Online Greenlight Review
Cinematic Spaces
The documents of my Online Greenlight Review Jebb195 10/10/2012
Online Greenlight Review
Contents
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Plot2 Author Biography..2-3 Social and Cultural Context3-4 Existing Adaptations4-5 Book Excerpts My Chosen Excerpts6-8 Visual Concepts Influence Maps9 Thumbnail Sketches..10-11 Creative Partnership Archive Sent Messages..12 Received Messages12-15 Other Project Work Life Drawing Tutorials..16 Photoshop Tutorials..16
Online Greenlight Review
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Plot
The novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, depicts the story of a group of scientists on an expedition to hunt an unknown sea monster that is attacking and sinking large numbers of ships, but once the beast is detected, several members of the crew, including the lead scientist, Professor Pierre Arronax, his assistant, Conseil, and a harpooner are thrown overboard after the ships rudder is damaged from a collision with the beast. The men are stranded at sea with no hope of rescue, until salvation appears in the most unlikely of forms. It is revealed that the monster the men had been sent to kill is in fact a submersible ship, the Nautilus, captained by a man named Nemo. The stranded men are captured and brought aboard the Nautilus, where Nemo informs them that they have two options, to remain aboard the Nautilus for the rest of their lives, or be left stranded at sea in hope of rescue. Knowing the risk of never being found at sea, the men agree to remain aboard the submarine, and are treated more as guests than captives. Throughout the remainder of the book, the men accompany Captain Nemo on his adventurous journeys under the ocean, where they experience the wonders inside the Nautilus, and the extravagant world under the waves of the seven seas.
Author Biography
Born on the 8th February 1828, in Nantes, France, Jules Gabriel Verne is revered as one of the great pioneers of the science fiction genre, with his most famous novels, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), becoming popular with all kinds of readers, such as the rich, poor, young, old, scientists, artists and powerful leaders. He imagined a great many inventions, some of which became truth in his lifetime, but others are yet to be invented. In his novels, he has described helicopters, modern weapons, movies with sound, television, and rockets.
Online Greenlight Review The eldest child of five, Jules Vernes father was a lawyer and his mother came from a family of ship builders and sea captains. In 1848, he travelled to Paris with a friend to study law, funded by his father, so he could support himself, but instead, spent his time writing and trying to sell his manuscripts and plays, until his father arrived in Paris to check on him. The allowance he received from his father soon stopped, forcing him to search even harder for potential people to sell his works to. In order to find people interested in his work, he visited many cafes and the homes of the rich. Eventually he had no money, so spent much of his time in the public library, because it was free and he could keep warm, where he began reading many books on natural science and technology. Jules Verne eventually had a breakthrough when he met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, his future friend and publisher, who taught him how to write exciting and adventurous novels, as much of his previous work had much attention to scientific detail. This relationship allowed Jules Verne to become a globally popular author, as he took into account the criticisms and suggestions that Pierre-Jules Hetzel made, allowing him to create novels for a vast audience. Jules Verne and Pierre-Jules Hetzel remained close friends until Pierre-Jules Hetzels death in 1886, when Jules Vernes work took a darker turn. Jules Verne eventually died in 1905, after writing over 80 novels of various styles and genres.
Social and Cultural Context
At the time the novel was written, there were many events that influenced the themes and content of the book. There are also many aspects of Jules Vernes life that have also affected his work, including his interests, experienced events, and political opinions. An evident influence on his work is the advances in technology at the time, including the development of the submarine, which began in 1620, but was unreliable until 1800, with the creation of the Nautilus. Greatly differing from the Nautilus in the book, the first practical submarine was tested in 1800 and created at the Perrier Boatyard in Rouen by Robert Fulton. The Nautilus measured 21ft 3in in length and 6ft 4in in the beam and was made of copper sheets, placed over iron ribs, and utilized a hand-cranked screw propeller to provide propulsion, rather than the
Online Greenlight Review mechanized electrically powered propellers of the fictional Nautilus. Although inspiring the Nautilus of Jules Vernes novel, the submarine is also responsible for several attributes that are used on modern submarines, such as ballast tanks and diving planes. A less obvious influence on the novel is the January Uprising, where the former PolishLithuanian Commonwealth fought against the Russian Empire, from January 1863 until the last insurgents were captured in 1865. It is believed that in the original manuscript, Captain Nemo is a Polish refugee, who fled to the sea, and has returned to avenge the division of Poland, and the deaths of his family during the repressions of the January Uprising, but to avoid offending Frances new military ally, the Russian Empire, Pierre-Jules Hetzel requested that the characters identity be changed to that of an Indian Prince fighting beneath the seas against British Empire rule following the Indian Rebellion in 1857. Even though the origin of the character may change, the revolutionary context that he is used to represent is clearly presented, especially during a section when Captain Nemo saves an Indian pearl diver, referring to the young man as an inhabitant of an oppressed country.
Existing Adaptations
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (20,000 lieues sous les mers) (1907) The silent short movie by French filmmaker Georges Mlis. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) The first feature film (also silent) based on the novel. The actor/director Allan Holubar played Captain Nemo. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1952) A two-part adaptation for the science fiction television anthology Tales of Tomorrow. (Part One was subtitled The Chase, Part Two was subtitled The Escape.) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) Probably the most well-known film adaptation of the book directed by Richard Fleischer, produced by Walt Disney, and starring Kirk Douglas as Ned Land and James Mason as Captain Nemo. Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969) A British film based on characters from the novel, starring Robert Ryan as Captain Nemo. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1972) An animated film by Rankin-Bass aired in the United States. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1973) An Australian Famous Classic Tales cartoon. Captain Nemo ( ) (1975) A Soviet film adaptation. The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo (1975) A futuristic version of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus appeared in this Canadian animated television series. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1976) A Marvel Classics Comics adaptation. The Return of Captain Nemo (1978) The Black Hole (1979) A very loose science fiction variation on the novel. Maximilian Schell's mad captain character is a more murderous, and considerably
Online Greenlight Review less sympathetic version of Captain Nemo. His hair, moustache and beard resemble those of James Mason from the 1954 film. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1985) A made-for-television animated film by Burbank Films Australia starring Tom Burlinson as Ned Land. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997, Village Roadshow) A made-for-television film starring Michael Caine as Captain Nemo. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997, Hallmark) A made-for-television film starring Ben Cross as Captain Nemo. Crayola Kids Adventures: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997) A children's educational video program inspired from the book. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1998) - an audiobook published by Blackstone Audiobooks, with the unabridged text read by Frederick Davidson. The second part of the second season of Around the World with Willy Fog (1983) by Spanish studio BRB Internacional was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (19901991) and Nadia: The Secret of Fuzzy (1992) A Japanese science fiction anime TV series and film directed by Hideaki Anno, and inspired by the book and exploits of Captain Nemo. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2001) A radio drama adaption of Jules Verne's eponymous novel aired in the United States. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2002) A DIC (now owned by Cookie Jar) children's animated television film loosely based on the novel. It premiered on television on Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toons and was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment. A stage play adaptation by Walk the Plank (2003). In this version, the "Nautilese" private language used by the Nautilus's crew was kept, represented by a mixture of Polish and Persian. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) Although not a film version of the Verne novel it does feature an Indian version of Captain Nemo (and his submarine the Nautilus) as a member of the 'League' of 19th century superheroes. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (2006). A stage play adaptation by Ade Morris for the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor. This version was for six actors and used physical theatre to help tell the story, which emphasised parallels in Verne's original with contemporary world events. 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2007) A modern update on the classic book starring Lorenzo Lamas as Lt. Aronnaux and Sean Lawlor as the misanthropic Captain Nemo.
Online Greenlight Review
Book Excerpts
My Chosen Excerpts
For the novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, I received two chapter excerpts, the first being the interior of the Nautilus, and the second being a submarine forest, in which the characters explore the submersed world outside the Nautilus. Although the interior of the Nautilus is extravagant, with many great artworks, and intriguing objects, I feel that my focus should be on the exterior world, submerged below the waves, as it allows for much more potential, with a large variety of subjects and locations to choose to work from. I feel that it would create a much more interesting experience, letting me experiment with perspectives, techniques, and style.
Online Greenlight Review
Online Greenlight Review
On the images of the book excerpts (above), I have underlined all the sections and phrases that I am using to create the thumbnail sketches and digital paintings of the spaces that feature in the novel I will focus on. Although the excerpts do not include too much detail of each individual aspect of the landscapes and creatures that are present, I believe that, with some research into the content, that there is enough to create an overall atmosphere and perspective of space for the scene.
Online Greenlight Review
Visual Concepts
Influence Maps
Seeing as my chosen excerpt is the ocean and sea floors, I felt that it would be most beneficial if I researched existing sea creatures that give the seas and oceans there structure. Keeping this in mind, I created this influence map using screenshots from nature documentaries, focusing on the plant and animal species that populate the oceans. I looked at various coral specimens, as they often form vast structured landscapes, and appear in many varieties, some of which are described in the excerpts, allowing for the addition of colour, unusual shapes, and an overwhelming atmosphere.
Online Greenlight Review
Thumbnail Sketches
The series of images are the key thumbnails that I will use, as aids or directly to create the three digital concept paintings for my book excerpts. Before focusing on the spaces as an entire image, I attempted to create several images to aid me in designing the complete environments, of which the main two thumbnails have been placed below.
The first of the thumbnails, number #17, is a visual representation of the compact density of the forest, derived from the section, Whenever I pushed the plants aside with my hand, they immediately resumed their former position, although I feel that the focus is on the diver, more so than the entangling plants. To improve this image, I would obscure the diver into the background by extending the image, portraying the edge of the submarine forest, drawing the attention of the viewer to it after experiencing the rest of the image. The second thumbnail, number #21, is an attempt at portraying the interior of an enormous chasm, which is pitch black, until the divers turn lights, attached to their dive suite, on. As a developmental thumbnail, I realize that the viewers focus is, once again, drawn to the divers, with nothing to imply a vast chasm, or a great depth.
Online Greenlight Review
I created the thumbnail sketch above, number #24, while experimenting with techniques to suggest the semidarkness of the submarine forest. While there is not much detail on the terrain and life forms that would be present, I think the layout would be well suited as it allows the viewers attention to flow through the image.
Similar to thumbnails sketch #24, I designed number #25 thinking of composition of objects, but I find the layout of the image appears cramped and confined, as if I attempted to place too much into the image. As I had experimented previously by rubbing out lines to suggest light, I attempted to use the same technique, but I erased too much, distorting the image.
Online Greenlight Review
Creative Partnership Archive
Sent Messages
October 2012
Friday 5th Sent to Vikki Rose Hey Vikki, Great work on the thumbnails, they really give a clear aspect of the scene and the scale of the sculptures. I feel that sketch no. 2 isn't as clear to me as the rest, but no. 5 and 9 clearly portray the sculptures as overpowering, connoting a god like status to the subjects. Monday 8th Sent to Jake Bryant Hey Jake, Great thumbnails, i feel that the ones that stand out most are images 4 and 6. 4, Creates a sense of great overbaering hieght and the presence of power. 6, Displays the vasteness of the cityscape, really gives an idea of scale, and draws the attention to the great dome structure. Wednesday 10th Hey Vikki, You created a great atmosphere to the image, and it is clear you've thought of composition for the image. Great attention to detail, it really gives off a sculptural theme to the object, I feel that the background may need a bit more work to portray mountains, although it works well as clouds.
Received Messages
September 2012
Monday 24th From Tom Beg Hey Jebb,
Online Greenlight Review We haven't met yet, so i'd like to introduce myself. I graduated from CG Arts a year ago, and recently just finished an MA at UCA Rochester. This year I'm going to be an artist-inresidence at UCA, so very soon you'll probably be seeing quite a lot of me in the CG Arts Baseroom and computer rooms. In the mean time, Phil has assigned me to keep watch over your blog, to make sure in these early days you're running a tight ship in regards to professional practice and so on. I'll be dropping by to offer any creative, technical and academic assistance where appropriate! Good start so far with the graphics tablet. I like the skyline, it's very expressionist. I'm looking forward to seeing more as you develop your skills! Anyway, feel free to contact me if you have any questions or want some advice. my blog is at: http://tombeg.blogspot.com Wednesday 26th From Tutor Phil Hey Jebb - great stuff - you're one of the first out of the blocks in terms of putting your work out there! More please! :D
October 2012
Monday 1st From Jake Bryant Hey Jebb, Hows you project coming along? As you know, we have a green light review coming up on the 11th and part of the criteria for our presentations is to show our creative partnership archive. If you have any work to upload get uploading, or we can chat within our group on a day everyone is in so we can start providing feedback for our partnership archiving! :) From Tom Beg HI Jebb, I'm impressed with the thorough approach you're taking to breaking down the source material, and getting to the pertinent details. Some evocative influence maps too! At this early stage it's very important you establish your overall scene as opposed to establishing smaller details. At the moment your thumbnails are mostly concentrating on the minutiae the environment, which needs to be happening a lot later in design process. At this point, some further exploration of how your entire image works i.e the perspective your going to use and how you can begin to create a sense of depth and scale using foreground, midground and background needs to take place before anything else is established.
Online Greenlight Review From Tutor Phil Hey Jebb, I nearly missed this post - great to see you pushing your work out :) A few pointers - firstly, you should change your post title to 'Cinematic Spaces' - which is actually the project title (as opposed to the Unit title, which is Space & Environment). Also - you should get used to labeling your posts (there's a label option on the right of your screen when you're preparing a blog post - click on it, a windo opens, and in there you type pertinent labels which will help you sort and group your posts as the year goes on; for example, all your breifs do ask you to use particular naming conventions in association with your blogposts - for example 'cinematic spaces' as a label for all posts that associate with this project (or 'Toolkit Drawing' for all posts associated with your drawing workshops with Chris Hunt). The other blogging tip is to blog 'little and often' and in separate posts a) so you can label the different sorts of work you're making appropriately (i.e. 'influence maps', cinematic spaces films reviews' 'thumbnails' 'digital painting' etc), but also, if you blog 'little and often' you're much more likely to attract consistent attention from tutors, mentors and creative partners - because when you lump all your content together and blog once, it's possible for someone to miss lots of your work with knowing it. Wednesday 3rd From Tutor Phil ooh - bottom image - very 'bottom of the sea'! :D Thursday 4th From Jake Bryant Hey Jebb, Great start on your thumbnails! They really reflect the ideas which you have looked into within your influence maps. Thumbnail #22 draws my attention as I can imagine the scene you are trying to portray as a large basin with wonderful aquatic plant life. I think the image ratio will also benefit you in creating a nice perspective and a nice understanding of scale in your concepts. Saturday 6th From Vikki Rose
Hi Jebb, I like #2 also - I think the colours work very well together too. How are your thumbnails going? :)
Online Greenlight Review Wednesday 10th From Tom Beg Hi Jebb, Ditch the character! It could ultimately make your scene a lot more 'toyish' than intended, and he's clogging up the composition of the scene. This is a project about the design of 'space' and characters should only be used give an impression of scale and hints of life. Impression, is the key word here. Otherwise, 24 and 25 (without the character) are looking very strong! From Jake Bryant I like 23, 24 and 25. The lighting I can visualise within these thumbnails provide people with a nice mood and atmosphere in the concepts :) From Vikki Rose Hi jebb, i like #24, i like the idea of light beaming #25 gives a bit of a claustrophobic feel, which i think works well :) from the distance.
Online Greenlight Review
Other Project Work
Life Drawing Tutorials
A link to the Life Drawing pages of my blog: http://jbobbettblogit.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Toolkit%20Drawing
Photoshop Tutorials
A link to the Digital Painting pages of my blog: http://jbobbettblogit.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Toolkit%20Photoshop
