Old- Although t has a nice leadingline it looks too clutterd and people are too tightly spaces together. its hard to seesome people because others are in way of them.

IMPROVED- This photo has more depth because of the way the people are spaced.  and the person at the front has space to move into which gives an idea of them walking.

bad- over the shoulder shot gives a nice effect because it shows the work he is doing, however this could have been achieved better if it was cropped so the work could be seen more clearly. Also the computer to the right gives an unnecessary distraction

Improved- This shot is good because the subject is in focus and the whole frame is filled unlike the last one

Improved- This shot is imprived because you can see the book he is looking and see his face. Because he is an extra we didnt find it neccisary to include his whole whole head. I also think because the book is taking up a lot of the frame comapred to him it links with the voice over that says how focused he is on his work.

Old- the  background is quite clutterd and you cant really see his face. The photo is also quite dark and objects around him draw away from the subject

Old- The shot is blurry and the running. Apart from that the shot isnt too bad.

New- the shot isnt blurry this time and the whole frame is filled better.

Old- all the action in the shot is in the centre of the frame and the rest of the space isnt filled. The lines of the window could have been used to create a nicer effect.

Improved- this shot is ncie because the lines of the windows follow the direction the ball i going. Also it gives a nice depth to the shot and you cna clearly see the whole of the person recieving

Old- the shot is ok but could be improved if Lukes shoulder wasn't cut out. Alo it looks unnaturaly staged.

Improved- The shot is more in focus and the subjects take up all the frame. the pictures are also giving the shot a lot of depth and the subjects are evenly spaced apart which makes the shot symetical

ROTOSCOPING

ROTOSCOPE MACHINE 

Rotoscoping is to transfer an image from live action film into another film sequence using a rotoscope. Fleisher Studios were the poineers of rotoscoping, the cimpany was founded in the 1920's the rotoscope changed cartoons because before they were jerky and not very good to look at. A rotoscope aloud them to project live action film onto the glass of an animation stand. Paper was then placed on the animation stand and the live action footage traced one frame at a time. The rotoscope was patented in 1917. The first cartoons that used this method was the Koko the Clown Series.

Disney also adopted this method in there cartoons in the 1930's. This led to competition with Fleisher. Using it first in Snow White. The Benifit of using the rotoscope over traditional cartooning was that a more realistic movement could be achieved because the movements could be acted out by a real person and then used this as guidence to trace over to make the cartoons movement . In this clip of felix the cat. rotoscoping has been used. The final peice is quite convincing in some respects, for epamole the tapdancing at 3;48 involves complecated movements and i think could have only been achieved with any real quality by using rotoscoping. However a lot in the clip the movement seems to be unaturally fast and jumpy. This is probably because of the strange shapes of the characters they are working with rather than using human. All together i think it has been produced well and rotoscoping was the best was to create a realistic movement.

Rotoscoping could be used in our after effects to create a realistic motion of a tennis ball flying. using footage of a tennis ball we could trace the flight path and the go over it to create a realistic visual effect. This would mean we have the freedom to do other things with it in after effects while keeping the realistic flight path

PHOTO ANALYSISISIS

GOOD - The subject is lightly off center, making the image more interesenting and the background is blured bringing him into focus more. Also he is looking away which creates interest in what he is looking at

Good- usually a subject in the centre wouldnt be desirable. But this creates the effect of him being assertive and telling somone what to do. This will have a better impact on the watcher because they can inturprete him as talking to them. Background is also out of focus which gives emphasis to the subject

Good- the background is out of focus bringing the subject to attention. He also has space to move into as he does move over there. Although i think bringing him into shot a little bit to have the whole of his head would get rid of some of the boring background.

Bad- one person is looking at the camera which ruins the realistic shot we were going fore. Also all the subjects are clutterd in one palce. more spaced out people would be nicer. The corridore offers a good leading line but the left wall is taking up too much of the shot with un interesting clutter

Bad- chair and table in the bottom right brings unwanted attention and the lines of the windows could have been used better to give an effect of the room continuing and being longer. Also the person in the middle looks like too much of the focus and that was not intended 

bad- over the shoulder shot gives a nice effect because it shows the work he is doing, however this could have been achieved better if it was cropped so the work could be seen more clearly. Also the computer to the right gives an unnecessary distraction

Improved- This shot is good because the subject is in focus and the whole frame is filled unlike the last one

Bad- The subject it too much in the centre of the fame and it takes away from his surroundings. Also another angle could have been used to fit in the whole head and to use the table as raming. The chair in top right also offerd a distaction

Good- the subject although he is in roughly the centre. The area he is in is clearly established by the angle used and the fact he is not head of but at an angle gives a dynamic quality to it and helps give the idea of him about to move.

Good-  the shot does what it is intended to do because it shows the subject looking into a space where the other character has just appeared. It shows the viewer exactly what has happened whilst offering the other characters perceptive of. Also the depth between the subject and background is nice.

Good- shows 2 subjects in the aftermath of somthing that has just happened. Having them is the same shot is useful because you can see reali time what is happening to both of them. Also the tree in the middle works as a good divider to the shot.

Bad- it is uninterestinglu shot. The corridor could have been used to an advantage and would have given the shot more depth. 

Bad- the subjects are right in the middle and the windows could have been used to be more inline with the head. Also the corner of the poster is not neccisary and detracts from the subjects, as does the rapper on the table behind 

ANIMATIC

Story Board Files Organisation

Matte Paintings research

Matte painting definition
A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is nonexistent in real life or would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to build or visit


Matte painting beign used in films started off really because of financial or physical limitations. It would beither be too expensive, impractical or sometimes impossible to shoot on actual location. 1905 Norman Dawn took his photos and painting and placed them on a large sheet of glass. Black tape would then be put over the part of the camera the painting would go. These were all painted by hand or mixed with photos.

Later on Digital Painting came along. this meant a much more realistic look could be achieved in the paintings. Painter Chris Evans was the first to create a digital matte painting used in a film. in 1985 it was used in a Sherlock Holmes film. Other examples of using matte paintings are in films like star wars, Indianna Jones and The Planet Of The Apes.

Example of a matte painter painting a scene for Star Wars

In this scene in Indianna Jones, filling a room with all of those crates would have been very difficult expensive and inpractical. This is why a matte painting was used. I think that on first glance it does look a very convincing but i is only when you pause it and have a closer look you can tell it has infact been painted. Although this doesnt really matter becuase to a film viewer it isnt explicit enough for them to notice or even if they did it doesnt really matter because the over all effect has been achieved very well i think

Working between Premier and After Effects

One way to pt a premier project into after effects is to select the sequence in premier and then right click and choose, 'replace with after effects' This will then open after effects and a composition with the clips in will be made. making a duplicate of them first will mean you get the clips in after effects while retaining them in premier pro. You can also replace the clips in premier with the clips that are in after effects by right clicking

Another way to move a sequence from premier into after effects is to drag and drop the sequence into after effects. This will create a straight footage item. Now any effects you change in premier pro will also be seen in after effects. This includes special effects, text ect.

Inside after effects you can import sequences from premier pro by going into the projects panel and selecting the project from premier pro and import as footage and click 'open' this will put the sequence from premier pro into after effects

BREAK DOWN SHEETS

Breakdown sheet (1) from LukeBennett1995

Breakdown sheet (4) from LukeBennett1995

PROPS AND SET DRESSING TABLE

green screen research (unfinished)

A GREEN SCREEN

Definition of green screen -in film and video techniques such as chromakey) a blue (or green) background in front of which moving subjects are filmed and which allows a separately filmed background to be added to the final image. History- In 1898 Méliès produced a film with a visual trick that would be seen as the beginning of green screen compositing. Blue screen was first developed and introduced in the 1930s.

Mr.Méliès

It was at RKO Radio Pictures. This came after years of using 'travelling matte'which had problems in that the cameras could not be easily synchronized. In early blue screening the dificulties came because they needed a black background with a subject-shaped hole in the middle, called a 'female matte'.In the 1940s Larry Butler used a technique that involved filming the subject infront of a blue background. Blue was used because it was the farthest away from skin tones. He could then create a silloette matte and then using an optical printer to remove the blue background then use the negative of the travelling matte and remove the foreground space of the background plate and then combining the foreground and background together.
The draw backs to this was that there was almost always a thin blue line in the shot and it wasn't very good at handling fine detail like hair and smoke. Vlahose did work on trying to improve this method of compositing. When seperating a matte from a blue screen Vlahose used 'Green cancellation separation and used it with the orginal colour negative and exposing both peices of film together under a blue light to create a blue difference mask. Then a blue separation positive was combined with the orignal negative exposed under a red light to create a cover matte. This matte was then applied back to orignal colour separation but with the blue seperation was replaced by the green and blue difference mask. This was very effective in solving the problems with fine detailing. Using the colour green started to take over using blue in the 1990s as digital equipment started being used. This is because green needs less light, works well outdoors and less commonly used in costumes.

In the Hobbit the look hobbit house interior  has been achieved by using green screen. It was used to save on creating a set which would have been a lot more costly and time consuming, also there are more posibilities of what ti could include by using green screen. I think it was effective and i wouldn't have been able to tell if it was green screen or not.  They have made the shape of the scene they want to achieve and the covered it with green screen so they could put a different image onto itSome objects however, including the chandelier on the ceiling is real this this becuase a character interacts with it and it has to move, it creates a more realistic effect i this is a real prop.

Leo Character sheet

Location Scouting

Location scouting report from stephenlatchem

Location scouting report-2 from amybrown113

Location scouting report-5 from amybrown113

Location scouting report-6 from amybrown113

Location scouting report-7 from amybrown113

Animatic Peer Feedback

Feedback from review. It was said to make narative sense but because it isnt finished in some points it doesn't. The characters voices do change at some points because the story board pictures had to be changed around.
 It was also said that the special effects where "sometimes easy to work out how it works. The tennis ball effect is a bit unclear and that its not shown very clearly how and when each effect occurs"
The feedback abou the dialog said "The dialog is good as it starts with a voice over and then changes into the characters talking. This is a good effect as it keeps the audience interested"
The feedback on shot length was that "Many of the shots at the beginning last too long during the voice over. I think you could add a few little shots so people don't get board"
it was suggested that the sequence could have been improved "By adding more shots in and to make the shot link in with the dialog at the end"
The technical quality of the animatic could have been improved by making the dialog sound more realistic because the voice actors didn't always match the characters and often didn't sound realistic

PANO

Animatic Story Board

Folder organisation

STORY BOARD

PRODUCTION MEETING (after 1st visual effects attempt)

Production meeting
People at meeting- Luke Amy Stephen
1)What went wrong- at first we tried to shoot it with me throwing the tennis ball and it was difficult to make to shot look the way we wanted because it was hard to get the right projectory and speed. it was also hard to make the over the shoulder shot work but it did in the end.

2)What we struggled with- On after effects we found it hard to make the ball look realistic when we tried to edit it in. It wasn't the right exact colour and the speed of the ball was hard to make it look natural it took trial and error to make it look good.

3)We need to learn the best way to make an the tennis ball special effect. We had 3 or 4 ways we were thinking about trying but only tested out 2 in the end and it was hard to tell before we tried them which would work best and which one would be the easiest to do. We have learnt a bit about how to do colour correction in AE and that is very useful but we need to be able to do it a bit better

4) The assets we need will be a green screen, some kind of box to sit on. Also we will need a tennis ball.

Visual effects research

In our script we will be using a special effect at the beginning that will make it look like Sam is floating on his bed. For this we will use a green screen and have him sitting on a box covered by green sheet just higer than the bed should be so it looks like he is floating. The background image will be of a bedroom. This video gives an idea of how to do it

We are also making one of the characters use telekinesis to make a ball float in mid air. this video shows how an effect like this can be achieved.

another effect we hope to achieve is to change the  colour of one of the characters eyes. We will use colour correction on after effects. It is quite simple to do

SCRIPT AND SHOT LOCATIONS

VISUAL FX RESEARCH

In our script we will be using a special effect at the beginning that will make it look like Sam is floating on his bed. For this we will use a green screen and have him sitting on a box covered by green sheet just higer than the bed should be so it looks like he is floating. The background image will be of a bedroom. This video is using a similar idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpZ019hhJdM

We are also making one of the characters use telekinesis to make a ball float in mid air. this video shows how an effect like this can be achieved http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOdlLYqKFrw
another effect we hope to achieve is to change the  colour of one of the characters eyes. We will use colour correction on after effects. It is quite simple to do

PROPS AND SET DRESSING

P1 Production meeting

24/11/2013
Agenda: decide shot list
Attendance: Luke Amy and Stephen
Our production meeting was me Luke and Amy. Our main objectives were to decide on what script we were going to use and what, if any changes we needed to make to it. In the end we decided to go with Amy's script because we felt it was the most developed with the most dialog. We also decided to include special effects and some other ideas from mine that we thought would work well.

FINISHED SCRIPT

SHOT LIST revised

SHOT LIST

1:1 Mid shot (Luke)
2:1 POV Walking along corridor (Luke)
3:1 POV long shot (Amy)
3:2 Mid shot of girls (Amy)
3:3 Over the shoulder shot (Stephen)
4:1 Tracking shot (Luke)
5:1 Long panning shot (Stephen)
5:2 Close up
5:3 Mid shot
6:1 Long shot (zoom)
6:2 mid shot (Stephen)
6:3 close up(Stephen)
6:4 mid shot(Stephen)
6:5 close up(Stephen)
6:6 mid shot(Stephen)
6:7 long shot
6:8 mid shot
6:9 mid shot
6:10 over the shoulder
6:11 long shot
6:12 long shot
6:13 mid shot
6:14 long shot mid shot
6:15 over the shoulder

CHARACTER BIOS

Max-
Age:16

Max lives at home with his mum and dad.  He moved to Cambridge to go to school and he is new to the area. He came from a quite well off area of London but does not have snobbish qualities about him. He is generally a likable person but sometimes doesn't know how to react in certain social situations. Although he tries his best he can find it hard to make friends with people. In this story he finds it difficult to make friends with Scott and some conflicts occur. He does his best to avoid confrontation with anyone but he is known to sometimes be a a bit temperamental. He isn't the kind of person who is easily afraid and with the backing of others he can be courageous
He is of medium build and is regular height for his age. He has short brown hair that he usualy styles. He does make an effort with his appearance but not to obsessive lengths. He usually wears a clean pay of trainers, jeans and a casual shirt.

Scott-
Age:16

Scott lives at home with his mum and has lived in the area his whole life. His parents devorced but he does not see his dad much. He has a little sister who he has to look after when his mum isn't home. He cares a lot for his family. Although they are all a group for the most part of the story Scott can be seen as the outsider quite a lot. He doesnt make an effort to communicate much with the other boys unless it is necessary or to make a sly remark that is not always seen as being in jest. In most situations the hostility will come from Scott. The others don't dis like him but they seem a bit wary of him.
Scott has short curly blonde hair, he is abit shorter than average and has a smallish build. He doesnt really think about the clothes he wears but is always well groomed and clean clothed. He wears glasses and doesnt enjoy wearing them. He has tried contacts but they never worked for him. He did used to get bullied for wearing his glasses in his old school and this has let a long lasting mark on him.

Leo
Age:16

Leo lives with is mum and dad in a wealthy neighborhood. His parents both have well payed jobs and he seems to have a happy family life. He is a confident popular and intelligent boy but he does misjudge his priorities, this coupled with his childish attitude can get him into trouble. Although he is a good academic he rarely transfers this intellect into common sense.
Leo is tall and has brown short hair. He is quite skinny and always wears expensive clothes and takes pride in his appearance. Sometimes he can get caught up in the way he looks which can lead him into blindly disregarding others which eventually will start problems for him

180 DEGREE RULEZ

To keep the viewer orientated and to avoid confusion the 180 degree rule is used. This involves creating an imaginary line through the action and using it as a reference. The line should not be crossed by any camera unless the shot clearly shows it doing so. Each person should stay on the same side in every shot

SCRIPT

FIRST DRAFT SCRIPT

SHORT STORY

3 boys, Leo, Tom and Lee. They are not part of the same friendship group but one day they are on a school trip and are put in the same group. They get lost on this school and end up in a forest and they find a barbeque with some food cooking on it. They are hungry so decide to eat some. at first they just feel the same as they did before.
They sit down in the forest and Tom says 'i wish i could go back to school now' And they are transported back to school. Tom has gained a power that makes him be able to wish anything and it will come true but it has some conditions to it.

g Leo then finds his power. He can summon the charictoristics  of any animal he sees for 12 hours.

Lee is the only one who doesnt find out his power. He gets bitter about it. Leo and Tom meet up alot to use there powers and have fn with them. They make a pact to never tell anyone about these powers and to only use them for fun because they dont want to get into trouble.

Lee finally gets his power when he gets punched in the eye by a bully. He has to go to the hospital and as they are checking his eye they suggest he should start wearing his glasses again. He used to get bullied for wearing them so never wore them again.

He does decide to wear them and suddenly his power becomes apparent. He can see peoples thoughts and can see 30 seconds into the future when he chooses to.

When he has found his power he goes round telling everyone ad showing off about it.

eventually this turns him to the worst and he becomes an evil super villian set on destroying anyone without glasses

Sample script on Adobe Story

Music- the music is continuos throughout the whole clip. It i quite quiet compared to the voice over and the dialog

00:05 there is dialog till 00:12 of the voice over. This is diegetic and non diegetic sound because the person he is speaking to can hear it but the people in the shot cannot.

00:12 there is diegetic sound of somone saying 'hey no powers'

00:13 sound effect of basketball bouncing

00:16 more voice over till 00:22

00:22 sound effects of discs flying till 00:24

00:24 lazer sound effects and discs smashing and also some voice over. sound effects finishing at 00:28. voiceover finishing at 00:30

00:32 start of voice over, finishing at 00:54 with sound effects of fire ball at 00:50-00:51

00:57 sound effect of the ice coming from the boys finger till 00:56

01:03 smashing of ice on the floor

01:13 diegetic sound of Bobby introducing him self and Rouge introducing her self 00:17

01:18 voice over till 01:28

01:28 Bobby diaglog till 01:30

Key-
Yellow- music
Red- voice over
Green- sound effects
Orange- dialog 

The dialog and voice over never overlap so the viewer can concentrate on what is going on at that point in the clip. It can get confusing if they are talking over each other. It also gives a chance to see what is actually happening rather than just  what the voice over is saying.

The music is instrumental and changes when important things are said. For example when the voice over says 'X-men' the music becomes louder and then Bobby says 'welcome to mutant high' This works as like an introduction and symbolises the end of the answer to wolfvereens's question.

X-men sound analysis

Music- the music is continuos throughout the whole clip. It i quite quiet compared to the voice over and the dialog

00:05 there is dialog till 00:12 of the voice over. This is diegetic and non diegetic sound because the person he is speaking to can hear it but the people in the shot cannot.

00:12 there is diegetic sound of somone saying 'hey no powers'
00:13 sound effect of basketball bouncing
00:16 more voice over till 00:22
00:22 sound effects of discs flying till 00:24
00:24 lazer sound effects and discs smashing and also some voice over. sound effects finishing at 00:28. voiceover finishing at 00:30
00:32 start of voice over, finishing at 00:54 with sound effects of fire ball at 00:50-00:51
00:57 sound effect of the ice coming from the boys finger till 00:56
01:03 smashing of ice on the floor
01:13 diegetic sound of Bobby introducing him self and Rouge introducing her self 00:17
01:18 voice over till 01:28
01:28 Bobby diaglog till 01:30

Top trumpz

Taxi Driver Soound analysis

Diegetic sound is there to set an idea of genre, to create an effect on the audience whether it be the idea of tension suspense or humour. In this clip it is mostly there to create tension.  It can also help build a character by their dialog.

The diegetic sound in the clip helps create tension and build suspense.

The ticking of his watch gives the idea of how much time has past. When the robbers haven’t returned yet it makes the audience unsure as to whether they will make it in time, the volume is increased dramatically so it is one of the prominent sounds in the clip to enhance the effect on the audience. The radio and the what the driver listens to shows the personality of the character and his attitude to what he is doing. When the police radio is being played and they are talking about them looking for him he turns the basketball game up. This shows they have avaided the police for the time being.

This shows how relaxed and calm he is even though the police are on to him it gives the idea he is a professional at what he does and also he is planning ahead to what he is doing later. The police radio also seems to change in volume at different points for example when they are hiding behind a lorry.

The beeping of the car door is another example of diegetic sound that creates tension. It is a repetitive sound and sounds a bit like a heart beat or a clock ticking. It makes it feel like a timer and that it isn’t certain whether they will make it in time. The alarm goes off as soon as the robbers break in

At the beginning of the clip it is quieter than the rest. This is because nothing has really happened yet. The radio is the most prominent sound and you cant hear much else apart from the non diagetic music.

The clip is  a getaway driver who is waiting for 2 robbers to break into somewhere commit a burglary. He only gives them 5 minutes to return to the car and get away otherwise he will leave without them.