Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 November 2012

Abstract Writing


Assignment for Jeanette's module.

Cinematic Composites


Understanding the history and antecedent work of your industry is imperative for going forward and doing a good job, in my opinion. Therefore understanding film history is important in making motion pictures. I have studied this generally in the past. I have also generalised in animation. I feel this understanding isn’t often the case in the industry. In this image-exploration-based masters course, Animation and Visualisation, I hope to study the images in film over time and produce my own cinematic images. This will be produced by modern techniques, using nowadays technologies, in visual effects. My specialism is compositing, which is the pulling- together of all of the elements of several medias to integrate these cinematic moving pictures.

I plan to interview individuals based in animation, and people who are simply audience members and objective in their views. This will give me a better understanding of opinions on images on screen and even what people simply like to see and appreciate in a film.

I shall also hold peer reviews for the progression of the piece and seek opinions on development work. This can be through networking and blogging.

Research taking place will also be in the form of photographing and scouting cinematic locations, based on research of several feature length and short films which are of the look I hope to achieve. Concept art in the form of digital and oil on canvas is hoped to be achieved to create the look I am aiming for. I will combine these materials in designs for environments for my character. Collaboration will take place here, as well as in writing.

Prior to this, I will develop a character which I will collaborate to develop a simple, visual situation which sets up compositing techniques for me to explore.

I have worked in, and enjoyed, After Effects for composting in the past. I plan to research how to emulate what I can create with this software in Nuke, afterwards learning new techniques, for example, chroma keying.

In the first semester I plan to do simple Nuke composites with a live action character put into a simple generated scene – hopefully justifying using software to create the scene by animating it for example, or creating something not purely realistic. Even two tests, one being a 3D camera tracking shot, and the other simply a green screen test.

I plan also to sit with a team of writers for my final project. I will create a character and a vast list if visual reference material. The collaborators will be there for brainstorming, suggesting and bringing other ideas to the table. I can then discuss the settings we envisage with 3D modellers and texture artists . After this, I can discuss lighting and shot layout with the cinematographer and plan to synchronise the live action and computer generated lighting for compositing. Some of this may exceed the dates of semester 1. However, the process is similar to that I will go through for the semester 1 test(s).

The remainder of semester 2 and semester 3 will therefore be creating the environments and compositing everything in computer software to polish the cinematic images.

Work by Alfred Hithcock, Martin Scorsese, Jeff Desom, Alex Beh, George Melies, Charlie Chaplin, film noir, mob film, etc, are influences on my work.

Monday, 29 October 2012

Script Writing

Alfred Hitchcock: "To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script."

Of course I am concentrating on compositing, but what will I composite without this? 

Workshops with Mark Grindle, script writer, have made clear what makes up the fabric of a story. He shared my philosophy that characters are most important, and the story will develop on from that character and their needs, etc. Then other characters can surround them (seen directly or not).

Important things in script writing to consider are:

Tone - Mood, eg. comedic, drama, tragedy

Theme - Point of view, desires - eg. love, validation, justice, etc. Fears - eg. of death

The next steps for the project are to flesh out my characters or create newer ones. I am set to sit down with Mark Grossi and Tom Paxton next week hopefully to brainstorm some ideas. I will then develop the piece around projected technically achieved imagery to explore them within their 'story'...

I am also working with Lina Ivanova (3D modelling) and Michal Zagorski (Director of Photography) on a short test (or split into two) based totally on the types of settings I want to create and then gaining Nuke experience in compositing, this semester.

Hopefully some synopsises, concepts as well as tests are on their way very soon. 

Along with completing assignments, by the end of the semester (early December) I should have a rough script, Nuke compositing and chroma keying tests, and a test shoot with Michal.