Wednesday 14 October 2015

Dissertation - Structure Plan

Architecture | Film | Topic TBC

Table of Content
Introduction 
Chapter One: Architecture and its context in films. 
Chapter Two: Archetypes and their role in human perception. 
Chapter Three: Film 1, Film 2 and Film 3 

Introduction
Being one of the oldest arts of planning and design, architecture has been constantly evolving and changing its layouts and visual reincarnations. But despite its dynamic shape, it keeps delivering one single image – the fascinating way the world envisions this innovative reality. Architecture has left prints everywhere on its journey to what we know it today, reminding of its powerful existence in plays and novels, from Odyssey to Gulliver’s Travel, in paintings like the Eiffel tower by Robert Delaney, 1911 and finally to its visual representation in films such as Metropolis, Aliens or The Maze Runner. The styles in architecture diversified through centuries and created iconic buildings some of them visionary like the tower of Babel or the Greek mythological Labyrinth and some of them still overwhelmingly shadowing us like the Pyramids, Empire State building and the Shard. These symbols of unlimited imagination and genius send essential messages to the audience in cinema by reminding the great scale of its importance, complexity and purpose. 

Chapter One:
Part I: What is architecture?
  1. When architecture developed and why?
  2. Examples of iconic and symbolic buildings and the names behind these ideas.
  3. What stays behind these designs?
  4. Why are these buildings important to the people and space?
  5. What rules and limitations shape them?
  6. Styles of architecture through time.
  7. Utopian and dystopian designs.
  8. Biblical and mythological designs.
  9. Complexity of the design: geometry within geometry including film examples, space within space including film examples.

Part II: Architecture and Films.
  1. Film genres and their meaning.
  2. How the styles in architecture and genres in film work together and the importance of their collaboration for the overall feel of the film.
  3. What they have in common?
  4. Examples of different architectural designs (utopian, dystopian, urban, avant-garde, futuristic, biblical and mythical, etc) used in films.
  5. Biblical, Roman, Greek, mythological, modern and futuristic structures and their adaptation in films. 
  6. Breaking the rules and limitations (set in Chapter One). Mobility and flexibility of the architectural designs. Intelligent architecture and its role in films. 
  7. Financial and Creative control in films. What changes the overall image? What creative control is used, what parts are adapted and why they were changed.
• (include ‘the architectural sets convey a symbolic information about the plot and the character) 
• (include ‘elements of iconic and symbolic buildings are adapted to create a new virtual reality)

Chapter Two: Why is all in Chapter One important to people?

  1. The heritage the films deliver to the public rendering iconic and symbolic buildings or parts of them in films.
  2. How these images resonate and how the public consumes them. 
  3. Archetypes.
  4. The psychological moment behind the emotions. State of mind. Consciousness.
  5. The cultural moment behind these emotions. What is genetically coded in us that these images activate?
  6. The religious moment behind the emotions. What beliefs coded in us these images activate?
  7. Freedom of mind and visual experience.
  8. Did the creation satisfy the creator and how far we can with the next generation of futuristic architects?

Chapter Three: TBC

  1. Three films from different age to prove how scenes and structures covered above resonate and influence the public.




1 comment:

  1. Hey Toni,

    Okay - my instincts when I look at all these subcategories is simply this: too much, too much, too much! There is a complexity to this which could power 3 or 4 8,000 word dissertations and what I want you to do now is to further narrow your focus. There are, after all, entire books (indeed entire libraries of books) on 'architecture' and on 'genre', so the ability to dispense with these topics in a few paragraphs seems unlikely.

    Can you combine/condense/edit your remit more so: for example, given the nature of your case-studies being 'science fiction' and also dystopian, is it that, truly, your focus is on 'Architecture in Science Fiction Cinema'? If so, can you cut a little more to the chase?

    It does seem that your prime interest is in the 'representation of architecture' in film, as opposed to 'architecture' as a discipline in its own right, and by 'architecture' you're referring to recurrent types of structures that are used by film makers for their archetypal/symbolic effects. I think you need to be clear what you mean by 'architecture', because if it relates purely to 'production design in film' I think you need to say so, and I think it means you don't have to spend as much time dealing with the 'history' of architecture.

    Don't confuse complexity with profundity - your prime task as this very early stage is to ensure your ideas are made easily available - in clear and plain English - to the reader who knows nothing about the subject or why indeed they should care about it in the first place.

    Try another version of the structure but keep it simple and to the point; what are these chapters actually about?

    Also - I saw this, thought of you; I suspect Canterbury UCA library will have this - or we can hope.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Architecture-Science-Fiction-Film-Ashgate-Studies/dp/1409407489/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444919384&sr=1-1&keywords=architecture+and+science+fiction

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