Playing with the camera

Film 4: The Human Centipede (2009)

Well this is an intriguing one. A deluded scientist who despises humans embarks on a horrific quest to create a human mutilation of 3 humans, of which the digestive system is how they are connected.
Without much prior reading, I was expecting something more gory, with the consequences of this joining system being mor concentrated on. However, it is less about the gore, and more about the sick and twisted concept and how it develops. Dieter Laser, who plays the creepy doctor, pulls off the character perfectly, and really does make the film as horrific as it entails.
The concept is so convincing, it makes me wonder whether some 'real' twisted person out there might try and actually give this a go. Let's hope not.

STIL

I've just created a new blog, for things that I like - images, words, videos, etc, but that are not my own. It was going to be a page as part of this one, but Blogger doesn't allow this how I wanted it to be. Hey ho. Use the tabs at the top.

A red light

Smiley face

Olympic Mascot

After the logo which was criticised by so many, UK agency Iris had a tough task in creating a mascot that people would actually like. In fact, they came up with two characters, one for the Olympic Games and the other for the Paralympic Games. There names; Wenlock and Mandeville, both taken from appropriate sources to represent their origins. I rather like the designs. They certainly work well in the digital format with their metallic finish, and are quite charming and well engineered characters. However, I cannot help but feel that in costume form they will look plain awful.

There will of course be mixed response to the characters. A lot of people would expect something more reminiscient of Britain - perhaps a walking talking Big Ben....I don't know. But these things are a sign of a beginning of a lasting life for them. The supporting animation, which can be seen here, explains the origins of the mascots nicely and helps establish what they stand for. Although a little airy fairy at the start, it does get to the point, effectively targetting a younger audience as well as adults, appropriate for their design of being characters which will grow and develop (again another link to their primary digital format). The mascots are shown 'being born' from metallic pieces taken from the Olympic stadium, and proceed to play in an energetic frolloc, highlighting their youth, playfulness, and really establishing character identities. The film acts as a nice, short feature to give an introduction to the characters.

Though I think the metallic designs compliment the jagged form of the now infamous logo, which are positioned well on their bodies, there are still a few things which I don't like. For example, the eyes - why cyclopses? Iris say that the eyes are supposed to be reminiscent of cameras which document everything they see, but this is a very weak link - surely any eye can have the same linked application? Secondly, I think Wenlock's character is a little too fluffy and nice. He is supposed to be a fun loving, innocent, eager thing, but I think it has been taken a little over the top and the description matches a cuddly toy better than it does for the metallic lump that it is.

Overall, they are resonably good designs, which definately suit the logo which are not too cheesy or predictable. It is entirely possible that they will stand as memorable mascots, but this obviously depends on how the public react, and I predict largely on their digital success.

CatBat

Here is the instrument that Max and I made. It is made from a Bentley car bonnet (which we obtained from a car scrap yard - we got permission!), some dud guitar strings (that a local guitar shop generously gave to us for nothing), a plank of wood (found), some nails and screws (already in shop), and 2 metal poles (also in shop).
The shape of the bonnet provides a nice chamber for the sound. We drilled holes in the bonnet at one end, and affixed the plank of wood at the other, making a system which allowed the strings to be pulled through the holes and around the 2 metal poles. We drilled holes through the screws (a difficult task!) and threaded the strings through these, so that when we screwed them into the wood the strings would tighten with them, thus giving us a method to tune them.
Unfortunately the wood had cracks and when we tightened one, others would loosen. It definately was not an exact science.
We realised a face shape in the design of the bonnet and proceeded to paint these, hence where the name came from....
To play the instrument, we decided that hitting it with sticks seemed to create the best sound, although plucking also works, and we want to experiment with bowing.

We were granted special permission from our head of year to leave the catbat in the staff room over summer. Our plan is to work on it to get it properly working next year. We shall see...

Bish Bash Bosh

BishBashBosh was a side project for the people in my year on my course whereby we made instruments out of found 'anythings' with a zero budget, and made an orchestra from this.
The original plan said that we would be split into 2 orchestra's and would be competing against each other, with Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson orchestrating us. Sadly, there was not enough enthusiasm for the project, and it ended up being a casual 'jam' and party in the disused shop that we had been renting by the river. It was a shame that it didn't turn out as planned, but was still enjoyable nonetheless. Here are some photos from yesterday - the day of the final party.

Film 3: Teeth (2007)

The concept of Deep Throat reminded me of Teeth, a film which I had heard about and seen a few clips from but not watched yet fully. We decided it be appropriate to watch this after Deep Throat. It had far less nudity and was less graphic, apart from a few scenes where severed penises are seen. It is a black comedy that revolves round a ridiculous concept of a woman having razor sharp teeth within her vagina - probably one of a man's worst nightmares! It pretty much does what it says, you see a naked woman, some non-graphic sex scenes, some penis related gore and such. The plot is really just a following of the girl's reaction and development of having the teeth. It is stupid, slightly gory, a little uncomfortable for guys, but also weirdly amusing.

Film 2: Deep Throat (1972)

We had absolutely no idea what this film might incur, purely attracted by the name and its appearance in a top 25 controversial films list.
When we put it on, we were greeted by a long introduction showing a woman driving along the road, with some awful 70's music behind it. We thought it would be a funny, stupid film, at this point.
But then the first scene came along. The main character, Linda, walked into her mother's house to see her with her legs spread on a worktop and a man's head down there, you know, doing what you do... This scene went on for a long while, with long closeups, and some more terrible (but hilariously funny) music. We realised that we were in fact watching a glorified porno, which turns out to be one of the first porn films to have a plot line. The controversy obviously is for its' pornographic content and how it was released.
We didn't watch the film for long. The scene where Linda goes to the doctor to ask about why she doesn't orgasm is fantastic though. He pinpoints the problem instantly and tells her that her clit is in her throat. Subsequently, he suggests deepthroat, she tells him that she chokes whenever she tries, he then explains how to do it ("It's easy really - just regulate your breathing with the motion of your mouth" - with hand demonstration) and she proceeds to practise on him. The 'doctor' pulls some priceless facial expressions, and finally she orgasms, signified by the camera flicking between the blowjob, bells ringing, a rocket firing up, and such. Genius!
Nonetheless, Marc and I felt a little odd watching a porn film together, and we stopped it soon after this scene.

Film 1: Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

With a name like this, there was no way we weren't going to watch this. The opening credits, and scene made us wonder what we were watching. We were laughing, it seemed ridiculous, but then we saw an awfully real depiction of a coatimundi being knifed for food, and soon after a scene which showed a ritualistic slaughtering of a woman in the mud, and our thoughts began to change. The film went on to show a host of controversial material; murder, nudity, real sex scenes, rape, torture, cannibalistic acts, more real animal killings, child porn, the castration of a real penis, clips from real snuff films and such other brutal obscenities. The plot revolves around an anthropologist who goes to the Amazon in search of 4 people who are making a documentary on cannibalism in the Amazon. The film then switches between this, the documentary that those 4 people made, and to the later date when the anthropologist is back at home discussing the events.
It is the way in which you never quite know what is real and what isn't that impressed us most. It is terribly gory, disgusting, inhumane, but at the same time it is filmed in such a way that it all seems like a documentary, it all seems real. No wonder is was banned in 50 countries.
Another incredible fact: 3 of the cast signed prior contracts to disappear for a year after the film was made in order to make it seem entirely legitimate. This lead to the arrest of the director on suspicion of murder.
In summary, it is one of the best films I have ever seen, in terms of its impact and realism. Even if it is just curiosity that comes over you, everyone should definately check out this film.
For more trivia (there are some real gems), follow this link.

Controversial films with Marc and co

A couple of days ago I saw an article on MSN Today which listed 10 of the most controversial films of all time, as they put it. I saw one called Baise Moi, a French film starring former pornstars, which explored real sex scenes, rape, violence, murder and drugs. It seemed, well, intriguing...
I downloaded it.I mentioned this to Marc yesterday, and consequently we researched and compiled a list of controversial films that as of now we wanted to see.


That night, we settled down to watch a couple of these films. We started with Cannibal Holocaust, then moved on to Deep Throat, and afterwards the more recent Teeth.

A brief note on these while they are still fresh in the memory, in the following posts...

3 months...wow

Well it looks like I haven't posted since just over 3 months ago. So much for the new year's goals I set at the beginning.
Here is a brief update, which I will elaborate on in coming posts, part reason, part excuse, to explain my absence:

On the 27th January I mentioned that I'd been accepted on a Study trip to China in Easter time. Since the last post before this one, I realised that I needed to crack on with uni work in order to have things finished before the end of the year (China cuts out 4 weeks of time to work!). So I got cracking with it, though probably not entirely efficiently, and also sorting out much other China preparations. The blog was placed to the back of my mind.
Easter time came up, and on the 26th April, I departed Heathrow for Shanghai. I spent four weeks in China, where I did not have the time or inclination to post on the blog. More on China will come soon by the way, there is a lot to talk about!
Upon my return to England, I had just 2 weeks until hand-in for uni work, and a hell of a lot of work to do. You can therefore understand that I spent my time doing this. I did not even spare time to sort through the 1453 photos that I took in China.
On the 7th May, I handed everything in. Since then, things have been faaaaairly chilled out. It has been nice. There is a side project that we are doing for uni. It's called Bish Bash Bosh. More about that later.
Today, I remembered the blog, and decided that it is time to begin updating it.

And that is everything.