I had used the plus and minus symbols on the keyboard, to
thicken the sound and visuals bar; using this, I was able to easily change the
volume and be able to have a smoother and less jarring ascending and descending
and introduction to new diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. I used the arrow keys
up and down to change between the next/ previous clips, being able to keep
track of the pacing and the next cuts, and in case something needed changes to
it. I used left and right of the arrow keys to specifically pin to each frame,
I did this so that I could accurately understand when to use sounds for
specific moments in the project also a way to cut a clip before a new angle is
introduced or delete a cigarette burn that informs a new shot. I used the M key
a few times to add markers to specific points, coming back to them in later
times and know specifically where the points should be used. The C key was a
way for me to easily change to cutting up clips, not having to search for the
razor tool, streamlining the process of cutting and editing parts; I changed
between the hand and razor tool the most, the hand tool being H, this way I could
drop clips into specific points in the timeline without editing the clips
themselves. I used the square brackets to easily increase or decrease volumes
to specific sounds, having the desired effect from each sound due to what
should be the loudest at each point. I used the comma key to insert clips into
the timeline. The space bar was a way to easily and quickly stop and start the
timeline. Throughout the process, the workload would be too large for Premiere
to properly play the project, because of this, it meant that I would have to
render at points, having a smoother replay, I used the enter/ return key to
render throughout the project, an efficient way to have an easier understanding
of what the clips would actually look like. I had used the backslash key to
quickly look at the overall timeline and using the mouse the quickly jump from
one clip to another when editing or dragging in new clips to fit the previous
shot. Using the copy and paste [CTRL C and CTRL V] would create an identical
version of the clip that I would already have, I could test the image such as
lowering it’s opacity without having to step backwards [CTRL Z] instead just
deleting the clip by highlighting the clip with the D key, highlighting the
clip that the playhead would be on.
Thursday, 4 April 2019
Assingment 2 Task 1 Car Chase proof
I edited the clips mainly according to the editing decision list, earlier made. I deleted all the irrelevant and unusable footage scattered throughout each recording, having around 5 minutes of usable footage; after which, I grouped them together within a beginning, middle and ending structure, knowing all the clips that I would use and build sounds according to what would be shown on screen.
The loud car
rev was obvious at the beginning, then as soon as I was introducing other
sounds at the beginning, I lowered the volume scale after the beginning few
seconds of the engine starting.
Due to no footage of the backstory of the car chase, I
had assembled different sound effects for there to be a reason. I brought in a
person running from the left side to the right, connoting to that being the
person that would be driving the vehicle, I used alarm bells and gunshots;
however, due to this taking place outside and the rest of the footage built
around this red car, I had the sounds be taken place from the perspective of
inside the car, I used a lowpass on all of the sounds and as the car door
opens, I set all the sounds such as the ambiance and alarm bells to normal
effect and as it closes again, it would be set back to its original state of
lowpass.
At the beginning of the chase after
the crime, I had faint police sirens come from the one side of the speakers/
headphones, giving a sense of the further surroundings after establishing the
local area and actions. As the camera cuts to the car speeding through the
road, I have the car come from both sides, this way it feels like that both
cars are now on the same road and that the police car has been able to gain
shorter ground between the car we see, adding tension to the scene. 
I added diegetic music to fill empty space between
there being not many sound effects occurring, this adds depth to the amount of
sounds used for each moment throughout the scene whilst having the wanted mood.
The car radio was changed from the previously mentioned diegetic music into
car radio static, this reveals that the music that was heard was happening in
the world and that the character has manipulation around their surroundings,
the radio is more powerful on the right side, however not being so noticeable
that it distracts the viewer from it only happening from one side, it was on
the right side due to the radio placed on the characters ride side of them
driving on the left area of the car, where most of the static heard from the
character would be coming from. I had also done this
slightly to the second song ‘sinnerman’, this again would add to the realism of
the scene whilst not being distracting to the viewer.
I
had gradually lower the volume of the police sirens as the car was distancing
from the police, this would add realism and awareness to the situation. I also
had added low pass to the siren whenever the shot would be from inside the car,
whenever a shot from outside of the car was shown, I would heighten the volume
of the siren, lower the volume of the music slightly and remove the lowpass to
the siren.
As the police car is shown
on screen for one shot, I would have a quieter version of the siren and pick up
volume whenever it would get close to the camera, I also had engine and tire sounds come from slightly to the left and as the car drove away from the camera,
on the opposite end, it would come from the right, keeping a clear rule and
continuity throughout the shot.
The
car, coming from the right side of the screen starts more powerful on the right
side and progresses through to leveling out between both sides, left and right.
The interior of the car contrasts with the exterior shots and surroundings. The engine between outside
and inside shots are different and the outside engine becomes more clear and
the inside having a more vibration like sound quality to it, however, the sound
that stays the same throughout each types of these shots is the music, being
able to be contained in the same way throughout this scene and not to irritate
or distract the viewer from the music playing, or else the changes throughout each point would become too noticeable to someone. 
During the shot that a grey
car and it’s tire can be seen, I had that be the dominant motor, having a
larger truck like sound effect around the right side of the speakers, reinforcing the visuals, and as the red car starts to center the screen, so
does the audio.
As
the character puts their foot down further on the pedal, I have increased the
volume of the internal engine, raising intensity and keeping continuity,
matching the visuals.
Introducing the helicopter, I had the propeller noise coming from the
left, further understanding the surroundings and then slowly coming neutral, at
this point we can realize it’s chasing the protagonist and that it has probably
found them. To raise the power of the helicopter and the magnitude of the
problem, I decided to not use any additional deigetic sounds meaning they're no
distractions. I also cut apart clips to imitate the helicopter and choppy
decision making. The only sounds besides the helicopter was a piece of music
that panned from left to right. 
I also varied the volume of
the helicopter by pinning points of the helicopters timeline and lowering them
gradually, for people not to pick up on what is happening, however might being
able to understand distance is closing and opening between the car and chopper.
I cut apart some of the
music to keep the theme of the helicopter, in different places keeping the
sporadic attitude to the closing section. I added sounds back into the scene, symbolizing the act of coming back to reality, the car engine driving toward
and away from the camera was from central to left, the way the visuals had shown
it. Thursday, 21 March 2019
Friday, 25 January 2019
Unit 24 Assignment 1 task 1
Unit 24 Sound Editing
Task 1
Assignment 1
Compressing and summarizing sounds to fit to what the media is presenting can be shown through trailers. The reason they would do this is either that the song is too long, and they would have to choose specific parts of the song to support the film, or create a new meaning to the song entirely. A good way to see this in effect would be from Gapar Noe's Climax trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNp0jlfbgqM
This trailer continues a loop of a specific part of the song to match the hyper mood of the film.
The actual song is less active after this specific part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ5V3OZdIZM
The reason they would choose this part instead of another is one because it wants to match the mood and another is because the original song has lyrics. If you were to use the lyrics, this would distract from the films dialogue and make certain parts of the trailer less effective. The use of this part of the song creates a repetitive chaos, a selling point of the films and narrative and directors reputation. Using the ending of the song means that the trailer has a justified reason to end and a fitting conclusion, if it were to end abruptly it could distract the viewer and cut away it's momentum.
Eliminating flawed, repetitive, uninteresting or irrelevant material from recorded clips, this would occur mainly to highlight a specific area and/ or take away parts of the whole product that doesn't present as significant quality to the rest. The Joe Rogan Experience, a podcast, includes full interviews with celebrities, whilst clipping specific parts of the interviews into easily consumable portions. An example of this is when Joe Rogan invited Elon Musk to the podcast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPr5-27vSI
However, because of its large length, they have taken small amounts of the interview and made them into more easily and specific parts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfqtKPP2_6M
This part shows Elon Musk with his flamethrower idea, a part that was of higher quality, and has became a highlight from the interview/ podcast. The reason they would do this is because people wouldn't normally want to sit through a long interview and rather watch the best bits, an easier and quicker way to understand the height of the interviews.
Keeping recorded speech legal may be to keep it safe for television limits, or any shows that censor themselves. If any swearing, nudity or any other adult content is revealed during the show, they would have to remove it. an example of this was when Ricky Gervais swore during the Golden Globes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j71bDdVbjp4
They had to remove the audio from that part of the program to remain legal and keep a family friendly rating. It is a global awards ceremony that occurs annually, and due to a need to target towards families to ground this further into a tradition, they have to target and popularize to each household, meaning that they will have to remove any adult related content.
Taking out any inappropriate language or incident from a product usually is done because of the fact that younger audiences may watch it due to its availability. Vevo does this to music videos for YoutTube and earlier companies achieved the same effect for places such as MTV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMhN-hfMtY
This music video by Eminem presents a censored version of the original song. Due to inappropriate language the censoring company take away the layer of audio or entire part of the song and send it off the be broadcasted on the radio and TV. Another reason they would censor a product is to be able to show adult content during day time television. Trailers are known to remove language, content etc. from trailers in order to have it green banned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kSuas6mRpk
Kill Bill had tinted the colour of the scenes to make the blood blacker and look less like blood, any swearing hadn't been included and a lot of the violence isn't shown. Doing this ensures that they will be able to have a green band trailer and is able to be seen by all audiences. One incident that didn't manage to be edited out and changed TV was the John F Kennedy assassination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie5XMXZvB_Y
This content was one of the first harsh content to be shown on TV and had changed TV because of their firm grasp on censorship. Censoring the language or actions is used to make the product legal to be broadcasted to radios and TV's during the day, making it more available to other people and has a higher chance of it being heard by people. Not censoring content means that it can only be shown after Watershed, where more adult content is allowed.
Changing the chronological order of sound/ speech has been used throughout trailers, they intend to do this to either confuse the viewer and/ or drip feed them enough information about the film that it peeks their interest, which, if not in order, offers them a different idea of the film, subverting their expectations. A trailer such as The Handmaiden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whldChqCsYk
is able to present the footage in a disorderly way which makes the spectator question the article, furthering the interest and obsession of the film. The film would not play these sound effects in order throughout the film, it wouldn't have people breathing in and out then a chair falling. they limit the amount of sounds to engage the audience, keeping them aware, offering an active viewing.
On the other hand, a film such as Amour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7D-Y3T0XFA
is able to use dialogue to explain the tones, genre and events of the film, it reveals personality in the characters we are going to be spending the trailer and the film with. You can understand by their accent and pitch that they are French and either male or female. The film has music playing over the trailer, by the end of it, the music is cut out by a button, this means that there won't be conversations and days turning into nights as this one piece of music playing at this speed will be throughout these events of the movie, instead they change the order and the amount of sounds in the trailer, feeding you a lot about the film by only using a little.
Both pieces show that you can change the order pieces of sounds to create a brand new interpretation of an entire source or become interested into wanting to learn more about it. These pieces are used to grab your attention, pick apart the pieces of sounds and try and fit them together to make an understanding that seems right for the film, it makes you an active listener.
Adding sound effects and soundtracks/songs during moments of recorded speech can make an easy impact on the audience and through a small clip, could be able to understand what sort of film the genre fits into. Adding songs into dietetic existence of the film during a tense moment can make the film feel like a comedy, such as Shaun of the Dead during the bar scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4tVH7BPb-Q&t=62s
This scene creates a danger and introduces a light heart, upbeat rock song, this cuts into conversation between the characters and would have had to have been layered on top of the recorded footage to make it sound more cinematic, this provides contrapuntal sound between the music played and the characters situation and the danger they are faced with.
Using sound effects when cutting off characters dialogue mid sentence can also be used in a dramatic way, Synecdoche New York during it's ending scene has the main character Caiden talking to another actress, and as he is going through his sentence, a voice over commanding script queues from him commands him to die, distant shouting and screaming matches the tone of the scene and supports the visual effect of the scene. It establishes distant action, bringing what is near us lower in urgency and a slower atmosphere. The music is parallel to what is being shown, high strings to evoke a sad emotion to reinforce what is being shown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0j3xN5UWDY
This is scene is used to provoke sadness from the viewer, used in a drama film.
Although I have shown how music can be used as a comedic way of cutting off dialogue and sound effects/ voice overs can be used to cut off dialogue for drama, they both can be used vice versa and outside the emotion of comedy and sadness, it's just the way you use them and the context of it's use.
Task 1
Assignment 1
Compressing and summarizing sounds to fit to what the media is presenting can be shown through trailers. The reason they would do this is either that the song is too long, and they would have to choose specific parts of the song to support the film, or create a new meaning to the song entirely. A good way to see this in effect would be from Gapar Noe's Climax trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNp0jlfbgqM
This trailer continues a loop of a specific part of the song to match the hyper mood of the film.
The actual song is less active after this specific part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ5V3OZdIZM
The reason they would choose this part instead of another is one because it wants to match the mood and another is because the original song has lyrics. If you were to use the lyrics, this would distract from the films dialogue and make certain parts of the trailer less effective. The use of this part of the song creates a repetitive chaos, a selling point of the films and narrative and directors reputation. Using the ending of the song means that the trailer has a justified reason to end and a fitting conclusion, if it were to end abruptly it could distract the viewer and cut away it's momentum.
Eliminating flawed, repetitive, uninteresting or irrelevant material from recorded clips, this would occur mainly to highlight a specific area and/ or take away parts of the whole product that doesn't present as significant quality to the rest. The Joe Rogan Experience, a podcast, includes full interviews with celebrities, whilst clipping specific parts of the interviews into easily consumable portions. An example of this is when Joe Rogan invited Elon Musk to the podcast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPr5-27vSI
However, because of its large length, they have taken small amounts of the interview and made them into more easily and specific parts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfqtKPP2_6M
This part shows Elon Musk with his flamethrower idea, a part that was of higher quality, and has became a highlight from the interview/ podcast. The reason they would do this is because people wouldn't normally want to sit through a long interview and rather watch the best bits, an easier and quicker way to understand the height of the interviews.
Keeping recorded speech legal may be to keep it safe for television limits, or any shows that censor themselves. If any swearing, nudity or any other adult content is revealed during the show, they would have to remove it. an example of this was when Ricky Gervais swore during the Golden Globes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j71bDdVbjp4
They had to remove the audio from that part of the program to remain legal and keep a family friendly rating. It is a global awards ceremony that occurs annually, and due to a need to target towards families to ground this further into a tradition, they have to target and popularize to each household, meaning that they will have to remove any adult related content.
Taking out any inappropriate language or incident from a product usually is done because of the fact that younger audiences may watch it due to its availability. Vevo does this to music videos for YoutTube and earlier companies achieved the same effect for places such as MTV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMhN-hfMtY
This music video by Eminem presents a censored version of the original song. Due to inappropriate language the censoring company take away the layer of audio or entire part of the song and send it off the be broadcasted on the radio and TV. Another reason they would censor a product is to be able to show adult content during day time television. Trailers are known to remove language, content etc. from trailers in order to have it green banned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kSuas6mRpk
Kill Bill had tinted the colour of the scenes to make the blood blacker and look less like blood, any swearing hadn't been included and a lot of the violence isn't shown. Doing this ensures that they will be able to have a green band trailer and is able to be seen by all audiences. One incident that didn't manage to be edited out and changed TV was the John F Kennedy assassination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie5XMXZvB_Y
This content was one of the first harsh content to be shown on TV and had changed TV because of their firm grasp on censorship. Censoring the language or actions is used to make the product legal to be broadcasted to radios and TV's during the day, making it more available to other people and has a higher chance of it being heard by people. Not censoring content means that it can only be shown after Watershed, where more adult content is allowed.
Changing the chronological order of sound/ speech has been used throughout trailers, they intend to do this to either confuse the viewer and/ or drip feed them enough information about the film that it peeks their interest, which, if not in order, offers them a different idea of the film, subverting their expectations. A trailer such as The Handmaiden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whldChqCsYk
is able to present the footage in a disorderly way which makes the spectator question the article, furthering the interest and obsession of the film. The film would not play these sound effects in order throughout the film, it wouldn't have people breathing in and out then a chair falling. they limit the amount of sounds to engage the audience, keeping them aware, offering an active viewing.
On the other hand, a film such as Amour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7D-Y3T0XFA
is able to use dialogue to explain the tones, genre and events of the film, it reveals personality in the characters we are going to be spending the trailer and the film with. You can understand by their accent and pitch that they are French and either male or female. The film has music playing over the trailer, by the end of it, the music is cut out by a button, this means that there won't be conversations and days turning into nights as this one piece of music playing at this speed will be throughout these events of the movie, instead they change the order and the amount of sounds in the trailer, feeding you a lot about the film by only using a little.
Both pieces show that you can change the order pieces of sounds to create a brand new interpretation of an entire source or become interested into wanting to learn more about it. These pieces are used to grab your attention, pick apart the pieces of sounds and try and fit them together to make an understanding that seems right for the film, it makes you an active listener.
Adding sound effects and soundtracks/songs during moments of recorded speech can make an easy impact on the audience and through a small clip, could be able to understand what sort of film the genre fits into. Adding songs into dietetic existence of the film during a tense moment can make the film feel like a comedy, such as Shaun of the Dead during the bar scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4tVH7BPb-Q&t=62s
This scene creates a danger and introduces a light heart, upbeat rock song, this cuts into conversation between the characters and would have had to have been layered on top of the recorded footage to make it sound more cinematic, this provides contrapuntal sound between the music played and the characters situation and the danger they are faced with.
Using sound effects when cutting off characters dialogue mid sentence can also be used in a dramatic way, Synecdoche New York during it's ending scene has the main character Caiden talking to another actress, and as he is going through his sentence, a voice over commanding script queues from him commands him to die, distant shouting and screaming matches the tone of the scene and supports the visual effect of the scene. It establishes distant action, bringing what is near us lower in urgency and a slower atmosphere. The music is parallel to what is being shown, high strings to evoke a sad emotion to reinforce what is being shown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0j3xN5UWDY
This is scene is used to provoke sadness from the viewer, used in a drama film.
Although I have shown how music can be used as a comedic way of cutting off dialogue and sound effects/ voice overs can be used to cut off dialogue for drama, they both can be used vice versa and outside the emotion of comedy and sadness, it's just the way you use them and the context of it's use.
Friday, 18 January 2019
Sound Editing Task Unit 24
Mood and Atmosphere
Mood is created through all three elements of sound created in a film. Since these elements were introduced into movies, they have since been used to get specific reactions from audiences, the large variety of reactions from sounds puts them into categories for certain films such as silence to loud in a matter of a second would fit in today's horror calming piano or pop songs may be used in romantic films, because of the large amount, it is difficult to break apart each three elements of sound that creates moods and atmospheres.
Film has the ability to use music to build up suspense, subtly such as the diner shootout scene from Mr Robot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVa2IPenc_E
This scene uses a repetitive drone from the music and motorcycle to build up a mood of suspense to what seems inevitable and create dread. As soon as it also shows the use of gunfire, a sound effect to cut away the music and make the viewer in a state of shock.
The scene also creates an added emotion by using silence in the diner, not knowing if people had survived the shootout. Having the ability to use quiet and silent points in the scene presents that you can create an atmosphere and mood from the audience without having to use too many sound effects.
People have been able to use music to create a mood and atmosphere for the audience since the silent era. Films such as Nosferatu had used music for the intent purpose to get a reaction from the audience, since then filmmakers have been doing the same thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC6jFoYm3xs
In Nosferatu, they included slow eerie music when things may not be happening in the film to give off the idea to never let your guard down, creating a horror atmosphere even at the low points of the film.
Another way music can be used is for surprising effect, horror films today are hell bent on jump scaring all the time and it's no exception for films, such as the Insidious theme. However, music today can present real, personal horror. Michael Haneke had ingeniously used music to reveal more about the characters, moment and how far a we are into the film. He had done this in a scene from Amour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuuCpX2TpoI
This music at the beginning of the scene creates a soothing atmosphere, absolute skill from the pianist, not hitting a wrong note once, it shows the dedication and ability. Cutting this off out of nowhere and a radio button to switch this to silence forms shocking mood and a very backwards and horrific atmosphere.
Sound effects are able to make an impact of peoples mood to a clip/ film. Films try to heighten the sounds in scenes compared to real life, especially when trying to give atmosphere to a clip. A film such as American History X is able to create a cringing mood and unpleasant atmosphere during the scene that Edward Norton curbs stomp someone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1zp953kVLs
Heightening the sound effects adds impact to the scene.
Another sound effect that throws you into a new mood and creates an entirely different atmosphere may be jump scares, creating an instant mood for the audience, however lasting a few seconds. A clip that is able to create a jump scare, whilst keeping you in the moment would be from PTA's film There Will be Blood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxQEZIDws7Y
This clip is able to create a scary, overwhelming atmosphere by sparingly using loud noises for the scene and dumping them all in one moment, however because it draws out the sound effect, it creates a cathartic and hostile atmosphere and sets the mood way up, keeping the audience on alert.
Audio Fade
Audio fades are used to be able to gradually silent a sound that bears no use, it fades instead of stopping at a sudden to make the sounds less jarring.
Enter the Void was able to use an audio fade a the beginning of the scene when Oscar take DMT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxQEZIDws7Y
The purpose of this is to subtly change from realism into imagination, from sober to high, its a subtle and quick way of changing audio, fading the traffic and background noises in favor of loud prolonged sounds.
Dialogue
Dialogue is the one of the best ways for characters to reveal more of themselves, world, circumstances or exposition if visuals aren't capable of having an as effective way or less efficient way of doing so. It can be used as comedy, disturbing, suspense, a way to pad out the run time and other means.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Zw0p9qOkg
In this scene, Paul Thomas Anderson is able to create a very uncomfortable and incredibly engaging moment that is drawn out in the best of ways.
Lengthening the scene means that they can extract deep emotion and secrets from the character from a simple "Do you get muscle spasms for no reason?" to "Have you ever had intercourse with someone inside your family?". This dialogue had the ability to bring out as much of the character in six and a half minutes that, if visually, would take an entire film to present. This scene fits perfectly with the movie and a great presentation of a drama genre film, a realistic, intriguing scene that focuses entirely on it's characters. This scene is able to describe the characters with parts that may not appear in the film with no exposition dump.
Another way to use dialogue is to explain the plot that's coming up or something they're about to do, a lot of films make fun of this, one being Austin Powers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8w95xIdH4o
This scene explains everything they are about to do, the character saying all of what they are about to do that could easily be explained through visuals is called Basle Exposition.
Voice Over
Voice overs have been used across the board in media. In the news, they have been used to inform you with what they are saying, whilst they show the effects of the place/ people. This way of voice over keeps a brisk pace in the news.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9TytNU6hsg
Fiction films use voice over mostly to explain what they are doing/ do/ going to do. The reason they use voice over instead of dialogue to do this is normally because they are alone at these moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IacpphyPpNY
The lobster has been able to use voice over to explain a lot about the character, and breaks what would be a long scene into explaining what they had done previously, the way they do this is to have a character besides the protagonist to explain this, removing the personal element, something that the entire film rids itself of, further supporting the films themes. This example of voice over is primarily comedic, dark humor, the film being a comedy drama/thriller.
A different genre that uses a character inside the universe that is a comedy crime film was Snatch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Hj6YsAfu0
Once again the film uses exposition in its narration, they use this as humor, matching the rest of the style comedy. This proves that if your going to have voice over, it has to match the rest of the dialogue and story style of narrative telling.
Ambient Sound
Ambient sounds are sounds that are used in the background, almost like foley, it's used to express the world further and add realism. such things include water, wind, animals in the background such as chirps and barks. Almost if not every film features ambient sound effects to widen the credibility of it's film and set the audience in the mood of the rest of the film before any line of dialogue or foley sound. A film such as Being John Malcovich uses ambient sounds in a realistic volume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSGYElDi38s
This scene subconsciously tells you to keep in mind that they are in the city by having cars driving below. It keeps the city alive and doesn't have to put too much effort in doing this, its a very easy process and the result is very good.
SoundBridge
Filmmakers try to include soundbridges, adding an illusion of pace to scenes when sound carries through to another shot. Because of this, soundbridges are used in all types of genres.
A film called Amadeus, a drama comedy, is full of soundbridges, one scene being:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORpIfsPa1TY
This scene doesn't have a sound that doesn't carry through to the next shot. This creates a faster looking pace to the scene and makes the time go quicker without having to slow down the pace to move on to the next camera angle.
Anomalisa, an animated fantasy drama uses sound bridges to make dialogue flow more naturally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xALTK9T0jks
They would do this because, people may think it's an amateur made film, if conversational momentum had to stop and start at the convenience of the shot, the scene would seem false and unrealistic.
Foley Sound
Foley artists are people that create clear sound effects that weren't captured in production to make the sound more cinematic. Their methods are done during post production, so that they can ensure that they are hitting their marks when sound has to be made. A scene from a film such as Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ZEmLosVXE
This scene in particular would have the foley artist recreate every sound besides dialogue, such as footsteps, removal of gun belt, cards sliding on a wooden table and moving in leather jackets.
Synchronous/ Asynchronous sound
Synchronous sounds is when the audio matches what is being shown on screen , such as music matching the sound effects. Edgar Wright is very good with this in all of his films and tries to synchronize the music to the sounds every time, to the point that he would have the music first and build a scene around it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4tVH7BPb-Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSWOHCCV4WM
In these two scenes it shows the beat of the music matching the beat on the zombie, flicker of lights, the pace of the music matching the pace of their arcing around the zombie, something may not have noticed on first viewing, proving the hard work and dedicated behavior that it takes to pull off a task such as this. In the worlds end the music matches their footsteps, the pace of their drinking and dialogue between the characters.
Asynchronous sounds are the opposite to synchronous sounds, where audio from sound effects or music does't match what is being shown on screen. Music that doesn't match the pace or fitting sound of the film can be found in Martin Scorsese's film Mean Streets, during the pool scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtAl0bXSmzI
This music has nothing to do with what is being shown and there is no clear presentation of pacing in the violence that matches the audio.
Sound Motif
Sound motif is the reason they put specific audio into that specific part of the film. It is easy to understand motif when considering the circumstances, setting and characters.
Sound Motif (TV/Film)
ADR what is it ?
Mood is created through all three elements of sound created in a film. Since these elements were introduced into movies, they have since been used to get specific reactions from audiences, the large variety of reactions from sounds puts them into categories for certain films such as silence to loud in a matter of a second would fit in today's horror calming piano or pop songs may be used in romantic films, because of the large amount, it is difficult to break apart each three elements of sound that creates moods and atmospheres.
Film has the ability to use music to build up suspense, subtly such as the diner shootout scene from Mr Robot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVa2IPenc_E
This scene uses a repetitive drone from the music and motorcycle to build up a mood of suspense to what seems inevitable and create dread. As soon as it also shows the use of gunfire, a sound effect to cut away the music and make the viewer in a state of shock.
The scene also creates an added emotion by using silence in the diner, not knowing if people had survived the shootout. Having the ability to use quiet and silent points in the scene presents that you can create an atmosphere and mood from the audience without having to use too many sound effects.
People have been able to use music to create a mood and atmosphere for the audience since the silent era. Films such as Nosferatu had used music for the intent purpose to get a reaction from the audience, since then filmmakers have been doing the same thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC6jFoYm3xs
In Nosferatu, they included slow eerie music when things may not be happening in the film to give off the idea to never let your guard down, creating a horror atmosphere even at the low points of the film.
Another way music can be used is for surprising effect, horror films today are hell bent on jump scaring all the time and it's no exception for films, such as the Insidious theme. However, music today can present real, personal horror. Michael Haneke had ingeniously used music to reveal more about the characters, moment and how far a we are into the film. He had done this in a scene from Amour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuuCpX2TpoI
This music at the beginning of the scene creates a soothing atmosphere, absolute skill from the pianist, not hitting a wrong note once, it shows the dedication and ability. Cutting this off out of nowhere and a radio button to switch this to silence forms shocking mood and a very backwards and horrific atmosphere.
Sound effects are able to make an impact of peoples mood to a clip/ film. Films try to heighten the sounds in scenes compared to real life, especially when trying to give atmosphere to a clip. A film such as American History X is able to create a cringing mood and unpleasant atmosphere during the scene that Edward Norton curbs stomp someone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1zp953kVLs
Heightening the sound effects adds impact to the scene.
Another sound effect that throws you into a new mood and creates an entirely different atmosphere may be jump scares, creating an instant mood for the audience, however lasting a few seconds. A clip that is able to create a jump scare, whilst keeping you in the moment would be from PTA's film There Will be Blood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxQEZIDws7Y
This clip is able to create a scary, overwhelming atmosphere by sparingly using loud noises for the scene and dumping them all in one moment, however because it draws out the sound effect, it creates a cathartic and hostile atmosphere and sets the mood way up, keeping the audience on alert.
Audio Fade
Audio fades are used to be able to gradually silent a sound that bears no use, it fades instead of stopping at a sudden to make the sounds less jarring.
Enter the Void was able to use an audio fade a the beginning of the scene when Oscar take DMT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxQEZIDws7Y
The purpose of this is to subtly change from realism into imagination, from sober to high, its a subtle and quick way of changing audio, fading the traffic and background noises in favor of loud prolonged sounds.
Dialogue
Dialogue is the one of the best ways for characters to reveal more of themselves, world, circumstances or exposition if visuals aren't capable of having an as effective way or less efficient way of doing so. It can be used as comedy, disturbing, suspense, a way to pad out the run time and other means.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Zw0p9qOkg
In this scene, Paul Thomas Anderson is able to create a very uncomfortable and incredibly engaging moment that is drawn out in the best of ways.
Lengthening the scene means that they can extract deep emotion and secrets from the character from a simple "Do you get muscle spasms for no reason?" to "Have you ever had intercourse with someone inside your family?". This dialogue had the ability to bring out as much of the character in six and a half minutes that, if visually, would take an entire film to present. This scene fits perfectly with the movie and a great presentation of a drama genre film, a realistic, intriguing scene that focuses entirely on it's characters. This scene is able to describe the characters with parts that may not appear in the film with no exposition dump.
Another way to use dialogue is to explain the plot that's coming up or something they're about to do, a lot of films make fun of this, one being Austin Powers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8w95xIdH4o
This scene explains everything they are about to do, the character saying all of what they are about to do that could easily be explained through visuals is called Basle Exposition.
Voice Over
Voice overs have been used across the board in media. In the news, they have been used to inform you with what they are saying, whilst they show the effects of the place/ people. This way of voice over keeps a brisk pace in the news.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9TytNU6hsg
Fiction films use voice over mostly to explain what they are doing/ do/ going to do. The reason they use voice over instead of dialogue to do this is normally because they are alone at these moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IacpphyPpNY
The lobster has been able to use voice over to explain a lot about the character, and breaks what would be a long scene into explaining what they had done previously, the way they do this is to have a character besides the protagonist to explain this, removing the personal element, something that the entire film rids itself of, further supporting the films themes. This example of voice over is primarily comedic, dark humor, the film being a comedy drama/thriller.
A different genre that uses a character inside the universe that is a comedy crime film was Snatch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Hj6YsAfu0
Once again the film uses exposition in its narration, they use this as humor, matching the rest of the style comedy. This proves that if your going to have voice over, it has to match the rest of the dialogue and story style of narrative telling.
Ambient Sound
Ambient sounds are sounds that are used in the background, almost like foley, it's used to express the world further and add realism. such things include water, wind, animals in the background such as chirps and barks. Almost if not every film features ambient sound effects to widen the credibility of it's film and set the audience in the mood of the rest of the film before any line of dialogue or foley sound. A film such as Being John Malcovich uses ambient sounds in a realistic volume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSGYElDi38s
This scene subconsciously tells you to keep in mind that they are in the city by having cars driving below. It keeps the city alive and doesn't have to put too much effort in doing this, its a very easy process and the result is very good.
SoundBridge
Filmmakers try to include soundbridges, adding an illusion of pace to scenes when sound carries through to another shot. Because of this, soundbridges are used in all types of genres.
A film called Amadeus, a drama comedy, is full of soundbridges, one scene being:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORpIfsPa1TY
This scene doesn't have a sound that doesn't carry through to the next shot. This creates a faster looking pace to the scene and makes the time go quicker without having to slow down the pace to move on to the next camera angle.
Anomalisa, an animated fantasy drama uses sound bridges to make dialogue flow more naturally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xALTK9T0jks
They would do this because, people may think it's an amateur made film, if conversational momentum had to stop and start at the convenience of the shot, the scene would seem false and unrealistic.
Foley Sound
Foley artists are people that create clear sound effects that weren't captured in production to make the sound more cinematic. Their methods are done during post production, so that they can ensure that they are hitting their marks when sound has to be made. A scene from a film such as Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ZEmLosVXE
This scene in particular would have the foley artist recreate every sound besides dialogue, such as footsteps, removal of gun belt, cards sliding on a wooden table and moving in leather jackets.
Synchronous/ Asynchronous sound
Synchronous sounds is when the audio matches what is being shown on screen , such as music matching the sound effects. Edgar Wright is very good with this in all of his films and tries to synchronize the music to the sounds every time, to the point that he would have the music first and build a scene around it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4tVH7BPb-Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSWOHCCV4WM
In these two scenes it shows the beat of the music matching the beat on the zombie, flicker of lights, the pace of the music matching the pace of their arcing around the zombie, something may not have noticed on first viewing, proving the hard work and dedicated behavior that it takes to pull off a task such as this. In the worlds end the music matches their footsteps, the pace of their drinking and dialogue between the characters.
Asynchronous sounds are the opposite to synchronous sounds, where audio from sound effects or music does't match what is being shown on screen. Music that doesn't match the pace or fitting sound of the film can be found in Martin Scorsese's film Mean Streets, during the pool scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtAl0bXSmzI
This music has nothing to do with what is being shown and there is no clear presentation of pacing in the violence that matches the audio.
Sound Motif
Sound motif is the reason they put specific audio into that specific part of the film. It is easy to understand motif when considering the circumstances, setting and characters.
Sound Motif (TV/Film)
ADR what is it ?
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Task 2
Introduction
Throughout years, stop motion has been available and created
for telling stories, truths educating and entertaining. There are many ways to
present animation and ways of using it, from this, it will be a simple way to
understand the different ways it can be used and presented.
Purpose
Educate
There are a lot of ways to educate people, a lot of them
work harder than others to put messages across, this is because many people who
like to watch educational videos that are presented in an animated way are
children and they wouldn’t want lists of information, rather characters and an
engaging story that by the end of it, would have learned something. There are
far more TV shows than films that try to create an animation for this purpose;
however there are companies such as Pixar that follow the line of entertainment
yet teaches people young and old something that they never knew before, for
example, their first film, Toy Story, has a group of toys that come alive but
one goes missing and the other must bring him back, this film seems simple but
it teaches children about abandonment, progress, reckless cruelty and
friendship, films made by this studio deals large educational lessons for
people of all ages making them a better person by the end. Moving onto shows,
as there are far more of them than films that educate is something like Dora
the explorer, a far more childish show than adult show, but it does teach
children to read maps, new words in a different language and problem solving,
shows like this teaches people about simplistic education, more to the side of
education than entertainment and has people interact, having them repeat words
and phrases, teaching them not only lessons after the showing, but also during.
Entertain
All shows attempt to do this, you must provide a fun
experience for the viewer if not educational, or else what is the point? Shows
that can entertain succeed far greater than the films and TV that doesn’t. This
reason for animation must provide an escape for the viewer, and as stress can
follow people through life and problematic occurrences happen through life,
entertainment must be provided towards all ages, animated films have provided
entertainment since its existence, popular movies that have been released from
a studio such as Dream Works, BBC, Pixar, Warner Brothers, Disney etc. A very
popular and long living programme that is drawn animation is ‘Looney Tunes’
this show is built up of the premise of expectation and the breaking of that
expectation. It is a simplistic show, but very entertaining show that provides
a space, no matter what age you are, language is rarely used, so a language
barrier is hardly shown, it can provide entertainment for all ages and
languages, a perfect way of giving entertainment for everyone with a breakneck
pace, keeping concentration, not creating boredom.
Inform
Most people that want to be informed of the world would
probably want to know by the time they become late teenagers, this can also be
applied for animated information, a show that comes to mind that provides
informative, relevant information for that time would be South Park, they have
been able to tackle many instances of history and are able to tackle topics
that happen straight away as they make a show before its due air date a week
prior, keeping an in the moment catch up of what is going on without having to
check the news for the information, this show is great for information and
entertainment, more adult entertainment, and can be easily proven as they are
already on their 22nd season and show no stopping. Programs or films
that can provide informative means in an animation is usually telling stories
of present day or large historical instances.
Uses and Audience
Feature films are made to entertain most of all and provides
escape with dilemmas in the film. A film such as ‘how to train your dragon’
provides entertainment and is made targeting towards children at eight and
above, feature films provides a way of entertaining visual story telling. Other
feature films that provide animation in them is Jason and the Argonauts, this
way made far before the other example but does the same job, this film however
adds real taken footage as well as animation, combining them to try and make it
look realistic as possible rather than creating its own world, this proves that
there are many reasons to create an animated film, the audience for ‘Jason
and…’ is all ages preferable twelve and above as it contains action that may
not be suitable for children and frightening images, the film has provided
entertainment that would have taken a large amount of time to create. There are
many positives to creating a feature film, people who work hard on the project,
if goes well and all aspects of the film is don to a great standard, you have a
film that will be remembered for large amounts of years, take 2001 A Space
Odyssey as an example, a film just celebrating its 50th year since
release with all seats filled in cinemas to celebrate, a 1968 Kubrick film that
still captivates after hundreds of viewings. If it goes well with critics and
audiences and brings large amounts of people, you are guaranteed you money back
and a profit from the film. However, there are some negatives to this way of
showing, it can take years to decades for one film if done right, a lot of hard
work from many people meaning large payments, losing money, if the film goes
badly with people, they and the studios will remember that. It can take a very
long time Harryhausen stating
stating "we usually took six months to lay our pictures out". This proves that its not a few days task to create animaiton for a feature film, but if done right, money, offers and applause will be given to the film.
Advertising is a simple, quick and easy way of creating a way of informing people about the new or re-released products or services from the company. An example of animation used in an advert was when the muppets had been involved with an advert released by Warburtons, it is a short but memorable advert having the ability to separate themselves from other adverts as they have a recognisable feature and a often used product. The benefits of advertising is to sum up the new products with an ability of using a small amount of money and takes little amount time to create drawbacks to this is that it can become costly depending on what you’re making, another drawback is that the money would be coming out of the companies pocket, making no profit from the advert itself.
Advertising is a simple, quick and easy way of creating a way of informing people about the new or re-released products or services from the company. An example of animation used in an advert was when the muppets had been involved with an advert released by Warburtons, it is a short but memorable advert having the ability to separate themselves from other adverts as they have a recognisable feature and a often used product. The benefits of advertising is to sum up the new products with an ability of using a small amount of money and takes little amount time to create drawbacks to this is that it can become costly depending on what you’re making, another drawback is that the money would be coming out of the companies pocket, making no profit from the advert itself.
Computer
games has the ability of providing mostly entertainment and sometimes
education. Computer games creates an escape with a necessary interaction
between the player and the game involving involvement with the audience. As all
games are computer generated and has people working on graphics, it can be
considered an animation as it isn’t usually live action and rather tries to
imitate real life with realistic graphics, a game such as Red Dead Redemption
provides entertainment for the player and education from the times its was set,
it informs the audience of what used to happen at the times and what society
was like during 1905 of the southern end of North America. Many games have been
able to gain more money from the people buying than it takes to make the game.
There are benefits to making a computer game, you can make an interactive based
form of media having people taking long time involvement into the project with
an established brand, you can bring in a large sum of money from one game.
There are however many drawbacks to making a computer game and that is there
must be a large involvement with the game, people may try to break or cheat the
game ruining it for others such as a multiplayer based platform. Big amounts of
money must be put into the game needing to set the game at a high amount of
money for purchase, but people may be put off by the price so that reduces a
positive amount of income, many things are at stake such as time and money into
the use of animation for this sort of way, but if done well and noticed from
many people, you can bring in more money than you would with something such as
a feature film, depending on the price set for the computer game, large scale games such as a
Rockstar game would be priced around £50 but a large amount of money to put
into it, you just have to have realistic expectations for the project and the
amount of people that will pay for and play for, affecting the audience
attitude to the game.
Techniques and formats
Claymation is an animation that involves people molding and
caring pieces of clay, usually wet during the creation of the object and is
made into a desired shape with a addition objects such as buttons and once
waited for dry you take a picture of it, then you can re mold it for the
pieces you want to move for the next frame which is preferred than the later
which is remaking the mold, which may be necessary if changing its color or
scale of the object. A film such as ‘Coraline’ uses Claymation animation as a
way for its storytelling, Claymation adds a certain way of animation and proves
that work has been put into them, when seen in detail, you can find finger
prints in places proving that it was sculpted with people, although taking you
out of the story, but admiring the work put into it. Wallace and Gromit is also
made from play and it shown to add a cartoony appearance to the short films.
This takes little time and effort compared to other works of animation if you
keep one sculptor for one thing such as one Wallace and one Gromit, making them
isn’t entirely tricky but many things can go wrong such as parts breaking away
and the mold becoming noticeably changed taking audiences out of the film
experience.
Found objects is probably the easiest way of animating, it
needs no screen involvement from people or changing or creating things, you
just take an object such as a lamp and move it slightly through each frame 12
times per second (1 hot lingering for two or more frames). This style of
animation is good for a simplistic way of introduction to animation on a
practical level, you traditionally would work harder with larger objects when
making a feature length film with a story and characters in a found object
animation, but it is usually used for small projects such as small promotional
adverts or video projects that you want to make in a day. You would then
probably go onto showing friends and family and that is where the audience
would start and end, it’s a simple way of animation but still a way for people
to get into it in the easiest less time-consuming way.
Cut out animation is like found objects but way harder, you
first must draw a rough design of the object, places and people, you usually
make separate legs, arms etc to match the movement of a leg or an arm. As it is
a cut out animation, it would be shot from a bird view of the flat pieces of
card/paper. Shows such as South park had made its first episode as a cut out
animation, and although quickly moving onto computer graphic design, they keep
the cut-out design of the show. This process is very time consuming if you’re
making a 10-20-minute project, you shoot it as a found object way (12 shots per
second). Although what you make is dependent of what you can make, it can
become very hard to replicate the same arm 12 times in a slightly different
way. Cut out animation is like a combination of Claymation and found objects,
you cut instead of carving and you shoot it at a 1 shot per 2 frame basis for
traditional quick movement for animation.
Task 2 bibliography
Friday, 19 October 2018
Task 1
Introduction
The
persistence of vision refers to the phenomenon that once you have seen an image
for around a split second and goes away, you mind would still be able to
imagine the picture. If you were to use a Thaumatrope, which would be something
where somebody would draw on both sides of a piece of paper two different
images, so if you were to draw a bird on one side and a cage in another and
spin the paper, it would create the illusion of the bird being inside the cage.
Throughout early years in animation and film, people had assumed that it was
that technique which was what people were doing, instead of creating a sequence
of pictures and connect run them in order. As early films had white and black
points of nothing in the film, people had thought that was where other images
would be.
Joseph
Plateau’s invention, the Phenakistoscope, was created in 1933 with him and his
sons, the way that it had worked was that you would have a material such as or
like paper, lay it horizontally and cut shallow slits along it and in-between
them, you would draw images, each being similar with a small difference, once
you had done that, you would lay the paper standing up and connect one side to
another making a circle looking downwards, then, while looking at a specific
part at the end of a side of the material, spin it, while looking through the
slit, because of the subtle changes to images, it would look like natural
movement. This invention was one of the first to make the illusion of moving
images and had become a children’s toy during the era of its creation. As animation
is a collection of drawn images, this would be known as one of the first to
push the idea of animation to what it is today. At this point, this wouldn’t
have been used for filming purposes, but would be one of the first steps in
that direction. Most of the time, the Phenakistoscope would have stick figures
doing gymnastic circus performances like back flips and juggling, they would
choose to do this because it was a simple drawing and easy to replicate for
each frame whilst proving movement on the page. Animation today, to create a smooth flow of images would replicate what Joseph Plateau did in 1933, they would very slightly alter the image, either physically or with digital software such as Trey Parker and Matt Stone have done both of with their TV show South Park, using construction paper and Mac computers, they lead a team that replicate Plateau's work, creating and altering each frame slightly to create a line of detailed images that creates the illusion of movement. However today, it has become much easier to get a longer strand of images and add more detail, how film and digital media can store more images to make hours of content instead of a 1 second loop, a far greater improvement since 1933.
Creating the invention, the Praxinoscope, had been created during the 19th
century, the Praxinoscope contained 12 frames of images slightly different than
the other, the same kind of way the Phenakistoscope was, instead the images
faced inwards and in the centre of the wheel an amount of mirrors, this way the
mirrors can reach into a camera and when it goes through the lenses inside the
camera, it can be projected onto a screen/ flat surface. Emile Reynaud had made
seven short films from 1892-1896, his most famous short films was called Pauvre
Pierrot (1892) it’s about two lovers an Pierrot comes into the room and starts
singing and the two of them scare him away, during the 1800’s when film was
just introduced to the world, it wasn’t used as
storytelling convention that it is today and more of a way of people to
fool around with the new technology and test capabilities, hence why there is a
shortage of storytelling in the film, the story is shot as an animation and was
one of the first of its kind to be shown in film form. The film was originally
15 minutes long but today has been restored with 5 minutes’ length. The film is
shot simplistically with one background and only the 3 characters moving.
Throughout
his life he had always gravitated towards being a cartoonist, during his teen
years and later in his life a sculptor, this would become key parts to his
films and what makes his projects so iconic. He would create human and animal
sculptures, practicing this craft only getting better at it. Willis had the
idea of applying molded rubber on the outer layer of his sculptors, this way
he could give a style and character to his creations and a good amount of
movement and stability to them. Once he released films such as King Kong (1933)
it had become a ground-breaking and iconic film, it was something that people
had never seen before. To this day his work is still talked about, he has also
contributed his work into other films such as ‘The Beast of Hollow Mountain’
(1956) and ‘The Lost World’ (1925). He
had made a great contribution to the development of stop motion animation.
However, in current day, when compared to effects with computer graphics or
other animated with real effects, such as 2005 King Kong, it becomes obvious
that the effects that were appreciated at the time seem dated and wouldn’t be
able to hold up to the standards of today’s time. His films had been able to
tell stories that have been repeated by Spielberg and Peter Jackson, proving
that he wouldn’t fall into putting animation onto the screen for no reason and
he would try to impact the story and most of the screen time. The animations
would interact with the real world creating the illusion that it there is actually
a 500 ft gorilla swatting planes out of the sky, when you have the animation
contribute to the world it becomes much more believable, Willis O’Brien’s work
during the time created such an impact that most people consider him the best
at the time with people still discovering and appreciating his work, as much as
it is dated today, he brought animation effects into film in a big way, creating imitators of his work for decades since. Today there have been other creators that has used sculptors in the same approach, such as, a recent example was the 2015 film 'Shaun the Sheep', where the entire film was made with sculptors and used the approach of stop motion animation complex stage sets and character formations, slowly moving body parts at a time, going frame by frame to create an animation that would be as seamless as possible, the same approach Willis had used throughout his career.
R.
Harryhausen has become one of the most recognizable names in developing visual
effects of film, while on his first film he worked with George Pal he certainly
became his own. Harryhausen had been able to revolutionize the realism of real
and animation coming together. Everything in his films felt real and they still
do today, he had fine detail to his work. He was able to capture the power of
the effects that nobody had been able to since and many fail to recreate, to
call him the master of visual effects is an understatement with effects from
his films during 1970’s and 80’s still being able to hold up, nothing felt as
so real at the time with animation and is still appreciated today for what a
technical marvel it was and is. With color coming into film he was able to
make effects seem more real than what George Pal could do at the time, while
with George Pal you could separate belief between people and monsters, with Ry
Harryhausen there wasn’t a difference, and everything seemed to just exist. His
work still has the ability to capture attention and seem realistic today. Ray
had brought back classic monsters into relevance with dinosaurs, Minotaur's and
cyclops’s making appearances into his film, with the amount of detail having to
be worked into his figures for months as they would need to be increased in
size when adding it into the film it would seem like the hard work of millions
to capture the effects he could pull off with each film. With the battle of seeming seamless, filmmakers today have tried to make the quickest work possible and yet still seem as realistic as what Ray had achieved throughout his career; introduce CGI, Computer generated effects have revolutionized what we could see, yet still keeps the basis of trying to seam realistic and still keeping the approach of small details at a time, a lot of films use CGI today, from large blockbuster films such as 'Transformers' to smaller films such as 'Pans Labyrinth' that uses a mix of CGI and practical effects, it is clear that Ray Harryhausen had impacted large amounts of filmmakers to try harder and get better and realistic results.
Jan S. had studied at the Institute of Industrial Arts during the 1950’s and soon became a theater director, quickly moving onto film making with animation/ Visual effects. Jan has contributed to very bizarre foreign film making, and something that doesn’t fit to mainstream audience and is very underappreciated for his work. He has a very specific way of using animation more precisely stop motion with real world people and objects. Jan S. would use specific ways characters would walk and interact with the world according to the character, with a film like Alice, most of the time animators would try to make as close to a replicate miniature size of the actor as accurate as they can, or if they had to use a doll, they would stay away from close ups or anything to slide the audiences belief for the effects. However, this is what sets him apart of the crowd, he has been able to develop his own way of using unrealistic and unconvincing objects to fit with the world, so instead of having the animation try to mimic realistic frame movement, as much as he has, he instead uses stop motion of real people just to blur the lines of realism on things that are in fact real, an effect that becomes obvious during the film ‘Alice’ (1988). Having to make the effects seem real is way too much work, but he tries to make it as convincing as possible but within the film ‘Alice’ he uses a close up on a look alike doll of the actor we see previously and with his style so out of the ordinary, it just becomes convincing in a bizarre way. When you watch his films, they don’t look realistic, but it doesn’t seem to matter, but when he uses dolls to represent dolls moving, or paintings moving in a book it looks real because that’s what he did and that is what it is. His style could be compared with people such as Monty Python, you don’t believe that the animation exists, but his style is so out of the ordinary and made to not look realistic, you just have a new appreciation for this style of visual effects. Jan has made other films such as Greedy Guts and Lesson Faust, some of his early work easily grounding him in his own style of visual effects. His films hold up because he does the complete opposite as George Pal and Ray Harryhausen, he makes a world that you buy into in a weird way, he is still taking on projects today, with an opportunity to make better work he is a developer that’s still going strong in the industry.
Animation
has gone through a large amount of stages to be where it is today, without many
people adding their contribution, it may not be where it is today, this task is
a simple way to understand of some of the techniques and the people who have
made contributions to what animation has become through the early stages for
its creation of moving images.
Techniques
Persistence
of vision
The
persistence of vision refers to the phenomenon that once you have seen an image
for around a split second and goes away, you mind would still be able to
imagine the picture. If you were to use a Thaumatrope, which would be something
where somebody would draw on both sides of a piece of paper two different
images, so if you were to draw a bird on one side and a cage in another and
spin the paper, it would create the illusion of the bird being inside the cage.
Throughout early years in animation and film, people had assumed that it was
that technique which was what people were doing, instead of creating a sequence
of pictures and connect run them in order. As early films had white and black
points of nothing in the film, people had thought that was where other images
would be.
Stop Frame
Stop framing
is the technique where in animation, you would set up a physical object(s) and
taking a picture of it, then you would move it slightly to another area and
take another picture, when you do this enough times, you would collect a list
of images, when you connect them and run them through a projector or video, it
would seem like movement instead of a collection of still images, each image
would last a frame or two, this technique can still be used today and during
1997 the show South park had used this technique for the cheapest way, however
this can take an extreme amount of time to do.
Frame Rate
It refers to the amount of frames, a still image, per second, if you were to pause a film, you would be paused at a specific frame of the second of the film, usually a film would consist of 24-25 frames per second, with TV standards being 30fps (frames per second). The more amount of frames per second means that it would be harder to create for animation, harder to edit but does make the film look smoother in movement. Frames have existed for as long as films has been around, the frame contains the still image and without frame rates you would just be watching a still image rather than a bunch per second to create the illusion of moving image.
It refers to the amount of frames, a still image, per second, if you were to pause a film, you would be paused at a specific frame of the second of the film, usually a film would consist of 24-25 frames per second, with TV standards being 30fps (frames per second). The more amount of frames per second means that it would be harder to create for animation, harder to edit but does make the film look smoother in movement. Frames have existed for as long as films has been around, the frame contains the still image and without frame rates you would just be watching a still image rather than a bunch per second to create the illusion of moving image.
Pioneers
Joseph
Plateau (Phenakistoscope)
Emile
Raynaud (Praxinoscope)
Creating the invention, the Praxinoscope, had been created during the 19th
century, the Praxinoscope contained 12 frames of images slightly different than
the other, the same kind of way the Phenakistoscope was, instead the images
faced inwards and in the centre of the wheel an amount of mirrors, this way the
mirrors can reach into a camera and when it goes through the lenses inside the
camera, it can be projected onto a screen/ flat surface. Emile Reynaud had made
seven short films from 1892-1896, his most famous short films was called Pauvre
Pierrot (1892) it’s about two lovers an Pierrot comes into the room and starts
singing and the two of them scare him away, during the 1800’s when film was
just introduced to the world, it wasn’t used as
storytelling convention that it is today and more of a way of people to
fool around with the new technology and test capabilities, hence why there is a
shortage of storytelling in the film, the story is shot as an animation and was
one of the first of its kind to be shown in film form. The film was originally
15 minutes long but today has been restored with 5 minutes’ length. The film is
shot simplistically with one background and only the 3 characters moving.
George Pal
An American animator/ director; he had been involved within the sci-fi,
horror genre, he was mostly known for contribution to the films: The time
machine (1960), The war of the worlds (1953) and When worlds collide (1951), he
has made many other films from 1934-1964 collecting contribution credit from
large amounts of films, his most popular three films are still held to high
praise and had won many awards during their releases. George Pal is one of the
most known pioneers that used models and stop motion in film while including
raw footage, he would make the film and then add all of the models and have
them effect the world. War of the Worlds had been created with the help of
Shepperton Studios, and from that point, the studio had received huge
popularity and had become one of the best film based studios in England.
Academy Film Archives has been trying to preserve George Pal’s films, when
George Pal had died at 72, he was working on a film called The Voyage to the
Berg which has never been finished.
Developers
Willis
O’Brien
Throughout
his life he had always gravitated towards being a cartoonist, during his teen
years and later in his life a sculptor, this would become key parts to his
films and what makes his projects so iconic. He would create human and animal
sculptures, practicing this craft only getting better at it. Willis had the
idea of applying molded rubber on the outer layer of his sculptors, this way
he could give a style and character to his creations and a good amount of
movement and stability to them. Once he released films such as King Kong (1933)
it had become a ground-breaking and iconic film, it was something that people
had never seen before. To this day his work is still talked about, he has also
contributed his work into other films such as ‘The Beast of Hollow Mountain’
(1956) and ‘The Lost World’ (1925). He
had made a great contribution to the development of stop motion animation.
However, in current day, when compared to effects with computer graphics or
other animated with real effects, such as 2005 King Kong, it becomes obvious
that the effects that were appreciated at the time seem dated and wouldn’t be
able to hold up to the standards of today’s time. His films had been able to
tell stories that have been repeated by Spielberg and Peter Jackson, proving
that he wouldn’t fall into putting animation onto the screen for no reason and
he would try to impact the story and most of the screen time. The animations
would interact with the real world creating the illusion that it there is actually
a 500 ft gorilla swatting planes out of the sky, when you have the animation
contribute to the world it becomes much more believable, Willis O’Brien’s work
during the time created such an impact that most people consider him the best
at the time with people still discovering and appreciating his work, as much as
it is dated today, he brought animation effects into film in a big way, creating imitators of his work for decades since. Today there have been other creators that has used sculptors in the same approach, such as, a recent example was the 2015 film 'Shaun the Sheep', where the entire film was made with sculptors and used the approach of stop motion animation complex stage sets and character formations, slowly moving body parts at a time, going frame by frame to create an animation that would be as seamless as possible, the same approach Willis had used throughout his career.
Ray
Harryhausen
R.
Harryhausen has become one of the most recognizable names in developing visual
effects of film, while on his first film he worked with George Pal he certainly
became his own. Harryhausen had been able to revolutionize the realism of real
and animation coming together. Everything in his films felt real and they still
do today, he had fine detail to his work. He was able to capture the power of
the effects that nobody had been able to since and many fail to recreate, to
call him the master of visual effects is an understatement with effects from
his films during 1970’s and 80’s still being able to hold up, nothing felt as
so real at the time with animation and is still appreciated today for what a
technical marvel it was and is. With color coming into film he was able to
make effects seem more real than what George Pal could do at the time, while
with George Pal you could separate belief between people and monsters, with Ry
Harryhausen there wasn’t a difference, and everything seemed to just exist. His
work still has the ability to capture attention and seem realistic today. Ray
had brought back classic monsters into relevance with dinosaurs, Minotaur's and
cyclops’s making appearances into his film, with the amount of detail having to
be worked into his figures for months as they would need to be increased in
size when adding it into the film it would seem like the hard work of millions
to capture the effects he could pull off with each film. With the battle of seeming seamless, filmmakers today have tried to make the quickest work possible and yet still seem as realistic as what Ray had achieved throughout his career; introduce CGI, Computer generated effects have revolutionized what we could see, yet still keeps the basis of trying to seam realistic and still keeping the approach of small details at a time, a lot of films use CGI today, from large blockbuster films such as 'Transformers' to smaller films such as 'Pans Labyrinth' that uses a mix of CGI and practical effects, it is clear that Ray Harryhausen had impacted large amounts of filmmakers to try harder and get better and realistic results.
Jan Švankmajer
Jan S. had studied at the Institute of Industrial Arts during the 1950’s and soon became a theater director, quickly moving onto film making with animation/ Visual effects. Jan has contributed to very bizarre foreign film making, and something that doesn’t fit to mainstream audience and is very underappreciated for his work. He has a very specific way of using animation more precisely stop motion with real world people and objects. Jan S. would use specific ways characters would walk and interact with the world according to the character, with a film like Alice, most of the time animators would try to make as close to a replicate miniature size of the actor as accurate as they can, or if they had to use a doll, they would stay away from close ups or anything to slide the audiences belief for the effects. However, this is what sets him apart of the crowd, he has been able to develop his own way of using unrealistic and unconvincing objects to fit with the world, so instead of having the animation try to mimic realistic frame movement, as much as he has, he instead uses stop motion of real people just to blur the lines of realism on things that are in fact real, an effect that becomes obvious during the film ‘Alice’ (1988). Having to make the effects seem real is way too much work, but he tries to make it as convincing as possible but within the film ‘Alice’ he uses a close up on a look alike doll of the actor we see previously and with his style so out of the ordinary, it just becomes convincing in a bizarre way. When you watch his films, they don’t look realistic, but it doesn’t seem to matter, but when he uses dolls to represent dolls moving, or paintings moving in a book it looks real because that’s what he did and that is what it is. His style could be compared with people such as Monty Python, you don’t believe that the animation exists, but his style is so out of the ordinary and made to not look realistic, you just have a new appreciation for this style of visual effects. Jan has made other films such as Greedy Guts and Lesson Faust, some of his early work easily grounding him in his own style of visual effects. His films hold up because he does the complete opposite as George Pal and Ray Harryhausen, he makes a world that you buy into in a weird way, he is still taking on projects today, with an opportunity to make better work he is a developer that’s still going strong in the industry.
Contemporary
Tim Burton
Tim Burton
is one of the most famous directors making marks with films like Batman, Edward
Scissorhands and other large successful films. But there is a part in his work
that involves animation, weather that be recreating Gotham city, making an
alien species in ‘mars attacks!’, or making fully animated films such as
‘Corpse Bride’ and ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ he is a working director today
and is still announcing new projects. His films such as ‘Corpse Bride’ which is
fully animated stop motion film is still an impressive film released in 2005, a
film that cost 40 million dollars to make with only making back 53 million in
the U.S gross, it had become a success worldwide bringing in 117 million
dollars; Corpse Bride is still a film watched by many today, this shows that
many people enjoy Burtons work and has his own kind of fan base that watches anything
he releases when he can make things like Batman and Beetlejuice and still be
able to make stop motion animated films that is still able to become an initial
success. with impressive effects and obvious work and care put into the film as
well as his other animated work. He is a respectful and successful filmmaker.
As a contemporary animator he hasn’t really developed the animation filmmaking
process as much as many before him has, instead he contributes to the art by
widening the amount of entertainment and accessibility to the art he can, he
has been able to tackle large challenges with a good crew and can provide
entertaining content, that will probably still hold respect and relevancy for
years to come. Tim Burton has added to the pile of animations used in films and
I can respect what he does, if it cant be achieved in real form, he will
animate what he want to show instead, many directors would call computer
graphics teams and that would be the end of it with a pleasing finished effect,
but instead he uses resources to capture the effect with real sources and
therefore becomes more believable, because its actually there, this becomes
notable with his 1988 film Beetlejuice. If there isn’t a Gotham city for his
batman movie, he will build the set from scratch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IPeC5xcmo , its large efforts like this that
makes his films more enjoyable and can appreciate the work put into his film
and animated films.
Nick Parks
Born in
England, he had become a producer and writer for classic animation such as
‘Chicken run’ and ‘Wallace and Gromit’, classic English animations with a
recognisable and unique design to them. With recent releases of curse of the
were-rabbit in 2005 and a close shave in 1995, they seemed to leave a print on
todays animation as they have become widely known as a household name. The
curse of the were- rabbit having a budget of 20 million dollars, it had been
able to bring in a large sum of 192 million dollars, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312004/?ref_=nm_knf_i1 proving that it was heavily watched
at the time of its cinema release, when viewing the behind the scenes footage
of the animations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLVSEVQlXPA it is clear to understand the work
put into the film, how long it would take to set up a scene of a buildings
exterior that would last around 2 minutes in the film can take months to film
and moths to prepare. It is this kind of pain staking work put into the films
that give this style of animation such fluidity and doesn’t seem to linger on
frames as much as Tim Burtons work or George Pals work would. This sets a high
expectation for the studio Nick Parks that they have created themselves that
pressures them into not failing, as they have a very large audience that they
are dependent on for the film’s success. It sure shows the work put into the
film pays off with large recognition and respect for the large fanbase that
Nick Parks and the crew of the film have been able to acquire over the years.
Bibliography
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