The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Spy Edition

To highlight how important title sequences are to a film I decided to change the genre of a well known film and show how the titles would reflect this.

Casino Royale - Opening Sequence

The opening sequence starts with Jame bond shooting at the camera with blood flowing from the top of the screen. This has appeared at the start of every Bond movie before Casino Royale and serves to immediately identify the film as a James Bond film. The music starts with a pattern of playing card symbols emerging from the red screen, the symbols are a motif that runs through the entire sequence, linking the Casino based setting of the film and the name of the film. In the middle of the screen the credits begin to appear, fading in and out. The font is a thin white type with no serif that appears small on the screen. This type seems quite old fashioned, however it is the same font style that appears in the older James Bond movies, as Casino Royale is a prequel to all other James Bond movies, it fits well.

The James Bond opening sequences are well known to be very graphic intensive and symbolic to the rest of the film. This is shown with the playing card symbols, playing cards, roulette wheels and stylistic spiral patterns, fitting with the elegant casino setting of the film. Actors also appear throughout the sequence as silhouettes, fitting with the graphic style of the sequence. Unlike other opening sequence to James Bond movies, there are no women dancing; as Casino Royale is a prequel to the James Bond movies. Casino Royale also focuses more on a more meaningful relationship for Bond and how this is doomed to fail for him.

Social Communication

Visual Communication

Communication Theory

Fashion as Photography

A History of Advertising

Media Specificity

A History of Type

High Culture/Low Culture

FIlm Theory 3 - Italian Vernacular Cinema

FIlm Theory 2 - New Wave French Cinema

Film Theory 1 - The Auteur

The Auteur is a film-maker, usually the director, who moulds the film. The Director is often celebrated and used to advertise different films they have made, the Auteur has their own film language and style that they follow, much like artists, they either set or break rules.

Graffiti

The first pieces of Graffiti are believed to come from the caves at Lascaux, France. These ancient drawings are estimated to be 17,300 years old. Graffiti was also present during Ancient Rome, with caricatures of politicians found in Pompeii.

During WWII a small cartoon would often appear with "Kilroy was here" written next to it. The origins of Kilroy are debated, some people think it comes from Britain while others think it was American. Either way, it was a common appearance in graffiti round that time.

Graffiti often has the power to spread messages from an unheard crowd. During the 1968 Paris Riots, posters were spread and post all around the city, giving and garnering support for the working class. Similarly 1970's New York Graffiti highlighted Hiphop culture, making there presence known and making sure they were not ignored. Jon Naar produced many photographs of the artists producing the graffiti during the early 70's.

Jean-Michel Basquiat produced a lot of graffiti using the character SAMO. SAMO started as a cartoon character created among friends, later developing into a famous graffiti character, using a copyright sign ironically and appearing with sarcastic or poetic phrases. Basquiat eventually stopped the craze by painting 'SAMO© IS DEAD' in New York.

Graffiti often appears on controversial architecture such as the Berlin Wall or the Palestine wall. People use these  as a means of spreading a message and showing there dislike. Other artists use the Palestine wall as they are shown a lot in the public eye.

Graffiti has become quite popular with its distinct style and culture. Gaffiti by Banksy has appeared in art galleries and auctioned off for high prices. Commercial companies have taken advantage of this popularity by advertising there products with graffiti, such as the cocacola advertisements and the Corsa advertisments. This could be seen devaluing The art form as graffiti was used to spread messages, not to sell products.

Graffiti has appeared a lot in film, There is a trend of producing stop motion animation using graffiti on walls, one of the most famous one being MUTO by BLU. Graffiti has also been prminiant in video games; Jet Set Radio is all about Gaffiti, while Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has you tagging wall across the city. A recent game called Sideway: New York, in which you play as a painted character on the walls.

Post Modernism

Post modernism first emerged during 1917, when Rudolph Panwitz spoke about "nihilistic, amoral, post modern men". Though it wouldn't be until the 1960's when it would start to emerge at a movement. Post Modernism followed after Modernism began to lose popularity. Post-Modernism was essentially the exact opposite of Modernism, where Modermism was built from optimism, progress and purity, Post Modernism was born from Pessimism, Pluralism and the Disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge.

The 1960's is when Post Modernism began, according to Charles Jencks, modernism 'dies' with the demolition of the Pruitt; a large modernist urban housing project, the 70's was when Post Modernism began to develop as a term. It wasn't until the 80's when it started to become recognisable the by the public, during the 80's and 90's it had become the dominant theoretical discourse. Today however, Post Modernism is no longer popular and on it's way out.

Unlike Modernism; Post Modernism had an attitude to it, lacking the rules that was part of modernism and celebration work and art that was otherwise described as kitsch. Often Post Modernism would mix materials and create chaotic looking pieces of work.A rchitecture changed from minimalist blocks of grey to buildings with elements of humanity added to them, suck as the AT&T Building and the Guggenheim museum.  Leeds developed a post modernist style for a lot of it's buildings, making them look like the old buildings from Leeds' Victorian heritage. Post Modern art would often take influences from the past, again, the exact opposite of modernism.

Where Paris was the Modern city of it's time, Las Vegas is the Post-Modern city of the world, with its massive mixture of buildings and parodies of famous landscapes. Post Modern Dystopias became common place in cinema such as Bladerunner and Akira, showcasing what could happen if Post Modernism was took to it's extreme.

Post Modernism saw the rise of artists such as Andy Warhol with his Marilyn Monroe prints. While classed as art, it was just a print of a photo in different colours, it was message and a critique on modern technology. Many Post Modern artists made fun of the Modernist 'truth to materials' paintings and taking such things so seriously.  Andy Warhol's 'Oxidation painting' was urine over copper. He was literally taking the piss out of Modernist art!

Post Modernism strived give a voice to a wide variety of artists and not just rich men. Many Post Modern pieces of art were quick, cheap to make and could be easily done by anyone.

Post modernism was all about confronting established conventions, often breaking the fourth wall by communicating directly to the audience. With this, you could say that almost ALL videogames are Post Modern, as the vast majority rely on telling the players what the controls are or what there next objective is. Post Modern film would often reference other films. 'Once Upon a Time in The West' is considered one of the first Post Modern films to be made, most of the scenes from that film are homages or direct copies of other films.

The Man Eating Machine.

Corporate Cannibal is a music video performed by Grace Jones, directed by Nick Hooker and released in 2008. It makes use of a variety of video effects to make it look like Grace Jones’ body is twisting and warping in impossible ways.

The effects being used throughout the video are relatively simple; the colours have been de-saturated to leave only black and white and a mirror like effect in certain parts of the frame to distort shapes. Despite this, the end product this produces is quite eye catching, creating this bizarre, alien figure, shape shifting in a seemingly endless void.

The only colours on show through the whole music video is black and white, this adds to the ‘dehumanising’ effect that both the lyrics and the shape shifting visuals are putting onto the character. It also coincides well with the warping effect, as it makes the parts of her body which are greatly exaggerated seem smoother and real.

The camera never deviates from showing the top half of Grace Jones’ body; however the positions of where the warping effect takes place change throughout the entire video. Close ups and extreme close ups are also used, sometimes highlighting or even multiplying an eye or a mouth. The fact that we never see her body makes her seem more alien and keeps her the centre of attention throughout the whole video.

According to Grace Jones, she was "very obsessed with the subject" of the video. She takes the role of ‘Man eating machine’ which she describes herself as a “a corporate cannibal, a digital criminal”. This could be references big businesses in general and how ruthless they can be. The fact that she is portrayed in the video as such an intimidating, alien being seems to strengthen this.

Unlike other music videos, the music and the visuals stay together. Without the effects, the video would simply be Grace Jones singing to the camera. I personally feel that for such a long music video, someone may get desensitised to the warping figure after seeing it so much, however it may be for the best that she is the main attracting and there are as little distractions as possible.

When I first saw this video I was initially surprised by the warping figure in the video, but I quickly got used to this and got tired of it. In my opinion after a while, the effect looked quite cheap; it reminded me of the ‘Photobooth’ feature that certain Apple computers have built in using the webcams.  I was quite surprised to find out the music video was made in 2008, as I initially thought it was released much later than that, the visuals to me seemed more commonplace for something in the early nineties.

 I do not think it is not entirely without merit; the symbolism and the lyrics in the music video is very good, and the warping effects do an excellent job of making Grace Jones into something completely alien. Throughout the video I couldn’t help but be reminded of the sci-fi short story “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”. Perhaps it’s the line “man eating machine” that reminds me of it (the short story features a mad artificial intelligence) or that the warping visuals remind me of HR Giger, which the story uses his art as an influence.

Overall I felt Corporate Cannibal was more dated than it should be and went on for far too long, but it certainly was an interesting watch, to say the least. 

Trials and Tribulations of The Modern Man

When most people think of modernism, they think of it as solely an art movement. This however is not the case, rather it was a reaction of Modernity and the vast changes in culture and society that came with it. Modernism wasn't just splats of paint on a canvas, though that certainly was a part of it.

Modernity arose during 1750s when Industrialisation and Urbanisation were starting to emerge.Where there were once small knit, rural communities there was now the great mass of strangers in cities, close physically but not personally. New technologies slowly made the world a smaller place; trains, telephones, convenient technologies that changed the worlds subjective conciousness.

Another driving force for modernity was the rise of philosophical and scientific thinking, religion, which was once the dominating 'explanation' for the world was being replaced with scientific reason, changing the outlook of everyone. Psychology is discovered for the initial purpose of finding out what effect the modern world would have on a man's mind.

The City had become the new social experience. To be modern was to be 'new', to be improved and superior. Naturally, countries began to compete for who could be the most modern city. Throughout the early 20th century, the city of Paris was the most modern city of the world. The city was redesigned, replacing the small alleyways with large boulevards. This could be seen as Modernity being used to better control the people; the large areas made it easier to move troops and the poor were forced to the outskirts of the city.

With such a new experience it was natural that artist would turn there attentions on the city. Throughout the history of modernism, the art has often followed the progress of technology and society. Artists learn the science of optics and begin using unique and complimentary colours in there paintings. With the advent of photography, art had to change and compete with this new technology.

New technology, such as the Kaiserpanorama, had become a barrier of actual experiences. People would rather pay to see something through a lens than see it for themselves for free. Modernism became a subjective response to modernity, painting an experience of the surroundings rather than a literal representation. 

Modernism is defined by many key features: It is anti-historicism, never looking back to take influences from past works, It works with truth with materials, making paint look like paint and wood look like wood, rather than trying to disguise it. With modernism, form followed function, this is the minimalist design that many people often attach to modernism.

Most importantly, modernism was seen as international, going through all cultural and social barriers to make a design which everyone could understand. All buildings would be the same and everyone would understand it. This lead to the rise of skyscrapers and buildings made of cheaper materials that anyone could use.

Modernism ended round the 1950's, where it was to be replaced with the less serious Post-Modernism.

Film was also inspired by modernity, film makers explored how it could be used to control people with the film 'Fountainhead'. It also often looked to the future of modernism and made predictions of what might come,  from these often bizarre films we can see the birth of the science fiction genre.

Both Charlie Chaplin and Dziga Vertov explored modernism in film, the former in a much more jovial way than others, he portrayed his character being literally lost in a gigantic machine, a feeling no doubt many people felt during the introduction of so many new technologies.