Ryal's Rambles

A Masters and a New Blog

2012-10-30T23:27:00.002+00:00

Hello again, sorry it's been a while.

Since I last posted I have become a student again. I am studying a masters in Design for Film, Television and Events. For this, I am required to start a blog. We can't use ones we had before so unfortunately I can't use this one.

The new one is anyakordecki.com and yes that is a Wordpress blog. Sorry, but I was curious.

Below is what the blog looks like at the moment and it will be updated frequently.

If you like film, this one might be interesting to you.

I'll also review a few exhibitions and lectures there too.

Away From Home - Part 1

2012-08-18T14:02:00.001+01:00

Over the last month and a bit I've been quite busy and spent lot of that time away from home. This is what I've been up to.

First off, I had my birthday and this came in the post. I think my friends maybe knows me a little too well.

I felt about nine and had a huge sugar crash later that night despite the fact I only ate the snowies in the pick'n'mix. So not used to sugar anymore. It was still great and I spent the evening munching on them while watching The Philadelphia Story for the nth time (I once watched it four times in a week, which is pretty unheard of for me).

I then went to the National Media Museum, which had had been recommended to me by someone who shared my birthday. It was great. I fully recommend it. I also saw Prometheus at the Imax. Some of those scenes you really don't wanna see that big, but it was very impressive.

Then I did a modelmaking course run by David Neat, who was brilliant. My work is no way near as good as his. I really think anyone who is interested in modelmaking (for film, theatre design, animation or architecture, etc) should really take a look at his blog here.

The last image is from the ICA's Art Drive - BMW Art Car Collection 1975–2010, which I saw in my last day in London before continuing on to Germany.

BBC Design Trainee Scheme 2012

2012-06-29T21:39:00.000+01:00

My submission to the BBC Design Trainee Scheme 2012 for the Art Department.

Candidate Reference 2222098

Bauhaus (4 pages)

Howl's Room
Thin Man Design
Puppet (2 pages)
Cold Warrior Prop
Storyboard
Modelmaking
Ronda
ZombieHood Makeup
Scene
Theatre Set
Concepts
Biro Work
Canvas Work
Photoshop Work

Animation Showreel

Animation Showreel from Anya Kordecki on Vimeo.

Unrecorded Projects

2012-06-08T21:53:00.000+01:00

I'm posting a lot at the moment and this is mostly because I'm trying to catch up with my many unrecorded projects. If you look back a few posts you'll see quite a large gap where I guess I was doing other things rather than blogging. Unfortunately I didn't seem to be taking a lot of photos either.

Since university I decided to pursue film rather than animation. So I have done two short courses, multiple workshops, volunteered on two plays and four films hoping get as much experience as I could. This is still my current plan until I get lucky and am able to support myself with just this type of work.

The upper left picture is a personal set design model that I am working on. I made up the design of the chair to match a 20s style that will continue on in the rest of the set.

The next picture down is David Darby in front of the back panels I helped paint for his adaption of the play The Noble Spaniard. The complete set is below that.

The image to the right of the set is a prop I made for a short film called Cold Warrior, which you can see a trailer for here. I'm not going to tell you what the machine is for, but yes it is meant to be that grubby.

Finally the banner at the bottom is for Zombiehood, the film I'm currently volunteering on as an extra, make up assistant and general runner. I hope to actually have images from this one in the future. The website has lots of information if you want to learn more about this.

Moo Cards

2012-06-07T15:14:00.000+01:00

My new business cards came from Moo the other day. I was so excited. They came in purple ribbon wrapped boxes that said "Designed by Moo and You" which I thought was a great little touch.

I think they came out well. I chose to use two different images for the back and my biro sketch hello on the information side.

If you want some of your own you can find them here.

Ode to a Lost Friendship

2012-06-04T00:03:00.000+01:00

A couple of years ago, when ever I had a problem I would contact one particular friend. I would seek this person because of their unusual reaction to said problems. First they would listen until I was done (a rare attribute in itself), then there would be a pause as they considered their response.

"So how would you like to kill them?"
or
"Is there a particular limb of theirs you've grown a disliking to?"
etc...

I would reply with something along the lines of
"I think maim rather than kill..."
"Their left foot, just because..."

and so on. Normally until I forgot what the problem was or my stomach hurt too much from laughing at our purposefully stupid schemes.

I don't know if this type of response would work for a lot of people, but it really was perfect for me. I can find my own solutions to practical problems, it's the emotion behind each issue that I struggle with. After these conversations my troubles seemed small without me feeling belittled. If it ever arose again I would have the memory of our excessive plan of retaliation and feel better.

Inspirational Speeches

2012-05-31T22:54:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday I attended Raindance Saturday School and basically sat and listened from 10am til 5pm to incredibly passionate and enthusiastic speakers. Namely Elliot Grove and Patrick Tucker. I am a fidget... normally, but I loved this and it got me wanting to find more speeches. Admittedly ones I could pause an make a cup of tea during but still.

Anyway while thinking this my friend posted a talk by Neil Gaiman on facebook and then that led me on to one by his wife Amanda Palmer.

And through the power of linking to youtube here they are.

Wonderful Wonderfalls

2012-05-30T17:03:00.002+01:00

Wonderfalls (2004) is my favourite television programme and I am one of those people who find it really hard to pick favourites (seriously even favourite colour is too difficult). Those who have seen it know that it was unfairly cancelled before it even aired its first season, and because of that most of you probably haven't seen it. So I'm telling you to. It's really worth it.

In order to gush about how great it is I've made some posters and generally messed about with a few images. I've also included a clip at the bottom, which I hope remains to be there.

Anyway
<-- this is Jaye. Things talk to her.
She doesn't want them too.

Yup.

This show is 'quirky' which is to me often a dismissive word, but it is quirky, it's also very well written and possibly the most quotable series I've ever seen. All the character, supporting or otherwise, are very well fleshed out and incredibly watchable.

Jaye: I guess I thought if I could just get my sister laid the little wax lion might just shutup.
Eric: The wax lion wanted your sister to have sex?
Jaye: I'm assuming.
Eric: Does the little wax lion ever tell you to burn things or hurt people?
Jaye: I bet he's working up to that...

This is the scene when the first muse, a wax lion, talks to Jaye.

Make-Your-Own Film Posters

2012-05-13T20:38:00.000+01:00

Inspired by the Castro Theatre posters I blogged about earlier I decided to play around with my own. Mr Smith goes to Washington is one of the most famous Frank Capra creations and also stars Jean Arthur and Jimmy Stewart.

As finding a film script is as easy as googling 'movie script' I wanted to make it a text based poster.
It's a very simple poster to make, if you want to have a go I found a tutorial that's quite similar to the process I used.
You can find it here.

I plan to try out a few other poster tutorials later on. The best listing I found was these, but have a look around and have fun.

The Split Personality of California

2012-05-13T19:13:00.000+01:00

I recently did another article for The Culture Trip which I called 'The Split Personality of California', which inspired this post and was another 10 best films of the area. You can read it here --> http://explore.theculturetrip.com/north-america/editorials/the-split-personality-of-california/

Last November I went to California and wrote an article that examine the use of location in film. So I decided to use some of my photos from that trip as faux screen-captures.

The above image is from the top of Lombard street looking back towards Coit Tower (top right) and I think this is my most filmic of my photos.

The picture above is actually a film set in Warner Studios, all the buildings have removable facades and are usually one big empty building. You also may recognise the set below which still remains intact in its original studio.

Jean Arthur - The Actress Nobody Knew

2012-04-30T15:56:00.001+01:00

Though many adored.

She is my favourite actress, I can't explain why but every time I feel rubbish I want to watch her. She is not very well known now as she was born October 17, 1900 and was famous mostly in the 1930s and 1940s.

"No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur. So much was she part of it, so much was her star personality defined by it, that the screwball style itself seems almost unimaginable without her." - James Harvey

This is possibly one of the reasons I love her. I love the humour of that time, the mixture of wit and pure silliness. Though she was always someone you could really relate to.

She was particular famous (in her time) for her roles in Frank Capra directed films. Who commented that she was his "favorite actress".

The Frank Capra films are among my favourites but I also love Only Angels Have Wings which was the first film of hers that I saw and the reason that I decide to watch all her others. (At least as many as I could find)

Watch the clip below to see her in the film Easy Living (1937)

Despite being such an admired actress she was not known to be a very easy person to work with. The title of this post is not me referring to how she has now been forgotten but is from the only biography written about her by John Oller. Jean Arthur did not like being famous, she wanted to just be an actress. She said about Hollywood, "I hated the place - not the work, but the lack of privacy, those terrible prying fan magazine writers and all the surrounding exploitation."

She was not a confident person, she described herself as a backward child and stated "I guess I became an actress because I didn't want to be myself."

Film Posters and Articles

2012-04-27T00:30:00.000+01:00

While researching a California film article for The Culture Trip I stumbled across these gorgeous film posters for Castro Theatre by David O'Daniel and had to share them.

You can visit his website here to see more posters. He also sells them if you have sufficient disposable income. I am tempted by the Invasion Of The Body Snatchers one (Metropolis is sold out).

Also if you'd like to see my first article for the Culture Trip click here.

Where I want to be right now

2012-04-17T16:17:00.006+01:00

Castro Theatre in San Francisco,

This has to be one of my favourite places ever. I was in San Fran last November on a solo trip, my friend (who I met out there) really wanted to go to a Woody Allen film night at Castro theatre. This is what awaited me.

No Adverts, no trailers, just an organ player and a red curtain until the start of the film (Stardust Memories.)

The whole place smelt of buttered popcorn.

The bridge at Ronda, or therebout.

2012-04-16T15:08:00.003+01:00

I visited Spain last year with my family, we all loved Seville, Cordoba, etc but Ronda was my favourite. The Puente Nuevo is the tallest of the 3 bridges at Ronda, towering 120 metres (390 ft) above the canyon floor.

My painting is a sort of 'Lord of the Rings' version, but all I really added were a few houses down the side of the canyon.

Watercolour on board.

Behance took over... sorry

2012-04-14T17:24:00.004+01:00

I'm blaming my Behance portfolio as my excuse for lack of updates.

So here is a link to that --> http://www.behance.net/ryal

and an update,

This my favourite biro sketch that I posted on Behance. It's from a mosh pit I saw at V festival this year. I would have joined in but... I wasn't wearing the right shoes... yup.

Rapunzel

2011-07-20T22:23:00.002+01:00

I'm going to do another promise to post. I have been busy and I have been doing interesting things. I just haven't been documenting.
I am however going to be on a farm in France for a week, so I wont be posting tomorrow etc...

Postcards

2011-05-18T17:55:00.003+01:00

I love wandering around London, its such an easy place to explore without a plan. I understand how it can be confusing for visitors to navigate, but exploring it (aboveground) is the best way to find something new.
These 'postcards' are just me messing around with some photos I took on one of these aimless mooching days.

Because I would do that

2011-01-12T11:12:00.004+00:00

I hate being cold. In the winter I wear about 3 or 4 jumpers at once
(which gains me a few rolled eyes from my friends who wear one at most).
Yes it's quite a random advert, and yes it's pink (which I'm not that found of).
Though I would definitely do this, if just to weird people out.

Why don't I have this poster in my life?

2011-01-12T09:30:00.002+00:00

The King's Speech Poster:

I love it for so many reasons. The film, (which I was fortunate enough to see before general release - thanks mum) is amazing. I'm half in love with most of the cast, which helps, but the whole film is just very well done and a lot more fun than I anticipated.
The posters I've seen before ranged from quite good to awful.
Compare versions here:
http://www.movieposterdb.com/movie/1504320/The-Kings-Speech.html

I'm not saying it's the best poster in the world. I'm just saying that I want it, and as it's an American poster for a British film the chances of me getting one is limited.
I'm hoping that after The King's Speech as finished it's run, the poster's will become more accessible.

Message failed to reach Lion

2010-12-17T19:44:00.003+00:00

Working at Fopp over Christmas allowed me to meet Jared at Left Lion magazine, which, for those of you who don't live in Nottingham, is a free and very popular newspaper.
I mentioned that I'd always wanted to submit something, he said to do so and he'd look out for it.
Still unsure of what to send I decided to send some photos. Therefore sending something sooner rather than later. I worked on some photos that I had recently taken in and around Nottingham. Though unfortunately my email failed to send.

So... I decided to post them here.

Rocks and light

2010-10-13T23:08:00.006+01:00

An update of my scene image. I have been concentrating on drawing rocks, surprisingly fun. Unsurprisingly however I have painted them in shades of purple and green. When in doubt, or just bored of grey, purple and green is my default.

Painting a Scene

2010-10-12T23:31:00.010+01:00

Most of the drawings I do on a whim tend to be portraits. I like drawing faces basically. Most of the backgrounds/ landscapes that I've done are because someone told me to or I decided I need to practice. Though really what I should be drawing is scenes.
Narrative and stories are my favourite things in the world. Nothing inspires me more than a story. In any form; books, word of mouth, songs, films, television, etc... Actually I'd say mostly television. Its a complex story form. It has to have all the effort of detail that film has, with the character/plot development that a book has. At least good narrative television does.
What I mean is there are a lot of 'forgotten' scenes in television. Side plots, unimportant moments or even something a background character does that isn't really noticed. This is what inspires me. Something fully formed like a film is something I admire, but something a little unnoticed, an idea, a fragment of a side story, that's what I get excited about.
I watch a lot of television and film, but not what ever is on at the time. I research into it, which is an odd pastime, but I much prefer watching something a little odd, unpolished and unpredictable. Foreign programs and old films.
Favourite era of film, the 1930s, not quite as jarringly experimental as the 1920s, but everything is still new and untried.
Favourite country's media (at the moment) is South Korea. I wouldn't necessarily say that everything is unpredictable, but maybe the clichés of that particular culture are so unfamiliar that I found it hard to predict (or at least I did until I watched too much of it)

Ok, after all that, the point. (I did call this Ryal's Rambles for a reason you know)

I was watching a program when a particularly epic looking scene caught my attention. Narrative wise it wasn't a very important scene, it was in fact the beginning of episode two. Though the appearance of it was very dramatic. So I went and found a couple of screenshots. (It helps to find things when there are other fanatics about)
And started painting...

England day and night

2010-10-09T15:32:00.003+01:00

Those quickly passing moments when you wish you had a camera, fortunately in this case I did.

England can be pretty too.

2010-10-01T09:47:00.006+01:00

I recently came back from Japan and I liked it so much that I was quite sad to leave. Though I shouldn't take England for granted.
So I decided to upload a few of my favourite old photos so I can share them with a friend who has never been here.

I hope you like them.

Another Update

2010-02-24T10:31:00.003+00:00

Here's a few more scenes I've done recently

Park scene from Anya Kordecki on Vimeo.

This is just a background scene to be used later.

The movement on this next scene is little rough but its nearly finished.

Bright from Anya Kordecki on Vimeo.