Studio work- Bar- Inspirations

     Since our session last week I have been spending time thinking about what I would like to do for my studio project. As stated before I was already considering a 3D environment such as a bar. I started to think about the kind of bars that I prefer to go to. Generally I prefer somewhere with a sense of character, often accompanied I find by a reasonable amount of deterioration, and adorned with various artifacts that have been picked up over the years. I feel I would find it preferable to create this kind of scene then an immaculately clean and well looked after building with no real atmosphere to it.
     Whilst I don't have an exact idea for the game setting my environment would fall into, I have an idea for what the scene should be like. I think I will pick a foreign location for my building, somewhere where health and safety would not be an issue, fights would break out regularly, with a seedy atmosphere and a plentiful amount of illegal activity.
     My first step was to get as much inspiration for my idea as possible. A strong example of this kind of scene that I particularly enjoyed is in one of the levels of Max Payne 3. Much like the criteria I had for my own idea this takes place in a lawless slum in Brazil where safety regulations in public buildings would be the least of anyone's worries.

     One of major things that appeal to me is the sense that rich Western culture has infiltrated the location. This attempt to appeal to tourists with merchandise, such as the gaudy shirt max is sporting in this image, is something I feel I should include in my scene to add character to the environment. I would also like to show this by having big name brands, or knock off versions, of food, drink, clothing etc within the scene. Obviously I cannot use existing brand but it should still be possible to emulate this.

     The sense of dilapidation is also something I want in my scene. Whilst this image does not quite capture the same mood as my bar, it is from the previous Max Payne set in American, it does give a idea of the grime and disrepair I would like to put forward in certain areas of my game. My main intention is to get the impression across that this is a no frills kind of establishment where the decor and general cleanliness are thoroughly ignored by patrons who are there purely to satisfy their vices by any means necessary

     Lighting has often been a weak point in the final presentation of my work, and one of the points raised by my tutors when deciding on the project was the opportunities for lighting within this piece. Being a bar/club there will be many variances of shiny materials, chrome, glass bottles, polished wood etc which will all reflect light differently.
     In keeping with the seedy atmosphere I also intend to include an "adult entertainment area" within my scene. As before this is where people will be coming to satisfy their various urges and therefore rather then trying to dress it up as a "classy establishment" it will consist of cheap fluorescent lighting and grubby furniture. This lighting around the snooker table in this area gives a fair example of how I would like this to come across.  
      Some other relevant features of the image would be the snooker table and the posters on the wall. If this was somewhere people were spending a lot of time I imagine pub games would be a popular choice. Posters on the wall I can imagine would be an alternative to putting fresh paint on the walls. It would also be another example of rich Western media infiltration where American music and cinema that may appeal to tourists.

     This image shows far too grand a scene for what I have in mind however I did want an example of the set up behind the bar, and to some extent the style I am trying to avoid.

Overall the Max Payne series also sets a benchmark for the type of realism I would like to achieve in my 3D piece when it is finished.




Another, if somewhat indirect, source of inspiration is the anime series and subsequent game adaption "Afro Samurai". The art style is far too comic book for what I have intended however it is a brilliant example of the "Western influence/infiltration" I have mentioned before. Whilst the series is typical of Japanese Manga in many ways the use of Samuel L Jackson, a very Western icon, as a character voice subverts this somewhat.
The protagonist himself is clearly inspired by Blaxploitation characters such as the ones below.


This cross of cultures I will try to infuse slightly with my own work, cheapening the aesthetics of the bar even more with its tacky tourist appeal. My next step is to start formulating my ideas and deciding on the layout of my actual scene. I will begin this now and then update.

CS

     After some thought I decided that as I enjoy film as much as I do, it would be good to relate my research report to movies in some way, something along the lines of film/game adaptions was going through my mind. However on speaking to my tutors it was agreed that I would be able to focus on a film of my choice (I picked "Django Unchained". I decided my research report question would be something along the lines of "What are the film techniques used within Django Unchained, and what are their relevance to other media?"
     To prepare for our next cs session I began thinking about some of the areas I would start looking at. After some discussion with my tutors and some basic research on the film I came up with the following ideas.
Tarantino's use of fairytale:
-"Inglorious Basterds" relation to Cinderella, lost slipper, disfigurement as penance
-Disfigurement also appears in Django
-Both films use intertitles that set the scene in fairytale style eg. Once upon a time..
-Seigfried and Brynhilde legend told within film runs parallel to narrative, further more it also happens to be a German folktale
-Relationship to narrative theories- character functions/action spheres, Vogler's  Hero's journey, Levi Straus's Binary Opposition
-Song featuring in soundtrack tell separate stories themselves
Other possible areas of focus could include:
-Tarantino's controversy- publicity?
-Genre relationships, Blazing saddles (second link through use of humour), Red Dead Redemption (second link through controversy/publicity
-Blaxploitation as an inspiration for the film

This will give me some areas to focus on for my project. We also had a group tutorial where we were directed to various online sources that would help us find reference material. However a lot of these were game related so I have had to look elsewhere for more material. I have bought copies of both "Empire" and "Total Film" magazines (the Django editions) for any material they may produce.

Return to Uni

     After some debate on leaving this year I eventually decided to remain on the course and complete my final year. As we are already about three weeks into our first term this requires me to catch up a little. My first task is to decide what I will be doing for my projects.
    Contextual Studies this year will consist of a 5000 word (or 10,000 if we wish) research report upon an area of our choice. The BA7 portion of this is a started but not complete "draft" version. It has however been emphasized that the word draft does not mean that our arguments is in bullet point or note form, but just that the is more to be written or expanded upon.
     We will be working on one studio project for the entire year. There were several options for the area we wanted to explore, 3D environment/characters, user interface, level design, concept art and interactive narrative. The last one does take my interest however I do think it would be something I would rather explore in my own time. Therefore I am pretty sure I would like to continue looking at environmental assets. So far my ideas only go as far as some kind of pub/bar scene