Month: October 2015
Project 2: Impossibilities of Being
The Concept
When I first read the project brief, my first thought was to go down the horror genre route. I wanted to use a sequence of images to do a horror sequence. But because much of classic horror sequences rely on building up of emotions, this was always gonna be a challenge, right from the beginning. So I started out by coming up with a basic structure, a story, which will help to hold this sequence together. My idea behind this sequence of images is a narrative where a man loses his girlfriend, and is driven to desperation. Hence, he decides to play a series of games to contact his dead girlfriend. His motivations are due to the fact that he proposed to his girlfriend shortly before her suicide, but he did not manage to get a response from her before she sadly passed away. Hence, he was haunted by the lack of a closure, which led him to play the games. However, his playing of the games invites the bad entities into his world, which causes the game not to work the way he wants it to (doesn’t manage to contact his girlfriend), and the narrative ends ambiguously.
These are the games.
“The Gambler’s Game”
– APackofPlayingCards(PreferablyNew) – Courage (In excess)
How To Play
1 Begin when you feel the need to.
2 Take your pack of playing cards and head to a quiet place, and take a seat/sit on the floor.
3 Shuffle the cards. Shuffle them throughly, and shuffle them well. DO NOT attempt to use marked cards, or any
cards that will allow you to cheat your way through to a win; it will not be tolerated.
4 Choose a game to play. (Blackjack, Poker, anything that allows for a quick and definite resolution/outcome.) 5 Deal the cards face down. Deal for your Gambler across the table as well.
6 After dealing your cards, light three candles. This is known as your guiding light, in the event that you lose. It
also acts as a signal to let the Gambler know you’re ready to play. Let it burn for roughly a minute before
extinguishing and disposing.
7 Check your cards, your opponent’s cards, and any other cards you need to check to determine a winner. Play to
conclusion, and do not stop halfway through.
8 If you win: Take the top card of the deck and draw its edge across the pointer finger of your right hand. If you
draw blood, that hand will henceforth have the power to win any gamble (loosely defined), whether it’s a throw of the dice or the luck of the draw. Use it wisely, and sparingly. It has been known to do more than you’ll ever expect. If you lose: He will claim his prize – and before you ask, no, there is nothing you can do to dissuade him from doing so.
Additional Information
Any game will do, although Blackjack is preferred. It should be noted that games whose outcomes rely solely on luck make poor choices, indeed.
If possible, use a new and previously unopened pack of cards; the Gambler is mistrustful, and he may not look kindly upon an old or well-worn deck.
Should the Gambler win, he will not be quick about claiming his prize; nor will it be clean. You have only yourself to blame, however. After all, you were the one who decided to tempt fate.
Don’t ask us what the guiding light is for; no one ever survived far enough to come back and let us know what it was for.
A Word of Advice
It is NOT recommended that you play this game. There’s a reason you don’t come across many people with lucky hands in this world.
What You Need
“Three Kings”
What You Need
• Two Mirrors
• Chair to use as a Throne • Brave/Foolish Soul
How To Play
1 Set your chair facing north.
2 Set up two mirrors in front of you, both should be a meter apart.
3 Leave your room, be seated in your throne at 3.33am.
4 While seated on your throne, light a candle.
5 Holding the flame and looking into the mirror, assign the mirrors one of the two roles by saying: “By Imperial
Edict, you are the Queen/Joker”. Do the same for the other mirror Do not assign two different mirrors with
the same roles, and try as much as possible not to look straight at your reflection. It is not advised.
6 Sit back on your throne and close your eyes.
7 Keep the question you have in your mind, and proceed to ask it without speech.
8 You should hear the answer to your question. Beware, as the Joker will always lie and the Queen will always tell
the truth. You should know which is which since you assigned them roles, so listen closely and follow the
direction which the sounds come from.
9 However, the Joker is sly, and usually takes a demonic form. It is usually more complicated than you think, so
do not take it lightly. Abort this when you feel uneasy, sprinkle salt and leave till first light hits the ground. Be alert and never drop your guard.
Additional Information
Nil, unfortunately.
A Word of Advice
Not much is known about this game, it is advised that players exercise extreme caution. After all, mirrors are known to be a portal to another realm.
“Telephone Booth”
What You Need
• A “Phone Booth” (A closet is a good choice) • Two Paper Cups
• Box of any kind
• A Bundle of Red Thread
• Power Object (Something with a link to the person you’re trying to contact) • Candle
• Lighter
• One Player
How To Play
The “Outbound” Call
- Begin right before you go to bed. The hour itself is inconsequential; all that matters is that your day isessentially over.
- Wait. You’ll know when the time is right to begin in earnest.
- When you feel the time is right, enter the room in which your phone booth is located.
- Construct your telephone, using your red thread and paper cups.
- Open your box, and place your telephone as well as your power object into the box. Close it.
- Light a candle, and say the following: “Abyssus abyssum invocat” – Hell calls hell; one misstep leads to another
- Leave your box in the phone booth
- Wait for your telephone to ring.
The “Inbound” Call
- The “ring” will come in the form of a dream of the person trying to call you. It might be that night; it might bea night shortly thereafter. You will wake up from the dream, likely in the middle of the night, and know that thetelephone is ready to be answered.
- Get up from your bed and go to your phone booth. Do not turn on the light. Do not speak.
- Do NOT proceed if any of the following occur: You find the shoebox open, or find the telephone tamperedwith.
- If the shoebox and paper cup are undisturbed, you may proceed. Get in the phone booth but DO NOT closethe door. It is the first sign when things go awry.
- Sit on the floor, press the telephone to your ear, and listen. Really listen. Keep movement to a minimum and trynot to make any noise. Do not speak, even if you are asked questions or are ordered to say something.
- When the call has finished—or if, at any time, you want to hang up—pull on the thread until it snaps.
Concerning Wrong Numbers
Dialing a “wrong number” (determined by your power object), will either result in connecting you to no one at all, or connecting you to the wrong person.
If connected to the wrong person, any of the following may occur:
• The wrong person could pretend to be the right person.
• The wrong person could feed you misinformation, either in the guise of the right person or as themselves. • The wrong person could otherwise give you a bad time.
DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, dial a wrong number.
Artist References
My artist reference consists of a large amounts of horror films, both current and classic.
Final Submission
Conclusion
Because of my own over ambitiousness, I felt that I undertook a task that was beyond my ability to complete in that time frame. However, that said, I am happy with the way it turned out, as well as the different technical skills that I’ve learnt in class which I am able to implement in this video.
2D Foundation: Project 1
Final Project
Our final project was to utilise different monoprinting methods to create a certain sense of emotion within the patterns/lines/splatters. My final project is shown above, and it consists of a total of 18 different emotions, as per requirements. But before we reached this final conclusion, there was a lot of research and exploration to be done.
First Exposure
This was our first exposure to our project. We were told to utilise lines and dots to create a sense of the different emotions listed on the left side.
Below are the three of my favourite patterns: Sensual, Psychotic and Exhausted.
Sensual
Sensual was actually one of the panels which took the longest for me to think of. I was not sure what could correctly depict sensual, but I knew the lines had to have nice curves of varying thickness throughout and also a very clean line. Hence, I decided on this “sensuous” line by using a pen knife to get a nice, clean cut.
Psychotic
My psychotic panel was actually inspired by horror movies, and how flustered a man gets when he’s trying to clean up a murder scene. It was two layers of monoprint, the first layer was a simple light weathering of the entire panel and the second layer was the criss crossing lines
Exhausted
Last but not least, the Exhausted panel. This panel was inspired by the decay on old walls, in old buildings. The dirt that accumulates that looks like a set of shadows on the wall. This was done using brush and diluted black paint, lightly brushing over repeatedly.