Session 8 second studio shoot

The second studio shoot was based around green screen, this was also where the  work Georgina and I had been doing came to fruition.

The first of what we created to be filmed was the hand. I think that this hand was, for a forst attempt at making fake limbs pretty good. However there was much that could be improved on. For example the colouration wasnt creat. It dod look rather fake. I think with more time ad practice it would have been Possible to create something more realistic. This os something that was true with all the prosthetics we made.

The arm I think was my favourite part of the day in order to create the oozing liquis we mixed fake blood with custard powder to create an infected looking mess. It was good fun, if a bit over exuberant. I think a slow ooze and thicker mixture would have worked better.

Finally I volanteered to be the person crawling along the floo backwatds. I thnk the costume we threw together for this was great considering it came together in 5 minutes, it was quite good fun and it looked quite effective. 

We managed to get a lot done in this shoot I think and even though it was ruched I don't think it went too badly. 

Bliss and Eso promo

The visual effects at the end of this trailer I think are pretty cool. The colours and how they have characteristics of real wings make them quite striking. Although they are obviously a visual effect, they do have a weighty ness and the movement I think is characteristic of real wings that size of an eagle or other large bird.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BXJR9XKyZtM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Session 7 Homework

I like the 'earthy' and natural, in some ways. I think it has the look of drift wood but more exact and angular rather than having the natural flows you would expect. He uses the idea of the ocean and travel in his work and I think this comes through.

http://arttattler.com/Images/NorthAmerica/California/San%20Francisco/SF%20MoMA/Joseph%20Cornell/Tradewinds.jpg

http://arttattler.com/Images/NorthAmerica/California/San%20Francisco/SF%20MoMA/Joseph%20Cornell/Soap-Bubble-Set.jpg



There is also a loo of scavenging and collage I think. In some of his pieces it does look like a collection of artifacts collected in an artistic way.

Cindy Sherman

I think her technique of turning a camera on yourself in a context that is not a self portrait is a unique and interesting idea. More conman in a film sense. A lot of her work is based around the role of women in society. I think this is a conman theme in her work. With the idea of woman hood being challenged by creating this grotesque model of a pregnant woman hospital training dummy thing with a old man's head on it.

I think she makes you uncomfortable with the imagery. However I think this is a part of the strength of her work

Session 7 first studio shoot.

This session was vvery long and quite intese but I think it was good in terms of giving us an experience of studio shooting. Also in the etiquite of how a shoot works, in terms of 'the order of ceremonies'.

During the shooting for some scenes I took the role of A.D. I found this interesting. and informative as it is a role that I think I have not really thought about before. I think the elements of clock watching and having a loud voice to be geard over everyone are things I posess that would make this interesting for me.

Elsewhere I was Continuing in the prosthetic department. Continuing with making the fake arm and hand. In addition we had to make a bucket of blood for the bleeding walls scene. We also used he blood we made lsat week to make it look like the 'mini-paul' character had been squashed by a falling book.

This week we also began to lay the final layers of latex on the prosthestics and began to build up the wound. It also needs to be painted next week when the latex tructure of the would is dry. We will also need to trim the tubing in the hand so the blood ccan be pumped through more easily.

When it cane to the scene where the walls were bleeding, I drilled some of the hole through which the blood would be poured. I also helped filling up the 8 syringes that would be used to excrete the blood.
 This scene in my opoinion could have worked better but I think it would have needed rigging up differentley. However for this set up and a first attempt I think it worked well.

Overall I think the session went really well as we filmed everything that was planned and I learned a lot about the different roles on set as well as ideas for sifferent rigging situations.

session 6 homework

The thought that sticks with me mst from this article is the idea of how modern digital effects are redefining how the film world creates reality. Digital effects show the viewer a 'reality' that they cannot see for themselves. Weather is it reconstructions of the old or imaginations of the future.

Personally I think this technique of using CG in order to enhance the narrative is a great inivation to film. especially with more recent advances the lines between the real and computer generated are becoming ever more blured in film as techniques move on. As a filmmaker you are able to show the viewer a realistic space station of city scape to help tell a story. In a film it almost has to act as an audiences imagination, in terms of setting at least we expect to see it all. I think this overall adds to the cinematic experience.

I also think audiences are evermore accepting of digital imagery in film as we live in an ever more digitalised world. This then reflected in how we live our lives constantly surrounded by computers and digital representations.

Effects however can be overpowering and begin to hold up the narrative. I think a prime example of this is 'The Hobbit' as much as I loved the film I couldn;t help but think they tried to milk the digital effects for all they are worth. I think the story can get lost in that if one is not careful.

Session 5 Homework

From looking at the work of Jake and Dinos Chapman, the first impression I get is that is about making a statement.  For example Hitler made in to what looks like something from a crazy golf course. There is the idea of fun and family activity juxtaposed with the idea of absolute evil that the Nazi party connote. I have to say that I’m not sure what conclusion one would draw from this apart from the fact it is making a statement. Maybe it simply aims to poke fun and the ideas of a party that are almost too ridiculous to believe.

This idea of poking fun also comes from another piece of work that caught my eye. A statue of the virgin Mary and baby Jesus that are starting to by the looks of it decompose. I think this could be taken different ways. One is the idea that religion is no longer as relevant in society and is dying so to speak. The iconic image of Christianity is rotting therefore this shows a similar state to Christianity as an idea. Also it I think can be taken as mocking, in some ways it might be seen as defacing purity. The virgin is a symbol of all that is pure and the idea of decomposition and rotting is the opposite of that.

From this I think that a major element of their work is using art to make a statement about political issues. Aside from that is also interesting in it’s weirdness and it’s use of sculpture. I think that looking at how thinks like this are created, it gives one an idea about building set pieces and things that can make a set feel real.

Although interesting as artist I think as sculptors in a craft sense that are just as interesting to look at in terms of what you can create for back drops and props.

In terms of what Georgina and I are doing with very ammeter prosthetics this article is very interesting. There appears to be several different techniques involved in creating prosthetics and models.

One interesting Technique is the sir brushing.  I think that creating a realistic skin tone with the varying colours and textures will be a big challenge and I think that this piece of technology is something that, if this were a professional shoot with a bigger budget and experienced prosthetic artist would be very useful in creating the body part props.

Another interesting idea is the idea of scaling things up and down to create large models. I think in esscance it’s the same as drawing a design on squared paper and then drawing bigger squares and therefore a bigger design with the same detail. I think its simple ideas like this that can get lost in this modern age where technology is so prevalent but it’s a simple idea that works. ‘It ain’t broke so don’t fix it.’

I think overall what this article highlights is what prosthetics can achieve and will more often than not be more realistic that computer generated techniques. Also the idea that the aged look or human/animal hybrid is a physical thing and I think that creates a greater sense of realism personally. 

Session 6: alice and George get even more creative with dog chews and salt dough

During the session Georgina and I continued to create fake limbs for our film.

The arm, on which the mod rock had dried needed to be coated in liquid lated to give it a texture more like skin. We have decided that the creature type thing that is under the skin will be attempted in after efects. However  we have decided this so we can create a different special effecy. we want to have some sort of bloody pustual eruption coming out of a wound on the arm. So far what we have done to achive this is to drill a hole through the centre of the foam cylinder. Through this we will be able to put tubing through which we can eject fluid.

After the hole was drilled we began to cover the arm in flesh colored liquid latex. Using the knowledge we gained last week from our test we began to build up the layers of latex to create a realistic coating of skin.

Als this week we began to create a fake hand. To do this we began with a latex glove, dog chews and salt dough. To make the hand we bagan by covering the dog chews with salt dough to create finger like structures. We then forced them into the fingers of the glove, moulding them into fingers. After all 5 were in place we began to pack the rest of the glove in order to create a realistic hand shape. Because of the dog chews the hand has some bone like structure. This also means that when the finger is sliced it will have a barried that will look more realistic than cutting through play dough.

We also fed a tube into the finger that will be cut of so we can pump fake blood through to create a gory spurt when the finger is cut. After wh had consructed the hand, we 'dressed' it in a shirt sleave and began to add flesh colured liquid latex than we had used on the arm.

All in all this session I think as very producive and I have learned a lot about the art of prosthetics and setting up special effects.

Mood boards for uncanny brief

For My proposal fort he Uncanny brief I decided to do three modd boards easch representing a different part of the films asthetic. I hope that this will give a deeper sense of what the film would be. In order to do this I have creted three different Mood boards. One for the Landscape in which the film is set, one which describes the set in the cottage, and one that shows an idea of how the character will look in the film.

The first of the mood boards, the landscape is a mixture of my own photos and ones found from the internet. I have been heavily inspired by the scenery and feel of the Scottish west coast where I grew up and this is where I envision the film proposal I wrote being set. With this mood board I have tried to convey the colour and fell of the landscape, how the buildings would look as well as how the natural world surrounding the set would look. I have also tried to bring in some of the colour elements that would be present on the stormy night where the film is set.

For the other board I concentrated on the interior of the cottage where it is set. I wanted t show the coulour and natural fell of the set so have used wood and a mix of blue and green to represent the sea. I have also conveyed these through the nets and bouys that adorn the walls. I have also included ,ain features of the room, the bed, the oil lamp, the storm battered window, I have also added a range which could be founf in the type of cottage that the sequence is set on.

Session 5 Alice and Georgina get creative with blue foam and mod rock

For the Uncanny proposal Georgina and I are woking on a green screen sequence that involves a infected wound idea on the characters arm. For this we have had to create a fake arm.

Starting with a piece of moddeling foam we squared off the corners and then mared curved lines in order to make a more cylindrical shape. Upon reflection However we decided to make the bottom of the arm flat making it easier to rig up and create spurting blood or puss. Also the arm is slightly over sized again this will make it easier to create erupting boil type effects with tubing and syringes. The idea we have is to shoot the fake arm in close up so that thesize will not look inrealistic it will just look more detailed. Also as this is our first attempt at creating something like this it is probably going to work better if we work bigger, not getting too fiddley.

squaring off the corners and drawing guide lines for cutting

the block clamped to the work bench after cutting.

After thisstage we filed down the block so that it was more rounded. We also tapered theshape slightly to make it look like a more realistic forearm shape. After this we covered thearm in mod rock and then left it to dry.

Next week we are going to paint it with liquid latex. While the modrock was starting to dry wedid some experimenting with the latex. This is something new to me so it was interesting . We tried different levels of skintone ad white acryllic paint to get the right kind of colour. The first batch was a little 'spent too much time on a sun bed' so we added more white. We also discovered that the colour you mix is different to what i tlook like dried, it was a lot darker, so we also had to judge the differences and mix a pot that dried the right colour.

Test patches of the latex on a foil sheet

A pot of the mixed up lates and skin tone.