one shot film: zooming

Here I have made a very short film exploring zooming, in my previous film the camera work wasn't very dynamic, here I used zooming to create movement yet still keep within the boundaries of the brief. The scene starts off zoomed in on my face and the screen flashes black occasionally, when the camera zooms out you realize its people walking past. The scene eventually gets so busy that you can no longer see me and ends.

One shot: T3ch supp0rt

Here is my third one shot film idea. The original concept was by Jay, Its about someone that works in a call center that needs help with her broken head set, tech support arrives and hilarity ensues. The scene was inspired by the television show "the Office". originally the camera angle we had was above and infront of the 2 actors but the distance meant we couldn't hear them clearly as we did not have an external microphone, so I moved the camera closer facing to their right profile. Although visually little happens in the piece i feel the dialogue is enough to keep the viewer interested as it does not drag on too long, Jay did end up cutting the script short to achieve this. The lighting works well and I feel we produced a convincing office environment.

Looking at Aesthetics

Nintendo DS

Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto "Less is more", when looking at the DS i couldn't agree more.



It is clear that the DS has been in inspired by Apple I Macs, I pods Etc. using simple rounded off geometric shapes for the form and interface. When closed a smooth cuboid rounded off at the edges, its uncomplicated design is inviting, so what's inside?
Inside the smooth glossy coat is missing, this is so when your playing the DS you don't leave finger prints all over the buttons when playing it. Again though inside is a very simplistic interface, only six circular buttons on one side of the screen and a d-pad on the other, on the top screen 6 holes either side of the screen indicate speakers.

Simplistic design in technology has been very popular lately some may even say essential, it uncomplicates already busy lives of both visual hassle and function, where people have little time or attention to consult the instruction manual.

One shot film: The Box

The box is the name given to my first film idea. This film appears to have stepped far from the boundaries of the brief but i think it is still an effective film. when making the box most of our time was spent with the lighting, it was important to light the environment whilst still keeping a dark and atmospheric mood. Another problem was shadows, as the camera over cast a shadow upon the actors.



After about an hour of setting up lights we found another problem, trying to get the voice over in time with the actions. in the end we used a recording of the voice over as a guide and re-recorded the voice over to fit the motions, this also improved the clarity of the recording.



Apart from straying from the brief i am pleased with the final outcome. the lighting works effectively lighting only what needs to be seen in keeping with the film noir style. Originally i did want the film to be black and white but the orange lighting was important as it was mentioned in the script. Jays voice acting is excellent apart from a few minor stutters, but this was only because he needed to rush some parts to keep in time with what was happening on screen.

Children of men one shot

After thinking about the the idea of what we see being a constant one shot film I thought of a scene in the film children of men. There is a 6 minute one shot scene of a gun battle and because it was filmed in this way you could feel like you are actually there.

The Captive final

After editing this film I found it was quite long and alot of the dialogue was not needed. This is why I have made two versions of the film, the first with dialogue cut out where the captive appears to pass in and out of conciousness only catching little bits of the kidnapper's conversation. I realise that some might not consider this a true one shot film which is why i decided to make a second version where i keep all the original material with no cuts.

Here is the first version...



And the second version...



Using one shot it does appear as if you are watching from the captive's eyes, as in real life we cannot cut to another scene, what we see is like a constant one shot film. I feel I have achieved what i set out to do with this film and more. I feel a sense of terror watching this film back, from the shadey lighting the chilling breathing sounds it is quite easy to feel like you are in the captive's shoes. I do how ever think the sound of the paper keyhole being pulled away does effect the overall quality and the punch at the end does not feel like it is making contact with the victim. Otherwise I am pleased with the end result.

The Making of the captive

The shot for this film was actually inside Danny's cupboard, I squeezed inside with a camera and filmed danny pacing around on his phone inside his room. Unfortunatley his cupboard didn't have a keyhole. The keyhole shot was achieved by having the cuboard door open and placing a sheet of paper with a keyhole shape cut into it over the cupboard entrance. At the end danny has to open the cuboard door and assault the captrive within, this was achieved by danny placing his hand over the keyhole, whilst the camera was obscured the paper was removed and the door to the cuboard was shut, with the door now shut the film can carry on as normal, but to make full effect of our lighting equipment we backlight danny from behind whilst the cuboard door was closed so the when the door opened it looked like the captives eyes where adjusting to the level of light.

One shot film second idea "Captive"

The initial concept behind this piece was by Danny Peachy, a captive is held in a dark room looking through a key hole while his kidnapper attempts to free himself of guilt by reassuring the captive. We took this idea and adapted it slightly, the captive was still looking through the keyhole but this time spying on his kidnapper discussing his plans on the telephone. This way you feel like you are the victim fearing for what might happen to you as you listen to the man's diabolical plans. Unlike my first film idea this shot will not involve the camera moving, this keeping in with the brief, with my previous idea I'm slightly concerned I have stepped to far outside of the boundaries. Below is a transcript for the film "Captive".

phone rings:
hey
yeah i got it sorted
my place
yeah thats right
stupid son of bitch never knew what hit him
yeah thats right
tomorrow 12 o'clock
yeah if he's not there with the money... the kids finished
if you screw this up i swear to g...
alright fine
the truck should be here soon, then we can move him to the warehouse
yeah... then your boys can take good care of him (ha ha ha)
so what we talking 50/50?
sorry?
no i don't think so i need 50 grand by the end of this week or i'm a dead man
you better not screw me over you fat son of a bitch!
***guy is closet: ring tone
i'll call you back i have business to attend to, don't think i'm through talking with you
(cover keyhole, remove card,close door and turn on studio light)
if you were smart you would have kept your mouth shut... (punch)

One shot film idea

I hope to base my one shot film on a short story i wrote about a year ago inspired by film noir such as Brick and Sin City. Below is the script for the voice over that has been adapted for use in a one shot film.

She lay down upon the bed and gazed at me… sitting there, with my head in my hand and my hair fallen across my face. I tried to lighten the mood “I’m gonna get a bite to eat, that always makes me feel better” it was forced and she knew it, hell anyone could see that, she looked straight threw my words like a god damned pane of glass.
I looked into to her eyes and touched her lips with the end of my index finger, let her know I still cared and I did, I just couldn’t stand to be in the room anymore, she was always watching. Watching me when all I wanted was to be as invisible as that pane of glass.
I gently closed the door behind me and sighed, the landing was dark, the street lights outside were the only source of illumination, every single object was picked out with a faint orange glow. Thank god, I thought to myself, in that moment I felt like a 60-watt bulb could burn right threw me. I lumbered through the hallway into the kitchen like some kind of washed up drunk looking for his next drink. my bare foot twinged as it touched the cold cheap vinyl floor. There wasn’t a sound except the dull monotonous drone of the refrigerator, I pull it open and the light lit up my face, I stared into it blankly hoping that “bite to eat” would just fall into my lap… there was nothing, “shit” I mumbled to myself.
I turned and old pizza box caught my immediate attention… it would do. I grabbed the box and set it down on the table and looked at it with a glazed expression, there was a note, it read, “life’s tough… at least there’s pizza”, no shit. It was like the whole world was a joke and I was the god damned punch line.

More Pixilation

Here is a film I made with Jay, it explores essentially the same techniques as my previous film except being filmed on stairs its easy to loop, so it would appear to be a much larger stair case than it actually is. The film is edited by Jay and the music is by Aphrodite.

Pixilation Project

Here is the result of my pixelation project. The film was made using near 1500 individual stills and results in a 2 minute long film. The music is from Over Clocked remix and the action figures belong to my house mate Mr.Trow.



Over all I'm pleased with the film. It is a good sustained length and as a group we tried many different techniques and made an effective use of experimental processes. I have done pixelation before in my own time but never at this length or with so many different methods. This time I actively went about putting the footage in time with the audio, I feel this worked quite well, although I would have liked to use folie techniques but I didn't feel this would have been appropriate with the type of music I put with the film. The problem with putting video into time with music is its difficult to develop, if i wanted to change the music I would have to completely rearrange my footage or if I wanted to add a new effect I would have to re-sequence the film again with a new folder of images. Next time I should develop my work with short samples of film to compare and contrast my ideas.

Book Analysis: The Art of the Story Board

The Art of the Story Board by John Hart



From reading the first line in this book ("in saying you want to be a storyboard artist...") it is clear it is directed towards people interesting in becoming story board artists themselves as opposed to general film makers, even so there are some techniques I can take and incorporate into my own work.


Ren and Stimpy storyboard: image from www.animationarchive.org

What is a storyboard?

A story board is a linear visual interpretation of a written script and is used to aid both pre and post production teams in creating an animation, film or even a still. This preplanning can assist in camera angles, special effects, acting, essentially every visual aspect of a shoot, thus saving a production company or team a lot of time and money.


An example of how a Storyboard compares to the final production.

A short history

Early 20th century films didn't use storyboards but preplanning was still essential, sets, costumes, equipment and actors would all need to be ready on the day of the shoot and directors would have to decided where and when to film. Shots could scribbled down or memorised but it wasn't until 1930 that the story board was devised by Walt Disney studios. Eventually films used larger budgets (e.g. Citizen Kane 1941) and thorough preplanning became essential, more film makers (e.g. Welles, Hitchcock) began to adopt the storyboard to plan out keyframes and action sequences. The storyboard was needed by the production staff to ready the shoot in advance with minimal losses through waste in materials and time.


Walt Disney with a storyboard: image from www.mouseplanet.com

Using the Story board in the Narratives project

Although most of the narratives i have already shot are not linear i can still use the storyboard in post production and editing. this technique can assist in structuring and organising my work and revising it, before editing it in premiere pro. if i choose to shoot more footage i can plan camera angles, lighting, depth of field etc. in advance by drawing out my own story boards. Also if i am unable to attend a shoot i can represent my ideas in a story board and send it to a colleague and have them actualise my intentions even if I'm not there.

The Brothers Quay

Last Friday we saw a short film by the Brothers Quay called the Street of Crocodiles. The film uses stop motion to animate puppets, screws and other inanimate objets to create a dark sureal world, the piece is very experimental using different materials,various lighting techniques and shots through glass.



This film has inspired many other pieces including various videos by a band called Tool.

Tony Vs Paul

After filming today I took my stop motion stills home and showed my flat mates, One of which has an interest in stop motion. He showed me a film similar to my own work on you tube called Tony Vs Paul. The film uses similar techniques that I have used but has been greatly expanded upon.

A day filming with stills

Today I took 1024 stills with Danny and Viks for the pixelation project. We explored ideas that can only be made possible with stop motion, using techniques such as moving across space without moving the body (gliding and sliding), animated still life (chess pieces that appear to move themselves) and shifting sizes and volumes (I climbed out of a box I could never fit into and a pint that drank itself).

Narratives

I have been given my first module, titled narratives (worth 30 points or 300 hours). This module presents me with the opportunity to communicate ideas and stories through the use of multimedia. The narratives module is divided into 3 projects, the first being pixelation where still images are combined to create a moving image (i.e stop motion), later I will be looking at films (the moving image) and inter actives.
I'm currently enjoying the pixelation project as i have used similar methods before in my free time and i am building on existing ideas.

Pathways

In year 2 the courses splits into 5 pathways, animation, audio visual, inter actives, games and web design. I have a strong interest in video games and its culture although i feel I have more experience in the actual production of web design, as I have made my own web comic and various other similar projects.

Whiteboard animation and pinhole camera 1st - 7th Oct 07

During my first week at NTU I constructed a beer can pin hole camera and with the help of some colleagues created a short whiteboard animation.

The camera was made by placing a piece of photographic paper inside a beer can, piercing the can with a pin and exposing it to light. This was done by taking an empty beer can and cutting off the top with a can opener. To make it light proof a cap was made out of cardboard and gaffer tape. Finally a pin hole was made by poking the can with a pin and the increment being filled away with a mild abrasive. Now the pin hole beer camera was complete the photographic paper was placed inside under a safe light and the pinhole shutter was taped over.
To take a photo I only needed to choose a subject point the can and remove the tape for about 5 seconds, the paper is then ready to be developed in a dark room. I took two photos, one of the boot's library, which appeared to be on fire once I had developed the picture, the other of a skip outside the Waverly building.



The white board animation I made in a group of four, two German students called Sophie and Roman and two natives, Ross and myself. The film was of a box moving from one side of a tree to another by any means necessary. This was done by drawing the subjects on a white board and photographing it, this created the first frame, the next frame was made by erasing some objects and redrawing them in a slightly different position and again taking a photo. In the end we took near 100 photos, creating a film of a box drilling underground to reach the other side of the tree. I enjoyed this project the most as I often animate at home in my free time although usually with plastercine.

What i want from my course... Other than a degree

I've been interested in animation and web design long before i started my course. As well as getting a degree this course will give me the tools i nedd to create my own website for various projects i have worked on outside of university (i.e www.game-n-mart.co.uk my own webcomic, currently under construction by a friend of mine). I also made various stop motion films with plastecene before i came to university, I'd like to be able to incoprerate various animation style to create a multimedia film and present it on the internet for the masses to see.