The Birth Of Modern Horror

Edgar Allen-Poe

Edgar was hugely influential to the 'horror' genre, through not only his liturature but also his poems and short stories. Most of these were themed as 'classical' or 'gothic' tales.
You could say his whole life was a horror tale in itself due to his death, dating at 1849, was recorded as due to 'strange circumstances'. Ontop of this, all his wives ither died suspiciously young, or became seriously ill.
He had a re-noun phobia of being burried alive also, which concludes further that his mind was constantly intwined with his 'horror' themed tales. Suggesting it carried through to his lifestyle itself. His most famous peice is probably the poem "Raven".

H.P Lovecraft

Lovehearts' tales and stories involved very similar factors and themes as Edgars, yet he added a few other aspects into his, such as 'religion'. Many of his stories also incorpriated 'mythical beasts' and the theory that the 'bad' guys in a a story doesnt actually have to be somthing that already exist itself.

How did all this influence th 1980's films?

Many films had been, and were being based upon 'copied' from both Edgars' and Lovehearts' work, hence all the recreations occuring such as the short film created of the tale "Tell tale heart animatioon" which you can find easily on the net, for instance on youtube.com.
The greatest factor of all of these short films as such, are the newly discovered CGI (Computer generated imaging) effects. Which ended up giving the tales the finalised 'dramatic' and 'exhillerating' experience they wanted to create.

Saul Bass - Origional to remakes

Born in 1920, and passing away in 1996, Saul Bass was not only one of the greatest graphic designers of the mid-20th century but the natural master of film title design thanks to his work with Alfred Hitchcock. A great example of one of these films he directed along side Alfred Hitchcock was "Physco".

Because he is most known for his graphic design work im going to show you how i focused on his design methods and techniques such as block colour, hard outlines and geographic shapes.

Below are both posters, the first being the origional, and the second that I created to be of a similar style





Edward Hopper - Origionals to remakes

 Edward Hopper was renoun for very realist-style painter of twentieth-century America. His images have become part of the very style, moverment and texture of American experience.

 Even today, thirty years after his death, it is almost impossible to see America without some refrence to his work, through others after him today.

 One of his most famous peices is the scene from the American Diner. Below are two variations of this, the first being the origional, and second being a re-creation.



Origional





Remake


The comparisons that i have concluded myseelf are the following;

1. The actual layout, such as the shop front being curved round to the right, and the flat tall building in the background.
2. The idea of the actual scene of the painting and photograph remake having the only light source as the one coming from the actual shop lighting.
3. Even the attention to detail of the sizes of the windows are the same layout and size.
4. Also again, the attention to detail comes through again with the factor of having the door in the back right hand side of the shop floor.

This is just one example of where Edward Hoppers work has been copied, recreated and been of an influence of. There are hundreds of signs, from small to large details in our day to day life.

Art Deco and how its developed

Art deco was born out of France and spread worldwide very quickly due to a exhibition that exceeded numbers into the millions that came to view the experience. Many were entrepreneurs that came from various countries and continants to not steal, but view and develop the styles they saw and take them back to were they came from.

It was born in the early 1920's till the late 1930's. Many and almost every peice created in this style of Art Deco were many things out of the following;

Streamline
Organic "Look"
Geometric
Speedy and "Fast"

Many famous artist impressionist were also born from this period such as René Lalique who grew on to creat many great, iconic designs we see in todays lifestyle. So in many ways, although the period 'finished' in 1939, it in a way didn't due tho the way that many designs are still even nower days influenced by the styles.

Below are examples of an origional, and a re-interpritation of the "Art Deco" style.

Origional;
By francis jourdain





Re-interpritation;

By IKEA furnature designers today

 

How have title sequences developed? 1950's-2000's

Here are some out-standing examples of brilliant title sequences over the last 50 or so years.

• 1950's Rawhide - Black & White, Slow, Not much info, Simple and Repetertive.

• 1960's Twilight Zone - Much better quality than ever before, But still black & white but improved typeography.

         

• 1970's Starky & Hutch - Finally colour, Faster, Much more defined and Very dramatic.

         

•  1980's The A Team - Iconic music theme, Quality graphics and Iconic typogpraghy also.

         



• 1990's Desperate Houswives - Extremely artistic, fancy type, increased quality and More iconic themed music.

           

• 2000's Avatar - Stunning 3D Grapghics!

           

Art Noveou and the Edo period - Around AD 1829-33

The Great Wave

This wave etching is created by Hokusai and is sometimes classed as the single most famous woodblock prints of this Japanese era of art prints. It is a key part to the series calloed the 'Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji'.

Several thousands of this print were printed, and with it being a early on etch-print style it is very much so just full of blocked colour, and the outlining always came out thick too.

The immediate focal point for which the veiwers eyes fall upon once looking at the picture is typically just under the center of the top wave beneth the peak.

The Great Wave

The Industrial Revolution - How it improved the adverage way of life

Revolutionary Inventions and key change factors of this period of time :

• Steam Engines -

1. Trains
2. Boats
3. Machinery such as Glass melting or sweing machines

A Steam Train

• Agriculture -

1. Farming
2. Mining
3. Building transport pathways
4. Bridges
5. Cannals for the new boats

• "The birth of the media" -

1. For example, Jack the Ripper (1888) with the "Whitechaple Murders" was splashed all over the papers. These papers wer then able to be sent further than ever before due to the new improvements in transport and new pathways for the transport to follow. (Paper shown below)

Original London paper on Jack the Ripper

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello - (2005)

A 100+ word small essay

This "short film" was created in 2005, and has been nominated for a big academy award. The making of this film is a form of "stop-motion" where silhouettes of figurines and such are filmed which makes them darker than the rest of the scenes they are in. That silhouetting effect also adds to sense of gloomy, terror and darkness. The whole movie is pretty much shot in a cinematic sepia range of colours. I'm not sure if that was choice or if it was the only way because I haven't seen anything quite like this myself before. The film also appears quite jolty when it comes to the characters-figurines. This is a side effect of silhouetting them but I feel it also adds to the effect the film has. The film’s title is also known as "The World of Jasper Morello". In my opinion, all of these effects and methods of creating the short film work fantastically, and I haven’t seen anything quite like it personally.



Poster for the short film