Over the course of the module, I plan to investigate how the social context affects the fear factor within Horror Movies. I believe this is an interesting subject, as horror movies have adapted and changed a lot since the classics of the 30s to 50s. I am wondering if this is due to the change in times, and whether or not it is affected in any way by the oversaturation in the market of these type of films, and whether the amount of jump scares makes a better horror movie than the classics which I believe rely on tension and atmosphere to do.
I have started this research by using books and watching movies in order to better understand these movies. My final outcome, mainly will include a character design for a classic horror movie in their classic form and also a version of themselves modernised into a present day version. Over the course of my sketchbook I want to explore colour and composition to see if this creates an effective character or not. I also want to look at the backgrounds to see if these have any effect on atmosphere and tension. The overall outcome will be put into a 1 second animation where I will switch between the 2 different versions of the characters I have redesigned.
Wednesday 21 March 2018
Final Outcome
I ended up not having a sufficient amount of time to create a full animation using the character I created, so I ended up using a created background, and making a keyframe, using my studies of gothic painting and also my designs. I stuck to a pretty specific colour palette to create these.
Sentient Space
This is the sentient space I created for a lesson, I wanted to make a space a horror theme, I do not believe I did this particularly effectively, as the Volcano I created became a bit too cutesy, if i were to do it again I would choose a darker colour palette to make sure that it fits within the theme of my work.
Where i'm at now?
Study Task 7
Primary Research: Watching these movies and writing my own notes and analysis between these movies and their effectiveness of being scary.
Primary Research: Watching these movies and writing my own notes and analysis between these movies and their effectiveness of being scary.
Secondary research:
Books:
- · A rough Guide to Horror Movies (Alan Jones, 2005, Rough Guides Ltd)
- · Horror Cinema (Taschen, 2017, BiblioTecha Universalis)
- · Why Horror Seduces (Mathias Clasen, Oxford University Press)
Media and Processes: I have decided to use the medium of gauche and digital paint to display some of my own work, which is studies of some scenes from Horror movies and paintings.
I I began by watching these movies, and analysing how scary and atmospheric they were. I then moved on to reading some of the wider context and information about how these movies were made. I then decided that all of the movies I watched used colour particularly well, and wanted to see if I could create effective studies using just 5 of their colours in both digital and traditional paint. I surmise that it was effective at getting the atmosphere across, but not as well as it would have been had I done super detailed paintings. This I did to see which colour palette I could potentially use in my own character design.
Study Task 3
Defining Important Concepts
A concept that I have discovered and have decided to follow is the concept of the "Gentleman Vampire". This has become incredibly useful in my designing process and my research.
This particular example comes from the Universal film "Dracula (1931)" from Tod Browning. This perfectly represents the "Gentleman Vampire". Dracula holds himself as a well respected man however ends up being a killer by nature. This particular scene is when Dracula confronts Van Helsing after he finds that Van Helsing is aware of his true identity. This movie was definitely aimed at an adult audience as it is a horror movie.
An article which supports this can be found here: https://www.glk.uni-mainz.de/Dateien/Metzdorf.pdf . This article discusses the idea that Dracula, in his position of power which spans over centuries functions as a symbol of "Victorian Anxieties". One such Victorian anxiety was the rise of the poor against the powerful rich, as was a big scare around the time of Jack the Ripper.
A concept that I have discovered and have decided to follow is the concept of the "Gentleman Vampire". This has become incredibly useful in my designing process and my research.
This particular example comes from the Universal film "Dracula (1931)" from Tod Browning. This perfectly represents the "Gentleman Vampire". Dracula holds himself as a well respected man however ends up being a killer by nature. This particular scene is when Dracula confronts Van Helsing after he finds that Van Helsing is aware of his true identity. This movie was definitely aimed at an adult audience as it is a horror movie.
An article which supports this can be found here: https://www.glk.uni-mainz.de/Dateien/Metzdorf.pdf . This article discusses the idea that Dracula, in his position of power which spans over centuries functions as a symbol of "Victorian Anxieties". One such Victorian anxiety was the rise of the poor against the powerful rich, as was a big scare around the time of Jack the Ripper.
Tuesday 20 March 2018
Beginning of the Book - The Target Task
To begin my sketchbook. I began by making the circle in which I put myself in the centre of a target, and labelled my interests, and continuing to build on these interests into something that can be produced into an idea which I can study this year. I listed all my interests as well as their sociological and artistic relations, just from this, there seems to be some sort of Gothic/ Horror movie theme, so I think I am going to start exploring the type of things I can do with this.
Below is my target for COP
Below is my target for COP
COP sketchbook - Designing Dracula
To make sure I do not make too many of these, I wanted to save a lot of time and words to explain the choices I made in the designing of my own Dracula. Due to time constraints I have reigned back my final outcome to character sheets and keyframes, rather than a fully animated outcome, as I thought the character and setting was more important than the actual animation, as it represents the essence of what my question is all about, and also, with some noted aid explains how these designs tie in to the social context of today and also keep within the general rules of the character.
As is obvious from the pictures above, I actually made 2 passes at the classic take on the character. To design him I looked at fashion of the time period, as well as the movies and fiction of the character that existed at the time to make sure I was making him time specific. I also followed the colour palette I had made from the 1931 Dracula movie in order to make him more authentic. He is heavily based on Belo Lugosi, but obviously he is meant for an animated setting, rather than a live action. I wanted very much to keep within the realm of "gentlemen vampire" as this is who the character was at the time, and I needed to make sure I respected that. I actually like this version of the character the most, I think there is actually somewhat frightening about the upper class person taking advantage of their power in order to kill the lower class person. I think this is something that is used a lot in movies today, but I think this is where it started, with the Vampire and horror movies of this era.
Here you can see my process for designing the modern Dracula. For this, using my research of modern day men's fashion, I decided to use the colour script from the 2014 movie "Dracula Untold". I believed that this would supply me with at least most of the colours I could use to create and effective Dracula. The designing of this one, ended up becoming designing a fashionable high class man of the modern day, because I wanted to stick to the Gentleman Vampire aspect of which Dracula had started as. I think today more than ever there is fear of the upper class being above and being able to take advantage of the lower class people, so this is something that I wanted to play on in the designing of this version. He is very pale in skin tone and has bright yellow eyes, just to drive the inhuman aspect home, rather than him being generic white guy from any movie ever. I decided with this version, to make him quite muscular, as Dracula's whole point is to draw people in, and then murder them by sucking on their blood, I thought he had to be as attractive as possible from a 2018 stand point in order to make him an effective gentleman killer.
COP Sketchbook - Looking at Backgrounds
For this section of my sketchbook, I have skipped over some more paint studies and research to go into this more relevant section, I wanted to look at setting and backgrounds. In my sketchbook I have made mood boards and looked at specific sets and paintings that relate to gothic imagery, a lot of Tim Burton and a lot of sets from the original Dracula films. This I decided was necessary for design and animated version, as the setting can add a lot to the character. For this I made 2 backgrounds with different colour palettes. These were to fit with the 2 different versions I want to design. the first being a classic, 1930s Dracula, based on Belo Lugosi, and the present day 2018 Dracula which is completely designed by me.
Personally I believe the classic one is a lot more effective at getting the mood across as it represents and shows the colours that a gothic setting would stereotypically have.
Personally I believe the classic one is a lot more effective at getting the mood across as it represents and shows the colours that a gothic setting would stereotypically have.
Cop Sketchbook - Some Painting
Before starting on my character designs, I wanted to have a practice at doing some digital and practical painting using only the colour scripts I had made. This was purely for practice reasons seeing if I could create the image effectively using the specific colour palette, so I am not afraid to admit there is some heavy reference going on in some of them.
The task proved challenging as using only 5 specific limits greatly what you are able to do. As is shown below, it is hard to really capture the likeness, especially in the case of the more modern studies. This is something I am going to have to consider when designing my own version as I imagine I will have to take some sort of artistic liberty and add some colours here and there.
The task proved challenging as using only 5 specific limits greatly what you are able to do. As is shown below, it is hard to really capture the likeness, especially in the case of the more modern studies. This is something I am going to have to consider when designing my own version as I imagine I will have to take some sort of artistic liberty and add some colours here and there.
Study Task 2
For this section, I decided to use the text from Laura Mulvey; "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema". From my understanding, I believe the concept that Mulvey is trying to convey, is that there is a stigma around the imagery of female roles and the human form in general which attracts us to certain character in cinema, and gives us some form of pleasure from watching these characters. It is my understanding that Mulvey somewhat acknowledges the move away from the patriarchal roles of women in film as the years progress but that it is still an issue.
I believe these quote to represent the overarching concept which Mulvey is trying to convey to the reader.
I feel like there is any number of outer world examples that follow this particular train of thought, however if I were to name a few playboy tends to play into this particular category of which Mulvey talks about, playing on the "looked at ness" of the still human form. This is also present in tv shows such as baywatch, which objectify women to be eye candy to men.
This could be tied into my theme, as most of the time, when Dracula strikes his victims, it is a young woman, and when he does this, many reviewers have described the act as sensual. Even the film "Bride of Dracula" she is incredibly sexualised, as opposed to Dracula himself who is supposed to be intimidating. This proves Mulvey's point of the patriarchal roles in society, and how the bride is sexualised in the eyes of the husband.
I believe these quote to represent the overarching concept which Mulvey is trying to convey to the reader.
I feel like there is any number of outer world examples that follow this particular train of thought, however if I were to name a few playboy tends to play into this particular category of which Mulvey talks about, playing on the "looked at ness" of the still human form. This is also present in tv shows such as baywatch, which objectify women to be eye candy to men.
This could be tied into my theme, as most of the time, when Dracula strikes his victims, it is a young woman, and when he does this, many reviewers have described the act as sensual. Even the film "Bride of Dracula" she is incredibly sexualised, as opposed to Dracula himself who is supposed to be intimidating. This proves Mulvey's point of the patriarchal roles in society, and how the bride is sexualised in the eyes of the husband.
COP book section 3 - Costume Design Study
I have now decided that I am definitely going to be redesigning an animated Dracula, therefore when I made my costume design section I decided to look primarily at 4 Dracula Films, those being Dracula (1931), Horror of Dracula (1953), Bram Stoker's Dracula and Dracula Untold. All of these films had pretty unique takes on the costume and feel of the character, therefore I thought analysing the costumes would help me have some insight on to how to design my own character, I have noticed a theme of a "gentlemen vampire" and therefore I wish to continue this trend when designing my own versions. This might have some sort of connection to the high class of the time being somewhat feared, and I would like to explore that more in my essay if I can fit it in.
COP book section 2 - Colour Scripts
For the next section of my sketchbook, I decided to make colour scripts for both classic and newer horror movies, but only using a specific amount of colours, I decided to only use 5, because I want to use these colour scripts to inspire my own designs when I make them towards the end. I want to do this so it can help me capture the feel of the classic and modern horror movies. I did this for some of the movies I considered redesigning for, and also films I believe to have a good use of lighting, composition and colour.
Into the Book - My Question and What I am Doing
I have now decided on a question that I am happy with for my essay and also what I have decided to do. I am going to look at how society looks at horror movies in specific time periods, and how the views of the time affects what goes into a horror movie, and what people find scary. For my sketchbook, as a final outcome, I want to redesign a classic horror character for an animated setting to connect my idea to the world of animation. I want to do this twice, I want to design them in a classic setting, and a modern day setting, but with a classic twist. I want to put this in to a short maybe 1 second animation which switches between the 2 different periods. when doing this I want to consider the colour palette's of the times, and also the setting and whether the environment in the background also reflects the character. I am undecided on who this character will be as of now, I am considering Dracula and Frankenstein's monster as potential candidates. I also considered Pennywise from Stephen King's "IT" however as this has been done recently I will just use the redesign for reference in making my own instead.
My question is ; How does the Socio Context of the Time Dictate the fear factor within Horror Films?
I have taken this title straight from the beginning of my essay of which the introduction can be seen on a separate blog. Some quotes I have found for my essay so far are listed down below:
“an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm”
“it is Lugosi's performance, and the cinematography of Karl Freund, that make Tod Browning's film such an influential Hollywood picture”
And these are some of the images I have decided to use;
My question is ; How does the Socio Context of the Time Dictate the fear factor within Horror Films?
I have taken this title straight from the beginning of my essay of which the introduction can be seen on a separate blog. Some quotes I have found for my essay so far are listed down below:
“an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm”
“it is Lugosi's performance, and the cinematography of Karl Freund, that make Tod Browning's film such an influential Hollywood picture”
And these are some of the images I have decided to use;
Research- Finding Books, Lookin' at Movies
When I think of Horror movies, the first thing that comes to mind for me is the original Godzilla film, I also think of the classic universal monsters such as dracula, frankenstein's monster and the mummy. I also think of new style horror movies such as Paranormal activity and friday the 13th, these sort of films, all films which have been remade with multiple sequels. Last year for COP I looked at unnecessary reboots and remakes, so I feel like it would be interesting to explore something similar but using Horror movies and how they have changed from the 1930s.
I started by looking in the library and at Waterstones, to see about any books I could find that have information about Horror movies, and their development specifically. In the Uni Library I found a few books that could help with the history of the Horror industry, and about Belo Lugosi, the Hammer Horror era and I found a book at Waterstones which I bought regarding the ethics of Horror movies of different times and how they were made at the time. I think the films I am going to focus on is the Godzilla films, and films following the character of "Count Dracula", this can be anything from Nosferatu (1922) to Dracula Untold (2014). The books I found I will list below as they will help me with my research.
Books:
Useful Websites:
I started by looking in the library and at Waterstones, to see about any books I could find that have information about Horror movies, and their development specifically. In the Uni Library I found a few books that could help with the history of the Horror industry, and about Belo Lugosi, the Hammer Horror era and I found a book at Waterstones which I bought regarding the ethics of Horror movies of different times and how they were made at the time. I think the films I am going to focus on is the Godzilla films, and films following the character of "Count Dracula", this can be anything from Nosferatu (1922) to Dracula Untold (2014). The books I found I will list below as they will help me with my research.
Books:
· A rough Guide to Horror Movies (Alan
Jones, 2005, Rough Guides Ltd)
· Horror Cinema (Taschen, 2017,
BiblioTecha Universalis)
Useful Websites:
Julia Layton "How Fear Works" 13
September 2005.
HowStuffWorks.com. <https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/fear.htm> 25 January 2018
HowStuffWorks.com. <https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/fear.htm> 25 January 2018
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/horror_of_dracula/
COP Proposal
How have Horror Movies changed?
Reference Guides
-
Censored Screams – Tom Johnson
-
Framing Monsters – Joshua David Bellin
-
A new heritage of Horror – David Pirie
-
Nosferatu/Dracula (Hammer)/ Dracula Untold
-
Godzilla 1954/Shin Godzilla
-
IT (1980s)/ IT (2017)
-
Hammer Horror/ Paranormal Activity (Jump Scare
Films)
Proposal
Over the course of my essay, I want to look at the horror
movies of the era of 1930s to 1950s, in comparison to the horror movies of late
90s to present day, and how they represent the horror genre. I want to discuss
the ideas of horror movies between these 2 eras, and how they compare with one
another. In this I want to consider the political goings on at the time and discuss
whether or not they affect what is considered “scary” during this time period.
I also want to discuss the aesthetics of each era and whether it makes for a
scarier film. I want to discuss the ideas of something which is “chilling” in
comparison to say a jump scare which is a modern horror trope which seems to
define a “horror” movie.
In comparing the eras which my study material comes from I
want to look out how the era manipulates the story and in some cases the genre
of the story. For example, in 1954 Godzilla was considered a Horror, however in
2017 Shin Godzilla, a very similar movie is not, but has horror themes and was
described as a horror like film. I think this part is particularly interesting
and I want to see whether the political motivations at the time link into this
aspect of what is considered horror. Linking back to the same 2 movies, in 1954
Godzilla was made by nuclear bomb survivors in Japan so the theme and horrific
nature of what had happened was still fresh on the minds of everyone.
Cop Book Section 1 - Mood Boards
To begin my own practical work, I decided to make initial mood boards for my interests and horror movies in general. This was purely for research purposes gathering information an images about horror movies, or movies which could be considered horror movies.
These images have been taken as inspiration only, they accumulate images from many different mediums rom video games to animation, to painting and film.
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