The animation What I'm into like...

Run Wrake’s short animation ‘rabbit’ is an example of how a myriad of tools and sources can be used to create a world that is familiar but brand new, exciting and scary. It was made two years ago and It won (and still is winning) a series of awards as it travels around the globe including best short film at the British Animation awards, the Audience award in San Francisco and was even nominated for a BAFTA.

‘rabbit’ is a film aimed at adults that uses 1950’s children’s educational illustrations (R is for rabbit) to build the entire world on top of a backdrop of a 3D grassy plain and speeded up real footage of turbulent clouds. The mix of 2D, 3D and real footage builds a strange atmosphere and is aided by very real sound; the wind blowing, a fly buzzing. The sounds are crisp and immaculate and in stark contrast to the eerie music and the fact that none of the characters speak. The land created by the 3D plain and the movement of the camera feels immediately like a children’s TV show – the Telly Tubbys perhaps – which further aids the strange atmosphere.

The story follows two main characters – possibly brother and sister – whose quick but devious minds are revealed when they trap and kill a rabbit for its fur. When a strange creature pops out from the body of the dead rabbit, and reveals magic jewel making powers, the boy and girl devise a plan to use the creature for their own ends – namely to become rich and powerful.

This is a film about the loss of innocence and the exploitation of the natural world as Wrake points out at http://www.runwrake.com/ and I think is wonderfully done because he hasn’t fallen into the trap of the default look that the animation tools will imprint into most films.

This “default look” is something I am discussing further in my SPP essay.

SEE rabbit HERE

Nice crow

Carrying on the crow theme I started (in the web design banner advert post below) I have found a nice projected animation of a shadow of a crow.

http://www.ubutopia.com/crowshadow.htm

Design

For the 3D model making task I recreated with stunning accuracy a section of the wall in W207. Well maybe not stunning accuracy (I missed out the PC's and any other inconvenient details). The details that I wanted to include were the plastic conduit for the electric cables (see pictures near my ankles) and the incline in the wall as it reaches the window. Great fun.

Short film review

Copy Shop

Short Film

http://www.widrichfilm.com/copyshop/

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2421320

Copy Shop is film noir about a man who works in a photocopying shop and one day creates a copy of himself.

His daily life is as repetitive as his work – and the film is an examination of the consequences of repetition; the man gets out of bed, washes in his bathroom and walks the short distance to work where he works alone copying documents. His walk to work involves an amorous ‘meeting of eyes’ with the local flower arranger and when that daily glance is stolen by his created copy circumstances start to slip out of our hero’s control.

Things take on a more sinister turn when the copy starts to multiply himself.

The film is exposing the repetition of modern life but also questions the value of something if that something is no longer unique. This is expressed in the main character – Alfred Kager’s loss of identity in having created countless copies of himself and the director has deliberately created a state of confusion for the viewer in keeping up with who is the real Alfred Kager.

This is achieved in the play between subjective and objective shots. When we view Alfred in an objective camera shot in a scene in which Alfred realises that his double is in the same room, the objective angle becomes both a subjective and objective point of view. This, as Widrich points out below, is breaking the rule that the character must not be seen in a subjective shot.

“In the cinema, one important rule must be adhered to so that the viewer registers the change from an objective to a subjective angle, at least subconsciously: the difference between objective and subjective angles is that the one watching must never be directly visible in a subjective shot. In "Copy Shop" this rule is deliberately broken.”

[See ‘Identity’ section at http://www.widrichfilm.com/copyshop/core_en.html ]

The exploration of repetition and copying was literally undertaken by the maker (Virgil Widrich) in the process of making this film: The film was shot with digital tape and then transferred onto a computer. Each frame of the film was then printed out using a black and white laser photocopier. Now here is the bit that I don’t fully understand – those photocopies were then animated and re-shot with a 35mm camera.

“Thus video becomes paper, paper becomes film and the story of ‘Copy Shop’ is brought to life again ‘copy by copy’ ”

[See ‘Identity’ section at http://www.widrichfilm.com/copyshop/core_en.html

This technique wasn’t just a gesture of irony – it created the films very strange visual effects in which we see the very outer frame of the picture slide into view and sometimes tear. The look and feel of this film is unlike any you will have experienced before and this is partly because of the process described above but also because Widrich changed the frame rate half way through the film from 12 to 24 fps. It all adds to the disorientation felt by us, the viewer, each of us unique and identical.

Warning: Watch this film and you will think photocopying is evil.

Web Design

Banner advert examples.
My banner advert consists of a brief animation, descriptional words to inform the viewer what the company does and finishes on the logo.
The design process for my advert started with the creation of a simple animation. I then started to think of the sort of company which would use this animation in an advert. (A backward way of designing I know - but nevermind)
The company; ‘Black Crow Productions’ is a fictional one – (based on companies such as Reel FX and Cellar of Rats) - designed to appeal to the film/games/graphics industries and provide creative productions in motion graphics, visual effects and audio production.

click on the link below to see the 2 versions of the advert (audio on):

http://www.adamart.co.uk/web-design/banner-ad.htm

Fashion Knitware - music video

Last term i was asked to create a video for the end of year Fashion Knitwear degree show.

The only specifications were that it had to be made up of footage of the students working and it had to last around ten minutes.

I spent a day filming the students creating their clothing in the studios at Bonington and then edited a ten minute short which was used as a back-drop projection as people were entering the show room and taking their seats.

I also produced a short music video which I suggested could be used as an actual opener to the show. The students accepted it and it was the video was the first creation that the audience saw on the night.

I think the videos were a large success as they met the criteria (and added criteria) to a degree show of a very high standard. The videos showed the a glimpse of some of the extremely hard work that went into the creation of the knitwear and I was proud to add something to a show which had an excellent production standard.

Click below to see the music video

(large file - may take a minute to load)

audio on

http://www.adamart.co.uk/fashion-knitware/fashion-knit-vid.htm

Design - Mind Map

Design

My city symphony is a series of photos depicting the journey through Nottingham from mid-Forest Fields through the Forest Park (Goose Fare Park).
Interpreting the photos as a symphony is up to the viewer but I attempted to keep the following definition in mind while choosing what to photograph and then what to include in the finished piece.
“something that is harmoniously composed of various elements”
(MS Word ‘research’ definition- 30/10/06)
It is a symphony in two parts: the urban terrace maze that is Forest Fields and the large, open and sometimes picturesque Park. The following photos are a selection of around 30 of which I spliced together in Adobe Premiere to create a 2 minute short.
You can see it below (audio on) :

http://www.adamart.co.uk/design-project/city-symphony.htm





See the full series here (audio on):

http://www.adamart.co.uk/design-project/city-symphony.htm

Production&Direction for camera

Script excersises

Clown
The story is of the moment that the clown loses control of what he/she is doing on stage and rebels against what is demanded of him. He does this firstly by not giving the audience the jokes they expect but by performing some forced rituals of entertainment – monkey noises, nut throwing - then by making some nonsensical statement rejecting “the teacher” and finally by leading them in a prayer to “Bill” [Murry?] and “Lenny” [Henry?], at which point the compere realises something is dreadfully wrong and tries to intervene.
The clues to the sub-text are all quite clear; The knife like microphone to the clowns throat and the complete lack of concern from the compere or audience tell a tale of an audience’s greed for entertainment at all costs and a cruel industry (the compere) that is working to give the audience what they want no matter the consequences. The only respite from the dark and gloomy script is the audiences shout of “We believe!” when the clown demands that they believe in him as he has in them.
The story ends with a hint of the clown characters schizophrenia in suggesting that he blanked out while on stage: “I keep waking up…and I’ve been asleep. I…I… What am I doing?” and also compounds the sympathy we (the audience) feel for the clown by the compere’s back stage reaction to the ‘performance’ in threatening to ruin the clowns career. The clown sits down, demoralised and seemingly not listening to the compere “Can I undo? Can I undo? Can I undo?”

Design

Site Specific Design

Created by theatrical "magicians" Royal de Luxe, The Sultans Elephant is a play enacted by massive mechanical puppets throughout cities across the world.

"...Shows are simple – the animal or giant arrives in town and lives its life, going about its business for a few days. Extraordinary interactions take place between passers-by and the performance; residents become enchanted with the activities of these miraculous beings and begin to follow their every move...."

Extract from the website link below

Sounds amazing - I am hoping they come back to London next year.

http://www.thesultanselephant.com/home.php