James Cameron: Fight scene

Terminator 2: Judgement day bar fight scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYOoWCv_PYE&feature=related

Cameron's well known for bringing in the camera close during fight scenes. He follows the characters arm movements, follows closely the subject, and many shots are quick cut, yet smooth and effective. I tried using a similar technique for our fight scene in the second film where Tim knocks out the gun from Joel's hand, and we captured it from all different angles. It wasn't a big scene with too many shots but it was enough to compare my takes with Cameron's.

Christopher Nolan & Tarantino's Pulp Fiction

Nolan is regarded as one of the greatest directors, has screen-played Momento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, A Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Chris has also written Inception and Following.


I could talk for hours about his movies, but his art work and filming has influenced how i look through a camera and hit the record button. Some of his signature work he begins his movies by introduces his main characters with a close up of their hands performing an action. In the instructional video i was concentrating on close-ups based on footage i have seen from Nolan's films.

Like in Momento, he usually starts films with a flashback or a scene from the end of the movie. In my first poem film I start off using a marvel effect, to show that the character is dreaming and create a dramatic effect for when he wakes up. 


Non-linear timelines (momento) is very similar to Quentin Tarantino's pulp fiction. Nolan uses this technique in a couple of films he directs and clearly he makes it work very well. It's something i'd like to incorporate in a future film i direct. Nolan employs non-linear storytelling techniques, often flipping around the three acts of a movie to tell the story in an interesting fashion. But by bringing out the darkest sides of a character eg. Keith Ledger in Batman, Guy Pearce in Momento it's very effective wether it's non linear or shot normally.

Shooting for second poem: Day 2

The weather was much more kind to us second time round filming in Ilkley moor. It was still cold but the wind was at a minimal and the sun even popped out for a half hour or so. We picked up some really good sounds using the sound booth, with the birds tweeting, the soft winds, the general atmosphere was sucked in by the mic which I'm excited to hear whilst editing.

It took us about 4 hours to film. We must have every seasonal weather filmed in our video which will work really well to show a pass of time. From when Tim passes out from the cold, in the snow, he awakes in warmer sunny weather. We were going to shoot Joel pouring water over Tim's face to wake him up but it was too cold, so we improvised and just showed him waking up, or hallucinating, as Joel being the ghost approaching him

We got some really great shots of the scenery, just before the fight scene when the sun was coming out the exact location of where we shot by the quarry I captured some really good footage. For the fight scene  I wanted to create quite an epic and dramatic feel to the end of the film, i have been quite worried not much had really gone on in the film itself and i don't want it to look boring. Joel and Tim acted the scene out quite a few times, and each time i filmed it from a different angle or a close up to another subject in the scene.

Overall i feel as a team we worked pretty well. At points there were creative arguments over both films which was expected. If someone disagreed with somebody else it was only natural and healthy for one to point out why it can or cannot work, and to come up with a better idea.

Shooting for second poem: Day 1

We set off to Ilkley Moor and Wiz drove us again. Tim and Joel wrote dialogue so we took the sound booth with us along with the same XD camera and tripod as in the first film. The weather was pretty terrible but we set off up the mountain and filmed towards the top of the quarry. Weather conditions from the off were very difficult to work with but we were determined to complete as much footage as possible. I was filming as Wiz co-assisted and looked over the sound booth. Tim and Joel had co-produced and co-directed the second poem which i felt was fair seeing as I directed and filmed the first. I didn't want to act as if i wanted to take credit for everything we've done.

I was absolutely freezing but the show had to go on, we were all cold. We battled through an hour and a half of wind and rain before we got caught in a blizzard of snow which stopped us from carrying on, so we had to reschedule for a later date to finish the rest of the film. It was so annoying because the weather rushed some of our scenes, we just wanted to get it over and done with until it got impossible, and the last thing we wanted was to damage any equipment by getting wet.

I didn't feel the chemistry was right for this one. We all got there and seemed a little clueless. It was almost like we didn't really know what we were doing, but again i think that was down to the weather.
The location itself was good, it really emphasised the title of the poem 'Silky Winds', and some of the scenery was really beautiful. We attempted a time lapse which Joel wanted so we set up the tripod and camera, and after two minutes Joel wanted to move on. I wasn't sure myself it was long enough for a time lapse but hopefully it looks good enough for us to capture some decent scenery. This time round I was worried i had been heard enough for the first film that many suggestions i'd thrown in were quickly dismissed. I didn't mind too much as I assumed the others new what they were doing...

I'd seen this puddle which from a good enough angle, you could reflect the scenery off of it whilst the wind was blowing and zoomed up it almost looked like the sea. I'd suggested for Tim to walk over it and start his journey which is what we attempted to capture. I got a little frustrated that i got hurried off filming that clip that it wouldn't film as i'd imagined it to look like.

One scene was Tim having to be and look ill, looking like he was going to faint. I had an idea of during the scene of the camera back tracking as he is walking towards it at the beginning, instead, he holds the camera in his hands and follows the position of his head without looking into the camera. His head would obviously be the main subject in the centre of that clip, and everything behind it would move and not look stable which is what i thought we were trying to portray. I was very disappointed because i got told it was too much effort and Joel wanted to film that clip instead.

Second Poem Storyboard

Tim wanted to write the storyboard for the poem, he had mentioned the idea of a Western film which involves a gun and had it planned out in his mind. So we let him direct and i took up my roll of camera man.

Second Poem; Sulking Winds

Razia Afzal

Sulking Winds

Erratic and magnetic winds begin to murmur and hurdle towards me.
He shifts the aligned elements of ballistic parasites that re-define the flashed hordes, beneath the skin. 
It whistles in my ear, as a midnight shape shift is breathing underneath man-made materials.
A connection is intervened with nature and man, as I reside the precautions of machines.
Humans carve their memorials above heaps of silver dusted stones, as I touch each daunted carved message; I begin to see images of the travellers before me, the birth of the seed, as I undermine the instituted vibe.
‘‘1850’’: this signals a straight message, which is nearer to home; he never came alone; his former friends created social isolation as the journey continued.
The Easter Island heads, caressing each tribe, levitate the inter-locked channelled culture.
A historian would venture for a magical adventure, but he is strayed as he is boned to his grave.
He jugs and tugs onto the bushes, as an attempt to push the creativity that is listed in his head becomes wasted blue bottles, gaining a divinity from the frozen iced sun, which forms a version of the anti-clockwise victimisation, implying a new formality.
His blood salvages the cliff; he was forced to conform a frail masterpiece..As animals gain a dependency from his companionship, licking and locking food’s taste of desperation, which was intended to bury the hunger. 
A heaved, bulky land wants to restore the prosperity of untamed attraction.
I watch horses grunt and moan, as a humorous behaviour adapts into another human, who becomes naked and bare, as the windy haze days gnarl to re-cremate embedded fear, as it mimics the deformed definition of a mirage, as the perfection destroys the heavy abstract memories that linger within an abundant human mind. 
I see the dead man’s shadow as he speaks with the voice of Odin; as the winds ravish to chime, he splits into partial sublime.
The journey has ended, but I turn away as the prosperous land will always remain the same, but will the ‘‘1850’’ ghost find another adventurer, to re-enforce the gut-menacing blame?
However, he passes the treachery of victimisation, which consumes a new abbreviation. 
He claims a curse; do not accept the lingering trick he promotes; he did have a spinning lust of envy, the exhalation of the cursed moor justified moral deficiency.

Tortoise & the hare enviornment

Obviously when you hear of the tortoise and the hare, you think of a race. I want to use the concept of a race and incorporate it in a different style to the original story. So what I've done is taken surroundings of a tortoise using sand, taken the environment which surrounds a hare, and added an athletics track with a stand. 

The tortoise is going to fill all the green in the centre of the track, and the hare small enough to run around it and get squashed.

Little + Large

Storyboard on 30 second animation on the tortoise and the hare. The animation itself has to be between 30-45 seconds. I didn't have here with me a tortoise or a hare, so i ordered both on Amazon.

I plan to make the animation as simple as possible for the time being, on the hare will have wheels instead of moving legs. The tortoise will be the large, as he will be much bigger than the hare but the hare enjoys winding the tortoise up. Here the story is also a 'tortoise vs the hare' scenario.

The tortoise is chilling in his spot, and as the hare rides across to him they have a small stand off. They both stare each other out. The hare gets cocky and rides around the tortoise and as he gets fed up, he lifts his arm up and crushes the hare. If I can get good expressions on their faces i think it has the potential to be a little comedic.

1 minute instructional video

So I filmed it at my house kitchen back in North London, using my mum as the chef/actor. The plan was not to really show her have the main subject on the camera focused on the ingredients or food accessories and her hands. I recorded the footage with a Canon EOS 550D and was extremely impressed with the quality of the results. I was very pleasantly surprised the picture was much better than i had hoped for.


I wanted the surroundings of the kitchen to be as homey as possible without looking too much like a perfect done up kitchen set. I cleaned up before hand but didn't hide away other food or cutlery, just make it look clean and presentable. Outside it had started to get dark so our kitchen lights were on the whole time to keep a consistent soft yellow light, which when watching back on it gives me a warm homey feeling of eating a meal. But then again it is my kitchen so i suppose its natural to feel like that.


I must have been filming for about 2 - 2 and a half hours and recorded about 25 minutes worth of footage. I always had shots in mind but i wanted to experiment with other angels and aim for the more interesting 'crack of the egg' or if theres more going on in the 'egg yolk mix'.


The editing and post production took me 2 days in total, and 10 minutes to find the song. I used Final Cut Pro to upload the footage and edit it down to 1 minute. I slowed down one scene to almost replicate what Martin Krejci directed in his Lurpak advert when the butter was slowed down, but that was a lot more advanced and shot more professionally. 


I had my doubts about how bad this could potentially be whilst filming, but then I remembered why i decided to pursue this idea, because it was a good one and i had a vision for it. So when i get my mind to things i can produce good outcomes. I'm not saying this is a great outcome, but for what i wanted to achieve here is the audience to enjoy my instructional video on how to make matza brei, and how to make turning on a gas fire on a hob interesting.


I used a couple of different shots throughout the film. The first shot was a medium close up on the fridge, changed into a close up, then fell into a low angle on the butter. I then have the egg crack on a medium close up and zoom out from a close up whilst mixing the egg. Taking out the pan its focused on the 'wide angle' fetching in the pan and the matza ingredients, both on either side of the lens. Watering the matza actually is made to look fairly interesting with the high angle over the shoulder shot.  The camera shoots right back down from a low angel again tearing the ingredients, then up into a high angle shot again very briefly before a mid-close up on the in focus/out of focus gas fire. I wanted the audience to engage into cooking it themselves and i think the high angle shots puts it almost as a point of view. Which is where the Peep Show on BBC - my favourite comedy perhaps because of the point of view shots create a first person atmosphere they live very funny lives. This was could get the viewers  hopefully get a craving for it.


I used Paulo Nutini's song for my soundtrack, and enhanced the cracking of the egg, the sizzling and kept the maximum decibles at just under 12. The rest was a lot less. This with the slowing down effect on the butter will make what could be a simple boring instructional video has edged it that little bit, and i feel rather pleased about that. I felt it has come together and the soundtrack brings it to life and find myself quite enjoying it to watch. As a first video, to improve it, i could perhaps use dialogue to describe the ingredients. Have filmed it during a sunny day so more of a summer vibe towards it. Used more effects to make the camera shots look even more impressive and interesting, with perhaps more sounds to create some tension. I want to keep improving on my camera skills and build up the belief and confidence in myself to be able to put a good video together.

Instructional Video Storyboard

One of my earliest influences and personally one of the most enjoyable adverts i record on recent TV is the lurpak - Kitchen Odyssey. Created by the media agency Wieden + Kennedy. The idea was designed to stimulate eyes, appetite and the instinct to whip up something buttery. I wanted to take this idea and with my very limited cooking skills, whip up something that looks appetising and can be easy to show how to make.

Matza-brei is an extremely traditional meal in my household that my mums cooked since i can remember.  After watching the Lurpak kitchen odyssey advert, it inspired me to use a simular format with quick close up shots in more of an instructional way- rather than an epic short movie/story way. 

It would be much easier for me to get an actor, cook it and film it here, but the location of my original kitchen was much cleaner, the environment felt more appropriate and it had a gas cooker rather than electrical. The reason for me wanting to use a gas cooker is simply i want to film with some fire. Financially the only budget i'll be spending on is my travel back to London. Plus i have an actor that knows how to cook Matza-brei and is willing to help me out, my mother.

The storyboard starts off with the fridge opening and the actor taking out all the ingredients. For each ingredient the camera takes different close up shots for each ingredient thats taken out the fridge.

The camera will be on a tripod at all times, flicking from close up low - close up mid angle shots. The eggs will be cracked in an intense manor and slowly poured into the bowl.

I will film the actor take out more ingredients and a sourcepan with the same camera shot from mid angle, then zoomed in on the gas hob. It will focus on the temperature of the gas, and switch zoom to the fire itself.

Where the actor scrapes out the butter with a knife and places it on the frying pan, we will catch the only glimpse of her whole body from a high angle shot, possibly slowed down to intensify the butter hitting the frying frying pan.

Matza will be rinsed in water then mixed with the egg before being poured into the frying pan where i will capture the food burning and sizzling to create a wet appetite and hopefully stimulate the viewiers eyes as they watch.

It will be served on a plate to end the clip, with sugar clearly visable to show it's made to be a little bit sweeter.

Most the clips will be filmed extremely big close ups from fixed positions. The camera will pan left to right, and vice versa, tilt up and down, and zoom in and out from low, medium and high positions within the kitchen.

Digital film production brief (i)

Brief (i)

During the module you will undertake a series of workshop exercises, you will individually produce a 1min Instructional Video - which you will take through the whole process of digital film production, from Storyboarding to Filming to Editing, and give you an insight into your own specialist interest in particular roles of film production - i.e. Camera Operator / Post Production / Directing / Art Direction

This is a task which excites me more than anything. When i think of an idea, i want to be the one that gets the materials, puts it together, make sure it functions properly, and then show it off to everyone. Help isn't a negative aspect but i like to think i can do most things, if not everything on my own. And i'll be the first one to tell you i can't - but i like to think i can! 


Mike told us we could film an instruction from something as simple as making a cup of tea, and as appealing as that sounds, i usually tend to go for something a little more complex and challenging. Whether i'm ready to film something more advanced than that only time will tell but before we get to that stage i think it's in my interest to research on short films, adverts, read books, bloggs, from film directors however big or small and find an influence that will help pursue my instructional video and help nurture my filming skills in a way i find comfortable.

Tortoise and the Hare: Animation

I happened to bring in around 7 or 8 toys before i settled with my two models being a tortoise and a hare/rabbit. I'd bought in David Seaman, a glass train, Shaun the sheep and a couple others. All of which i was told i was too ambitious to create them in my first ever 3D animation module. 

So i decide to look at old school story tales i was told from the day i can remember, and i come up with the story of the tortoise and the hare. A real time classic, but in order to start the storyboard, i need to go out and find myself a simple tortoise and hare both to model in Maya.

Martin Krejci

Martin works for SKUNK, an award winning film and interactive production company consisting of interactive creatives, developers, animators, designers, digital producers, film producers and directors.


Martin has directed adverts for Lurpak, Philips TV, Heineken, Adidas, Nokia, Ford and a couple other high profile companies. He has created an international name for himself, pushing his artistic boundaries and experimenting with new techniques. Martin’s previous projects also include a period piece for the re-launch of the interactive Stella Artois site and the epic Guinness Tornado advert.


The decadent and dreamlike world he creates in short film Fricasee won him critical acclaim on the International Festival circuit, most notably being officially selected for Cannes, Rotterdam and Toronto Film Festivals. His stylistic versatility is evident in short films Fricasee and Mafra, which have garnered recognition in the features world.


^ which can both be found here: http://martinkrejci.net/


A lot of Krejci's shots are nice efficient cuts, with quick close ups, which is what I intent to incorporate into some of my footage in the videos.

Luke Losey

Luke directed the Nokia Lumia in London. This video here was for a band called Orbital. Luke was inspired here by time-lapse animation and won a silver spire for the best short film at the San Francisco film festival, and got nominated for the best video award at the 1996 MTV awards. Nothing like this has ever been done before. It also closed the Edinburgh film festival, opened the London film festival, screened at Sundance and made almost every other festival that year. 

Nokia Lumia Promo Ft. Deadmau5 in London

In November 2011 Nokia showed the way for the largest scale of 4D technology London has ever seen, and along with Deadmau5 they created an amazing free light show at Millbank Tower, London.

Millbank was plunged into darkness with the iconic tower acting as the canvas for a never-before-seen spectacular. Each of the 120 metre high building's 800 windows were covered with vinyl as 16 powerful projectors, stationed 300 metres away on the other side of the river, beamed 3D images onto the structure. Huge butterflies flew across the London skyline and the tower was twisted, pulsated and even fell down. Billed as the "future of live events" the spectacular show was accompanied by music from super producer deadmau5, who created exclusive remixes for the performance -- adding the 4th dimension. It's been a long time, if ever some thing of this scale was produced in London and i have a funny feeling its a sign of more to come in the near future.

The making of it below.

Marvel sequence & Editing

Me n Wiz came in with all the footage, uploaded it to the computer and straight away got rid of excess footage which was useless for the film. We then looked up introductions on how to create a marvel effect, using After Effects.

We then took 20 or so images from Tim and Joel's Facebook page which would work well with the Marvel effect. Which all in all didn't take longer than an hour. We ended the last frame of it on a watch taken from Tim's page which is suppose to represent time in the film. Time in the sense Joel's currently in a dream, wakes up, and is in a panic, he's in the now but thinking about the past.

Wiz must have been editing for around 6 hours in total whilst i was by his side for most of it. Obviously i wasn't looking to take editing control out of his hands, but i wanted to be involved enough to see it was going in the direction of how i'd planned it. With his great editing skills and some of my help we managed to put most of it together before the final crit. Wiz came up with a soundtrack by Magnetic Man called Flying into Tokyo and said that when he first heard the idea of this story, with the twist and ending that this was the first song that came to his mind. It was similar to what i had been looking for as the song throughout the film, which worked well.

Shooting the Short day 2

We finished filming in 2 days. We had to go back to Liberty Park with confirmation of our project as it's for a university project, the manager signed it, we were allowed to pick up where we left off - which was just 2 more shots until we moved onto Hyde Park for the second and final location.

Problems occurred before we started where we hadn't charged the battery over night and we had to delay filming by an hour to charge it up. Again this effected our time management which left us only 2-3 hours left of filming before we had to give back the camera to Matt. Once started filming again, we got approached by an officer asking us questions and having to take down our details so we didn't get asked the same questions if we got stopped again, and we took down hers aswell.

We got some amazing shots whilst at Hyde Park, one where i filmed Joel walking through the park with a wide shot. Another where i followed Joel running around the park capturing him taking images of the scenery, feeling free (as the character) and allowing himself to express the character and be in his element with his camera. Almost as if the camera following Joel on this scene was him playing with his old friend. Which takes us to the next scene of Joel on the swing. This was the most difficult to capture because 1. there were a load of school kids (bratts) playing on the swings next to us being a nuisance and 2. My aim was to capture Joel's character thinking he was with his old friend, camera dropping to the floor, breaking out of shock, and the old friends soul leaving the camera. First of all we didn't want to break the camera which then ruled out dropping it on the floor. It was apparent we only had 15 minutes of filming left when we were filming Joel on the swing towards the end, again completely effecting our time management and lack of organisation skills due to not charging for long enough. So we filmed him on the swing, panning it to the left with Tim entering, then leaving the scene with the swing still moving, like a ghostly figure. Joel wanted to experiment with other ideas of it ending which didn't link and i was in truth.

All in all it was a successful day of filming, i was cautious about the ending tho. Will have to wait until we hit the editing suite where Wiz will edit and i'd like to be there to give him a real insight of how I want the film edited and what message and emotions I want to show to it's fullest, and just help guide Wiz in the right direction.

Lighting

Whilst in Joel's room we were discussing light throughout the indoor shoot. As he was waking up, there were no lights on but we opened up enough of the curtain to allow sufficient light in on Joel's face. It worked well because we were showing him waking up getting out of bed, usually it's dark when the curtains are closed so it allowed us to link up whats happening. It was tempting to place a lamp in the dark areas in the hope it would lighten up the room a little, i thought it may make it more personal. In the end we went with just the natural light until he got out of bed and turned the main light on. After he moves away from his bed, the light shines strongly on the pictures of the character and his friends. The light in the bathroom reflects very brightly from the mirror, it's original source is coming from the ceiling.

I was considering for one of our shots, as Joel was running down the stairs to be viewed by the effect of a cctv camera, but it was too difficult to get the camera high enough into the corner to make it look what we thought would have been well enough.

Outside Liberty Park and Hype Park the light from the sky was okay, theres a beautiful wide angle shot where Joel's running and taking pictures as i'm running with him and capture the sun setting in the background

Shooting the Short day 1

On the first day of filming as a group, we ran into a couple of problems. Our organisation skills were pretty poor but a group of 4 boys, never having seen each other out of class i felt it was bound to happen. We had set off to Liberty Park where we were first filming, and we'd forgotten to hire out our main subject - Our actors best friend - the camera.

Time management was obviously effected in this time, Wiz and I sorted that out as Tim and Joel set up in Joel's room and in the mean time we managed to get Wiz a parking ticket. Financially it wasn't exactly in the planned budget but we had to dig out deep in our pockets to resolve that issue.

We printed off 20-30 images of Joel and his friends from his Facebook to stick up on his wall in his room to show the love and passion of Joel's character towards his friends, and photography.

Before filming we went through the story board talking about how we'd all like each shot and what will work best. Filming each scene atleast a couple of times and even in different positions to get the best out of our work. We captured many short quick takes to try and show the rush and panic Joel shows in the film so the audience question okay where is this going and whys he showing tension.

We filmed for around 3-4 hours before moving on downstairs, and to the front of the building, where we got stopped and admittedly our mistake in the first place, we had to get written permission signed off by the manager at Liberty Park, to say it is okay to film here and we don't include any drugs or alcohol and i quote "otherwise he's not interested in seeing it" with a cheeky laugh at the end.

During the day many of my ideas were discussed before filming each scene, and if it was disagreed by one or the others, we looked into ways of either making it work or adapting it slightly. I felt we grew closer as a team hour by hour and by agreeing to disagree, friendship grew within the group and we were all happy to tell each other exactly how we felt being in our own comfort zones. It's the first time i've ever filmed with a group of people rather than on my own and i was happy to ask for advise from the team if I wasn't sure how something would work. I would openly say if I didn't like how something was acted or filmed and i could take the criticism when part of the team didn't like an idea i had come up with, which i feel as a team if you can't tell each other your honest opinion the results won't be the same.

Directing

The director decides on the look and feel of a film; they are responsible not only for where the camera will be in relation to the action but also how the actors perform in front of it.
The process begins when they read the script and form a stylistic approach to the material.
During pre-production the director draws up storyboards and shooting scrips, which describe on paper how the scrips will be shot.


When a director first imagines the script they are likely to see many different ways of filming it. The practical considerations of timing and money will impact on what can be achieved and their vision must be tailored to those.




It's my job in the group to maximise to the best of our ability, to show as much quality footage and explore and experiment in hopefully a more advanced video.

We first film in Joel's bedroom, in Liberty Park.

The Marvel effect will kick in at the beginning, slowly fading into a close-up of Joel waking up in bed, quickly focusing in on a big close up shot of his head. This is to show he was dreaming and suddenly comes to reality and has to fulfil his need to take on the challenge he had set himself on in his own mind.

I used many quick snap shots with lots of close ups in my instructional video, which i felt were some effective shots, and attempt to portray the emotions Joel will be expressing in his feeling towards this dream that led him to wake up so suddenly from.

Joel's room will be filled with a couple of props used specifically for video. In the video, Joel's character is obsessed with photography, he has loads of photos up on his wall of his old friend, himself and other friends, which remind him of good times. The camera shows them as Joel will be walking away from his bed, and the camera pans from a mid shot to waist. This will express his need to get out the room and allow the audience to consider what these images on his wall are and why he's escaped the room so quickly.

As Joel's character gets changed and leaves the flat i'm looking to capture his exit from a mid-shot angle at the back of him, and a close up from outside the room and show him exit over the camera from a low shot.

He'll walk down the stairs and keep the camera in corners of the hall way without moving the camera to leave his exit and where he's going a mystery. Leaving the camera in a high angel with it looking over his shoulder almost like a CCTV camera is watching over him. Or even in post production make it look like a CCTV camera? It will bring out the vulnerability and isolation in the character.

His exit from Liberty Park will see him entering the Park he's heading towards. Entering the camera from a long-medium shot, to a close up where he walks into the camera, then move onto the scene of him walking out of the camera and into the park. And reverse the camera angles from a close up, to medium-long range shot.

Joel's character is on a mission to capture some images and reminisce over old times with his friend that passed away. I aim to capture wide shots in the open space, this will set up the atmosphere and express his loneliness yet enjoyable experiences that still makes him happy and give him a reason to get out of bed.

I want to attempt making some of it personal so the camera shooting him is almost his friend, it follows and captures emotions Joel's character is expressing and so perhaps we take a POV of Joel's characters friend that he dreams about, pretending to be with him.

And shooting the end seems like the biggest difficulty at the moment, how are we going to portray his friend that passed away creep out the camera, and/or entering the film without giving the background story away too much.

It's the director of photography's responsibility that everybody the actors know their roles are and making sure everyone understands what he's trying to get from the footage.

Roles of the first short film; Isolation

We all had a go at writing the story for the first poem and chose mine to go with in the end. So I wrote the story board. I never saw myself as a story writer but with my vision of how i'd like to see the short, it's going to be me who will create the story. This is the final story board:

Joel suggested he'd act, with Tim being the old friend. Whilst Joel and Tim both providing location sets, Wiz offered to drive us around, receiving a parking ticket at the same time. I was storyboard writer, cinematographer and director, along with the others in the team providing me with plenty of ideas of how we can film this. Wizzy will be editing the footage and me helping him with post-production.

Whilst discussing ideas of what the character will be thinking/dreaming of at the beginning i had a vision of him thinking about loads of images, photographs, people, friends all playing on his mind. So post production we plan to create a marvel effect.

My First ever short film

OUDF404 is the name of our latest project, and we have two briefs

This module is called the 'Digital Film Production' module. It's one i've genuinely been excited about since the beginning of the course. I'm still extremely unsure of where i'd like to end up but if i'd have to chose what route i have to go down there would be a huge possibility of me leaning towards film making/directing/filming. I'd say i've directed one short film during alevels. It was for my final piece in which i entered a Doritos competition advertised on the TV. I wrote the story board, filmed it, edited it, completed all post production art work for it and for my exhibition i designed my own small exclusive shop  with the subjects printed onto t-shirts and hats.

The first part of the brief is to come up with and produce a 1 minute instructional video. I will undertake a series of workshop exercises. Which means we basically go through the whole process of digital film production an give me a good understanding of our own specialist interests and will give me a stronger insight whilst having an insight in storyboard writing, filming and editing.

During this module i will have to consider and work out for myself which camera shots i'm going to use, the mood of the video how will i consider my lighting. Describe my shot compositions, why the use or lack of use of sound. It will also help improve and practise the different softwares such as Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Soundtrack Pro and any others.

Fundamentals of 3D Modelling and Animation Module OUDF405

Preparation / Research Suggestions
Williams, R. (2001) The Animators Survival Kit. London, Faber and Faber.
White, T. (2006) Animation from Pencils to Pixels: Classical Techniques for the Digital Animator, Focal Press.
Autodesk Maya Press (2009) Learning Autodesk Maya 2010.
Johnston, O. Thomas, F (1997) The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, Hyperion, USA.

Pixar: For The Birds

One of many videos created by Pixar, showing how big and small can be animated
We are looking at Looking Little and large for our current animation brief.


I really enjoy how little and large come together here. All the small birds respect the older bird and he knows that. I'm looking at the comedic side and want to bring out the anticipation of whats happening next in my video. 


Ralph Eggleston wrote and directed this Oscar winning short, and worked on Toy Story which won him an Annie Award for the best art direction. Ralphs team watched lots of reference videos of flamingos and swands for the big bird, also watching National Geographic videos to learn the attitude and shivers for the little birds. Eggleston even videotaped his own green bird for many hours and the animators learned bird behavior from watching the bird itself. I can use this reference of knowledge to go and study the movement of a tortoise's neck 

Michel Ocelot

Silhouette Animation

Silhouette animation is animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouettes. This is usually accomplished by backlighting articulated cardboard cut-outs, though other methods exist. It is partially inspired by, but for a number of reasons technically distinct from, shadow play.

This was the first i have seen of 3D and 2D animation using silhouette and CGI animation.

The art of Lotte Reiniger

Born June 2, 1899, Berlin; Died June 19, 1989.

Lotte Reiniger spent much of her life creating unique and often amazing silhouette animation. After a short period of at Max Rienhardt's studio, Reiniger began working on intertitle design for Paul Wegener's films at the age of sixteen. Her titles were made of hand-cut silhouettes, and in 1919 she developed this technique to create a complete animated silhouette film. In 1921, Reiniger married Carl Koch, who served as her producer and camera operator for the next 40 years.


Between 1923 and 1926, Rieniger and Koch, with assistance from animators Walter Rutmann, Bertolt Bartosch, and Alex Kardan, created The Adventures of Prince Achmed. One of the world's first feature-length animated films, The Adventures of Prince Achmed displayed Reiniger's ability to create captivating characters through intricate design and an amazingly graceful sense of movement. The film remains unsurpassed as a demonstration of animated art.


With the advent of sound, Reiniger made a series of short films set to the music of Mozart. Through the 1930's, with the rise of Disney and Warner Bros, character-based cel animation became the dominant animation form. As animated cartoons, with their costly and labor-intensive production requirements, became the standard, the works of filmmakers like Reiniger became less marketable. Silhouette animation requires considerable patience and individual skill, but not necessarily the production costs of cel animation, Reiniger was able to continue creating her unique animation until the 1970s.


Her later films produced for television in the 1950s and noticably less sophisticated than her early work, possess a pure cinematic magic that is present in the work of very few animators. Reiniger had skill, vision, and patience, and her films may well remain a unique testament to the potential achievements of the artform. Her films may easily hold their magic for audiences of the future. By patiently creating beautiful silhouette animation based on fable and myth, Lotte Reiniger may have created a legacy of filmwork which will offer entertainment and amazement for the ages.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

1929

Based on stories from "The Arabian Nights." A wicked sorcerer tricks Prince Achmed into riding a magical flying horse. The heroic prince is able to subdue the magical horse, which he uses to fly off to many adventures. While travelling, he falls in love with the beautiful Princess Peri Banu, and must defeat an army of demons to win her heart. The entire film is animated using the silhouette technique, which employs movable cardboard and metal cutouts posed in front of illuminated sheets of glass.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4wc6s_the-art-of-lotte-reiniger-1953-1971_shortfilms

I read Reiniger cut her figures out of black cardboard with a pair of scissors, and joined movable parts with thread in order to animate them. In the years 1923-1926, about 250,000 frame-by-frame stills were made and 96,000 were used in the film. Her husband, Carl Koch, was responsible for the photography in all her films until his death in 1963.

Looking at different ways of using animation, this was a silly idea as we have to use 3 dimensional objects to create our animation. But looking at Teddy Newton's Day and Night I can use the idea of 2D Silhouettes with 3D animation

Chris Milk

Film and music director

Chris has directed a couple of music music videos, and this Kanye West video for All Falls Down is one my favourites. I remember when it came out around 8 years ago now! I was so impressed at the time, with how Chris would shoot Kanye looking into a mirror from point of view, and not capture the camera in the screen. I still find it impressive and hope to experiment with similar shot types.

I've got a will but I want yours

http://vimeo.com/groups/shortfilms/videos/35174543

This video was added by a guy called Matt Daniels. It's not the greatest video i've seen nor is it my favourite, but it's one that makes me feel a little better about myself.
Knowing every so often i go through stages of feeling down and depressed, and even very much useless and untalented at times, it's videos like these that make me feel i'm not the only one to feel like this and I definitely wont be the last. It's common for many people to be down, but it's how we cope and how we react is what makes us stronger and better people
I didn't chose this video for any religious reasoning but simply thats exactly how i feel at times and its part of life.

Faceware Induction and Workshop

We got offered the chance for an induction for Faceware With Jay Greier, senior technical artist at image-metrics and creator of Faceware. The program is used throughout the games, film and entertainment industries to streamline animation. Jay was at BAF to talk about how Faceware makes facial animation technologies much easier than it once was, and how it can create an enhanced gaming experience and tackle the most demanding of schedules and rigging processes.


The three biggest impacts which involve realistic facial animation in game development is time, cost and final outcome. The presentation itself was to show how image-metrics have tackled many difficulties in realistic facial animation to make it easier and better. 


Jays a trained animator and worked on GTA previously and has a lot of experience with Faceware - and explains it gets a lot easier and is fun, and allows you to have maximum artistic control

Whatever type of rig or character you're using can be driven by Faceware - it's designed to neatly plug in to whatever you're doing. Lip sync is an extremely difficult taskfor animators. It doesn't matter how good your rig or your rendering is if your timing is off, it wont look right. Faceware makes this much easier and you only need to put in 10% of the work while Faceware will literally do the other 90% of the heavy lifting for you. The workflow is much quicker where you'd take every frame and create a new pose, because which means you can get a lot more animation done in less time.

Faceware separates the face into three groups:

• Eyes - what direction they're looking and the movement of the eyelids
• Brows - everything above the eyes
• Mouth - everything below the cheeks and around the mouth

Jay says that the most important thing about facial animation is the eyes, and getting this wrong can immediately draw the gamer out of the performance.

He demonstrated Faceware autopose. This tool knows where the key poses are, so you can go straight to them and set up the poses to match the performance. Using a simple example of two poses (blink and look), with about 30 seconds of work, Jay had created 277 frames of blinks.

While it's not a particularly difficult job to hand animate eyes, all the subtle little eye darts might be missed by an animator. Faceware picks these up - another example of how the software can save you time and still result in a more realistic animation.

I attended the workshop and didn't realise it was part of Maya, which i had never used before. I'll be honest, i struggled. Didn't really have much of an idea of what i was doing and felt i was panicking a lot. Jay showed me the way a little bit but i needed a lot more time than just an hour playing around. I could clearly see the benfits and after seeing some final results i could tell it was a lot of fun.

I was very thankful to Jay at the end and would love a chance to look into Faceware more deeply so i could explore it more and find the fun within it!