Creative Review: Inception

How can I do a final major project based on dreams without including the recent film Inception (2010)? This is a recent film based on the idea that ideas can be planted into someone’s mind through entering their dreams, where their subconscious shows through in the form of the objects around them. It’s a very interesting concept because it delves into the ideas of dreaming, how dreams work with the architecture and how consciousness and sub consciousness work together in sync to create a new world inside your head.

The scenes of the characters in the dream world filled me with awe. The idea that this world has been created be someone is one that you can relate to as a dreamer because things do just appear when you want them to, and you can bend the laws of physics to your will.

One of the issues the film also deals with is the idea of a paradox, something that I want to find a way of incorporating into my work. There’ssa scene in the film where the dreamer has created a set of stairs that look like they continuously go up, when really that is a feat that cannot be accomplished in real life architecture!

The only real problem with trying to take something from this film is that there is pretty much a linear narrative in the film, and in each dream. Even though they’re in a dream, the places still seems real, whereas in my work I want to also try and show that dreams are just flashes of places; memories, made up buildings, familiar versus unfamiliar, and that doesn’t happen so much in this film.

It is still, however, one of my favourite films, and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Creative Review- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

In retaliation to my final major project I’m delving into some films that deal with dreams and the subconscious so I have a richer understanding of the world I will be creating. I’d heard a lot of hype over this film and had wanted to see it for a while so I gave it a go.

I walked into this film not knowing anything about it, which made it a lot more fun. I really wasn’t expecting a story about a man who undergoes an operation to get his thoughts of a woman he loves removed. It was a very interesting concept, seeing the story in backwards of significant memories that made up their relationship.

There were some scenes in the film that I think were particularly beneficial to my research. About halfway through the protagonist decides he doesn’t want the procedure any more and tells his girlfriend, who is, of course, just a memory at this point. They have a few scenes where they try to run away from the memory deletion by going to a hidden memory in his mind, which almost works, and it’s great watching his reactions to the memories. The feelings he had are still there, he knows it’s a memory but at the same time he plays out what happened. He questions why certain things happened the way it did before he’s whisked away to the next memory and the process almost starts over.

I quite liked this film, it is thought provoking and it tells a really good story. I think if I watched it again I would definitely pick up on points I missed the first time round. However, there wasn’t too much that I could add to my project at this time, apart from the notion that memories can be changed, replayed, altered and that they are not always what they seem.

Creative Review- The Science of Sleep

As part of my research for dreams within the art world there are a few films I want to watch. One of these was The Science of Sleep, which I watched yesterday. I have to say I loved it, I have no idea why I didn’t watch it before because it helps explain a lot of the subconscious so well.

The main character, Stephane, is an illustrator who is fascinated with the dream world (already there are two huge similarities between the main character and me) and this film helps show the relationship between the way he acts in real life and what goes on in his sleep.

The introduction of the film is interesting; in his sleep, Stephane is teaching how a dream is made up. He adds to a potion- a person’s wish, things that they’ve reminisced about that week, memory and feelings amongst other things. This helps show why dreams are so hard to work out—there are so many things going on!

The relationship between the dream and real world is supported by the imagination. Stephane always thinks of creative ways to make things look more fun, he wants to be an inventor, and when he analyses real life events in his dreams he more often than not turns the dream into something he wants.

The reason I love the film so much though are the small bits that a lot of people might or might not pick up on. I have a heavy interest in dreams so feel like I connect with the character quite a lot. There is a fear of rejection, which he uses his dreams to escape from. He can create new worlds in his dreams, which I like to do. He begins to dream when he should be listening. He tires easily because when he dreams he uses a lot more energy than you should. He sometimes has to do little tests to work out if he’s dreaming or not. All of these are me!

There is a lot of inspiration I can draw from this film, both personally and in the creative world. A lot of great techniques were used to portray dreams that I might be able to use in my work, like the exaggeration on hands to show how heavy they are, or a car crash and him not moving when he’s feeling drunk. I give it a 9/10.

Creative Review-- Film: Black Swan

While I finally thought that I’d settled on doing the Little White Lies competition brief, I’d still not actually seen any of the five films that they wanted illustrating! So I set about watching Black Swan, as I’ve been wanting to see it since it came out anyway.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan is a film about a ballet dancer who is pretty much a perfectionist. She wins the lead in “Swan Lake,” but whilst she is the perfect candidate for the White Swan, she isn’t free or impulsive enough to play the Black Swan. The harder she tries to fulfill both parts, the more unhinged she becomes.

When the film first opened up I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it. I mean, ballet? But I was interested to find out what was going on the more the story progressed. What I found most interesting was how the pressure and play were affecting her psychologically. Her failed dancer mother smothered her. Her trainer pushed her extremely hard. Her colleagues resented her. Then she thought her new friend was trying to take over her. Splitting her life between the Black and White Swan had fractured her mind, and it was interesting to be part of the audience and be confused as to whether we were seeing things that were just in her head or was it really happening?

There were some really good subtle effects added, which were enhanced by some great camera shots. These were especially beautiful when the dancing was going on, but on the other end of the spectrum a more handheld approach came in useful for giving us that sense of unease and claustrophobia.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is interested in psychological thrillers. Don’t let the ballet put you off, it barely has anything to do with the film in general anyway!

Creative Review-- The Hunger Games

I hadn’t read a fictional book in a very long time, until recently that is. I’d noticed a lot of hype about a film coming out next year called “The Hunger Games” and it seems to have attracted a pretty big fan-base already. So I did a little research, found out that it was the first in a series of books, and began reading.

One negative before I get to the good stuff: this was the first time I’d ever read a book on my mac, and not held it physically. I didn’t like that aspect, and maybe it needs a little getting used to but I think it might have dampened my reading experience a bit.

Now, the good points. This is a very interesting story. There is a love story told over the series that you see the beginnings of in the first book (the only one I’ve read) but that part didn’t interest me too much. It was the world it was set in. Kind of like 1984 where everyone is controlled by government, they live in separate districts depending on profession, and every year to keep control of the districts the government introduces “The Hunger Games” where two teenagers from each of the 12 districts must fight in the arena, until there is one winner.

The storytelling is great; as I read it I can see the events unfold, I feel the main protagonists emotion, whether it be anger, confusion or love. There is a balance between action and interaction, a great cast with interesting personalities, and the underlying political messages that The Hunger Games is more than just a year long event in the arena is spread throughout the whole book.

Now I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series and can’t wait for the film!

Creative Review-- Film

I want to share a film with people that might be a little more obscure than usual. I’ve not been to any of the creative review sessions yet but I think a lot of the films would have been heard of, whereas this might be less recognized.

Chung-King Express is a film made by Wong Kar Wai in 1994. This film was the beginning of the Chinese New Wave period. This basically means that before this film, the studios were all about creating the same generic films, and for China, this was Martial Arts films. This film explores Hong Kong in a different way. It was an art piece made by Wai while he was taking a break from filming the “generic” stuff, and turned out to be one of his best pieces.

The film is split in two, set around the same take-out joint in Hong Kong. The first story is about a cop who gets dumped by his girlfriend, only to fall in love with a woman at a bar. Unbeknown to him, she is a drug-dealer, and he never see’s her again after that night. The next is about a cop who has a secret love interest; the worker at the take-out accidentally ends up with his house keys and she sneaks in when he’s working and cleans for him.

These are stories with no stories. They just are. That’s kind of the cool quality that I like about them. There are no questions that need answering, it’s just life at that time. Wai films it with a great soundtrack and some colourful camera experimentation, and maybe there are some little hidden messages in there, but it’s entirely for the audience to interoperate it as to how they see fit!

Creative Review-- Books

I’ve read a couple of books recently that have given me some great advice, motivation and steps to aid my illustration work. These books are great tools to go into my final major project with, as they are simple and pretty obvious at times!

The first book is “A Technique for Producing Idea’s” by William Bernbach. This book has been around for nearly 50 years, but the same principles apply now just as they did back then. The key points from the book are that there are five stages to producing ideas, and I’m definitely going to follow these through in my next projects:

• ·      Gather new materials—research
• ·      Work over the materials. Sketch. Doodle. Think.
• ·      Leave it for a while for your unconscious to mull over
• ·      THE IDEA ARRIVES
• ·      Develop the idea to fit your needs.

See, simple! The other point I got from this book is about the fundamentals of simply having an idea. It has two general principles—that an idea is simply a new combination of two or more things and that the ability to make new ideas is heightened by an ability to see new relationships.

Then I read Paul Arden’s “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be.” I’m sure this is a book I’ve been encouraged to read for years, but only just got round to it recently. It’s pretty amazing, it gets across simple ideas, and has helped unclutter my mind recently. I’ll just share some of my favourite points from the book as there are so many I could talk about:

• ·      Do it! Then fix it as you go
• ·      If you get stuck, draw with a different pen
• ·      Have a goal!
• ·      Find inspiration from everywhere
• ·      Don’t aim to win awards—that’s following the fashion!