jazzdoeswhatshewants

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Flee, 250(+) words

Flee is an 2022 Animated Documentary Film documenting the story of Amin Nawabi and his family’s escape from Afghanistan and the Soviet-Afghan war. It tells his story utilising a mix of animation styles and archival footage. Flee makes use of multiple animation styles/visual mediums in order to express a different mood or idea at any given time. The three main visual styles are coloured, clean animation; sketchy rough animation; and archival footage.

Coloured clean animation is the base style, used to show the characters “normal” at any given time. It represents the “real” for the characters, subbing in for the non-existent footage of Amin's life experiences. It's use of colour is sometimes exaggerated from what realistically may have been there, but that's because these moments are also tinted by the emotions and feelings and personal worldview of Amin at the time.

The sketchy rough animation is utilised as a clear contrast to Amin's “normal”. It appears whenever Amin's world is in danger or Amin or his family is experiencing great fear or struggles, something traumatic or otherwise world-shaking in an already shaken up life. It allows the audience to see and feel that without explicitly stating it, and reflects the tone of film in those moments. Conversely, It first appears as an innocent reference to the music video of “Take on Me”, the song a young Amin listens to in the first moments of the film. This is important to note as this is before young Amin truly understands the struggles around him, before he and his family are forced to flee Afghanistan to escape persecution.

Finally, Archival footage. It appears the least in the film, but its purpose is just as important. It often highlights important historical moments that Amin and his Family were present at, but without the personal connection to their family. It juxtaposes the main animation style, as it often features locations and large unknown crowds, an almost depersonalisation. Its what we as an audience would consider most “real”, as it is in fact the real world documented directly, yet it fails to properly document the experiences of Amir's family. Its serves two purposes: Two “prove” to or remind the audience that, yes, this is something real that happened, but also criticises the live action documentary due to how its “wide view” doesn't allow for an audience to fully connect with or understand what is truly happening in the moment.

406 words lol

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Performance Capture W2

Got the eyes and brows passes done! I think they came out pretty well. 

The brows were definitely the easier of the two, as I had some slight stutter issues with the eyes, and at one point the iris trackers on the left eye were shrinking and growing occasionally.

I later figured out the somehow the outer and inner makers got switched for a couple frames. Easy fix, but annoying to figure out. Thank god for good labelling systems.

this coming week: MOUTH.

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Animation Analysis

A is for Autism is a 1992 film by Tim Webb commissioned by the UK’s Channel 4.

What I like about this animation style/aesthetic is that the various animated scenes is based off drawings done by some of the autistic participants, thus giving a viewer not just a audio look into the lives of the autistic interviewees, but a visual one as well. (the music was also composed and performed by autistic musicians.) The interviewed group was a mix of adults and children

I would definitely consider this an animated documentary the scenes often correlate to the current personal history being told, such as one individual’s experience of using a spinning coin to block out unwanted noises, or another’s constant questioning about street lights because they like the way the answer sounds, which are are paired with visually correlating (but also still stylised) animations.

I think this is successful in being a documentary as it correctly documents the retelling of these autistic people's personal history, and even more so in the fact its style is based off of the drawings of these autistics- it even shows some of them being drawn. 

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1166359/index.html (synopsis, extra information)

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Transcript:

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Animated Documentary Moodboards

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Performance Capture Blog #2

Oh my gosh it takes so long to write the action breakdown- I struggled to get it done in time, but I got over half of it done! It wasn’t an issue of deprioritization, it was just me trying to balance it with everything else I have going on this week.

Dr Kennedy said the work I had done made it clear I understood the need for detail that the task was to identify.

So as long as it's finished soon, it will be a useful point of reference.

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Got my interview recording done! I sat down with my dad and asked him three questions, to which he have me three stories.

The first one, we both had an idea on what the story was going to be as we had discussed it a couple days ago. I asked “what is a funny story that has happened to you in the past?” and he returned with a story about being an extra a film, and how that came about.

It was a good story we both knew, and figured would be good to tell, but I thought it would be best if I asked him at least one more question, one we hadn’t pre-discussed, for a bit of variety and so I would have options. This ended up being two more questions.

The second question was “can you tell me about some injury you’ve had?” to which he responded with a tale about getting injured during during a game of touch rugby at a work function. This one, was admittedly a bit… tame in terms of an interesting story. (sorry Dad) To be fair, the question may have been a bit flawed.

The third question was “can you tell me about some disaster you’ve had whilst on holiday?” to which he answered with a story about our family travelling on the Paris metro during rush hour and nearly losing my brother on the train, but he was fortunately recognised and rescued by a family we’d briefly met only moments before. It pretty good one, that's for sure.

During this part, I felt like my dad may have left out some details that he hadn’t remembered or thought would be necessary, so I asked a follow up question about what happened between certain events of the story, which he happily filled in. I figured it would be good to at least have that, as it would help me in the editing process later on.

Update: eh not quite. Actually had a bit of trouble getting this second one down to 40s. It's currently sitting at 46s.

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Animator/Filmmaker Analysis

Filmmaker Analysis: Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson is an American Filmmaker who known for the unique storytelling and visual style of his films.

His films utilise a pastel colour palette, with a visually distinct brightness, saturation and hue. It creates a feeling of unreality, but not an uncomfortable one. Wes Anderson films are not known for their realism.

Anderson makes use of symmetry for a sense of harmony and balance. A character is often shot centre frame, and when there are multiple, they mirror each other across the shot.

Anderson’s films require heavy editing, with each shot often being a mish-mash of the best parts from various takes in order to create the exact visual image Wes wants. In Asteroid City, one shot’s sky was replaced by the sky of another shot because it looked better to Wes’ vision. This goes on.

Animator Analysis: Sony Pictures Animation

(this specifically about the style seen in the Spiderverse series and The Mitchells Vs The Machines, given the immense variety the studio has.)

In both The Mitchells Vs The Machines and Into The Spiderverse, a mix of 2d animation and 3d animation is utilised for a unique style. Often the characters are 3d models, but then have textures, details that are animated on them in a 2d.

In Into The Spiderverse and its sequel, Across the Spiderverse, it’s used to bring a comic style to the film, through its use of action lines, sound effect Text, even transcribing a character’s dialogue or thoughts into a caption box. The Spiderverse films are credited as influencing many other 3d/2d mixed films post-release.

In Mitchells, 2d animation is also used to represent Katie’s imagination and view of the world, (which also references her artistic skills) to contrast it with her 3d reality.

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DESIGN III: ANIMATED DOCUMENTARY

First Week back at Uni! Sorta. I was…. not able to able to attend the first class. All good though, I was able to review the material online once it was published and I believe I have a fairly good understanding of what we are doing!

This Semester, we are to make an a small 40 second documentary-style animated sequence based off of a short interview with an individual about their life experiences.

Whilst I wasn’t in class for the brainstorming of various questions that could be given, I improvised one with my parents. We came up with a series of ideas of open ended questions that could lead to interesting stories, and a few ideas of who I could interview.

Given the Short timeframe in which I have to have the interview done by, I decided it would be best if I interviewed my parents about experiences they have had. During the brainstorm, one moment came up and seemed suitable for the project, but it’s possible others come up during the actual interview. So, keeping it open. INTERVIEW INCOMING!

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Performance Capture Blog #1

First week back!

Got introduced to what we are doing this semester, which is utilising performance capture. This is essentially motion capture that specifically captures an actor’s performance (facial expressions, intentional movement) in a full take, rather than just motion data that can be cut up and moved around.

The data we are working with it a pre-captured set performed by Dr Kennedy (Fred) and Mura Arbon (Miri) of a scene from Back to Life. I’ve been assigned frames 1941-2200, working on the Fred character.

To Do: analyze the footage taken during the capture of the actors and their faces and note down in an action breakdown the various motions of the body and face, when a movement starts, when it stops, which direction, and the frames it happens on.

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Making Of Vid!

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Final Mocap Submission!

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Basic Effects/Camera Shot testing!

Also, lighting!

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Time Editor stuff and Set Building!

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Motion Builder!

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Making Of Video

(courtesy of Steph)

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Final Completed Animation!