The Un_Reel - Part 02

Film stills of Part 02

Un_Reel Part 01 Recap

These are a few images to refresh what your minds as to what part one of the film looked like.

Renders

These are a couple of renders from the film. Although, as previously planned, I intended on keeping the screenplay completely contained with in the 3D modeled environment, I felt that it was more appropriate for The Man to venture out into the outside world (to escape his escapism) that we ourselves are more familiar with. I chose to do this because I felt that with this idea of his synthesized space becoming so hyper real it was hard to decipher the difference between real and unreal and therefore by compositing the computer generated built elements back into real life camera footage it plays on this idea of the two versions of reality being completely hybridized into one experience for The Man.

New Spaces

These are the other four spaces I have been working on over the past week compared to the sketches I made for the storyboard.

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.

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.

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.

Outline Plan

This is an outline plan of the configuration of spaces that will feature in the film. From todays tutorial I think more emphasis and development needs to be given to the spaces on the left of this drawing. These sketches are posted below and portray a lifestyle contained within interiors that are familiar to those of the post war case study houses. These have taken on this aesthetic due to the significance of modernity in Cinema. As the ideas of stage, simulacrum and representation are fundamental to this film it grounds itself through the developments of early 20th century cinema, in regard to set design and production design, as this was a turning point in the potential of architectural space and film.

The right hand part of this plan is now void. I have decided to concentrate on the sketches based around the characters everyday life and how these spaces are portrayed as both lived in spaces and as stages of lived in spaces.

Next I will begin to sketch out more spaces that need to be designed that follow the newer storyline and scenes as annotated on this plan.

Character Study

Character behaviour study for film 'Y':

- blind to his everyday life
- smokes
- wears a Bushman Hat
- likes electronic Music
- white shirt
- brown mole skin jacket
- has constant need to see a clock
- listens for the loudspeaker
- blue suede brogues
- has a cough
- likes jacobs crackers
- carries a satchel
- marks his milk
- has only one bowl, fork, knife, spoon
- drinks black coffee
- works in a museum archive
- main pursuit in life as a photographer
- went to beadles
- comes from a wealthy background
- likes solitude
- plays the piano
- few physical possession
- lots of mental possessions

Character behaviour study for film 'X':

- controlled by time
- walks slow
- picks up rubbish
- visions of loud speakers on walls
- sees in vibrant colours
- likes trees
- always losses a one glove from a pair
- is followed/guided by a red pipe
- lights his life with industrial lamps
- enjoys skyscrapers
- has pink slippers

The points about the character in bold are the more important ones as they are currently governing how I am developing the spaces that he occupies. This is an ongoing development as it goes hand in hand as to how his two personalities shape his two existences and how they are designed.

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.