Extra Terrestrial Cattle Mutilation

More fun with motion -

Inside The Monkey's Studio

More stop motion coming soon...

Calvin Chimp

What if primates had their own pretentious perfume adverts...?

Calvin Chimp from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

Show Reel DVD

Here's the DVD design for my showreel -

The Unexpected Feast

A short film, made for my own personal amusement, and born out of a fairly stupid gag that occured when ordering pizza a few months ago. Enjoy. =)

The Brain Centre At Whipple's

Just found another awesome episode of the Twilight Zone after investigating the story behind a Melvins song title... check it out!

Njorl's Saga

Here's a Monty Python sketch that bares a large of ammount of similarity to my viking idea for the client project -



Around 2 and a half minutes through is the bit that's like my idea, with Njorl riding a horse through the wilderness before ending up in North Malden. The transition between the two locations is class, there's a zoom into a close up of Njorl and then we cut straight to the sign, and voila, we're there!
I don't have the budget to get a horse however, so in the ad the viking would have to wander about on foot. To make this idea work, I think I'd need a really good location too, maybe Sherwood Forest?

Nightmare At 20,00 Feet

What a classic! It's really cool how it manages to make a pretty basic story so compelling, and allows it all to unfold in the same, again pretty basic, location. Good stuff.

Intro / Outro Idea

Whilst looking through all the file sharing footage, I thought this could make a cool little intro or outro to put on the end of films that I make -

I'm not sure what kind of sound to put on it though.
And here's an edit I did purely for my own amusement, and to try out reversing footage. This won't be handed in, as it's really stupid, but enjoy -

The Quantum Matter Oscilator

Here's the latest photo of the time machine. This one appears in the pilot, but in the actual film it'll have more wires and stuff all over it, and be plugged into a larger piece of apparatus.

Eat Songs

My brother recently showed me this trailer for a documentary two of his friends were planning to make, but unfortunately ran out of funds and had to abandon the project. However, the trailer is still a great example of ways to grab people's attention and make them want to see the film -



Here's their website for some more information, and another longer (but maybe even more intense!) trailer - http://www.siamesecrocodiles.com/

My brother also showed me this pretty cool stop motion animation another mate of his did -
http://www.pebbleandhoof.com/louiemczap/
Good stuff!

Creative Opportunities

This week our journal task is -

"Using your own personal experience, write a few lines that describe how a personal contact has provided a creative opportunity for you"

I thought of two good examples for this, one more kind of career orientated, and the other just good for the soul. The first came about through a drama course I used to take part in. After working with the people there for several months, one of the guys who ran it told me about a film company called Suited And Booted. He gave me their details, and I applied for a short film course, and ended up making a 90 second film about a woman who lived with a moose. The experience was very educational, and also a lot of fun! (Incidentally, as an example of something getting in the way of a creative opportunity, I was invited to a film festival in Spain after our film apparently won something over there, but couldn't go as it clashed with my GCSE exams....which is lame, haha!)
The second example is just through friends of mine. My mate Jack, who I'd known for several years, asked if I wanted to go for a jam with his mate Dorian, who I didn't really know too well at the time. Jack invited loads of people over, with loads of instruments, and, erm, we didn't really get much done. However, after a few weeks of 'band practice', fewer and fewer people started turning up, until it was just me playing guitar, Dorian on drums and Jack providing the vocals. We recorded hours and hours worth of jams like this (albeit with varying degrees of quality!), and eventually got to play a gig, just by pummelling away on our instruments...which was good fun, and the start of a beautiful friendship! =D

Networking

For our journals this week, we were asked to comment on Jool’s statement ;

“The essential point of networking is human contact. Business has killed networking by making it something for the career orientated person.”

Personally, I’d disagree with this statement. Whilst networking is obviously an essential part of business, it allows companies to expand their reach and for individuals working in business to find and meet more people, I think networking can exist outside of business altogether and for many more reasons than purely financial gain. For example, during fresher’s week at university, students visit bars, clubs, etc. in order to meet new people and therefore gain more from their experience at university in a new city. This in itself could be called networking, even though it yields no monetary rewards (it’s probably actually quite damaging for the bank account, along with the liver), but it’s a prime opportunity to meet new friends and gain more life experiences. This style of social networking may not be as efficient, precise or structured as the kind employed by a business, but it still works very well and it is used by thousands of people who’d never even think of referring to it as ‘networking’.
Sometimes these more social networks can be born out of business like situations, but even still it’s hard to class them as ‘career orientated’. Take things like thriving underground music cultures, particularly evident in the rave scene, communities of people drawn together out of a passion for music and a desire to stage events for people with a similar outlook. The existence of many successful underground dance events owes everything to a dedicated network, and whilst there may be some nice little earners along the way, this isn’t the main incentive or point to organising such an event. It’s the same for many other diverse interests too, like the booming underground metal scene of the late 80’s, built up by many passionate individuals who circulated and traded tapes they’d made of bands who didn’t always have record company backing (appropriately referred to as the ‘tape-trading’ scene). This wasn’t at all business minded, it would have cost a fresh faced tape trader the price of a tape, envelope and stamp to send their bundle of riffs to another like-minded music fan somewhere else across the globe, with only the promise of someone else’s compilation swinging by their way in the near future to show for it (which sounds worth it to me, to be honest!). This stands as a prime example of a thriving, non-career centred network.
I can fully understand the need for networking within a business environment and the important results it can yield, but I don’t think human contact is necessarily driven by, nor relies on financial gain or the need to further one’s own career.

Paint The Town Red!

I recently had a go at some wall art at one of my friend's houses on his back wall. Here are the results -


I drew the perilous demon, the little rabbit, and Inta Stella Abe was a collaborative effort!
The whole thing was painted onto plaster or something that was flaking off (hence the demon's gaping eyes!) so it can all easily be pulled off.

And here's a cool stop-motion animation I was shown that uses graffiti and wall art, you can see it here!

Head Bursting Glory

Today the work load took it's toll, and my head split clean in two -

Ouch, I'll need more than an aspirin for that!

Mighty Mood Board

I've just made a collage of ideas for my box project.

The objects and symbols surrounding me are in no way definitive, some of them I'm not too sure about, some I think may be too subtle and I'm positive there are some things lodged way in the back of my mind that I'll want to put in there! Some of the things I think are musts though, include the little Ozzy from the Vol.4 cover, the tent (for the love of camping!), and the philosophical chimp. I tried to include the Id, Ego and Super Ego from the avatar project too.
The background is a photo of an in-production sphynx (originally a cow, but creativity took it's course!) we made out of sticks and leaves when on a camping trip in a nearby forest, which is a happy memory for me. After I'd finished it, I had the idea of using Stonehenge as the background, which has the added bonus of not only holding happy memories but also being a very recognisable image. Maybe too recognisable however, which could dilute it's meaning a little... I'm not sure, I'll try it out and then, once again, post it up here!

A Tribute To The Artwork Of Black Sabbath

Our blogging challenge this week was to analyse an image, what it says, means, conjures up, etc. etc., so I thought I'd tip my hat to the masters of atmosphere, Black Sabbath. Here's a look at all of Sabbath's albums (post - 'Never Say Die' is absent, because remember ; without Ozzy and Bill Ward, the sacred quartet is broken and the entity that is Black Sabbath relinquished it's power) and the sleeves that accompanied and represented them.

'Black Sabbath'

The very first impression of Sabbath, certainly for those lucky enough to witness their rise and doubtless for countless others too, would have been this striking cover. But where to start analysing it? The vaguely psychedelic, washed out colours? The creepy old house? The gorgeous, almost regal looking yet still distinctly B-movie style logo? Or, the terrifying centrepiece, that mysterious woman. Who is she? Why is she dressed all in black? And, ah, why's she staring at me? It's that moment in 70's horror films where the camera pans across a bare landscape, then back and suddenly zooms in on some disturbing looking vagrant. It's chilling, engaging, slightly surreal in feel and one of the most perfect album covers in history.

So much so that, amongst various other artists, Japanese psych-noise freaks Acid Mother's Temple (in their 'Acid Mother's Temple And The Cosmic Inferno' form) spoofed it for their album 'Starless And Bible Black Sabbath', an acid munching tribute to King Crimson and Black Sabbath.

'Paranoid'

Hmm, an odd one, this. After label disputes over calling the album 'War Pigs' due to 'public sensitivity' at the time, the album art was also changed at last minute without much input from the band. The band's original artwork was a lot more grim, a deranged, feral wildman lunging for the paranoid protagonist perhaps more appropriate than the faintly ridiculous, bright pink replacement. Nonetheless, many still view this as a classic album cover, and although not their finest visual moment, the cover still includes some awesome visual cues. The tree in the shadows adds a kinda creepy 'forest at night!' vibe. Listen to 'Planet Caravan' deep in the woods at night, and it becomes apparent that maybe this cover is more appropriate than it initially seems.

'Master Of Reality'

And thus, the world become a heavier place to live in. This logo is nothing short of iconic, it's mysterious wave running down the letters conjuring up images of the words floating about inside the thick goop inside lava lamps, or perhaps being written on the side of some enormous flag blowing in the wind as it's strapped to the back of a huge, elaborately painted caravan... It's so simple, but beautiful. Big, bold and beautiful.

More spoofery for this one too, as Ministry's Al Jourgensen took on Sabbath's 'Supernaut' and mutated it into a bizarre, stompin' industrial mess under the name 1000 Homo DJs...

'Volume 4'

Well...this one just speaks for itself. Ozzy's outstretched arms, his flowing sleeves, the garish orange/red/yellow (depending on the pressing) glow he gave off, the darkness surrounding him, a joyfully bouncy logo and the immortal 'Vol 4'. The image is the equivalent of Jesus nailed to the cross for those who worship at the holy altar of The Riff, proudly displayed on homes, chests, at places of work. Ozzy's stance is almost biblical, his looming figure both a provider of hope, a beacon against all the world's impurities, a solitary 'peace' sign raised in the darkness. Was this, as some have suggested, a more pessimistic outlook than the hippy generation, or was it a more defiant gesture of love whilst acknowledging it's bleak backdrop? Don't ask me, I wasn't even born yet!


Once again, the cover has been lovingly mocked by many bands, with the legendary Sleep blatantly stealing it for the cover of their EP 'Volume Two', which also contained a cover of 'Lord Of This World'.

'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'

Woah, things got scary again! The sight of a man being attacked on a curiously Satanic looking bed by floating demon babies with the ground breaking, none-more-metal lettering of 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' makes for yet another striking addition to Sabbathian lore. The fact that the words 'Black Sabbath' themselves were written right underneath in lower case is testament to the fact that they didn't need to rely on phony theatrics - this is heavy shit, and as it's all going on and descending into chaos, sat smugly, right at the heart of it all, is Black Sabbath.

'Sabotage'

This curious cover depicts the band in full rock-star posturing mode, (check out Bill's red trousers!) against a magical reverse mirror, with smoke circling around their feet. Many have written this off as a result of way too many drugs, but another more interesting explanation is that it's a wry comment on the level of fame the band had accumulated by this point, that all this hype is just 'smoke and mirrors' amidst a series of carefully manipulated images. Theories that people who believe this are on almost as many drugs as the band themselves are perhaps a little cruel.

'Technical Ecstasy'

As Sabbath's sound continued to experiment and venture into weirder territories, so too did the artwork. 'Technical Ecstasy''s extraordinarily literal interpretation of the title features, in Ozzy's words, "two robots screwing on an escalator". This is the first cover not to adopt a mainly black colour scheme (the first album didn't really either, but still looked dark - this one's wighter than wight!), and as the music here draws a lot more from rock'n'roll and blues than it does from the occult, it's kinda fitting.

'Never Say Die'

Hmmm, another very odd one... As Sabbath's final album with the original (only? It's OK, we can admit this now) line-up, it's definitely an awesome note to end on. But the cover? Two guys in masks against a plane and a blue sky? Rumor has it that's Ozzy and Bill in those two masks, which, if true, lends the cover a new sense of meaning. Half of Black Sabbath is ready to take flight, to leave, "freedom fighters sent out to the sun", but despite this end of an era, despite what's to follow, we should never say die. Black Sabbath will live on forever not only in our hearts, but in the ringing in our ears, the cramp in our necks, and the very centre of our souls.
But it is still a pretty odd cover...