Sunday
2/10/08
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Design
The Web
Here is my entry to Veerle’s What is Graphic Design Poster Competition. Needless to say, it’s best viewed at full size.
I was inspired by the idea, “graphic design speaks for itself.” What is graphic design? “I am graphic design,” speaks the design itself. I incorporated some very basic examples of graphic design, as well as references to measurement, placement, constraints, typography, and so forth.
For example, the “i” in the blue circle is a well-known product of graphic design, visually communicating the word information. The word graph in graphic was emphasized and altered to resemble a bar graph, which is another very basic example of graphic design. And, of course, there is the reference to a stop sign, with the red octagon surrounding the word sign in design. Sign, which has four letters and begins with an “s” just like the word stop, is not only a reference to a stop sign, but also an allusion to signs in general, for graphic design very often deals with the creation of signs and symbols that convey information or instructions.
Having used blue for the information sign and red for the stop sign, I chose green for the word graph. This completes the RGB color model, and helps convey the idea that graphic design is the combination of four essential elements — type, shapes, lines, and colors — to create complex and communicative art.
The design strictly adheres to a 50×50 pixel grid.
The competition ends on Friday, at which point Veerle will select twelve prize winners. So far, it has been great to see what other people have come up with. Best of luck to all!
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Sunday
1/6/08
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Movies
During a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s horror film The Shining (1980), when Danny envisions the girls in a hallway of the Overlook Hotel, Kubrick’s editing in both the classical and montage style heightens suspense, creates dramatic tension, and suggests Danny’s psychological state.
The scene opens with an extreme long shot tracking Danny as he rides his tricycle away from the camera, down a hallway in the Overlook. Danny goes through a doorway in the distance and turns, riding out of sight. Kubrick holds this shot for another few seconds, suggesting that Danny has just entered a dangerous place to where the camera is afraid to follow.
This effectively foreshadows imminent peril, so that when Kubrick finally cuts to a close tracking shot of Danny from behind as he approaches a turn in the hallway, the viewer, in trepidation, anticipates something around the bend.
Danny turns the corner and comes to an abrupt halt when he sees the two girls from his earlier vision standing at the end of the hallway. Allowing the viewer to absorb the shock, Kubrick maintains the shot slightly beyond the peak of the “content curve”—that is, as Louis Giannetti explains in Understanding Movies, “the point in a shot at which the audience has been able to assimilate most of its information” (159). This creates a sense of time being extended, like in a dream or, as with Danny, a vision.
Following the logic of classical editing, Kubrick cuts to a reverse angle reaction shot of Danny in close-up that focuses the viewer’s attention on the subtleties of his demeanor—wide eyes, characteristic of Danny’s “shining” experiences, and the rapid rise and fall of his chest. Clearly, Danny sees the girls and is extremely terrified.
Kubrick cuts back to the reverse angle of the girls, allowing the viewer to watch with Danny as they speak, “Hello, Danny.”
Again, Kubrick prolongs this shot before cutting to another close-up of Danny. Holding on Danny’s face while the girls speak the next line, “Come and play with us,” Kubrick emphasizes Danny’s petrified state in which he is too frightened to move.
Kubrick then shifts back to the girls for their line, “Come and play with us Danny,” and sustains the shot with which, by now, the viewer is quite familiar. The slow rhythm of Kubrick’s editing sets the viewer up to be startled when, next, at precisely the point we grow accustomed to the pacing, he breaks the rhythm by jump cutting to a closer shot down the same hallway, where we see a disturbing image of the girls massacred on the floor, with blood splattered across the walls and an axe in the middle of the floor.
This shot is cut extremely short, far before the peak of the content curve, thus not allowing the viewer to fully assimilate the alarming sight. This subjectively indicates the way in which the horrific images are flashing through Danny’s mind.
At this point in the scene, the rhythm of the editing picks up speed. Kubrick quickly cuts back to the girls standing at the end of the hallway; however, in this shot, the camera has moved closer to them.
Just as they finish their next line, “Forever,” Kubrick unforgivingly repeats the shot of the murder, again holding it for only a brief moment before rapidly cutting to a reaction shot of Danny’s face, twisted in horror.
Keeping with the fast-paced editing, Kubrick almost immediately cuts to an even closer shot of the girls as they speak, “And ever.” In true montage style, these successively tighter shots of the girls convey Danny’s increasingly panicked psychological state.
Another jump cut to the murder scene is instantly followed by a medium shot of the girls that, nearer to the viewer than ever, stirs intense emotions of fear and a feeling of impending doom. The fast edits create a sense of speed, perhaps mirroring Danny’s quickening heart rate as he grows more and more distressed.
After the girls say their final line, “And ever,” Kubrick cuts one last time to the bloody shot of the girls on the floor before promptly returning to the reverse angle close-up of Danny, who, with his mouth agape, throws his hands over his eyes. The camera stays with Danny as he cautiously lowers one of his hands to see if the girls are still there, evoking an unbearable feeling of suspense because the viewer, like Danny, is uncertain if the frightening event is over.
A reverse angle answers our question with a long shot of the empty hallway. By pulling back the camera and returning to a slower editing pace, Kubrick informs us that the vision is indeed over and everything is back to normal.
Kubrick’s editing in this scene is significant because, throughout the film, it is characteristic of Danny’s supernatural visions. Thus, whether consciously or not, the viewer has a sense of when another terrifying vision is around the corner, generating anticipation that helps to sustain the film’s suspense.
Here is the scene again, presented shot-for-shot as it appears in the film. You can also watch it on YouTube. Until next time, Adam.
All stills Copyright © 1980 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
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Tuesday
11/20/07
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Movies
If you haven’t already heard, producer J.J. Abrams, the man behind the TV series Lost and Alias, is working on a new movie whose title was recently revealed to be Cloverfield.
The film first sparked interest when a teaser trailer was shown before Transformers earlier this summer. Its lack of clues as to what exactly the film was about, including the absence of a title, immediately ignited curiosity on the Internet. Those intrigued by the film became detectives, analyzing the teaser frame by frame, searching for anything that might reveal the specifics of the film.
The only concrete information to be obtained from the teaser was that the film would be set in New York City, star some sort of catastrophic monster on a rampage that involved decapitating the Statue of Liberty, be shot with a handheld camera to simulate amateur footage caught by someone in the midst of this apocalyptic mess, and be released on January 18th, 2008.
Since then, new information has become available to help solve this mystery, including viral marketing websites, film stills, and a full-length trailer.
However, it was a comment by a man named Rick, in response to a post at FirsShowing.net describing the new trailer, that synthesized these new clues and made what I believe to be an accurate prediction that Cloverfield will be a retelling of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
Here’s the evidence.
1. A beast attacks Manhattan
Cloverfield is indisputably a monster movie. Ignoring the obvious proof that is the trailer, there is the fact that, at a panel at Comic-Con this year, Abrams explained:
I want a great monster movie. I wanted a monster movie for so long. And, I was in Japan over a year ago with my son, who’s eight. And all he wanted to do was go to toy stores, so I know he’s my son. And we went to all these stores and there were still all these Godzillas everywhere and what’s better than Godzilla? And I thought, we need our own monster, like we need a monster movie. And I thought, not like King Kong. I love King Kong. King Kong is adorable. And Godzilla is a charming monster. We love Godzilla. But I wanted something that was just insane, and intense.
So what did Abrams come up with? People have speculated that it’s a Godzilla-like lizard, a dragon, a big momma monster with lots of vicious baby monsters, even a lion, based on a line in the trailer that sounds like, “It’s a lion,” but has been more widely accepted as, “It’s alive” (more on that later). In the trailer, the loud, menacing growls that rumble through the city definitely sound like they’re coming from a huge dinosaur, giving credit to those that compare it to Godzilla, a prehistoric monster not unlike a dino.
In The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, the monster is a fictional, carnivorous dinosaur called a Rhedosaurus — a rather basic monster archetype that the producers of Cloverfield could easily have expanded on to create something “insane and intense,” as Abrams wanted. I’m not arguing that Cloverfield will be an exact remake of The Beast. I’m simply trying to demonstrate how the latter might have been the inspiration for the former.
By the way, The Beast finally dies in Coney Island, and a great deal of shooting for Cloverfield was done in… Coney Island.
UPDATE: This short clip from the new trailer definitely appears to show a giant, dinosaur-like monster very similar to that depicted in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
2. Contextualized by a relevant, contemporary issue
In The Beast, the monster is unearthed when the testing of a nuclear bomb causes him to thaw out of the ice in which he has apparently been frozen for thousands of years. The film was released in 1953, in the middle of the Cold War and during a time when nuclear tests weren’t out of the ordinary. In fact, there was one conducted in Nevada on March 17, 1953, less than three months before the film’s release on June 13th. Therefore, the premise of a nuclear test was quite realistic and relevant at the time.
Today, as we near 2010, global warming has replaced nuclear warfare to become one of the most significant threats to mankind’s presence on Earth. And what’s one of the primary consequences of global warming? You guessed it: the melting of Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets. It is a perfectly relevant and, if you may, believable premise for the story: monster, frozen in ice for thousands of years, suddenly thaws because of global warming and goes on rampage through New York City.
This leads me to the next piece of evidence.
3. What’s with all the Slusho?
As part of a viral marketing campaign, very much like that for the Nine Inch Nails album “Year Zero,” a number of websites were created that are supposed to pertain to the film and provide clues to its story.
One of the most talked about of these websites has to do with a fictional product called Slusho. Cloverfield Clues, a site dedicated to hunting down and documenting bits of information about the film, has a whole page of posts chronicling the Slusho facet of the campaign. No one seems to have any credible answers as to how exactly Slusho is connected with the film, but I’m willing to take a stab at it.
I think Slusho is simply a metaphor for global warming — the climate crisis packaged and sold as a tasty drink, much like huge SUVs, for example, are marketed as wonderful commodities, with the negligible side effect that they contribute to heating up our planet. Melting ice = slush = Slusho! I realize that this is perhaps too obvious, or idiotic, and that its validity relies on my previous assumption that the film will be about a monster that thaws out due to global warming, however I am only making predictions here, so I think I have the freedom to stake such claims. I never said this was the strongest piece of evidence.
I would like to say, though, that I followed the “Year Zero” campaign pretty closely and a lot of the “clues” were only obliquely related to the story that the album told, thus I think it’s fair to assume that Slusho might not come into play as a particularly important part of the film. If a slushy drink is truly central to the film’s plot, I’m not sure I even want to see it!
Anyways, according to the Slusho website, “Seabed’s Nectar” is the special ingredient in the drink. Seabed… sea… rising sea levels… nectar… oil. Okay, I’m probably pushing it, but stick with me. The website also provides an email address for those interested in “distribution opportunities.” Cloverfield Clues sent an email, and this is what they got back:
Dear Dennis,
Thank you for your interest in becoming a distributor of Slusho! brand happy drink and joining the Tagruato family! We would be very excited to work with you in spreading the joy of Slusho! all over the world!
In light of a storm of false claims of business purpose, we have been forced to institute a verification policy. The first step is to forward documents of authenticity. We will need a copy of your articles of incorporation before proceeding with Slusho! distribution opportunity. We apologize for the inconvenience this will cause you.
Sincerely,
Tzigane Koga, Customer Service
Office of Daiske Kagashima
“Exploring our world. Ensuring your future.”
First, I think the idea of “spreading the joy of Slusho! all over the world” might refer to, as I said before, the way products that instigate the climate crisis are being marketed to us everyday. In telling us a gas-guzzling, environment-polluting truck is going to make our lives better, aren’t advertisers indirectly telling us that global warming will make us happier?
“In light of a storm of false claims of business purpose.” First, I think the storm might be a play on words referring to the increasingly violent storms that result from the warming up of Earth. (Recent hurricanes, anyone?) Second, the email states that people have made “false claims” as to the real motivation behind the Slusho brand. Again, I think this could be an analogy for how corporations constantly back up their environmentally hazardous products, policies, and operations.
“We apologize for the inconvenience this will cause you.” A reference to Inconvenient Truth? Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. The company’s motto, “Exploring our world. Ensuring your future,” with reference to the world and the future, just seems to support this whole idea of the dismal future of the world in the face of global warming. (Not to mention monster attacks! Oh, snap!)
I could go on and on. For example, the website features a giant cup of Slusho, which basically looks like slushy ice swirled in a cup, and behind it is a sun with its yellow and orange solar rays soaring out in all directions and surrounding the cup of Slusho. When you visit the site, eight drops of the Slusho (melted by the sun?) spray out of the top and essentially become eight big water drop navigation buttons.
The website also features all kinds of cute little animals screaming at you to drink Slusho, and anyone that knows a thing or two about climate change is aware that humans are not the only ones that will be affected.
Finally, and perhaps most convincing, is a website called Tagruato Corp., the fictional parent company of Slusho. The website just screams, “Climate, energy, Earth, future, deep see oil drilling, environment!” Check it out for yourself. (Interesting find: the company sponsored little league team is the Tagruato Lions.) Maybe in the film the company drills in the Atlantic in search of oil and ends up awakening the dormant monster. Who knows.
4. The movie poster
In The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, the monster, after thawing, “emerges from the sea and lays waste to Manhattan Island” (iMDB). If you take a close look at the movie poster, you’ll see that there is a wake in the water that begins near the Statue of Liberty and ends at Manhattan, directly where the path of destruction begins. I think this makes it rather obvious that the monster will emerge from the sea, just as it does in 1953’s The Beast.
This makes sense, too, because in the teaser trailer people run outside when they feel the Earth rumble and hear the monster grumble, only to be met by the crashing down of Lady Liberty’s bronze head. Thus, the monster thaws, emerges from the sea, decapitates the Statue, and then heads to the nearest shore. Things seem to be fitting together nicely, don’t they?
5. Deadly viral infections galore
According to the iMDB plot outline for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, the monster kills people “not just by devouring them or crushing them with its sheer weight, but it also is the carrier of a deadly virulent disease.”
Enter the latest film stills released to promote Cloverfield. Present in at least three of them are people dressed in big, blue hazmat suits helping victims that look like they’ve climbed out of a scene in Outbreak (1995) and jumped 13 years into the future as characters in Cloverfield.
“Deadly virulent disease”? Check.
6. The line “It’s alive!”
While this small piece of dialogue is far from extraordinary, it seems to hold a place of importance for both Cloverfield and The Beast. Regarding the latter, it is listed on iMDB as the film’s tagline. For the former, it was one of the few pieces of dialogue to be featured in the short teaser trailer, and became one of the most talked about and disputed audio clips for weeks (”It’s alive” or “It’s a lion”?). It shows up again in the full-length trailer, and part of me thinks that this might not be just a coincidence.
On the other hand, the line “It’s alive!” has been a staple in monster flicks, such as Frankenstein, for years, so maybe it’s just been recycled for the umpteenth time.
7. Hollywood loves a good remake/sequel/franchise
A great deal of the excitement revolving around Cloverfield has to do with an aura of originality that has come to surround its production.
J.J. Abrams is perhaps best known for his work on Lost, which was relatively high concept for a television series when it first hit the airwaves, thus his name is drawing a lot of attention to the new project. Actress Lizzy Caplan even admitted to signing on simply because she liked Abrams’ work on Lost. (Apparently she regrets the rashness with which she made her decision).
Auditions were conducted not with the Cloverfield script, but with scenes from Abrams’ previous work and scenes written specifically to be scrapped later, all with the intention of maintaining the plot’s secrecy. The film was shot with handheld cameras on digital video, a la The Blair Witch Project (1999), which is also considered to be relatively original compared to the more often used stationary camera and 35mm film. Also, the budget was reported to be $30 million, a meager sum for what’s trying to be an action packed, monster blockbuster.
Combined, this makes the project seem rather ambitious, and I think people have begun to mistake ambition for originality. All the hype has led a lot of people to think that Cloverfield has some highly imaginative, never-before-seen monster up its sleeves — one that’s capable of unseating Godzilla and King Kong from their thrones of monster royalty.
However, taking into consideration Hollywood’s lousy track record for original material, it would seem more likely that the film is simply a remake, or, more generously, a retelling of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
Conclusion
In the end, don’t get me wrong, I am still excited about this film and I think it has the potential to shake up Hollywood, at least to a minor degree. I’ll definitely be in the theaters this January to see what it’s all about, and if any of these predictions were correct.
Even if it does turn out to be based on The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, it will be interesting to see what monster the producers and creative team invent, how they make it come to life on screen, and the effectiveness of the manner in which they tell the story, which looks like it might be told from a limited, first person point of view. Perhaps the handheld camcorder will be that first person, and we see only what it sees as it moves through the hands of different characters. That could actually be, for lack of a better word, awesome.
Also, the idea of online viral marketing campaigns is still rather new and, I think, very exciting. As I observed first hand with the “Year Zero” campaign, it gives the audience a far more engaging experience with the end product. Without a doubt, listening to “Year Zero” was made more enjoyable by the extremely innovative marketing campaign that went along with it.
So, what do you guys think? Are my predictions completely whack? What do you think Cloverfield will be about? Leave your predictions, opinions, and ideas in the comments!
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