Ivan was right, the best developments do come out of the military or pornography

I just can't tell which one this is =P


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/5777291/Flying-robot-bat-developed-for-war-zones.html

Mwahaha happy Hallowe'en!!

Tehe cute ^^ And even though it's a very simple cartoon drawing the Bela Lugosi reference is obvious with the hair and the cape. I can't even read comics without thinking of intertextuality now dammit ><

Essay Rethink

After Ivan's lecture and seminar on Intertextuality ideas are flooding to me. He's right it is everywhere and very subjective which leaves the question open to a lot of interpretation and possibilities. So I've changed my mind I'm doing question 4!

Ivan's pregnant.

But enough about that, it's Intertextuality time!

Intertextuality, from the Latin intertexto, meaning to intermingle while weaving is the concept that all texts are linked to each other. The concept was first expressed by the Russian philosopher and scholar, Mikhail Bakhtin but the term itself was coined by the French writer, Julia Kristeva in response to his work. She claimed that “every text fashions itself as a mosaic of quotations, every text absorbs and transforms another text”. 

Graham Allen argues that originality is a myth: 

The fundamental concept of intertextuality is that no text, much as it might like to appear so, is original and unique-in-itself; rather it is a tissue of inevitable, and to an extent unwitting, references to and quotations from other texts. 

However some texts do directly allude to each other such as remakes and sequels. These are examples of self-conscious intertextuality which is intended by the producer. Unconscious intertextuality on the other hand is beyond the producer’s control and is not intended but thought of by the viewer. This is considered to be true intertextuality and is a very subjective, personal set of echoes.

Daniel Chandler states that “confounding the realist agenda that 'art imitates life,' intertextuality suggests that art imitates art.” The examples we watched in the lecture certainly prove this.  Tim Burton's 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes (1968) features self-conscious intertextuality when it has Charlton Heston once again (but this time in quite the opposite role of an elder ape) saying his famous line: "Damn them! Damn them all to hell!" A very witty use of intertextuality there from the beautiful Mr Burton and he's not the only one. DreamWorks and Disney are particularly good at, providing  in-jokes for the parents and adults to enjoy at a more subtle and sophisticated level as well as the obvious humour and storyline for the children. Madagascar's more child friendly “Darn them all to heck” reference to the famous “Damn them all to hell!” quote from Planet of the Apes is a prime example of this.

In our seminar we explored this further focussing on vampires yey! We started by watching some of the original vampire film,  Nosferatu (1922), which is basically a film version of Bram Stoker's Dracula  under a different name to try and avoid (though this failed) to a law suit. The 1979 Nosferatu the Vampyre is pretty much a scene for scene remake in parts. The Vampire in in both films is portrayed in exactly the same way as a vermin-like creature resembling a giant, fanged phallus with the mannerisms of a groping, panting serial rapist. Shadow is also used extensively in the films.The famous scene from the original features Count Orlok’s shadow ascending the staircase, claws stretching out grotesquely towards the door while this awesome creepy scene is not present in the 1979 version it instead has the Count emerging eerily from the shadows on top of the helpless and rather horny looking maiden lying in bed. This use of shadows is taken even further in Dracula (1992) in which the Count's shadow literally has a life and character of it's own. This movie also borrows from other vampire film's as Gary Oldman's Count is more like Bela Lugosi’s suave, sophisticated vampire than a ratty, rapey phallus. All other vampire stories from films such as The Lost Boys (1987), From Dusk Til Dawn (1996), and Underworld (2003) to TV shows like True Blood and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Anne Rice's novels and even Twilight borrow aspects from Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) and hundreds of years of European folklore before that.

Can I work for them please and have Halloween all year round?! =D

http://www.exmortis.com/emproducts.html

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Premiere

=  Leicester Square 11th November 2010

Wait, that's the same day as my deadline for the iMap! Eek! Best get going!

So I found the essay questions on StudyNet and tried to decide which one to tackle:

1. Hmm I suppose I could talk about the advancements from Bela Lugosi to CGI etc...
2. I have a loose grip on reality already so I think this would be bad for my mental health. I really shouldn't have watched Inception...
3. I found this really interesting and it has potential. Harry Potter potential.
4. Hmm other than linking the Deatheaters to the Nazis and KKK I don't know what else I could do. I really do have a one track mind. 
5. Blah
6. Blah I want 3!!

Sure fire way to get me interested in anything: link it to Harry Potter! And it was the thing that spurred me on to get started on my essay so I think it's only right that I use a Harry Potter scene =D

What to choose, what to choose...

The epic Voldy V Harry post Triwizard Tournament graveyard scene!! 

Because:

• It's good V evil
• Could discuss Voldy's looks and the significance of them
• Deatheater symbolism
• Voldemort's restoration spell
• Priori Incantatem 
• And most importantly, Voldemort kills Robert Pattinson yey!!!!!

The Dogs That Laughed

Whilst looking through Christmas Pet photos because I'm sad and over excitable like that, I came across this photo and after initially 'aww'ing and thinking 'well are they the cutest, happiest little doggies ever' I started getting creeped out and had to quickly click the next picture and thought about how it's because they're grinning TOO much and it's very unsettling just like how we talked about in the seminar!  *shudders*

Just because it's ironic on this blog =)

And awesome! And I wanna kiss coffee!

I jest, I jest, there was something about semiotics too.

Ivan started the lecture by having us pair up. One had to face the back with pen and paper in hand while the other had to face the front and watch Ivan draw. The task was to convey what Ivan was drawing to the non-seeing partner and see how successfully his drawing could be copied this way...

Not very successfully it would seem. I think this proved his point about the difficulty of communication. =S

Many attempts were made to maximise the efficiency of communication thus semiotics and a load of funny words and diagrams were born. 

In our seminar we explored semiotics in a much more fun way looking at the various ways in which the Joker has been portrayed. Each incarnation of the character has different traits and characteristics with different sets of denotations and connotations. Cesar Romero's 1960's Joker with his extroverted and almost friendly stance, is presented as a jolly little sociopath. Whereas Jack Nicholson's 1989 Joker with his stylish costume and taunting stance have connotations of a different, more malevolent insanity. Heath Ledger's most recent version of the Joker has none of this style, instead being very dishevelled and grungey appearance suggesting a level of madness and nihilism that i personally find the most scary as he clearly just doesn't care anymore and could do anything. One thing they all have in common is the gloves which suggest an unwillingness to touch or be touched directly by other people, a symptom of the character’s sociopathic insanity. We also looked at the reason behind their fixed grin's. It stems from Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughed (1928) whose character gad a permanent grin carved into his face to pay for his fool of a father. Ivan kindly demonstrated the negative and creepy effect of smiling too much *shudders* 

We also talked about clowns for far too long. I fucking hate clowns! They're all creepy peadophiles that's why they're always smiling because they get to be around children all day. And i don't like masks anyone who hides their face clearly has more to hide. Yeah so maybe society suspect that somebody trying so hard to be funny and hide their true selves must have some form of inner emotional turmoil, projecting an overwhelming façade of happiness to hide an inner pain? And there is also the concept of what role clowns play in society. According to the established “rules” children have the right to behave like children and adults must be responsible and act as adults. Clowns are permitted, even encouraged, to become adults acting like children. If clowns are not restricted by the same social norms as their audience, they could be capable of doing other things besides entertaining children perhaps... And the media certainly doesn’t help, with clowns being portrayed as emotionally unstable or even psychotic such as in the novel and subsequent movie It and John Wayne Gacy being dubbed the "Killer Clown" as he liked to moonlight as a clown when he wasn't raping and murdering  young boys.

Look! a creepy grinning cup of coffee =D

Most great developments came out of the military and pornography. Fact.

That's all I got out of today's lecture.

Creepy!!! =S

Jesus Christ they even sell 'New Born Baby Smell' eek there's some weirdos out there =S

Argh he's holding babies!! D=

What a disturbing way to start a lecture *shudders* I knew they couldn't have been real because they weren't incessantly crying and leaking and moreover why would you brin 2 small babies to a lecture?? =S Still they were very creepy, not least because I have a phobia of babies and they were SO lifelike! They had cellulite and teeny pee pees and everything!
But it was a lecture on Realism...


There was a lot of talk about Plato and the Forms which took me back to my college Philosophy lessons so i'm not gonna write anymore about as i wrote enough essays about it!


A theory i hadn't heard of before was "Uncanny Valley" which  states that as something is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the character will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong revulsion.  This occurs when the character is “almost human”, and disappears as soon as full realism is achieved. Scientists theorise that this is a cognitive evolutionary response built into us since the early days of mankind wherein somebody acting “not quite right” could be a sign of illness or infertility. And it is interesting to not that this effect similar to the uncanny valley was noted by Charles Darwin way back in 1839:

The expression of this [Trigonocephalus] snake’s face was hideous and fierce; the pupil consisted of a vertical slit in a mottled and coppery iris; the jaws were broad at the base, and the nose terminated in a triangular projection. I do not think I ever saw anything more ugly, excepting, perhaps, some of the vampire bats. I imagine this repulsive aspect originates from the features being placed in positions, with respect to each other, somewhat proportional to the human face; and thus we obtain a scale of hideousness.

So the creators of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and The Polar Express (2004) really had no excuse. Viewers were made uncomfortable by the albeit impressive but damn creepy un-human CGI characters. “The Polar Express” depicts a world populated entirely by CGI dead-eyed, leathery alien skin robot Tom Hankses which totally distracts you from the nice children's story it is jeant to be depicting. But I''ll let Final Fantasy off because they redeemed themselves which the far less creepy and far more awesome Advent Children (2005)

This "Uncanny Valley" is also a problem for us physical effects practitioners. Madame Tussuard's does well at creating hyper-real wax versions of celebrities and the amount of visitors shows that people aren't repulsed by them but that might just be because they all want to pretend they've touched Angelina Jolie's arse.

Ron Mueck's work does not shy away from the "Uncanny Valley" but rather embraces it as he seeks to unnerve viewers as he plays about with scale and hyper-realism.

The things that really freak me out are the Autons in Doctor Who. I really hate mannequins to begin with. I always see them out the corner of my eye and think they're real and they scare the hell out of me but the thought that they could come alive and kill me just tops it all off. And Ivan topped off his dolls by showing us Reborn Babies which are dolls transformed to resemble a human baby with as much realism as possible and middle aged women buy them to recreate their dead children or children that have grown up and care for them like real babies. Because that's not weird =S


Sex Dolls are another obvious matter but i don't think the users mind their freaky appearance as long as they have holes for them to get their rocks off. But it reminded me of the film Lars and the Real Girl (2007) in which a sweet but delusional man buys a high end sex doll for a completely platonic relationship and his community plays along to help him work through his personal issues.

And with stories of divorce resulting from partners having 'affairs' on the virtual Second Life and growing rise in plastic surgery and Photoshop it all begs the question of are we becoming Final Fantasy characters? Are humans themselves going to become "uncanny" soon?

I feel like a proper uni student now

I had my first lecture! In a proper lecture room with an overhead projector and a notepad and everything ^^

The lecturer, Ivan explained that the Animation and Model Effects & SFX courses will be having lectures together as the fight between digital v physical is always interesting. He also explained the structure and purpose of Media Histories and Cultures which is to equip us with the tools to understand and critique and to provide us with a tool kit of ideas and words. Sounds good to me =)


Ooh we watched Georges Melies 'Le Voyage dans le Lune' and it reminded me of The Smashing Pumpkin's 'Tonight Tonight'  video! It was obviously inspired by it, I always thought it was a funky video that must be an homage to something =D