Week 6

I've been exploring surrealism and have come to find that the masters of surrealism where
exploring the works of Freud and the realms of the subconscious mind, but, they were choosing
to express they're subconscious mind through art and more importantly through their conscious.
Which is contradictory.

However many surrealist films have dream like qualities that I can explore.




focusing on the absurdities of dreaming, often I wake up remembering what I was thinking
in my dreams, and then as I slip into conscious while recalling the state of mind i was in, my thoughts, though rational in my dream state, prove to be highly irrational in conscious state.

Here Gondry uses many props to express a dream like environment.

This video wouldn't upload so here is a clip from youtube




Germaine Dulac's The Seashell and The Clergyman


What I found dreamlike from this clip of The Seashell and The Clergyman
was the use of fade between scenes and even the fades from the character
moving from the distant background to foreground.

The use of many halls and door also reminded me of the interior of the old
house in which most of my short film takes place in.

Music plays a large role in the portrayal of atmosphere, must consider mellow
and long drawn out tunes.



Jean Cocteau's Le Sang d_un poète (the blood of the poet)



This piece similar in style to the previous " Seashell and The Clergyman"
has the same transitions but with narration. I feel the narration gives a distanced
point of view allowing the viewer to feel more distanced from the events therefore
the film can be seen as a story told of a dream.

The transition of scenes through a key hole works well as it gives a voyeuristic feel
of peering through locked doors. I would use this transition perhaps after the each interview
to allow the view to feel as though they were flowing through the environment rather than
the protagonist solely leading them.




Man Ray's L_étoile de mer (the star fish)







Salvador Dali' and Walt Dysney's Destino

Week 5

Im considering using a 3D modeld interior of the old house.
I must talk to Shane as I lack experience in 3D modeling...
A 3D interior will allow me to shoot bagrounds to edit in Photoshop and then replace the keyd out green screen.





















Falling slowly through darkness surrounded by antique looking furniture reminds me of Alice in Wonderland falling through the tunnel.

this indicates that the protagonist is falling into an ureal world/environment, which then suggests that I should make the 1st scene of the film (the scene before he falls) alot less dreamlike.















It was decided that the house would be a real paper house that the camera would pan around

This use of props remind me of Michel Gondry's use of cheap and creative props in his many videos.

Week 4

When working with the interview fotage the background will be edited with the use of rotoscoping, I must remember to maintain a dream like scenerio without loosing purpose in imagry... I can add effect after effect without any reason to it.





































































Images, Developing the visual aspects of the characters and the feel of the film

Week 3

The creature:
The silent character that follows the protagonist


After sketching ideas and looking through the character of the 'cancer'
I decided that less detail is best, as I feel more detail would take away
focus from the story and visual environment. A really stunning, scary
and detailed character would perhaps be to outstanding for the impression
I want to give it.

I have chosen it to be a large, not too fat to be cute and not to thin to be
less intimidating. I would also like to have fog around its feet, giving it a
more eerie hovering look as it moves, this alows it to rise out of the fog
aswell.

"From the floor a dark fog grew. Near the mans feet a figure began to rise
out from within it, taller than the man with large red eyes, it stared blanky
down at him."

Cancer is sometimes known as the "silent killer" and so I want this character
to remain silet.

Perhaps ill produce digitally affected breathing sounds for the creature.

Week 2

An integral part of the project and film is the development of an interview process that creates not only a comfortable environment for the person being interviewed but their answers should be influenced by my presence.

A rough interview proposal:

The standard story progression starts with the catch at the introduction/begging to entice the viewer and give the story a direction. It then continues to introduce characters as the plot is introduced through them and their narrative. Positive or engaging outcomes are presented over minor negative situations until we reach the climatic stage, this part is quickly met with the largest problem the main character has to face, for example in a romantic story this stage is where the skeletons in the protagonist’s closet are found out by his/her love interest, he/she is then faced with the task of winning the love interest’s affections back. After this goal is achieved the story comes to a conclusion.

In my story the character starts off searching the rooms of his mind, not soon revealing to the viewers that he is dying.

I will interview four or five people but use only three for the story. Each person will be asked on three topics.

“What was your most proud achievement in life?”

“What do you regret the most?”

“What are you not proud of?”

“Discuss a significant point of realisation in your life”

“Who or what is god to you?”

“If you were to die tomorrow what would you be most proud of, least proud of, what would you have missed out on?”

Then based on their responses the dialogs most relevant will be chosen and presented in the order most relevant to the progression of the story.

Week 1

Before week 2 I must acknowledge my proposal and further develop the body of the project plot, story, script, characters, etc.

A change in the story

Three Honours Project Ideas

The Interviewing Idea

The main character is found walking through a dark forest, unreal in its appearance due to the partially rotoscoped environment, foreground, middle ground and background slightly hovering behind the other. Scenes where the camera follows from behind from a first person perspective, as if there is someone/ something following the main character. Dressed in black, walking forward at a pace sure of his destination he narrates into a hand held voice recorder. “I know how I have come to this place, I know where I am going, what I need to know is who, who is the ever present often ignored character that is myself”.
After a brief travel through the trees he reaches the edge of the forest he stands at the edge of a cliff, looking down... “One often finds oneself staring into a mirror and feeling less than depressed, less than troubled by the hidden and horrifying facts a mirror cannot reveal, however now I find myself looking into the abyss... (camera pans down to reveal the infinite darkness) ...and I am, truly scared.” The protagonist jumps off and into the darkness...

-play opening credits/ title sequence-
The protagonist awakes on the floor of a dark old house. He looks up to find a dark unreal figure with large red eyes. It is silent and holds a calm presence. The protagonist acknowledges it as though he knows who it is. “I knew you were following and I’ve come to terms that you won’t leave me but I’m not going with you just yet, not until I find what I’m looking for.”

Brief Synopsis one

The Protagonist ventures through a surreal land with a tape recorder to find and be reminded of who he is before his departing with death. The different rooms all lead from the main hall of a dark house. Death here is represented by a silent large dark bean shaped figure with glowing red eyes. Subtly it is also his brain tumour, as cancer is silent and a brain tumour isn’t painful this character is silent and non-violent yet intimidating in stature and appearance. The figure stay’s in the main hall of the old dark house and meets with the protagonist after returning from each room.
The protagonist ventures through the symbolic rooms of his mind meeting characters that he interviews about their life. In real life these people are friends of mine that I feel have perceptive notions of experiences and understandings of said experiences that they feel determine their character. They are to the character personas of who he is, and their stories are of those that were significant to him as a person. This interviewing idea is inspired by the documentary One Giant Leap, where people around the world were interviewed on their beliefs and ideas. Each interview will have animated and illustrated symbolism relevant to each of the interviewed characters narrative.
At the end the main character feeling content does not resist the dark figure’s advancing presence and joins with its body, to reveal the protagonist in grey and white clothing, he then departs from the house into a room filled with light.
No matter how un-resolving the outcome for the main character maybe the presented thoughts and ideas will gather an interesting presentation of perspectives and an unscripted collection of characters.
This project will require research in symbolisms of a common nature, that is, symbols that are easily interpreted by popular culture and perhaps even inspired by. I will also research Salvador Dali and other masters of the surrealist expression.

Brief Synopsis Two

Two lovers are travelling in a train together, both asleep on each other’s shoulders. A bright flash of light fills the screen with a loud metallic noise and the male character is found alone in a strange dark house. He wonders through this place finding animated characters and visions in different rooms. The narrative progresses to reveal that the protagonist is looking for his lover and finds his admiration and love for her challenged by the visions and animated characters. As the plot progresses a character reveals to him that both him and his lover have died in a train accident. Despite even this dilemma the protagonist decides to continue searching for her. At this point a bright light envelops and the house fades, revealing the both of them at a train station in the sky. She waits for him at a bench, they are united and both depart on a train together.

Brief Synopsis Three

The protagonist finds that he is in the hall of an old run down home unaware of how he came to be there. Each room leading from that hall presents him with visions inspired by kokoulogy, he interact with the environments playfully. The protagonist wears a shirt that reacts to the environment and his mood through colour and texture. Each environment being inspired by kokoulogy is in turn describing who he is as a person. After several situations of experiencing kokoulogy inspired environments the protagonist finds a mirror at the end of the hall, quite happily he walks through it with ease.

____________________________________________________________________

After discussions it was decided that the first synopsis would be developed for the project

Before Week 1

The Proposal-

The most significant aspect that I’ve learnt about myself through my recent course in Multimedia and Digital art is that my greatest attraction to art is in creating and exploring characters through film and narrative. I feel my strongest technical aspect is working and editing film along with its components of lighting and sound. Through the Honours course of Multimedia and Digital Arts I greatly hope to develop my creativity and technical proficiency in those directions.

My proposed direction in narrative explores the mindset of a protagonist exploring a surreal world in which it holds different spaces and objects all symbolically significant to the inner workings of the protagonist’s mind. The exploration involves a real person in a surreal world confronting animated characters one at a time in a strange home that doesn’t limit itself to what a house should look like.

Inspiration and direction for the subject matter and narrative will be explored through my own personal experiences in life and represented through the understandings of Kokology. Kokology, the study of the mind or spirit through guided daydreams or submodalities reveal one’s hidden attitudes towards life as well as provide clearer insight to one’s perceptions on things. Based on my personal understanding of myself and attitude towards work, play, career and life in general I intend to symbolically present these issues with animated characters, situations and environments. I have not been able to create a full synopsis of the narrative at this stage because of the need for research to find suitable characters to create. One example in Kokology is it presents you with a picture of an empty deep sea with a single coral on the sea floor, the book talks of octopuses and asks for you to draw however many octopuses of any size on the picture given. It reveals to you later that the octopuses in relation to size and closeness to the coral are problems you currently face in life; the larger the octopus the bigger the problem, the closer to the coral the more important you feel it is to resolve that problem. As this is a personal piece, instead of presenting the viewer with just the situation I place myself as the protagonist interacting with the situation accordingly. If the need be further research to gather inspiration for narrative will include exploring the psycho-analytic notions of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, as Kokology was greatly influenced by the two.

The visual styles that I lean towards more are of baroque lighting, strong shadows and vivid colours with a minimalistic approach for the details of the animated characters. With the use of green screen technology and keying out specific colours I intend to portray the protagonist with a fixed texture for his clothing. I find this relevant to the surrealistic approach and representation of the character, and I am quite keen to create a live action character with a prominent textured clothing style that I have only seen in animated film; animations such as Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo and cartoon network’s Chowder. The fixed texture being ‘unreal’ will be useful in creating mood for the character as the colours and texture could change/animate to portray such moods. A grey and cloudy texture could emphasize melancholy while a yellow texture could present joy.

The environment itself will change from room to room as the protagonist explores this surreal universe. For example the protagonist could walk into a dark small kitchen to confront a large dark figure with glowing eyes, have tea with it and exit the room to find himself on a beach. This theme of entering different ‘rooms’ is a common visual metaphor for exploring ones subconscious and/or conscious mind. Tarsem Singh’s The Cell (2000) portrays the protagonist entering the antagonist’s mind seeking answers. The different rooms in the antagonists mind symbolically explain why and how he is a serial killer, from portraying rooms of his perverse and demented obsessions with women to theatrical recollections of his tormented past as an innocent young boy. Another great influence to me portraying the beauty of surrealism is Salvador Dali. His fantastic landscapes and works that explore the metaphorical approach to revealing the workings of the mind are greatly relevant to my own proposed piece. His dream-like subject matter gathers elements and subjects from the real world but portrays them in an unreal situation that are better understood symbolically. However unlike Dali’s works that entice the viewer to explore the piece I use a live action protagonist to play the role of the explorer.

Honors from a technical standpoint would give me the great opportunity for research aimed at learning more about filming techniques, camera and lens capabilities, green screen technology, onset lighting and further my capabilities in creating and combining 2d animation with live action environments. Furthering myself in these aspects would greatly help me create more expressive, higher quality works, both through filming and animation.

The Start :D

I started collaborating my research the 'old fashioned way' (compiled sketch book), however it is proving to be inconvenient. I am currently transferring my notes, links, research and development here...

...Welcome to Alister Kent's ongoing Honours Project...