The Proposal

NAME: Amy Forster

WORKING TITLE OF DOUMENTARY: The Creation of Animation!

SUBJECT – What is the production about, and what does the audience need to know beforehand?

Our production is about novices putting together their first, drawn, animation and the processes that need to be gone through to achieve the final outcome. The audience isn’t required to have any existing knowledge surrounding animation, just an interest in the art.

SYNOPSIS – what happens in your video?

The production will follow the stages and processes involved in the making of an animation. It will involve ourselves creating an animation and the troubles that we shall face. Also, included in our documentary will be several interviews with individuals from the animation ‘industry’ and an interview with an animation student.

WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR DOCUMENTARY TO ACHIEVE? – What are you setting out to do, and how do you hope the audience will ‘read’ it.

The aim of our documentary is to educate the audience about the struggles and rewards of creating an animation. We hope the audience will read our documentary as informative.

 

Tim Clague - Animated Resume

And What Do You Do?

Tim Clague’s Resume: 

1.      How long has Tim been working in Media Production for?

15 Years

2.      Which companies and production teams has Tim worked for and with?

·         BBC

·         ITV

·         RKO

·         White Lantern Films

·         Projector Films

·         Electronic Arts

·         Dreamtime

·         APB

·         Working Title

·         Creative Assembly

·         Eight

3.      Which business outside of the media has Tim worked with?

·         Barclays

·         Shogun

·         HSBC

·         Prudential

4.      What has Tim learnt from working with people inside and outside of Media Production?

·         A strong work ethic and presentational skills

5.      What acknowledgements has team received?

·         Brit Academy

·         1 Million You Tube views

·         Jerwood Film Prize

·         Bafta Nomination

·         Vision Awards

6.      How does Tim like to work?

·         Using story charts

·         Visual Tools

·         Direct and work with talented people

·         Screen Capture Tools

7.       What else has Tim been involved in?

·         4 Talent

·         SWF Screenwriting Festival

8.      What are Tim’s three most important skills?

·         To obtain a good storytelling narrative

·         To use a variety of different styles

·         To use good tools and techniques for presentations

Thursday Projects

See It - Say It:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXvUh9XXbZQ
Do It In Pre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7huD_BWIPFw

Debate...

THE GUIDE TO A SUCCEFUL DEBATE  J

1.       Turn Up

2.       Remember that a debate is taking place, and that you are involved in the discussion

3.       Prepare Properly, as a team

4.       Conduct Research... Lots of it!

5.       Organise the roles between the team members (e.g. Who’s tackling each question)

6.       Listening to and responding to the other debate teams points and arguments

7.       Being capable of judging and having an open mind to both sides of the debate

8.       Having an longer time for open floor discussion  on the points made by the debate speakers

9.       Have factual informational research untaken, and prepared... ready for battle

10.   Give the other side a chance to voice their opinions

11.   Be smart... not immature

12.   Have fun! Not...

Completed... Your debate was very successful... Congratulations :P

Our argument for BBC – against ITV

Popular BBC programs:

·         Never mind the buzzcocks

·         Family guy

·         Eastenders

·         Panorama

·         The apprentice

·         Doctor who

·         Football focus

·         Football matches

·         Match of the day

·         Have I got news for you

·         QI

Add all these programs to specialist programs like natural world, masterchief, and  even some which are a one off, such as Stepen fry and the great American oil spill, you will find that BBC has catered for everybody with artistic, factual and fun programs. BBC allows people to think for themselves and watch programs which they are personally interested in rather than being herded like sheep to watch mega-audience bringer programs that humiliate for entertainment. Such as the x-factor and spin-off ‘reality’ shows like ‘The only way is Essex’.

·         Take me out – degrading to women as they compete over a man just because he’s ‘hot’. 

·         The only evidence that I have seen on the ITV programs of a specialist minority program would be ‘Freddie flintoff versus the world’

1.       X factor – Gamu. Finalists never get far.

2.       £145 for your TV licence, 50% off for the death or blind, £50 for a black and white TV

Allows BBC to give viewers more value for money with no adverts

The Film Production Team - Job Roles

Job Roles in the Media

Cinematographer:

1.      Sets up shots according to the wishes of the director.

2.      It allows them to express their creativity, whilst taking orders from the director, so that their shot benefits the whole film or production.

3.      All major film, TV production Companies would employ a cinematographer, they hold quite an important role.

4.      New Cinematographers would earn about £137 - £205 per 10/12 hour days.  Established Cinematographers earn around £350 - £550 on a multiple day shoot, and up to £1030 on a hard working single day.

5.      The cinematographer would work closely with the director and assistant director. And with the producer, camera operator, lighting team, set designer, colourist, arts director, costume designer.

6.      How would you be good for this role: I am creative so I would be able to interpret the director’s commands, in my own creative and successful way. I am good with connecting with other members on the work team, with good communicational skills, so that I would be able to discuss the best ways in which to complete tasks. I am very artistic and motivated; I would be able to achieve the best out of the situation.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_Average_salary_of_a_cinematographer_per_year

Buttonberg

Grindin - Music Video

Grindin' is a song released by the Dutch electro group 'Nobody Beats The Drum' to which a stop-motion video was created by one of the group’s visual artist, Rogier Van Der Zwaag. The video consisted of a series of painted wooden blocks bouncing, sliding, disappearing and appearing in time with the beat and changes of pitch in the song. 

The video was set out in a square symmetrical pattern. It is suggested that the team built a small section of the overall image such as a vertical straight or corner. The actions and movements of the blocks would have been performed in this area and they ‘mirrored’ the production by using editing software such as Premier.

The video was created from 4085 photos and they were taken from the different positions of over 400 blocks that were being used. They were positioned on a plain black background, which enhanced the colours of the blocks and created a good base colour to fill the screen when the music and visual action paused in-between bars.

 Towards the end of the song, it started to speed up and there was a sequence in the video where it repeated all of the previously used movements in a series of quick breakdown flashes.

Colourful Life -  Music Video

Russell Weeks created the music video of Colourful Life, a song released by ‘Cajun Dance Party’.

It consisted of a long scene of watching a car drive along a series of busy roads. The camera was positioned so that the backlights of the car were the main focus of the frame throughout the video. The element that made the video interesting was the fact that there were heart shaped auras positioned around each light that came into the frame on the cars journey.  

It is suggested that Russell used some sought of filter on the camera he used, to create the heart around the lights. Otherwise he may have used a tracking effect to position the hearts during the editing stage.

The video didn’t exactly match the song in the same way that ‘Grindin’ had done, such as the stop-motion in time with the score. However it matched in the way of the feeling that the sound and the visual both gave the audience. The colours of the hearts were ‘mellow’ pastels such as yellows, oranges and blues. The gentle colours matched the gentle rhythm and lyrics of the song.

The video took the boring everyday occurrence of driving and turned it into a slightly more interesting activity from the help of the effects on the lights.

Starry Eyed - Music Video Production

The main object of our Buttonberg assignment was to create a short animation that reflected the music score of a song of our choice. We had one afternoon to plan, one day to produce the animation AVI files and then one morning to edit it all in time with the song and make a cool music video.

I teamed up with Michelle to complete the animation with, and later on Claire also joined or group. However, she was only working with us for 4 hours of the animation day, and was ill for the rest of the rest of the time.

We started by just experimenting with how to use the kit and tried to work out ways in which we could animate our chosen song, a remix of Ellie Goulding's Starry Eyed. We produced a few test fireworks to get to grips with the set up and they actually ended up being quite cool.

We chose Starry Eyed as it had a really strong score which represented plenty of opportunity for an animation to be created. After listening to the song a few times through we selected the first 10s to create our animation to as it represented the best score. We decided to create a few animations containing stars that we could edit to the appropriate lyrics as obviously they would match the song. We also thought it could work quite well to include some better fireworks that we could edit to explode at the same time as high notes or beats.

To create the animations, we used a rostrum camera set up to record the movements of beads, matchsticks and lolly pop sticks.



4 Docs Documentaries

Pockets

Pockets is a short documentary directed by James Lees in 2008 that contains the exploration of individual’s pockets. Whether after being asked at random on the street or being friends/associates of the documentary maker, the pockets of individuals where emptied of a single item which the owners were then asked to explain the background to.

The documentary used several different shot types.. It used a different angle/camera height in each person’s clip. For example, it shot from a high, side angle on one lady’s clip so that the camera was almost positioned so it shot right down the end of the trumpet, horn thing that she was holding in her hands. It is unclear exactly what the object is as the camera is focused on the objects owner rather than the object itself, but as the film moves onto the next clip we hear the sound made by the object and this subconsciously makes the audience realise that the object was what they expected it to be.

Another common shot type used was the way that they positioned some of the individuals so that only half of their faces were in the frame. For example, in one of the scenes only the chest and chin area of the man in the shot. However in another scene, the frame only showed half of the woman's face lengthways (1 eye, 1 cheek, half a nose, half a mouth etc.) This way of filming was effective as it was just something different to the usually way of framing the interviewees. It just managed to make the film slightly more interesting and different to if it had been just filled with ordinary framing.

This documentary tells the audience stories through the way that they individuals in the documentary tell their stories about their personal objects. The fact that the stories told were personal made them more interesting as they included life experiences and were therefore easier to relate to.

Man On Wire - Critique

Man On Wire Documentary

‘Man on Wire’ is a documentary film about the life and work of a French wire-walker, Philippe Petit.  The film explores the journey which Philippe undergoes in order for him to achieve his obsession with wire walking between the Twin Towers. “His story is really the oldest story there is. It is the hero going on a journey, or a quest to, achieve a seemingly impossible objective”

This documentary explored the struggles and successes that Philippe and his friends encountered on their journey. It also explores the complicated relationship between Philippe and Annie, and all of the security issues that accompanied his rebellious adventure. 

Man on Wire was directed by James Marsh, Produced by Simon Chinn, edited by Jinx Godfrey and  Original Music by Michael Nyman and J.Ralph. In Marsh’s report, he states:  “I set out to make a film that would be a definitive account of this legendary quest, so I hadn't anticipated that it would become a fundamentally human drama that, amongst other things, turned out to be comedy of errors, a love story, a story about friendship and its limits and a satire on authority and arbitrary rules.” 

‘As a teenage wire-walker in France’ his obsession on walking the Twin Towers started when he saw a computer generated image of the ‘The World Trade Centre before it was even constructed’.

 ‘Philippe was dreaming up a reckless scheme to break into those un-built Towers,’ string up a wire between the two nearest corners of the Towers to balance ‘and to dance’ between them, at a height of ‘1350 feet above the ground, for the delight of himself and passers-by’. As he built up the possibilities in his mind, he began to dream about the future, and very quickly he realised that this dream had to become a reality. ‘As his girlfriend Annie points out in the film: “He couldn't go on living if he didn't try to conquer those towers...it was as if they were being built specifically for him”

I found that the documentary was put together very cleverly, the editing manipulated the way that Philippe came across to the audience, and in some scenes he appeared to be a completely different person to in the previous scene. I liked the way that the documentary mixed present interviews, with the archive footage and the re-enactments. The film showed Philippe to be very talented at wire walking and performing the dangerous tricks. Because of the way that the film followed Philippe’s emotional and physical journey, we were allowed access into the personal areas of his life, which gave us freedom to see his determined attitude, alongside his slightly more ‘unhinged side’, I say this because of the way I felt that he was completely fearless from a state of denial, he didn’t seem to think of the consequences for other people if things did take a bad turn.

Throughout the film, the director and editor very cleverly created emotion.  I loved the way that they had edited the film to portray which ever emotion they thought would suit the scenario.  For example:  In the end when Philippe was walking the rope between the towers, it was strangely inspiring how all of the members of the public found his wire walking so beautiful, the audience got carried along with the emotions and it began to feel to me as if I was really part of it, very cleverly created emotion by the director.

There are quite a few different cinematic techniques used in this film. In particular, there are a lot of interviews used. They are mainly with Philippe, as he tells his stories about the encounters with security guards and his feelings about all his triumphed walks. Also featured, was quite a few interviews with Annie, his best friends and ‘lover’.  She states in the documentary, that the moment she began to spend time with Philippe and learnt his enthusiasm in his wire walking ‘I knew that I must follow his path, I was connected to him and could not ever leave him until after he had accomplished his goal.’

The archive footage used in this documentary is effective because of the way it brings reality to the film. It’s one thing to hear the story, but it’s another to actually see it! It followed the ‘behind the scenes’ thoughts and emotions of all the individuals involved in the film and really helped to tell the story of their journey. It did this through the way that you could see the physical change in the people, as the time drew closer and closer to the day of the tower walk. As “in the words of his trusted accomplice Jean-Francois:  “We all knew that he could fall...we may have thought it but we didn't believe it”.

Throughout the film, I found myself, with torn emotions towards Philippe. On one hand I held a lot of admiration towards him for his bravery and motivation towards his desires. However on the other hand, I found that I saw him ad being really quite selfish and self-absorbed, with that way that he dragged all his friends around the world with him to a very unpredictable future, if they had been caught and the judge taken an un lenient path his accompanies could have served time in jail, and an even worse future for them if he were to have fallen, they all would have been punished with the un shift able haunting of his death at their hands. Even after all of these risks and emotions, as the film reached the end, I found myself oddly inspired – not to dance on a cable thousands of feet in the air, but strangely uplifted to a wish of my own dream so strongly and unchangeably.

Final Documentary

The Pitch...

Storyboard:

RISK ASSESSMENT FORM

Production: The Creation of Animation	Assessor(s): Amy Forster	Date: 29-03-2011
Location: PCA	Signature(s):	Date for Review: 29-9-2011

Activity/Element	Hazard	Who is at Risk?	Existing Controls	Risk Rating			Additional Controls Required
				L1	C2	R3
Tracing with a light box Using a Tripod Using a 3 chip camera The journey from one destination to another	Risk of overheating Risk of electric shock Eye damage from    prolonged use Risk of Tripping Back muscle strain Risk of overheating Risk of electric shock Risk of falling on stairs	The User The crew and cast The user The walkers	Health and safety briefing. Safety Checked. Health and safety briefing. Awareness of cast and crew. Safety Checked Health and safety briefing Markers on the edge of steps. Banisters.	1 4 2 4	3 3 3 4	3 12 6 16	WSSW. Awareness at all times whilst handing the camera.  Several breaks to prevent overheating. WSSW. Awareness of cast and crew. Floor markers to show safe path around tripod. Using the correct lifting procedures when transporting. WSSW. Awareness at all times whilst handing the camera.  Several breaks to prevent overheating. Walk sensibly and in a controlled fashion. Use the Banisters. Use the lift if carrying a heavy load.
1Likelihood of Occurrence (L) 1. Improbable: probability is close to zero 2. Remote: Unlikely though conceivable 3. Occasional: Could occur some time 4. Probable: Occurs repeatedly/an event to be expected 5. Frequent: Not surprised if event occurs/will occur several times		2Likely Consequences (C) 1. Negligible: Trivial injury (requiring minor first aid) 2. Minor: Minor injury/short term absence 3. Serious: Single severe injury and/or multiple minor injuries 4. Critical: Single fatality and/or multiple severe injuries 5. Catastrophic: Multiple fatalities					3Risk Rating L x C = R 1-5     Tolerable: No additional controls required 6-10   Low Risk: Probably requiring a written Safe System of  Work 11-15  Medium Risk: Written SSW required until risk is designed out 16-20  High Risk: Consider Permit to Work 21-25  Intolerable Risk: Cease activity

Final Documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDSkd4us-Mg

The Proposal

NAME: Amy Forster

WORKING TITLE OF DOUMENTARY: The Creation of Animation!

SUBJECT – What is the production about, and what does the audience need to know beforehand?

Our production is about novices putting together their first, drawn, animation and the processes that need to be gone through to achieve the final outcome. The audience isn’t required to have any existing knowledge surrounding animation, just an interest in the art.

SYNOPSIS – what happens in your video?

The production will follow the stages and processes involved in the making of an animation. It will involve ourselves creating an animation and the troubles that we shall face. Also, included in our documentary will be several interviews with individuals from the animation ‘industry’ and an interview with an animation student.

WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR DOCUMENTARY TO ACHIEVE? – What are you setting out to do, and how do you hope the audience will ‘read’ it.

The aim of our documentary is to educate the audience about the struggles and rewards of creating an animation. We hope the audience will read our documentary as informative.