Project 3: Mis en Scene

FACILIS DESCENSUS AVERNO

The descent to hell is easy

My group (Shi Teng, Vanessa Tan and I) came up with the 6 lines rather easily and quickly for this project. I had always wanted to do a darker, more sinister theme for this project so when we created the lines, it went perfectly well with my idea.

The six lines follows:

What do you see?

I see red.

I don’t want to do this anymore.

Fuck.

I’m sorry

It’s too late.

This is my first ever film I’ve directed, produced and starred in it which I found challenging as I have never did a project like this and editing was quite difficult at times because I was still learning/getting used to the program (Premiere Pro). There was a LOT of googling involved haha. Overall it was quite an experience after seeing the time and effort placed into it to create a film that I envisioned.

The plot for this film is basically about the protagonist (Me) but she has a split personality and her other self is sinister, psycho and is fighting with her normal self to take over her. But who wins in the end?

The first scene shows the protagonist at the psychiatrist (Shi Teng) where the audience sees the protagonist as her normal self but something is troubling her. The next scene follows the protagonist to her car where she is alone and surrounded by her thoughts when she looks into the mirror to see her other self appear and frightens her normal self to feel like giving up. Next, the protagonist is shown running but the scene itself rewinds to portray as though she was running away from something which is later depicted as the fight for control in her mind. Then, the scene jumps back to the original running scene where the protagonist is frantically washing blood of her hands and apologises as though she is sorry for what she is about to do next. The last scene well you need to watch it to know who wins…

I feel that for my film, it had a lot of colour symbolism to it and I really like the soundtracks I used which was from Misere mei deus by Agnus Dei, Lacrimosa by Mozart and a Youtube composer, Peter Grundy. Altogether, it creates this power play in the film and the ascension to power with the ethereal choral voices.

My film can be viewed here:

https://youtu.be/hI4l3mgAq5E

Enjoy!

Project 2: Impossibilities of being

For this project, I wanted to depict whimsical and fun and so I went to re-listen to my old playlist. There, I came across this song My Friend Has a Swimming Pool by Mausi. It has a tropical, summer upbeat vibe to the song which appealed to me because I’m quite a cheerful person. Thus after selecting that song, I crafted my images to it.

Originally, I wanted to have shots of glitter and jumping into the pool but due to time constraints and hectic schedules, I decided to take the photos by myself. I decided to use a penguin to represent me as they are one of my favourite animals and they are adorable plus they are aquatic birds (it goes with the beauty, pool theme of the song). Also, this penguin has a sentimental value to me and it makes me smile every time I look at it thus it was a good idea to use it in my shoot. Moreover, as I was doing the shoots independently, an inanimate object was easier to control then having me running back and forth behind and in front of the camera.

The video can be viewed here:

https://youtu.be/d6WmPGVlw5A

Project 1B: Sequential Imaging

HYPNOS

It followed the same storyline as my previous 1B project

[https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/emma0005/project-1b/]

The storyline did not change much because how does one evil family take on a 180 degree change in personality?

This was the first scene which I wanted to capture the seductiveness of Nyx in a club thus the laser lights surrounding her. She seduces to feed on her prey which are humans who have succumbed to vices.

The second scene portrays her in the Hypnos, her club/lair thus still featuring the laser lights in the background. I wanted to portray her as a VIP like those VIP tables in Zouk (LOL) so I added the throne behind and skeletons at her feet because humans are her food. Also, people raving are added into the foreground who are seemingly unaware of the situation.

Now the whole family unites together to bring darkness to the whole word because well everyone is always hungry for more everything like power and control. I like the RBF (resting bitch face) this model gave so I took it along with the D&G 2013 fall campaign I think? Because they reminded me of her minions and also YAS to girl power! I took most inspiration from D&G because of this particular regal collection and the stunning designs. Also, there is some colour symbolism with the red, gold and black theme.

This evil family is going to take away the most purest place of all which is Mount Olympus and so the army marches into the sky, bringing their darkness along with them.

No happy ending this time. The Queen and Mother of Darkness reigns with Olympus in ruins.

Project 1B

In a world where the Gods who had offended Zeus were punished to lived among mankind on Gaia, Nyx’s divine family of darkness was one of them. The only way to sustain their divine power was by exploiting the weaknesses of mankind, thus she created a lair, Hypnos. It was a place for humans who had lost their way to be able to succumb to their temptations which came at a price, their life which sustained the fallen gods. However, it was now time for Nyx to hand the reigns over to either one of of her favourite children, Oneiroi, the purest hearted out of the two or Moros, the darkness that even Zeus himself fears of. The good to change the future of mankind or the darkness to continue causing chaos on Gaia? Her decision will change the future of mankind, her entire family, possibly even Mount Olympus.

I was inspired by Greek mythology during Art History lecture (yup, I got distracted) and I started researching about the gods when I came across Nyx who bore gods of darkness yet she and her family were little known of. Hence, I decided to create a story for them to let the world know more about who they are and that although they are rarely heard of, they should not be underestimated. Also, my story and it’s characters were taken from childhood memories whereby I really enjoyed reading books about greek mythology and wondered about how different life might be if the gods still walked on earth with us and so I might have just made my childhood dream into a reality.

CHARACTER 1: NYX

She is the Goddess of the Night, thus I made her gown as part of the sky. It transitions from the dusk which is the gold coloured part to night which is the purple hues as the bottom of her gown. Her facial features are young because to me, gods do not age as they are divine beings that have special divine diet.

I wanted to portray her as a regal being with a cold, emotionless face but deep inside her she is a mother and she worries a lot. Yet, when one first sees her, they are instantly attracted to her beauty which is also how she lures in her victims but they are in awe of this cool vibe she exudes.

CHARACTER 2: Oneiroi

He’s the cool guy next door and seemingly perfect and that is the reason why everyone loves him. I chose this picture of google as the model had a melancholy vibe to him which is what I wanted. This helps to convey his character as someone who is perfect and a chivalrous person but his deep-in-thought expression shows us otherwise and maybe he has something that he is hiding or wanting to break out from.

I added black wings to his back not only because Oneiroi was described as so but it further enhances this angelic look of his. The colourful pastel background creates a dreamlike mood but it helps to draw the attention to Oneiroi due to the contrast.

CHARACTER 3: Moros

I sourced this image from google too but I coloured the face of the model in black to create this mysterious and eerie feeling to this character as he is supposed to be evil. I layered the shattered glass backdrop behind him as being the god of doom, he destroys everything so he makes his entrance with something destructive. I tried creating this character with a bad boy vibe to contrast his brother Oneiroi.

I really really really enjoyed this project because I managed to convey how I wanted my characters to look like and I could show my style which I thought exuded a fashion magazine vibe to it. However, my poster needs to show a feud instead of just the mother in dilemma post.

Project 1A

Using the methods of addition, subtraction, substitution and superimpose, I aimed for my work to challenge certain laws and societal mindsets and to advocate for certain societal issues that have been ignored.

CHANGE

This was intended to create awareness that although social media allows us to gain insights into another’s life, at times it is taken too extremely. Increasingly more cases of people have died when taking their ‘selfies’ due to them being unaware of their surroundings during their attempt to take the perfect picture. Thus, I added in crosses, dead bodies and hands reaching out of the water to show the potential death that could happen when one is too self-absorbed in creating the perfect picture for the ‘likes’ on social media. An Instagram vector was added to relate this image to social media and I changed the username to stimulate the audience to think wisely and not follow trends that could lead to their deaths.

I subtracted the tuna sashimi off the sushi to connote that the overconsumption of tuna that has led to over fishing and the potential extinction of the species. Due to globalisation, more people has demanded for bluefin tuna for their sushi, leading to the occurrences of illegal fishing to meet this demand. This image wants to educate and inform people that the consequences of our greed has led to such issues in our society that we need to change.

With the current debates about the US gun laws and the Black lives matter movement, this was meant to be a satire comment – that guns are frivolously used as though they are a toy water guns and those wielding the gun aim their bullets at individuals as if it was harmless. This is to create awareness of the danger of liberal gun laws and hence, I substituted the bullets with water to connote what I have mentioned above.

To highlight the vast and rapid changes that Singapore has undergone, I used a collage of pictures to display this using some images that were taken by me. Even though I am proud of Singapore’s progress, at times I question that we might be evolving too fast that during the transition we lose a part of our history and culture.

CONCLUSION

I really enjoyed manipulating the images to create different connotation to highlight issues in our societies and provoke people to think and use their sense of morality to change their ways. This allowed me to explore creating powerful images with a different medium – technology and photography. Although I experience some difficulties in trying to convey my messages especially for the superimposition part, I hope with future projects that I will be able to improve.

Superhero or super-bed hair?

Hello, I’m Emma!

Tried to look serious but ended up looking like I just woke up.

I chose to control nature as my superhero power as global warming is a prevalent issue now but little or no attention is given to it. No worries, I’m no tree hugger but just a girl who wants to save the polar bears, penguins and seals from extinction.

That’s why my superhero name is (drumroll please)….Winter! There’s an inside joke between Jaime and I with this name because as you all know superheroes always make a dramatic entrance so it’ll be like “WINTER IS COMING.” (Game of Thrones fans would get it )