Film Studies and Cinematography : Lecture & Exercises

Week 1 - Week 4 : 29 Aug 2022 - 25 Sept 2022

Tan Yi Yun 0345559
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Lecture & Exercises

LECTURE

Week 1 :

There are only 7 of us in this small class. During the first day, we had Mr. Martin to be our lecturer who gave a brief introduction to the upcoming projects for this module.

Project 1:

Students will develop short original animation story with Pixar story development methodology. The process is to be blogged with reflections.

Project 2:

Students to produce a pitch bible of their original short animation story according to a generic format.

https://chrisoatley.com/animation-pitch-bible/

Project 3 :

Students to produce an animatic of their original short animation story with sound as in voice-over, sound effects and music. This project is joined with another module, Animation Fundamentals.

Normally, students are advised to include 3-5 scenes in 1 submission (choose 2 from the storyboards). Treat it as a teaser (Not trailer). Min 20s.

Make sure you have utilized good cinematography and good animation movement (12 principles)

About Cinematography

Cinematographers should think carefully about every shot, considering the angle, the light, and the camera movement, because there is an infinite number of choices they can make. Common cinematography techniques and terms include:

1. Close-up: a shot that closely crops in on a character’s face or on an object.

2. Extreme close-up: A tightly framed close-up shot.

3. Long shot: a shot showing a character in relation to their surroundings.

4. Extreme long shot: a shot so far away from the character, they are no longer visible within their surroundings.

5. Establishing shot: a shot at the beginning of a scene that gives context for the setting.

6. Tracking shot: a sideways-moving shot that captures a landscape or that follows a character as they move. Often used interchangeably with “dolly shot,” though they technically refer to different motions.

7. Dolly shot: a shot where the camera moves toward or away from a character on a dolly track. Technically, a dolly shot refers only refers to backwards and forwards camera motion, though the term has come to mean any camera movement tracking a character.

8. Crane shot: an overhead shot where the camera is suspended in the air on a moving crane.

9. Steadicam: a lightweight camera stabilizer that captures smooth moving shots. A Steadicam is either hand-held or attached to the camera operator’s body, giving them more freedom to move while filming.

10. High-angle shot: a shot where the camera is placed higher than a character or object.

11. Low-angle shot: a shot where the camera is placed lower than a character or object.

12. Medium shot: a shot that shows an actor from the waist up.

13. Point of view shot: a shot that shows the action through the eyes of a specific character.

14. Panning: a shot where the camera turns left or right on its vertical axis

15. Tilting: a shot where the camera turns up or down on its horizontal axis

16. Cross-cutting: an editing technique that cuts between multiple events happening at the same time.

17. Diegetic sound: sound that both the characters and the audience can hear, like dialogue, a knock on the door, or a telephone ringing.

18. Non-diegetic sound: sound that only the audience hears, like a narrator or the film’s score, placed into the film during post-production.

19. Key light: the main source of direct light shining on a character or object. High-key refers to key light that is the main source of a scene’s light; low-key refers to key light that is not the main source of light.

20. Side lighting: lighting used to illuminate the areas in a scene that aren’t lit by key light.

21. Backlighting: when the main light source comes from behind a character or object.

Week 2 :

Pre-Production of Animation

Idea Development
Script & Storyboarding
Character Design
Production Design

Theme - style, character design, art direction, music, pace that compliment the idea/story.

Advice for storytellers

Identify something emotionally
Keep working on it, changing it
Remember the initial feeling/idea

Character Design

Begin from shape
Sketch thumbnail
Mark the best ones
Draw them larger
Create variants

Production Design

Create the finished “look” of an animation

Concept to Theme

Concept: Simplest description

of an Idea.

Theme: Manifesto of the concept.

Week 3 :

Refine and clarify central idea

Story concept→ Story premise

Identify what’s unique about your idea and focus on that aspect to create a detailed premise.

Long story v.s. Short story

Short story can be impactful without a strong plot, with less characters.

Long story relies heavily on a well thought-out plot line.

Visual storytelling

The act of telling a story or communicating information with visual content.

Story-based animation would need to build the 3 act structure.

Pixar's interpretation on 3 act structure

Story beat

By doing story spine, story beats are created.

Story beat: Most important moment of the story.

Story beats show what is happening.

Act 1

Act 1 introduces the character, and the world.

How the world work? What type of movie?

What if scenario, an inciting incident happens. The world disrupted subjectively/real? Where and when does the story take place? Who is/are the main characters, why do we care about them? What or who is the antagonist?

Act 2

Because of this……

Series of progressive complication.

Rising action: Throw in obstacles make them make difficult decision.

Then reach the point of no return. The low point

Act 3

Character demonstrates the change.

Learn something/ show the theme.

In danger losing everything they value most, characters develop a better version of themselves; new version of the world is presented.

Let audience feel satisfy. Or came in a surprise.

What was the crisis? How is it resolved?

How does the main character demonstrate that they learned what they needed?

What was the theme or moral?

Was the character arc emotionally satisfying? Why or why not?

Week 4 :

Cinematography in Animation

The art and technology of motion-picture photography:

Composition of a scene
Lighting of the set
Choice of cameras lenses(mostly wide angle for concept art)
The camera angle and movements

Exaggerate the characters' emotion

Scene (greater contrast)

Composition:

Camera angle
Rule of thirds
Staging
Camera movement

Staging:

Personality - Recognizable; an expression can be seen. A shy child would turn their eyes down, and slightly rotate their upper body away for the gaze of another child. The child's actions reveal the fact that he is shy.

Mood - A mood is staged so that it will affect the audience. The tight composition of dark trees in a dense forest, leaning in toward a scared youth; eyes glowing from within the thick; hurried breathing filling the air; the child's eyes wide open. All of these elements have been clearly staged to inspire fear.

Week 5 :

https://vimeo.com/179325941

- Take note of balancing in composition

- Focus point in the scene.

- Colour and lighting

Composition in animation is different than video shooting.

- Action Line, Staging, Perspective.

Animation Pitch Bible

The Animation Pitch Bible is the attempt to organize into words and pictures the idea, vision and style of your animation. It is a guide that contains detailed aspects concerning nearly all levels of the project's production - your premise, character descriptions and designs, script, storyboards, etc.

Objectives:

Developing your protagonist
Building a believable world
Constructing a compelling plot
Finding your voice
Fighting writer’s block

Format (Classic)

1. Cover page with title and image (one page)

2. Table of Contents (one page)

3. Concept Statement

A concept is the main idea that underlies the story. It captures the "essence" of the project, particularly its uniqueness. Evokes a mood or feeling. It can start with a definition, a quote or a comparison and then elaborated.

*should be interesting and able to sell to the audience

4. Log line

It is a brief (one to two sentence) summary of a movie, tv show, etc. that hooks the reader in and describes the central conflict of the story. It is a straightforward sentence reduces all the complexity and nuance of the story.

Log line formula (in 1 sentence)

Inciting incident + Protagonist + Action + Antagonist

*To avoid being baked into a bread, a dough who wants to take control of its life, jumped off from the table to escape from the oven.

5. Target Audience

*young adult, 13-22 years old

6. Synopsis

The write-up that describes the plot and world of your story.

- Length: Not more than half page.

- Tone and Voice: Synopsis should be written in the present tense, third person. Tell the story in the same tone and voice as the script (Main protagonist perspective)

- Characters: Introduce each character with something unique about them, whether it's a physical feature or another idiosyncrasy (wants and needs)

- Establish causality. Make sure the causality from one event to another is explained (because of that, because of that…)

- The Ending: Don't keep any secrets when writing synopsis, as well as the climax.

7. Production methods/value

Describe any interesting production methods that will cause your project to stand out from others.

Week 6 :

Animation Pitch Bible

8. Character design drawings

9. Character description in paragraph form

10. Setting / environment concept art (at least 2 different drawings and one needs to have the character in the environment)

11. Script - must be presented in professional script writing format.

Figure 1.1, Script format, Week 6 (4/10/2022)

Figure 1.2, Script format, Week 6 (4/10/2022)

12. Storyboard (reproduction in a size that fits in the notebook)

Staging in Animation

- Action and direction

- Composition

13. Contact info (Production house, key artists)

Figure 1.3, Improved composition in storyboard, Week 6 (4/10/2022)

Week 7 :

Perspective in Animation

Perspective is to create the illusion of depth, or space, on a flat page.

Figure 1.4, Perspective in animation, Week 7 (11/10/2022)

Figure 1.5, Perspective in animation, Week 7 (11/10/2022)

Figure 1.6, Perspective in animation, Week 7 (11/10/2022)

Figure 1.7, Perspective in animation, Week 7 (11/10/2022)

Week 8 :

No class due to independent learning week.

Week 9 :

Colour Script

There are different mood and emotions throughout the animation, and thus we need a colour script. With the color concepts done, character designs complete, animatic established, and layouts finalized, it is time for you to create a color script.

The color script could be called the “dramaturgical map” of a film’s color design.

Figure 1.8, Grayscale (silhouette), Week 9 (25/10/2022)

Similar to a colored storyboard of the key scenes, the sequence and change of color design are represented in chronological sequence of the film.

Figure 1.9, Color script, Week 9 (25/10/2022)

■ Differentiation of picture planes (fore-/mid-/background)

■ Different color moods (red/blue/yellow)

■ Contrasts: Complementary; warm/cool; light/dark

■ Aerial perspective (colors become gray/bluish, muted, “faded” in the distance)

■ Suggesting different narrative levels

■ Flashbacks in different color schemes: sepia, black-white

■ Subjective perspective through vastly different color design

■ Dream sequence through different (e.g., “psychedelic”) colors

The classic way of creating any visual art is to work in gray values first, then add the color values once the basic lighting is established.

Figure 2.1, Color script, Week 9 (25/10/2022)

Figure 2.2, Color emotion, Week 9 (25/10/2022)

Week 10 :

Cinematography

Camera movement

Pan: Camera moves horizontally, while its base is fixated on a certain point.

Tilt: Camera moves vertically, up to down or down to up, while its base is fixated to a certain point.

Zoom: Changing the focal length of the lens to make the subject appear closer or further away in the frame.

Dolly: Camera moves along like railroad tracks.

Directing Camera movement

INSTRUCTIONS

Week 1 :

Exercise 1 : ???

Why to choose animation? It's hard to explain in one short sentence. Because of love? Not exactly. Because of money? There are still a bunch of other career paths. I'm uncertain of what I want to be in the future. I might hate the tedious process of modelling stuff, might feel bored of the repeating scenes of frame-to-frame animation, might regret to choose animation. But one thing I can assure is that, I am eager to see what I can produce in this field. What is my strength, potential and what motivates me to produce an animated film, these are the questions that I am yet to find the answers. Always up to the challenges and never get defeated.

How about my favourite animation? Studio Ghibli's films. The art style, the music, the character design, environment design - all and all that make them immersive animations. They are my childhood memories that bring me into the world of animation.

Figure 3.1, Studio Ghibli's film (Spirited Away), Week 1 (30/8/2022)

Exercise 2 : Love, Death and Robots Season 1

Task of the week : to watch the short animation series and discuss about 3 of your personal favorite in term of genre, style, art direction etc.

Figure 3.2, Love, Death + Robots, Week 1 (30/8/2022)

#1 The first few seconds scene from Episode 1

The opening of the films make me confused. The color, the lighting and the camera movement are so realistic until I thought it is a live action movie. There are various camera shots (wide angle, medium shot, tracking shot, etc.) in a few seconds that successfully bring out the storyline, the surroundings and the overall gloomy and mystery mood of the film. It acts as a hook to arouse the audiences' curiosity to follow the action flow of the characters.

Figure 3.3, Love, Death + Robots, Week 1 (30/8/2022)

Figure 3.4, Love, Death + Robots, Week 1 (30/8/2022)

#1.5 The battling scene from Episode 1

The battle between Turboraptor has set up the tension. The spotlight focuses on Turboraptor when he enters the battlefield. When he stands up, the camera moves up and then close-up on his fist, follows the line of action of the fist onto the ground. It is a very exciting scene with just right of usage of lighting of contrasting color (blue and red).

Figure 3.5, Love, Death + Robots, Week 1 (30/8/2022)

Figure 3.6, Love, Death + Robots, Week 1 (30/8/2022)

#2 Yogurt from Episode 6

I like the transition from the outer space, to the high-angled view of the city life, to the closed-up view of the traffic light and the humans crossing the road (like a slave). The overall colour tone is warm until the plot twist kicks in, which is when the yogurt became sentient. The story pace is just right, 6 mins+ of a captivating and interesting storyline.

Figure 3.7, Love, Death + Robots, Week 1 (30/8/2022)

#3 The helpless astronaut from Episode 11

Obviously, the scene takes place in the outer space. The astronaut floats far away from the spacecraft has created a suspension. From the background movement, we can see that she is slowly falling down. Most of the time, it shows the close up shot of the astronaut's face to capture her panicked and helpless expression.

Figure 3.8, Love, Death + Robots, Week 1 (30/8/2022)