Film Review - House of Wax (1953)

We watched the House of wax. Continuing with the Narrative film series. this time we're heading into horror. It was made in 1953 and directed by André De Toth.



The story begins with a sculptor with his collection of wax figures which were on display in his little museum. His business partner was threatening to destroy all the sculptures to claim back the insurance. He ended up burning the house of wax models, presumably with the sculptor burning along with the rest and got a lot of money out of it. Later on, a series of dead bodies were going missing and several more were killed completely for the purpose of turning them into wax models. The sculptor is not all that he seems.

It was originally screened in 3D and featured several 3D gimmicks. Like the guy at the entrance of the house of wax, attracting attention with his Paddle Ball. Aiming it at the camera to increase the 3D effect. It was completely unnecessary for the story of the film, but was put in, only for it's effect of jumping out of the screen. It is also worth noting that the director only had one eye, and could therefore only see in 2 dimensions!


The film was later spoofed in Carry On Screaming. Of which I have seen.

I enjoyed The House of Wax a lot actually because it was it was reasonably fast paced, considering it's age. I think Vincent Price was a perfect choice for the part of the sculptor. His voice is so distinctive and kind of creepy!

Narrative - Space Pod Miniature - Basically Modeled

Well Over at B3D studios we've begun production, but I'll post it here on my blog as well, so that all that are not following the group project can see what I've been doing here. Here is our group project blog.

I've finished the miniature scale space pod! Mostly. Just so everyone else knows, the CG pod is supposed to be a cheap miniature scale pod. Meaning that the parts won't necessarily line up and blobs of excess glue are visible!




Now you may be looking at this and thinking, the door is fused to the sphere, or the legs don't look like they can move and they're not even touching the ground properly. Well Like I've said earlier. It's a miniature, which means, no moving parts. The legs can either be stuck on or not at all. The door only needs to open when the space men come out and funnily enough, they are CG actors, not miniatures. So they require a more detailed life size set to walk out of.



Excess glue!


Oh and as a bonus, it's all been UV mapped! I bet Ruben will be pleased to here he's got more painting to do! Well I say UV mapped, but what I actually mean that it's unfolded, and all that's left to do is sort out the positioning and scale so it fits with a square. Then it can be textured.

Although before I hand over that job, I want to add a few last minute touches to the basic model. Like shifting some of the individual pieces further, to increase it's inaccuracy. Maybe a few more blobs, or streaks of glue. Then the rest can be handled in the texture.

Character Design - Week 6

So we are all at week 6 in our character design projects. This is what we were drawing today.

Clowns! Well not all of us. I've done a lot of long posts lately so this time I'm going to keep it short and sweet!


It is most clearly seen in this second set of drawings, that we were given a random type of character, and we had to draw that character in as many ways as possible. All lined up, like an identity parade!




One thing that I think many, including myself, had to be sure of, was that the characters heights varied. A common mistake is to make all the characters the same height.

The second part of the lesson was on the importance of silhouettes. We were shown a diagram with the silhouettes of many familiar cartoon characters. All of them could be identified just by their outline. So what we had to do was trace the silhouettes of our characters, to see if they could be improved.

These silhouettes were taken from my latest drawing of my characters. There were many improvements to be made. Particularly with the Medusa like character (the left most). There was originally no way to tell what it was until I'd gone over it with some extra lines in the hair. Basically the hair was done in such a way that from a silhouette, you couldn't see the head. There were other things disrupting the flow of the silhouette as well. The other two were much more readable, but were still kind of bland. Just making some of the outlines more defined, improved on them. Of course there's still more to refine!



I'll just end with something I did earlier. I had some help form one of the first years on the course. Unfortunately I don't actually know who it was, but I'm sure if he's following me, and reading this, then he will tell me! He was helping me to draw the construction of a basic human character. Something I've attempted on many occasions, and have failed to perfect. Half the problem is probably that I draw too many lines, but practice makes perfect... In theory.





Not all of them are human if your wondering what happened to the legs!

Character Design - Update

Another long post!

I spent some time today sketching my characters and coming up with a few more designs.

Perhaps more importantly, I've redone my story... again. Having watched an old Star Trek film yesterday, and it being a space opera, I was thinking about how I could make my story more space opera, and also how to make my characters more mythical.

I'll start with the characters.

I started with the villain. My Medusa like character. I experimented further with using a snake, only this time I had some more reference.







Having done these few sketches I was thinking again about what it is that makes it look more mythical and works, and what wasn't working.




For one, I think the hair needs to be a bit crazy and all over the place. It's instantly recognisable straight away. I drew a few snake heads, but when I added the snake hair, it just looked like a snake with seaweed on its head. So that isn't working. I also decided that there was nothing particularly mythical about a snakes head by itself. The other drawing, where the face is totally made up of snakes, just doesn't look like anything in particular.
The dress, in this particular example, isn't working either. So for the next drawing I Looked up further reference of dresses.




So this next drawing shows the crazy hair with the (what I think is) improved dress. The dress doesn't reach the floor either.



The sidekick hasn't changed much, other than he is wearing a golden chest armour plate and the skirt. Although I think I need to change the skirt as it doesn't fit this character very well at all. That, and the hero wears the skirt already.

(One day, I'll start to draw in different poses)


The first drawing (in the middle) went a bit skinny, so I widened him in the drawing to the right.

The hero, again hasn't changed much, it's just a slightly better (or different) drawing of him.



I found a couple of other references before drawing this too.



Now whats the point in even showing these, barely changed characters if it didn't lead to anything new. Well, it was then that I realised that my story desperately needed changing, as it was kind of like, this guy doesn't like that guy, there's something to find, a race against time, the end. My characters were, and still are uninteresting because the story is so wafer thin. It could work with anyone.

So I came up with a new one, only this time I had an old Star Trek film (Wrath of Khan) fresh in my head. And I'm sure this has somehow influence my new story.

So with my rough characters, I tried to re tailor my story for them, so that I can start to really get to know them better. And hopefully come up with better characters.

The story

There is a family of God like characters. I say God, I just mean they rule over and protect the universe from evil. Some of them may have special abilities, but I don't need to go into all that for this project as only one of them is one of the three characters. They travel in a big space craft.

Then there is a villain. My Medusa like character. She has a ship of her own. Although not as big. She has a power. If anyone looks at her, they become enslaved to her, if they disobey, they slowly turn to stone. (or maybe some other material. I can play with that idea later)
So she has a crew of slaves running her ship.

She on many occasions has fought against this family of rulers, both in space and head to head. The rulers of the universe have never been able to destroy her. So they decided to come up with something that could be used against her.

Basically the good guys make (from rare materials) this helmet. The helmet can only be worn by one person, and that is the first person who wears it. That is because it tunes in to the wearers eyes and protects them specifically from the Medusa like powers.

Unfortunately due to irreverent circumstances, the helmet is mislaid and is later found by some random guy on planet earth. The hero. He is very curious and always likes a challenge. He finds the helmet not knowing what it does and puts it on.

The rulers of the universe find him and the helmet and realise that he is the only one who can defeat the Medusa like character and save the day. The rulers decide to send one of their own to teach the hero how to become a hero. This is the sidekick.

So that's the story, and it's the last time it's going to change, except for filling in some of the gaps about the characters themselves. At least now that I have made some decisions, I can now really get to know who my characters are, and design them accordingly. That's instead of my previous tactic where I was just looking at references, drawing some characters, and fitting them into a story somehow.

Lets see if I can come up with some interesting designs before Tuesday!

Review - The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

To end the sci fi film series, we saw The Day the Earth Stood Still. Made in 1951, directed by Robert Wise. This American Sci fi film starts with a flying saucer landing in the middle of the city. Then an alien comes out of the saucer and is shot down almost immediately. He is mistaken for carrying a weapon. What he was actually carrying was a gift for mankind and a message to go with it. The message was simple. he told the humans to live peacefully or else they would be destroyed. He demonstrated his power by switching off all electricity in the world. Except for emergency services and other necessary vehicles. That was his way of showing his power without hurting anyone.
The this alien was called Klaatu. He went into hiding for a while as mankind considered him to be a great threat.



What I didn't realise while watching the film is how the Klaatu has been portrayed as kind of like Jesus. He comes down to earth bearing gifts and a message. He has healing powers. and comes back from the dead.
The screenwriter said
“It was my private little joke… I had ori­gin­ally hoped that the Christ com­par­ison would be sub­lim­inal”.
(http://www.outsidecontext.com/2009/04/22/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-review-1951-2008/)
Well I didn't notice it either. Not until I read about it.



It is different to British sci fi films such as The Quatermass Xperiment, in that it is much less subtle and generally on a bigger scale. It is debatable as to whether it can be classed as a B movie. It could easily be argued that it can't really be called a B movie as for it's time it wasn't cheap and is still an enjoyable view even today. Sure some of the effects may have dated, but is a classic sci fi that has stood the test of time.

Some references
http://www.dvdjournal.com/reviews/d/daytheearthstood_fsc.shtml
http://www.outsidecontext.com/2009/04/22/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-review-1951-2008/

Review - The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)

The Quatermass Xperiment also known as the Creeping Unknown (in America), is a 1950's British B movie. It is the first Hammer Horror film and was based on a BBC series.



The film was the first of it's kind and was shown to us as a comparison of a British B movie. This is actually very useful for our group project as we are going for a British B movie trailer.

The film starts at the beginning, with a space ship crash landing. We find out that the scientist Quatermass organised an experiment to go into outer space. All the crew except for one had vanished. The one that remained was somehow different. It was later assumed that he had absorbed the rest of the crew. This absorbing creature wreaked havoc over the city. His form changed as he absorbed more things. By the end of the film the monster had taken the form of a big slimy blob with tentacles.

I think one of the key things that makes it British is how the monster is withheld until near the end. It is quite subtle how the monster starts off quite human, but gradually is revealed the monster within. This is something which we at B3D Studios have done in our trailer. The spaceman isn't revealed as the enemy, until about half way through the trailer, and it isn't until two thirds of the trailer that we film out that he is invisible.

This film came about 10 years before Doctor Who started in the 1960's. Doctor Who has taken influences from Quatermass, in how they took a slower pace (The originals anyway) and how long it would take to reveal something new.

So before Doctor Who came The Quatermass Xperiment, a first for British Sci fi B movies, that inspired many films to come.

Character Design - Week 5 - Colin White and a Story

I've just finished writing this post and its quite long. So just pre-warning you readers.

So it's Character Design Week 5 already! I'll start with the usual in lesson tasks. This week we were focusing in how important a pose can be to show the type of character. We also went into looking at the many basic muscles in the face and how they contribute to creating different expressions. It was actually quite tiring, (but fun) as we were actually acting out and holding certain poses based on a random situation or emotional state.

We were only asked to draw simply, so I drew with only a few lines and circles.
These few sketches are of different types of characters, by themselves, not interacting with anyone else.


The next drawing introduced a second character with the first. In this case it is, if I remember correctly, something like, a prime minister with a difficult baby or child. This is probably my favourite drawing from the entire session.


The last one, we had to introduce a third character. Although we were given two initially. In this example, Someone proposing. The third character is well, I'm not quite sure who he is supposed to be, but you get the idea.



That was the end of the first part of the lesson.

The second part of the lesson was to take one of our own existing characters and to try and pose it, based on what we've learnt.
I didn't get that far unfortunately. The main reason is that my three characters are still rather underdeveloped and am not sure yet who they are.

______________________

For people that don't know we each had a one to one meeting with Colin White, the previous day.
And if anyone is wondering how that went then keep reading.

I may start to waffle a bit, but I suppose I want to get the whole story in.

I spent some time over the weekend (and a bit before) drawing, trying to imagine the characters for my 80's cartoon. Remember I've been given the words mythic and space opera.
I already had some basic ideas such as the villain being based on Medusa. I also knew that I wanted the sidekick to be like some sort of Minator. With that in mind I drew up some initial designs.

The one thing I didn't want was to directly copy the characters, so instead of creating my own drawing of Medusa, I wanted to experiment with my own ideas. I mean, it's character design. Now I take that as designing my own three individual characters with their own names and personalities. For this project, they also had to somehow feel mythical but also fit into a space opera.

So that is why I looked for books with other peoples interpretations of mythical characters. Although I did look at the more professional books on myths and legends. I couldn't find any visual reference, other than simple drawings on broken vases. etc. The text went into too much detail. When I realised I wasn't getting anywhere with them, I got hold of some mythical story books, which had loads of illustrations. I already knew some of the familiar (very important word there) concepts of mythical creatures. Such as half human, half animal.

I then proceeded with some designs. Not with the intent of copying an exact concept, but creating my own original character which has some of these mythical influences.

So here is my villain. She was only based on Medusa. Not a replica in any way shape or form, but I thought that would be a good thing.

Things to note, such as the hair. It is thick and snake/vine like. No snake heads though. Then the dress. I was looking at these images when drawing the dress.




The only other thing to note is the long neck. That was accidental, but then I thought that since they also need to fit into a space opera, why not make it an alien. I added these layers to the neck which was then replicated, (by luck) in the dress design.

Its still only the first design, and has it's problems, but I wouldn't think that it was failing to satisfy the brief.
Not so, according to Colin White. He said very clearly that I should keep my characters exactly like the ones that already exist. I.e. My character shouldn't be Medusa like. It should be Medusa exactly or one of their race.

That was the last thing I would have expected from a reply. I mean it seemed to defeat the point of character design, if the characters were already designed, and all that was left to do was to draw my own version of essentially the same thing.

It completely threw me. I didn't get much more advice other than that as he said that I wasn't fulfilling the criteria of the brief. It's not as if I could argue. So I went along with it at the time.

Strangely enough, he thought that my sidekick was fine. Obviously under developed, but was at least passing the criteria of the brief. In his opinion, that is. Mainly because it just happened to bear a resemblance to a mythical character called Pan. Although I didn't realise this at the time.

I actualy started with a Minator character, then thought about changing the animal half. That way it wouldn't be an exact copy of a Minator.

WARNING... BAD DRAWING ALERT


So I thought of a sheep.

WARNING... BAD DRAWING ALERT

It looks like Farther Christmas, with animal horns and legs!!!
I then thought about a goat. Actually, the first goat drawings are on the left side of the upper drawing.

But this one is slightly better. Although I had help to draw this.
I was also looking at these images of goats as reference.







Now I also showed the hero to Colin White. This is the worst drawing of them all. He laughed, but that's no surprise. Mainly because I made his dress at tad short and accidentally made them look more like underpants!

Although before I show it, I want to show the pictures I was looking at for reference.






WARNING... BAD DRAWING ALERT

Now I would only post such an image because... well we have to. It' s all part of development.
Now Colin really surprised me with what he said next. He said that the hero should be an actual hero, like Hercules or Jason etc. So that wasn't just a type of mythical character, it was an actual character, which already has personality etc. In my head I was like. What???

So since I was completely unsure of where to go, I decided that I would wait until I could speak with Justin Wyatt.

So I asked whether I was doing the project correctly. Basically he said that there was nothing wrong with the direction I had taken. He continued to say that Colin was probably trying to save me some time. (considering it is week 5 already) That's one direction I could have taken, but mine is just as valid. So there you have it.

Moving on from the designs I had so far. He suggested that I take the one I'm most familiar with. I.e. the villain, and take the designs further with shape and design. He hasn't seen these yet, but if he does get this far down the post without getting bored then, if you could post a reply, that would be very helpful.

I decided to see what it would be like if the head was a snake. Somehow, when it was put in a dress, it looked like he was wearing a baggy T-shirt. I then Altered it slightly, and then looked like a Martial arts snake. I wasn't intending on that, but it was quite funny at the time.




It's been a very busy week. Particularly with the Narrative project. I have yet to draw more designs, but now I'm not working on storyboards or an animatic, I hope to catch up with character design, over the next few days. I've gotten quite behind, with the amount of work needing to be done.