Daniel Hammond

Tremors is a film focusing around the idea of human eating worms called Gabroids causing trouble in a desert town and hunting their prey from underground using sounds and vibration. The main characters attempt to hunt the Gabroids and kill them in order to save the townsfolk.  When watching the film we had to look into the quality and censorship side of things because as of the time of this film being released, the great depression and world war was just beginning to end; and the people needed cheap entertainment. It was also around this time that the first rules of censorship in film was introduced. It was called the Hays code and prohibited the use of profanity, nudity, violence and rape. This code was enforced from the 1930's through till the 60's. Then was eventually abandoned to allow MPPDA's aged base censorship system, which is still enforced today.  Tremors is a really great film to watch and look into to see the live effects of the Hays code and early forms of cens...

Rewatching The Incredibles was a lot of fun and a great trip down memory lane, however this time I had to watch it whilst trying to identify the story vs the plot. Which is an idea that compares the story; the who, what and where (within the film). Relates and compares to the plot; how, when and why. So, in short the plot leads the story and creates a film, as the plot dictates why things are happening to the characters and story aspects inside the film.  In The Incredibles the story vs plot aspects merge like this: Syndrome (the antagonist) comes up with a process of killing off the superheroes and tricks the Incredibles family into getting on board. Depicting the company in a good light with the intention of working with super heroes to stop all crime in the city. For the plot reasons of Mr Incredible treating Syndrome poorly when he was a child. Because of this Syndrome tries to cause masses of mayhem and kidnap Mr Incredibles youngest child in order to raise it and make Mr Incr...

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (ESotSM), was such a weird and confusing film we had to analyse the film and understand how a non linear film structure worked and I found it really bizarre.  A non linear structure to a film refers to the film not following a traditional or "linear" progression. Meaning its events either constantly go back to prior events or events in the film overlap constantly so you lose track of where you are. Until the end of the film rolls round and gives you the conclusion and packages all the clustered unorganised events and segments of the film together making it somewhat make sense.  In ESotSM the way a non linear film format was accomplished was by using erased memories. In the film a two strangers meet on a train and begin dating then through a series of events end up getting their memories erased. Then, after the surgery they get back together and eventually remember that they have been together all the time.

 We were taught about the three and five act structures in films and to gain a better understanding of these theories we were told to watch Die Hard. I've seen the three act structure before but wasn't aware there was a five act structure as well, I don't really see a difference in the two though. The theories basically simplify films into either threes or fives; showing that all films either start with an introduction, have something that sets off a need for confrontation, then slowly dies down as the crisis finishes and the characters are met with a resolution.  In Die Hard the way this theory takes place is: Introduction: Having John (the main character), who is a police officer and wants to visit his family on Christmas despite having a strange disconnected relationship with his wife, Hollie. However, given that it is Christmas time in the film the office that Hollie works in had all lowered their guards because of festivities and terrorists use this opportunity as a pr...

Whilst watching The Princess Bride we studied the Twelve Jungian Archetypes, which essentially links every characters personality to just twelve general personality traits. Using the human psyche as a reference. For example, innocent personalities, outlaws and rulers. This theory was created by a man called Carl Jung, who stated that every human tends to have one of the twelve archetypes within them and it is the root cause of our personalities (at a basic level). The archetypes each follow a unconscious motivation for our behaviours as people.  Jung then separated the twelve archetypes into four groups to show the typical goals in life the archetypes would try and achieve. For instance someone with an archetype of either: safety, understanding or freedom would typically have a goal of one day being in a paradise of sorts and being able to live in there own ideal worlds and bubbles.  In the Princess Bride you can see this theory works well in describing the baseline of all cha...

  The first film we had to review was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and use Joseph Campbell's seventeen stage monomyth, to have a better understanding of the film. Since Joseph's theory helps to break down all films to seventeen simple stages. Personally, I've never been much of a fan of the Harry Potter franchise before, however I found it quite interesting seeing how easy it was to break down and knowing this theory of film applies to all films was quite cool find out.  Using Joseph's theory we can establish that the opening scenes in Harry Potter depicting Harry in his home under the stairs. Which shows the equilibrium of the film. Where Harry may not be in a good place, but it is stable, nothing good, nor bad happens he is "just Harry...". Then Hagrids visit triggers the 'Call to arms stage of the film'. Then Harry initially refuses then eventually ends up at Hogwarts through supernatural aid at the station.  These stages continue li...

  I feel satisfied with the work my group and I did, we finished the animation on time, since we had quite good communication and a good workflow at the start of the project. Which I think really helped a lot. This project was good for me to learn how to collaborate with others and helped teach me the importance of communication in a group. There were a few times when we modelled the same thing. Which, wasn't that big a deal as it was the only times there was a miscommunication between us. My main roles in this project were: Researcher, Director, Marketing Manager and Art Director. I found the director and marketing roles to be a little bit hard at times because it felt like there wasn't much to do. It was only towards the end of the project that I began to notice small adjustments that could have been made to the models and and other bits that I felt could have been altered a little bit (timing wise). But, at that point it was a little too late. I also helped out quite a bit w...

 

 James Bond Gun Model: James Bond Gun Reference:

 Camera Model: Camera References: