-->

Wednesday, 11 November 2015

Travelogue, the second!

It is done, again. 

I'm confident that this is more reflective of Giacomo Balla's vision. Also I'm wary of sounding as cheerful as I do in this travelogue, indeed Gyro is a marvel, one that fills it's citizens with wonder, and I just needed to get over the notion that I can't write majestically. (That's H.P Lovecraft's fault, I will eternally blame him.)



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If one finds themselves awakened by a sound, a hum of electric; faint and crackling with a hair raising closeness, or even if waking in an unnaturally darkened room, wondering at the oddity of being in shadow when the sun should be warming the edges of the room, they need only leave their abode and look up and see the reason, in all its majesty. A mirage, an impossibility made real in violent glory.

There in the sky you will not miss it, a mass of land and metal; skyscrapers of curves, supplanted with grid-like scaffolding, repeating until the eye is weary, floating there, a non-euclidean mass, as if it were not such a rare sight to see a city amongst the clouds. Inconspicuous and unaware of the panic caused by such a sheer sight of the weird, such mastery of the natural law. But to gaze upon such sights is to gaze upon a painting, an object that we can only view and never interact with. Unbeknownst to most is the knowledge of how to arrive on the great city, as it is not at once obvious on how to ascend to the heavens and has kept many people confused for years.

The simple fact is that you arrive by invitation. Hoisted high via closely guarded docks, making a rather turbulent ascent, and as you are received via the receiving deck you pass through the high vaulted foyer, distinct with flourishes of red and gold in the form of fabrics, placed upon a shell of metal. As you take in the sheer magnificence of this space a soft wailing becomes apparent, calmly crescendoing from beyond a series of shutters and finally a oddly placed cyclopean door.  Men and women sheathed within clothing of such splendid dalliance of colour greet you with warm smiles as they open the large doors barring your way into the city of Gyro. There you are greeted with your first sight of Gyro, whatever that may be.

For it is said of Gyro - the city that spins - that it is easy to lose oneself if traveling without care, that no sight will ever be shared between fellow travellers, for nothing in Gyro is ever the same on any given day. In constant motion, the city redefines itself anew like a puzzle waiting to be solved. To those who have shared in the luck required to be invited to Gyro, many have said that they have entered into the city via the gardens of Gyro, thick and lush with plump and ever ripe vegetation, whereas others remember their first sight being filled with that of walking down the main street where performers of all creeds and disciplines ply their craft for crowds of happy viewers, some even mentioning emerging through the speedways and bearing witness to the latest season of motor racing, which relies on such breakneck speeds and impossible odds; the young of Gyro competing and postulating for pole position and the glory of Gyro! The salient fact shared amongst each description is the scale and abundance of everything; electronic boutiques set up to resemble places of holy significance, motorcar showrooms featuring tuned transportation to instill a speed thrill amongst the masses, shops stacked upon shops, vertical bazaars that seem as impermanent as the city of Gyro itself.

The sound heard earlier now magnified and placeable in view; three super-rings, slowly spinning above and below the ground of Gyro. In amongst these lie a network of tubes, otherwise invisible save for the slight glint of light caught from the sun. Smarter men than I take pleasure in explaining in slavish detail the why’s of how it keeps Gyro aloft, but the very fact that it is still aloft is a mystery to most and within that lies the secret which keeps the myth of Gyro alive.

The secret to navigating Gyro is it’s system of transport, widely purported to be the most efficient and happily, accident free for 16 months. Under the command of the chief Prognosticator, appropriately named because she’s a chief and a prognosticator, meaning she’s the best at what she does, which is to say, she is the best at anticipating the movements of Gyro in such a way as to avoid pileups in the gunnery tubes. The main transportation between a and b, through to z in the muddle of Gyro. This system unifies the large sectors of housing sometimes located on the outskirts, the rain generator - a marvel of technology that fuses hydrogen and oxygen to supply Gyro with water despite its status as being aloft - and the causeways sometimes leading to the kinetic electric generators or possibly towards the solar sivs, drinking in the sunlight and providing Gyro with it’s warmth. All of these wonders accessible by way of a separate system of tubes and the iron vestibules dubbed “bullets” that plummet within them.

At night, if one finds themselves at all bored or flushed by exuberance with all the activity daytime brings, then perhaps visit the amusement sector; a neonscape illuminating Gyro in unfamiliar hues, where one can spend their time as a socialite mingling with other travellers as equally lost and equally as enthralled in the game of Gyro. Or perhaps placing wagers on the speedways, hedging what bets you can, for are the stakes ever that high in the pursuit of something? The city that cannot be cracked, that entices, plays and ultimately tricks, for just as the traveller feels as though they have found their footing, Gyro is quick to remind them of its multi-faceted ways and as quick as the notion of familiarity is raised, so to is it cast aside.

If you find yourself at all lost in the maze of Gyro, it can be said with much certainty that you will never be found, but amongst the bustle of the endless streets, the flaneur of Gyro cannot be blamed for not caring. In the infinitesimal design of the ever-changing city it is easy to find a distraction.

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

"Black Narcissus" (1947) - a review

Fig 1.
“Black Narcissus” (1947) by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger is altogether sumptuous and barren. Focusing on a group of Nuns sent to the palace of Mopu, recently dubbed St. Faith by Sister Superior Clodagh, Black Narcissus charts their struggles in managing the palace, modernising the local population and handling their own libidinous thoughts. Very early on it is made clear in visual terms that the life of piety is at once visually bland as it is spiritually; superficially at least, a fact that is put deliberately at odds with the picturesque quality of the mountains and forested valley below. Powell “...depicts the nuns' mountain enclave as an ashen and distant; colorless as the sisterhood's singular devotion to their vocation.” (Mirasol, 2010) The desaturated and blocky appearance of the palace of Mopu can perhaps be interpreted into one of many a visual metaphor; built on the notion of rigidity; akin to the character's initial mindset, these Nuns who, through religion have sought to make their lives and by de facto, appearance, as plain as possible to avoid temptation. In fact, it is only as the story progresses that we see the true nature of Mopu and the Nuns, for as we see the flourishes of colour in the interiors of Mopu, so too do the Nuns of St. Faith, show their true colours; Doubts, breakdowns, recollection of lost love and eventually madness; everything internal is externalised within the set design.   

Fig 2.
Indeed, Powell and Pressburger use sparsity in such a way so as it is reflective of the banality of the repressive way of life chosen by the Nuns of St. Faith. What makes Black Narcissus so effective is the juxtaposition of these earlier items with the second and third acts of the film. Michael Mirasol writing for RogerEbert.com surmises it as “...This burning, fervent, internal strife, builds continuously towards the film's almost gothic climax” (Mirasol, 2010) And exactly so, as Black Narcissus takes on hues of red and blue, the red signifying the rage and sexual tension throughout the plot, blue providing solace, but rarely do we see a return to the bleached tones of the opening act, at one point Sister Ruth literally “see’s red” after having her advances rejected by Dean; more object than character. In particular the presence of the colour red is seen around Sister Ruth, until she adorns herself in it, pasting herself in red lipstick as a final renouncement of her vows to god.


Black Narcissus then, succeeds after this, not only due to the thoughtful lighting, but also due to “..The claustrophobic art direction by Alfred Junge...” that “...enforces the environment’s boundaries and brings the runaway bodily needs of the sisters into sharper focus.”  (Lanthier, 2012). The almost “lovecraftian” nature of Mopu and its sway over the sisters is made flesh via the use of Junge’s tight control over the art direction, something which at first isn’t apparent, but - as it does for the lunacy and it’s grip over the sisters - sinks in slowly over the course of the film.


Black Narcissus can only be celebrated then, for its subtle use of lighting and imagery to reinforce the mindsets of the characters and later on introducing this pervading yet intangible sense of dread over the final proceedings.
Fig 3.


Bibliography

Lanthier, Joseph. 'Black Narcissus | Film Review | Slant Magazine'. [online] Available at: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/black-narcissus [Accessed 9 Nov. 2015].

Mirasol, Michael. '"Black Narcissus," Which Electrified Scorsese | Far Flungers | Roger Ebert'.[online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/black-narcissus-which-electrified-scorsese [Accessed 9 Nov. 2015].

Illustrations

Black Narcissus Poster. [image] Available at: http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Posters/B/Poster%20-%20Black%20Narcissus_10.jpg [Accessed 9 Nov. 2015].


Ruth In Red. [image] Available at: http://celluloidoptimist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Narcissus.jpg [Accessed 9 Nov. 2015].


Ruth Still. [image] Available at: http://filmfanatic.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Black-Narcissus-Horror.png [Accessed 9 Nov. 2015]

Additional reading




Maya Tutorial 06 - Digital Sets (continued)

Moving on, I've now completed the UV layouts of the scene. Next on the list is lighting! 


Monday, 9 November 2015

Thumbnails 66-73, Balla style building experimentation


Tonight I shall be rewriting my travelogue to best interpret a vision of Balla's city, focusing on movement, time and speed. In laying the groundwork for this, I am generating some possibilities for building designs based on a few pieces of his works.

I'm noticing that in overlaying his often complicated geometric shapes, strange things are happening. Things that are partially reflected in my past thumbnails, but with much more depth and a sense of the odd.

Anyway, I'm going for a much lighter city this time around. In terms of tone, and actual light.

Maya Tutorial 06 - Digital sets (Progress)


Just a quick update on my progress through the digital set creation portion of the Maya tutorials. First tutorial is complete, now I'm moving on to the second, and hopefully the third will be done in time for next weeks session with Simon.

Friday, 6 November 2015

After Effects, 3d images with motion control



"Edward Scissorhands" (1990) - a review

Fig 1.



Tim Burton’s heroic disownment of conformity “Edward Scissorhands” (1990) shows the terror of simply “blending in”. In viewing the highly allegorical tale of Edward, the Boggs and the inhabitants of his world, the viewer is privy to Burton’s private thoughts on being the outsider, the lustre that it can bring, and the eventual fall, when everyone decides they have had their fill.



The stark difference between Edward’s world and that of the townsfolk is echoed in both story, and the meticulous quality of the art direction. Roger Ebert muses “The movie takes place in an entirely artificial world, where a haunting gothic castle crouches on a mountaintop high above a storybook suburb, a goofy sitcom neighborhood where all of the houses are shades of pastels and all of the inhabitants seem to be emotional clones of the Jetsons.” (Ebert, 1990) Bo Welch, production designer for the film recalls his initial confusion with the art direction, “When I first read the script I said to Tim, ‘So, this is how this is going to look? The castle and neighborhood are going to coexist?’ And he said, ‘Yes,’”(Welch, 2015) Indeed, the juxtaposition of these two seemingly opposite worlds creates a satisfying incongruity; all at once solidifying that the real place of terror is the suburb itself. The artificiality of its people, who drive the same cars in 4 choice colours, who own the same furniture and fridges, who’ve fallen victim of fad items like waterbeds, these people who lack the element of originality. Burton eschews them into weapons that critique contemporary living even to this day.


Plot-wise too, It can be posited that Edward’s journey through these people’s lives is charted in such a way so as to lead the viewer through the frustrations an artist can have when lifted from obscurity, into the eye of the masses. Itself offering a multi-faceted portrait of alienation from perceived normality.
Fig 2.
The stylistic qualities also harken back to the German expressionist films, which based themselves within older, more gothic tropes akin to that of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  “The most obviously ‘expressionist’ thing about the film is the aesthetic – non-realistic locations, extreme camera angles, use of dramatic light and shade” (reflections, 2013) And more to the point, parallels can indeed be drawn between Edward and “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”’s Cesare. They themselves both being created by man rather than being born of it, their fascination with the pure female character and even the ending of both films is similar, the townsfolk in both films regard the characters as monsters, the difference being that the audience has travelled with Edward and knows otherwise.



Edward Scissorhands is at once enjoyable on a superficial level as it is on a much deeper level, subtly hinting at Burton's take on being an artist, whilst providing a highly evocative and at points, tragic, tale of the outsider.


Fig 3.




Bibliography

Ebert, R. (1990). Edward Scissorhands Movie Review (1990) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/edward-scissorhands-1990 [Accessed 6 Nov. 2015].

Guerrasio, J. (2015). 'Edward Scissorhands' is turning 25 — this story from the film's production designer proves Tim Burton is a creative genius. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/edward-scissorhands-25th-anniversary-bo-welch-remembers-2015-10?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 6 Nov. 2015].

reflections, (2013). Expressionism Round 1: Edward Scissorhands vs Dr Caligari. [online] Available at: https://kgvreflections.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/expressionism-round-1-edward-scissorhands-vs-dr-caligari/ [Accessed 6 Nov. 2015].

Illustrations

Edward Scissorhands poster. [image] Available at: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81ZZQ0f71WL._SL1500_.jpg [Accessed 6 Nov. 2015].

Edward Scissorhands still. [image] Available at: http://www.film4.com/media/images/Channel4/Film4/1990s/E/edward-scissorhands.jpg [Accessed 6 Nov. 2015].

Edward Scissorhands still. [image] Available at: http://40.media.tumblr.com/958f2d3d3d2a7560d68d346e5e18feed/tumblr_nj2mob5Yzk1tvl1ueo1_500.png [Accessed 6 Nov. 2015].