Progress Presentation 2 - Reflection

After lots of researching, worrying, sleepless nights into trying to hone down my semiotics plan, through subliminal messaging to visual metaphors over the past few weeks, I thought I'd found what I was looking for.  It was pointed out that I had found a better, simpler research topic now.  I was also challenged on my visual metaphor of my pocket watch idea.  To recap, my idea of the pocket watch as it floats through space at the beginning and ending of the piece is to represent on the conscious level, the possession of the Captain and to suggest the time period.  On the subconscious level my idea is that it's a metaphor for hypnotism as the whole piece is about perception, is it or isn't it real, hallucination or spiritualism, ghosts or illusion?  It was suggested in my presentation that this is just referencing.  I tried to explain that the pocket watch's hypnotism plan was the subliminal level and that it only came across as referencing because I had given this information over already, but i'm not sure i communicated this well.  Since then I have tried to find some reference material to back my idea up.  At present I am reading "Metaphor & Film" by Trevor Whittock which is proving to be invaluable.  There is a quote of Aristotle

"It is proper, to derive metaphors... from objects which are closely related to the thing itself but which are not immediately obvious"

my reasoning is that the pocket watch is closely related to hypnotism but not immediately.  If i was to swing it in front of the viewers face then that would be the relation (or the reference as it was challenged) to hypnotism, which isn't the intended visual act.
Reading on into the book, it states an argument for visual metaphors that:

"...metaphor challenges the received catergories by means of which we realize our experience, may metaphor not be setting up false connections and weakening our grasp on the real world?"

this also reflects my idea of the hallucination and what is real and what is not.

Having only recently decided on the actual visual style, and now being abstract, it was stated by a couple of people that they couldn't visualise the outcome, or that it kept changing.  I'm going to be frank that I was under the impression that the whole process is about evolving an idea and to let it change and grow and not to have a definitive structure from the start and be unswayed into developing it.  So I really didn't understand where the problem lay at this stage.  For me the visual developing comes from the testing and design, the pre-production process which has only just started, so to be honest I have no idea if there is a problem in these comments.
I do have a concern about one other comment regarding the Exposition.  As this is a big chunk of my project and part of the whole concept therefore I am needing clarification that it is possible for the installation of a projector rather than just being shown on a computer monitor.
So summing up, the stress levels are pretty high at this stage already.

Semester 1 - Crit Week

Hosted the second meeting of the semester for 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students last Monday.  Things went smoothly again, people were chipping into the conversations and giving advice where needed.  Some good art and ideas coming from everyone.
Reflection on myself, as I said in my post of the 1st meeting I will only try to spur people into talking more if I feel their presentation is lacking, but I'm not going to push them as i want to maintain a pleasant atmosphere where people can feel relaxed and then open up more.
The subject of sketchbooks came up, where one member of the group felt awkward and uninspired about having to draw in separate sketchbooks for each module, which broke his flow.  I too have noticed this problem so i suggested he tried separate sheets of paper and then at the end of the semester binding the appropriate work to their module into hand made sketchbooks.  Coding was another concern of a few in 2nd year with the Entertainment Design module.  I just tried to reassure them that as artists they didn't need to be worrying too much in this area, and that if in future they were to work with coders, which they will in semester 2 and 3rd year it was that they knew a simple understanding of how it works so that there weren't too many frictions between artists and coders.  Also if they're worrying too much at the start they will always see coding as an enemy and therefore steer clear of it in future, but coding can enhance some art projects and so they could miss out.  So taking away the worry at the start they could eventually take on coding on their own terms and try out methods gradually.
So to sum up from my view, the meeting was good and didn't seem like a chore as it sometimes had in previous years.

Presentation 2

Honours Presentation 2

Visual Styles

Trying to draw together visual styles from other people's ideas/work to help generate ideas for my own.

Steering clear of photorealism that I originally thought I would try to create.  instead the idea of playing with refraction, lighting and moving textures within Maya have come to mind.

Concept Artwork

The Captain of the Merchant Ship (charcoal)

The Captain's pocket watch (pastels) that i envision starting and ending the piece, that will be a visual metaphor for hypnotism which Carl Jung suggests the mind of psychics and mediums can do to itself under trauma or stress, hence the hallucinations and visions or premonitions

A plasma ball (pastels), an inspiration for maybe the set and hooking up the psychic to the ship

Visual Perception Concepts

Originally i was thinking down the line of photo-realistic but have been recently convinced that it isn't my natural way of working.  as much as i love the beautiful realistic work of others it takes years to perfect and right now i'm not at that stage and being a critic of my own work i wouldn't be happy with imperfections that i would see and so would everyone else.  it's also been pointed out my previous animation work has been verging on abstract, which would be the comfortable route to go as it would alleviate the work load and giving more time to concentrate on the semiotics (subliminal messaging)

As the story is based around ghosts and psychology i'm looking into the visuals and what makes us question or perceive from what is not quite right

In Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl i like the idea that the realm of the dead is seen in the living just by using the the light of the moon and the two exist visually together

This picture shows the idea that things can be perceived differently just by a certain angle

This image show that we can see extra perceptions from something we didn't expect or what we thought was chaos

we can also change scale to play and amuse

these also remind me of what horror and spooky films play on, the power of suggestion and our individual perception.  we naturally feel uncomfortable by things we can't or can only partially see or cannot rationally explain.  our minds try to fill in the gaps.

Subliminal Messages - Narrative and Homage

As in an earlier post i mentioned the scene in Sin City of Kevin on the porch was paying homage to the original comics, this can be regarded as subliminal messaging.  This is one of the areas i'm interested in as it directly links to an original narrative that causes an emotional response even if previously known or in this case one that i hadn't until after i checked it out.

Having recently watched the final episode in this series of Doctor Who - The Wedding of River Song i can see now the whole of Doctor Who has been paying homage and also using subliminal messaging to propel the stories and the whole series.  Like a detective show, the clues are actually in the visuals.  whether it's part of the set, the audio (the cloister bell especially) or characters, they are all interwoven and gradually become clear at the very end or when you look back.  The "question" that has been unanswered during this story and was supposedly taboo has been there right from the start in 1963 right under our noses "Doctor who?" this not only pays homage but also opens up to another series of stories, such as finding the answer or actually understanding the question (as in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
guardian.co.uk-doctor-who-wedding-of-river-song

subliminal messages can also be see in links to spin offs such as The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood