A New Game rough story ideas

Story Idea: New Game

I teamed up with Chloe Tapp for the stop motion project for the semester as well
We also got Marilyn on out team too

Logline:

Two siblings (older brother and younger sister) fight over character creation in a video game

each sibling has their own unique style, stereotype, colour palette, music score(?)

Each sibling has their own idea for the character on-screen should look:
           Younger sister wants magical fairy unicorn princess etc.
           Older brother wants dark and edgy (red and black colour palette, scars, all spikes all the time)

I will do the character creator contributions of the younger sibling and the animations of the older sibling, Chloe will do vice versa. We both will collaborate on shared elements such as backgrounds etc.

Character Biographies:

 Zack:

The older brother, Zack is a moody teenager who enjoys the 'edgy' aesthetic. His preferred character designs are often black and red and/or covered in spikes. He very much enjoys his personal space and would rather be left alone for much of the time. He dislikes Lulu as she keeps bothering him when he'd rather be left alone (which is all the time)

Lulu:

The younger sister, Lulu is a little girl who enjoys things pink and covered in glitter. She is energetic and easily bored, which often leads to her bothering Zack for entertainment. Lulu's favourite things are pink, glitter, ballerinas, fairies and princesses and her chosen aesthetic is often an unholy combination of these elements.

First class stop-mo

Camera set-up for stop-motion

In class, we learned how to set up a tripod. To ensure the tripod is balanced, check the spirit levels built into the tripod at various locations. The Bulls-eye level at the top of the tripod legs must be balanced to ensure the camera is steady, and the horizontal spirit levels around the point where the camera is affixed should also be balanced to ensure the camera is level. There is a vertical spirit level that acts in a similar manner to a plumb-bob, that only is used when the camera is pointing down. The camera can be moved or rotated for panning shots by loosening an pulling out the carious handles (do not just turn the camera by grabbing it, you may unscrew it from the tripod instead, like I nearly did in class).


Bulls-eye level. Image source: Wikipedia commons


A horizontal spirit level. Image source: Wikipedia Commons

To attach the camera, on top of the tripod, there is a lever, a catch and a plate with a screw-like apparatus on it. The plate with the screw can be removed by pushing the catch down to move the lever out of the way (the back end of the lever holds the plate in place). The plate has a handle on the opposing side of the screw, which is inserted into the bottom of the camera (make sure the camera battery is inserted first). Screw the plate to the bottom of the camera making sure the lens direction of the camera matches the notation on the plate, fold down the handle and place on the tripod by using the lever and catch system.

We learned about the different settings on D-90 cameras to help with filming stop motion. The ISO should be low to reduce noise for stop motion animating. There is a balance between F-stop (camera aperture size), shutter speed (how long it takes for the camera to take a picture) and depth of field (how much distance within the shot is in focus).

To achieve these effects, turn the camera on and set everything to manual (the switches on the side and the dial on the top should be set to 'M'). The ISO can be found on a button on the front of the camera and can be tampered by using the front dial, on the opposite side of the lens. The aperture size and the shutter speed can be modified by selecting the 'Info' button on the front to display the information on the screen at the top of the camera to the front facing screen, and using the dials at the front and back of the camera.

When the information is displayed on the front facing screen, a scale appears which measures exposure. When a picture is over-exposed, the image is too bright; when it is under-exposed, it is too dark. It is best to get the point on the scale to zero, which can be achieved by tampering with the shutter speed or the aperture size. Changing the shutter speed and the aperture size relative to each other while keeping the picture neither under- or over-exposed changes the depth of field.

A small aperture size coupled with a short shutter speed results in a very dark image because not much light can enter the camera in the time it takes to take a picture. Small apertures capture a lot of detail at the cost of brightness, such as the pin-hole lens seen in the Nautilus eye below [third graphic in the image].


Image source: http://archives.evergreen.edu/webpages/curricular/2011-2012/m2o1112/web/cephalopods.html

A long shutter speed can be coupled with a wide aperture when there are relatively dim lights and dark scenery. This camera setup is very sensitive to any light in the area and is good for capturing the night sky as seen below.


Image source: https://www.davemorrowphotography.com/p/tutorial-shooting-night-sky.html
In the image source, the photographer Dave Morrow gives a tutorial describing the camera settings he used to capture images such as this one.

Documentary

Image source: IMDb

Today we watched a documentary called The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Editing that details the major cinematic film movements of the 20th Century in the west. The documentary covered many of the things we learned over the course of the semester such as Italian Neorealism, Soviet montage and early 20th Century editing techniques. The documentary also highlighted the influences of editors and included interviews of big names in the editing and directing fields such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

lip sync

"For the last time, the polarity's fine and the batteries are the right way round"

Made some lip syncing today. In ToonBoom, I made a new layer for each face element (eyebrows, pupils, eyes, mouth etc.) and drew a new drawing shape on each frame. The Drawing Substitution box (under the library tab, next to tool properties) saves the drawings made on each frame, so when a new shape is needed, I can cycle through the 'saved' drawings until I reach the right one. This method was how I did the lip syncing and eye movements.

I may make the animation more dynamic by changing the angle and direction of the character when they speak.

I did it! To make the movements of the character seem less sudden, I (manually) added blurs. There's probably a better way to do it, but at the time the only thing I really cared about was making the animation readable.

I also did a version with smears

The Bicycle Thief (1948) review

The Bicycle Thief:

 

The Bicycle Thief (1948) is a film following the struggles of a working class Italian family, the Riccis. The husband and father, Antonio Ricci, has managed to secure a reasonably well-paying job in a poor job market which requires a bike. After selling their family's bed sheets to purchase a bike, Antonio begins his new job, only to have the bike stolen. What follows is Antonio's increasingly desperate attempts, alongside his son, to find the thief and recover his bike. Eventually, Antonio gets desperate enough to attempt to steal a bike, after which he is caught. Upon seeing Antonio's son in tears, the owner of the bike lets Antonio off with a warning, after which both Antonio and his son walk home in tears.

This movie has been put on many top ten movies of all time lists, with good reason. It is well shot, has a moving story and had a poignant ending. The film was a reasonably entertaining watch, however was let down by it's poor sound quality and infrequent subtitles.

In the film, the bike could represent hope of financial stability for the family.
It was not evident that the actors were not professional, and their non-professional status added an element of realism to their character's emotions.
The father starts as an upstanding citizen, only to become more and more desperate over the course of the film, ending in him becoming a bicycle thief.
The son's opinion of his father initially starts as idolization, and becomes a form of betrayal as the father becomes desperate, hits him and steals bikes, and ends with a sense of camaraderie as they both walk crying down the street together.

Italian Neorealism

Italian Neorealism

Context:

Italy had been under the fascist regime since 1924, the neorealist movement began in Italy after WWII as a response to the political turmoil and desperate economic conditions afflicting the country at the time.
Neorealism criticizes the view of society as a collection of individuals who are indifferent to the suffering of others

In the 1930s, Melodramas were popular with Italian audiences. The film industry often showed Telephono bianco (white telephone) films, which often depicted the emotional turmoil of Italy's upper class and American cinema. Neither of these film genres appealed to the poor or working class Italians.

Neorealistic films appeared realistic due to the contrast of the films that preceded them

Neorealism conventions:

Neorealism often had a distinct visual style

filmed on location

non-professional actors

natural lighting

minimal or subtle editing and post-production processes

documentary style of photography

stories focused on the poor and working class