Definitions and The Truman Show Postmodernism

Definitions:
HyperRealism- This is when something is exaggerated in comparison to reality. This can be an artistic representation. This is also a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high resolution photograph and is an advancement of Photorealism.
Simulation- This is an imitation of a situation or a process or the act of pretending also known as deception. The simulation could be imitating an operation of a real world process or system, a Computer model of something is an example.
Simulacra/Simulacrum- This was first used in the 16th century to describe a representation, such as a statue or a painting especially of God but by the 19th century it had gathered a secondary association of inferiority for example an image without the qualities of the original. Arts like Photorealism, Pop Art and Italian Neo realism do this also things like caricature, Recreation, Iconography, Philosophy.
Simulacra is an image or representation of someone or something that could be unsatisfactory substitute or a slight unreal or superficial likeness.
Fake News- This is a type of journalism or propaganda that is deliberately sharing misinformation or hoaxes this can be spread through many of the media forms such as social media, broadcasting or traditional print.

5 Reasons why the Truman Show is Postmodern:
1. The setting is hyper real, it uses false images for the set like the clouds and sky.
2.Hyper-Realism: The protagonist Truman played by Jim Carrey starts to get the inability to tell the difference between what is real and what is not, everything he thinks is real is actually a lie. And brings the idea that whatever you perceive to be reality is reality.
3. There is a distrust in ideologies and the problematic relationship when it comes to ideas of art itself. Truman you could argue is a form of art in a hyper real art world seen as entertainment by its viewers suggesting we live not inside reality but inside our representations of it. This is a postmodern idea in the very concept of the film.
4. Truman's world is deconstructing and questions whether his life being commercialised is moral or not and this idea of things going too far. Deconstruction is classic of Postmodernism.
5. Follows Simulacra: The first stage is recognising an illusion and the second stage is the distinction between the image and representation breaking down and threatens to replace the real world. And the final stage is there is no longer a distinction between reality and its representation. For example Truman recognises this illusion stage of his life then is threatened with not being able to leave this place.

To Pee or not to pee that is the Question?

Confusion for a short moment

Confused for a split second and then carry's on...After reading Romeo,Romeo wherefore fart thou Romeo?
Next part is where he will carry on.

The Three main Frames: Unleashing the Gadget

I edited the original so it was bolder and could see it better. went over drawings on photoshop. 

The first diagonal frame is a dramatic shot hence the diagonal. The second shot is more of a stand off and close call and for the last shot I tried to go for a more spy stance and she has won and got her power back. She will be bold red how she has been shown before with some black details.

I might have the shadows more bold. etc. I want a lot of space around the characters and eyeline to get people to look where I'd like. But overall this is the kind of scene I'm dealing with.

Romeo, Romeo wherefore fart thou Romeo?

Angry at mime close up and extreme close up (no sleeves)

Have this one so close can only see eyes and eyebrows no fist etc then can differentiate.
(got to edit.)

Maya Lesson Animating Charlie Chaplain.

Extremes added, smoothed the geometry and then  used anti aliasing (the outline) and motion blur and multi sampling. which is accessed through the viewpoint settings.

Definitions and Dancing in the Dark Postmodern

Definitions
Meta-fiction: Fiction is where the author self consciously calls attention to the artificial nature of a work by parodying or by somehow differentiating from otherwise known traditional narrative techniques and conventions.
Intertextuality: Intertextuality is the relationship between texts. It is the way in which texts are similar or relate to each other ,influence or differ.
Mise-en-abyme: This is a French pronunciation and its meaning is placed into abyss. This term has a few senses when it comes to modern criticism since it was picked up from heraldry from Andre Gide who is a French author.
The 4th wall: This is a performance convention where there is an invisible imaginable wall which separates the actors from the audience. The audience can see through this wall and the convention suggests the actors cannot. The 16th century onwards provided a lot of illusionary practices and these stages influenced realism and naturalism of the theatre in the 19th century.
E.g. Proscenium Arch has the wise en scene hidden behind it and dividing the auditorium's this staging is also known as a box set.
e.g. a theatre may have a play about a play or drawing attention to that aspect becoming meta metatheatrical.

Fig1

Fig2

5 Reasons why Dancer in the Dark is Postmodern
1. Selma's Daydreams are helping her escape from the horrible reality she is facing causing the fantasy and reality to conflict. Because of this the daydreams are seen as more brightly lit and nearly oversaturated this is done on purpose to show its artificiality.
2. Artificiality of the music numbers becomes postmodern critique of escapist cinema and not only that but also but the verisimilitude we are use to seeing is not seen, in other words they are breaking the reality that is represented to us on screen making us aware of being a spectator, an audience watching.
3. Cinema and musical escapism and the false reality. The ending where Selma is being hanged being like the Great Depression as she is interrupted during her last song, also Artificial Hollywood Cinema having an overly idealised image of that of the real world, which creates something more fantastical in terms of the worlds depiction that conflicts the reality of dark human nature that people face or have faced.
4. 180 degree rule being broken, Von Trier purposefully gets Selma to lie during the court thus breaking her moral code and what you expect then goes back etc. This is contrast to the traditional narrative techniques.
5. Controversies and The Illusion of a so called  "American Dream' and Cry against Capital punishment. This is shown by wealth favoured citizens systems like Selma's next door neighbour's.
How all of this is shot is non traditional creating an awkwardness, it looks like home video and is using heavy jump cuts and is handheld and maybe also contributing to her being low on the favoured citizens scale by showing her foreignness compared to her fellow co workers.

Bibliography

En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Fourth wall. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall

IMDb. (2018). Dancer in the Dark (2000). [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168629/mediaviewer/rm2533562368 

Scene Storyboarding

I looked at the Untouchables for A Roof Chase Scene and based it on my Spy character and antagonist and started to establish how I am going to add drama to the scene with the angles and what events could take place. 

There has been some main frames I am going to focus on which I will upload.

Important staged scenes of weakness and strength changing dynamic.

this storyboard is not for the spy. This was given it is also not good in terms of build up and there's more shots I could have use also the flashback is not needed it could have been seen before.

Life Drawing

Mad Max Fury Road Review-Exploitation

Fig1

Fig2

"Mad Max Fury Road is like the Handmaids Tale its a dystopia that imagines white women in the future suffering from the oppression visited on women of colour." (Berlatsky,2018)

Mad Max Fury Road is a film that is a women in prison exploitation. This sub genre is usually one of the most despised in terms of B-movies past era's but in this case has proven its influence on what is still out there today. 

Feminist heroism and Patriarchy is shown when Charlize Theron who plays Furiosa is freeing women from sex slavery, these women look like supermodels dressed in lingerie and these are mainly white except from two women of colour. This shy's away from the roots of exploitation possibly because the borrowed 40 year old exploitation films and representations of these women and male heroes is still apparent as being far too radical for the mainstream.

For example Men in a WIP (Women in Prison film) are seen as sometimes villains in this case we have the evil patriarch Joe ( Hugh Keays-Bryne), love interests, or sympathetic characters as an example but not really as heroes which brings us to the characters Nux (Nicolas Hault) who was originally one of the villain Joe's war boys becomes a protagonist because of his transformation of love for the character Capable ( Riley Keogh.) It is true that the women are heroically saving each other but the white man or men are still the ones who sacrifice or help save the white women and even women of colour. This straightens out the dynamics for WIP films. As the film is not saying all men are that way and women are superior which means there is not an inequality in terms of the Binary Opposites and it is more balanced.

Fig3

The Male Saviour max who is exiled from society due to his madness is seen similar to that of a western hero. The cast of characters share this in-equality because of the evil patriarch. 

In the shot above you can see not only the cinematography which focuses on the centre of the screen at all times but also the white protagonist at the end of the film being Furiosa as she is accepted by society and being raised up helping the other citizens without the Evil patriarch alive anymore in this shot there is a mutual respect and change and around him are women of colour all around him going towards her. Rather than Max being the one in dominion after the saviour the one who is now empowered is Furiosa (Charlize Theron.) Mad Max and Rux have been supporting the women who are continuing to progressing their battle-hardened resourcefulness and commitment to the feminist revolution of both genders being an equal. However there are people which disagree with this equality of male and female for example their are Mens Rights Activists that do not like this film. " Fury Road was not going to be a film made for men. It was going to be a Feminist piece of propaganda posing as a guys flick."-Clarey 

He says that the trailers focused way more Furiosa than Max who seemed like he had cameo appearances, and not many lines form Tom Hardy. "Nobody barks orders to Mad Max." 

And goes on to conclude that when Charlize Theron states " Im not a fan of scrawny little girls trying to kick butt". And Clarey is saying that they are forcing a feminism lecture down our throats. And that the film proves women and feminists in general are dysfunctional by nature and cannot be trusted with anything. 

Bibliography

Anon, (2018). [image] Available at: http://cdn.traileraddict.com/content/warner-bros-pictures/mad_max_fury_road-12.jpg 
Anon, (2018). [image] Available at: https://elipunto.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/mad-max-fury-road-cast.jpg 
Anon, (2018). [image] Available at: http://fannypack.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/hardy-miller-mad-max-furyroad-road-warrior.jpg
Berlatsky, N. (2018). Mad Max: Fury Road is less radical than its B-movie influences. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/26/mad-max-fury-road-less-radical-exploitation-influences 
Vincent, A. (2018). Why men's rights activists hate Mad Max: Fury Road. [online] The Telegraph. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/mad-max-fury-road/mens-rights-activists-angered-feminist-movie/ 

Just one more sleeve to go then parenting needed

Scream Postmodernism Film Review

Fig1

Postmodern films attempt to subvert from narrative structure and characterisations that are mainstream conventions. This is so the text can test the audience disbelief. Usually postmodern films aim for something that isn't abiding by traditional narrative and this is done by breaking the divide in culture of high and low art and typical representations are inverted of things like , gender, race, class and genre and even time. Postmodernism is a reaction to the meta and is more interested In instability and fragmentation and contradiction. And this was seen as saving the type of genre of film after being postmodernised. This 1996 film was doing things differently from films like Halloween and Friday the 13th and that made it stand out as it had the following qualities.
"It's not where you take things from it's where you take them to."-Jean Luc Godard.
This quote describes this postmodernist film well as the film relies on everybody already understanding the codes and conventions of a slasher and the rigid formula within for example a group of teenagers doing things they shouldn't resulting in consequences i.e. getting drunk ,having sex and being killed off one by one. But usually these characters are not aware of this. In the film Scream the characters are aware of this formula and it is purposefully done because it is aware that the audience will have knowledge of this and also provide a sense of satisfaction and parody and therefore taking it into a different direction by using these satires and cliche's.

Fig2

An example of this could be when the teenagers use a famous one liner being ill be right back..but they get killed. And the other teenager Randy Meeks who himself as a character is a film fanatic being aware of the various consequences of what not to do to survive a horror film This. They even go as far to the teenagers watching a horror film in the film itself making it a postmodern film Because it uses its awareness of The ideology of slasher. It also relies on the audiences exploitation themes to that genre as a meta This characters representation is relating to people already know the systematic way this genre of film is played out and people who are not aware as he speaks them out loud which in the film can be quite fourth wall breaking from the fictional images on screen and the real inclining us to feel like they're being more direct to us as the consumer.

Fig3

Contradictiveness is used in Scream when there is the phone call and main protagonist and the character Ghost face which asks "do you like scary movies?" and Sidney Prescott Replies "Whats the Point they're all the same some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who cant act and is always running up the stairs when she be running out the front doormats insulting." This Quote shows that the character knows what is expected of the film and is poking fun at it but further she contradicts this by running up the stairs.  

Bibliography

Upload.wikimedia.org. (2018). [online] Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/Scream_movie_poster.jpg 

Goodreads.com. (2018). Postmodernism Quotes (159 quotes). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/postmodernism 

Images5.fanpop.com. (2018). [online] Available at: http://images5.fanpop.com/image/polls/1005000/1005238_1334707912106_full.jpg

Bankerstoolbox.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.bankerstoolbox.com/wp-content/uploads/Rules-to-follow.png 

Charlie Chaplain lesson

Definitions from today and Funny Games.

Normativity-  This means deriving from the standard or norm. e.g. behaviour.

Binary Opposition-Is when a pair of concepts or related terms have an opposite meaning. It is a system in language and thought and these two opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another. Its a contrast between on and off, an exclusive term. Binary opposition is a concept of structuralism which is trying to distinguish a fundamental to all language and all thought in which it is seen as a organiser of human philosophy, culture and language.
For example:
Male/Female
Straight/Gay
One more dominant (unfair than the other etc..)

Cognitive disonance- In Psychology cognitive dissonance is described as mental discomfort which is experienced by a person who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas or values. This is cognitive discomfort is caused by a situation when confronted with the facts that contradict personal beliefs in order to reduce their own discomfort because of this clash.

Reinscribe- Means to Re-name or Re-establish in a new and especially stronger form or context.

Diff'ence- A French term by Jacques Derrida it is a concept that is central with Derrida's Deconstruction it means difference or deferral meaning.

Deconstruction- Deconstruction is Critical Analysis, this method is Philosophical and literary language or even conceptual systems,The Quality of meaning relational wise and the assumptions implicit in forms of expression.

Judith butler-Is a gender theorist who discusses gender performativity. How we act consolidates an impression of being a male or a female. Nobody is a gender from the start these are cultural norms etc..

5 Reasons why Funny Games U. S is postmodern.
1. Postmodern take of the real illusion of film. For example the discussion at the end which brings up the illusory sense of reality caused by this representational nature of these images that are fictional.
e.g. meta fiction, violence as entertainment, breaking the fourth wall etc.
2. Hanneke's use of music only increases the idea of realism and avoids attracting to the film for example music out of the narrative.
3. The really long shots that are real time and would be cut shorter in an expected film of this genre but this is done on purpose questioning if the rules should be a certain 'time on screen.'
4. The use of a statement-The controller and the power of cinema.
5. Funny Games is trying to put people in discomfort by not abiding by the rules making it very postmodern for example the tease of the hero killing the villain but gets rewinded and stopped. As its seen as breaking the rules. And not showing violence pornography of mass media.

Shakespeare Actor-Update

Added some textures got rid of the bottom part of the costume the undergarments as it looked wrong and wasn't needed as extra geometry. (Alan said about etc..)

Things left to do:

Sleeves connected to circular mid part.

Texture for lines/ruffles neck part but at the top.

Teeth for the skull. and filling the skull. Bevel teeth have the rest smooth go over to smooth vertices?

figure out if we want diamond patterns on the back also...

(Been UV mapped.)

Head Modelling Update

Nose.

Still need to round off the forehead more so I'm going to have a look at this with Alan tomorrow. Same situation as body modelling torso.

Updated Storyboard so far.

Updated Storyboard1 by Georgia Nicole Betteridge on Scribd
So I've thrown together a rough updated storyboard of all our acts by looking at our footage and our updated animatic. Just got the Singer and the Final act changes left to do. Hopefully this will help us more when it comes to animating although rough I think the more frames added this time is going to help. Also this was the updates word document that VDS put together on our blog. And these were changes after talking to the actor we met.

Some Body Modelling

Basic Modelling so far needs texturing etc..

Weight Lifting Updated

Character Design

Character Design of the two emotion's grief and wonder. Then i got the object of a tap.

Happy build up to sad build up we looked at the lines and facial muscles that make the expression with my spy character so far.

A Modern tap that thinks he is better than the old tap so the modern one is taller, straighter, snaring almost lots of water. Old tap has the knobs turn inwards like a frown/brow and as if it has a spine is sad looking through its curvature and less water. Been Replaced. Also the tap part is seen as the noses without it literally having eyes etc...

Where i started of in terms of the muscles and how i could show the expressions in different ways top half/bottom half or a mix of both throughout.

Definitions,Postmodernism and Moulin Rouge and Perlin Noise.

Phallocentrism-is a term first used by Freudian psychoanalyst Ernest Jones c. 1927 to focus his disagreement with Freud's theory of female sexual identity as being marked by the lack of phallus. For example Females deprived of positive senses towards their own sexual organs. Jones saw this as an unconscious projection by male psychoanalysis of their own neurotic fears about the female body. Freud's obsession with the phallus and its lack and was charged with phallocentrism by female critics.

Eurocentricism- This is also known as Eurocentricity or Western-Centrism. This is a worldview centred on and biased towards Western civilisation. Especially during The Cold War.

Postcolonialism- Is the academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. This focuses on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of the colonised people and their lands.

Multiculturalism- The Presence of or the support of several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society. They all have equal rights and opportunities so no one is ignored or seen as unimportant.

The canon- is a general law,rule,principle, or criterion by which something is judged. for example in society their could be a list of texts that are seen as important or acceptable compared to another text.

Feminism- Female rights and liberation on the ground of equality of the sexes.

DWEM's- Dead White European Male.

5 Reasons why Moulin Rouge! is postmodern:

1.It is a Romantic Pastiche Jukebox. Including various artists of the last century which are cultural references but are used in a way which fits into the narrative as a mash up.

2.Postmodern for the Genre.

3.Black Humour and Irony.

4. It uses Intertextuality.

5. It uses Appropriation.

( I also learnt that when doing our essays to try not to repeat in our structures also to send our paragraphs and what we are focusing on to Phil and check the essay example. To start of with a broad big understanding of or topic and then get more and more specific to where in the text it s relevant etc..) 

On a side note not sure of its importance at the moment but i learnt about Perlin Noise which is procedural content generation. This can be used in code like binary or even animation It is a two layer which s made by going between and combining two sets of random points. Once this has been made you can change frequency and intensity o each layer while Maya for example plays the animation. Its also used in games and films it is a powerful algorithm. 

Further Update on the Head Modelling

Re-modelled Head so far continuing tomorrow.

                                   

Think i am starting to understand this more no in terms of contours and the kinda shapes after taking a lot of time, Restarting from scratch was a good idea. Multiple save files was a good idea. E.t.c