Films I've watched recently....

THE WANDERERS

A Philip Kaufman film

I came across this movie through browsing on youtube. It’s a 1979 New York gang film. The main characters in this movie is the gang ‘The Wanderers’. They believe they are the best and put their skills to the test in a football game against the other gangs around New York. I personally since starting to watch more movies from the 90’s think that being open-minded to the main storyline and not judging the visuals or effects will help you enjoy the movie more. The visuals are really good when it comes to setting the mood. There is a scene when one of the gang members in The Wanderers becomes a traitor and joins The Baldies but is then ditched by them and is running through alleyways and neighborhoods when he is being chased by occupants of that neighborhoods. The smoke haze, the street-lighting and sharp shadows casting over the tall apartment buildings helps to set the fear and agitation that the character is feeling but also shows how and where these young teenager were living. There is some comedy in this film but it also highlights one of the characters having to stop being a teenager and grow up. Everything is tied together nicely at the end which I like. Plus the rock ‘n’ roll music features are nice to listen to.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080117/

AMERICAN ME

This has main themes running through it, survival and drugs. It is inspired by a true story, and it is in East LA, America. At the end, the saying 'what goes around, comes around' is true. While watching it there were some gruesome scenes and others that showed that there was peace under all the gang related deaths and drug dealing. The people living in these times were some that were trying to better themselves and others that were happy contributing to these deaths. I would say the cinematics were simple, no 3D effect was shown to be used, just simple camera techniques. To emphasise the deep thoughts these characters were experiencing there was many facial camera close ups.

Overall watch this movie with an open mind and understand the message being shown.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103671/

Film- J. Edgar

J. Edgar is a biopic narrated by Hoover as he tells the story of his life in the FBI force.

I watched this film, it was a very long film though interesting too. What I liked about this film was the way it switched from the past to the future without any indication such as text across the screen saying 'Few years later'. It mainly just used the character's appearances to tell the viewer which tense it was in. 

The film switched from elderly Hoover to the younger one. There was some nice scenes cut together such as when Hoover in his old age enters the elevator with his work colleague and best friend, then the  elevator doors close and re-open with Hoover and his partner with their younger self. 

Generally the way the story was told and presented was good and the narration helped to give insight to what Hoover was thinking during certain moments of his life took place.

Brief: Instruct

Quick sketch of storyboard for Instruct project.

Brief 2- Emote- Treatments, Development

Screenshots of the main scenes in our group video- 'Procrastination'.

The treatments I have done to the video is simple fade in and out and a color corrector filter to enhance the lighting. The only complex editing went on besides when I was combining 2 or 3 shots of the same action and I had to get the timing right so it flowed nicely.

The music we used came from http://freeplaymusic.com/

The songs are:

1. My Wild Child
2. MC Mendelssohn Songs Without Words Opus 19.5
3. The Stand
4. 
   

The image below are screenshots of how I edited our video.

I used tools such as the fading and roll tool.

The fading tool was just to help each scene transition smoothly and the roll tool was to help merge shots from different angles together performing the same action. That helped me a lot with the doritos clip even though we did not end up using it.

To help me edit the video much easier, I created a list of sequences, this meant that any complicating edits with time and motion could be done outside of the master sequence.

How To Video research

Just looking at simple instructional videos. 

The screenshots are from a video about How To Tie a Tie, the camera shots are simple and does not have interesting edits.

The main shots mostly consist of extreme close ups and wide shots.

These simple edits and shots are too make it more suitable to a wide range of audiences. When I think about how to present my 1 min instructional video I need to think about whether combining simple shots with interesting editting or complex shots with simple editing.

My audience is aimed at age 10-30 so I want it to appeal to a wide range of people.

http://www.monkeysee.com/play/478-how-to-tie-a-tie-four-in-hand-knot

Lecture on Post Modernity

Image of notes from lecture on Post Modernism

Post-Modernism as I noted down can be described as being complex, chaotic, a parody and conveying irony.
 Post-Modernism explored a variety of styles and approaches from the rules set in Modernism and changed them.

Robert Charles Venturi, Jr (Learning from Las Vegas) an american Architect, it is said that he helped many young architects explore and learn more about the similar complications and ideas in Modernist times.

Vanna Venturi House

Freedom Plaza designed by Robert Venturi

Lecture on Modernity

Mainly scanned images of my notes from this lecture

MODERNISM/MODERNITY:  it is said to be created from optimism, a response to World War 1 and follows function/rules.

Text from notes:

Modernity: industrialization, urbanisation

John Ruskin (a well known modernist)

Max Nordau Degeneration was his best work in that time.

Definitions:

Subjective experiment: experience of the individual in the modern world.
Modernism:  emerges out of the subjective responses of artists/designers to Modernity
Anti-historicism: no need to work backwards to older styles
Internationalism: a language of design that could be recognised and understood on an international basis.

Brieft: Instruct- Editing

Above are screenshots of the instructional video I did for this brief.
When filming and editing this video, I have to keep in mind the type of audience this video is aimed at, which ranges from age 10-30. This is based on people from different backgrounds and cultures that wear bandanas or own them.
I kept the scenes simple without any subtitle instructions added and let the visual movements instruct the viewer more. The background and lighting is constant throughout the video. The soundtrack I used was Alicia Keys- Diary and towards the end Lil' Jon- Roll Call. I used the song 'Diary' soundtrack because its a soothing song that does not distract from what is going on in the video. The soundtrack is a piano instrumental and piano sounds are universal to everyone. The outro song, 'Roll Call' is to emphasise me joking around at the end trying to be a 'G'. I think the beginning of the song I used does not take away from what is going on in the video.

Since I kept the footage simple, I did not want to use too much editing effects in the video besides what is necessary. I used basic fade in and out tools and added a two split screen effect that had what was going on in the front and back but showing at the same time. This I thought is a great way to instruct a viewer while they are trying to copy you. Though the idea of how to wear a bandana is simple, I have just used editing techniques to make it simpler for those that do not understand.


The song links are:

Lil' Jon- Roll Call- I only used the first few seconds of the song.

Alicia Keys- Diary- mainly used the instrumental of the song.

Film Filming/Editing Roles

Emote Brief

The role of a Film/Video editor is to help convey the message the film is trying to present in a way that is entertaining to its intended audience. They generally work very closely with the director to make sure that work is done to an acceptable standard.
 Editors make sure the technical standards, the sense of story and the actor's performances are correct. They take the best takes of scenes and use these takes to help convey the story, most times doing many cuts and producing different results.

Editors can start out being Runners to Trainees, First & Second assistants and hopefully become editors.

 The skills most editors possess are: understanding narrative, obtain a sense of timing and rhythm when telling a story, able to be in charge of a team, good communication skills and able to pay attention to detail.

In my group my role is film editor, I plan to research more into different editing techniques that can be done in Final Cut software, and ways of presenting a storyline. 
I plan to storyboard how the different scenes in our film will be shot and what type of shots would be benefit in the aiding of storytelling.

Main Equipment I will be using for the current project:

XD Cam 

We also used one lighting stand, an extra camera and tripod.

Brief 2: Emote

Our next project following from the previous one is called Emote. We are working in groups of 3/4 people and have to produce a 2minute film based on one of these titles: Happiness, Guilt, Worry, Chase, Fight & Love.
We have chosen to portray Worry, our main idea surrounding this, is Procrastination. Below is a small mind-map of the main points or ideas we want to maybe portray in this film.

We plan to use the necessary equipment to achieve the best scenes to edit.

Filming schedule

The factors we have considered is: Locations, Roles in the film, Equipment  and Time.

I plan to look at different sites and books to help me edit the film. A couple are shown below.

1. http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/htmfiles/editing.htm
2. http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/12-tips-for-better-film-editing/

We are also going to decide whether we want to take a comedic or serious tone with this topic and think of different ways we can present this idea while making sure we convey the emotion of Worry. 

The roles that each person in the group has is:

1. Kinga: Storyboard Artist
2. Sophie: Director
3. Munni: Editor

Storyboard Planning so far.....

Trying to convey the theme of 'Worry', so I have only done storyboarding for one subject because more than one main subject for this idea is much easier.

The two images above just roughly state techniques that might be used when it comes to filming.

 

This is the main sequence of scenes so far that we are going to follow during tomorow's filming.

 

BAF Festival Trip: 14th-16th Nov

Last week, I and my classmates visited the BAF Festival held in Bradford at the National Media Museum. It was a short 3 days packed with talks and screenings of animations, film and games.

It was a very informative 3 days that I experienced, it helped show me the different animations that students and professionals produce in the industry. The sessions I most looked forward to was watching Paranorman in 3D, Mark Shapiro's talk and Chuck Jones Centenary talk.

Talks:

Vanessa Boyce from Double Negative http://www.dneg.com/

This company's work consists of creating parts of Gotham City in the recent Batman films, worked on the buildings and other visual effects in Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

I enjoyed their talk because it gave me an insight into the type of work they do for films and other projects. It also developed an interest in that field of work they do and has boosted my curiosity in trying out some basic visual effects.

Gotham City- Monorail scene

Double Negative used techniques such as large-scale miniatures, matte painting and very detailed digital environment work. A phrase Vanessa Boyce said at the talk was 'reference, reference, reference', that word was repeated 3 times and this is a simple skill that is mimed by many tutors when it comes to briefs, is that to create pieces of work you need to have gathered as much information as possible fulfil your purpose. She stated the artists took multiple photos of high skyscrapers and other buildings and places around cities to be able to capture a realistic idea when it came to creating sections of Gotham City and also visually present Gotham City as it is described in comics.

''Double Negative created some 300 visual effects shots for the film, making it the lead vendor.'' quoted from the website.

Chuck Jones Centenary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmSbdvzbOzY- The Dot And The Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

After watching this animation, I found extremely comedic, entertaining and informative. The audience this animation is aimed at would be universal because the humour is a type that everyone can relate to whether young, middle-aged or elderly.

The storyline is simple which makes it easy to follow, the visuals are colourful and vibrant. The use of block colours and sharp shapes such as triangles helps to emphasise the mathematical side of this story yet being pleasant to watch. Usually, the audience is used to seeing characters replicate human characteristics and appearance, in this animation the use of a line, dot and squiggle having human traits is more fascinating and has been done well. The sound and narrative timing helps to emphasise the character's emotions which is key to presenting certain punchlines. 

Overall, I enjoyed the 3 days because it helped to motivate me and also surround me with like-minded individuals striving to get in the industry.

The Matrix by Andy & Lana Wachowski

The Matrix is a sci-fi, action movie that is about a man who lives a double life and later told he lives in a world where humans are in a world called 'the matrix' and machines are in control. He escapes the 'matrix' and joins Morpheus, captain of a ship in the conquest of defeating the Matrix. The movie has some good special/visual effects considering the time it was released where computers were not that advanced at creating realistic effects.

 This is a screenshot of a computer generated fire explosion in the building during an action scene in The Matrix, this movie was released in 1999 so this scene helps to show what the computers could produce at that time. Though generally the special effects in this movie helped pioneer other movies to using special effects in their films and helped also push boundaries, compared to today this computer generated fire would look more realistic.

This another special effect used when Neo was dodging bullets, the use of showing the bullet trails help to emphasise Neo's speed at dodging them. In today's technology, the bullet trails would probably not be used, but based in this situation the director wanted to show the best possible way to translate to the audience Neo's abilities.

Here, I shall talk about the lighting in this film, the main colours displayed in this scene is a green tone mixed with black for shadows. The lighting here has been made to be very dim, dark and dungy, this could be to emphasise the abandoned rail station platform. 

Extra facts:

Colin Grant, one of the few Visual effects staff that worked on this film, has worked on other movies such as The Fifth Element & X-Men 2, which all have the theme action, sci-fi & adventure in common. 

Dane A. Davis is an employee that worked in the sound department in the movie, he also worked on the other 2 Matrix sequels.

Kenny Powers Ad Campaign ''K-Swiss''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjc5LFThDTQ


This ad campaign for 'K-Swiss' has gone down the route of the main character playing a character that is egotistic and ballsy.
In terms of shots and camera angles used in this advert, the basics such as a wide shot as shown in the image above, and close up.
Another used is the low camera angle shot as shown in the image below. This emphasises Kenny Powers' character traits as the dominating role in the advert. In this scene he informs the former boss that he will taking over the job. Simple camera angles used help convey this.

As the advert plays on, the scenes are cut short and fast, the general pace of the advert is quick also, this helps to keep in time Kenny's fast talking pace also, it wouldn't make sense if Kenny was speaking quick while the scenes were slow and long.

The rule of thirds is also used in other scenes for example as shown below,

this is the scene from a wide angle shot

the subject is facing towards the right of the screen and is placed closer to the left side of the screen, this helps to tell the viewer who he is talking to without showing the other people, the framing here has definitely been considered.

This scene follows the same principle, the subject is looking towards the left of the screen to indicate that her attention is facing Kenny Powers and she is placed towards the right of the screen.

These simple framing techniques help to keep interest with the viewer by changing shots but helping keep the focus on the action still going on in the scene overall.

The lighting of this advert is flat, it has not used any high intensity lighting, neither are there any shadows seen in most of the scenes, the director has most likely tried to replicate realistic daylight light in most scenes. This could have been done to help emphasise the type of mood the advert is trying to portray, as there is comedy and general spontaneity in the advert, having dark shadows cast in the scenes would only evoke emotions such as fear or anger in the scenes.