Lighting And Film Noir

24/09/14

Lighting is a crucial part of any project. With the correct lighting your work can appear more professional but much more than this can communicate on a deeper level. Different lighting conditions can create further meaning in what is being presented on scene and can resemble parts of the films narrative through lighting. Making work much more atmospheric, adding stylistic qualities (certainly true in the context of 'Film Noir'), manipulate how the viewer experiences the content within the frame and the narrative presented. 

Lighting is a vital aspect to all moving image work, which is why we are doing this project. For this project we are going to be looking at film noir style lighting as it is a very bold style of lighting and so would be a good style to experiment as we get used to using light. We will be experimenting with the placement of light in order to light certain areas as well as how the light we create makes a mood and playing with this effect. We will use shots we find from film noir scenes to set up our lighting and do so  in the style of these shots. 

Film Noir is a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism and menace. The term was originally applied by a group of french critics (film noir means black film in french), to American thriller or detective films made in the time period of 1944-54 as they largely represented this style. 

Film Noir was first inspired by german expressionist films such as 'The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari' 1920 by Dir. Robert Wiene: 

The mise en scene in the set design exemplifies the madness of the sleepwalking main character, due to the costume and make up. However the shadows also creates an eery feel to the scene and so adding to the madness of the character as madness is usually seen as an uneasy even unsafe personality to be around or to have. these shadows resemble this uneasiness.

All the shadows in the set for Dr. Caligari were drawn on. The shadows added to the set, created a dark atmosphere and added to the overall feel of the film. The shadows were drawn on in awkward angles and were made to be unusually dark to create a high contrast creating an uneasy appearence to the film which itself told some of the narrative (about the characters etc). Film Noir later developed on this idea of using shadowing to create atmospheres by using actual lighting in their films and this idea of exaggerated contrast and deep dark shadows to create mood. 

Another german expressionist film that inspired Film Noir techniques was Dir. F.W. Murnau's 'Nosferatu' 1922:

 Nosferatu was one of the first vampire films made and actually inspired the horror genre and iconography for the genre. This film again used deep exaggerated shadow to create emotion for the film and used high contrast to create between shadow and light to do so. The use of shadow in this film was also used to create tension for example the shot in which the vampires shadow can be seen creeping up the stairs, the viewers can see him, but they know hes there because of his strong dark shadow. the shadow also resembles characteristics of the vampire by being so dark and clear against the wall and adds a sense of mystery aswel. Film Noir have used this idea of using shadow to hide identity and create tension in many films, again using high contrast low key lighting to do so.


Film Noir films often showed repeated use of techniques and characteristics, such as:

•  Similar structural, thematic and visual systems 

•  Gangster/Thriller genres 

•  Violence, crime, psychological emphasis 

•  One cohesive visual style

Film Noir films also often showed recognisable characters and plot lines repeated in the films:

•  The Femme Fatale - starting off as the innocent victim and then later in the plot turns out to be the villain so to speak and manipulates the detective with her beauty

•  Detective/ Private Eye - the strong heroic man who helps the female victim, who actually usually ends up getting used and manipulated by her to do what she wants (often to kill her husband)

•  The Husband - The bad guy in the film who the detective is trying to catch, and often ends up actually being innocent and become the victim

Here we see a confusion of the classic protagonist/ antagonist story telling device with shifting ‘victim’ status as the narrative progresses and the lighting used in the film displays this shift with regards to how each of the characters are lit through out the film.

Examples of Film Noir lighting:

Scene from 'Out Of The Past' 1947 - This shot shows an example of the high contrast lighting used in Film Noir. The woman in the scene is brightly lit and the man is in shadow with a high contrast between the two, making it so that the man cannot be see at all and the woman is very clear. This also displays how the lighting in film noir displayed a narrative and hints to the audience through out. As the lighting inthis scene shows how the man in the shot is unaware 'in the dark' (literally) about events that are occuring in the film and the woman who is in the light is 'in the know (for example the woman is being manipulative)

Scene from 'The Man Who Wasn't There' 2001 - This shot shows an example of silhouette lighting where the light is shone from behind the actor so that only the out line of their body is visible. The effect of this is mystery and tension, especially in this scene where there is a woman in the bath in the background of the shot who is unaware of the mystery mans presence. This kind of lighting emphasises the 'lurking' silent presence of the man and suggests he is up to no good. The same effect and atmosphere would not be given if the man was visible.

Scene from 'Fallen Angle' 1945 - This image shows how the lighting is reflecting the nature of the character and how the viewer is suposed to feel about this character, as the shadow is large and shows a dominant stance, making them appear powerful and dangerous. Again the shadows creates a sense of mysery as the identity is hidden. This too makes the character appear more dangerous and evil as it removes the viewer from assosiating the character. The lack of identity also create tension (using a similar tequniche to that in nosferatu).



Scene from 'The Lady From Shanghai' 1948 -
This picture shows an example of rim lighting, where the edges of a persons silhouette is lit and some of the face is therefore visible (or even more extreme rim lighting could display literally just a glow of light around a silhouette).

This video shows a short scene from 'The Man Who Wasnt There' displaying a moving example of film noir lighting:

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Low Key Lighting:

• Attempts to create a chiaroscuro effect (chiaroscuro is the extreme contrast between light and shade). 

• Needs only one key light (traditional photography usually uses three-point

lighting – a key light, a fill light, and a back light for even illumination) 

• Accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade (a fill

light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast)

• The term "low key" is used in cinematography to refer to any scene with a high lighting ratio, especially if there is a predominance of shadowy areas it tends to heighten the sense of alienation felt by the viewer

• Commonly used in Film Noir and Horror genres to create large areas of dark shadowing and add atmosphere and mood to scenes. 

Neo Noir:

Neo noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilise elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style and other visual forms that were absent in the film noir films of the 1040' and 1950's.

One example of Neo Noir style film is 'The Matrix' by Andy Wachowski 1999:

This shot from the film is a very balanced simple composition with the glass on the table central and the two chairs either side. in this scene morpheus is telling Neo he has to make a choice between carrying on with his normal life or knowing the truth and leading a different life. The high contrast of shadows in this shot suggest the weight of the decision Neo has to make and the light falling on morpheus symbolising that he is in the light and knows the truth (is living the truth) Neo is not so well lit and is therefore in the dark slightly, however he is leaning towards morpheus ad the light around morpheus, displays how he wants to know. 

Our Film Noir Recreations:

Image we chose:

we decided to choose this shot due to the fact that there were not many props involved and appeared to be only one light present in the shoot to create this image and so would be a fairly simple shot to start with. 

Our Recreated version of the shot:

The shot was not as simple as we had first anticipated it would be as it was difficult to get the actors nose and mouth lit (like in the image we chose to work from) and not the actors full face or crumples of the shirt he was wearing lit as well. To create this shot we had a spotlight angles from directly about the actors hand and kept the diameter of light beam that shone down small so as not to light the whole table. then to light the actors face he leaned slightly into the light and we held a dark board slightly over his head to create shadow that covered his eyes and his shirt.

Behind the scenes when we were experimenting with lighting positions:

                 

The overall result of this shoot was a good copy image of the image we chose to recreate. When on the shoot it was difficult to compare the image we chose to work from and what was happening in 3d with the actor and props. On top of this we were working in a dark room (due to the lighting) and so this made it difficult to get everything visually exact to the image. If we were to re do this image again after seeing these result i realise that the actors hand should have been positioned in a way so that his arm was not visible and that the light beam was more to the right. however as we were just doing this project to get used to using lighting this is not a problem and the images look very similar. I am very pleased with our results. 

Image we chose:

We chose this shot as a slightly more tricky shot to test ourselves with. The angles in which the lighting is positioned at in order create shadow on the actors shoulder but not back, part of his face and above shining down over his gun and onto his hand meant that we would have to use more than one light source and would have to think more about positioning of light to light these areas on our actor. 

Our recreated version of the shot:

We had a light positioned behind and in front of the actor to create the ri light effect around his face and the gun. We also had a light above him to create the light on the top of the hat an to cast shadow onto his shoulder like in the original image we were working from. We did try and add some smoke to the background however we were using a 0 nicotine e cigarette vaporiser to create the smoke and it was perhaps not as thick as the smoke in the original image because of this, it was also rather difficult to control the direction of where the smoke moved to and this mean that the smoke in our image was more wide spread across the frae than in the original where the smoke is all in one main area in the frame. 

Behind the scenes testing the lighting:

Overall i am very pleased with the results of this image and i think we have got the lighting and where the light falls on the actors very similar to the original which is good considering there were more angles and lighting positions to think about with this image. The effect of this image is creating a tense and intriguing image, with the dark lighting and emphasis on the gun and actor due to the rim lighting in the dark image around these two making them seem more powerful. The stance of the actor also create a more tense and powerful image and the sizing of the frame that draws focus on his facial expression and upper body language (and the gun) and the smoke create an eery feeling about the image.

Image we chose:

We chose this shot to have a go at creating strong cast shadows. A typical technique often used in film noir films. The effect of this type of shadow is an emphasis of character. Th tall bold dark shadow behind the man in the image exaggerates a dominant character and aspects of power. The lighting in this shot is very strongly lit in order to create such a bold defined shadow. The further away the light from the subject matter, the larger the shadow. This shows how we will have to play around and try out different angles and lengths from the subject matter for lighting placement to try and recreate this image. 

Our recreated version of the shot:

We tried to get the shadow of the actor in a similar position as possible to the image we were working from and so we positioned the light in this shot to the right of the actor slightly and fairly far away from her to create a large shadow that fell slightly infront of her on the wall she stood infront. 

Context: Film Review

19/09/14
Pride
 Matthew Warchus. 120 mins

The film pride is based in the summer of 1984. Margret thatcher is in power and the national union of miners is on strike. A group of gay and lesbian activists from london decided to raise money to support the families of the miners who are on strike, however the union seems embarrassed to receive their support and so the activists decide to go direct to the miners. They identify a welsh mining village and set off in a mini bus to make their donation in person, so being the extraordinary story of two seemingly alien communities who form a surprising partnership.

Through out the film there is an obvious attitude of a positive nature from the gay and lesbian main characters in the film as they are constantly being displayed as the under dogs in terms of how they are viewed in society for example at the start of the film when they are at a gay pride march comments from passers by are spat at the marchers such as 'disgusting' this attitude adds to the emotional feel good vibe the film presents the audience with through out. And through out the film they are named and isolated repeatedly, even by the miners at first, who they are actually trying to help. However they still seem to remain happy, hopeful and determined despite the foul outlook society has on them. This attitude is then rubbed of onto the miners who them selves are in a difficult position while on strike struggling to provide for families etc. The gays explain that the miners are in a similar situation to the gays in the fact that due to the strike they have in a way become isolated from society and are being picked on by the police and bullied almost by the government to make them go back to work and that they understood their problems and wanted to help. The two groups eventually grow to understand and bond with each other and the film shows constant references to the symbol of a handshake, two hands grasping one another as a symbol of togetherness and alliance but also of friendship as this is what blooms between the groups and is what the films main themes are.
With regards to the visual aspects of the film it shows the areas of london and wales to be quite grey and drab and the clothing of passers by and the miners etc is also rather plain and normal, however the gays clothing is lively and busy along with their hairstyles, for example one of the lesbians has bright red hair, and they stand out due to this (even their mini bus was bright yellow and read 'out loud' in bold letters on the side again referring to the nature of the characters) this too however reinforces, visually, the positivity of the gays and lesbians as they are bright and colourful making them seem approachable and happy. The time period of the film (set in the 80s) is well represented by props in the film such as the telephones, the old tv's, the cars etc as well as by the costumes of the actors. Also the decor of the homes.
The film has used various techniques of tension building to enthral the audience at certain points in the film. For example when the gays are trying to get hold of the miners via telephone after being refused by the union, there is a scene of the woman on the other end of the phone, walking slowly towards it as it rings, building tension of what her reaction will be to their proposal. Another example of this is when one of the gays is being aggressively persuaded by a passer by, building tension as he try s to walk away from the man, music also getting more tense and then when he urns to confront the man the screen go s black and the audience doesn't find out hes been hurt for a short while after. this cases the audience to feel the
Over 'Pride' has a good positive message that is shown by the attitude and results of the gays and what they were able to achieve by simply staying positive and despite all the hate towards them staying loving and thoughtful to others. Their commitment and involvement with the miners ended up building a relationship where the miners where able to see them for who they were and not just as gays and so encouraged the miners to show their appreciation of the help the gays had given them and supported up to the gay pride march. As a result due to this key member of the miners union Gay rights was passed by the government and the journey of acceptance and towards sexuality was set in motion on a larger scale.

16mm Filmstrip Project:

17/09/14

Direct Animation refers to techniques that are applied directly to the film itself, by scratching, painting, drawing etc. Much of this type of work is abstract in its nature (Brakhage), although there are examples that use figurative elements (McClaren) and that follow tenable narratives Woloshen).

Examples of "Direct Animation":

Stan Brakhage - 'Acid Mothers Temple' Film strip animation :




This animation is very lively and full of colour. It shows an abstract array of coloured creations that change and murphy creating a beautiful enthralling contrast of colour and dark space used in each frame. Although this piece is an abstract creation and would seemingly have no narrative behind it, i think that some thought has gone into the connection between the visual effects and the effects on the audience and the over all theme and feeling created for the piece. As the sound added to this creation is echoey and some of the sound effects sound like that of the noises associated with aliens and space. This combined with the phsycadellic visuals i think is trying to create the sense of an other worldly, possibly spiritual or alien narrative to it. Especially seeing as towards the end of the narrative the colours and shapes start to change and morph into symmetrical and phsycodelic shapes that move and show lots of inter acute detail in them to create this effect and so the creator has purposefully added these and spent time creating them.

Norman McClaren- "begone Dull Care" Films Strip Animation:



This animation again shows an absract animation however similar to breakage, the animator has added in more thought out techniques to the animation as it goes on. For example the shapes start to move in time with the music and start to move like they are dancing. This shows how the animator has spent time on each individual frame to create this effect and used metaphorical shapes to represent people (as people dance and shapes do not).

The Task:

I will be provided with lengths 16mm exposed film for this task and i will start by testing different types of marks across the length of the film strip. I will work exploitively, testing out the effects of different techniques, exploring the potential of using different instruments and materials to affect the surface of the film.

I used a special photographic ink to paint directly onto my film strip to add colour. This ink works best on the film strip as it sticks better onto the strip and has a very vivid colour, meaning the ink wont just run off the film strip (as it is laminate and therefore will make any liquid just roll off it). I would paint onto the film strip in various ways, ocasionally painting only small dots of marks and then painting a full frame. After the ink i had drided i also tryed scratching parts of the ink out to create space inside the colour and tehre fore marks in the colour. I noticed that the ink when placed onto the film strip, due to its waterproof shiney top coat, did not look as bold when on paper and that my marks would sometimes morph or blob after i had made them. and so a lot of the time when making the marks it was just getting used to how to create various marks considering how the ink reacts to the film strip.

Before i continued with my experimentation of the film strips i decided to create a digital version of my film strip by using istop on a computer connected to a camera over a microscope which i then slid each frame of my film underneath and snap shotted each frame. Also beneath the film strip and camera was a light box so that the colours and patterns etc of my film strip would show up clearly. This also meant however that various bits of dust and small scratches on the film would show up also however i think this added to the charm of the animation creating an old projection style to the appearence of the animation and making it seem less perfect, which is what gives it, its charm. the imperfections and experimental qualities are what this task is about and so the scratches and bits of dust simply add to the abstract creation.

The results of the technique are shown below:

The marks i made for this animation are very abstract and i have painted directly onto the filmstrip and scratched into the paint and strip itself to create these marks. I found that when digitising this the effect i thought it was going to have and the visual appearance was different to what i expected as they were much larger inside the frame which is emphasised when enlarged but also that it was not quite as colourful as i expected it would be, i found that areas of the strip that had no paint on them were not as effective as when they had paint on them because the filmstrip was tinted grey slightly and so had a rather dull appearance to it, where as they painted areas made it brighter and where emphasised by the light underneath the strip. I think it would be interesting to try re painting onto my filmstrip and seeing the change in effects when i digitise it again. Also it would be interesting to see the differences in my digitised filmstrip and what it looks like through the projector.

This was a very experimental project as i was unsure of what the final results would look like when blown up and it was rather tricky working on such a small space in each frame. My video shows some similar qualities to that of my artist research in that there is a lot of movement and fast changes of elements on the screen. also the processes in which i did to create the marks on my film strip are similar to both artists with technique being shown often in Mclarens work of the scratched in shapes and movement of lines. And my work has a similar colourful blotched paint effect in parts to Brakhage's work.

Weather Changes in motion: Our results

10/09/14



First day on the course! from BA (Hons) Motion Design on Vimeo.

This was the result of what we had planned to do with the weather changes animation idea!

We found when filming this that the process got easyer and we made more confident motions as we went along, this is why the spring season lasted much longer than the other 2 (as it was the first season we started with)
Also we realised that we were running out of time and had to rush slightly with the final season we made, autummn, meaning we did not have time to complete the winter scene, however as a first go at this technique i am very pleased with the results and feel that even with out the winter scene, the theme of this animation is clear and still shows a changing of the seasons.
I like the results of this video as is has a humble appearance to it due to its simplicity (similar to that of tomas mankkovskys animation) as there is only a few elements the scene is made up from to represent a setting/ landscape. I also like how there are crumples in the sheets we used for the sky and the grass as it again emphasises this humble nature by clearly showing and not hiding the fact that the sky and the grass in the scene, is just material being symbolic of a landscape. The effect of the bright colours of the background material, the neat edges of the grass and tree trunk and the signal toned block colours creates an almost cartoon like feel to this animation as though the actor has transported or is living in a cartoon/ fake world, with the colours being bright and bold and crazy silly things happening to the actor such as the birds nesting in the actors hair, the goofy glasses and how clothing and props just fling off the actor when the seasons change and move on and off scene by them selves (the hat for example). The over exaggeration of events and props also create a cartoon dream like effect and add to this feel. The fact that the actors cloths are black contrasts with the bright unreal colours of the sky and grass, and again creates an appearance of a real person in an unreal landscape and this sense of being in a cartoon world. The idea of this shoot was to test having a go at doing a pixilation animation. the definition of pixilation is using a human being and manipulating them in a manner similar to that of inanimate objects. because of this most pixilation animations end up looking unusual and show events and scenes where the actor does impossible things. I think we have had a good go at attempting these concepts ourselves as we have managed to create an animation in which the actor moves how the audience would expect  with arms moving, facial expressions etc. However in this animation we have managed to manipulate the actor so that they also do impossible "magic" things such as making the glasses appear over her face and hair moving by itself.

Group Pixilation Project

Pixilation is a technique that allows animators to place human beings at the heart of their films and manipulate them in a manner similar to that of inanimate objects. early examples of the technique can be seen as early as 1911 by innovators such as Emile Cohl. Other filmmakers to note within this area are Norman McClaren and Jan Svankmajer whilst contemporary examples can be seen by the likes of PES, Ardman Animation Studios and the Bolex Brothers.
For this project i worked within my group to create our own pixilation animation short film.
After some brainstorming we decided that our main ideas would be creating a scene showing the seasons passing by as a person moves within them (e.g. cloths of the person changes, weather etc) and making the word animate with hands. Using the hands animation idea s the title sequence or title animation for the seasons animation and we would film them separately and then add them together.

Brain storm of potential ideas to choose from for the project:

Seasons In motion
08/09/14

The idea for our weather changing animation came from Tomas Mankovsky's short film. We decided after seeing how he manipulated objects and was able to suspend them by having everything on the floor with the camera above that this technique would work best for this idea and also creates a scene in which a person is largely involved in (as the actor would be fully in the frame the whole way through) and so is perfect for pixilation animation.

Our initial idea was to have the actor lay on their side with the camera above (like in Mankovskys animation) and create the appearance they were walking through the scenes of each season. However we made some adjustments by deciding on having the actor lay on their back and just standing still as the seasons move around them as opposed to the actor being on their side and creating the appearance of walking by moving legs, as this would probably be quite difficult for the actor in our group due to uncomfortable positioning of being lay on one side for too long especially for our first attempt. 

Like Mankovsky, we decided to use everyday objects to create and represent aspects in our animation that we would use as props, for example the clouds we used were made out of polysyrin blocks wrapped in white material, the grass was represented by a green cloth we positioned to make a hill out of and the tree was made of dark cloth and some found twigs and leaves. 

Before we started filming the animation we sat down to discuss what would happen in each scene, what was do able and what would represent the seasons best.

Background and permanent aspects in permanent in all scenes:
Blue sky - blue sheet of material tall and wide enough for actor and tree
green grass floor - wide enough for blue sky length
Tree with leaves (fall in winter) - slightly taller than actor
Actor - long hair (in order to do spring scene)
Spring:
we decided that in spring we would have a bit of sun showing from behind a cloud as we wanted summer to emphasise the presence of the sun. We also decided that spring is the season of birth of animals and so decided to have birds present in this scene as well, which stemmed onto our next idea of having the birds fly into the actors hair which would turn into a birds nest shape (again representing the idea of animals giving birth, chicks, eggs in nests etc). This also meant that at this point we established the actor would have to have fairly long hair.
. 1 cloud
. Sun (slightly covered by sun)
. Flowers growing out ground (only 2)
. Birds
. Tree with leaves (all green)
. Actor wearing jacket (this will emphasise summer when it is removed)
Summer:
in summer the idea is to emphasise the heat and the sun. in order to do this we decided to have no clouds visible in the sky with the sun being more prominent. we also decided we would make the actor take off their jacket to show getting hotter, along with putting on sunglasses, rolling up trousers, putting on a cap. We also decided to make more flowers visible to show the full extent of the summer sun.
. Sun
. tree
. All Flowers
. tree with leaves (all green)
. cap
. sunglasses.
. rolled up trousers
Autumn:
For this season the idea was to emphasise the weather starting to get colder, rainier and windier as these are generally the weather changes that happen around this time. To display this we decided to have a coat engulf the actor, wrapping around them from behind until they are wearing it. we also decided that we would attempt to make rain fall out of blue clay. moulding the clay into the shapes of rain drops and then making them split into two when hitting the actors head (who would them react to the rain and put an umbrella up). And then to display the wind the actor would open up an umbrella and fight against the winf with it, umbrella turning inside out again exaggerating the fact that this scene is windy. Another aspect we decided to involve for this season was the changing of the couolour of the leaves on the tree in the film to brown and having some fall off the tree.
. 1 cloud
. Sun (covered by cloud and no rays around it)
. Coat
. Umbrella
. Brown leaves
. Rain (clay)
Winter:
Again for this season the main idea was to exaggerate the stereotypes and symbolisations of the season in order to clearly display the time of year to the viewers. To do this we decided we would have no sun present in this part of the animation and two clouds which would snow at a certain point in this scene. we also decided we would make the leaves fully fall off the tree in this scene leaving it bare. For the snow we decided we would either use balls of clay or scrunched up white paper to represent the snow fall, and would use polystyrene flakes to build up on the floor around the actor. However when discussing this scene we decided that the blue background might look out of place or odd with a snowy scene over it and so we decided to use a white background. this however unraveled a second problem of the snow (white paper scrunched or white plastasine) not being visible. to solve this problem we decided we would use the lighting to create shadow, making the snow visible again. Also in terms of the actor we would have gloves move from the top of the screen as they lift their arms up and gloves slot onto hands, along with scarf and hat moving onto the actor.
. 2 Clouds
. Snow (scrunched up paper or plastacine depending which looks better with the light)
. White Background
. Tree with no leaves
. Polystyrene snow build up on ground
. Coat
. Gloves
. Scarf
. Hat

Once we had established what was going to happen in each scene we delegated roles to each person in the group of, snapping the shot, moving the leaves, moving the actors hair, moving the clouds, and each  change that happened in the seasons (different from what stayed in scene). I was chosen to be the actor for this particular animation as i have long enough hair to do the spring scene. This meant i had to think about the order of what was happening to move and respond to the changes in the direction they were happening in around me. I had to think about facial expressions and try to exaggerate each of my gestures and body language as this creates the most obvious responses to the audience. I also had to listen to directions and have lots of communication from the group about where to move as i could not see the screen the snapshots were being taken on and could not always tell if i had moved too much, little etc.

                                      Tester (setting up the scene after gathering props)

Testing out scales (height width etc, compared to the actor) 

Behind the scene of the actual shoot:

I had to hold the positions i was in for long periods of time and slowly transition my movements, while the rest of the grip moved props, directed and took the snap shots for each frame:

Animate? With Hands

15/09/14

we decided rather than to carry on with the season in motion animation (as we did not have time to complete the winter scene) to instead move on to our next idea, so we could have a go at creating a pixilation animation in a different way and so each of us could have a go at doing roles different to what we did in the season in motion animation. We had already created a good animation with the seasons in motion and were able to get the over all feel for this technique and of working in this way.

Our idea for the animate with hands creation was initially to have each person from the group create a doodle and then write their name, with the ink trailing from the end of our fingers, creating an introductory setting whilst still retaining the surrealism of the idea itself (creates the effect of magic hands!) However we decided after doing some testers that this would take too long. So in order to shorten this process we decided that each of us would create each individual letters of the word ANIMATE? including the question marks as this means there are 8 characters to create and there is 8 of us in the group. To Make this idea look more visually interesting we decided we would create each of the letters using different methods with our hands.
Our Ideas:
. Cut out paper using fingers to pull the letter out of the page, so it looks like there has been no cutting and the actor is just pulling the shape out of un touched paper.
. Make the shape of the letter with string or sew, using sewing movements with the hand
. staple the shape of the letter onto the page using punching motions with the hand to represent the motion of a stapler
. Tape, finger pushes/ unrolls tape out to create the shape of the letter.
. Grab letter from the real world and enlarge / minimise.
. nails on wood, hand would nail each nail into its position to make the shape of the letter using hammering motions.
. Ink/ marker pen comes out the end of actors hand and creates a letter shape
. shape is make with clay, hand simply prods and pokes into a crisp shape. (reverse filming may be best for this, cut out neat shape with clay then slowly morph it out of shape).
We then discussed who wanted to do each of the ideas and chose letters that would would best for each one. We chose a font to use so that each letter would be in near enough the same font when created and so would look relevant to each other and more organised. we then printed out these fonts and used them as stencils so create out letters. For example i was doing the cut out techniques and so i drew onto the paper (very faintly so not visible) around the letter stencil i had made, and then used this to slowly cut out and pull the shape away from the page (taking the snap shots in-between so as not to see the full process, just the bazar appearance of my hand pulling a shape away from the page.

Pulling the cut out parts of the shape out shot by shot (sliding the yellow card under each time while the shots are being taken):

We were each given our methods and letters after discussing what each of us would do and agreed we would find our own way of doing it when doing this process.
I did the cut out letter and helped with the tape letter so there were the two processes i was involved in after the brainstorming for this task.

For the cut out:
The idea of this was to make it look like i was pulling a shape out directly from a page, so none of the process of actually cutting the shape out could be visible. To do this i would cut only a small piece of the shape out at a time so that the cut marks shadow did not show up on camera (if i cut the whole shape out at once this would happen) and would slowly pull the shape out bit by bit, taking pictures of each tiny movement on istop. In-between each shot i would put a cutting board underneath my page (so as not to damage the surface i was working o) and would then slide a yellow card underneath the page so that when the shape was fully out of the paper the shape of the n would be more clear (as opposed to white on white). Due to all this movement i had to do between each frame this meant that i had to then try and position my hand and the paper i had lifted out of the page back to where it was from the previous shot by checking with the "ghost image" of the previous shot on istop. The whole thing lasted under 10 seconds and probably consisted of about 200 frames.

In-between shots (cutting first part of the shape out):

For the tape:
For this Animation we wanted the effect to be that of creating the appearance of a persons hand moving across the page and the shape on an a appearing from underneath where the hand has moved, as though the hand is magically creating the letter as it moves across the page from nothing.
I was directing when creating this piece and so my job was to make sure the actor kept moving back into the same place (so the jumps between shots were not so big, making the film look jumpy) as well as explaining what hand movements to make and making sure no parts of the a would show apart from those that were coming out of the end of the hand. I also took the shot for each part of this animation.

 In between the shots more parts of the A needed to be added in order for the next bit to appear in the next shot. so my partner would add more tape to the shape of the A and then hide this part she made with her hand. she would then move her hand slowly away from the tape as i took the shots giving the impress it was just appearing out the end of her hand from nothing.

We then decided to add an extra bit of animation on the end just to make sure the visual effects of this animation and overall all appearance in how the letter was created looked different to that of the other letters the rest of the group were making, so that when put together the title sequence would show a variation. Once we had complete mde the shape of the A, we then decided to make the roll of tape we had been using to make the letter, roll onto the page underneath the A and then when it reached the letter left a trail of tape that would cut off at the other end of the letter. Bringing the roll of tape to life in this clip.

I videoed the over all results of this letter making:

22/09/14

We decided once we had all made our letters and had created the animation for each of them, that we would then each have a go and edit each clip (size them up and adjust lighting etc so they all look similar with regards to these visual aspects) and slice the clips and place them next to each other so that the screen would be split into 8 with each animation for the letters placed next to each other in an order that spells out the word animate? we will show each clip move individually so that the screen is not over complicated with lots of different clips playing at once and so the audience can focus on each individual creation of each letter as they play in the order of the letter sequencing in the word animate. This also meaning that the audience will see each individual animation and so each person in the groups creations will have their kind of time in the spot light.

Short clip of some of the editing process:

We decided to place each of the animations next to each other with the frame space being long in height and short in width to get the letters as close to each other as possible to make up the word with out the spacing between the letters looking gappy. Before we placed each animation clip next to each other we had a template of the word itself in after effects which we used to scale the animation clips too, so that the finished letter of each of the clips fitted into this template, meaning that when all of the letters where placed next to each other they would all be scaled correctly to each other and would look neat and organised and more easy on the eye (this is important especially considering there will be lots of different animations for the audience to be watching). Using this technique to create the word also means that all of the individual animations could be done at the same time and so makes good use of time (otherwise this task would have taken too long) and also means that if an error occurs in the creation of one if the letters the others will not have to be re done as well (this would be the case if the letters were being physically created one after the other on the same surface).

What we had at the end of the animations:
this still needed some work as the backgrounds and lighting/ colours for each of the clips look diffrent creating a patchy effect.
Before (dull some letters hard to make out, and too much contrast between each clip)

After (brighter, sharper appearance, where the clips work together better and all letters are clear. Still some contrast between clips however adds charm)

We altered the colours and contrasts of each of the clips so that they were not overly diffrent to each other and so that for example the T which was hard to see before, has most contrast and can be seen easier. We found that, especially due to shadowing in certain areas of some of the clips, it was rather difficult to match each clip up perfectly, however we got them slightly closer to each other making it look neater and more pleasing to the eye, however i think this patching, mix and match effect of the different coloured back ground and letters creates a charming effect for this animation. Due to the fact that in a way it emphasises the diversity of ideas and techniques that comes with the diversity of people (each person out of the group created a letter in a different way, on a different background) and this visual emphasis on the differences between the clips celebrates this diversity but also shows how the different ideas have come together and work together with the clear display of the word and the neat edges around the clips making them as one.
If we were to do a similar task to this again however i think it would be a good idea to consider the lighting and how different lighting for various clips can effect the overall look of the animation. It worked well fortunately in this project and actually in a way emphasises our ideas and group collaboration and working together. However in future projects, not considering the lighting and consistency for our animations could result in results we do not want.
Another aspect we should remember for the future is the colour scheme for the letters. For this task we did not discuss this aspect in depth as we wanted it to be more like we each go off create our own inputs and combine each of our outcomes at the end. However it would be good in the future to consider what colours go together and the order they go in. As a coincidence this animation shows all of the a's as being red, which looks quite interesting and emphasises the fact that the e is an upside down a (which we made happen on purpose to add the extra movement and emphasises of grabbing from the environment and re using a letter in that particular part of our animation, and rotating it so as to recycle the letter into an a)

Animate? Title Sequence from BA (Hons) Motion Design on Vimeo.

clips over lap slightly so that it is not too long and so that the over all appearance of the animation as a whole looks active and lively reflecting the physical and active technique we used to create each of the letters.

Tomas Mankovsky Sorry Im Late

This video stood out when looking through various online pixilation videos as it displayed an interesting idea of using camera angles, gravity and various props to create a scene that looks as though it is upright. The genius of this technique is having gravity on the animators side, rather than having to suspend objects (for example the clouds) they can simply be placed on the floor and moved around, still give the appearance of being suspended. Again, similar to Guacamole by PES this short film uses everyday objects to represent the props needed for the animation such as a cardboard box and an umbrella for the hot air balloon. this creates a clever and interesting look to the animation as the viewers can see how the objects have been manipulated and positioned to show clearly what they are representing. Also this makes creating a scene that would be rather difficult to create, more do able.

Contex: City Art Gallery 1

Notice, Look And Record:

12/09/14

Upon entering the gallery the first aspect to draw my attention was the decorative interior on the walls and the ceiling of the entrance hall. the various engraved sculptures and pattern works along with the use of colours of golds and reds gave the gallery a bright regal appearance giving an important and intriguing feel to the gallery. Also the numerous patterns designs and engravings made the walls look busy and lively, with something going on in all angles. this too gave off the impressions of what to expect inside the gallery (lots to look at) and lots of diversity.

Deeper into the gallery was then stopped by the painting 'Sappho' made in 1877 by Charles August Mengin made with oil on canvas as it was a beautiful eye catching painting with a sense of deeper darker underlying tones.
I then discovered after reading about it the painting was created to illustrate a poem written by Greek Poet Sappho who often wrote about love yearning and reflection. The poem that inspired this painting was about one of her poems in which she writes about a woman throwing herself to sea because of love :

Still holding on that fearful leap,
by her love, lyre into the deep,
and dying quenched the fatal fire,
at once of both her love and lyre.

This painting displays the emotion behind this poem by emphasising her ghostly presence as if she is already lost to her own deathly fate. The facial expression of the woman is sad yet determined, so too is her body language, and gives the impression she has accepted that she is to leap into the ocean. The colours used in the painting are dull and grey again emphasising the woeful emotions of the poem. She wears a black shall and trousers that symbolise a grim reaper 'deathly' kind of appearance, again emphasising the theme of death. Her chest however is bare symbolising the love in the poem and the beauty of love which then contrasts with the dark veil along with her face creating a ghostly appearance symbolising the entrapment and darker more vicious side of love. She also holds in her hand an instrument again which could be seen as a symbol of joy, liveliness and warmth, again representing the feeling of love, however when contrasts as is with the miserable dark veiled woman represents how it can torment as well as bring joy as she cant seem to let go of it, even in her final moments. Behind the woman the sea and sky are visible and create a feeling of space, representing freedom and could be symbolising freedom from her feeling of love, freedom in death (and dying quenched the fatal fire of her love and lyre). The compositing of the painting has the woman in the centre of the paining using the rule of thirds making her the direct focal point of the painting and therefore the most intriguing, however due to the use of colour, the sea and sky behind her are prominent and also draw attention as they are relevant to the poem. The painting shows the woman looking fairly secluded in her location and isolated from the world due to her location. This could represent the loneliness and sadness the artist is trying to portray that the woman is feeling.
Over all i felt this painting portrayed the scene of the moments before the woman in the poem jumped, in a beautiful dark way and created an eery mysterious atmosphere to the painting as though the woman cannot be understood however while still explaining her grief. It is a very eye catching and intriguing painting and i liked it even more when i discovered it had the poem along side it to create more of a story tell about the painting.

Gallery walls:                                                                                  Sappho Painting:

Fresh Guacamole By Pes

I like the symbolisation and references to different vegetables and herbs using everyday and none edible objects. The effect of doing this is a humble, humorous and slightly bazaar animation. Also i liked the representation and thinking behind the ideas for the food when chopped e.g. using red dice to represent the cut up tomatoe, as these effects added depth showing the slow transformation and manipulation of the objects where they end up looking nothing like the vegetable they were supposed to represent however as this process is slow and made clear, the audience is still aware that the objects are still resembling the vegitables.

Pixilation 'Ten Thousand Pictures Of You'

I liked the idea of having portals through photographs in this short film and how the characters would Kick or shove crumpled photographs that they were trapped inside open. Aswell as getting pushed into a photograph and becoming a part of that realm.

Pixilation

Pixilation example!