Assignment 1: Evaluation - Looking Back

"Everything I do is in the genuine pursuit of being as amazing as I possibly can be (whilst looking good to others.)''

This whole assignment, in my opinion, was based on learning new things that I have never even come across before. There are many things I have learnt during the process of this assignment that I will take with me to the future of this course and even after when I start something new.
The one thing I wanted to learn was how to work well in a team. I know it's such a basic skill but I have never properly been involved when I've had to work in a team before, I always used to sit in the corner and watch it all happen. This time, I decided to face my fears of social anxiety, step out of my comfort zone and throw myself down the deep end. Throughout the team productions we have done, I have always voiced my opinions and ideas, whether they are positive or negative. I feel like, even though it's only been a couple of weeks, I have really grown up and found myself properly, and I am really happy here. Working in a team will help me with many future projects and I really look forward to them and meeting even more people.
Another important thing I have learnt in the short while of being here is how to use Adobe Premier Pro. Before starting this course, I had only ever used Final Cut Pro and Pinnacle, just editing quick movies I had taken with my Grandad. Although I still only know the very basics of the programme, it was a load more than what I knew before I started. Just adding a title, making the movie black and white, and inserting different transitions made me feel like I have accomplished something. This is just the very start.

1) With the overall assignment, identify what it is you are most pleased with and why?
The overall assignment I thought was a success, but there are two things that really stood out for me. The first thing was my blog. I've never been a fan of writing until my fingers are almost blue but I can honestly say, that every blog I've had to do, I've really enjoyed writing. I think, also, as it's computer and web based, it's more my type of thing. I can add photos and videos easily, which is really handy as illustrating my blog was the one thing I wanted to do. It gives it that personal touch and bit of creativity, instead of being pages and pages of writing.
The second thing I am really pleased with, is the production we did called 'Practice Pixilation'. During this, we had to experiment around the college and use different frame-by-frame shots to create a smooth running production. I have indeed written an in-depth blog on this, which you can read here: http://strictlysavage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/documenting-doing-5-practice-pixilation.html. The outcome of this production was one of my favourites as I feel it had a bit of everything in there; humour, romance and skill. The people in the group I did this with were also very pleased with this.

2) What do you think you could do better if you had the chance to turn back time?
Without sounding like I'm blowing my own trumpet, I actually wouldn't change that much. The only thing that stood out to me was the fact I would change the editing for Homesick Blues. This was the first day, so I was nervous as it is, and being put in a group of people I had never met before meant I was shy and anxious to voice my opinion. The editing of this film was very basic, with just a song plonked over some footage that we'd found from random groups' folders. I feel like with all the little mistakes I have made in this assignment, I can learn from. I don't regret anything, as this course is all about learning and having fun. I am really excited to start the next assignment already!

3) Look back at the work you have undertaken in this assignment and think of three different occasions where you have hit a problem, and discuss how you overcame that problem...
Problems have occurred in every project, and I think I was expecting this. Most of us were new to this type of thing, so not everything was going to run smoothly and work the first time. That was to be expected. The first problem I had to overcome was working with people I had never met before. It sounds silly, but one of my biggest fears is overcoming shyness and talking to new people. I've never been any good at it. The first day we arrived, Tim, our tutor, gave us one phrase; ''Problematise and Solutionate. To every problem, there is always a solution''.
The second problem happened when we did the Turntable Animation project. I had a complete mind blank and had no idea was to do in order for this to work. You can read more about the project here: http://strictlysavage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/documenting-doing-6-turntable-animation.html. There was an element of joy when we were told we could work individually, as this would've been the first 'movie' or 'animation' I had done on my own. Throughout my life I have done everything on my own, being an only child and a bit of a loner. I was really excited to just get my head down and concentrate on making this my best project to date, but I really struggled, which surprised me! Overcoming this proved tricky but in the end, I went from quite a complexed design to a simple one. This way, I could've focused on making my production perfect instead of it being complexed and messy.
The third and final problem came up during the last production I was involved in, which was the Vertical Pixilation project in which I was assistant director for. The problem occurred during the filming, as we had an allocated time slot in which we had to complete the whole production for filming. We had to change quite a bit of the plan to fit it all in, and this caused a heated discussion between the group. I tried my best to calm everyone down, by reminding them that not everything was going to work. It was our first ever vertical pixilation we had done, it was never going to be perfect.

4) Look back on your blog. What do you think of it? How does it tell the story of your first weeks of learning?
I am actually quite pleased with everything throughout my blog. I have a personal blog, but I don't update that regularly. I have always been a bit of a perfectionist with things like layout and colourings, but this isn't always a bad sign. The layout of this blog was actually inspired by the layout of my personal blog: http://oliviariel.blogspot.co.uk/ - It's simple yet effective. The layout is clear and it's easy to navigate, with the blog archive running down the right of the page, making it easy to see what blogs are available to view.
In terms of content and blog posts, I am also really happy. My favourite blogs to write and create are the posts in which I discuss the productions I have completed in class, and I began titling these ''Documenting The Doing''. This way, again, the navigation to these blogs is simple and distinctive for people viewing my blog.

Behind the scenes of this assignment and the projects under-taken

Overall, the first assignment has been better than I expected. Having not had to really use my brain throughout this whole year, I thought I would struggle. I couldn't be any more wrong, I have thoroughly enjoyed everything about the assignment; from meeting new people, to filming and editing, to writing in-depth blogs about different topics. I am looking forward to the next two years and feel these first few weeks have given me a real taster of what is to come!

Review: Strictly Come Dancing Launch

It's that time of year again where the sequins and glitter gets pulled out of the closet and the BBC get ready for what is set to be another fantastic series of the hit show, Strictly Come Dancing.
The main reason for me writing this blog was so I could look at the camera techniques, lighting and layout of the TV studio, meaning the audience have great viewing pleasure with watching the dances and other clips that are revealed on the show.

The dance floor and famous arch backdrop

For many years now, the famous Strictly arches have been against the back wall and are a main feature on the show. These highlight where the celebrities walk down the stairs at the beginning of the show, and sometimes use these as a backdrop during their dances. The bright colours really emphasises that this is one of the main features.

A high shot to show the size of the studio

This camera shot really emphasises the size of the studio. It allows the audience to see the full effect and maybe get a feel of what it's like to be there as opposed to just on TV. This also shows all of the dancers, so it's clear and you can see them dance more clearly.



For a few years now, there have been a number of comments about the camera angles and decisions as to what the camera crew use. Viewers have made several complaints about how, in the middle of a dance, the camera switches to a close up shot of a certain celebrity/dancer and we miss 5-10 seconds of the dancing. This could be viewed in two different ways. If the camera was just stuck in one position, then I feel it would be quite dull and boring to watch. However, this way, the dance would be 100% visible and you could see what they were doing. There are also moments in the dances when they zoom in on a certain couple doing a lift of some sort, and this is proven to be a popular shot, as they zoom in on the lift, then zoom back out so we can see the rest of the dancers.

Throughout the whole show, starting from 2004, the main colour has been purple. In all of the logos, merchandise and social networking sites, the theme has always been purple. This is somewhat portrayed in the actual show as the lighting and props always have a hint of purple in. I think it's a good way of keeping the tradition up and keep something original going throughout the shows.

As this was only the launch show, I'm sure the Strictly team went all out with cameras, lighting and production to draw viewers in. When the Live Shows start on Friday 27th September (every Saturday after that, too) then I will write another review on the production techniques used in the shows.

Check out the Professional Dancers routine to get a real idea of what I was talking about when mentioning lighting, camera angles and dance highlights:

Cheerio! :o)

- Olivia.

Documenting The Doing #7: Vertical Pixilation

Our seventh production task was now upon us. In groups of around 15 people, we had to create a vertical pixilation animation inspired by Her Morning Elegance, which is a very successful pixilation animation directed by Oren Lavie, Yuval and Merav Nathan. I have done an in-depth review of this animation, which is available to read here: http://strictlysavage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/vertical-pixilation-ft-her-morning.html


Day 1
The day started with the group nominating and voting for four main roles in the productions; director, directors assistant, sound designer and sound designers assistant. I nominated myself for the directors assistant, as I thought this would be a great experience. I didn't put myself up for director because I still haven't got the confidence to, in effect, boss people around. I'm still quite shy. I assisted Katie, who was director, and I feel we did a pretty good job today.

Planning the production began with throwing ideas on to a sheet of paper, in a brainstorming manor. We came up with a number of ideas, e.g. Outta Space, Cowboys & Indians, a ticking clock and the Olympics. We all put our opinions forward to say the pros and cons of each idea. We decided that during previous pixilation projects within the class, there had been a lot of 'fighting' scenes, so we decided to be a little more upbeat, different and happy. We had some heated discussions throughout the process of choosing what theme we would base our production on, and in the end, we decided on the Olympics. This unique idea would give us loads of options in how we could lay the film out in a simple yet effective way.

Katie, the director, suggested we split in to 3 groups of 5. This way, it could be a more sophisticated and calm approach, as opposed to us all shouting ideas out and it all getting messy. In the 3 groups, we would section out the film. Group 1 would be in charge of designing the beginning, group 2 would be in charge of the middle, and group 3 would be in charge of the end. Whilst doing this, me and Katie decided to float around the groups, trying to incorporate everyone's ideas in to a collective agreement. After we had completed the plans, we then had to draw our final idea on to a story board, which we would then pitch to the executive producer, which was Tim.

Our plans on the story board

Day 2
Day 2 was the main day, this was the day to film our production. We were given a strict time slot of 2 hours and we had to film the whole thing. We knew this would be challenging, but we had motivation to do it and we were determined. As a group, we each brought different props in to help the production come alive. Bed sheets, tissue paper, towels, socks and hoodies are just a handful of things we used. These props would be used in different areas throughout the film to create a 3D effect, instead of using paper for everything. When we started filming, we were behind schedule to start with. The beginning scene took half an hour, and we thought this area would take the least amount of time. As a group, we wanted to have as much time for the middle section as possible as we felt this would be the trickiest and most time-consuming part.

It came to filming the middle section and looking back on our story board, we realised that we wouldn't have enough time to complete everything that we had planned. As a group, we decided to slightly change the approach of this section and make it simpler. There was a slight heated discussion over this as not everyone agreed. The decision had been made as a group that we would go ahead with the change, as this would make it less stressful and more realistic in terms of completing the project in time.

We handled the timing really well in the end. We had finished the production with about 30 minutes to spare so we decided to make the ending more exciting and enjoyable than we planned. The confetti was more than planned and we made the ending last a little bit longer. Overall, we as a group felt the production went well and we were really excited to edit the following day.

Behind the scenes of filming the production

Day 3
We had Wednesday morning to edit the production and we chose to do this in smaller groups as opposed to one big group. This way, we could see everyone's interpretation of the production in their own way. The soundtrack that Laurie and Kieran created was placed over the video to create the theme of the movie. Cheering, water rippling and footsteps are just some of the sound effects they created to make the production more life-like and I think they did really well. When we added the sounds to the production it seemed to fit together exceptionally by the time we had finished.

Our final production

I really enjoyed completing this production, and I really liked being assistant director. Although there were a few slip ups during the filming of it, which meant changing our original ideas, I think the production ran smoothly. The whole group worked well as a team and everyone had input in with the filming and editing, including bringing in their own props from home. I loved working in a team and it has taught me a lot for the future; take chances, step out of your comfort zone and throw yourself in to projects.

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

Vertical Pixilation ft. Her Morning Elegance & Sorry I'm Late

It's time for another research and in-depth discussion on things that could potentially be a big part of my future. I recently looked in to the animation form pixilation, which consists of a stop-motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame. The full blog is available for viewing here: http://strictlysavage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/pixilation.html.

Moving on from pixilation, we come to vertical pixilation. This is a slightly more advanced way of using different frames to make a production. Instead of the camera being in the original positioning of facing forwards, it is placed up above the floor facing downwards to create a birds eye view effect. Vertical pixilation creates a more dynamic and on-edge performance that intoxicates the audience to watch the film. There are two films in particular that I have researched in to whilst investigating vertical pixilation, and they are 'Sorry I'm Late' by Thomas Mankovsky and 'Her Morning Elegance' by Oren Lavie and Eyal Landesman. These two films are a prime example of professional, crisp vertical pixilation as they really create an effect. A simple production by moving people and items around underneath a camera can create such moving production.

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Sorry I'm Late is a production produced by a Polish-born director called Thomas Mankovsky. He began his career in advertising as a creative at Ogilvy in Stockholm, then moved to London to work at Fallon for the next five years. Thomas then went on to bigger and better opportunities by winning awards in advertising for clients such as Diesel, Sony, Orange and Cadbury. After deciding he wanted to create something fro scratch for his own good will, Thomas designed and began production Sorry I'm Late, which is a short-film inspired by the effects of vertical pixilation.

Mankovsky planned basic footage in his flat, with the help of his friend

This production was originally planned in Mankovsky's flat with the help of his friend. These were just the basic shots and he would then later produce them on to something better when all the production was almost ready to film. There were a number of original techniques that Thomas used to create this film, especially within the planning stages as this was the most crucial stage to make the production a success. He stated on his website "the first animation tests were shot at home. Stine (friend) pulled the trigger while I was figuring out how much to move between each shot." 

To cast the production, Thomas Mankovsky auditioned many people to be a part of his film. He stated on his website "we met a bunch of people and asked them to try and mimic what was on our printed freeze frames." I think it was really good doing in this way as it lets the audience know that normal people can help directors and creators produce such a basic yet highly-skilled film. I really like the concept of this film as I think it's lovely how the frames influence each other for the next movement. I have shared this video on all social networking sites I own as I feel this film is totally underrated. I love it!

Behind the scenes shots and the making of Sorry I'm Late

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Her Morning Elegance is a production that is also inspired by vertical pixilation, directed by Oren Lavie, Yuval and Merav Nathan. Her Morning Elegance has become a pop-art phenomena and the most successful stop-motion ever. The whole production took a total of 2096 still photographs that were shot and sequenced to create the sense of movement, and 48 hours of shooting.

I really like the concept of this whole production, and in particular, the way the background moves more than the actual people. It gives it that originality and a cut above the rest to make it more interesting. The production was set in a bed representing the theory of Freud’s psychoanalysis of dreams behind this stop motion video. According to Freud, the dream is considered ‘the guardian of sleep and that dreams allows gratification of certain drives through a visual fantasy, or manifest content’. There is a lot of hidden messages in this video, and it's almost an indirect way of showing emotions and feelings that the lady is feeling. For example, When the female actress is falling slowly sideways holding onto the bed, this represents fear of loosing control of her mind during her dreams. 

My personal favourite shots/movements of the production

I really like this movie. I think it's been shot very well and considering there were only 6 people involved over the whole production - it's very professional and clean. My favourite idea of this production is that the background tends and the actors move on the spot. The indirect messages keep this movie different from the rest of the other vertical pixilation animations we have looked at, and as I said before, it does give it that edge and originality.

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

http://www.sorry-im-late.com/ - accessed on 18-Sept-2013
http://www.hmegallery.com/home.php - accessed on 18-Sept-2013
http://www.blinkprods.com/#!artist_tomasmankovsky - accessed on 22-Sept-2013
http://laurabrewingtonmedia.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/oren-lavie/ - accessed on 24-Sept-2013

Review: We Got Time by David Wilson

We have previously looked and researched into the productions of film director and animator David Wilson, and this will be no different. This time, I will be reviewing the film he directed, which is 'We Got Time'.

All of the animations in this production were all hand-drawn, designed and coloured by David Wilson. Using the mechanism of rotation and looping as a starting point, he's able to create a journey using simple yet hypnotic animations. David Wilson stated in an interview ''Throughout the whole production, all of the animations seen were created by camera. No CG, no compositing animation loops onto footage - just taking advantage of the way film and persistence of vision works.'' David also stated the the theme of the video was based around the life cycles and the cruelty of nature. Within the production, there are many animations that show with there being a death of one creature, another is reborn. 

When one creature dies, another is reborn

Turntable animation is a simple yet incredible way of being creative in the world of film production. All it takes is a circular piece of paper, 16 lines and a few drawings/prints that change every now and then. There are 16 lines drawn on to one of the disks and the mirrors turn to create the moving animation. If there were only 15 discs, the animation will move from left to right as the animation is moving  faster than the turntable. In relation to this, if there were 17 discs, the animation would move from right to left because, this time,  the turn table is moving faster.

The making of 'We Got Time'

I really like the concept of this video as it shows a simple design and idea can be made to look incredible. The designs David Wilson created worked absolutely beautifully on the turntable. There are many reviews from audiences on YouTube and Vimeo stating how wonderful this production is: 

''Dear David, Your work is a truly inspiring and beautiful work of art. I look forward to seeing more from your wonderful creativity. And thanks so much for the insights shared in this follow-up video. Best of luck!''

''Thank you David and all of the team who helped to create this. Much love and respect also for sharing your behind the scenes x''

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

Documenting The Doing #6: Turntable Animation

Project number six is now upon us and this was an individual production that we had to think of completely on our own. Inspired by a David Wilson directed production, 'We Got Time' we had to re-create this turntable motion to the best of our ability by creatively drawing on a designated circular template. Choosing between a 16 frame disk and a 32 frame disk proved quite difficult for me as I wasn't too sure what would be the easiest to complete.

What to do? A 16 frame disk and a 32 frame disk

I really struggled to think of something to do that would definitely work when filming the production at a high speed. We were told by our tutor, Tim, that not all animations will work. Just because they look good on paper, it doesn't mean they'll look good on the movie. A few examples from previous students were shown to us, and it did prove that they didn't all work out as people had hoped. I had a few ideas of what I wanted to do, but I cannot draw. Drawing is my weakest subject. Amazing ideas were running through my mind but there was no way I would be able to project them onto paper. The option to use Photoshop was available, but I'm quite confident on Photoshop, so I wanted to step out of my comfort zone.

My original idea was to draw a dancer. The silhouette would begin in a standing position (frame 1), then jump into a pose (frame 8), and by the end of the production, the silhouette would be back to her original position (frame 16). This idea seemed the best in my head, but as I stated before, I cannot draw. I made hundreds of attempts to draw the dancer, by tracing and copying images off of Google, but I wasn't happy.

My original idea

After this idea, I decided to completely start again with a different idea as I realised that this was never going to look how I planned it to look when it came to filming it. With the clock still ticking I had to think of a new idea, and quickly. I thought long and hard about what I was going to do, and now I was on the idea of Iron Man. With this being my favourite film, I had the idea of gradually drawing his face in each frame, finally making up his whole face in colour by the time it was at frame 16. Again, drawing it wasn't the easiest thing in the world, and drawing the same thing identically to each frame, plus adding another section of the face, wasn't working. 

My initial ideas of the dancer and Iron Man

I had an hour left to redesign the turntable yet again, and this time, I figured it would be easier to stick with 2D shapes. Sticking with the colours I was originally using for the Iron Man idea, I decided it would be pretty cool to do explosion-type drawings. This way, I could do them differently and it wouldn't matter so much. When it came round to filming the production, I was really apprehensive to see if my final idea had worked. 

My final design for the turntable

The final production actually looked better than I thought it would. I sped it up to 200%, because even at 100%, it appeared far too slow and needed that extra bit of speed. To make the production more like David Wilson's movie 'We Got Time', as a group, we collaborated all of our turntable productions together and our tutor, Tim, produced the video. My part in the following video appears at 0.47 seconds in.

TURNTABLE ANIMATION - THE FINAL PRODUCTION


This wasn't my favourite production to do as I found it quite frustrating because I couldn't project my ideas on to the paper because of my lack of drawing skills, but I was really impressed with the outcome, especially the final group video.

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

Shutter Speed

In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time a camera's shutter is open when taking a photograph. The amount of light that reaches the film or image sensor is proportional to the exposure time. 

An example of how shutter speed effects the image

In the early days of photography, available shutter speeds were not standardised. A typical sequence may have been 1/10s, 1/25s, 1/50s, 1/100s, 1/200s and 1/500s. Following the adaptation of a standardised way of representing aperture so that each major step doubled or halved the amount of light entering the camera. A standardised 2:1 scale was adopted for shutter speed so that opening one aperture stop and reducing the shutter speed by one step resulted in the identical exposure. 


Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

Review: Wire and Flashing Lights

Not only is the content of Victor Haegelin's stop-motion animation a natural match with the music, but this project succeeds on so many levels that it can be appreciated as a masterclass for creative and engaging strategies to locate the expressive qualities in physical objects while also finding a visual language for communicating what is delightful and whimsical about Professor Kliq's music.

Wire and Flashing Lights is a stop-motion animation designed and produced by Victor Haegelin. Within this film, there is wire, flashing lights and paper all animated in a crazy-catchy groove. The film consists of a man made of wire walking through a dark room to the beat of the music, with flashing lights and reappearing cubes which perhaps symbolises a music producing board, as the cubes move in time with the beat of the music also. 

A quote from Professor Kliq: ''I woke up one morning to this video in my inbox, along with a short note asking “Is it alright if I use this track?” As you could imagine, I was absolutely blown away by the quality, execution, and creativity in this video. I went on to form a friendship with Victor Haegelin, the creator of this fine video. It was originally set to possibly my most popular track “Plastic & Flashing Lights”, but that track was made so long ago, before I had an education in music or even a hundredth of the technology I have access to now, so I gave it a bit of a facelift. Thanks for making such an amazing video, Victor.''

It is clear that it would have taken hundreds, possibly thousands, of shots to complete this film. You can identify this as the movement of the wire man is smooth, which comparing to some stop-motion animation films, is unusual as some are normally quite jerky and jolty. The way the whole production reflects within the floor gives it that extra area of dimension within the production and again, makes it more like real life. 

Still frames from the production 'Wire and Flashing Lights'

Although looking at the whole production as this creative masterpiece, the concept and design of the overall film was built up of many simple ideas. Bending wire, 3D cardboard blocks and flashing lights are the three main features the audience sees throughout the production, and I believe that it would be quite a low maintenance production too. The real time and effort came in when they began shooting the frames and positioning the wire man to set high standards of footage to make the whole production possible. 

Behind the scenes during the making of the film

I think the whole video is absolutely fantastic. The way it has been put together and edited is pure genius on behalf of the production team and I really liked the way the music matched the visuals. It's easy to see in the images I have attached that a lot of thought, effort and time went in to the creating of this production and the concept of the film is very clever.

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.



http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/07/09/wire-and-flashing-light-stop-motion-animation-cc-success-story/ - accessed on 18-Sept-2013

Review: Neighbours by Norman McLaren

Norman McLaren was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada. He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including drawn on film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound.
Norman received many awards throughout his career, including an Oscar for the Best Documentary in 1952 for Neighbours.

Neighbours is an 8 minute short film which was inspired by the Korean War. McLaren wanted to make a strong film against militarism and war. A quote from the director, Norman, "I was inspired to make Neighbours by a stay of almost a year in the People's Republic of China. Although I only saw the beginnings of Mao's revolution, my faith in human nature was reinvigorated by it. Then I came back to Quebec and the Korean War began. (...) I decided to make a really strong film about anti-militarism and against war.'' 

The short-film begins with two cardboard houses sliding in from each side of the frame, followed by two deck chairs appearing from the houses and sliding forward to the camera. Two men then appear sitting on the deck chairs, and begin smoking a cigar and reading newspapers. The two men are then surprised to see one single flower appear from the ground, in between the two cardboard houses. The individually begin to smell the flower, and moving each other out of the way so they can smell it for longer. They began attempting to line off which side the flower was on, and had many disagreements doing this. There is then a fight between the two men for the remainder of the video. The film ends with the two men beating each other to the point in which they both die, and two graves appear. They are buried, in which brings up two flowers, one for each man, in the scene as they sit on top of the grave.

I think this video is hard to understand if you didn't know the story behind as to why Norman McLaren made it. The video is supposed to send a message to people that war is so easily escalated in the depths of people killing innocent people of a different culture. The sequence in which the women and babies are attacked was removed by an American educational distributor who felt it was too violent. The NFB Blog states that 'Norman McLaren was originally upset because he felt cutting the film would ruin the effect of the soundtrack. He was later impressed by the shortened version and decided to leave it as it is, and this because the official finishing print, distributed by the NFB for years to come.'

In my opinion, the concept of this video is very clever, as it is indirectly trying to tell people how serious and life threatening war is. I really like how this film was put together and the idea of using small frames was really clever, as it looks funky and very professional. 

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

http://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2011/02/27/neighbours-the-nfbs-second-oscar-winner/ - accessed on 18-Sept-2013

Review: The Bay by Metromony/David Wilson

This was, in some ways, one of the most interesting music videos I think I have ever seen. I can't really put my finger on why, but I'll attempt to in this blog.

This music video was set along the English Riviera, Torquay in Devon. It's safe to say that it could easily bring tourists to the location as the video almost turns it into a tropical paradise, with the help of sneaky lighting and some ladies in swimsuits. Clever eighties-inspired editing is combined with almost humorous choreography and glamorous characters to accompany the bands electrical-pop sound. This video was directed by David Wilson, who is an award winning animator and director currently based in London.

The video starts of with a 20 second pan of nothing but the ocean. When the music beat drops, the camera then progresses on to the next scenes where the camera starts to project over Torquay, showing you glimpses of where the next scenes will be filmed. Electrical beats are continuous, and the lyrics only start when the main character of the band 'Metromony' is in shot. Throughout the video we see 5 girls posing, swimming and performing sultry moves. We also see a number of effects/transitions which sometimes involves several columns/rows of different scenes at once, to keep the audience interested.

This music video was heavily inspired by Elton John's 'I'm Still Standing' music video. It has similar scenes in which the music videos draw themselves in to each other and look almost identical in some areas, but with The Bay being much more modern.

Left: Elton - Right: Metromony

My personal opinions on The Bay are that is is a well thought out video, creating a great story-line and memorable scenes. By using lots of different camera shots, Wilson has made the video quite quirky and interesting to viewers everywhere, and all different ages would enjoy this. Some scenes may be a little old for say the younger generation, as they provide adult content, but the song itself is suitable for everyone. The way the video has been produced in a clever way, in which the sound and image contacts each other in which the picture appears to respond to the sound. For example, when the beat drops, the scene may change. I would say, as this was quite clearly shot in England, the weather would be the biggest obstacle. David Wilson backed this up in an interview, stating ''We were extremely lucky, but actually lost quite a bit of time, and quite a few shots, waiting for clouds.'' I don't think there would have ever been a straight forward solution, as unfortunately, we cannot control the weather. The only way music videos are guaranteed to be weather-safe to shoot is by going abroad to somewhere like Spain or France, like Elton's video 'I'm Still Standing'. 

Overall, I really enjoy watching this video and will definitely continue to listen to the song in the future! The video creates a fun and vibrant atmosphere and has clearly been well thought out. Well done to David and the team for creating such a fabulous video!

METROMONY - THE BAY: http://vimeo.com/25049692

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.


Links I used:
http://www.colonelblimp.com/#!project_metronomy-thebay_803 accessed on 11-Sept-2013
http://www.thisisdavidwilson.com/about/about.html accessed on 11-Sept-2013
http://www.musicvideotheory.com/2011/08/director-david-wilson.html accessed on 11-Sept-2013

Review: Möbius

Instantly, I knew I would love reviewing this movie. I found it so fascinating to watch, and thought the whole concept of it was absolute genius. It was almost as if it were an optical illusion!

Twenty one large green triangles hit the streets and roads of Melbourne, Australia to create what could only be described as the most imaginative idea ever (in my eyes anyway). The triangles act in synchronicity with the city landscape, with passers by moving within and around them, creating an effect that is amazing to view.

Mobius is a sculpture that can be configured into many cyclical patterns and behave as though it is eating itself, whilst sinking into the ground. The smoothness of the transitions between each moving triangle creates an optical illusion effect, still continuing to synchronize with the city landscape and ongoing activity around them.

I really, really like this video. The way it has been produced and directed, I think, is absolutely sensational. The city landscape interacts with the triangles indirectly, meaning when the triangles speed up, so do the people passing by. The way the floor appears to be swallowing up the green triangles in the chronological order is fascinating to watch. 

The whole production was shot between the dates of 6th May 2011 - 20th May 2011. The directors would have had to have taken quite a lot of obstacles into consideration, such as the weather and surrounding environment. 

The ground appears to be swallowing the triangles

Watching the 'Making of Mobius' put into context of how time consuming this whole project was. The directors and producers of the production actually got the public involved and engaged them in to helping them move the triangles in between each frame, and doing so, it ''created a great atmosphere in Melbourne on the days of shooting.''

With the triangles being bright green, they really stand out in the landscape of the city. The production team would have had to take lighting in to consideration when planning this movie as the weather would have had a huge impact on this whole production. 

Members of the public helping with the production

Overall, I think this production is incredible. The detailing and precise positioning of the triangles must have been so intricate and time consuming, but the team absolutely pulled it off. I really, really enjoyed watching this video, I actually wish it was longer! I would love to do something similar to this in London, or a big city in the UK, so I can experience being a part of such a fantastic and well thought out project. 

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

Review: Gisèle Kérozène

In a modernistic city, three odd fellows seem to worship a small bird-like statue when a fourth bizarre person steals it. They give chase on their motorized flying brooms. One by one, the thief eludes or dispatches his pursuers as they zoom through the cityscape.

This particular production was directed by a Dutch-born French film director and producer called Jan Kounen. 

The production starts off with three odd looking people worshiping some sort of statue, shortly being disturbed by another strange looking person stealing the head of the statue and flying off on his broomstick. The three people worshiping the statue then chase the thief around a city, diving in between sky scrapers and roads. The three people then get injured whilst trying to retrieve the statue from the thief and also manage to injure a patient and a nurse. The final scene is of the thief pointing a gun to the head of one of the witches however she laughs it off and then gives the statue back. It seems to her as though it is all one big joke. 

I find the overall movie a little bit bonkers, and I'm struggling to find anything I like about it. The concept of the whole thing just completely threw me. The parts I found interesting were realising actually how many frames this must have taken, because the movement throughout the whole film is rather smooth. If you were just an outside watching this film, I think you would be mistaken for it to be an actual moving imagine, rather than pixilation, which is lots of frames put together to make, what appears to be, a moving frame. 

I think this movie was made for entertainment purposes, as there is no real story line and no message to give throughout the duration of this movie.
This production was one of Jan Kounen's earliest pieces so I think the budget for this movie was fairly low. Casting himself in means the budget was low as he tried to save money on actors, however, I do think it's a fairly good movie for a low budget. 

It's safe to say there has been fairly mixed reviews of this video, with YouTube comments flying in from near and far, with completely opposite opinions:
- ''This one is actually very short, but hilarious. If you could find it anywhere, just watch it! You won't regret a little delirious moment!''
- ''One of the most ridiculous films I have ever seen. Absolutely no story line. Gutted I will never get that 4 minutes of my life back! >:(''

I think the production as a whole is fairly entertaining, and because it's so random, it actually made me laugh a little bit. However, in my opinion, the production team could have maybe had some background music - perhaps 'clown' themed to make it more enjoyable and entertaining to watch?

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

Pixilation

Pixilation is a stop motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame. There have been many music videos, films and television shows inspired by pixilation and have used this technique. The earliest example of pixilation was shown in a short, Spanish comedy scene, 'El hotel eléctrico', composed and completed by Segundo de Chomón in 1908.

El Hotel Eléctrico by Segundo de Chomón

Norman McLaren, a Canadian animator, introduced Pixilation in his Oscar-winning film 'Neighbours' (1952), and in the later film, 'A Chairy Tale' (1957). Instead of making a series of drawings, human beings are placed in a series of postures in front of the camera. A stationary camera records a posed human subject, who moves to new positions between frames.

Donald McWilliams, a film reviewer, made this statement on Norman McLaren: 

McLaren had been very intrigued by French trick films from the early 1900s in which everyday objects were animated frame by frame. He did some experienting in his student films, and later he animated a household of furniture in a film for the General Post Office in London. He then wondered about the possibility of animating people frame by frame. This curiosity culminated in the extraordinary parable Neighbours, in which two men behave like cartoon characters in a tale of both funny and ferocious. McLaren called the technique Pixilation.

NEIGHBOURS and A CHAIRY TALE

by Norman McLaren

The interaction of actors and objects in a three-dimensional setting introduces a series of references to reality. This has a influence on the choice of subjects dealt with in films that use this technique. It is no accident, for example, that Norman McLaren made his political work with progress.

Other ways of using Pixillation are through green screens, which is the way Aardman Animation produced a music video clip for Peter Gabriel. This way the green screen can match the soundtrack. Less known artists such as André Leduc who used pixiilation at the National Board of Canada where he explored techniques for fantasy in his three films Tout écartillé , Monsieur Pointu and Chérie, ôte tes raquettes.

So to sum up Pixilation in one short sentence, Pixilation is a stop-motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film.

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixilation - accessed on 15-Sept-2013

http://www.teachanimation.org/pdf/Pixilation1006.pdf - accessed on 17-Sept-2013
http://www3.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/techniques/pixillation.php - accessed on 17-Sept-2013
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/07_pixillation_project.html - accessed on 17-Sept-2013

Documenting The Doing #5: Practice Pixilation

Onto our fifth project of this unit already and we've been set the task of producing a movie in the style of pixilation, which consisted of capturing different shots, with each one gradually moving every time. We could choose the groups we worked in this time, which was good, as together, we had really good ideas, and we decided to put them all together. I was with Naomi, Katie and Jade. We all set ourselves areas where we would work, so I was on camera with Naomi, whilst Katie and Jade were positioning the scissors to where we directed them to go in coherence with the camera positioning.

After being given a short tutorial on how to create a movie of this genre by our tutor, Tim, we decided to take the concept a little further by making inanimate objects come to life. Honestly, this wasn't inspired by any animation we had seen before. We saw some scissors, and decided it'd be pretty awesome to bring them to life. We really wanted to be different and stand out from the crowd, so instead of the main characters being ourselves, we decided to use scissors. Jade and Katie appeared in the video every so often by appearing to be chased and attacked by the scissors, who we had named Salt and Pepper.

The concept of the whole production was for Salt and Pepper to be strangers at the beginning, and by the end, they would be the stereotypical happy couple and live happily ever after. In-between, they went their own separate ways, and were reunited at the end. We used a mixture of tripod work and hand-held photographing so it seemed to appear quite alternative and unusual, keeping the audience intrigued on the storyline.

The making of our movie - behind the scenes

Editing the final piece was simple in some places, and tricky in another. As there was four of us, nobody wanted to take control of the editing, as not one of us was overly confident on use the editing software, Adobe Premier Pro. In the end, I took the lead by sitting at the computer and doing the basics. Importing over 200 photos into the programme took time, but whilst this was happening, we spoke about how we could perhaps put our own twist on it. We decided we would add a backing track to our production to make it professional and a bit more life-like. Searching the length and depth of YouTube for tracks to use was pretty time consuming, but in the end we found a tune that worked perfectly. An upbeat track was the one we went for, and this was the theme tune to Wallace & Gromit. We also added a title sequence and credits, as the song was a little longer than the frames. An introduction title sequence was added, 'The Only Way Is Salt and Pepper', ending with a 'created by' sequence and all of our names.

We were all really happy with the final piece as we were not expecting it to be this good! This, personally, is my favourite production I have done to date. I really look forward to doing another video like this, as it was great fun to film, and with it being a light-hearted production which made filming less stressful!

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

Documenting The Doing #4: Bowie Bits

Our fourth video task was to create yet another animation inspired by the talented David Bowie. The mission of this production was to create a stop-motion animation, just like the Problematise/Solutionate movie, taking a photo of different sequences to eventually create a short movie. I was paired with the lovely Jemima for this task, and I suggested she picked the song as I was not familiar with any of Bowie's work. Jemima suggested Space Oddity, and the reason for this was the hint of a countdown in the background. Deciding to play on this, we created a scene of space within a box provided. A miniature version of David Bowie in a funky costume that we chose would fly in on a rocket and land on the moon! The countdown would then take place in the background, with big cut out numbers moving from left to right at the back of the box.

Editing the video was the trickiest part of this whole production as we had to try and get the countdown of the music spot on with our countdown that we created during the picture-taking period. We tried on numerous occasions to match it all up so it was perfect, but unfortunately didn't succeed. From 10 to 4 the countdown was spot on with the music, but after this, we had appeared to have taken less frames as we were short of time, so the music couldn't keep up with the actual footage we captured.

This has taught me that when I come to do this sort of thing in the future I will try and spend more time on the main feature of the production (which in this case was the countdown) and attempt to make it match to the best it will, and to the best of my ability. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and again, I feel this has given me an insight on animation and editing for the future, and I really look forward to doing another project similar to this.

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.

Documenting The Doing #3: Problematise & Solutionate

Finding a problem can be easy, but finding a solution can be much more difficult. Our motto for the next few years is if we find a problem, we have to try our hardest to find a solution. This way, we should all hopefully sail through the next two years, with obviously a few speed bumps on the way.

Our next task was to create a short stop-motion animation that resolves creative problems. We were put in designated groups again, and in a group of three, we decided to come up with two short, snappy words; 'SOCIAL' and 'BRAVE'. It's safe to say that a big handful of the people in our group were nervous about meeting new people, and some were excited. Personally, I couldn't think of anything more nerve-wracking that talking to people I've never even seen before. I didn't have any confidence in myself at all.
These two words really stood out for the us as we all felt the same towards them.

We were given an A4 sheet of paper with 2 people sitting at chairs, with speech bubbles appearing out of their mouths as if they were talking at one another. Creating the animation meant we had to use short but bold markings on the paper, eventually spelling out the two words within the speech bubbles. We decided to use marker pens as this would really come to life on the paper when we came round to editing it. The aim of this project was to make the movie as smooth as possible as this would create the best effect. We shortly drew parts of the letters, eventually making up the entire word, and every time we drew a section, we would take a picture. Once we'd completed the wording, we then went on to do funky designs around the page to make it appear more fun - which is in theory what college is all about, having fun.

Editing the movie wasn't the hardest task in the world, as it only required importing the images we'd taken into Adobe Premier Pro, and choosing what speed we wanted them. We thought about adding a title to the movie to explain why we had chosen these two particular words, but it turns out that the movie would eventually be developed in to a group project, bringing in everyone else's movies, so we decided to keep it short and sweet.

I really enjoyed completing this project as it gave us a visual reality of how stop-motion animations are produced and edited, and hopefully I will expand my knowledge of this in the future and create an animation that will be known worldwide! Optimistic, I know!

Cheerio. :o)

- Olivia.