Sunday 29 January 2017

Maya Homework

Substance homework.


La Jetee Review

La jetee
Figure 1

La Jetee (see fig 1) is a film by Chris Marker that focuses on a 'what if?' scenario of what would happen if world war 3 broke out, the film focuses the setting on Paris, France.


The film begins with a narrator reading the opening text, from there we are told about a man who dies in front of a child and then the city of paris is destroyed 'blown up' the narrator says.
Then we are in the ruins of paris, we are told about a plan made by scientists that means to send men back into the past to send supply lines back to the future, the protagonist who is sent back in time but falls in love with a woman and stays with her, in the end he is killed by the scientists and realises that he is the man who died in the beginning.


The film uses stills instead of full motion video to convey the story, often holding on one while exposition, dialogue or even empty silence plays out. That is until a specific scene where the protagonists lover opens her eyes. (see fig 2)

Figure 2


The film and Chris Marker himself is shrouded in mystery, having made dozens of films, some of which have become cult classics you would think he would hold some fame and yet very little is known about him.

"Marker (born Christian Francois Bouche-Villeneuve in 1921, either outside Paris, as many sources say, or in Ulan Bator, as the writer and director has claimed), has a godlike reputation among cinephiles, thanks both to the ingenious and often playful nature of his essayistic films (he's made dozens) and to his obscurity. He grants few interviews and almost never allows himself to be photographed. Only a fraction of his movies are available on DVD." (Lawrence Levi, 2009)

Mr Levi exclaims how even though Marker is well loved among his fans and "Cinephiles" which are lovers of film and cinema, he never gave much information about himself. Whether this was because of a love of mystery or a fear of what someone could do with that information is anyone's guess.

 "Marker began making 'La Jetee' at the end of France's eight-year war with Algeria, and was still working on it during the Cuban missile crisis. In the film, the merciless experimenters who rule the catacombs under Paris whisper in German (see fig 3), an echo of "Night and Fog," the remarkable 1955 Holocaust documentary by Alain Resnais that Marker helped write and edit." (Lawrence Levi, 2009)

Figure 3


It can be taken from this paragraph that Marker was placing his fears of the future into a film, all the collective fears from the people of paris about the ongoing wars and the aftermath of previous ones all put into a single film. Having used a reference to 'Night and Fog' it's possible that Marker assosiated this future with the fascist regime or thought of the current wars being created by the conflicts that occurred due to world war 2.

"The film achieves the feeling of movement and time lapse mainly through its editing. While Lars von Trier’s film Nymphomaniac captured the human condition in a single dissolve, La Jetee uses dissolves, fade-ins, and fade-outs to provoke the feeling of time lapse." (Lamos Ignoramous, 2017)
Mr Ignoramous explains how the film uses cinematography to achieve it's goals. The use of such transitions could be to not only show time lapsing but also how time works in this universe, the differences between how the transitions function between the "real" or "present" world and the "past" world.
Bibliography:


Levi. L (2009) Chris Marker: La Jetée' by Janet Harbord at http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/18/entertainment/et-book18 (accessed 24/01/2017)

Ignoramous. L (2017) Chris Marker’s La Jetee Analysis: Mortality and the Illusion of Time at http://filmslie.com/chris-marker-la-jetee-analysis-temporality/ (accessed 29/01/2017)

La Jetee (1962) Directed by Chris Marker [DVD] France Argos Films.

Illustrations:

Figure 1 La Jetee Poster (1962) [Poster] France Argos Films

Figure 2 Film Still (1962) From La Jetee Directed by Chris Marker [Film Still] France Argos Films

Figure 3 Film Still (1962) From La Jetee Directed by Chris Marker [Film Still] France Argos Films

Thursday 26 January 2017

A letter from a.... fan? Hans Twardokus

This is the last thing i expected to find when i got home.
A small letter had been delivered, the address was hand written and it was from Germany, i was confused as i don't know anybody from Germany! i opened the letter and inside was a typed out message, some illustrations of pigs, a piece of card and a prepaid envelope with a german address on it.

the letter is pretty long so i will summarise what it said: "Hello David Green i'm a fan of your cartoons and would love if you could draw my wife a picture of her favourite animal the pig and sign it" here's a photo of the full letter:


The illustrations of pigs:



I was skeptical at first because of scammers who take your signature and use that to steal your identity, so i googled his name and found all sorts of people who have also received personalised letters, apparently he is a well known collector who reaches out to cartoonists all over the globe.

I did draw one but i didn't use my real signature, here's what i made:

I will be posting it on the way to uni tomorrow.

I love how wacky the art world is hahahaha!

Life Drawing











Concept sketches and second Like for Like.

I have been doing some sketching on the train, whenever an idea pops into my head i make a quick sketch, i will upload these sketches whenever possible, for now here are the sketches i made on the train today:



As well as those sketches i sketched some of the people on the train, this was done to try and make up for missing out on some of Vicky's lesson due to a doctors appointment.


Lastly for Phil i have drawn another Like for Like:
For some odd reason the scanner i used in the library caused some pink hue to appear on the pages.
Feedback is always welcome!


Monday 23 January 2017

Soundscape 1 "Neurological beast"

My first soundscape for my soundscape project.
The final soundscape:

Based on what appears to be a neuron, these are the sounds i used:

The hum of a computer. Recorded in my bedroom.
Tapping a cork board. Recorded in the university 4th floor coridoor

Crushing ice. Recorded during the snow storm early january.
Squeaky chair. Recorded in my bedroom.

Maya Homework Graffiti wall

Maya Homework.

Maya class 23/01/2017

In class we were tasked with editing existing models by making new shaders and materials. These were the results:




Space sounds -Adobe Audition- 23/01/2017

Space... The final frontier... Actually it's the first frontier for me when it comes to sound editing.
In class we were tasked with creating a soundscape for a location in space, we could use designated videos and images for inspiration or if we were confident enough we could just delve into our imagination.

I went with imagination. This is what i designed after imagining an alien planet inhabited by small creatures, you are an explorer who sets foot on the planet standing a short distance from your ship you take in your surroundings... this is what you hear.


Friday 20 January 2017

Adobe Premiere Class work 10/01/17

In class we were taught how to use Adobe Premiere, after learning the basics we were told to take our Maya footage and edit it down to a sequence.
This is my sequence.

In my head I imagined a scene from a movie trailer with bass drops where the cut to blacks are, if I could attach music to it I would but alas I do not have any royalty free music on me.

Wednesday 18 January 2017

Character Design class 18/01/17

In class we were told to take an existing character and change the shapes that the character is made from to give them a different appearence while still retaining what makes them... them.

My chosen character was Tails from Sonic The Hedgehog.

After recieving feedback I swapped my character to Johnny bravo.

After that we were all given a theme and had to draw characters based on that theme. I got "Zombies"


Tuesday 17 January 2017

Photographs of "Dr.Green"

The villain for my current story idea is called "Dr.Green" I have drawn up designs but i have yet to upload any photographs... yes that's right Dr.Green is slowly becoming a REAL character.
Scary thought.

Early design was very simple: Goggles, mask, labcoat and a couple of syringes.
Didn't take long for me to start developing it into something more... menacing.
Now with Gloves, large syringe, sound activated light cables connected to a leather pauldron, boots and UV activated lights... Also a haircut.



The character is not finished with yet, take a look at the sketches i've made, work has already started on developing him further.

Yes it looks silly but what better way to understand a character and their motives? Become the character... understand how the character will react in certain situations... understand your character and you will never write them "Out of character"

Monday 16 January 2017

Story ideas.

These were what i wrote down while trying to come up with a story that clicked.





Character Designs.

Here are some sketches of character designs I came up with for my project.

Ignore the text on most of them, some were for a previous idea.




these are ideas for the animals in the zoo, as for the villain of the movie:



A deranged Vet who kidnaps animals from the zoo and performs experiments on, often killing them by accident, he gets away with it by editing security footage and framing night guards by leaving animal cages open saying they escaped. He always has his camcorder with him which he uses to record the horrific experiments he conducts.


The Camera he uses.


An idea I had for a scene in which the "hero" (the mouse) is captured by the villain.

I welcome any and all comments and suggestions.