Transcription: Tower of Babel Sources - WIP

Map Artefacts
Various online sources showing the placement of the tower from Satellite: Direct Link


Earliest known Tower Inscription:

(1)


Written Descriptions of the Tower

Description 1. Histories - Herodotus, Written 440 BC

"The temple of Bêl, the Babylonian Zeus [...] was still in existence in my time. It has a solid central tower, one stadium square, with a second erected on top of it and then a third, and so on up to eight. All eight towers can be climbed by a spiral way running round the outside, and about half way up there are seats for those who make the ascent to rest on. On the summit of the topmost tower stands a great temple with a fine large couch in it, richly covered, and a golden table beside it. The shrine contains no image, and no one spends the night there except (if we may believe that Chaldaeans who are the priests of Bêl) one Babylonian woman, all alone, whoever it may be that the god has chosen. The Chaldaeans also say -though I do not believe them- that the god enters the temple in person and takes his rest upon the bed." (2)



Description 2. A Tablet from Uruk - Written 229 BCE.

"The tower was made up of seven terraces and it gives the height of the seven stocks - 91 meters all in all. The ground floor measured 91 x 91 meters, and this is confirmed by archaeological excavations conducted by Robert Koldewey after 1913 (91,48 x 91,66 m). Large stairs were discovered at the south side of the building, where a triple gate connected the Etemenanki with the Esagila. A larger gate in the east connected the Etemenanki with the sacred procession road. Seen from the triple gate, the Etemenanki must have resembled a true "stairway to heaven", because the gates on the higher terraces seemed to be standing on top of each other." (3)



Description 3. The Book of Jubilees - Date Written Unknown, possibly 200 BC.

"And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar. And they built it: forty and three years were they building it; its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and thirteen stades" (4)





Illustrations:

(1) Tower of Babel stele, the inscription dates to 604-562 BCE.
Source: The Schoyen Collection


Bibliography:

(2) - Book: Histories
Author: Herodotus
Date Published: 40 BC

(3) - Website: Discovery News
Writer: Rossella Lorenzi
Accessed: 27th Feb 2012

(4) - Website: Livus - Articles on Ancient History
Writer: Jona Lendering
Accessed: 27th Feb 2012

Transcription: Direction Change

Had a long chat with Phil,

Course of my project has changed for the final time.

Aim is to transcribe the Tower of Babel with the direction focusing on a documentary audience.

Instead of taking current images of the tower, I'll be looking at sources that describe the tower. As they are all different descriptions of the tower, I'll be taking the consistencies within their description and using that as the blueprints of the tower. I'll obviously cite these sources as I find them.

I'll need to work overtime in pushing past pre-production and into production this week.

Transcription: Influence Maps

Transcription: Final idea. Real starting point

I've wasted two weeks too much on ideas and planning stage. Need to pick something and get started.

Final idea and one that I'm going to go ahead with is as follows:

Transcription - Painting to 3d Environment for Film
Expanding the Tower of Babel idea to a Babylon City Landscape

3 Specific Landmarks within this Environment
Tower of Babel / The Ishtar Gate / The Hanging Gardens

Environment Stylisation Influence
Bringing into a Alternate Universe, Future Utopian era. Still rooted into it's Arabic structure to an extent

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For Future Utopia Influence - using same influences that was in Narrative for Environment
Using influences of Blade Runner (1982), Metropolis (1927), Deus Ex Human Revolution (2011). In addition to, Akira (1988), Matrix (1996) and Minority Report (2002),


To root Babylon's heritage - Using influences of Arkkadian, Iraqi, and Arab decent.

Babylon is Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia within Iraq

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Pipeline Breakdown for the next 8 weeks.

Pre-production - Script / Concept Art / Turnarounds / Color Palette
Modelling - Self Explanatory
Texturing - UVing / Bumps / Materials
Lighting - Shadows / Reflections / Highlights
Animation - Dynamics / Anything Scripted / Camera Shots
Rendering & Post-production - Passes / Premiere / After Effects


Week 1 - 30th Jan
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Week 2 - 6th Feb
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Week 3 - 13th Feb
Pre-production

Week 4 - 20th Feb
Pre-production + Modelling

Week 5 - 27th Feb
Modelling

Week 6 - 5th Feb
Modelling + Texturing

Week 7 - 12th Feb
Lighting + Animation

Week 8 - 19th Feb
Animation + Rendering

Week 9 - 26th Feb
Post-Production

Week 10 - 2nd Feb
Post-Production, Art Of

Transcription: Idea Two - Music to Music Video

Just to throw a bit of variety into the mix, this idea stems from the last few days of thought.

Idea Two:
Music to Music Video
A choreograph of a dance, music video, creating a character and stage, and animating that character performing to the song.
Inspirations:
Gorillaz-On Melancholy Hill @ 1:30
Michael Jackson - Beat it @(3:24)



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After talking to Alan today, the reason this idea was stemed was due to my lack of inspiration or will to push forward with the alternate future Tower of Babel idea. it's too uninteresting to work on for a full ten weeks.

I was given a few options towards how to approach transcribing 'Music to Music Video'. For example- A full blown music video, an animated short, a parody. As well as examples of the character, dancing houses, a demonstration like Napoleon Dynamite, a cockroach version of Michael Jackson. a character vibing with another character - a la Tom & Jerry:







or Daffy Duck and Donald Duck






This would involve modelling and rigging one or possibly two characters, as well as creating an environment-black screen or a full blown street.

I would need to also consider that I can only use a segment if I add it to my demo reel, as the music will most likely be copyrighted.

Transcription: Initial Ideas-Tower of Babel

Idea One:

The idea initially formed from suggestions given to me by 2nd and 3rd year coursemates, Alex and Godwin. Leaning towards the idea of Environment, then towards a futuristic architecture. Other ideas that were spawned from this idea were Steam-Punk architecture from the cowboy-western era

Painting into Digital Set for Film/Game

Painting: Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)

Taking this painting, adapting it to a future world and transcribing it into a 3d environment. I checked out Leonard Aitken's Mecha depicting a future metropolis as my inspiration for this idea.

Leonard Aitken's Mecha

After having a chat with Alan, this idea became more concrete. I would need to find the context of that world-what purpose of the future & tech theme specifically are and its roots, for this I'll be checking out Mike Ashley's Out of this world.


Looking more into previous years' transcription projects for inspiration, I checked out Tom Beg's Garden of Earthly Delights, who transcribed a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, entitled The Garden of Earthly Delights:




Putting across a number of ideas, idea two is along the same vein with the Tower of Babel.

Instead of transcribing a painting of the Tower of Babel, I transcribe the short story. This would allow me to have a narrative I can adapt, whilst having total creative freedom.


To summarise, The short story of the Tower of Babel takes place during Genesis.

"The whole world had one language - one common speech for all people. The people of the earth became skilled in construction and decided to build a city with a tower that would reach to heaven. By building the tower they wanted to make a name for themselves and also prevent their city from being scattered.

God came to see their city and the tower they were building. He perceived their intentions, and in His infinite wisdom, He knew this "stairway to heaven" would only lead the people away from God. He noted the powerful force within their unity of purpose. As a result, God confused their language, causing them to speak different languages so they would not understand each other. By doing this, God thwarted their plans. He also scattered the people of the city all over the face of the earth." (Source)


Full Text:
"According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where they resolved to build a city with a tower "with its top in the heavens...lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the Earth." God came down to see what they did and said: "They are one people and have one language, and nothing will be withholden from them which they purpose to do." So God said, "Come, let us go down and confound their speech." And so God scattered them upon the face of the Earth, and confused their languages, and they left off building the city, which was called Babel "because God there confounded the language of all the Earth."(Genesis 11:5-8)."