Essay!!!!

Essay writing

LOOK FOR WEBSITE THAT GIVES YOU WORDS START TO SENTENCES (ask student support)

You need:

·      name, title, course

·      title/question

·      an introduction starting your intentions and how you will address the question

·      main body of essay – (argument) a series of paragraphs offering (weighing up) different viewpoints on the subject, with a logical progression of ideas

·      conclusion – try not to sit on the fence; say something conclusive and original

·      bibliography, in Harvard system – ensure you include a balance of books and academic websites (ideally more books than websites) avoid if you can wikipedia.

·      3000 words including quotations from referenced sources

Can’t say I, my opinion but talk in third person.

Title/question

·      This year you will develop your own topic/title/question, with tutor (in the early stages it can remain a topic, the specific title can develop as your research and writing develops)

·      It will probably be discipline specific, but should at the least be art/design/media related, or link to a topic introduced in lectures or seminars

·      It can link to a topic introduced in lectures or seminars, or stem from your own personal interests or research

·      It should have a firm basis in (critical) theory

·      It can (but does not have to) develop into your level dissertation

Two key words:

Objective – neutral, unbiased, based on reason, NOT a personal response based on feelings or emotions

Subjective – the opposite to the above

You must be objective

Research

·      Try to research your topic thoroughly, using a variety of sources

·      These should at least include books, and probably academic websites

·      You could also refer to journals, newspapers, magazines, DVDs/videos from the library

·      Primary research (interviews etc) will always gain additional marks (probably more likely to take place in your dissertation)

Style

·      Write in the third person not the first

1.     ‘This essay will address the question of whether…’ NOT ‘in this essay I am going to…’

2.     ‘It can be interpreted that…’

·      develop a specialist/vocational language and vocabulary which indicates that you know your subject and have some level of expertise in it

·      but do not use language without understanding what it means

·      so a dictionary may be a good investment

·      use short quotations from books you have read to back up ideas you put forward, so that there is academic….

Illustrations

·      given the nature of your course, it is likely that you will refer to/analyse visual examples to aid in starting your argument

·      Provide illustrations of these, normally at the end of the essay (you can refer to them directly in the text, or as figures)

Tools

·      Dictionary and thesaurus (but don’t over use it)

·      Electronic spelling, grammar and referencing tools (but beware of American English)

·      Proofreaders (friends and relatives!)

·      Tutors

·      Library

·      Academic support

Ideas

The house of asama bin ladin (look up)

Not proper art because its not a painting

Distinction between high and popular culture – becoming predictable

Admire something that takes place instead of something that’s happened

Cgi killing storytelling

Book: 7 basic plots

Do we get the same experience if a film is made on location or all  digitally (blue screens etc)

Stargate Studios
http://www.stargatestudios.net/news

Escape Studios

http://www.escapestudios.com/

http://www.escapestudios.com/using-a-green-screen-to-help-kick-the-habit/

28/2/2013

blue/green screen, benefits pros & cons

1.
http://www.awn.com/blogs/tracking-marc/bluescreen-vs-greenscreen-how-choose

So, the more important reason nowadays, as more and more digital cameras are taking over film, is the sensitivity and processing of the color channels of the digital camera you're shooting with. I say sensitivity and processing (sampling), because these are two distinctly different factors. One affects the noise level, the other affects the actual resolution of that channel. And both are important to good keying results.

The green channel is the cleanest channel in most digital cameras today. The green channel has the highest luminance of all three (red, green and blue) digital channels, and thus the sensors deliver the least noise in that channel. The processing is three-fold: There is Bayer Pattern filtering (which occurs in single CMOS/CCD sensors, but not 3-CCD cameras), DSP (digital signal processing) and the processing in the actual recording format.

Unfortunately, there are a few disadvantages to greenscreen. Due to green's high luminance, the green spill (i.e. the bounced/reflected light from the greenscreen) is quite a bit higher than with bluescreen.  Color correction tends to be easier on bluescreen than on greenscreen. If your subjects have blond hair, for instance, it easily turns reddish after removing green spill in post.

2.

Advantages of Green Screen Video Production

Green screen videos are brilliant for adding a subject in front of a background that you could not get them in-front of.  For example a company logo – or as in the above picture, a sunny beach – not accessible in England!

The above image was taken by Liquid Productions when we were filming with Analytics SEO.  Their concept was to create some screencast training videos for their software that weren’t as boring as the usual screencast tutorials on the web.  We filmed with Laurence and have placed him in numerous environments including Paris, India, a golf club and the beach.

To produce a video properly you have to position the camera at the exact same angle as the background footage, along with matching the light to the background footage.  Obviously on a bright sunny day you have one big key light – the sun – so you have to replicate this in the studio.

Disadvantages of Green Screen Video Production

The first and most obvious disadvantage is the cost.  Filming in a studio, with correct lighting etc is very costly.  The next big disadvantage is the green ‘halo’ effect you can get when the background isn’t properly lit.  With budget productions this can often plague the video.  At Liquid Productionswe always make sure that things are properly lit and optimised for video editing.

Often companies use greenscreens when they should be using white backgrounds.  If you want your subject on a white background – the apple look video – then film them on a white background.  That way you don’t get the green reflexions and halo effect.  This is the reason that we will film an internet presenter video on a white background.

http://liquidproductionsblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/green-screen-video-production/

3.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/using-green-screen-in-tv-post-production/12719.html

4.
http://www.ugo.com/tv/guide-to-green-screens-star-wars

Star Wars

One of the earliest challenges that bluescreen filmmakers had to overcome was the synchronization of foreground and background - unless both sets of cameras were moving at the same speed and angle, any movement would result in a jarring disruption of perspective, taking viewers out of the carefully-crafted illusion. When George Lucas began filming the first episode in the most important science fiction series of all time, he knew he'd have to push the boundaries of what was possible to make it happen. Enter the Dykstraflex, a computer-controlled camera that made precise, repeatable movements around the many models used for the film's spacecraft. With the resultant film, Lucas and his crew at Industrial Light & Magic could createStar Wars' chaotic space battles and keep them looking real. The computer-controlled camera would go on to become an essential tool in any effects house's arsenal.

Forrest Gump

One of the first and most primitive uses of chromakey technology was to insert actors over a primitive filmed background, creating the illusion of one continuous world through clever composition. In the 1994 Tom Hanks vehicleForrest Gump, instead of using the technology to simulate a fantastic world, they instead used it to recreate the past, taking archival footage of many famous moments in American history, including shaking hands with JFK. But one of the most impressive effects in Gump involves his commanding officer Lt. Dan, played by Gary Sinise. To simulate Dan's amputated legs, they wrapped the actor's lower half in blue fabric, so the chromakey would erase it from the scene. The resultant effect had audience's jaws on the floor when they saw how bizarrely realistic it looked.

King Kong

No, we're not talking about the Peter Jackson remake, although that was a pretty cool flick (if about an hour too long). We're talking about the 1933 original, directed by Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack. In a precursor to today's greenscreen technology, audiences were dazzled by scenes of the lovely Fay Wray interacting with what seemed to be a gigantic ape. The monster was really a combination of stop-motion animation, gigantic props, and miniature sets, composited together using a variety of matting techniques. The intense level of experimentation used in the making of Kong would inspire multiple breakthroughs in the special effects field over the next several decades, culminating in the invention of the first true bluescreen. The cutting-edge optical effects were mainly created by scientific genius Linnwood G. Dunn, who would go on to work on the original Star Trek series, among others.

Stephen Colbert's Green Screen Challenge

Our favorite pseudo-conservative commentator Stephen Colbert has been the starting point of many an Internet meme, but our favorite started out as a happy accident. In 2006, he aired a short clip of himself swinging a lightsaber in front of a greenscreen, as a homage to the famous Star Wars Kid viral video. Fans got ahold of this footage and the first Green Screen Challenge was born, with viewers using their computers to superimpose all sorts of nonsense on the scene. Colbert aired a few of the best on his show, and a new meme was born. Not only are the Colbert challenges incredibly funny, they're also a testament to how accessible the technology has become - modern home computers have become powerful enough to do the real-time compositing that it used to take massive machines loaded with specialized software to do.

(TRY IT OUT??)

References

1.

JASON STATHAM: THE KING OF ACTION FILMS 

http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/cover-stars/201204/jason-statham-action-movies-interview?printable=true#ixzz1pg2Aqjqr

To Hackford, to others who've worked with Statham, and perhaps most important to Statham himself, that lack of being anything but himself is key to his ascension to action hero. "Statham's genius lies in repetition," is how one article in the British press put it. Whenever possible, Statham does his stunts, fights his fights, drives his cars. Don't get him started on special effects: "Fahkin' hate green screen. Pay significant amounts of money never to do it again. You cannot fake adrenaline."

Statham's defining on-set moment came at the end of what may be his defining film, Crank, playing a lethally poisoned L.A. assassin able to remain alive only by keeping himself in full adrenaline rush. Statham begged to do the final stunt: hurling himself and his enemy out of an airborne helicopter, killing the man, then chatting up his girlfriend on his cell until he hits the ground. Pure deadpan violence, but the shot relied on only a single 2,000-pound cable to support the leapers. The movie's insurers wanted no part of it. He relented, filming the cell-phone banter against a green screen, but made the jumps anyway.

"On the last day," codirector Mark Neveldine says, "when every scene was wrapped, he got to do the drop: 220 feet, pure acceleration until the final 24 feet, when it gradually slowed, and he still landed hard. He, of course, did it 16 times, and with each take he got more confident, and the funnier the scene played out. That's Jason. He has a rep for being uncontrolled crazy, but he doesn't do anything reckless. He goes over every detail with a stunt coordinator—and if he doesn't feel confident in his safety, he just won't do it."

Read More http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/cover-stars/201204/jason-statham-action-movies-interview?printable=true#ixzz2MWxsnPsd

2.
Hobbit green screen gripes: Why Ian McKellen is right

"Pretending you're with 13 other people when you're on your own, it stretches your technical ability to the absolute limits."
With over 40 years of stage experience, you can forgive McKellen for preferring props and people to the power of post-production, but does he have a point? Can the digital backlot ever be a substitute for soundstage?




3.
Ewan McGregor

Lucas' dire script and questionable skill directing actors was undoubtedly a problem, but so was his obsession with shooting on green screen, piping in the environment afterwards, and even placing stars' different takes side-by-side with digital trickery. McGregor memorably described the process to Jonathan Ross - he was told by Lucas to "look at the moons!", but had no idea where they were.


http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/73690513.html


http://www.flixist.com/the-necessity-of-visual-consistency-and-why-cgi-sucks--199972.phtml

(Link to actors & dis advantage of green screen)

When there are green screens instead of space ships and air instead of aliens, an actor must act instead of react. An actor only has a vague idea of what his or her world is and what he or she is dealing with.

What the final film looks like is probably completely different than what the actors envisioned at the time. Because these characters and worlds are created in post production, it could be months before an actor knows what exactly it was that happened in any given scene. Even the best actors have limitations, and simulating a world is the easiest way to show them. Every single moment becomes an act. Petting the air does not compare to petting a dog. Standing in front of a green screen does not compare to standing in a rundown ghetto.

Technology has improved greatly since the advent of the green screen, and it has become increasingly difficult to discern between location shooting and green screens. However, I will continue to argue that films using legitimate locations tend to feel much more realistic in the final product, as they allow for things that green screens can't. Cutting corners is all well and good, but interaction with a real environment cannot be replicated by a piece of fabric.

THEORISTS

Look at Jean baudrillard 
"simulations" - 306bau
"simulacra and simulation" - 360bau (quite heavy going)

introducing Baudrillard
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introducing-Baudrillard-Graphic-Chris-Horrocks/dp/1848312075
(more simple to read)

Walter Benjamin - "the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction" (page 521)

Art theory 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Theory-1900-2000-Anthology-Changing/dp/0631227083 (709.06)

Talk about:

Aura (unique)

Authenticity

Originality

Is location more "real" for viewer and the actor?

Method acting – easier to get into character  whilst on location, Daniel day lewis