Showreel of Tests

This is a quick showreel of tests from my years work in preparation for my final assessment on 20110616 at the Bartlett School of Architecture

Un_Reel - Synopsis

The Un_Reel is an experimental short which focuses on Hyperreality and the way in which we perceive Architecture when created through photography, cinematography and image based representation . It explores the ways in which architecture, as a practice of visual consumption can manipulate, warp and enhance the way in which we imagine and absorb the cities we live in.

The film begins with a photographic portrayal of London where all seems in order. Little by little the cityscape begins to display traits of the uncanny whereby landmarks multiple, artifice is uncovered and the physical structure of London is questioned suggesting that London is actually fake, a construct that holds no relationship to authenticity.

The time comes where the conscience of Jed Wright is introduced and suggests that what has just been documented are the visions of London through his mind. As he explores deeper into his perception of built space it becomes clear that his visions are not of his own but of what he experiences through image representation of city life.

The progression of his state of conscience develops over the years into a state of complete synthetic existence where all matter is nurtured from his consumption of visual media in photographic and cinematographic formats.

Case Study House #2781342

The case study house has just been commissioned as a film. It focuses on The Man as the example user of this virtual living concept. The CSH itself will provide the back drop to the screenplay and this constructed set will form an integral part of the narrative structure.

This is an article i found of #2781342

Exploded Diagrams

The Stairs

As he moves from the bedroom to the kitchen, convention would mean he moves through a threshold (normally a door) and enters into the next space. That space in the film is portrayed through two mediums. One which is synthetic to the character and one which is physically logical to us as the viewer of a fabricated film set.

Corridor Scene

The corridor is a transitional space that connects the various spaces such as the kitchen to the archive. Each door is placed with a indicator above that shows whether the rooms are occupied. The rooms are intended to ambiguous notion of each individuals personal dwelling/cell of synthetic space generation.

Towers Scene

After apparently leaving his apartment he enters the so called external world. Firstly he travels on the London Underground and then arrives at his stop. The stop then is revealed as a internal film set and constructed out of a selection of matte paintings and sets on trolleys that are moveable. This allows them to be switched and swapped to cater for the characters need of spaces on his journey to the archive. Once at this destination of the towers he travels up them into the building which the archive is situated.

Archive Scene

The archive is the space in which the character finds himself at the end of each day. The space will feature throughout the film however it will only be features briefly in the beginning. The rationale behind this space is to provide a storage space/archive for each individual to place their personal logbook of spaces that they have remembered and imagined. Once the personal logbooks are there they are reviewed and processed by the synthetic space generators inorder to program the production of spaces for each individuals personal life and experience of their imagined spaces.

Cracks Begin to Appear

These two diagrams are the beginnings of my quest to explore the transitional methodology through which to pass from one space to the next. It will consist of forced perspectives and playing with scale of objects with in the 3D virtual world whilst always being grounded by the characters reassurance of finding himself in spaces which appear to be familiar to him until the cracks and tricks are revealed.

CG Version of Storyboard Frame

These are Scene 01 and Scene 03 of the two more significant spaces in the film. The characters 'Safe Haven' of ideal living, his apartment, which is where he eventually wishes to be rid of.

Draft Synopsis

Initial Concept Visualization

These three shots are just an idea of what happens outside of the individual dwellings and imaginations. The overall cityscapes of actual London are dramatically changed as these towers spring up and litter the skyline. The towers are the physical spaces that contain the individual synthetic spaces. Within each tower there are multiple dwellings which all share the various synthetic fragments and representations of what used to be the built city of London.

Within the Tower
The City
Behind Westminster

The Relationship of Film Spaces

This montage of spaces was something I produced to get my head around how the various environments will interact with each other. From this I will begin to work out what transitions will occur and how they will blend between each shot. There needs to be careful attention given to the way in which each space is introduced and left so that the idea of a 3D space is left ambiguous and so that the viewer is never quite sure whether exactly the space they are seeing is real or unreal.

More Spaces

The three images are developments that I have produced for the second part of the film. The original four sketches from last week are still fully relevant and these are simply the spaces that follow on from those initial spaces. These are aimed at expressing the external/more public spaces that the character would travel through or occupy in his day to day life. They may seem mundane and maybe a little sterile but this is necessary to portray a life of slight boredom and monotony. However in the following post there is a more graphical explanation of how these spaces link up and form more circular relationships with each other. Through this circularity, the edit will hence form a rhythm of repetition and psychological claustrophobia.

The Logbook Archive

The Tower Blocks
The Corridor

Film Shoot

These are some shots from a production I worked on as a set designer. The film was a no budget sci fi film directed by a friend of mine. The over all concept was that biodroids have become part of society in the near future and during their integration with humans one droid in particular goes awol. This leads to a battle between the remaining biodroids and a group of rebel forces.

The film was mainly shot on location however one scene required slightly more design. This was the armoury of the biodroids. Constructed in the same location (the warehouse) I designed it on no budget and managed to produce a set as shown below. The design mainly consisted of imitation weaponary and clever use of lightling to create the millitant feel that an armoury should possess.

Initial Shot List

This is the shot list that I developed in tamden with the preceding spatial plan.

The Initial Spatial Plan

This outline spatial proposal is something that I have been formulating over the past week. It began with an iteration as posted a few days ago and has now developed into this. The idea behind this was to try and develop a series of spaces that would feature in the film. I wanted all of these spaces to draw some sort of connection from the spaces that precede and follow them. One of the main points is that the spaces would all be constructed as temporary representations of spaces that we can usually associate with quite comfortably. Due to the temporary nature of these spaces they have started to be realised within a much larger spatial volume which at this moment in time is not fully defined, probably some sort of infinite warehousey space/tower block that is situated in what used to be London.

Magnesium

I was asked to help out on a film by a friend. It's a sci-fi film about domestic droids gone wrong. Rebel forces vs droids. They asked me specifically to help out with the ideas and concepts for an armoury in the rebel base. So.......with no money, no equipment, no real idea, not much time (we shoot on Sunday), but with a location, this is what I've come up with.

Preliminary Ideas for Thesis Film

Opening Sequence Drawing

Capturing the main moments in the film, this drawing represents the moments at which the mind of Jed slips into his synthetic creations of urban landscapes induced by his consumption of film and the perceptions he builds up of filmic geographies.

An idea on an A4 piece of paper

Starting with the idea that architecture exists within film there occurs a formation of boundaries between narrative, production and existing space. ‘Movies and cities have different kinds of temporalities, and are constituted, through different imperatives, of various spaces and events’. It is these events that form the blurred boundaries between the three above-mentioned types of space.

Narrative space will always take ‘place’. It is this translation from narrative to place that presents an analytical viewpoint through which the imagined or perceived world of the film simultaneously occurs with the referential aspects of the film itself taking ‘place’. As a viewer, and individual, that experiences space, both imagined and materialized, there is a consideration towards the film whereby attention and perception of space must slide between the location of the fiction and the real world that the film resides within.

Individual perception and experience of space are what I think will drive the content of the project. Through analysis of existing space I wish to dissect selected cinematic spaces that, through visual digestion influence and inform our experiences of landscapes. By stating that there are three main architectures of cinematic space the analysis of these will produce a newly formed composite space comprised of the three aspects that contribute to an individuals perception.

The choice of specific location could be endless so I may choose one film or theme that is set or part set in London as a starting point for the investigation. The main focus will be on the formation of new spaces constructed out of the processes behind filmmaking itself. Elements such as logic behind the narrative form geographies of the city and some times impossible geographies for example in situations when the camera is used to cheat and bend the reality of space to conform to the needs and requirements of the production process and the direction of film. The production process itself whereby physical entities are used to create synthetic space that form part or entire sequences of the motion picture. Fabricated landscapes, such as built sets or virtual environments are the physical and virtual constructs of the cinematic spaces that exist in fiction and non-fiction. This leads to the final contrasting architecture, which resides in reality. Location shoots for instance, occur in the realm of everyday life and there then becomes a duality of existence between the two. Where do the borders of the cinematic space end and the borders of reality begin? At anyone site of filming there will always be a governing force through which the blurry borders occur, and this is governed by what the camera sees and intends to show the viewer. It is only when you step just outside of this zoning that the blurred borders become apparent. From this establishment of cinematic space you can then begin to break down how any one space involved in the process of film production defines multiple borders that respond to time, physical and metaphysical based parameters.

What comes from the aforementioned components of film is the ability of individuals to consume this information, digest it and form perceptions of what cinematic spaces look, feel and act like. Obviously from one film to the next the experience of space may differ but it is these variations in experiential visual space that all combine to allow ones mind to enter into the fictional or non-fictional existence of filmic space. Further to the cinematic space contained within the duration of any film it is important to also understand how these visions and interpretations of space contribute to the data bank of information we hold within our minds of landscapes. Can one fully understand a space simply through the visual portrayals of it in cinema and how do these interpretations affect the experiences we may have or have had of existing space.

At this moment in time the over-riding interest I have in these issues is how the fabrication of physical or virtual environments form the elements, landscapes or even worlds of the narratives found within film. Further to on screen existence they are obviously conceived through various processes of thought and one in particular is how they may be formed and arranged with respect to the cheating of space though camera techniques, requirements and visual manipulation. It is these environments that I wish to draw focus to and begin to dissect and illustrate how that no matter what level of reality they may hold they will all have to exist somewhere and it is that somewhere which I intend to create the proposition of cinematic architecture within.

The cinematic city will be constructed out of multiple spaces and composited together. The imagined landscapes of the city will grow out of the abstraction of the pragmatisms and logistics of film making processes.