Life Drawing class- First Week!!

 First day of Life Drawing class was awesome!! I was nervous yet excited at start as I never had any previous experience in doing this kind of stuff and was looking forward to this new thing. But the whole "naked" idea is also what made me nervous,but listening to my flatmates' experience and tips helped me lessen the nerves such as focusing on the body shapes than other bits and bobs.

So the first drawing of the model from the side was quite good, apart from the small feet which was really hard to grasp (especially the foot on the right) due to the angles. I was quite pleased with the timing for that session as it was enough for me to draw the shape and do some last minute shading in for tones.

The second image is of classmate Freddie done for 25mins.

The face and head is something that I think I would've worked on more. This time drawing was a bit more easier because of the creases of the clothing material and the fact that he's wearing clothes. Unfortunately, I didn't quite get the chance to finish the bristles on the broom so it kind of looks "bristle less".

The third is of the same model from the first image but is sitting on the bench. At that point, I think that I am beginning to get the hang of drawing naked people. Though I find it hard to get the body shape right as the model is sitting down with some parts of the bench in front of her. Getting the right body shape and doing it lightly took a lot of time that I didn't get the chance to add in some tones.

Anyway, it was really good for first day and first go, but my drawings aren't dark enough on the tones which is something that I should really improve on due to the fear of going back to my old ways. Hopefully with more practice, I will get better as time goes on. (^_^)/b

David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) Review

David Cronenberg’s version of The Fly is much more different compared to the original version in particular the story telling and the mise en scene. As a sci-fi, horror, drama, romance film, the film centres around the use of teleportation, only this time is handled by Seth Brundle (played by Jeff Goldblum) rather than Andre Delambre who experiments on teleportation of objects and living things, ends up becoming a human/fly hybrid.

<><></> </> <><></> </> <><></></>

Fig 1:The Film's poster art

There are many similarities that Cronenberg has kept to closely link to the original film such as the losing of consciousness of Seth as he is being overtaken by the fly’s. Both films have kept the idea of teleportation chambers but with different designs such as Cronenberg’s “telepods” which consists of automatic door lock, voice command computers , and according to Carl Lyon (Monsters at play.com); they were “actually modeled after the cylinder head of Cronenberg's Ducati motorcycle”.

The film’s storyline and setting are more different compared to Neumann’s version, like Seth lives in a secluded warehouse (which he calls his home and lab) who meets Veronica and falls in love. Whereas in the original, the film sets off with the loving, close knitted Delambre family in a rich house in which the husband Andre has an accident, exchanging his left and head of a fly’s. As for the differences in storyline, Cronenberg’s version has more of a linear structure and the fusion of fly and man results into one being however; in Neumann’s version the film starts with a flashback with man and fly exchanging body parts. But the film gradually continues from where the beginning had left off. The effect of teleportation between objects, both films used stop motions with flash added to “blind” the effect and smokes to emphasize the transformation result. They’ve both used the experimentation of animals, the Neumann version using the family pet cat and Cronenberg’s version using baboons.

Cronenberg’s version was a more about sex, drugs (or alcohol in this case) and love which was some of the most important elements in 80’s film, where as in the late 50’s love was more important than anything else. But because of this, Cronenberg’s version of The Fly “turns out to be a very well acted and emotional love story in particular Jeff Goldblum’s acting by his “quirky and thoughtful portrayal of Seth Brundle brings a good degree of dynamism” ( Ramius Scythe, horrorchronicles.com).” It greatly surpasses the original '58 version.” (Derek327, IMDB). However, some critics claim that the film is a mere metaphor for Aids, cancer and even the aging process. The age of technology is also noticeable as Seth gives voice commands to a computer monitor with keyboard which responds to questions asked rather than neon lights, large cinema like disks with large buttons in Neumann’s version. The use of special effects were more advanced in the remake, such as the “inside out” baboon, the transformation of Seth to Brundle fly (using prosthetics and puppets for most vomit scenes) and the animatronics Brundle creature (or known as “space bug” by Cronenberg) . The special effects of Seth’s transformation were so extreme that they’ve even had Seth have his facial features like ears, hairs, teeth and fingers falling out and had kept them in a medicine cupboard as “souvenirs”. In one of his transformations, “He looks like The Thing from the Fantastic Four crossed with Rocky from that movie with Cher.” (Smirnoff, noffload.net). They were so convincing which had made Cronenberg well known for his gore atrocities, “the first external evidence of fly genes happen at the site of an injury (where new skin is growing) and for having Seth mention that at first he thought his altered genes would express themselves as a bizarre form of cancer, which they almost certainly would…” (Kelly Parks, .feoamante.com) “The special effects were very good for the eighties and the film does have some scary moments. If you've never seen the film you should.” (DunnDeeDaGreat, IMDB reviewer).

The opening of the film is quite slow, adding in some credits with various coloured backgrounds which resemble DNA, to keep with the theme of sci-fi. Similar to the original film, the story starts off as Seth, a scientist living in a secluded factory area meets Veronica Quaife (Played by Geena Davis), a journalist working for Particle magazine in an event held by Bartok Science industries which provides funding towards Brundle’s scientific works. He shows his latest work to Veronica, telepods which teleports inanimate objects from one telepod to the other. Veronica stays with Seth to be the “journalist who records one of the most amazing accomplishments in human history.” (Carl Lyon, monstersatplay.com). 

Seth decides to experiment further, by using animals and later experimenting on himself after  Veronica leaves him to confront her editor and ex boyfriend , Stathis Borans (played by John Getz) who is threatening to publish her story because of Veronica’s  grown feelings for Seth. As Seth goes into the pods, a fly had entered into the same pod as Seth. However unlike the original film, Seth comes out normal with no visible effects but as the film progresses, he has newfound abilities like increased stamina and strength as well as developing fly -like characteristics like the ability to scale walls, vomiting acid out to eat food and appearance changes.  This experiment proves disastrous as over the course of the film it shows a man becoming less human and trying to retain it but is biologically being taken away from hi

Fig 2: The Brundlefly-telepod hybrid creature

Fig 3: The best picture for last- the "inside out" baboon

List of Illustrations:

Fig 1: Cronenberg, D (1986) The Fly poster art:

http://www.netbrawl.com/matchup.php?mid=15086&bracketid=689 -(accessed on 23/09/11)

Fig 2: Brownlee, J (2007)7 Sci-Fi Horror Movies For Halloween. The brundlefly-telepod hybrid creature:

http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2007/10/7-scifi-horror-/ -(accessed on 23/09/11)

Fig 3: Edvard, A.J (2009) Deep In My Dreams. Inside out Baboon:

http://dimdreams.tumblr.com/page/16 -(accessed on 23/09/11)

Bibliography:

Lyon, C. (1986) Review: The Fly (1986)(online):

http://www.monstersatplay.com/review/dvd/f/thefly.php -(accessed on 23/09/11)

DunnDeeDaGreat (2002), IMDB The Fly (1986)review (online):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091064/reviews -(accessed on 23/09/11)

Derek237(2003), IMDB The Fly (1986) review (online):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091064/reviews -(accessed on 23/09/11)

Smirnoff (2009), The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986) (oniline):

http://www.noffload.net/?p=127 -(accessed on 23/09/11)

Scythe,R (2010), The Fly (1986) review(online):

http://www.horrorchronicles.com/mutant/monster-movies/the-fly-1986-review.html - (accessed 27/09/11)

Parks, K (2000) The Fly -1986 (online):

http://www.feoamante.com/Movies/TheFly/thefly_86.html- (accessed on 27/09/11)

Kurt Neumann’s The fly (1958) Review

The Fly, directed by Kurt Neumann is the original sci-fi, horror and thriller version made in 1958. The film tells the tragic story of a scientist who experiments with teleportation of objects and living things finds himself having an arm and a head of a fly which had unknowingly entered into the transfer chamber.

Fig 1: Film Poster of The Fly

Set a rich home in Montreal, the film begins with François Delambre being called late at night by his sister-in-law, Helen Delambre (Patricia Owen). She confesses to him that she has committed murder of her beloved husband, the scientist Andre Delambre (played by David Hedison) using the press of their plant to press his head and left hand. François calls Inspector Charas to question Helene about the murder and later convinces her to explain about the motives:

“He put his head and his arm under the press?”

  

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I cannot answer that question.”

“Coffee, Inspector?”

“Yes, please.”


(The Fly Script, K, S and D, 1958)



This results in the film going into non linear format showing a flashback and reveals the events that led to the scientist’s death. The flashback effect was made using a ripple of faded in of colours to recreate the sense of stepping back in time. As the story builds on, there is a “happy rich family” atmosphere within the characters as well as the romancing between Andre and Helene. Whilst Andre is demonstrating the works of his latest creation, the special effects used (such as the stop motion for the object to disappear and reappear between the chambers) convinced the audience to believe that such things like that can be true. The use of big cinema tapes, neon lights, coloured buttons and flashing lights also emphasizes the director’s view of “futuristic technology” during that time.



Fig 2:The Andre-fly creature



The film also teases the audience with the reference of the fly from time to time, in particular the part where Francois questions Helene about the couple’s personality:

"Did your brother ever experiment with animals?"

"Insects?"

"No. Though that would be funny, if..."

"They wouldn't harm anything."

"Not even a fly.”

(The Fly Script, K, S and D, 1958)

  by Andre instructing Helene do various tasks, from getting him a bowl of milk laced with rum to importantly, to look for the fly with “a white head”. Though the line: "It's no good calling to me or saying anything.""I can't answer. I can't speak." (The Fly Script, K, S and D, 1958), It quite contradicts how Andre responds to Helene as he points and knocks; however it also emphasizes how serious Andre’s condition is in. As Helene enters the inventing room, Andre is seen with his right arm in his pocket and a dark sheet of material on his head, covering his face and not revealing the appearance to the audience. Though a long search quest in finding the fly seems unsuccessful, Helene pleads to Andre to go back to the chamber to see would it work without the fly. With no music in the background but Helene hoping that her husband is back in one piece in the chamber, she runs up to him and takes off the sheet from his head only to have the match on match editing between a Close Up shot of Helene’s shock and the fly’s head along with some high pitched discordant notes to depict the shock and horror of this creature.
Next day, Helene discovers that her husband has not touched his dinner that was left outside of his inventing room. Though Andre is not shown within these scenes, it is hinted that something dreadful has happened to him, depicted by Helene reading out messages implying he cannot speak but was involved in a serious accident and is in no danger. This is followed

Chaos builds up with the discordant music crescendos to loud and Andre battling his human consciousness against the fly, which results the destruction of the inventing room and the chambers. The music changes to a mellow tune of the violin as Andre writes on the chalkboard, “Love You” for the last time before the fly’s conscious consumes his. Andre leads Helene to the press machine which determinedly; to end his suffering Helene pushes the button.Although that segment does not contain any sort of violence only the mere match on match editing between close up shots of Helene pressing the button to press on Andre and the top part of the press machine. She does this twice which then the scene reverts back to the continuation before the flashback began. The scene ends with Inspector Charas and François discover the fly with the “white head” now shown with the miniaturised head and right arm of Andre, stuck on a web about to be eaten by a spider yells: “Help me! Please help me! Help me!” Until Charas kills both of them with a rock, which Francois points out to Charas that he has killed a “fly with a human head just like she killed a human with a fly head.” (The Fly Script, K, S and D, 1958)The film ends with Philippe, the son of Andre and Helene being told how his father died because of his work and lastly ends with Francois and Philippe going to the zoo.

This film could be depicted as a requited love story between husband and wife, which is shown by
Helene fulfilling his last wishes for love and nothing else.



Fig 3:The requited love between husband and wife.

The basic moral from this film is that people can’t play God and interfere with nature as this can result in horrific consequences. The moral dates back to the Greek mythology, which humans who were too full of themselves were punished by the Gods and were transformed to animals or grotesque creatures, which as what Almar Haflidason, "A sad story of considerable pathos despite the ridiculous plot". (Haflidason, A. 2003)

Overall, the film was successful in convincing the audience the horrors and ideas, which “happens to be one of the better, more restrained entries of the "shock" school.” (Thompson, H.1958). And according to Kevin Johnson (Johnson,K. 1958), “Jump scares and bizarre occurrences are replaced with scenes of careful pacing, expert direction, and real dread.” it was also deemed as having good for character development and plot during that time.

List of Illustrations:

Fig 1:The Fly (1958) Poster Art (online image):

http://movieart.net/products-page/brands/the-fly-1958-15946/

-(accessed on 20/09/2011)

Fig 2: The Fly (1958) signed autograph by David Hedison (online image):

http://uncleodiescollectibles.com/img_lib/01%20David%20Hedison%20Signed%20The%20Fly%20LC%2001%2011-16-6.jpg

-(accessed on 20/09/2011)

Fig 3:Andre and Helene Delambre (David Hedison and Patricia Owen) (Online Image):

http://www.wrongsideoftheart.com/?s=the+fly+1958&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

-(accessed on 20/09/2011)

  

Bibliography:

K, S and D (1958) The Fly script (online):

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/f/fly-script-transcript-vincent-price.html

(accessed on 20/09/2011)

Haflidason, A (2003) Top Critics: The Fly film reviews. (online):

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1007600-fly/reviews/#type=top_critics

(accessed on 20/09/2011)

Thompson, H (1958) The Screen: Hair-Raiser; The Fly' Is New Bill at Local Theatres-Movie Review: The Fly 1958 (online):

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9502E4DA1031E73BBC4850DFBE668383649EDE (accessed on 20/09/2011)

Johnson,K. The Fly (1958) Movie Review (online):

http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/the_fly_1958.html (accessed on 20/09/2011)

Summer project design: refined

Since my internet's fixed, I can now upload the refined final images design. I have designed these using the graphics tablet and Photoshop.

The building structure was done using various paintbrush styles and experimentations with them. I've decided to use wood as it would suit well with the design

Structure Design

The Machinery robot design was added with pink and purple tones to give it the female charcter.The use of grey tones was also to give the character some "robotic"look to it. 

Machinery robot design

Living form design

The living form design was my best out of all the designs, I've experimented on whether to give the design some feathers but felt that it would be better off without them. I've also felt that either blues, greys or white colours would give the character to suit its natural sky surroundings.









Here are the other images that didn't quite make it to the final ideas:

101 concept designs-living forms and machinery

This group I personally think is my strongest of all, as the living form is based on some parts of the ornament vase along with the lines and textures, giving it a seal/ bird hybrid. At first, the machinery was quite difficult to come up ideas until I looked at some of my other ideas of machinery upside down and decided to transform it into a humanoid form. Its based on a light bulb and engine parts.

101 concept designs-structures

Before starting the course, we had to come up with 101 concept designs using pictures provided and choose 3 designs under each heading: structures, living forms and machinery.

This piece is based on a round display ornament vase turned upside down with the back of high heels.

The Very Beginning

Right, got this started up later than I planned.

This is the first post in the blog that I will keep track of my progress through the CG Arts and Animation course at UCA Rochester. I also be using it to post some personal work and any interesting things.

Hope you enjoy! ^_^