the painted letter

I'm Failing

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 21:39:18 +0000

My original plan with this blog was to post two substantial posts every week. I kicked it off at the beginning of the year by blogging about various in depth subjects including the nature of creativity, art, emotion, and progress. These are all subjects which I have given a great deal of thought to. Over two months I have posted eleven in depth blog posts but the last few weeks have just been Update posts.

It is now march the 5th and this is my first post of this month. This blog is starting to lose its momentum that it first had, and I am starting to run out of inspiration for topics that I want to blog about. I still have a few philosophical topics I would like to cover, but they won’t be enough to keep this blog going by themselves.

I feel the reason that this blog has been losing its momentum is twofold. Firstly, I have become increasingly busy, and having one week away from a computer with internet connection also didn’t help. Secondly, I have felt pressured to output very in depth and thoughtful philosophical studies on various subjects and this has hampered my quantity.

Taking this into consideration, I have decided I will make this challenge a little easier on myself - at least for the time being while university is taking up most of my time. I am going to change my aim to only posting one substantial post per week. On top of this, I will try and branch away from purely philosophical posts and I will start posting more about life in general.

I would like to continue my series on emotion in art, as that is one of the subjects that I am most passionate about. I also have a couple of other subjects I would like to touch on starting next week and by the end of this month I should be able to showcase some of the uni stuff I have been working on.

See you later :)

Painted Letter Update - 28/02/11

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:11:53 +0000

Firstly I would like to apologise for all the update posts, things will get back to normal soon.

Secondly I would like to point out that there was only one post last week and so next week, in order to make up for it I will try and post more than two substancial posts.

See you later :)

Painted Letter Update - 26/02/11

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:25:09 +0000

I arrived home late last night from london.

It has been a very tiring week, full of very high and very low points…but it ended on a fantastic smooth day and eventually on a wrap.

Post-production starts Monday, but for now I am going to be relaxing.

See you later :)

Painted Letter Update - 20/02/11

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:38:54 +0000

It is Sunday night, and I have just come back from a great weekend down south. This is not going to be a philosophical blog post as I am pretty tired and I don’t really have time.

I count this week as having a decent number of blog posts… I even gave you some original music - I imagine the deeper stuff will return next weekend though. :)

On Tuesday I head to London to shoot my film, and this weekend I have had the chance to relax, sit back and think about it all. I feel this week will be quite a bit of stress and I feel under quite a lot of pressure as I have had the role of Director of Photography - so the entire look of the film is down to me.

I think I am ready for next week but some aspects of the organisation of the shoot are still going on; the crew members overlooking those areas are doing a fantastic job though. I will keep you posted some time during the week as to how the shoot is going.

See you later :)

Painted Letter Update - 16/02/11

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:04:00 +0000

Filming starts next week. We will be heading down to London next tuesday to film in a bar in hackney and we are still rushing to get everything done for the shoot, but if it all works out it will be fantastic :)

I should be able to send out a midweek update sometime next week.

hmm…this post has been very short, so I shall leave you with some relaxing music:

Ben Konstantinovic - Requiem

See you later :)

Oriental Ambience. Just me messing around with a few sounds on...

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:50:00 +0000

Oriental Ambience. Just me messing around with a few sounds on my keyboard.

I realise the sound quality is awful but that is because my sound card is rubbish.

Also, happy valentines day everyone :)

How to make people Cry 101

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:30:00 +0000

To continue one of my themes, today I am going to talk about Evoking another emotion through film, this time I want to look at Sadness. However, before I talk about how someone might go about making the audience sad, I first want to explain why I think film makers make sad films, and why so many people like films that make them cry.

At the core of any memorable film is an emotional attachment, whether that be the feeling of exhilaration as a super hero beats the bad guys, or feeling of uncertainty as the teenage protagonist nervously creeps down a dark hallway. In every great film is a connection at an emotional level with the characters and the other people watching the film - this is the main reason you get cult followings for certain film genres such as science fiction or horror. Sad films have just as much of a cult following as these two examples because one of the strongest emotions for creating that attachment to the characters and fellow audience members is sadness.

So people like sad films because they have a greater connection with it, but people also like the type of sadness that an upsetting film provokes. It is a fake sadness. Unless a film is based on a true story, the events that enfold in the film that might make the audience sad are purely fictitious. The fact that the viewer has no real connection with the event, and that once the film is over there are no consequences for the event taking place, means that the sadness that the viewer feels is self-indulgent. People like being sad when it is provoked by something that doesn’t affect them personally.

So, on to sadness in films. How is it most affectively created? Whereas with my blog post about how to scare people, I am not going to list ways of making people sad, because sadness is a lot more obvious an emotion. We can all name things which are sad as it is an emotion that we experience frequently. So I will just draw your attention to one aspect in particular that will often have a strong affect on an audience.

The loss of an innocent.

This can be anything from a young child learning a unfortunate truth about the world to beloved pet being treated cruelly - it could be rephrased as anything that happens unjustly to a character that is completely innocent. An example that I can think of off the top of my head is in the film “I Am Legend”. Sammy (I can still remember the name - that proves how memorable it was), the main character’s pet dog, quickly becomes a loveable character and as soon as something bad happens to Sammy, it makes way for the saddest scene in the film (I don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t seen it.)

So why does this particular type of event have such a strong affect on us? I believe it lies in the fact that we all recognise innocence as being directly related to happiness so as soon as innocence is lost, so is happiness. As well as that, seeing someone who doesn’t deserve it or who can’t fight back being unjustly punished pulls on our moral heartstrings.

Now although sadness is a good way to get the audience connected to the storyline, unless you want a very depressing film (depressing is different to sad as it implies an ongoing deep-seated sadness), then you will want to lighten the mood by the end of the film. By then, the audience have already been immersed by the film which means any other emotional attachments you create will have more of an affect. One of the most popular genres of film is a romantic, these regularly employ these tactics to make sure the film has a good reception. It will draw the audience in with sad scenes and constant dilemmas and then end the film with an almost triumphant finish. The happiness and relief which is produced by this ending will be greater due to the fact that the audience was already connected to the characters by the sad scenes.

See you later :)

Painted Letter Update - 10/02/11

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:39:00 +0000

There is going to be a format change to this blog as I don’t think I can keep up with 2 in depth blog posts a week, especially in the next few weeks as I will be very busy filming and editing for my 10 minute film assignment.

The new format is going to mean that each week I will post one substantial post about a general topic like I have been doing regularly, and one shorter post as an update with what I have been up to and so on (a bit like this one, but I hope others will be slightly longer and more interesting). I will try to post the main post on Saturdays and the update some time mid week.

As this format change means there will be less content on the blog, I will also be posting videos/music/images that I have seen or made more often.

See you later :)

Photo

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:06:36 +0000

Scaring an audience 101

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 20:54:00 +0000

A few posts back I talked about emotion in various art forms, and today I would like to talk about one emotion in particular.

Fear and Anxiety.

Scientists believe that fear is an emotion that at a primal level helped out ancestors survive, and today causes many of us to avoid doing anything stupid. It is a useful emotion in this respect, but also a very physical one. It has the most physical affects of any emotion and because of the feeling adrenaline and high blood pressure that is sparked by it, many people enjoy having it induced - thriller riders, adrenaline junkies and horror enthusiasts all get enjoyment out of the primal emotion of fear.

Anxiety differs from fear. Fear is linked to escaping and avoiding a situation, while anxiety is the result of threats that are uncontrollable or unavoidable.

However, fear and anxiety is notoriously hard to stimulate in art, as art itself is not a scary concept. It is particularly hard to stimulate through Music or Poetry but Films and Video games have managed it quite successfully in the past.

The key to exploiting these emotions in Film or Video games is through getting the audience heavily involved with the narrative. Fear is about the audiences belief that they are personally in danger, and so you can only create it by making sure the audience has connected with the story. So a set up for a scary moment has to include involvement of the audience, whether at a physical or mental level.

Ways of preparing to scare the audience:

Relate to them. It is pointless just dumping them into a storyline that they can’t relate to, although it is possible to scare an audience who is watching something far unrelated to them, it will take a lot more work then if the audience is already on the same level as the main character.
Strip the audience of any escape. By writing a narrative that forces the main character into a situation in which he has no obvious way out, this will cause the audience to feel anxious about the situation.
Similarly, put the audience on the back foot. Make the audience feel as if they are weak, and unable to fight against anything that might arise.
Don’t give them what they expect. Create a scenario in which the audience braces for a scare but never receive it, do this a few times, and then when you finally do give the reveal, all the stored up adrenaline will be released.
Let them have a glimpse of the monster. Show the audience a snippet of what is going to scare them later, don’t show too much, but make it enough that the mystery will make it all the more scary.
Music and sound. Although fear itself is hard to create in music, it can really help to build tension.

Finally, once you have built up the tension, you can release the monster and hopefully you would have suceeded in scaring the audience.

See you later :)

Painted Letter Update - 04/02/11

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:25:00 +0000

The second blog post this week will be posted tomorrow(Saturday) rather than today. I am trying to work out a new schedule in order to better fit this blog around my timetable, so the next few weeks might not be sticking to the normal Monday and Friday updates.

I can assure you however, that I will try and continue to post two blog posts per week.

See you tomorrow :)

(I like TED talks, some of them are great for making you think. Check this one out if you have the time.)

It's time to grow up

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:22:11 +0000

I wanted this to be part of the blog post on friday but I ran out of time, so I am doing it today instead.

I explained on Friday that I believe art is the expression of beliefs, and because of that any artistic medium can be subject to controversy. Film and novels have both had a good share of controversy concerning their art form in the past, but most of the time it just blows over but with games it is different.

Because of the interactive quality of video games, the controversy that covers them is often heightened due to the belief that it can affect the actions and beliefs of those playing them. There is scientific backing suggesting that the interactive nature of video games makes them a lot more suggestive then other entertainment mediums and this is what causes a lot of the problems when trying to define games as art.

When controversy arises, depending on the strength of the medium, it will either grow as an art form or take a hard blow, and due to the infancy of video games as an art unfortunately controversy tends to have the latter affect. Video games have one major flaw when dealing with controversy, and that is in the name “game”. It gives the impression that game developers aren’t artists, but are rather just advanced toymakers.

This means that when controversy arises over a title that is trying to be an artistic representation of a belief or an educational product about a sketchy subject, other game developers get put off making similar artistic games - they just return to making “toys”, and the medium loses some of its artistic merit.

If the games industry is going to truly become an artistic medium in the eyes of the general public, it will require game developers, publishers and fans to stand up against controversy. It worked for films and tv when it was in it’s infancy and it opened up the door to new genres and subject matters. By standing up to controversy video games can do the same. However, this will mean the games industry will no longer be able to use the excuse that they “only make toys”, it will require the industry to take risks which is a hard thing to do, especially in the current economic climate.

Perhaps the industry could even have a rebranding to take the word game out of the name.

See you on Friday :)

(check out Extra Credit if you are interested in the games industry, it is where I got most of the inspiration for this blog post)

Lets Pwn Artisticly

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:11:00 +0000

I have a feeling today’s post will be shorter then usual, but hopefully just as good.

On Monday I mentioned how I think video games can be put in the catagory of art and I would like to explain my reasoning behind it.

Firstly though, what is art? There are a few definitions of art, but here is mine. Art is essentially communication, it is the expression of the creator’s feelings and beliefs in any medium, it is something that has no other use then to entertain the viewers fantasies, beliefs, and eye for aesthetic. One thing that all art has in common, is it cannot be made without human contribution at every level.

With this definition, everything from films to novels can be classed as art - and they are; but it still excludes things which are produced in order to have a distinct use. A Car is not art, the design of a car could be classed as art if it wasn’t to be used as a design for such a functional machine such as a car.

Games are art, they are designed by people at every level, it is an expression of their believes, creativity, and aesthetic values. It is used for no other reason but to entertain and express believes, and it communicates the story that the creator is trying to express, just like a film does.

However, it is still a new medium, which is part of the reason it hasn’t got as much recognition as an art as mediums such as film.

On Monday I will try to explain some of the main things that are holding it back as an artistic medium at the moment, and some things I think that might solve its problem.

See you then :)

I hear the court was investigating a missing purr-sons...

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:02:29 +0000

See more funny videos and TBT at Todays Big Thing.

I hear the court was investigating a missing purr-sons case…

sorry.

so true…

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:20:13 +0000

so true…

Dear art, please involve me

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:48:00 +0000

Emotion is an important part of human life, it is a physical and mental expression of our feelings. It causes chemicals to fire through our bodies which can affect how we react in fantastic ways. Emotion is everything from fear to excitement, from love to dread. It is the most powerful tool in any artists toolbox.

Music is the most emotive art form available. The tones, rhythms and pitches in a really powerful piece of music have a direct link to emotion. Scientists believe that the sounds in music are interpreted by the brain the same way that emotion is interpreted in the way someone speaks, which is why all great music has such an emotional impact. A musician can change the type of emotion expressed by changing the pace, or the tonal patterns; and although they may not be thinking about it when they write the music, it is the correlation between those different tones and the way that people communicate with each other that causes the different emotional shifts.

I dare you to listen to this and not feel some sort of emotional attachment to the music.

In the same way, poetry is every evocative emotionally. Part of this is due to the way it is read. The structure of poetry forces a rhythm into the lyrics and that plays with the brains knowledge of emotional signals. There is also another element to poetry that a lot of music also shares which is the meaning. Although the rhythm has a lot to do with feeling of the piece, the fact that it is twinned with understandable language gives it another level of emotional resonance. If the language is tailored to fit the rhythm and pace, poetry can be just as powerful as music.

Films and Games are art forms that aim to involve the audiences emotions as much as possible (yes, I count games as an art form, I might talk about that another day.) If a film maker can get the audience’s emotions running in the same direction as the film then the film becomes so much more involving. This can be done most powerfully by matching the tone of the music and performance with the cinematography and narrative. The audience can be affected by the emotional switches in each of these areas. Just like the tone and pace of music can be interpreted as emotion, so can the tone and pace of the cinematography and the performance. A good build up in narrative then makes whatever emotional affect you want in the scene even more powerful.

A game developer has an advantage in building emotion as it is an interactive medium - the audience already has a vested interest in the story of the game, as they are controlling part of it and so they will naturally have a slight emotional attachment. If the developer can successfully include emotional “switches” then the interactive experience become a lot more immersive, and the player is much likely to enjoy the game.

I think we have yet to see games successfully control any emotion beyond fear and excitement, but as they are all controlled by the same part of the brain, and are able to be triggered with the same sensory inputs, it won’t be long before we do.

See you on Friday :)

Insert title here

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:30:00 +0000

This blogging experiment was always going to be a challenge at some point, writing two blog posts every Monday and Friday takes quite a lot of brain power. The main problem is the fact that I want to make sure every blog post I write is substantial. I want each one to be a decent length, and to include plenty of food for thought.

I suppose it wouldn’t be a challenge if it wasn’t challenging.

Anyway, it is still friday (barely) and I can’t think of any deep or meaningful subjects to talk about, so I am just going to go out on a limb and pull out the “writers block” card. I don’t expect I will be able to do this very often, but I might as well do it now.

Writers block is essentially just failure to be creative or a lack of inspiration. It is often caused by giving yourself restrictions on the content of your writing. Generally, these sort of restrictions are useful, otherwise you could write for hours on end and have pages of complete tripe, but occasionally they get in the way of the creativity.

So, as I have a lack of inspiration at the moment, but still want to make a decent blog post, I am going to talk about the very thing that is hindering me. I present to you, a list of ways of avoiding a lack of blogger’s inspiration:

Whenever you think about any particularly deep topics, note them down somewhere. This will stop you forgetting them when it comes to writing the blog post.
Absorb information. The best way to have topics to talk about, is to listen to other people talking about them. In your spare time follow other blogs, watch interesting documentaries and read books. Hopefully, if the subject matter of the things you are absorbing is intelligent enough, it will make you continue to think about it long after it is over.
Give yourself time. Don’t leave the blog writing to the last possible moment. Think about what you are going to write, and how you are going to phrase it beforehand. That way you will be prepared, and will have the time to make a substantial blog post
Google is your friend. A simple google search can reveal lists of hundreds of blog topics to write about. A good example is this one.
Still stuck? Make a list.

Now, this list was mainly aimed at myself, but I hope any other bloggers out there might find it useful.

See you on Monday :)

This animation is absolutely amazing and here is a quote of one...

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:40:02 +0000

This animation is absolutely amazing and here is a quote of one of the top comments that sums up my feelings:

Every time I watch this, a profound heartwarming feeling hits me.

This has everything. An interesting story, humor, sadness, love, uniquely drawn characters, great music, and a message.

This is everything an animation should be, and I love it for that.

By the way, sending a brofist to that astronaut.

13 year old Jordan Rice died in the Queensland floods trying to...

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:39:00 +0000

13 year old Jordan Rice died in the Queensland floods trying to save his brother. This is the face of a little hero. I have tears in my eyes, this sweet little angel missed out on his whole life from this tragedy.

I heard about this story on the radio. He told the rescue team to take his little brother who was pearched up on his shoulders. They rescued his little brother but by the time they came around to rescuing him he’d already passed away.

I couldn’t not reblog this. He is a hero and everyone needs to know the braveness and love he had. My prayers are with this boy and his family.

what a story… my heart goes out to the family, and to all those affected by the floods in Australia.

A time to strike, a time to picket

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:50:00 +0000

Back in secondary school, there was a software on the computers that aimed to try and work out what career choices people should follow. Among the lists of sensible options that a few people actually took hold of, everyone had some rather off-shoot options; but none was more off-shoot and abstract then a choice we were ALL given.

Fence Erector.

No matter what grades we inputted, what subjects we did or what life choices we made this same career was given to everyone.

Now, I don’t know the reasoning behind it. Maybe it was a bug, maybe there was a large need for fence erectors in the economy at the time or maybe ANYONE can erect a fence. No matter what the reason, it was given to me as a choice and I have remembered it since…maybe that is a sign.

Today, I had a lecture about finding a job in the film/tv industry and doing work placement and it reminded me of this piece of software.

If you didn’t know, I do film production technology at university. I got here knowing I wanted to do something like this since I was 13, so I chose my subjects to guide me towards it. however, I have learnt from doing it for a few years, that as much as it is important to know how to make a good looking film, you don’t just need a knowledge of films to do it. It is useful if you have an interest in gaining as much knowledge and learning as many skills as you can because you can have as beautiful a film as you want, but if you don’t know what to subject to explore, it will be rubbish.

So during this lecture they spent a lot of time saying how hard it is to get into the industry and I started thinking about that software that I used when I was 15, and maybe fence erecting is a good career choice and I could always make films on the side.

The only problem of becoming a fence erector, is that I hear they often get post work depression…

get it?

See you on Friday :)

I should note, I am not seriously thinking about becoming a fence erector, at least not yet.