daniellaallen-blog

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Brief Overview

We as a group have been asked to create a short film up to 5 minutes long. We have to visually construct an understanding of moving image, through research which will link to our project, and showing evidence and examples. We will use each other as a group to find out each other's strengths and weaknesses and use them to our benefit.

Collaboration will help us to adjust to the industry. We will have to focus on the idea and the story line and no the technology. We have to work in groups of three to four, in our case we have a group of four including myself, Hannah Eldershaw, Ambra Merhori, Ajmal Ishaq.

The short film may be animation or live action, or even both. A clear influence of photography and/or visual art must be demonstrated.

-       Painting

-       Sculpture

We will have to show more than one medium, so a range of collaborative skills. And all together the short film can’t be any linger than five minutes.

The finished film must be uploaded to a film festival so we have to make sure we research the appropriate film festivals we are thinking of uploading them too.

Make sure the idea isn’t too out of our comfort zones as we don’t want to have too much to do which we can’t do in the given time. If we keep to what we know we are able to create a far more successful and visually exciting project.

Create the idea to make everyone equally as passionate to take part in the project, do something we all relate too and can expand on. Make sure we create a time schedule to organise when and where we are going to create and do each step of the project.

We need to produce a presentation of two ideas and pitch them to our tutors in front of the class. The tutors will pick which idea we will turn into a film. make sure the two ideas are fully developed and pre-produced. Make sure the presentation is easily communicated.

Make sure we make a documentation of all the behind the scenes with pictures and videos of how we create the short film. we are going to be able to learn new skills and bounce them off each other and all become stronger as a team.

 For our short-film we have to create one of the following:

-       A narrative or experimental or fine art (or mix of) short film

-       A fashion film

-       Documentary film

Upload the final film as a quick time (1920x1080) HD.

Do a evaluative essay of 1000 words, do a digital RVJ (blog or sketch book)

Choose the audience – who and include the who in the festivals, who will be going to these festivals and seeing our film, what kind of audience will our film be aimed at.

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I feel that the story line is very simple and doesn’t create the kind of reaction that I would’ve wanted in the final outcome, yes it does create a minor reaction in audiences but when creating a film, I want to create a wow factor and I feel that my story line doesn’t ultimately do this. That is why for future references I have developed my story line further and thought of several ideas to make it better.

Such as a prison idea, the snowman is trapped inside this prison world, the globe, and can’t escape the harsh climate and temperatures the year has to offer him, he is forced to suffer these obstacles.

I researched other people’s story boards used for other films that I am interested in. I didn’t just look at animation storyboards but live action too to get an idea of the difference and see how I can relate them to my own work gaining knowledge into how to make a better storyboard.

Alice in Wonderland

Harry Potter

Back to the Future

Toy Story

I feel like I could do a better story board by taking more time in them. But sometimes when doing them I like to sketch them quickly and roughly to get the whole concept straight on the paper and then update them later making them visually better and more impressive,  

Certain scenes in my final outcome I noticed were very stiff and constant, the leaves fell at the same speed as the apples. All the leaves fell at the exact same time, it looked stiff and didn’t flow with the animation. This isn’t a major problem because I feel that the music and sound makes up for any slip ups, however if I were to change anything it would be this.

My character, the Snowman, didn’t have much movement. Because it was my first time animating I felt that I wasn’t too sure on doing certain things and I didn’t want to mess up the final outcome by making the character move in awkward and weird ways and that is the reason I left him standing still. Next time I create something like this I feel that I will have to research further into character development and give my character more of a personality through movement. This is how I would’ve done it if I did give my character more movement:

Bouncing Snowman

Composition is a key thing when creating a film, I feel. I feel that the snow man in my film sitting in the middle of the screen may not be the best visually but I wanted to give off the look of the snow man being simple and still so I felt that he was placed well for what I was trying to accomplish. However, if I did give my snowman more of a personality I feel that the location of him being in the centre wouldn’t have worked. To create a great scene is all about the placement of the character compared to the background. I do feel like the placement of mine did work to an extent but another thing I would change was the character movement and this would’ve created a whole new composition together.

In my short film I wanted the colours to purposely be very bland and simple to represent certain seasons, pink for spring, green and red for summer, brown and yellow for autumn and then just white for winter. I felt that to give the snowman a hint of personality was to give him and orange carrot nose and create a fun visual experience for audiences and not just keep the film plain, boring and colourless, especially consisting my target audience of children ages 2-8.

Timing is everything in an animation. Meeting the points of movement in the character. Matching the movement up with the sound. All vital points to keep in mind when creating the animation. For example, in my animation how I matched up summer with the birds tweeting, it indicated to the audience that something is changing and changes what they are seeing in a way.

The Squish and stretch principle is also one to consider. It gives the character and scenes movement and personality and doesn’t make them stand stiff and still which seems boring to audiences.

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Inspiration

“La jetée” by Chris Marker

Old Fangs

We watched these two videos in class and both are completely different yet have such an impact on my work,

The first, La jetée, is a beautiful short film created in black and white. i feel like the atmosphere completely sets the scene and influences my work because i feel like setting an atmosphere in a film is the most important thing and creates the reaction from the audience. 

Old Fangs i feel inspires me due to its visual appearance, the visual effects and animation. It’s so clever how the images are moving drawings and are put together in such a mesmerising way and create such a beautiful piece of art. It’s inspiring because it shows me what drawings and colour can do to create the film as a whole. 

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Identify film -- small quick sketched animation that I created to represent my life. 

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Inspiration

Nick Park  is an English director, writer, and animator best known as the creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. He has been nominated for 6 Academy Awards and has won a total of 4 times. 

Being the Director of such great and well known stock motion films such as ‘Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Ware Rabbit’ is truly incredible. the fact that filming the movies took such a long amount of times, up to two seconds of filming a day averagely, is a great inspiration due to his dedication, patience and talent to fulfil an incredible outcome. 

People like Nick Park create a great impact on the world and on me as it shows me the idea of what people can create when minds are put to ideas and shows that no matter how long something takes, no matter how many mistakes are made, if you keep trying maybe one day you will succeed to create incredible art within film. 

For Nick to also have so many roles in the film industry is also inspiring because it makes me realise I don't have to stick to one specific thing and I can expand my skills across many different levels. 

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Inspiration

La Luna is a 2011 animation movie made by Pixar. It is about how the moon has workers to create the illusion on what time of the month it is and what the shape of the moon should be. These workers sweep the light of the moon into the shape it should be for that night. 

Enrico Casarosa is the write and director of this short film. I felt that I wanted to reference this specific film, although upon many, the write and director is the same person. I felt this specific short film related to my project for several reasons; the sound, in the film the music in the background sets the atmosphere of the film and there is very little speech; the fact that it is a short film was also a help, helping me understand how to create a storyline in such a short amount of time. Also I feel that due to the fact one person had written and directed it was a great help because it gave me the boost i needed to do my own individual work. 

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Inspiration

The Snow Man BY WALLACE STEVENS

One must have a mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think Of any misery in the sound of the wind, In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land Full of the same wind That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

This is a Poem by Wallace Stevens about a snow man fitting into the snow, how it is formed, and the poet describes every detail and really sets the scene for audiences. When reading this poem I can imagine what I am seeing and I can see how beautiful the scene is and that, to me, is an extremely impressive thing to have been done. To be able to see something and set up a picture in my mind through reading artistic and beautiful words. 

I feel this links to my work due to the scene that is supposed to be set towards audiences, my animation is about a snow man and to read something setting the scene of where a snow man is formed is a great inspiration and truely helps me develop my own work. 

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Extra evaluation writing

Thinking…

 01/ In your own words, how did understand the problem you were asked to solve?

A: The brief was to create a 10 shot animation or live action short-film. 

02/ Who were you designing or producing work for?

 A: My target audience was children both male and female ages 2-8.

03/ What relevant theory, reading or research underpinned your approach to solving the problem?

A: I did research on several different short films which i felt related and i also researched inspiration for character and scene design, all to gain inspiration for my final outcome

04/ What were the best ideas you came up with and how do you know that?

A:I came up with several ideas but ultimately was fixated on the idea of a snowman surviving through the seasons of the year. 

Doing…

05/ What editing process did you use to choose the preferred solution

A: I chose to us the animation software Adobe, Flash and I purchased a graphics tablet in order to draw up each frame onto the software. 

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Final produced short film 

Daniella Allen

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1000 Word Evaluation

I had been asked to create a short film, which has to be up to three minutes’ maximum. I could have either done an animation or a film, or even both together. I decided to do an animation as I had never attempted one before and felt that it was the perfect opportunity to learn and teach myself new skills which I would need for future projects. The project has to consist of a series of moving photographs with sound that works with the short film. my task is learning to figure out what sounds fit with what scenes and how the animation is going to work with the sound. The film has to be 10 different shots and can differ in length. However, no panning or zooming is allowed only still shots, which seem fixed to a tripod. The short film can have any story line or theme.

So I have chosen to do an animation. I have no reason for this but there was something drawing me to doing a short film about a snowman going through the seasons of the year and showing the survival story. I must’ve been inspired by the time of year, winter. Each scene in the short film is going to show the snowman’s struggles through spring, summer, autumn and winter. In the first scene the snowman is just going to be his full happy self, standing in the snow, when all of a sudden the seasons change to spring and the snowman slowly begins to realise that this isn’t going to be an easy adventure. The blossoms fall and the tree change from pink to green with rosy red apples. With the hot summer rays, the snow man begins to melt dropping his ice cream, which he was eating to try and keep cool. Autumn then blooms and the snowman is now a puddle on the ground with nothing but leaves around him. But to his surprise, the year is over and snow starts to fall, the snowman goes from happy to sad and begins to form into his full old self again ending on an image of the happy snowman.

I feel as if I did meet the briefs requirements with my short film and although it may not be visually up to the highest standards, I put my best efforts into it and produced something I am proud of and am extremely pleased with the outcome, especially due to it being the first animation I had created.

My target audiences would most likely be the younger generation, girls and boys ages 2-8. I feel that the animation I have created is made for children due to the snowman characters cute and round appearance. The story line begins with a happy start and begins to have a problem and gives off a sense of emotion to the audience. The snowman has melted, is he going to survive? This is where the storyline picks up and actually creates an impact on the audience. I have shown several people from my target audience the short film and asked them what they think and they agree that at times it was sad yet the ending made them happy, how the snowman survived the year and became full again.

Technical qualities

The software I used to create my animation was Adobe Flash. I didn’t know how to use Adobe Flash at first and had to teach myself. I purchased myself a graphics tablet, which is a decide which allows me to draw images onto the screen through drawing them with a virtual pen and paper. It’s extremely clever and helped me entirely, as I had to draw up each scene of the animation and put them all in the software to then create each frame of movement for the snowman. Ultimately the software wasn’t too hard to use and I got the hang of it quite quickly and was successfully able to produce the short film. The only issue I had was the input of the sound to my short film. the sound had to be put in after the animation was rendered and saved and then the sound was applied of the software, Vegas Pro 13.

For the sound I wanted to represent each season with a symbolic sound that related to that season. For spring I wanted the sound of grass blowing a birds quietly treating, the sound of the wind blowing softly and everything sound sweet and calm. Summer, I feel is a more dramatic season that spring, the sounds are more enhanced, the birds tweet louder, the wind blows calmer and the air is smooth and peaceful. Autumn I wanted to have the sounds of leaves rustling and the wind blowing strongly to fit the image of all the leaves falling off of the trees. Winter, as it was to conclude the short film I wanted it to be the most dramatic sound, however winter may be the stormiest season the sounds weren’t as appealing so I went with the sound of strong winds snowing as if the audience were hearing a snow storm of some type. The background soundtrack I wanted to be upbeat but only in the times that were necessary and I felt that the soundtrack I used perfectly expressed the emotions I was trying to give off to my audience and created a great atmosphere throughout the film. I personally feel that the sound I had chosen to place in my animation fit perfectly to the scenes and created a storyline to the film as a whole.

I managed the time of my project in an organised manner doing a scene a day taking me up to 10 days to complete the drawing side of the animation and I felt that managing my time successfully helped me in many ways keeping myself on topic and not having to rush things.

Conclusively, in my opinion I felt that I successfully met the briefs requirements and felt that I succeeded in making an animation into a short film. I felt that I effectively created a story line within moving images and sound and ultimately am extremely pleased with the outcome.

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Audience

I have decided that the animation is going to be targeted to age groups 2-8 and I feel that i have succeeded in targeting these age groups because the final outcome is perfect for children and any other age groups would most probably feel it is too young. 

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Main scenes from animation 

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Ideas

With a snowman in a snow globe i thought of several different ideas and story lines i could do. The snowman could have been trapped in the sow globe, maybe the globe was a prison. The snowman in the globe could’ve been a gift to someone, maybe the owner got a new globe etc. but ultimately i decided to focus on the theme of the snowman surviving through the seasons of the year. I’m not quite sure what it was but I wa\s being drawn to that story line and felt that the animation side of it would also be the challenge i needed. 

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sketched version of story board

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Character Inspiration

As I am designing a Snowman in a snowglobe for my character and scenery i made a visual brainstorm of some pictures of snowmen and snow globes for inspiration for my final outcome

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Drawn up story board

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Ideas for final project

STORY BOARD

1.       Snow man in snow globe

2.       Spring blooming

3.       Snowman starts to sweat

4.       Summer blooms

5.       Snowman has ice cream to cool down

6.       Snowman drops ice cream and melts

7.       Autumn blooms

8.       Leaves pile up around melted snowman

9.       Snow starts to fall around melted snow man

10.   Snowman forms into himself again and goes from sad to happy