Robbie Williams - You Know Me (Music Video)

In the music video of track “You Know Me”, Robbie Williams falls asleep and wakes up alone in his dressing room. On walking through his mirror, falling down a rabbit hole he finds himself dressed as a rabbit in a waistcoat, exploring a fantasy world.

The main theme of the video is he exploring the lyrics and direct emotions from the song and referencing it on Alice in Wonderland level of expression – loud, visual and odd! After he finishes exploring the fantasy world he dances with a group of women also dressed as rabbits; however, this time he is wearing make-up to complete his transformation of being the White Rabbit.

A recurring lyric is “Since you went away, my heart breaks everyday, you don’t know because your not there..” – maybe Robbie had lost his own Alice at the time of writing this song?

Sir John Tenniel - The Visionary Of Wonderland

Sir John Tenniel was a world-famous English illustrator who lived between the years of 1820 and 1914. He was a very well known political cartoonist for the magazine Punch but most well known for his illustrations for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, which are considered to be his finest and most enduring achievement.

Tenniel's illustrations were a world of unusual looking faces, un-life like proportions and darker shades of ink sketching for tone and detail. After receiving precise instructions as to his vision of Alice, he drew several pictures of “Alice” entirely out of proportion – head decidedly too large and feet decidedly too small in finally creating the final character we see in the final publish.

The illustrations for the 'Alice' books were engraved onto blocks of wood, to be printed in the wood engraving process (where ink is applied to the face of the block and printed by using relatively low pressure).

His illustrations were used as a reference for the costumes in Disney's Alice in Wonderland, and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland with every other form of media taking bits and pieces of Tenniel’s visuals placing the “o, d, d” in Wonderland.

Personally, what I enjoy about the work of Tenniel is that every source of Alice In Wonderland in the present works off of his initial vision for the story. I would like to develop my ideas also influenced by his work because of its instant impact to the viewer; it’s just very iconic and different. Moreover I quite like the black and white sketching; using his original feel as much as the most recent versions of Carroll’s story would be a lot more loyal to the books publish birth.

(Tenniel also has the same birth date as myself: 28^th February).

Labrinth - Earthquake ft. Tinie Tempah (Music Video)

With creating his own new sound singer/songwriter “Labrinth” (the producer behind Tinie Tempah’s – Pass Out) looks to have the idea same behind his official debut music video.

Earthquake is a bit like moving through a real-life video game and consists of an evolving musical world. Featuring wild CGI animations, a transforming Cherry Mini Cooper, futuristic sound-scapes and wildly booming boom boxes, the video contains just the right amount of bold imagery that the song requires.

Must say one of my favourite moments in the video is when Labrinth appears dressed as a modern-day ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ who finds a moment of Zen before he transforms into one gigantic sonic creature that spits out none other than Tinie Tempah who sets the tune on fire with his spitfire rhymes.

The main theme I gained from this visual was that nothing was, as it seemed, but a musical Wonderland.

Alice In Wonderland: McLeod vs Burton

1933 Film (Director: Norman McLeod)

The 1933 version of Alice in Wonderland was not the first time Carroll's books had been adapted to the screen, but it was, at that time, the most extravagant. The film was a star-studded affair from Paramount, with established names portraying various characters that Alice encounters on her bizarre journey.

When reading some reviews of the film on the web, filmgoers looking to play Spot the Star were sorely disappointed, and I agree in that sense, but not in terms of viewing a story. The film is in black and white and in my opinion does lose some truth to the spirit of Carroll in terms of initial bright, striking features. On the other hand, the production designs based on Sir John Tenniel’s famous illustrations are impressively faithful to the book that adds a very inventive, oddball and whimsical feel.

What I’ve taken from this is how blatant the odd features are in this version of Wonderland. At times the viewer can be very athletically surprised how in ones face the scenes are portrayed. Also with this creative direction the viewer can follow a steady story, understand the characters features… But personality of characters old dress-up and dialogue can defiantly be described as ‘weird’ by most.

2010 Film (Director: Tim Burton)

Tim Burton’s new take with this movie imagines Alice returning as a 19-year-old to this strange land, to find that it is plunged in gloom. The tea party is still going, but all the dishes are wrecked.

It is very difficult to tell if this is an intentional answer to Carroll's original jokey Wonderland or just part of the inevitable gothic darkness that most associate Burton conjures up.

But working off of that, Burton's visual design is of course highly distinctive; the new vision through 3D visuals, character design, and performances along side top quality green-screen work make being inside the Queen Of Hearts Castle or sat at The Hatters Tea Table a very interesting and mind spinning experience. (Even though here I have to raise a complaint against the subliminal corporate-branding which makes the White Queen's palace look like the Disney castle logo.)

The great thing about this movie in terms of my research is that Burton is more of an image-maker than a storyteller. Noting down inspiration on his take of Wonderland is a huge influence to follow and steer away from at the same time to allow me to create a further wonderland of my own. Moreover you are able to view how far the setting of Wonderland has come.

Eminem's "Relapse" Packaging is 'Lethal'

Something I thought of which was similar to the "Spiritualized" packaging John showed us in Lecture 1.

Eminem prescribes his to listeners to his history of drug-use with the packaging of album "Relapse". The front cover being a face made from a pill'ed collage, the in-lay representing the interactive medication tub feel, and a back cover artwork in a prescription form layout style.

Known as the album when he was at the last stage of fighting his addiction, I think the message is to let the audience know why he's been so angry over the years... The aesthetics of the album are as if you're going through the stage of his life with him, a key selling point.