Week 8 - Research

I started of researching about Disney and the background of Disney. I next looked at how Disney affected audiences and found this videos on youtube. Although it's not specifically about Disney's affect it looks at animation and other films and how audiences view them and what affcets they have on the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx8RRIiP53Q

Another video i found was when i was looking at feminism and the Disney Princess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loc10c2cu0g
I was great watching this video as it showed how children are so innocent and how as a child the Disney movies affect us and we want to be a Disney Princess. It also shows how the movies are completely different to the real world we live in.


I next researched feminism through the years and how it has changed not only in Disney but in real life. i found this website useful in giving me just key information about how women acted and ideologies they had years ago.  http://www.slideshare.net/misshuerta/stereotypical-male-and-female-in-the-1930s



This is just some of the research i have done, i will carry on and try and find more before i start my essay.

Week 8 - The Grammar of the Edit

Editing a sentence:

• Understanding the grammar of film requires a similar understanding to literature and language.
• Spelling, word order, phrase structure, tense.
• A sentence must function in a similar way to film.

We looked at and compared a student film and part of a professional film.

'To be Skinny' - student film

 In To be Skinny there were a lot of unnecessary cuts and the camera was very shaky. It did not follow the 180/45 degree rule so it left the audience confused at times. You could also hear the sound of the camera and the lighting kept changing, which put the audience off. One second it would be light, the next it would be dark.

'Miss Bala' - professional film

In Miss Bala you could tell it was a professional film. It used a continual shot as it had no reason to cut or change shot, the audience got all the information they needed from the camera moving. The audience were never confused.

Rhythm of the Edit:

Pacing/ rhythm is determind by :

• The length of a particular scene
• The length of an individual shot
• Fluency/smoothness/ stillness/ shakiness of a shot
•  How sound clips are used in a scene/shot
• The difference in angles from shot to shot
• The content of a shot
• How soon an editor decides to cut from shot to the next

 Clip from 'In the Mood for Love'

We looked at In the Mood for Love. This clip shows how the music used matches the scene and the flow of the scene perfectly. It sets the rhythm of the scene. The music is slow and the people are in slow motion, when they are at normal speed the music changes to the speed.

Selecting a shot -
When selecting a shot you need to look at:

• Focus
• Audio quality
• Exposure and colour temperature
• Framing and composition
• Screen direction
• 180 degree rule
• 30/45 degree rule
• Matching angles
• Matching eye-line
• Continuity of action
• Continuity of dialogue
• Pereformance

Knowing what a good and bad shot looks like will help me with my project/ tasks, making sure i get the best grade possible.

Cutting between shots -

• Cut - Straight cut from on cut to the next
• Dissolve - A gradual change from one shot to the next
• Wipe - A line moving from one side of the screen to the other, bringing with it a new clip
• Fade - A gradual change from solid black to an image or vice versa

Stages of the Edit -

 

Week 8 - From Idea to Screen

In the lesson we looked at how to effectively create our animations we need to do for our second task.
The stages included:

• Still image - Having rough sketches of the initial idea.
• Storyboard - We then take our sketches and put them in a still image sequence.
• Animatic - Turning the storyboard into a moving sequence, giving a rough idea of what it might look like. This is an example from 'Ratatouille' (2007)
• Colour scripting - An idea of what colours we might use.
• Sound and Image composition - How the sound and image will link together.
• Audio Visual analysis - How the sound effects the mood. 

We also looked at concept art especially the work of Lou Romano who worked on the film the Incredibles.

Week 7 - New Essay title and Subject

I was ill for the actual lesson, but in my own time i started researching my essay on technology. As  i researched i realised i wasn't particularly interested in the subject but i had come across some research on feminism in animation and so have decided to do my essay around that.

New Subject:

Female Role Models in Animation

Title - How has the female role models changed throughout the years in animation? (especially looking at Disney and the Disney Princess)

Breakdown -

Chapter 1 - The evolution of the female role
                    how it has changed over the years
                   How it hasn't changed over the years

Chapter 2 - How it has affected audiences, old and new

Chapter 3 - Key studies:
                                      Sleeping beauty             ---------
                                      Snow white                    --------     past views of women

                                       Brave                                    -----------
                                      The Princess and the Frog     -------------     21st century view
                                       Frozen                                  -----------
                                       Tangled                                 -----------



Other things to maybe include :

• Damsels and Heroines
• Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White were all created by men, good explain the ideologies of women used in that era
• Stereotypes of women through the years
• Bechdel test

Week 7 - The 6 Elements of the Edit

To create the perfect edit you should consider the following elements:

Motivation - Ask yourself why are you cutting. Is there a reason to cut? It is important to know when to cut and when not to cut.

Information - A good reason to cut is if there is information the audience needs to know. If there is no new information there is no reason to cut.

Shot Composition - Is it good enough to use at a professional level? If the camera is shaky, has poor focus and the shot just doesn't look right, then it shouldn't be used. Using it will make you piece look poor quality.

Sound - Robert Bresson says 'A sound must never come to the help of an image, nor an image to the help of sound'
It is argued that it is worse to have bad sound than a bad image. You shouldn't have sound for the sake of having sound, sometimes you don't need it or you need sound without an image. You don't need to hear everything you see. 

Camera Angle -

180 degree rule -

180 degree line where is it? For most films if the camera crosses the 180 degree line it can make the audience confused and disoriented.

45 degree rule -

If the angles are too small then there is not enough of a change of shot. Or if they are too big it can confuse the audience and look like a jump cut.

Continuity -

• Are there any errors in shots? (things changing when they aren't supposed to)
• To make the world believable, everything must exist coherently.
• Content - whats in the shot, is it the same?
• Movement - direction of movement, is it the same or continuous?
• Position - where is everything placed.
• Sound - if a sound changes during a cut it carries a different meaning.

Knowing all of this i have a better understanding of  basic editing and cutting. This will help me when doing my final projects/ tasks.

Week 7 - Diegetic and Non-diegetic Sound

We started by talking about Dimension of sound which is:

• Space
• Diegetic and Non-diegetic
• Sound has a spatial dimension (i.e. it springs from a source)
• What we believe of the sound can be changed from what we see

We then looked at what diegetic sound was:

• Sound which has a source in the film story
• Spoken words - objects sound - music from instruments in the film
• (Note that sounds that appear diegetic can be manipulated non-realistically)

Non-diegetic sound:

• Coming from a source outside the story world
• Music to enhance action -  the convention of movie music
• Narrator: the disembodied voice
• Some sound effects can create audio visual humour
• Fidelity - a sound that is faithful to the source

 Next we looked at some case studies, starting with the opening scene of 'A Touch of Evil'. The opening scene has two versions: version one was released by Universal Studios and was restored and version two was how the director, Orson Welles intended it to be.

Version 1 - Restored

Version 2 - Orson Welles Intended

 The restored version has more non-diegetic sound as it had music added to help with the atmosphere and ambiance that take over the sounds that should be on the screen, on the other hand Orson Welles version had more diegetic sound as you got a sense of where the sounds were coming from as they walked.


'Delicatessen' (1991) - trailer

The scene that we looked at shows how a relationship between the characters built from the use of diegetic sound. It showed the audience how all the characters are in the building and the sound has brought them together in a humorous way.

 'Tron' (1982) - trailer

Although Tron is a synthetic film as it was made artificially and all by computer, it still uses diegetic and non-diegetic sound. It has a off screen voice that kind of worked as a type of narrator which is non-diegetic. The diegetic sound comes from the computers, although it is fantasy and we don't actually know what they would sound like, we connect it the sound to the computers.

'Metropolis' (1927) - trailer

Metropolis is a silent film and so it is an example of non-diegetic sound as the sound would of been put on after they had filmed it. 

Editing Research: Buster Keaton and The Grammar of the Edit

In class Emily recommended we researched Buster Keaton and the book 'The Grammar of the Edit'.

Buster Keaton: (4th October 1895 - 1st February 1966)




He was named Buster, when he was 6 months old and Harry Houdini saw him fall down a flight of stair unharmed. He was a Filmmaker, Director, Actor and stuntman who did all his own stunts. He first started out doing shows with his parents. Their act was about how to discipline a child and resulted in Buster being thrown all over the stage. The act was named the most dangerous act in Vaudeville. When he reached 21 he started to work in the film industry, creating films similar to Charlie Chaplin, who he also worked with at times. His style was silent movies, where instead of using voices and talking to convey the emotion he would used music and acting together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3xh108cLbo
 This video shows some of Buster Keaton's stunts




^This is a picture of one of his stunts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68lvPMCPWog
This video is the trailer for his film 'The General'

The book 'The Grammar of the Edit' explains in simple terms how to edit together shots to get the most effect out of the and the different ways to edit them together. This book will be very useful for the editing topic to help me progress my work.

Week 6 - Review of my favourite 3 Animations

I found this task hard to do. I don't have favourite animations because i find it hard to pick out of all the ones i love, they are all different and i like them for different reasons.

So instead of picking 3 of my favourite animations i have picked 3 animations i like and enjoy to watch.

1. The Lion King (1994) - Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0fReuRs890



 I have enjoyed The Lion King since i was a little kid, it is what i was brought up watching. It has a childhood affect on me, every time i watch it i am always taken back to my childhood and it will always be like that. Although the characters are animals that can talk you connect with them and even though the story is about a cub who is tricked into thinking that he caused the death of his father, flees and abandons his destiny as the future king, which is something that doesn't happen in real life, it is still a great story that people like to watch. I feel The Lion King is a great example of animation, the animation itself flows and is detailed and the music that goes with it brings out the emotion and atmosphere of the story. I also like that it is 2D as i have always preferred 2D over 3D.


 2.Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - Hayao Miyazaki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwROgK94zcM



 I love the style of this animation, it combines great backgrounds, colours and drawing which create this amazing animation. I again like the fact that it is 2D there is just something about 2D that i prefer over any other and i feel the use of 2D in this animations makes it look stunning. Although the story is slightly weird, an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking home, it is still amazing to watch and it is not complicated to follow. 


3. Brave (2012) - Mark Andrews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEHWDA_6e3M

 

 I like this animations for the female lead, Princess Merida is determined to make her own path in life and so defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse. I like how it goes against what older animations used to be like, for instance that the women were usually weak and in Brave she is strong and can look after herself. It is set in the past but Merida's attitudes are more of a 21st century attitude. I love the look of it, it is stunning and the detail put in is amazing especially her hair.

 Other Animations i love:

How to Train your Dragon (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKiYuIsPxYk

• Up (2009)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qas5lWp7_R0

Week 6 - Chosen Soundtrack and my Idea

For the second task: to create an animation to a soundtrack provided, i chose soundtrack 2. At first it was very difficult to decide what to do but after finding inspiration from the Aristocats, i decided to do animation about a cat band.

These are some of my really rough sketches i did when i initially came up with the idea. Soundtrack 2 firstly has a trumpet playing so i thought the beginning would just focus on the trumpet and then you would go through the trumpet, where it would cut to a black screen and the you would see the cat band in a club on stage.

After talking to Ross and thinking more about i then did some more sketches, working towards my end goal.

I decided on the types of cats i wanted, keeping them simple as they don't need a lot of detail. I going to try and keep everything simple.

Week 6 - Essay Ideas

In today's lesson we were given a revised lesson brief and began to look at what subject we would be writing our essay about.

In pairs we help0ed each other brain storm. My ideas were:

• How far has 2D animation developed/ changed since it was first created? - I prefer 2D more than 3D so i wanted to look into an area i liked and enjoyed and see the evolution of 2D and how far it has come from being drawn on cells.
• Has 3D taken over 2D animation? - It interested me that there is so much more 3D around now and i wanted to see the difference between them.
• How far has technology influenced the animation industry? - We live in a 21st century were machines and technology are used for everything, i thought it would be good to look at how it is affecting the animation industry.
• Why do we still have 2D animation today?

Week 6 - Chosen Essay Topic and Breakdown

My chosen Essay title is - How far has technology influenced the animation industry?

Looking at :

• Studios and how they have changed from 2D to 3D 
• Impact of CGI on animation and audiences views
• Visual effects

Week 6 - Lip Syncing and Language

In today's lesson we began by looking at lip syncing.

We watched 'Your Face' by Bill Plympton. 
and 'The do-it-yourself cartoon kit' - clip by Bob GodfreyBoth have different types of lip syncing but the voice belongs to a character which we as the audience can link.

We then watched some of 'Percepolis' we watched it firstly in French the original language, then we watched the dubbed version in English. As a class we discussed how the language affected it and then individually we wrote a paragraph explaining which version we preferred and why. I have watched many films dubbed and in the original language with subtitles and i always prefer the original version better. This is the same for Percepolis, i felt the french version was much better as it had more emotion in it. Although i couldn't understand all of it because of the language barrier i could figure out what was going on from the way they saying words, the music and overall sound.

Week 5 - The Zoetrope

It is a pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.

There are also 3D version that work in a similar way.

Week 5 - Harvard Referencing

For this module we have to write and essay and a bibliography in Harvard referencing style. To learn how to do it we booked a workshop as a class in the library. The workshop discussed why we needed to reference and ran through the different types of things you could reference and how it should be done and look. We also got a handbook which we can use to refresh ourselves.
I was extremely helpful and interesting and will help me greatly when it comes to referencing in my essay.

Week 5 - Hitchcock

In this lesson we looked at how affective editing is and how if you use different techniques you can create something amazing. For this we focused on Hitchcock, looking at his film 'Psycho' first. I was amazed to find out that in a 45 second clip you could find 60+ shots. The fast paced edits help create fear, shock and horror for the audience.We discussed how everything needs to work together to create the perfect shot/scene/film, from music and sound effects to camera angles and editing.

Hitchcock explain cutting

This video was very interesting as it helped me to understand when to cut and how different cuts can make you have different outcomes.

Natural Born Killers - i love Mallory

Although this scene and the topic it is showing is serious, it is a good scene to study as it shows how music can be used to change the genre of the scene. Instead of it being shocking, the music used in this scene gives a comic feel too. This is also true with the acting, they act in a comic way and so the topic comes across less distressing.

Homework:
For next wee we have to look at the old 1950's PSA/ Social adverts like the adverts for: family meals, cleaning and hygiene and edit it/them together to create a different story (i.e. changing the genre).

Week 5 - The 12 Principles of Animation

This week we looked at the 12 Principles of Animation. The second project we have to do in this lesson is to create an animation to one the three soundtracks we have been given in this weeks lesson. So it was good to learn the principles of animations because if we don't use all the principles our animations might not work as well.

1. Timing and Spacing - More drawings between poses slow and smooth the action. Fewer drawings make the action faster.
2. Anticipation - Prepares the audience for a major action the character is about to do (e.g starting to jump). This is useful for real action, if you want a more comic effect you wouldn't use it.
3. Straight Ahead / Pose to Pose - Straight ahead starts at the first drawing and works drawing to drawing until the end. This is useful for spontaneous scenes. Pose to pose is more planned with key frames. Everything is controlled better this way.
4. Arcs - Actions follow an arc, especially the human form and animals. Arcs make the animation more realistic, natural and have better flow.
5. Follow through and Overlapping Action - Follow through is when the main body of the character stops and all the other parts catch up (e.g dress, long hair, long tail). Nothing stops all at once, they follow a path of action. Overlapping is when the character changes direction but the other parts carry forward. A few frames later they will catch up (drag).
6. Staging - Pose/ action should communicate clearly to the audience the attitudes, mood, reaction or idea of the character as it relates to the story. Different use of shots along with camera angles helps to tell the story.
7. Slow Ins and Outs (Eases) - More drawings of beginning of pose, few in the middle, more at the end. Fewer drawings makes the action faster, more drawings make the action slower.
8. Secondary Action - Adds to the main action, supplementing/ reinforcing the main action. All actions should work together to support one another.
9. Exaggeration - Exaggeration in a walk or and eye movement or even a head turn will give your film more appeal.
10. Squash and Stretch - Gives the illusion of weight and volume to a character as it moves, is useful for dialogue and facial expressions.
11. Solid Drawing - Drawing form, weight, volume solidity and the illusion of three dimension apply to animation.
12. Appeal - All characters should have appeal. Like a form of story telling, the animation has to appeal to the mind as well as the eye.

For our next lesson we were instructed to come up with some initial ideas for an animation, after listening the soundtracks.