Adam Felstead: October 2014

Monday, 27 October 2014

Learning how to apply textures on maya

Thursday, 23 October 2014

Film Review: "Stanley Kubrick" 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Figure 1: Movie poster: 2001: A Space Odyssey

"Stanley Kubricks" Space Odyssey is a very unique film in the sense that the narrative story is not told that much through the dialogue of the character but the actions of them. The film its self is beautiful and has some simply spectacular panoramic shots of the incredibly deserted land were the monkeys are starting to evolve to the elegant scenes of the space ship docking to the mother ship. This is definitely not an "easy watcher" and needs allot of patients to stick with it. The film is about an a strange object that is discovered by humans. This object gives information to astronauts Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea), Frank Spoole (Gary Lockwood) to head towards Jupiter.

Figure 2: scene were the ape discovers the bone

Alot of this film is to do with suspense which is highly different to what we are used to with today's modern blockbusters. "Stanley Kubrick" would make certain significant shots very overly dramatic by shooting them in slow motion and giving the viewer the feeling that the scenes have been elongated, he also makes these scenes allot more intense with the use of very atmospheric orchestral music. Tom Milne who is a journalist for the guardian also agrees with my points describing the iconic scene of the ape discovering the bone "It turns in lazy slow motion against the sky" (Tom Milne, The Guardian, 2010).

Figure 3: Astronauts on the moon

You have to be incredibly patient with "2001: A Space Odyssey" as the film is all about tension and build up. If a viewer of today's modern society was to watch this film without being warned that you have to be in the right mind frame for it they wouldn't understand why this film is famous and why it is such a key role in the sci-fi genre. In today's films when a scene becomes tense you are automatic used to something big happening to follow it but what "Stanley Kubrick" does is leave you with what some might say an anti climax as nothing has instantly happened after the tense music and build up leaving you waiting and waiting scene after scene until the big finally. In "Roger Ebert" "review he states "This is the work of an artist so sumblimely confident that he doesn't include a single shot simply to keep our attention." (R. Ebert, 1997).

Figure 4: The final scene of the film

"Stanley Kubrick" could have been heavily influenced in the era in which this film is filmed as it is incredibly psychedelic and trippy. There are multiple scenes in which this film could be classed as trippy from the feeling of being immersed into the vastness of space to the highly hallucinogenic were there is nothing but lights flashing and running towards the scene and the fact that the film ends with a baby in a pod looking at the Earth. "Jonahh Oestreich" even states evidence in his review that the "people coming to the shows at last but those people were somewhat different - a young crowd, smoking pot before the screenings" (J Oestreich, 2013). Summing up this film is incredibly hard as you cant just treat this as a normal thing as it is something much bigger and should be viewed as piece of pop culture which will forever be iconic and remembered.

Illustration List

Figure 1: http://www.impawards.com/1968/two_thousand_and_one_a_space_odyssey_ver2.html

Figure 2: http://nathanbauman.com/odysseus/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Ape-man-with-bone-from-Stanley-Kubricks-2001-A-Space-Odyssey.jpg

Figure 3:http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/aso/images/wallpaper/astronauts-clavius.jpg

Figure 4: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimlv_zq-rhY0T4Z8vVHfrVnHOmhidEXHY4fQmjUsyQhpDLwpH4q-6ekKzVKUw20EFpFhB3Jn4coRo35crmsNJBlta2cLy7U1CJ1p6zVHrhpXcRvZxSsTBeOOPJ_0RUnkNyWHE6mh3STi4/s640/2570112841_e73e201cf9.jpg

Bibliography

T. Milne, the guardian (2010): http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/space-odyssey-review-science-fiction

R. Ebert (1997): http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-2001-a-space-odyssey-1968

J. Oestreich (2013) : http://staticmass.net/deconstructing-cinema/2001-a-space-odyssey/

Perspective exercises

Film Review: "Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B.Shoedsack" King Kong 1933

Figure 1: Film poster of King Kong (1933)

King Kong (1933) directed by "Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B.Shoedsack" is easily one of the most iconic and recognisable films of its time and today. The film starts of with an incredibly arrogant and in some respects reckless film director called "Carl Denham" (Robert Armstrong) who is planning a journey to a mythical island were man has wondered if it was a legend or real. Before he leaves with his crew and cast he decides that the issue and thing that went wrong with his last film was the fact that it lacked a female character witch is were he find a beautiful pauper lady who is having to steal to eat called "Ann Darrow" (Fay Wray) it is clear Dunham uses the fact Ann is struggling financial and promises her fame and wealth by playing his female lead in his knew film. When they get to the island they find it inhabitants are savages who take "Ann" and offer her as a sacrifice so the "Great Kong" which is were the acting hero behind the camera "Bruce Cabot" (John Driscoll) is forced to go an epic adventure to rescue her.

Figure 2: the savages facing Ann

"Modern viewers will shift uneasily in their seats during the stereotyping of the islanders" (R. Erbert, 2002) which is incredibly true as when this film was made in 1933 U.S.A still had segregation and was still a heavily white powered racist nation so what they classed as being acceptable on the screen compared to today's modern society it is completely different. For example the way the tribesman costumed were designed and the way they acted was just like normal tribesman from Africa not these brutal savages that the screen was trying to depict them as. This is an extremely touchy subject and you would have been thought to be quiet an awkward thing to correct but "Peter Jackson" really does true justice when recreating this film to stick to the original film but when it came down to depicting the natives rather then stereotyping them as tribesman he created them into much more unhuman like savages which re brutal and don't know how to interact with the outside world.

Figure 3: Kong fighting a pterodactyl

"Although there are vivid battles between prehistoric monsters on the island which Denham, the picture maker, insists on visiting, it is when the enormous ape, called Kong, is brought to this city that the excitement reaches its highest pitch." (Mordaunt Hall, March 1933) Even to this day there are many films relate able to this as films need to discover there middle ground and when watching this film you will begin to become bored of all the action and all the fight scenes as well there all the same weather Kong be fighting a Tyrannosaurus, a giant snake or a fleet of spit fighters. There is one film maker who has been criticised with allot of his recent work which is Michael Bay as he has the exact same problem he has to many explosions and to much action and just not enough story or character build up so we get a sense of feeling and empathy for the characters were watching on the screen.

Figure 4: Kongs final fight

"Kong proves to be a gentleman and a stalwart defender of his Beuty" (D. Thompson, The Guardian 2010) This is the best quote to summarise the ending of this film as the misunderstood and miss treated beast dies protecting the only thing he loves.

Illustration List

Figure 1 :http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/King_Kong_1933_French_poster.jpg

Figure 2: http://fanwithamovieyammer.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/king-kong-4.jpg

Figure 3: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjda-whOiOmKsRyVejEQVpKzaB4LnZt9IRTXeW6YPpqLlq0Ah2FMHyjsvGZgpJIrsAVUbumhQhnMJBZHykKwBsS3InTdpKXZ4khKl7ML-RHWU-SdpFY3eZy5etLVR3KsoY5O1Lkg_kMFic/s1600/King+Kong+1933.jpg

Figure 4: http://highlighthollywood.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/King-Kong-1933-king-kong-2814496-2400-1891.jpg

Bibliography

R. Erberts (2002): http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-king-kong-1933

Mordaunt Hall (March 1933): http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F03E3DC173BEF3ABC4B53DFB5668388629EDE

D. Thompson, The Guardian (2010) : http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/king-kong-science-fiction