I have overestimated my ability while underestimating the complexity of a computer software, Blender. I thought by now I’d have what I needed for the first scene of Under The Clouds, but after placing a cube to model, soon I realized unlike many other applications, Blender was a beast of its own.
I never experienced an education when learning to use a computer program. I learned to edit videos using Premiere, I learned to do neat special effects using After Effect, I learned to draw using Photoshop, but with Blender, I had to learn to use Blender.
The above doesn’t seem like much but it’s a house after a dozen tries. It is modeled by manipulating one cube. This is the turning point where I realized that it was probably not a good way to set up a model for drawing. I need features to be in layers and if everything is jumbled up in one object, it would be no different from not having one at all.
After several times going back and forth from Youtube to Blender, I finally achieved a house that I think will be useful for setting up a drawing.
An old saying comes to my mind. You are already half way there once you make a start. Now I will need to model a car and bus and make a few variations of those and the house, then copy and paste to create a neighborhood. Also I have to note that I should make a few props such as tables, chairs and shades for roof top gardens.
Some days ago, I watched The Black Phone. It’s labeled thriller and horror but I wouldn’t weigh too much on it being horrifying. Murder, blood, dismemberment in this day and age of video gaming, are quite standard for making rich visuals. I believe a lot of the younger generation has been desensitized from playing games since young. Horror is not my favorite genre, in fact, I normally avoid horror movies but sometimes I just get curious.
Watching horror movies from the eastern to the western hemisphere, I observed a clear distinction between western and eastern horror genre. Western horrors heavily depended on blood and mutilation while eastern horrors relied on paranormal activities. After decades of exchanging cultures between the two continents, there don’t seem to be that much of a difference in content anymore. Still vampires, werewolves, zombies have their original roots in the western horror while ghosts, evil spirits, for example hu li jing (狐狸精) a fox spirit in the shape of a attractive woman that feasts on hearts of men, have been horror stories for centuries since ancient China.
After hundreds of movies on zombies, vampires and werewolves of all spectrums, western horror genre seemed to be relegated to jump scares, by amplifying a sound effect at the most silent moment. Eastern horror movies are scary. I say that in present tense because I believe it is true that psychological horror triumphs over visual horror. In other words, insinuating horror is scarier than actually showing it on screen. When horror is implied on screen, and not completely showed, a person’s mind tends to fill the gaps of missing visuals with their most terrifying imagination as much as possible. Subtlety, regardless of genre when utilized it moderately, can make storytelling quite interesting.
The Black Phone reminded me of Silent Hill. Not the same in any way although both share the same genre. Silent Hill was beautiful. It had all those basic western disturbing elements but it stood out as almost theatrical and remained in my memory to this date. There was a scene where a group of affected nurses twisting limbs and torsos approaching the protagonist. It wasn’t CGI. It was actually a group of people, I believe dancers, in costume acting. It looked like a dance to me. It was so organic and theatrical, I was in awe. The Black Phone was in no way visually beautiful. The way it told a story was. It was captivating. I watched it from the beginning to end without missing a single second. Quite in contrary to the newest Jurassic World movie. I don’t remember much of the first or the second which I was reminded of its existence again a few days ago when I found out there was a third one. So forgettable.
Sometimes I review the story of Under The Clouds in my mind. It’s been with me for so long I know it like I know myself. Sometimes I am afraid that the story isn’t enough for all the characters. Sometimes I am not sure whether my skill is there to visually imply storytelling. I started this blog to motivate myself because I can never find out the truth of my doubts if I never try to make it happen. The way The Black Phone told its story is what I want to adopt and the way Silent Hill presented itself on screen is how I want Under The Clouds to be theatrical.
In my next post, I will have the first opening drawing of Under The Clouds, and if all those models, I am planning to do, are ready, I may have the second drawing of Under The Clouds as well.
Until then, take care and have a wonderful week.
First, I really dropped the ball on my intention to read over your posts and send suggestions, and for that I apologize, but truthfully, I can't say that I think you need my help, your skill is visibly growing. I'm sorry Blender was a setback, but you pushed through it, not much can beat that succeed-through-struggle feeling. You visuals so far are engaging and lovely (aside from the above gray WIPs) so I think your story-convey skill will be there.
There's a movie I think on Netflix called Train to Busan, I haven't even watched the film, but I've seen one sort of psychology analysis of it on YouTube so I got the gist of the plot, and two main ending sequences. Without my actually spending the time to watch the film and getting invested in the characters, they crafted a film that was SO GOOD, I A) cried the first time I watched the final ending sequence, and B) cried just recalling that ending sequence when I watched a shorter, different analysis that only referenced the sequence and didn't even show it. With cross-cultural cues, when a little girl is singing, she's not just singing her sorrow, she sings all the sorrow that came with that song before it came to her.
Keep it in the mind the story you want to give, you can get it there.