Table of Figures



Sara JeffreyFilm and Television ProductionUAL Extended Diploma: Creative Media Production and TechnologyUnit 12 Specialist Study in Creative Media ProductionFigure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1 (Romanas, 2015) Saturation or Vibrance?CONTENTS TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Table of Figures PAGEREF _Toc505088547 \h 4Chapter 1 - Who am I? PAGEREF _Toc505088548 \h 5Surrealism PAGEREF _Toc505088549 \h 5Almodovar PAGEREF _Toc505088550 \h 8My Name is Earl (2005) PAGEREF _Toc505088551 \h 9Rear Window (1954) PAGEREF _Toc505088552 \h 10The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-Time PAGEREF _Toc505088553 \h 11Black Science PAGEREF _Toc505088554 \h 14Chapter 2 – The Report PAGEREF _Toc505088555 \h 17Darren Aronofsky PAGEREF _Toc505088556 \h 17New York PAGEREF _Toc505088557 \h 17Gapser Noe PAGEREF _Toc505088558 \h 17Pi PAGEREF _Toc505088559 \h 18Requiem for a Dream PAGEREF _Toc505088560 \h 18The Fountain PAGEREF _Toc505088561 \h 20The Wrestler PAGEREF _Toc505088562 \h 22Black Swan PAGEREF _Toc505088563 \h 24Mother! PAGEREF _Toc505088564 \h 25Views PAGEREF _Toc505088565 \h 25Synthesis PAGEREF _Toc505088566 \h 26Chapter 3 - Experimentation and Skills PAGEREF _Toc505088567 \h 27Footage PAGEREF _Toc505088568 \h 28Photoshop PAGEREF _Toc505088569 \h 30After Effects PAGEREF _Toc505088570 \h 31Rotobrush PAGEREF _Toc505088571 \h 31Vector Lines PAGEREF _Toc505088572 \h 34Illustrator PAGEREF _Toc505088573 \h 35Character Design PAGEREF _Toc505088574 \h 36Angular Tests PAGEREF _Toc505088575 \h 37Chapter 5 - Weekly Schedule of Work PAGEREF _Toc505088576 \h 39Chapter 6 – Peer Reviews PAGEREF _Toc505088577 \h 44Chapter 7– Weekly Progress Tracker PAGEREF _Toc505088578 \h 45Appendix PAGEREF _Toc505088579 \h 50Appendices 1 – Unit 12 Criteria and Work to be Produced PAGEREF _Toc505088580 \h 50Appendix 2 – Students Calendar, Checklist and Scheme of Work PAGEREF _Toc505088581 \h 50Appendix 3 – Chapter Bibliographies PAGEREF _Toc505088582 \h 53Chapter One Bibliography PAGEREF _Toc505088583 \h 53Chapter 2 PAGEREF _Toc505088584 \h 55Chapter 3 PAGEREF _Toc505088585 \h 55Table of Figures TOC \h \z \c "Figure" Figure 1 (Romanas, 2015) Saturation or Vibrance? PAGEREF _Toc505669736 \h 1Figure 2 Coby Zutt – PAGEREF _Toc505669737 \h 5Figure 3 Coby Zutt - PAGEREF _Toc505669738 \h 5Figure 4 Coby Zutt - PAGEREF _Toc505669739 \h 6Figure 5 Leslie ditto - PAGEREF _Toc505669740 \h 6Figure 6 Leslie Ditto - PAGEREF _Toc505669741 \h 6Figure 7 Brian Polett - PAGEREF _Toc505669742 \h 7Figure 8 Almodovar Filmography- PAGEREF _Toc505669743 \h 8Figure 9 Pedro Almodovar - PAGEREF _Toc505669744 \h 8Figure 10 Rear Window - PAGEREF _Toc505669745 \h 10Figure 11 Rear Window - PAGEREF _Toc505669746 \h 10Figure 12 The curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - PAGEREF _Toc505669747 \h 11Figure 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - PAGEREF _Toc505669748 \h 12Figure 14 Black Science - PAGEREF _Toc505669749 \h 14Figure 15 Black Science - PAGEREF _Toc505669750 \h 14Figure 16 Outcast - PAGEREF _Toc505669751 \h 15Figure 17 Black Swan - Available at: PAGEREF _Toc505669752 \h 23Figure 18 Black Swan - Available at: PAGEREF _Toc505669753 \h 23Figure 19 Ayabambi - PAGEREF _Toc505669754 \h 27Figure 20 Ellen Williams - PAGEREF _Toc505669755 \h 28Figure 21 Ellen Williams Rotobrush - Own Photo PAGEREF _Toc505669756 \h 31Figure 22 Rotobrush Settings - Own Photo PAGEREF _Toc505669757 \h 31Chapter 1 - Who am I?Whenever I am asked to create a ‘Who am I?’ task, I always struggle because I tend to be drawn more to concepts and idealisms than media products. Therefore, I will write about both concepts and specific media products that I am passionate about.Surrealism‘The Surrealist Movement was born in the 1920s with the aim to “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality”.’ CITATION The171 \l 2057 (The Art Story, 2017)40932102694305Figure 2 Coby Zutt – 00Figure 2 Coby Zutt – right825500I love surrealism and anything a bit Avant Garde and Experimental. I’ve always had a love for science fiction, so otherworldly things have a special place in my soul. The coolest part about surrealism is that it is all semi-believable. It takes elements of the real world, the mundane every day and turns it into something really special and unusual. I’ve always loved really over saturated colours, which is also a theme of more modern experimental/Avant Garde stuff. I really love the picture on the right because of the use of neon, almost radioactive colour. I’m also a huge fan of it because it is clearly recognisable as a person but at the same time it’s kind of disproportional and weird. For example, the person’s body is fairly realistic looking, but they have massively long fingers, huge feet, and a really unusually angular face. I also really like the sense of androgyny from the individual in the drawing. Loving post-apocalyptic fashion also adds to thisleft2564765Figure 3 Coby Zutt - 00Figure 3 Coby Zutt - left1587500I love the drawing on the left for similar reasons. This drawing is also by Coby Zutt. While this one is in black and white, I really love the fact it portrays the ‘hypersexualised woman’ in a strange way. The ideals of beauty have changed a lot over time. For example, in the 90’s the whole grunge ‘heroin chic’ look was hugely popular. Women aspired to bare their bones, and the media LOVED it. However, recent media has flipped the idea of what is ‘attractive’ entirely, with the public now aspiring to look like celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj. Women spend thousands of dollars to achieve this ideal. Women are massively over sexualised in the media, and I like this drawing because it kind of symbolises that. This woman has no face, no substance to her as a person. Yet, it encompasses everything that is seen as attractive and desirable. So, why isn’t it? I feel as though I am also biased to the piece on the left because I’ve always been a huge fan of burlesque.471487625300In summary, I’m a huge fan of Coby Zutt’s stylistic approach to reality. I love his graphic style – the harsh lines and bright obnoxious colours really complement each other and create a really interesting visual contrast, as well as a harmony of sorts.right3175Figure 4 Coby Zutt - 00Figure 4 Coby Zutt - left5270500Leslie Ditto is a surrealist artist. Her artwork is very different to Coby Zutt’s, yet I love it for similar reasons. The image on the right is called ‘Imagine’. Getting slightly more technical, I love the composition of this painting. While the focus of the image is very much the Geisha in the middle of the painting, your eye is still drawn to; the instrument, The flowers, The fish. The colour pallet used in Leslie Ditto’s work is far more muted than that of Coby Zutt’s work, and while I am a huge fan of neon’s and bold colours as I have previously spoken about, and will continue to, the colours that she has used really compliment the serenity of the piece as a whole. left153670Figure 5 Leslie ditto - 00Figure 5 Leslie ditto - right1948180Figure 6 Leslie Ditto - 00Figure 6 Leslie Ditto - right1333500Leslie Ditto’s works of art are always nearly themed around something, and these themes are consistent throughout each of her paintings. For example, the painting on the right is very heavily based on Alice in Wonderland, and ‘Imagination’ is focused on Japan. It is very common for artists to theme their pieces, but the reason I like Ditto’s is because of the layers of detail that go into them. For example, the Geisha in ‘Imagine’ has context – she fits there. Historically, Geisha’s have been known for being very stoic, and peaceful. 40005001587500Brian Polett’s artwork goes back to my guilty pleasure – over saturated colours. Polett, also known online as ‘Pixel Pusha’, is best known for his project ‘Art Binge’, in which he claims to have taken a different drug for 20 consecutive days, and proceeded to create a visual representation of how each narcotic made him feel. Naturally, this fascinated me because I’m really interested in psychology. Something I love about the art binge is that every piece of art he made, is based off of the same profile of a face. I just really adore his use of obnoxiously bright colour. 4000500176530Figure 7 Brian Polett - 00Figure 7 Brian Polett - His art reminds me of a paracosm, which is my favourite word. The word means a child’s portrayal of paradise, which is really nice. I like the sort of innocent joy of it. Kids have no real concept of ‘paradise’ or heaven. Can you imagine asking a child to create their paradise?! There’d be villages made of sweets and bright colours and shiny things and mythical creatures flying around and wherever their imaginations could take them. I really like that – I want to live in a paracosm.When asked about the purpose of his binge project in an interview with Inside the Rift, he said: ‘Whether you are getting high or not, the point of a daily project like this is to experiment, learn, and see where you stand as an artist. I recommend all artists create a daily project. You learn so much and if you decide to throw psychedelics in the mix, there's a good chance you’re going to learn more than you bargained for.’ CITATION Ins16 \l 2057 (InsideTheRift, 2016)I was fascinated by this project and the meaning behind it all – being fascinated in psychology Almodovar I’ve always been a fan of foreign film because I really like language. Almodovar in particular is a foreign filmmaker who I really love because of his unusual way of telling narrative.right1829435Figure 8 Almodovar Filmography- 8 Almodovar Filmography- tends to use strong female leads in his films, which is really refreshing to watch. Despite Hollywood slowly incorporating more tough female characters into their movies to please feminist audiences, I can’t help but feel like it is purely a marketing strategy and that their female characters still aren’t fleshes out to a point where they are actually relevant to the plot of a film and therefore add any real worth. However, in Almodovar’s films all of the character are interesting and have backstories and their narratives aren’t completely 2 dimensional. They’re believable as real people and react to the ridiculous situations and circumstances they are put in in a way which is realistic.left2550160Figure 9 Pedro Almodovar - 9 Pedro Almodovar - also love Almodovar’s work because of his use of melodrama in his films. Melodrama is another thing I’ve grown to love after spending years in the theatre, whether it be in speech, gesture, or situational melodrama, I find I to be a stylistic decision which just seems to fit amongst his work. The melodramatic sense Almodovar portrays is quite special because the melodramatic aspects are all in the realm of being believable yet at the same time they’re all completely over the top and frankly stupid – if you try reading a synopsis of one of his films on Wikipedia you’ll see exactly what I mean. In writing the narratives of his films just don’t work, and shouldn’t work…. yet they do. The complex and well thought out narratives can be hard to follow if you’re not paying attention. My favourite Wikipedia plot summary is for ‘Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’ (1998). It’s genius! The film started out as a woman packing some things for her boyfriend while wanting to tell him she’s pregnant and divulges wonderfully into this huge mess of death and drugs and insanity and terrorists – I’d be on the verge of a nervous breakdown too! The word ‘throws’ appears five times in the plot summary, this gives you an idea of the melodrama I’m on about.My Name is Earl (2005)My Name is Earl (2005) is another show that I love due to the stylistic decisions of the director, and the unconventional way that the narrative is portrayed. The show’s narrative is told almost completely through voice-over. 29692604235450Figure 10 My Name is Earl - 10 My Name is Earl - Name is Earl (2005) is a show about Karma and an ex criminal tryin g to ‘strike even’ with the universe. After being buying a lottery ticket and winning a million dollars, earl steps out of the gas station he bought it from and gets immediately hit by a car and hospitalised. While lying in hospital, Earl Watches a TV show about Karma and realises that every time something good happens to him, something bad is around the corner. So, he makes a list of all the bad things he has done throughout his life and decides to make up for them, one by one. I really love the way this is filmed and the way the narrative is told nearly completely through voice-overs. I found that the unconventional way the narrative was told was unique and refreshing to watch. It also gave a deeper insight into the workings of the characters brain, helping the audience to connect to him. This was especially nice because in TV we quite often (as an audience) only see a very 2 dimensional view or perspective of a character. The narrative style is also interesting because we see the main character, Earl’s, perspective of the people around him, as well as being able to form our own opinions of the characters he interacts with.Rear Window (1954)right27559000Alfred Hitchcock is a British film maker who struck Hollywood during film’s golden ages with titles such as ‘Psycho’ (1960), ‘Strangers on a Train’ (1951), and ‘Vertigo’ (1958). While these films are listed as some of Hitchcock’s best – my personal favourite is ‘Rear Window’ (1954).Firstly, I love the premise of Rear Window (1954) because it’s such a dull concept. Hearing the films narrative ‘It follows a guy who broke his leg and is stuck watching his neighbours through his window’ is so boring! But the way the narrative develops and is told makes it so exciting, and tense, and genuinely interesting. When I first sat down to watch this movie for the first time I had no context, no investment in the characters (In fact I actually really disliked both James Stewart’s and Grace Kelly’s characters), and no real interest in the plot. right494665Figure 11 Rear Window - 11 Rear Window - , as the film progressed and the characters began getting the development that they so desperately needed, I was in love with the little trio of misfits in the apartment. I grew to love James Stewart and his odd desire to watch his neighbours with binoculars and how inquisitive and invested he became in all of their lives. I grew to love Grace Kelly’s boisterous, yet reserved nature – ‘Yes I will wear my expensive gowns, but you’re wrong if you think I’m not going to scale that building and break into a potential murderers apartment while I wear it!’. I grew to love the character of Stella, played by Thelma Ritter and her almost motherly presence, yet she had a kick to her that it’s impossible to ignore. I even, much like Jeff, became invested about the lives of characters such as Miss Lonely Hearts. left1642745Figure 12 Rear Window - 12 Rear Window - love how daring it was for its time following the premise that the women are the ones doing these dangerous things and the man was rendered useless, I love the little bit of defiance on their part, and I especially love the fact they do it in these beautiful 50’s frocks, those scenes are a thing of beauty. The context of the earlier scenes add to how great this is because Jeff is seen telling Lisa that they can’t be together because his life is too dangerous for a woman like her to be involved with assuming that she is a interested purely in getting married and looking pretty. This is a little unintentional fuck you on her part by doing this really dangerous thing of sneaking into a man they believe is a murderer’s apartment. I also like the fact the narrative was cyclic and ended where it began. I also love the way the movie was filmed, the shots from the perspective of Jeff, the fact that the audience never sees more than you would if you were in the apartment opposite, the little blind spots this creates and the tension this builds.The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 365760023939500My favourite book of all time is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The review I found on sums up why it’s so wonderful in a very general sense amazingly, however, as per usual I like this novel for a few fairly unconventional reasons ‘Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates 36576001793240Figure 13 The curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - 00Figure 13 The curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour’s dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favourite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind.’From the first paragraph of the book, I was hooked. I have read this story so many times I have two copies of the book – one that has all of the pages falling out because I’ve read it over and over again, and another which I bought so that I could lend it to people and they can read it too. I can recite the opening paragraph off the top of my head. I adore the way this book was written. Writing from a first person perspective can be difficult as it is difficult to stay ‘in character’. Most of the time, the author’s personality ends up poking through and sometimes it takes over entirely to a point where you feel as though you are reading an autobiography. The Curious Incident was written in a way that totally immerses you in Christopher Boone’s world. Another amazing thing about this book is that while it focuses on a child with Autism, it’s from his perspective. There is a common trend when reading a story about an individual with a certain disability/disorder/ailment, where you feel as if you are reading a stereotype. Christopher is a fully fleshed out individual, the book isn’t about ‘autism’, and it’s about the world from the perspective of a child with Autism. While Christopher is aware he has Asperger’s Syndrome, it’s not a case of ‘and I’m doing this because I am autistic’, ‘I don’t like being in this situation because I am autistic’, there’s a certain naivety about the way he behaves which gives the reader a very personal insight into his mind, and his thought processes. It gives him charm. Another reason that I love this book so much is because it feels like reading my own thoughts on a tangible page, written by a different person – I connected with the character. It was comforting to read a book written by a character like me, whose brain works the same way. I really resonated with it. While this may not seem like a big deal, I’ve always found it difficult to connect with characters in books on this level because I just don’t quite get why they do the things they do. This is one of the reasons I like psychology so much, whenever I read a book and a character behaved in a way I didn’t understand, psychology had the answer. 12668252067560Figure 14 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - 00Figure 14 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - 127635070548500 ‘And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon's choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing is a mind that perceives the world literally.’So, in conclusion, while the lovely man who wrote the GoodReads article found the book ‘fascinating’ and unusual to read, I found it so comfortingly familiar to read a book written this way. They also made it into a stunning stage production which made me cry.Black ScienceTime to talk about the best comic book money can buy. Black Science revolves around a team of scientists who have just created a device capable of interdimensional travel. The main concept of this revolves around a fair bit of context- In the group’s research they discovered that the eververse (Every infinite universe) is a bit like an onion. The centre of this onion being the first decision any living creature ever made, and each layer being every possible outcome of these decisions. For example, if the first decision ever made was a nomad hunter-gatherer deciding whether to eat a doe or to eat a plant both possible outcomes would become the second layer of the onion, the alternate universe it creates would then hold the consequences of this decision. While a dull example, you get the point. The device they have created, ‘the pillar’ allows them to ‘break through’ layers of the onion and travel to infinite realities. Some of these realities feature fish people who speak German; some are very close to the reality the team know, except they married different people. Now, as you can imagine, an individual choosing to eat a ham sandwich instead of a cheese one creates very little difference to the eververse. However, the creation of the pillar changes everything as the second this technology is used – the team begin finding alternate versions of themselves. This poses the same level of threat to the universe as an individual traveling back in time and bumping into themselves. For example:Universe OneGrant McKay goes to college and meets Shawn. While studying they come up with the idea of creating interdimensional travel. They create a small team and create the pillar.Alt. Universe OneAlt. Grant McKay and his team never met because Alt. Grant never went to college and met Shawn – the foundation on which their team was built on. In this universe he is a family man ‘stay at home dad’ They test the pillar for the first time and jump to Alt. Universe One – bumping into Alt. Grant McKayAlt. Grant McKay is walking through a park with his family. He bumps into Grant McKay and his team. Alt. Grant McKay cannot believe this – the idea is implausible because inside his universe no one has thought to even attempt creating interdimensional travel. Alt. Grant McKay only knows what is plausible in his universe.Grant McKay tries desperately to calm Alt. Grant McKay, who (unsurprisingly) believes his sheltered reality is ending. Grant explains to Alt. Grant about the Onion and their expedition.Alt. Grant McKay listens and now understands the expedition and the pillar – even if it is farfetched. 28136852425700Figure 15 Black Science - 00Figure 15 Black Science - right24765000The main plot of the book is that these dimensionauts want to travel throughout the onion to find unlimited resources and discover what was at the beginning of time, however, every time they jump to a new reality they have to explain what the pillar and their expedition is, or survive aggressive creatures they couldn’t begin to comprehend. This is where the problems begin. Every time they jump to one of these infinite realities, the reality they have travelled to become aware of the Pillar. Naturally, the creatures (etc.) who become aware of this incredible technology want it for the personal gain of their own realities. There are only a limited number of realities who successfully created and tested the pillar – and a damn near infinite amount of realities who have and will become aware of the pillar, and want it. Now, I’m not the best at explaining things or articulating detailed concepts in an articulate way that makes sense. But it’s quite a complicated one. This is one of the reasons I like it so much – I love the amount of detail that went into the plot and the fact that the authors considered every plot hole that could have arose and accounted for it. left2266315Figure 16 Black Science - 00Figure 16 Black Science - left889000The next reason I love this comic so much is the character development – every action each of the characters makes has a reason, and a consequence that effects the rest of the team in a believable way, and it is all revealed to the audience at a pace which keeps the comic interesting. For example, the first trade of the graphic novel begins with the team in an alternate dimension. Someone has sabotaged the pillar. The first trade thus revolves around each characters perspective on the situation, fixing the pillar, trying to work out who sabotaged it, and why – AS WELL as the team working together to stay alive despite a saboteur in their midst. It’s a really interesting and well thought out novel. For example, (and this happens in the story unlike the last example which is purely hypothetical) Grant McKay is having an affair with a member of his team, Rebecca. His two kids, Pia and Nate come to visit him at work to see the newly created pillar, Funded by Kadir. The room is full of the team when someone activates the pillar and sends them all to an alternate reality. Two trades into the book we find out that Rebecca took on the assignment in hopes that during the interdimensional travel in order to find a reality where 349377022860000her twin brother, who dies at a young age in an accident, is alive. She convinced Kadir to hire Grant McKay, telling Kadir that Sara, Grant’s wife, would leave him after seeing him fail again (They used to date, this is confusing – I know). Rebecca then convinced Grant to agree to work on the project so that they could be together. There’s so much detail! It forces you to pay attention to the story, which makes you become invested in the narrative and the characters. 35052001905635Figure 17 Outcast - 00Figure 17 Outcast - Another reason I love this comic is the art – which is weird because I generally hate this style of art. As I’ve already spoken about, I love stylised art with very clean lines and bright colour pallets. This comic is generally quite muted in its colours, and the art is kind of sketchy. However, I love the way the artist has drawn the characters faces. I’m a bit of a comic book nerd, and something I have noticed throughout nearly ALL of the comics I’ve read is that characters tend to have nearly identical faces, but different air, or a signature outfit. As you can see on the right – very similar faces except one of them has glasses.Chapter 2 – The ReportMy literature review will be a Practitioner’s report of Darren Aronofsky. I have chosen to focus my study on this director because I love the themes of his work and the way he portrays mental torment. I’m really interested by the distinctive styles of this director and how they developed this, and what influenced his works.Darren AronofskyA devoted comic fan, social theory major, and son of two teachers, Darren Aronofsky was quite late to the filmmaking game. Born on the 12th of February 1969, in Brooklyn, New York, Aronofsky is known for his unconventional, dark films. He has linked this style to his childhood, when his parents took him to Broadway shows regularly, stating that these experiences gave him a great appreciation for spectacle. "Tragedy is an art form that has been killed by Hollywood."In the article _____________________ I learnt that Aronofsky Dropped out of college to enter the world of filmmaking after sharing an apartment with an aspiring animator. Seeing his roommates work made him reconsider his future and, in the end, drop out of Harvard. This is interesting because his life took such a drastic turn in such a short span of time, purely because of the people he surrounded himself with. Journalist Jonathan Romney states that in 1998, Aronofsky carried the image of a streetwise indie kid par excellence. This shows his development as not only a film maker, but as an individual. He goes as far as admitting that he did not start watching film dedicatedly until college.In her book ‘Darren Aronofsky’s Films and the Fragility of Hope, Jadranka Skorin-Kapove writes about the philosophical stances behind Aronofsky’s work, coming to the conclusion that she believes that Aronofsky has a fascination with people and their limits, both physical and mental. He tends to portray mental weaknesses as physical, for example in Black Swan where Nina Sayers’ physical state deteriorates as her mental health does, ending with her death at the end of the film. Similarly, to the Wrestler, the end of Black Swan revolves around an individual finding perfection in a performance and finally finding peace with themselves in death. New YorkSo, everyone seems to be from Brooklyn – why is Brooklyn so full of artistic?In a report by Adam Forman called Creative New York written for Centre for an Urban Future, I found out why. Artists are drawn into the city by opportunity because the city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Art. New York is a major centre of the global art market which grew up along with national and international media centre! While Aronofsky has not linked his creative influences back to his hometown, without realising, the fact that he grew up in one of the art capitals of the world will have influenced him as a creative individual from a young age. Pi An article by Vittorio Carli states that Aronfosky went on a kibbutz (Pilgrimage) to Israel shortly after high school and became frustrated with his job. They report that this caused him to have a mental breakdown and run away for a few days, encountering a group of Hadistic Jews in this time, who shared their secrets with him but failed to recruit him to the group. When he returned to America he found out that a lot of his old acquaintances were deeply involved in the stock market. These experiences combined helped inspire the film Pi, his first feature length film. He set out to make a daring piece of speculative fiction that would explore the connection between mythology and technology.The above article also details how a young Aronofsky found his funding of only $60,000 – Stating that he borrowed $100 from many of his friends and relatives, promising to pay them back $150 if the film made money and that they would get screen credits if the film lost money. It also speaks of Aronofsky’s inspiration for this film. I learnt that Aronofsky is an admirer of new Japanese cinema. He says that Pi was an attempt to do a film like “Tetsuo: The Iron Man,” but with more of a plot. He is also, unsurprisingly, a fan of anime films such as Akira. Many of these influences are evident in “Pi’s” more surreal sequences. He added, “There have always been people looking for God--witness the success of books like ‘The Celestine Prophecy,’ so I decided to make a film about a search for God. Requiem for a DreamIn Dan Cantalago’s Interview with Aronofsky for DREAMLOVER, he came to the conclusion that Requiem for a Dream is a film about addiction, and escape. Which honestly, is a conclusion I could’ve come to by myself. Cantalago raises no real points about the film in this interview besides detailing the plot points and narrative structure of the film. In the interview with Aronfosky himself, Cantalago briefly asks about his vision as a filmmaker, but is quickly back to asking irrelevant questions such as whether Aronofsky is working on the new batman film. While this source isn’t the best, I found a really nice quote from Aronfosky about his stylistic influences which is paraphrased below. ‘Stylistically I've always been interested in fusing, that when you're walking down the street, you're not really just walking down the street, you're thinking about the conversation you had hours ago, or you're thinking about the vacation you're going to take with your best friend in two weeks, and your mind is drifting to some house or some island in the South Pacific, and that's really what our realities are like, not just what a film camera normally records’ Full quote available at: The same article taught me that Aronofsky was a Social Studies major, but felt that he wasn't meant to write papers, so he switched to Social Anthropology, which is an easy major, because he didn’t want tell his parents he wanted to pursue film, despite thinking that it's one of the best departments at Harvard. He states that he wanted to make films that communicate to a lot of people, that he really enjoy entertaining people. The FountainThe fountain is a really interesting film in Aronofsky’s filmography because it went very wrong, but was still well received. In Jonathon Romney’s article ‘Blood, sweat, and murder at the ballet: The endless torture of Darren Aronofsky’, Romney discusses the film collaboration with Rachel Weisz, Aronofksy’s former significant other. In the article he mentions how Brad Pitt dropped out of the films production. Aronofsky comments about the fact he had to film ‘The Fountain’ twice as the film fell apart when Pitt left, and had to rewrite and put the movie back together with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz independently. I feel that while ‘The Fountain’ was not a successful film, it’s really important to note because knowing that Aronofsky draws influence from the people around him and his experiences, this failure almost definitely helped influence his other films.The WrestlerIn an interview with Peter Scriverra, Aronofsky comments on how his 2008 film The Wrestler acquired it’s European Influences. He spoke about how his ex-wife Rachel was in the European Film Academy, so they would watch stacks of DVDs together. This is interesting to me because it shows that Aronofsky draws foreign influences for his films; from multiple sources! The Wrestler helped win an award at the Venice's Golden Lion in 2008, recharging both Aronofsky's and Rourke's careers.Black SwanBlack Swan, a so called companion piece to The Wrestler, is Aronofsky’s 5th feature film, is set in a world of classical ballet. In journalism piece ‘Blood, sweat and murder at the ballet: The endless torture of Darren Aronofsky’, J. Romney describes the film as young women dancing exquisitely to Tchaikovsky, but comments on the sense of psychological and physical violence.left13335 In Interviews, Aronofsky has explained that the film is about losing your identity. He decided to portray the film in a very erotic way, he states that the skimpy tight outfits on the men and women, for rich people back in the 1880s, it was probably some kind of burlesque show. You're getting these incredibly athletic, fit people to parade in front of you – the whole turn-out and everything, women turning out their legs to push their privates out. It's an intense art."left732790Figure 18 Black Swan - Available at: 18 Black Swan - Available at: has spoken about his inspiration for the film in the past and when asked about the film, always goes back to the fact that his older sister was a dancer. He finds ballet interesting because when you're in the audience, it looks incredibly effortless. He commented on the first time he went backstage, and was stunned to see the physical toll it took on the dancers - their muscles, dancers sweating and doubled over out of breath, blood being everywhere. He says that as a film-maker, he really wanted to show it because it’s interesting to go into worlds that people haven't seen before“I don't think people know how hard it is to be a dancer, how much pain and commitment and discipline it takes.”right571500He states that he was always aware of the art, if not so interested in it. Years after he graduated from film school a script for The Understudy, by Andrés Heinz came to his attention. It was about a rivalry between Broadway actresses. He liked the concept, but decided to change the setting to a production of Swan Lake. He says that he thought it would be an interesting world to explore the poetic, sexy world of ballet. Both projects were developed over 10 years, so a lot of the ideas we were working on ended up in both. He though it was interesting that there could be two very different films with so many thematic similarities. right247015Figure 19 Black Swan - Available at: 19 Black Swan - Available at: film was perceived in many different ways – surprisingly, Aronofsky says that the ballet world didn’t really care about the film and that it took a long while for them to begin supporting the film. since it opened last autumn's Venice Film Festival; it's now set to feature prominently in this season's awards contests.When creating the film Aronofsky recognised and was very open about the fact he knew he was working with a cliché-rich topic and characters, but that he wanted to make them more well-rounded. The interesting and unconventional narrative allows for the characters to be as clichéd as they are.SynthesisWhile researching Darren Aronofsky, I found a few common themes amongst his workThe primary, and most predominant theme that I found in Aronofsky’s films is that he draws inspiration from his family, and friends – more specifically their experiences. These influences can be seen in his films Black Swan, The Wrestler, and Pi. He has also been known to use his partner in his movies such as Mother!, and The Fountain. Aronofsky has stated that his love of melodrama came from spending so much time at the theatre with his parents as a child, He funded his first movie with the help of his family and friends, his entire career as a film-maker stemmed from a roommate he had in college!Chapter 3 - Experimentation and Skillsleft192405Inspired by films that use part animation such as Scott Pilgrim VS the World (2010) and Run Lola Run (1998), I’ve decided that I’d quite like to do part animation in my extended project. Having tried animation before, I’m aware of how difficult this can be as well as how time consuming this is. However, animation tests I have done in the past has been very basic and 2d, I am going to experiment with animation from different perspectives and angles. I’d also like to experiment with mimicking the fluidity of human motion in animation as a lot of the time the way animated things move are quite jolty. Knowing that this is an area I would like to cover in my extended project, I’ve spent the free time I’ve had over the past month experimenting with short animation tests using different techniques. I have been using After Effects V. 15.0. right10405700The first style of drawing over video that I tried was using a ‘scribble effect’ sort of look, simply using the pen tool in after effects and drawing on each individual frame to create a short animation. This animation didn’t come out quite how I wanted it to as it looks really scruffy. The main issue with the technique I used when conducting this experiment is that there was no way of almost ghosting what I’d drawn from frame to frame – meaning that every time I drew a question mark on a frame, in the next frame it had moved to the right, or shrunk, or changed shape. left329523So I tried another method of animating over video. In this attempt, I drew a lot of different question marks in adobe cc illustrator, imported them into after effects, and used the stroke effects to animate them. While this animation looks a lot more fluid, the stroke effect is very limited in what it can do- making it good for logo design based animations and making an object ‘draw into’ and out of a video, but not making it move and animate any further once the static drawing is in frame. However, I did like this method of animating much more as I found it much less strenuous, quicker, and the outcome was nicer. Plus it relied less on artistic skill, which was nice as I don’t really have any. In fact, I liked the outcome of this animation so much that I decided to try and test the limitations of the stroke effect. FootageBefore I began considering how I was going to animate, I needed to find out what I was going to animate. I knew that I wanted to animate a person because that is what I want to do in my extended project. In my experiments, I wanted to try and capture the fluidity of human motion in a realistic way. In hindsight, I probably could have animated a basic action such as walking or waving, but I decided to animate a dancer because I am pretty certain I would like to feature dance in my final piece. The next step was to find some footage that I could try to animate. I asked a few classmates if they would dance for me, but, as film students, their dancing wasn’t quite what I wanted. While I could have settled for the footage I had, I knew that I was going to be animating this dance piece for a really long time, so it was better to make the footage something that I was completely happy with – meaning that when my experiments were finished I could focus on the animation styles and reflect honestly on my work, as opposed to thinking that it was all wrong because the footage I chose was wrong. So, I headed to YouTube. Now, I’m not very knowledgeable about dance styles, but I knew I wanted something similar to ballet. The movements used in ballet are much more fluid than that of, for example, voguing. I was also probably biased to ballet after spending such a long time research Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. After spending a while trying to find the footage I was looking for, I stumbled across a style of danced called contemporary ballet. This was exactly what I was looking for as it is slightly more modernised than standard ballet. right3068295Figure 20 Ayabambi - 0Figure 20 Ayabambi - right946925Now I knew what I was looking for, I encountered my next issue. Having a basic knowledge of animation, I knew that my footage would be much easier to animate if it had a high contrast. In the past I have tried to animate footage of individuals wearing black in a dark room and their limbs seem to disappear. As you can see below, Aya Sato’s arm has vanished.Finding footage of a contemporary ballet dancer who stands out from their background was not a huge challenge, however, finding footage of a contemporary ballet dancer who stands out from their background and is being filmed by a single, stationary, camera is a whole other story. Apparently, all contemporary ballet footage is filmed on a shaky iPhone. As I 17684752033905Figure 21 Ellen Williams - Figure 21 Ellen Williams - center513847was giving up hope, I stumbled across a dancer called Ellen Williams. She was perfect.PhotoshopAnimation in Photoshop is very technically easy and should hypothetically be the easiest method of rotoscoping. However, just because something is easy doesn’t mean it is ideal. The first word that comes to mind when I am asked to explain rotoscoping in Photoshop is tedious. This task is so, so tedious. It took me around 40 hours to create a 10 second long video at 24 frames per second, meaning it took me 10 minutes to draw each frame. I could throw the words ‘laborious’ and ‘dull’ around for quite some time, I’ve established that it is a pain to do, but what did I actually learn? Firstly, I learnt that animating at 30 frames per second is near masochistic. After drawing 36 of the same, stationary frame I decided to drop my frame rate down to 24 frames per second. This is still a lot of work, however, when discussing my technique with others it was suggested that I could copy and paste every 2nd frame and adjust the drawing slightly so that it matched the original video’s frame. This meant I only had to fully draw 12 frames per second. This was nice. While I was technically only drawing 12 frames per second, I thought it was probably best to at least look into the difference between animating at different frame rates. So, once I had finished my animation at 24 frames per second, I doubled the length of the first, third, fifth etc. frame, and deleted every other frame. Speaking of frame rates, I realised that importing a video filmed at 24 fps and setting the composition settings to 12fps just made the original video slower. This is why I doubled the length of the frames I’d already drawn in my 12 frames per second test. Another tip that I found really useful when going about conducting this test was to lower the opacity of the source video and put a plain white background on a different layer.right1259490left1289313The nice thing about using Photoshop as a software to animate was that I wasn’t restricted to doing my work at home because the college computers have Photoshop and unlike after effects, are powerful enough to run the software smoothly. This made this method far more practical. Animating in Photoshop was also nice because I could keep the file on a USB drive and, if I had a spare minute, just draw a frame or two - I didn’t have to find time to do this, I could do it when, where, and for as long as I wanted to.After EffectsAfter effects was my primary choice of animation software because I have used it for very basic scribble effect and lettering animations in the past. Therefore, I felt as though I had an understanding of the software prior to starting my formal experimentation – which was nice. However, upon putting some thought into the animation I have tried in the past, I don’t think the techniques and tools I have used in the past will be relevant or give me my desired effect. Upon discussing the fact I wanted to focus my experimentations on animation with a tutor, I was pointed in the direction of the games design tutor, Adam, who showed me multiple different ways of using after effects to animate and rotoscope, other than drawing each frame at a time like I did in Photoshop. The techniques Adam showed me included the use of the rotobrush. Rotobrushcenter3018790Figure 22 Adobe After Effects - Own Photo0Figure 22 Adobe After Effects - Own Photocenter412553Having spoken to Adam about the rotobrush, I knew it would be the quickest, easiest way of animating my footage. However, the rotobrush has some limitations. Firstly, the rotobrush has a tendency to pick up parts of footage that you don’t want it to. This is less of an issue and more of an irritation. 36741103209925Figure 23 Ellen Williams Rotobrush - Own PhotoFigure 23 Ellen Williams Rotobrush - Own Photoright9525Secondly, it is difficult to do detail work with. Trying to get the rotobrush to pick up some of Ellen’s features, like her fingers, was near impossible. This was especially an issue when her hand were moving and there was motion blur – Her hands became blocks. The next issue I had with the rotobrush is that there is not definition of her features. The only real option you have with the rotobrush is a blacked out figure on a white background, which wasn’t the look I really wanted. I also found that the rotobrush tool was just really ugly. The tool left the edges of my work with huge pixels and no matter how much I adjusted the settings of the effects, toggling the percentage of feathering was occurring, I never ended up with a finished look that I was happy with. Now, the final and most prominent issue I had with the rotobrush tool, and this is a big one, is that it crashed my computer. I built myself an editing PC so that I had the ability do things like this from home and I took careful consideration into the limitations that the computer may have – the rotobrush shouldn’t be one of them. After Effects is notorious for its high ram usage, but I was monitoring how much it was using as I was working. It used 67% of the ram available in my computer pretty consistently – so why did it crash? 02672080Figure 24 Rotobrush Settings - Own PhotoFigure 24 Rotobrush Settings - Own Photoleft15240After writing this, I began to question whether I was giving the software enough credit – professionals use this tool in the film industry all the time! If they can make it work surely there’s just something that I’m missing. Therefore, I enlisted the help of google and read an article on an adobe forum on the rotobrush tool. Turns out, I had been doing everything right, but due to the nature of the dancers limbs, if I tried to adjust the settings and feather the harsh edges create by the too, her arms disappeared. If I were really strapped for time, this is a method of animation so I suppose it would be okay, but it’s just not what I wanted to achieve and knowing that the silhouette would always have the harsh edge depicted above massively puts me off of using this animating technique in my unit 13.Line Based AnimationThis method of animating over video isn’t technically rotoscoping, but I thought it’d be interesting to try. I’ve not actually been able to find any information, or any work, similar to what I did for this test. Using my prior experiences and knowledge of after effects, I knew that I could probably use the pen tool to trace around my dancer and then animate it moving the vector points and key frame it to my timeline. It took a really long time to work out how to do this, but in the end I go there.At first, I was over the moon. This will be so much quicker than drawing frame by frame!Well technically, yes. Using this technique is a nice balance between the amount of time it takes and the end result… until it the dancer turns. The second the dancer began to cross her arms, or angle her body, it was near impossible to cross her arms. This was especially difficult because had I have managed to cross her arms, the shape had no fill so one arm would have been visible through the other. While this is an issue I could have probably overcome in the long run, I decided that it wasn’t worth it. In my final project, I know that I want my dancer to do a lot of impressive spins – If it is really difficult to get my animation to angle her body using this technique, when it gets to animating turns it will take hours to create a result that is only ‘eh’. One of the perks of animating this way is that the finished animation has no boil to it, meaning that the animation is extremely smooth. However, having to map different points to different body parts is a difficult process because you will thing that you’ve mapped every joint to a point in the line, but then one will go missing and your character will end up with spikes for fingers, or an issue that I had was that my dancers thumb slid up her forearm and became part of her bicep. I managed to correct this, but it took such a long time to fix that in the end I think I spent nearly as much time on this animation as I did the frame by frame animations. center861296As you can see in the final video, this test started out okay, but it went so horribly wrong so quickly that I grew frustrated and actually gave up at around the 6 second mark, leaving the train wreck I had created to sit statically on the screen for the remaining 4 seconds. I do not see myself coming back to this method of animation.IllustratorWhen I primarily decided that I wanted to focus my experimentation weeks around animation, I made a list of the different methods of animating that I could try, one of which used illustrator. I was keen to conduct this test because I really like the vectored look that work in illustrator creates. Having researched this method of animation in the past, I wanted this to be one of my tests, and I was quite confident that this would be the best technique for my animation! However, after ‘completing’ my line based animation test and properly considering the limitations of this animation method that I realised it really wouldn’t work for what I wanted it to.I have yet to even attempt designing a character in illustrator and taking it into after effects to animate for the following reasons:Layers.When animating a pre-drawn image in After Effects from Adobe Illustrator, every section of a person that might move must be drawn onto a new layer. This means creating a lot of layers which could easily become very confusing. Using so many layers for my drawing would also not give my animation the minimalistic line drawn the look I want it to have.Joints.Moving on from my last point, mapping each of these layers together, or ‘mothering’ them, would take ages and these rotation points would have to be constantly adjusted to match the angle the limb is moving. Spinning.Drawing a character in Adobe Illustrator and animating it in After Effects would take away my characters ability to spin around. This is due to the two dimensional nature of art in the vector based software. Unless I were to create a fully 3d model, my character would never be able to angle her body other than to face the way it had originally been drawn. This could potentially be avoided by drawing the character at different angles and importing it into After Effects whenever she had to move, but this would have to be done frame by frame, and would thus be identical to my first test except with an extra unnecessary step of parenting and fixing joints to other joints. The limitations of this technique can be better understood after watching the video below, which is a tutorial on the 2 dimensional animation style. center42507700Angular Tests Having come to the conclusion that my favourite method of animation is rotoscoping in Photoshop, I began conducting tests into the practicality of what I have animated. Sure, my work looks great as a 2 dimensional drawing on a screen, but I want my final animation to take place on a canvas, which I wanted to shoot from different angles and perspectives. I conducted these tests in order to establish whether I could angle my animation on a canvas in post-production or whether, when filming my own footage to animate, I would have to film and then rotoscope from the differing angles I wanted to film at. I knew I wanted to use a real canvas when mapping my drawing into the real world because I wanted to do close up shots of the moving lines and have the texture of a canvas visible beneath the drawing, so I bought a canvas. I took the canvas I’d bought, along with a friend, to a quiet space where I could film. I asked her to pretend to draw and then step back and just look at the canvas. I also took some freehand footage of the canvas from a close-up perspective. Once I had filmed this, I imported my footage, along with my first animation test, into AVID. center3164597Figure 25 Angular Test One, Attempt One - Own PhotoFigure 25 Angular Test One, Attempt One - Own Photocenter134990600The first test I tried used the footage from a distance. I imported two video layers into AVID, one with the real life footage, and one with the animation. The first effect I tried to use to create the effect I wanted was the picture in picture effects, but I quickly abandoned this as the footage looked as though it had just been layered on top of the other footage, which to be fair, it had. Trying this effect made me realise two things. Firstly, that the aspect ratio of my animation is very different to that of the canvas I purchased. Secondly, the canvas isn’t static, 2d, or facing the camera.right942700Knowing now what I had learnt, I tried to use the 3D Warp tool along with the picture in picture tool to properly map the footage to the canvas. While doing this, I realised it was unnecessary to use both the picture in picture effect and the 3D Warp effect. So I removed the picture in picture effect, knowing from my prior attempt that it added nothing to my work, and continued with the 3D Warp effect. After a lot of fiddling, I ended up with a look that I was happy with, the exact settings I went with can be seen on the right. While mapping the corners, I also lowered the animation’s opacity in order to stop the canvas looking so clinically white. center3939691Figure 26 Angular Test One, Attempt Two - Own PhotoFigure 26 Angular Test One, Attempt Two - Own Photocenter1345906I was very pleased with the outcome that using this effect gave my work, however, my test was not done yet. When layering my footage, I failed to take into consideration Lydia’s hand. This was an issue that, for some reason, I didn’t think I’d encounter. How it managed to never cross my mind I do not know. 1568836663196Figure 27 3D Warp Settings, Animation test One, Attempt Two - Own Photo0Figure 27 3D Warp Settings, Animation test One, Attempt Two - Own PhotoHaving spent hours reading, watching, and learning about rotoscoping, I accidentally ended up on videos which taught me about the use of rotoscoping outside of animation, which came in handy at times like this! In layman’s terms, rotoscoping in post-production can be used to create an animation by tracing over existing footage, or to transfer a selected part of a shot into another shot. It was time to try the latter. center1536209When doing my research into rotoscoping (the former), I had accidentally stumbled across a video about the latter use of rotoscoping. Being curious, I attempted this in my own time. Rotoscoping in after effects is actually quite a simple process as it is a layer based software, and the way you create masks is with vector based lines. However, I had no idea how easy (or practical) rotoscoping would be in AVID. After doing a bit of research CITATION AVI16 \l 2057 (AVID Forum, 2016), I began attempting to rotoscope in AVID. No matter how much I adjusted the settings of the Matte Key tool, I couldn’t seem to fully impose her hand over the artwork, resulting in the translucent hand scenario below. center2782426Once I understood how to map my animation to a real canvas and tried different approaches to doing so, I began mapping my drawings to my second piece of footage, the close up shots. When using the 3D Warp tool, I used the same settings that I did in my previous test. However, when looked at my animation as closely as I had to on the canvas, I realised that you could not see the texture of the canvas at all, and that the animation looked really white on the canvas, so I lowered the opacity a lot. This helped the drawing look more like a pencil drawing, however, it also made the animation harder to see. When writing about my Photoshop experiments, I wrote the sentence ‘Another tip that I found really useful when going about conducting this test was to lower the opacity of the source video and put a plain white background on a different layer.’ It was at this point I had a sudden revelation. ‘I exported the animation with the white background. I could… not… do that…. Is it possible to export an animation that way? It must be.’ 141402375219Turns out it is! A quick google search led me to an article on the Graphic Design Stack Exchange website where I found a step by step set of instructions detailing how to do exactly what I was trying to do. So, following the instructions to the left, I exported my animation without the white background, unmatted. Using the 3D Warp tool again, I managed to lay the animation ‘flat’ to the canvas. Using the unmatted animation also solved the issue I was having with Lydia’s hand being behind the white background without having to rotoscope it over the top layer, this saved me a lot of time. center1333500Chapter 4 – Presentationright3867150Figure 28 Presentation Slide One - Own PhotoFigure 28 Presentation Slide One - Own Photoright658495To complete our Unit 12 work, we were asked to present all of our findings from the work we completed over the past 6 weeks, detailing what we researched, produced, why we did, and what we have learnt. The transcript of my presentation is below.“I’ve spent the past few weeks conducting experiments into animation. The reason I chose to focus my work on animation is because when I was doing my ‘Who am I?’ task I kept finding myself going back to art, which is strange to me as I’ve never been particularly interested in physical art, and surrealism. Knowing that I love to edit, I wanted to do something interesting in post-production that went beyond doing some cool editing of cinematic shots, or editing some found footage. Last year when creating my extended project I found myself thinking of ideas that are not practical or even doable, and in order to create my little surrealist fantasy to a high standard on such a low budget, and in a small time frame, I’m going to have to get a bit more creative. Because of the limitations I’m working with, I decided I wanted to try and create something that is partially animated and partially in real life after being inspired by films like Run Lola Run, and Scott Pilgrim.”right3218815Figure 29 Presentation Slide Two - Own PhotoFigure 29 Presentation Slide Two - Own Photo00“For my literature review, I looked at Darren Aronofsky. I love Darren Aronofsky’s unconventional way of conveying narrative, and the darker storylines of mental torment that they follow. I wanted to find out where he drew inspiration from… So I did. Upon researching his successful, and not so successful endeavours I noticed a pattern amongst his responses when asked where he draws his inspiration from – His family and friends. For example, he came up with the idea for Black Swan because he spent so much time backstage at his sister’s shows, who is a ballerina. Upon seeing all the physical pain the dance put them through, as well as how seemingly effortless he looked on stage, he decided he wanted to create a film about it, feeling that the art was so intense beneath the surface. These themes can also be seen in The Wrestler and Pi. The Wrestler’s European influences came from watching European films on DVD with his ex-wife who was a part of a European film society, and Aronofsky was influenced to create Pi after returning from a Kibbutz (pilgrimage) in his early 20’s, to find that a lot of his friends were in the stock market; hence the themes of maths and god. From this, I started looking at my family. The person in my family I know the most about is probably my sister Beckie because I spend a lot of time with her (we share as room). She is 16, and torn between pursuing a career in science, art, or dance. Chapter 5 - Weekly Schedule of Work Week 1 w/c January 1st2018Introduction to Unit 12PowerPointTasks to be undertaken this weekApprovedMonday am x 3 A’s not inWednesday am x 3Monday pm x 2A’s not inThursday am x 3Tuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Tuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Wednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1Week 2w/c January 8th 2018The Report PowerPointMain Research Question: -ApprovedTasks to be undertaken this weekMonday am x 3Wednesday am x 3Monday pm x 2Thursday am x 3Tuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Tuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Wednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1Week 3w/c 15th January 2018Experimentation and Skills PowerPointMain Research Question: -What is the most effective, realistic and least time consuming method of animating?ApprovedTasks to be undertaken this weekMonday am x 3Wednesday am x 3Attend Lecture in lecture theatre of formal input on our experimentation task.Monday pm x 2Thursday am x 3Begin planning different methods and techniques.Tuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Input from Adam on animation techniques in after effects.Tuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Wednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1Planning preliminary rotobrush test to commence Wednesday afternoon.Week 4w/c 22nd January 2018Main Research Question: -What is the most effective, realistic and least time consuming method of animating?ApprovedTasks to be undertaken this weekMonday am x 3Wednesday am x 3Researching into the rotobrush tool in after effects.SCMonday pm x 2Thursday am x 3Continuing Photoshop test One.SCTuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Finishing Photoshop test One and beginning Photoshop test two.SCTuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Reviewing and comparing the outcomes.SCWednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1After effects tests.SCWeek 5w/c 29th January 2018Main Research Question: -ApprovedTasks to be undertaken this weekMonday am x 3Wednesday am x 3Monday pm x 2Thursday am x 3Tuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Tuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Wednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1Chapter 6 – Peer ReviewsTest 1Reviewed by:- Marwan BoudangaEven though I do not know anything about animation, I still really like it. I think each frame in which you must have put a lot of effort in each frame, is really smooth to get a continuous movement of the dancer from beginning to end, which I think worked really well for your first test.Reviewed by:- Kyle AlfordThis is a very good animation, I liked how realistic the movement from the dancer felt. You got the speed right as it wasn’t too slow and it felt natural. Although to improve upon this there were a few black dots that could be removedTest 2Reviewed by:- Marwan BoudangaAgain, same as the first test you did for animation, I still really like it, I think it is smooth and you really see the dancer dancing continuously without any forms of interferences in each frame you worked on to create something that actually looks really good in my opinion, so I can’t really say anything to improve on at the moment. You definitely notice the framerate difference in between the 2, but you barely notice is as the speed movements look the sameReviewed by:- Kyle AlfordThis is an improvement to the original, from simply changing the amount of frames by half,. It has made the scene look better. The movement is there and at this lower FPS it looks a different style of animationTest 3Reviewed by:- Marwan BoudangaI am definitely impressed with this third test and being able to see the animated dancer from an angle, which is fascinating to see and very curious on how you’ve done it. I did not see any forms of interferences again which is good nor did I see anything wrong at all, so well done, I really like it!Reviewed by:- Elisa BenaggouneFor this one, I liked it very much and I enjoyed how the perspective of the dancer was changed in a different location. Test 4Reviewed by:- Marwan BoudangaIt was really interesting to see the same animation from a further distance, it was slightly harder to see the animation, but visible enough at the same time. I like how you used Lydia to look at the animation to make it as realistic as possible as if the animation really existed. Again, at the moment, I can’t really say a lot about it, but maybe one thing I could tell you is to try and make the animation a little bit more visible.Reviewed by:- Elisa BenaggouneFor this experiment, I liked that the perspective of the animation was changed and I enjoyed watching how different it looked! Test 5Reviewed by:- Marwan BoudangaI can’t really find any differences between the 2, but nevertheless I still really like it, because it really does look as if Lydia is looking at the animation directly, and I think there was clear improvement from the previous test where we ca clearly see the animation so it looks smother and clearly more visibleReviewed by:- Elisa BenaggouneI liked watching this and seeing how the character’s hand wasn’t in the animation, I would’ve checked the editing afterwards but overall I enjoyed it.Test 6Reviewed by:- Marwan BoudangaI kind of see what you tried to do there, and I see that it probably didn’t work as well as your thought, but I actually quite like the beginning, it looked smoother than the first test for example, so I can see there is a good improvement after each tests.Reviewed by:- Elisa BenaggouneI enjoyed the animation, but the mistake that happened throughout the middle confused me and I would have gone back and see what is was, but the motion of the dancer was confusing with the black background as the motion with the black background didn’t seem to fit right with the dancerTest 7Reviewed by:- Marwan BoudangaI like how the dancer is in white with the black background and looks much smoother with each of the movements the dancer made as well as how realistic is looks. The speed was not too fast and not too slow, which is perfect, just like the other animations you’ve done. I saw there was a mistake or two in this one, but I am sure you will learn from those mistakes like the white background being shown, so I am sure there is a way to resolve it. Overall, I still really like it, well done!Reviewed by:- Elisa BenaggouneOverall, I prefer the second dance animation as it was kind of slow but in the right pace but the other’s only had tiny mistakes that changed how the animation looks.Chapter 7– Weekly Progress TrackerProgress Tracker - Week 1Reflection on the work you have produced this weekThis week I began Chapter One and completed the following sections: My Skills to DateProblems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionI struggled with writing about myself because I misunderstood the taskI took a step back and wrote about the media products I liked and how they affected me as a person, as opposed to writing about my soul and self in a psychological way. Notes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedYYYYYYYLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)Progress Tracker - Week 2Reflection on the work you have produced this weekProblems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionNotes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)Progress Tracker - Week 3Reflection on the work you have produced this weekThis week I began conducting research into different animation techniques and methods. I then began recreating and attempting to use the skills I have learnt from research.Problems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionThe college computers can’t really run after effects.I conducted my after effects experiments at home, in my own time.Notes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postA lot of YouTube tutorials.A chat with Adam, who taught me about animation in after effects.ChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)Progress Tracker - Week 4Reflection on the work you have produced this weekProblems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionNotes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)Progress Tracker - Week 5Reflection on the work you have produced this weekProblems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionNotes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)AppendixAppendices 1 – Unit 12 Criteria and Work to be ProducedUNIT 12- SPECIALIST STUDY IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTIONLearning Outcomes Assessment CriteriaWork to be producedAIM: Research and critically examine the influence of historical and contemporary contexts on their own practice.Understand the principles and practices of a chosen discipline in creative media production.1.1 Critically describe a range of contextual perspectives influencing a chosen discipline in creative media production.The Report Practioners ReportProduct Report1.2Apply knowledge of critical perspectives to inform own practice.Unit Portfolio and PresentationBe able to locate and evaluate information form a range of sources 2.1Identify a range of relevant academic and cultural sources for a personal research project.The ReportExperimentation and Skills2.2Critically evaluate information from a range of sources to inform ideas.Unit Portfolio and PresentationBe able to communicate ideas and arguments in a variety of forms. 3.1Apply academic conventions in the production and presentation of ideas.Unit Portfolio and Presentation3.2Effectively communicate ideas in appropriate formats.Unit Portfolio and PresentationAppendix 2 – Students Calendar, Checklist and Scheme of WorkWEEK 1 – w/c 1st January 2018Tuesday amRemainder of the weekCollege not open MonIntroduction to Unit 12Power Point 1 – Introduction to Unit 12What is expected i.e. Portfolios etcHow it works – Personal ScheduleStudy GroupsPeer ReviewCritiquesWhy – Unit 13WHO AM I?Objective for session: - Schedule Week 1 producedWork on your scheduleLast lesson of the week: -Peer ReviewCritiqueReflective LogWed pm (x3)Tues pm (a’s) Thurs am (x3)Introduction to Unit 12Power Point 1 Introduction to Unit 12What is expected i.e. Portfolios etcHow it works – Personal ScheduleStudy GroupsPeer ReviewCritiquesWhy – Unit 13WHO AM I?Objective for session: - Schedule Week 1 producedSchedule agreed with LecturerAdvisory Schedule: -Produce Timeline for skills development to dateMind Map on Who am I? – my favourite media products, my inspirational media producerMy skills focusWEEK 2 – w/c 8th January 2018Mon am (x3)Mon pm (x2)Remainder of the weekWed pm (x3)Thurs am (x3)Power Point 2 – The ReportHow to undertake a Literature Review, both generally and specifically for The Report, based on weeks 1 tasks – favourite media Practioners, and favourite Media Product and should tie in with skills focus.Objective for session: - Schedule Week 2 producedSchedule agreed with LecturerAdvisory Schedule: -The ReportWork on your scheduleLast lesson of the week: -Peer ReviewCritiqueReflective LogWEEK 3 – w/c 15th January 2018Mon am (x3)Mon pm (x2)Remainder of the weekWed pm (x3)Thurs am (x3)Power Point 3Experimentation and SkillsHow to structure an experiment – what is the research question and what is the research plan to find the answer to that question.Based on weeks 1 tasks – when you looked at your skills, and what you want to focus on.If you are unsure of what to do, then use the FEAR project to get you focused and doingSchedule Week 3 producedSchedule agreed with LecturerAdvisory Schedule: -Detail planed experimentation and skills task What is their research question and what is their research plan to answer that question? You can leave college if necessary and relevant.OrFEAR ProjectWork on your scheduleLast lesson of the week: -Peer ReviewCritiqueReflective LogWeek 4 and Week 5 w/c 22nd and 29th January 2018Mon am (x3)Mon pm (x2)Remainder of the weekWed pm (x3)Thurs am (x3)Independent Study now….Schedule Week 4 and 5 produced and approvedWork on Schedule – With constant checking by staffWork on your scheduleLast lesson of the week: -Peer ReviewCritiqueReflective LogWeek 6 – 5th February 2018Presentation and Progress Review Week – All students present their findings and possible thoughts on Unit 13. Portfolio made perfect!Self-Directed Study Week Appendix 3 – Chapter BibliographiesChapter One Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Backman, F., 2014. A Man Called Ove. 2nd ed. Stockholm: Atria Books.Ditto, L., 2017. Leslie Ditto. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Docplayer, 2017. I wrote a Book and That Means That I Can Do Anything. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Fredrik Backman, 2015. A Man Called Ove. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Goodreads, 2017. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Haddon, M., 2004. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 5th ed. London: Vintage Contemporaries.IMDB, 2005. Rear Window. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].IMDB, 2017. My Name Is Earl. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].IMDB, 2017. Pedro Almodovar. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Instagram, 2017. Instagram - @brian_pollett. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Instagram, 2017. Instagram - @Cobycuz. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Instagram, 2017. Instagram - @leslieditto. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Moviezine, 2015. En Man Som Heter Ove. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Netflix, 2017. Netflix UK. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Pollett, B., 2017. PsyBry. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Rick Remender, M. S., 2014. Black Science Volume One - How to Fall Forever. 4th ed. Los Angeles: Image Comics.Rick Remender, M. S., 2015. Black Science Volume Three - Vanishing Point. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Image Comics.Rick Remender, M. S., 2015. Black Science Volume Two - Welcome, Nowhere. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Image Comics.Rick Remender, M. S., 2016. Black Science Volume 4 - Godworld. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Image Comics.Rick Remender, M. S., 2016. Black Science Volume 5 - True Atonement. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Image Comics.Rick Remender, M. S., 2017. Black Science Volume Six - Forbidden Realms and Hidden Truths. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Image Comics.Robert Kirkman, P. A., 2015. Outcast Volume One - Darkness Surrounds Him. 3rd ed. Lexington: Image Comics.Robert Kirkman, P. A., 2015. Outcast Volume Two - Vast and Unending Ruin. 2nd ed. Lexington: Image COmics.Robert Kirkman, P. A., 2016. Outcast Volume Three - This Little Light. 2nd ed. Lexington: Image Comics.Robert Kirkman, P. A., 2017. Outcast Volume Four - Under Devil's Wing. 2nd ed. Lexington: Image Comics.Singh, A., 2015. Mark Haddon - don't use Curious Incident... as an autism "textbook". [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Tate, 2017. Avant-Garde. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].The Art Story, 2017. Surrealism Movement. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].The National Theatre, 2017. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Tikonova, P., 2016. Artist Takes 20 Different Drugs And Creates 20 Illustrations To Show Drug Effects. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Wikepedia, 2017. Pedro Almodovar. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Wikepedia, 2017. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Zutt, C., 2017. Coby Zutt. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 13th December 2017].Chapter 2Chapter 3 ................
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