Death and Rebirth project development

Tayscreen has gotten back to me and unfortunately there is no way they can get me access to the abandoned Strathmartine Hospital, interior or even exterior. The Site Manager at NHS Tayside who is responsible for Strathmartine Hospital told Anna that the building is now privately owned by a separate company and is not allowing access to anyone.

The project can now go in two different directions. I can work from my primary images and secondary images from photographer's such as the user, Dazzababes on flickr. These were the original photos that interested me in the location. Click here for link.

The other option is to keep the same cinematic narrative but with a different location. I feel it is important for me to have access to the location and be able to re-visit to collect textures and record the light coming through at different times of the day. Im working with Anna at the moment to find a new suitable location. Time is a factor so hopefully this be sorted by the end of the week.

Final Project - Death and Rebirth - Strathmartine Hospital

This is the building that caught my attention, abandoned some years ago and slowly decaying as nature begins to claim the land back. I recently visited the site with Garry from my class, hoping to gain access and get a few interesting interior photographs. The plan was to get a feel for the place before returning the following week to get some proper photographs to storyboard and use as textures for my cinematic.

In my head so far the cinematic, Death and Rebirth, will be the camera moving around a 3D reconstruction of two or three rooms in the abandoned hospital. I have an idea of what the rooms should look like in my head but waiting to see the interior to decide which rooms to pick...which rooms have more of a presence. Just been on location looking through the windows set off all kinds of feeling that are too complex for me to describe in words. I hope to translate this feeling across in my visuals. As the camera walks through the building's dark corridors the morning light will burst through all the winodows and cracks, almost as spotlights revealing the flowers and insects that have now made this place their home. The growth on the windows bouncing their colours off the walls. The cinematic will be the contrast of two very different visual pieces as the dark and foreboding environment lights up with a mix of different colours to reveal the life growing inside.

Unfortunately it is not possible to get access to the older buildings as they are privately owned now so i have been in contact with Anna Rathband from Tayscreen (www.tayscreen.com) to help get me access to the building interiors. I feel at this stage im just waiting, dying to get straight into storyboarding and modeling this project. I have the idea in my head but just need access to the location.

Below are some photographs I managed to take before been asked to leave. The doors were all heavily boarded up so they are all exterior shots bar some through broken windows.

Report: Perceptions through light and colour

Working title: Telling stories through light and colour or Perceptions through light and colour. 

Gregory Crewdson

The drive behind this report is understanding how light and colour reacts with each other and the world around us. How we previse these colours everyday and the emotional impact it has on us. Artists use colour to show moods and emotions or draw the eye towards a focal point or use of light to dramatically change the story been told within a scene. The Gregory Crewdson photograph above is of a normal family evening but through the lighting a more sinister story is been told or even just put into question.

This project will be exploring how light and colour in different spaces can have instinctual psychological effects on us, as well as the science behind light and colour and how artists manipulate this to express these emotions upon us within their own works.

The outcome of this research will then be reflected upon onto my own work within a 3D environment. This can be applied so environmental events such as specular refection from light bouncing when applied can create a more believable and atmospheric scene or can go further to allow me to have a more deeper psychological impact.

Notes – Don’t want to get into philosophy…more psychological.

Finding it hard to find a book just on the emotional impact of light and colour…more colour science, theory and philosophy.

Books im reading at moment – 

Light and colour in nature and art (Williamson and Cummins)

Colour (Zelanski and Fisher)

Understanding colour (Linda Holtzschue)

Colour perception (Mausfeld and Heyer)

Kandinsky’s teaching at the Bauhaus (Clark V. Poling)

Gregory Credson's twilight

Poetics of space (Gaston Bachelard)
Practical light and colour (Jeremy Vickery) (DVD)

Final Project - Death and Rebirth

Riverview Hospital

After been inspired by Graham Young's work on Still Life with Smoke and Mirrors Ive been interested in capturing the feeling we get when in old abandoned places that once had human life. I like the idea that rather than these places dying, they are more transformed into something...spiritual is the only word i can come up with but its so much more than that. I want to be able to re-create a place that has gone through this transformation and then use elements and colours created through time and play with them. It will be constructed in 3D which means i can manipulate it in whatever way i want. Create and re-purpose...possibly through simple animation. In the image above of Riverside hospital the green on the window stands out to me and projects this beautiful colour on to the walls either side. These buildings dont follow the purpose society set of for them anymore so there are no artificial lights and clean walls, because of this the sunlight from any windows or holes becomes very powerful and striking setting off all kinds of colours and shadows everywhere. 

Lake Shore Inn

I have a vision of a camera panning down a corridor like the one in the image to the left. The light some how changing, reacting to us invading this place. Follows down to a bathroom like the Riverview image above. The green can start moving up and over the windows changing the colour of light coming in. A vibrant flower grows out of an old cracked toilet bowl. I want to be able to play with the colour and shapes. I have this experimental idea camera been you and invading this space...something tiny like a piece of dirt is moved out of place, seen close up in slow motion falling...the room reacts by everything animating into a shape edge with an unnatural high pitch scream/sound. The same feeling as the hair on your neck after getting a shock or fright but its the room thats feeling this. These are all just ideas im accumulating for now.

I got the idea of making strange from a video James showed me. Video is from 16tracks.net and the song is Videotape by Radiohead which can be viewed below.

To begin any of this experimentation i need to choose a place. Ive been looking into Strathmartine Hospital, an abandoned Asylum in dundee with a long history...but that will be for my next post.


Radiohead_Videotape from Wolf Jaiser on Vimeo.

Planning semester two

Ive been following a daily schedule for semester two to help me focus my work (not including DT tutorials). This way nothing will be left behind. Schedule will change as projects finish and will be replacement with my project work.

Monday: Going Live
Tuesday: Written work
Wednesday: Going Live
Thursday: Council Project/Project work
Friday: Camera tracking
Saturday: Project Work
Sunday: Sketching - focusing on anatomy


Final Project
Since i am concentrating mostly on light and colour i've decided to create a still cinematic environment. The choice of the environment  is paramount to the success of the project. It needs to have an emotional impact on a mixed audience while also allowing me to experiment changing the mood of the piece though just light and colour. I am giving myself till Monday Feb 21st to finalise and storyboard the environment (due to nature of the project the storyboard will mostly be done through photography). Then starting straight into modeling. I was inspired by the piece below called Still Life with Smoke and Mirrors, created by Graham Young.



Still Life with Smoke and Mirrors from Graham Young on Vimeo.

Direction workshop - Doors Closing

During this project we scripted and story-boarded ideas. Two were chosen and we were split into groups and each given a role to play. This was to an exercise mostly in working as a team in a production pipeline. My role was as editor for this project, but we all did a little of the other roles as well.

Roles: Director, camera operator, Editor and producer.

Applying skills - futuristic interior

Tree used as power source

I began working on this as a practice piece. Taking the skills i learned from the cryloab tutorial and applying them to create my own designs.

The story behind this piece is set in the future where we have used up most of the worlds resources and have found a way to use trees as a power source. When finished i want to have the grid around the corner to be broken open, markings on the wall and broken items on the floor. The room itself would tell a story by the after math.

When working on my next environment i will be spending alot more time working on the concepts. This was just to get a taste. The designs need to be more consistent and relevant, questioning the existence of everything within the environment. Building in a design that is consistent with a cultural relevance and/or has some form of application.

Main entrance

Top view without roof