Monday, July 26, 2010

Requiem: Research

The book opens with an introduction by the photographer and is closed with an insightful afterword by Dr. Jeni Williams I.C.Rapoprt's sensitive photographs are beautifully judged, high quality images, they do not shock but seek to suggest lives beyond their representations. The figures they commemorate are allowed the dignity of being people rather than victims. As social history, they construct a narrative of development that is ultimately positive even though some of the individual images are so delicately, tragically moving. These pictures show, not only the community in its devastation - again not as victims- but in its social and historical particularity. The interiors, the clothes, the miners going underground, the woman holding a baby in a shawl: all these are part of something lost also.
I decided, I was getting no-where with searching google and emailing around for images etc.. so I hit the 'BUY' button on a book..


Aberfan: The Days After: A Journey in Pictures - I.C. Rapoport


So... It should be here Tuesday.. Wednesday at the latest.. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Requiem: Aberfan

More images regarding Aberfan / Pontglas School


Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Requiem: Emailing

Right, in a previous post, I mentioned about me emailing a man named Alan George, he responded within an hour and said sadly he cannot help but then reffered me to a lady in a welsh national library, so I then went on to email her, and she responded with a similar thing, but also added about images being copyrighted etc.. So I thought maybe the BBC or The Sun could help me! BBC have yet to get back to me, but the sun emailed back within half an hour to say, they don't send any resources or anything via email and they only supply newspaper articles not any images and such. But I would need to write a letter to them and put inside a addressed and stamped envelope so they can return anything.

(sorry about spelling, grammar, and sentence structure, but I had to write this up on my iPhone.)

Thanks
Dan

Requiem: Memorial Progress

I've been modelling the Memorial piece..

Maya Screenshot
Basic Maya Render - No Lighting

Maya Render - Simple Lighting

Maya Render - area light - bright white texture

Requiem: Youtube References



Below are only IMAGES not the actual video's.


I'm going to have a go at modelling the simple yet effective Memorial;
I'll post my results of how the lighting/texturing etc.. are coming along.

Links;

Requiem: Aberfan Memorial



Maybe I could end the animation by flying past this memorial and then fade out?

On a side note;

I've been looking into textures this morning, of course I'll try to make my own where possible, such as the newspaper print one. But here are a few I found.

I've just emailed Alan George, owner of a website with a few images of the Aberfan Disaster;
http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/
I am hoping to hear from him today sometime and I'll let you know in the next post what the response is.

Thanks for reading again.

Requiem: Aberfan

[19-7-10]
1966 - Aberfan Disaster;
I've been looking into the Aberfan Disaster a bit more in the last few hours, and found out that the landslide smashed into the side of a school; Pantglas Junior School.
Some children were able to escape, but 116 were killed. Another 28 adults also died. The local community was devastated by the tragedy and the whole country was shocked and saddened when the news hit the headlines. Read More..
116 victims were children, most between the ages of seven and ten.

I've been looking on a few websites for information regarding Aberfan Disaster;


I've just found a pretty useful quote from the BBC News Page;
Some children were still in the playground, others were filing in to classrooms ready for register.
 Still in the playground! This could be the intro for my animation. I think I'll stick to this Aberfan Disaster idea. I also know a Welsh lady, (The fiance's mum), she lived about 45 minutes away from Aberfan, in Pontypool. (If thats how it's spelt). I'm sure I can have a chat with her to get *first hand* information on what she felt when it happened etc.. and even write the 'notes' up here.

Right, Story idea;
Requiem Begins; Camera starts inside the playground of, 'Pantglas Junior School,' we see playground equipment moving, see saws moving, without the children on them. then we move inside a slowly decaying school. When we are inside we see smashed walls, children laying motionless, classrooms ruined. Smoke and small fires are dotted around. We will get a sense of sadness as if this Disaster has just happened.


Pantglas School in the early 1900s

Pantglas School in the early 1900s

In early October 1966, a ten-year-old Welsh schoolgirl named Eryl Mai Jones had something important to tell her mother.

"Mummy," she said, "I'm not afraid to die."
"You're too young to be talking about dying," her mother said. "Do you want a lollipop?"
On October 20, Eryl Mai woke up after having a memorable dream.
"Mummy, let me tell you about my dream last night," she said.
"Darling, I've no time now. Tell me again later."
"No, Mummy, you must listen," she said. "I dreamt I went to school and there was no school there. Something black had come down all over it".

Monday, July 19, 2010

Requiem: Research 2

[19-7-10]
Images of Typical American style schools / objects / equipment.


I would love to try and get a typical american school bus within Requiem obviously it would have to be either a main focus, could the camera fly through it? I keep adding cool ideas to this project every hour or two.

I am thinking,
Requiem starts; in a playground, kids playing, but as if they are ghosts, a crashed school bus is the sign of danger and destruction, the camera would then fly through the school bus and in the school. From there on we would fly through the school, seeing what the carnage and war has done. We would possibly see fires still burning, bullet casings on the floor, and charred and demolished walls.

Keep frosty guys.

On a side note;
I've just purchased Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, on Steam, If anyone else has it, leave me a comment below and we shall play sometime. (When I'm not busy that is)

Requiem: Research

[19-7-10]
Carrying on from the previous post.
Requiem: A song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person or persons.
A *very* strong word in my opinion. We are mourning deceased people, children in the case of the music. Where would children be playing?

  • Funfair, Carnival?
  • Field, Playground?
  • School?
  • Garden?
  • Pre-School?
  • Zoo?
  • Activity Centers?
  • etc..
I've thought a while about this and decided how can I use one of the above to create sadness for children dieing? A School seems to be the most logical choice for this project. I'll look further into it.

Do I use a Natural Disaster and base it on real life? The Aberfan Disaster;
At 9.15 am on Friday, October 21, 1966 a waste tip slid down a mountainside into the mining village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. It first destroyed a farm cottage in its path, killing all the occupants. At Pantglas Junior School, just below, the children had just returned to their classes after singing All Things Bright and Beautiful at their assembly. It was sunny on the mountain but foggy in the village, with visibility about 50 yards. The tipping gang up the mountain had seen the slide start, but could not raise the alarm because their telephone cable had been repeatedly stolen. (The Tribunal of Inquiry later established that the disaster happened so quickly that a telephone warning would not have saved lives.) Down in the village, nobody saw anything, but everybody heard the noise. Read More..
Or do I use a horrific war scene to base upon?

I think the idea of having a *War Torn* school, would give everyone a more effective emotive experience; Heighten the sadness level. I'll now look further into how a school might have looked before / after it has been war torn.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Project Start

[18-7-10]
I have chosen SoundScape 15;

This is the *only* piece that made me think deep inside about what is/was happening. It sparked hundreds THOUSANDS of ideas to run through my mind.

This piece starts with what sounds like, four footsteps? At four seconds we then hear children playing, a school playground? They sound like primary school children, *having fun!*


After that, at sixteen seconds, a female starts singing, choir like. This adds a new emotion to the scene, sadness. The children continue to play and shout to each other, but at forty seconds, we hear a female child scream. All the children go silent, the choir like singing continues. At one minute-eight seconds I can just make out the singer saying *Requiem* a very powerful word in my opinion.

My project is now being named

Title for project; W.I.P.

More to come.
Stay Tuned.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

1 Becomes 2 Brief

This is the Brief for my Summer Project


You are to respond imaginatively to the ‘soundscape’ allocated you at time of briefing. It may inspire an environment, character(s), story or gaming concept. The musical extract might be included in the final submission as a soundtrack or might serve only as a starting point for further development. Your response might be entirely abstract and synesthetic in line with Fantasia’s Toccata and fugue in d minor or the work of Norman Mclaren.


Whatever your approach, you must demonstrate how the ‘soundscape’ has driven your creative response. Your workflow should follow the pipeline of tasks established by your year one curriculum -– pre-production, production, postproduction - with each stage clearly ‘unpacked’, archived and reflected upon via your creative development blog.


Your creative development is to be edited and readied for publication in the form of a professionally printed ‘The Art of…’ book. There are numerous online companies that provide this service, a selection of which are listed below.


www.blurb.com
www.bobbooks.co.uk
www.photobox.co.uk


You should be ambitious, investigative, and self-directed. Where necessary, you should expect to supplement your existing technical skills via online tutorials. You should also use this opportunity to revisit your Stage 1 technical tutorials.


Competition entries will be judged by a panel – not by your tutors!


1st Prize – Wacom Intuos4 Graphics Tablet
2nd Prize - £50 Vouchers (TBC)
3rd Prize - £25 Vouchers (TBC)


The winning entries will be screened for the new first years in the early part of the academic year. Inaddition, winning students will be asked to present and discuss their work.


Deadline for ‘1 Becomes 2’ competition entries is Friday 17th September 2010


*Please note - this work is not part of your formally assessed units.


And the last word? Be Amazing!

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Making of:

Making of, Finally uploaded..



Download Link:
http://www.multiupload.com/I7A33DYLYF
Theres 8 Different places it was uploaded to, just to make sure you get it ;)

Thanks.