Planet Cuckoo | Studio Intro

After our group has set the blog, I felt that to make it more professional for our final animation, we need an intro of our logo, shooting out the planets. This intro will be used for our animatic and also  the final animation of this project.

Film & Quality B-Movies | "Rope" (1948)

Fig. 1 "Rope" Poster

“B-Movie“ also known as “B-Picture“ is a category of films published since the economic crisis in the 1930s until its upswing in the mid to late 1950s. During the crisis it was hard possible to maintain first class (A-class) entertainment and therefore people adapted to the low budget entertainment, especially in the movie industry, the so called B-Movies. The main strategy behind the B-Movie is to have so called “Stock Characters” whose main purpose is to bridge the time gap else the movie would be too short and therefore they try to entertain the audience with a side story/cheap chit chat. Various other characteristics for a “B-Movie” are such as: Cheesy Dialogue, Spectacles/Effects Driven, Cheesy Effects, Action Driven, Easily Digestible Story, “Has been” Movie Stars etc. Most B-Movies have the main genre of horror, science-fiction, splatter or action. This review will analyze the movie “Rope (1948)” directed by Alfred Hitchcock discussing why it is a B-Movie.

First off the main feature that makes “Rope” a “B-Movie” is the lack of scenery change throughout the movie. All the incidents in this film occur in only one apartment making the lack of budget obvious. Even the presence of the so called “stock characters”, whose main purpose was to bridge the time gap between start of the crime and the exposure of the murders, signals a low quality entertainment. However, Hitchcock managed to implement those side characters into the plot perfectly by giving them all a connection to the crime victim. Even though they lead a lot of chitchats, they still keep the audience on track or give hints about the missing character (crime victim: David). Having one of the most famous film actors acting a main character to lure in the audience is one of the characteristics of a “B-Movie”: James Maitland Stewart (famous actor) plays the role of the intelligent Rupert Cadell who exposes the two murderers Brandon and his accomplice Philip who are Ruperts best friends back in school. Aside from those traits the cheesy dialogues and cheesy effects makes it even more obvious.

As for five positive qualities for the movie:

1. Hitchcock’s expertise makes the movie way more enjoyable as a B-Movie which is supposed to be cheap entertainment. His brilliant ideas such as implementing usually unimportant characters or building up the tension beautifully with the method of the ticking bomb etc. makes the movie very enjoyable even as a B-Movie.
2. The treatment of the topic of “good and evil” in this movie was decent. Brandon who sees himself as a superior being among all the other human beings justifies his crime of murder by saying that inferior beings have no right to live. Whereupon Rupert explains/realizes that thinking of superior-inferior was purely a mistake. He realizes that every person has its right to work and live and judges the crime Brandon has committed.
3. The characters Brandon, Philip and Rupert were brilliantly acted out by the actors making the story very authentic. After killing David, the crime victim, Philip becomes mentally unstable throughout the movie making the audience tense because of his nervousness he is giving many hints of what happened.
4. The tension ramp up is very well done especially the scene where Mrs. Wilson, apparently the maid, cleans up the remains of the party from the chest where the corpse of David is hidden inside. The audience experiences the feeling of: “Oh, she is going to find out!” throughout the scene because she intended to put the books back inside the chest.
5. Even with the low budget the entertainment of this movie is really good compared to most other B-Movies such as “The Giant Claw”.

Illustration List:
Fig. 1 "Rope" Poster. At: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVPpKcrwjkzYdmiOu_D6tGr6IVUu9JBPgXnZTWls38KXni3zqsdWtS2hK8jufKDr1Jto83KDku_rOIMfWWzsPLFCgp_O3Rb4C5vyMf6y0c2gZZN-9eedzlaRO0IRpf6FEFa99RzMFuf0r/s1600/Jack-Durieux-Rope-Movie-Poster-Hitchcock-2017.jpg (Accessed on 29/10/2017)

Character Design Class #4

During the character design class we were told to form groups of four where we were supposed to draw one another. Each one of us had to take turns of doing a pose in front of the other remaining three who had to draw the posing person. This is the outcome of the character design class:

As for the character designing, these are some of my environment sketches and also a research showing on what I based my drawing.

 

 Some of the Elephant character sketches:

Perspectives | Why Is "Funny Games" Postmodern

"Funny Games" Poster

Funny Games is a 2007 psychological thriller film written and directed by Michael Haneke, and a remake of his own 1997 Austrian film of the same name. It contains the story of a three-headed family which experiences pain and torture through two seemingly innocent guys dressed in white. But why is this film postmodern?

1. Stereotype of a Killer -  “Funny Games“ challenges the stereotype of a “killer”. Usually a “classic horror” creates a monster-type character with scary appearance and cruel intentions as an antagonist for example Freddie Krueger from “A Nightmare on Elm St.”. Obviously the outer appearance of such “classic killer” is rather dull, dark and aggressive. Haneke breaks this stereotype by introducing the villains/killers with the appearance of a classic American “good guy”: dressed in white with white gloves symbolizing gentleness.  

2. Horror Music - Not only is the stereotype of the “classic killer” reformed, but also the usage of “traditional” music for horror movies. While it is typical to use creepy music to build up the tension for murder scenes Haneke utilizes classic music for these instead. However, the “happy” classic music continues throughout the movie even outside of murder scenes which gives the audience the impression that it is living in the mind of the villains since nobody else (the family) in the movie seem to be “happy”.

3. Fourth Wall - Michael Haneke utilizes the break of the fourth wall in the movie “Funny Games” by letting the antagonist glare, wink and throw questions at the audience. The use of this technique especially in this film makes the audience uncomfortable since it is not the protagonist (the good), but the antagonist (the evil) asking what next bad thing will happen to the family.

4. Real or Fiction - The setting, dialogue and characters are very plausible and believable. The lack of “spectacular” scenes such as chasings, explosions or unrealistic fighting sequences and instead having the events revolve around everyday matters such as cleaning, cooking, etc. makes the movie very realistic and believable. Haneke intentionally uses the majority of the time for detailed description of for example how the character cleans the phone after it fell into the sink to highlight/enhance the realism of the movie. At the same time “Funny Games” is supposed to be a fictional horror movie and therefore the audience might be confused and questions whether it is real or fiction after all.

5. Non linear - In some scenes of the movie one can detect non-linearism. The most obvious one is when the mother Ann shoots Peter/Toby/Tom and afterwards Paul picking up the remote control for the TV rewinding the scene to the point before she grabs the gun, but this time knowing how to react to the situation “correctly” and saving Peter/Toby/Tom.

Life drawings #6

7min Posses

30min Pose

30min Pose

Perspectives | Key Words #6

• Normativity - creating or relating to a certain standard or norm. Doing something based on a norm. For example a normative production is when the process follows the standards set by a company.
• Binary Opposition - also known as the binary system which consists of two concepts that are opposite in meaning for example modern computers are using this system having “1s” (true) and “0s” (false) as a communication/command tool.
• Deconstruction - the act of breaking something down into its individual parts in hope of understanding its structure, meaning or mechanism. Mostly it is understood as a philosophical method of critically studying and questioning of the meaning of words in literature. In short: analyzing the relationship between text and meaning.
• Différance - a term used by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his theory of deconstruction. It has the general idea/meaning that since every person has different moods, background and way of perceiving things therefore a word will not have the same meaning for every person. In his concept he claims that each single word cannot give complete description. In fact words need other words to give it context/meaning.
• Reinscribe - it may mean to rename or redefine something in a new context or simply re-write or carve words into something.
• Cognitive dissonance - mental discomfort caused by simultaneously having two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas or values for example when a person with Christianity discusses the origin of the earth with a scientist. Both people may feel mental discomfort since their beliefs are critically questioned.

 

• Judith Butler -  is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics and the fields of third-wave feminist, queer and literary theory. As a philosopher she mainly focuses on discussing the topic of the sex and how it affects the gender and the desire of a person. She claims that gender is merely a performance which you do at certain times that defines your gender rather than a universal "who you are". 
•  During her studies at the Yale University she was very engaged with continental philosophy and therefore read various books and works of Karl Marx, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty which influenced her a lot until today. She published her first essays about feministic theories in the late 90s and her book "Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity" published in 1990 got international attention and inspired many.

Character & Storytelling | "Fight Club" (1999)

Fig. 1 "Fight Club" Poster

The movie “Fight Club (1999)“ written by Chuck Palahniuk and directed by David Fincher is about a man the audience refers to as “The Narrator” who suffers from multiple personality disorder. As life is not going well for him he subconsciously wants to change its course of action. He meets Tyler Durden, a smart good looking guy who eventually ends up accompanying and helping him whenever needed. Soon The Narrator finds out that Tyler is part of himself his split personality who tries to change the society with radical methods. This review will mainly focus on the analysis of the two opposing characters Tyler Durden and The Narrator.

The Narrator
Personal History and Internal/External Traits:

The Narrator or as he refers himself as Jack from a book series is a middle aged man around 30 years old. He works as a recall specialist for a major car company and due to the jetlag from numerous business trips around the world he suffers from insomnia. Jack is around 180cm high, has a slim/skinny figure due to his insomnia and does not eat much. As a result he always has a tired face expression, has rather big eye bags and Jack seems to lack motivation for his job obviously as he states at the beginning of the movie that he hates his job and his boss in particular. However he dresses himself moderately for his job and always does his given tasks. He has no other choice but to force himself to work in a job he does not like to maintain his current life situation. He is single and lives alone in an apartment filled with expensive furniture. His fridge is always empty as he rarely buys food.

Fig. 2 Jack

Throughout the movie the audience gets hints that Jack actually wants to control everything what is happening in his life. He wants to know everything that is going on around him and does not like when something is happening around him without him noticing or without informing him for example: Tyler did not tell him about his plans for Project Mayham.
His father left him at the age of only six and never came back. Apparently he had a normal childhood until his father left. According to The Narrator his father would repeat this every six years: move from one city to another create a family and leave after six years and so on. His father has never finished college, but demands him to do it. After college Jack did not know what to do so he asked his father again for advice who only told him to get a job and get married.
The loneliness and sense of betrayal may be the cause of his insomnia since visiting support groups for various death causing diseases and crying in the arms of another person who seems to understand Jack helps him tremendously.

Personal World View/Inherited World:

Jack sees the world as it is: a capitalistic world. He is blurred by the illusion of the various advertisements on TV that every person must buy various things to be happy. This materialistic image is the cause for him to buy expensive furniture for his apartment since only then he will feel this illusion of completion, perfection and happiness. However, he subconsciously tries to change his way of living to find true happiness by creating this imaginary friend Tyler Durden. Throughout the movie Tyler has a huge impact on The Narrator’s world view. Tyler teaches him to let go of his possession since they will end up owning you instead of the opposite.
He says himself that due to his lack of sleep he perceives the world as not real but as a copy of a copy of a copy.

Fig. 3 Jacks perception

Wants and Needs (and Flaws):

He does not really have a clear goal since he is partially accepting the way of living in the modern society. One can say his goal may be to find true happiness by either altering his way of living or by adapting completely to the materialistic world. The lack of having a real goal is one of his flaws as well. He lacks confidence which leads him to follow stronger figures in his environment. “Why do weak individuals always latch onto strong ones?” He is even asking himself this question in the movie proving that he (the weak one) is latching onto Tyler (the strong one). That is probably the reason why was blinded that easily by the advertisements on TV or magazines as he perceives them as a message from the society. What he truly needs is confidence and love both due to his father leaving him at a young age.

Story Arc and The Conflict:

Fig. 4 Jack and Tyler at the bar

The Narrator (Jack) is leading his boring and normal life suffering from insomnia. On the suggestion of his doctor he visits support groups for cancer and realizes that crying helps him to sleep like a baby and becomes addicted to those groups. After meeting Marla Singer at all the support groups he is visiting as well his insomnia returns again. They decide to visit different groups and he is able to sleep again. He then meets Tyler Durden on a business trip who gives him his business card (Paper Street Soap Co.). Shortly after Jack’s arrival at home he realizes that his apartment is burned to the ground and calls Tyler for help who in return wants him to punch him which becomes routine as they both enjoy fighting. This leads to other people wanting to join as well and so they found the “Fight Club” where people fight against each other. Fight Club becomes a substitute for the support groups for Jack. He finds more and more about Tyler Durden who eventually turns Fight Club into Project Mayham whose goal it is to change the society with extreme methods. At first Jack goes with the flow, but eventually he perceives those actions as too cruel and starts to act against Tyler. At this point his values change: he becomes more compassionate and caring as he tries to save Marla even though he hates her from the members of Project Mayham hurting her. Jack finds out that he and Tyler are the one and the same person. In order to stop Tyler from destroying certain buildings Jack decides to shoot himself in the head in the hope of Tyler’s disappearance. In the end the audience notices that the fight between Tyler and The Narrator is actually an inner conflict of The Narrator. Tyler who wants to free the society and teaching them the meaning of equality by using vandalism as a method versus The Narrator who still possesses the ideas and ideals of the modern society even though Tyler had a big impact on his way of thinking.

Tyler Durden:

He is as the movie reveals itself the split personality of The Narrator. He represents everything that Jack wanted to be: intelligent, free, confident, handsome, courageous, rebellious, wild, manipulative and different from the rest of the society. Tyler aged 25 is just like Jack around 180cm big, but has a very muscular/sporty figure as opposed to Jack’s appearance. His chaotic and wild hairstyle also indicates his rebellious mindset. He always walks and acts with confidence. He seems to be not bound or does not follow the ideals and ideas of the society he is living in. He questions everything what the society tries to tell him. His world view of every person is equal to another as they are all organic matter and the “crap of the world” tells the audience clearly that his mind is communistic. Tyler is different to Jack a night worker therefore as Jack is sleeping Tyler is active and vice versa. He does not possess a house or apartment to live in, but instead he is living in a house which is supposed to be abandoned and in the near future destroyed. As one can see he has nearly no possessions at all only clothes and the stuff in that rotten building where he spends a majority of his time.

Fig. 5 Tyler Durden

Tyler‘s goal is to apply his ideals to the rest of the world as he is convinced that his world view is correct. Possibly it was his plan from the start to form Fight Club which transforms into Project Mayham, the organization which he abuses to fulfill his ideals.
Tyler Durden is in the eyes of The Narrator a perfect being that he looks up to and therefore sees in him no flaws at all. The only obvious flaw is that Tyler only exists in Jack’s mind. To overcome this flaw Tyler tries to manipulate Jack to that point that his behavior and way of thought will resemble Tyler’s. To a certain extent Tyler achieves this goal as Jack becomes sloppier with his clothing over time matching his rebellious mind. He feels no longer any connection to the materialistic world the longer he is living together with Tyler. In the end he actually becomes very similar to Tyler, but the radical methods Tyler is using to fulfill/achieve his goal does not please Jack’s mind at all and starts rebelling against Tyler. This can be seen, as mentioned before, as an inner conflict of The Narrator between himself and Tyler. This is a mental, emotional and spiritual inner conflict which is not only processed in his mind but also physically as he shoots himself in the head at the end of the movie in order to make Tyler disappear.

Illustration List:
Fig. 1 "Fight Club" Poster. At: http://www.flore-maquin.com/wp-content/uploads/Fight_club_RVB_72.jpg (Accessed on 22/10/2017)
Fig. 2 Jack. At:  http://smhttp.32478.nexcesscdn.net/80E972/organiclifestylemagazine/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/fight-club-insomnia.jpg (Accessed on 22/10/2017)
Fig. 3 Jacks perception. At: https://anyakordecki.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/fightclub_0099.jpg (Accessed on 22/10/2017)
Fig. 4 Jack and Tyler at the bar. At: https://dionwynhughes.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/film_3237_pic_22732_big.jpg (Accessed on 22/10/2017)
Fig. 5 Tyler Durden. At: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/167932529289068544/372027723100717056/Tyler_Durden_by_TBennet.png (Accessed on 22/10/2017)

Perspectives | Why Is "Moulin Rouge!" Postmodern

"Moulin Rouge!" Poster

Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 Australian–American jukebox musical, romantic, comedy film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. It tells the story of a young English poet/writer, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and courtesan Satine. However, why this film is postmodern?

1. Pastiche - The pastiche consists of several sceneries copied/referenced from several famous movies. The scene with Christian standing in front of the Moulin Rouge yelling: “SATINE!!!” is a direct reference from the “STELLA!!!” scene from the movie “Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) or when Christian came up with the lyrics at the start of the movie: “the hills are alive with the sound of music” comes directly from the film “The Sound of Music” (1965) and several others. Only to mention a few reference movies: “Aladdin”, “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing”, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Peter Pan” etc.

2. Mash-up - Director of the drama-musical “Moulin Rouge!”, Baz Luhrmann, utilizes various well-known songs breaks them down and mixes them together. All the songs in the movie are basically mash ups of different songs and therefore allow the movie of not getting into trouble using copyrighted music.

3. Hyper-reality - The world that “Moulin Rouge” endeavors to create strains its credibility that under normal circumstances it would seem to be too phony. Not only the scene with the little fairy (“Tinker Bell”) appearing and Zidler flying around the Moulin Rouge singing with joy, but also when Christian and Satine start dancing in the clouds makes the audience question the story’s reality. However, Baz Luhrmann’s very inventive way of beginning the story makes the audience right from the start that this movie is hyper reality.

4. Non-linear narrative - The way this story is told is similar to a more modern title “The Great Gatsby”: A person who was involved in the past events is telling the audience the story he/she witnessed. Therefore the protagonist Christian who fell in love with Satine and whom the story is evolved around is retelling his past. The movie starts off with Christian in the future who is about to write and retell the story. Throughout the film the scene is constantly changing between the future Christian and the past Christian which indicates with the addition of the flashbacks in his narrating a narrative without chronological order.

5. Mix of Style - The play “Spectacular, spectacular” is supposedly set in the distant past in India, but the costumes are a cross over between ancient India and an elaborate Bollywood performance. To top it off the song they are performing is a mix between Bollywood pop also known as “Indian-pop” and the famous song “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”, sung by Marilyn Monroe in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”.  Not only this scene but also various other performance scenes are consciously and openly draws on a number of different cultural references and mixing them creating an entirely separate piece. This postmodernist style is further represented by the fact that the performance occurs on a stage. Traditionally a theatre performance is a form of high art, but in this case a mix of several styles, genres and cultures occur.

Maya #1 - Lighting & Rendering | Standard Surface

Perspectives | Key Words #5

• The Canon - a general law or principle, by which something is judged, created mostly by a council or any other competent authority, for example: a Church law. 
• DWEM - “Dead white European male” refers to the political correctness issue which caused a big discussion in the 1970s. Mostly represents male historical figures in art and culture whose talent and importance may have been exaggerated.
• Phallocentricism - expresses male superiority, based on the phallus.
• Eurocentrism - a worldview centered on and biased toward the western civilization. 
• Postcolonialism - the historical period of time that represents the end of Western colonialism. The influence of the colonialism is still present.
• Multiculturalism - a society consisting of two or more different cultural or ethnic groups.
• Feminism - a movement that advocates the idea of gender equality. The group mostly consists of female supporters fighting for their rights.

Life drawings #5

20min Pose

5min Poses

Character Design Class #3

Structural Theories & Storytelling | "Inception" (2010)

Fig. 1 "Inception" Poster

Every existing movie has a structure just like short stories or novels. They only differ from each other by having either a 5 act structure consisting of: Prologue, Conflict, Rising Action (eventually leading to Climax), Falling Action and Denouement or a 3 act structure consisting of: The Setup (Exposition), The Confrontation (Obstacles) and The Resolution (Denouement). As for this review about the movie “Inception” the 3 act structure will be discussed in detail.

Act 1 The Setup:

The movie starts off with Cobb our protagonist of the movie doing his work as an expert extractor or more simply an expert dream manipulator. The first sequence set up Cobb’s life as a “thief” as well as his character (expert dream extractor) and his flaw Mal his wife who committed suicide in believe of waking up from “the dream”. The next scenes shown can be seen as the “Inciting Incident”: Saito offers Cobb a job where he has to create not only two layers but three layers of dreams in order to plant an idea inside Fischer’s head who is the heir to a multi-billion dollar empire. At first Cobb decides to walk away, but is drawn back to the job and accepts it eventually. Therefore Cobb is crossing his mental threshold by accepting Saito’s job.

Fig. 2

As for the first plot point one can consider the scene where Cobb tests Ariadne, who will become the new architect of the dream for the upcoming job, in his dream whether she is capable for the job and warns her not to change too much in a dream since the subconscious will seek out and destroy the invader and eventually they run into Mal, Cobb’s wife who kills Ariadne. At this point Ariadne noticed that Cobb is in conflict with himself about his wife and tries to find more about it. Later on, after assembling the six team members who will take part in planting an idea in Fischer’s mind Ariadne finds an opportunity to sneak into Cobb’s dream where he is together with a projection of his wife Mal. She finds out that Cobb is keeping Mal’s projection in the deepest part of his mind locked away in the hotel room where she suicided.

Act 2 The Confrontation:

The first plot point is then followed by scenes working towards the climax. Cobb’s team is preparing and discussing about how to make a three level deep dream, where the dream hijack is going to take place and how to make the target (Fischer) not become suspicious and therefore fail the mission. In order to enter and maintain the third level a strong sedative is needed, the hijack will take place in a plane which Fischer attends to regularly. Coincidentally Saito owns the flight company and therefore allows them to take part of the flight.

Fig. 3

They finally find themselves on the plane with Fischer and initialize the inception. In the dream things do not go as planned. When Cobb and his team hijacked a cap and picked up Fischer they are chased by trained projections. They find out that Fischer trained his subconscious to fend off unwanted intruders. During the chase Saito is shot and is slowly dying. The team is panicking because if they die they eventually end up in limbo, a state they cannot escape and therefore trapped in a dream forever. Cobb sees no other way out and suggests the team to continue as fast as possible.  Soon Cobb’s secret is revealed to Ariadne. He tells her about Mal and himself that they were trapped in their limbo for 50 years, they lost sight of what was real and eventually they realize that the only way to find out the reality is to commit suicide. Even back in the real world she doubts the reality and grows crazier thinking that nothing is real unless you kill yourself to find out. Cobb blames himself for her death that he showed her the dream that he tested/experimented with her until Ariadne tells him to forgive himself.  

The team is chased by the trained subconscious of Fischer with the intention of killing them. They find themselves in the third level of the dream eventually where Fischer is supposed to find “the idea”. This whole mission is a race against the time. In the first level of the dream the entire crew is chased by Fischer’s subconscious and they will get caught in the end they cannot escape forever. Therefore before they are killed by the chasers the crew will be given a “kick” to wake them up. Having not much time left Fischer finally finds himself in front of a large safe where he will find his “idea”, but he gets shot in front of the safe. Cobb and Ariadne try to dive deeper into the fourth level of the dream where they find themselves in the dream Cobb and Mal once lived in. They say if you die in a dream you may still be alive in the deeper level therefore they try to find Fischer down there and bring him back to live in the third level by giving him a kick. Fischer eventually wakes up and opens the safe. He finds his father in it and another safe with a code lock of which the code he knows.

Fig. 4

In the fourth level Cobb finally comes clean with himself. He realizes that Mal is not here anymore and that he has to let go. Surprisingly Ariadne shoots Mal and not Cobb, but the consequence is clear: Cobb has ended his inner conflict and got rid of his flaw. One can now argue whether Cobb finally resolving his inner conflict or Fischer finding his “idea” is the real climax or even both. At least one can agree on that this part of the movie was the climax.

Act 3 The Resolution:

After the successful mission the team initializes the kicks to get them out of the dream. Since Saito was the job offerer and he is killed in the dream Cobb still has to rescue him. Therefore we see the scene where Cobb is stranded at a beach and is supposed to take back the massively aged Saito in his keep who does not remember which important task he had before coming there. Eventually all six members and Fischer wake up in the plane where they initiated the inception. In the end we see Cobb coming back to his two kids and him spinning the totem which does not seem to topple but still unstable.

 Ending Type:

Fig. 5 Spinning Toten

The movie clearly has a partial ending since all of the conflicts were solved throughout the film, but it still leaves the audience in the dark at the ending letting them question if the protagonist really escaped the limbo and leading his happy life in reality with his kids or if he is still trapped in the limbo symbolized by the spinning totem which at first does not seem to tumble which indicates that he is in a dream, but at some point it seems shaky ready to stop and tumble at any moment indicating he is in reality.
 
Plot vs Story:

The plot type of the movie “Inception” is clearly the so called “Arc Plot”. An arc plot is characterized by the concept of a ticking bomb which is very clearly presented in “Inception”. When Cobb’s team were forced to descend the dream levels quick as they had Fischer’s subconsciousness chasing them potentially killing them and therefore trapping them in a limbo. Cobb’s crew is racing against time at that moment. 

Illustration List:
Fig. 1 "Inception" Poster At: https://20ui41tp7v127j03rcnp97oh-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/edit_inception.jpg (Accessed on 14/10/2017)
Fig. 2 At: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m940w1bqLr1qh7ga5o1_500.gif (Accessed on 14/10/2017)
Fig. 3 At: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m940w1bqLr1qh7ga5o2_500.gif (Accessed on 14/10/2017)
Fig. 4 At:  http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m940w1bqLr1qh7ga5o3_500.gif (Accessed on 14/10/2017)
Fig. 5 Spinning Totem At: https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--C99Zt2Bt--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/lfw6bvdh730gervcsavn.gif  (Accessed on 14/10/2017)

Perspectives | Why Is "Scream" Postmodern

"Scream" Poster

Scream is a 1996 American slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film shows Sidney Prescott, a high school student, who becomes the target of a mysterious killer known as Ghostface. The film combined black comedy and with the violence of the slasher genre to make fun out of the clichés from previous popular horror films. But why this film is postmodern?

1. Pastiche - The film borrows the violence of the slasher genre from horror films popularized in early to mid 80's, such as: "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th".

2. Irony - The irony in this film consists of the director of the movie “Scream” Wes Craven who is shown in one scene as Freddy Krueger from “A Nightmare on Elm Street” even though he is not a killer as Freddy was.

3. Parody - The film was unique at the time of its release for featuring characters who were aware of real world horror films and openly discussed the clichés that "Scream" attempted to subvert.

4. Avant-garde - This film is a postmodern avant-garde. Not only it refreshed the slasher genre, but it also lead to brand new disscussions around the horror film ideology.

5. Meta-fiction - Even though the characters in this movie have a precise insight of the cliché course of events of former horror movies, they only joke about it instead of trying to avoid it. It seems to the audience that the movie is a meta narrative since the characters know the sequences in detail themselves and therefore know everything already.

Archetypes & Storytelling | "The Princess Bride" (1987)

Fig. 1 "The Princess Bride" Poster

Hero:

The story starts off in a poor village where our main hero, a farmer’s boy (Westley), lives his peaceful life with his true love Buttercup. Westley soon decides to sail away in hope to gain wealth for the sake of their future life. He is later presumed dead because of the Dread Pirate Robert’s raid and so Buttercup sees no other choice but to marry the current prince unwillingly. After a couple of years our hero returns as the mysterious masked man and decides to pursue Buttercup.

Shadow (Villain):

There are in total two villains in this movie. The main villain Prince Humperdinck, the man Buttercup is supposed to marry. He tries his upper best to either kill Westley or to hide him away from Buttercup since he knows that she will go after him. The side villain of this entire story is the so called “six-fingered-man” who killed the father of one of our hero’s allies Inigo Montoya a Spanish fencing master.

Herald:

The role of a herald is assigned to the grandpa who visits his sick grandchild and reads him the story of “The Princess Bride” like his father did to him when he was ill. Not only is the old man a herald but also an “ancient lady” who appears in the dream of Buttercup and yells at her: “How can you betray your true love?” The betrayal is referred to when Buttercup and Westley were trying to escape Humperdinck’s search for the kidnapped princess and got caught in the end where Buttercup sacrifices herself to the prince and agrees to marry him instead of running away with Westley.

Threshold Guardian:

The threshold guardians in this movie are the three men who kidnapped Buttercup: Inigo Montoya the Spanish fencing master, Fezzik the strong man and Fezzik the genius. When Westley found out their evil plan he tries to get Buttercup back. In order to do so he has to overcome the trial of defeating the three masters (fencing, strength and wits) and manages it in the end.

Trickster:

“Miracle Max” and his wife can be seen as the tricksters in this movie as they try to bring Westley back to life and so cheat death even though he is presumed dead already. The couple prepares a miraculous pill for the hero to swallow that will cause resurrection.

Mentor:

When the ship Westley was taking to another country in hope to acquire wealth got raided by the Dread Pirate Robert’s crew he was presumed dead. Later in the story of course the audience gets to know that Robert actually took Westley in onto his ship where he learned how to fight and eventually becomes the new “Robert”. The Dread Pirate and Inigo Montoya’s father who was a great smith can both be considered as mentors.

Allies:

After Westley overcame the trial of defeating the three masters killing Vizzini the genius, Inigo and Fezzik later on decide to join the hero on his quest of rescuing Buttercup. They were the ones who asked “Miracle Max” for the resurrection pill which brought Westley back to life.

Mother:

The only mother appearing in the movie is the mother of the sick child who gets the story “The Princess Bride” told by his grandfather.

Father:

The movie is split into two realities: the real world and the fantasy world where the story of Westley is told. As the grandfather plays the father role in the real world the king is seen as the father figure in the world of Westley.

Child:

Since the ill child at the beginning of the movie is the only child we see throughout the film, he will be assigned the archetype of “The Child”.

Maiden:

The Maiden archetype in movies mostly embodies purity, innocence, an uncorrupted nature, independence and strength. The character who represents that is Buttercups. She is pictured as the most beautiful, innocent and pure girl in the entire country this is highlighted by the fact that even the prince of Florin wants her as his bride.

Shape shifter:

Clearly Inigo Montoya is the shape shifter in the movie “The Princess Bride”. When he was ordered to kill Westley he did not play any dirty tricks to him, but he gave him a fair fight which Inigo lost. He was at that point neither on the side of Vizzini nor Westley’s. His only goal is to find the “six fingered man” who killed his father to take revenge. The fencing master who once tried to kill the hero becomes his ally in the end which is a clear sign of shape shifting.

Illustration List:

Fig. 1 "The Princess Bride" Poster. At: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmrXp7MVtJ9-4Zl3T58G_PEdGJeON3WUnAyVXaN04XwpSBWunNpDtwPmPtNE67dz-iGdpmO7KRTrZkhbPgr_kmOaIe_Hhpyd3aRQh7T-xof1Cevj1nXz-4mOnkQZIqXb-Ko8KacKdhAQzE/s1600/The+Princess+Bride+(1987)+Bluray+1.jpg (Accessed on 12/10/2017)