Narrative Lecture part 5: House of Wax (1953)

The next film we watched for our Narrative lecture is André De Toth's 'House of Wax'.



It stars Vincent Price as a wax sculptor named Henry Jarrod who is obsessed with his creations. Until a business partner burnt his gallery with Jarrod in it. After that event mysterious murders started beginning with the business partner. Soon a new gallery opened displaying new wax models by Jarrod, one of the new models is the same business partner in the same position he died in. We are then introduce to Sue Allan, who is investigating the murder of her friend and the disappearance of her body. She finds the body at the same wax gallery playing Jone of arc.

This movie is meant to be one of the first films done in 3D, and it really shows because they are not being subtle. An example of can be shown when we see a man with some paddle balls advertising the wax gallery, he even spoke in a manner that it seems he is talking to the audience.
The narrative of the film was pleasing as a murder mystery movie but the camera angles where bad, it focus at odd places especially near the beginning when Jarrod was fighting the business partner, but the shots where done in a way that the audience felt they were in the film. However at times I felt the film focused more on the 3D than on the actual film it self which most films do when they are making a film in 3D. The public can see this as a reference for making a movie in 3D, how you see this is up to you. The positive is that the film is trying to draw the audience in the film making them feel they are involved, but the negative side is that it trying too hard to show it is a 3D film that it loses its story and become distracting.

Character Design part 9: last two weeks of lesson

Here are my images from the character design lesson I have done for the past two weeks.
For the first two images we have learnt on how to use reference pictures to make new character. Justin gave us a theme to help us on making our characters, mine is Gangsters form the 1930s.
The first character was a generic tough guy gangster, I purposely covered his eye by shading it to give him more character.
The second character is a typical fat gangster boss, his hat gave me a lot of trouble so I need to work on drawing hats on characters since I have two or three characters that wears them in my main character design project.
The third character is a female gangster, she didn't gave me too much trouble but again I need to work on drawing hats.

The fourth character is a is a gangster boss behind his desk, I was going for an intimidating look. Finally the last character is meant to be a tough gangster who is the right hand man of the gangster boss, but he ended up looking more like a detective then gangster, maybe he was a gangster but turned good when he was betrayed.


After that we then learnt about silhouettes. Silhouettes are used to work on the form of a character by making a black/shaded or outlined figure with no detail on it. Once done you can then do some editing on the shaded figure to give them more shape, an example of this can be seen on my second silhouette under the first one. You can see the different on the separation on the feet to the raised up pony tail.


On the second week we have to use reference pictures again but this time using them to create a new animal with the theme that was given to us, my theme was jungle.
The first animal is a combination of a deer, a bison and an elephant. It is a merge between strong animals who are also quite gentle, the deer part is only used for the patterns on the back.
The second animal is a combination of a tiger and a wolverine. I wanted to try out a fusion between a big animal and a small one. While creating this creature I notice that a wolverine is much hairier than a tiger so I used this as a learn experience on working on hair.


The third animal a vulture and bat combination. I first did a sketch of a bats wing anatomy first to give an idea of the shape then I transferred the bat wings to the vulture. This creature was well received by some of my class mates.
The forth combination is an elephant with a gorilla, I was going for a gentle yet strong creature that's why I chose the elephant and gorilla for their gentle appearance.
The last merged animal is a lion and a panda, I did not like how this one turned out because I rushed drawing it. I wanted to see what type of creature would come out I think it would of look better if I really took my time on drawing this.

Character Design part 8: Story summery and Character information

I have came up with a story for my character design to help me to understand my characters a bit more.
The main plot is an on the run story where our two main characters Felix(Hero) and Ulysses(Sidekick) have to keep moving and keep a very powerful artifact away from Mordecai(Villain).

The summery is about a small alien name Ulysses who landed on earth following a distress call. He soon learnt it was a trap, set up by Mordecai a very powerful mutant who wants to know more of Ulysses' people technology. Ulysses escaped with a very powerful artifact but was heavily weakened from the encounter and was finding refuge in the slums of a steampunk city. There we meet our main character Felix, a mutant bouncer who can see the future. He takes Ulysses to his home so he can recover his strength. Suddenly Mordecai's men came to Felix's house to search the area for Ulysses. When they do find him Felix puts up a fight and successfully defended him. Ulysses saw how useful Felix is and explain his situation to him and asks him to be his bodyguard on his quest to get home. Felix reluctantly accepts to help Ulysses' quest to get home and so their adventure begins with them constantly chased by Mordecai and anyone who wants the artifact Ulysses' holds.



I have done some brainstorms on my characters to define them even more as well explaining what is the artifact and what is Mordecai's goal, the first character I was defining was the Hero.

The Hero's name is Felix, he is a three eyed mutant with the power to see small glimpses of the future when he is in danger(like spider sense), his job is a bouncer for a pub/bar. Living in a bad neighbourhood he has to take care of himself even at a young age. Felix became Ulysses' bodyguard when he fought Mordecai's men while protecting Ulysses. Of course the sensible thing to do is to turn Ulysses in but he knows that Mordecai would still punish him for defending Ulysses in the first place, besides is not that type of guy. Felix prefers to be left alone but when he decided to be Ulysses' bodyguard he slowly opens up to him and become more relaxed.
Before Felix had a job as a bouncer he first started out as a fortune teller for a circus when he was young, he could see ten or more years into the future. However looking into the future too many times put a huge strain on him that now he can only see a few minutes of it when he is in danger. He was then kicked out of the circus and his parents disowned him, after that ordeal he had to fend for himself.
Even though he prefers to be left alone he is a nice guy when given a chance.

The next character I was defining was the Sidekick

The Sidekicks name is Ulysses, he is a small alien from outer space. He came to earth following a distress signal only to find out it was a trap set up by Mordecai. His spaceship was destroyed by Ulysses' orders so no one can learn it's secrets. He could of tried to escape in his spaceship but Mordecai used his powers to keep it down.
Ulysses' powers consist of super strength, flight, speed, telekinesis, able to read minds and many more he has yet to discover. However using such powers takes a lot of energy from him since he is still young and small so he doesn't now how to control them properly.
Ulysses is a kind and gentle character but is quite naive around the planet he is on so he see Felix not only as a bodyguard but also as a guide for him as well as his first friend on earth.

The last character I was defining is the Villain



The Villain's name is Mordecai. He is the strongest mutant on the planet, or so he claims. Unlike the Hero Mordecai lives in a more sophisticated life so he wears expensive clothing and has very high tech weaponry with him, he is also a leader of his own group of law enforcers which their job is to keep order on the steampunk city.
Mordecai's powers involve kinetic energy where he shoots powerful energy balls, he can also create a forcefield to defend himself and has the ability to fly.
He was always renowned as the one man who can catch anyone, but when a criminal had defeated him and escaped Mordecai perfect reputation was ruined. Even though his colleagues didn't think much of his lost to Mordecai it was a lost that really effected him. He then decided to go on a trip to clear his mind, while on a trip he found a mysterious artifact, when he accidentally activated it Mordecai's strength increases to a whole new level he felt very powerful and nothing can stop him. When he came back to the city he track down the criminal whole got away from him, when he did find the criminal Mordecai crushed him with his new strength, with his new powers Mordecai became mad and plans to use the artifact for something terrifying in the future. His plan is to remove all the mutants powers and increase his own to make himself the only strongest mutant in the world. If he succeeds then mutants that needs their powers to survive will die, but he does not care.
His personality is your typical stuck up pompous villain who looks down on everyone and thinks of himself as a more perfect being. Even before he lost to the criminal he still treated everyone badly. He also wants to make no mistakes if he did any then he will correct it by any means necessary.

The last thing I wrote was the purpose of the artifact. The artifact is used by Ulysses' people as a means to give themselves more power if they are in trouble but it uses a lot of the user's stamina. No one knows how it got to earth in the first place but it's up to the heroes to keep it away from Mordecai for as long as they can.

Character Design part 7

During the two weeks of Character design lesions I have learnt some new techniques.
The first week we had to add some facial features to a theme that was given to us, for me the theme was garden.
To help me design my characters I first listed the objects I know that are used for gardening. The objects I have wrote are big and small lawn, garden sprinklers, mini garden fork and spade, a bucket and clippers.
The first character I drew on the first page was a big lawn mower, I thought to give it a gentle relaxing expression because I seen this type of lawn mower being used in a cartoon and the character always seemed relaxed.
The next characters I have made are the two mini garden fork and one spade. I gave the spade a cute big eyed expression and I gave one fork a type of intelligent look and the second fork a more evil look, I pull the evil look off by making the fork more pointy.
The next object was the sprinkler I wanted to give it a an angry bug like appearance because I saw one of these sprinklers and I thought make it bug like would fit, I gave it an angry face because I thought it would be funny.
The last object on the first page was a bucket. I didn't know what was I going for with this but while I was looking at my bucket it reminded me a plant pot so I did some character development on it and came up with a happy broken pot with a small single flower, to me this pushes the cuteness because it's a broken pot that has a small plant and it's happy.


On the second page I drew some clippers that had some animal like features like a parrot clipper. I made most of the clippers look visious by showing how shape they are. I also drew one small lawn mower that for some reason has an expression like it is looking for something.


On my last picture I added a new object which was a lawn chair and too me that screams lazy so I added some lazy features by giving it some sleepy eyes and wraping its chair arms around it's tummy. Justin saw this and he likes the idea and helped me by giving it actual sleepy eyes, a big tummy and a happy face. Also I made one last clipper.


On the second week I learnt on how to make poses by using some guide lines to tell the expression on the character, we worked on this by using our class mates as models for our drawings. I actually felt this helped me a lot on using guide lines to show the expression on the character's body also on the second week I learnt on making facial expressions. I don't have pictures of it because they are on my actual character design but don't worry I will post it.

Postmodernism part 5: Funny Games U.S.

The next film we watched for our Postmodernism Lecture was Funny Games U.S.(2008)



The plot of the film is about Paul and Peter meeting the new family around the area acting neighbourly until the two of them holds the family hostage and challenge them into a game. If the family can stay alive by morning, if they do Paul and Peter will leave them alone but it won't be that easy.
This film is postmodern because the creator of the film remade this for the American audience and it kept most of the same scenes from the previous film released in Germany under the same name. It is also a new take on horror because Peter and Paul are not you typical killers. They are polite but also very creepy and they always ask in questions, an example is when Paul had a golf ball in his hand and he asked the family why does he have it, hinting out that he killed someone. What else made this film creepy is that Paul and Peter gave the family many choices but twist it to their favour. The film also constantly breaking the forth wall with Paul talking to audience by saying along the lines of do you want to see this horrible thing thats happening to this sweet family. While Peter plays the role of the audience by questioning the things they are doing like are you sure you want to let them live a little long we could end this right now. Even their origins of why they are torturing the family while in other horror films the killer has a reason why they are killing people but for them they don't they just doing it.
The film also teases the audience a lot too, by having one of the family members escaping but gets caught, having the phone working but can't call no one. Even have Peter getting shot but Paul brought him back to life by turning back time with a remote control.
So in conclusion this film is not meant to be enjoyed if you want a happy ending and it completely teases the audience to a high level.

Narrative Lecture 4: The Day the Earth Stood Still

The next film we watched for our Narrative lecture is The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 version.



The plot is about an alien named Klaatu who came to earth to deliver an important message to the public, but kept on getting stopped so he decided to hide amongst the people to learned about them and gaining information to find a way to deliver his message.
This movie was known as the first of its kind for being different. Instead of having an alien invasion it has an alien delivering a message to the world. The message is the message of peace letting the people know that if they continue making more weapons of mass destruction they might take their war to an even higher place which is space. So Klaatu came to earth to say there are some aliens who won't stand for that and will prevent this by destroying earth, but they are willing to give earth a second chance by sending their robots to monitor them and if there are any violence they will eliminate it. Klaatu admits this plan isn't perfect but it will get the job done.
I believe what makes this movie successful is how it talks about the violence in the world and it might grow into other areas like space. The movie questions this and asked when will it end, how far will the violence go. What if there was a life form who discovers this and decided to take matters into his own hands by threatening the planet by destroying it. The film itself is a type of warning to the public making them aware that all these violence isn't good and there has to be another way to settle disputes.
People questions if the film is a B Movie or not but the truth is I don't care I thought the effects were good at it's time but where it really shines is the story of Klaatu's quest to bring peace to the world.

Postmodernism Lecture part 4: Moulin Rouge!

This time we looked at a Postmodernism in musical romance, and the film we watched as an example was Moulin Rouge! (2001)

The film is about Christian, a young writer, moving to Paris to learn about love. He went to a cabaret called the Moulin Rouge where he meets an actress name Satine. The two of them fell in love but a jealous duke won't allow it so he is finding different ways to prevent them from being together.

This film was amazing, it uses a lot of cliche romance rules. Examples of this would be the story for having the hero falling in love with a woman who is out of his league. The woman is also involve with someone powerful, but in the end the woman and the hero falls in love. Another part of it's clicheness to romantic stories is when the characters sings out their feelings.
The Postmodernism of the film comes from the music it uses. They are not made up but are actual songs preformed by actual singers. It only has one song that belongs to itself which is the main song but the rest are from other performers. Another example of Postmodernism is the pacing of the film, it began with a very fast pace which I believe is the point of view of Christian where he first entered Moulin Rouge and everything was fast and wild. The film then slows down putting us as the audience once again to see how will this love story will unfold.
This pacing is Postmodern because of how fast the first few minutes started out. You have Christian meeting his neighbours, being invited to the Moulin Rouge, meeting the girl of his dreams, asked to make a play for the Moulin Rouge and keep the love affair a secret from the duke. That when the film slows down you do not remember what happened but you know that Christian have a job of writing a play and has to keep his love affair a secret. In other words in those first few minutes we are Christian and when the film slows down we are back as the audience.