![]() When everyone thinks of Heaven and Hell, the typical thought placement occurs. As Heaven being a bright, blissful, the city above the clouds kind of scenery. Hell is viewed in the opposite fashion of a rotting version of earth with fire and destruction covering everywhere you look. It's rare to not find this sort of vision of the afterlife and whilst there is some that look at it as the reckoning of the end or the heroes motivation to lead a better life on Earth, some tend to take a different approach... One of the main components as to why Heaven and Hell are visioned so much in films and in so many different ways is because their existence is questioned. No one knows if these places beyond death exist because the only way to discover if they are is if you die which is ironic because if Heaven or Hell are places in which you are guided to after you die, doesn't that mean that they can't be real anyway because they aren't witnessed in the midst of reality? More on that later. For now, let's focus on the visual interpretations of the afterlife in multiple entertainment mediums. ![]() Origins and Ideas of Heaven In terms of when these two concepts got their origin, every religion has their different beliefs on this. Christianity first believed that the dead would be resurrected after a period of slumber at the Second Coming until the concept of the Kingdom of God arose. In the 1st Century, Christians viewed The Kingdom of Heaven as a divine place that would come to Earth in their lifetimes and thus produce a beautiful picture of Earth in the "near" future. When the Kingdom of God didn't arrive, Christians refined their hopes into this place being a reward after death and put their beliefs into Heaven. Christianity believed Heaven was split into 3 separate layers. One layer being Heaven, the second being Paradise and the third being known as The City. God would distribute the dead into one of these "districts" and live a long and peaceful life in one of them which eventually moulded the concept of Heaven we have today. As in Christianity, they view Heaven as the reward after death whilst other religions like Islam, believe heaven is a place held with happy and immortal life where every wish is immediately fulfilled when asked. Judaism has a much more broader aspect of Heaven with it being a topic that isn't discussed very often within their religion. The belief of life after death is often argued over two ideas among the Jewish faith; one being the resurrection of the dead and the other being the idea of the immortal soul returning to it's creators body. Whilst many faiths have different opinions and beliefs on the vision of Heaven or even the existence of Heaven itself, most religions come to the conclusion that Heaven represents peace after death and that for their righteous ways on Earth, they are rewarded by being awaited in Heaven with the rest of their loved ones and forgotten dreams. Hell is the complete opposite... ![]() Origins and Ideas of Hell Almost every religion that believes in the concept of Hell has a similar perception of it even though the concept came much later on in religious history. Hell is conceived as a place that inhabits demons and souls of the dead lives who have sinned and had no forgiveness from God. With Heaven being foreseen as a reward, Hell was foreseen as a punishment. Even though Hell was a common belief, it mainly grew after the creation of a fable folklore known as Allegory of the Long Spoons which is represent in the image on the left. The Allegory of the Long Spoons is an instructive story created by Rabbi Haim of Romshishok representing the difference between Heaven and Hell with Heaven at the top, life on Earth in the middle and Hell at the bottom. In Hell, people are unable eat with the cutlery they possess and are starving whilst Heaven is calm and everyone is seated whilst eating their food in an orderly fashion. The story was originally erected to generate the idea of encouraging kindness and it suggests that people are given the opportunity to use what they are given (the long spoons in the image) to help nourish and provide care for each other and whilst there are many variants of the story, the message is the same. ![]() Hell is a fiery and painful depiction that inflicts suffering on the guilty souls that inhabit the land for eternity although a different portrayal of Hell exists in a common religion, Buddhism. The Buddhist tradition portrays Hell as cold. Tibetan Buddhist Descriptions of hell feature equal numbers of hot and cold Hells which is an idea that has also jumped over to Christianity as the infamous Dante's Inferno depicts the circle of Hell being a frozen lake of blood known as Cocytus (shown on the right) and sparked cold playing a dominant part in early Christianity also. ![]() Another piece of Hell that relates to cold is the first known image of Satan. Held in the Basilica Sant'Apollinare Nuovo Church in Ravenna, Italy, this mosaic depicts two angels at either side of Jesus Christ with one in red and the other in blue. In todays culture, I think most of us would view the red angel as the depiction of Satan but it is actually the angel dressed in blue that is Satan in the mosaic. In the 6th Century when this mosaic was constructed, blue was globally known as a sinister colour as oppose to red. With Hell being viewed as an image of anarchy and death, it is deceptive to see Hell fool us with it's features of the cold and now-a-days, very bright and blissful colours. ![]() Dante's Divine Comedy Consider to be and most likely the greatest works of World Religion Literature in history is Dante's Divine Comedy. It is a representative of the medieval world view in which the poem depicts an imaginative vision of the afterlife. Whilst it is written in the Tuscan Language, the poem contributed to the transformation of the Tuscan Language to the well known Italian Language. The poem is split into three parts which defined our visual and literary outlook of the afterlife we know of today which are:
Purgatory The latest and in my opinion, the most interesting idea of the afterlife is Purgatory. Although the idea of Purgatory was established in the early middle ages, the idea was only embraced by the Catholic Church in 1253. The idea depicts a period between death and Heaven in which a soul is left in an intermediate state where the soul has to go under purification in order to achieve the holiness necessary to enter Heaven. You can not got to Hell or remain in Purgatory forever but only those who died in the state of grace (assists from God) but have not yet suffered temporal punishment for their sins can go to Purgatory and wait for their punishments to be fulfilled. Even though Purgatory is a vision of the last stage to Heaven for some people and isn't close to Hell, it still can take on the imagery of Hell with depictions of Purgatory being similar to Hell that it is fiery and dark. Once the fulfilment of a souls sins have been complete, they are guided into Heaven. Depictions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory in Entertainment Mediums Due to the argument of whether these places after death exist, it has left many creative minds the opportunity to explore and often exploit these beliefs and have even left room for writers and directors to come up with their own visions as to what life after death looks like. Film like Always (Steven Spielberg, 1989) and Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson, 2009) and Video Games such as Dante's Inferno (Electronic Arts, 2010) and Saints Row: Gat out of Hell (Volition, 2015) have played with the concepts of Heaven and Hell being sufficient backgrounds and settings for their platforms but TV has recently taken an amazing frame of depth when it comes to exploring life after death. The couple listed are known for being genius, controversial and talked about a lot to this day about their references ![]() San Junipero - Black Mirror (SPOILERS) Translating to Saint Juniper (Saint Junipero Serra), who was a Roman Catholic Spanish Priest and founded the a mission (religious outpost) in Baja, California. This episode of the critically acclaimed Netflix show, Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011 - ) has been talked about and idolised for it's genius and unique portrayal of life after death. Rather than focusing on the afterlife being something magical and mythical to a sense, this episode takes it to a new genre and depicts the afterlife as being a man-made simulation. The episode first starts out at a vibrant, 80's-looking Californian beach resort town called San Junipero. It follows a shy, young women named Yorkie venturing this town and seeing the bright and nostalgic look of the town and she ends up meeting a vivacious young women named Kelly and it the story of the episode just follows them and their relationship as a young, reclusively gay, couple. The most interesting and gripping thing about this whole episode is that the whole setting of San Junipero is a simulation in which elderly citizens can access this by placing a chip onto their temporal bone that connects them to their brain to create this augmented reality. This allows them to travel back through time to when they were young and live out a few days over a period of time in this augmented reality and meet others who have done the same. After they die in reality, they are given an option to either just die and have their life ended or have their brain data activity transferred onto the chip and have it stored away (as seen above) so they can continue living their past life in a virtual simulation whilst meeting new people and literally living forever young. What I love about this so much is the uniqueness of the idea. Rather than go along the route of a natural Heaven and Hell depiction, Charlie Brooker (writer) decided to give Heaven an unnatural appearance and give every dying elderly person a heavy desire, to go back to when they were young and live out their lives that way. Heaven was once known as just Paradise and they give off that exact same image through this episode. It screams the word PARADISE at you and is even referenced in the club that the two main characters meet in. I also find it interesting how they live out their lives as a homosexual couple in a time period (1987) where that was often frowned upon. It almost gives the hint that this isn't a simulation of the past but almost an alternative past where homosexuality is accepted but we always see them express their love for each other in secluded areas where only they matter and no one else can bother them so maybe it is just how it was in the past. Also the music used in this episode is obviously very 1980's but is placed in very smart areas. For example, at the end, when the Yorkie and Kelly are finally together and happy that way, Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle plays which is great symbolism for both paradise (Heaven) and acceptance. This episode proves that you not only can make a depiction of life after death unique but you can also reshape it. You don't have to stick to a certain formula just as long as the narrative makes sense and flows well with the message you're trying to portray. South Park (Trey Parker & Matt Stone, 1997 - ) If you're known as the most controversial cartoon show in TV history, most likely it's going to feature some punches towards religion and the afterlife as a whole. When it comes to depictions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, no one does it more insultingly funny as South Park does. From God's of all religious groups forming a superhero alliance called Super Best Friends to stop evil to having insane backlash from the show NEARLY showing the image of Muhammed in their 201 episode special. From Satan having a homosexual relationship with Saddam Hussein to Heaven being portrayed as a place full of nude women. From identifying Jesus as a ninja assassin to expressing Scientology as a greedy and conspiritual excuse of a religion. It's hard to beat this show when it comes to mocking religion...and also raising important view points on it too. Where some have viewed South Park as a show that's just there for shock value and to insult others "greater" than it, most (even the people that South Park made jokes at) have viewed it as the most important show in TV history. What the creators show in terms of visual humour towards Hell, Heaven and Purgatory, they make up for with the simple use of subtle subtext. ![]() Purgatory: Dead Celebrities (Season 13 Episode 8) South Park picture Purgatory as a train full of celebrities waiting to go to Heaven because Michael Jackson (who they are waiting for) has taken the embodiment of Ike, a 5 year old child to fulfil his dream of becoming a kid and winning a pageant. When Michael achieves his dream, they take of to Heaven but instead go to Hell. This episode represents purgatory as the place which the souls of the dead are allowed to roam free on Earth as ghosts since Ike complains about seeing dead celebrities. Since Purgatory is the place before heaven where you have to go through fulfilment of your sins, that's what Michael Jackson and all these celebrities supposedly do not do. In real life, Michael Jackson was accused of harassing children which he continues to do in Purgatory. Billy Mays promotes and advertises his products and he still does that in Purgatory which is represented as a sin. These dead celebrities are still committing their sins that they committed on Earth whilst in Purgatory which leads them to Hell...but I thought you couldn't go from Purgatory to Hell? South Park's take on mis-advertisement of religion and their beliefs. ![]() Hell: South Park Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker & Matt Stone, 1999) In the shows attempt at a feature length film, South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut heavily centres around Satan and Hell. After Kenny dies (for good) and steps into Hell, he gets an inside look into Satan's life which isn't what you would suspect unless you're a fan of South Park. Satan is revealed to have a homosexual relationship with Saddam Hussein and revealed to hate living at Hell and expresses how he wants to break out of Hell itself. Hell is symbolised as the prison of your own insecurities and unwilling to express your true self in a society that is filled with hatred and conflict. Even though it is seemed as inappropriate, portraying Satan as a homosexual has a deep message behind it that even happiness and confidence can change evil and if you've seen the film, it's weird how a character like Satan that has been blasted with evil and hatred can be portrayed in such a caring and pitiful way. ![]() Heaven: A Ladder to Heaven (Season 6 Episode 12) After the boys are struggling to deal with the loss of their friend Kenny, they decide to build a ladder to Heaven that gets national attention on the news and even gets the attention of the US Military to fund the ladder to Heaven which quickly becomes a replication of the race to the Moon in the 1960's as other nations try to become the first to Heaven. The most important part of this episode is it's take on government greed and seeing religion as a competition. Much like the school system, it portrays religion as a competition to the top of the money and popularity chart which has been debated over and people have been attempting to expose religion as just that. This also gets copied over to the government as they reveal the reason why they funded the Ladder to Heaven was because they believed Saddam Hussein to be holding refuge there to produce weapons of mass destruction similar to the reasoning for the Iraq War. This depicts the governmental conspiracies allegedly hosted by todays military. Conclusion What I've researched and learned from this blog has been extremely helpful. I have been fascinated with the interesting uses of religious beliefs in multiple mediums and their history as a whole. I loved the interesting use of religion and censorship and how subtext can be used to change the outlook of the show. I wouldn't like to use subtext in a comedic way but defiantly contribute it to the work with my visualisation of Upstairs.
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![]() Lucas Raycevick is a Canadian YouTuber with 40,000 subscribers and has calculated over 930,000 video views in total (as of 27/01/17). He is known for doing in-depth Gaming Analysis videos in which he focuses on the story and pre-production aspects of Video Games in tremendous detail. He started his YouTube channel on 25th April, 2015 (with a channel 10 years prior to his current channel where he uploaded humorous Gaming montages) and kick started his channel with his most popular video to date, How Call of Duty Lost Its Identity. Since then he has uploaded videos on a wide range of topics such as Tutorial sequences, voice acting, soundtracks and the history of video games. He also contributes to a smaller channel, COGconnected. A channel that publishes Video Game reviews and gameplay's where Lucas is featured mostly in reviews, top 10 lists and the history of Halo. With analysis channels generally favouring mediums such as Film and TV, it is uncommon to find a channel devoted to Gaming analysis that is popular or at a high quality. I came across Raycevick and was blown away by how his channel hasn't got more successful. He is still a growing a channel and learning in terms of distribution of his content but the quality of his videos are very impressive. He projects his voice very well and always provides the audience with a great amount of information that is never confusing to the casual gamer. As for an audience outside of gaming, these videos may not be attractive to them but he still manages to create content that can at least be enjoyed if not understood by the general community. I decided to send him a message over YouTube and ask him for an interview about his channel and his growing success. I thought it would be a possible since he isn't a massive channel that I could get an interview with him but I was prepared to get no response until... I was so happy by his response and the fact he responded in less than a day was as pleasing. I had a set list of questions that I was wanting to ask about his channel but I was struggling to find questions that related to him as a person which is where I got recommended Pivot Questions from my tutor, Darren Horne (Pivot Questions are talked about in detail in my previous blog post). These really helped me out in distinguishing the line between questions for research and questions to bring out his personality. I wrote specific questions down that I was confident in him answering. After that, I decided to try and track down a software that would allow me to screen capture the whole interview which I thought would be no challenge. Turns out it was harder than I anticipated. I installed stuff that was either really confusing to work, didn't work or wasn't compatible with my laptop and I was ready to give in and just record it of my iPhone but then I was saved when I came across OBS Studio. OBS Studio is a software mainly designed for live streaming but I decided to check it out and I was very glad that I did because it worked perfectly. As Best Friends do, I tested out these video recording softwares on my friend, Robert and I tested the footage with him over a Skype call (just to see if the software still functions over Skype calls) and it all worked fine and was so happy. Now all I had to do was wait for Sunday, 22nd January at 8pm (12pm in Canada) which arrived sooner than I thought and so began the interview. After the interview ended, I was so grateful and so pleased of the result. What I loved best was the solid and detailed answers that I received from Lucas. With some of the Pivot Questions, I expected answers similar to the ones from the show the questions are from, Inside Actors Studio but I was pleasantly surprised to experience the response I got back from him. They were very descriptive and he actually related a lot of his answers to his own work on YouTube which I found pretty fascinating and also beneficial.
What I gathered a lot from the interview was his talk of pre production of video games and how he likes to focus on that aspect more than narrative or characters depending on the game and topic he is exploring but I loved how he explained it and that you can tell from the interview that he does videos on subjects he is intrigued by. He referenced the soundtrack from Doom a few times which he did a video on and talked a lot about Halo which he does a series on. He talked about what he knew and applied it to the questions necessary for it to give more broadened and stretched answers. It was also kind of pleasing to hear that his structure for videos aren't really fleshed out. He mentioned how his scripts are written on Microsoft Word and theres no real formula to how he shapes his videos when really it's all down to research and knowing what you're talking about. He gave positive light and attention towards smaller YouTube channels that do similar videos to him like The Examined Life (of Gaming). I think that kind of outlook and span of his attention for Analysis channels are pretty awesome and inspiring, in a way. The editing was a lot more detailed than I planned. A LOT MORE! I planned for a morning of editing thinking I just had to cut a few bits out and nothing more when really I went so much more into detail than I thought I would. I ended up placing humour in necessary areas which were inspired by videos I watch, cutting out a lot of "umm's" and awkward pauses and making it just look well presented as a whole. I ended up really liking editing and liking where I placed the footage of his videos which I asked permission for and he was so chill about it. The uploading part of it was pretty stressful and annoying because sometimes in didn't work but I got there in the end, obviously. After all the worrying over an interview with someone I hardly know and that's on an entirely different country, I have to say that I am so pleased I did it because I gained so much confidence and knowledge in doing analysis videos and also gained experience in talking to someone else for work. I'd love to do it again and hopefully it'll go as well as this one did. Sports Analyst, Charles Barkley, said: "I don't think of myself as giving interviews. I just have conversations." We often identify interviews as something different and not a lot of us are prepared for or familiar with but an interview isn't that complex. It's just a ruse. When you break it down, you will always come to the conclusion that an Interview is just a conversation but why do we view it like it isn't. Because it's important? It's for a job? It's going to be put on social media? There's going to be a yes to at least one of them but it becomes the dominate for the word "interview". It's amazing how different you will feel from changing the word "interview" and replacing it with "conversation". Pivot Questions In the late 19th Century, a set of questions were thought of and answered by a French Writer called Marcel Proust. The Proust Questionnaire is a set of random questions that aims to reveal a persons personality, tastes and aspirations. He wrote down these questions in an English literature confession book which was common between english families in that period of time. He titled the manuscript An Album to Record Thoughts and Feelings which was discovered in 1924 and was sold on in 2003 for €102,000. 1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? 2. What is your greatest fear? 3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? 4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? 5. Which living person do you most admire? 6. What is your greatest extravagance? 7. What is your current state of mind? 8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? 9. On what occasion do you lie? 10. What do you most dislike about your appearance? 11. Which living person do you most despise? 12. What is the quality you most like in a man? 13. What is the quality you most like in a woman? 14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? 15. What or who is the greatest love of your life? 16. When and where were you happiest? 17. Which talent would you most like to have? 18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? 19. What do you consider your greatest achievement? 20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? 21. Where would you most like to live? 22. What is your most treasured possession? 23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? 24. What is your favorite occupation? 25. What is your most marked characteristic? 26. What do you most value in your friends? 27. Who are your favorite writers? 28. Who is your hero of fiction? 29. Which historical figure do you most identify with? 30. Who are your heroes in real life? 31. What are your favourite names? 32. What is it that you most dislike? 33. What is your greatest regret? 34. How would you like to die? 35. What is your motto? Bernard Pivot hosted a show that premiered in 1994 called Inside the Actors Studio and it was on this show that he altered the The Proust Questions and narrowed them to 10 that are called Pivot Questions. These are also designed for the same purpose, to reveal the persons inside thoughts and what gives them personality. Whilst asking these questions, interviewers tend to get a deeper insight of the person they are interviewing. 1. What is your favourite word? 2. What is your least favourite word? 3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? 4. What turns you off? 5. What is your favourite curse word? 6. What sound or noise do you love? 7. What sound or noise do you hate? 8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? 9. What profession would you not like to do? 10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Bernard asks these questions at the end of each interview which triggers a mindful response from the actors being interviewed and they are always used at the end, never in the middle or at the beginning. Bernard believes that these questions are more impactful if they are asked at the end of the interview. For most of the interview, you and others have asked research related questions that are placed to ask advice or an insight into the industry etc but you very rarely get a response that tells us about their personality or inner thinking and that is what Pivot/Proust Questions are designed to do. The actors have been sitting through and responding to questions that a million others ask but when they get asked theses 10 questions, it shocks them and triggers them to answer more thoughtfully and sincerely. Pivot/Proust Questions is a great and highly effective method and technique that creates a positive atmosphere for an interview and makes you learn so much more about the person opposite you. This is also great to use in day-to-day life which proves this is a sufficient way of creating a positive atmosphere. Neuro-Linguistic Programming - NLP Another technique I'll be applying to my interviews are Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and is a form of physical and psychological communication that forms behavioural patterns learned through experiences. The hypothesis of NLP claims that Neurological processes (meaning the anatomy, functions, and organic disorders of nerves that impact the nervous system) and language are connected and can build solid communication between others that motivate you towards outcomes like achieving certain goals, attaining exceptional life skills and solving problems such as phobias, disorders, depression etc. When I conduct my interviews, I want to use NLP to form a solid and responsive connection between me and the interviewee. I want to do this in two ways:
The second area I want to investigate in my interview which is a more possible theory is Rapport and Replicating Body Language. Whether it is a life long friend or someone you have just met, Rapport is that feeling of trust and confidence that you get off someone you are talking to. What begins to happen almost immediately is that Rapport develops into your bodies and voices matching due to the sensation of feeling that the person you're talking to is of great value and is trustworthy to open to. This replicative communication is known to be a great way of someone gaining the confidence to talk to you confidently and comfortably. ![]() This often-quoted study suggests that 7% of communication is the words you speak and that true communication is often brought out within body language. This supports the case of replicative body language being the most efficient way of creating Rapport that is explored in NLP practices. Just by simply copying the opposing persons body language, whether it is hand movements or the tilt of the head, this will psychologically impact the other persons way of thinking into them trusting you and thus becoming more control and less nervous when communicating with you. Though these 2 theories and even Neuro-Linguistic Programming in general are definitely up for debate and not scientifically proven, they are areas which have been proven to work in certain situations if not all the time. It is a different outlook in communicative thinking that I would like to explore and practise when conducting my interviews and hopefully it'll come to be a great use of getting a little deeper into the interviewee's mind and gaining a connection between me and them. |
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