Working Storyboards

Whilst working with storyboards i found this on you tube which really helped me understand where you need to cut the storyboards frame by frame, its good to actually see a working storyboard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1re0dqrSds

Steven Spielberg On StoryBoards

Steven Spielberg came to AFI in 1978 for a seminar with AFI Fellows. In this clip he talks about how he approaches storyboarding.

Interestingly enough, the young man asking the question is Bob Mandel, who is now the Dean of the AFI Conservatory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBH89Y0Xj7c

I found this interesting to watch as it links closely to my work.

Comic Books

Once a concept or script is written for a film or animation, the next step is to make a storyboard. A storyboard visually tells the story of an animation panel by panel, kind of like a comic book.

Story Boards

Whilst looking at Story Boards i came across this short story board from a Donal Duck sequence of Walt Disneys. You can easily see the transitions from one frame to the next which i plan on creating myself. Even with no words on this story board you can instantly tell what's going on and where the scene's going.

Photoshop version of my Photograph

Here is my Photoshop version of the image i tried to re create. I think it worked well but i do still prefer the warmer version.

** Lighting **

Here i had to find an image which used a lighting effect i liked, i ended up choosing one that used backlighting. I recreated the image by simple using a warm back lighting effect and making sure the rest of the room was in total darkness. Here is the original below and the one i did on the right. I think it worked very well and i prefer the warmer lighting rather than the cold lighting used in the original.

Lighting

Low Key Lighting
I Noticed the Key lighting in this V for Vendetta movie still. It's very low key lighting again and it does gives an eary feel to the image, especially as you can only see certain features of him. The rim Light only touches his hat, face and shoulders.




Clearly used to make the viewer wonder who this character is.



Lighting is used in many ways. It can be used to set a scene, Highlight key moments in a film or even just give a better sense of whats going on and what mood should be set for it.

Chiaroscurro Lighting

Lighting however isn't just restricted to Movies, we notice lighting effects in Paintings such as Carvaggio. This lighting is called chiaroscurro which basically means 'Light and Dark'. The Artists wants us to notice the characters so lights them heavily and contrasts this with a heavy black background forcing the characters to stand out.








Silhouette Lighting

Another form of Lighting is a Silhouette. This lighting is often used in horror films to build suspence. The scenes are usually that the background is well lit and the foreground is shadowed like in a still image from 'Pyscho' (1960).







Here you can clearly see the 'Victim' in the shower and the Silhouette of the 'Pyscho' killer on the shower curtain. This immedieatly creates tension for the viewer as they know whats coming next for the unsuspected victim.









High Key Lighting

We mainly notice that another form of lighting is used mainly in the fashion industry. This form of lighting is called High Key. High Key light is when the whole image is visible.

Low Key Lighting

Low Key Lighting is when an image is lit mainly from a side and is very dim. This would possibly be good for most horrors as it adds a sort of scary feel to an image as you can never usually see the whole image, it's left for the imagination of the viewer.

Foley Work - A New Respect

When i was first given the details of our Foley brief i was a little intimidated by it and was not too sure how to go about it. My team was with Sarah and Tom. We first looked at te whole clip and pointed out key moments in the clip. Our clip was from The Nightmare Before Christmas. We then started to look at what sort of sound each part would make, whether it was placing a glass bottle down or cuasing electric sparks. We all decided to record our sounds and then transfering them onto the computer. We used as many possible sound effects as possible. Most i must say were simply happy accidents and spare of the moment ideas.

After we decided what would suit what sound effect we then had the task of transfering it all into Premiere Pro which was hard to begin with but slowly got easier as we got more and more used to the controls.

Our end product was fantastic, and if i do say so, better than the orginal. Our sounds were more in key with the film and i believe it worked very well. I was very impressed with the sounds we produced and now have a new respect for Foley artists as it's not as easy as you think.

Changing Audio to change Visual

I looked at several short clips of films which had a certin type of music. I then looked up different types of music and combined the two to change the meaning of the visual. I took a clip from 'Hot Fuzz' which is a comedy and on one scene i added the soundtrack to 'Hlloween' this piece of music is so distintive that it automticlly changes the scene from being that of a comedy to that of possibly a horror. I tried this technique with other clips and found that music in films is key to setting the scene or theme. More quiter music would relate to more of a Romantic film where as more up tempo music would relate more to a action/ adventure movie.

I never knew how importnat music was until i studied this brief. I find it highly interesting how i can change the mood of a scene that the director intended to be a certain way and flipping it.

Different Viewpoints in Movies

Different viewpoints in movies can often create atmosphere to better suit the scene. Whether it's creating tension between certain objects on the screen or emphasizing an objects presence.

Stop Motion Animation

This is an amazing stop motion animation produced on white board. I wanted to include this into my blog as i think it's truly incredible. The time and effort gone into this is mind boggling seeming as i spent a whole day using stop motion and only manage to created 15 seconds. I think you'll find it just as visually fascinating as i did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u46eaeAfeqw

Viewpoints

During the first few lessons of Design Skills we have been looking into Viewpoints.

I started off by researching through books in the library then started to look on the internet and searched for as many different viewpoints as possible.

I came across an old Saab advert directly aimed at Perspectives and Viewpoints.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hc0buYIZXI