that's what she said

Rap/hip-hop videos

2012-01-25T19:25:00.000Z

Listening to rap/hip-hop videos to get some inspiration. Even though UrbanAngel stated that he didn't want visuals to match too consistently with the audio track, i am going to follow my instincts and technical editing skills and go against that.. in the most subtle manner possible. I don't think it's possible to create projected visuals without doing this.. it would be void of rhythm and motionless..I think it would be challenging for the audience to connect to the performance.

I know these are music videos; they supposedly have narrative and consistent shots. What i need to research in-depth is VJ-ing software and methods. I think this is more suitable to the brief which requires abstract imagery/patterns - an effect synonymous with vj-ing.

Public enemy - Fight the power

NWA - Straight outta compton

Naughty by nature - Hip hop hooray
Much less aggressive track; community feeling, if those are the right words to use; typical fresh prince style camera tilting;

Busta rhymes - gimme some mo

Busta rhymes have some rather comical/eccentric videos for their songs. I think this really opens up the oppurtunity for visual contradictions, which i might utilise in how i edit the images.. or create the images.

Generic traits of hip hop music videos: ACTING HARD; CARS; lots of homies;

Projected visuals: Week 1

2012-01-13T20:01:00.000Z

The new brief consists of us depending on our artistic eye in order to produce visuals for our client, Urban Angel, and the band that commissioned the client, and their first live gig's background artwork. We met with Urban Angel today, who presented the brief about what was expected from us, which i've compiled in note form below:

- Must be 6-8 minutes worth of footage in order to allow "fill" time in case the band decides to deviate from the studio recording that we have access to
- Can be still images, video clips, or even after effects particles
- Can be shown on up to 16 multi-projector rigs, and projectors can be modified to display more than one image at a time
- The brief is entirely open ended, Urban Angel want us to be as experimental with our work as possible
- The piece can't have a narrative, and images shouldn't solely reflect the atmosphere of the
song. (I was really surprised at this, as my expectations were that the images and audio would have to sync indubitably; this thought was only supported once i had briefly researched artwork projection videos on youtube.com, so i'm little taken back that it's not a compulsory factor.

Danny showed us some examples, and i also expected the band to be within the techno/instrumental genre that called for visualisations similiar to those in iTunes (am very technologically literate, eh). But after listening to the first track for a few seconds today, i was just in shock that it was within the rap/hip hop genre. And i found it rather difficult to visualise in my head hip hop promo work without the stereotypical image of girls dancing around pimped out larger-than-necessary vehicles. But i'll still put the tracks on my ipod and listen to each song to death, as sugguested by urban angel, in order to allow a natural development of the creativity and initial ideas. It's not my type of music whatsoever, but how often do opportunities like this with live clients happen?

Trends

2012-01-10T18:36:00.000Z

Some notes regarding Deb's lecture today on how trends evolve and their effects in general.

- What is happening today, is a response to yesterday, but also what happens tomorrow reflects today's events.
- When does trending occur? Eg, in terms of the convergence of digital media, it might happen when an entrepreneur noticed the change in the audience's needs.
- The fall of an item's popularity mirrors its rise to popularity, something that has shot its way to fame quickly, will die out just as quickly
- It's important to browse/look wider than your own specific interest and ask yourself if there are any recent film revelations, and whether you like this or not. How have others formed their opinions aswell? What desires are these trends filling?
- Trendwatching.com
-Abraham Muslaw's hierarchy of needs explains human motivation, management training, and personal development:

1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.

3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.

4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.

5. Self-Actualization needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

Anonymous

2011-12-01T18:05:00.000Z

Below is a link to the final edit of my 30 second advert.

Anonymous

SSP: Lighting and style references

2011-11-10T16:12:00.000Z

AsI want my advert to progressively become more claustrophobic, I want thelighting to match, which i will attempt to achieve through using diffused,muted tones. As it is based at a house party, I am given leeway as to howlights affect the imagery – the audience are less likely to question where allthe light sources are coming from, due to mixture of windows, disco/strobelights, clothes possibly covering wall/desk lamps, etc – so the variety ofcommon lighting found in houses will excuse the logistics of lighting. Afterresearching the types of EFP lighting (neutral/realistic/abstract) – I havedecided upon a mixture of realistic/toned down abstract lighting for my piece.I believe if I am unable to achieve the lighting first time, there will alwaysbe post-production opportunities.

SKINS TRAILER - FIRST GENERATION

Unlit atmosphere; fairy lights; disco lights; strobe lighting effect; random but dim desk lamps:

This trailer for the first series of the British Drama Skins is entirely reflective of the programme's genre and style. The gritty, low budgeted production mirrors the messy lives of the characters, and is enticing towards its targeted audience: young teenagers/young adults. While my advert will be nowhere near as scattered; provocative; revealing as Skins, i will use this trailer as inspiration as to the types of.. mayhem that an over-exaggerated student houes party might consist of. I need to remember my brief's goal, whilst remaining true to the format/replicating certain aspects/elements.

The ad is filmed free-hand it would seem, which i perceive as a technique that implies a first person viewer effect, you're part of the party, completely engrossed. There are seldom any static shots, but this does not mean that the free-hand shots are so shakey that they are unwatchable. I remember from Deb's lecture that it is always worth using a tripod for a steady shot for many reasons, one being that it eases the editing stage dramatically, but i'm still undecided whether i can replicate a scene of such intensity (or even slightly comparable) to that of the Skins trailer with a steady shot.

DONNIE DARKO - PARTY SCENE

Pivotal scene in DonnieDarko, relationship development, but also realisation of supernatual happenings. Nobackground sounds, only powerful soundtrack ontop of montage. If only i could choose such a perfect song to a perfect scene in one of my future shorts. Only sconce lighting,doesn’t appear to be any ceiling lighting sources? I don’t want to refer to this for its use of lights, but more so the colour tone and song combination.

SKINS SERIES 3 TRAILER - EXTENDED

It’s a completely differentsetting to a house party, yes, but I love how muted the colours appear, andattention to focus in the shots.

As with lights, the videos have also motivated me to already think about the soundtrack of the advert. I have to find something powerful, in the genre of dance or dubstep to appeal to the current generation. I have already decided i do not want any spoken communication in the advert. I recognise this as quite an odd decision, and it could be the ultimate downfall of the advert, but i feel it to be a piece based solely on its visual communcation. I think dialect would only hinder the deliverance of the advert... I will aim to include ambient sounds, background conversations, over excessive bass, but other than that, i still adhere to the "no vocal communcation" angle.

SSP: Masks

2011-11-10T13:07:00.000Z

Went a-mask hunting today in Nottingham (fun, but expensive), thought i'd post some pictures of what i came across. Within the advert, there will be a slow but visible transition in terms of the nature of each mask. I have purchased masks that evoke positive reactions from viewers, and also masks that convey a threatening tone. The masks will hopefully aid in the representation of a stereotypical online relationship as it potentially develops into that of a dangerous one, between two people, one individual with underlining intentions and the other, completely innocent and unnervingly naive. Relatively friendly masks will appear initially from the beginning, purposefully placed within frames in order to convince the viewer they are within a friendly environment, a false sense of comfort. But as the scene progresses/characters and intentions are established, the other masks will be introduced, crammed within the frame and invading the girl's space.

I did do a little research of masks, as i acknowledged the importance of the style of masks that i was choosing to show within the ad. As an art director would do on a budgeted production, they must think carefully think about an object's relevance and accuracy as criteria before placing it within the composition of the scene.

Ritual masks: part of religious ceremonies to communicate with spirits/ancestors ////Africa; North America; Asia; Middle East;

(a ritual nature, dramatising man's relationship with nature, the gods, and other human beings. )

Europe: Many of the masks and characters used in European festivals belong to the contrasting categories of the 'good', or 'idealised beauty', set against the 'ugly' or 'beastly' and grotesque.
Theatre masks/ contemporary theatre
Functional masks: medical; protective; sports;
Disguise mask: witness/vigilant/ANONYMOUS: for protests (Guy fawkes/v for vendetta inspired)

Masks available:

(Masks i purchased)
Ultimately, these are the masks i will be using within my advert. I'm happy with the choice, but especially with the two transparent masks.

SSP: Final idea change... honest

2011-11-07T23:43:00.000Z

Hit quite a brickwall with the Blind Date idea when i brought it up with a peer. Mainly, how the voices of the contestants would not be disguised when they state their answers in the advert... and ultimately defeating the whole purpose of the ad's punchline (to break the stereotype of a mature male as the "predator" and replace it with a female, to reinforce the idea that you can be talking to anyone online/people are not who or what they say they are).

Another issue i have with this idea in the pre-production stage is how difficult the lighting aspect would be as, without the method of completely over-using shadows, how else would i mask the identity of the contestants for the entire ad? I don't want to reveal the identity from the get-go, the only way the advert will have a strong impact on the targeted audience is if there is a build up towards it. The Blind Date idea lacks logic, and i have struggled with deciding upon dialogue i could use to replace the typical cheesy blind date questions, without the advert becoming too risque (succumbing to using bad-taste stereotypical online chat questions that one might think are asked once fake trust has been established between the predator and target, such as "what are you wearing" etc).

I want to focus on the aspect of anonymity, and underline it as much as possible within my ad. Therefore my newest idea is to recreate a fancy dress house party scene, with the house guests representing anonymous individuals on the internet. This idea is a visual metaphor, and will not have dialogue, as i have learned throughout the ideas generating phase, you cannot treat the viewers as idiots - you shouldn't have to always spell out what's happening, and if there's a way to convey a message using as little information as possible, it's best to adhere to that. The house party will resemble an online chat room, with masks being an important prop, disguising my house party guests:

HOUSE PARTY

Girl enters room, unsure, hesitant, she is not wearing a mask
Instantly welcomed by male wearing a relatively friendly mask, girl feels at ease
It is insinuated that male and female are conversing, getting to know each other more, false comfort is created through quick shots of the male's actions
Meanwhile, various events are occuring in the background, other guests are hugging, speaking, dancing, drinking, glimpsing at the new guest - typical party endeavours - all wearing friendly looking masks
The girl will gradually become surrounded by more and more people in one frame, their masks change to masks of a threatening nature, she becomes clearly uncomfortable, the scene is claustrophobic
The scene will cut quickly to the same girl on her computer. The party will hopefully have been directed well enough to represent an online chat room
Tagline: A numbered fact of how many people use the internet for chat. Do you really know who you're talking to?

SSP: Blind Date - storyboard of a typical episode

2011-11-06T16:03:00.000Z

There is a possibility i may have chosen this new Blind Date angle as an excuse to watch endless amounts of cheesy episodes scattered on YouTube. Classics. Anyway, i created a quick storyboard based on this episode, to understand the types of camera shots used for this sort of televised medium, which is important if i want to stay true to the type of programme (reality/gameshow), and create a convincing advert:

The cuts, even for a gameshow, are rather fast, but most emphasis is based on the male contestants and their INCREDIBLY cheesy answers to questions such as: What do you consider to be your best asset?

If you were an ice cream, what flavour would you be and why....

The cheesy questions element is an issue that i would have to attempt to overcome with some witty dialogue. Right now, that's my main drawback with this idea.

SSP: Idea change...

2011-11-04T22:03:00.000Z

After umm-ing and arr-ing some more over my idea for this Say Something Political project, focusing on Child Safety on the internet, i've decided to approach my topic from a different perspective. I actually want to film the short ad in the style of, wait for the tasteful idea... Blind Date. Yes, i'm talking Cilla Black stylee.

I think this angle will allow me to fully underline the main message of my advert which is virtually: you could be talking to literally anyone online. The structure of the typical Blind Date programme will be used to metaphorically represent the events that can possibly occur during online conversations with strangers. The girl (main contestant) doesn't know what the three men behind the screen look like; it's perfectly symbolic of online activity.

I haven't completely decided upon a solid script yet, but i have a rough idea of how i'd like the advert to evolve:

The advert will begin towards the end of a normal Blind Date episode, mimicking the point in the programme in which the girl must choose from the three men.
The presenter will have some playful banter, as per use, with the girl.
A voiceover will remind the girl of the three choices she has, and when the camera is focused on each contestant on their turn, they will EITHER be in the dark completely, or reveal in order: a young male adult, an older male, a woman within her 40's who isn't the best looking...
The advert will conclude on a frame of the girl sitting on her chair being asked which man she think she'd like to meet, followed by a static shot of the three contestants, and the text on screen stating my topic's tagline: Do you really know who you're speaking to? Then fade to black. (Attention to detail on that..)

I'm excited about this idea, to be honest, i'm excited about any idea that doesn't just involve a girl sitting infront of the computer which after endless researching upon the topic, seems to be the only form of advertising the cause. It works, it's straight to the point, but i think in the sort of fast-paced/quick cut based advertising in today's society, it lacks significance.

Say something political: feedback from tutors and peers

2011-10-31T20:20:00.000Z

I pitched my three ideas last week and i left the session feeling a little pessimistic. It's most likely because i started to compare my ideas to the final ideas of others, which isn't really helpful. The feedback, however, was. After a few awkward moments of silence (which i couldn't establish as to whether that's a good or a bad thing), a few points were made by peers and tutors:

--- Who am i aiming the advert at? The children themselves, or the parents? Or adults that go online? Is it specifically about paedophiles, or could it literally be anyone that you meet online?
--- Style of animation will affect target audience.
--- The narrative in #2 appears to be "fear mongering"/using scare tactics to the extreme; it is so dramatic and harrowing that the audience will coincidentally be unable to relate to it, and brush it off, which is the opposite reaction i'd want. My tutor suggested that i take it down SEVERAL notches, and put it on a relatable playing field. In that case, what is the equivalent scenario, to a lesser extent? I'm quite surprised at that reaction, because i was quite excited to create the story and visuals.. I'm just a little worried i won't be able to find visuals if/when the scenario is bland. Some suggestions from Jools were to recreate a blind date scenario.
--- Using flash to animate idea #1 would not show off my video production skills. I can't believe i overlooked that.

I'm torn between ideas #2 and #3, though i think i should be able to balance a mixture of techniques taken from the two. Deb mentioned the man, sorry "online stranger", could actually be a woman, in which my initial reaction was "holy crap". It's a very topical subject and if you read the news every now and then you'll occasionally come across a female..predatorial character. All my initial ideas had involved a fat, old, perverted man, which, after asking my sister's opinion on it, seemed way too cliche... but i honestly hadn't thought of a female character. It breaks the stereotype, and could end up as my tagline.

TV roles

2011-10-31T01:32:00.003Z

Vision Mixer (studio and broadcast technology): Is like the film editor on steroids. During recording, or live transmission, Vision Mixers work with the Director to visually create the programme. Vision Mixers must be able to multi task effectively, as they may be required to cut from shot to shot during a live interview while simultaneously absorbing the Producer's instructions to the Director about the next item to be transmitted, and the sources to be used, setting up the next transition on the effects bank, and also listening to the Production Assistant's (PA's) countdown to the next item. As running orders on news programmes can literally change by the second, Vision Mixers must be able to react quickly and accurately to rapidly changing demands. They often work from more than one visual source, for example when adding graphics with the required name, location and date, to relevant shots. On these types of production, Vision Mixers have more autonomy than on more structured, rehearsed programming.

Typical career routes

Vision Mixers come from a variety of production backgrounds, including creative (Graphics), administrative (PAs and Secretaries), and technical (Camera, VT Operators). Ideally they work initially for larger broadcasters gaining a wide experience of vision mixing on a number of different production formats, and building up their confidence for this high energy, demanding role.

Researcher: Researchers may be briefed by Producers or other decision makers about programme ideas and carry out further development. Alternatively, they may produce original programme ideas for consideration by Producers, broadcasters, production companies, or other decision makers. They identify relevant data, contributors, locations or archive material etc. collate and assess information from various sources, and ensure that legal, compliance and copyright requirements are met.

Typical career routes
Researchers may begin their careers as Runners or Production Assistants, or they may be employed as Researchers because they have specialist qualifications or knowledge about a particular programme's content. They may progress to become Associate Producers, and eventually Producers, or in some cases, Directors. Non-media researchers, journalists and writers often become TV researchers.
Essential knowledge and skills
Researchers must be able to quickly establish a rapport with production personnel, and potential contributors. They must maintain up-to-date contact lists, and be able to access relevant information from various sources, including the internet, libraries and archives. They source and suggest suitable contributors, demonstrating how their input fits into each production. If necessary, they should be able to explain tactfully and diplomatically if contributors are not suitable. Researchers should be aware of the legal and ethical considerations surrounding the release of information to the press and public, especially when sensitive or contentious issues are involved. Researchers may be required to handle floats and petty cash, e.g. for taxis for contributors during production, and they must be able to keep accurate records of all income and expenditure.

Script supervisor:
What is the job?Script Supervisors' overall responsibility is to monitor whether it is possible for each shot scene to be edited into a verbally and visually coherent sequence. During pre–production they check the script for any errors and/or inconsistencies, prepare estimated running times, and break down the script according to production requirements. They develop story synopses and character breakdowns, and check the shooting schedule to ensure that all the required scenes are shot and adequately covered from all required angles, distances, etc. They attend recces and pre–production meetings to feedback any identified issues, and during rehearsals they record detailed timings which inform the shooting schedule. They work closely with Directors to anticipate and solve any potential problems.
On each day of principal photography, Script Supervisors file reports and photographic records for the previous day's shoot, and prepare all paperwork for post production. They check continuity requirements for each scene to be shot. During filming they closely monitor the script to check that no dialogue is overlooked, and cue actors where necessary. They keep detailed continuity notes and photographs or sketches of each actor and camera position for each shot. They keep detailed records of: all shot timings and camera movements, including jibs, pans, zooms, etc; whether the scene is shot during the day or at night; any scene changes, and their implications; all slate and scene number information; any inconsistencies, errors or other comments; all camera details including lenses, focal distances, filters, etc.

..So, you want to work in movies..

2011-10-30T19:12:00.000Z

Troy mcclure GET OUT OF MY HEAD.

Anyway, i'm trying to work on my context 2 assignment (Netwoking) and i thought i'd research some roles that i'm interested in, within moving image. I've made it quite difficult for myself, not just for this assignment, but, hey, for life in general, because i'm still not entirely sure which industry i want to work in. I'm stuck between animation production, games (post production/testing), television production or film production. Therefore i'm going to have to really limit myself, as well as generalise, in the essay. This is research on roles within the film sector.

The main sub-sectors of moving image: production, facilities, distribution and exhibition.

91% of film production crew are freelancers and just 9% are employees, whereas all of cinema exhibition and film distribution are employees.

Editor: Editors work long, unsociable hours, often under pressure, in an edit suite or cutting room. They are employed on a freelance basis by the Producer (sometimes with the approval of the film's financiers), based on their reputation and experience. Editors often work on television drama, as well as on feature films. Typical career routes

Traditionally, Editors progress from being Runners to Trainees, Second Assistants, First Assistants and eventually to become Editors. Because of the rapid changes in the film industry caused by the increasing use of digital editing techniques, this clearly delineated career progression is less easy to follow. Whilst it is still possible to work as a Trainee, 2nd Assistants are now only employed on very big budget films.

Script supervisor: A script supervisor (also called continuity supervisor or continuity) is a member of a film crew responsible for maintaining the motion picture's internal continuity and for recording the production unit's daily progress in shooting the film's screenplay.

Title designer: Title Designers (TDs) design the opening titles for films, as well as the captions that appear in the film giving details of time, place etc.

TDs spend a great deal of time researching or creating specific fonts which accurately reflect the film's genre or period. They also contribute to decisions about the choice of font colour, and whether to include animation or to shoot an entirely new section of film. TDs are either freelance, working independently in their own Graphics Studios and pitching for work using their show-reels, or are employed by Digital and Optical Effects Companies, working as part of a bigger team.

Music researcher

Subtitler, haha. Using accurate time codes, Subtitlers work with digitised versions of completed feature films, operating specially developed subtitling software that allows them to manipulate the sound on a frame by frame basis. After carefully watching and listening to the entire film, Subtitlers translate all the dialogue, music and sound effects into two line written captions, constantly making sympathetic editorial decisions about whether certain lines or words can or should be deleted and/or paraphrased. (Usually requires excellent use of English grammar and spelling)

Foley editor

Foley Editors are responsible for the post-synchronised sound effects on a film sound track that are added during the sound editing process, excluding any special sounds which are usually created by the Sound Effects Editor or Sound Designer. “Foley” is normally defined as sounds related to movements, whether pertaining to a character or an object (footsteps, fights, fist banging on a door), or to the result of an object’s movement (pouring wine, shards of glass falling from a broken window). Named after Jack Foley (an innovative pioneer of the art at Universal Studios), Foley is recorded in specialised sound studios working to projected pictures.
(This role requires extensive on-the job creative experience gained over many years. Many Foley Editors begin their careers working as runners in Sound Studios or Audio Post Production Houses, and progress to become Assistants, working with in-house Sound Editors or Foley Mixers. Working in junior roles in Audio Post Production Houses can also provide opportunities to make valuable contacts with freelance Sound Editors, who may employ Assistants on a film by film basis.)
Foley Editors must have excellent knowledge of acoustics, and sound recording and audio post production processes (analogue and digital).
Foley Editors are usually graduates of Arts, Music, Electronics, Maths, or Sound Technology courses, who have also specialised in Sound at post-graduate level.

Oh my lord i love this guy so much.

EKP Director/Producer (publicity sector) (EPK Producers are also responsible for other publicity materials such as "making-of" documentaries for the domestic and international market, "extras" for the DVD release, and promotional material for the film's website. There are usually three practitioners on EPK Crews: Director/Producer, Camera Operator and Sound Mixer. )
The role of EPK D/P is all encompassing, and knowledge of the following areas is required: film production, film publicity, lighting techniques, broadcast video camera operation, sound recording, programme making, journalism, and digital video editing. EPK D/Ps must also be completely computer literate.
Training/qualifications: Although no specific qualifications are required for this role, EPK Directors/Producers may be graduates of Photography, Graphics, Film, Communications or Media Studies. Extensive editing experience provides the best training for EPK D/Ps.

Director of photography: DoPs must discover the photographic heart of a screenplay, using a variety of source material including stills photography, painting, other films, etc. They realise the desired look using lighting, framing, camera movement, etc. DoPs collaborate closely with the camera crew (Camera Operator, 1st and 2nd Assistant Camera, Camera Trainee and Grips). During filming, DoPs also work closely with the Gaffer (whose lighting team are key to helping create the required look of the film), the Production Designer, Costume Designer, and the Hair and Make Up Department.

The majority of DoPs study film and/or photography to degree level or higher, subsequently working in a junior capacity, e.g., as 2nd Assistant Camera on short films or promos, and progressing through the camera roles. Camera Operators often progress to becoming DoPs by carrying out second unit work, although there is no set route. Less frequently they may progress from the Lighting Department. Becoming a DoP can be a long and arduous process, but the eventual rewards are great. Although experience of working on short or student films can provide a good introduction to feature film production, the on-set hierarchy and traditions of working as part of a camera crew can only be learned by experience.

Training and qualificationsStills photography provides a good all round understanding of composition and light. The National Film and Television School's MA in Cinematography provides the opportunity to specialise, and is taught by practising DoPs. Although DoPs do not need to have electrical qualifications, they do need to understand the functions of a variety of lighting equipment, and to have thorough knowledge of cameras, lenses and film stocks. They may have previously studied Drama, Stills Photography, or Art, or taken a Film/Media Studies degree, where useful research skills are also developed.

Are Britain's art schools in crisis... guardian article

2011-10-30T15:54:00.002Z

"But as the seasons turn on college campuses, there is a growing anxiety that Britain's illustrious creative record is being imperilled by funding changes that could deter poorer students and put courses at risk. The numbers are stark. While application deadlines for 2012 are not until January, the latest Ucas figures show a 27% decline in applications for creative art and design courses compared with this time last year. There has been a similar decline of just under 8% across all other degree types."

Link to the full Guardian article

Just a snippet of an article of an ongoing topic i've seen circling around ever since choosing my GCSE options in secondary school. Even though i would consider myself part of the creative arts sector, i'm really not surprised at the drop of applicants for a creative arts subject at university this upcoming enrollment year. Depending on which pathway you've chosen, art subjects have always had a lower employment rate after graduation, so i'm not completely against the majority of these potential student's decisions. Plus, more opportunities for me. Bwah.

Say something political: initial idea storyboarding

2011-10-27T01:03:00.000+01:00

CHILD SAFETY ONLINE
I wish i had a bigger font.

For the first moving image brief, Say something political damnit, my cause child safety online. Though, through my initial ideas, it seems as though i'm informing in the most subtle way possible as opposed to actively and confidently shouting in the advert HEY WATCH OUT FOR THE PERVS ONLINE KIDS. I feel my approach might have a rather dark undertone, which certainly reflects the issue, but i might inappropriately be "tongue in cheek" whilst doing so.

Why this issue?
-----Online internet usage is becoming more and more integrated in our lives from a young age and i feel it's important to reinforce responsible behavior in children when online, and highlight to them of the consequences of making mistakes ie: real life stories. -----Children/younger teens can be quite casual towards potential risks, for example through online chat rooms, they need a bit of a wake-up call
-----I feel strongly about this as i can remember being 13 and unleashed onto MSN without any parental supervision, and looking back i'm lucky i was quite mature for my age and was able to avoid such mistakes being made in either giving away information to strangers or letting my guard down. Though, some of my closest friends were at times quite laid back about all the new friends they were making, and there was never a time i wasn't wary of what they were doing.
-----The internet is not "proactively policed", a quote from Jon Taylor (a former policeman on the bbc news site) and these online-abuse related crimes are only actively responded to when it's reported; unfortunately they are rarely reported. So it's an important matter to stress to children/teens.

IDEA 1

An upbeat motion graphic/animation that details of a fictive scenario, explaining the encounters of Mr Freddy Mcfreddyson and several female children, their deaths, and how he is finally caught by an undercover policeman on the internet. A map will illustrate Mr Mcfreddyson's location and meetings with the girls, as if it's a little adventure. It will have an ironic undertone, appear to be aimed at children with its silly but warm aesthetics and exaggerated narrator (resembling vintage instructional videos); the idea is that the plot is blunt as possible in contrast to the pretty visuals, and stressing this fact to the viewer that things may not always be what they appear.

I know, it's Dodgeball. I know, it's one of the best films ever. I know there's no relevance. But it's the tone of the ironic vintage instructional video i really like.

IDEA 2

A kinetic typography/animated retelling of a true life story, or possibly a fictive one if i can get my sister's help on scriptwriting... I want to write a story of a girl, in present tense, having been kidnapped and she is narrating what is happening to her. I had a lot of cliche ideas when approaching this issue, and they all seemed to end up focusing on a keyboard to reveal that obvious punchline of 'yeah, that fat guy is pretending to be a girl online etc'.. I was a little anxious of taking the angle of pure scare-mongering.. but i think this method will allow me to be as visual as possible, without the need of.. well, being visual. I want it to be gorey and graphic IN TYPE and montage. I'm hoping the strength of the harrowing tale should balance the bland(?) animated text that i'll create in After Effects.

IDEA 3

My third idea heavily focuses on the idea of underlying messages through communication. We say one thing and mean something entirely different.

Put into the context of online safety, i think this happens constantly within online conversations between strangers and even friends. This idea would involve two people, one young teen and an older male sitting or standing opposite eachother and discussing.. well, niceities. Everyday, general catchup material. Though as their conversation draws on, glimpses of ulterior motives will appear in another sound channel, sort of like bad dubbing on foreign films but, er, more serious. Seriously serious. The facial expressions will also be crucial in this ad, so it's likely it will consist of closeup/extreme closeup shots, focusing on the portion above each character's collarbone. Their expressions will be delayed, not matching the ulterior voice but the spoken one.

Above shots are from one of my favourites, Rules of Attraction. The composition is divided between the two separate shots the entire time, and i think such framing would nicely compliment the idea of clashing motives.

Analysing films; example

2011-10-26T18:28:00.000+01:00

I can't even begin to explain how many brilliant films there are that are known infamously for their cinematics, let alone start nitpicking at them all. So i thought i'd see if i could judge any random film, regardless of position in a top cinematography list somewhere, for its film language elements, and to the extent as to which they've been contributed to the scene. I really want to become more articulate, and i'm trying to become more aware of these points whatever i'm watching. Heck, i'll try it with The Only Way is Essex tonight. That should be fun.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Well setting up the context for you, this is a scene from the film's exposition stage, and sets up Joel's (main character) personality down to a tee within 30 seconds.

His shyness and introversion are portrayed subtley through Carey's actions, his shoulders cave in as he writes into his journal as a reflex of having met eyes with someone of the opposite sex.
The colours are quite muted throughout the film, it suggests a homely atmosphere, and there are no vibrant, dominant colours our eyes are attracted to except for Clementine's (the girl) orange sweatshirt; this sweatshirt is significant and already foretells that she will be an important, life-changing element within Joel's life, whether he is ready or not.
The fact that the camera focuses initially on Clementine's hand as she pours alchohol into her coffee, then moves slowly to her mischievous facial expression, also establishes a pre-determined idea of what the film director wants us to make of her character. Is she going to be trouble? And to whom? Noel, or herself?
The most crucial part of that clip is the action of the camera as Noel humbly narrates "Why do i fall in love with every woman that shows me the least bit of attention?" The medium shot is placed on Clementine, just barely near the edge of frame, but then pans slowly to the right, with no support - just handheld - over the empty chairs that represent either Joel's loneliness or how Joel and Clementine are destined to be together and possibly the duration of time they have to wait.. (possibly both). When the camera reaches Joel there is a slight pause, and he is only just recogniseable, and then the shot is quickly cut away to another location of Clementine walking towards the camera. Timing and pacing contribute to these few seconds of subtle cinematography, as she appears on Joel's last word "attention".

Analysing film shots - Cinematography

2011-10-26T15:46:00.003+01:00

Through a mixture of from lectures and general internet research, i've gathered the following important criteria when understanding the language of film and framing the mise-en-scène of a shot. These points require thorough consideration, as they are highly capable of altering the audience's perception of the scene's believability.

Dominance - What is the audience's eye attracted to first? Is this the subject matter of the shot? Achieved through a number of techniques: size; colour; focus; lighting.
Lighting key - High contrast? Shadows? Does lighting fit the genre?
Shot and camera proxemics - Extreme long shot (people appearing as specks); Long shot (people and locale); Full shot (whole of character, minimal locale); Medium shot (from the knees up); Close up (concentrates entirely on relatively small object); Extreme closeup (focuses on object unnaturally, giving it detail and symbolic significance).
Camera angle - Bird's-eye view--the shot is photographed directly from above. This type of shot can be disorienting, and the people photographed seem insignificant; High angle--this angle reduces the size of the objects photographed. A person photographed from this angle seems harmless and insignificant, but to a lesser extent than with the bird's-eye view; Eye-level shot--the clearest view of an object, but seldom intrinsically dramatic, because it tends to be the norm; Low angle--this angle increases high and a sense of verticality, heightening the importance of the object photographed. A person shot from this angle is given a sense of power and respect; Oblique angle--for this angle, the camera is tilted laterally, giving the image a slanted appearance. Oblique angles suggest tension, transition, a impending movement. They are also called canted or dutch angles.
Camera movement - plays a considerable role in the emotional language of film images and the audience's emotional reaction to the action. Panning; tilting; zooming; dollying (cam on moving platform, moving in and out); craning; tracking
Colour symbolism. (Contrasting foils: characters that oppose eachother dramatically in personality/lifestyle/behaviour/opinions)
Lens/filter/stock - To change the audience's perspective. Telephoto lens--A lens that draws objects closer but also diminishes the illusion of depth; Wide-angle lens--A lens that takes in a broad area and increases the illusion of depth but sometimes distorts the edges of the image; Fast film stock--highly sensitive to light, it can register an image with little illumination. However, the final product tends to be grainy; Slow film stock--relatively insensitive to light, it requires a great deal of illumination. The final product tends to look polished.
Depth of field and focus - On how many planes is the image composed? Large depth of field: smaller iris aperture.
Actors in relation to eachother/the set
Composition: Character placement/rule of thirds/golden ratio

2011-10-18T16:26:00.002+01:00

End of the year!

2010-07-14T15:20:00.000+01:00

All done. I should not procrastinate anymore. Ever. Anyway, just for everyone's convenience, here's some thumbnails to all my work produced this year.

MOVING IMAGE GROUP PROJECT 2: MAZE (link)

My role: camera operator/co-producer

In a f*cking huge nutshell,
I enjoyed:

watching films in my spare time that represented the visual style as our soon-to-be-Maze
even though the group edit was great, i enjoyed editing my indiviual take just as much as the project itself, i think i found my niche - found my knowledge of soundtracks quite surprising
storyboarding
racking my brains over camera angles and shots, love love, doing the pre-production sketches etc
organising the production.. in a weird way - I can't help it, I'm scrupulous
location scouting
post production

Not so much:

the initial awkward and quiet meetings, of course, though once the subject was settled, everything was on a roll
the technical aspect of shooting.. i.e. OPERATING THE CAMERA. Yeah, not good news if I'm planning on becoming a camera operator, which I view as the 'cinematographer' of a film. Perhaps I was just too nervous with all these buttons I'm supposed to be pressing to get the right white balance or whatnot. Perhaps I need practice. Perhaps. I do
team reliability, though, it's bound to happen, or.. not
realising I've probably captured the film in the wrong aspect ratio - drat

MAZE OUTTAKES LINK (thanks Jade) Oh the luls

VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS 'LAIR' PROJECT: 'Troll Lair, The' (no link yet)

Solo project in 3DS Max
In a f*cking huge nutshell:
I enjoyed:

concept sketching and research (films, game graphics etc) especially trying to stereotype my alter ego through furniture, or lack thereof..
thinking I was super clever with the whole RickRoll'd video in adhering to my Troll theme (tutors did NOT like, though i see their point of being narrow minded with my audience on that one, gg)
taking photographs for texturing
TEXTURING! UVW: best friend, it's great for my art style too
modelling, though the majority of the time I had to refer to tutorials, because JESUS, I would never have thought of making ___ with a few polygons and squares. Go figure, creative s.o.b

Not so much:

fiddling with cameras in a 3D space - it's awkward, and it's definitely something I've got to practice because I'd be pretty stupid to miss out on learning this software
getting used to keyframe animation, wow - though luckily there's two methods and the one I went about resembled the same structure as Flash and After Effects
rendering, obvious reasons, though my Mac survived, to my surprise, it did the mash, it did the monster mash

INTERACTIVE MEDIA PROJECT 2: The Meme Quiz (link)

Solo project in utilising Adobe Flash and a bit of Photoshop

In a f*cking huge nutshell,

I enjoyed:

trying to be humorous with my questions and failing, though thinking I was funny anyway
planning the interface, but realising I'm best with minimal visuals afterall
choosing soundtrack and sound effects
building upon my skills of commands in Flash, but mainly understand how you can label keyframes, what a bloomin' life saver
solving bugs when I had no clue what I was do, only an inkling

Not so much:

losing websites I hadn't bookmarked that displayed a lot of useful commands for doing nifty things in Flash..
the Sound on/off command - I will conquer you
not being able to include all 50 million interwebs memes in the quiz

First term projects: MOVING IMAGE, ONE SHOT SHORT: Hangover (vimeo link)

Group project, actor

In a nutshell,

I enjoyed:

EVERYTHING
brainstorming sessions
music selection
walking around in slow-mo and not having to tidy up
(editing individually)

Not so much:

..nothing, but the conversion process wasn't all that. Hey, what can you expect?
oh, and walking around in slow-mo..

First term project: VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS PROJECT 1, PIXILATION: Larry's adventure (youtube link)

Collaboration stop-motion project with Janos (thanks to Katie for major help with shooting though)

In a nutshell,

I enjoyed:

designing Larry the DINOSAUR from scratch with Janos, seeing him turn from a few cardboard boxes loaned from Tescos into the magnificently sexy beast he is. The process took a few weekends and weekdays, and a heck of a lot of green paint, glue, and pizza
brainstorming on the storyboard, which was altered quite a bit, due to just.. realistically adhering to what could be done.. realistically
improvising on 'choreography' - can you spot my YMCA?
people staring at me staring a green dinosaur in the park
song selection (pattern emerging here, but I love using audio to support the desired atmosphere)
using Photoshop to edit photos, but ultimately sticking with something quite safe..

Not so much:

being infront of the camera, as supposed to behind it - would have liked to have more of a say on angles and position of the tripod though with my latter experience of camera operator in Maze, I'm not so sure now. Though I do have to remind myself that they are indeed two different concepts, one being less formal than the other. It's more so a 'music video' situation i prefer
idealising we'd shoot in Sherwood forest a better cinematic effect, and ending up in the nearby park as a last resort, though quite useful..
getting fined for getting paint on the kitchen floor in my halls of residence

First term project: INTERACTIVE MEDIA PROJECT 1, INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE: A pleasant zombie encounter (newgrounds link)

Solo project, first time using Flash seriously..

In a f*cking huge nutshell,

I enjoyed:

though I don't really need an excuse, but being able to bring all my 'non-linear' gaming knowledge and actual references to see how I could interpret the genre and create my own short game within it
(obtaining the assets) having that freedom in term of aesthetics, and just developing more upon my own particular style, which I'm learning inch by inch is of a gritty, sketchy, though cartoon-like style. Believe it or not, I try to look to fashion illustration for help with pencil techniques. Also, love craft paper and cutting things up
planning the structure of the game, so, points in the story which could branch off to either failure or succeeding through clicking the wrong door, or not reacting within the timeframe (which I thought was a nifty way to make the game more appealing in terms of gameplay)
using Photoshop for discolouring
learning that within Flash, events don't have to happen in order on the timeframe, that's just there for convenience - you're able to locate the player to any frame, and their recurring frames, with the right commands in ActionScript

Not so much:

importing my assets into Flash and having issues with the positioning on the canvas

Flash: WOOT.

2010-05-24T17:34:00.001+01:00

THE MEME QUIZ.

rated 2.82/5.00 by 'the people'.

Haha. I can do better.

Nevertheless, i am incredibly happy that it's finished. And this entry will be of my triumphs and holdbacks through this.. well, this rollercoaster of emotion.

^The above image.. wasn't particularly what i had initially planned.. and i'm glad it didn't turn out.. exactly like that. Once again, i know it's upto my own personal design skills and style, but for some reason, i just wanted to get the technical requirements down before even thinking about design.
I remember i even wanted to make the answers invisible, until hovered upon, and even though i think that would have been a fun, experimental gameplay technique, it wasn't right in this context. I wanted to focus on creating material, much like the assets like the interactive narrative last year actually, but unfortunately the issue with the rotoscoping and.. animation.. in whole definitely took its toll on me.

There are a few frames which sum up my liking of simplistic design, though, it makes me feel bad for not resorting to clean graphics from the start. What works best for me is keep text and images seperate, never overlapping, and retaining a simplistic, classic font. Although i think it would have been alternatively acceptable to go through a graphical route, using images throughout the quiz, and acting as the answers in the form of a button.

I wanted the quiz to be fairly easy, as despite contrary belief, there are people who are geekier than me on-line, so there's a mixture of difficult and easy questions. You're not going to do a quiz about memes unless you know about viral fads/videos other than the typical 'lolcat' however.. Hm. I guess it is targeted at geeks then. Nevertheless, i think my style of humour is apparent within the quiz, and that's usually my main drive in anything that i do, to make the user laugh. Even in serious moments.. flashback to wanting film MAZE with a distorted sense of humour. I also think that the variety of media within the quiz helps maintain a slight level of interest, however, at the end of the day, it is only a quiz. My first quiz at that.

I've learnt a heck of a lot more about flash, though i still don't understand actionscript as much as i thought i would. I think i went with the easy options during the production process a few times. One main thing i've learn is about the structure of timing/animating. Each frame lasts a mere milisecond, so it's always important to extend it, even though it doesn't look quite right in the timeline. I think as long as i adhere to my personal style, whilst developing others, and completely removing others from my internal catalogue, i can grow to like Flash just that little bit more. As you can tell, i haven't completely ruled it out as a possible second and third year pathway.. Ohhh, what am i to do.

Flash: newgrounds.com...

2010-05-20T15:45:00.000+01:00

I feel like i'm on X-Factor, or Britain's Always Had Loads of Talent but it's Only Now Because of ITV Popularity Ratings That You've Noticed.

I uploaded my Flash to the almighty Newgrounds and i felt quite nervous.. for some reason. I think it was the moment when my flash was temporarily 'under judgement' (it's an actual phase after submitting your flash content.. others will either BLAM or WOOT it (BLAM is 2 points and under, WOOT is 3-5), stating whether it should be deleted, or allow it to be uploaded to the site. Below is a screenie of my flash on Newgrounds.

I received some helpful feedback on newgrounds; it's good to know what other individuals (who range from masters to beginners of the software) think of your work in its initial stages. The primary points were that:

the video wasn't working - only a white screen would show, however players could still access the other questions (referring to the rotoscoping clips of the grapelady and the dramatic chipmunk)
one of the buttons actually just took you back to the beginning of that question, instead of progressing within the quiz
that there wasn't any indication if you answered incorrectly/correctly
the quiz was rather short.

I was rather annoyed.. and confused about the rotoscoped videos. I had used the method of adding the FLVPlayback option within Flash for both of the animations, when importing them into my Quiz file. I had tested it several times, and it had worked successfully. So why on earth it wouldn't work now, i had no idea. After a little bit of google-ing around, i put it down to the online version just being unable to access the video files on my local harddrive. So, to work around this issue, i just simply deleted the videos, and imported them again, however this time without the FLVPlay media player. The animations now play automatically and even though they haven't been imported using the player option, they are most certainly still movies.

I also attached sound effects to the button symbols in my quiz after reading one of the comments on newgrounds that they would replay the quiz again sometime, otherwise they'd have no idea which questions they had answered incorrectly. Once again, i had a few issues with coding (my god did i have issues with coding..), so i decided to CHEAT, and instead, i modifed each button seperately in its.. editable phase i.e UP, OVER, DOWN, HIT and manually added the appropriate sound files in the properties menu:

It was tedious as hell, and i'm sure out there exists a code i could have easily used to load each clip and attach it to each button without interfering with my other frames of background music layer (excuses, or what?), however, if i hadn't had come across this process of being able to edit each symbol during its different states.. i don't think i would have be as interested in Flash as i am right this second. I cannot wait to experiment with this effect. I can see how this tool would be utilised within Action Flash games.

I fixed all the errors, according the feedback off other users, and decided once again to repost to newgrounds.com I also had to add a Newgrounds pre-loaded in the first frame. It made me feel like i was part of a clan or something..

Individual cut of Maze (probably best get a cup o' tea ready for this one)

2010-05-16T20:42:00.001+01:00

Or two. If you're Jools, possibly some Birds cakes.

Even though i said i'd do it earlier, i didn't think i'd have enough time to do so.. But here is my own individual cut of Maze.

MAZE - Individual cut from Leona Yung on Vimeo.

A short (hahahahaha) comparison between individual cut, and group edit.

Music:

· I cannot believe whilst editing the film, I hadn’t even considered any audio... I guess I thought rather than mistakenly choosing an unsuitable song, it’s best to have Maze remain in its unrefined and solace state. Oh how I was wrong. The 'Mental boy' song was integrated into appropriate sections of the film for increased emotional impact on audience. Whilst researching and looking for that perfect song, primary keywords in my mind were ‘psychological’, ‘thriller’, ‘eerie’ ‘atmospheric’, ‘mellow’, ‘piano’. I did use royalty free websites at first, but realised I was never going to find a royalty free song that could match anything I had pictured in my head already. I then briefly searched the catalogue of films stored in my memory, and one film stood out to me for infamous use of melancholy soundtrack, remaining in accordance to the film itself; the film being American Beauty. Another film was Donnie Darko, but I chose Mental Boy from American Beauty as half of the Donnie Darko soundtrack was composed especially for the film, and I didn’t think it was suited to Maze. I’m too stubborn and naïve… to care about copyright infringement right now. Bwahaha. Oh dear.

· Keeping in mind feedback I had gathered from the last Moving image session, i wanted to ensure that they would not be an issue any longer within my individual edit. These points being that a) the audio was too quite in certain moments within the film and b) the main ‘plot twist’ went completely unnoticed. I put this down to lack of clear direction of the actor and scenes; I am only saying this as I’ve become all to familiar with the captured footage and I certainly wish, looking back on it now, that we would have spent more time as a group solidifying the character and how he was to be portrayed. Not so much the story. I like how it’s turned out within this edit. But having a clearer indication of how the character was to be portrayed to the audience would have inspired camera angles to achieve this, I believe. That’s why as camera operator I wanted to get as many shots from different angles as I could, with the knowledge that the editor would have more of an array of scenes to choose from. I was also playing editor whilst filming in my mind, which aided the role A LOT.

· ---Re-observing the pro/antagonist: Sam.

Before shooting, it was clarified within our group that Sam would be of a schizophrenic nature. How would this be accomplished? Well, (whilst fulfilling the brief of including an extra scene) Sam would be recognised as being both the interviewee, as well as the interviewer with the help of his Gemini style tattoo on his wrist. This was to be covered within the interview scenes, and revealed at the end. There was no other planning except for this. I think this could be the small detail that was overlooked by many viewers, so within my edit I tried to subtley… in slow motion... and several times, reveal this aspect gradually within the film, from the first time we hear the interviewer’s voice, as well as showing the tattoos in different shots in succession.

*Since it is not completely clear in the film (due to lack of group storyboarding etc) what the character has actually done (all we know is that he rather a big stalker and takes photographs in order to fill his void of not being within the group himself, we do not know his attitude towards being caught, let alone what enjoyment or pain he gets from this act. And I wanted to exploit this as much as I could. I tried to portray the character in a more mischievous, dark manner. To name what I did, there was a shot displaying the character in momentary distress for what he has been doing that I put into slow-motion, as well as reversing the same clip and replaying it in succession. Funnily enough, this was actually an outtake of the actor forgetting his line, but I think it shows character. I loved experimenting with clips in terms of tones, playback and visual grain etc, but I made sure not to go overboard with effects.

And another clip, which is was funnily enough actually another outtake…but has turned out to be my favourite moment of the whole three minutes BECAUSE it can sum it up entirely, is of the actor smiling. What’s important is the scene within the context of the film, and I’ve placed the up-close shot straight after Sam’s line “I was just trying to make friends.” It gives me goosebumps, if I humbly say so myself. And I do. Certain edits of the character’s physical actions have hopefully improved how his character is to be perceived from the beginning, right to the transformation near the end of the short.

Audio:

In terms of audio, I simply turned up the volume within free audio software that I use all the time (Audacity). In some cases I liked the audio in some shots, but hated the visual, so I would try to extract the audio, and dub it over another shot; luckily the actor has pretty much the same timing for most of his lines, so dubbing wasn’t entirely difficult. If that didn’t work, myself and the director had also recorded all of the actor’s lines using the Sony R09, just incase. I also distorted the interviewer’s audio, adding reverb and echo effects so that his voice was disguised, whereas in the original it wasn’t. This would also aid the significant plot twist, hopefully.

Unlike with anything related to drawing or painting, I think I’ve already discovery my style of editing (if that’s possible). It’s quite natural to me, but it’s definitely a habit I’ve got to break if I’m to make more shorts in the future. Looking through the short now, the viewer should be able to pick up on how I like to transition between shots coinciding with the existing pace/rhythm of the audio, or even the visual. That’s an element I think of constantly: is the film is flowing naturally, or not? That was something I think was slightly lacking in the original cut, despite of how well I think that had transitioned initially from captured footage to an actual short. I basically like to linger momentarily on strong ending shorts, before a short intermission, eg the close-up of Sam, which quickly transitions to a lingering extreme close-up of his eyes, before introducing the film title.

The slow panning of the boxed photographs is one my favourites, however I had initial ideas of cutting briefly within this panning shot, and I’m glad I’ve achieved this look within my edit. At first, I just sliced the pan into sections with black screens (which is what you would use if you wanted a title/text screen) lasting upto 0.5 seconds. However, I then stumbled upon the transitions options, and managed to locate a ‘fade to black’ option which was significantly more effective than using the choppy title screen option. I would place a transition within each 4 seconds of the gradual panning shot of the boxes. Once again, this was timed in accordance to whatever audio was being played at the time, which was Sam’s line ‘I suppose not.. but you’ve been through the house…” Each black intermission is accompanied by a pause within Sam’s confession, and I’m very happy with the precision of that scene.

Because you were ever so good for reading/skimming this whole entry...

Flash: neeeeeearly there..

2010-05-12T14:17:00.000+01:00

The word 'nearly' looks almost unrecogniseable when it contains multiple e's. A lot of things are unrecogniseable with the aid of a lot of e's, i'm sure.

That was.. er, sorry.

My flash.. was just full of errors. Past tense, mwahaha. I kept receiving errors such as

fortunately they are sorted. It was a matter of removing unnecessary code referring to sound that wasn't even there. You've no idea how much these errors caused me to want to pull my hair out.. I never realised how much Flash involves you have to retrace your steps once an error occurs. That's an incredibly logical statement, but if you're using software like flash, which isn't ENTIRELY helpful what the cause is or how to fix the problem.. well.

Ah, alas. My quiz is finished. Or is it. I've decided to add a background song to the quiz in a new layer, as well as the option to mute and continue the music (wahey!) in the form of buttons. When i was testing the quiz, there was just something missing: this being the audio. I underestimated the important of audio. Gah. Sticking to the theme of 'memes' of course, i chose to use Banana song by Raffi, as it's quite a recogniseable song, and is a meme itself. Only the best, eh. I'll upload my finished quiz when i've done more testing on buttons and whatnot.

Flash update: images

2010-05-10T15:03:00.001+01:00

As i previously mentioned, rotoscoping is difficult. I wasn't sure if i was adamant enough to repeat the process for another 9 or so videos, so i decided to use images instead. I have created a really simple and short rotoscoping for the 'dramatic chipmunk' question, however.. These rotoscoping files are created separately, and then i usually have to export them as either .MOV or .FLV... or possibly .GIF. Hm. How am i to inport these into my actual flash file..

Rotoscoping in flash really is just a matter of tracing over a digital video file (which is weird, because i never trace over drawings.. ever), however it's what you make of the style that can contribute to the quality of it. Unfortunately, i think it appears as though my heart isn't in it; i really don't want that to be the case. I think i've just lost all confidence in my drawing skills, and to have to work in an environment where these skills should come quite naturally, as they certainly will not be taught or developed within the context of the brief, AS WELL as learning new software.. is hard. I think i'm just putting a lot of pressure and passing judgement on myself. Anyway, moving away from depressing material.

I've edited the few other images, that i've used within my quiz, in Photoshop. Nothing fancy, i just didn't want to particularly copy and paste images straight off the internet and place them in my quiz. Oh, that sounded all high and mighty of me. Images can either be a visual representation of the question OR act as a button for each answer. I intentionally wanted a graphic, stencil style, though whether or not it's caused my quiz to become a mix-match of styles and therefore breaking some sort of rule within the holy bible of design, we'll see. Note to self: must research if "holy bible of design" is a real thing..

For the 'Who killed Oprah' question, i wanted to include a video of a witty parody i had seen on the internet, of Oprah being electrocuted by the 'killer'. The only problem with this was that it would mean the 'killer's face would be visible, so i had to disguise him somehow. Awesome smiley face to the rescue (you'll see these scattered about, amongst a few of my projects)! I added another layer on top of the GIF FLASH FILE (meaning when importing the video, i had to transform the clip into SEVERAL, SEPERATE BITMAP IMAGES, which was AWFUL.. as i had to drag each individual image to the stage) and then ensured that the smiley face covered, ahem, Tom Cruise's face, in each frame. That was fun. I'm not a big fan of Cruise. Although, that meant i couldn't import this as a video file into my actual Flash quiz file; alternatively, i would have to import each image separately.

more flash

2010-05-07T14:02:00.000+01:00

Right now i'm just changing the style of fonts in my flash, as i didn't really like the look of ANY of the standard fonts, so i'm just animating my own hand-drawn fonts. When i say that, it sounds as though i'm creating something high and mighty in Illustrator. I'm not. I'm just literally writing the questions in flash. It may seem a little childish, but i think about the simplicity of this flash piece and i wonder, why the heck not.

The good thing about flash is that i remember how bloody irritating it can be if you're not careful with the frame structure, endless hours of constantly editing the frame numbers within the actionscript of flash for my interactive narrative point and click last year make it hard for me not to forget, so hopefully that won't be an issue this time round, considering that i've learnt you can NAME EACH FRAME. Jesus.

Currently the structure of the quiz is:

'Animated intro'
Question frame (animated over a length of time, transforming colour or size of text)
Relevant video/animation/image file frame
Answers frame (all answers will be hidden using code, so player must use mouse to hover over the space)
X10, excluding the animated intro, of course.
Scoring frame, which will include a brief description as to which catetegory the player belongs in, depending on number of correct answers

I thought this would be more aesthetically pleasing rather than just having all of a question's content on one frame, and would spread out the quiz more.

Grape lady animation:
I don't know how to say this, but i'm actually sick of animating within flash, and it's incredibly hard to say that when i was so sure i wouldn't find it this difficult. It's the attention to detail, the pressure of WANTING to portray each frame as a single image that should be strong enough to suffice out of context. Even though rotoscoping is quite a rough technique within the animation family, in the sense that it's quite overlooked and frowned upon, as well as being a small entity within my flash quiz that no one is really going to pay attention to anyway (not in the same sense as a short, fully length animation for example) i just keep judging myself. I feel as though it deserves to be given quite a lot of attention to in the production, but for some reason i just cannot commit, so i resort to shading in a few areas and filling in outlines of each body part, it's not even accurate. It definitely makes me think more about my attitude towards animation. I'm starting to think i may not be cut out for it, if i struggle so much to want to animate.

On the other hand, maybe it's the style that i'm annoyed about. The colour palette that i didn't pay much attention to when choosing. The lack of experimentation within the strokes and choice of tools and textures (there are none).

Trees.

2010-05-07T01:10:00.000+01:00

Literally. Possible backgrounds for lair (at least the forest bit)

Initial bridge references.. and what my lair is looking like..:

I'm.. so.. unhappy with the way the bridge has turned out. Alas, i do not want to start from scratch.. as i have already done so three times. Woe is me.

Interactive quiz update

2010-05-04T23:09:00.000+01:00

Downdate. Would that work? Anyway.

I settled on memes. Love me some memes. Wish my name was meme.
And whilst i was researching some of my favourites, using websites such as www.knowyourmeme.com and obviously youtube, which should be a meme itself.. well, i suppose it is if you count 'YouTube Poop', it came to my attention that they were mostly videos, which would be an 'issue' when publishing my final interactive quiz. Like i mentioned before, i was planning on doing some cut-out animations. I was going to even create an actual character which would act out/imitate all of the memes/fads, and the player would have to guess.. but then i started to look at other animation techniques, and my interest in 'rotoscoping' resurfaced.

It would be the perfect technique, as i'm fufilling the brief when animated sequences/video are asked of us, whilst bringing a little creativity and initiative to the table, as i'm not ENTIRELY using the video content off youtube or whatever. This is an example of rotoscoping in its prime, in a feature film 'Waking Life' which is truly inspirational (and P.S, is one of my favourite scenes within the film):

I'll have to do another post relatively soon on rotoscoping, as i'll be including it
within my visual essay. And this is a small example of what i'm doing within Flash:

There's 305 frames within a 9 second clip? It's.. a little too much for me, hence

the complete lack of detail. However, in my defence, the video is of quite poor

quality, so there's just pixels everywhere, but not enough to contribute to a detailed

rotoscope. I do want to try to show shading, outline detail and overall body tone,

just so it's not completely hard to distinguish that it is infact a person and not just a

discoloured bean.

Right now, i plan to apply this rotoscoping method to another six(?) videos.

I really want to spend less than a day on all of them. But it's ever so tedious..

yet simultaneously relaxing. Hm.

Flash project: Interactive quiz

2010-05-02T17:31:00.001+01:00

I've just realised i've not posted anything flash related. My bad.

The brief is to design an interactive quiz using Adobe Flash, based on a topic of our choice. The initial idea i had was based on a comedy sketch performed by The Two Ronnies i had once seen:

After a bit of research, i've discovered it was a parody of the show Mastermind. I loved the idea of the player having to disclose the answer one question later; it basically becoming a memory game. However, considering how the Ronnies delivered the sketch with such wit, due to the previous answer acting as a punchline or innuendo to the current question, i had would to be incredibly clever about the question structure of my own quiz.

Subsequently, i began to ponder ideas for topic areas. I wanted to base the quiz on something i wouldn't have to feign interest in. And in doing so, i realised, ha, these four subjects can be used to sum me up, to a tee, which i'm not really sure if i should be happy or sad about. Hm.

Film knowledge
General or specific video games
Food (i'm not kidding)
Internet fads/culture

As i had based my 3D secret lair on an INTERNET TROLL (in case i forgot to mention..), i've decided i want to continue that theme. I also think film and video game quizzes are quite popular, and therefore constantly referred to.

What i'll be doing this week:

Researching popular and underrated themes (to vary difficulty of the quiz) on the INTERNET. Woot.
Deciding upon questions, therefore looking at how each question can refer to the previous in a witty manner
How would i integrate video/sound into the quiz? How would it relate? Played when a question is answered correctly/incorrectly? Or played throughout, in order to distract the player (mwhahaha.. ha)?
Would i show videos/graphic stills of memes before asking a question? Copyright/publishing issues?
Learn how to be funny

My dress is a frame

2010-05-01T02:56:00.000+01:00

For serious.

If i had to choose something about 3ds Max that doesn't make me want to rip my hair out completely, it would have to be textures and making use of UWV wrapping. And rapping, like Eminem. Irrelevant.

I was becoming really used to finding textures via google for the surroundings in my lair, then i wondered why i hadn't tried to include my own. I felt daring. Oooh. So i looked about my room for something with a distinguised pattern, nothing plain jane. One of my dresses has this cute pattern on the sleeves, and i thought it was perfect for me to include.. somehow. Initially i was going to use it to print over a carpet or rug, but then i decided on a photoframe, as i had already used the same wood effect on several of the photo frames i had created. I scanned the sleeve, haha, then edited it slightly, brought up the contrast, etc.

And it was simple to create as a material. Below is the actual photoframe in which my sleeve has a cameo role in (i'm a proud parent):

I've included a few other home-made textures:

(My parents are moving house, so i thought it'd be nifty to include the kitchen carpet)
Obviously this has spurred on inspiration to draw my own textures in the future(!) but for now, i just want to get this damn thing finished! My posture is just... bad.

Animating tutorials

2010-04-25T12:14:00.000+01:00

Have had a song stuck in my head since December, and have finally discovered who it's by, thank the baby jesus!

Anyway, have arrived at the Animation section in the Lynda.com tutorials and was completely confused by the concept of using the Autokey to record the stages of an animation. I understood it was a simple matter of changing the object, or whatever, on a certain frame and pressing 'Autokey'. But then all of those changes on the timeline would happen from the beginning, and i began to wonder.. i must not be thinking along the correct lines for animating. Then i saw the light.. and discovered Set Key, which unlike Autokey, requires the animator's own input and solidification of a frame's stage. This means that over the first few seconds of an animation, an object could be green, and around 10 seconds later, it would morph into a panda. Whereas with Autokey, i would have had a green panda from the start. I feel better knowing that it's not completely necessary for me to adjust my thought methods when approaching the animation stage.

Troll Lair, The

2010-04-18T04:45:00.001+01:00

Update. Picdate. Woot. Anyway, this is going to be a completely jumbled up post, as i've been constantly taking screenshots of my lair's progress along the way, and they're all kept within this massive WordPad (heh) file. I'm just going to stick them here, and explain what i was doing at the time:

I was frightened of starting off with the bridge, as i had an image of it in my head, and many visual references that i was worried it wouldn't turn out the same. Sob story over, i began to utilise more tools the more i got stuck into it. For the bridge, it was a matter of creating a rectangle, and then half a sphere to boolean the arc shape.

Yeesh, don't even get me started on the tunnel. Originally a spline, that was transformed into an editable poly, i had alot of issues trying to extrude the tunnel into the desire shape. I flipped the normals and added multiple vertices so that i could modify the look of the tunnel, which would connect the bridge opening to the cave.

Cave making pssht. created a box with 12x12x12 segments, selected first line around circumference on top view (with soft selection) and dragged down vertices until a sort of helmet shape was created. deleted remaining block underneath the 'helmet', and mirrored top half for the bottom of cave. This was my worst nightmare, as not being familar with having to think in 3d.. i couldn't full the life of me figure out what sort of shape i could use to represent the cave.. I must admit, i stalled a heck of a lot before making the basic cave shape.

I used a lot of paint deformation and specific poly editing in order to form a natural cave habitat, what with the curve of rocks and whatnot.

Few weeks left

2010-04-16T16:05:00.000+01:00

And i'm still doing my lair. Phwoar. Can't hack it.

What's left?

I've decided to add an extra space to the cave, as it's rather cramped.. more than i originally expected. It'll be fine once there's a camera and path constraight, because the viewport will be quite narrow anyway, but for general moving around in the space whilst designing.. well, it' not ideal. And very frustrating.

^What is the purpose of this room? What are its contents?

Link extra room to cave area
Create cel-shaded copies
Cave lighting? Fire? Homey lamp?
Add maps and textures to everything
Nightime landscape for bridge/hill layer
Tunnel modelling
Camera and path
Laptop and video
Photoframe features

3DS Max has been very awkward. There was too much of a delay from when the project began, to when i started really looking at the software in detail. Like i said before, it's incredibly intimidating software, but i've grown to really like it, thank god. It's definitely worth it, investing a lot of time towards online tutorials, you can only learn so much from seminars.

I've always liked 3d work, probably not as much as i should do, but using this software, i REALLY appreciate any 3d shorts i come across when browsing the internet. I always find myself wondering how on earth the artist/director went about their methods. Usually look for 'making-of' videos a few minutes after viewing a worthwhile film.

I'm really excited about combining hand-drawn visuals to 3d environments mostly, though i've always been very curious about lip syncing/rigging facial expressions, so they're what i'm looking forward to the most. I always like modelling, however i have noticed if i ever get frustrated with an object, i'll skip over any details, which is a primary purpose towards using 3D software in the first place. Or am i being too obvious? Just because artists may use 3D in order to design incredibly realistic models of, whatever, it doesn't mean that is the methodology i have to follow aswell. I welcome anyone to debate with me over that. Though it'll probably end up with a rock, paper, scissors, fire game. Fire ftw.

I would love to involve photography/illustration more within my 3D studies in the future as well. I remember discussing with my friend, who was on a games design course in college, a few years ago, that she had to go around Chester and take pictures of textures for game levels, and that really excited me. It's all good and well to look online for textures, but if they're form my own collection, it makes the piece even more personal and flexible.

Don't get me started about character rigging/animation. I'm incredibly anixious about it (the good and bad stuff), because i know it's a lot of work and requires a heck of a lot of perserverance. Hopefully i won't mind it. Who needs food breaks or daylight anyway. I'm already tanned.

maze

2010-04-06T00:43:00.000+01:00

Having fun making Dave, the actor who portrayed Sam, sound like he's a transsexual or something with the help of Audacity. Can't seem to figure out how to modify the vocals for the interviewer to make him sound a little scuffed.. I don't want a complete change in voice, i just want a little distortion, like you would from speaking into a microphone.

Guess this will have to do. I've just added some echo effect, lowered the pitch (hence the transsexual effect, eh), and selected
Have also had to increase the volume ALOT on most of the audio clips. On shots from the first shoot, there seems to be sound coming in through one speaker, when played back.. however sound from second shoot is absolutely fine.. though i prefer the lighting from the first shoot.. so it's a matter of mixing and matching the material, and timing it perfectly so it's not some naff thing like the show Badly Dubbed Porn.. which, in contradiction to what i'm implying.. is one of the funniest shows you'll never see in your whole god damn life.

ALSO - have discovered how to achieve the sort of flashback-like effect that i wanted. Basically a matter of cutting up clips, and experimenting with that material. So, for the scene with the photographs, even though i like the slow panning shot, i think integrating short periods of a black screen increases 'dramatic effect'. Sort of like in a murder scene when the body parts or evidence would quickly flash on screen.

Referring back to the overall perceived portrayal of Sam (ie. 'Pervert'), there doesn't seem to be any depth to his character. So i think by adding a mischievious smile to hint at his confused attitude towards his situation and how he's approaching it, could add to this missing depth to his character.

MAZE

2010-04-04T23:26:00.000+01:00

Even though i was happy with the edit of our short, Maze, i decided to do my own individual cut.

I'm practicing in iMovie to see how the visuals look in my interpretation, before moving it all over to Premiere. It's been a few weeks since i've even though about the film, so i've lost my spontaneity over the general atmosphere of what the film should look like and i'm struggling a little bit. I'm trying to remind myself that whilst there'll be scenes that i absolutely love, they might not fit in with the pacing of the rest of the film.

Considering the feedback i gained from my peers in the last moving image seminar, the general consensus was that the plot mainly focused on a 'pervert', which i think undermines the film. I know this is only a small project, but if the actual plot twist goes unnoticed, then it's down to the editing and order of the scenes. This means that, even though i shouldn't.. because i hate overly-obvious films.. i'm going to have to hint quite occasionally of the interviewer's identity. You may think this is unnecessary, there's got to be another technique.. well, quite frankly, if you know of any - HIT ME UP.

Just keep previewing it during the editing process.. bad idea. I'm constantly re-assessing what i've done, and i'm getting a headache from all these quick cuts i've gotten in the habit of doing. Plus my eyelid keeps twitching due to sleepless, though Left 4 Dead 2 filled, nights. Maybe i think quick cuts to other shots just keeps the audience on the, ahem, 'edge of their seats' (god, i'm even patronising about my own work, jesus), when realistically.. it's just quite annoying to watch.

I feel like i'm doing a trailer, where i'm just trying so desperately hard to keep all the good shots. I wonder if there's a career in.. trailer.. making. Only trailer making. Hm.

The 'where do you see yourself in 5 years time?' post

2010-04-01T14:37:00.002+01:00

I'm not entirely sure, but i hope it involves indielectric music with heavy bass headphones.

I'm using the connexions website, because they've actually got a pretty extensive and informative list of 'job families', describing careers and related jobs, what it entails, entry requirements, etc. I've found this quite useful every since coming from Sixth Form, so hopefully... it won't fail me this time.

Job family: Computers & IT
-Computer games designer - systems, level builders, technical designers, writers, area designers, lead designers, etc.
This was always subconsciously the perfect job for me. I remember doing one of those career assessment quiz things in high school to determine what you'd most likely have a job in based on multiple questions about yourself and work ethic/priorities, and my friends scoffed at 'Games designer' being the most suited match. I don't know whether it's because they thought it was a silly idea, or pure envy; i like to think the latter. Now, it's not that simple to obtain the role of general 'games designer' as i've come to learn that the Games industry is divided into many sectors (animation, modelling, level design, etc), and it is only through experience and more research that i'll hopefully home in more on the element that i find most appealing.

Gaming sector across the UK: Manchester, Liverpool, Warwickshire, Dundee, Sheffield and other parts of Yorkshire, and Newcastle.

Games designers may work from their own original idea, or use various elements that have already been decided upon. They develop:

the rules of the game
the setting
the story and how it develops
the characters
the weapons, vehicles and other devices that characters can use
different ways to play the game.

I could definitely imagine myself in this role, as i like to have a broad range of skills, therefore being able to adapt to a majority of situations. It may sound as though i'm just avoiding having to really settle myself in any specific position within the industry, but it's the quite the opposite. I'd rather have input across the board, and be able to focus on any part when i see fit. Plus i'd imagine it'd allow me to distinguish which aspects i like or don't.

During the development of the game the game designer is responsible for:

making sure that the rest of the team (including programmers, artists, animators, producers and audio engineers) understand the concept of the game

making adjustments to the original specification to reflect technical constraints and new programming or artistic developments

training testers to play the game - they make sure that it works in the way it is meant to

making sure the game experience meets the original vision.

Some game designers work on a whole game, while others might concentrate on one aspect of the design. On large projects, a lead designer oversees the work of a number of designers.

It seems the 'designer' becomes the director or producer in a way, and that sounds rather nifty to me. I think that's because i'm not as illustrative as i thought i was, so i have problems interpreting personal ideas to paper. So.. what, that means that it'll be easier to discuss the idea with someone else with more of an artistic flair? Hmm. Tricky. Well, i can plan it, no problem, and if it's just a matter of some silly storyboards, eg Gondry and his childish storyboards, then i'm all for it. But if we're talking official conceptual art/designs, then i struggle, and i can't really imagine myself enjoying that sort of role.

(Human Behaviour storyboard, dir: Michel Gondry)

Cliff Bleszinski: I was making my own games, programming them, doing all the artwork, the production, level design, and everything because I didn't have anybody else to do it for me. That background helped give me the perspective it takes to pull a product together and have a creative vision for it. Being a designer is about having a creative vision and adhering to it.

On a day to day basis, it's a combination of writing, playing, and working with the talent you have available. You're trying to come up with a general idea of what a game system is going to be. You're creating game systems that interact in an interesting manner but you're also creating a universe. So it's technical as well as creative. "Who's this dude? This is the flamethrower guy, and he smokes a lot." Or, "this is the bioweapons guy, and he has cancer and that's his shtick." So you take your angles and you figure out how they can create a compelling universe. How are these gameplay systems going to interact? Is the chemical guy going to be able to shoot out something that the flamethrower guy can leverage? Is that going to get hooks in people's brains? It's not enough to create cool characters or systems. It's about seeing how it all merges in the end.

More visual references for Troll Lair

2010-03-28T03:35:00.000+01:00

Okami, playstation 2 action game. I remember coming across this game a few years ago, though never being tempted enough to purchase it, despite being totally in love with the Japanese art style. I think it was because at the time, i was also rather hooked to another game, The Last Express, which i used as inspiration for my Interactive Narrative flash piece last year, which has a similar 'Cel-shading' style to it.

There is something about forming a 2d style atmosphere within a 3d space that is just so wonderfully ironic, i cannot help but admire. I like to try to integrate different styles and contextual background from other areas into whatever i'm doing, as it gives me the freedom to focus equally on everything, if that is even physically possible. Although it can be deemed the same graphic style as films such as Sin City, this sort of cel-shading, especially in the context of these two UNDERATED video games, are in a league of their own. It brings back the arguement of whether games can be considering art, or not.

Anyway, i found a neat little tutorial on how to achieve this sort of look, which deals with flipping the normals of an object's enlarged clone, here's what i'm dealing with:

The black outline, though rather subtle, can be hopefully depicted as a nice little homage to my favourite video games, ever. I definitely will be revisiting this technique over and over again, though with different variations, hopefully.

Also, to clear up why i settled on forest imagery in the first place... I have quite a strong interest in photography, my favourite subject matters being textures, satirical pieces, portraits and landscapes. Apart from the Princess Mononoke and Kiki's Flying Delivery Service references from Studio Ghibli, it mostly comes to do photographs i see online, or of kitsch paintings, such as this Bat for Lashes (favourite musical artist) piece:

And, last but not least.. my desire to live in America/Canada in the very near future:

The whole forest reference isn't personal in the sense that, say, i've lived in one my whole life and this is the first year away from bathing in swamp-like rivers.. but it is personal how it sort of has emotional attachment? God, what am i saying, i wouldn't survive one day in a forest. But the dream is still there. Ahhh.

My lazy wednesday

2010-03-24T12:33:00.002Z

time for gaming.

If i'm thinking of animation in general, i need to get my priorities sorted. I'm going to hunt down games today, mainly by recent releases ('08,' '09, '10) and try to understand what it is that attracts me to certain games. I know the main element i instinctively look for when looking at a screenshot or trailer in any type of genre is, what type of artwork/style is used? Followed by researching more on the gameplay.

3ds-maxing and relaxing

2010-03-14T17:02:00.001Z

Awful.

Anyway, i've been watching tutorials on Lynda.com, which is incredibly useful. The instructor speaks really clearly, and i can eat my spaghetti bolognese whilst he's talking about NURBS and shit.

Here are a few screenshots of me following parts of the tutorials, which, might i add, is apparently 15hours in total. Phwoar. I'm only on section 6 out of.. 14? This is gonna be good.

Steve, the tutorials guy, did a whole video on how to create a chandelier. It utilised skills that were discussed in the previous videos (i'm looking at the beginners section, obviously, but there's a lot of scope), such as box modelling, extruding, bevelling etc. He hadn't covered skins yet, so bare with me:

Messing around with the paint deformation tool (push/pull on editable polys) to create 'lazy landscapes':

Sort of reminded me of old Playstation games, where everything was incredibly choppy. By far one of my favourite tools though. I'm definitely going to use this for my lair - i'm pretty sure i know what i want to do now.

And lastly, experimenting with NURBS CURVES. Ha, say that ten times! This is an incredibly playful element, however it was noted how it increases the filesize due to the objects smoothness. It does however allow for full flexibility in its curves, and is created by drawing firstly 2d shapes, and connecting them together.

Extruding NURBS curves:

Okay. It looks like either the sorting hat, or a purple dinosaur. Go figure.

Lair, first ideas

2010-03-10T23:13:00.004Z

In a nutshell, i'm trying to think of the approach i want to take with my 'alter ego'. It can either be that, something developed from me, ie how a personality trait can be the issue or power itself (indecisiveness, for example) OR.. it's not based on me. Entirely fictiscious, but something that i can feign interest in, of course, because of its nature or expected style.

I can't read my own writing, but here goes:

Spiritual forest god - visual references: Disney's Pocahontas, romanticism artwork, Princess Mononoke (dir: Hayao Miyazaki), i know i know, which is why i'm a little skeptical towards this one, i'd hate to end up completely ripping this one off. But i've had a strong interest in anything forest-y for some reason for the past year. I guess it's something to do with my longing of wanting to just shack up in a wooden house in a forest in America, after university. Living amongst deer. Oh god. It doesn't sound ridiculous to me.

The character, Mononoke, isn't a forest god per-se, but she is part of the Wolf clan, and the human child.. to Moro (wolf mother and head of feared clan) - she protects the forest against the humans. She's part of the forest, without sounding too cheesy. I would absolutely love to create a cave lair amongst green surroundings.

And just another reason to back up the whole forest idea. I've been reading this book called The Celestine Prophecy written by James Redfield (last few pages, ahh no), and it focuses primarily on the development and characteristics of human beings as a whole, and how we can better ourselves by examining our actions and how we perceive our surroundings. It's hard to explain. It's the most spiritual book i've ever come across. I mention this because it links to this idea of a 'forest god', and i think a lot of my visuals would come to as a result from this book.

A fast food superhero. Yehuh. Definitely a personal one. I'm just trying to figure out whether my power would be manipulate my surroundings INTO food, or whether my power is that i can create food from anything? If so, how does this affect my lair? Am i living in a cheeseburger, or is it more so the clutter from my home-made inventions for creating food? In that case, aren't i just a bloody chef? Wishful thinking and pre-mature high expectations, i'm thinking.

There are more as noted in the initial 'mindmap', however i think the forest and fastfood subjects are most likely to be executable within the timeframe.

Google's ketchup recipe

2010-03-10T18:34:00.003Z

Urghhhh..

In a previous seminar, we were introduced briefly to Google Sketchup, which is a FRRRRREEE program for designing 3D models. It's quite basic and simple to use, and is definitely tailored for those dipping into architecture and possibly product/furniture design, but it's rather helpful for creating basic mock-ups that would otherwise take a noob in 3DS Max a year or two to make. There's a a push/pull tool which is the equivalent to 3DS Max's [Extrude] tool, which i am in love with.

This is a link to Google's tutorials for sketchup.

I might look into some advanced tutorials when i'm not suffering a painful death from looking at 3DSM, when i want to start creating landscape blueprints, the territorial side of my lair just as a mock-up.

Did some really naff things in sketchup whilst i was talking to my sister about hairstyles on Skype:

Boot camp will be the death of me & 3ds-oh-my-god-max;

2010-03-08T21:56:00.000Z

Have been INCREDIBLY stressed over the last few days, however due to no relevancy whatsoever to my coursework.

Just installing Windozzze 7 Pro onto my macbook, to experience problems with the video card drivers, frantic googling looking for a solution, realising, hey you god damn bumhole, i'm just going to download this legal copy of boot camp 3.0, even though it's not for my OS X.. Bleugh, it's done. Done done done. I'm annoyed because i could have been practising on 3DS Max over the weekend -__-'

Aaaaaand now i have a full copy of Windows 7, instead of that beta edition that actually expired 5 months earlier than it was supposed to, i'm in the mood for gaming. Non-stop gaming. I've even just signed up to IGN'S Fileplanet so i can download some demos of old-ish games.

Gaaaaaames i neeeeeeed for my pc:

Street fighter IV, because PCs are pretty much lacking in the beat 'em ups department. Like, a lot.

< /RANT>

Okay, so now the good stuff. 3DS Max. Onto the virtual environments project right now, which i've been looking forward to ever since joining this course. Oh, how naive i was.

I'd already heard many things from people who had just completed that project, and i can see how it's definitely going to be an intense project. I've looked at 3DS Max briefly before, a few youtube tutorials here and there, but i was pretty amazed how difficult it was to keep up with Andy in the first seminar. I found it hard to concentrate, let alone navigating the awkward software. I can see its potential, don't get me wrong, i'm just rather intimidated by the program.

So, just to make me feel a little better, aha, this is what i'll be upto 3DSM-wise over the next few weeks (well, it should really be days, but realistically, my god):

Online 3DSM tutorials ftw! Including general overviews, and specific 'how-tos'
Mulling over my alter ego/character, and planning how the lair might reflect this persona clearly
Researching visuals of how i'd like my lair to look like, mostly in video games but not restricting to them
Dream of 3DSM

Wait, where were they again..

2010-02-28T00:12:00.001Z

No five pages long essay for Where The Wild Things are, instead a link to an interview with Spike Jonze regarding the film.

I will say that i did enjoy the film. At times i became a little apprehensive at the pace and reality of things (silly me) eg, how Max reacted to seeing these wild things for the first time, but after reading the aforementioned interview it's clear that Jonze wants to portray a childhood in terms of how children see things and what they feel. I like the film's naivety.

Anyway, i did some stuff :/

Fantastic mr fox is effing fantastic. And i know where the Wild Things are..

2010-02-27T21:35:00.005Z

...they're on my list of all-time favourite films.

Badum bum chhhhhhh. Sorry.

But for serious. I saw two of the best(estestest) animations recently. I cannot get them out of my head. And it's a pretty relevant time to have seen them, what with just finishing the moving image pathway and going straight onto virtual environments. Neither of them may be completely classed as the typical 3D animation (such as the recent UP! which was pretty naff in comparison, i believe, ho ho), but i think that's what drew me towards them, the experimental aspect of animation. I'm definitely going to be including Wes Anderson (dir: Fantastic Mr Fox) within my visual essay, even though i've still not completely made my mind up as to whether i consider him a pretentious director or not, despite loving his film The Royal Tennebaums.

Anyway, get ready for my thoughts on the film. :)

Fantastic Mr Fox, my dear old friend.

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Trailer from Cutting Edge Commercial on Vimeo.

Anderson combines an array of camera techniques within the animation, my favourite surprise being when action scenes are conveyed from a relatively extreme wide/long shot, and the characters are replaced with action figure type models, representative of what a child might play with… I can’t help but feel that this also reinforces the idea that this whole film has been created by a child and their friends one rainy day. These scenes are not intended to be technically correct (model detail, etc), but instead focus on the fast paced, Benny Hill replicated action - which in the current world of competitive animation (where realism seems to be key) is a nice breath of fresh air. The camera, I’ve noticed, is always in tracking mode in action scenes, which reminds me of the infamous scene from Oldboy, in which the protagonist is battling tens of angry and sweaty Asians in a gritty underground passageway. I think the difference here though, is that whilst the camera work in Oldboy was used to portray this idea of an intense struggle, like in old beat ‘em up video games (eg, Survival mode in Tekken, wahey..), the use of tracking in Fantastic Mr Fox is merely an eager Anderson wanting to show the audience what he’s made of . There’s a whole debate (good and bad) on Anderson and his directing techniques, but I’ll save that for when I’m more confident I can argue my point, and when I’ve seen more of his films.

I’m not supposed to sound big-headed or any thing, which is what I seem to end up doing anyway in these journal entries, but I felt as though this film was made just for me. :)

This film’s cinematography excites me more than any other animation, possibly even film in general… that I’ve ever seen in my mental bank of films. I’ve had a lot of difficulty figuring out where I can see myself as a career/what I want to focus on in studies, as I’ve always been torn between the two subjects of Film and Game Design/Animation. However this inspiring film tells me that it is possible to blend the two together, and that there really is no limit to what you can do, if you put your mind to it. Games design has however since detoriated when I stripped away elements that I liked and didn’t like about it. I’m stil figuring out what it is that makes me addicted to certain films and games, why I always keep going back to them when I should really be a normal, non-hermit like student and actually leave my room…

Once I stripped away these elements, I figured out that it was the cinematic cutscenes, character development (ie, personalities, physical appearances), storytelling, and visual style that appealed to me. Not the gameplay… Or interactivity. It’s hard to be honest that I dislike these factors since, well, hello, that’s what games are about. Gameplay has always come first, no matter what any one says, so to say something like that contradicts reasons to be involved in that sector in the first place. I guess that’s what convinced me to pay more attention to animation. Not singling out only 3d aspects though, however. Maybe I’m leaning more so towards experimental animation, whatever that means. Stop-motion. Cut-out. Traditional.

But more about the cinematography...

I really wish I’d have seen this before shooting Maze… There are scenes in which the camera has been placed in front of the focused subject of that shot, there’s no attention to ‘The Rule of Thirds”, and if there is, then it’s incredibly subtle and non-pretentious.

The camera placement allows us full insight to the charater’s reaction and feelings, without completely becoming the intended focus of that cut, as the background is still entirely visible, and the audience can choose to pay attention to that if they like. There will undoubtedly always be something to view in the background, sometimes even more insightful than the foreground happenings.

Consistent colour theme: warm summer palette of reds and a vast array of orange shades. Creates a relaxed, carefree disposition, almost as if I’m hanging out with my best friends who are a bunch of hippies for the longest summer ever.

I'm gonna bum off Fantastic Mr Fox for a long time, i reckon.

Heavy Rain

2010-02-25T02:40:00.003Z

I want to play this game SO goddamn much. It's a shame my only console is a Playstation 2, which has been left at home and is visited once a month when i travel back for free food and, well, some console gaming. Oh, i guess family too.

Heavy Rain, by Quatuam Dreams, is an INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE. It's less so about conventional gaming elements (lame story and motive, shoot the baddies, collect some goodies to ultimately be well experienced enough to defeat the last baddy, etc, etc - don't get me wrong, it works, it totally does) and focuses on cinematic effects. Woah woah. I love these types of games. I've mentioned before those sort of 'create your own adventure' games, but the graphics definitely cannot compare with this, it would seem. 'CYOA's to sum up are the equivalent to labyrinths, in which depending on which action the player chooses, be it to reply in an unpolite manner, ie, pew pew, or just completely miss out on information in 'real time' because you had no idea what you were supposed to be doing; which means that it affects the progession of the story. Fallout 3 is the major, most well-known example i can think of right now.

There does seem to be a lot of speculation as to whether people are going to favour the whole 'wait, i'm basically just watching a film' aspect or not, and i guess it's just down to personal preference. It's not very fun, i concur, to only be in control of where the character looks (which is apparently what the left analog stick operates, instead of being assigned as where the character walks/runs to) and just sit there and watch this game's storyline unravel. I think that's what people are worried about. But surely the production team are wise enough to realise it's a game for a reason.. right?

I might just have to buy a PS3. Right now.

Home sweet ill home..

2010-02-19T14:14:00.002Z

It's absolutely freezing here in 'the port of Ellesmere'. I'm actually sick, which has ruined my plans of catching up with my friends back home. But i digress.

At the moment, i'm trying to do a little experimenting with HTML/CSS, because i figured i've got to learn it. How on earth i managed to get A-Levels in ICT without properly learning it, i've no idea. It's mostly because i want to completely design my blog from scratch (i really don't like the generic templates blogger provides), but it's more annoying than i had anticipated. I've only learnt that CSS is what is used to customise the actual layout/presentation of one's site. I'd heard of it before, but only because my favourite band CSS, and former favourite game, CS:S shared the same acronyms. I didn't think to delve further.

So, a little HTML/CSS on the side.

(MAZE update)
As well as beginning my individual edit for our group short, MAZE (i like capitalising the title for some reason), might rename it to something more relevant. Trying to figure out the differences between Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere, and apart from the fact that it's very much based on the whole MAC vs Windows debate as an underlying matter, i'm pretty much drawing a blank. I just remember Jools stating that FCP was the professional's preference. To be honest, i'm just happy using Windows Movie Maker (hardeehar).

I'm listing each shot and its timeframe (i always work methodically, i've realised), and will hopefully be able to REMEMBER which shots would overlap which sound clip/video clip (some clips are just of Dave the actor sitting there fidgeting). So far, i'm failing. And think Premiere is way more complicated than it really should be. Here's a scan of each shot/timeframe i noted down:

MAZE, the group edit and feedback

2010-02-13T18:06:00.001Z

Maze is finally completed, and this is the final group edit. I'll be starting my individual edit soonish.

MAZE - the final group edit from Leona Yung on Vimeo.

We had feedback from other groups within our last moving image seminar, and the general consensus is that the sound is a bit dodgy. Along with the fact that the storyline is not all that clear. I'd be lying if i said that that was the aim of our film; but i'm not all surprised. At times our group weren't clear what was happening in the story :)

It was weird going around and watching everyone's shorts, whilst being expected to critisise them. It was also interesting to see what sort of angles and effects they had used, and i couldn't help but compare them to my group's film in my head.

I've scanned in the notes from the other groups, feedback can be a bitch, but i definitely appreciate it:) My UTTER FAVOURITE was the suggestion for a title for our short: 'Pervert in the pub'. Win.

Moving image update, frame forge oh yes. (post in week of 'tescos chocolate donuts)

2010-02-12T18:22:00.000Z

Here's a few shots i created using FrameForge (on my home, free demo version, hence the watermark), in order to express how i would like the short to look in terms of cinematography:

There is an image in the mix there of Paul from the show Wonder Years, and during this phase of constantly watching that show (loooooove), Paul seems to physically represent Sam, in my opinion. Quite lanky, nerdy, sort of fragile and naive looking.
Hopefully these shots translate how i want to film as many different angles as possible, to ensure we have a variety when it comes to editing the film. I love up close shots, as well as macro shots which have an object in the foreground, whilst the protagonist in in the background. I can't remember how that technique has stuck with me these years, but it's one i constantly refer to.

CONTEXTUAL HEALING - FILM

2010-02-11T19:59:00.000Z

Dodgy.

This week's contextual seminar with Jools definitely helped clarify what on earth the VISUAL essay was all about. I still can't help but feel that i've got to approach it like a personal statement once again though, but i'll try to remind myself that i'm trying to explore what work i like and what i dislike.
Even though at this stage in time i'm rather content towards all three pathways (this is of course before touching any flash stuff, which i've heard is just a pain in the arse), i feel rather biased towards Moving Image, considering i've just finally finished filming today (SUPER CHUFFED) and have a warm fuzzy feeling about what the output will be like in my belly. Could be the chicken my flatmate made me. I'll stop soon.

JOHAN RENCK.
is a swedish director i've had my eye on ever since watching the 'PASS THIS ON' video by the band THE KNIFE. I did briefly mention it in an old post on my previous blog, as i was immersed in the narrative of the simple music video. Here it is again:

What i love so much about the video is 'the big twist'. I paid a lot of attention to cinematics also when i first watched this video, considering i was just swotting up on SKILLZ for when i would film as camera operator for my short, MAZE, and what i loved was the moment at 2:17, when three different angles are introduced to emphasise this turning point in the music video. It's the smallest detail EVER, but it makes my eyes incredibly happy (i've repeated myself there, but it's necassary). The video is rather subtle in set design, it's a simple room you'd usually hire for a really naff birthday party, but that just promotes its realism.
Renck also directed DANIEL by BAT FOR LASHES, which, similarly to 'PASS THIS ON' prides itself on a dramatic, dark storyline and a melancholic blue-green tint. That video homes in on subtle night-marish imagery, which seems to capture the essence of the lyrics, which has a general theme of loneliness. It's a shame that i've seen a brief 'making-of' DANIEL, and the guy seems like a complete git.

MICHEL GONDRY

Erm. Wow?
Am in the middle of ATTEMPTING TO WATCH Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. For the fifth time. It seems so boring. Yet this guy has directed quirky, infamous music videos such as BJORK'S HUMAN NATURE, and DAFT PUNK'S AROUND THE WORLD? Double-you, tee, eff. I think i'm starting to become interested in sort of.. set.. tricks.. if you will. Quirky ones.

Tesco 'chocolate' donuts

2010-02-11T19:56:00.004Z

I've had a longing for chocolate cake for a few days. I bought chocolate do(ugh)nuts instead. Biggest regret of my life. Smallest dollop of chocolate filling, ever. It's all downhill from now, i can feel it. FI.
Have the voiceover sounds. Messed around with the microphone yesterday. Have evidence of dave being incredibly camp. Brilliant.
Sort of feel like i've multi-tasked several occasions during this project. Have ended up producing most of it as well. Quite like producing in a way, but i can imagine it'd be harder to have your say on creative decisions. As in, art direction. I just honestly feel that no one took charge. Everyone's going to hate me more for saying that. I know it's awkward because we're all fresh out of college/sixth form, don't know each other THAT well, ie don't want to come off being bossy etc, but.. we have to be. I know it's only a matter of sending emails to book things, sending texts, sorting out what's going to be done/filmed on which day and when.. wait, that is my point.
Filming again tomorrow. Want to re-do the whole film possibly, since i buggered up the alignment of the film. Utter fail. Very annoyed at myself for that as well. If i was to be be in charge of a practical element of a project in the future, then hopefully i'll have more confidence in what i'm doing. I picked camera operator because i'd never done it before, so it's good to know i am becoming comfortable in that position - though i felt i could have equally 'coped' in any other role.

Maze trailer

2010-02-11T17:36:00.001Z

MAZE, group trailer from Leona Yung on Vimeo.

Jade, our group’s awesome editor, did this before our second shoot, and makes me forget why we actually did a second shoot anyway..

I’m really happy with it, and i’m glad how some of the shots haves translated :)

I love The Wonder Years

2010-02-08T19:44:00.000Z

OH SO MUCH.

MAZE update

2010-02-07T15:40:00.002Z

We did some filming on Thursday, but felt a little rushed as the room was pre-booked by another group at 2. Conveniently, they didn't show up. Anyway, we've only half the footage, and plan on meeting this week to finish. It's a bit silly because the set-up is going to be different, but what can you do.
We also captured the footage on friday. I have a copy as well, and i've completely buggered up the film due to a) the camera being wonky for the majority of shots (par from experimental ones) and b) there's no sound during the pub scene. My fault, as we had used the external mic for the previous interview scene and forgot to set up as internal during pub shooting. We did also capture some conversation and white(?) noise with the wav recorder, but i don't think that'll be appropriate. Argh. Will obviously have to either re-film, or our editor will have to do some magic. Sorry guys. Hopefully it means that i can get it "perfect" this time though.
This is my list of what we've left do to do. Hopefully we'll be more organised this time round:

book kit again (for wednesday)
sound recording with dave, voice over, all the script so that editor can overlay during silent shots (monday?)
(before wednesday) gather photographs/boxes for props
stick photographs around set for ending shot

Scenes:

Possible re-filming of 'wonky' ahem, shots
Ending (zooming out to capture room, or atleast enclosed environment)
Possible re-filming of pub scenes also WITH sound :(
Shots from control room
Closeup shots of individual holding mic with tatoo

So, that crazy, kooky Moving Image, eh?

2010-02-07T14:53:00.001Z

Just a "little" post about how i've felt about the moving image project, and the pathway in general.
-edit, i'm not going to start posts with false pretence anymore, i'm sorry.
I knew before i came onto the course that i'd enjoy studying moving image, and it has lived upto my expectations so far. Still in shock over the One Shot output from last term, to be honest. I was incredibly happy with that spontaneous short, and it inspired me to become even more motivated by the subject, for this project.
We were firstly given a script each in our smaller groups, and this made me feel incredibly nervous, for some reason. Looking at the script on the spot, it was hard to interpret it in a visually aesthetic way, as well as thinking of elements of the script that could be altered/exaggerated to change the supposed initial tone/theme of the script. I'll be honest, my group found it hard to see it visually, which made my job of camera operator (cinematographer, in my eyes) harder at that point, as the theme/storyline hadn't been solidified yet. This continued for a good few weeks, i would say. And it didn't help that our producer wasn't very organised, i did most of the meeting set ups - it's hard to say that; i felt that i couldn't shoot down ideas because i wasn't exactly backing myself up with alternatives. We did eventually meet up, which is when the idea of our protagonist becoming a stalker/psycho/robin williams in One Hour Photo wannabe was born.
The director and i met up and talked over the script, and gave eachother input as to how we had visualised the shots, as well as trying to edit some of the dialogue that we weren't happy with, and to make it gel with the story. That sounds incredibly obvious. It is. At this point i had already thought of some shots in my head already. This was incredibly awkward for me, because i was also researching films at the same time, and i found myself not enjoying films for a small period of time because i was trying to hard on focusing on the camera angles used, and placement. I take my films seriously, basically, as i'm still on the 'path' of finding my all-time favourite (i'm being serious, i have to do this before i die, god damnit). I also felt that certain people within the group weren't bothered with the script, as it wasn't their role to consider the other elements of the film/production. It made me feel a little stressed to be honest. I'm stressed all the time, but this was the sort of stress that makes you irate more than usual. And the twitches. It's things like these that make working in a group harder than it should be. Which my friend suggested that i just shouldn't bother with moving image. I think she's right. But i'm overlooking it.
Filming:
We filmed half the footage this week, mainly because we were so incredibly un-organised. We had no real idea what we were filming, and it shouldn't have been that hard considering we're only in two locations: waverly tv studio, and varsity bar. And i do put that down to role of producer. If that sounds rather immature to 'shift' blame, then i apologise, but surely everyone has to stick to their role if they're expecting everyone else to do so with theirs. It was a weird atmosphere. And i buggered up camera work. Big time. The shots were wonky, so utter fail on my part. The solution to this is we either film this again, lukily our actor is a flatmate of the director's and easily contact..able, or it's down to the editor to.. edit and crop.
Even though it may have seemed tedious to everyone else on set, i found myself wanting to film from every angle possible. Perhaps it's the perfectionist within me. But it's mainly because i imagined the film to consist of many overlapping shots (from different angles). Thus it's more logical to film many repetitive yet altered shots, whilst we're set up. I did feel a little imposing, though hopefully the editor will be happy that there's a variety. There's extreme close-ups with the dave (our actor) speaking, closeups when he's still, fidgeting shots from medium distance, from above, etc. It looked really silly when i was doing it there at the time, but i've seen the captured footage and i'm glad i did it. I felt more excited when filming the pub scene however. It was poorly lit (the pub, there were no additional lighting kits), and it created the perfect atmosphere. My favourite shot is of dave, seated infront of a huge projection screen, completely immersed in darkness, with the only source of light from the screen. It's rather eerie. And creepy.
I'll leave it for now, but now i'm in the middle of making a list of what other shots need to be done, and hopefully everyone will be able to meet up either monday or wednesday for filming. We also need to record dave's voice for voiceovers.
L

MAZE 'storyboarding' 4/2/10

2010-02-04T21:13:00.000Z

Sarcasm intended. These are awful, but what the heck

Oh, and there's some notes i guess i frantically made when watching 'One Hour Photo'. It was quite late at night, but i think i was trying to understand how each scene was set up, or how they would introduce characters etc.

MAZE test shoot, bruv

2010-02-04T19:40:00.001Z

Even though storyboarding has been incredibly useful these past few weeks, i thought physically checking out the locations today definitely got a few cogs turning and whatnot. It was a lot easier acting out my ideas to my group, and vice versa, rather than wishing they could read your mind, or decipher my mysterious and ugly drawings.

Here's a few photos that give a proper jist of angles we're thinking. Locations are the television studio in Waverly, perfect as there's lighting equipment already in there, as well as the speakers (although they're a little PC ugly, to be honest) and Varsity pub/lounge area. Found a neat little view to film 'flashbacks' and give a glimpse into our character's dark lifestyle. Worrying lifestyle. Worryingly dark lifestyle.

Filming tomorrow. Arghhhh.

CINEMATOGRAPHY 101

2010-02-03T19:35:00.001Z

CINEMATOGRAPHY
SHOTS AND CAMERA ANGLES

(I'm panicking)

Source for beautiful information

QUESTIONS TO ASK:
-What is the best viewpoint for filming this position of the event?
-How much area should be included in this shot?

SCENE – defines the place or settingwhere the action is laid
SHOT – defines a continuous view filmed by one camera without interruption
SEQUENCE – A series of scenes or shots complete in itself.

TYPES OF CAMERA ANGLES
OBJECTIVE – The audience point of view
SUBJECTIVE – The camera acts as the viewers eyes-movement
POINT OF VIEW – What the character is seeing

CAMERA ANGLES – Are the most important factor in producing illusion of scenic depth. Which angle the object is photographed.

FIVE BASIC ANGLES

EYE LEVEL SHOTS – Provide frames or reference. Audiences sees the event as if in the scene. Most scenes in movies are photographed from eye level. 5 to 6 feet off the ground. Capturing the clearest view of an object.
-Treating your characters as equals. Discourages viewers at judging them and permits audience to make up their own minds.

BIRDS EYE VIEW – Photographing a scene from DIRECTLY OVERHEAD. Hovers from above like all powerful gods. Idea of fate.

HIGH ANGLED SHOTS – Camera is tilted downward. Movement is slowed down. A person seems harmless and insignificant photographed from above.-The higher the angle, the more it tends to imply fatality

-Heightens the importance of a subject. Scenes depicting heroism

OBLIQUE ANGLE – Lateral tilt of the camera. As though the object is about to fall to one side. POINT OF VIEW SHOTS.
-Suggests tensions, transitions, impending movement
IMAGE THAT SLANTS TO THE RIGHT – Acting forceful
IMAGE THAT SLANTS TO THE LEFT – Weak, static

ASK YOURSELF
-How much should be included in this shot?
-Where should the camera be positioned to view this particular part of the action?

A shot should be held no longer than required to make its point.

Approach each sequence with a fresh attitude and strive to treat the action in an individual matter.

A definite change in camera angles will assure a smoother flow of images.

Cinematography

"And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography."
Nicolas Roeg

SIX BASIC SHOTS

1) Extreme Long Shot – Taken at a great distance. Almost always an exterior shot and shows much of the locale. Establishing shots usually
2) Long Shot – The distance between the audience and the stage in the live theater

3) Full Shot – Barely including the whole body
4) Medium Shot – Knees to waste up. Useful for exposition scenes, carrying movement and for dialogue
5) Close-Up – Concentrates on a relatively small object. HUMAN FACE
6) Extreme Close-Up – Might just show eyes or mouth

CLOSEUPS
-Are among the most powerful storytelling devices available to the filmmaker
-Allows removal of tedious or repetitious action
-Can be used to provide a time lapse
-Bring that dramatic punch

FRAMES
-Area near the top of the frame can suggest ideas dealing with power, authority and aspiration
-Left and right edges of the frame can suggest insignificance

DOMINANT CONTRAST – Area that immediately attracts our attention because of a conspicuous and compelling contrast

SUBSIDARY CONTRAST – Structured image so that specific images are followed in sequence. Whatever character or object that is most dramatically important will assume dominance.

The HUMAN EYE scans pictures from left to right

HORIZONTAL LINES – Move from left to right
VERTICAL LINES – Move from top to bottom
DIAGONAL OR OBLIQUE LINES tend to sweep upward
TERRITORIAL SPACE – movie images must tell a story in time. A story that involves human beings and their problems.
THREE VISUAL PLACES – MIDGROUND, FOREGROUND, BACKGROUND

SPACE is one of the principal mediums of communication in film

Dominant characters are almost always given more space to occupy than others are.

You can define, adjust and redefine human relationships by exploiting spatial conventions

ACTOR CAN BE PHOTOGRAPHED IN FIVE BASIC POSITIONS
1) Full Front – Facing the camera
2) Quarter turn
3) PROFILE – looking off frame, left to right
4) Three quarter turn
5) Back to Camera

FULL FRONT – Most intimate, vulnerabilities exposed
-Audience agrees to become their chosen confidante.

QUARTER TURN – Involves a high degree of intimacy but with less emotional involvements

PROFILE – More remote.
-Character lost in their own thoughts.

THREE QUARTER TURN – More anonymous. Rejecting audiences

BACK TO CAMERA – Characters alienation from the world. Sense of concealment, mystery.

TIGHTLY FRAMED SHOTS – Confined

LOOSLY FRAMED SHOTS – Freedom

PROXEMIC PATTERNS – Climax, noise level and the degree of light all tend to alter the space between individuals

1) INTIMATE – Eighteen inches away. Distance of LOVE, COMFORT, TENDERNESS between individuals

2) PERSONAL – Eighteen inches to about four feet away. Reserved for friends and acquaintances

3) SOCIAL – Four feet to about twelve feet away. Business and casual social gatherings

4) PUBLIC – Twelve to about twenty feet away.

ANALYSIS OF ANY GIVEN SHOT – TWELVE ELEMENTS

1) SHOT AND CAMERA PROXEMICS
-What type of shot is it? How far away from the action is the camera?

2) ANGLE
-Are we looking up or down on the subject, or is the camera neutral?

3) LENS and/or FILTER
-How do these distort or comment on the photographed materials?

4) LIGHTING STYLE
-High or low key lighting? High contrast? Some combination of these?

5) DOMINANT
-Where is our eye attracted first?

6) SUBSIDIARIES
-Where does our eye travel after taking in the dominant?

7) COMPOSITION
-How is the two-dimensional space segmented and organized? What is the underlying design?

8) FORM
-Open or closed? Does the image suggest a window that arbitrarily isolates a fragment of the scene? How are the visual elements carefully arranged and held in balance?

9) FRAMING
-Tight or loose? Do the characters have room to move around in, or can they move freely?

10) DEPTH
-On how many planes is the image composed? What do we see in the background?

11) STAGING PROBLEMS
-Which way do the characters look from the camera?

12) CHARACTER PROXEMICS
-How much space is there between the characters?

MOVEMENT IS NOT SIMPLY A MATTER OF WHAT HAPPENS, BUT HOW THINGS HAPPEN.

The OBSERVER has to be the CAMERA and it needs to know where it’s going.

THE VALUE OF A SHOT ALWAYS DEPENDS ON A NARRATIVE.

Cinematography
" You make the movie through the cinematography - it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me."
Nicolas Roeg

THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSPECTIVE

-Finding the right points of the sequence and getting to tell the best narrative story

AESTHETIC DISTANCE – Phrase used to describe the degree to which a work or art manipulates the viewer

FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW – Sees events through the eyes of the character

THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW – Presents action as seen by an ideal observer

OMNISCIENT POINT OF VIEW – Having to know what the character is thinking. Requires a type of narration, voice-over or graphics

PAN SHOT, Used to:
-Include space greater than can be viewed through a fixed frame
-Follow action as it moves
-Connect two or more points of interest graphically
-Connect of imply a logical connection between two or more subjects

Cinematography

"Cinematography is infinite in its possibilities...
much more so than music or language.

Conrad Hall

CRANE SHOT
-Inherently majestic and holds our interest regardless of the subject because of the sheer physical pleasure of the move
-Permits us to feel the dimensions of the world by penetrating space, further endorsing its reality through the illusion of depth
-Eats up time on the set
-Careful planning and preparation is vital

TRACKING SHOT
-Used to follow a subject or explore space
-A dolly moves towards a subjects face can be used to emphasize a character’s moment of realization. A dolly always tends to isolate the subject as well
TRIPOD SHOTS
-Usually is used only in stable and relatively predictable shooting situations
-Makes very controlled transitions from subject to subject possible
-Makes very controlled image transitions possible
-Makes stable close-ups possible at the telephoto end of the zoom lens
-Conveys the cool, assured view

HANDHELD SHOTS
-Can react to events, much as we do in life
-Implies a spontaneous event driven quest
-Conveys a subjective, even vulnerable point of view

Some visual beauties, baby

2010-02-02T19:16:00.001Z

When i mentioned my script to my crazed cinephile of a sister, she recommended The Usual Suspects.

Now, i don't know whether it's because i'm an effing genius; constantly suspicious of everyone; or because of films like Scary Movie or Saw (see below); but it was SO obvious from the beginning. The second you see the 'cripple' on the screen, it's like, BLAM, THIS FILM IS RUINED. Obviously that's an overstatement, but i know i couldn't help but scream to the characters on screen that they should open their god damn eyes (i don't get out much). Anyway, the relevance is that i love Spacey's character. He plays it ever so well. It's how i perceived Sam from MAZE once the group's script had been revitalised.

Incredibly naive. But there's something you can't quite place your finger on. Something odd.

I keep staring at that photograph.

I also watched Se7en, to inspire myself with cinematography, and i must say, ever since i've become aware of The Rule of Thirds, i catch myself not enthralled by the film and its revealing narrative, but more-so how the characters or objects have been placed on screen. In hindsight, it's a good thing, i can see how it affects how the audience feels or are supposed to feel, but i can't actually watch films anymore.. just to watch the film.. Saw had already ruined this for me. If i would have seen it before the Saw series, i would have been blown away with its creativity and commentary on 'religious' issues. Whilst i did watch this on a Sunday night at 2.40am, i was surprised i had made it through all of it, not thinking 'oh, what a disgusting film' but more with a feeling of un-satisfaction lurking in the pits of my belly because of how the film ended. I was really expecting there to be some sort of deeper conspiracy as to the reasons why Doe had chose the people he chose. Perhaps it's because of Saw, but i think it would have been nice to have some emotional empathy with, hah, the victims. They were just unknown crime victims to me, so i was really looking forward to bigger picture being revealed.

Rant sort of over. Se7en is my main resource for visuals. The key is really off-screen character placement. I'd always wondered why i would frame my photographs in this sense all these years, as well.

Back from the dark side*

2010-02-01T01:05:00.001Z

I've always appreciated miniblogs that are produced using Tumblr, the themes and layouts are much more pleasing to the eye, compared to, oh, say, Blogger. But when it comes to functionality, i began to miss Blogger.

So, i'm guess i'm back here for the time being. Wordpress.org seems a little advanced for my needs at the moment (considering you have to self-host, yadda yadda), Wordpress.com is not much better than Blogger, and anything else.. well, i've just overlooked. I'll be copy and pasting from my previous Tumblr blog, so bare with me.

*Tumblr

:) Moving image update

2010-01-29T11:40:00.000Z

-more like 'renewal'.

But not like renewals at Urban Outfitters, where you're paying about 10x the price of a sweater that you'll probably find a better equivalent to in your mum's wardrobe. And doesn't have mysterious stains on it. Oh red sweater, how i should have purchased you..

So our group have been lacking in communications. Our script was relatively mundane, which is why i thought it was hard to be motivated by it, we all were. Plus it doesn't help that i like to have an element of humour in my work, no matter the context ("LET'S MAKE IT SO THAT SAM IS IN A MENTAL INSTITUTION.. GAHHH" i swear, it could have worked.. somehow..) In the script, we kept having to refer back to the fact that 'some people say they favoured [his] sister'. This meant we would have to bend whatever our script became, allowing her to be the dominant reason for him stealing/getting caught etc. There wasn't much leeway, so we settled for the idea of the sister being part of a gang, and Sam (our protagonist) wanting to become part of that gang - at any means. The means..: keeping hold of 'valuables'. He'll get caught, and never tell on his sister. Obviously i'm not giving this as much praise right now.. because we've moved onto an entirely different and more exciting concept.. :) We met up yesterday and once again tried struggled slightly to add character to our story. I sort of randomly announced that we should just really think out of the box, and mentioned about memories, and how he could steal people's memories in substition of his own. I was thinking of the video kingdom hearts, and i tried to back that up. Silence.. And jade mentioned the film One Hour Photo, and that really got the ball rolling (cheese)..

We haven't made any BIG decisions, but right now, we're thinking this is the right path for us to take, and it's just more a inventive story. This weekend i'll be researching films with impressive cinematography. The theme, i gather from our brief meeting, would be a thriller/chiller of some sort, steering clear of noir, as its not solely about the crime, but more so about the character development.

KIDDY LAND.

2010-01-27T02:19:00.001Z

Project one: Moving image

2010-01-25T01:16:00.001Z

Currently I'm in the middle of Moving Image, and 'Interpretation' is the title of the project. Which pretty much sums it up. We've been split up into groups of five and have been allocated a script which we are in complete control of, and have to creative a 2/3 minute short film as a result.

Apart from analysing plays to death from my study of English Literature, i've never been near a script before, so i feel a little hot under the collar being asked to bring this to the screen, if i'm completely honest. Little nervy. The script basically revolves around the protagonist Sam, who, i would define as a monologue of some sort at times (?).. is relaying his reactions to being [caught] for [stealing] x(we've not entirely decided on what he's stolen). Apart from giving a little bit of a hint as to why he may have done it, there's not much backstory to work with within the script or dialogue, which is where our group's creativity must become responsible in filling the gaps. I think the main questions we need to figure out properly in the script are:

Who is Sam? What is his background?
What has he stolen?
Who is he being interviewed or confronted by? Family member? The authorities: police/detective/teacher? A friend? A boss? - There is a mentioning of a speaker being in the interview room, so this definitely affects which off-screen character is bound to communicate via speaker. I immediately thought Charlie's Angels. And for a long time during our discussions, I was pretty sure we were recreating that film.. in my mind.
What event occurred to provoke him to steal? Has it scarred him? What is he trying to prove? And to who?

I chose to take the role of the Camera Operator, as they not only take function of the camera (which i've yet to do in any previous projects for official content), but also bring focus to the cinematography of the film: the angles, the size of shots, how characters must be tracked when on screen. Elements which can sway the emotions of the viewer. That may sound a little ironically big-headed, since i've never been a camera operator before and i'm already bigging myself up, but i do believe composition is vital within film. I remember talking about how i'd like to see myself as a DOP during my interview with Jools, for this course, and he began to tell me how that it was an incredibly high position within the film industry. I.. i'm doomed.

My group and i have gone through a few ideas, but i feel like we're lacking in visual references. I'm gonna try and do some utter nerdy film research and get a feel of the genres. I did think that the story can coincide under a crime narrative.. So.. Hm, as long as i don't have to watch the bill.

It seems the best thing to do is research films with interesting 'interview' scenes. I would say interrogation scenes are more intense, but depending on the script, i think that they could either make the short even more OTT, or be completely irrelevant. Here are some visual references that come to mind:

Law abiding citizen (eg closeup) ^

I, Robot (over the shoulder../side..view. Quite
intimidating) ^

Trainspotting (positioning of camera creates an insight to character's attitude towards the situation..)
"Ehhh... cool. Whatever you say. I'm sorry. You're the man. The dude in the chair."

What am I looking at?... Hmm, didn't Jools say he only wanted a few sentences? Shit.

2010-01-18T18:33:00.003Z

It's pleasant to think that whatever our current interests in media and whatnot may influence our work ethic and style. This is a list of what I've currently been doing/reading or listening to. On repeat. I love repetition. I'll repeat that for cheesy irony. I love repetition.

Films: Mostly been on a hardcore search for essential 'must sees' in World Cinema. I love foreign films and how blunt their message usually is, not to mention experimental cinematography. Recently seen 'Tokyo Story' in its black and white goodness and absolutely loved its slow pace, which is pretty much what its renowned for - although in hindsight it is basically a 2/3 hour film consisting of an old Japanese couple sitting cross-legged and agreeing with each other during mundane conversations..about mundane things. It's beautiful though, really comments on family values. (Image source: www.examiner.com)

Other films: Run Lola Run (didn't really like this, perhaps the style and pacing has become overated in my eyes..); Chungking Express and watched Leon: The Professional for the 5th time. Not as magical any more to me..

They make me question storytelling techniques.

Music: The Knife. A swedish electronic band, and bloody fantastic. Incredibly atmospheric, but that's also what my oldschool trip-hop is for. Their videos are rather artsy fartsy aswell, and I realised the Director of 'Pass this on' (Johan Renck) directed Daniel by Bat For Lashes as well (my favourite artist). I don't know how to describe his work other than by using the word 'grey'.. Below is my favourite music video at the moment.

The Knife consists of a brother and sister, which adds a dark.. incest..atmosphere to the video in a way. 'Pass this on' appears to be about an acquaintance of the sister (who is depicted in the video as, well, a tranny - which I think is a witty comment on how the sister actually viewed this unknown, unsettling person that approached her about her brother) who has a crush on the sister's brother, and would like her to 'pass this on' to him. I think Renck excels in creating an uncomfortable, verging homophobic, atmosphere (sportsgear, shaved heads - well, anyway) that this singing tranny is in, however he/she continues to sing intently to/about the brother. It's blatently not the entertainment they were expecting booked for that night. No wonder entry was free for the social.

2:17
Highlighted for emphasis, thank you. It's my favourite part of the music video and song, because it's where the 'break down' occurs (i'm 'old school'). It's where the story twists. And it makes my eyes happy. 3 different camera shots and angles of the exact same moment are used to emphasise that moment, and i just love it. Plain and simple.

Games: Left 4 Dead 2. A popular zombie survival/shooter. Over and over again. I've started to do the other featured games, such as Scavenge, and I can't believe how much of a sore loser I am. It's fun being yelled at by foreigners, whilst also being mauled to death by zombies.

Books: Collage Discovery Workshop, amongst other collage books that I asked for Christmas. Definitely want to dabble in cut-out animation and these simple ideas should motivate me to do so. Also have a book from the library that I never want to give back about experimental animation.

One shot edits

2009-12-16T05:10:00.000Z

Hangover - edit one. from Leona Yung on Vimeo.

Take 0002. Edit one. Day..two? Definitely more improvement. Everyone needs Daft Punk in their life.

Hangover, take 0001 from kaiman yung on Vimeo.

Take 0001. Day one.. With Mondo on top for ultimate chillaxxing.

Larry, for me, was inspired byyyyy

2009-12-16T02:25:00.000Z

The bestest (I promise you I've not used that word since Primary School.. other than now.. and maybe last week..) band in the whole wide world. CSS.

As a big fan of the band from a few years back, I definitely think this style and use of stop-motion represents the band's overall portrayal right down to a tee. The band are all for quirkyness, with a dark twist, which is what this video seems to represent. While Larry's Adventure doesn't necassarily have many similarities, I had this in mind when shooting the short.

Larry, born 13/12/2009

2009-12-16T01:37:00.003Z

Yes, have been a little secretive of Larry, but it's how I do.

Collaborated with a course member on this pixelation project (don't know if that'll be frowned upon or not, but what the heck, EVERYONE LOVES LARRY).
He took a week to make, holy hell. And he's sitting in my kitchen. Here's some images of planning. We've also filmed. I should probably update more often..

Before filming the plot was that I'd be trying to study within my room, but I'd become distracted by this horrendous jungle music. I'd go to the door with this blasted music, and open it to find myself in this different location: a forest. I'd locate the source of the music, turn it off, and realise I've upset this freaking dinosaur, which then goes on a rampage. A chase would ensue, using some funky experimentation in still movements. I'd make this barbie sandwich out of nowhere, hitting the speaker, and the dinosaur would be incredibly happy. The morale would be something silly, like chinese people do not like jungle music, but dinosaurs do. :)

Of course, when we started to run out of time, we realised 30 seconds was definitely not enough time for us to continue with this narrative, so decided up a simple CHASE scene.

I had a lot of fun shooting LARRY'S ADVENTURE.
But it wasn't until the second outing that I realised I wanted to be more
involved with the camera, hence the random sequence of Matrix stylee action
during the credits. I wanted to explore some more camera techniques, although
I'm very happy with the angles we have now in the film. We decided to use this
technique and incorporate it into the credits, to introduce those involved,
otherwise it would have made no sense whatsoever within the plot. The track
was an incredibly easy choice to recommend as we decided there was a 'cartoony'
and happy element to Larry (it's the eyes, SO CUTE!), and.. well, I like
happy music. :) The style of 8-bit is a match made in heaven.

The images were edited in photoshop, and have a rather nice 'vintage'
feel to them, it was just a matter of bumping up the contrast and playing
with the curve levels in order to produce higher quality of images,
in which would engage the audience a lot more.

I'm already thinking of working on different edits of Larry, and have a
shit load of song ideas for it. Here's a storyboard I just quickly did after
filming Larry's adventure. It's the same novel idea, just.. revamped.

I swear I'm going to leave blogger solely for their poor image placement..allowing.. bah.
I suppose I was attempting to continue the idea that was brought up during our first group
experimental pixelation, in the initial seminar. This was that I was a character that
appeared out of nowhere on someone's hand, messed about, and was flicked off the
screen. I really liked that idea of interaction, even if there times that stop-frame wasn't
even necessarily needed for the movements. (See video below).

Practice pixilation from Leigh Harrison on Vimeo.

FTW.

2009-12-16T01:05:00.000Z

Interactive narrative: I'm rather annoyed, because although I finished my Interactive Narrative a few days ago, DeviantArt is being incredibly RUDE, and does not want me to upload it, whatsoever. Joy.

Anyway, I've shown the flash to a few friends, and was quite surprised at how quickly they got through the piece. I definitely should not have included any straight-forward textual links (eg, "hmm, maybe I should check the cupboards?') if I wanted to challenge my audience, but I guess that just wasn't my intention. I've now added a title screen, I've also altered some of the 'script', as some of the language within the game was a little too... risky. I want to tweak the Flash.. But I don't want to remove those links yet, as I haven't uploaded the original to DA, and I want to get more feedback on the Flash as it is now. Once it's uploaded, I can see what others think of the difficulty level, and perhaps expand upon the story abit, by including some more frames. I feel a heck of a lot more confident with Flash now (hahahaha..ha), so I'm looking forward to the moment where I wish I hadn't bothered, right after having pulled my hair out and punched my Mac in its face, that is.

My eyes, they burn.

2009-12-10T03:37:00.004Z

I have had enough of Adobe Flash in ONE DAY, to last me a bloody life time.

I can happily say, it's bloody done.

Bloody yes.

Experienced SO many issues when dealing with flash, I can't express the many times I had to refrain from punching my macbook in its lovely face. But to be fair, I've never used it in my life, so I'm pretty happy right now. Happy? No, that's a understatement. Effin' A.

Main issues with interactive narrative (urghhhhhhhhhh):

The plot isn't as strong as I'd have wished. I'm definitely aware that I focused too much on visuals, and thinking of ways to make the interactive narrative exciting (it's a point and click game as of now) by.. well. I'm not sure how I planned to do so. I think I just set off with "some frames will move, some frames won't" ideology, and believe or not, that's all I've been thinking about over the whole process. I say I don't particularly like the storyline, since it's rather linear, with only a few turning points in which the 'game' could end pre-maturely. If I'd have spend more time, I'd liked to have developed the plot, creating more engaging characters, and including more of a 'sandbox' environment, where the played has a lot more freedom in their choices, eg, Fallout 3, Grand theft auto series video games. That's pretty l33t though. And I the closest thing I've created to a game is a detective game in Powerpoint presentation.

Frames. Frames frames, bloody frames. Since a select few of my images have been designed for animation, I had a hard time placing the separate images in the same positions as the previous image, on different frames. It would become jumpy as hell, considering they were of different sizes. Once I had achieved something somewhat close to 'good enough', the framerate then became an INCREDIBLE nuisance. This is where I became more familiar with the uses of 'Insert Blank Frame', 'Insert Keyframe', and 'Insert Frame' however. I would have to create a frame, import the image, and continuously click 'Insert Frame' to ensure the display duration of that frame was adequte. This process would take forever, of course, depending on whether the movie was actually working or not. Matter of trial and error. Overcame it by realising there was an option to change the framerate, RIGHT UNDER THE TIMELINE. This was after I had slaved over the timeline, inserting new frames to prolongue the selected frame.

BUTTONS. I thought it was possible to create invisible buttons, all on one layer, and then drag it under the contents layer (background and text), with the buttons still remaining clickable. I was wrong. And at 2am in the morning, when you're pretty stoked you've completed what seems like a 9 million miles long marathon wearing nothing but a moomoo, it's just death. I searched high and low on the internet, varying my keywords in the search engine from 'invisible layers in flash cs3', 'hide objects', to 'OH GOD KILL ME NOW', I came across the heaven-sent site that cleared away my troubles. It was a matter of editing the buttons manually, ie setting the blend mode, within the properties, to 'erase'. Now, I know that may seem simple enough, but.. God.

Blogger is so silly with images. This was the issue before I found the solution. I was so happy when I had completed my narrative, I didn't take notice of the fact that my buttons were still visible, even though I had turned the viewing mode off for that layer. That was when all hell broke lose, basically.

By jove, I think i've got it.

2009-12-08T12:45:00.000Z

Interactive narrative: So I couldn't stand Flash a few weeks ago because I was being INCREDIBLY nitpicky about the positioning of my drawings within each frame (attempting to get them all in the same position so they animate smoothly) and yesterday I decided to tell the perfectionist in me where to stick it, and have actually progressed quite abit in my interactive narrative. Granted I'm still inserting frames, and working on the buttons and animating (I promise you, there's not that much, it's just quite tedious), but I feel a bit more acquainted with layers, inserting new frames and whatnot. Still early days, and I'm only using 'Test movie' between working on frames to get a general overview of how it looks, so.. I'm just hoping it all works.

One shot: Was fun as hell. Am pretty stoked to do the editing later in today's seminar. Yesterday's filming was a lot more collected, and I had a character in mind so there's more of a developing plot in the short. Will post some visual references in a bizzle. Chicken cooked by Katie is calling me.

A little update on everything, really. Oh yes, and christmas songs.

2009-12-06T17:16:00.007Z

Interactive narrative is going terribly.. And no, I'm not building up suspense to say 'terribly AWESOME'. I'm finding it really difficult to position the scanned images in the same places as the previous frames, so when I test the movie, the frames will become jumpy. Wow, I really do like to over-complicate things. Should have just drawn the images in flash. Am currently just playing around with 'the script', and trying to figure out how to insert buttons and associate commands/actions to those buttons.

Here are some GIF examples of work I've been doing in Flash. When I say work, I mean, 'starting a new flash, inserting images, getting REEEEEALLY pissed of because of the frame transistions, and just in general not knowing what I'm doing, closing the file, and starting all over again'. That's what it's like right now.

My attempt at drawing within Flash... I don't know, it's weird how I automatically turn to stickmen drawings. Bad habits are hard to break.

Completely irrelevant. But I love these cutesy characters. I wanted to take the story to another level, more of a backstory, if you will. These characters would basically control the game, for you. Wishful thinking. Maybe some future design, eh?

See what I mean? Jumpy as. I need to learn how to extend frames or gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

ONE SHOT FILM: I've booked the camera (sony Z1, for future reference) for our group until Monday morning, but am thinking we'll be able to possibly sneak in another take early in the morning. We've had a few ideas, but for some reason we never went forward with any - it was sort of a mutual thing.. no one disagreed whilst no one tried to big up any of them. We ended up at Dave's (messy) flat and did some experimenting with time lapse. It's a really nifty effect, if I say so myself, and I'm hoping we'll all arrive at his tomorrow morning with millions of other ideas for the subject. I don't really want to say what we did exactly, because it's work in progress, but it's definitely bloody fun/irritating to film.

I never mentioned the rules for One Shot, did I?

Must be one minute long, can go over, but not by too much
Must involve the whole team in production roles
Must be group edited, with input of all team members taken into consideration
There is potential for alternative cuts to be made from different team members
Keep notes of individual production notes to explain roles and contribution to assessment
MUST be critical and SELF critical (oh dear)
Must have uploaded by 3rd Tuesday Seminar
Can pan/tilt camera, but HAS to be stationary on tripod at all times (bummer)

So far, One Shot has definitely been my favourite project in terms of gaining contextual knowledge. I've always had problems with mindmapping ideas from the get-go, but our first Seminar consisted of collaborative improv, if you will. This involved our team members each adding to the narrative that was being passed around on a piece of paper from the previous person (who had started it off) - allowing the production of what would be a complete storyline that just a few minutes ago were just scattered segments of text that had no context. I'm definitely bookmarking this idea in.. my mind.

These are the keypoints, each person basically adding their input. Be it random, non- fictional, invented, witty, dark, soppy - whatever, it will work.

- CHARACTER (PHYSICAL/EMOTIONAL ATTRIBUTES THAT GIVE CHARACTER)
- SITUATION (EVENT/LOCATION)
- WANTS/DESIRES
- WHO/WHAT IS PREVENTING THIS ACTION?
- HOW WILL THE CHARACTER OVERCOME THIS PROBLEM/COME TO A SOLUTION?

This is one example of our collaborated storyline:

PIXELATION: Dinosaur needs to be painted super quickly. Will be booking a camera for next week, and hopefully will have our shots by the weekend. Ahhh stress.

"Adobe Flash isn’t built for animating scanned images."

2009-12-03T01:41:00.001Z

^Says some guy off the internet with good use of Standard English. I'm doomed.

But I thought, seeing as I am 'buying' a film at the moment, I'd quickly update about another of my three ongoing projects. Pixelation. Or is it PixIlation? I forget. Sorry.

I am collaborating with a course mate for the stop-frame animation, and we're in the building process right now. All I'm going to say is that there's a half-made, headless dinosaur sitting in my kitchen, as I speak. Beauty.

One shot: Our group have met a few times now to discuss any ideas for our short. I've taken a few notes on our ideas and I must say, we're a pretty odd bunch. I like it.

My favourite idea revolved around a standard interview process - but for a porno. I know, it's ~~a little~~ very much so tongue-in-cheek, but (I'm sure I've mentioned this before..) I'm all for dry humour.

My initial response to this idea would probably involve playing around with the script, not actually ever mentioning that the interview was for a porno.. Another member voiced that we could ask 'awkward' questions. The 'twist' would be given at the end. I dunno, I guess it's just an excuse to ask things like 'What tricks can you do?' That would be amusing to see when showing my parents my hard work at University. Or possibly have a boy turn up and get the job instead.

In terms of references, (oh god, here come the jokes..yes, let's research then, eh?) I immediately thought of one of my favourite sketch shows that isn't on anymore, unfortunately. This being the almighty SMACK THE PONY.

Smack The Pony consisted of four of the silliest women ever, basically, and used to air on Channel 4. They shot a series of dating agency video sketches, and it's just always stuck in my head because the humour is perfect. I think this could be a good example to study, if my group was to go ahead with the 'interview' style, which I'd really like, as it complies to the One Shot rules given to us (can't move the camera); resulting in us having to focus entirely on scripting... Hmm, let's see how it goes.

I got the fever for the flava.

2009-12-02T18:05:00.000Z

Here's a preview of my assets. While I'm all for focusing on the narrative for a brief like interactive narrative, I've got to realise I'm just not good at creative writing whatsoever, and I'm not going to get better at it unless I really put all my heart into.. I've always been like this, struggling to decide whether to create better visuals over a well-thought out narrative and vice versa. You might ask why I can't do both. Well, it's that self-explanatory. I physically can't. Not yet anyway. I am progressing, it's just taking longer than expected. Or as expected.

Hopefully that will give you a general overview of the aesthetics of my flash piece. I come from an art/graphic background so I've been experimenting and trying to discover what my personal style for awhile now. Brown paper may not seem the ideal background for a supposed zombie survival game, but I didn't intend for it to be a horror game. I love quirkyness, so perhaps I opted for quirky zombies. Still unsure abut that one.

I'm still not used to drawing in flash, especially while I'm still unsure which style is most natural to me, so it was an easy choice for me to draw and scan in the images. Then comes the fun part of modifying the images within Photoshop. This is my favourite stage of the deign process, as I already knew, perhaps even before I had written the plot/storyline, the overall intended style of the game: quite simplistic and minimalist in its drawings, but grungey in tones and shades. I'm also in love with mark-making at the moment, once again, and have recently borrowed a book from the library labelled: DESIGN BY ACCIDENT on its spine, in golden capitol, metallic lettering - no image or text on the front or back - this is going to be my bible from now on, and I definitely need to get my own copy. Shame it's out of print, what with it being made in the 60's.

Am happy with all of my assets. Just have to organise the frame structure within Flash. Absolutely terrified. Will update on my other ongoing projects of Pixelation and One Shot very soon also. PEACE.

Subconscious inspiration for interactive narrative

2009-12-02T17:27:00.000Z

On a roll, I guess.

Anyway, I had primarily decided on the 'point and click' idea as I'm pretty much a gamer at heart, and online point and click adventure games have always been an interest to me. I even attempted to make one myself for my Art Foundation studies last year, but failed miserably. A lot of this was down to just being in the wrong environment (I was completely surrounded by graphic designers focusing on illustrations for books and whatnot), and my tutor not having a lot of knowledge of flash, so I found it difficult to want to learn the software, and stressed myself over the narrative. I see a pattern emerging.

Ahh, I digress. Back to point and click. To define it, it's basically a genre in it's own sense, within the 'adventure' category of computer games, and requires the player to interact with the game environment and objects using an on-screen cursor. The mouse pointer may even be context sensitive in that it applies different actions to different objects. Yes, it can be incredibley nitpicky, and requires a heck of a lot of patience, but can be rewarding to complete. As far as I know, this place, apart from being my favourite flash site, is definitely the best source for looking at other user created content/flash. Users will range from professionals and experts, to beginners and, well, me. There is a rating system (BLAM THIS PIECE OF CRAP being the lowest of low, to W00T, ALL MY 5 R BELONG TO THIS being the best) as well as an opportunity to gain feedback off players who should hopefully give USEFUL criticism. I can't talk however.

Over my years of searching for goodies (films, animations, games) on the site, aliens from planet dave has always remained in my head, created by Leo Humphries. It is a clever mixture of video footage and flash animations/interactions (which I absolutely love, and aspire to integrate into my work one day). I haven't created anything as exciting/funny as this, of course, but I wanted to give it a shoutout, primarily to show not all point and click game creators follow the same boring 'escape this boring room by clicking on this badly made monotone sofa created in flash' design process.

The game succeeds in its objective, I believe, as it contains the main aspects required to create an exciting interactive game: a basic but quirky storyline with humurous events from the get-go, integrates different game genres so is accessible to audiences with different genre preferences eg, combines action (shooting aliens, hazaar!) with sleuthing, unconventional visuals, and an easy to use player interface. 5 extra points because it made me chuckle.

Spaghetti and hot dogs - and delayed work.

2009-12-02T16:29:00.000Z

So I'm sure my work method is rearing its ugly head: I like to leave things to last minute. This, I assure you, is not completely down to personal preference; it's just my default way of thinking/acting. It's a love/hate relationship. While firstly I get incredibly stressed, want to bite everyone's (those who distract me) head off and become rather anti-social, I'm simultaneously, strangely, more motivated then usual because of that pressure.

In a nutshell, I have three projects on the go, and all I want to do is play video games.

The first thing I'd like to talk about is my interactive narrative. A BIG update on that, really. Looking at my previous post, I'm instantly disappointed that I wasn't able to adhere to my promise of dry humour being quite a strong aspect of the interactive narrative. Very annoyed. The story has changed slightly aswell, but it's still a 'AHH, GET AWAY FROM THE ZOMBIES' style point and click game.

(I hate uploading on blogger, it's ugly.)

Basic story, spoiler alert, hardeehar (seeing as the STORYboard became more of a WHATARETHETRIGGERSboard):
First frame: you're woken up by one of your friends, the room is dark, and you wonder if that's ketchup on their face. You notice there's an idle body in the distance. The person is infected, and you're told you're the one needed to venture off within this hotel location to retrieve supplies. You're dazed, and unsure if you heard your friend correctly. 'Zombies'?

Second frame: the hallway. There are three clickable rooms (out of five).

Third frame: can obviously depend on which room you click.

room one: a bedroom. No zombies in sight (yet). Hopefully you will notice the laptop on the desk, and click on it. It is not mandortory, more of an easter egg.
room two: a bedroom. Ahh, the first 'zombie' sighting. How will you defend yourself?
room three: the second hallway. You wonder whether it is wise to walk into the room with this suspicious handprint on its door, or whether to take the other route.

Fourth frame: can obviously depend on which room you click.

room one: security office. There is another 'thing' mauling what seems to be the corpse of the security guard.
room two: kitchen. Perhaps it's best to have a quick rummage through the cupboards. You can't seem many other choices considering your current situation. There must be something accessible which will help you deal with these zombies, you ponder.

Fifth frame: aslong as the 'supplies' have been discovered before accessing the security room, a 'happy' ending should entail. Otherwise, you're zombie food.

The concept of the game was to not include any hints/tips/text/arrows, the player would have to basically use logic and click on items. It isn't as effective because I assume the mouse cursor will transform into a hand once upon a clickable item anyway - which just takes all the fun away, but if I ever decide to really give Flash a look over, I'm sure there's a way to bypass this problem at an advanced level, yucky coding.

I'm scared this entry may not post, so I'm going to upload my assets in another post.

WATCH THIS SPACE.

I'm sort of like Doug

2009-11-03T01:02:00.001Z

in the sense that I write thoughts/ideas/whiney crap down in my 'journal', rather than expressing them anywhere else. It's quite ironic, really, but I'll get used to posting online soon. I do love irony though.

Ever since my rather intense first post, alot of shizz has been going down. More so with, what was it called in that powerpoint presentation for the Narrative Flash.. Oh yes, 'self-conflicts'. Awesome. But yes, I'm very much here now.

Apart from the two introductory workshops of the pin-hole camera and group white-board pixelation, which were nice little awkward ice breakers, I've mostly been focusing on my current rotation of 'Narrative Flash'. I looked at Flash once, during my Art foundation studies, and died a little inside. I'm pretty sure I'm procrastinating from having to touch the software, but in the back of my head I know I'll get down to it. It's my work ethic. Leave all the panic til the last minute. It works. Not that I'm promoting it. No. God no.

So what is an 'interactive narrative'? I perceive it as a new and powerful art form for telling stories in a way that can rely heavily on the participation of the audience. Think mash-ups of audio-books with a flash interface; a video game with a non-linear narrative that can change depending on the route the player decides to take (good or evil, I'm talking Fallout 3 here, mmm). What is especially interesting however are the many styles of media this can be transferred to: web sites promotion/advertisments, interactive television, video games.. I.. I sound like a University prospectus. It's awesome stuff, that's all you need to know.

MY IDEAS. HOHOHO. And my research methodology. Hmm.

So I've already learnt that I can't produce mindmaps on the spot. This can be linked to the lecture Jools gave on an individual's personal methodology to approaching design. I like to research ideas first, by looking at sources that I may have looked before, or just performing random searches using those magically generic keywords. Else, I usually have an immediate idea and I'll become stubborn and stick with it forever. I'm preventing myself from doing that this time. My first idea involved having a narrative based on a student's attempts to cook, the day after a messy night out. However mundane that may seem, I'm pretty much in love with food, and I know I wouldn't have a problem with buying hella lot of food in order to obtain my 'assets' for the narrative. It would have involved the 'player' clicking on several items individually, and combining them with others. It was a once off event, when my friends and I were relatively drunk. I can still taste the strawberry cheeseburger to date. Although there's no apparent 'narrative/plot', it was more so based on getting the character through these 'hard choices' ("I'M LATE FOR MY LECTURE, to tomato with custard, or not?!") as opposed to creating an actual.. adventure.

My focus then turned to creating a love story involving an anti-social grapefruit. I'm not creating the best of impressions of myself here, am I? Above are notebook 'sketches'.

Currently, ha, I've finally changed to some sort of 'zombie survival' narrative. I love zombies. I'm thinking ZOM-COM genre all the way, because I'm a sucker for dry humour. I'll post some sources v.soon. But we're talking Shaun of the Dead humour, here.

First post

2009-10-06T13:13:00.000+01:00

My expectations for the first year of this Multimedia course is.. to learn so much that my head explodes and I'll have to ask my Mum to make a wig for me to cover the void where my head should indeed be. Perhaps get a nice hat for that wig.

...I'm interested in a whole array of new media, so I'm excited about discovering new techniques and combining my own knowledge of the subject.

that's what she said

Rap/hip-hop videos

Projected visuals: Week 1

Trends

Anonymous

SSP: Lighting and style references

SSP: Masks

SSP: Final idea change... honest

SSP: Blind Date - storyboard of a typical episode

SSP: Idea change...

Say something political: feedback from tutors and peers

TV roles

..So, you want to work in movies..

Are Britain's art schools in crisis... guardian article

Say something political: initial idea storyboarding

Analysing films; example

Analysing film shots - Cinematography

End of the year!

Flash: WOOT.

Flash: newgrounds.com...

Individual cut of Maze (probably best get a cup o' tea ready for this one)

Flash: neeeeeearly there..

Flash update: images

more flash

Trees.

Interactive quiz update

Flash project: Interactive quiz

My dress is a frame

Animating tutorials

Troll Lair, The

Few weeks left

maze

MAZE

The 'where do you see yourself in 5 years time?' post

More visual references for Troll Lair

My lazy wednesday

3ds-maxing and relaxing

Lair, first ideas

Google's ketchup recipe

Boot camp will be the death of me & 3ds-oh-my-god-max;

Wait, where were they again..

Fantastic mr fox is effing fantastic. And i know where the Wild Things are..

Heavy Rain

Home sweet ill home..

MAZE, the group edit and feedback

Moving image update, frame forge oh yes. (post in week of 'tescos chocolate donuts)

CONTEXTUAL HEALING - FILM

Tesco 'chocolate' donuts

Maze trailer

I love The Wonder Years

MAZE update

So, that crazy, kooky Moving Image, eh?

MAZE 'storyboarding' 4/2/10

MAZE test shoot, bruv

CINEMATOGRAPHY 101

CINEMATOGRAPHYSHOTS AND CAMERA ANGLES

Some visual beauties, baby

Back from the dark side*

:) Moving image update

KIDDY LAND.

Project one: Moving image

What am I looking at?... Hmm, didn't Jools say he only wanted a few sentences? Shit.

One shot edits

Larry, for me, was inspired byyyyy

Larry, born 13/12/2009

FTW.

My eyes, they burn.

By jove, I think i've got it.

A little update on everything, really. Oh yes, and christmas songs.

"Adobe Flash isn’t built for animating scanned images."

I got the fever for the flava.

Subconscious inspiration for interactive narrative

Spaghetti and hot dogs - and delayed work.

I'm sort of like Doug

First post

CINEMATOGRAPHY
SHOTS AND CAMERA ANGLES