ABC Exploratory Sticks and Stones Dreams

Dreams are a series of thoughts, images, ideas, emotions and sensation occurring in a person’s mind during sleep, they present us with important messages from the subconscious mind they are based on your thoughts and experiences from the day before and sometimes memories from a long time.

Dreams in literature.

Dreams are used throughout literature in many different genres. the most common use of dream s in literature is foreshadowing events.

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas carol is a novel by English author Charles Dickens it was first published by Chapman & hall on 19 December 1843.

In a Christmas carol it tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge who has an ethical and emotional transformation when he is visited by four ghosts in his dreams, an old friend of his Jacob Marley, the ghost of Christmas past, present and future.

The visit from the ghost of Christmas future is almost like a nightmare because the ghost appears as a dark figure, that wears a black robe with a hood that covers his face and does not talk.The ghost shows Scrooge his future which will be death if he does not change his ways and act upon what the other ghosts showed him. Scrooge is always mean to people he does not give to charity and the ghost show him that he will die alone and no-one will care, not even his nephew. People will just steal his belongings and give them to a fence. Scrooge is also shown his own neglected and untended grave.

I chose to talk about A Christmas Carol because it shows how Scrooge’s life starts of like a dream but then turns into a nightmare, and how he is making everyone else’s life a nightmare too. It’s also showing Scrooge looking at his life from a different perspective so that he can see how he life has changed and what it will be like, and it is giving him the chance to be different.

Dreams in film

James and the giant peach.

James and the giant peach is a 1996 musical fantasy film that is based on a 1961 novel. the film is a combination of live action and stop monition.

James and the giant peach is about a boy called James who goes to live with his aunties when his parents are killed by a ghostly rhinoceros from the sky. He meets a man who gives him a bag of ”crocodile tongues’ so he can have a better life, he warns him not to lose them. The ‘tongues’ escape and go into a peach this makes the peach grow an enormous size, one night while taking out the garbage James eat a chuck of the peach and a giant hole appears and Jame goes inside where he befriends a grasshopper, centipede, earthworm, miss spider, ladybug and a glowworm.

While his is in the peach James has a dream that turns into nightmare. the dream start with leafs moving across the screen to reveal James as a caterpillar eating a peach, it is a nice day the sky is blue and all the tree are filled with green leaves, and there is soft clam music playing in the background to match what kind of day it is. You then hear a rumble and see a cold breezes, James is afraid of his aunts so when they turn up in their car the dream then becomes a nightmare. The music changes from a soft clam song to a high pitch fast song which i think is done with a violin and drums. All the leafs fall off the trees and the sky goes Grey. One of his aunts releases a smoke that chases James into a corner, and then the smoke turns into the rhino that James is also afraid of as well because he see it as the rhino that killed both of his parents.

I picked this scene to talk about because i feel that the dream is a representation of James life, it shows how he can be minding his own business happy and clam. Then his aunts come and disrupt the peace and make his life miserable. It also shows James fear and how he feels small, helpless and trapped when he come faces to face with his aunts. You can also see how his aunts are heartless and can use a sensitive subjects such as his parents death and the rhino that cause their death to scare him so that he will do what they what.

Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix

Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix is a 2007 fantasy film directed by David Yates and is based on the Harry Potter novels by J.K Rowling.

This is the fifth sequel of Harry Potter and it follows Harry Potter’s fifth year at Hogwarts, as the ministry of magic refuses to believe the return of the evil Lord Voldemort. The Daily Prophet launch a campaign against Harry because of the supposed encounter he had with Voldermort at the end of the previous year. The encounter has a huge psychological effect on Harry.

After Harry has a Vision about an attack Dumbledore orders Professor Snape to teach Harry the Occlumency so that he can block his mind from Voldemort, During the lesson Harry uses the spell on Snape and finds out why Snape hates his father James, when he see one of Snapes bad memories which is of his father bullying Snape. The memory Starts by the camera zooming right in to Snapes left eye, then there is this sort of screeching echo sound as it flash between different bad memories of his time at Hogwarts. Before each memory you see Snapes eye then it goes in to the memory for example. Him being laughed at in the hallway, sitting alone in a corner and being bullied by a group of boys including Harry’s father. You can tell that they are memories because there is a lack of talk talking, and also at the beginning there is a sort of black circle around Snape because we are see it through his eyes. When near the end the frame is wrapping, we then see Snapes eye and it comes out of the memory.

I think that these memories explain a lot about Snape why he is so distant and cold. I also think it tells use why Snape is so hard on Harry, I think it is because Harry look like his father and it reminds Snape of how Harry’s father bullied him, I think that Harry also reminds Snape of the girl he was in love with and how Harry’s father stole her (Harry’s mother) away from him.

Alice in wonderland

Alice and wonderland is 1951 American animated feature production by Walt Disney production.

Alice and Wonderland is about a girl called Alice who gets bored with her older sister reading a history book out loud. So Alice tells her cat Dinah that she would prefer to live in a nonsensical dreamland called Wonderland.

While Alice is in wonderland she meets all the characters that live there, including the Cheshire Cat that leads Alice into a giant maze that is ruled by the Queen of Hearts and her husband the King of Hearts. The Queen invites Alice play a bizarre game of croquet, the Cheshire Cat appears again and pulls a trick on the Queen which she then accuses Alice of doing, so she is put on trail. But Alice then remembers that she still has the remains of the mushroom the Caterpillar gave her. So she eats it and grows to an enormous height, and feels free to speak her mind and in doing so she openly insults the Queen .However, she shrinks to her normal size. So Alice is then forced to flee when the Queen orders her execution. with most of the Wonderland characters pursuing her Alice then finds herself reunited with the doorknob, who then informs her that she is dreaming. So Alice is then forced to wake herself up.

You can tell that this is a dream because there are a lot of this that wouldn’t happen in everyday life, such as seeing a talking cat or a talking Caterpillar. Also the characters often break out into a song during events, such as the trail which would not normally happen but we are not told that this is a dream until the end of the film when Alice is looking at herself though the doorknob. Also the film doesn’t use any special effect like echo’s to indicate that it is a dream until Alice is trying to wake herself up.

Wizard of Oz

Wizard of oz is a 1939 musical fantasy film produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer. based on based on the 1900 children novel.

The Wizard of Oz is about a Kansas girl called Dorothy Gale who live with her aunt Ern and uncle Henry. Dorothy decides to run away to protect her dog, but is then convinced to go home, while on her way back a tornado fits but she doesn’t make it back to the farmhouse in time to join her family in the storm cellar. So she takes shelter inside the house, but is then knocked unconscious by a window frame blown in by the twister. When she wakes up she is in a land called Oz and has to travel on a yellow brick road to find the wizard so she can get home on her journey she meets a Scarecrow, a Tin Man and a Cowardly Lion.

The begin of this is not a dream the dream is only introduced after Dorothy gets hit on the head by the window frame, we know that she is going into a dream because of the type of music that is used it is dreamy and magical with a fast beat, also a tracer effect is used to show her going from the real world to the dream world. The film also shows lots of signs that it is a dream, for example the house is taken up in the twister and it is still hole and when Dorothy is looking out the window she see things flying around in the tornado like a cow, a woman in a chair and the woman on the bike changing to a witch on the broom. Or the fact that she meets a talking lion, scarecrow and tin man, that wouldn’t happen in real life and the fact they looks like people from her family.

Dorothy gets to the end of the yellow brick road and reaches the wizard, the wizard tells her he will help her get home that they will go in a balloon but the anciently leaves with out her. So she has to find another way to get home, the witch of the north then tells her she has always had the power to go home. Then the witch tells her to tap her heels three times and another dreamy effect is used at this moment, it has the dreamy fantasy music playing while Dorothy is repeating there is no place like home, also a swirl effect over Dorothy’s face as you see her come out of the dream world and into the real world.

Dreams in photography

Fingertip By Durango John Grow

I think that this paint shows the use of dreams, because it shows the giant girl laying next to the city with her hand resting on one of the houses. It is like she is wishing dreaming that she was a normal size like all the people that she is looking down at, she has the dream right at her fingertips but it is still so far away, And all she can do is dream but living down there.

I chose to talk about this picture because shows how can have something right in the palm of your hand but still be so far away from getting it.

Dreams in poetry

A Bed Of Clouds By Ashley L. May

I sleep in the clouds, dream in the sky,
I’ll keep dreaming as life passes me by,
I think my dreams keep me sane,
I dream of happiness, a life without pain,
some people say I’m stuck in this place,
and I’ll never go anywhere,
but in my dreams I’ve already been there,
I know some day I’ll have to wake up,
but I feel the real world is more like a nightmare,
I’m safe in my closed eye wonderland,
this poem goes to all the dreamers that understand,
no matter what they say…
keep your dreams but don’t dream your life away.

This poem is about conflict between dream and life. How you can dream about being happy and having a better life, a life with no pain because dreaming is better than the real world, because the real world seem like a nightmare compared to your. But you have to make sure that you don’t get stuck in the world you create in your head but you should keep your dreams just don’t dream your life away life away.

Dreams interviews:

Experimenting with the green screen

I was put into group with Sara, Natalie, Danish, Darrian, Anita and Shay and together we had to come up dream experiments using the green screen, so I was behind the camera to film Natalie, Danish and Darrian. Natalie was first in front of the camera and she was running on the spot . Then Danish went in front of the camera next and he was sleep walking, Darrian was last and he was acting like he listening to music that was too loud.

When I went to edit this on final cut pro the first thing I did was import the clips from the sever, ( go to file – import – import file – stock media – marks name – group 2) then you have to change the colour of the green screen , how you do this is (click on effects – key – chrome key and drag it to the clip). Then a colour bar will come up and you and you move it around until the green scree is completely black, you can then pick what you want for your background.

For the video of Darrain i used a clip that i found on the sever and used that to put as the background, it was paint splashes and it went really with the movement he was doing it also made it look like a nightmare. So first i imported the clip ( file – import – import file – stock media – David Jenkins – sources – movies ) i the dragged the clip from the library on the left and put it under the clip of Darrian. i liked the way it looked so i deiced to add music to it so i went to youtube and typed in scary instrumentals, and picked one of the songs that came up i then converted it from a mp4 to a mp3 and imported it on to final cut pro and put it under Darrian’s clip.

For Danish’s video I imported a clip of text from the stock media folder and put it behind the clip of him. Then I went to youtube to get music for it, I downloaded the music that I wanted which was a dreamy instrumental and added it to the clip.

For Natalie’s video I took a image from the internet of a racing track and download on to the computer and then I imported it from the download folder, and added it behind the clip of Natalie running. then next thing I did was changed the speed of Natalie’s§ clip how I did this was on the left screen at the top (motion – speed) and I changed it from 100 to 35, I then went to youtube and got the instrumental vision of ride of valkyries and added it to the clip.

Experimenting with the projector

For this experiment we got Gular to stand in front of the green screen and the camera, and then we got a hand held projecter and projected images onto her face. I then I imported it to final cut pro and edited it, I added a video to put behind her the same way I did the other ones and I went to YouTube and downloaded music imported it and added it to the video.

Experiment Video

In a group with Sara, Adien, Alfie, Narisar and Stephanie we went down to kings Cross with a camera and recorded some thing, like people walking and Alife running down the street. I put some of the footage together then changed the speed of some of the clips to create a short experimental video using speed, I then added music that I got from YouTube.

Dream Sequence

For this unit I had to created a 30 second dream sequence using Adobe After Effects, I was given a variety of different video to choose from to make my sequence. I looked through all the video I was given and chose the ones that I thought match the theme that I had chosen for my sequence, which is like a dreamy theme. To start my sequence I created a composition (Create a composition: Choose composition – New composition) but then I had to manually change the settings so that my chosen videos would fit the screen, I changed the settings (Add New Composition: Composition – New Composition). Then I imported my videos which were

I thought about how I was going to start my video, so I started looking through my chosen video to see which one was the best choice and decided to start it off with an eye closing. Because I wanted it to start like that so it looked like a person is going to sleep and showing that we are going into the dream.

The second scene is powder being blown into the air , in the first video I thought it looked a bit boring so in the second video I add text to it, I found a quote on Google.”A dream is a microscope through which we look at the hidden occurrences in our soul”.

The three scene I blended three videos together, the sky, the sunflowers and the rain. I used these three videos because I wanted to give it a unrealistic look to it because you don’t see sunflowers in the sky.

The fourth scene starts with two videos blended together, a city and wavy fabric I used these two together because I wanted to give it a cloudy city look. And then a third video comes in near the end which give it like a space look.

For my fifth scene I blended two videos together a wavy fabric and a upwards view of trees slowly spinning, I used these two videos because I wanted to give it a cloud sort of look.

And for my ending I had the eye opening with the wavy fabric over it and then it clips off which indicates that it is the end of the dream and the person has woken up. After I watched back my first video I thought it was a bit boring so I added music to it

Animation Evaulation

In this unit we had to create short experimental animation videos. To help us come up with our own ideas we researched animated films like ‘Waltz with Bahir’ this is a 2008 Israeli animated film written and directed by Ari Folman. the film follows Folman who is searching for his lost memories that he experienced as a solider in the 1982 Lebanese War. After hearing about his friends nightmare from the war, Folman has a vision about the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the reality of which he is unable to recall. Folman then rushes off to meet a childhood friend, who advises him to find the other people that he can remember were in Beruit, in order to understand what happened there and to revive his own memories.

The film opens with Boaz having a nightmare about something that happened during the war. Boaz was orded to shot the villiage dogs to stop them from barking and waking up the town. he remembered exactly how many dogs there were (26 dogs) what each one looked like how big they were and how they died. The nightmare starts with one dog running down the street,the dog has yellow eyes and teeth and has foam around his mouth. This dog is then join by other dogs, runing down the street knocking down trash cans, chairs and scaring people they then stop outside a window. All of the dog look different they have different shape, some are big and some of them have fur but they have the same yellow eyes and teeth and foam around there mouths, and they are all barking and growling up at the window and who ever is in there.

Watching this film has helped me to think of some ideas i can use when creating my my experimental animation videos. starting with something simple like animals or objects and making them move from one side to another.

Experimental animation

Experiment 1: I decided to make three animation videos using flash, I started by making a horse animation. First I imported the images of the horse ( to import images go to file- import- import to library) and they should be seen on the right hand side in the library, I then made my frame in the time-line by pressing F4. I created 15 frames and inserted the image of the horse in each frame and put it in the top left corner.

I then decided to experiment with this animation by moving each image across which will allow the horse to move from one side to the other. I kept everything the same all I did this time was go to the second frame and move the image to the right.( To move the image to the right press and hold the shift- then press the right arrow key)you then go to the 3rd image and move it twice and you keep doing this until you get to the 15th frame the animation will move across the screen.

Experiment 2: for this animation I used the same technique and the same process as the first one, the only difference was I was using a clown image and there 21 images that had to import and make 21 frames. I then made another animation using the clown, I used the same process as the second horse animation shifting the clown to the right, this allowed the clown to move from one side of the screen to the other.

Experiment 3: Foe this animation will be moving a blue box from one side of the screen to another. I will create the box myself ( Select the rectangle tooling the tool panle- in the option bar select the shape you want to make- draw a box) I the colored the box in using the colour selection on the right hand side, to make the box move I had to use something called motion tweening which allows the frames to be added for you. I then went to the time-line I decided how many frames I wanted then I dragged the time to where I wanted it to end (30 frames). I then went to the last frame and moved the box from the right side to the left side. I then when halfway to frame 15 and added a motion teen ( to add a motion teen: right click on frame 15- select create motion tween) a solid arrow will then appear from the first frame to the last. this allows the box to move from one side to another.