Visual Culture - Unused Sources

My Visual Culture and Journals are handed in!!!!.!.!!.

http://giphy.com/gifs/celebration-yay-money-is-good-zjfPnkNqeNxpm

I'm a bit worried about my 20% plagiarism for the essay because of how many quotes I have used. I've been assured by the group chat that it should be fine, they will just check you've referenced everything ok. I still have emailed Di and Malcolm to double check.

I thought I would blog about some potential sources I could have used for my essay but ended up not using due to reliability or content (I have also linked my blog on the front cover of the journal for extra brownie points from the work I have done on here *hint hint*). 

I also got a few books out of the library that were also sadly not used. The blog post for this can be found here. 

André Breton (1969). Manifestoes of Surrealism. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. I decided not to use this source as it is a bit outdated and covers 1920s surrealism whereas my essay is about 70-80s surrealism. I had a look through it to see if there was any overarching facts I could have used about surrealism but it was all very specific to topics not relevant to me.

Natalya Lusty (2007). Surrealism, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. I chose not to use this source as I was focusing mainly on female inequality for a while in the essay and I didn't want to make it wholly about it. The book also focuses mainly on art and books, even though this is good for visual culture and there are some relevant points that can be applied to film, I found a better source that had much more in depth points.

Linda Bolton (2000). Surrealism. Peter Bedrick Books. I decided definitely not to use this since it was only 32 page, mostly pictures, which I later found out was because it is a children's book! Fail! A bit unreliable!!

Peter Hames (2008). The Cinema of Jan Švankmajer: Dark Alchemy. Columbria: Wallflower Press. I really wanted to use this source, however I could not find a copy of it anywhere! The cheapest I could have got it for was £50!! I sadly had to let it go.

?. (2015). Luis Buñuel and the Cinematics of Terror. Available: https://www.ica.org.uk/blog/bunuel-and-cinematics-terror. Last accessed 12th Feb 2016. I didn't use this source as 1) I had no idea who wrote it. 2) I didn't trust it with use of bad grammar and referencing. 3) It didn't really fit with my essay.

Skating/Costume/Make Up/Location Recce

Today Jess kindly came in so we could sort out costume and also give her a go on the roller skates. She took to the roller skates like a duck to water and she had fun doing it which is always good news. Meanwhile, Ryan, Jack and Janice were shopping for liquid latex (which they ended up buying online) and UV paints for Sunday. 

After we fed Jess, me and Jamie Jones went scavenging in the chairty shops again but this time, with an actress in mind so we could get clothes that fit. We hit the jackpot in one chairty shop I forgot to go to last time which had very 80s dresses. I really like the orange dress for ours and Jimbob wants the purple one for his (but we're bringing it on Sunday too for extras). 




Me, Beth and Janice then hung out in the editing suite talking about special effects and finding weird videos that weren't necessarily relevant to us, but still looked cool, like this one. We were deciding that since we are going full on cheese this year, we should do a really gruesome horror next year.

Beth made huge progress editing today and has managed to save the edited effects so we can just drag them on clips without having to faff on again. This week for editing has saved so much time and it looks really good. Thanks Beth!!

Me, Beth, Janice and Brad then went to Recce check The Studio which we will be using on Sunday. This is the first time we've been here and I was very excited. While we were waiting however, a police van parked in front of us and two police officers knocked on the door. We thought it was a drugs bust or something but turns out this lass wanted to move in but got the wrong place. 

Anyways, the place is stunning! It's perfect. The stained glass windows would be an excellent framing device as well as some of the decorations like the Queen Elizabeth/Bowie painting and the 'on air' light. There's plenty space for the band to set up on stage, with a dais for the drums and plugs on each side of the stage. The owner gave us full permissions to use the PA system and the lights, but we are bringing our own as there are only a few and we also need to light up the dancefloor. 

There is also a toilet and a room around the back of the stage for make up and costume And a bar. Not sure how I could fit the bar in but it looks really awesome and won't hurt to film it a bit for cutaways. 

Jess also made this mood board for 80s make up and costumes (she is so into this role, it's great!) 

I am really excited for this Sunday and I can't wait to see what ideas I have in my head in real life. I am a very proud team leader right now.

Live Project - Editing/Production Schedule

Today was mostly preparing a production schedule for Sunday. We talked to Darcy about availability of the band and 2 of them can't make it Sunday, but can the week after. So we have dibs on that night. Hopefully the other band members will still come Sunday (with their instruments as we don't have these!) so we can still do their close ups. He also said they gave a few hours that they were free but no full days which would have been more useful.

After definates from the band, I started working on call sheets, since Janice was busy tracking down roller derby's that were free on Sunday for extras. It would be fab for production values if we do get them, but if not, we can ask a few people off the streets to pretend to roller skate. 

I set Jack and Ryan away on scanning in storyboards, uploading details about the test footage (since they are both camera ops) and recces of locations on the VLE.

Beth did a few risk assessments and then went to edit and try and do the Tetris effect but with more Tertis-y shapes. 

I gave her a challenge to recreate some of Ryan's storyboards including one jigsaw effect and a message sending effect. She did both really well (proud!!) I haven't seen the exported footage but the screenshots look really good!!

In the afternoon, Lee found a SFX make up kit which we also booked out for Sunday. I gave Beth and Janice the task of trying to recreate a gash (since one of the endings requires a cut in the robot's leg that leaks oil, and that's how Terry finds out she's a robot and since they were the only ones at Uni to pick up the kit). 

Janice has also bought some more liquid latex but might not come in time for Sunday, but I would still like some sort of gash made on Sunday for now as I want a MCU of Jess with the gash. Lee also gave them gold dust which might look really cool around the gash and possibly leaking gold rather than grey oil. I've told them to experiment and upload pictures.

Auditions/Casting/More Editing

Auditions at first were a bit of a failure as no one showed up. More about these shenanigans can be found here. We then hosted another lot of auditions on Monday, blog post can be found here. 

After only one female turning up to auditions, I messaged someone to see if she would be up for it, having worked with her on the Scunci advert. I dropped her a message to see if she was interested. She was very enthusiastic and got back to me straight away (maybe Facebook is the way forward after all :P ). So we gave her an audition today.

We also came to a decision who to cast today; our main lad is Ryan and our main robot woman is Jess. I also ship it (they have to have on screen chemistry and we thought they would be perfect). Both were very enthusiastic about the video and in their auditions. They are also based in CCAD so it would be easy to get them to film. Ryan is very cool and modern and Jess is very 80s and has very green and vibrant hair. I couldn't be happier with the choice. We also decided to just have the two in all videos since they were free, it would add a layer of continuity to the videos and they had some experience roller skating.

We also tried to quickly get Jess measured for costume but Radha has sadly dropped out. So we have arranged for Jess to come in Thursday to try on some costumes and she also wants to try out roller skating before the shoot.

We are planning to shoot on Sunday with the band, cast and hopefully some roller derby extras (or just normal extras if we can't get a hold of any). Dan also gave us a place called The Studio to check out, which we can get for free. The Hollycarter we checked out last time was going to cost £100. Looking at The Studio, it looks much bigger and prettier, with stained glass windows and a big dance floor, stage and lights. 

Beth was getting more practice editing today and tried to make the Tetris falling effect we were after. She pretty much nailed it, but her next step is to try and make them more like the Tetris shapes rather than just the straight boxes... If that made any sense...

Professional Studies #9?????

I have no idea what lesson number we are on.

Today Adam and James came in (graduates) to talk about their film Ripper and also their film experiences inside of CCAD and out. 

They funded their film Ripper using a fundraising side called Indiegogo. With a bit of a slow start, they luckily befriended a millionaire (Millionaire Mike) as you do, which got their campaign off to a huge start. Casting was also lucky as a casting agent owed them a favour so she stepped in and got a few actors for them. They also had a Game of Thrones actor on board at one point but he had to drop out because of 'reasons'. 

They also talked about different job roles and which ones were paid. The major ones that were paid were the DoP and the gaffer, but significantly less than what they are used to due to the low budget. 

They also talked about their different projects at CCAD. One (that must not be named) was sued for copyright by a Hollywood lawyer with big scary emails (they nearly had a heart attack as they thought it was for Ripper that was weeks from filming, but was actually a student film/trailer they did). The budget for this one was huge due to filming in the middle of nowhere, with a fight sequence. They also talked about different actors, one was head hunted from Ripper for a casting agent and also stars in many of their CCAD projects. My favourite one they did is From Lust Till Dust. 

It was really interesting to hear and I have learnt a lot from the talk. I have added them both on Facebook (they also mentioned contacts are HUGE; befriend everyone) and I can't wait to see their future productions. 

Visual Culture #17

Malcolm's lecture was based on The Festival of Britain (1951), where Europe was continuing to revive design and architecture after WWII. Modernism was starting to have a big revival with architecture in sea side towns, zoo's and in the 'Festival of Britain'. I'm posting another High Rise gif because it is very modernist but I can't find a very good gif showing this so here is one of Tom looking cute.

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bts:-high-rise

No Tom staph those puppy dog eyes

The Festival of Britain was built on London's south bank (where the Millennium Dome is today) but was a nationwide event celebrating technology and design advances (over 10 million people came in 5 months). There was a feeling of recovery and progress from WWII (being a more scientific war, there was more technology). There was better quality design in towns and cities. The Festival of Britain was a "united act of national reassessment and reaffirmation of the future". 

https://www.casumo.com/blog/casumo-likes/the-future-is-now-the-past/

The Dome of Discovery was the main attraction with different sections of the world and different elements, exploring each one. The Skylon was also a huge attraction representing the scientific future. 

The Festival of Britain brought about new schools and a brighter living space. There was also new staples of bus shelters, bins, planters and bollards. Social housing was also new with 'breathing space'. The Landsbury social housing was the most popular and still stands today.

http://supergrouplondon.co.uk/index.php/page/22/

A few advertisements for the festival. Interesting to look at for graphic design.

The main advancement in the Festival was SCIENCE! With WWII, there was new warfare but also medicine advances. The microscope brought about the idea of molecular structure which then influenced design. 

http://giphy.com/search/physical-science

In Diane's lesson, we discussed about what was going to happen in the next few weeks and if we had any burning questions about our journals. I need to think of 2 or 3 films that everyone should watch in the class. I have a few ideas; mine are all visually stunning films rather than narrative driven as that is what I'm interested in.

Costume and Make Up

Our videos have both elements from modern day society and the 80s, with a modern day boy and a 80s robot. Since our video is also very bright and colourful, we needed a costume to match, especially for the robot. I decided to have the robot in bright colours and the modern day man to be normal colours so we could clearly see the clashes in culture, which eventually leads to them breaking up in the next video (spoiler alert). 

The Boy

The modern boy didn't need much thought into costume as it was likely that the actor would have some sort of modern clothing we were after. 

http://www.pedigreebetterbynature.com/2015/10/know-all-about-mens-clothing/

I like the one with the white coat

https://uk.pinterest.com/marketingcloud/men-s-work/

Some of these are a bit smart, but this is research into modern men's clothing. We want something fairly casual. The white in the pictures will go with the bright lights, adding some aesthetic to the video. But we also want him to stand out since he is normal, with some dull colours, compared with the robot's bright in your face clothing and accessories.

The Girl

For the robot, I was thinking about a rah rah skirt and some leg warmers and all the cheesy 80s accessories. 

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/372743306628632928/

Most of my inspiration is from this picture, including the one glove on to look cool and the idea of the hat (I brought my hat with sequins on which would catch the light and look pretty). However her shirt is a bit dull and I wanted a dress so we could get some close ups of her twirling to match the lyrics and look awesome as she skated by.

https://wanelo.com/shop/bustier-skater-dress

Something a bit like this. Luckily we found the perfect dress in a charity shop. More about this adventure can be found here. 

For the make up, I thought the robot should be the only one wearing it to stand out and to show that she is fully immersed in the 80s. I wanted the make up to be similar to Bowie's Aladdin Sane lightning bolt as a tribute.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/bowie-lightning-bolt-shaped-constellation/

This is what we ended up with. The make up artist did a really good job as I told her the back story and told her to make it look robot-y with silvers and golds. I really like the blue too and the fact that it is not an exact copy of Bowie- it is subtle and still has our spin on it.