Yesterday in class we looked at various forms of stop-motion animation, each using the same basic principles but different mediums, allowing the animator to achieve different effects. What I then realised was that the fantastic video to Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer actually used many of these techniques, in particular Claymation and Pixilation.
What also makes the video impressive is the fact that Peter Gabriel was filmed frame by frame in each scene and considering how long stop-motion films take to make, Aardman managed to produce the film within 3 days with a team of animators working on each scene, the list also includes Nick Park who animated the scene with the dancing oven ready chickens.
Friday, 25 November 2011
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Moving Image analysis: Corporate Cannibal
Grace Jones' song Corporate Cannibal is an abstract and subtle metaphorical criticism of the greed of large multi-national corporations and thoughtless consumerism. The accompanying video by Nick Hooker greatly supports the message put forward by the song. The video simply consists of Grace Jones wearing a suit throughout the video against a harsh white background, however he image has been greatly distorted into harsh abstract shapes making her look only vaguely human.
The video is also coloured in a harsh black and white with very few shades of grey, this gives the feeling of digitalisation as though Grace Jones is merely a computer personified, reminiscent of cyberpunk literature, such as the corporate sentient A.I known as Neuromancer in the novel of the same name by William Gibson. The cyberpunk themes are also supported by the line Digital Criminal, with mega-corporations as an entity being the antagonist of the story. This is further supported by the imagery of Jones, because although her body and forehead are distorted, her face remains recognisable and unchanged, perhaps representing the company logo of a corporation. The idea of the corporate world is also suggested through Jones' body shape with her shoulders curved like exaggerated shoulder pads and a harsh strip of white against the black of her body going down the centre of her torso suggesting she is wearing a suit.
The use of the harsh and disturbing imagery alongside the industrial sound of the song suggests the cold and inhuman aspects of the corporate world, her eyes are often fixated on the camera, as though the corporation is watching you, knowing everything you do, and her mouth is often the focal point of the image on screen, constantly whispering to the consumer, telling them what they want, and telling them what to buy. Criticism against corporatism is also a common theme in the industrial music theme, with the band Throbbing Gristle forming the industrial music record label as a form of rebellion against the mainstream music industry, with other industrial band such as Ministry being for notorious for criticising consumerism and right-wing politics.
The fact that Jones is the only subject throughout the entire video. with no other props or actors being present, seems to represent a kind of market dominance and superiority, with the corporation having complete control over not only the market but the consumers as well, slowly consuming them for its own survival. Her presence in the video is also almost predatory, as though she is there to feed upon the consumer, but with her looking straight at the camera and her massive stature against the stark white background it is almost as if she is ready to reach out of the screen and consume the viewer.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Bioshock Infinite: Following Development
Hey y'all, when I started the DFGA course I was mainly interested in the video games aspects of the course, and as such I've been eagerly following the development of Bioshock Infinite, the latest game in the Bioshock series.
It was actually Infinte that piqued my interest in the Bioshock series, although I'd heard about and had an interest in the first two games I never played them until Bioshock Infinite's announcement. I was instantly taken away by the flying city, a common theme in steampunk stories, and just how crazy it was.
I immediately went online to find out what I could about the game, but my first true insight into the game was an article in PC Gamer and shortly after that I read a more in depth article in Edge and looked up videos to see if there was any game play footage available, and indeed there was. I'd already had some idea of how a bioshock game played out, but what I saw really set me off, the vibrant American patriotic colours and architechture set against strange scenarios such as a mechanical horse pulling a cart with its wheels missing, one of the gas bags the floating platforms of the city of Columbia igniting then exploding causing the bell tower on the platform to collapse with chunks of debris being strewn across the platform the player was stood on, after this the player then rounds the corner and sees a burning building with a woman stood in the entrance simply sweeping up the ash, seemingly oblivious to the raging fire behind her. All of these images, although nowhere near as obviously as crazy as Rapture in the first game, tell the player that this city is gradually losing its orignal image and becoming a nightmare. This showed to me that the developers at Irrational put a lot of thought into creating a rich world with its own history, identity and emotions.
But what struck me the most was the relationship between the characters of Booker DeWitt (the player character) and Elizabeth. Booker is sent to the flying city of Columbia in order to rescue Elizabeth and begins a raging battle across the city in order to gain her freedom, but what strikes me about the two characters is the fact that they frequently interact and it is obvious from even the earliest gameplay demo that the developers have put a lot of work into making the relationship between the two believable, and this is also shown by the fact that Booker is not a silent protagonist like in not only the original Bioshock games, but in almost every available 1st person shooter game.
What really surprised me about the video is that I later learned that very little of the footage was actually scripted, which is hard to believe with the way Elizabeth interacts with the environment, another example of this is a member of the Vox Populi reacting to Booker DeWitt aiming his gun at them in response to threats against Elizabeth.
The only part of the footage that I can tell was completely scripted was the scene with Songbird, the 30 foot tall mechanical bird created to both imprison and protect Elizabeth. The Songbird is a constant threat to Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth as they fight across Columbia. The final scene in the gameplay footage shows Songbird recapturing Elizabeth and nearly killing Booker DeWitt, only to be stopped by Elizabeth begging for the Songbird to let Booker go in return for taking her back. The song bird responds by first looking away from her, as though to suggest distrust in a similar manner to an abusive husband, and then its eyes turning green before leaving with her, Elizabeth reaching out to Booker with tears in her eyes.
It was actually Infinte that piqued my interest in the Bioshock series, although I'd heard about and had an interest in the first two games I never played them until Bioshock Infinite's announcement. I was instantly taken away by the flying city, a common theme in steampunk stories, and just how crazy it was.
I immediately went online to find out what I could about the game, but my first true insight into the game was an article in PC Gamer and shortly after that I read a more in depth article in Edge and looked up videos to see if there was any game play footage available, and indeed there was. I'd already had some idea of how a bioshock game played out, but what I saw really set me off, the vibrant American patriotic colours and architechture set against strange scenarios such as a mechanical horse pulling a cart with its wheels missing, one of the gas bags the floating platforms of the city of Columbia igniting then exploding causing the bell tower on the platform to collapse with chunks of debris being strewn across the platform the player was stood on, after this the player then rounds the corner and sees a burning building with a woman stood in the entrance simply sweeping up the ash, seemingly oblivious to the raging fire behind her. All of these images, although nowhere near as obviously as crazy as Rapture in the first game, tell the player that this city is gradually losing its orignal image and becoming a nightmare. This showed to me that the developers at Irrational put a lot of thought into creating a rich world with its own history, identity and emotions.
But what struck me the most was the relationship between the characters of Booker DeWitt (the player character) and Elizabeth. Booker is sent to the flying city of Columbia in order to rescue Elizabeth and begins a raging battle across the city in order to gain her freedom, but what strikes me about the two characters is the fact that they frequently interact and it is obvious from even the earliest gameplay demo that the developers have put a lot of work into making the relationship between the two believable, and this is also shown by the fact that Booker is not a silent protagonist like in not only the original Bioshock games, but in almost every available 1st person shooter game.
After watching developer interviews of the game, I found out that quite early on they tried to distance the look and feel of Columbia from the city of Rapture in the first game. This can be seen in the colour scheme, while rapture contained dark, cool colours reminiscent of the bottom of the ocean, Columbia's colour scheme contains a large amount of bright and warm colours as well as a stark red, white and blue theme that reminds the player of the american flag, setting the game apart from the art deco world of Rapture with the the patriotic and neoclassical world of Columbia.
Roughly 6 months after I finished the second game I discovered the latest gameplay trailer, this trailer totally blew my mind, with the vast improvements to both the art direction and the general flow of the gameplay. This felt a lot less like a tech demonstration like the first gameplay trailer and more like a segment of the actual game.
What really surprised me about the video is that I later learned that very little of the footage was actually scripted, which is hard to believe with the way Elizabeth interacts with the environment, another example of this is a member of the Vox Populi reacting to Booker DeWitt aiming his gun at them in response to threats against Elizabeth.
The only part of the footage that I can tell was completely scripted was the scene with Songbird, the 30 foot tall mechanical bird created to both imprison and protect Elizabeth. The Songbird is a constant threat to Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth as they fight across Columbia. The final scene in the gameplay footage shows Songbird recapturing Elizabeth and nearly killing Booker DeWitt, only to be stopped by Elizabeth begging for the Songbird to let Booker go in return for taking her back. The song bird responds by first looking away from her, as though to suggest distrust in a similar manner to an abusive husband, and then its eyes turning green before leaving with her, Elizabeth reaching out to Booker with tears in her eyes.
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