This supervisor meeting was arranged as a means of reassurance and development. As stated in my agenda, I needed a few things checked/reassured and direction towards getting my project off to a start. This meeting with Brian Robinson was very productive because it helped me understand the direction in which my project is heading.
Firstly, I showed Brian my newly updated project aim and objectives based on the new direction we both discussed in the previous meeting. After that, I showed Brian my deliverables list, explaining that I had set a number of deliverables to each objective. Finally, I showed Brian my personal criteria for the genre of horror in film, briefly explaining all the criteria points and the references I had used.
Brian was very pleased to see the progress I had made, delighted at the fact that my own confidence in this project was at a much higher level. Moving onto feedback, Brian explained that I should try and move forward with some practical examples and as a practitioner, I should still be wary of the critical process. Brian and I noted my agreed actions points as we went along, discussing what practical examples I should be working on and what I could do to develop my project from there. Brian suggested I look at critically acclaimed horror titles in Japan, Europe and America and discover what is it about these films that has earned them such notoriety.
I made the suggestion of remakes, how certain films from one country can be remade with the influences of another. Brian suggested I find horror films that have been remade in another region i.e. a Japanese title remade in America, or even titles that have been influenced by an original source. Next, Brian encouraged me to explore something called Epistemology which is the nature of knowledge to a practising artist, which in turn, will help me understand what is true knowledge and what is false knowledge. Next came the four C's; codes and conventions, criteria and characteristics. I told Brian I had been having trouble distinguishing the difference between criteria and characteristics, therefore, Brian suggested I look into both as well as codes and conventions for each location's horror films (Japan, Europe and America), take what I have learned from studying these elements and apply it to my own criteria.
Moving onto my project deliverables list, Brian suggested I try improving my personal art skills i.e. drawing, painting and photography in order to help me develop a visual language for my project, improve my skills and create better quality work for my portfolio submission at the end of semester two. This led to the recommendation of creating a PDP (personal development plan) to organise the practice and improvement of these skills. In relation to the aesthetics of my project, Brian suggested I prioritise improving my line, tone and colour skills. Finally, I mentioned to Brian that I was having trouble finding helpful resources in the library therefore, Brian recommended some topics for me to look up relevant to the development of my project including mise en scene, film language, media studies, communication theory and critical theory.
This meeting helped push my project forward, giving me a lot to do as well as inspire more future works, not to mention create a more solid understanding of critical thinking and analysis. Below I have outlined my next set of agreed action points. I hope to complete at least three of these tasks for our group meeting on Thursday and perhaps more for my next meeting with Brian on Friday.
Critically acclaimed Japanese, American and
Horror
Remakes/influence
Refine & define own criteria through a
developing understating of theory and practice - for example, horror
environment informed by current knowledge then develop
Epistemology - nature of knowledge to a
practising artist
Codes and conventions, criteria and
characteristics
Develop visual language for project
PDP - personal development plan
(observational skills, drawing, painting, etc.) - line, tone and colour
Books on film theory - mise en scene, film
language, media studies, communication theory, critical theory
Here are my agenda points for my second meeting with my project supervisor Brian Robinson along with my progress thus far.I will be posting my feedback to these agenda points after my meeting with my supervisor.
Agenda
Aims & objectives
Now thatmy project has a new aim, as well as a new set of objectives, I need to go over them with Brian to see if I have a solid project idea.
Project deliverables
For each of my project objectives, I have assigned a number of deliverables to follow through on. Again, these need to be discussed with Brian to ensure I am not giving myself too much work to handle.
Personal horror film criteria
To critically analyse relevant sources as well as my own work, I need my own personal criteria for the genre of horror in film. This needs to be discussed with Brian in order to enquire how I can expand and develop my criteria further.
Criteria and characteristics
These two points of analysis are causing me some problemsbecause they are confusing me and preventing me from developing forward. The difference and relevance of these two elements needs to be broken down.
Progress
Project aim and objectives updated
Personal horror film criteria added
Project deliverables list added
During a discussion with Brian Robinson, he asked me how I judge horror films, what I look for in horror films and what do I expect from horror films?
I listed a few things and we wrote them down together. Next, Brian said that if I wanted to be able to critique my own work as well as others, I need criteria. The primary aim of horror is to inspire fear and not everyone can be scared in the same way, therefore, I shall be highlighting the elements I think are essential towards inspiring fear and thus, projecting horror successfully. My criteria consists of several components including violence and
realism, plot, scare & shock, audio, and finally lighting.
I have always seen violence as a part of the horror genre, to visually horrify the audience, to inspire fear. There is a fine line between realistic visual gratuity and outright exaggerated and unrealistic visual gratuity. The difference being, something that could happen in real life and something that is completely far-fetched and fictional, for example, in Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), we see a character named Julius fist fighting our central character, Jason Voorhees to the point in which Jason literally punches Julius's head off his shoulders - truly exaggerative, unrealistic and fictional.
Halloween (2007) uses a more realistic approach to display violence; Michael Myers ties up his mother's abusive boyfriend Ronnie using duct tape and slits his throat. Ronnie bleeds out in seconds, no ridiculous blood spurting, no super-human ability to survive a fatal knife wound - realistic, plain and simple. For me, personally, this subject has a significant role and influence into whether or not I can enjoy a horror film. Recognising the difference between these two versions of graphic violence will determine whether or not I'm going to be scared and have certain parts of the film linger on my mind after it is finished or, laugh myself to sleep and fail to give what I have just seen a second thought. The closer the violence is to home, the more fearful I become.
Plot:
The storyline of a horror film, I feel, is essential to promoting horror because without a clear and structured storyline, it is hard for me to feel involved in what I am watching.
Freddy vs Jason (2003) uses a very blunt and rather uninspiring storyline, I cannot recall a moment in this film where feelings of fear were evoked, instead it delivers a fantasy based brawl to determine which of the two horror icons is superior, two men enter, one man leaves, simply delivering what it promises, however, it does not accomplish the central aim of horror - fear.
On the other hand, Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998) is driven by the plot. Michael Myers, a young boy whom murdered his older sister on Halloween 1963, then broke out of a mental institution and went on a killing spree on Halloween 1978. Twenty years have passed and after faking her own death, Laurie Strode, younger sister of Michael Myers and survivor of the events that took place on the night of Halloween 1978, has been trying to live a life of peace away from her murderous brother. Nobody has seen Michael Myers for twenty years, until now...
I saw this film when I was bout ten years old, and it still to this day sends a shiver down my spine. There are other elements that contribute to said lingering feelings of fear, however, these elements were reinforced by the structure of the story. I feel that to truly be inspired by the plot of a horror film, like any other film in any other genre, that you should feel involved in the film you are watching. In horror films, I have always felt that the more involved or drawn in you become, the more you begin to feel the fear.
Scare & shock:
I have always noticed two key ingredients that are used to inspire fear in horror films which are scares and shocks, the difference between the two are simple.
Scares, I feel, are more psychological, images of what you have just watched lingering in your mind, forcing you to look over your shoulder whilst you walk home on a dark night or a reason to pull the covers over your head because you have some odd feeling that there might be someone or something in your room. Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), the sequel to a story in which we see 'The Creeper', a creature that appears every twenty-three years to feast and terrorise the living. The Creeper stalks and smells his victims to find a unique part of him/her to eat.
Trapped on a bus, with little or nothing to protect themselves, a group of high school kids are relentlessly stalked and hunted by The Creeper. At 04:51, the creeper is seen, skulking at the side of the bus, smelling the kids for something he wishes to feast upon. This image is truly horrifying and scary, inspiring massed feelings of fear the first time I watched this film. The image of The Creeper lingered in my mind for weeks, resulting in continuous series of nightmares as well as evoking paranoid thoughts and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty.
Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) is a perfect example of the successful portrayal of shocks in a horror film. Stalked by a demonic paranormal presence, later referred to as 'Toby' in the third film of the paranormal series, there was several moments in this film which caused me to leap out of my seat in sheer terror because the shocks were unpredictable and effective.
Everything appears to be normal in this scene. Just the mother of the household having a beverage and reading a magazine. The character occasionally looks around as she is certain she hears something and then at 0:47, WHAM, all the cupboards burst open with a mighty thunderous roar, successfully catching me by surprise and thus, shocking me successfully. These two ingredients have been portrayed using a number of techniques over the years and both elements themselves are different in many ways, however, they both inspire the same feelings of fear, be them constant or sudden.
Audio:
Sound plays a very valuable part in the projection of a successful horror atmosphere. It can be used to draw the focus of an audience towards a certain object, direction or character, create ambience, drive suspense or in some cases it can even shock & scare.
The Thing (1982) uses audio effectively to scare, thus evoking feelings of fear. A research team in the Antarctic discovers the charred remains of an alien life-form which can duplicate its victims, granting it the ability to hide in plain sight with the sole objective to escape and infect the rest of the world.
One of the research team discovers another member being duplicated by the creature. After fleeing to fetch help, the creature tries to escape, however, the alarm is raised and the creature is surrounded by the remaining members of the research team. Visually, it is clear that the alien has not had enough time to complete the duplication process and in its final moments, lets out a bone chilling roar, making it abundantly clear that it is truly a creature to be feared. The roar is not like any sound I have heard before, which makes it unique. A sound which I have never heard before, such a change in volume and tone, evoking fear almost instantly the moment I heard it.
By far the most terrifying and fear inspiring sound that still haunts me to this day is the sound of The Creeper's horn on his incredibly old but surprisingly fast and agile truck in the film Jeepers Creepers (2001)
A brother and sister are travelling home to see their mother when suddenly a truck comes out of nowhere letting out a bone-chilling horn, over and over as it harasses and intimidates the two siblings. Fear is evoked by the sheer volume of the horn as it is sounds again and again, with no signs of stopping until the sibling's car is rammed off the road, allowing the monstrous vehicle to pass.
Lighting:
When used correctly, lighting can inspire feelings of fear. Lighting can be used as a weapon or as a means to set a scene, which can evoke feelings of fear alone or aid other elements in evoking fear.
In [REC] (2007) the story follows a reporter and her cameraman, following a local fire-crew around to capture their regular activities. Responding to an emergency call in an apartment building, the reporter, her cameraman and everyone else whom is inside the building, are quarantined and trapped inside due to the release of a deadly virus.
With only a video camera's night vision function to see where they are going, the reporter and her cameraman are trapped in the attic being stalked by an unknown creature. What evokes fear in this scene, I feel, is fear of the unknown, lack of of visibility, revealing only the basic form of this mysterious creature at first using heavy shadow/silhouette projections. Discovering that the creature's vision is based primarily on sound, the protagonists attempt to evade the creature but instead, alert its attention. Trying to help the reporter escape, the cameraman turns round, and suddenly, out of the darkness, the creature appears, screeching and battering him with a hammer, thus assisting in a more successful projection of shock and to also aid in the gratuitous display of the cameraman being pummelled to death by the creature.
What is the purpose of this criteria?
This is relevant to my area of study because I cannot rely solely on the opinions of others and must use my own criteria, as well as others in order to critically analyse and break down horror and thus, understand and identify the characteristics of Japanese horror films and how they differ to American and European directed horror films.
After the group meeting in which we all discussed critical thinking, I sat down with Brian Robinson to go over my agenda points. I put both the problems together, explaining to Brian that I didn't know what to do for the submission deliverables, resources and major tasks, to which I then told him I was also unsure about the direction my project was taking.
Firstly, Brian tried to get me to understand the development of my project thus far, reminding me not to undermine my works because I had began to get disheartened at certain choices I had made over semester one. I was struggling at first to comprehend the critical thinking process, but when Brian drew it out on a piece of paper showing me the steps I had taken, I felt a lot more confident in my progress so far. Next, Brian explained to me the difference in subjective and objective thinking so that I can break down project-relevant resources and my own works more critically.
After that, Brian and I looked towards my project aim and objectives. As previously mentioned, I was unsure about the direction of my project, where I was heading next, what I was going to submit, there were many questions of worry. Brian said he like the idea of horror in Japan, to which we discussed the level of enthusiasm and passion Japan has for the genre of horror. We both discussed what makes Japanese horror different from horror titles in other countries. This led to my a preliminary direction for my new project aim and objectives which was to highlight the unique characteristics of Japanese horror.
With this new direction, Brian exclaimed the importance of building my own criteria for horror films, as well as discovering/researching the common criteria for horror films so that I have a critical framework when researching horror and creating practical examples relevant to the development of my project. Finally, Brian gave me a series of tasks to complete for Monday which I have listed below.
Here are my agenda points for my first supervisor meeting of semester 2. I will be posting my feedback to these agenda points after my meeting with my supervisor.
Agenda
Honours project
Finding out how I should commence in terms of development for my
honours project. I need to stop myself from straying off the correct
path of development like I did in semester one. Time is a valuable
factor this semester, therefore, I need to plan my weeks out, but to do
this, I need direction to know what I will be spending my time doing
each week.
Learning contract
Work out my submission deliverables, major tasks and resources. I would like to discuss this problem with Brian personally to make sure I don't give myself too much work to handle or, so much that will affect the quality of my work due to time constraints.
Semester 2 has begun. Yesterday's lecture was very informative, focusing on the learning contract, supervisor meeting diary and showcasing our work at the end of the academic year. It was a lot to take in, processing how I will be able to keep every element of this project organised and to a professional standard. I have started my learning contract but have come to a grinding halt on major tasks, submission deliverables and resources. I do not want to sign the contract until I am absolutely sure what I want my project to consist of and how I will be designing it, therefore, I will be waiting until my first supervisor meeting on Thursday to discuss these elements.
Next steps for my project
Organisation - planning each week to ensure that I can get everything completed on time and so that the quality of my work is not sacrificed.
Deliverables - figuring out what I will be submitting by the end of the academic year, making sure I do not give myself too much to handle.
Showcase - deciding how I will be communicating my finished project, trying to make my work look as professional as possible.
Progress - keeping track of any developments throughout the entire span of my project; every meeting, every lecture and every problem.
Personally, I have always liked how rotating lights can inspire ffelings of panic within an atmosphere. When I see flashing lights in my day to day setting, it usually denotes one of two things; fire alarm or emergency services. Rotating lights create a sense of urgency or emergency, hence why there are used by the emergency services and fire alarms. In my experience, rotating lights usually indicate that something is about to explode or self destruct, the bottom line being that something bad is about to happen.
Aliens (1986) uses rotating lights very well to create inspire feelings of panic. Below is a scene from the film in which our central characters Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Newt (Carrie Henn) are making their escape from the belly of the Alien nest to try and reach their ship on the upper levels for extraction before the facility explodes. The first two and a half minutes of this video display this scene. Apologies for the quality of the video as this is the only clip I could find with this scene.
The rotating lights in this scene are amber, creating a sense of urgency within the alert. Amber is used for traffic lights and is known for giving feelings of warmth and calmness. In this scene, feelings of warmth are contrasted because amber has been used here as an obvious colour, to highlight the urgency behind this alarm, to encourage those still within range of the imminent blast to evacuate and reach a safe distance. Once outside the nest, they reach the extraction point, but there is no ship there waiting to pick them up. To make things worse, the Alien queen has made her way to the same level using the same service elevators. This evokes panic in the audience because the mother-of-all aliens is going to kill them and they have no means of escape. The flashing lights adds to these feeling of panic because again, there is still a sense of urgency to escape before the facility explodes.
This encouraged me to do my own rotating lights test, using this film scene as inspiration.
Design stages
This was one of my most challenging and proudest tests to-date, unfortunately, I only saved progress three times so there aren't many differences in terms of content for each file, so it skips a lot of the important design steps I took.
I started by making the shape of the room using the square tool
Next, I created the shape of the shutters and the space for the loading area using the insert edge loop tool
After that, I extruded the shape of the door backwards slightly to give it a sense of depth
Next, I took a sphere, halved it and flipped it upside down, keeping the flat side closest to the ceiling
Then, I duplicated the light mesh two more times to add more lights to the scene
I added a touch of transparency to the light meshes to create the aesthetic of glass material
Using red coloured spotlights, I keyed the centre light in a clockwise rotation and the left and right lights in a counter-clockwise rotation
I added a volume light to each light-shaped mesh to ensure that there was on the ceiling as well as the directions in which the spotlights were facing.
Using the create 3D container tool, I added some fog to create a more ominous atmosphere
I animated the fog to give it some movement by manipulating and keying the translation settings.
With the two texture files I had found online (locations submitted in my deliverables) I textured the shutters and the loading area.
Next, I animated the shutters by opening it halfway and keying it in on the timeline from start to finish.
Batch render
I loaded the batch render into Adobe Premiere Pro.
Finally, I adjusted the frame size settings and exported the rendered sequence into AVI form.
What relevance does this test provide towards the development of my project and horror?
Horror is used to inspire fear. Fear can be inspired using particular lighting techniques, in this case rotating lights. With this lighting test, I will now be able to locate other lighting techniques that evoke feelings/emotions/moods such as panic and use them to develop a higher quality of lighting within my 3D environment, as well as more effective horror atmosphere.
I have always been fascinated when first person perspective lighting is used in horror because it is one of horror's most effective weapons. Torchlight construes the view of the holder, making the surrounding environment harder to see. This perspective is used a means to set up startling moments for the audience, as well as to keep focus on a particular object or person.
Grave Encounters (2011) uses this technique very effectively. Locked in a haunted mental asylum, the audience is given a mixture of perspectives from the character's cameras, using night-vision and the torches as a means of light because the building has been abandoned for years and has no power.
Entering a supposedly empty room, they come across what look like a patient. The audience does not know what else could be in the room because their field of vision is limited, keeping the focus on the unknown woman. With all the attention on the unknown woman, feelings of anticipation are evoked because the audience does not know what is coming next.
...and suddenly, her for changes as she lets out a tremendous bone chilling roar, evoking feelings of surprise in the audience.
Below I have constructed my own first person lighting test displaying lighting from a first person perspective.
The design process was simple. I placed the wooden barrel prop(s) downloaded from creativecrash.com in a thin corridor. Next, I placed a spotlight in the scene, moving it around the room and keying it accordingly. To add more quality to the piece and create a more dark atmosphere, I added some fog to the spotlight in order to highlight the outline of the spotlight's direction. Finally, I added a camera and followed the path of the light to symbolise human presence, darting the light and camera quickly into the corner to visualise feelings of fear and anxiety within the torch holder.
What relevance does this test provide towards the development of my project and horror?
The relevance of this test serves purpose to both the development of my project and horror because once my project is finished I will be making a 3D tour, displaying everything my environment has to offer. Using this perspective lighting method for my 3D tour, I can create a more effective and atmospheric sense of anticipation within my environment by selecting objects or lights and manipulating them to create elements of surprise or shock.
This is the last of my three possible locations for my 3D horror environment. Like the previous two posts I will be looking for notable horror tiles in film and computer and video games, as well as any cultural events or traditions to which I might be able to create a theme for my final piece.
After some online research I have discovered that Brazilian horror cinema has a descent selection of examples to use as research for a more effective understanding of horror although, there are is not a lot to work with here. Most of the titles I found are set before the 1980's and only two titles from 2006 onwards. Most of my study would be focusing on older works which does not provide a very secure or detailed time line of the progression of horror in Brazil.
Games
Similar to Switzerland, Brazil is not known for any major horror titles in the gaming industry. I could only find one soild Brazilian games developer named Hoplon Infotainment, known for its 2008 title 'Taikodom', an online multiplayer. Other than that I could not find much which makes me less interested in selecting this country because it does not appear to be a great inspirational source in the development of horror.
Cultural events or traditions
Looking for cultural events or traditions in Brazil was proving to be difficult as most sites were not up-to-date however, I did come across a website that gives travellers advice to having a stress free time which listed a number of events by month, letting anyone planning to make a trip to Brazil know what is worth seeing and what to avoid. I have posted the link to the page at the bottom of this post as the piece is rather long.
What could this country provide towards the development of my project and horror?
In terms of project development and horror Brazil has not got a particularly large amount to offer. The horror films of Brazil would be good to develop a greater understanding of older horror productions, allowing for new studies in lighting, shadows and colour, as well as understanding how horror was depicted at an earlier age in Brazil. Horror games, like Switzerland are next to none in terms of aiding in the development of my project or horror, as I have nothing to research or study. Cultural events are very inspiring for Brazil as they are enriched with bright tasteful colours, which would have great potential for inspiring a horror scene amidst the glamour and festivities of the evening, which in turn could also help me develop practise in both daylight and nigh time settings.
Nightlife in Brazil: http://www.travelnostress.com/eventbrazil.htm
Continuing my research on my three settings for my 3D horror environment, I will now be doing Switzerland, looking for any examples of Swiss made films and computer and video games.
The horror film scene was very thin for Switzerland as these were the only titles I could find in the genre that were as close as possible to Swiss. There were a few others however, upon reading their descriptions they sounded more like sexploitation films or comedy films which can't really be used or deemed suitable for my research. Some of the film titles I found had too much contradictory information and so I decided to list the ones that were either based in Switzerland or directed by a Swiss person.
Games
The Swiss gaming industry is not as dead as I thought it was however, the vast majority of projects or games made by companies such as Crown ADAM, EverdreamSoft and Gbanga are mobile, educational, pervasive location-based or online/social games. I could not recognise any major works in horror therefore, Switzerland is very unhelpful for researching the genre or sources of inspiration for the development of my project.
Cultural events or traditions
Despite being few in horror on films and nil on games, the swiss culture outweighs those of Japan. As the source of information for cultural events or traditions in Japan were mainly tourism websites, I started there. Eventually, I found a guide site for Switzerland that lists all the cultural events and traditions for this year, and the list is absolutely massive. Instead of listing every event and making this the world's longest blog post, I have posted the link to the website at the bottom of the page.
What could this country provide towards the development of my project and horror?
Overall, Switzerland has a very large number of yearly traditions which would serve as a large sources for a theme in my 3D environment however, as horror titles are few and gaming titles are nil, this country would be very poor in terms of inspirational or useful resources, which would not be productive to the development of my project and creating a horror atmosphere.
Cultural events and traditions link: http://www.swiss-switzerland.com/fairs-and-festivals-in-switzerland.html#January-Festivals
In this post I will be researching horror in computer and video games for my three possible locations to see which country can provide the most resources and references. I will then be researching cultural events or traditions in each country for a possible theme for my 3D environment. After compiling lists on the these components for each country, I will then make a final decision based on my findings mixed with my original research at the beginning of my project.
Films
Researching this did not take me as long as I thought it would. Luckily, I stumbled across a website called Asian-Horror-Movies.com which lists all Japanese horror productions since the year 1950. The list is incredibly long therefore, I have posted the link to this site at the bottom of this post. There were lots of other sites that provided information on Japanese horror cinema which makes me feel confident that Japan will have a lot to offer on my other two research components/categories.
Computer and video games
Japan is also notorious for computer and video game titles in the horror genre. Unlike the examples I have provided for horror films in Japan, I will be listing games companies that are commonly known for developing horror games along with a few nameable titles
Cultural events or traditions
The Japanese culture is rich, full of ancient and modern traditions. After some scouring online, primarily on history websites and travel agents, I have found a Japanese tourism website that details all of the country's traditions, making it apparent that the Japanese people have a lot more traditions and cultural events than I first anticipated. Like the list of Japanese horror films, the list of events is also vast in size therefore, I have put a link to the site at the bottom of this post.
What could this country provide towards the development of my project and horror?
It is safe to say that Japan is very enthusiastic about horror in film. When looking for inspiration in horror film if I choose Japan, resources will not be a problem. This will also benefit the development of my project because the titles date back to the 1950's therefore, I will be able to see how lighting, shadows and colour have evolved over time to depict horror. The production of horror in computer and video games in Japan is as enthusiastic as the development of film. Again, when looking for examples of lighting, shadows and colour in Japanese designed computer and video games, resources will not be short. The Japanese culture is enriched with dozens of traditions and cultural events, which if chosen, could be very helpful in deciding a theme or location-based setting because it gives me many options to research and use as inspiration for horror.
Japanese films website: http://www.asian-horror-movies.com/indexm.html
Tourism website: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/attractions/event/traditionalevents/
