On the job hunt

So since I have finished Uni I am now on the hunt for work, there have been a few that have interested me but one stands out from the rest. There is an editor and media manager job at Sports Revolution based here in Lincoln that sounds fantastic! What better area of the media industry to work in than the sports sector??! I sent off my CV and covering letter yesterday so now it's just a case of waiting for the "dear john" or the interview offer!!


Wish me luck!!

Here' another old college film I worked on, an adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood. I love the colouring of this one.

Head him off to city hall!!

The first "proper" short film I worked on back in 2006 as a fresh faced 17 year old! I'm the one who gets smacked in the head with a suitcase, and can't hold a gun properly!

World Cup Year

So it's the World Cup in a fortnight. Here's a music video I made in 2006 for an unofficial World Cup song by local Hull band Kamikaze Valentines.

Scared Much?

I've kind of neglected this thing, but since uni work is now over and I'm on the job hunt I'll be loading up all my old and new work to "pimp" myself out.

Here is a short teaser trailer for a film I worked on:
http://www.vimeo.com/11996861

The most pretentious piece of work I've ever handed in.

Use a range of examples to explore horrors fascination with our bodily existence.

“A girl can only be a slut, a bitch, a tease, or the virgin next door.” Ginger Fitzgerald (Ginger Snaps [2000]).

Horrors fascination with our body originates as far back as the early gothic days of Mary Shelly’s human body amalgamation Frankenstein’s Monster. Frankenstein as a creation evolves from the desire of humans to play god and Mary Shelly’s visual description is the horrific obsession one has with reanimating the flesh and transformation of the body. Another mythological and gothic tale of body metamorphosis is the lycanthrope, or wolf-man. Traditional werewolf stories focus on the fear of being eaten or wounded by an animal and elaborate on the fear of human transformation, it also expands on the reticent animal instincts within man. This natural human obsession of bodily transformation and basic animal instincts manifests itself within the myth. The werewolf is also a demonstration of horrors obsession with sex and phallic representations of gender and the two-sex theory model. The transformation of man to wolf is likened to that of castration and the loss of one’s “manhood”, cited in the transformation sequence in “An American Werewolf in London”, a painful experience the audience are fascinated by the regression of states displayed. Despite the overt masculinity of the werewolf, the regression could be perceived as representative of the cultural attitude changes of the late 18^th century of sex and gender as a means of comparing man and woman. Pre 18^th century the one-sex theory model was widely regarded as gospel. It was believed that men and women represented two different variations of one sex. The theory expressed that the woman possesses the same basic reproductive system as man, but it is contained within as opposed to outside the body. Post 18^th century is was the dominant view that both sexes were directly opposite to one and other. Both theory models contain valid points, yet the one-sex model is now viewed as the immature and regressed theory. The theory is cited within the werewolf myth through Freudian theology where the concepts of anal menstruation/intercourse/birth can be referenced in a cultural sense through the ideology of the werewolf. The male metamorphosis, or for the sake of argument, birth of the werewolf on the arrival of a full moon are both overt references to the females bodily functions and one-sex theory. Horror as a whole could be perceived as the premier repository of one-sex reasoning in contemporary culture. In the horror world the audience are demonstrated in numerous ways that men and women are different, be it through the alpha male killer and weaker feminine victim, or sexually seductive female and oblivious male subject, but it is the mutations whereby the woman is the dominant, violent subject that we see the one-sex model as the female begins to look more males and the roles are reversed when the male is the victim.

Sex and the horror have long been intertwined. The French refer to an orgasm as “la petite mort”, the little death. Sex is a repressed impulse of the human psyche and horror access’ the human subconscious to trigger the arousal of these impulses. Freud concludes that these repressed pleasures are found within the ID of our psyche. Dreams are a result of these repressed urges and assist in compressing the impulse during consciousness by being released in the subconscious. Horror fiction is thus created by releasing the “monster” from ID but locking it the literal or visual entertainment world for the audience’s entertainment. Dismissed as a low brown medium, horror has long been immersed in the coalition of other mediums that are easily cast off as being at the bottom of the cultural barrel. One such medium is the pornographic, reinforcing the theory that horror massages the urges society aims to repress. Sex is and always has been a taboo, and violence is something that happens behind closed doors. In the 50’s “Hammer Horror” aimed to change that, bringing the visual arousal of sex and violence to our screens. Criticised as “a peep show of the freaks” 1957’s The Curse of Frankenstein is pretty tame by today’s “gore for the sake of gore” desensitised society standard but at that moment the modern horror film was discovered. Christopher Lee’s portrayal of Bram Stokers Dracula is undoubtedly the most iconic visual representation of horrors desire to arouse and horrify, as seen in figure1. The juxtaposition of an un-dead villainous monster praying on human blood and the voluptuous females he prays on confuses the audience into an adrenaline induced tornado of excitement. Never before has two polar opposite emotions been triggered through entertainment positively. This is another example of horrors deep relationship with our body, not content with exploring its physical form within the fictional world of cinema, the audience are participating subjects in the experiment of subconscious exploration. Drenched in taboo, horrors association with the pornographic began with the discovery of the audience’s pleasure of the horrific and arousing. There is common understanding why sexual illustration is found to be arousing and pleasurable to the viewer, but what is interesting is why we are pleasured by the vulgar, disgusting, horrific, and gratuitous display the horror. Freud compares that of sexual arousal to that of the horrific arousal, further cementing the co-existence of the two. Sigmund Freud comments that deep within the ID of our subconscious psyche we hold fantasies that border on the horrific side of the sexual and these dormant urges are triggered by visual stimuli such as horror. The same theory that we laugh at jokes, because we release energy that was previously being used for the repression of the ID of our consciousness via an uncontrollable tic, could be relatable to that of our desire to seek pleasure from the horrific. As you drive past a horrific accident by the road it is almost “natural” to slow down and poke a look to see the “gore” as it were. This disassociation of the reality in front of us is what horror taps into, and is integral to it success. We as humans are fascinated by the blurring of realty and the difference of fictionality and actuality. Psychologist Norman Holland argues that fictionality (the ability to not act upon an emotional impulse) found within viewing horror leads to the pleasure we gain. We can experience, in quite relaxing circumstances, the murder or torture of a fellow human because we know we can’t (and don’t) have to do anything about it. This acknowledgement of our bodily existence and its psychological wiring is cognitive to the deeper fascination horror has with said existence.

Relating back to the obsession of the body within the fictional world of the horror text and taking into account all the psychological boundaries horror crosses, we see an innate urge to display the most horrific and gruesome visuals of bodily intrusion. One such sub-genre of the horror variety that openly explores the psychologically obtuse nature of body intrusions is the rape revenge film. With the rape revenge plot the audience are introduced to the male gaze and its assumption of masculine dominance, however the plot further indulges on the psychological pain caused through such incident and allows the victim to then in direct response inflict horrors on the guilty. Because the audience has been influenced by the shocking acts of the apparent masculine subject they desire painful revenge. The intention of the sexual act of rape is not to arouse but to create disgust and thus the revengeful actions are pleasurable. One such case of the act of rape being a narrative tool is in Wes Cravens “Last House on The Left”; however looking specifically at the 2009 remake there was several integral decisions that needed to be made. The most important was that of casting the victim Mari. Sara Paxton was cast as director Dennis Iliadis felt that during the rape sequence her performance and physical attributes would not conclude in the arousal of the audience (see Figure 2). The reason this is more poignant today than in the 70’s, when the original was created is because of the regressive state of mind that has plagued humans. A rearward trend has inadvertently come to fruition within the pornography industry. Where horror has toyed with the two interlinking and confusing emotions, arousal and fear, pornography has followed suit. Just as audiences are becoming desensitised to the fears and visual representations of decades past, viewers of pornographic material are becoming, as it may, desensitised to “mainstream porn” and are in search of a darker and more sadistic thrill. The internet meme short “2 Girls, 1 Cup” is one contemporary example of the pornography industry, in many eyes, over stepping the mark. To elicit an extreme response is the goal of both mediums, and at one point in history it was horrors introduction of the bodily sexual that furthered its fascination of the human anatomy. But now as the divide blurs between the two it’s difficult to distinguish what the intention of the piece is.

The relationship between pornography and horror, as previously stated, has always been close. However horrors intention has always been to, in its simplest form, scare. If we are to be aroused by a horrific act of degrading sexual violence, such as rape, then horror may have lost its purpose. Exploration of the body through the act of sex is just further account of the fascination with our self. Sex is a taboo of mainstream society and although it is visually embraced by horror the morality of the subject is questioned through the consequences of participating bodies. Displaying the act of consensual sex as an exhibition of visual titillation is countered by, more often than not, death. The relationship of horror and sex thus becomes deeper. The consequential actions of the characters exploring each other sexually are they themselves are explored, with a knife! With this we move to the slasher.

The slasher, on the surface, would suggest that horrors fascination with our body is with the disembodiment of it in numerous ways. However a common and well cited trademark of the horror is that of “the final girl”. She may spend the majority of the film running and screaming, in a very effeminate way. However she no doubt survives through to the credit roll, maybe even delivering that final blow to the knife wielding psychopathic title killer. It’s this exploration of our ability to “dig deep” that runs through the genre further enhances the argument that horror is more than just a visual representation of our primal desire to exhibit and, in turn, induce grotesque pain. Our bodily existence is more than just the flesh that envelopes our bones. That’s not say we do not take great pleasure from seeing Messrs Myers, Kruger and Voorhees disembowel their way through the cast in plentiful ingenious ways.

“Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1979) is the perfect comparative accompaniment to the visual body horror of a slasher movie. The horror here-in lies with that of the loss of control of one’s body, the victims are killed in every sense of the word. This follows a trend of films that communicate to our physiological existence and relates to social anxieties of the time. “The Thing” is a commentary on the fear of the AID’s virus and brings the morality of body control into question once more. The “thing” of the title is an alien parasitic life form that attacks a living organism and imitates its host. Unable to decipher who carries the virus paranoia reverberates through the group. This paranoia is representative of that of societies during the great AID’s moral panic of the 1980’s. George A. Romero’s “Living Dead” series considers the impact of the re-animation of the dead on society. The attack of the body, again parallel to that of slashers, runs deeper than the “orgy of sadism” that is the disembowelment of our fellow man. All of these are social and cultural commentaries but have one thing in common, the invasion of the body. This fascination runs deep throughout horror history and will continue for years to come. As previously touched upon the relationship with the sexual is cited by many as the depression of horror, yet others see it as the next step in the genres maturity. Because of our subconscious and conscious acceptance of the horror and our obsession with our own bodies and the intrusion of it, we release these urges through the medium of horror. Low brow it may be but Freud summarises our subconscious is as low brown and sordid as you can get. Visualise all the distasteful, and mundane, images you conjure and you find that horror is just a medium, an output, for our psyche. Our obsession with our body is the reason why horror is cited as the premier mainstream repository of body fixation, for which comedy will follow a close second. The horror will continue to fantasise over the body as long as we conjure up new ways to physically (Hostel [2005], Teeth [2007]) and psychologically (Jennifer’s Body [2009]) attack it. And if we want to see Michael continue attacking a group of teenagers again but feel the original is a little tame, Mr. Zombie is here to bring the franchise up to date and build the rollercoaster, built in the decade that “ruined everything for everybody”, up even higher.

Bandwagon...

So here I am jumping on the blog bandwagon, lynch me! If you like reading what other people think about random stuff then stay with me. If not, piss off!!
Right, what I intend to do is put my 6/7 years of studying media into practice. Writing them review things for films and tellybox shows I've been watching. Adding a bit of media babble into some personal opinion. Oh and with the summer influx of new albums I'll write the odd review using my grand lack of musical know-how, and chuck the odd rant about stuff I see here there and everywhere.
Basically it's be the mad, and slightly humourous (hopefully) ramblings of a 20, nigh on 21, year old kid.

Hope you enjoy,

Dan
[freighttraincoming]