Publish and/or be Damned by Sophia Tai

PUBLISH be DAMNED and o r

DE TAILS INSIDE

DETAILS SOPHIA T A I G M D Y R 1

BA T A I13 396142 s .tai1 arts.ac.uk

C O N T E N T S 03 Modern Life 05 System 07 Politics 08 Typography 09 Photography 11 Hybrid 12 Special Effects 13 Culture

18 Bibliography

symbol

rituals

values

As Raymond Williams says, culture is a hard term to define. It has several meanings; in different contexts it stands for different things. From the original Latin word, it has the cultivated meaning of land, it means to inhabit, to protect and to honour with worship. Later, between 1983 and 1987, Williams described it as cultivation of mind, faculty and manners. Cultures are concepts which define our behaviour, and the unification of our behavior makes us feel and be part of culture. These concepts can be made up of beliefs and customs of a human society: our way of thinking and working, our educational systems, patterns of human knowledge, social status influenced by marital traits, ethnicity and religion to mention a few. These are shared values, practices and goals, conventions and shared fields of activity. Professor Geert Hofstede cleverly categorized this term into four subjects: symbol, rituals, values and heroes. A symbol represents a certain culture’s verbal or non-verbal language, for example the distinguishable posh accent in England. Rituals are seen as collective activities, such as afternoon tea at 5pm. The element that settles and characterizes cultures are its values, which contain feelings that are not open for discussion. In England a good example for this would be the good manners that people value. As for heroes, it could be any real or fictional person who represents a behavioural model for other people in the culture. He or she can be any idol or a special character, such as Sherlock Holmes. The dominant culture has other cultures within it, which are often called subcultures. These represent certain values, which often vary in belief, interest, taste, music, activities, ethnicity, class, geographic region, and many more. The term subculture can be seen as derogatory by some, because ‘sub’ is the meaning of beneath, underneath, and can give it an underground, less prestigious meaning. Instead, many prefer co-culture, where ‘co’ means no less important and indicates co-existence. The roots of counterculture reside here, containing a strong element of critique and questioning the main culture; this can result in changing the main culture.

heroes

Culture NOUN

/ˈkʌltʃə/

1. The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively; A refined understanding or appreciation of culture. 2. The ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society; The attitudes and behaviour characteristic of a particular social group. 3. Biology The cultivation of bacteria, tissue cells, etc. in an artificial medium containing nutrients; A preparation of cells obtained by culture. 4. The cultivation of plants.

M O D E R N L I F E Marshall Berman writes about political actions and reflects on them in context in a more accessible way in All That is Solid Melts into Air(1982). What we call modernity can be experienced as immigration by some, which leads to a different pace of life, more diverse people and the demand of more participation in order to fit in. In modern life we strive for more control, demanding democratization and with this urbanization, mass media, globalization and the application of scientific knowledge come to be. We think we now know everything. This changes the way we think. We think we have control, but do we control it or does it control us? Urban growth is part of the modernization. There has been a continuous process of modernization in Paris since 1900. Hausmann introduced wide, parallel streets, erased the old city as means of a creative destruction, and added surveillance to make the city manageable. These replacements are called the hausmannization of Paris. In this movement something new and incredible was created, but along with this, many people lost their homes. Is control good at all, or should we let things flow naturally? There are distinct kinds of people in our modern everyday life. One of them is the Flaneur, as Charles Baudelaire mentioned in his book, The Painter of the Modern Life and Other Essays(1964). The Flaneur is a dandy, fashionable man, whose mission is to experience his own city as a tourist and detach himself from society. According to Baudelaire, this is very

“

rare as detaching yourself from society can be dangerous. Nowadays, there is no connection between neighbors or between the people who are traveling on the same train. Everyone sees themselves as individuals. We have created a community of strangers. To keep this community together, commodities and apparition were created. Advertising and overstimulation now rule over the streets of the cities. People have learned to mentally block this out as self defense. This new life has created boredom, there is no excitement, no big dreams of a bright future. Humans now crave for nostalgia. On the other hand, modernization had a different impact on the Ragpicker, as writer Walter Benjamin (The Writer of Modern Life, 2006) mentioned. They are the people in whose eyes the modernization never materialized. They are either homeless, or their work is not wanted in today’s world, dreaming about revolutionizing the vision of future. So when we live in a post modern world, where nothing is ever interesting anymore, boredom rules, and nobody is looking for new possibilities, are we sure we want it to stay this way? When everything is thought out for us, should we just give up and go with it? Is that the reason why people feel discouraged by creating something new? Perhaps this is all inevitable. The television controls our thoughts, and we feel it’s easier not to think about things anymore. So what can we do when something is inevitable?

Day to day life can be tedious and sometimes miserable, but nostalgia stimulates a sense of optimism and purpose. Looking backwards helps us to look forwards. Rod Judkins

”

SYSTEM

Whether we like it or not, our life is controlled in some way. Whatever you look at, you can probably find a system in it. For example your daily life, what you do and when you do it are determined by the clock and the school/workplace system. This system is shown very well in the music video of Remind Me by Royksopp(2001). It shows several animated infographics (based on grids/ systems), beginning with time zones, weather forecasts, maps, structure of a house, alarm clock, even a human and then shows the monotone every day life of a female human being, proofing how systematically we all live. Where you go is determined by the roads which are built upon a system or in some cases on a grid as well. For example the roads in New York city are layers of grids and systems, where the roads look like a grid systematized with numbered Avenues, West and East Streets creating an almost perfect way-finding system. This can be understood by everyone, because the system of numbers is universal and learned by everyone, unlike the International Picture Language by Otto Neurath(1936), which originally could not be understood worldwide and had to be learned. This controlled environment makes people live together and connect more easily. Traffic lights determine whether we walk or stop and wait. Even a book has their own rules where the writing is based on system and the design is based on grids. This all might sound depressing and demotivating at first, and we human beings might feel like we have no control over our own lives, but all the grids and systems wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist without a reason, and the main reason for this is, that there is so many of us, that there needs to be some kind of system in order for us to all work together. In most cases itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best to let go of control and just enjoy life the way it is. In the end, everything has its own good and bad side.

&P O L I T I C S When it comes to politics, most people like to keep their beliefs to themselves. The same goes for graphic designers, who keep their statements private and rather focus on technique and other values they represent. But exceptions do exist, and graphic design has always had a major impact on politics and vice versa. In this article, we are going to focus on the last century’s pioneering works and movements. John Heartfield played a big role in the world of politics. As a graphic designer he created anti-nazi propaganda posters by taking original propaganda posters and modifying their meaning with simple elements. He was also part of the Dada movement(1916-1923), which he implemented into his works. With this he linked Dada with anti-propaganda, thus associating Dada with a radical political position. He played a part in the Women’s Suffrage Movement as well as in the anti-fascist movement, criticizing both Mussolini and Hitler. Another inspiring graphic designer is Otl Aicher, who is famous for creating the image for the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. “The olympiad was emotive, militaristically disciplined, neoclassicist, and accompanied by spirit of fatalism.” By creating these propaganda posters, he gave a new interpretation to the Olympics, diverting it from its earliest nationalist associations. His Munich Olympic posters were the exact opposite of what the Berlin Olympics represented in 1936. Red and black were off the table, as those colours were used by the nazi posters. The same rule applied for flags, as they were considered inappropriate to put on posters. Otl also created new pictograms for the Munich Olympic Games, which were created based on the Isotype system from the 1920’s. He was the second to create these kind of symbols for the Olympics.

T Y P O G R A P H Y Typography is about understanding context. Typography is not dependent on any particular medium. According to Gerrit Noordzij typography is writing with prefabricated letters. Working with letterforms started in the 15th century. Here are some basic reflections on typography. Apart from these, many more exist. For example, Robert Bringhurst wrote a typographic manual titled as The Elements of Typographic Style(1992) in which he states that typography has an independent existence. “Typography takes human language and gives it a durable form.” Robert Bringhurst Typography is a link, which joins components like writing and imagery. Typography and literature are like a performance and a musical composition, providing an endless amount of possible interpretations. According to Peter Bi’lak, typography is in a constant state of evolution. It is contemporary, but does not necessarily invent anything revolutionary. All the new types are based on previous types and elements. It is possible to extend the meaning of typography, as it was proven by the Gutenberg Bible and by Lust through their posterwall. Designers will stretch as far as possible, hitting boundaries, however they will always stick to the content that the typography is meant to convey. Typography does not only have reflections, it has conflicts as well. No design has one correct solution. There are infinite possibilities, which means there are infinite ways of interpreting a text. Some type solutions are timeless and some that are strongly unacceptable in certain societies, later turn popular. David Carson’s Lecture Poster(1966) is an excellent example of that. Typography can have many attributes. It can be chaotic like the Blast Magazine by Wyndham Lewis (1914-1915). It can exclude images like the “Important Images” book poster by Robert & Durrer(1990) does, emphasizing the importance of images by showing their absence. It can be fragmented, like the Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind(2001), marking the post-modern architectural style. All of them are breathtaking solutions and it doesn’t stop here. Though I would have to say, my favourite piece relevant to the theme would be Wim Crouwel’s Hiroshima poster (1957), in which the thick letters squashed into the composition create a claustrophobic feeling.

PHOTOGRAPHY Before the advent of photography, photograms, “non permanent photographs”, existed. The world’s very first permanent photograph from nature was taken in c. 1826 by a man called Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The technology involved in creating this work was called Camera Obscura, which was based on a room with a hole, where light comes inside the room and projects an image in reverse onto the opposite wall. Photography commenced in 1839 advanced by two key early photographers, Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot, only two weeks apart. Photography used to be known as “drawing with light” as the word literally transforms into ‘lightdrawing’ (photo=light, graphy=drawing) and in this way photography came to be an artform, rather than just a technique. Photography had many trends through the years since it commenced. Among the first were photographs of dead children and babies, as the idea of creating a clean and lasting memory of one’s own child was very popular with mothers. As creepy as it might sound, it was the perfect context to photograph dead people. Back then, the photo paper had not evolved its sensitivity yet, so it took much longer to take the photograph. Instruments to hold the subject of the photograph were still used to prevent any blurring on the pictures, but in the case of capturing the babies, this instrument wasn’t needed. A mother would sit with a black cloth covering her head and body and would hold her child in her lap. In terms of today’s trends in photography, things are entirely different. Not only because of the evolution in technology, but also in relation to different social habits we currently posses. Social media platforms are nowadays full of selfies. We might think this is a new trend, but the selfie used to be called the self-portrait in earlier years. The very first “selfie” was actually created in the exact same year as photography started, in 1839 by Robert Cornelius. The term ‘selfie’ was probably first coined at the Nelson Mandela memorial event where U.S. President Barack Obama, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron took a photograph of themselves with a mobile phone. People act very differently when they are aware of a photograph being taken. Philip diCordia took the exact opposite of this thought and captured people’s faces without their knowing. He took the photographs in broad daylight, from 20 km distance. With a strict setting, lighting and concept, his works turned out to be very beautiful, but most importantly very emotional.

The term Hybrid Practices refers to when two entirely different mediums are collaborating to create something new. Things like biology and technology are brought together to be biotechnology and these combinations can be swapped. When individualism is hybridised, singular designers turn to collaborations and plurality and bound media becomes unbound. What is bound and unbound? For example a book is a bound media. It is bound, because we are not really meant to do anything but read it. We can scan it, photocopy it and modify it in several other ways, but it would take an effort to do so. On the other hand, an e-book is an unbound media, because we can easily copy or modify the text. If it is a PDF file, we can convert it and listen to it with an earphone. Unbound media is connected to other media and everything is more convenient. It is not fixed, it is meant to be edited. This is called in-vitro thinking. Vitro means window and the meaning behind this term is publishing that is always open to editing, something that is never finished. Apart from being convenient, unbound media has its disadvantages as well. They are easy to produce, and because of this, a lot of rubbish is made and dumped onto the world wide web. Everything is at hand and a person does not hesitate or criticize himself as people used to. What is dominant today as well are convergent technologies. As Henry Jenkins writes in intro to Convergent Cultures (2006) migrating becomes easier. When a website is full of hyperlinks leading to a different page, people tend to wander off and in the end, lose interest. We do not only see problems with the unbound media, but also still use metaphors, which refer to bound media. For example “Being on the same page” or “You are an open book”. We still understand the meaning of these phrases, but they do not play a part in our modern lives anymore. Instead, everyone reads different books and watches different TV shows. We are a merge of different cultures from the whole world, and mass production and consumption have separated people who once were just one group from being on the same page. What is really interesting about the result of unbound media on the other hand is that is creates merged spaces of production and consumption. Someone can write/create a blogpost on a laptop and another person can read/consume the exact same post on the same device. This breaks down walls and opens doors. Good examples for these are Design Distribution by Type Forge and Publishing and Discussing by Design Observer. Other people, like Random International hybridise analog and digital spaces with their Pixel Roller project. In their many projects, it is not the viewer reacting to the environment, but the other way around as modern technology allows art and design pieces to act according to the viewer. This creates a situation, where everything happens according to the viewer. But don’t forget technology is limited as well. It is limited to what the programmer has set it to. Hybridising media and the atomisation of the designer realm creates new spaces for production and consumption and this can be a great place for designers to explore and look at for future development.

H Y B R I D

My interest in CGI and VFX have grown gradually over the last year. About a year ago, one of our teachers, Robert Odegnal, secretly showed us his yet unpublished short film in class. We were amazed by both the story and visuals, and requested to watch it again. A few months later, I had the chance to visit Umbrella studio, a production studio mainly for TV commercials and music videos, where I met Andras Szabo a.k.a. Emil Goodman. He is one of the most talented director/animators I know, thus I have researched his works deeply and became more interested in the topic of production and postproduction. The moment I truly became interested in special effects and the world where animation meets live-action films, was a few months ago, when our lecturer showed us Robots of Brixton by Kibwe Tavares (2011). What is interesting about his short film, is that he created it as his graduate project in architecture at University College London. At that moment, Kibwe Tavares convinced me, that it’s never too late to be interested in something new and I made my dive into the film and animation world. For exploring and understanding special effects, I mainly looked at books, articles and behind-thescene/making-of videos. Interviews, dissertations and a guest lecture about VFX in Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity (2013) seemed the most useful and interesting sources for good information and further research, as looking at youtube and vimeo accounts proved to be good study related to the mentioned artists whom you will read more about in this piece of writing.

Robert Odegnal first became known for his comic book, The Developer (2005), which is the first episode of a trilogy called Rev, winner of Alfabeta Award and ‘Best Artist’ at Eurocon. Unfortunately unfinished, but continued by a short film with the same title (2013), which won the ‘Best Sci-fi Short Film Award’ at the Phoenix Film Festival in 2014. His Sin City inspired post-apocalyptic sci-fi noir has been acknowledged by many. After studying graphic design at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Odegnal took a directing course and created The Deserter (2011) from all that he learnt. This helped him gain experience and contacts for his bigger work, The Developer. The story goes like this: the protagonist can see the past and the future and has the ability to develop his visions onto photographic paper. He is then hired to solve a murder mystery, a job offer he should never have accepted. Odegnal’s works contain a great amount of VFX, due to the lack of money. His main tool for shooting live-action footage was the green-screen, where he later puts the post-apocalyptic

imagery of Budapest. Same method was used for the scene where a developed image is showed, but with a small piece of green paper. The visuals mainly focus on live-action, while using visual effects and computer generated imagery in the background. These are created from heavily altered footage, that was shot in Budapest. “Limitations are the source of creativity” as we know it, and so Odegnal used 3D graphics to create a futuristic car for one of his key scenes, and fills the sky with flying objects that yet do not exist. The imagery is quite fascinating in the sense that he uses collage, heavy image modification, green screen and 3D graphics altogether with live-action film.

Kibwe Tavares is known in the film industry for his graduate project at University College London, a short film titled as Robots of Brixton. Apart from the excellent execution of this film, the fact that he studied only architecture makes this piece of work all the more fascinating. He is actor, director, animator and creates computer generated imagery as well. His shorts play in the future, as architects tend to think for the future with their designs (Shields, 2013). This interesting mixture of sci-fi and architecture create exciting visuals, and Tavares’ architectural drawings and computer generated imageries support these shorts to be even more interesting. After winning the Special Jury Award for ‘Animation Direction’ at Sundance Festival in 2012 and the RIBA Silver Medal for his film, he founded Factory Fifteen, an animation studio, with two other directors, Jonathan Gales and Paul Nicholis. In the following years they created award winning films and animations for The British Film Institute, Channel4 and Samsung among many others. Tavares contributed to Gamma (2012) with his knowledge of visual effects and created Jonah (2013), requested by Film4. Tavares is acknowledged for raising awareness for black people. Robots of Brixton shows an image of Brixton in 2050, where architecture has altered and both robots and humans populate the city. It was a clever idea to use robots to echo the 1981 Brixton Riot, as it takes off the weight of the director being a young black Londoner himself and gives us a new way to rethink the happenings of the riot and

racism in general (Eng, 2013). The film is almost entirely animation, which was created in 3DSMAX and After Effects. Modelling and CGI were used for the Robots, the entire interior of the pub and the robot’s virtual world in nature. Footage of Brixton streets have also been used in this short, where Tavares modified many architectural elements and added some humour with shops like RoboCuts (00:32) or Parts ‘R’ Us (00:36). His way of mixing animation with live-action is considered basic but at the same time, very interesting. He brings this further in Jonah, where he modifies the entire city of Zanzibar into a “seedy, capitalist tourist trap” (Shields, 2013). The visuals are created in a realistic manner, and all interior was shot in live-action, as it proves to produce nicer and more realistic visuals and better performance with actors (Andrews, 2013). Similar to Robots of Brixton, he has created a fictional interior to show the world inside the big fish, but unfortunately, this piece was not used in the final film, with this putting more emphasis onto the changes in the city.

Andras Szabo, also called Emil Goodman is one of the most talented animator/directors based in Budapest, Hungary. Mostly known for his graduate project for his animation course at the MoholyNagy Art and Design University, Henry Waltz Visual Teaser (2011). His works are highly experimental in the sense of mixing animation with live-action footage and programming. Entering university, he had many complexes regarding his animatic skills, thus he decided to head down a very original road in animation. During his university years he created music videos Just Like for Beat Dis (2008), an honest and a very experimental work, and More than a feelin’ for Secta Chameleon ft. Judie Jay (2009). Goodman also founded Room168, a creative production team, with his best friend Rene Mednyanszki a.k.a. Menzkie, in which they created award-winning video clips and internationally distributed

commercials for Adidas, Coca-Cola, MTV and Honda among many others. Currently they both work as directors in Umbrella studio, where Goodman is working on his full-length film for Henry Waltz along with works like Nightdrive for Mary Popkids (2013) and Heaven’s Vanguard (2013) with Balazs Feher, singer of The Carbonfools. Goodman’s current works mostly play in the world of Henry Waltz, which goes against the traditional thinking of “form follows function”. While his animation lacks the concept and story, the focus is strongly on its refined visuals. A mix of victorian and steampunk styled sci-fi world is created within a half-built city upon a faraway planet. New laws of physics indicate the citizens’ rigid movements, and giant animals build from flowers and leaves climb the rocky mountains. The imagery is created from google images, ink paintings and microscopic images of plants and pollens, heavily photoshopped until something new is created. (Creative Mornings, 2012) The director prefers to use human bodies and faces in his work, thus he tends to film footage of actors moving in front of a green screen and then place them into an animated environment. In the case of Henry Waltz Visual Teaser, he either only uses the silhouettes or just prefers to keep it to the minimum and creates their entire bodies from collaged textures and images himself. The animated world itself is very interesting in its methods of creation. For example, the rotation of the city is computer generated by a programme, and the wings of the transportation machines are equal to Goodman’s waving arm movements turned upside down. In terms of after effects, his foggy, Soho and Coney Island inspired vision was created with beautiful details in post-production visual effects (Raday, 2012). With his outstanding visuals, he is now developing a story for his upcoming film, Henry Waltz. What the three directors have in common is their reason for using VFX and CGI. Their works all contain utopian worlds from the future, though the mood seems depressing in all three shorts, as a world that is utopian to one, tends to create a dystopian world to another. Odegnal creates a world in chaos, Tavares creates a world that is yet the same as Brixton from 1981, and Goodman creates a half built city upon a non-existent planet. More importantly, the world these films play in are all works of fantasy, which usually contain special effects, as it is considered the most affordable and visually pleasing method for creating non-existent imagery in a realistic way. In the film industry, visual effects were first accepted by the genre of science-fiction, and these films all fit into that category. Sci-fi works are also known for containing computer graphics and a strong sense of criticism towards science and technology. Odegnal and Tavares have kept those ideals, Goodman on the other hand, only worked on the visuals, thus creating a less negative, criticised world. VFX in sci-fi films have lately created a contradiction between the spectacle and the narrative (Keane, 2007). Visuals started to dominate over content and critique, which science-fiction used to stand for and this is what Emil Goodman and his works represent. His fantastical world is a place that could not have been created without the existence of visual effects. Its most recent development, 3D allows artists to reach new possibilities. For example, Goodman uses it to place the actors’ faces into his animations and create depth with his flying rocks and vehicles. Tavares on the other hand, uses 3D to add more element to the buildings in the city, or to record interiors in a certain angle that would be too difficult or even impossible in real life.

In conclusion, CGI has been popular for creating the non-existent, adding elements and details to already existing images, it is popular for its affordability and flexibility. Up until now, VFX and CGI have been used to add to live-action, like the 3D car and flying objects by Robert Odegnal and the architectural modifications by Kibwe Tavares. This might not be the case for the future of the film industry. At a lecture about the VFX in Gravity, Mark Bakowski mentioned and showed us the process in which the special effects were created for the film. It seems that apart from the faces, everything else is computer animated and simulated. This concept is very similar to Emil Goodman’s method, which is placing human faces into an animated and programmed world. Is this what future films will be based upon? In present, directors still tend to use backdrops and objects and elements while recording with actors, as it produces more realistic visuals and better performance with actors. To opt this “problem” out, they have developed a new type of light-box for the production of Gravity. Instead of the greenscreen, actors and actresses play their roles in a box covered with LED-lights. While performing, the LEDscreens play the background visuals in real time, creating appropriate light contractions on objects and faces, and improving the reaction time and performance of actors. If this method continues to be used in future films, and will be developed, will the traditional process of shooting live-action footage disappear entirely? To what extend will artificial be acceptable to the audience and will the time come, when there will be a demand for something, that is truly more ‘real’?

BIBLIOGRAPHY A

Andrews, E. (2013) How the use of CGI has affected the television industry and the effects it may have upon future. Unpublished BA dissertation. University of the Arts London. Andrews is a former University of the Arts London student, who graduated in BA (Hons) Productions for Live Events and Television. Her dissertation contains the pro’s and con’s of CGI, its development throughout history, some technical methods, its role in the film industry and possible roles in the future. BBC (2011). The making of “Atlantis” - BBC one [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wRWn2tpYVB8> [Accessed 14 May 2014]. A short video, that introduces some special effects methods in the film industry, and how to shoot the live-action in the production part to make it most effective and visually pleasing. Bizony, P. (2001) Digital modelling. In: Digital domain-The leading edge of visual effects. Great Britain: Aurum Press Ltd. This chapter of Digital Domain writes about a particular method in CG (computer graphics), which is using a wireframe mesh. It explains many methods of creating a 3D model of a particular object, for example, a car. It is very technical, and contains good examples and stories of modellings for known films. Creative Mornings (2013). Emil Goodman: Henry Waltz [Internet]. Available from: <https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=EK1M890gFig> [Accessed 14 May 2014]. Emil Goodman was a guest speaker at a Creative Mornings event in Budapest, Hungary. In this talk he tells us about his works, how he achieves the visuals for the Henry Waltz teaser video and how he ended up where he is right now. Diane (2008) Odegnal Robert: a hivo. Endless, 6 January [Internet]. Available from: <http://www. endless.hu/odegnal-robert-a-hivo> [Accessed 21 May 2014].

An article that mentions the writer’s first experience regarding Odegnal’s comic book, The Developer (2005) and showing personal thoughts, feelings and opinions about it. Eng, K. (2013) Constructing kinetic worlds: the futuristic films of TED Fellow Kibwe Tavares. TEDBlog, 28 February [Internet blog]. Available from: <http://blog.ted.com/2013/02/28/constructing-kinetic-worldsthe-futuristic-films-of-ted-fellow-kibwe-tavares/> [Accessed 21 May 2014]. A short interview with Tavares about his work. Factory Fifteen (2013) Jonah [Internet]. Available from: <https://vimeo.com/58646255> [Accessed 21 May 2014]. Tavare’s newest short, requested by Film4. Created in collaboration with Factory Fifteen and Jellyfish Productions. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Factory Fifteen (2013) Jonah making of [Internet]. Available from: <https://vimeo.com/58537343> [Accessed 21 May 2014]. This video shows a very detailed insight on the creation of visual effects in this film. Showing many scenes and aspects of the short. Film4 (2013) Kibwe Tavares: the development of Jonah. Film4, 31 May [Internet blog]. Available from: <http://blog.film4.com/kibwe-tavares-the-development-of-jonah/> [Accessed 21 May 2014]. As Tavares created his newest short, Jonah (2013) on the request of Film4, he now talks about how the idea and work developed. He mentions his personal experience about being an official director for the first time. Halas, J. (1990) The contemporary animator. Great Britain: Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd. This book mainly writes about traditional animation, though around the end, it mentions digitalization and how traditional animators have to go through a transition to be able to use computer animation. Halas states it is a hard job to do so for many animators, but it is definitely worth it. Keane, S. (2007)Digital special effects. In: Cinetech. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. It tells the story of CGI’s success and popularity, arguments to why it became used so frequently and writes a history of CGI’s phases, and people’s opinions and debates about its use and existence. Kibwe Tavares (2011). Robots of Brixton [Internet]. Available from: <https://vimeo.com/25092596> [Accessed 12 May 2014]. In this short film a mixture of architectural drawings and cinematic animation create original visuals of the fictional Brixton in 2050. Kibwe Tavares, created this film for his masters degree in Architecture at University College London. His architectural background helped him create a fictional city from Brixton by modifying the buildings in it. Kibwe X-Kalibre Tavares (2011) Robot Cathedral. The Boom Ting Blog, 1 March [Internet Blog]. Available from: <http://kibwetavares.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/robot-cathedral.html> [Accessed 21 May 2014]. A blogpost on Kibwe Tavares’ blog, The Boom Ting Blog, where he writes about his opinion on the scene in nature and fear of it being too distracting of the original message. Leeper, B. (2014) Phoenix film festival 2014: friday’s rabid film roundup. Nerdvana, 5 April [Internet blog]. Available from: <http://blogs.evtrib.com/nerdvana/events/phoenix-film-festival-2014-fridays-rabidfilm-roundup/99299/> [Accessed 21 May 2014]. As Robert Odegnal’s shortfilm, The Developer is winner of Phoenix Film Festival ‘Best Sci-fi Short Film Award’ in 2014, his film was mentioned and written about in context of the festival. Libor, A. (2013) Odegnal Robert: szuperhos magyar modra. Filmhu, 10 May [Internet]. Available from: <http://www.magyar.film.hu/filmhu/magazin/odegnal-robert.html> [Accessed191 May 2014].

Interview with Robert Odeganl about his comics and short film, The Developer. He talks about the technical challenges and difficulties of producing the films. He also shows some insight on the postproduction. Mitchell, M. (2004) Visual effects for film & television. Great Britain: Focal Press. The book contains an introduction to special effects, analyzation of it and many methods of using them, as there are several types of special effects that can be used. Ohanian, T. A. & Philips, M. E. (2013) Digital filmmaking-The changing art and craft of making motion pictures. 2nd ed. United Kingdom: Focal Press. Focus on digital pre-production and production of films and explaining post-production options. Deeper insight into filmmaking. Orosz, A. I. (2011) A latvany kesz, a tortenet johet. Artmagazin [Internet]. Vol.5 pp.36-39. Available at: <http://www.artmagazin.hu/artmagazin_hirek/a_latvany_kesz_a_tortenet_johet.1279.html> [Accessed 21 May 2014]. Analyzation and critics about Emil Goodman’s graduation work, Henry Waltz (2011). Peter Raday (2013). Interview with Emil Goodman [Internet]. Available from: <https://vimeo. com/45960284> [Accessed 14 May 2014]. Probably the most in-depth interview with Emil Goodman, where the artist explains where his name comes from, what kind of work he does and why this is his passion. This interview contains many personal information about Emil Goodman himself. Robert Odegnal (2014). Igy keszult A hivo [Internet]. Available from: <https://vimeo.com/90143923> [Accessed 14 May 2014]. Visuals showing the contrast between raw footage and special effects. Robert shows the key scenes from his short film, and how his Sin City like style was achieved. Shields, D. (2013) From architecture to animation: Kibwe Tavares on ‘Jonah’ + his journey into film. Okayafrica [Internet]. 24 June. Available from: <http://www.okayafrica.com/2013/06/24/black-filmbritish-filmmaker-kibwe-tavares-jonah-interview/> [Accessed 21 May 2014]. An interview with Kibwe Tavares about his film, Jonah (2013). He talks about the story, the planning and execution of his short film and explains the roles of himself, Factory Fifteen and Jellyfish Productions. He also mentions personal experiences and expectations related to the filmmaking process. Televisual Media UK (Ltd) (2012). Building the titanic [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=vWOsVtW28QQ> [Accessed: 14 May 2014]. An insight on the creation of the film Titanic (1997). Where and how it was shot, and the methods of visual effects that were used for the film. Televisual Media UK (Ltd) (2012). Visual fx [Internet]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=U6L-5-h4S3c> [Accessed 14 May 2014]. Shortly talk about the relevance of the VFX in the Titanic (1997) and show what had to be created. For example the water, the boat, the sinking, among others. The developer. (s.d.) Directed by Robert Odegnal. (s.l.) [Video]. An unpublished short film by Robert Odegnal, which gave the director a contract with HBO Hungary to continue creating long cinematic films. I was lucky to be able to see this work, as I was taught by Robert Odegnal in 2012-2013. Umbrella (2012). Henry Waltz visual teaser [Internet]. Available from: <https://vimeo.com/41478070> [Accessed 14 May 2014]. Graduate project by Emil Goodman for his animation course at the MoholyNagy Art and Design University in Budapest. This visual teaser gained him massive publication and great offers, including the support of Umbrella studio where he currently creates his works.

Umbrella (2013). Mary Popkids – Nightdrive (director’s cut) [Internet]. Available from: <https://vimeo. com/70504166> [Accessed 14 May 2014]. Mary Popkids’ music video directed by Emil Goodman and Menzkie, also known as Room168. In this work, the duo uses many digital film and special effects techniques. Venkatasawmy, R. (2013) The digitization of cinematic visual effects-Hollywood’s coming of age. United Kingdom: Lexington Books. A history of VFX and CGI, explaining the reasons and conditions of it’s development. Mainly focusing on the growing industry and the digitalization of filmmaking and post-production.

List of illustrations 1. Le Flaneur by Paul Gavarni, 1842 2. Hiroshima Poster by Wim Crouwel, 1957 3. Raw and edited footage shots from Robert Odegnal’s The Developer (unpublished) 4. Visual plan of architecture modification for Robots of Brixton by Kibwe Tavares (2011) 5. Screen shots from Emil Goodman’s Henry Waltz Visual Teaser (2011) 6. Screen shot from Kibwe Tavares’ Jonah (2013) 7. Screen shot from Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity (2013)

S O P H I A TA I ( 2 014 ) T A I 13 3 9 614 2 s.tai@ar ts.ac.uk Contextual and Theoretical Studies BA (Hons) Graphic and Media Design Ye a r 1 Te r m 3 London College of Communication University of the Arts London

T H E E N D 2