Today I picked up something very important from Ravensbourne Student Services.
If you don't feel comfortable talking about your ideas for an art project, that's normally not a good sign.
Friday, 26 February 2016
Friday, 19 February 2016
Caught In The Act: Progress
Lesson/Reminder of the day:
When taking part in acting or filming, always remember to remove your ID card, or else something may feel out of place.
When taking part in acting or filming, always remember to remove your ID card, or else something may feel out of place.
Deadpool Movie Review
Last night I met up with some old good friends from sixth form to see Deadpool at the cinema. Compared to Zoolander 2 and Goosebumps (another two movies which I went to see aswell earlier this month), it was the best of the three. This is mainly down to the fact that I felt like I could really empathise with Deadpool's character and what he was going through.
The plot is as follows. Wade Wilson is a former special forces operative who works as a mercenary in New York City. He meets a girl called Vanessa at a local bar and they become romantically attached to one another. A year later when Wade proposes to her though, he soon finds out that he's been diagnosed with terminal cancer. A recruiter from a secret program approaches Wade and offers him an experimental cure for his cancer, having to leave Vanessa to undergo the procedure. At their laboratory, Wade meets Ajax (AKA Francis Freeman), who injects him with a serum designed to awaken latent mutant genes then has him subjected to weeks of torture to trigger the mutation. After the torture proves unsuccessful, Wade makes fun of Ajax's real name, and in response straps him in an airtight chamber which raises and lowers the oxygen level to keep Wade on the constant verge of abnormal breathing. It's then that Ajax reveals to Wade their true purpose: to make super-powered slaves to be sold to wealthy customers. The aftermath of this torture is that Wade develops immortal healing powers that cure his cancer but has severely disfigured his face and skin. And when confronting Ajax shortly afterwards, he tells him that there is no cure for his disfigurement. Wade attempts to reconnect with Vanessa, but cannot come to terms with his appearance, and decides to hunt Ajax down, becoming a masked vigilante under the alias "Deadpool".
Like most people told me, Deadpool was amazing. It wasn't as bloody/gory as I initially anticipated, but the action scenes were still composed epically and kept you involved. Wade Wilson was the most compelling character, and I could really see and understand the struggle he went through during his transformation into Deadpool, seeing as when he is first introduced he comes across as a confident know-it-all guy who can keep his life under control. I could look up to him easily as someone heroic, so when he undergoes Ajax's torture, you cannot help but feel sorry for him and be kept on the edge as to how he's eventually going to get his life back together. Ajax felt natural aswell: he makes fun of Wade an awful lot by stirring him to call him by his real name, and simply smirks when kept on the edge and acts like he's got it all under control. I naturally hated Ajax and kept thinking that he was a force to be reckoned with.
The movie also had tonnes of fourth-wall breaks, much of which provoked long and joyous laughs from the audience and myself. I can imagine that much of my tutors at Ravensbourne would be saying that it kills the overall tone, but in actual fact this comedic side of Wade Wilson's character made him feel more human; we could empathise with him more easily because he had an inviting attitude and kept us thrilled with what he was doing. If I was a Marvel superhero, this is probably what my attitude would be like most of the time. This leads us to trust him throughout the whole film and helps draw us in to the struggle he's being put through, so therefore we ironically take him seriously as a character and feel comfortable in his presence. Overall, Deadpool had a compelling storyline with realistic characters and a smart attitude to action and adventure; it's definitely worth your time.
The plot is as follows. Wade Wilson is a former special forces operative who works as a mercenary in New York City. He meets a girl called Vanessa at a local bar and they become romantically attached to one another. A year later when Wade proposes to her though, he soon finds out that he's been diagnosed with terminal cancer. A recruiter from a secret program approaches Wade and offers him an experimental cure for his cancer, having to leave Vanessa to undergo the procedure. At their laboratory, Wade meets Ajax (AKA Francis Freeman), who injects him with a serum designed to awaken latent mutant genes then has him subjected to weeks of torture to trigger the mutation. After the torture proves unsuccessful, Wade makes fun of Ajax's real name, and in response straps him in an airtight chamber which raises and lowers the oxygen level to keep Wade on the constant verge of abnormal breathing. It's then that Ajax reveals to Wade their true purpose: to make super-powered slaves to be sold to wealthy customers. The aftermath of this torture is that Wade develops immortal healing powers that cure his cancer but has severely disfigured his face and skin. And when confronting Ajax shortly afterwards, he tells him that there is no cure for his disfigurement. Wade attempts to reconnect with Vanessa, but cannot come to terms with his appearance, and decides to hunt Ajax down, becoming a masked vigilante under the alias "Deadpool".
Like most people told me, Deadpool was amazing. It wasn't as bloody/gory as I initially anticipated, but the action scenes were still composed epically and kept you involved. Wade Wilson was the most compelling character, and I could really see and understand the struggle he went through during his transformation into Deadpool, seeing as when he is first introduced he comes across as a confident know-it-all guy who can keep his life under control. I could look up to him easily as someone heroic, so when he undergoes Ajax's torture, you cannot help but feel sorry for him and be kept on the edge as to how he's eventually going to get his life back together. Ajax felt natural aswell: he makes fun of Wade an awful lot by stirring him to call him by his real name, and simply smirks when kept on the edge and acts like he's got it all under control. I naturally hated Ajax and kept thinking that he was a force to be reckoned with.
The movie also had tonnes of fourth-wall breaks, much of which provoked long and joyous laughs from the audience and myself. I can imagine that much of my tutors at Ravensbourne would be saying that it kills the overall tone, but in actual fact this comedic side of Wade Wilson's character made him feel more human; we could empathise with him more easily because he had an inviting attitude and kept us thrilled with what he was doing. If I was a Marvel superhero, this is probably what my attitude would be like most of the time. This leads us to trust him throughout the whole film and helps draw us in to the struggle he's being put through, so therefore we ironically take him seriously as a character and feel comfortable in his presence. Overall, Deadpool had a compelling storyline with realistic characters and a smart attitude to action and adventure; it's definitely worth your time.
Monday, 15 February 2016
Caught In The Act: Storyboarding + Location
Here is the storyboard that I'm making for our screenplay so far. I had a look with Jeff around his home yesterday, to which then I deducted that it would be a great place to film. I feel more at ease knowing that we have a lot more time, therefore this storyboard can look and feel more elaborate like it does at the moment.
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Freedom & Liberty: "Updates"
Well this sucks.
My plan for Freedom & Liberty is to make a film on location in various parts of London. So far it has proven to be a nightmare.
Firstly, I cannot believe that we only get given two weeks to pull it off. I've used the first week to generate ideas and yesterday I went out to photograph suitable locations to help, but now I only have one week to create a storyboard, assemble a cast and go off to film it, and I know this is going to be tricky because everyone around me that I know will be very busy with what they're doing. If I am going to make a fresh, clean and convincing storyboard, I'll need way much more time than this. Here is part of that storyboard and it looks absolutely terrible, because it is being rushed just for the sake of meeting an unreasonable deadline.
The only project that I have really found any joy in so far this term is the advertising campaign from the first week. It was fun because I felt like our ideas were more fresh and more thought out as a team. With more people on hand we could work faster and reflect ideas off one another in order to create a genuine final product. The title sequence project was fun to a certain extent. The two week deadline put me alone under too much pressure, and thus my final outcome was rushed and sloppy and everybody hated it.
Don't say that these storyboards "Have a unique style" or "They have a charm to them". They're rubbish and you know it, and it's because this pressure is too unnecessary. I do, however, look forward to the Final Major Project. We have been encouraged to think about it for a while now and I feel like my idea is coming along nicely. All I'll need before actually filming it is to work out how I'm going to obtain the props and cast necessary.
My plan for Freedom & Liberty is to make a film on location in various parts of London. So far it has proven to be a nightmare.
Firstly, I cannot believe that we only get given two weeks to pull it off. I've used the first week to generate ideas and yesterday I went out to photograph suitable locations to help, but now I only have one week to create a storyboard, assemble a cast and go off to film it, and I know this is going to be tricky because everyone around me that I know will be very busy with what they're doing. If I am going to make a fresh, clean and convincing storyboard, I'll need way much more time than this. Here is part of that storyboard and it looks absolutely terrible, because it is being rushed just for the sake of meeting an unreasonable deadline.
The only project that I have really found any joy in so far this term is the advertising campaign from the first week. It was fun because I felt like our ideas were more fresh and more thought out as a team. With more people on hand we could work faster and reflect ideas off one another in order to create a genuine final product. The title sequence project was fun to a certain extent. The two week deadline put me alone under too much pressure, and thus my final outcome was rushed and sloppy and everybody hated it.
Don't say that these storyboards "Have a unique style" or "They have a charm to them". They're rubbish and you know it, and it's because this pressure is too unnecessary. I do, however, look forward to the Final Major Project. We have been encouraged to think about it for a while now and I feel like my idea is coming along nicely. All I'll need before actually filming it is to work out how I'm going to obtain the props and cast necessary.
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Freedom & Liberty: Gallery Visits and Inspiration
The two exhibitions from today which I think I really got a lot of strong influence from were Matteo Palmieri's Visions Of Paradise at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square and Champagne Life at the Saatchi Gallery.
Palmieri studied the ancient writings of Aristotle, Plato and Cicero, which influenced his writing on the virtues of an ideal citizen. Palmieri commissioned Francesco Botticini to paint Assumption Of The Virgin, which reflects his own vision of Heaven that he described in his writings. It portrays a woman that is praying up at the sky where a congregation of people have gathered to look down on the land. It looks like she really wants to join these people and is ignoring the land that she's on. What I got out of this was that freedom and liberty is equal to death. Depressing, but it feels true in a way and could have some influence on my work.
I much preferred Champagne Life. A small exhibition, each piece is a black and white photo that has a cartoon character imposed over it. The characters contrast greatly to the scenery around them. Much of the photos portray middle class working people that are often lonely, and each caricature is very diverse in nature. It's as if they are all expressions of what the people in the photo are thinking, which tells me that freedom only exists in the imagination. While it made less of an impact on me like Visions Of Paradise did, it still feels like a legitimate concept and one that I can relate to.
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Title Sequence Project: Progress
I chose to take on the title sequence project because, at first, it sounded very interesting and wanted to see how well I could handle it. My Western one is an animation and I am having terrible difficulties trying to finish it; I have all the components for it, but it's compressing it and running it through several different softwares that it complicated and slow. Complicated and slow isn't bad; what is really bugging me is that we've only had two weeks to plan and execute everything. If we had loads more time then, to me, everything would feel more fresh and have even more potential. I also don't have a great deal of experience in sound design or music, so trying to create a remix of the main theme feels very out-of-reach.
I have three rough ideas for my final major project, although they aren't really very big or deep ones. Hopefully we can all influence one-another at the crits.
I have three rough ideas for my final major project, although they aren't really very big or deep ones. Hopefully we can all influence one-another at the crits.
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