revealing the mans wife staring at him with an very unamused face and the man having a very red face.
Friday, 11 February 2011
Film Review - Psycho (1960)
Fig. 1 Psycho Film Poster
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 low budget black and white shocker "Psycho" is one of those great achievements in the horror genre. "Producer-director Alfred Hitchcock took the familiar horror movie clichés and reused them in a new, contemporary setting. Although a realistic tale the approach to filming is full blown Gothic" (Biodrowski,2008) .
Fig. 2 Psycho Film Still
In the first shot we see Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, in a lunchtime rendezvous with her boyfriend Sam, in a hotel room during her lunchtime. She is just your ordinary women with ordinary expectations of getting married. But she is unable to marry him because of financial difficulties that Sam has from his divorce. As the audience, we watch as she struggles with the temptation and then giving in to it, stealing the money from a customer at her place of work. Hitchcock turns our stomach into knots with fear as we watch Marion makes everything wrong, from being sharp with the police officer to being blunt with the car salesman. With everything she is thinking, the guilt seems to seep out of her pores. Hitchcock also adds voiceovers of what Marion is thinking, about what people may or may not be saying about her, what the car salesman tells the police officer, what her sister is saying, what her boss is saying.
Fig. 3 Psycho Film Still
Her escape route leads her to the Bates’ Motel, where she finds the friendly and nervous proprietor Norman Bates. Norman seems like a nice guy, a little weird, but he doesn’t suspect Marion of anything. Reflecting on what she has done, Marion decides that she must give the money back. Then, 48 minutes into the film, Hitchcock decided that his main character will be killed off, with one hour still left in the film. Marion is murdered when a figure sneaks into her motel room and stabs her to death while she is in the shower. Norman goes into Marion’s room and finds her dead. Horrified Norman cleans up the mess, getting rid of the body and her belongings, in order to protect his mother from the police. Marion sister Lila turns up at Sam’s place of work looking for her sister, to tell her to if she has the money give it back. But Sam has not seen or heard from her and they both start to worry about the whereabouts of Marion.
Fig. 4 Psycho Film Still
A private investigator named Milton Arbogast who has been employed by Marian’s employer to investigate the loss of the money and to search for Marion. So that he can return the money to his boss he follows her trail to the Bates’ Motel. Arbogast believes that Marion is hiding out there somewhere because of the weird behaviour Norman had towards him. After he phones Lila with his suspicions, he returns to the Bates’ mansion where he is stabbed to death on the stairs. After no word from the Arbogast, Sam and Lila go searching for Marion. So while Sam distracts Norman at the motel, Lila sneaks into the mansion to find out the truth about his mother. Who Arbogast told her he believed he saw at the window and Norman told Arbogast she was upstairs, but according to the Sheriff, Normans mother died 10 year before. Norman becomes suspicious and knocks out Sam and head to the house. Lila searches the basement to find the corpse of Mrs. Bates. Suddenly Norman appears behind her dressed as his mother. Fortunately, Sam arrives in time to stop her/him for killing Lila. After Normans arrest, at the police station, a psychiatrist explains that Norman murdered his mother in a jealous rage, but his guilt obsessed mind, blocked out the memory. The only way to keep her alive was to take her place. The film ends with Norman in his cell. With his own personality completely submerged with his mothers. The film ends with the voice of his mother echoing through his head.
"Psycho" came very late in Hitchcock’s career and at that stage where he was continuously looking for new challenges. "The age is the important factor. At that age, it would not be expected for an artist of Hitchcock’s stature and popularity to make such radical change of direction." (Anderson,2008) It was Hitchcock’s directing that made "Psycho" the film to re-invented cinema. Cinema, as an industry, has come to rely on certain rules and to this day taken then for granted. In this case he asked himself if he could still make a film work if he killed of it main heroine within the first 48 minutes. Breaking one of the basic rules of cinema, that you cannot kill your protagonist halfway into the story. Breaking this rule, Hitchcock demonstrated power and bravery no one had seen since the beginning of motion picture.
Fig. 5 Psycho Film Still
Hitchcock also experimented with creating a heroine who at first is unsympathetic. She is on the run after stealing some money from her employer and ironically allowing the audience to feel much more closer to her when she find herself in danger. Shattering that old stereotype of a pure and fragile heroine because at first she seems to have the upper hand, making her murder all that more shocking when it happens. Hitchcock also hauntingly shot "Psycho" in black and white though he always wished he could have made the film in colour. But the use of black and white is as much a character in the film and the superb use of light and shadow and the eventual effect is much creepier in black and white
"In many ways, "Psycho" laid the groundwork for the modern slashes film." (Justice,2005) It established the victim Marion Crane as a daring, sexy female who in many ways threatens the patriarchal status quo. She sleeps was a married man in the middle of his divorce, steals from her place of work, escapes the police and befriends a creepy male loner. The film defined the slasher as Norman Bates a confused young man with several psychological problems. The film also added to this type of genre of film by making the killer’s only motivation something that was psychological and could only be understood by them.
Fig. 6 Psycho Film Still
Bibliography Figure 6. Psycho (1960) Psycho Film Still. http://thisdistractedglobe.com/2007/10/31/psycho-1960/ (Accessed on 10/02/2011)
List of Illustrations
Figure 1. Psycho (1960) Psycho Film Poster. http://www.myuca.ucreative.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=null&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_13550_1%26url%3D (Accessed on 10/02/2011)
Anderson, Jeffrey M (2008) Psycho (1960). http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/classic/psycho.shtml (Accessed on 10/02/2011)
Justice, Biodrowski, Steve (2008) Psycho (1960) – Horror Film Review. http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/09/film-review-psycho-1960/ (Accessed on 10/02/2011)Justice, Chris (2005) Psycho (1960). http://classic-horror.com/reviews/psycho_1960 (Accessed om 10/02/2011)Chris (2005) Psycho (1960). http://classiccom/reviews/psycho_1960 (Accessed om 10/02/2011)
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Development of Initial Story Ideas
This is my first development of my ideas and I decided to put two of my initial ideas together.
It starts with the camera focused on a page from a book that states
It starts with the camera focused on a page from a book that states
"Dreamed of flying in space! You could look down on the earth far below, or upwards at the stars that you couldn't not seen from the ground. Be able to float around, free as a bird with no weight to pull you down !"
The book is knocked to the fall as the camera zooms out to reveal a young kid playing by himself. In a room that was filled with posters of astronauts, homemade planets, rocket ships, telescope and anything else you would associate with space. He somehow turned the attic into some kind of space station with anything he could find. This kid was always told when you grow up you can do anything if you put your mind to it and this kid believed that one day fly into space. But for this little boy he never got his dream.
Then we fast forward about 20 - 30 years to reveal this rude and miserable clown. Who returns home one day after getting some leave form the circus. Most of the time he sits in the armchair watching TV or sleeping. Until something inside he makes him walk towards the stair. He climbs the stairs towards the attic. He opens the attic door and flicks the light switch to reveal the attic that the little boy was playing in at the beginning. But covered in dust and feels like now one has been there in years as is abandoned. He stands there in amazement that is is still all there and then he slowly walks around the room. He starts to clean the dust off of things and the is spots the telescope by the window. He was using it last when he was in this room and it was still pointing up to the stars. He looks through the telescope and smiles to himself and the story ends with a image of what he can see thought the telescope.
Main character Profile
An 30 years old depressed clown that still lives at home and is has no female company. He is the totally the opposite of what a clown should be he is grumpy, horrible, makes children cry, not good with people, sarcastic basically not a nice person. All because he was unhappy with his life and carries this regret around, that he never pursued his dream. Instead he followed in his fathers footsteps and joined the family business 'THE CIRCUS' becoming a clown. His family thought that his dream of flying into space was just a faze he was going through and that he will join the circus after he finished school like every other person in his family. Then realise that this wasn't just a faze they decided that they had to crush his dream because they thought they knew what was best for him, by telling him it was unrealistic and that he would never achieve his dream. So he has become a clown and over time he has started to lose his faith, becoming depressed and rude.
Life Drawing (Lesson 13)
This weeks life drawing was about how to capture the motion of the model and the dynamic movement through memory.
First and second task were split up into to parts. With the first part lasting roughly about 30 minutes we had to capture the pose as well as trying to remember it . As then we had to move to different angle and had 2 minutes observe the poses. Then through memorisation redraw the poses.
The third task was all about dynamic movement. As the model moved around the room and we had to draw as many poses as possible expressing the movement of the model.
Maya and Premiere Pro Tutorial
I decided to combined both my Maya conversation tutorial and the Premiere Pro basic importing files tutorial, to help complete my final random conversation.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Film Review - La Jetée (1962)
Fig. 1 La Jetée Film Poster
Chris Marker’s 1962 film "La Jetée" is one of the most distinctive and memorable of the films which emerged from the French New Wave filmmakers, of the early 1960’s. It tells a haunting story, which was composed of black and white individual frozen photos, a photo-montage with very little dialogue.
Fig. 2 La Jetée Film Still
Marker worked with Alan Renais on his documentary short films and it is said that in "La Jetee "The influence of the early work of Alan Renais is evident" (Travers,2000). With Renais themes of time and memory are seen with disturbing clarity throughout the duration of the film. Also Marker himself is best known as a maker of documentaries, with "La Jetée" being his only fictional piece. The approach that Marker had was to give this film the feeling of a documentary with a shocking sense of realism for the audience.
Fig. 3 La Jetée Film Still
Set in the future, the Earth has barely survived a nuclear holocaust, which has driven humanity underground. With minimal resources, scientists beneath the ruins of Paris are searching for salvation through the single avenue left open called "TIME". The team of scientists realise that the only way to save humanity from extinction, is to find away to send someone into the past or the future to ask for help. So experiments are performed in a quest to refine their technique. But the results are devastating with either resulting in the darkness if insanity or death of the volunteer. Determined to persevere, the scientist discover, that they are failing because the test subjects are unable to grip the past. With this new information, a new volunteer is selected, through the analysis of his dreams. He seems to be fixated upon one instant from his past. As a small boy he witnessed the shooting of a man, at an airport and found himself gazing into the face of a young woman. It is this single moment that they believe will provide a connection for their time-traveller.
Fig. 4 La Jetée Film Still
Weeks pass in a haze of pain, disorientation and gradually remembering more and more of the past. Forgotten visit of parks, children and birds everything that was taken for granted by everyone before the nuclear holocaust. The method of temporal projection improves, allowing the accurate placement within any desired moment of the past. However the past is a dead end as far as saving the present, only going into the future can save the few last survivors.
The technical style of "La Jetée" provides fraction of while it is such a memorable film, with the essential story is projected in a surprising detail for such a short film. The effect that achieved this was the choice of black and white photography’s. Which were shot in such a way that immediate impression of wartime whilst the events that are captured suggest far more than they show. The time the shot was held, was with a tight grasp of pace from each photo, adding a certain level of suspense to film. But "Interestingly, perhaps the most significant result of "La Jetée" is that the basis structures utilised in cinema are stripped bare and revealed unadorned." (Cannon, 1962)
Fig. 4 La Jetée Film Still
Marker himself is well-rounded in all locations of the art form; he is a writer, poet, documentarian, film-maker and photographer. So in "La Jetée" he knew exactly how he wanted every frame (photo) to appear and why he wanted which scenes to appear in those formats. Even though the 28 minute long film was composed of individual frozen photos and "Theses photographs, however are powerful enough to categorize this film as a visual masterpiece that conveys a very powerful emotional attachment" (Young,2001) There is one segment of motion throughout the whole film. This actually does not characterize this as your traditional motion picture just as Marker wanted it to be. It is carefully place during the flashback of when the volunteer was at his happiest. In a POV shot we see the women is lying in bed, she blinks and smiles This segment of motion does not take away for the rest of the film but I could be said that it adds to the intensity of the film.
List of Illustrations
Figure 1. La Jetée (1962) La Jetée Film Poster. http://www.myuca.ucreative.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=null&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_13550_1%26url%3D (Accessed on 08/02/2011)
Figure 2. La Jetée (1962) La Jetée Film Still. http://972mag.com/waiting-for-h-8-hours-with-no-passport-at-tlv-airport/la-jetee-film-image/ (Accessed on 08/02/2011)
Figure 3. La Jetée (1962) La Jetée Film Still. http://watchundergroundcinema.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html (Accessed on 08/02/2011)
Figure 4. La Jetée (1962) La Jetée Film Still. http://youwillknowelasticity.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/la-jetee-again/ (Accessed on 08/02/2011)
Figure 5. La Jetée (1962) La Jetée Film Still. http://www.briemanakul.com/blog/?cat=92 (Accessed on 08/02/2011)
Bibliography
Travers,James(2000)LaJetée(1962)Review. http://www.filmsdefrance.com/FDF_La_Jetee_rev.html (Accessed on 08/02/2011)
Cannon,Damian (1997) La Jetee (1962). http://www.film.u-net.com/Movies/Reviews/Jetee.html
(Accessed on 08/02/2011)
Young, Jordan (2001) LA JETEE, 1962 (Film Reviews). http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/la_jetee.html (Accessed on 08/02/2011)
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