My Wonderland set for Alice is finally complete, I am somewhat happy with the outcome, I will continue to perfect things over the half term to get it looking the way that will please me.
Thursday, 25 October 2012
Set Building.
Over the last few days we have been required to create our sets for our final piece animations. During this stage, I got very frustrated at times. I have used quite a few materials to create my sets such as cardboard boxes, paints, tissue paper and plasticine. Below are some images during my creation.
Creating my Wonderland set, painting the grass in and creating mushrooms using plasticine.
The creation of the set for Alice after she tumbles down the hole and is trapped in the room. (Note that you will not be able to see the hole at the side during the animation.
My Wonderland set for Alice is almost complete, another frog, a bridge and trees to go!
My Wonderland set for Alice is finally complete, I am somewhat happy with the outcome, I will continue to perfect things over the half term to get it looking the way that will please me.
My Wonderland set for Alice is finally complete, I am somewhat happy with the outcome, I will continue to perfect things over the half term to get it looking the way that will please me.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Target Audience.
Target Audience.
What Other Existing Media Is Similar To Yours And Who Is Their Target Audience?
My film would be related to existing media such as the original Alice in Wonderland and other fairy tales such as Beauty And The Beast, Nightmare Before Christmas and Tim Burton's "Vincent." The reason I have chosen to relate my film to these specific existing types of media such as Tim Burton's "Vincent" is because my animation has certain quality's which are the same to that of Tim Burton's grotesque style of art in his work. Tim Burton's age ranges range from as young as twelve years old to young adults and adults in their late 40's due to the horror/dark/sinister art and scenes pictured in many of his films and animations.
Class.
My animation would mostly be targeted and intended for students, colleges and schools due to the fact their are students like myself that can learn from, watch and enjoy these twisted, dark humored animations like I have created.
Slot.
I would like to think my animation would be shown on channels like film 4 and channel four due to the fact that they are two of the main movie channels. I would like it to be shown at around roughly nine o'clock at night and onwards because kids under 12 are usually in bed and young adults and older are more likely to sit down and watch television at this time of night.
Male/Female?
My animation would be aimed at both male and female only because the film is packed full of adventure and action which both men and women can enjoy. The characters have very outrageous and unique personality's which draws the attention of both men and women. Males because of some of the characters such as the Mad Hatter and the other unimaginable wild characters pictured throughout and the red queen and her army. Females because the main character is a young girl, along with the queen of hearts, the white queen and the adorable friendship that Alice develops with the Mad Hatter and all the other crazy characters shown within the animation.
Age Range?
The age range that I have chosen to target my animation at would be around eight to late 40's because I think anyone of the right age can enjoy this. No younger than eight because I don't think kids would understand the concept of the film due to the fact that they would see it as an exciting adventure with all the crazy characters whereas the older generation would see it as the same but would fully understand the true meaning behind it, e.g drug related scenes such as the hash smoking caterpillar.
Character Biogs.
Jack Nicholson.
Jack Torrance.
"Mr Grady. You were the caretaker here, I recognize you. I saw your picture in the newspapers. You, uh, chopped your wife and daughters up into little bits. And then you blew your brains out."
Played By: Jack Nicholson.
Film: The Shining.
Why He's My Favorite Character: Jack Nicholson is one of the most incredible actors that I have ever seen. "The Shining" plays a big part in my love for this actor, this film could well be in my opinion the greatest horror movie ever made. It's chilling, visually stunning and features some excellent acting. Jack's acting is brilliant, and completely believable. His character is pathetic at times and intimidating at others. Over the course of the film you can see him descending into madness and he produces an unforgettable acting display.
Finest Hour. Of course Nicholson's finest hour in my opinion is when he is chasing his wife with the fire axe throughout the hotel in search for her, the acting in this specific scene is fantastic, definitely Nicholson at his best.
Jim Carey.
"Here goes; I sped, I followed too closely, I ran a stop sign, I almost hit a Chevy, I sped some more, I failed to yield at a crosswalk, I changed lanes at the intersection, I changed lanes without signalling while running a red light and speeding!"
Played By: Jim Carey.
Film: Liar, Liar.
Why He's My Favourite Character: Jim Carey's sense of humor is one that can instantly capture people's attention, the greatest movies that he has been in are in fact due to his quirky, hilarious style of humor and he is in my opinion, what makes his movies simply fantastic. The quality's that he portrays in his films such as, Ace Ventura, Me, Myself And Irene and The Grinch are some of Jim Carey's most known films and finest work and personally my favorite.
Finest Hour: Liar, Liar, when Fletcher has won a case, he then creases up a bit of paper and yells "A Goose!"
Jim Carey's Finest Hour... In My Opinion.
Mia Wasikowska.
Alice Kingsley.
"I'm afraid so, you're entirely bonkers but I'll tell you a secret, all the best people are."
Played By: Mia Wasikowska.
Film: Alice In Wonderland.
Why She Is My Main Character: I have chosen her to play Alice because she is adventurous, mischievous and although appears innocent, she is not so much. She is passionate about acting and whilst doing so, nothing else matters. Her character in Alice in Wonderland is charming, well spoken and at times, amusing.
Finest Hour: Mia's finest hour is when she is slaying the Jabberwocky, before the Mad Hatter does the Futterwacken in Alice in Wonderland.
John Cusack.
Mike Enslin.
"Just give me the key! Listen, I stayed at the Bixby house. I brushed my goddamn teeth right next to the tub where Sir David Smith drowned his whole family, and I stopped being afraid of vampires when I was 12. Do you know why I can stay in your spooky old room, Mr. Olin? Because I know that ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties don't exist. And even if they did, there's no god to protect us from them, now is there?"
Played By: John Cusack.
Film: 1408.
Why He Is My Favorite Character: No matter the material, John Cusack always manages to completely dissolve into character. He does it again this time as a tormented writer whose cynical view of the super natural is put to the ultimate test. Cusack has to spend most of the film trapped in a hotel room alone but he handles the job so well there's not a moment when you don't understand what he's going through, even with limited dialogue. He plays a fantastic role in this movie and displays such a believable, tormented character.
Finest Hour: Cusack climbing out of his haunted, freakish hotel room and walking a long the ledge to try and find a room and slips, is definitely his best. The chilling terror you feel as he slips and almost falls is brilliantly portrayed by Cusack's fine acting.
Critique of Tim Burton's 'Vincent.'
"Vincent."
"Vincent Malloy is seven years old, he's always polite and does what he's told. For a boy his age, he's considerate and nice but he wants to be just like Vincent Price."
Young Vincent's vivid imagination takes him on a macabre journey into a fantastical and weird world in which his home is filled with spiders and bats, his aunt becomes an exhibit in his wax museum, and his beautiful wife is buried in his mother's flower bed.
Vincent is a 1982 stop motion short animation film written, designed and directed by Tim Burton and Rick Heinrichs and is approximately six minutes long. The film is narrated by actor Vincent Price, a lifelong idol and inspiration to Tim Burton. Vincent is the story of a young boy, Vincent Malloy, who pretends to be like actor Vincent Price who narrates the film. He is obsessed with the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and it is his detachment from reality when reading them that leads to his delusions. The film ends with Vincent feeling terrified of being tortured by the going on's of his make believe world quoting "The Raven" as he falls to the floor in frailty, believing himself to be dead.
Whilst working as a conceptual artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Tim Burton found himself two allies in the shape of Disney executive Julie Hickson, and Head of Creative Development Tom White. The two were impressed with Burton's unique talents and while not "Disney material", they felt he deserved to be given respect. In 1992, Wilhite gave Tim Burton $60,000, to produce an adaptation of a poem Burton had written titled Vincent. Burton had originally planned the poem to be a children's short story book but thought otherwise. Burton had worked on the project for two months and came up with the five minute short film. Shot in stark black and white in the style of the German expressionist films of the 1920's, Vincent imagines himself in a series of situations inspired by the Vincent Price/Edgar Allen Poe films that had such an affect on Burton as a child.
(Some information used as reference from Wikipedia.)
My Opinions.
Based on a poem that Tim Burton had composed himself, Vincent tells the story of a little boy who wants to grow up to be just like Vincent Price, the popular horror actor, and Burton's childhood idol. The narrative has a singalong feel to it along with the dark concept to the classic B movie horror films that Burton and myself grew up on. Among other influences within the short animation are Edgar Allen Poe and Mary Shelley, both of course prolific horror writers that have inspired many films themselves. "Vincent" is to my knowledge, the first major use of claymation, the animation technique that featured in Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas" along with the stop motion technique where you are required to continuously shoot pictures whilst moving the object slightly and continuing this until the desired amount of footage is met. The short film is an ideal way of discovering exciting new additions to cinema, both in technique, and in directing, acting and photography.
This short animation is definitely effective, it's an amazing way to get kids interested in the strange and creepy world of horror. This would have been the kind of thing that I could enjoy as a kid, as deranged as I am. A lot of the designs in Vincent will remind you of Beetlejuice as it has the same weird and quirky style of art. If Tim Burton's intentions were to engross people into his mad and delusional world of art then he definitely did so with this short animation he created. Immediately you know this is Tim Burton's work due to the creepy, dark, sinister and weird visuals he portrays throughout it and his other work.
I wouldn't say there were any weaknesses throughout this short stop motion animation, actually I don't think there are weaknesses to any of Tim Burton's work, to me it is all incredibly done. One thing that could have been improved on in Vincent was Tim Burton should have definitely made it LONGER. I enjoyed every minute of it but I wanted to see more, the animation was fantastically done, the use of stop motion and claymation is brilliant. To show how successful this animation was, the animation was theatrically released for two weeks in a Los Angelas cinema. It received several critical accolades when it was played at film festivals in London, Seattle and Chicago where it won two awards.
Tim Burton's "Vincent."
"Vincent Malloy is seven years old, he's always polite and does what he's told. For a boy his age, he's considerate and nice but he wants to be just like Vincent Price."
Young Vincent's vivid imagination takes him on a macabre journey into a fantastical and weird world in which his home is filled with spiders and bats, his aunt becomes an exhibit in his wax museum, and his beautiful wife is buried in his mother's flower bed.
Vincent is a 1982 stop motion short animation film written, designed and directed by Tim Burton and Rick Heinrichs and is approximately six minutes long. The film is narrated by actor Vincent Price, a lifelong idol and inspiration to Tim Burton. Vincent is the story of a young boy, Vincent Malloy, who pretends to be like actor Vincent Price who narrates the film. He is obsessed with the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and it is his detachment from reality when reading them that leads to his delusions. The film ends with Vincent feeling terrified of being tortured by the going on's of his make believe world quoting "The Raven" as he falls to the floor in frailty, believing himself to be dead.
Whilst working as a conceptual artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Tim Burton found himself two allies in the shape of Disney executive Julie Hickson, and Head of Creative Development Tom White. The two were impressed with Burton's unique talents and while not "Disney material", they felt he deserved to be given respect. In 1992, Wilhite gave Tim Burton $60,000, to produce an adaptation of a poem Burton had written titled Vincent. Burton had originally planned the poem to be a children's short story book but thought otherwise. Burton had worked on the project for two months and came up with the five minute short film. Shot in stark black and white in the style of the German expressionist films of the 1920's, Vincent imagines himself in a series of situations inspired by the Vincent Price/Edgar Allen Poe films that had such an affect on Burton as a child.
(Some information used as reference from Wikipedia.)
My Opinions.
Based on a poem that Tim Burton had composed himself, Vincent tells the story of a little boy who wants to grow up to be just like Vincent Price, the popular horror actor, and Burton's childhood idol. The narrative has a singalong feel to it along with the dark concept to the classic B movie horror films that Burton and myself grew up on. Among other influences within the short animation are Edgar Allen Poe and Mary Shelley, both of course prolific horror writers that have inspired many films themselves. "Vincent" is to my knowledge, the first major use of claymation, the animation technique that featured in Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas" along with the stop motion technique where you are required to continuously shoot pictures whilst moving the object slightly and continuing this until the desired amount of footage is met. The short film is an ideal way of discovering exciting new additions to cinema, both in technique, and in directing, acting and photography.
This short animation is definitely effective, it's an amazing way to get kids interested in the strange and creepy world of horror. This would have been the kind of thing that I could enjoy as a kid, as deranged as I am. A lot of the designs in Vincent will remind you of Beetlejuice as it has the same weird and quirky style of art. If Tim Burton's intentions were to engross people into his mad and delusional world of art then he definitely did so with this short animation he created. Immediately you know this is Tim Burton's work due to the creepy, dark, sinister and weird visuals he portrays throughout it and his other work.
I wouldn't say there were any weaknesses throughout this short stop motion animation, actually I don't think there are weaknesses to any of Tim Burton's work, to me it is all incredibly done. One thing that could have been improved on in Vincent was Tim Burton should have definitely made it LONGER. I enjoyed every minute of it but I wanted to see more, the animation was fantastically done, the use of stop motion and claymation is brilliant. To show how successful this animation was, the animation was theatrically released for two weeks in a Los Angelas cinema. It received several critical accolades when it was played at film festivals in London, Seattle and Chicago where it won two awards.
Tim Burton's "Vincent."
Alice in Wonderland Treatment.
Alice in Wonderland.
The sun is shining, the air is still, the scent of roses and wild flowers fills the air. The sound of instrumental music and peoples applause fills the room, a room of which hundreds of family, guests and friends are dancing around, ladies are in cocktail dresses and the gentlemen are in suits. Alice stands in front of the man she is betrothed to marry. A man that she adores but cannot picture her life with. A tall, smart man dressed in a blue suit with a crooked bow tie and a cheesy grin holds on to Alice's hands as the room is filled with complete silence. Alice is asked to marry Hamish, a question which all girls dream up and fantasise about in their spare time. Shocked and astounded by Hamish's proposition, Alice says she needs to get some air and goes for a walk.
Upon walking through the morning dewey grass filled with rose bushes and the sound of crickets, Alice spots a white rabbit in a blue waist coat, the rabbit stops and stares at Alice and points to his ticking pocket watch. Alice, who now stands completely startled and thinks she is going crazy, chases the rabbit. Alice loses sight of the rabbit for a split second and stumbles into the woods. She then spots the rabbit jumping and laughing and hopping through the woods. Upon finding the rabbit, Alice chases it again and once again loses him. Alice is surrounded by trees and can see nothing but darkness ahead with the nettle bushes cutting her stockings she then finds herself in front of a large black hole. Alice knows this is too big of a hole to be any kind of mole hole. Intrigued by what she has found she tries to look deep within it, Alice lose her grip and stumbles in, descending into madness.
Alice awakens, (or so she hopes) from her dream, and finds herself surrounded by four walls, a roof and a small table. On the table she notices a piece of cake which inscribed says 'Eat Me'. She also notices a small bottle which contains a strange coloured liquid, attached to the bottles is a piece of paper in which says 'drink me'. Alice once again for a split second notices the rabbit which runs through a tiny door, far too small for Alice to pass through. Alice who is in hope of somehow being able to pass through the door, tries to open it but the door is locked. She decides to eat the slice of cake with which after eating she becomes extremely tall, even more tall to fit through the tiny door which appears before her. Alice then drinks the strange, oddly coloured bottled liquid and she shrinks to the size of a small animal. Alice realises that the door is still locked, she looks around confused and a small key appears before her, she takes the key, places it in the key hole and passes through.
Instantly Alice is surrounded by wild flowers, floating tea pots and tea cups, brightly coloured fields and the smell of candy in the air. Two small oddly shaped men who look exactly the same walk up to Alice, they seem to be recounting the tale of "The Walrus & The Carpenter:" and of course, there is the rabbit in the waist coat who is the reason Alice has ended up here in this place, this strange magical place called Wonderland.
Story Boards.
Today we were required to create a story board before writing treatment for our final piece. I have done three of these as I was not too sure which one I would prefer to do. I did a story board for Alice in Wonderland, Red Riding Hood and Beauty & The Beast. Below are my story boards along with the writing as you can't see it to clearly in the photographs.
Alice in Wonderland..
Alice in Wonderland..
1) Alice stumbles upon a big dark hole in the forrest whilst chasing the White Rabbit in the Waistcoat.
2) Alice looks inside, intrigued and slips, tumbling down... far down.
3) Alice then ends up trapped in a room with a table which has a bottle of some strange liquid saying 'drink me' and a piece of cake which says 'eat me'. Not knowing what to do she stumbles upon an abnormally small door which the rabbit had passed through but when Alice tries to enter she is too big to fit through.
4) Alice eats the piece of cake and becomes increasingly, abnormally tall. She then takes the drink which is tiny now as she is so big and shrinks, becoming so tiny becoming able to pass through the tiny door.
5) Once Alice has passed through the door, she enters the imaginary world of Wonderland surrounded by flying tea pots and tea cups, wild flowers and all things which only exist in our dreams.
Beauty & The Beast..
1) Belle has lost her father and is in search for him. Upon searching for her father she finds herself in a forrest and cannot find her way out.
2) Belle gets lost in the forrest, and catches herself surrounded by wolves when an ugly beast shows up and saves her.
3) The beast leads her out of the forrest and takes her to his castle.
4) The beast tells Belle she can have everything, fine clothes and jewels as long as she remains to stay with him forever in the castle and orders her to NOT enter the West Wing as it is sacred grounds.
5) Belle goes against the Beast's orders one day as she is lost in the castle, intrigued, she stumbles upon the West Wing discovering a sacred flower when the Beast catches her, he is furious but tells her the story of the flower and why he became a beast.
6) When the beast almost dies in battle with Gaston, Belle is heart broken and admits that she is in love with the beast as she weeps. The beast then transforms into a handsome prince and they live happily ever after.
Little Red Riding Hood...
1) Red Riding Hood's mother asks her to take a basket of goodies to her grandma's cottage.
2) On her way through the woods she stumbles upon the Big Bad Wolf. The wolf asks her where she is going and she tells him she is taking a basket of goodies to her grandma's cottage.
3) The Wolf runs to her grandma's cottage, steals her clothes and eats her all up.
4) The wolf dresses up as Red Riding Hood's grandma and waits for her to turn up.
5) When Red Riding Hood shows up, she looks at her grandma which is the wolf and says "my what big eyes, ears and teeth you have!' The wolf then rips the clothes off and eats Red Riding Hood all up. 6) The woodcutters stumbles upon the wolf, kills him and slices him open, revealing and saving little Red Riding Hood and her Grandma.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Mind Map for Final Piece.
Probable Scenes - The scene where Alice is faling down in to the hole and in to Wonderland amongst only things that a human could possibly dream up and imagine, the scene where Jack Skellington and other characters are all in the house, the scene from Beauty & The Beast where Belle is lost in the woods and looking for her grand father. The scene where little Red Riding Hood is on her way through the woods to deliver the basket of goodies to her grandma when she stumbles upon the Big Bad Wolf, the wolf then eats Red Riding Hood and her Grandma, the woodcutter then comes along, kills and slice the wolf and reveals and saves them both.
Final Ideas - Alice in Wonderland, Beauty & The Beast, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Red Riding Hood.
Possible Materials - Drawings, I.E, Cutouts, put them on string and use as puppets, camera, tripod, cardboard box, dolls, pens, pencils, dolls from Nightmare Before Christmas which I have. Also I have the idea of drawing and colouring in backgrounds on pieces of A3 paper so if I had different scenes for one of my ideas then I would drop the background I had drawn on the piece of paper and drop it into the cardboard box and change the backgrounds for every different scene.
Sound Ideas - Waltz In 4th Dimension from the Donnie Darko soundtrack, will research and look into more styles of creepy music to use as an idea for when Alice is falling into the deep hole and into Wonderland. Nightmare Before Christmas theme and Beauty & The Beast theme, maybe one of the songs used in the film as a musical. Also for Beauty & The Beast and Little Red Riding Hood I am thinking of using narration as well as a little music.
Set Ideas - Maybe turn the cardboard box in to a coffin for The Nightmare Before Christmas, turn the box into the hole that Alice falls into before she reaches Wonderland and turn the box into the woods that Belle loses herself in, in search for her grandfather. Could also turn this into the Beast's mansion if I decide to do a scene from that part of the movie. Drawing and colouring on different pieces of A3 paper to create a background for each different scene and drop them into the cardboard box then dropping a different background for a different scene in to the box.
Research Activity For "Fairytales".
Alice In Wonderland.
Alice In Wonderland was first created in 1951 and is an American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and based primarily on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a few additional elements from Through The Looking Glass. The film was released in New York City and in London on July 26th, 1951.
The plot/content of the film is about a young girl named Alice. On the bank of a tranquil English river, she grows bored of listening to her older sister read aloud from a history book of William I of England. When her sister catches Alice daydreaming, Alice tells her cat Dinah that she would prefer to live in a nonsensical dreamland called Wonderland. Alice and Dinah spot a waistcoat-wearing white rabbit passing by, and Alice gives chase as she rushes off claiming to be late for an unknown event. Alice follows the rabbit into a rabbit hole and falls into labyrinth. Her dress balloons out and she begins to float. She sees the white rabbit dissapear through a tiny door and tries to follow but the door knob's voice tells her to alter the size of the door using a mysterious food and drink. She eventually manages to shrink and passes through the door into Wonderland. She meets several strange characters including the Dodo and Tweedledee & Tweedledum who recount the tale of "The Walrus & The Carpenter."
The White Rabbit, the Dodo and Bill the Lizard believe Alice to be a monster and try burning the house down where she finds the White Rabbit. Alice escapes by eating a carrot and shrinking down to the size of an insect. She meets and sings with some talking flowers, but they chase her away upon accusing her of being a weed. Alice is then instructed by the hash smoking caterpillar to eat a part of his mushroom to grow back to normal size. Alice then meets the Cheshire Cat who advises her to meet with the Mad Hatter, March Hare and the Dormouse. The three are hosting a mad tea party and celebrate Alice's "birthday" but it is a day when it's not her actual birthday.
The White Rabbit appears, but the March Hare and Mad Hatter destroy his pocketwatch and throw him out of the party. Fed up with all the wonderlandians' rudeness and wackiness, Alice abandons her pursuit of the White Rabbit and decides to go home, but gets lost in the Tulgey Wood. The Cheshire Cat appears and leads Alice into a giant hedge maze ruled by the tyrannical Queen of Hearts and her smaller husband, the King of Hearts. The Queen beheads anyone who enrages her, and invites Alice in a bizarre croquet match using flamingoes and hedgehogs as the equipment.
The Cheshire Cat appears again and pulls a trick on the Queen which she accuses Alice of doing, and Alice is put on trial. Just then, she remembers that she still has the remains of the Caterpillar's mushroom. She eats it and grows to an enormous height which the King claims is forbidden in court. Now a gigantic size, Alice feels free to speak her mind and in doing so she openly insults the Queen. However, she had hastily eaten both sides of the mushroom and shrinks to her normal size. She is forced to flee after the Queen orders her execution. Alice becomes pursued by most of Wonderland's characters until she finally reunites with the Doorknob, who then tells her she is having a dream, forcing Alice to wake herself up. The film ends as Alice and her sister head home for tea.
The history of Walt Disney's association with Lewis Carroll's Alice books (Alice in Wonderland, Through The Looking Glass) stretches all the way back to 1923, when Disney was still a 21-year-old filmmaker trying to make a name for himself in Kansas City. When his first series of short cartoons, the Newman Laugh-O-Grams, failed to recoup production costs, the struggling young producer tried to create other short films hoping that one of them would point the way forward. The last of these Kansas City works was called Alice's Wonderland featuring a live action girl (Virginia Davis) interacting with cartoon characters. While charming, the short failed to receive much notice, and so Walt Disney decided to abandon producing animated films, and left Kansas City to become a live-action film director in Hollywood.
In the late 1940s, work resumed on an all-animated Alice with a focus on comedy, music and spectacle as opposed to rigid fidelity to the books, and finally, in 1951, Walt Disney released a feature-length version of Alice in Wonderland to theaters, eighteen years after first discussing ideas for the project and almost thirty years after making his first Alice Comedy.
The book has inspired nurmerous film and television adaptations. Some of the adaptations are Alice in Wonderland (1903 film), silent film, directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, with May Clark as Alice, UK, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, (1910 film), silent film, directed by Edwin Stanton Porter, Alice in Wonderland (1915 film), silent film, directed by W.W. Young, Alice in Wonderland (1931 film), talkie, directed by Bud Pollard, Alice in Wonderland (1933 film), directed by Normand Z. McLeod, US, Alice in Wonderland (1937 TV Programme), directed by George More O'Ferrall, Alice in Wonderland (1949 film), live-action/stop motion film, animation directed by Lou Bunin, Alice in Wonderland (1951 film), traditional animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios, US, Alice in Wonderland 1966 animated Hanna-Barbera TV movie, with Janet Waldo as Alice, Alice (1988 film) live action and stop motion by Jan Svankmejer, Alice in Wonderland (1999 televesion movie) first shown on NBC and then shown on British Television on Channel 4 and Alice in Wonderland (2010 fim) directed by Tim Burton. The book has also inspired numerous comic book adaptations such as Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (Dell Comics, 1951), Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (Gold Key Comics, 1965), Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (Whitman, 1984) and The Complete Alice in Wonderland (Dynamite Entertainment, 2005.)
There are many targeted audiences for different adaptations of this particular fairytale such as the 2010 version by Tim Burton who it's target audiences are primarily for kids and families and kids that are somewhat older due to some of the scenes which involve drug use such as the hash smoking caterpillar. In this version Tim Burton uses much of the same dark, goth-type style of animation which we all know and love. Wheras Lewis Carroll's original version is targeted for mainly kids but is suitable for all ages.
(Information used as a reference from Wikipedia and IMB.)
Alice in Wonderland original trailer, 1951, Lewis Carroll.
Alice in Wonderland, 2010 trailer, Tim Burton.
Nightmare Before Christmas.
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 American stop-motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from Halloween Town who opens a portal to Christmas Town and decides to celebrate the holiday. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided a singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters.
The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as a Disney Animator. With the success of Vincent in the same year, Disney started to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, Burton and Disney made a development deal. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco, Walt Disney Pictures decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought Nightmare would be "too dark and scary for kids." The Nightmare Before Christmas was met with critical and financial success. Disney has reissued the film annually under their Disney Digital 3-D format since 2006.
Hallloween Town is a dream world filled with citizens such as deformed monsters, ghouls, ghosts, goblins, vampires, werewolves and witches. Jack Skellington (The Pumpkin King) leads them in a frightful celebration every Halloween, but he has grown tired of the same routine year after year. Wandering in the forrest outside the town centre, he accidently opens a portal to Christmas Town. Impressed by the style and feeling of Christmas, Jack presents his findings and his somewhat limited understanding of the holiday to the Halloween Town residents. They fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything he says to their idea of Halloween. He decided to play along and and announces that they will take over Christmas.
Christmas Eve arrives and Sally attempts to stop Jack with fog, but he embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer guided by the glowing nose of his ghost dog Zero. He begins to deliver presents to children around the world, but the gifts (shrunken heads, Christmas tree-eating snakes, etc.) only terrify the recipients. Jack is believed to be an imposter attempting to imitate Santa, and the military goes on alert to blast him out of the sky. The sleigh is shot down and he is presumed dead by Halloween Town's citizens, but in fact he has survived the crash, landing in a cemetery. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan, he quickly regains his old spirit, having come up with new ideas for next Halloween. He then rushes back home to rescue Santa and put things right.
Meanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa, but is captured by Oogie. Jack slips into the lair and frees them, then confronts Oogie and unravels his outer covering to spill out all the bugs that live inside him. With Oogie gone, Santa reprimands Jack before setting off to deliver the right presents to the world's children. He makes snow fall over Halloween Town to show that there are no hard feelings between himself and Jack; the townspeople are confused by the snow at first, but soon begin to play happily in it. Jack reveals that he is attracted to Sally just as she is to him, and they kiss under the full moon in the cemetery.
There are many related media influenced by this movie such as a video game deveoped by Capcom, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge was released for Xbox and Playstation 2 on October 21st 2004 in Japan and on September 30th 2005 in Europe and October 10th and 2005 in North America. The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King was also a game produced by Tose. Co. Limited and was released for the Gameboy Advance in 2005.
A collectible card game based on the film was released in 2005 by NECA. The game was designed by Andrew Parks and Kez Shlasnger. It consists of a Premiere set and 4 Starter Decks based on four characters, Jack Skellington, the Mayor, Oogie Boogie and Doctor Finklestein. Each Starter contain a rule book, a Pumpkin King card, a Pumpkin Points card, and a 48-card deck. The game has four card types: Characters, Locales, Creations, and Surprises. The Cards' rarities are separated into four categories: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra Rare.
A collector's edition The Nightmare Before Christmas themed Jenga game was issued with orange, purple and black blocks with Jack Skellington heads on them. The set comes in a coffin shaped box instead of the normal rectangular box.
The targeted audience for this particular animation would be for teenagers and above. It may also be targeted for young children but the concept of the film is dark and scary-like so young children may not like it beacuse they could get frightened.
(Some information used as reference from Wikipedia.)
The Nightmare Before Chistmas, 1993, Tim Burton.
Snow White.
Snow white is a German fairy tale known in many countys in Europe. The best known is a German version collected by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 as German: Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge - Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs. The German version features such as elements as the magic mirror, the poisoned apple, the glass coffin, and the seven dwarfs, who were first given individual names in the Broadway play Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (1912.)
Once upon a time, as a Queen sits sewing at her window, she pricks her finger on her needle and three drops of blood fall on the snow that had fallen on her ebony window frame. As she looks at the blood on the snow, she says to herself, "Oh, how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony". Soon after that, the Queen gives birth to a baby girl who has skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. They name her Snow White, and soon after, the Queen dies.
Soon after, the King takes a new wife, who is beautiful but also very vain. The new queen possesses a mirror an animate object that answers any question, to whom she often asks: "Magic mirror on the wall / Who is the fairest of them all?" The mirror always replies, "You, my Queen, are fairest of all." But, when Snow White reaches the age of seven, she becomes as beautiful as the day, and when the Queen asks her mirror, it responds: "Queen, you are full fair, it is true, but Snow White is fairer than you." In another version of the tale, the mirror simply replies: "Snow White is the fairest of them all."
The Queen becomes jealous and orders a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed. She demands as proof that Snow White is dead, he return with her lungs and liver (in other versions, it was her heart). The huntsman takes Snow White into the forest. After raising his knife, he finds himself unable to kill her as he has fallen deeply in love with her. Instead, he lets her go telling her to flee and hide from the Queen. He then brings the Queen the lungs and liver of a boar, which is prepared by the cook and eaten by the Queen.
Time passes, and a Prince traveling through the land sees Snow White. He strides to her coffin, and enchanted by her beauty, instantly falls in love with her. The Dwarfs succumb to his entreaties to let him have the coffin, and as his servants carry the coffin away, they stumble on some roots. This causes the piece of poisoned apple to dislodge from Snow White's throat, awakening her (in later adaptions of the tale, the Prince kisses Snow White, which brings her back to life). The Prince then declares his love for her, and soon a wedding is planned.
The vain Queen, still believing that Snow White is dead, again asks her magical mirror who is the fairest in the land. Yet again the mirror disappoints her by responding, "You, my Queen, are fair; it is true. But the young Queen is a thousand times fairer than you."
Not knowing that this new queen was indeed her stepdaughter, she arrives at the wedding, and her heart fills with the deepest of dread when she realizes the truth. As punishment for her wicked ways, a pair of heated iron shoes are brought forth with tongs and placed before the Queen. She is then forced to step into the iron shoes and to dance until she drops dead.
Snow White comes from the fairytale first written down in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm, in itself drawn from older Europian traditions. The most well known version of the film is the Disney animated classic Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (1937) which is the undisputed classic telling and from which almost all other adaptations of Snow White draw from. There have been some 20 or so other film versions ranging all the way from Snow White & The Three Stooges (1961) to Golan-Globus's cheap Snow White (1987) and in recent years other deconstructions/modernisations such as the excellent dark adult Snow White: A Tale Of Terror (1997), Hallmark’s Snow White (2001), the German comedy 7 Dwarfs: Men Alone In The Woods (2004), the modernised high school retelling Sydney White (2007), the animated parody Happily N' Ever After (2009) and the superb ballet adaptation Snow White(2010), while Snow White also turns up as a character in Grimm's Fairytale For Adults (1970) and Shrek The Third (2007) and in the modern world in tv’s The Charmings (1987) and Once Upon A Time while much of the Disney film is spoofed in Enchanted (2007) and a more recent adaptation Snow White & The Huntsman, 2012, directed by Rupert Sanders.
Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, 1937, Brothers Grimm.
Snow White & The Huntsman, 2012, Rupert Sanders.
(Some information used as reference from Wikipedia.)
Beauty & The Beast.
Beauty & The Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, in 1740. The best known written version was an abridgment of her work published in 1756 by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. Variants of the tale are known across Europe. In France for example, Zemire et Azor is an operatic version of the story of Beauty & The Beast written by Marmontel and composed by gretry in 1771.
The plot of this particular story is about a wealthy merchant who lived in a mansion with his three daughters, all of whom were very beautiful, but only the youngest, at fourteen, is named Belle for being lovely and pure of heart; her sisters, in contrast, are wicked and selfish. The merchant eventually loses all of his wealth in a tempest at sea, and he and his daughters must therefore live in a small farmhouse and work for their living. After some years of this, the merchant hears that one of the trade ships he had sent off has arrived back in port, having escaped the destruction of it's compatriots; therefore, he returns to the city to discover whether it contains anything of monetary value. Before leaving, he asks his daughters whether they desire he bring them any gifts upon his return. His two elder daughters ask for jewels and fine dresses, thinking that his wealth has returned; Belle is satisfied with the promise of a rose, as none grow in their part of the country. The merchant, to his dismay, finds that his ships cargo has been seized to pay his debts, leaving him without money to buy his daughters their presents.
During the merchants return, he finds himself lost in a forest. Seeking shelter, he enters a dazzling palace. He finds inside tables laden with food and drink, which have apparently been left for him by the palace's unseen owner. The merchant accepts this gifts and stays the night. The next morning as the merchant is about to leave, he sees a rose garden and recalls that Belle had desired a rose. Upon picking the loveliest rose he finds, the merchant is confronted by a hideous beast, which tells him that for taking his most precious possession after accepting his hospitality, the merchant must die. The merchant begs to be set free, arguing that he had only picked the rose as a gift for his youngest daughter. The beast agrees to let him give the rose to Belle, only if the merchant will return, or his daughter goes to the castle in his place.
The merchant is upset, but accepts this condition. The beast sends him on his way, with jewels and fine clothes for his daughters, and stresses that Belle must come to the castle of her own accord. The merchant, upon arriving home, tries to hide the secret from Belle, but she pries it from him and willingly goes to the beasts castle. The beast receives her graciously and informs her that she is a mistress of the castle, and he is her servant. He gives her lavish clothing and food. Each night, the beast asks Belle to marry him, only to be refused each time. After each refusal, Belle dreams of a handsome prince who pleads with her to answer why she keeps refusing him, and she replies that she cannot marry the beast because she only loves him as a friend. Belle does not make the connection between the handsome prince and the beast and becomes convinced that the beast is holding the prince captive somewhere in the castle. She searches for him and discovers many enchanted rooms but never the prince of her dreams.
For several months, Belle lives a life of luxury at the beast's palace, being waited on hand and foot by invisible servants, having no end of riches to amuse her and an endless supply of exquisite finary to wear. Eventually she becomes homesick and begs the beast to allow her to go and see her family. He allows it, if she will return exactly a week later. Belle agrees to this and sets off for home with an enchanted mirror and ring. The mirror allows her to see what is going on back at the beast's castle, and the ring allows her to return to the castle in an instant when turned three times around her finger. Her older sisters are surprised to find her well fed and dressed in finery The grow jealous of her happy life at the castle, and, hearing that she must return to the beast on a certain day, beg her to stay another day, even putting onion in their eyes to make it appear as though they were weeping. It is their wish that the beast will grow angry with Belle for breaking her promise and will eat her alive. Belle's heart is moved by her sisters false show of love, and she agrees to stay.
Belle begins to feel guilty about breaking her promise to the beast and uses the mirror to see him back at the castle. She is horrified to discover that the beast is lying half dead of heartbreak near the rose bushes her father had stolen from and she immediately uses the ring to return to the beast.
Upon returning, Belle finds the beast almost dead, and she weeps over him, saying that she loves him. When her tears strike him, the beast is transformed into a handsome prince. The prince informs Belle that long ago a fairy turned him into a hidious beast after he refused to let her in from the rain, and that only by finding true love, despite his ugliness, could the curse be broken. He and Belle are then married and live happily ever after.
There is also another version of this which is Villeneuve's tale which includes several elements that Beaumont's omits. The beast was a prince who lost his father at a young age, and whose mother had to wage war to defend his kingdom. The queen left him in care of an evil fairy, who tried to seduce him when he became an adult; when he refused, she transformed him into a beast. Belle's story reveals that she is not really a merchants daughter but the offspring of a king and good fairy. The wicked fairy had tried to murder Belle so she could marry her father, the king, and Belle was put in the place of the merchants dead daughter to protect her. She also gave the castle magic,
This particular fairy tale has had many adaptations such as screen, stage, prose, and television over the years. Some of these adaptation include Beastly by Alex Flinn who sets the story in modern day, Manhattan, Belle: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast by Robin McKinley, a 1952 animated feature film The Scarlet Flower directed by Lev Atamanov in 1987, a 1962 version by Edward L Cahn, in 1991 Walt Disney Feature Animation produced a musical animated film entitled Beauty & The Beast, directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale and Fashion Beast, a 1980's screenplay by Alan Moore.
(Some information used as reference from Wikipedia.)
Beauty & The Beast, 1991, Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise.
Alice In Wonderland was first created in 1951 and is an American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and based primarily on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a few additional elements from Through The Looking Glass. The film was released in New York City and in London on July 26th, 1951.
The plot/content of the film is about a young girl named Alice. On the bank of a tranquil English river, she grows bored of listening to her older sister read aloud from a history book of William I of England. When her sister catches Alice daydreaming, Alice tells her cat Dinah that she would prefer to live in a nonsensical dreamland called Wonderland. Alice and Dinah spot a waistcoat-wearing white rabbit passing by, and Alice gives chase as she rushes off claiming to be late for an unknown event. Alice follows the rabbit into a rabbit hole and falls into labyrinth. Her dress balloons out and she begins to float. She sees the white rabbit dissapear through a tiny door and tries to follow but the door knob's voice tells her to alter the size of the door using a mysterious food and drink. She eventually manages to shrink and passes through the door into Wonderland. She meets several strange characters including the Dodo and Tweedledee & Tweedledum who recount the tale of "The Walrus & The Carpenter."
The White Rabbit, the Dodo and Bill the Lizard believe Alice to be a monster and try burning the house down where she finds the White Rabbit. Alice escapes by eating a carrot and shrinking down to the size of an insect. She meets and sings with some talking flowers, but they chase her away upon accusing her of being a weed. Alice is then instructed by the hash smoking caterpillar to eat a part of his mushroom to grow back to normal size. Alice then meets the Cheshire Cat who advises her to meet with the Mad Hatter, March Hare and the Dormouse. The three are hosting a mad tea party and celebrate Alice's "birthday" but it is a day when it's not her actual birthday.
The White Rabbit appears, but the March Hare and Mad Hatter destroy his pocketwatch and throw him out of the party. Fed up with all the wonderlandians' rudeness and wackiness, Alice abandons her pursuit of the White Rabbit and decides to go home, but gets lost in the Tulgey Wood. The Cheshire Cat appears and leads Alice into a giant hedge maze ruled by the tyrannical Queen of Hearts and her smaller husband, the King of Hearts. The Queen beheads anyone who enrages her, and invites Alice in a bizarre croquet match using flamingoes and hedgehogs as the equipment.
The Cheshire Cat appears again and pulls a trick on the Queen which she accuses Alice of doing, and Alice is put on trial. Just then, she remembers that she still has the remains of the Caterpillar's mushroom. She eats it and grows to an enormous height which the King claims is forbidden in court. Now a gigantic size, Alice feels free to speak her mind and in doing so she openly insults the Queen. However, she had hastily eaten both sides of the mushroom and shrinks to her normal size. She is forced to flee after the Queen orders her execution. Alice becomes pursued by most of Wonderland's characters until she finally reunites with the Doorknob, who then tells her she is having a dream, forcing Alice to wake herself up. The film ends as Alice and her sister head home for tea.
The history of Walt Disney's association with Lewis Carroll's Alice books (Alice in Wonderland, Through The Looking Glass) stretches all the way back to 1923, when Disney was still a 21-year-old filmmaker trying to make a name for himself in Kansas City. When his first series of short cartoons, the Newman Laugh-O-Grams, failed to recoup production costs, the struggling young producer tried to create other short films hoping that one of them would point the way forward. The last of these Kansas City works was called Alice's Wonderland featuring a live action girl (Virginia Davis) interacting with cartoon characters. While charming, the short failed to receive much notice, and so Walt Disney decided to abandon producing animated films, and left Kansas City to become a live-action film director in Hollywood.
In the late 1940s, work resumed on an all-animated Alice with a focus on comedy, music and spectacle as opposed to rigid fidelity to the books, and finally, in 1951, Walt Disney released a feature-length version of Alice in Wonderland to theaters, eighteen years after first discussing ideas for the project and almost thirty years after making his first Alice Comedy.
The book has inspired nurmerous film and television adaptations. Some of the adaptations are Alice in Wonderland (1903 film), silent film, directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, with May Clark as Alice, UK, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, (1910 film), silent film, directed by Edwin Stanton Porter, Alice in Wonderland (1915 film), silent film, directed by W.W. Young, Alice in Wonderland (1931 film), talkie, directed by Bud Pollard, Alice in Wonderland (1933 film), directed by Normand Z. McLeod, US, Alice in Wonderland (1937 TV Programme), directed by George More O'Ferrall, Alice in Wonderland (1949 film), live-action/stop motion film, animation directed by Lou Bunin, Alice in Wonderland (1951 film), traditional animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios, US, Alice in Wonderland 1966 animated Hanna-Barbera TV movie, with Janet Waldo as Alice, Alice (1988 film) live action and stop motion by Jan Svankmejer, Alice in Wonderland (1999 televesion movie) first shown on NBC and then shown on British Television on Channel 4 and Alice in Wonderland (2010 fim) directed by Tim Burton. The book has also inspired numerous comic book adaptations such as Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (Dell Comics, 1951), Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (Gold Key Comics, 1965), Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (Whitman, 1984) and The Complete Alice in Wonderland (Dynamite Entertainment, 2005.)
There are many targeted audiences for different adaptations of this particular fairytale such as the 2010 version by Tim Burton who it's target audiences are primarily for kids and families and kids that are somewhat older due to some of the scenes which involve drug use such as the hash smoking caterpillar. In this version Tim Burton uses much of the same dark, goth-type style of animation which we all know and love. Wheras Lewis Carroll's original version is targeted for mainly kids but is suitable for all ages.
(Information used as a reference from Wikipedia and IMB.)
Alice in Wonderland original trailer, 1951, Lewis Carroll.
Alice in Wonderland, 2010 trailer, Tim Burton.
Nightmare Before Christmas.
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 American stop-motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from Halloween Town who opens a portal to Christmas Town and decides to celebrate the holiday. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided a singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters.
The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as a Disney Animator. With the success of Vincent in the same year, Disney started to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, Burton and Disney made a development deal. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco, Walt Disney Pictures decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought Nightmare would be "too dark and scary for kids." The Nightmare Before Christmas was met with critical and financial success. Disney has reissued the film annually under their Disney Digital 3-D format since 2006.
Hallloween Town is a dream world filled with citizens such as deformed monsters, ghouls, ghosts, goblins, vampires, werewolves and witches. Jack Skellington (The Pumpkin King) leads them in a frightful celebration every Halloween, but he has grown tired of the same routine year after year. Wandering in the forrest outside the town centre, he accidently opens a portal to Christmas Town. Impressed by the style and feeling of Christmas, Jack presents his findings and his somewhat limited understanding of the holiday to the Halloween Town residents. They fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything he says to their idea of Halloween. He decided to play along and and announces that they will take over Christmas.
Christmas Eve arrives and Sally attempts to stop Jack with fog, but he embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer guided by the glowing nose of his ghost dog Zero. He begins to deliver presents to children around the world, but the gifts (shrunken heads, Christmas tree-eating snakes, etc.) only terrify the recipients. Jack is believed to be an imposter attempting to imitate Santa, and the military goes on alert to blast him out of the sky. The sleigh is shot down and he is presumed dead by Halloween Town's citizens, but in fact he has survived the crash, landing in a cemetery. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan, he quickly regains his old spirit, having come up with new ideas for next Halloween. He then rushes back home to rescue Santa and put things right.
Meanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa, but is captured by Oogie. Jack slips into the lair and frees them, then confronts Oogie and unravels his outer covering to spill out all the bugs that live inside him. With Oogie gone, Santa reprimands Jack before setting off to deliver the right presents to the world's children. He makes snow fall over Halloween Town to show that there are no hard feelings between himself and Jack; the townspeople are confused by the snow at first, but soon begin to play happily in it. Jack reveals that he is attracted to Sally just as she is to him, and they kiss under the full moon in the cemetery.
There are many related media influenced by this movie such as a video game deveoped by Capcom, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge was released for Xbox and Playstation 2 on October 21st 2004 in Japan and on September 30th 2005 in Europe and October 10th and 2005 in North America. The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King was also a game produced by Tose. Co. Limited and was released for the Gameboy Advance in 2005.
A collectible card game based on the film was released in 2005 by NECA. The game was designed by Andrew Parks and Kez Shlasnger. It consists of a Premiere set and 4 Starter Decks based on four characters, Jack Skellington, the Mayor, Oogie Boogie and Doctor Finklestein. Each Starter contain a rule book, a Pumpkin King card, a Pumpkin Points card, and a 48-card deck. The game has four card types: Characters, Locales, Creations, and Surprises. The Cards' rarities are separated into four categories: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra Rare.
A collector's edition The Nightmare Before Christmas themed Jenga game was issued with orange, purple and black blocks with Jack Skellington heads on them. The set comes in a coffin shaped box instead of the normal rectangular box.
The targeted audience for this particular animation would be for teenagers and above. It may also be targeted for young children but the concept of the film is dark and scary-like so young children may not like it beacuse they could get frightened.
(Some information used as reference from Wikipedia.)
The Nightmare Before Chistmas, 1993, Tim Burton.
Snow White.
Snow white is a German fairy tale known in many countys in Europe. The best known is a German version collected by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 as German: Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge - Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs. The German version features such as elements as the magic mirror, the poisoned apple, the glass coffin, and the seven dwarfs, who were first given individual names in the Broadway play Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (1912.)
Once upon a time, as a Queen sits sewing at her window, she pricks her finger on her needle and three drops of blood fall on the snow that had fallen on her ebony window frame. As she looks at the blood on the snow, she says to herself, "Oh, how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony". Soon after that, the Queen gives birth to a baby girl who has skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. They name her Snow White, and soon after, the Queen dies.
Soon after, the King takes a new wife, who is beautiful but also very vain. The new queen possesses a mirror an animate object that answers any question, to whom she often asks: "Magic mirror on the wall / Who is the fairest of them all?" The mirror always replies, "You, my Queen, are fairest of all." But, when Snow White reaches the age of seven, she becomes as beautiful as the day, and when the Queen asks her mirror, it responds: "Queen, you are full fair, it is true, but Snow White is fairer than you." In another version of the tale, the mirror simply replies: "Snow White is the fairest of them all."
The Queen becomes jealous and orders a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed. She demands as proof that Snow White is dead, he return with her lungs and liver (in other versions, it was her heart). The huntsman takes Snow White into the forest. After raising his knife, he finds himself unable to kill her as he has fallen deeply in love with her. Instead, he lets her go telling her to flee and hide from the Queen. He then brings the Queen the lungs and liver of a boar, which is prepared by the cook and eaten by the Queen.
Time passes, and a Prince traveling through the land sees Snow White. He strides to her coffin, and enchanted by her beauty, instantly falls in love with her. The Dwarfs succumb to his entreaties to let him have the coffin, and as his servants carry the coffin away, they stumble on some roots. This causes the piece of poisoned apple to dislodge from Snow White's throat, awakening her (in later adaptions of the tale, the Prince kisses Snow White, which brings her back to life). The Prince then declares his love for her, and soon a wedding is planned.
The vain Queen, still believing that Snow White is dead, again asks her magical mirror who is the fairest in the land. Yet again the mirror disappoints her by responding, "You, my Queen, are fair; it is true. But the young Queen is a thousand times fairer than you."
Not knowing that this new queen was indeed her stepdaughter, she arrives at the wedding, and her heart fills with the deepest of dread when she realizes the truth. As punishment for her wicked ways, a pair of heated iron shoes are brought forth with tongs and placed before the Queen. She is then forced to step into the iron shoes and to dance until she drops dead.
Snow White comes from the fairytale first written down in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm, in itself drawn from older Europian traditions. The most well known version of the film is the Disney animated classic Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (1937) which is the undisputed classic telling and from which almost all other adaptations of Snow White draw from. There have been some 20 or so other film versions ranging all the way from Snow White & The Three Stooges (1961) to Golan-Globus's cheap Snow White (1987) and in recent years other deconstructions/modernisations such as the excellent dark adult Snow White: A Tale Of Terror (1997), Hallmark’s Snow White (2001), the German comedy 7 Dwarfs: Men Alone In The Woods (2004), the modernised high school retelling Sydney White (2007), the animated parody Happily N' Ever After (2009) and the superb ballet adaptation Snow White(2010), while Snow White also turns up as a character in Grimm's Fairytale For Adults (1970) and Shrek The Third (2007) and in the modern world in tv’s The Charmings (1987) and Once Upon A Time while much of the Disney film is spoofed in Enchanted (2007) and a more recent adaptation Snow White & The Huntsman, 2012, directed by Rupert Sanders.
Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, 1937, Brothers Grimm.
Snow White & The Huntsman, 2012, Rupert Sanders.
(Some information used as reference from Wikipedia.)
Beauty & The Beast.
Beauty & The Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, in 1740. The best known written version was an abridgment of her work published in 1756 by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. Variants of the tale are known across Europe. In France for example, Zemire et Azor is an operatic version of the story of Beauty & The Beast written by Marmontel and composed by gretry in 1771.
The plot of this particular story is about a wealthy merchant who lived in a mansion with his three daughters, all of whom were very beautiful, but only the youngest, at fourteen, is named Belle for being lovely and pure of heart; her sisters, in contrast, are wicked and selfish. The merchant eventually loses all of his wealth in a tempest at sea, and he and his daughters must therefore live in a small farmhouse and work for their living. After some years of this, the merchant hears that one of the trade ships he had sent off has arrived back in port, having escaped the destruction of it's compatriots; therefore, he returns to the city to discover whether it contains anything of monetary value. Before leaving, he asks his daughters whether they desire he bring them any gifts upon his return. His two elder daughters ask for jewels and fine dresses, thinking that his wealth has returned; Belle is satisfied with the promise of a rose, as none grow in their part of the country. The merchant, to his dismay, finds that his ships cargo has been seized to pay his debts, leaving him without money to buy his daughters their presents.
During the merchants return, he finds himself lost in a forest. Seeking shelter, he enters a dazzling palace. He finds inside tables laden with food and drink, which have apparently been left for him by the palace's unseen owner. The merchant accepts this gifts and stays the night. The next morning as the merchant is about to leave, he sees a rose garden and recalls that Belle had desired a rose. Upon picking the loveliest rose he finds, the merchant is confronted by a hideous beast, which tells him that for taking his most precious possession after accepting his hospitality, the merchant must die. The merchant begs to be set free, arguing that he had only picked the rose as a gift for his youngest daughter. The beast agrees to let him give the rose to Belle, only if the merchant will return, or his daughter goes to the castle in his place.
The merchant is upset, but accepts this condition. The beast sends him on his way, with jewels and fine clothes for his daughters, and stresses that Belle must come to the castle of her own accord. The merchant, upon arriving home, tries to hide the secret from Belle, but she pries it from him and willingly goes to the beasts castle. The beast receives her graciously and informs her that she is a mistress of the castle, and he is her servant. He gives her lavish clothing and food. Each night, the beast asks Belle to marry him, only to be refused each time. After each refusal, Belle dreams of a handsome prince who pleads with her to answer why she keeps refusing him, and she replies that she cannot marry the beast because she only loves him as a friend. Belle does not make the connection between the handsome prince and the beast and becomes convinced that the beast is holding the prince captive somewhere in the castle. She searches for him and discovers many enchanted rooms but never the prince of her dreams.
For several months, Belle lives a life of luxury at the beast's palace, being waited on hand and foot by invisible servants, having no end of riches to amuse her and an endless supply of exquisite finary to wear. Eventually she becomes homesick and begs the beast to allow her to go and see her family. He allows it, if she will return exactly a week later. Belle agrees to this and sets off for home with an enchanted mirror and ring. The mirror allows her to see what is going on back at the beast's castle, and the ring allows her to return to the castle in an instant when turned three times around her finger. Her older sisters are surprised to find her well fed and dressed in finery The grow jealous of her happy life at the castle, and, hearing that she must return to the beast on a certain day, beg her to stay another day, even putting onion in their eyes to make it appear as though they were weeping. It is their wish that the beast will grow angry with Belle for breaking her promise and will eat her alive. Belle's heart is moved by her sisters false show of love, and she agrees to stay.
Belle begins to feel guilty about breaking her promise to the beast and uses the mirror to see him back at the castle. She is horrified to discover that the beast is lying half dead of heartbreak near the rose bushes her father had stolen from and she immediately uses the ring to return to the beast.
Upon returning, Belle finds the beast almost dead, and she weeps over him, saying that she loves him. When her tears strike him, the beast is transformed into a handsome prince. The prince informs Belle that long ago a fairy turned him into a hidious beast after he refused to let her in from the rain, and that only by finding true love, despite his ugliness, could the curse be broken. He and Belle are then married and live happily ever after.
There is also another version of this which is Villeneuve's tale which includes several elements that Beaumont's omits. The beast was a prince who lost his father at a young age, and whose mother had to wage war to defend his kingdom. The queen left him in care of an evil fairy, who tried to seduce him when he became an adult; when he refused, she transformed him into a beast. Belle's story reveals that she is not really a merchants daughter but the offspring of a king and good fairy. The wicked fairy had tried to murder Belle so she could marry her father, the king, and Belle was put in the place of the merchants dead daughter to protect her. She also gave the castle magic,
This particular fairy tale has had many adaptations such as screen, stage, prose, and television over the years. Some of these adaptation include Beastly by Alex Flinn who sets the story in modern day, Manhattan, Belle: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast by Robin McKinley, a 1952 animated feature film The Scarlet Flower directed by Lev Atamanov in 1987, a 1962 version by Edward L Cahn, in 1991 Walt Disney Feature Animation produced a musical animated film entitled Beauty & The Beast, directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale and Fashion Beast, a 1980's screenplay by Alan Moore.
(Some information used as reference from Wikipedia.)
Beauty & The Beast, 1991, Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise.
Monday, 8 October 2012
Experimental Photography.
Today we had to experiment with photographs we had taken around the college on Photoshop. We were asked to take a series of photographs around the college, experimenting with aperture and shutter speed and light trails. Once we had taken our photographs we then had to upload some of our favorites and experiment using curves and other adjustments on Photoshop.
Below are my original photograph and the same one but after I had experimented with Photoshop.
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie.
Her Morning Elegance.
Oran Lavie was born in 1976 and is an Israeli singer, songwriter, playwright and theater director. His music video for "Her Morning Elegance" earned a 2009 Grammy Award nomination for Best Short Form Music Video. He likes to create dreamy visuals from realistic elements, he enjoys squeezing big worlds into small spaces. Her Morning Elegance was all shot in stills, roughly 3225 still photos for the entire video, using one camera and hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie. It took four weeks before shooting to create an animated computer generated story board for the video, with 3D dummies for the characters. It took only two days of shooting for the live actors on set to re create the 3.5 minute computer sequence, frame by frame. Some of the bed sheets used in the video were taken from Oren's own bedroom and are now considered collector's items, worth at the moment not very much and therefore used as bed sheets.
Her Morning Elegance is a music video created by Oran Lavie, in which a restless woman attempts to sleep while a camera is fixed in position above films her every move. The carefully crafted stop motion music video has the black and white linen of the bed acting as a canvas for the model's movements as she dreams. At one point she uses the pillows as stepping stones, a pair of trousers start dancing with her and then Oran Lavie appears next to her, all of this of course created by the stop motion technique which created these lovely effects. I thought the setting/location for this piece was very good and I couldn't think of any other location to fit so perfectly with the story. In a bedroom, on a mattress and a girl dreaming. What else could fit with that? The animation uses great use of color, texture and lighting for example when the woman tries to drift off to sleep it is light and then when she starts falling asleep and dreaming it is night, also another example is the black and white linen bed sheets which are used to create the effect of a canvas for the model. The soundtrack for the animation is of course appropriate as it is one of the creator's own songs which flows with the whole concept of the animation. There is only one camera angle used throughout the entire animation and that is where it is angled from above so it is looking down on her dreaming, capturing her every movement.
Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie.
Neighbours - Norman McLaren.
Neighbors.
Neighbors is a 1952 anti-war film by Scottish-Canadian film maker Norman McLaren. Produced at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, the film used the technique known as Pixilation, an animation technique using live actors as stop-motion objects. McLaren created the soundtrack of the film by scratching the edge of the film, creating various blobs, lines and triangles which the projector read as sound.
The main plot of the story is about two men, Jean-Paul Ladouceur and Grant Munro. They live peacefully in adjacent cardboard houses. When a flower blooms between their houses, they fight each other to death over the ownership of the single small flower.
Norman McLaren's short animation film "Neighbours" is a dramatic and yet an amusing, humorous piece. From the first frame, it's hard not to notice McLaren's distinctive style of work. With this piece, he uses a combination of live action, animation and special effects. The remarkable technique of stop motion animation is what gives this piece a humorous touch to the topic of violent behaviour. The fight between the pair starts over a single bloomed flower placed between each of their houses, with each of them trying to be the owner of it eventually. The special effects used in this particular piece are fantastic, especially one scene where the two men appear to be levitating. This particular effect is achieved with the stop motion technique where the live actors are required to continuously jump whilst the creator continues to take photographs until the desired effect is achieved. I thought the setting/location was perfect for this particular piece, you can tell this short animation was created during the war by just the old effect the creator has tried to use such as the way the two men dress, the cardboard houses and their chairs, I don't think any other location would have fitted with this piece. The soundtrack is very effective for this animation. McLaren created it by scratching the edge of the film to create various blobs, lines and triangles which flow with the actors' movements throughout the film. I wouldn't say there were any camera angles in this animation as it's stop motion, I'm not to sure about that.
Norman McLaren - Neighbours.
Neighbors is a 1952 anti-war film by Scottish-Canadian film maker Norman McLaren. Produced at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, the film used the technique known as Pixilation, an animation technique using live actors as stop-motion objects. McLaren created the soundtrack of the film by scratching the edge of the film, creating various blobs, lines and triangles which the projector read as sound.
The main plot of the story is about two men, Jean-Paul Ladouceur and Grant Munro. They live peacefully in adjacent cardboard houses. When a flower blooms between their houses, they fight each other to death over the ownership of the single small flower.
Norman McLaren's short animation film "Neighbours" is a dramatic and yet an amusing, humorous piece. From the first frame, it's hard not to notice McLaren's distinctive style of work. With this piece, he uses a combination of live action, animation and special effects. The remarkable technique of stop motion animation is what gives this piece a humorous touch to the topic of violent behaviour. The fight between the pair starts over a single bloomed flower placed between each of their houses, with each of them trying to be the owner of it eventually. The special effects used in this particular piece are fantastic, especially one scene where the two men appear to be levitating. This particular effect is achieved with the stop motion technique where the live actors are required to continuously jump whilst the creator continues to take photographs until the desired effect is achieved. I thought the setting/location was perfect for this particular piece, you can tell this short animation was created during the war by just the old effect the creator has tried to use such as the way the two men dress, the cardboard houses and their chairs, I don't think any other location would have fitted with this piece. The soundtrack is very effective for this animation. McLaren created it by scratching the edge of the film to create various blobs, lines and triangles which flow with the actors' movements throughout the film. I wouldn't say there were any camera angles in this animation as it's stop motion, I'm not to sure about that.
Norman McLaren - Neighbours.
Flip Books.
Today we had to create our own flip books. I found this task quite difficult, not difficult as in the sense I was struggeling to complete the task but in the sense that it involved drawing and I don't think drawing is one of my strong points but I managed to complete the task by doing 20-30 simple drawings of different fish to create the effect of a flip book where the picture moves. Below is a picture I took on a Mac of my own flip book.
Gizele Kerozene - Jan Kounen.
In a modernistic city, three odd fellows seem to worship a small bird-like statue when a fourth bizarre person steals it. They chase each other around on their motorized flying brooms. One by one the thief eludes/dispatches his pursuers as they zoom through the city.
The first time I had seen this short video I was literally in fits of laughter. Although creepy it is very amusing. This short animated film was all shot in pixilation in the corporate quarters of Paris, La Defence. The fact that this video is created using pixilation seriously intrigues me, the time and effort one must have put in to creating this is unbelievable, it is so very well animated. Who knew you could create the effect of flying with actors just jumping and continuously taking pictures? That's why I love pixilation! Special effects that are shown throughout the film are the actors dressed up as what appears to be goblins/witches/monsters of some sort and the effect to be flying which is achieved by the creator taking a series of photographs whilst the actor is continuously jumping. The location that the creator chose to animate the film I thought was good but maybe the artist could have chosen a more creepy location to flow with the concept of the animation and the monster theme like actors. I also was not too keen on the fact that the animation was in day light, maybe night time would have had more effectiveness on the whole concept? The animation does make certain use of color, texture and lighting and impacts on the effectiveness, for example, the colors used on the actors were very dark to flow with the monster like theme the artist was trying to achieve and the materials used such as make up to create the faces was also very well done. There isn't really a soundtrack in the animation just sort of laughing and weird noises made by the actors which is done very well and flows with the animation so all in all it didn't really need any music. Camera angles are used several times in this particular animation such as at one point in the animation all of the goblins are chasing each other on their brooms and the camera is angled so you can see them all zooming toward you. I have to say after watching this video, Jan Kounen has really inspired me in the artistic sense, his videos are different, funny and scary and inspire me to eventually be able to animate and edit my films like this in the near future.
Jan Kounen was born on 2 May, 1964, is from Utrecht, Netherlands and is a Dutch-born French film director and producer. In France, he is mostly known for his films Doberman (1997), Blueberry l'experience Secrete (2004) and 99 Francs (2007.) Outside of France, he is known for his interest in Shipibo-Conibo culture and shamanism.
Gisele Kerozene - Jan Kounen.
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