NEXT STEP...

During these last weeks through books, movies and thinking I have almost set the direction I want to take for this unit, and I definitely want my final outcome to be a scaled model(as I have showed in the previous posts) to be used in the realization of my final movie.

In defining this I now know which technical and practical skills I have to pursue and gain by the end of the project and I have listed a series of things which are paramount for the realization of the project.

1) Study the techniques of matte painting and possible apply one on the background

2)Study and define the right proportions for the model and its components

3)Study of prospective rules to be applied to the entire set

4)Right choice of material for the different components of the model

5)Grammar of the shot to be used while filming (experimenting with light and shooting)

SKETCH MOVIE

I made this little and really rough "sketch movie" to start suggesting the story and the possible scenario of my final movie.

The movie has been done in a really short time and it doesn't need to be considered as a final outcome but more as an experimentation and progress of my developing project.

The movie starts with the scene of the elevator opening on the foggy sky of London, immediately suggesting the idea of a city enclosed into a machine.
The scene is then shift into what symbolically represents the clinical environment where the Architectural Nanobots are under experimentation, showing the architectural mechanical reproduction made possible by the nanobots.
The second part of the movie wants to represent the spreading of the nanobots through the smoke and the new landscape of the city, where gigantic dystopic buildings have taken over the city of London and they are now highly imposing their presence.     

LONDON AT THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION

MY FIRST MOVIESCAPE EXPERIMENT

Following as much as possible the references and techniques mentioned in the previous post  my aim is now to design and create the model for my moviescape.

The photographs show my first attempt although it is not very successful yet.

During the Easter break I will have time to refine and better study the technical depiction in order to construct a realistic and properly made final outcome.

BUILDING MOVIESCAPES

 

 This book gives a very interesting inside view into the techniques and skills applied in the making of some of the most iconic movies in Hollywood history.

The part I have enjoyed and analyzed the most is the chapter related to Blade Runner.

Another interesting reference is the website of DOUGLAS TRUMBULL a famous American film director and special effects supervisor, who was in charge of the whole model shop during the making of Blade Runner.

The link (http://douglastrumbull.com/key-fx-sequences-blade-runner-hades-landscape)  is connected to the video where Douglas Trumbull himself explains the techniques used to create certain moviescapes into the movie.

The three video below are a short-documentary on special effects used in small artificial spaces and model to create a natural and real effect while shooting.

OPTICAL PRINTING

MATTE PAINTING

ROTOSCOPING

DEFYINING THE STORY

Try to imagine London in a hypothetical-imaginary future where Nanotechnology and Machines  are so advanced that a bunch of scientists are studying and testing Architectural Nanobots able to build architectural components in one thousand seconds.

But according to Murphy's law "Anything that can go wrong, will." and an Earthquake strikes London during this experiment releasing the architectural Nanobots from the artificial lab.

The Nanobots continues to do what they are programmed to do but this time they use London as their ground and a massive mechanical architectural reproduction of the city takes place...

SOME RESEARCH ON NANOTECHNOLOGY AND THE THEORY OF "GREY GOO" 

Nanotechnology is defined as the science which deals with matter on atomic or molecular scale and with the developments of robots and devices of that size.

Within this field in 1986 the nanotechnology pioneer Eric Dexler in his book "Engines of Creation" introduced for the first time the theory of a possible "Grey Goo".

The word refers to a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario in which self-replicating out-of-control nanobots consume all matter on earth while building just replications of themselves.

The passage below is extracted from the book and explains a simple concept behind nanotechnology functions.

"imagine such a replicator floating in a bottle of chemicals, making copies of itself…the first replicator assembles a copy in one thousand seconds, the two replicators then build two more in the next thousand seconds, the four build another four, and the eight build another eight. At the end of ten hours, there are not thirty-six new replicators, but over 68 billion. In less than a day, they would weigh a ton; in less than two days, they would outweigh the Earth; in another four hours, they would exceed the mass of the Sun and all the planets combined — if the bottle of chemicals hadn't run dry long before." 

Pixels from OldGen on Vimeo.

DEVELOPING BRIEF...

The first part of my project has been centered around the subject of Dystopia analyzed and researched in its architectural and cinematic context aiming to identify the strong relationship between these two discipline (architecture and cinema).

In the second part my aim is now to design a cinematic fictional space which speaks and tells a story through the language of dystopia.

The site I have chosen is London, in particular the Brutalist sites of London and analyzing the city under this particular aspect I am trying to rethink its structure through a brutalist eye and I am trying to use it as the main set, narrative and protagonist of my film.

One of the main aspect I always try to take in consideration is the constant analysis and review of the Architecture identity and how its presence imposes itself on humans modifying human lives and activities.
My interest is the complex relationship and dynamics between architecture and humans and  in my project the main critical question I am trying to answer is where the role of one ends and the other starts and opposite.

MAPS OF DYSTOPIC LONDON

PRELUDE (storyboard)

Evolving the idea of imagining London in a hypothetic future and conceiving the city as a massive dystopic site where the different buildings can be seen as little different parts of a unique massive building, almost as sorts of disjunctions inside the same building, I have tried to storyboard the whole story.

I have started imagining London after its destruction and I have started looking at its map as a blanket grid to be reshaped and recomposed, then I have conceived brutalist architecture as a spreading disease taking over the destroyed city and reshaping it at the same time.

The destruction of London

The destroyed grid and its recomposition

Brutalist buildings taking over the city

VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE: UNBUILT WORKS OF THE IMAGINATION

Carrying on the idea of designing a cinematic dystopic set and following my natural fascination for fictional and fantastic spaces,  I am investigating and researching in deeper analysis some of the most relevant architectural works in the history of the so called “visionary architecture”.
This research is helping me to set the design foundations in which my final proposal will operate and it is giving me the chance to deeper clarify and understand the design process behind the final design resolution.
Below there are few examples of “visionary architecture” which I personally find more useful and pertinent with my project.



   
NEW BABYLON : ANOTHER CITY FOR ANOTHER LIFE  

New Babylon is a Utopian city designed by artist-architect Constant Nieuwenhuys and it is a visionary architectural project concerned with the issues of “unitary urbanism” and the urban scenario in a futuristic technocratic society.
New Babylon was conceived and designed as an infinite playground.
Its occupants continually rearrange their living environment according to theirs desires.
People are seen as players and as a result architecture becomes the only game they can play.

I find this project extremely interesting and fascinating and I am really intrigued by the process Constant used to design a totally new and futuristic city from scratches.
I was also interested in this project since the beginning because it meets the idea I have for my own project, of designing a new futuristic dystopic London set in an hypothetic post-nuclear future, where only dystopic sites managed to survived and took over the scene.

New Babylon book cover

New Babylon map

New Babylon view 

LONDON AFTER THE RAIN

This was the final project of Ben Marzys a student at the Bartlett School of Architecture completing Diploma Unit 15 in 2007.
The movie is set in a bizzare and surrealistic post-industrial scene, where the city of London has become abandoned and overgrown, but still partially inhabited by a strange variety of human beings and animals.

ECSTACITY

Ecsatcity is an imaginary city conceived and designed by architect Nigel Coates.
The city is an imaginary place which gathers together sensual sides of all existing cities.
The architect took fragments of seven different cities around the world and woven them together to create a totally new urban fabric.
The book itself it is designed as a touristic guide to illsustrate and explain the city.

What really intrigues me about this project is its highly fictional and narrative foregrounds in which operates.
I would like to apply a similar design process in the construction of my unrealistic dystopic London.
Taking the real London as the starting point and deconstructing its patter in  fragments to then be reconstructed and assembled into a totally new urban grid where spaces, areas and activities are reinterpreted.   
 

DYSTOPIC LONDON

This week I have decided to discover and survey other dystopic sites in London.

I visited the Robin Hood Gardens, a council housing complex in Poplar and the near Balfron Tower, which has got the interesting feature of having an exact twin sister on the opposite side of the city in the area of North Kensington.
I have then mapped these sites on the map of London and I have tried to imagine a futuristic  London set in a post nuclear era, where everything has been destroyed and the only parts of the city which have been reconstructed are the dystopic sites I have focused my attention on.

I was very intrigued and extremely fascinated by the functions of these different sites and the strong connections I could find between them, almost as they could be a complete city themselves.
The two twin towers located exactly on the opposite site of the city reminded me of two dominant power headquarters while the Barbican and the Robin Hood Gardens are in a different way two dormitory buildings and the Southbank Brutalist buildings are the entertainment area.
Elephant and Castle has got the functions of the ancient Greek Agora, the main square where the market and all the public activities where taking place.

I would like to use this imaginary set as my starting point for the development of my final dystopic set.

ROBIN HOOD GARDENS AND BALFRON TOWER


     

GOING TOWARDS A PROPOSAL....

The way you film something is an in-depth pondered choice, it is deciding how you want the viewer to interpret and read an object or a space.
In filming something you are silently giving and slightly imposing your point of view, without  revealing it completely.

The way you move the camera in the space aims to create a specific atmosphere and mood following a certain temporal rhythm and ideas.

My project aims to take the viewer into a journey through DYSTOPIC SPACES and DYSTOPIC ATMOSPHERES. It is not about the drama or the morality but it is all about transporting the audience into a parallel and unknown world.
This can easily be connected with the idea of the IMMERSIVE CINEMA(expanded cinema), where the viewer becomes part of the filmic set and he is transported into a journey.


Going back to the idea of  Architecture being the main protagonist thanks to its powerful  identity and being myself really interested in the process behind what it is called production design, my proposal is to design a DYSTOPIC FILM SET where the human presence is erased and dystopic architecture is overwhelming the scene and taking over.
The set will not be designed for a specific story as usually film sets are conceived. 
Because the idea is that in my set there will be no narrative, no characters but just the dystopic buildings. 
They will be the story and the characters, creating the atmosphere and the story itself.

SOME STUDIES ON PRODUCTION DESIGN PROCESS...

http://douglastrumbull.com/