Magazine Collection

Thomas managed to score some Magazines at the SIT library that were going to get chucked out. So now we have a huge collection to sort through for characters and walls.

The Stack

What we will do for example is this.

Grab a magazine

Find an image

Cut out the image

Place on a stand and congratulations you've got a character. (digital presentation)

Then for distortion, warp and liquify image. (this example done in Photoshop, we would probably do this in cutout.)

More Stopmotions, Important Dates, Gantt Charts and Materials lists

Dead
Post it note stop motion. Very Symmetrical Stop motion. Like Pixel art almost with its cubic style.

Wolf & Pig
Photograph Stopmotion. An adventure in photographs which travels the room. Very clever. Also odd twist at the end, wasn't expecting that.

Claymation Chess
A cool take on chess. Makes Chess more violent. Reminds me of a game called Warhammer 40k Regicide which is chess with Space marines, which do Take-downs on losing chess pieces.

Gulp
Sand Stopmotion with real people. Actually filmed on a beach, with the ocean joining in to the shot. All filmed on a Nokia 8 on a crane. Doesn't look like it when you watch it the first time.

IMPORTANT DATES
27th August Animatic
17th September Last Marking Lab
1st October Last Shooting Lab
8th October Audio Lab
22nd October Final Editing Lab
30th October Short Film Due
5th November Personal Blog Due

Gantt Chart, A possible means of keeping track of time

Could potentially be updated

Project Proposal Planning

Identify your question
How can I create a short opening sequence that reflects the styles of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone.

Concept
In the original version of the Twilight Zone (1959 - 1964), The introduction and the opening monologue of The Twilight Zone always seemed to capture the attention of the viewers. I wanted to replicate that.

Context
The location of where this recording takes place doesn't really matter, the only thing I would think that would be necessary is no technology visible (Modern TV, Touch Phones, etc.) I want to really make my work look like it came from the 50's/60's.

Audience
People who originally watched The Twilight Zone. Age range, Late Teens to Adult.

Aesthetic
I want my piece to look grainy, to look black and white, and look like its been recorded on that of an old film reel. I really want that 1950's to 1960's feel.

Theoretical Framework
Narration, Monologue, Introduction

Medium
I'm going to film this (short film) and edit with adobe premiere and after effect (which I have to learn) here is an optional possibility that I might use some animation for a title sequence with Toon Boon or Photoshop.

Key Practitioners/Influencer's
Rod Serling is my Key Influence, as he is the creator of The Twilight Zone.

Technique
Ill need to learn again how to use Adobe Premiere and/or After Effect, which i've only used five times.

Methodology & planning

• Write Scripts
• Plan Location
• Film
• Edit
• Animate
• Set up Exhibit (Old TV)
• Finish

Props
I want to get my hands on an old TV, which I'm in the middle of acquiring. its a small TV from the 80's which has dials in it. Although I'm still looking for one just in case my plans go out the window. Ill also need a table to put said TV on.

References
This project is based on concepts for my literature review, I discussed its story arc and Narratology

Current Proposal

Evidence of Me and Thomas working hard on the Proposal.

1960's animation

UK
Bob Godfrey
Do It For Yourself Cartoon Kit (1961)
Terry Gilliam adopted some techniques from this style.
Has some classic British Humor in it.

Oliver Postgat & Peter Firmin
The Clangers (1969)
Another classic TV show.

UK/USA
Terry Gilliam
Storytime (1968)
A Really good animator. I'm currently using him as an artist model for my stopmotion project.

Croatia
Dusan Vukotic & Zagreb Film
Surogat (1961)
This film has simple shapes and hardly any background. The backgrounds are like canvases.

Ziatiko Grgic
Professor Balthazar (1967)
Another colourful animation. With a mix of drawn animation and painted backgrounds. This one was cute.

Pavao Stalter & Branko Ranitovic
The Masque of the Red Death (1969)
Very Dirty Animation, a lot of texture is seen. It is a cool style. The building in the background are hardly seen, like they are in some murky fog.

USA/Japan
Jules Bass
Mad Monster Party? (1967)
Looks like fun with its humour. And it looks like it would have some reference.

Japan
Toei Doga
Cyborg 009 (1966 - 2001)
Water effects present. Nice and clean animation. Attack animation could be a little better. Twas funny though.

Hiroshi Sasagawa
Mach Go Go Go / Speed Racer
A classic animation. Very Exaggerated. It's awesome.

Fuji Television
Sazae-san (1969)
Simple animation, no background.
Russia
Fyodor Khitruk
Story of One Crime (1962)
Looks like a cut out animation, Odd perspectives. It does have evidence of images cut into the animation as well as a mix of detailed to non detailed shapes.

Andrei Khrjanovsky
There Lived Kozyavin (1966)
Feels almost monochromatic. Only colour is yellows and blues. A little spiratic. Light refraction is really cool on the characters.

The Glass Harmonica (1969)

China
Wan Laiming
Havoc in Heaven (1961-1964)
This animator knows how to animate glowing lights. Also the flora and  fauna are well created. They have a unique style to them.

Italy
Osvaldo Cavandoli
Carosello, The Line (1969)
Line animation, Another simple animation. It features human action as well with the had drawing lines. Its all one line really which is quite fascinating. The background changes with every impact.

Spain
Francisco Macian
The Magician of Dreams (1966)
Filled with rich dark colours. I'm getting some Peter Pan vibes from this. Very early Disney vibes.

Vietnam
Ngo Manh Lan
The Kitty (1966)

Belgium
Belvision Studios
Asterix the Gaul (1967)
They say that the authors didn't like this film because of its non similarities to the comic, but it looks solid. I think it does. I'd watch it.

Canada
Eva Szasz
Cosmic Zoom (1968)
Live action introduces us to the film. Features a zoom out from the boat all the way to space. Although the solar system stops at Saturn apparently.

Ray and Charles Earnes
Power of ten (1968)

Ryan Larkin
Walking (1969)
Animation has a lot of frames per second.

Library Tour 2, Tour Harder

On the first day we went to the library again to go over finding sources.

These are the notes I took on the day.

ProQuest Main Page

Cinema Verite and Direct Cinema

Chronicles of a Summer (1960)

Cinema Verite

The filmmaker is present within narration (commentary) and when interviewing a person of intererst.

In fact its like a Cinema Verite within a Cinema Verite because its a documentary about a documentary.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054745/

Salesman (1969)

Direct Cinema

The camera crew is ignored when the people of interest are filmed. There is minimal commentary. This is definitely a fly on the wall type of documentary.

https://www.amazon.com/Salesman-POSTER-Movie-27-Inches/dp/B00KK6QGGG

Gimme Shelter (1970)

Direct Cinema

I had heard about this event in history. The free Rollling Stone concert to celebrate the end of there american tour. This concert was one of the most violent tours as it was utter chaos. Anyway you can tell this is direct cinema as there is no narrations, only footage of what happens at the concert. There is a sequence of Mick Jagger watching the moment where Meredith Hunter gets stabbed. You could argue that this isn't Direct Cinema but its a small sequence so I don't think it counts.

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/403846291555439340/?lp=true

Titicut Follies (1967).

This film witnesses life inside a home for the criminally insane. The film displays being bullied, force fed and to walk around naked. This film was a controversial documentary as it was banned form being shown as it 'violated the privacy of the patients' The film was only allowed to be seen by health professional until 1991

https://www.amazon.com/Titicut-Follies-New-Poster-Style/dp/B004S7XUPS

Other Documentary of note:

March of the Penguins (2005)

Bowling for Columbine (2002)

Farenheit 9/11 (2004)

Sicko (2007)

Super Size Me (2004)

I have seen many Micheal Moore Documentary, all of them are quite interesting, Micheal Moore, I wanna call aggressive, because of how in you face he is when he asks someone questions. 

ANIBILD - Playing with Rigging

On this day Me and Thomas were given a task to build a figure that would help with rigging. Sadly we did not have time to try any Animation/Rigging but the building was a challenge in its self.

So here is some images of the figure being built.

Thomas building the figure

Close up of Thomas putting the figure together.

Figure Sits

Figure lays

Figure Wakes

Dynamic pose from Photo Ft. Vinnie

Vinnie's transformation into a drunk detective

Drawing from last week i'm trying to replicate

Short Animations

Salt and Pepper
Short and sweet, not much happening aside from movement, but creative camera angles when zooming in on the face of the salt and pepper shakers

A Life
Silhouettes moving on a dimly lit set, 2D characters have depth. Shows life progressing quite fast.

Gran
Lots of emotions and movement, and very colourful, simple premised executed well.

Iron Man vs Bruce lee
Special effects added in post. A fun animation. Very well motioned. I like how Iron Man turns into Frodo and Sam.

Candy
Simplistic animations, this one is more about forming patterns.

A Midnight Snack
Digitalised outside shots, but the interior shots are all stop motion. Sound effect heavy story. There a play on words in the title.

Fresh Guacamole
Live action stop motion, very good. I can see why it was nominated for an Oscar. Turning random items that aren't food into food.

Create
Panning shots are used in this. Uses lighting as a key element.

Pals Puppets
Documentary about George Pal who had a complex way of animation,

Plastiphiobia
Looks like play-doh, Simple blobs as characters.

Bagpuss
A lot of stills in this into, it transitions from black and white photos to bright coloured film.

Ivor The Engine and the story of Small Films
A documentary about Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. Who animated Bagpuss and Clangers.

Science Friction
Stan VanDerBeek. This film is quite over exposed but there are important things to note a bout this as this man is an inspiration to Terry Gilliam. There was one sequence in this that is similar to what me and Thomas are going to do and that is the sequence when a muscly man grows extra limbs.

Closed Mondays
Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner. Solid Claymation. The expressions on the drunk mans face are good, the clay captures the emotion, with slight mouth movements and eye movements. Good lip syncing.

The Sand Castle
Sand animation, animated in a sandbox. The sand storm bit at the beginning is a cool effect. The sand animals are very odd.

Quaqquao
Paper Animation, quite colourful. Backgrounds are all very bright primary and secondary songs.

The Moomins
Film polski and jupiter films

Trumptonshire
Very Bright clothes, interesting animation

Mouse Mania
Stop Animation of merch, a lot of merch.

Sandman
Eliot Noyes Jr. Another sand animation, this time on a light board. Not the best one i've seen. Its very basic.

Aardman Animation
Peter lord and David Sproxton. A animation of a buisness meeting.

James and the Giant Peach
Henry Selick. Smooth Animation, very good, Classic film.

Life on Ben
Mix of live action and stop animation. Full of bad puns.

3 Minute Proposal Project

My project

Comments:

My comment - I did it! woo, should of shown an example though for the class.

• Focused - Yes I hope so!
• PowerPoint was good and I have an interesting idea - Yes I thought it was solid, and fun!
• Good Presentation, may be hard to source the old equipment  - I have some sources that possibly have an old TV that I could use, I hope I can use it.
• Good idea and theme. Maybe for the actual display add in some other objects (coffee table, old lamp, couch) make it feel like being in a 50's living room. - Actually not a bad idea, I may use it.
• Maybe go more in depth about story, commenter likes the though put into presenting the short film with the older technology. - Yep, i've got to make the story interesting and juicy.
• Maybe use news stories? - possibly
• Cool Idea dude. Maybe use de-saturated effects for retro visuals. might be handy. - Sound like a good idea, I don't want my visuals too crisp. I was thinking adding film grain and lots of noise.

Experimenting for Stop Motion

 On Friday the 19th, Me and Thomas along with the help of Chris Macdonald, started to test out camera shots and lighting to see if it was possible to do what we want to do. This all took place in the green screen room. We took out a camera, an Aladdin LED, a stand with a piece of folded paper on it, and a tripod there and play around with the two different types of shots we were going to make.

The First shots we played around with were the first person shots. What we had in mind and tested was taking a bunch of pictures continuously of our hands doing different actions in front of a green screen. Here are some examples hand gestures and movements we did:

Left

Left

Left (with Prop)

Left (with Prop action)

Right (Prop and accidental beard)

Behind one arm

Behind Both Arms

So with these images we can show which position is better for us to film the camera, as we tried standing to the left and right of the camera, and also standing behind the camera with one of us pressing the shoot button down.

Next we played around with the lighting on our "model" to find the best lighting.

I believe we decided on 30 or 40 as the best lighting.

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

The experiment was a success and now we have more confidence that our experimental project will work. Now we need to write our proposal and proceed with experiments. Especially moving the cameras and models when we start to stop motion.

Below are behind the scene exclusive photos on how we did the experiments.

The Green Screen

The Aladdin with a cover and a roughed up filter for diffusing light, along with the light box and the paper model.

Thomas with the Aladdin and the camera.

The Aladdin and the Camera.

Thomas and Chris setting up the Aladdin.

A visual of how the first person look is achieved.

The Camera and Thomas.

Hard at work.

Dramatic Green Screen Thomas which could be used as a wallpaper, just saying.

Me and Chris taking the test shots.

Chris Showing me how to use the Aladdin.