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.