Storyboarding in 'The Incredibles'

In this clip the director Brad Bird and others are talking about the process of making/ coming up with the story, once the script is written or whilst its beeing written, there thinking about the storyboards. I like how they throw ideas at eachother, seeing if anything will work, becasue there starting from scratch so everything has to be thought up and the more ideas they come up with, the easer it is to choose a composition that works.
Also quite interesting (and scary) how Mark Andrews (story supervisor) talks about how they get a scene that stands alone really well, then they remember that no scene stands alone in a film, goes to show that they have to consider every scene whilst doing one scene to make sure everything fits into place nicely.

Lighting in 'The Incredibles'

I'm not too keen on lighting, i don't get it. But this clip from disc 2 of The Incredible's shows this person who worked on the lighting on the animated film, which is making my understand light a bit better and how it can make a scene look good.

Whats nice about this clip is that she shows us the scene with white light and the light they actually used, i can really see the difference.

A film using white light through out the whole film (no film dose) looks really crap, what lighting dose is make a scene look jolly, scary ect.

I like the way she showed us a sinister scene (where the main character has been captured) with the lighting which was used in the final film, then showed us the same scene with a more golden tint to the scene which made the scene look less sinister, which convinces my that lighting is quite important in film!

Sound in 'The Incredibles'

Quite interesting how the Foley people look at the designs of the objects which they have to make up noises for and think of what objects will be good at conveying that noise.
In this clip, they talk about the flying hover things which have blade like spinny things, they used knifes for the sound. they tried sharpening them to make a good sound then they enhanced it to make it work.

In the Foley exercise we did, are team had an unknown sound which we had to think of a noise for, we had no idea what to do for it.
The unknown sound was a chemical reaction in a test tube where the light in the reaction glows, so we thought of a light humming as it glowed. I brought in my harmonica which makes the same sound we were looking for and it worked well, so we used it in the final clip.

Act on CO2

This is a pretty cool advert from 'act on CO2', we think its a picture of a industrial facility with smoke coming out of it, but by the end of the advert we see its actually a car exhaust with the background being a lady's dress and a bush!
I got really confused at first and started to quess what it was, but whats nice about it is that you can get to totally different scenes be changing the angle of a camera and getting closer or further back from the subject.

Chiaroscuro Effect

Definition
'treatment of light and shade in drawings and paintings, an effect of contrasted light and shadows created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something'

Before this effect was 'discovered?' paintings looked very flat because lighting wasn't considered as much, this effect added depth to paintings.

Still don't fully understand how it works, i keep finding images and i don't know if its using the effect or not.


This image (Above) claims it uses the effect, it says the main light is on the girl whilst the background stays pretty dark. don't know if its a good example or not.

Studio Pictures

Bohemian Rhapsody
We tried to replicate the start of the video of Queen's bohemian rhapsody in the studio.

Looking at this image (above) we had to decide were the light was coming from, the shadows on Fredi Mercury face shows us that the light is coming from above, but we thought there might be a spotlight on each singer and we only had one so we had to make do.


Are first attempt (above) looked really good until we did the second attempt, the first just had the light shining on to the subjects. It was too light, and everyones face was bleached out. Editing the white in photoshop would be imposable as it will just stay white, so we had to change something to make it better.


This image (above) was the final shot, the light is much softer and not so bright, also the clothes are lost in the black background unlike the first attempt.
We put a defuser on the light to soften it, then changed the exposure on the camera to let less light through.
Could have done with being a bit lighter and having some smoke round them, but over all im pleased with the image.

Story boarding

Few notes from a book i've got which has a section on storyboards.

. All different aspects of making any film/animation like; sound, lighting, colour, story etc can't be considered alone which is why storyboard are so essential. which means storyboards make all the elements flow together by trial & error

. Rough guide lines to story boarding;
Film - 100 storyboards per minuet (more if the scene is complex
T.V - More than 100 because there shorter, have more action and scene changes

. Originated from the 1920's when artists would pin up gag ideas on their wall, this expanded into the job we see today which is called, gag man or storyboard artist

. Today the industry seems to do storyboards directaly on the computer through touch screen monitors and tablets (think initial storyboards are done with pencil and paper)

Lighting in Amateur Play Production

Went to see a Play in early November called 'Are Country Good', never really thought about it till now, but the lighting in these amateur productions is quite important .
There was scenes where there was just one spotlight on two characters, this helped the scene a lot as it meant the viewer was fixed on these two people and were not getting distracted by the person picking their nose on the other side of the theater. As well as not being distracted it also helps the illusion that your not in a theater and that you are in the time period the play was set in.

There was another scene where there was an actor in each corner of the stage with a spotlight on each one, it reminds me of this image.......

...........so you have a hat, a man sitting, and a man standing, your eye should go from one to the other. Good technique as it makes you look at the whole picture.
Going back to the play, it had four people in the scene, all you could see was the four people, nothing in the middle of the set & you couldn't see the audience on the other side. Your eyes went from one to the other as they spoke. The scene was enhanced by the lighting because it gave you places to look at.

There were scenes where it was all lit and there was about Six or Seven People on the stage and you didn't know where to look, sometimes it was ok because it was suppose to be a busy scene, but it didn't work in others because it was a tenser scene and you didn't know who to look at, lighting certain people might have helped out those scenes.

Lighting Image

This image shows off good lighting (War of the Worlds - Spielberg), emphasis is on the eyes because everywhere else is dark, and they say that 'its all in the eyes' so this image works well for that.
Although i think maybe too much light is in this composition because this guy looks like a murderer when actual he is scared, so for me maybe less light on the subject or maybe no so much light on the eyes alone/

Lighting

Although i realize (sort of) why lighting is important i don't think that its as big a deal as things like Sound & Colour.

With sound and colour you can change a scene, and now, while watching films I see how they come in useful. Colour can be used to help the story along by having certain colors for certain things like in 'Saving Private Ryan' i found that warm colours like yellow, orange & red were used to symbolize home.

'The Dark Knight' used a violin (I think its a violin) in any scene the joker was in or was going to be in, to show hes near.

Lighting is obviously good for getting a certain shot (found that out today, when recreating Bohemian Rhapsody) also get across certain moods (mostly Scary)

I will probably find it very useful later on in life, but for now i feel its just not a big deal in comparison to elements like Colour, Sound, Composition........

Documentary on the making of Snow White

Always good to see how things used to be done. Put this on because of a good bit halfway through were he talks about sound, they show some footage of them making sound for the film 'Snow White'.
Also funny how they talk about women back in 1940's!

Foley Plans

This is the list i made whilst watching the clip of 'nightmare before Christmas' (with no sound) for exercise 5 - Foley.
The list is of all the sounds we would need to make in are team some how, some suggestions are made in the list as well.
The red writing is what we actually used in the final clip. some sounds we didn't make because we thought that either it wasn't necessary of something else was loud enough that it wouldn't had mattered.

(click on them to get them full size)

Foley Fartist

A very creative way of making sounds, Sort of!

Sounds at Checkout

After getting the new breif today (have to make the sounds/foley for a clip from nightmare before Christmas) i was more bothered about the sounds products make rather than serving the customers at tesco. Wrote down things....

My Hockney Joiners in New York

These were taken in New York, some worked out quite well, others didn't. I find the ones where there are more pictures the image is visually more pleasing, The ones that have two images in, look pretty weak.

This image (above) is alright, not my favorite, but it shows the scale of the building using this method of joining images together.


This one is very weak, only has two pictures in it so, i think, it can't really be classed as a joiner. Its not very interesting, but could be made more interesting with more pictures, even add the street on both sides to show perspective.


This is my favorite, the buildings bending and distorted takes away the realness of the image, yet at the same time you know what it is. Also my eye is drawn into the light bit in the middle and everything else come out of that one but, like an explosion.
Quite happy with this image because it came out better than i expected, in fact i had no idea how any of these would come out, i just took pictures and hoped for the best!
(got eight more of them)

View Point in Goodfellas

*****Read Colour in Goodfellas (below) First*****

A scene really stood out to me in the film. In the scene the main character and his wife lose all there money, the way the camera positioned, i don't think, is that important but the way the actors position them selves at the scenes end is quite clever & through out the scene the way they are is quite relevant.


At the start of the scene (above) the main character is shouting at his wife, he's standing while she is on her knees which shows who is more powerful.


Next, he's been brought to his knees which shows that he is beginning to come to terms with what has happened & he isn't a threat to her any more.


In this list bit you can see they are both together which sort of symbolizes they will get through it together, plus there still on the floor.
Also if you've noticed this is after the drinks have been mixed. What colour is the wallpaper!!!!!!

Colour in Goodfellas

I picked up on a few things while watching this film for the first time, some viewpoints & also colour.

This image (above) gives a good idea of what the colour pallet is in the film.
But there was something that i noticed which was quite clever, they used a lot of Reds & Greens in the film and for most of the film (especially the first half) was dominated by Red.

Not sure if its suppose to mean something literal but i found that it was something to do with the story and how it changes and i think that the colour changes because of an event in the film.
Something good happens in the film and then from that good everything goes wrong. This is cleverly shown by both the Red and the Green being mixed in a drink at a party celebrating this event.

For the rest of the film now, most scenes have both the colours together, for example on the wallpaper.

Littlefoot By Adam Philips

TO THE VIDEO!

Flash series by Adam Philips (worked for Disney, but is now freelance),This video is half way through the series but its got some good view points from the main character and littlefoot & also some good shots from in the grass, looking/stalking littlefoot.

Sound effects are inventive which go well with the animals which are just as creative.

Little foots walk is cute as well :)

Kidulthood

Video has Strong Language & Violence :(



Between 1.00 - 4.30 of this video is a scene where one of the main characters is asked to calve a 'C' on someones face, to show how much fear is in the characters face (the one calving the C) they've done close up shots so that you see and feel his pain. You can see that he doesn't want to do it and this is shown by these camera Angles.

Just after that, it shows him running away, (still use closeups) the camera blurs which, to me, show whats going through his head as he struggle to come to terms which what he has just done.

War Posters

During 1930's - 40's Germany had a different viewpoint from us, which caused the World Wars. The posters used during the war by every country involved were trying to make its people agree with there opinion (propaganda). I've noticed they use the same sort of technique that film use to show sinister characters or to show authority figures.

Germany believed that Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsy's and so on, were 'different', looking at some German posters on the Jews you can see that they use close ups of there face to show there facial features which they thought made them different. Also by using close ups they can give them facial expressions that look evil.



A famous British poster from world war 1 showing Lord Kitchener pointing at us, is a good example of point of view, the image is imminently aimed at you and becomes personal to you.

Grayham Nash - Photographer & Singer

Grayham Nash has a theme of taking pictures of his reflection in anything that reflects. You are viewing him through the eyes of himself , hence the name of the book they are all in called Eye to eye.


This image (above) has taken reflections further, showing different perspectives of himself (a lot like what cubism was doing long before him, but still he's using a different technique so its different)



Grayham Nash also taken photos of other things/people. The image (above) is a close up of two people and because its a close up it shows off their relationship between both of them. Also I think this image wouldn't work as well if it was a shot further away because of the situation, you can see that this man (Steven Stills) is in 'thinking mode' from how he is staring into the distance whilst the lady is kissing him? or whispering in his ear?