1 day project- radical ideas

In class we were told to consider radical ideas that we could teach the class about. we were shown examples from renaissance era as well as modern scientific discoveries that have changed the way we look at the world. it was important to consider as Radical ideas have been at the forefront of art and media which is constantly revolutionising itself. When in groups we discussed radical ideas of the modern day and started to consider conspiracies theories and the way they are formed, and can then become accepted truths for some sections of society. We then decided to do our presentation on this topic, by inventing our own theory and producing a 1:30 minute documentary on the north korean secrets and then explaining how ideas like these can be quickly accepted.

Film week 2

The weekend created challenges for us. Originally we planned to have one main character at his desk trying to balance work and his social life, with two characters playing his friend and boss, who visit him in his room to attempt to urge him one way or the other. however it soon became clear that more than half our group would not be present on the day of shooting, meaning, disappointingly that the script would have to be ruthlessly edited and cut down to something far more simplistic and with no dialogue, instead showing a build up of pressure and stress from the protagonist as his phone rings slowly build up to exaggerated levels. Though this was not what we had wanted it was a necessary sacrifice to make the film possible.
However this did give us more opportunity to focus on cinematography, with no dialogue and it all being contained to one room, much focus would be on the look of our film,
the lighting and angles that we use had to be perfect to create the sense of anxiety and stress that our protagonist was feeling when he was simply alone in his room.
This was challenging as the main desk was right in front of a large window that let in warm day light, which created the opposite effect of tension.
To solve issue this we covered all windows and main lights, as i learned from my animation project and mentioned in my blog before, this darkness gave us total control over lighting which we could build off. We used several different desk lamps positioned behind the camera and left the back dark to help give an impression of the glaring, eye burning light of the laptop screen. I felt this was extremely effective as it was highly complimented in the criticism sessions. The only negatives focus on the use of the phone, with the sound playing constantly but the screen only one text being delivered. I intend to learn from that by making sure to go over shots we have taken and checking to see we have everything from the shot list so there is no material missing for when we enter post production.
Overall i was extremely happy with the piece, which we named Balance.

film week 1

To start film we started to discuss the idea that all fits need a clear or at least subjective moral premise. Forming moral premises can be challenging but was made easier as we broke them down in to attitudes, and how this attitude effects a value, from that you decide a consequence, whether good or bad, this makes up a moral premise.
These moral premises became the backbone of each plot we wanted to do.
My Group members analyses different moral premises and tried to come up with anecdotal examples that could then be developed into stories. This worked extremely well for us as coming up with stories and narrative is often the hardest part of the film making process and so to form a moral first and then be able to use that as inspiration to shape a story around it is is much easier, i plan to do this for all future projects.
From this we chose a plot of a young man struggling under the stress of his work life and trying not to neglect his friends, the moral premise being prioritising leads to balance.
Story boarding and shot listing was simple as we learned from our mistakes at animation and were able to go through quickly, planning the shoot for the weekend.

animation week 2

Challenges arose as we started to work on our storyboards and shot listing, we felt that our characters were not facing real obstacles and that the plot had not been properly planned, causing it to become repetitive, and group members conflicting about how to schedule the shoot. to solve this problem I decided that rather than making group decisions i would publish a finalised shot list that was to be followed, the choice to have one decision maker planning the narrative was much better as there was no longer a butting of heads as we all piled in to make decisions. From this i learned that delegating roles at the start of a project based on peoples skills was extremely important and was something i will do from now on.

Another problem arose as we found that the classroom where we were shooting had extremely awkward lighting coming from many angles, causing the legs of tripod to cast unwanted shadows across our space. This is something i personally had not considered until today and so earned to work in locations that allowed complete control over key elements such as lighting. Solving this took a lot of time, we improvised by folding tables onto their side and then using them to block the light that came through, we also scrapped a traditional tripod and use a chair with rope and tape to hold the camera in place. Now that problems with the plot and lighting were solved we were able to shoot what we and our feedback group felt was a successful and funny piece.

Stop Motion worked well for us as it allowed us to work quickly and suited our paper cut out style of animation, using these simple 2D pieces meant we didn't have to worry about many complex aspects such as rigging our characters movements. However it was a struggle as moving each piece inch by inch was an extremely tedious and mind numbing experience. We learned that in order to keep focus one person must always supervise and discuss with the animator to ensure that they are not making mistakes.

Me and the group were extremely happy with the ending result, we felt it was very funny and kept the audience engaged, the only negative feedback being to ensure we have more control over lights next time as our improvisation did not cover it perfectly.

Animation Week 1

 Animation lessons started discussing the ideas of narrative and story telling, stuff that we would need to consider when coming up with our final piece. It was a difficult concept to grasp as a stories must be much more organised and structured than most would think to keep the audience interest and stopping the plot from stagnating. I learned that If a character does not face enough obstacles or challenges in the too great a time the pacing can be off, and it may be seen as a big part of screen time wasted. This was an important lesson for me as now while working on projects i always consider the exact amount of challenges, obstacles and key plot moments that will be needed.

After this we were split into groups to come up with ideas for our film. I feel me and my group were good at this as, after coming up with a  concept, we attempted to bend and plot to make it work against the structure shown to us, ensuring that our plots would not stagnate and would remain entertaining through out.

Coming up with a concept was a challenge as our films were not allowed to surpass a minute. Giving our character personality, then time to experience a challenge, then overcome it, and show the results of that is all extremely hard to do in such a short time. We decided to put in research of one minute films such as Woman With The Red Heels, which was extremely successful at bringing strong characters and an interesting story in a few seconds, as well as current animation success Sausage Party. By The end of the week we had used these influences and came up with a short romantic, innuendo comedy about a pencil and sharpener that fall in love.

Photography Crit

Though I feel the work i did was good photography, and the examples i included fit the criteria well, my tutors felt that i could do more to add individuality and my own personality to the other pictures, which they described as "generic and unoriginal".

 after explaining this i feel my tutors were right, though i liked the work it seemed much like something from a brochure for the park and not something that showed my  memories as an individual, and i agreed to go back and try to capture something more personal.

Unfortunately there was a problem as, due to class and work commitments i was unable to free up a day to revisit the park and take more pictures, and would have to work out an alternative.

I solved this problem by changing  my original idea, no long focusing on the park, but contrasting it with may own environments of my local area, which is currently in decline. I felt that the new idea of comparing a fun, family friendly area with an area thats being used for fly tipping and prostitution would be very effective fort the viewer.