Unit 2: The Secret Lair of the Pagan Colossus

Colossus: 

Adjective

1. extraordinarily great in size, extent, or degree; gigantic; huge.

2. of or resembling a colossus. 

3. ( initial capital letter ) Architecture . noting or pertaining to a classical order whose columns or pilasters span two or more stories of a building.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/colossal)

Pagan:

Noun

1. one of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and Greeks. Synonyms: polytheist. 

2. a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim. Synonyms: heathen, gentile; idolater; non-believer. 

3. an irreligious or hedonistic person.

4. a person deemed savage or uncivilised and morally deficient.

Adjective

5. pertaining to the worship or worshippers of any religion that is neither Christian, Jewish, nor Muslim. Synonyms: heathen, heathenish, idolatrous, polytheistic. Antonyms: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, monotheistic.

6. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of pagans. 

7. irreligious or hedonistic. Synonyms: unbelieving, godless, atheistic, agnostic; impious, profane, sacrilegious, unholy, ungodly. Antonyms: religious, pious, devout. 

8. of a person deemed backward, savage, or uncivilised or morally or spiritually stunted. Synonyms: primitive, uncultivated, uncultured, heathenish, barbaric, barbarous, philistine. Antonyms: civilized, cultivated, cultured, urbane.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pagan?s=t)

'Colossus' influences in media:

http://www.deviantart.com/

http://www.wired.com/news/images/full/colossus03_f.jpg

http://media.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk/

http://www.nerdsraging.com

http://img.hexus.net/

'Pagan' influences in media: 

http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/

'This film is downright Jungian in its expression of these mysteries, using the imagery of pagan Scotland to weave a world where the human connection to the natural world is seen as the secret to happiness and fulfillment' (Peg Aloi, 2012)

http://i.cdn.turner.com/

'Second, it is a narrative incarnation of the pagan worldview of earth worship as described in the Gaia Hypothesis, a scientific theory of planets as living organisms with consciousness. The notion of nature worship in opposition to the Judeo-Christian notion of man’s dominion over nature is an ancient theme that originates in Israel’s battle for the Promised Land with the pagan nature religion of the Canaanites' ( Brian Godawa, 2011)

http://hilery.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/princess_mononoke.jpg

' The story is a powerful tale of environmental abuse, disaster, and valiant honor. Land spirits, animal spirits, and various Gods figure prominently throughout the film and we see what happens when mankind falls out of balance with them.' (Krasskova, 2010)

http://tinribs27.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/wicker-man-lee.jpg?w=300&h=206

'The original “Wicker Man” is a story about sacrifice and renewal, about Pagan and Christian theological differences, and about sacral kingship' (Krassokova, 2010)

Bibliography

quotes

Peg Aloi. In: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/themediawitches [online] At: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/themediawitches/2012/06/brave-pixars-pagan-princess-is-perfect-pleasure/ (Accessed on 29/10/12)

Brian Godawa. In: http://www.equip.org [online] At: http://www.equip.org/articles/avatar-a-postmodern-pagan-myth/ (Accessed on 29/10/12)

Krasskova. In: http://www.patheos.com/blogs [online] At: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pantheon/2010/11/my-top-10-paganheathen-movies/ (Accessed on: 29/10/12) 

Krasskova. In: http://www.patheos.com/blogs [online] At: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pantheon/2010/11/my-top-10-paganheathen-movies/ (Accessed on 29/10/12) 

Cinematic Spaces Film Review: Alien (1979)

Alien (1979) was directed by Ridley Scott and had art influences throughout the film from Hans Rudolph Giger, a famous artist known for his surreal ‘biomechanical’ art style which was incorporated well into Alien.

When Alien was released over in America, it came at a time when man had started to fear the power of machines due to a nuclear power plant mishap that happened months before Aliens release; the relationship between Ridley and ‘Mother’ the ships on-board AI portrayed the threat machines could have on humans and helped sell the films to the Americans, as it sparked their interest with machines and the idea that they could harm us.

One of the most interesting and controversial areas that surround the film is Gigers artwork that was used for the designs of the main antagonist ‘Alien’ and his creation of ships and architecture; there have been numerous theories that suggest underlying sexual themes in Alien that have been portrayed through the objects and characters. Figure 1 is an image of the main antagonist, Alien, with his retractable second mouth ready to attack, this second mouth has been considered a sexual object; ‘The elongated shape of the aliens head, as well as the retractable second mouth, symbolises a penis’ (Willratwedge, Blogspot Name, 2012). There are also reviews and articles about the theme of sexual reproduction and rape that is also said to run through the film. 

Figure 1

Alien was filmed 10 years on from Barbarella, and unlike Barbarella, they managed to create a realistic looking future which, aside from technology improvements and effects, hasn’t dated the film and isn’t distinguishable to any specific decade.

The film uses a combination of Giger’s art style in the infrastructure as well as using old looking technology that has been placed into a futuristic setting; all of this helps to contribute to the feel of the surrounds and to the aesthetics. ‘Scott didn’t put the crew on a high-tech, Star Trek type ship but instead on a commercial mining ship. It’s a mix of white, cluttered, blue-collar living quarters and grimy, wire and pipe filled corridors that adds to the dark and tense atmosphere,’ (Ben, 2012)

Figure 2

Alien spawned off many sequels that have been created over the last 20 years, however, the first Alien was filmed using sets and actual areas that the actors could interact with and use; this created a film that felt very real and showed audiences that the areas they are running around in exist. All of that helped to create a film with a very dynamic use of space and helped to put the audience right into the film as well as give it a sense of realism. 'It brings the unimaginable to life, creating a relatable fear from unknown and a sense of realism from the outlandish,(Barahona, 2011)’ This quote helps to justify the views people had in regards to the sets of Alien; considering it was made in 1979, the film was created with minimal CG, which gave the film a sense of realism that the sequels lack due to the use of CG and effects instead of sets.

Figure 3

Bibliography

Images

Film Still 1 (Figure 1) http://viewsfromthesofa.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/alien.jpg

Film Still 2 (Figure 2) http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02225/surgery3_2225840b.jpg

Film Still 3 (Figure 3) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIQfH-JTEQVXyvJ6SBbS-hXoDyXaYE5HX_-NB9NdWGETYUSnUAdx_ng3Tf4axuBOLE_OcwXYu0Bkk_TSuhN2vl_uyUx7bvi_NHTDh38gx3q3ZOS5xXU-ijomv75hmS3rbKAoCJpPQEFQs/s1600/alien-1979-hallway-1023x506.jpg

Quotes

Willratledge. In: http://freudblog.blogspot.co.uk [online] At: http://freudblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html (Accessed on 24/10/12)  

Alexander Barahona. In: http://www.thatfilmguy.net [online] At: http://www.thatfilmguy.net/alien-1979/ (Accessed on: 25/10/12)

Ben. In: http://viewsfromthesofa.wordpress.com [online] At: http://viewsfromthesofa.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/alien-re-view/ (Accessed on 25/10/12)

Submission Disc Artwork

CD Front Cover

CD Image

Final Concepts: Space & Environments Crit

Cinematic Spaces: Space & Environment

Final Concept: The Red Room

My final concept for The Red Room. 

Final Concept: The Magic Shop

My final concept for The Magic Shop interior.

The Magic Shop Interior

Final Concept: Spiral Staircase

This is a more finalised version of my Spiral Staircase thumbnail, including all the elements of feedback that I've received over the last few weeks. 

The Red Room: Spiral Staircase

Cinematic Spaces Film Review: Barbarella

Barbarella (1968) was directed by Barbarella (1968) was directed by Roger Vadim; when the film was first released it was poorly received and given terrible reviews and criticisms for its flat-tone humour and simple storyline, as well as the controversial scenes and behaviour of the main character. However, over the years the film has gathered a cult following and was a bigger hit the next time it was released in 1977.

One of the more noticeable areas of Barbarella was the use of colour throughout the film, a lot of the scenes representing space or the lands in space used vivid imagery and clashing colours to create very surreal looking worlds. ‘Instead of the common representation (an inky backdrop with twinkling stars), we are shown a formless mass of viscous goo photographically combined with sparklers and various other lighting effects.’(Pandolfi, N/A) 

Figure 1

As Pandolfi says, the film took a very interesting approach as to how they should represent and portray space; the film was widely criticised for its odd use of colours and imagery, since there was more information about space around at the time Barbarella was filmed, people were surprised by the futuristic portrayal they went with. 

Another noticeable aspect of Barbarella is the use of textures/scenery/clothing and effects were all created to make the film sci-fi and as if it is set in the distant future, but the film managed to make itself look dated by using influences of that time period (1968) such as the fur walls and flooring in Figure 2.

‘Barbarella couldn’t exist in any era but the 1960s and its delightful over-the-top qualities find an ideal expression in the ridiculous excesses of the time’ (Vaux, N/A) 

Each aspect of the film, such as the costumes or the materials used, helped to keep the film in the 1960’s due to the use of fur or trippy and drug like images through the film as shown in Figure 3. ‘the sets are designed with gorgeously deranged excess –Barbarella’s spaceship comes with pink carpeted roofs and walls’(Scheib 1999-2012)

Figure 2

Figure 3

The film Barbarella had a unique way of portraying a futuristic space to the audience; the film used very dated materials to help give the sets a futuristic look, but this resulted in dated the film further. 

Figure 4

Figure 4 shows the Labyrinth that was explored before Barbarella moved on towards the big city which is also featured in the image; the Labyrinth is suppose to be ‘the slums’ or the outer wasteland of the city that lays further up the hill, this is where all the degenerates and strange people are sent. ‘The Labyrinth, seemed similar to what one might imagine hell to be, where all the off cuts are placed if they're "not hole". Bodies were stuck inside the scenery, doomed to be striped of emotion, and clothes, to never move again’ (pixipui, 2010) Figure 4 shows the difference in architecture and structure for the two areas which helps to portray the difference between the rich and the poor.

Bibliography

Quotes

Chris Pandolfi. In: www.gonewiththetwins.com [Online} At: http://gonewiththetwins.com/pages/archive/barbarella.php (Accessed on: 23/10/12)

Rob Vaux. In: www.scifimoviepage.com/ [Online] At: http://www.scifimoviepage.com/dvd/barbarella-bluray.html (Accessed on 23/10/12)

Richard Scheib. In: http://moria.co.nz [Online] At: http://moria.co.nz/sciencefiction/barbarella.htm (Accessed on: 23/10/2012)

PixiPui. In: http://pixipui.blogspot.co.uk/ [online] At: http://pixipui.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/barbarella.html (Accessed on: 23/10/12

  

images

Film Still 1 (Figure 1) : https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6o8k69lutbQc1WimVMRS6Pq8YBkM2Hj9MsXHFzonmsB3WJDpfFB8BpLD8paEUaP_Kbb84rPIcIBvcRW2W9hZXA7D_ERQ7MAtRb2gVbrhJ67SzBeK2luRwzevEVd0tbpUggPp0SXPffhfu/s400/Barbarella14.BMP

Film Still 2 (Figure 2) : http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRQ7sFdhVX9w74TgBhhXxZNDt6eP66AZCto9kJZg50v4AjZAuMbmDEx1mgkEQ

Film Still 3 (Figure 3) : http://366weirdmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/vlcsnap-6043146.png

Film Still 4 (Figure 4) : https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6DuCbJwWvl4XIGCPWHrCYBx76ZJbEdx1Oxd7KcW7MGxWigUwBza_FNDTS46B1THbu1G8kKsYjh-w53rx9zLuaDbyVmQ1YjcKZZ0NwmoeiXaHZDUrIjBbebJXBinGtgWbffJvbHNhMah4/s400/Labyrinth+wide.jpg

Thumbnails 64 - 68

Decided to try out various mirror styles to see which one has the best effect and works with the rest of the room, I found the oval mirror distorts the perspective and that the more simplistic designed frame worked better with the rest of the room. 

Mirror Tryouts

Thumbnail 63

Taking into consideration some of my feedback, I've started to add in some more objects to give the scene a sense of realism and boosted the intensity of the colours. 

The Red Room

Thumbnails 57 - 62

The Magic Shop interior has a ventriloquist dummy perched on a stool, so I decided to start playing around with silhouettes and different styles to see what to incorporate into my image

Doll Silhouettes 

Thumbnails 55 - 56

I think I've finally got the perspective and area right for the image, but the shading and lighting went a bit off for my liking. 

Spiral Staircase

The Magic Shop

Also, started i proving on The Magic Shop thumbnails, but it still needs some work doing to the interior and perspective. Lighting has yet to be added in. 

Thumbnails 52 - 54

 Below are thumbnails for The Red Room and the Spiral Staircase, both of these scenes are from The Red Room.
Out of the 2 Red Room images, I think the second one works better from all distances, but its lost some of its creepy atmosphere that the first one has.
The Spiral Staircase is just me messing around with aspects in the scene and working on the composition a bit more.

Red Room 1

Red Room 2

Spiral Staircase

Maya: Robot Tutorial

The second Maya tutorial was applying different shaders to the preset figure.

Ceramic

Plastic

  

Silver

Chrome

Gold

  

Glass

Glow

Hidden Glow

Maya: Pencil & Eraser (Textured)

 The image below shows the finished modelling and also the Pencil textures:

Pencil Texture

 The second image shows the Eraser textures and the end result of the modelling and textures:

Finished Textures

Thumbnail: 50 - 51

Thumbnail for The Red Room - Spiral Staircase; playing around with lighting effects and composition

50

51

Thumbnails 45 - 49

After receiving the feedback from the OGR and numerous conversations with my tutor, my thumbnails have started to go in a new direction.

2 thumbnails have changed to the interior of Genuine Magic from The Magic Shop and the bedroom featured in The Red Room.

Below are a few more recent thumbnails for The Magic Shop and the staircase for the stairway in The Red Room

45 

46

47

48

49

Cinematic Spaces Film Reviews: King Kong (1933)

The original King Kong (1933), filmed and produced by Merian. C. Cooper, was based around the giant monster ape and his fascination with one of the main characters in the film. Later adaptations of the film have seen the relationship between the two expanded more, but the original King Kong focuses more on showing the technology that could be used at the time of filming. 

Figure 1

Figure 1 is a scene late on in the film, but shows clearly the difference in size between Kong and the cast, however, the actual size of the King Kong figure was much smaller than the actual cast members; 'Given that the Kong model was no larger than the typical action figure–Yet I’d swear it’s near impossible to tell where one ends and where the other begins.' The films ability to combine scenes together so well made the film quality that much better, but they still had to create a monstrous figure that would terrify or interest the audience due to its sheer size in comparison to the scenery and the cast members, so, much like previous films, there is a sense of scale and height being used give a sense of dominance and superiority to Kong and to increase the monstrous effect that Kong was suppose to have.

Figure 2

One of the less noticeable aspects of the film, was the use of painted backdrops and backgrounds. Figure 2 is a film still of Skull Island, where Kong is help behind the surrounding walls; however, the scene is made to look like a real life island when in fact it's been painted. 'rousing story with huge, never-seen-before visuals'(Bourne 2006), Kong wasn't just noticed for it's use of stop-animation and trick photography, although the scenes were somewhat over looked in the face of such technology, there was still appreciation for the amount of detail put into the backgrounds. 

Figure 3

Figure 3 is a demonstration of how trick photography was used during the filming of Kong. 

'King Kong is often credited as the first to use miniature rear projections to create special effects sequences. Footage of the actors was projected on a small screen, one frame at a time, behind the models as they were animated.'(Miller 2012). The purpose of using trick photography for Kong was to allow the director more freedom with camera manipulation, but to also help create a sense of scale against the actors and the figures of Kong and the dinosaurs. Height and scale is one of the aspects of Kong that was very important as it helped to carry the storyline and the theme of the film. 





Bibliography

Images
Film Still 1 (Figure 1) http://cinemasights.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/king-kong-1933/ 
Film Still 2 (Figure 2) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTALitjh-YR5hk3dbGwOYDsEC3hS5LX5PExkuKTxBhUAp6bmgF__KA28dhwyUDNSZ-Q7hGOt8tbpkNKfgU5ijEbgnml4vUAaPl5qtwBfFtlKwhpM7M5vDEAUigz4LqGhzg-Jcvt8cAE-41/s1600/Dawn+Wall+%232.jpg 
Film Still 3 (Figure 3) http://cdn.hometheaterforum.com/4/48/1000x500px-LL-48e4f04f_Movie_00_Title14032.jpg

Quotes
James Ewing. In: http://cinemasights.wordpress.com [online] At: http://cinemasights.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/king-kong-1933/ (Accessed on 13/10/12)

Mark Bourne. King Kong. In: www.dvdjournal.com [Online] At: http://www.dvdjournal.com/quickreviews/k/kingkong33.q.shtml (Accessed on:15/10/2012)

Frank Miller. King Kong. In: www.tcm.com [Online] At: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2690/King-Kong/articles.html (Accessed on 15/10/12)