Unit 3: Environment- concept art improvements

fig 1- tricycle

fig 2- tricycle in reflected mirror

Here are some improvements made on the concept art. Firstly I've changed the side walls to look like proper mirrors and change the generic lighting to a more recessed version. I've also added some cracks in the ceiling based on the movie, Repulsion suggested by Lev. I've now added some different kinds of kids toys that could be used to add in the uncanny effect. Somehow the darkness of the blacks looks much different but am not sure whether to revert them to its previous state as it looks dark, but kind of takes away the uncanny? I feel that the tipped- over tricycle infront of the mirror works best but having a tricycle at the refelcted mirror makes less effect. The kids beach ball works best as well but I feel it isn't as strong as the tricycle. I've also attepmted to add in creepy kids toys but they just look cute rather than creepy.  I'm also thinking of keeping the carpet design as it helps add in the confusions.

fig 3. beach ball



fig 4. creepy cat?

fig 5. creepy bunny toy?

fig 6. same again only surround black tones changed

fig 7. flower display

Unit 3: Environment- thumbs, frames and mirror placement

  

Faces display ornament



Here are some more thumbnails for the frames to go around the mirrors, personally I like numbers 1 and 2 as its more Kitsch style than the others as well as fitting into the theme of the endless- no exit room.

I've then created some thumbnails   for the display ornament to go with the scene. I thought of this as something for each side of the walls, a face to represent the negative emotions but then I've realised the sculpting for this on Maya would probably end up being too hard to make and not enough time to complete. 

Again below these are some thumbnails for the display ornaments like the creepy bunny and doll but somehow they've just ended up being not opposite and not creepy.

not creepy bunny





not so creepy doll



Lastly here are some more thumbnails sketches for the scene before my final was chosen which I hadn't realised they haven't been uploaded! :S 

Thumbnails sketches



Thumbnail sketches



Unit 3: Environment- possible concept design







Without side mirrors

With Side mirrors

Here is a "possible" concept art of my scene. I've still need to explore different objects that can create weird atmosphere and maybe the change of the floor patterns. The ball in the image is added in to add in the confusion of atmospheres. The things that needs changing in this image would be side mirrors as at the moment it looks more of a door than a mirror on the wall. I designed the wall patterns after looking at the image of a clown with a flower background that I've found which reminds me of William Morris work.

I've decided to use these colour combinations to help recognise where the reflections are coming from and I feel that these colours helps adds in the atmosphere of uneasiness especially with dull colours.


The wall pattern design




The Clown image





Unit 3: Enivironmet- Maya- using reflections




Main view

Here I have attempted to create a thumbnail on Maya taken from the idea from one of my thumbnails to see how mirror reflections work as a practice. The model is pretty much similar to the thumbnail only the side walls either more spaced out or brought more further in. The reflections on the sides aren't exactly going well but still need more practise. I've also added some red wall colour just to identify wall reflection easier as well as adding in a "pot on stand" model to help create reflections. I'm quite happy the way the models turned out but I think I need to work on the mirrors more.

From the left 



From the right



Side walls brought closer in





One of the ideas

 

Unit 3: Environment- photoshop thumbnails



fig 1







fig 2

More photoshop thumbs, this time focusing on the reflections of mirrors, I thought that using mirrors around the whole area could perhaps create confusion effects. I came up with this idea after remembering some images that I have taken with my friends and sisters to the Hong Kong Science Museum which contained mirrors set almost on every wall but shows different reflections. I've also included other examples of how it is viewed. 

Mirror images

The Wicker Man (1973) Review

Film Poster

The Wicker Man is a thriller, horror film made in 1974 directed by Robin Hardy and stars Edward Woodward as Sgt Howie who goes on to investigate the disappearance of Rowan Morrison on Summerisle, a remote island famed for its popular fruit produce along with its weird and unhelpful residents causing Howie more determined in getting the case solved.

The Wicker Man with animals locked inside ready for sacrifice

Set in an island near Scotland, the film focuses on the faiths and beliefs of the inhabitants set in an enclosed area where no other outside contact can be made. The belief that is unfamiliar to the audience and the central character consists of some Pre-Christian, Pagan and the circle of life. This creates mystery in the film as everything looks normal to the central character and to the audience but when it comes to May Day, the residents of the island practise the religion either with naked virgin woman jumping over fires or performing an “animal” parade to sacrifice living things trapped inside a “Wicker Man” to please and give thanks to their God to help with the island’s food produce. “The pagan imagery, of hobby horses, maypoles, the "Green Man" pub and Mr. Punch, are all instantly recognisable as existing in our everyday lives, and particularly our childhoods (for some reason they have residual unnerving qualities, a bit like clowns), but screenwriter Peter Schaffer's depiction of these elements as part of a living religion based upon fertility and sensuality, as opposed to the repression of Christianity, is the engine of the movie and it is doubly appropriate that a repressed nation should make repression one of the subjects of its best horror movie.” (Smith, 2003).

The May Day parade, for the animal and Howie's sacrifice

The film adds to the mystery of its unfamiliar religion using women as the “carrier of nature” which involves burning skin as a sacrifice for the birth of the baby in the woman as well as the males being the circle of life which when a male dies, they become part of the earth and incarnate as trees before being part of the air the humans breathe.“For a "modern" policeman like Howie, it's impossible to penetrate the images of unsaved savages to discern the cohesive strengths of the community. The inhabitants of Summerisle are happy to cavort naked through the trees, close to nature and in line with the gods which rule their lives, far removed from Howie's constricted religion” (Cannon, 1997). Being close to the “old Gods” which were thought to help with the development of produce and growth could lead to one’s healthy lifestyle. The residents and Lord Summerisle had managed to successfully lure Howie onto the island due to the conflicts of beliefs that Howie has to live and or follow which sexuality is heavy on the island, “unclothed maidens photographed through a soft-core haze, and an extraordinary erotic dance from Britt Ekland, body-doubled for the more candid bottom-wiggling. But there is genuine fear in its nightmarish tableaux: the breast-feeding woman holding an egg in the ruined churchyard is like a detail from Hieronymus Bosch” (Bradshaw, 2007).

List of Illustrations


Hardy, R (1973) Film Poster (online):
http://www.wrongsideoftheart.com/2009/03/the-wicker-man-1973-uk/ – (accessed on 19/12/2011)

TB, D (2011) The Wicker Man with animals locked inside ready for sacrifice (online):
http://doriantb.blogspot.com/2011/10/wicker-man-man-of-wicker-feet-of-clay.html – (accessed on 19/12/2011)


Buckle, A (2011) The May Day parade, for the animal and Howie's sacifice (online):
http://buckle22.blogspot.com/2011/03/are-wicker-man-and-shutter-island.html – (accessed on 19/12/2011)

Bibliography:

Smith, A (2003) EMPIRE ESSAY: The Wicker Man (online):
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=7892 – (accessed on 19/12/2011)

Cannon, D (1997) The Wicker Man (1973) (online):
http://www.film.u-net.com/Movies/Reviews/Wicker_Man.html – (accessed on 19/12/2011)

Bradshaw, P (2007) The Wicker Man (online):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/aug/24/horror – (accessed on 19/12/2011)



Unit 3: Environment thumbnails 19-27

Hellos! Hope everyone had a really good New Year and Christmas!! Here are a few more thumbnails looking at the play of mirrors and mise-en-abyme (thumbs 26 and 27) as I think it creates a different perspective and makes spaces confusing, repitition of places (thumbs 21-24) and the idea of getting lost like thumbnail 25. I came up with thumbnail 25 whislt on my way home, we had to go through some countrysides which haven't got many streetlights and to make things worse, there was heavy fog. Quickly I snapped a photo of it as an influence to the uncanny theme since it was the roads that I'm used to but with the heavy fog (which has rarely been this heavy!!) and limited lighting could maybe create something unsecure?

Also thumbnail 22 is set in a Chinese urn niche which I went to visit one of my relatives when I was younger, it is pretty much a collective place filled with urns of the deceased. At that time to me it was scary as the place is very dark as there were no windows and there's limited red lighting as a symbol of luck.