The Uncanny House of Wax (1953)

House of Wax is a horror film about a sculptor who after being successful in his craft turned into monster killer. What led him to this was the greedy colleague who burned both the sculptor and his precious museum of wax people. After the accident he no longer could use his hands to create beauty, instead he’d choose a victim, murdered it and turned it to a wax sculpture. 

The first thing this film reminded me of, was the Uncanny Valley: Wax figures had so much likeness with real human and therefore it was so chilling to see, for instance their faces melt down in fire. Or a feeling of insecurity and suspicion, when one of the characters walks alone in the museum full of wax humans. As if a sudden movement or hit can be expected from every corner.To my mind it was where the most of horror in this film came from. 

The film was relatively a close remake of  Mystery in the Wax Museum (Curtiz, Michael;1933). And inspired some of the following films, one of which, quite obviously the new  House of Wax (Collet-Serra, Jaume; 2005) giving it the basic plot on which the  typical slasher film formula was then applied.

 

The film was wonderful with quite a few memorable moments. Particularly the theatrical chasing scene , when the monster tries to catch the leading lady. Or the entertaining but plain-obvious use of 3d effect with  ping pong scenes, as well as, mostly of all, one of the last sequences, a moment when the wax mask falls down and the audience gets to see the sculptor being a  monster. 

The film is meant to be seen in 3d, and my guess is its even more entertaining then. But surprisingly “it works” till this day. Maybe more so as drama, not a horror film

Character design lectures 5 and 6

Week 5 was all about getting the lines which construct and dominate in the pose. Depending what pose , what attitude it expresses , the lines vary. The main tip was, to look for balance: if there's a curve to the left ( say in the spine of character) then it means there has to be a curve to the right ( legs would support the figure and try to keep it stable) . So we acted out some scenarios between each other ( like "the doctor tells bad news to the patient and his wife" or  "the house is on fire and he is madly satisfied while she is horrified" and more simplistic poses like shy , confused and heroic)

In week 6 we were introduced with additional information usefull to include to character designs, like the use of hair, hairlines, costumes and uniforms.

Also techniques of how to test if the design is working , one of which include shape test

Animatic for the Attack of 50ft Alien from Toyland ( "fixed")

This is the preproduced trailer of the Attack of 50ft Alien from Toyland. Hopefully all Void canvas intentions are projected in this animatic clearly.

Funny Games (Heneke, 2008) and Games with Film Language

Discussed by J.J. *Jolanta Jasiulionyte*

“The prodigiously unpleasant "Funny Games" is clearly the work of a technical master, a filmmaker capable of manipulating our fears with expert, Teutonic (Germanic) precision” (Ansen, David; 2008)




This quote by David Ansen at Newsweek might be linked to one of the postmodern ideas in the film Funny games, that any language system (film language in this case) is something to be played with.



To rephrase  Christopher Butler from The new ways of seeing the world, it developed from the idea that there’s no point in trying to depict facts objectively, since, as in postmodern view, its not even possible to do so; the truth we want to explain is always only our own subjective construction via language (any form of it: verbal, film, pictorial ect.) which is also, a matter of uncertainty aswell ( so both, the motif and the mean of explaining it,  is subjective, relative and not universal). 

Postmodern thought is, not only the "truths" can  be only a  representation, depictions of the interpreted meanings, but also they are rerepresented and interpreted  using OUR OWN (and not universal) intellectual framework which is shaped from the unique experiences and axioms (what we believe in unconditionally) each of us have.


And these are central arguments of deconstruction: the truth is relative to differing stand points; as there’s no point in believing in the literal meaning of the language, since its all a cultural (and subjective) constructs. 

Therefore, this view follows: Both Language conventions and the meaning it constructs is something to play with. 

So does Funny Games. The director constructs a seemingly typical violent  film  but by further exploring a film language conventions and by breaking them the film becomes a critique and a reflection of  the typical Hollywood movies which exploit violence on screen.

For instance, Pitt, the angelic-looking demon periodically breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience, asking us to bet on whether the family will end up dead or alive. But it takes away the believability of the films constructed reality, filmmaker puts all these efforts to make the audience believe in the world they’re seeing, and then as if contradicting his own (or more likely audiences expected)  logic he toys with film language. Or is it actually that he reminds us: this is all an illusion, it’s a film you’re watching; and so for several times.

To give another example, the most intense moment in the film, when one of the family member was about to be killed, one might find himself more interested who will win the car races: It could be a smart use of film language: the audience was shown one of the attackers having a gun ready to kill , but then the camera points to TV screen and as we see cars racing, we hear people scream in the background and finally blood splatters the screen. But car race is still on. 

Again, we’re introduced with some confusion: they are about to be killed, that’s the most important bit; show me the killing, the entertaining bit! On the other hand the director still  doesn’t take anything away from the bloodthirsty audience (so to say): we're entertained by the car races, we still get to see the blood splatters;ironical jokes of Heneke.


But there were numerous examples of smart use of film language all of which sucseeded  to make the audience feel uncomfortable,frsutrated  and puzzled if that‘s the right emotion you‘re suposed to feel ect.

The director uses (plays with) the language in such a smart way the film is an experience which  "becomes impossible to forget—and, for many viewers, both will be impossible to forgive" (Ansen, David; 2008)

For more reviews on Postmoder films as well as other films ho here

Also, please consider following my blog, full of creative visuals, CGI and reflective writings on film, animation and art theory.Cheers!

11 Second Club Lipsync

“Finished” my second lip sync. But actually it now feels that truly it’s rather  you choose the moment when to abandon it.  Animation like anything else really showed the  numerous possibilities of  acting out the same information. It was a great fun to do this, and hope other ones I make will get better and better.  

For this one the goal was to get better acquainted with the facial rig and try use it but keeping it controlled, avoiding any over-the-top expressions. Also I tried to capture the expression suitable to the voiceover.

Baby Dinosaur

For our Studio experience project we needed a concept of toy. The baby-dinosaur is supposedly a first fully mechanized toy in 1950's cute and adorable.

This one soon turns into a threatening 50ft Alien after a meteorite crashes. 

More on Void Canvas .

Car Modeling Progress Week 5

This week the task was to refine and even out geometry and add details.

Character Design Development (continued)

Both Colin White and Justin Wyat gave similar advice regarding character improvements. Apparently hero's and villain's heads had "problems", one looked like clayed onto design and another failed to convey the personality correctly. So having put some thought I came up with some ideas.

I had to make hero more human-like, so the audience could empathize with the character more and recognize him as "the good guy"

And for the villain, quite simply ( and I don't know why I didn't do that from the beginning) I just had to keep the same design logic with the head as with his body - more edgy, sharp triangular shapes.

I'm not quite sure if these are working perfectly, I wouldn't hesitate to change anything if it be more communicative. So I guess I’ll wait for some feedback or a good idea to come.

Other than that, this week’s assignment was to write a dossier for each character, sketching out whatever detail might be important.

And I quite used it. Before drawing test expressions I’d read it so to respond to it when creating expressions. So further follow few examples of that for each character. I didn’t want to rush myself with this, since really, I’m only beginning to get to know my characters, their construction. It does take a while to get your head around their shapes and how they’d change in a particular reaction… I felt my brains swollen…:D

Car Modeling Progress; Week 4

Its getting there..

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Discussed by J. J. *Jolanta Jasiulionyte*

Like word by word we expect an idea to be finally explained and revealed, a scene by scene we also expect to reach the closure in “Mulholland Drive” (Lynch, David; 2001). But as film reviewer Roger Ebert marks, “The movie is hypnotic; we're drawn along as if one thing leads to another--but nothing leads anywhere” . This quote, as the film itself illustrates one of the main postmodernist points.

According to author of New Ways of Seeing the World, Christopher Butler, one of the key ideas of postmodernism is, that truth as we know it is fiction at the same time and understanding as well is a form of misunderstanding.

Simply because nothing can reflect the truth or explain the reality. The author argues that even language itself fails to explain reality, because of its encapsulated system. One word is described by other words, the language uses itself to explain itself and doesn’t quite relate to the external reality in a way expected. Therefore, it is another  system, which also fails to explain the reality or reflect the truth.  

So if there are no universal truths (because there’s no system that could explain it), the postmodernist thought is that everything is only relative and depended on the standpoint we choose , that all is only interpretations.

It could be said then, reality at the same time as well has  a lot of qualities of a dream, where nothing is absolutely clear, all is loose and dependant.

Likewise in Mulholland Drive,  the depicted “reality” soon starts feeling bizarre, surreal  and a viewer questions if this is not only a dream he’s watching.  “Like real dreams, it does not explain, does not complete its sequences, lingers over what it finds fascinating, and dismisses unpromising plotlines” (Ebert; 2001)

Postmodern man therefore no longer seeks for a unified truth, so doesn’t this film: “This movie doesn't feel incomplete because it could never be complete--closure is not a goal” (Ebert, 2001).

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Discussed by J.J. *Jolanta Jasiulionyte*

Film uncovers a plot of alien invasion. The story is about the alien, Klaatu, who came to earth with a message. The figure of Klaatu comes as a messiah, as Jesus Christ. “Discussion on the film concludes that Klaatu is a Christ figure, but his big, destructive robot friend is decidedly Old Testament” (Koler, 1999)

 

As simple as it sounds he warns earth people to live in peace otherwise he would have to eliminate the whole planet as earth’s developed martial means (use of atomic energies) became a threat to other (“neighbor”) civilizations in space.

The Context of the Film.

Jamie Gillies refers that  „this film is truly the first anti-atomic movie and it is surprisingly anti-American in its message“ .

The film was created 1951, relatively soon after the final stages of Second World War when United states dropped 2 atomic bombs “Little boy” and “Fat Man”   on  Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Within the few months of the bombings, the acute effects killed around 230 000.  About half of the  people died on the explosion days, from flash,  flame burns and from falling debris. Another half during the following few months, from the effect of burns, radiation sickness or other injuries.

Therefore the film, one might imagine, at that time’s context wasn’t simply perceived as a peace of entertainment, yet the words it speaks are equally relevant to current day: “the future of your planet is at stake”.

Further goes some analysis of film’s aspects relevant to our Narrative unit. 

The Use of Sound

Particularly noticeable was the use of eerie soundtrack. These metallic, abstract sounds, in my opinion really succeed to set up the bizarre, confusing and ( if set up with appropriate surroundings) the   uncanny feel of the scenes/film. The more indefinable the sound is the better it does its job.

The Depiction of military

I took a note of how the military was portrayed in the film. Stereotypically macho. Action goes before notion. ( in the very first scenes soldier shoots the alien when he intends to hand over a gift to state’s president)

 Such idea of army role was represented by showing the tanks and military cars rushing here and there, lots of army men, a suitably frowned and uniformed stubborn general. 

Just lots of action, movement, rushing and lots of relevant elements (tanks/guns/army men/ bombing sounds) to emphasize blunt force.

To generally sum up, the film doesn’t look dated almost at all, and personally I think it’s because of the great cinematic elements incorporated in the film , like lighting (! stunning effects, which made  beautiful pictures),  camera moves, editing, special effects  ect. The film really  is now in my list of favorites .

 

Character Design Development

These are more developed character designs for Aliens and Monsters topic. We're meeting Colin White tomorrow and He'll give us some feedback about our designs, so I tried to bring all the ideas I had till now(whether its about texturing, props or color, not only just shapes)in these drawings, so he could perhaps suggest what's working what's not. For example only one character is textured, because fur is his distinctive attribute.

Week's progress (!)

To summarize this week's experience... It was one of the most productive as well as the most hectic week this year. Didn't have time  to upload anything since apart from project work,  I worked  for University,  at career's  fare in Brighton (It looks like there's an expansive interest in CG Arts and Animation) and an open day at Rochester. So after all last week's fresher balls, house parties, pubs and festivals this week was all about concentration towards "the serious“

Most of the attention was given to our Narrative unit, studio experience.

 I was responsible for creating the concept art, animatic and script as well as fully resolving storyboards with additional panels and character design of the alien (this one still to be done soon).

I started with the military base concept. 

This is one of the most impactful shots in the trailer. I wanted the Military base to look cold and very inorganic as it is an institution of brutal force (at least that’s the perception we want to bring across in our trailer)   the progress of the work can be seen in the additional picture.

Second concept came for the abandoned toy scene outside the factory. It should capture the eerie and a changed atmosphere in the air as the meteorite is about to fall down and transform the silly-putty into the alien.  I tired to emphasize the “abandoned toy” theme in this concept.

Lastly, there is the concept of the city. We were researching Doctor Caligari’s cabinet  and some of the more contemporary animations (like Samurai Jack) so got some inspiration and a direction for this concept piece.  Its all covered under the eerie green sky and windows only further reflect it, one of the buildings actually reflects the monster in a very subtle way (red eyes ). Our world is stylized but still doesn’t lack of realistic details here ant there, in every corner.  

The quick video showcasing the making of:

This week after long formation of our idea, finally A script was written. (sorry for the spelling errors,  a foreign sitting late  is not the best speller :/ )

And finally,  I should be uploading the animatic, but considered not doing that, cause it's under developments, also its boring, cause there is no sound. I'll surely post it soon.

So there you go, pretty much all the secrets of The  Attack of 50 ft Alien from Toyland are uncovered :D

(In case you wan't follow our progress here are some links:

Blog address: http://voidcanvas.blogspot.com/

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Void-Canvas-Studio/160833670612543 

Character Turnarounds

These are the turnarounds for my three characters. Hopefully it's not even necessary to say whish is which, cause they read clearly :D  But we'll see after tomorrow's lecture with Justin

Storyboard for The Attack of 50ft Alien from Toyland

Nothing much to add here, except hopefully it conveys the sequence of the trailer. Also some changes are taking place as we work on the project.