Contextual Studies - Surrealism

For today's contextual studies lesson, we looked into the concept of surrealism and the ways in which it is portrayed through films and other art forms.
Numerous films that displayed surrealism included:

• Un Chien Andalou 
• Blue Velvet
• Destino

We also looked at a film that in contrast showed rationalism and was realistic. This film was:

• A Brief Encounter

Finally, we explored the proper ways to write film reviews and how being conservative with our reviews would benefit us academically. To do this we reviewed four American film reviews of Spider-Man 3 and compared their similarities and differences. Their similarities were that they were partially were biased and informal but their differences were that they each focused on limited aspects of the film itself, such as only the actors or the plot. We also discovered that their main purpose was not to promote the film but to simply state their own opinions of it as they hadn't used the Harvard referencing method and they were more critical than conservative.

Our recommended read was "Understand Film Studies (Teach Yourself) by Warren Buckland as it is thought to be one of the best in explaining the basics of reviewing films along with how to be analytical.

The 12 Principles of Animation - research

• Anticipation - The atmosphere of a setting and the actions of a character prepare audiences for anticipation, and they also initiate major actions in portraying character development and developing the scenario. Anticipation is known as the backward motion, and the backward motion has to occur before the forward motion can be executed. Almost all real actions involve using anticipation as a forecast.

• Appeal - Choosing an appeal for a character can be through their physical appearance, their personality or their intentions, and the appeal of a character encourages the audience to take an interest in their story. Appeal can even be established in motion design, such as using interesting typefaces or transitions. 

• Arc - the impact of displaying gravity in animations is important, as it means that objects in motion should arc between the start and end points of the animation. An example of this would be shooting an arrow as it rarely flies completely straight. This technique especially relates to many natural movements in the human body because arms, hand and fingers etc move in arcs.

• Exaggeration - Exaggeration can be as broad or as subtle as the animation requires, but it must still display genuine actions. Whether the animation is excessive or dramatic, exaggeration has to revolve around the mood of the character or the tone of the setting. 

• Follow Through & Overlapping Action - When nothing stops all at once. Whilst portraying movements such as dancing, the characters clothing for example catches up with the character a few frames later.

• Secondary Action - When observing primary movements in the physical world, secondary actions support the notion of the action, such as a person walking as a primary movement and swinging their arms as a secondary movement. Smaller actions such as blinking can still be considered as being secondary movements, but by little means are they meant to draw the viewers attention away from the primary movement.

• Slow In & Slow Out - This technique relates to the way in which objects and humans in the physical world pick up momentum before they can reach a full speed, so in animation, it should also take time to decrease speed before something can come to a complete stop.

• Solid Drawing - this means showing realistic drawing skills as a means to show good form when adding a three-dimensional feel to flat work. No matter what tool is used to create the drawing it must work in 3D.

• Squash & Stretch - often used through an object such as a bouncing ball, adding exaggeration to the object in motion gives a greater sense of volume and weight even if the object is displaying flat graphics. The ball appears stretched when falling and squashed when it hits the ground. This technique is also used to morph objects.

• Staging - this technique is influenced by staging positions within the theatre as it helps establish mood, create focus and clarify the plot of the animation. It also demonstrates the difference in values between characters and displays the impact of surroundings.

• Straight Ahead Action & Pose to Pose - this drawing technique allows a chosen amount of fluidity between the animations movement depending on how many frames there are. It involves planning key frames that are drawn ahead of others and are then connected to the rest of the frames afterwards. This leads to more realistic and convincing results.

• Timing - the timing of an animation is essential to displaying characters authentically and originally, and it is also an essential aspect in the way frames are drawn.

Online Greenlight Review - Invisible Cities by Evelyn Irwin on Scribd

Life Drawing - lesson 3

For today's life drawing class, we drew another model whom we hadn't drawn before and we were required to focus on the tones displayed rather than simply do liner line drawings. I found it to be quite challenging as I have learnt to draw in a more realistic way. However, I am glad that I experimented with the different ways of drawing as it has helped to branch out on my tonal skills as well as my time planning skills.

Our first sets off drawings were based around doing one highly realistic one, then sketching multiple different poses in short spaces of time, whilst focusing on balancing light and dark sources. Our final drawing involved drawing the tones of our model in before our lines to allow us to focus on the different light and dark sources

Photoshop Digital Painting - Tonal Value and Perspective

For today's lesson of Digital Painting. we focused on the impact of tonal value and how it helps judge perspective through colour and detail. We also explored how creating abstract concept work helps rejuvenate any creative block. We also worked on warping and remoulding our Digital abstract work in order to test how altering the shape and focusing on certain segments of work may allow the viewer to see something that is recognisable.

Tamara Thumbnails 

Abstract experimental thumbnails 

Warped thumbnails

Maya workshop 2 - cube moulding and painting

For todays lesson of Autodesk Maya, we were required to create a 3D cube that displayed a pattern made by us in Adobe Illustrator. It was interesting to see how to further explore Maya and it was interesting to be able to combine two programs to create an overall result.

Film Review of Fritz Lang's Metropolis

Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) is a German expressionist science-fiction silent film that is widely known for being the originator of most Sci-Fi films. Along with its set design being phenomenally significant, it also works as inhabiting numerous themes explored within the film, such as deception, death, and destruction. The definition of the word metropolis itself means a large and representative city, and the sets are so grand and intimidating that the characters are forced to live up to the grandeur of the city. As Fritz Lang’s Metropolis epitomises the definition of the word metropolis, it however portrays much more character through its cast and plot.

Presented as a running city with a beautiful art-deco inspired design, the surface of the city embraces the spirit of the 1920s, a time in which was a profitable paradise of cultural edge and economical prosperity, yet the depths of the city greatly contrast by depicting the harsh and discriminatory consequences of the work that goes into powering the city through the suffering of the workers. Expressed to Freder during the early stages of the movie, Maria states: “These are you brothers” implying that his carelessness in enjoying his father’s wealth is a destructive force towards those that are suffering for his happiness. That to which he later decides to investigate, Freder becomes horrified to see the conditions that the workers are in and even volunteers to work a machine whilst the worker takes a break. Perhaps his compassion for the workers comes from his understanding of what it is like to be “Dismissed…and sent to the depths” by his father as we also discover that his father, although wealthy, is a high strung man who has little disregard for others concerns. It could be said that to be dismissed by Roh to the depths is to be dismissed by God and sent to Hell. An example of Freder’s father, Roh’s wealth is displayed through his office, but for effect, all of the objects within his office are dramatically oversized to enforce empowerment over those below his position. Another effective use of Roh’s wealth is displayed through his garden in which inhabits exotic wildlife and a luxurious fountain.

Jane Barnwell states that Metropolis was: “a landmark in terms of concept & technical achievement… and was so visually ground breaking that its influences are still in existence today, and they can be identified most in Steven Spielberg’s A.I: Artificial Intelligence (2001)”. Other features in Metropolis that have been highly influential to other films include the character of Maschinenmensch, which portrays strong similarities to the character of C3P0 George Lucas’s Star Wars films, along with the character of Evelyn Seymour in Noel Pemburton Belling’s High Treason (1925) showing similar characteristics as the character Maria.

The notable qualities of the production design and settings in Metropolis is that they work as being either havens for the characters or threats. With the mechanisms of the factory in Metropolis being a threat, the workers work in syncronised movements, and the strain of their work has forced them to lose their identity and has inflicted them to work the same way as the machines they are powering. A contrasting example is the Church and the underground Chapel run by Maria, in which work as a haven for the workers to plan their escape from the work that is destroying them. The design of the factory includes using a steep staircase, institutionalized work stations, steam powered units and a labour intensive set up to threaten the workers. It is notable that the character of Freder views their work as being so horrific that he imagines them as being treated like slaves forced into a temple that devours them. It is obvious that this is highly dramatized due to the film’s influence from the story of ‘The Tower of Babel’; Maria even states that “Today I shall tell you of the Tower of Babel” in which the workers similarly want to plan an escape to “reach a heaven” out of the city, but are labelled as disrespectful in the thought of doing so by the head of the city Roh Frederson. Despite films futuristic plot, Lang it uses the idea of religion and past ideas to ground the workers, which is possibly why Maria makes speeches to the workers in the underground of the city; where the setting is manmade and untainted.

A different of the settings being used as threatening within the film include the underground staircases and tunnels in which C.A Rotwang chases Maria, as they work as being claustrophobic devices to portray a lack of direction and escape. They also aid in providing an imprisonment, such as when Freder is pursuing Maria and the body of doors keep closing him in, trapping him from being able to save Maria. The remarkable device of the torch that Rotwang uses to “expose” Maria also assists in adding terror as her reactions inflict terror upon the audience.

During the final scenes of the movie in which the city begins to flood, it is significant that the gong in which Maria bangs continuously to call for help is portrayed as being challenging to use. It is also significant that the children of the worker’s crowd around her below her platform, as this aids in portraying her as a figurehead that the workers look up to. The gong demonstrates an example of difficulty that the workers face when trying to seek help, and the fact that the gong doesn’t make any noticeable sound even during an emergency also demonstrates the lack of care that the workers receive. The workers homes also depict such plain and discouraging designs, which also promotes the fact that the workers feel imprisoned.

A merrier example of the use of set design is during the social gathering in which Joh and C.A. Rotwang attend, and they experience the atmosphere brought on by the Maschinenmensch disguised as Maria. Using the same impact of a gathering, such as gatherings thrown in Baz Luhrmanns’ The Great Gatsby (2012), the ambience exceedingly becomes so mesmerizing due to “Maria” seducing the guests by dancing, and the guests become so engulfed by her that they agree to rebel against the power of Metropolis. Stating that the workers have “Lubricated the machine joints with their own blood…” and “Fed them with their own flesh” “she” urges them to “let the machines starve, you fools!”. Whilst all of this is happening, Freder is being supposedly nursed back to health in bed, but it is so overdramatized that he is portrayed to be on his death bed, and to prove this point would be when Freder envisions a Pope visiting him stating the Maschinenmensch’s teachings. He eventually arrives at the gathering stating that “Maria speaks of peace, not killing”, however, the workers join forces against him despite his innocence as he is the son of their torturer - Roh.

The overall fulfillment of the film comes from realizing that a grand city such as Metropolis should be build with the head and hands, using the heart as a mediator. Siegfried Kracaucer states that “Metropolis was rich in subterranean content that, like contraband, had crossed the borders of consciousness without being questioned.” (Phillip 2015). To this extent, Metropolis is a film way ahead of its time because it combines numerous interesting scenarios and allows them to rely on the existence of the the city of Metropolis in which to utilize them.

Illustration List:

Figure 1 - http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/the-occult-symbolism-of-movie-metropolis-and-its-importance-in-pop-culture/

http://vigilantcitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/metro51.jpg

Figure 1

Figure 2 - http://pyxurz.blogspot.com/2011/10/metropolis-page-1-of-6.html

http://metropolisbabylon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/apocalyptic-visions-in-fritz-langs.html

Figure 2

Figure 3 –  http://metropolisbabylon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/apocalyptic-visions-in-fritz-langs.html

http://media.coveringmedia.com/media/images/movies/2010/05/16/metropolis_03.jpg

Figure 3

Figure 4 - http://listverse.com/2016/04/21/top-10-films-with-creepy-links-to-the-occult/

http://film110.pbworks.com/f/1255484211/metropolisanti-christ.jpg

Figure 4

Bibliography:

Barnwell, J. (2003) Production design: Architects of the screen. LONDON: Wallflower Press

Bradshaw, P. (2010a) Metropolis. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/09/metropolis-restored-film-review (Accessed: 2 October 2016).

French, P. (2015) Metropolis review – Philip french on Fritz Lang’s visionary epic. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/15/metropolis-fritz-lang-philip-french-classic-dvd (Accessed: 2 October 2016).

sjfilmhistory (2014) The influence of Fritz Lang’s ‘metropolis’ on future films. Available at: https://sjfilmhistory.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/774/ (Accessed: 2 October 2016).

Metropolis (1927) Directed by Tomatometer .