Initial ideas 2

This is another sketch up of an initial idea I've been considering, it's located in a cafe (the actual image is based on a Pret a Manger), and in the scene I wanted the place to be trashed, chairs and tables all over the place, food on the ground, but then in the middle there's a pristine table, with an item on top of it (I've depicted this item with a laptop, however this is just for display purposes, I understand that this is not uncanny in the slightest and will use something else, maybe some more shoes) the backdrop is a city (as cafe's are commonly situated in cities), from the city a ray of light will flow into the cafe onto the pristine table.

Anna Gaskell photograph

I believe that the girl in this photograph is yawning, it is widely accepted that seeing someone yawning triggers a responsive yawn, and I can honestly say that I yawned after seeing this photograph. However, whether or not she is yawning is unknown. She is holding her hand to her mouth as if she was yawning, however her facial expression is hidden in shadow, meaning that she could be doing something else, she could holding her hand to her mouth in fright at the sight of seeing something.

Cindy Sherman - Untitled Film Still #14

I fall into a trance everytime I look at this piece by Cindy Sherman, I end up staring into her eyes trying to make sense of what she's thinking.

The facts that she's looking off-camera is a technique that we discussed in Unit 1 - Portraiture, it is a demanding technique and we become drawn to her instead of her attempting to gain our attention.

The low-angle shot used provides the subject with superiority over us, and we 'look up' to her working in harmony her 'off-camera eyes'.

She is however, not entirely the most 'powerful' subject of this photograph, as the tall buildings in the background are well above her, I believe this helps to enclose her in this world, and may play a part in what she's looking at, and what she's thinking.

The eventual feeling that I get from her, is a hint of 'disgust' at what she's looking at as if she's seeing something happen that although she's not involved in, she feels personally, emotionally involved.

Edward Hopper - Morning Sun

I really like this piece by Edward Hopper, the first thing I thought when I saw this was "she doesn't want to get out of bed, something about the outside world threatens her, what is it?", what I realised is that there is no concrete evidence to back up my thoughts, but I still thought it regardless, it is amazing how Hopper's work has allowed me to imagine so much from so little.

Initial idea

I sketched this up in an attempt to try and portray what my initial idea is. I want to create a football stadium, that is empty, and is lit by only one of the floodlights, the rest of them will be shattered (this is not represented in my image), it will be from a fan's point of view in the stands and there will be either a pair of shoes in the centre of the pitch, or a pair hanging from the score board (both of which are represented in the image), I was initially thinking of using a stadium mower in the scene but this does not in any way help it to feel uncanny, I feel including shoes in the scene will allow the audience to create a story about how the shoes got there.

Repulsion (1965) video analysis by Bharathi and Shafi

This is the second in our series: 'Two Indians and a film', loool I'm jkn, that's not the name of our series. I found analysing Repulsion great fun, and pleasantly surprising being able to find 'amusing' scenes from this psychological thriller. These video analysis' take ages to edit, and I may have to give it a break until I catch up with the rest of the unit, I really do hope everyone enjoys them as much as we do making them, because I do want to continue doing so. NOTE: the first 10 seconds or so will only play through the left ear, sorry about this, won't happen in further uploads.

Gregory Crewdson video

This video really helped me understand how Gregory Crewdson thinks, and the process that he undergoes when creating his photographs. I really like how his work focuses on the relationship between the 'expected' and 'unexpected' which in-turn displays the ambiguity the 'uncanny' and 'tableau vivant'. Lighting plays a major part in Crewdson's work, his use of Lighting in his work serves various purposes such as isolating a subject or creating an off-camera attraction.

I'M CONFUSED!!!!!!!! help me

I'm really confused here, after looking over the brief again, it seems that our scene must be in the style of 'tableau vivant'. Our backdrop will be in this scene, so this must accompany the 'tabluea vivant' theme. OK. Now our essay will investigating 'the uncanny', so as far as I know, the only relationship between 'the uncanny' and our unit, comes in the form of the written assignment. So, why is it that when I see everyone's scene ideas, they all seem to be based around 'the uncanny'. I should have asked this a long time ago, I don't get it, I'd find it difficult to create both an 'uncanny' and 'tabluea vivant' scene as 'the uncanny' represents the absence of movement and life whereas 'tableau vivant' represents the presence of movement and life. HELP MEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Tableau Vivant Nouveau: Art Come to Life

I found this video on YouTube while trying to understand what Tableau Vivant is. From what I've seen and found, Tableau Vivant is the capture of moving theatre, in which the moving theatricals are the reanimation of Artworks. This is getting a bit confusing for me, but I think I'm starting to get it, in order to create a tableau vivant scene I will need to recreate a piece artwork or theatre that draws on it's conventions and then capture this with a photograph.

Mirror's Edge Uncanny

Mirror's Edge is a game that tells the story of a protagonist that illegally transports information using parkour in a city where all communication is policed and therefore takes the protagonist into areas that are empty, often abandoned and therefore uncanny. I really like the minimalist and clean approach to the design in Mirror's Edge and when playing through the game, some areas really do feel strange with the cold silence that comes with Faith (the protagonist) being alone in most places.

Textures: Mouldy Cheese

This is one of the textures that I created in Phil's Photoshop session, I was fairly confident that it resembled mouldy cheese but still felt the need to write it in the top left hand corner. It was made by using the cloud filter, then adjusting the curves, applying a texture above it that resembled the various tiny indents in cheese and then finally overlaying an image of desert cracks with low opacity to resemble the breaking that occurs in cheese over time. I just realised that the spelling 'moldy' is US, the UK spell it 'mouldy', I was confused as everywhere on the internet had 'mouldy', just shows how dominating the US are in the Media.

Maya Camera Rig

I think it's really useful, Alan showing us little things like this that make major changes to a scene, I really was fascinated as to what lengths animators are going to, to replicate 'real-life', I mean, this camera now moves like a real camera! I'm grateful that Alan's teaching us Maya in a way that we will become knowledgeable with it, while at the same time not scared of using it (although I never wanna hear the words Planar mapping or UV Texture Edition again after the last unit)

Maya Pirates Cove

Finished the pirates cove texturing task, I really want to have an attempt at texturing the barrel and chest but every section of our unit is as demanding as eachother so will have to postpone this.This is also my 100th post!!!!!! I'm sure everyone else is probably on their 1000th but I still wanna celebrate, I'll probably celebrate in one of mine and Shafi's video analysis'.

Alan's sheet of acetate, Invaders from Mars (1953)

This is a quick grid analysis I and Shafi did of a short clip from Invaders from Mars (1953). I plan on doing another analysis of another scene from another movie using Alan's sheet of acetate, however we just felt like doing one of Invaders from Mars at the time. Thanks to Shafi for providing in depth analysis aswell as moral support.

I Am Legend moving mannequin scene analysis by Bharathi and Shafi

When Phil done the presentation on the Uncanny valley, various movies came to mind that involved uncanny scenes, one of these was I Am Legend. Throughout, there is a relationship that Robert (Will Smith) has with the mannequins, this spurs from him being away from human contact for so long and as a result he begins to treat the mannequins almost as humans. There is one particular scene that was very well directed. Things fail to be uncanny when they begin to move or take life, Phil gave Chucky as an example, despite dolls being uncanny, the movie chooses not to portray this by animating the doll. In this particular I Am Legend scene, the mannequin DOES move, however it is done so subtly that the majority of audiences either don't realise it or believe that it was a camera trick or that their eyes were deceiving them. Thanks to Shafi for providing in depth analysis aswell as moral support.

Video review of Invaders from Mars by Bharathi and Shafi

This is a video review that I and Shafi did on Invaders from Mars, we felt that doing a video review as oppose to a written review would allow us to put across our points more effectively as we are able to display scenes on top of our speech. I have a lot of respect for this film and am not in any way mocking it as it is obviously an inspiration to the film industry, I am more providing a vision of how I saw it, having not seen classic movies like this before and having mostly seen modernised versions of similar films. When I commented on how "you're not allowed to hit a kid round the face nowadays" I understand that if anything, the BBFC has gotten less strict on film certification with people such as Sue Clark of the BBFC saying "times shift and attitudes change, but what was problematic then, is not problematic now". Try and stay awake through the whole video and remember that I'm not mocking the film in any way, if anyone believes that I am, please express your opinion so I can consider taking it down. Thanks to Shafi for helping to provide in depth analysis on the film as well as moral support.