Task 1 : Critical evaluation

The final group project piece that we have created relates to the subject of ‘the uncanny’ in a number of ways. Firstly, the content in itself has an eerie appearance to it and allows the audience to feel disconcerted.  Within our first session on the module, we looked into the theory of the uncanny as well as some artist work on the subject which mainly concerned itself with the human body as a theme. As a group, we liked this as a whole concept and knew from the offset that we intended to create a piece which focused on a human body with an uncanny element, which is where the idea behind our piece initially originated from.

Early in the module, I researched into artists currently exploring both the uncanny as a subject and the use of a human body in their work. In doing so, I came across the sculpture based work of artists Ron Mueck and Liu Xue and found the concept of combining the features of an animal and human being together an interesting route to consider following.  With this idea still in mind, the main focus for us as a group at such an early stage was to question how to best approach the set build and design, and within this what kind of atmosphere we wished to create in doing so. Reflecting on our individual project proposals seemed to work as a successful basis for this, as we discovered along the way that a few themes were consistent throughout all of our ideas. Sarah and I both had ideas focusing on childhood and the imagination, whereas the others had creepy, horror like imagery present throughout their varying ideas.This contrast allowed us to really think creatively and develop an idea that combined the two themes together, which provided us with a creative challenge as from the beginning we wanted to create a piece that couldn’t be read literally in terms of the uncanny being directly understood as horror like.

We began the process of forming a new combined idea by researching into common themes of both horror and childhood, and I began researching dreamlike sequences and a darker side to fairytale stories during this stage.I enjoyed researching this area, as I discovered a lot of interesting articles about sinister interpretations to common fairytales and how these can be perceived in a quite uncanny way if looked at from a different angle. After individually collating our findings, we developed the idea for the set being based in a woodland location as this is present in both childhood fantasy story worlds as well as many visual horror narratives. The process of idea development from here relied on us working together with the studio space made accessible to us to come up with the practical logistics of a set build that would be an achievable target to reach given the tight time schedule we had been assigned.  After looking at a set of images including projections onto tents and outdoor spaces, we liked the idea of using shadows to create an uncanny effect, and initially we thought about the idea of creating an installation piece of work. However, after some further research, a group discussion and a tutorial, we found out that actually this might not be the best route to take in terms of gaining access to the materials and props needed given the limited three walls structure and space available to us. This led us to have a rethink as a group in terms of how to best approach combining our creative ideas with the spacing issue we were faced with. This led us to reconsider our initial idea of combining a fairytale with a horror like element, and from here we developed the concept of building a structure within a woodland setting.

 

After researching sets of images and current film set structures, we decided it would be an enjoyable challenge to take on to build the set as a wooden shack. Taking influence from a recent trend in horror films being set in wooden cabin like buildings, we decided to push this idea and continue to develop it. We were aware that this would present us with a challenge for a number of a reasons, mainly due to the amount of detail we wanted to put into the piece and the limited amount of time we had as outlined on the brief. After organising further meetings to view visual references and discuss imagery, we decided the best way for us all to contribute and be effective with our time was to split into smaller groups to work on smaller assigned tasks. We set up a project group online to share influences and discuss our schedule further which was an effective way of communicating throughout the course of the module. I think that this was a key strength; our organisation and communication with one another throughout the module allowed us to keep up to date with the project and all feel we had an equal contribution to the final completed piece.

This also allowed us early on to utilize the skills and interests of each member of the group working collaboratively; whilst Billy, Terry and Ryan prefer the post production side to things, myself, Sarah and Carrie had a stronger interest and knowledge of the logistics of the set build and art direction side to the project. Whilst we collected materials needed to design and decorate the set, the others helped with this but also collaborated to discuss the post production side and how what we were working on would transfer itself in the edit.I am also interested in Producing and so I took charge of some of the other  formal tasks required to meet the brief, such as setting up a collaborative moodboard page on Pinterest, working out the best way to budget our resources needed for the practical set build workshop and initially setting up the group conversation to allow us to share documents relating to the project with one another

Once we began on the practical set build, the wallpapering and painting was a joint effort which allowed us to discover further where our individual strengths and weaknesses lie. Although the wallpapering appeared a bit bumpy at first, we got around this creatively as a group by ensuring that when we put the sticks over the top, the texture built up enough to create an untidy look, which essentially is what we were aiming to achieve through creating a wooden shack structure.

Sarah and I also had difficulties getting the sticks to stay on the wall and realized we really should have carried out further research into this as all we had was PVA glue and this occurred at a time when the prop cupboard was locked. We got around this by doing the best job that we could and by emailing Susannah for advice, but in hindsight a better approach would have been for us to fully look into the possibilities of this before we arranged to book out the studio and devote the day to doing this task. Luckily, on this occasion we had allowed ourselves enough time so that the full group could come in the following week and help us out by getting a glue gun which made the process a lot less time consuming whilst still allowing us to achieve the desired unkempt texture to the walls that we set out to achieve. The rest of the set decoration task was enjoyable and we felt really able to experiment creatively with our options, which was partly due to the theme being the uncanny. We decided to add a few extra elements to the walls such as red paint handprints and a few painted photos as well as taxidermy animals splattered with paint, to further give the impression of a lived in yet abandoned space, as this is what we wanted the audience to question consistently throughout the piece.  

After the set was in place and decorated, the next focus was on the appearance and positioning of the character performance piece. Referring back to our original ideas and research on a fairytale and horror combination, Billy suggested bringing a pig mask in to the studio and we began to discuss how to combine this with a human performance, using the theme of movement to create an uncanny effect and appearance. Ryan agreed to perform, whilst Terry directed and the rest of us filmed. After some practice and experimenting with different ways of moving out of the cut out window space on the back wall of the set, we were ready to film this scene. Although at the time both on camera and in person the green screen looked well positioned, we realized later on in the edit stage that we could have done a better job of lighting the green screen. Another requirement of the brief was to incorporate a visual effect in some way, and we decided to do this via creating a fire in After Effects. However, another problem that we encountered with this which became apparent in the edit again, was that placing a visual marker on the position of the fire within the set would have been a good idea to ensure editing was a less time consuming process. This is definitely something I would take from this experience and approach differently in future projects.
  

I feel that this module went smoothly and that we have achieved what we set out to without it feeling rushed at all, which was due to the organisation of ourselves in part but mainly due to the strong organisation of the entire module. I think the final piece reflects what we set out to achieve and follows the subject well, as well as including all of the elements as outlined in the brief. If I was to approach a similar task again, I would consider spending further time in the studio sessions to fully ensure that the content was planned out at the time enough so that the edit was also considered which would save us time later down the process. The final piece reminds me in parts of the dreamlike sequences in Twin Peaks (Dir. David Lynch, 1990.) which I took influence from during the project development stage, and I think our overall film is a strong piece which although isn’t perfect reflects upon our creative problem solving and experimentation.

Final film submission

Group Proposal

Set deep in a mysterious dark forest lies an abandoned wooden shack which feels horribly claustrophobic and cramped. The shack has 3 visible walls covered in sticks and unusual objects such as bloody handprints, animal heads and items that seem disturbing to the average person. The shack is dark but has a somewhat warm glow to it. There is a large open window along the main wall and just below is a seat covered in mis matched fabrics. The view outside of the window is bleak and leaves fall softly past the window. We pan around the room as if we are confused by the bizarre items within the shack. Suddenly a figure appears and begins to crawl through the window.

The figure appears human at first, until we see the figures head. A pig head attached to a human body. We track in. The pighead comes towards us as if he will jump out of the screen. We are confused as the pighead appears human but not human enough. He sits on the fabric covered seat. Suddenly he starts to dance as if he’s in a trance like state. Back and forth. Tracking in and out. The movements are uncanny and very unusual and uncomfortable to watch. It’s as if we are seeing 2 of the same character adding to our confusion and uncanny effects. Suddenly the character starts a fire and again we see the unusual items in the shack and begin to question what is reality. Pighead looks directly at us.We cut to black.

Further visual research - Exploring 'the uncanny' in film

Below is some research into films and filmmakers that consistently work with the idea of the uncanny and examples of how they successfully achieve this.

The uncanny in the films of Michael Haneke

(Image from Hidden/Cache (Dir. Michael Haneke, 2005.) )

Michael Haneke consistently portrays the theme of the uncanny within his film work, which can be seen in the form of things not appearing quite as they seem, for example the way in which homes are represented as places of fear and unease, instead of how the audience expects a traditional home environment to be; a place of safety.

(Research source/further completed reading : Haneke and The Uncanny - http://www.academia.edu/167835/Uneasy_Domesticity_in_the_Films_of_Michael_Haneke )


The Shining (Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

(Image from The Shining  (Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980.)

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a great example of how the uncanny can be represented in film by breaking traditional genre rules and audience expectations attached to a particular subject or theme. Unlike many traditional horror narratives, the film does not create a sense of fear in the viewer around one scary subject, but instead it gives off a general sense of unease as throughout it the viewer is aware of an underlying creepy tone and the knowledge that something doesn't feel quite right, despite the cause of this not being obviously shown. This can be noted in several scenes in The Shining, however one key example is when we see Danny riding the tricycle around the hotel corridors; the viewer is unsure what to expect around the next corner, but has a sense of uneasiness and fear of the unknown.


Vertigo (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1958.)
















(Image from Vertigo (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1958.)

Hitchcock was inspired by Freud's ideas. His classic film Vertigo draws on the idea of blending perception and reality and what we consider as recognisable with an uncanny element. Freud's written theory of the uncanny states these two different sides to the subject, as he writes about the difference between the uncanny that we read up about or imagine ourselves and the uncanny that we experience. Throughout Vertigo, many themes are present which reflect upon Freud's theory of the uncanny. Some of these are portrayed through contrast, such as the fear of heights, character obsessions, the way that insanity is portrayed and character observations. Through consistently changing how characters and subjects are represented and changing the viewer's initial viewpoints throughout the film, Vertigo employs the theme of the uncanny as the one which is most consistently present and which the viewer becomes aware of the most.

Research source/further completed reading: www.art3idea.psu.edu/417/notes/2-vertigo.pdf 

Artist research - Joseph Cornell

Another artist whose work explores the theme of the uncanny is Joseph Cornell. As an artist, he is recognised for questioning and challenging viewer's initial response to his work and opening up new perceptions of his pieces. Through employing this, he explores the concept of 'the uncanny' by challenging perspectives and allowing the viewer to reconsider his work in a new, not previously or obviously considered way. Cornell's work is often concerned with themes of childhood, mystery and space. He also uses the technique of juxtaposing items which are unpredicted which also creates a sense of un-canniness to his projects. His work is inspired by Surrealism and he was also noted for his work as an experimental avant-garde filmmaker as well as artist.

Cornell's art work included collected found objects which he assembled into boxes, creating 'shadow boxes' by which he became known for. These were often covered by a glass pane and organised into a juxtaposed position, allowing light and shape of the surfaces to work together. The main idea behind this work was for him to create a visual representation of the elements to our imagination that we can't ordinarily see, such as our memories, dreams, ideas and thought processes - and collate these all into one collection.

The 'uncanny' is a theme that is consistently present throughout Cornell's art work; as an artist he was concerned with the idea of turning everyday items into something mysterious and almost magical. In doing so, the viewer sees a seemingly ordinary looking object and is drawn into reconsidering the item and it's value in a new light.

The way that his artwork distorts the viewer's perception of time is another way that the theme of the uncanny is present. Showcasing objects from the past in modern forms, as well as using symbolism to suggest more abstract concepts (e.g. part of an old, destructed wind up clock to show the passing of time) gives his work a nostalgic theme in a modern environment.

Image source : http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-cornell-946

Artist Research - The Uncanny as a theme

Many artists explore the theme of 'the uncanny' within their work, going down a number of various routes. Because of it's broad meaning and the range of interpretations that can be taken from the subject, artists have expressed the theme through a number of different pieces and new creative work is continuing to emerge on the subject.

Researched example :

Gregor Schneider - Haus Ur
Gregor Schneider is a German artist who works mainly with spaces as an on-going theme and whose artwork focuses on creating uncanny environments. Through creating a sense of darkness and eeriness within his work, the work becomes something entirely new to how the viewer first experienced it, and therefore creates mystery and intrigue surrounding it which allows the observer to think further into the work .

(photo collection sourced from: http://www.gregorschneider.de )

For example, an ongoing project of his entitled Haus Ur (above)shows a developed remade version of his childhood home. The work features rooms hidden within others, small spaces that lead to nowhere and shut off doors - all of which ensure the viewer is intrigued and enticed into wanting to explore these spaces further. The subject of the uncanny comes across in this way within his work - in that 'the home' is now reimagined as a place to feel trapped, almost maze like and that disconnects the viewers original interpretation of the sight of the house to its interior. In some ways this work can also be viewed as a literal and physical representation of 'the uncanny'; delving into hidden areas could be representing the pushing away of fear that will resurface in another form, as suggested under psychoanalytical theory.


Workshop project
Connecting this to our own creative project, I think this will be a really useful as well as interesting collection of artwork to be aware of and research more into, as well as the rest of Schneider's work. Building a set from scratch has been a fun element to the module, however reading more into it after the set build has been completed, I have discovered a lot more content about the in depth ways that a theme can be explored within the design of a production in a not so literal way. When we first created our set we understood and applied as a group the theme of 'the uncanny' quite literally directly into our set build, in that we knew from the beginning we intended to create a space with a creepy appearance.

However, after researching further into artists work based on the same subject, I have discovered more about the subtler ways in which even individual elements to a space within a set can be used to created the impression of a theme - such as the use of objects within the main interior space in the above mentioned Haus Ur exhibition by Gregor Schneider. Using space as a whole to create the impression of a theme and thinking less literally about a theme or subject is an interesting concept to develop on in future projects and  is an area that I have taken away from this particular piece of research.

Start of the edit - After Effects tutorial session



In the week before the Easter holidays, we imported all of our footage from the previous weeks studio sessions into Adobe After Effects and had a quick recap of the basic elements to both this as well as Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. Carrie, Sarah and I were the only members of our group to attend the session, however in some ways this did work out quite well as it meant that it wasn't  too crowded around the one computer screen and we all had something to be individually working on.

Personally, I find using the Adobe Creative Suite for post-production work to be the most convenient, as  I find the interfaces simple and easy to navigate around when working on the same film on more than one programme. The programmes being interlinked in this way allows us to be able to make amends on Photoshop and then import these straight into After Effects, making the editing process for this project in particular a lot smoother and less time consuming.

We used this post production intro. session to review our footage in an edit and explore the options that were available to us after identifying the strengths of the film as well as the problem areas that we will be trying to fix, or come up with creative solutions for as a group, over the next two weeks. This session was useful in terms of us being able to see the problem areas and view all of our footage on a larger screen, as well as being able to refamiliarise ourselves with editing, as this is an area we haven't all been able to work on together for a while and that is a useful skill to have.

I made sure to take some notes down in the session so that when we come in over the next few weeks to work on the edit, we can refer to these to know how to do certain set tasks, such as sorting out any green areas left around parts of our green screen footage and how to connect After Effects to Photoshop etc., in order to hopefully make the post production stage of our project go quite smoothly.

 

 

Research into Visual FX and the future of the uncanny film

When researching further, I came across the following article from Empire Online, which I found to be both insightful and informative but also enjoyable and an interesting area to think about. This enabled me to think creatively about the possibilities within our own project initially, especially when considering the VFX and SFX requirements of the brief and how we could go about creatively achieving these. A lot of the article focuses on humans and where the future could lie with VFX in the representation of them, and I think this sort of contributed and comes across in some ways in our own idea - in our choice to use a human but with uncanny elements which could have been digitally manipulated in the way that they are shown just as believably. This relates to the uncanny in itself as a subject and theme in some ways, as the viewer could also possibly feel not quite sure whether or not the subject being shown is real and was filmed in a live set up or if this effect had been achieved through post-production VFX work.

(Image and article source: http://www.empireonline.com/features/future-of-vfx )

Set building completion and filming

Last week we filmed the sequence within our fully built set after putting some final touches to the decoration of it. This was a learning experience as the process was completely new to us, however it was enjoyable and I think as a group we were productive in terms of the time and resources made available to us within the final accessible day to the studio.

We had decided as a group beforehand to use a large light with an orange coloured filter to create a fire appearance effect, which was a technique Sarah and I had some experience in creating before. We also decided whilst on the set that a few extra DEDO lights would aid us in lighting our green screen from behind, so we set these up on top of the larger light. Setting up was quite time consuming in this way, so we decided to split our group up into two smaller teams again to work on different parts of the pre-shoot set up; Carrie, Sarah and I worked on the technical elements such as setting up lighting equipment and ensuring that the XF100 camera settings were set appropriately to match our newly lit set up. Whilst we did this, Terry and Billy helped Ryan to run through his small acting scene and helped to work out the best way to direct the action that would be occurring. Organising ourselves as a group this way made the set up more efficient, as it meant that once we were all set up with the camera and lighting equipment, Ryan felt happy to go for a take and Terry and Billy were happy to direct him and ensured this was happening safely in such a confined area by having done a few previous rehearsal run throughs.

Before and after green screen & addition of lighting :

The problems that we encountered during the actual shoot mainly related to us having to carefully plan out and consider shots in terms of their type, length and how movement would affect the lighting against our green screen. This was quite problematic at first, however due to our efficient set up time, we managed to creatively problem solve as a group and take our time with it, which I feel was a strength of our group. After a few run throughs and practice takes/reviews, we were happy with the outcome, but continued to gain footage for extra safety for when it came to the edit. This consisted of a series of close ups on individual items that contribute towards the theme of 'the uncanny' within our set, as well as design and material choice elements such as the red handprints on the walls and the sticks layered wallpaper effect.

Overall, I feel that the shoot went well and we gained more than enough footage which has made us feel satisfied that the edit will hopefully work out well, especially with the green screen element. However, I would say that what I have learned from this experience is that working with sets can be extremely time consuming and come with many challenges, so organisation and allowing ourselves enough time to set up and plan out what we are doing would be advantageous in the future if we ever work on filming this type of set up against a green screen again. I would also think about the original set up again and spend more time planning out this, as although there were three separate sets all organised within the production studio space, the green screen did seem a bit cramped into one corner which could have contributed to the initial issues we encountered with working out the movement and how this would affect the lighting of our set.

'Uncanny' Moodboard and ideas

To develop our idea further and to gain some imagery to help to visualise our set build, I have created and been working on a moodboard of images, most of which relate to our idea but some of which also incorporate the theme of 'the uncanny' on Pinterest.

Here is the link to the Pinterest site (below) - I have sent the details of this to the rest of the group and added their email addresses to the admin settings so that we can all add visual images this way and share further ideas as a group. I set this up in the hope that it will be a productive way of sharing all of our individual views and insights on how we imagine the film is going to appear visually - as this is sometimes more difficult to get across in a conversation. I also think it will be an interesting tool to use as our project develops further and as we discover artists and existing artwork that we find interesting and relevant to our subject and theme along the way, whilst having a visual board of imagery to relate back to and keep us on track throughout the remainder of the module with what we aim to achieve.
https://www.pinterest.com/grencis/the-uncanny-cpr-project/

A sample of images currently displayed:

Set building week 2

During the past week, our set has made good progress which has been down to us making use of being able to book out the studio key outside of our timetabled sessions at times when any two of us have been available, being organised as a group and having planned out our set design in detail before we started the full build. After Sarah and I spent a good few hours attempting to get the sticks to remain on the wall with PVA glue on Friday, we found out on Monday morning that there was a glue gun available to us in the store room, which made the rest of the wall focused stage of the build a lot less time consuming and efficient to complete.

Having most of the group present in this week's session also allowed us to be more productive in terms of how much we managed to achieve within the timetabled studio session, as well as taking the pressure of Sarah and I to complete a lot of the work between the two of us.

Within Monday's three hour session, we managed to complete the walls and begin on looking through some of the potential possibilities for props for our set. Because the theme of our film is quite dark and mysterious, and the subject 'the uncanny', we aimed from the beginning to keep our props relatively simplistic and not overcrowd the detail of the four walls with too many distractions. Instead, we wanted to remain close to our idea of having a wooden shack building, but bring some old looking items from 'the inside' (of a room) to 'the outdoors', to create the impression that someone was possibly living in this shack building and that there was some history to the items within it.

On Thursday, Sarah, Billy and I spent a few extra hours filling up the remaining gaps on the walls with extra sticks we had collected, as well as added the texture of the red paint splats/handprints for the blood effect to a few parts of the set. This ensured that the set's walls were definitely up to the standard we wanted to achieve ready for Monday's session where the filming of the action was to take place.

The main props that we found worked really well on our set were:

 

• Floor surface - Cushions, rugs, creating a messy but lived in appearance.
• Furniture items - old, antique looking shelves, some kind of covered up box to resemble a seat.
• Decoration - painting of abandoned place, taxidermy (deer head, rabbit), old flowers, curtains?, weather clock.
• Character - blood splattered/handprinted on a few areas of walls, ornaments of people, wood to make fire - suggesting a lonely character but also quite creepy in terms of the blood etc.

Here are some photographs of our updated set:

Set building Week 1

This week we began the process of building our set. We had three walls available to us, and chose one of these to be one that already had the window space cut out of it, which will save us time and help us to visualise our film when it comes to wanting to create the green screen aspect. We began the process by looking at the space available to us and working out as a group how best to position the three walls. We decided to make it less box-like in terms of the structure, as we thought about where the camera would go and how this would appear on screen. Instead, we chose to position one of the outer walls at a slight angle, so that when it comes to filming the camera is not restricted by a confined space.

The first task that we were faced with once the walls were up was to remove any excess wallpaper and paint left from the last set that had been created. This was quite time consuming, however because all of our group of six were present, we managed to work together to split into smaller groups and work on different walls each.

After enough of the existing wallpaper and paint was scraped off, we then had the task of wallpapering our own set. We took our time with this, as we had not previously done this before and we wanted to ensure that we did a good job of it, as this was the first layer that was being built onto our set. We did come into a few problems with this however, which I think came down to us being too careful over it and therefore not getting much completed during the seminar session. The wallpaper that we bought also naturally has a bumpy texture to it, which made it slightly more difficult to tell whether we were adding too much wallpaper paste and making it bumpy or whether this was just down to the appearance of the wallpaper. I think considering it was our first time wallpapering a set, we did an alright job of it, and we have all spent a lot of time coming into the studio during the rest of the week since the seminar to finish and neaten it, however I would still consider this not to be our strongest set building task as a group.

After completing the wallpapering process on the remaining walls, we waited for 24 hours for it to fully dry, whilst communicating in our group throughout the week to arrange a suitable time to meet up and start on the paint work. On Thursday, myself, Sarah, Ryan and Billy met up at the studio and began to paint the set. Because our set is going to be a wooden shack in the woods, our intention was not for the paint to be perfectly neat, but instead to create a scattered look, as our aim is to fill the walls with sticks after the paint has dried. This is something that we are bearing in mind throughout the set building process - the idea of creating a messy look, which fits with not only our film idea and theme, but also within the overall subject of the 'uncanny' that forms the module brief.


                                                      

On Friday morning, Sarah and I were the only ones that came into the studio again, which was a little disappointing as we still had a lot left to do with our set, however we spent a good few hours in there doing what we could and made further arrangements to contact our group to ensure we gave them advance notice when planning to do the same next week. We spent the time starting to put the final layer onto the walls - the sticks that will make up the wooden shack building. We realised that we forgot to keep the PVA glue out of the props cupboard, so we firstly went to buy some so that we could get started on this on the day, rather than wait until Monday and give ourselves even less time to complete the task. Whilst we feel like our set will look great visually if we could fill the entire thing with sticks, we hit a bit of a creative problem whilst starting out with this. Although spending hours in the studio, we actually made little progress due to the sticks falling down continuously. We tried the best that we could to solve this problem in a number of ways, from holding them down for a few minutes, to trying less and then more glue and using smaller twigs instead of larger sticks, and eventually did end up with an almost solid section that has not yet fallen. However, we were aware of how time consuming this task was, and knew we needed to rethink how best to approach it in order to still create the visuals we had in mind for our finished set. We decided to email Susannah to ask for some advice on the type of glue we were using, and also organised a plan for next week in terms of the times that we will be booking the studio key out that are outside of the scheduled seminar session. I think that although this is a bit of a concern at the moment in terms of the tight timed schedule we have to complete the module, the set building process is still going well and we are all determined to overcome this to make the best set that we can, as well as committed to the project by coming into the studio at any available opportunity that we have outside of the timetabled sessions.

 

Set design - Group lighting plan

 

Here is a brief design of how we plan our lighting set up to appear within the studio space:

Ken Adam exhibition in Berlin

Whilst away in Berlin last week, I visited the current Ken Adam film design exhibition at the Film and Television Museum.

Ken Adam is a production designer who has worked on over 70 films, including Dr. Strangelove (Dir. Stanley Kubrick,1964), Addams Family Values (Dir Barry Sonnenfeld,1993.), Around the World in 80 Days (Dir. Michael Anderson, 1956) and a number of the James Bond films. The exhibition included video installations of interviews with people who knew him personally, as well as a larger screen showing Ken Adam recreating some of his work at his desk whilst talking through his process in doing so.

Although I was unable to take photographs of the exhibition, I found it very interesting and was amazed at the detail of his body of work and how much consideration goes into each design. I also discovered the ways in which a character can be reflected upon by the space in which they are shown in within a scene or entire film. This made me stop to think about films that I enjoy watching and consider how if I did not know anything or much about the main characters, what the spaces and environments they were shown in would give away about them. This is an area that is interesting to consider when building our own set - although we do not have a narrative in our piece, we have the freedom to experiment with various elements within our sets and even the smaller details, in order to create impressions about who might live in the space we create, or the type of mood of the environment we are building.

Link to the exhibition:
http://www.deutsche-kinemathek.de/en/exhibitions/2014/bigger-than-life

Planning for workshop project

This week we got together in our groups and discussed our project idea further, in order to develop it to a stage where we will be able to make best use of the studio access we have during next week's workshop session.

We took another look at all of our individual project proposals. Carrie's and Sarah's were based around quite a thriller/horror type of theme, whereas my initial idea was more to do with exploring a child's imagination. We talked about how we could combine these two ideas, and after having researched further moodboard images for both of these ideas, we came up with an idea which we really like the sound of, however which will need some work upon in terms of how to best dress and design the set in the studio space whilst meeting the brief's set requirements.

The concept we are currently developing is an outdoor scene, in which we would either have a tent or a wooden shack as the main item occupying the space. For the green screen element, we are thinking about showing a night-time sky scene out of a wall which has a window space cut out. For the effect that we need to include, we are thinking about showing a figure climbing out of the window and stepping out to the 'outside', where leaves will be blowing around the scene (which is something we will set up in the studio with a fan).

We think this will be a strong idea to work with, in terms of combining our individual ideas together and focusing on the theme of contrast between the uncanny and creepy side to the wooden shack against the quite dreamlike and more peaceful side to nature that will be shown on the outside of this, through the small window and by the leaves.

Here are some images that show similar designs to what we would like to achieve:

The subject of the uncanny

Freud's theory of "the uncanny" dates back to post -World War 1, and relates to the idea that the things people find fear in are linked to those that have some form of familiarity. The theory is concerned with what we perceive to be frightening with against what we are familiar with, and the similarity when the two are mixed together.

The subject of "the uncanny" is referred to within psychoanalytic film theory, in the way which we as viewers can be shown certain things on screen to help us connect with things we have previously been shown or are aware of. An example of this is within Hidden/Cache (Dir. Michael Haneke, 2005.) Within the film, Haneke wants to connect with the viewer through making them constantly look for clues and find an answer in the unknown subject of who sent the mysterious video tapes. A main theme behind the film is guilt, and he reveals this through portraying the idea that hidden guilt can be suppressed but will resurface eventually. Michael Haneke and other directors such as David Lynch focus a lot of their work around the subject of the uncanny as a theme; the idea that slightly odd or things we find frightening to look at are things that we have had experience with before in some way, and so can be to an extent normalised.

A lot of art is also centred around the theme of "the uncanny", and on his original theory Freud stated that  “The uncanny was not to be found in the exotic but the everyday.” A lot of artwork that relates to the idea of "the uncanny" appears as almost ordinary to the viewer, but with a twist to it. For example, the exhibition Lifelike (See more at: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/uncanny-startlingly-real#sthash.rtYHnD5t.dpuf ) includes a series of images that are "strangely familiar yet simultaneously foreign; we think we recognise the place that the image claims to represent but we are at a loss to identify that place definitively".

The idea of "the uncanny" is to some extent a trick of the mind; we think we perceive something as well known to us yet still feel unnerved when it does not appear to us completely as it normally would.

Research sources :

Bright Lights Film Journal: http://brightlightsfilm.com/hidden-within-ourselves-a-psychoanalytic-examination-of-the-effects-of-repression-in-michael-hanekes-cache/#.VP3EWcNFDIV

Aesthetica Magazine (Uncanny LifeLike exhibition)page) : http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/uncanny-startlingly-real#sthash.rtYHnD5t.dpuf

Moodboards - Week 3

During this week's seminar we looked at different types of moodboards and the purposes of creating these when designing a production. Since learning some basic design skills for mood boards on Photoshop during the session, I created the above image which is based around my initial proposal idea for the module. The idea is centred around the theme of imagination from a child's perspective, and so I have adapted selected areas of the general overall room image in subtle ways to reflect this, such as the cloud on the wall, the adapted framed pictures and the open storybook on the floor, leading to the imagination world that is opened up through the bookcase.

We also got into our main production groups during the session. Myself, Sarah and Carrie had already began to develop early initial ideas as a group of three, however we were put with Ryan, Terry and Billy to form a larger group of six, and so we began to discuss all of our individual ideas and develop these into a combined idea. We agreed to keep in touch via a group conversation on a messaging app, and send any research influences and inspirations over this. We have decided from an early stage that we would like to do something different, yet keep the idea simple and focus more on an installation piece with shadows, rather than involving any people in our piece and instead being able to purely focus on the design of the set, the materials we would like to use and the visual techniques we would like to incorporate into our idea.

 

 



 



Short Proposal

Tag line: There are no boundaries to a child’s imagination.

Log line:  The exciting journey into an insight of a 5 year old child’s imagination, as they discover their own magical world hidden through their bedroom wall, only at night-time.

Scene synopsis

A young child sits on her bedroom floor, surrounded by picture filled storybooks. Tired, she rubs her eyes and starts to tidy the books up to carry them towards a large bookcase in the corner of the room. She stands on her tiptoes to try her hardest to reach the top shelf, but a sudden noise – a clatter - makes her jump, and she drops one of the books. She sits down on the floor again and finds she has knocked a photograph off the shelf. The picture shows her as a baby, in her mother’s arms.  She turns the photograph over, looking instead at the open book next to it.  She stands up and steps onto the book with both of her feet. She closes her eyes.

We see her faintly from a muddy view underneath her feet, as if through the eyes of the storybooks open page. She takes a step forward and wraps her arms around her pyjama top for warmth. She looks around her. The dark sky gradually turns to a magical blue, and stars start to appear and sparkle. She smiles, noticing muddy footprints carving out a path in front of her. There does not seem to be anyone else around in the woods that surround her.  Shivering, she skips ahead, following the footprints which lead her to a door. She tries to knock but the door disappears, revealing a figure of the child’s mother standing in its place.  

Introduction to Module Brief

This morning's seminar was an introduction to the Creative Project Realisation module, which involves exploring and experimenting with different ways to approach Production Design on a film set. The brief requires us to make a short film piece on the topic of 'the uncanny', working together as a group to plan, design and build a set and creatively solve any problems that arise in doing so. The actual film does not require a narrative, but instead the focus is on understanding the creative side to the production, and making decisions as a group to problem solve and experiment creatively.

I am looking forward to getting started with this module and putting a lot of effort into planning and designing the set, as this is an area I have never really explored much previously when working on productions. I like the idea that the focus of this brief is to try new things and experiment creatively, instead of being assessed purely on the technical aspects which other modules on the course seem to rely more heavily on. I enjoy coming up with and developing creative ideas, and on other modules I have also found an interest in Producing, so to be able to do a module which is practical seems like it will be enjoyable as well as useful.

This week's seminar also involved trying out a short creative meditation exercise, which was supposed to help in getting into a creative mind-set. Although I had a basic idea before this, I did use the time to think about ways to develop my idea further and I found imagining being in a room to be useful, as I was able to fully explore the space I had initially thought of in more depth.

From this, I took away an idea that focuses on the theme of imagination, and visuals that could be representative of childhood. A lot of the examples we looked at of special effects and production design within this week's session seemed to be associated with fear in relation to being unsure if something was real or not. I thought about developing the idea of imagination further in a different way - exploring the imagination world of a child, the excitement in a belief something is real as opposed to the fear of it. A film that I thought about whilst trying to visualise this idea more clearly was Pan's Labyrinth (Dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2006.)