FutureScreen - SOMA2481

Future Screen - SOMA 2410

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Notes from Readings

Children of Men Review by Andrew Osmond

In this review Osmond, explains to us how 'Children of Men' is very referential to real life, in particular at the start when the world's youngest boy dies at 18 years of age. The hysteria caused over this rivals when Princess Diana died. The movie also refers to the nativity, when we see Kee pregnant for the first time in the barn surrounded by cows. This imagery has also been commented to be similar to the 'birth of venus' painting, and appears to be a combination of the two giving great significance on Kee.

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Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Future in Alfonso Cuaran's Children of Men - Samuel Amago

In this article Amago argues that ethics are the aesthetics of the future. In the article, Amago shows a comparison of the alternate reality of 'Children of Men' and our current reality and this was done on purpose to create a dystopic future that becomes a form of an 'anti-Blade Runner'. "We're not creating; we're referencing here." Cuaron states. As a result, 'Children of Men' has become a movie set in the near future, where certain elements of technology has progressed e.g. "moving print media and a video screen that replaces the car’s rearview mirror". 

Quote - Emmanuel Lubezeki

“not a single frame of this film can go by [without] making a comment about the state of things. So everything became about reference . . . how this has relevance in the context of the state of things, of the reality that we are living today.”12 He continues, saying that “the exercise was to transcend not only reality, but also to cross-reference within the film to the spiritual themes of the film.” In essence he creates a realistic dystopian future, whilst including spiritual themes that are incorporated in such a realistic way, we feel a spiritual connection, without having to think of the negative connotations the word 'religion' has come to have. It becomes a pure hope in essence.

Cuaron's film found much inspiration from a variety of different media, in particular another book known as 'The Waste Land', Michaelangelo's 'La Pieta' and even Picasso's 'Guernica'. An example of this is when the older woman is cradling her dead sons body in her hands in a photographic slow-motion shot we are shown late in the movie. This part becomes not just a reference to the art, but a symbol of the films themes of "maternity, death, and loss, while drawing attention to the complex, interconnected series of real and figurative extradiagetic contexts from which Cuaron draws his inspiration." from.

Children of Men also addresses "fatal weaknesses of ideologies" as both the government and the party trying to overthrow the government are both exploiting their power and resources to control the country in some way or form. This gives rise to the similarities between 'Children of Men' and the terror of 9/11 that occurred, in particular the reactions of the government, and socio-political warfare that started due to that incident.

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 Maternal back/grounds in children of Men: Notes toward an Arendtian biopolitics - Sarah Trimble

In this article Sarah Trimble, makes an interesting point of how Theo having no children, feels a sense of hope when he sees Kee, as it gives him a "second, indirect chance at reproductive success". In the form of being a small part of this baby's life, and this is in a way 'paid off' due to Kee naming her daughter 'Dylan' or perhaps 'Dillon' (female version of Dylan) after Theo's dead son, and this "aligns regeneration and inheritence with paternity." to Kee's young daughter.

An interesting point Trimble makes, is the idea that we are used to the idea of a "triad of white man - white woman - white [male] child". However, instead here we are shown a contrast of a "black female refugee surrounded by milking machines and petitioning a white male for help." Apart from evoking the history of 'dispossession and violence' between the two races. It can also be seen in another light, the fact that she can reproduce and not a white woman, gives her an ability to do something that the dominant 'white' race cannot do, putting her on a new pedestal in comparison to all the infertile 'white' race.

Trimble's reading then goes onto explaining how the film shares similarities with 'Hannah Arendt's principle of natality as a point of departure for biopolitical analysis. As perhaps instead of looking at this in a way of 'race' we should look at rather the 'natality' of things. To understand how "strange arrivals like Dylan". are created through some from of social reproduction. 

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Notes from Presentation

Directed 'Gravity'. Different Sci-fi film. Dystopian future. Made in 2006. The plot enacts ideas through narrative. 'The future of now'. Always some element of the present very notable in the today of now. Over $100 million USD spent on the film. Optimistic in final analysis. Takes an interesting turn in the way the film is told. Great attention to realism etc. Journey narrative. Series of gatekeepers and obstacles along the way, also the ideas of dystopia and settings. Grounded in realism. The future is a setting. Technology of the future is a way to interact metaphors of the inventions. Chiildren of men brings together all these ideas

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Presentations - Andie Wheeler

First Reading

Techniques and relation to the narrative. 'Children of Men's unrestrained energy is electrifying, while its mixture of real-world terrors and hollywood contrivance borders on tastelessness.

Second Reading

Compares film to works of Elliot, picasso etc.

"Imparts figurative depth to what may be the most realist sci-fi film ever. By injecting these diverse subtexts into a harshly realist representation of a future…"

Third Reading

Discussion of biopolitical themes throughout 'children of men'.

Film Techniques

Colour palette bleak lifeless, incorporates black, white and grey narratives.

When Jillian, Jasper die there's a very grey death like look around.

Samuel Amago from second reading compares Kee to Mary and Theo to Jesus. Looks similar to Botticelli's the birth of Venus.

Representation of Jesus being the shepherd.

Alfonso uses long film takes with his shots. Contrasting colours of forest greens, and blood red contrast the scenes of peace and war inbetween the two.

Alfonso committed to a very specific style of long takes. He wanted a very realistic film.

Final Scene quote by alfonso

"We wanted the end to be a glimpse of a possibility for hope…."

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Presentation by - Phanos

More than a sci-fi film, an idea that it's a universal science fiction film. You've got scenes that represent world war two warfare, and our current war on terror ideas. Enjoyed the second part of the film, where lots of it is filmed in a RPG game like way.

Sound and sight review:

Andrew osmond's review offers a breakdown synopsis of the film. With the use of historical and modern references, Osmond discusses the narrative…

Ethics, Aesthetics and the future.

Samuel Amago's essay serves as cultural and historical commentary  on the film. 'Ethics are the aesthetics of the future'

Maternal back/grounds: Arenddtian biopolitics.

Idea of exploring reproduction and biopolitical order.

Sound in children of Men

Cuaron uses sound and music to bring fictional world of social unrest and infertility to life.

He uses a combination of rock, pop, electronic music, hip-hop and classical music to replace the typical film score.

Various music used in the film is a part of mass and pop culture. This makes the film more relatable and realistic to our current world. The songs that they sing are related to lullabies etc.

A very real film, the use of mass culture and pop culture made the film to be a lot more relatable. There's soundscape that we can relate to. Becomes a lot more realistic, where we listen to popular songs on the radio.

Bexhill scenes in the second half, he uses more sound effects, like the loud speakers and the shooting noises. We have classical music come in, and there's a song from hiroshima modern warfare reference. John Tavener, did come up for a soundscape for the film, but most of the sounds came by a man called Chrom.

There's a sound that frequency you hear before you die. And symbolic of when certain characters die e.g. Jillian.

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Lecturers Notes

Polar opposites Forbidden Planet vs Children of men. Historically they represent two separate points. Both have a disaster.

Trend of grittiness. Similar themes, they seem to have gotten darker.

Evolution of female agency has evolved.

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In this clip at 1minute four seconds. You can see the tentacles moving around in the air. Though they look alien, the movement at the same time doesn't make logical sense. Being in 3d animation movement of the body course this year, I've learnt that there are certain structures to a body, in particular how if one part moves, so in essence does another part. They all follow through with each other, and there are some parts where the tentacles move in strange angular patterns which, are highly unrealistic. 

However, I think regardless, Edwards did a good job overall, considering he was both animator, graphics designer, visual effects supervisor etc. he did a all round amazing effort being all these separate people. But I still believe there is a reason as to why all these people have separate jobs and are hired to do them separately, and this is mainly one of the reasons why. To get a more realistic film. It's the only critique I have to say to the movie on the whole. But I did find it was a very enjoyable film overall.

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Gareth Edwards: How I Made a Monsters Movie

From around 3 minutes on this short clip, shows the behind the computer, version of how Edwards made the squid like monster. From indepth character designs that he continually sketched out over a period of a year, resulting in 140 finished different character designs, to actually full on presenting them as a real complete octopus monster. 

Something I found intriguing from a media arts student point of view, was how Edwards creatively used a download plug-in for his program that was meant for rope. By turning the gravity feature on the rope down to 0, it became a messy form of a tentacle, and this is what we see for most of the movie. This tentacle to rope point, becomes really prominent in the scene at the gas station where the monsters tentacles are fascinated by the light from the tv. I noticed that the tentacles, didn't really conform to a sense of 'gravity' which give them their ethereal like appearance. However, at the same time, the tentacle moved in sometimes very linear angular patterns, which give any animator or media student a feeling of falseness, and I think this was why, I felt a lot more uncomfortable with that scene. 

I've decided to analyse this further by finding the scene and talking more about it in another post.

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Behind the Scenes of Monsters

I found this short clip quite interesting. Especially the part that they filmed in not just Mexico but also; Guatemala, Costa Rico, Belize and Texas. Edwards highlights the fact that in the civilization of today, anyone can buy a high-res camera, learn how to use CGI effects and in essence create an amazing movie. There's nothing stopping you from going out there and doing it except yourself, and I found that a really profound idea as it's true. 

Another interesting fact was that the people in all these different countries were fine with being filmed in their homes, being part of the scenery, being actors in the film etc. Just from this short clip you can imagine how amazing this experience must have been to be a part of.

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Notes from Readings

The Imagination of Disaster - Susan Sontag 

Sontag explains at the very start that in this world full of pressure and demands on the lives of everyday people. As a result we turn towards the realm of 'fantasy' "which allows most people to cope with" everyday life. This idea of 'fantasy' can be seen mostly in science fiction films, as they "reflect world-wide anxieties, and they serve to allay them." They make us have empathy towards the onscreen characters by using our large issues at hand like "radiation, contamination and destruction…" as we can relate to these issues as they are things we worry about in real life as well.However, to balance out the 'anxieties' they add an element of 'fantasy' to it which gives us a sense of pleasure to add to the pain.

Sontag goes onto explaining how science-fiction films have a very predictable structure, similar to how a book series by a specific author will have a certain 'order' to how they write each book in the series. One such structure is for the 'arrival of the thing', which I have summarised below;

'The arrival of the thing.' e.g. emergence of monsters of some form. Generally  one or two main characters, whose relatives never quite believe them till they see it with their own eyes.

Confirmation of the hero's original report by a variety of witnesses which leads up to a great act of destruction. Local police are summoned to deal with the situation and are massacred.

In the capital, conferences between scientists and the military take place, the hero then becomes the expert on the monsters and helps give them knowledge. A national emergency is announced, and authorities from other countries attempt to help, before plans are made to annihilate the enemy.

Someone close to the MC is in danger. Military bring out their best weapons however all attempts to take out the 'thing' fail. Due to this the city(ies) are destroyed and evacuated.

More conferences about how to destroy the 'thing' before finally the hero comes up with a final strategy which is the last resort plan, and performs the plan (resulting in some unbelievable weapon which works) and scares the 'thing' or destroys the 'thing' for good. Or so they hope?

Sontag goes onto explaining a few other stereotypical sci-fi film phases of the time, like; the type of 'possessed by some 'other' life form', or the idea of 'the journey' in another world no one has ever heard of.

An interesting Sontag goes onto making, is the idea that "good novels rarely make good films, but excellent films are often made from poor or trivial novels.". This idea is due to the fact that in 'poor novels' readers tend to not see the 'big picture' we don't see the finer details to the book or get to appreciate a visual world, however when we see it on the big screen through the use of images and sounds, our imagination can become heightened and we see the book in a greater light on film than in print.

However with great novels, it is hard to create a satisfying corresponding movie. This is partially due to the fact, the novels themselves already include such detail of their own worlds that we can already paint a visual scene in our heads, and expect the corresponding movie to resemble what we have imagined. Hence, when the movie is released and it doesn't fit to our expectations we become disappointed and less appreciative of the world, the director builds from the novel.

I find this idea quite intriguing as it's very true. Books which I found great when I read them and then when they become on-screen movies just aren't that great. Eragon is a fine example of one such movie, where the novel is better as a novel than a movie.

Sontag then goes onto claiming that "science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster…". This idea can be seen in many of sci-fi film's greatest movies. For example, 'Ghost in the Shell', it has a disaster in the fact its technology's A.I. has a mind of its own, 'Dawn of the Dead' has a disaster of zombie apocalypse and even the film 'Monsters' we watched this week, has a disaster in terms of aliens invading the border of Mexico and U.S.A. . Many of Sci-fi film's greatest films all incorporate the idea that disasters are the source of 'evil', and this in turn corresponds to our reality. The greatest danger that we all fear is a 'disaster' of some sort too. If we look at things like global warming, tsunami's, plagues, war, famine. All of the above are a form of disaster and instil a fear in our hearts. And this makes these movies more relatable to ourselves in some form or another.

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DIY or Die - Jon Silberg 

This article deals mainly with the way Gareth Edwards made 'Monsters' and how he brought it to life.

Edwards wanted this film to be as realistic a monster film as possible'. To get this feel for his film, many of the Mexican cast and crew in this film, were people the main cast and crew met travelling on the roads. They asked questions in regards to the Mexican city earthquake, and through the use of clever inter-cutting, made it appear that the people of Mexico were actually talking about a 'monster' for the film.

Edwards knowledge of various art and media design programs helped him to create the beautiful scenery and scenes of the monsters showing up. Mainly using, Adobe Tools and After Effects, he created helicopters, the monsters and even changed many sign-posts around the border between Mexico and U.S.A. and this is how he created the film known as 'Monsters'.

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Round Table: Dreaming On: Recent Representations of the Mexico-US Border in Contemporary Cinema. 

This article looks at the conflict on the Mexican - U.S. border. This border has become a dividing line between Mexico and U.S., in both the ideas of it being a gate to another part of the world, and at the same time a potential area to become a 'war zone' when both countries want to close it off to each other. The border has both positive and negative connotations, and this place has become a place of interest for many movies over the last few years, in particular 'Monsters' by Gareth Edwards.

'Monsters' creates an imagined 'infected zone' that follows closely to this border, and in a way it questions the "preconceptions about the borderlands and reverses some of the commonplaces of border representation, pointing the way forward to new interventions" in the ideas of 'border' related films.

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Interview with Gareth Edwards 

Gareth Edwards wanted to make a modern version of pulp-sci fi 50s type movies. Likes to watch B-movie sci-fi while working on 'Monsters'.

He aimed to make it a romance, "a throwback to the 50s" if you like.  He wanted it to be a romance where the characters never get together due to reality. Edwards, was aiming for a lovestory and not so much a 'Monster' stereotypical film of action packed. "You've got to be very careful, when you mix genre's." The films struggle "because people… dunno what they're going to get." as people can't place the exact genre the movie is in. So the marketing decided not to confuse people and choose one genre which was 'sci-fi' and it wasn't quite right. As a result the audience have to positioned correctly to watch it, so due to the media's representation it in a way ruined the audiences perception of the movie.

One thing Edwards said that I agree with strongly, is the idea that trailers show a lot about the movie to be, and in essence they kind of ruin the experience for the viewer. I know that when I was younger I used to watch movies for fun just judging from the poster every Friday, and it was a surprise and watching the movie itself becomes more enjoyable than watching a trailer that hooks you in and you know what to expect you can predict how the whole thing is going to be like. But that's just my personal opinion.

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Notes from Lecture

Made for $100,000k not a lot of money. Made in an intelligent way. Uses its location in Mexico to maximum effect. 

Mix of genres - producer of godzilla thought he could make a decent monster type movie. Monsters is very much in that sub genre.

An example of 'the journey' structure. Archetypal narrtive structure for film stories. Oldest story structure as it's a series of events. Literal journey from one place to another (children of men is next weeks film) Lord of the Rings, star wars etc.

Idea of a gatekeeper (someone who makes the hero barter to continue on their journey).

Physical Transformation (goes beyond physical realm to a metaphysical state)

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Presentation Notes - Samantha

First Reading - DIY or DIE

Director Gareth Edwards decision to make a low budget monster film.

Edwards did all the camera work himself. Camcorder, SONY pmxw3? - Adapter + slr lens is added. And these gave a narrow depth of field, so all the subject matter stands out graphically.

All graphics done by using After Effects in Adobe Premier.

Used a variety of animating programs (3d max, photoshop etc) to edit the shots to create this beautiful masterpiece.

Shot in 3 weeks. 5 months in editing.

Trekked through real locations in south america (sound man, line editor, two actors, and edwards shooting)

Idea of making the most realistic monster film.

To make it seem like they're talking about monster scenes they instead asked questions about the earthquake

"It doesn't matter what they're reacting to I just wanted it to feel real".

Budget was $15,000. The minimal budget is why the film is very realistic and relatable.

Second Reading - Interview with Gareth Edwards

Inspiration from 50s films.

He made a modern version of a 50s sci fi film, but bringing it up to date. Idea of a throw back to the 50s.

Edwards states "you've got to be very careful when mixing genres…"

The people who marketed the movie, marketed it wrongly as it's more of a discovery film, rather than a blockbuster. Advertising brought in the wrong audience.

"You don't need a million dollars to make a film… you do need a million dollars to publicise a film."

Third Reading - round Table

Focusing on borderlands vs infection zone.

"the borderland: a positive and fruitful space of interaction between several cultures."

"the inescapable materiality of this border, with its daily stories of suffering, repression, paranoia, and death…"

Infected zone is geographically similar to the borderlands zone vs infection zone.

Edwards direct photoshopping of signs in Mexico. "metaphorical connection between monster space and borderlands…"

As the movie progresses they become inspired by the beautifully rare environment. Film can be seen as a metaphorical acceptance of both cultures and learning to live with nature.

Relationship between American and Mexican cultures who are both acting aggressively rather than being passive.

Fourth Reading - Imagination of Disaster

Role of science in this situation.

Doesn't follow the 10 different stereotypes of sci-fi films.

But it does follow her idea that science fiction films don't follow science they follow disaster.

Idea that they "reflect world wide anxieties, and they serve to allay them."

The film's more of a discovery film than a discovery film.

Cinematography

Idea of narrow depth of field to focus on subject matter that gets the audience to focus on. (In essence it makes the camera a second eye. As our eyes only focus on one particular spot at the time)

A variety of different shots and techniques were used to create the most realistic inclusion of the audience possible.

Lighting

Most of the more suspenseful scenes are very dark. Idea of darkness, tentacles or lighting.

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Presentation Notes - Mariah

"When he originally wanted to make this film, he wanted to make it more of a romance plot." You really make a connection with the movie.

Idea perhaps it is real. Europa a moon, has a possibility to create such a creature and house it.

Monsters are bioluminescent (just like the ocean in some part of europe I think? Or was it south america? I'll link it later)

Readings they talk about his CGI experience, and knowledge. Audience was expecting a district 9 film, rather than anything else. While he wanted it to be a 50s romantic film.

SLR lens helped make the film look more authentic etc. Uses the handheld over the shoulder camera added to the documentary feel of it.

Idea of borderpatrol vs Illegal Aliens.  Originally thought between alaska to usa border or mexico to  usa border. Due to the flora and fauna in mexico helped inspire this idea. Idea of godzilla. Attacks throughout the film, then not a bad guy.

After the hurricanes in south america, it gave Edwards the perfect way and excuse to create this film. The idea of getting real peoples real experiences to actually be filmed. It's not so much actors creating false ideas. It's real mexicans feeling the way they do.

The sign for $5000 dollars actually was a burger sign.

Gas mask = creepy element, post-apocalyptic type feeling. Different levels of gas masks etc.

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Notes from Lecturer

Idea that the large creatures aren't as dangerous as they're made out or sympathy towards monsters e.g. king kong etc.

Idea of isolation in the large monsters. Living out in isolation.

9/11 fear

Not explicit but pulls out another anxiety. Global warming.

Idea who are we in the face of nature? Idea we could be destroyed by another force, to come back and punish us for everything that we've done.

Idea of apocalyptic nature of the end of time. Idea of primal of signs of forboding. Almost primal these signs when you see them.

Sci fi films manages to capture these real feelings of our place in the world of nature. It resonates with us emotionally.

The revelation this is another kind of nature, it's not evil. It tells you through the course of the journey narrative the lifecycle of these creatures. Crushing though the mexican city = annual migration to the ocean.

Awe inspiring fear becomes fascination. 

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The Uncanny Valley

So another point I made in my readings was about why we are repulsed by 'zombies'. This idea of the 'uncanny valley' came from my animation class a few weeks ago. It basically looks at the idea of how positive/familiar we feel with a variety of different objects that share similar characteristics to humans. 

What is so interesting is the fact that the closer we get to almost having movement as 'human' like. There's a point where we see an 'uncanny valley' which happens because the way that 'thing/zombie' moves is very close to being human, yet it doesn't completely match up, and this causes us to repulse these movements away. It's seen especially in Zombies and corpses etc. As they share a human likeness, yet there is something off about them we (generally) can't pin point. 

I think this adds to a couple of the articles in their points about 'why' zombies are so repulsive to us human beings, apart from the brain factor.

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Like I stated earlier in my notes to the readings, Zombies vs The downfall of governments etc. point was made in that article, and since then I can find I can see the resemblance especially in the Syrian and Egypt government overthrowals that have happened over the last few years. 

Interestingly enough if you watch a bit further into the video (about 1/3 of the way through) the throng of angry people, all walking protesting. Reminiscent of a zombie hoard, no?

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Notes from Readings

Dead Man Still Walking: Explaining the Zombie Renaissance by Kyle Bishop

In this article we learn about how war has inspired many of the famous horror movies since their times. An example of this is at the end of World War II which created "paranoia narratives like the films Godzilla and Them!" Even one of the films we watched in class 'Starship Troopers', the author aimed for the enemy to be based around the Chinese/Japanese communists of his time which he labelled as very 'calculating' and 'insect-like' in their behaviour. However this idea is especially true for Zombie type movies, and is used to the present day (of the articles time), as when 9/11  occurred and the World Trade Center Towers were destroyed the images and emotions that were generated due to this act of terrorism, created an 'aftereffect' similar to that on the scale of a real war, and perhaps inspired the zombie movies of 2006. There now exists over "575 titles" in terms of zombie narratives.

The article then goes onto explaining the history of the zombie-cinema genre, and how it has played a key part in both film and video games, and more recently has made a come-back, as graphic images, and animation have made lots of technological advancement, allowing the scenes from zombie movies to become both more realistic and horrific at the same time.

Another interesting point I read in the article, was the classification ideas towards different types of 'undead'/'cult monsters'. The article states that zombies inflict fear into us, as we see them as a corpse, a dead body, but at the same time these 'dead' bodies come back to life. However, they aren't classified in the same way as 'vampires' or 'ghosts' who are termed "undead". Rather zombies are still considered 'dead', "they possess merely a rotting brain and have no real emotional capacity… zombies cannot be reasoned with, appealed to, or dissuaded by logical discourse."  due to the fact that they are corpses and age just like them, adding to the idea that they are not a part of the 'undead'. 

Simon Pegg says that "Metaphorically, this classic creature embodies a number of our greatest fears. Most obviously, it is our own death, personified. The physical manifestation of that thing we fear the most." This brings us to the question of our fear of 'death'? As many people have stated before, 'no one truly knows what death is like, till we die ourselves' as no one has ever come back from the 'dead' to be able to tell us what it is like (excluding those people being brought back via those CPR machines). This 'fear' comes from in essence our fear of the 'unknown' which is another of sci-fi's main distinguishing tropes and leads to how zombie movies like 'Dawn of the Dead' have been critiqued to be called a sub-genre of 'sci fi'.

The article then goes on to state the reason why we fear these zombie movies, which is due to the ideas that it could happen to us in the future. Situations like 'biohazards, infectious diseases, terrorism, warfare etc.' are all very dangerous situations that have at one point or another been lived out in small scale scenarios. However, zombie movies usually takes one or two of these aspects and enlarges the scale and magnitude of the situation.

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No Particular Place to Go - Steve Beard

In this article Beard, mainly focuses on what George Romero (the man who created the zombie genre), and his various ideas that he decided to use in his zombie movies.

This article states that the zombie movies Romero has made, are based around "the social conformism demanded by Fordist economic integration." The idea that instead of representing the "faceless masses of Fordism… Romero's zombies stand in for those workers and consumers who… have been thrown on the scrap heap. Economically extinct, socially displaced, they return to devour those who have survived them." this quote from the article, sums up a very fascinating comparison between zombies and the people of today.

Zombies and their 'living' counterparts, share a similar situation to the social-hierarchical  ideas between the lower-class people vs the high-class people. In essence zombies, are solely looking out to get their living counterparts, and killing them off. Whilst the 'living' humans are put in a situation of waiting out the storm of the zombie apocalypse, in the hope things will get better. This stereotypical zombie movie plotline can be perceived as lower class vs higher class. As when an 'apocalypse' occurs (i.e. downfall of a large brand like; coles, myers, target, or even if a government falls apart) then the lower-class civilians who end up losing their jobs begin to rage and in a way 'hunger for the downfall of the upper-class' in particular who are in charge of the company, and it becomes a lower-class vs upper-class, which (if the zombie movie version is anything to go by) generally happens if there is enough angry lower-class people.

This idea can even be seen in government problems of today. Syria, Egypt, they both have gone through similar motions, ending up with the de-throning of their prime ministers.

What is interesting is the idea that the 'zombies' are the villains in the movie, rather than in real life where generally the higher-ups are the villains, generally due to their 'greed' for more power.

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Infection, Media and Capitalism: From Early Modern Plagues to Postmodern Zombies - Stephanie Boluk

This article deals with the idea that 'zombi-ism' is an idea based off of a plague.

The bubonic plague is a very famous historical disease that broke out in the 1300s. It became such a big pandemic it was even known as the 'Black Death' and resulted in the deaths of many people of various ages, to the point where the dead was piled up onto the streets of London. This idea of the plague infecting and killing off people, resonates with the ideas of 'zombie transformation', except with zombies, the zombies themselves become the transmitter for the disease in a physical manifestation, rather than the plague which in turn, is a disease not visible by the naked eye. Both of these infections   cause a global panic and the aftermath of these diseases can be seen visibly, in the bubonic plague, it's the dead corpses lying everywhere on the streets which can be seen in the images I'll be uploading later. Whilst, in the zombie apocalypse case, we see the zombies walking around aimlessly, as well as the carnage left behind by their wake.

Another interesting point mentioned in this article is the idea of the  relationship between the 'media' and the 'plague' (both zombie and bubonic). As the media creates its own 'rhetoric plague' through the use of word-of-mouth, where people of the time might spread their own theories about how one can catch the plague. And this in term becomes the "carrier of information as well…". Meanwhile in terms of the Zombie version it would be the use of digital means of media that help aid the mis-representations of zombies.

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Raising the Dead - Kyle Bishop 

This article in comparison looks at the origin of zombies, through mythology.

Whilst vampires, ghosts, werewolves and even mermaids are creatures that come from a variety of different mythologies around the world. Zombies are "a purely American monster, born from Voudoun magic and religion." According to Peter Dendle, zombies are "the only creature to pass directly from folklore to the screen without first having an established literary tradition." unlike Vampires (Dracula), Mermaids (Grimm Fairytales) or even Werewolves.

The name 'zombie' derives from the Kimbundu term nzumbe which means 'spirit of a dead person', and the concept was brought over from Africa to Haiti alongside the slave trade, and thus was mistranslated as 'zobi' from which it became zombie. This term was reserved for cannibalistic walking dead and becomes tied with the Vodoun religion (a practice involving harboring magic to strike people down to a death-like state and revive them later from the grave to become mindless servants/obedient subordinates.' In the Voudon religion there was only a few priests (bokors) who knew about drugs and sedatives to create a powder that could inundate its victims 'clinically dead' (like Juliet in Romeo and Juliet).

Anyways, as the article continues we learn that Zombies were among the last few monsters to enter the Western consciousness and only appear around the turn of the 20th century. Where the first play, Zombie appeared in New York 1932, before the idea of 'zombies' progressed onwards to Romero and others soon after.

As the article progresses it discusses the idea of why Zombies scare us. As Dillard points out, "the idea of the dead's return to a kind of life is no new idea; it is present in all the ancient tales of vampires and ghouls and zombies, and it has been no stranger to films… All of these tales and films spring from that ancient fear of the dead". And since dead bodies become 'breeding-grounds' for both bacteria and diseases, they become a reminder of our mortality, and due to this we can't help but feel repulsed and filled with fear when we see a corpse out living the restrictions life puts on it, by doing something unnatural and coming back to life. In contrast to the vampires, frankensteins or werewolves; zombies have no thought processes apart from very simple ccommands, and due to this. We don't really think of them as a 'living human being' rather a puppet in the form of a distorted human, and this throws us off. We don't like looking at things that are not very close to the human race (you can see this in my timeline in terms of animation wise, where different 'races' lie)

In essence, zombies share only a few similarities with humans, yet they share enough so we can feel a connection with them, and at the same time they break many of our codes of conducts and rules, in such a way that it creates a horror factor, as we, through self-other correspondences become scared at "recognizing the human in the monster". The terror that we will end up like that.

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Notes from Lecture

Dawn of the Dead - Nathan Larsson's notes

First reading

Based on the war since the event of 9/11

George Daniero is the father of the gore scene.

Discusses the history behind things.

Movies violence as a metaphoric response to various atrocities (Vietnam War) "It is no coincidence that the modern cinematic zombie cycle began with…" "vietnam war"

Idea that like everything the, movies never reflect the amazng games. ( e.g.  Resident evil, doom and 'the walking dead')

Talks about where zombies stand in the history of monsters in WWI, many sympathetic characters. They've turned these outrageously scary monsters into things

Fear of corpses raised from the dead/known dead. Contrasts to misunderstood heroes and sympathetic protagonists (ghost "sixth sense', vampires) all of them visual horrors of eath.

We even see visual ideas on cannibalism.

In george Romero's has many different zombie shows. 'Dead snow, white zombie, dawn of the dead, day of the dead etc." One of the very first zombie films = white zombie. Even Thriller.

Second reading

Talks about the plague.

Contextualises the plague for a modern interpretation.

Mainly the 'black plague' and these chaotic images, influenced the idea of zombies. The plague.

Bible Zechariah 14:12 ESV

"And this shall be the plague with which the lord will strike all the peoples that wage war…"

The reading goes onto depict how zombies are the perfect incarnation of the plague. It takes aside the idea of the magical/religion side of the mythical side of things. To a very scientific biological thing that, a lot of people become quite frightened of because it's a possibility for our future (sci - fi trope there)

Black Friday shopping = similar scenes to zombies rushing to go eat. = central desire and need for 'more' greed drives both!

Third Reading

Talks about the consumerist ideas.

Sums up into detail how the zombies = consumerism.

Idea that zombies bump over each other, fall, stumble up escalators, knock over display cabinets and crush goods underfoot. The confusion is all very comical, but its not satire it's mindless consumerism.

Fourth Reading

Talks about the origin of the zombie, and the director of George Romero's influences. Idea how it originates from African Voodoo magic.

Vodoun culture = the culture of the african views.

Romero is the godfather of the zombie genre. He created ground breaking effects that hit home on the ideas of brutality.

It also states some

His own thoughts

Good interpretation of the original film. In this film there's many cameos from the old movie. It brings something new to the zombie genre but at the same time it's new.

In the original there were only 4 main characters, however in this movie we are just left with a vague idea for each character.

Scene with the buses = mad max beyond thunder dome' very interesting blend of the two apocalypse style films.

With all the readings and other interpretations on mass consumerism. He feels that it's got more of a strong focus on 'communication'.

Simon Peggs - 'Shaun of the Dead' is a good one to watch. - great parody of the film.

Cinematography

Michael Gornick. Creates an interesting experience of the idea of sprinting zombies.

Has a very still and static film. The slow motion is also a nice contrast.

The colors are very vibrant as the film is set in a dying/dead world that doesn't have much colour.

The ending with the cam corder is a very nice ending finishing touch. Which references paranormal activity.

Certain scenes everything with chaos everything still looks very alive. Even in the darker scenes very deep blacks are made.

The colors is lovely and the depth of field is not something people would expect in a zombie film.

He really does take the time to create emotional responses though. e.g. when the father dies. And we have a slow mo going round and round.

Even the fires are more vibrant etc.

All the clips with the dark blacks help make us feel the horror even more.

Dawn of the dead (1978) vs Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Remakes, Reboots, and Dejavu > Just Seen It

    Second Presentation

Bishop says that "The zombie narrative not only invokes the well-established tradition of plague writing, but through the cultural contradictions that surround these tortured and abject figures, it articulates a variety of anxieties toward twentieth-and 1st century capitalism

She mainly discsses the epidemic of the infection and it's influence throughout zombie film whilst……

((This presentation is quite dry so I found myself getting more distracted))

Their interpretation

Creepy, smart and classy.

It capitalizes on rampant social unease and embodies + feeds into the idea of 'culture of fear'.

It's ruthleslly pragmatic about implications for who can get by in a world like this and who can't

You can't run or hide, as wherever you go they're going to be there and it's a invasion of privacy.

Interesting fact that one of the presenters found that she could use sound as a way to avoid scary scenes. It might be interesting to base this for most zombie movies. I wonder if it's similar?

Original Vs Remake

In the original executives are squabbling over what to actually present on screen, and everyone else is running around like a newsroom full of scared, panicked people.

Remake opens with the beginning of the chaos, following an overworked nurse.

In the original movie thhe zombies only looked scary if there were heaps of people.

Timing of movement helped make them appear more realistic in the new movie.

Idea that perhaps the original has more emotional value as when cast members are killed we feel more keenly for them.

Cinematography

High contrast colours, and controlled shots, with frenetic motion.

Energy comes from choreography, people acting etc. not from editing.

    Definitive Document of the Dead (Interview with George Romero

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Notes from Lecturer

Natural Equivalent = 'The Last of Us' with the game. Weird fungus that infects ant brains.

  ((No more time unfortunately))

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Above is a trailer for the video game known as 'The Wolf Among Us'. 

After the lecture/tutorial, I was discussing with some of my friends in the class and we all agreed that the stylised animation was very similar to a recent video game to come out last year known as 'The Wolf Among Us'. This video game is the second video game to have this style and the creators (TelltaleGames) won an award for game of the year 2012 with their other game 'The Walking Dead', which also used a similar style.

The differences between this and A Scanner Darkly is probably that this was completely animated. I believe that not many of these scenes were rotoscoped, in a way similar to A Scanner Darkly. However the two share similar stylistic drawings and I can't help but feel that this video game took a reference of style from A Scanner Darkly and decided to mix it with the DC comics style of comic book drawing, to successfully create a unique game that gives off a similar vibe to A Scanner Darkly. 

At the same time, this video game looks to be much better put together than A Scanner Darkly and I feel that perhaps its due to the technology advancements, and the fact that it wasn't completely rotoscoped.

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This video is about being the 'expert' in a field of people who are not an expert. I have a feeling this kind of idea is what happened in the 'Trouble in Toontown' article. As people tend to think that something simple that works for them, is the true answer, when in an experts opinion nothing is as simple as it seems. In a way it relates to the problems in 'A Scanner Darkly' as often we misjudge how hard it is for an expert to do things. I sure do as a designer to a computer programmer, I would think creating a website and moving one small piece of text to float in somewhere like the top left hand corner is easy. But to them it might be really hard to code it so it stays in that top left hand corner. I can't help but feel this is part of what happened in the animation studios.

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Rotoscoped Version!

Please watch this before going below and watching the video/real action version.

This is my rotoscoped version which I had to create last year for my animation course. The process was quite tiresome and took me about 4 - 5 days to complete and was a lot of solid hard work. Basically you have to trace the lines of the character frame by frame which is pretty much 1/12 of a second as this was shot in 12 fps. The rotoscoping technique is similar to the one used in 'A Scanner Darkly' except the animators in that did a much better job as they had more time. (Especially since they pushed back the project by around 1 and a half years judging by the article 'Trouble in Toontown') 

It's interesting as after analyzing the articles I find I can relate to both the animators and the directors feelings with the problems, as I've been both an animator, and at the same time in High School I was the lead designer in designing the Ball Tickets, and we had several technical issues that meant re-printing tickets, and dealing with printing companies that couldn't print the tickets the way we wanted to. 

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This is the video my rotoscoping is based upon. Please watch this AFTER watching the rotoscoped version!

The idea I had with this was to use rotoscoping to create a performance that hid the original meaning behind the video. This video was taken from the tv series called 'Fringe'. Personally I found this scene creepy yet beautifully sad/bittersweet. This is due to the fact that in his past he fell in love with a beautiful depressed ballet dancer, who ended up committing suicide. He couldn't face the fact that she died and as a result collected all her various body parts and attempted to bring her back to life in a semi 'Frankenstein'-like way. (In summary that is. It's a bit more complex than that if you watch this arc in the series)

Anyways in this scene above he's trying to make the corpse remember what she loved to do best which is ballet dancing.

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Notes from the Readings

'Clearly, clearly, Dark-Eyed Donna: Time and A Scanner Darkly - Nathan Kosub

In this article Kosub talks about the idea of time and that Linklater's movies all revolve around this idea of time. "People always think science fiction is about the future, but I always thought, 'No, we're going to play it just like it is right now." - Alphaville[: une etrange aventure de Lemmy Caution, Godard, 1965]

"No one has lived in the past and no one will live in the future" "The present is the form of all life." This idea follows through with what happens in 'A Scanner Darkly' especially in Bob's voice-over.

'It's not human. Unlike little dark-eyed Donna, it doesn't ever blink […] What does a scanner see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does it see into me? Into us? Clearly or darkly? I hope it sees clearly because I can't any longer see into myself.'

Throughout this voice over there's this idea of the present. The idea of a 'bat of an eye' being the manifestation of the present.

It also speaks about how love is the push for the entire movie, as Bob Arctor's love for Donna helps him believe he has that feeling of hope to get out of his habit of Substance D, she kind of helps him live his every day emotions, so when she rejects him. It hurts Arctor, and as a result he goes down that spiral of betrayal, forgetting he even knew Donna (due to substance D), and we as the audience feel this betrayal as well as well as later on we discover 'Donna' was all just an act and she's really a person named 'Audrey'. It also speaks about the similarities between 'A Scanner Darkly' and its relation to Alphaville.

_________________________________________________________

Dick heads: Gary Indiana on Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly - Gary Indiana

This article raises the opinion that Richard Linklater, manages to push the actors to appear more realistic through the use of "timing of cross talk, interruptions, witticisms, asperities, and perfunctory displays of affection." He does so in a way which makes us feel we can understand these characters, and feel they are real living people through their use of personal signatures/ticks that make each person unique to themselves.

In the first of his animated features, Waking Life, he makes the chatter that we hear from the characters, and turns them visually into imagery that provides a sense of "clarity and direction than undoctored cinematography possibly could.", he does this with his use of animating what the people say so that their every word creates a form of an image on screen.

Linklater combines these two aspects, with his love for filming "dopers and crackpots who never stop jabbering", to create his second rotoscoped feature, 'A Scanner Darkly'. This film is based on Philip K. Dick's novel and is "easier to follow when you're not trying to make any sense of it." according to Indiana (and according to my lecturer, Dick as well) this movie is the most faithful movie to Dick's books, as in the movie, "characters morph into various things but never develop as characters." and this is what makes 'A Scanner Darkly'  a film to see as it "does something special that you don't want to look at twice."

_________________________________________________________

Don't Box Me In': Blurred Lines in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly - Caroline Ruddell

This article mainly focuses on the visual style of rotoscoping animation used in both A Scanner Darkly and Waking life. Both films use Bob Sabiston's Rotoshop software to create the animation for the film. Rotoscoping is a process that was made in the early 1900's, and has since progressed to become a step in learning the art of animation. In both films, 'Waking Life' and 'A Scanner Darkly' the software Rotoshop is used to imitate this feeling. In 'Waking Life' the film depicts images that have an aesthetic close to "a dreamlike intensity" and capture reality in a metaphorical way. Richard Linklater states that "The gestures, the sound, the human expressions all seem real, but this reality is then re-interpreted artistically. It becomes a kind of moving painting.'

In both films, the use of rotoscoping helps heighten and enhance various gestures and through the use of "overlaying the actors' gestures with animation", which allows the animators to enhance what they see on the live action footage to create a slightly more cartoon-like version of reality, and this gives both films a visual look that is significantly different from both reality and cartoons. "What is already an energized medium therefore becomes doubly 'animated' through the use of Rotoshop." as the article states, and this follows through with ideas in regards to the 'radical possibilities of the cinema'.

The way the film has been animated draws the attention of the viewer, and while the film may be visually pleasing, it also distracts the audience from the main plot and narrative. Valiaho, states that 'cinema… as a technology… becomes the very stuff of life'. Which can clearly be linked to the visual styles of both 'Waking Life' and 'A Scanner Darkly' as both animation styles give life to the characters we see on screen, especially through the use of line in animation.

In real life, and in photo-real cinema, the use of 'line' is almost imperceptible rarely do we see a strong line, unless it has been man made. It's rather blocks of individual contrasting colour and not a direct line. Yet for animation the use of the 'line' is key in identifying a medium as animation. It becomes "a way of interrogating some of the specificities of the formal qualities of Rotoshop examples. "

This idea of the 'line' originated from the practice of painting and drawing, or in essence 'mark making' and is used in both films, in such a way that the mapping of animated line onto photo-real cinema 'simultaneously covers over and reveals the underlying reality of the image', i.e. enhancing the live-action footage to show the underlying gesture the body is trying to make in a more clarified way.

Another interesting point I learnt from the article is the idea of getting the audience to go and be 'seeing under'. Basically in both films, the use of the rotoscoping technique encourages the audience to look at the small details we see in everyday life. For instance if we look at Bob Arctor's face when he's inside his scramble suit and see his slight movements. We notice the little details that we wouldn't normally notice in reality. This is due to the use of 'line' in animation once more, and it encourages us as the audience to pick up on the little or subtle things. Another example, is the way a person's eyes move when they're listening to people, or even the little reflections inside one's eyes of whatever you are viewing. To the general public audience who isn't an artist or does not have much experience with art, these small little enhanced lines and shading, help give them a better idea of the world of art.

Hogarth is quoted in the article and states:

"Notwithstanding I have told you my design of considering minutely the variety of lines, which serve to raise the ideas of bodies in the mind, and which are undoubtedly to be consider'd as drawn on the surfaces only of solid or opake bodies: yet the endeavouring to conceive, as accurate an idea as is possible, of the inside of those surfaces … will be a great assistance to us in the pursuance of our present enquiry."

He suggests that the placement of 'line' is intrinsically beautiful, as it lets us see all the small details that we miss.

As the article goes on, it continues to further my point made above, especially in the aspect of 'film-audience interaction' as the viewer is asked to "pay more attention to the materiality of the films and how they have been made." an example of this would be with the 'scramble suit' where various different races body parts are put together, to create an ever ongoing series of images.

When the movie first starts and we see this suit, one can't help but notice all the little details put into the suit. Whether you're looking at the faces that change periodically every .5 seconds, to the changing clothes, and the fact remains that no two sections on a scramble suit are from the same person at one time. In fact, when I first watched it the scramble suit amazed me with the intricacies as to ensure there are no repeats in faces or clothing, is an immense effort. At times I tried to remember one face that the scramble suit showed and see if it was repeated elsewhere, however it wasn't! And that astounded me as it proved to me how much effort was taken to make these suits a realistic option in this 'other world'. Which can also follow onto the ideas of sci-fi, as the visuals help make the audience believe what is happening is real, that the scramble suit, has a database compiled of several thousand different images all together in one go. This use of making one 'believe' in what you hear and see is one of the subtler tropes of sci-fi especially if the technology is something that seems 'advanced' or 'futuristic' in a sense.

_________________________________________

Trouble in Toontown - Robert La Franco

This article outlines all the trouble, Linklater and the animators of 'A Scanner Darkly' had with creating the animation. Personally I know the frustration of having an animation or design not working the way you want it to due to technical difficulties, and this article helps show that even the pro's face similar problems as well.

In the article, we learn about Linklater's troubles with the animation scenes (technological difficulties), finding animators, getting them to work cohesively, and even the various different drawing styles of each animation. The operations with these animators was so difficult that event the director, Linklater felt he had to stay away, "I go crazy because it feels like the animation process just goes so slow" Link later states, "I would look over the should of an animator one week and then look a week later, and it felt like very little had gone on. So just to keep myself sane I like to work on other things."

I'm not sure whether to say unfortunately, or fortunately, but I have also experienced being an animator going frame by frame in a similar program to Rotoshop, to create a 30 second clip. The time it took me to animate that small phrase of time was probably the equivalent of around 3 - 4 days. As a result I respect the animators for sticking with the project and completing a full length feature film. I can only imagine many hours they spent working at it to get it to work.

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Notes from the Lecture

Jessica + Alan (dual) Presentation - Notes

The film's about the use of substance D and how a cop ingests and becomes a user of it, bob arctor, before  

First reading 'Dick Heads: Gary Indiana on Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly'.

In order to understand and enjoy the movie's

"Some vital pieces of the puzzle may flash by unnoticed."

"Characters morph into various things but never develop as characters."

Idea of

Idea of 'who sabotaged the car?'

Perhaps Donna.

Or Bariss perhaps.

Or substance D affects the memories as well. (written in the book not the movie)

Or it was a freak accident like it says.

Arctor or Frank? (two different personalities)

Split personality due to the substance D as he uses it.

'Cross chatter' - split between the right and left hemisphere of the brain. One side of the brain lacks a motor function and the other has to compensate.

Frank/Arctor loses memories inbetween. An example of this is when the psychologists change from being both guys to one guy and a girl. This is due to the cross chatter in his head.

Second one.

Winona Ryder is a double agent who plays Audrey, who covertly is hank in a scramble suit and tasked with authorising Bob Arctor to find donna's suppliers.

Points in time

"Twice a person in authority tells bob arctor about blue flowers in spring. First the psychologist then Donna".

Third reading

Through the use of rotoscoping you get a sense of unreality due to the way it has been portrayed, however the movement is like reality.

'I see this as a realistic film about an unreality… the gestures, sound, the human expressions all seem real…."

Shown examples of the rotoscoping assignment we did last year.

These show the idea of how line can be used to portray reality and how we associate it with reality.

'Photo real cinema and animations'

"Contemporary cinema ask its audience to be astonished at its special effects, and to reflect on the way special effects films have become venues that display developments in new film technology… effects technology is both exposed and disguised." - Angela Ndalianis.

The idea that in lord of the rings, avatar, even in percy jackson. We see animation in a natural, realistic view. So we think it is reality as it is so similar to reality vs what we see in' scanner darkly' which is a completely animated world which we can tell which has similarities to reality.

A scanner darkly vs Walking Life

Both similarly use rotoscoping techniques in an everyday scenario.

'Walked into an alternate universe'. Quote from the trailer of walking life.

Scanner Darkly bears similarities, in weight of line in Waking life. Similar lines, shapes and colours.

Animating and rotoscoping

The scramble suit was interesting however, animated line is a powerful attraction in regards to the film's aesthetics as it disrupts its fictional, digetic world, soliciting the viewer's attention away from the narratives."

The scramble suit is very distracting as it's constantly changing art that distracts our eye. Similarly to waking life.

Fourth Reading

In a scanner darkly the animation had to be redone. As originally all the animators had individual styles and it interfered with the overall look of the image. In the end they were split into groups to animate individual parts.

Behind the big screen: line art of a scanner darkly. (youtube video)

Take the character from different angles and create a style based upon the distance the character was away from the character.

So if far away then it looks in a certain way. If it's a close up then another style is used etc.

From mid shots you're trying to get the essence of the character rather than their entirety.

As the movie progresses the animation style becomes more solidified etc.

Aurora Presentation - Notes

Discussion of concepts of this weeks readings.

Backstory

Filmw as made in 2006 had a budget of over 6.7million dollars.

Film is set in a not so distant dystopic future. Where people have lost the war against drugs. A police officer (Bob Arcot) becomes addicted to the substance D, and is ordered to monitor himself. Eventually his brain becomes damaged by substance D where he's sent to a rehab institution. Where we then find out that Donna is actually an undercover agent who was sent to get Bob Arcot a druggie and help prove that the rehab institution was the ones who are growing the drugs.

In a scanner darkly there's a very contrasting style (reminiscent of the video game developers last of us and The wolf among us! Which is pretty interesting)

Film was based on Philip K. Dick's novel and his experience with friends who had

'A Scanner Darkly' refers to 'Corinthians "for now we see through a glass, darkly;; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even also I am known." - This is due to philip k. dick having an interest in religion at the time of writing (also symbolises with the alien reading out ones sins)

Truth vs Artifice

Questions about truth

"Does it exist? OR does it come from a human need to make sense of the world? Why is the truth relevant? Drugs used as a way to distort the world, an escape?"

The films aim was to create an elaborate illusion of reality/the truth. In a scanner darkly it draws attention to the actual animation itself.

The article emphasises the idea of drawn line, as it lets us see the nature of things around us in a more contrasting way.

Idea that it's 'hyperreal' - similar to in 'Ghost in the Shell' of that hyper reality.

Rotoscoping techniques (color, cel-shading and line) create the only sense of true reality. (as the medium is not a realistic medium it's created in a sense)

Past vs present

Sci fi allows the audience to take a step back from the present and view the past.

The movie does this via not telling us where characters come from what their backgrounds are, we only get a slight fragment of the pasts of Donna and Bob/Frank. Nothing else.

Shown in youtube 'A scanner darkly: how did I get here'.

Basically in the clip we see this flashback lighting contrasting to darker hues. Which shows how the character has decided to descend from a fantasy like dream world, to a darker more negative world.

Surveillance and paranoia - Trope

The idea of the authority having this power of surveillance over the minority.

Also through the idea of the reoccuring theme of the eye

Close ups with the doctor thing.

Surveillance Cameras

T-shirt at the very beginning having an all seeing eye on it.

Certain ways shots are shown.

Sci fi becomes added in in this aspect.

Clip of Donna being viewed through surveillance image. 'surveillance state 'seven years from now' (youtube video)

Lecturer - notes

Interesting reading on the idea of the 'trope of the screen'. On the idea of futurism and future media. The idea that it has been part of sci-fi since the very beginning of its creation.

Current fascination is projection images, into the air etc. Disconnected from a box. A hologram.

Idea that most of the money had gone into the post-production.

Idea that the future is rendered into one of screen. Kind of analogue machinery.

Original script was destined for a high budget film. It describes the opening screen of Freck covered in Aphids walking past a mcdonalds then a car yard then repeat. So a different feeling to it.

Waking Life was an experiment. And this one is more stylistically considered.

The film in its technique represents the idea of the story, in a different way due to the technique and it works perfectly to what is going on. The story is fred/bob's estrangement between the ideas. Clearly  his disassociaton between his family and himself was clear from the start. But perhaps they were just false.

There's an idea of layering of identities (fred/bob/bruce) (donna, hank, audrey) all of them have multiple identities apart from Bariss. The thematic idea of this estrangment of each other is reflected very beautifully through the way of animation technique.

It's entirely possible to mine the difference between reality and anime type animation. However this one works very well.

There are moments in the animation when you draw into it however other moments were certain things have happened to break the ideas. Also freck's eyes move crazily. The creepy smile with the new path guy. There are moment when the visuals cohere together, or moments when it just looks very fake. A couple of shots where they walk back into the house, it's like everything is moved around and perspective goes crazy like.