Protected: Catalogue- ‘If Calsberg Did Animation…’ 25.11.09

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Animation Filming- Production/ Post- Production

Frame rate is one of the main things to consider when we start filming, i have been researching into certain things that i have been curious about for our film. After watching some tutorials i have learnt that most amateur animations are filmed in what is called ‘2’s this means that it is filmed for 12 Frames a second. Animations such as ‘A Nightmare Before Xmas’ operate at what is called ‘1’s this means that they are filmed for a full 24 frames and second. I think our best bet would be to operate in 12 frames as this will make the film longer and will still keep a smooth flowing film.

When planning our animation we had many ideas and shot plans for the camera to move in mid shot. After looking at some examples on the internet i have realized that this is avoided in filming in even the most well produced examples on youtube. Camera movement is most of the time kept simple and only changed on movement or to follow the story, taking this into consideration we are well aware that when we film it will be very hard to return to a shot and retake some of the images. So we will remember that it’s best to take more pictures than not enough, moving the camera to change camera angle and shot is the best movement to stick to.

Software

Istop motion would be the best software for us to work on as it has the capabilities for us to use onion skinning which would be a massive help when filming our animation. I have also looked into a program called ‘Frame Thief’ it’s a decent and recommended piece of software, but the charge is to excessive for our needs. Istopmotion is also something that is kept by a money issue, we can’t afford to obtain the program so we are having to settle with the software that was included with the Canon 500D i recently purchased.

Analyising Film Magazines and Reviews.

‘FILMSTAR’
Issue #5
Sourced from October 2009

Front Cover
Very simple, uncluttered with small text. Text is overlapped and given its own color to stand separate from the rest of the page. Blue in the most predominant colour, this is from the backing image which is a screen shot of the film ‘UP’. This straight away gives the viewer and reader the understanding that UP will be featured in the magazine as one of the main stories. The primary front is the magazine title, the Film title in the secondary, the 2 are in true contrasting colours so that they keep separate and avoid distraction form other titles. Small captions are placed to the bottom right of the image, questions and tag lines from inside the magazine. This is used to crew the reader in to reading it, as they might find something they’re interested in. Bar code and price are placed in the bottom left corner, I’m not sure if this is a convention with film magazines, it might just fit with the certain layout of the image and cover. Something which is noticeable on the page is the buzz word at the top certain of the page, white text on red makes it very bright and attracting to the sight line.

Review
The review page is mainly image based, using screen captures from the film to show examples of the quality of the animation and to help detail the story that is written. It acts as the main review and focus point of this magazine so the review is a double page spread which then continues later in the magazine to cover and 4 pages. Quotations are something that is noticed in these reviews it seems to be something that is a common factor in a review. It’s normally either a very unique or important quote that makes sense out of context so it can create an impact an opinions before the review is read. In terms of the written context, it’s quick to form opinions on what ever the article is on. The unusual thing about film reviews in the magazine i am reading is that it doesn’t rule out all possibilities or the opposing argument. It has a common theme of asking you a question about someones bad view, so the reader is left to answer for them selves and not have their opinion formed on them. When the review mentions a bad point or a comment made about the film it is soon to follow up with something positive about the film.

 

Catalogue Item: Magazine

‘FILMSTAR’

ISSUE #5
OCTOBER 09

Front cover contains coverage of ‘UP’ and the magazine also features, film reviews, interviews and added features.
A followed write up to be updated once i have read the article.

Disney Pixars ‘Toy Story’ (1995)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114709/

Toy Story

The First feature length CGI animation ever to grace the cinema screens, directed by John Lassester.
Released 19th November 1995 USA, 22nd March 1996 UK.

Distribution
Buena Vista.

Production
John Lasseter – Director / Writer (story), Pete Docter – Writer (story), Andrew Stanton – Writer (story) (screenplay), Joe Ranft – Writer (story),

Budget- $30 Million

Gross

Worldwide- $360 Million
Domestic- $191 Million
Foreign- $170 Million
(as of 30th Oct)

Opening Weekend
Opening Weekend- $119, 000 US

The film was set to a wide release and was aired in nearly 2,600 theater’s

Personal note
Toy Story was the film to revolutionize animation forever, a dream that was taken from years in the progress of Lassester. He had originally took the idea Disney when he worked there, but they coudln’t afford to keep up with his ideas. This is where he moved to Lucas film, a company full of people who shared the similar dream, they all wished to one day use CGI to make a full length film using only CGI. Toy Story was where this is all began, when the dream became reality and CGI was used to create a feature length animation. For me this is obviously one of the most significant Pixar films, it’s the first and the start of their industry success. In terms of Gross, for profits we see these days this film might not seem a massive success, but considering it was over 10 years ago it the Worldwide gross is more than impressive. In the yearly overview and yearly charts the film reached first place in the film Charts, it had beaten Batman Forever to gain the number 1 spot that year.

Review

http://www.movie-gazette.com/375

Forget ‘Snow White’ – it’s for losers. THIS is Disney’s finest hour-and-a-half. Not only does ‘Toy Story’ represent the birth of top quality wholly computer-generated cinema, it’s also one helluva funny ‘toon.

It takes a simple, familiar idea – that kiddies’ playthings spring to life when nobody’s peeking – and develops it into a wise-crack-packed adventure story to rival any adventure story. I’m yet to meet anyone – young or old – who doesn’t quite literally love this movie. And I’m pretty sure I don’t want to, either. For such people are clearly fools.

Tom Hanks provides the voice of Woody, the floppy cowboy doll who takes pride of place among the toy collection of a young sprog named Andy. But there’s trouble in paradise when Andy’s birthday produces a brand new toy – shiny laser-lighted space ranger Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen). Suddenly, jealousy reigns supreme in Andy’s toy chest.

What really gets under Woody’s Stetson is having to bite the bullet and work with Buzz as a team when the pair of them get lost in the big city, before ending up in the evil clutches of a local bully prone to performing Dr Phibes-style ops on innocent toys.

There are some cracking jokes along the way, more often than not related to Buzz’s insistence that he’s a REAL space ranger, and not just an action figure. In fact, this is worth buying just for the scene where the cold truth suddenly dawns on Buzz and he becomes ‘Mrs Nesbitt’. But there’s much, much more in here worthy of a guffaw or three. Whatever your age, this is an all-time classic that’s a must for your DVD collection.

It’s Got: Some marvellous support characters, most notably Mr Potato Head, Rex the dinosaur and Hamm the piggy bank.

It Needs: For all of those toy stores to have ordered more Buzz Lightyear dolls for Chrimbo ’95. There were a lot of miserable ankle-biters out there.

DVD Extras ‘Tin Toy’ (an animated short from Pixar), ‘The Making of Toy Story’, and a sneak trailer for ‘Monsters Inc.’ DVD Extras Rating: 6/10

Targets from 06.11.09- 12.11.09

-We need to collect the props for our room so that we can start building our set:

-Black cloth for background
- Table prefferably round
- Cutlery
- Fabric Napkins
- Extra props will be borrowed from home

We hope to borrow as much of the props as possible from college; however we will be buying things such as:

-Food
-Tea-light candlesTage

Disney Pixars- ‘UP’

UP
Distributed by- Buena Vista
American release- 29th of May 2009

Directed by Pete Docter and the Pixar team

Budget- $175 Million
World wide marketing budget- $150 million

Gross (as of 25th oct 2009)
Domestic- $293 million
Foriegn- $214 million
Worldwide- $507 million

Opening Weekend

The fil totaled a release of nearly 4,000 cinemas in the US and grossed $70 million.

Reviews Advertising and Promotions
(summary)

One of the main achievements and most highlighted success of the launch of this film, was its airing at ‘The Cannes Film Festival’ Disney Pixar creation ‘Up’ was the first ever animation to open the festival. This is a massive achievement for the animation teams and directors, a new step in the world of feature-length CGI. John Lassester the creative mid working alongside most of the films, is now credited for another step in the world of CGI. John Lassesters influence on animation in my opinion is massive productive and revolutionary. This is what in my opinion makes him and Auteur in the film industry. He has taken the use of CGI animation from the likes of ‘The adventures of Andre and Wally B’, to Toy Story the worlds first feature-length CGI animation. Now obviously Disney had been around for years creating animations, but this market was getting stagnant and out dated, the films were becoming conventional and repetitive. Pixar to animation to a new level, and now are rewarded with the opportunity to open one of the most renowned film festivals across the world.

Review
http://www.bordercountiesadvertizer.co.uk/lifestyle/79951/review-disney-pixar-s-up.aspx

5/5

“WHILE Disney Pixar seems to have lost some ground to Dreamworks in recent years, the studio’s tenth computer animated release, Up, puts them back on top of their game.

Up tells the story of Carl Frederickson (Edward Asner), an old man who – as a boy – idolised an heroic and intrepid adventurer. Whilst out adventuring in his neighbourhood he meets another would-be adventurer, the goofy Ellie.

The first act of the movie is a whistle-stop tour of Carl and Ellie’s lives as they grow up together, fall in love and marry.

With your cinema seat barely warm, however, things turn less rosy for the couple as their dreams of world exploration fade, they succumb to the ravages of age and are eventually separated as Ellie dies.

Carl becomes something of a shut-in, and as developers begin building around the couple’s lifelong home – pestering him to give it up for a place in retirement home ‘Shady Oaks’, Carl gives in and agrees to move out in the morning.

Mementos of his life with Ellie and their dreams of exploration prompt him into action though, and with the bulldozers at the gates - Carl pulls the rug from under their feet as hundreds of helium-filled balloons emerge from the roof, lifting the house from its foundations and carrying Carl off for the adventure he and his love had dreamed of.

Accompanied by scaredy-cat and would-be do-gooder boy scout Russell (Jordan Nagai), the two set off in their helium propelled house to South America – the place where Ellie had always wanted to explore.

As you’d imagine their adventure features enough colourful characters, talking animals and hi-jinx to keep kids and parents alike interested for the film’s 96 minute run-time.

After the film’s romantic, albeit tragic opening, what follows is hugely uplifting and often hilarious.

Once again Pixar impress with beautifully rendered characters and landscapes. The character design is as fresh as ever, with Carl having more than just a passing resemblance to the house he seeks to defend so fervently.

The visuals are complemented by superb voice acting and a suitably Disney score.

In a time when movie studios seem oblivious to the short attention spans afforded to children, Up is merciful in pace and length.

With half term approaching, Up is a perfectly cheery and funny film for the kids and charming and sensitive enough to capture older audience members’ interest.”

CONTINUE TO TALK ABOUT INTERNET AND HOW ITS USED TO ADVERTISE. AND SYNERGY.

Actors, Locations and Costumes.

In further planning of the film i have looked into ways of handling my actors, locations and costumes. With our film it’s only really the location that is a major issue, the film only contains 2 actors for a maximum of about 10 seconds and still, this particular part is still in planning and may not be included. Again with costumes, there isn’t much we really need to plan other than set design and mise en scene. If we do decide to include actors they will be dressed in a ’smart casual’ manor, nothing to smart and nothing to tacky. The reason we have decided this is mainly due to the mise en scene and overall setting, it will fit with the style of the location having them dressed fairly smart.
The location was a major issue to get around in the beginning we had a very good idea of what we wanted, we just weren’t sure where could actually do it. We had the idea from the start of having a dark, low lit room room with a table set up for a romantic meal but finding somewhere to create this was a problem. We did eventually find a small room at college that we have been given permission to use as our setting, we are planning to place black sheets all around the room to counter the white walls and create a darker more romantic setting. With this room now available we feel confident that we can create the setting and mise en scene we aimed for. We still have some props to purchase to make this room into the location we aim for but we were well aware from the start that our budget may prove to be an issue.

The Adventures of Andre and Wally B

But you were a lone animator in a world of programmers.
Yeah, the computer animation world at that time was primarily in university research labs. It was mostly TV commercials and mostly quite awful.

Everything was made of stone and glass and very reflective and all that, because most of the stuff being done was by people who’d created the software. I thought to myself, ‘You know what? I can make an object move around and give it personality and emotion through pure movement.’

I thought our powers were complementary, that I wasn’t gonna learn what they can do. I’d just sit next to them and co-operate! That became, I think, the single things that set Lucasfilm and Pixar apart: the idea of making tools for filmmakers to use.

Because there’s no software solution for entertainment; it comes from people, from the artists who uses it. So from the very, very beginning I really viewed the computer as just a tool for artists to use.

That logic presumably fuelled your first project, The Adventures Of André And Wally B?
Yeah. It became the first real animation that the computer had ever done – there were some attempts before by other people – but Andre & Wally was very cartoony, and people loved that.

I remember one guy, who worked with a computer graphics company, coming up to me after a screening to ask what software I used to get the humour in!

It really brought home to me how much it was seen as science at the time. No one realised that there were these animation principles that had been developed for like 50 years and I became something of an evangelist, speaking at animation festivals and at computer animation conferences on how computers are just tools you can use to entertain an audience.

This small extract from an interview with John Lasseter details the very start in Computer Generated Imagery, there was obviously examples of CGI in previous films but nothing had every been created purely using CGI. The animation was made in 1984 and to my knowledge was the first short film made using entirely CGI. It was made by Lassester for boy and although the film scared his son, it became revolutionary in the way the film industry viewed computers, technology and it’s potential uses in films. This is a perfect example for my project and my research, this is the proof that John Lassester changed animation, creating a new style. Lassester never stopped dreaming and always pushed with the idea of making a feature length animation.
In my opinion this was one of the main stepping stones in the development of CGI and how it was viewed. A development that was under main control and inspired by Lassester with the help from the team at Lucas film. This is a key aspect to the reason i believe that Lassester is an Auteur.

Key Details:
The idea and direction was done by Alvy Ray Smith
Animation was done by John Lassester
Tom Duff contributed in the technical lead. This was the man who designed the animation program ‘MD’ Motion Doctor

This Short film was groundbreaking at the time, it was the first film to use CG motion blur, creating a more realistic look for motion in animation. And at the time is was the recognized for it’s complex 3D backgrounds. According to Wikipedia Lasseter was known to push the envelope and asked for manipulated shapes able to achieve the squash and stretch style. This was a new angle seen as earlier CG models were basic stable geometric shapes, that were rigid and and constricted.
It was rendered on a Cray X-MP/48 supercomputer and ten VAX-11/750 super minicomputers from Project Athena.

Sources:

http://www.totalfilm.com/features/interview-john-lasseter/page:6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Andr%C3%A9_and_Wally_B.

Treatment.

« Newer Older » September 16, 2009 • 2:26 am Treatment What if your romantic meal wasn’t just romantic for you?… A stop-motion animation based on a romantic dinner for two, however instead of the couple being the focus,the cutlery, meal and other objects on the table are the main focus, using these utensils we will create the romantic essence. Using stop-motion we will be able to tell a story through the movement of the objects on the table showing the romance there instead of between the couple. The story will develop as we follow all the different objects on the table creating the romance in the scene. The main examples are the salt and pepper pots dancing, the knife buttering the bread and many other things. We aim to keep the film looking classic and romantic and avoid all cheesy/corny elements. The main characters will be our props and the film will focus on the salt and pepper pots, these will dance, hug and create a story and emotion for the viewer.
The setting will be kept simple, we will film entirely on the table using all objects as props and a setting. We aim to create a low lit romantic setting, candle light and 3 point light to keep visibility. The film will be between 3-5 minutes each second of the film will contain approximately 24 images, this is the standard for most films and stop motion should contain the same. The genre will be mostly romantic, we will try to avoid comedy as this could make it seem slightly tacky. The mood and overall feel to the film is to create a positive reaction from the audience getting the ‘Aww’ reaction is something we mainly trying to achieve.
The main movement in the film will be from the salt and pepper pots, following them dance around the table, distancing and the rejoining. We will also use the same effect with the food, knives and forks and wine glasses, as well as many other utensils. We aim to create a fluent motion in the film, taking influence from many old black and white romantic dance scenes.
In terms of mise en scene the main colour theme will be black and white, keeping some red to keep the impression of passion and love. Keeping with the theme of a classic film we have opted with 50’s style music, Taking influence in the film from artists such as Nat King Cole and Frank Sinartra.
Equipment will be a DSLR camera, a canon 500D keeping video available to use as well. 3 point to get the best mood and setting and we shall be using tripods and other equipment surrounding those 2 main aspects. Editing will take place in final cut pro, we would like to edit in I-Stop motion but we don’t have the available budget to obtain this software, in terms of overall budget we are limiting to around £25. This will be used to buy most of our props, for example the table covers and black cloth to create the setting.