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; 

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:

·      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

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1357240/?page=1

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-dracula-1931

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051554/

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.

Preparatory Task

Prep Task 

How do aesthetics and style reflect the content, function and audience of an animation?

I want to use this question to look at rebooted shows, or shows using the same characters, to appeal to very different audiences by changing how the show looks and the way it is written. 

Teen Titans (2003)

Creator : Glen Murakami 

Fact : Originally wanted to be a comic book artist, hence why most of his work revolves around super heroes. Also of Japanese decent, which explains why teen titans is said to have a very eastern aesthetic. 

Cultural Event: At the time of Teen Titans in 2003, it was the year that Apple launched I tunes, an instant success selling 10 million songs in 4 months. 

Global Event: George Bush announces that major combat in Iraq is over. 

Teen Titans Go! (2013)

Creator : Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath

Fact : These creators admitted to never watching the original show, and merely watched select episodes to get an idea for Teen Titans GO!

Cultural Event : Xbox One and PS4 are released in the gaming world

Global Event: 2013 was the year of the Boston Marathon Bombings. 

Castlevania (2017)

Creator : Adi Shankar

Fact : The series is actually based on the third game in the series, Castlevania 3: Dracula's curse, which itself is a prequel to the original game

Cultural Event : Iphone X is announced by Apple at $1000

Global Event: North Korea detonates bomb over Japan 

Digimon Tri (2015)

Creator : Akiyoshi Hondo

Fact : Although Hondo is credited as creator and designer of the Digimon franchise, there is no information about him as an individual

Cultural Event : Dragonball returns to Japanese tv screens again in sequel "Dragon ball Super"

Global Event : Russia Intervenes in Syria 

Batman : The Animated Series (1992)

Creator : Bruce Timm and Paul Dini

Fact : Although seasons 1 - 3 featured the designs of Bruce Timm, season 4's designs were done by Glen Murakami, creator of Teen Titans and Designer on Batman Beyond

Cultural Event : Cartoon Network is officially started 

Global Event : US and UN attempt to intervene in Somalia Civil War