"Metropolis" (1927)

Fig. 1 Metropolis poster

 "Metropolis"  takes audience to the unexpected future, big city, full of new technology. At that time of movie making, it was a fascinating experience to guess what's going to be in the future and implement it through the movie. This film is silent, so intelligible body language and background music gave a strong feeling to the movie, also making easier for viewers to understand what’s going on. “Metropolis” doesn’t have a specific genre. Therefore, it is thought that movie comes from a big variety of genres such as: science fiction, romance, disaster, and also horror.

Fig. 2 Metropolis city

"Metropolis" is one of a kind movie, which give a new feeling to the audience. As Roger says in his review: “Metropolis does what many great films do, creating a time, place and characters so striking that they become part of our arsenal images for imagining the world.” (Roger Ebert, 2010). The city is split into two sections, the depths where the workers were living and the upper part of the city, where all wealthy people were living luxurious lives. The movie begins from machinery movements and sounds, making it more dramatic, later on goes to the workers showing how they are working hard and trying to live their miserable, unhappy lives. The dynamic camera angles make the environment seem modern or even threatening. (Fig. 3 )

Fig. 3

A young man called Freder enjoys his life till one point, when he sees Maria standing in front of him with many workers’ children and saying “Look they’re your brothers!”. By that she meant, that they are same as him, a person, a human living who should enjoy his life instead of being trapped underneath the city. After a while Freder goes to the depths to find Maria and see his brothers, all he discovers there, a huge machine, which explodes in front of him. In his mind the machine becomes some kind of slavery totem, swallowing all workers. (Fig. 3 ) That leaves Freder shocked and scared. As the movie goes on and Rotwang, the mad scientist, creates a robot-man and gives the look of Maria, allowing him to manipulate and command the robot for his own sake, leading it to make chaos in the Metropolis. In the meantime, when the city is getting destroyed, Freder and Maria tries to save workers' children from the flood in the depths of the city. (Fig. 4) This image when Freder and Maria are on higher platform and all children's hands are on them, as if they are worshiping their saviour it
  leaves huge effect, as Philip says:  “It influenced generations of film-makers and musicians, providing iconic images of oppression and liberation.” (Philip French, 2015). At the end of the film Freder fights evil scientist, Rotwang and wins the battle. This image of good versus bad leaves a big mark in movie making, up to this day good always wins against bad.

Fig. 4 Freder and Maria saving children

“A masterpiece of art direction, the movie has influenced our vision of the future ever since, with its imposing white monoliths and starched facades.” (Mick LaSalle, 2002). The special effects are breathtaking, considering the film was made in 1927. It is impressive how filmmakers were able to create such disaster scenes, for example, machinery exploding and city collapsing. The camera becomes more elastic so it lets to capture more action and scenery.

All in all, people who have already watched the movie believe that "Metropolis" feels too messy and hardly understandable, sometimes it can have slow paste in actions, for example showing emotions between Maria and Freder. However, it is unfortunate that the movie is damaged and parts of the original film are still missing or can’t be recovered fully. Nevertheless, till this very day people enjoy watching "Metropolis" and it has left enormous impact to new generation movies.

Bibliography:

Ebert R. , 2010 - http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-2010-restoration-1927

French P. , 2015 - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/15/metropolis-fritz-lang-philip-french-classic-dvd

LaSalle M. , 2002 - http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/FILM-CLIPS-Also-opening-Friday-2779282.php#metropolis

Illustration List:

Fig. 1 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/06/Metropolisposter.jpg
Fig. 2 https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b6/d4/11/b6d411dd22f66f0a43e8f2dbf076f470.jpg
Fig. 3 http://unaffiliatedcritic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/The-Heart-MachineMoloch.png
Fig. 4 http://www.videosondag.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/metro4.jpg

Life drawings #2

5min poses

20min pose

2min poses

30min poses

Maya practice #1

First time using Maya was a really challenging moment. But thanks to the teacher and classmates, I understood how to use some of the Maya tools. So, these pictures show how it worked out for me.
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NURBS modelling

Polygon modelling

Illustrator practice #1

Teacher gave us a task to make sketches of monsters. So, I had to draw a monster with: 4 eyes, 3 arms, 1 leg and the monster type had to associate with the chess club.
I had fun drawing these monsters. However, the hardest part was to make lineart of my chosen monster. Some lines didn't come out smooth, but am happy with my work.

Monster sketches

Pencil lineart

Lineart with adobe illustrator

CG Artists Toolkit : Animation & Character - Lesson 01

I couldn't have thought that my first animation would have worked out for me. But it did!

"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920)

Fig.1 Film poster

'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' at first sight is a bizarre looking horror movie released in Germany in 1920. This movie is odd not only by the look, but by the genre and environment. It gives viewers a look through the main characters’ eyes, letting them explore illusions and unrealistic reality. At some point it makes viewers wonder if the characters are real in that world. Caligari is the first movie to truly have a strong horror genre. The movie is silent, without any words, so the main progression of the movie comes from German Expressionism, which is strongly shown through body language, actions, mimics.           

Fig. 2 Francis in his room

The story begins with a young man called Francis who tells his life story to an old man while sitting under the tree. He tells him how he had a good friend, which later on in the movie got murdered. He explains how he had one goal to find the murderer of his friend. Francis believed that all crimes are connected to Dr. Caligari and his companion Cesare, a somnambulist/sleepwalker. He dedicates his time to solve the crime before the killer targets anyone else. The story comes clear when all along the madman in this movie was Francis lost in his unspeakable delusions. After all, Francis was a mentally ill person who somehow thought that Caligari, is a murderer, but in reality Caligari was a doctor from the mental asylum house, where Francis, Cesare were his patients.

Fig.3 Cesare taking Jane on the roof tops

 "The film has been described not just as one of the first 'horror' films, but one of the first examples of a movie generating a real psychological uneasiness in its audience," (Stend, 2014).

Fig. 4 Crooked Buildings

    

This film has good a depth vision into psychology, as it can put the audience in Francis' perspective, letting them see illusions of a crippled mind. The design of the set and environment, specially buildings are made to look weird and deformed into strange shapes. It's made to look like that, because it makes way easier to reflect a distorted vision that Francis have, and helps the audience see and understand his inner world. The changes at the end of the film, when it becomes again normal in the asylum. It is to show how normal people saw the real world. It gives that shocking twist in the end, when movie story becomes clear to the audience.

Fig. 5 Asylum

Fig. 6 Cesare awakening

All in all, movie director, Robert Wiene, uses mysterious effects and outstanding lighting of various buildings, shapes and faces to dramatize the look of the atmosphere. Different lighting was depending on the mood and daytime, for example, if it was night they would use greyish, bluish tone and for day time they would use yellow or even orange colour tone. In the film it is noticeable that there are short episodes, from one act till next one, they are short and clear, so it does make easier for viewers to understand what's going on, because there is difficulty in understanding the film when there is no human voice, only facial expressions and music in the background. After finishing the movie, it leaves some questions:  "Does this classic film still has impact to new horror films till this very day?". It is easy to say that it does make a spark to the new horror movies, same effects are still left to make person feel shocked and scared at the same time.

Bibliography:
Stend, S. (2014) http://silentlondon.co.uk/2014/06/24/das-cabinet-des-dr-caligari-review/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cabinet_of_Dr._Caligarihttp://static.filmannex.com

 Illustration List:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cabinet_of_Dr._Caligarihttp://static.filmannex.com/users/galleries/66/cabinetofdrcaligari_set_fa_rszd.jpg
http://theredlist.com/media/upload/2013/09/12/1378996143-5231cfaf3a988-012-the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mayk1rZEuI1rvh840o1_1280.jpg

https://static.avforums.com/styles/avf/editorial/products/74df7-6.jpg