Altered States - Research

I was sent a link to this trailer by my tutor, it looks like a pretty crazy film, it would be interesting to watch when I have some spare time. The part of this trailer which is of use to me is 1:47 in, although it only last for a few seconds this shot attempts to show a camera traveling through the retina and down the optic nerve. The 1980 sci-fi horror directed by Ken Russel written by Paddy Chayefsky follows the exploration of William Hurt as Eddie Jessup, a scientist obsessed with discovering mankind's true role in the universe. He subjects himself to a series of mind bending experiments using a sensory-deprivation chamber and taking hallucinogenic drugs, Jessup hopes to explore different levels of human consciousness, but instead is devolved into an apelike monster.

Earth Zoom Test - Development

This earth zoom is the result of following Andrew Kramer, video copilots tutorial. Some important techniques and processes have been learnt whilst following this tutorial, now I need to a apply these techniques using imagery specific for my own work.

Moodboard - Research

Here is a selection of some of the research resources I have used for this projects, taken from films and tutorials websites.

Google Earth Pro - Research

Fortunately for me 'Google Earth Pro' are giving out 7 day free trials, before I discovered this I was beginning to worry as 'Google Earth Standard' images are watermarked. Furthermore the settings in Google Earth Pro allow you to save '1080 x 1920' pixel images, nice.

The only downside to Google Earth is when zooming out past a certain point the grade changes completely and as you get really far out the image changes to a nasty looking CG Earth, at this point I've switched the image source to Microsoft Virtual Learning Earth.

Initial Script - Development

Script - Infinite Zoom

Haydn Robinson

FADE-IN: INT. WRITERS STUDY/ROOM – POINT OF VIEW – NIGHT

A writer is struggling to find inspiration.

CLOSE-UP – THE WRITER

Staring at a blank document, looking both tired and delirious.

POINT OF VIEW – COMPUTER SCREEN/ DESK

The writer selects a song to try help him stay awake, as the track begins to play a visualization appears on the screen, within a short amount of time the writer begins to hallucinate, the visuals leek out of the computer screen and into the room, surrounding the writer.

CLOSE-UP – THE WRITER

The writer bewildered by what he is seeing has wide eyes and dilated pupils (in contrast to the beginning.)

EXTREME CLOSE-UP – THE WRITER

At this point the camera zooms through the pupil of the writers eye.

INT. EXTREME CLOSE-UP – INSIDE THE WRITERS EYE

The camera now begins a journey of infinite zoom, first travelling down the optic nerve into the brain, passed some neurones and into a brain cell, from DNA to a molecule, then an atom, a nucleus, a nucleon, a quark and finally a string.

EXT. EXTREME WIDE SHOT – UNIVERSAL SPACE TRAVEL

After zooming in as far as physically possible the viewer soon begins to realize they have now entered a Universe, passing many galaxies the camera eventually focuses on one in particular. Travelling inside this galaxy passing many stars before aiming on one solar system in particular. The viewer notices at this point that the solar system is strangely familiar, passing planets and asteroids before drawing towards a small blue dot. The camera tracks slowly at first towards Earth, descending at an exponential rate in the direction of Leeds, UK. Finally the camera focuses on one roof of a building.

INT. MEDIUM SHOT - BIRDSEYE VIEW – TRACK AND CRANE; PAN TO THE WRITERS SIDE – BACK IN THE WRITERS STUDY/ROOM

Once the camera has gone through the roof, images of a few different rooms are zoomed through to represent travelling through the floors of a house. The camera stops on one floor to reveal the writer has fallen asleep in front of his computer, as the camera settles to the side of the writer he suddenly awakes looking confused.

INT. POINT OF VIEW - COMPUTER SCREEN/ DESK

The writer begins to type up what he has just experienced.

FIN

Mood-Board Movie - Development

This mood-board movie shows what sort of visual effects I am planning to create, it also shows it in the order in which the animation will run. Unfortunately this mood-board movie doesn't contain the live action sequences I will be shooting, I am aiming to have done a test shoot by the first week of November. Once this is done it will be added to the start and end of this movie montage.

Footage taken from; 'Contact,' 'Men in Black,' 'Powers of Ten' and 'Inside the living body'.

Research - DNA

This 3D scientific animation dynamically show a zoom in from a group of dividing cells to a close-up of a DNA molecule.

Nucleus Medical Art is a leading creator and licensor of medical
illustrations, 3D medical animations and interactive multimedia for
medical devices, pharmaceutical companies, education, biotechnology,
marketing agencies, lawyers, and more.

Research - Inside The Living Body

Winner of the 29th Annual Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Graphic Design and Art Direction

Now available from www.rocketrights.com

From the producers of the critically acclaimed In the Womb series, comes Insude The Living Body. Tracing one everywomans story, using cutting-edge miniature endoscopic HD cameras and state of the art CT scanning techniques we delve deep inside the body to shed new light on how and why our bodies do what they do. Our bodies - a universe of astonishing structures, miracles of microscopic design. We embark on an incredible voyage through flesh and blood. From first breath to last, this is a life story told from a unique perspective inside The Living Body.

Infinite Zoom - Concept - The Self-Contained Universe

This project is being developed to visually represent Stephen Hawking's theory that the Universe or Multiverse (a multitude of Universes) is self-contained. In Hawkings Summer 2006 visit to Hong Kong he claimed, "the universe does not need a creator because time has no beginning in a self-contained universe."

Although I do not feel the need to get caught up in the old Creator debate, I do believe it's time that people believe what they want to believe whilst trying not to impose their beliefs on others.

I have chosen to follow the particular concept that the Universe is contained within ourselves. The largest thing known hidden within the smallest thing, repeated to infinity. This idea was implanted in my brain by "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening.

You may wonder why I have chose to entitle this project "Infinte Zoom." These are two words I generally disagree with on an every day basis;

Zoom a technique rejected by filmmakers because it looks cheap. On the hand the idea of zooming in to something beyond human capabilities is a concept that can look spectacular.

The word "Infinity," simply means that there are no more numbers left to describe how big something is. My philosophy is that there is no such thing as infinity. My reason behind this believe is this; Imagine there is infinite space and infinite time which exists within that space, there is only a certain number of possible eventualities which can occur within infinity.

So there we have it Ladies and Gentleman, the Universe which we exist within is on a loop. This is the concept which I am trying to portray with this piece of work.

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=122&id=4204

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/In_the_infinite_universe_theory_does_the_universe_have_no_beginning_and_no_end_just_like_numbers_from_negative_numbers_going_to_positive_numbers

Research - Video-copilot - Earth Zoom part 3

Research - Video-copilot - Earth Zoom part 2

Research - Video-copilot - Earth Zoom part 1

Here's a little tutorial by Andrew Krammer from Video Copilot, it shows you step by step how to make a cinematic style earth zoom in less than fifteen minutes. It also teaches you some basic After Effects techniques which are equally as important as the finished piece.

Research - Zoom Picture Book - Istvan Banyai

Zoom by Istvan Banyai is a provocative wordless volume with illustrations that slowly zoom out as though the viewer backed away from the previous one. It is interesting to watch the transition in each zoom out perception and thus makes it a great picture book.

You can get the full 64 page book at Amazon for $11.89. Istvan Banyai has also created another similar picture book called ‘Re-Zoom’.

Check out 15 more pics of Zoom by Viking Kestrel after the jump.

Research - Zoom Picture Book - Istvan Banyai

Research - Zoom Picture Book - Istvan Banyai

Research - Gigapan - Barack Obama's Inauguration

Gigapan is a pretty cool idea, it works by taking loads of images simultaneosly then pieces them together afterwards. Although Gigapan differs drastically from my project the idea of zooming in to something on the horizon is not too dissimilar from 'zooming infinately' through the Universe and out the otherside. Either way the idea of zooming into something further than the eye can see is an idea that fascinates me, as my research deepens it seems that this idea has been approached by many people with different methods.

Research - Beyond our Universe

Research - Cosmic Super Zoom

Development - Moodboard

Here's a mood-board I quickly knocked up, exploring the key shots which the Infinite Zoom visual effects motion image will explore.

Research - Mac welcome video

Research - Men in Black - End Sequence

Research - Contact - Intro

Research - From quarks to outer space

Research - The Simpsons intro

Infinite Zoom - DMD

Digital Media Development OUD301

Synthesis – Infinite Zoom

This piece of work proposed for Digital Media Development is designed to develop and expand on skills learned in the foundation years of this course. The method for producing this work primarily focuses on digital animation and visual effects, created using After Effects with a small amount of digital film production involved.

Although the idea itself is not entirely unique, the method and narrative sets this piece aside from other pieces of moving image, which seek to visually represent the idea of enhanced zoom. Inspiration to embark on the production of this idea have been developed from viewing:

“Men in Black”
“Contact… intro”
“The Powers of 10”
“The Simpsons (Universe on Homers head)”
“Macintosh post-installation sequence”

This digital animation will include sound effects and a backing track designed to contribute to help make the piece a fully entertaining audio/visual experience.

Narrative

A writer is struggling to find inspiration, starring at a blank document; looking both tired and delirious. The writer selects a song to try help him stay awake, as the track begins to play a visualization appears on the screen, within a short amount of time the writer begins to hallucinate, the visuals leek out of the computer screen and into the room, surrounding the writer.

The writer bewildered by what he is seeing has wide eyes and dilated pupils (in contrast to the beginning.) At this point the camera zooms down the pupil of the writers left eye. The camera then begins a journey of infinite zoom, first travelling down the optic nerve into the brain, into a brain cell, then the DNA, inside a molecule, then an atom, finally going to a string.

At this point the camera zooms into the string and the viewer will soon notice what appears to be galaxies coming into view then hurtling passed the edges of the screen. After a few seconds of this motion the camera focuses on one galaxy in particular, increasing in size the galaxy is entered about a fifth of the way in, after travelling through masses of stars one appears, at first in the distance then gradually getting closer and brighter, several seconds after passing the rest of the stars, some planets begin to emerge. After a few close encounters with various asteroids and planets, the viewer soon becomes aware that it’s our solar system in which they are travelling through.

A small bluish dot appears in the distance slowly approaching it becomes clear that it is Earth. A gradual descent to Earth is made, after passing through a cloud layer the view, is of a city from above, zooming on top of a building before ending up with a birds-eye view; back in the writers room. The camera pans down to the side of the writer who has fallen asleep in front of the computer, as the camera settles the writer jumps as though he has just been forcibly ejected from his slumber… He begins typing.