Character design: Using Circles to construct character's

In this class the focus was using circle shapes to structure the key parts of a characters body. Here are the character's I used to do this task with.

Chris

Film Reviews: Mulholland Drive

 

 

This film was made in 2001, and stars Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring and Justin Theroux. It is somewhat of a strange film, typical of David Lynch's repertoire. This film is no exception, with its story focused on using phsycological tricks to thrill the audience. This is regarded as one of Linches best projects and gives a perspective into how the intelligence of social analysis has become a big part of modern life since the turn of the millenia.

This film invokes a feeling of hazzy understanding into its plot, yet makes the audience feel a sense of fulfillment after viewing. It is based around a crash, of which a supposed victim went missing without a trace. It indulges into strange twists in the plot, enviroments causing a questionable confusion to the viewing audience, characters popping up in random situations and locations.
I found a good quote from a philosopher named John Searle which helps explain this films impact:

"The thesis that there is a reality independent of our representations identifies not how things are in fact, but rather identifies a space of possibilities... External realism articulates a space of possibilities for a very large number of statements."

After a car accident in Los Angeles, California, Rita is the only survivor, however suffers mass amnesia. She meets with the character Betty Elms, of which her story merges into. Betty is a young actress in search of Stardom yet takes a samarital interest into Rita to help her understand the mystery surrounding her. Unknown the reasons as to why Rita came to be in this situation, they pursue to gain knowledge about the conspiracy around Ritas attempted murder. Betty and Rita soon come to realise nothing is what it seems.

This film has a complex storyline to indulge in, its definitely worth checking out to gain a better understanding or a personal interpritation. Definintely interesting to watch and whether you get anything from it or not will help show Lynches success at playing mind games with his audience.

 

Chris

Group project: Synopsis/ Pre Script idea

Group Project: Freemind Animations

Animation title: High School Revenge

Synopsis:

This story is based around the issues of a troubled child who in her adolescent years displays paranormal side effects in reaction to her unstable condition. The film starts when a Detective is called into a School in response to reports of a serious number of accounts relating to students being bullied, however it is the teachers themselves who are really seeking the help, as they fail to mention the strange incidents happening to them.

This somewhat film noir setting shows the Detective witnessing himself caught into a distressing ordeal involving a teacher, leading him to sceptically approach the situation but with a sense of the uncanny at play.

The Detective questions the troubled teachers who openly admit to the fact something demonic seems to be at the heart of these issues. He then explains about an incident a few months prior to the Detectives arrival when the problems began, which spawns the investigation in a different light.

A Priest is called in to find the cause of the issue, who comes to find no trace of demonic entities within the School, yet while informing Professor Smart of this embarrassing ordeal he finds a young girl sitting with him crying. Her name is Melanie; she is tormented by her life at School as the other children victimize her on a daily basis. She fears going to School, not only for herself but for the people she has come to hate. She can’t have friends anymore; whatever she tries to get close to always seems to go wrong in some way or another. It is here they find the sinister twist that has become out of Melanie’s control, leading to her eventual last tantrum while being held in Detention.

The Detective is harmed as it is him who has ordered her restraint, so the only person who can get to Melanie now with the knowledge of her issue is the Priest and Professor Smart who together overcome the unstable projections of Melanie’s subconscious emotive ability.

Melanie is moved to a peaceful place to live and be taught by those who can relax her, with the addition of physiological drugs to help her maintain her stability.

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Script (To be wrote in after group acknowledges my Synopsis)

Chris

Group project: The link between phsycic phenomena and adolescents

There has always been a strong link between the wild energy of a child to the unknown forces of the paranormal world. This is because it is said that the child's innocence actually reflects the lack of social interruption to the purity of a persons soul, therefore the individual is still more tuned to the spirit world. It is also to note that Children are relatively more imaginative than that of an adult, they see the world in a different way, perceive things to be magical or intriguing which as an adult the mind will find easy to comprehend. This leaves room for a perception on the world that most adults find difficult to grasp, thus making reality closer to that of a dream world, which is linked as a closeness to the spirit world itself. Meditative states are said to bring one close to ones own id, their guardian angel, or their spirit guide. This being said, when a Child is immersed in the tense hold of adolescence at the start of their path to adulthood they will still have the general mindset of a child, therefore being theoretically still connected to their own sixth sense and potentially able to unwillingly seduce the energy around them to create certain paranormal happenings.

• Poltergeist's

"The word Poltergeist is German for 'Noisy Spirit' and this particular phenomenon has been recorded for many years. This is probably the most destructive and terrifying of all paranormal activity. British paranormal investigator, Harry Price didn't hold back his objectives. Price stated that poltergeist can be cruel and spiteful. He also stated ghosts seem to haunt where poltergeists infest. There is a possibility that the haunting phenomenon and the poltergeist phenomenon may not be related, however, there does not seem to be enough scientific evidence for such a theory. Some scientific establishments refer to poltergeist activity as being caused by a suppression of sexual energy which is often found in
adolescents."

unknown. (Unknown). Poltergeist:Strange and Paranormal activity. Available: http://strangegr.tripod.com/strangeandparanormalactivities/id32.html. Last accessed 02/10/2011.

Image found at this link: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=poltergeist&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1680&bih=864&tbm=isch&tbnid=qhG6HkDDvZjsVM:&imgrefurl=http://www.zurichmansion.org/ghosts/video1.html&docid=3VSNlZQGWkWfgM&w=642&h=469&ei=I_OSTtO1JdDKsgbVt5H9Dw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=312&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=187&start=0&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=135&ty=78

There is of course a film we all know based on this subject entitled "Poltergeist". In the film, we see a young Girl becoming possessed by the spirit of a demonic force which takes hostage to the house and inhabitants of the building it dwells within.

(Pictured above, the tragic child actor Heather Michele O'Rourke, who plays the character of the possessed innocent little blonde girl Carol Anne Freeling.) Link: http://free-extras.com/images/movies_poltergeist-11257.htm

Usually it is often found that little girls are the more likely to be more sensitive to the paranormal than boys of the same age. Therefore it is usually found that young girls are more uncanny, their intact innocence and uncompetitive, pre-social self destruction is yet to come of reality. Perhaps this is because males tend to be more corrupt to social pressures and more sensitive to upholding their real world surroundings even at a young age.

"The book set out to claim that witches did exist, and that they were usually women, who were weaker and easier for the devil to tempt."

Rachel Bellerby. (Jun 15, 2009). Witchcraft in the middle ages. Available: http://rachel-bellerby.suite101.com/witchcraft-in-the-middle-ages-a125228. Last accessed Jun 15, 2009.

Of course the other well known story of a child "possession", or demonic ability that the child isn't initially able to realise would be "The Omen". In this film, however, we see the character as a Male child. This however could be due to the fact that Damien, the apparent child of Satan, is of a more direct power to the paranormal itself. It ties into the subject of sexism, where Damien is the "son" from the start, born into the world as an entity of evil and isn't of his nature due to a weakness to the power of the paranormal as he is his own power. This is basically suggesting that the Male phsycic, paranormal figure is more dangerous or dominant to the original context of the power source, that the female is merely seduced by it due to her own weakness as a Woman.

Damien from the film "The Omen".

Image found at: http://superb-movie-reviews.blogspot.com/2011/06/omen.html

•  Adolescence

Boys and Girls change physically and mentally at seperate ages, but most prominently during the teenage years. In this period the Human being would undergo changes in strength, size, personality and sexual awareness. It is due to this transitionary stage that many beleive the weakness of a persons physical and personal well being can become supseptible to paranormal effects.

Carole Sutton (2000). Child and adolescent behaviour problems: a multidisciplinary approach to assessment and intervention. Leicester: British Psychological Society. pg9-320.

This chart gives some indication to the difference between Male and Female changes within the intense period of puberty. You could imagine how this behavioural pattern could be linked to something dark and distinctively unhomely, as the child's innocent apperance is undergoing real changes and new neurotic brain wave patterns that are most likely disturbed.

This can easily be assosiated with the apperance of some form of possession, or phsycological angst brought on to the child's behavioural patterns unwillingly. Over time of course these changes develop and settle, maturing the child into the adult and taking them away from the displeasant journey of adolsecence.

Chris

Group project: Evil School Girl rough ideas

To help envision the story of a School girl with a prominent, evil undertone I have drawn up a few sketches off the top of my head, which also relate to references I have found via other Cartoon characters and relevant imagery to the subject.

 Chris

Film reviews: The Best Worst Movie

The Documentry "The Best Worst Movie" is based on the laughably bad 1990 film Troll 2. It follows the star of the film Michael Stephenson stepping behind the camera to talk about the low rated, low budget, dodgy horror movie itself. This Documentary proves that a perceived bad movie doesn't necessarily mean it wont find an audience. The original film was created by a group of cinematically uneducated Actors who joined forces with an Italian-speaking production crew to start filming the sequel to the 1986 film "Troll".

It is interesting how onwards into the future the film "Troll" has been taken under a different perspective. You will come to find that the general film related society will now look at it as a historical treasure, reflecting the perfect way to do something conventionally bad. From the awful acting, to the terribly unresolved script making the most random confusions and almost seemingly self conscious, humiliating camera work, this is exactly how a film should be put together to form a mesh of negative criticism.

This is an amusing, light hearted look into the work of something that was once rated so low that someone has become proud of it for that very reason. The soul of this film is in the right place at the right time, ready to accept Troll 2 for what it really is. In a sense it has become a comedy based on the art of film making itself. Interestingly, this movie got quite a high rating compared to the extremely low rating of the film it indulges itself within.

Rating out of 1 to 10? For amusment... 10... Oh.... my... God!!!

Chris

Film reviews: Inception

Inception is a phsycological action thriller Directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Leonardo Di Caprio as the main star. It was made in 2010 and delivers a strong, yet complex story about the power of the human mind.

Inception is one of them films that demand’s you to watch it more than once; it seems content in hiding pieces of its puzzle that on each viewing spawns a different realization. This film is difficult. It is based inside the dream worlds of the characters that Leonardo Di Caprio’s character “Dom Cobb” infiltrates in attempts to regain high profile information for corporate reasons with his extractory art of putting himself into another's dreams. By sneaking into the psyches of his targets, Dom enters the world of the dreamer, taking any vital information with him swiftly and without the dreamer’s knowledge.

When the film initiates, and it does so quickly, you have to keep hold of the plot tightly to not loose your placing. Just like a real dream world, things can become a mush sooner than they happen, uncertainty is somewhat a key. This very notion drives the film towards a postmodern perspective, the film is set in its world that continuously moves forwards and changes in relation to the external effects.

Being one of the most effective at his art, Dom Cobb has found that this talent is also his burden. He looses everything that he loves and that is close to him as a result of his lifestyle. It is this part of his humanity which he craves to grasp hold of, in which is also presumably his weakness and strength. He is given a chance at redemption by one last job that has the potential to give him his normal life back to one catch - it is the almost impossible of mind inceptions that he has had to pursue.

In retrospect to Cobb's usual goal of retracting something from someones subconscious mind, he is given the task to plant an idea directly into the mind of their target. This targets name is Cillian Murphy, a wealthy business man who Cobb's influence could be enough to help Murphy hire specific individuals with vital skills of importance.

In some ways this film reminds me of the Matrix on a basic level, by the way in which the character "plugs himself" into the mind which becomes an alternate reality in which the laws of phsyics can be bent. The Matrix has many holes and strange twists which take a fair few viewings to really comprehend, in many respects being an outwardly thought out depiction of mankind's perception on reality and his own effect on the world. This shares a familiar concept to Inception, where the ongoing changes to our static reality are blurred and painted in a surrealist approach.

 

As you can imagine, the way in which each shot is composed isnt neccesarily in the most conventional of ways, with a lot of use of such techniques as the dolly zoom effect to create a warped, disorientating effect.



Here is an example of the "dolly zoom" from the popular, hit horror classic "Poltergiest".





The Camera work in this film is edgy, clever and almost flows along in the streams of the contrasting dream world. The scenes are built to somewhat make the space of each set feel larger, introverted and yet claustrophobic at the same time. As the films events become more intense, this warping between scenes and sense of hyper reality becomes more prominent, yet strange due to its bending of real world rules.

Overall this is a strong, interesting story about regaining ones own identity over an occupation that has almost erased someones individual existance. It shows many levels of the Human mindset and how its concious efforts to survive can take us to the very edge of our seats.


Chris