Perspectives: Post-modernism in Scream (1996)

Figure 1 - Scream (1996) - Movie Poster

Scream (1996) directed by Wes Craven is considered a post-modern movie, there are lots of reality breaking tropes which Craven has planted into the film to create a sense of realisation for what we are really watching, which is essentially a group of teenagers centralising their lives around the ideas of horror movies, inside a horror movie, there are levels to the characters which are ironic and non-traditional. The Characters constantly make references to horror movies, the villains/ monsters and the methods of which they kill. Casey played by Drew Barrymore spends the opening scenes talking to her killer on the phone about her favourite horror films, which in a way glorifies them, she talks about Freddy Kruger murdering people with knives, which is a grim spectre of her own fate.  

Figure 2 - Scream (1996) - Adolescent group watching 'Halloween' 

The shot above is set out like the 'Last Supper by Leonardo Di Vinci' there are only 11 people in the image, 2 of which have left to converse in the upstairs bedroom.  

Randy played by Jamie Kennedy works in a movie store, a movie which features movies, there is already the idea of layers here, it begins to multiply when the character begins to run off the rules of Survival of a horror movie to his friends in his living room. There is a duality to his speech in this segment of the film. He mentions his first rule, which is "1# Don't have sex", the moment in which he says this it instantly cuts to the beginning of Sydney Prescott played by Neve Campbell and Billy Loomis played by Skeet Ulrich about to engage in love making for the first time; Randy then mentions whilst watching the horror film which his friends downstairs that there is going to be an "Obligatory breast scene" in the film like its a classic thing, this is cut straight to a tandem shot of Sydney taking her top off for Billy upstairs. Its important to realise that Craven is deliberately juxtaposing these noninflected shots to wake the audience up to the reality they are watching a horror film, he is saying 'these films which the group is watching are horror films, the exact same things are happening in the environment of the characters' this makes it all the more tense when we realise the characters are all asleep to the fact they are occupying a horror movie.  

Another representation which depicts this idea of levels in film is depicted directly after the race to the climax begins, where the killer begins their spree in the house at the end. Again Randy is the man delivering the scene, he receives a call with the news of his school principle being found hanging from the 'Football' posts at the school to which the other guests rush off to go see. This leaves Randy alone in the living room watching 'Halloween' where the killer once again is a knife wielding maniac. Randy begins to speak to the actress on the screen, he shouts things like "he's right behind you!" and "just turn around!" at the moments this is going on, the scream killer is doing the exact same behind Randy in tandem with the film, it is as if he is talking to himself bringing his reaction in line with the ideas of post-modern reflection. This is then taken further by the News van operative watching the camera feed of the living room on a 30 second delay. The camera man comments exactly the same, but seemingly as he begins to realise its not a movie he is murdered, almost is if waking up to reality will bring out your fate.   

Figure 3 - Scream (1996) - Billy and Stuart confronting Sydney

The killer for Scream is based on the idea of lots of different horror movies, when you find out the killer is in fact Psychotic duo Billy and Stuart played by Matthew Lillard they admit they have figured out how to commit the perfect clime where they frame the suspected father of Sydney, whose wife was raped and murdered a year ago to the day. Their characters are slightly crazy throughout the film and look very suspicious, traditionally suspicious people tend to be innocent, a trope used to in-bide an unreliable narration into film, however the sinister way they are perceived in shot turns out to be right on the money. It turned out the people we thought couldn't possibly be the bad guys, turn out to actually be the bad guys.  

Illustrations:

Figure 1: Scream (1996) [Film Poster] - Wes Craven: Dimension Films,Woods Entertainment

Figure 2: Scream (1996) [Film] - Wes Craven: Dimension Films,Woods Entertainment

Figure 3: Scream (1996) [Film] - Wes Craven: Dimension Films,Woods Entertainment

Perspectives: Post-modernism in Non-Linear Film - Mulholland Drive (2001)

Figure 1 - Mulholland Drive - Film Poster

Mulholland Drive directed by David Lynch is an incredibly cerebral film, it is criticised for needing a lot of concentration in order to just watch it, Non-linear story telling is a key feature of the production and contributes to an element of post-modernism in the film. Mulholland drive doesn't have a generic story time scale where it goes start, middle then end, instead its seemingly erratic as it jumps through time in order to give a perspective to the audience, this technique works well here on the audience to give us a shared feeling of isolation, confusion and great foreboding with which we can empathise with the characters "it explores an internal reality through the eyes of an individual whose point of view is altered by mental illness or substances" (Lee, 2018). This is often referred to as an 'altered state'. 

Figure 2 - Mulholland Drive - Diner 

Due to an altered state it becomes very apparent some way into the film that the concept of 'the unreliable narrator' is happening. Due to the story being told in an altered state, we find out it is shot from the perspective of one individual, this means we see exactly what they perceive, usually in film we are likely to see noninflected shots juxtaposed in order to give us a sense of meaning, we cannot trust what the shot tells us because it isn't accurate to what is actually happening. 

Figure 3 - Mulholland Drive - Reflections

The film takes place over a period of weeks, the non-linear story telling provides the opportunity for  flash backs to fill us in on important information in a way which isn't damaging to the flow of the film. Scenes which are a week apart are put back to back in order to give the audience an altered meaning of the event or character. It is arguable the film is heavily surrealist because it plays as a psychologically lucid dream until the end, each shot is put together with something seemingly unrelated much like unintelligible dreamscapes much like 'Un Chien Andalou' by Luis Benuel and Salvador Dali where not all aspects of the film which you see emphasised aren't significant to the plot, arguably leaving the audience with questions and confusion.    

Illustrations:

Figure 1: Mulholland Drive [film poster] - David Lynch:  Les Films Alain Sarde, Asymmetrical Productions, Babbo Inc.

Figure 2: Mulholland Drive [film] - David Lynch:  Les Films Alain Sarde, Asymmetrical Productions, Babbo Inc.

Figure 3: Mulholland Drive [film] - David Lynch:  Les Films Alain Sarde, Asymmetrical Productions, Babbo Inc.

Bibliography:

Lee, J. (2018). Post Modern Film explained by David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. [online] Journal Absurdo. Available at: https://journalabsurdo.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/post-modern-film-explained-by-david-lynchs-mulholland-drive/ [Accessed 23 Oct. 2018].

Character Design - Environment

I looked into trying to create an environment for a character today, a space in which they could reside. For the beginning of the lesson I used the Lloyds building in London as a starting point, I attempted to recreate it with a three point perspective and if there was much more industrial piping coming out of it. 

Then I moved on to creating an environment for a specific character, making a place livable for them, I had the example of an Aztec Priest, I did some more generic ideas centering around sacrifice, and grand temples, I then wanted to focus more on a benevolent priest, a healer, someone who cares for their community.  

Finally I decided on the idea of the environment being in the center of the community, I wanted the character to be pious, in the sense they are completely for the betterment of society and the people around them, I wanted an investment in agriculture and community.   

Life Drawing

Film Reviews: Three-Act Structure - Geostorm (2017)

Geostorm (2017) is a disaster film where a global satellite system controls the worlds weather, it is the job of main character Jake to fix the array before it creates a Geostorm causing the deaths of millions of people. It follows a Three-Act structure which has been broken down over time into various formulas. The most popular is as follows:

Figure 1: Three-Act Structure Diagram

This diagram is a visual representation of a typical three-act structure in film, it can be applied to Geostorm as a way of representing its construction.    

Ordinary World: The ordinary world is literally the calm before the storm, it is set on earth before the Weather Array satellites begin to malfunction, the world consists of a legal battle between the main character Jake (Gerard Butler) and the U.S. Government, when he is fired, his world becomes the trailer which he resides in with his daughter.

Inciting Incident: The inciting incident occurs when the first satellite creates a geostorm over Afghanistan snap-freezing an entire village in the desert including its occupants leaving eery human ice statues in its streets; Jake is called to fix the problem his construction is creating. 

 Figure 2: Geostorm (2017) - Afghanistan Village

End of Act 1#: The threshold Jake must cross as the end of Act 1 is the literal barrier of space travel, he needs to board a rocket bound for the second environment of the Space Station, it is the beginning of his journey to confront the problem. 

Mid Point: A dawning of realisation as Jake figures out that the malfunction isn't actually that, but instead a U.S. Government sabotage plot to bring about the end of the United States political rivals on earth, Jake gets an encrypted message to his brother on earth which brings about the beginning of trying to fix the problem.   

Start of Act 3# (Race to the climax): The race to the climax begins when the virus is discovered in the space station and a realisation that they need to reboot the space station, this is when they hatch a plan to confront the president for the codes as only he can shut it down. The satellites then begin to charge for the Geostorm climax.   

Figure 3: Geostorm (2017) - Beginning of Geostorm

The Climax: The climax is the moment the kill codes are transferred to the space station and Jake must navigate an exploding space station in order to get to the shut down terminal, the kill codes however do not stop the station from self-destructing, the climax ends with the main characters dramatic space flight to the final space pod to escape the ensuing explosion. 

Figure 4: Geostorm (2017) - Space Station self-destruction

The Denouement: The end occurs when the dust and excitement settles, the characters involved have metamorphosed into better, more family centred and wholesomely pleasing people, this is shown by a scene of the three characters fishing on a jetty and additional conversation.   

Illustrations: 

Figure 1: Three-Act Structure diagram

Figure 2: Geostorm (2017) [Film Still] - Dean Devlin: Warner Bros, Electric Entertainment 

Figure 3: Geostorm (2017) [Film Still] - Dean Devlin: Warner Bros, Electric Entertainment

Figure 4: Geostorm (2017) [Film Still] - Dean Devlin: Warner Bros, Electric Entertainment

Perspectives - Post-Modernism in Inception (2010)

Figure 1: Inception - Film Poster  

Inception is the idea that you can plant an idea in an individuals mind to manipulate them into subconsciously doing something. When looking deeper into the narrative going on in the background you realise the techniques which Nolan uses to post-modernise the film. Post-modernism is about reflection, striving to find new ways to perceive the world. One of the ways Nolan does this throughout the film is through the narration of story telling, he weaves a story about plotting a story, his narrative explains the journey of a group who come up with a story which is then implanted in the mind of the character Robert Fischer, the narrative is already multi-layered in that regard, it then again layers itself with the concept of multi-layering of dreamscapes in a way to physically represent and reinforce this conscious creation of depth; the technique constantly forces the audience to assess their perception of depth, and if they can take the story at face value because the narrator is unreliable.

    

Figure 2: Inception - Limbo Structuralist Destruction 

The Scene in which the character of Cobb travels to the dreamscape of Limbo is significant because of what it represents. In Figure 2 you can see in the background replicated buildings, their design derives from structuralist architecture, which is built specifically to be functional, every aspect has been made irreducible to its purest form. The choice Nolan makes of creating a dreamscape where these structures are collapsing is arguably metaphoric because he is comparing this to the death of the theories of structuralism, the ideas which structuralism dictates as universal truths, for examples set by the unreliable narrator: that the idea Cobb will never leave Limbo, and that inception isn't possible, are being eroded with time, post-structuralism and modernism.  

Nolan uses sound to give another sensory feeling to the film too, using modern technology to manipulate the song "je ne regrette rien" by Edith  Piaf-Non so that it is slowed down to give the audience a perception of time manipulation and being overlaid over the original to make them sound like the same track, this technique is only possible with modern technology, and rethinks how we interpret the 4th dimension through sound.    

Finally the final scene is controversial in film because of the way it ends, linear story telling dictates a story/film to go start > middle > end, this is a traditional way of telling a story, Nolan creates the final scene where the spinning top is left spinning in order to create a cliff-hanger, in other words he completely removes an 'end', and suggests Cobb is still in a dream world, this finally also adds to the notion of the unreliable narrator because you are led to believe one thing, then are forced one last time to reevaluate your perception of the events you've just watched.  

Figure 3: Inception - Cliff-Hanger Final Scene

Illustrations:

Figure 1: Inception [Film Poster] - Christopher Nolan: Warner Bros, Legendary Entertainment
Figure 2: Inception [Film] - Christopher Nolan: Warner Bros, Legendary Entertainment
Figure 3: Inception [Film] - Christopher Nolan: Warner Bros, Legendary Entertainment

Perspectives: Terminology

When studying postmodernism in film it is important to understand common terminology used in the area in order to have a better understanding of the subject. below are a list with relative definitions to the theories of modernity, post modernity, structuralism and post structuralism.

Eclectic Nostalgia: the term eclectic means to range widely, to have a large base from which to draw knowledge, nostalgia is the wistfulness to return to a previous state of being, a homesickness. Eclectic nostalgia in postmodernism is the conscious desire to draw from things of the past to rethink how we read a subject of our time 

Aleatory: refers to the denotation of randomness.

Bricolage: seems to to a similar concept to something eclectic, a bricolage construction is made of many different things.

Pastiche: the imitation of another artists work.

Flippant: to not be serious or respectful.

Fabulation: term coined by Robert Scholes referring to the large amount of magical realism novels in the 20th century.

Simulacra: to represent something or something unsatisfactorily.

Fragmentary: shattered, broken, not as one whole but of different segments.

Superabundance: referring to something which is everywhere is great amounts.

High modernism: popular in 1950-1960 it dictates a striving for confidence in science and technology to reorder society and the natural world.

Capitalist: society which believes in private property and driving profit of money.

The enlightenment project: a period of time which humans began to story holding so much faith in religion and myth and began to question the natural order and reason of everything around them, it was a time of great categorisation of flora, fauna and everything outside these.

Modernity: the conscious effort to find new ways in which to perceive and view the way the world is.

Irreducible: something that cannot be broken down any further, the smallest value of something.

Structuralism: a term used to name theories and philosophies associated with finding universal,  fundamental and completely irreducible truths about how the world works. 

Ahistorical: a term used to describe something that sits outside of history, something that has always been and always will be.

Objective: a judgement which is uninfluenced by personal feeling or opinion.

Universal: something that is true across all things or over an entire subject.

Definitive: the final version of something.

Post-Structuralism: a term given to name theories and philosophies relating to confronting the authority of structuralist theories.

Reflexivity: a state of creation and destruction, when something has an impact on a subject but the subject also continually influences its creator in cycles. 

'The Unreliable Narrator': the term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth, it refers to a characters story which is untrustworthy, a tale which cannot be taken at face value. It is used to create plot twists, emphasis character alignment in a higher plot. It is used in a way as to not tell as story objectively, in order to make the audience perceive the story in a specific tone. 

Character Design - Character Art Style

Today we picked apart the essence of what makes an art style look as it does. I used the example of Tim Burtons' 'The Nightmare before Christmas' as a subject, below I began by trying to imitate the style of German Expressionism on the left. Then I was tasked with inventing a character to fit into the world space in the same style, on the right is the character designed for the role of accountant of Jack Skellington, his only purpose is to sit and account, his physique allows for no travel.    

My character appeared generic however so I began work on designing a character which embodied the essence of an accountant, this equated to boring faced, slave basically, which needed an element of sinisterness to relate to the horror archetypes, I began by designing expressionless faces until I came up with the idea of a tentacle faced, elongated body monster.   

Below are my final three designs for the accounting monster.  

Film Review: Venom (2018) - The Heroes Journey - Archetypes

Figure 1- Venom (2018) - film poster

Venom (2018), directed by Ruben Fleischer is an example of a Heroes Journey film where the hero Eddie Brock goes on a quest to stop the 'symbiote' alien character of Riot from escaping to outer space to herald an alien invasion of earth. During the film various character archetypes are used to convey different personalities, intentions, characteristics and messages to the main character and by extension the audiences perception of the current occurrence.  Below is a break down of the Heroes Journey Archetypes as portrayed in Venom

Figure 2 - Venom (2018) - Eddie Brock - Film Still 

Hero: Eddie Brock is the protagonist of the film, the entire journey centers around his experiences and what is meaningful to his success. 

Figure 3 - Venom (2018) - Carlton Drake - Film Still

Shadow: Carlton Drake plays the Multi-millionaire business tycoon, made rich off the back of exploiting vulnerable people in pharmaceutical testing for money. The character soon became obsessed with space travel and colonizing other planets in an attempt to save our doomed species. The character has a good intention of saving humanity however due to his methods and his callus disregard for others and his staff he is seen as the enemy of Brock.

Mentor: The symbiote character of Venom plays the mentor, he guides Brock, conditioning him to be able to cross the threshold guardian and leads him down the path to success. Venom latches on to Brock and gives him powers which Brock originally rejects when Venom displays characteristics which can be associated with the shadow archetype, however in a true symbiote manner, part of Brock is absorbed by Venom and his attitude changes turning him into an Anti-Hero (Vigilante).

Maiden: Anne Weying is the recently ex fiance of Brock, she is innocent in contrast to the stark violence of the exterior world, she is important to Brock and her preservation of innocence is portrayed throughout and becomes meaningful to the audience. 

Threshold Guardian: It is arguable that the guardian is the character Roland Treece, who plays the gritty head-henchman of Drake, he is tasked with bringing back Venom who is at that moment latched to Brock. Treece is the character Brock and Venom must pass through to get to Drake. 

Allies: Dr. Dan Lewis is the new boyfriend of Anne Weying, he is benevolent towards Brock, whom he respects as a reported and wants to help due to his selfless appearance. He goes out of his way to help Brock with his 'parasite' problem and inadvertently discovers the one weakness to all symbiotes, which is ultra high sound frequency.  

Herald: The herald is played by the homeless character of Maria, she literally holds all the newspapers which is knowledge giving her the ability to announce her importance to the main character, she is an omen of events to come. 

Trickster: It is arguable that the character of Ziggy who lives across the hall from Brock once he gets his own apartment has the only role of antagonizing Brock by playing loud heavy metal music through the night. 

Figure 4 - Venom (2018) - Mrs. Chen in convenience store - Film Still 

Mother: The character of Mrs. Chen who runs the conveniences store is in the mother archetype because she is constantly in all scenes which she occupies trying to 'mother' Brock, she asks about his eating habits, about his state of mind and his appearance; all common tropes which mothers in film are portrayed. She is also vulnerable which is depicted with the 'protection extortion' scenes, she is important to Brock because of her innocence. 

Father: The father figure of Brock could arguably be his Employer. He tries to give advice and guide Brock down the path of good rather than that of the vigilante. When the 'fathers' abandonment comes in the scene of Brocks dismissal of work, Brocks life begins to spiral downwards. 

Child: The symbiote character of Riot uses multiple hosts to get to Carlton Drake during this time he used the vessel of a little girl who appears innocent to Drake right up until the moment Riot exchanges hosts. The child appears innocent to all characters in the film but the audience is privileged with extra knowledge of the child giving her sinister qualities. 

Illustrations

Figure 1: Venom (2018) [film poster] - Ruben Fleischer: Sony - Columbia Pictures

Figure 2: Venom (2018) [film] - Ruben Fleischer: Sony - Columbia Pictures

Figure 3: Venom (2018) [film] - Ruben Fleischer: Sony - Columbia Pictures

Figure 4: Venom (2018) [film] - Ruben Fleischer: Sony - Columbia Pictures

              

  

Perspectives - Post-modernism in Kill Bill (2003)

Quentin Tarantino is considered a post-modern auteur in film, he uses many techniques to convey this during his work. Kill Bill is iconic across the world, critically acclaimed and massively popular. To understand how Tarantino is post-modern it is important to first know how post-modernism portrays itself in society and in the art of what we create. Modernism was the idea of consciously trying to discover new varieties of viewing the world. For Example, questioning why things are done a certain way and trying to improve them as in architecture, during the modern period, it was considered modern to build a house which didn't look like a house. Modern art strives to question and criticise what art really is resulting in  unique and interesting variations of what their creators call art. 

Figure 1 - Traditional house design

Figure 2 - modern house design

Tarantino used Non-Linear Narrative in a way to challenge traditional story telling where it starts at the beginning, goes to the middle and then ends with the end. instead he constantly jumps back and forth to make sure the audience remains guessing throughout, the benefit of a non-linear narrative is that he can tell the story in a way which gives the audience knowledge exactly when they need it from any period of time in the chronology of the story.        

Tarantino pays homage to various other film legends and techniques as mentioned by Groth on Tarantino as an Auteur "Tarantino regurgitates his favourite clichés and formulas, sometimes with a wink, sometimes with a straight face, sometimes with wit, but always with an unconditional love for the clichés" (Groth, 1995) originally influenced by Grindhouse Cinema, jumping from Japanese anime, to samurai to mariachi bands, references to Jet Li, and capitalism and various metaphors surrounding that, Howard remarks "consider it from a postmodernist perspective, you have to consider the anxieties that come with globalisation" (Howard, 2017) for example in the scene Lucy Liu decapitates the mob bosses head at her function for remarking on a change in tradition, a symbol of silencing opposition from those who disapprove.

Figure 3 - Kill Bill [film] - Lucy Lui 

The use of violence as an art form or as a celebration breaks tradition in the sense it is very graphic and is arguably avant garde practice because it pushes the boundaries of what the audience is expecting and used to, Tarantino is consciously trying to shock the audience which would be considered post-modern, resulting in something unpleasant for the audience, this is no more prominent than in the Japanese restaurant fight scene where people have blood spraying from their limbs like jet streams, blood covering every surface and blade penetrations clearly visible for the audience to observe.    

Figure 4 - Kill Bill [film] - Fight Scene

Tarantino uses an entirely new mode of media included in the film too in the form of Japanese anime cartoons to inspire a kinship to graphic novels pushing the boundaries of film to post-modernism by suggesting film doesn't necessarily have to contain only one form of media. This technique also helps because it allows for an extremely graphic scene which couldn't be shot in live action because of its extreme violence and subject of paedophilia. An audience will find the experience of the drawn cartoon duller and less discomforting in this form instead of live action because it is harder to associate with.    

Figure 5 - Kill Bill [film] - Anime Sequence

Considering the director had complete control over every aspect of the film down to a say in costume and choreography, it becomes extremely apparent as why Tarantino chose to make miniatures and film live action over a better looking animated scene during the fly over in the aircraft over Japan. It is arguable this choice was made because animation would have been the more traditional option in the current technological climate, so by breaking this tradition Tarantino gives the audience something unexpected by confronting a version of how the world is viewed.    

Figure 5 - Kill Bill [film] - live action fly over

Bibliography:

Howard, A. (2017). Tarantino as A Post Modern Auteur (Pulp Fiction, 1994, Kill Bill Vol.1 2003). [online] Alexandra Furssedonn Howard. Available at: https://alexandrafurssedonn.com/2017/04/20/tarantino-as-a-post-modern-auteur-pulp-fiction-1994-kill-bill-vol-1-2003/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].

Groth, G. (1995). A Dream of Perfect Reception. [online] The Baffler. Available at: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-dream-of-perfect-reception [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].

Illustration:

Figure 2: Foulkes, J. (2018). Stock photo BP2252. [online] Bananapancake.com. Available at: https://www.bananapancake.com/-/galleries/personal-favourites/-/medias/28eebd52-5410-4b57-9ce2-7eceae12aa4e-bp2252 [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].

Figure 1: Khederian, R. (2018). Restoring a historic house: 8 tips and tricks before getting started. [online] Curbed. Available at: https://www.curbed.com/2017/6/8/15762608/old-house-renovate-restore-tips [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].

Figure 3, 4 and 5: Kill Bill. (2003). [film] Directed by Q. Tarantino. A Band Apart: Miramax.

Toolkit 2: Weight lifting poses

Five poses in stepped frames depicting extreme poses and in-betweens for weight lifting animation. 

Character Design - Caricature

I began the day by drawing weaponry, armour and furniture from the period of ancient Rome focusing on versatility, ornateness and decoration in order to gain a little understanding of the time period and the item properties.   

I then took an item at random and began to exaggerate it using different archetype shapes to give the helmet personality, the larger pen images evolved from triangles and an attempt to create the helmet of a more brutal Legate of the Roman Military.    

Afterwards we were tasked with Caricaturing either a human or an animal, the original image and my first drawing are next to each other below, then on the right is some examples submitted to aid me in pulling out the exaggeration in the face using various archetypes. 

 Below are my attempts to draw out exaggeration using various archetype shapes.