yasminslogbook

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FMP : FINAL OUTCOME

Rewind by Yasmin Ahmed

Overall I believe my final outcome came out successful, it is clear to understand and yet doesn’t give away too much information in the beginning. The pairing of radio static with the faint music in the background is a perfect balance to the film as it helps set an overall tone and helps fill in the blank spaces when there is no talking. I like the pacing of the film it creates just enough build up for the surprise twist ending, the reason I added the abrupt ending in the film is because I wanted there to be a quick and efficient way to bring my audience back to reality, I also wanted to create a lasting impression on my audience. That is why the final line of the film isn’t aided with the crackling of the radio, because it is is directly talking to the audience, making it meta and memorable. I am very pleased with mergence between the digital and paper animation, the transition between them is smooth and unique that it may confused the audience making them even more intrigued in the overall concept. The chalk animation really captures the joy and innocents of the the narrator’s childhood and is perfect when paired with the sound effects giving a light hearted and comical feel. Though I do believe in a few scenes I could have made the film a bit smoother with consistency in paper transistions. Overall when checked with peers my film gauged a good responds as some people did feel nostalgic while watching the film other felt the harsh snap from the ending being very surprised and confused. Exactly the reaction i wanted.

Due to the pandemic I have had to work from home, which has affected my project in certain areas. However, I have still successfully created an outcome I am proud of, to work around not being able to use the universities equipment by building my own D.I.Y stop motion studio and use the materials available to me. I have planned around any issues and problems that have occurred, additionally I have given myself more time to work on pre-production as I have some problems collecting audio for my outcome. Though there have been a few issues my production has come out successfully as it can during these hard times. If it had gone to plan, the lighting for some scenes would have been a lot better. I believe that lighting in some of the paper animation scenes is very off and could be very distraction.

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All Final Major Project Documents.

Action plan

FMP Propsal

FMP Coversheet

FMP self evaluation

Script

Bibliography

All document can be found in this Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3xybysrfj6bsto9/AAD_1rCmvq9Ppe4iNCihXIiSa?dl=

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STORYBOARDS PT. 2

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STORYBOARDS

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Production

When making film I started to have a few problems with the beginning scenes, thought animated well the two question scenes are too long and may bore my audience. I checked with other peers, to see what they thought. Some thought that the pacing was good overall however the beginning was too long or dull to them. Obviously I do not want this to be the case, so I have workshopped some new scene animations for those scenes (below this paragraph), these scenes now involve small moving images depicting what the texts is asking the audience. Instead of writing it out and making them read it, which was proving to be quite difficult. I believe that this will be a success as it is short and straight to the point, and when elongated will let the viewer read and be entertained at the same time. Everything else seems to be okay so far, I may need to edit a few pieces of audio to make it clear to the audience that the different people are having a conversation with each other. Though I have added static sound and sound effects I do believe that there should be something there to help fill the blank spaces when there are transitions and people aren’t talking. Maybe I should add some lofi or vapour wave music, as they are able to achieve calm and aesthetically pleasing beats takes their audience to dream like and relaxed state, making it easier for them to feel nostalgia.

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PRE-PRODUCTION

Animatic 2.

Now I have added sound effects the animatic, I believe it has bought my outcome to life, bringing a comical surprise that should be pleasant for the viewer. I think to make that showing some scenes being animated in real-time to the audience paints this image that the the narrator is painting the image of the story, the little movement of animation not only brings the story to life but it could represent that our memories though powerful they are gone in an instant. The animation definitely needs a lot more transition in between scenes to help create a smoother changeover to the next sequence, as without it the film looks quite badly edited and clucky. I also believe that a few stories I could be taken out to shorten the film, this is will make it memorable and help straighten out any dialogue or scenes that doesn’t fit right. I also think that there is something still missing, that would help tie everything together, maybe I should add an ambience.

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PRE-PRODUCTION

Animatic 1

This is the first animatic of my film. It is the images from my story board put on a timeline with my audio. So far I believe that my concept is straight forward and understandable and that the stories I have picked out all work well with each other. I like how the build-up is created taking my audience on a journey and then snapping then back to reality. The flow of the animatic itself is okay, However, it could be better. Maybe if I add clear transitions in between certain scenes it may help better the flow of the overall film. It seems to be missing a few comments like sound effects and an inclusive presence. I do believe sound effects in some areas will definitely be surprising to my audience and will make them smile as these sound maybe familiar to them.

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Contextual Research :

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY : THE CLOCK

Christian Ernest Marclay is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality. Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film. The Clock is an art installation by Marclay. It is a looped 24-hour video supercut that feature clocks or timepieces. The artwork itself functions as a clock: its presentation is synchronized with the real time, resulting in the time shown in a scene being the actual time.

Following several years of rigorous and painstaking research and production, Marclay collected together excerpts from well-known and lesser-known films including thrillers, westerns and science fiction. He then edited these so that they flow in real time. When watching The Clock you experience a vast range of narratives, settings and moods within the space of a few minutes and i love how effortlessly Marclay presents this as the audience is transported through theses different scene with one consistency that is the time an the clocks. This is defiantly something i want capture in my own outcome as it my make it more ambiguous making my audience want to find out more.

As you watch this film, you start to really see how time works and how our lives are consistently moving even if we think it’s not. Each second presenting something new for the audience to experience, for example the mixture of real-life filming with snippets from actual film isn’t noticed on first glance. This is due the colour consistence Marclay uses to connect every scene together, seen in the beginning of the film where we start with a dark colours and then start to go to lighter colours. I want use colours in a similar way, however, i want bright colours to depict the past to show how joyous and innocent it was. the darker colours would represent the present, showing the normality and bored people may feel about their resposiblity filled lives.

The Power of Music and Nostalgia.

Musical nostalgia, in other words, isn’t just a cultural phenomenon: It’s a neuronic command. And no matter how sophisticated our tastes might otherwise grow to be, our brains may stay jammed on those songs we obsessed over during the high drama of adolescence. In recent years, psychologists and neuroscientists have confirmed that these songs hold disproportionate power over our emotions. And researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests our brains bind us to the music we heard as teenagers more tightly than anything we’ll hear as adult ,a connection that doesn’t weaken as we age.

When you listen to a song usual triggers personal memories, and your prefrontal cortex, which maintains information relevant to your personal life and relationships, will spring into action. You feel certain emotions when you listen to music, for example , upbeat music makes you feel happier. So when you feel nostalgic there is a sense of calm, a hint of sadness and satisfaction. This is something Lo-fi and vapourwave music achieves perfectly as their calm and aesthetically pleasing beats takes their audience to dream like state. This is evident by majority of students studying and working to this type of music as it helps them focus more. Lo-fi is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections of a recording or performance are audible, sometimes as a deliberate aesthetic choice. Where as Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, a visual art style, and an Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. Though both types are music are different i think they would be perfect to incorporate into my outcome as it will help my outcome create a memorable impact on my audience as well as making them feel relaxed.

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Reflection:

Production and testing

Here are i have tested out how i want my animation to look like, over all both outcomes came out successful.

Due to the global pandemic I haven’t been able to use professional equipment to help me create the paper animation, so i had to create my own studio. This is why you can see slight shadows and the background of the table. Despite this the animation came out successful, we can clearly see the transformation of the first scene to a close up of a large ant moving across the screen. The reason i used chalk to depict the memories is because chalk is a childhood object. It is seen in most playgrounds, sidewalks a way for children to express themselves artistically. It emphasis how i want to portray the past and the “simpler times “ of life as everyone has used or has seen chalk drawing in their life. Though not as malleable than charcoal , chalk has a good tonal and with the different colours i have, i can define certain areas and make scene transitions easily.

Much like the paper animation, the digital animation has been made to look like it chalk. However, there is minimal colour and the lines look more defined, showing the blandest people felt in the interview when talking about their current life. It’s a great contrast to work with and i am excited to see how i can make them intertwine. I believe that the digital animation has come out successful as it flows with out any delay. Continuing this , I believe i could create a clear narrative that hopefully makes my audience feel nostalgia.

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Character Movements

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CHARACTER DESIGNS

These are my character designs based around the people I have interviewed. To help me design them I looked at the person and thought about their personality, thought about how they maybe as a child.

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Interviews

To further my project I interviewed a range of people, ranging between students, adults and elders. The interview was based around their memories and childhood, e.g. What is one object you miss from your childhood and why?. The reason i did this because I plan to take some of these memories and create a narrative out of them, showing my audience the interview and somehow making the interviewee’s have a conversation with each other.

My questions were aimed to evoke emotion and to make the person reminisce about their childhood. I found some interesting similarities between the memories, such as siblings and doing weird or stupid things. This is something I may use in to help further my project as I want my audience to connect with these stories.

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Creature Comfort

Creature Comforts is a British stop motion clay animation comedy mockumentary franchise originating in a 1989 British humorous animated short film of the same name. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about their homes, making it appear as if the animals were being interviewed about their living conditions. It was created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations. The film later became the basis of a series of television advertisements for the electricity boards in the United Kingdom, and in 2003, a television series in the same style was released. An American version of the series was also made.

Not only did the show hide the identities of the original people so well, it immersed the audience by having the scene constantly moving and making the animal act how it original is while speaking. I love how each animal is the perfection depiction fo each voice. eg. A posh old man’s voice paired with a racing derby horse. I wouldn’t mind watching this show for hours on , just to see the animals and the paired voices. Not only is it humours it is also ironic as the pair fit so well. This is something i want to factor in when creating my own characters based on the interviews i will take.

Mister Madilla

Mr Madila or The Colour of Nothing documents a series of conversations between the film-maker and a gifted spiritual healer, exploring the inner mind, the fabric of the universe, and the nature of reality itself, through the sacred art of animation.

It looks closely at the idea of thoughts, feelings and the inner voice. All done in a comical conversational, flipping between animation and real life film. Taking the audience through several different animated scenes depicting what Mr Madilla is saying and trying to explain to the audience, similar to the “Draw my life” Series on Youtube. It is like Mr Madilla’s words affect how the next scene will play out, this is clearly seen when he suggests that someone else should voice him as he wants to sound professional. I like this idea as it shows the audience how this animated world is moving and interacting with in itself as well as including the audience in the conversation. This is something i definitely want to develop into my outcome. I love how meta the film is as it shows unnecessary scenes such as mister madilla singing and complaining about his voice before turning into a serious monologue, the humour and joyous feeling now gone.

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Reflection:

The aim of my project is to if you can feel nostalgia by watching other peoples memories and to show how we are all connected by our memories. To present these memories i needed to interview a range of different people. At first i wanted to interview the elderly to show how the people escape through their memories. However, due the recent epidemic i wasn’t able to go to elderly homes due to health concerns. so i have tweaked my project to represent the stories of three different generation. The Student (17-25), The Adult (30+) and The Elder (60+).

I plan to take some of these memories and create a narrative out of them, showing my audience the interview and somehow making the interviewee’s have a conversation with each other. I plan to do this by having some of my questions shown and having the cycle of a recorder playing indicating that the conversation is being recording.

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Artist research:

William Kentridge

William Kentridge is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. These are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. each film he create illustrates a story, typically showing the hardship of peoples lives.

History of the Main Complaint - 1966

This film is the sixth in the series and is based on twenty-one drawings. It was made shortly after the establishment in South Africa of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It was set up to conduct a series of public hearings into abuses of human rights perpetrated during the apartheid era. The hearings, in which individuals told their stories of personal suffering, were held in order to make reparation for abuse and in the hope of creating reconciliation between peoples. The underlying theme of this film is a (self) recognition of white responsibility. This is played out through a 'medical' investigation into the body of Soho Eckstein, the white property-developing magnate and greedy-capitalist protagonist of most of the preceding films, which provides the starting point for a revelation of conscience.

Kentridges use of precise erasure and smudging creates this transformative effect in his work. This is most prominent in the beginning scene where we see the sleeping man , snoring in the hospital bed. Though we can see the erasure marks and pieces, we see the images come to life as each mark or erasure becomes a different movement, keeping the audience interested and the story engaging.

Process.

Typically Kentridge uses charcoal to create his pieces, this is because charcoal is very easy to erase and has a good range of tones. Kentridges practice was to draw an image, capture it and go back and change it to another image to show the movement all on the same sheet of paper . He often says that during walking in-between the camera and the canvas , he thinks about what he is going to draw next as his films are unscripted. Whatever is left on the canvas is the last shot of the scene or film, in this shot we usual see a a few marks and line showing how much a character or a certain object has moved. Though this technique is messy, it creates an unforgettable impact on the audience as they don’t suspect this paper image to move. I believe i want to use this type of media in my outcome as it is an interesting a way of storytelling and reminds me of the past, which is something i want my audience to experience as well.