Friday, January 31, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Video Infographic - Final Script and Initial Zombie
Final Script
Zombie
films personify our fears – and how our fears have changed.
The first zombie movies date from
the 1930’s. Inspired by Haitian folklore, these zombies were black, mindless and
under the complete control of their masters.
Sound familiar? Though slavery
had long since been abolished, not everyone in society was comfortable with the
idea of black people just walking around with equal rights. These early Zombie films expressed this fear
of the autonomous black man - and soothed it by re-enslaving him.
Along came the 40’s, accompanied by
terrifying images of unstoppable Nazi hordes and the ‘walking dead’ of concentration
camps. The Wartime zombie expressed the
universal fear of invasion and of the rise of inhuman armies.
Convinced communists had invaded
1950s America, Senator Joseph McCarthy put reds under beds and pod people in
the greenhouse. But while the zombied townsfolk of small town America in Invasion of the Body-Snatchers lost
their individuality to an extra-terrestrial menace, the fears of this period
were not of enemies from beyond, but rather of the enemy within.
In 1968, a year of riots in the
streets and the Hippie Revolution, the zombie went counter-culture. In George A. Romero’s genre-defining Night Of
Living Dead, the recently deceased are re-animated by radioactive debris from a
Government satellite. Romero’s zombies are Government-made, spawned from the
fall-out of the Cuban Missile Crisis and from our distrust in our superiors in
light of the Vietnam War. “They’re coming
to get you, Barbara!”
The 1970s bore witness to the
rapacious rise of consumerism, technology and corporatism - Microsoft and Apple
were up and running and on the march - so when Romero’s zombies congregate on a
mall in Dawn Of The Dead – brain dead but for the instinct to shop – it’s not
make-up maestro Tom Savini’s blood and gore that disgusts us, but rather the
spectacle of the human race reduced en-masse to lobotomized consumers…
Now come the 80s, and an ‘all-new’
threat was terrorizing entire populations: a killer virus, communicable through
bodily fluids, was turning its victims into corpse-like lesion-covered pariahs.
‘Don’t Die Of Ignorance’ warned the AIDS
awareness campaigns, but zombies where in fact getting smarter. Dan O’ Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead
marked the first time zombies swapped their intake of entrails for a diet of
brains…
The age of the Internet ushered in
its own unique anxieties inspired by rampant technology and incessant information. In a modern world harried by file-sharing and
frenzied social-networking, it often feels impossible to keep pace with the
speed of change. Is it any wonder then
that the zombies of 28 Days Later can
run so fucking fast?
With natural disasters, the economic
downturn and the very real possibility of a bio terrorist attack, we certainly aren’t
short of things to fear. Not
surprisingly, zombies remain hugely popular.
TV shows like The Walking Dead suggest we’re already infected – that we
should be afraid of ourselves, but a look back across the cultural history of
zombies tells us that this has always been so.
It was never communists, aliens, or viruses that scared us – not really
– it was only ever ourselves.
...after some advice I decide to make him less Gossamer more zombie...I went to far the other way making him more monster and stripping a lot of the human qualities which is needed in a zombie. I could haver altered his shape a little, making him slouch a bit but I felt keeping up straight and 2D would make things less complicated, so I gave him hair and clothes. Apart from altering his colour a little bit, this is the zombie I'll be starting out with. I cant help thinking he looks like Hans Solo...probably just my eyes.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Video Infographic - Refining Graphic Language
My Infographic goes through time and it'd have the date change at top left corner of the screen, it's a little detail but I thought i'd find font which fitted each era, for exmaple the Evil Dead style font for the 80's and the a worn out 2014, just as a nod to The Walking Dead. The Dates would transition in when the era changes, but it wont stay on the page...distracting the viewer, it'll transition out before it's time for the next stage.
The background also changes as time goes by, I decided to stick with desaturated colour to fit the type of poster colours from old zombie films...
....just a quick test to see how the dates would transition in and out, it'll be much smother for the final...and the font sizes wont change..
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Friday, January 24, 2014
Video Infographic - Intro test
I was just working on the Zombie to see how he would be transitioning, this could be the the beginning part where the narrator says "Let’s take a look at the cultural fears which is represented in the Zombies we consume as time went on…" so from a normal zombie he'll transition according to what the voice over says, I plan to have little things happening around him, if it's necessary. As decades go by the background colour will also transition accordingly. I'm still working on moving form zombie to zombie and the little things that may move around him; for example when he mentions slavery maybe a wipe could pop up.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Video Infographic - Draft Script and Update on Style Change
The Style has slightly changed from what I previously had. what the viewers will be shown is a simple zombie morphing as time goes on...
Draft #1
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Draft #1
Fear; It’s a simple thing that causes
people to think an act irrationally. As human’s we have multiple ways of dealing
with our fears. We run away from them. We face them. Or, [dragged out “or”] we
can simply replace them!!! Zombie Films are the personification of our fears; On
a Mass scale!! When there’s a big tragedy there always seems to be a spike in
zombie film production.
Let’s take a look at the cultural fears
which is represented in the Zombies we consume as time went on…
The First Zombie Movie dates back to the 30’s, Inspired by
the Haitian Zombi, Zombies were mere slaves, controlled by their masters with
no will and unable to have choices of their own. Sound familiar? Though slavery
was abolished at this point, Black People had no rights and in the 30’s Zombie films
were this fear of “Black man” brought to the big screen
The 40’s came along and so did the war, Images of the Nazi
reign pouring in, millions of dead bodies or Zombies!?!? The universal fear of
being invaded or compromised with not enough resources to fend for yourself was
a big fear…If that doesn’t convince you…..imagine the Nazi fleet moving as a
unit, now you’re getting the picture…
Oh the 50’s and Johnathan
McCarthy! [Said, as though remising, “the good old days”…long pause] What we
have here is the classic case of scapegoating, or cowardice in its purest form
[emphasis on purest]. McCarthy was a
man who feared a group of people so much so that they made a word for it. McCarthyism!
Yeah kinda sounds like one of those boring essay theories ammi right!?? [Pause]
This was basically the fear of communists invading the American lifestyle. Anyone
found out of being communist would lose their jobs, and be blacklisted from any
other job opportunities.
The 60’s was the
decade of arguably the Zombie Films of all Zombies films…that’s right…Night of
the Living Dead by George A. Romero, a film which introduced all the key elements
that we now see in zombie films today; Zombies now had deteriorating skin, they
walked with a limp, the “Zombie” [emphasis on Zombie] was now spreading through
infection, Once you were a Zombie there was no reverse effect. This was also
the decade of the Cuban Missile crisis. Castro and Kennedy trying to one up
each other, seeing who had the bigger toy, with actually no intention of
attacking; both nations racing to see could building the most powerful weapons,
keeping the occupant of both nations nervous as hell!!!…not knowing if they’ll
wake up in radiation filled land…good thing they had Zombie films aye!
The 1970’s was the decade of the First Email, the rise of
Microsoft and Apple, the VCR’s became a household item, this was the beginning
of our society being overwhelmed by technology, things were changing and
advancing regardless of whether people could keep up with it, there were a lot
of technophobic people but at the same time there were groups of people keeping
up with everything as it came out, this may have been what George Romero was commenting
on in his film; Dawn of the Dead. The consumer culture could represent the
Zombies in the sense that we are them, and our world is slowly changing to
world where everyone is a consumer….but it can also represent Technology,
displaying the battle between us and something we created.
HIV and AIDS were discovered in the 80’s, these were really
advanced viruses and one of the most deadliest, it came with the tiniest
symptoms which later in turn result in the death of the victim. This was
somewhat reflected in the Return of the Living Dead, as Zombies were became
smarter and it was the first film to introduce the concept of Zombies eating
Brains as a pose to flesh…
The Birth of the Internet, came with a whole bunch of new
things, a lot of people didn’t understand it, but the potential it had was
scary, sharing music would soon become a problem and the reaction to this was
actually an improvement on Zombie games and a spike in “funny Zombie films”…there’s
a quote about fear and humor somewhere [awkward pause]…moving on
Well…here we are at modern
day, hmmm let’s see apart from…. we destroying our environment, the economic
downturn, the terrorist attacks, there really isn’t anything to fear [long
pause]. At the most advanced we’ve been for a while now, Zombie Films are still
really popular, the latest iterations of the genre in TV’s Shows like the
Walking Dead, say we are already infected…the Zombie film now has a new rules…characters
unfortunate to be in a Zombie Apocalypse these days are like Dead People
walking waiting for the virus to take over, but does this mean the Zombie is in
all of us?
In terms of the script I'm not too sure about the 90's section (the blue one) any suggestions would be helpful...I know it's long, is the direction I'm going ok; any parts I could cut off, and also am I waffling too much here?
.....so this is what I mean by the style changing a little....every thing will be condensed into one character constantly changing in the middle of the screen
Video Infographic - Identifying Key Facts
I'm doing an Infographic on the History of Zombies, looking at it through social/cultural context. It was important that I actually did research on key events on from the 1930's to Current day, and instead of boring you with text, thought I'd show my finding in images...
Post-research, I came to a conclusion of what I felt Zombies represented. Though they could represent one thing as the decades fly by, Zombies really were the fear of the people personified. Zombie Films are most popular in America so this is where most of my research was focused. The Infographic is History of Zombies, but in essence what the vidoe would be doing is going through history identifying cultural fears...
Mudbox (21/01/2014)
I don't have the screenshot to show it but we also made our own tools using Photoshop and Mudbox itself during this lesson...
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Video Infographic - Style
I looked at a few Zombie Film Poster, just to get a sense of the typography and colour Scheme used, as I plan to have the Video Infographic always changing as time goes on, the plan is to show how zombies have changed through time, and using this difference to pick something they represent for each time; for example in the 50's the zombie could represent the economy, and with some dialogue and simple animation the goal is to convince the viewer using facts about that era of Zombies
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Video Infographic - Zombies
I was thinking of ways I could visually show what zombies represent....maybe having different zombies to representing teenagers or the economy as other visual images buzz across the screen or interact with the character as the narrator talks
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Video Infographic (Refining Idea) - The History of...Zombies
I decided to do the word Zombies to go with the title “The History
of…”as to how I’d be going about this I thought to look at how the social
context affected the type of Zombie Products we get, whether it be movie, games,
comics. Doing a straight up visual history of how zombies changed over time
could be pretty bland and could be informing the viewers of something they
might already know, so I thought maybe trying to answer a question as the video
goes through time could be interesting, I'd answering the question; what do Zombies
represent? Using history to as a means to answer this question….but first I
need to figure out I want to say it could possibly represent…
It could be:
Technology, Social Unrest, The Economy, The Government,
Creativity, Man vs…, The Working Class, Consumerism, The System, Religion
Consumerism - I just couldn’t help think of Zombies after seeing
a few Black Friday videos….maybe Zombie films/games/comics are trying to say
something about consumerism, Zombies have become a lot more faster and are no
longer referred to as “zombies”….it could be interesting to argue that this is
simply down to the rise of consumerism.
The Working Class – Slaving from day to day, same dead end job, no passion for what they’re doing, and they do it only for the money…that just shouts out zombie to me
Social Unrest - The idea that Zombie Movie Production goes up when there's a form of social unrest, also jumped out to me, maybe that's what they represent...art seems to reflect it's time and maybe "The Zombie" is a direct reflection of the real tragedies that happen. Looking at the tragedies that occur over a space of time and the type of Zombie films/games/comics we get could also be quiet interesting.
 |
| source: http://io9.com/5070243/war-and-social-upheaval-cause-spikes-in-zombie-movie-production |
I also like the idea that Zombies are a reflection of the true nature of humans…the idea that under everything we are really killers and in Zombie films there’s a real excuse to kill..
Zombies could also be like the "in-between", a type of Limbo where people never really want to let go, they don’t want to really die to they find a way to exist somehow, even religion entertains the idea of life after death, maybe Zombies could represent us clinging on to life as we know it.
I'll be quickly running through a few Zombie films to find a common trait in all of them, from the dead rising to the infected humans I'll be looking for something definitive enough to based the video info-graphic under...with that being said I cant help but think that finding a way to prove that Zombies, are nothing but a reflection of ourselves would make for an interesting video.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Maya Tutorials Term 1 Checklist
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