Context of Practice 3: Film Inspiration

Before creating my final environment I found two films that looked like they could be interesting to look at for inspiration for creating snow in an environment. The films that I looked at are set in Antarctica and have some really nice atmospheric effects throughout the entire film.  

The Thing (1982)
The first film that I looked at was The Thing as the bleakness of the harsh environment really come through in this film. Although the plot and general direction of the film is not my kind of thing I just watched it to focus on the environment as a whole instead of what was happening. The general feeling that is given by the weather throughout this film is definitely cold. With the harsh wind always blowing and the pure white of the snow covering everything its difficult to feel warm while watching this, even when inside.

 The snow does have some element of colour, and there are some definite blue tones mixed in there that do give off some colder tone, but the main colour scheme of the overall atmosphere is very white, giving a very pure look to the environment. There is also the obvious haze around everything especially when the weather worsens throughout the film. But generally the atmosphere is very bleak and definitely gives the sense of loneliness in the environment. 

Whiteout (2009)
The next film that I watched for some inspiration was Whiteout, a more recent film, so I was definitely hoping for more in terms of atmospheric look with this one, and definitely got it. The plot was generally not worth watching, but it terms of the overall effect that the film was trying to create with the snow was brilliant. There were element where you could not see anything in front of you, creating a really scary atmosphere as your not able to tell whats going to be around the corner. The fact that they need guide ropes to be able to find their way around is also an interesting concept that could be looked at for my own game level.

 The colour scheme for this film, is obviously just white, but it does work very well in getting the audience to feel very small in this big and vast area of virtually nothing, as you cannot see a couple of meters in front of you. Along with the general whiteness of the scene there are some very grey tones coming through, especially in the scenes set at night, and there are also some blue tones when they go out into the wild more, where we see the sky reflecting down onto the snow and everything around it. Altogether this was definitely worth watching to give me some inspiration for my snow, but overall I'm not looking to create a blizzard, and my snow will be a lot lighter.