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.

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