Animation

For me the most exciting and interesting part of animation is the fact that you can truly create anything. I found, earlier in the semester, that when thinking of an idea for a video of film project there are countless limitations. You have to make creative decisions based on the locations, equipment, props, crew, and actors available. On top of these issues are the limitations based on what is physically possible to do. When thinking of an idea for an animation project these issues are either non existent or are much easier to deal with. There are no locations to find, there is less equipment needed, there is no to very little need for props, a crew, or actors, and the physically impossible becomes the possible. With little more than a computer and some software one person can come up with an idea for an animation and create the whole project.
There were the things that I noticed most when working on my project. I was able to bring to life an inanimate object and do with it whatever I wanted. I found that the creative freedom that animation offers is the most excited part of working with Flash. While this ability to do anything through animation may present an extraordinary opportunity to be creative in a very different way, there are issues that animation presents as well. The biggest problem and greatest difficulty that I found when working on my project is that in order to make a good looking animation an unbelievable amount of time must be placed in to not only working on a project, but also in learning the idiosyncrasies of the program. Flash is definitely a complicated piece of software and I feel that it would take hours and hours of work time and guidance in order to master the basic features of Flash. None the less, I enjoyed working with Flash and creating my own animation.

Production Notes

Now that I have pretty much completed my video project there are a few things that I would have done differently. The first thing that I would have done was I would have looked for someone who had a video camera that I could have borrowed so I wouldn’t have to use those steady cams. I have done minor projects with these cameras before, and new coming in that the quality of video wasn’t going to be too great, but I didn’t realize how many broken and damaged frames I would get when converting and transferring the video footage from the camera, to the computer, and then to Final Cut. Another thing that I would have done was shoot more for the scenes where we had planed cuts, like the scene when Elden takes his phone out of his pocket, because the lack of multiple shots and attempts left me with less to create clean, continuous cuts.
I think that overall our project came out the way in which we had intended. When we watched the fully edited version I laughed, and that’s usually a good sign when making a comedy video. We were able to produce a video that matched our original concept and our storyboard and the specific angles, shots, and I was satisfied with the cuts that we had planned in pre production. I think the only thing that I was a little bit unhappy with was the quality of the voice over and the video footage itself, but these problems were unavoidable.

The Art of Editing

For this assignment I chose to analyze a scene from one of my favorite action/cop thriller films, Bullitt (1968). I scene I chose to analyze was the famous car chase scene near the end of the film. I scene starts of quite slow, introducing the audience to the first car involved in the chase. The audience is shown a number of fixed camera positions following the car going up and down very San Francisco like streets. Then we enter the car; there are 4 or 5 short cuts of the driver and the passenger in the car clearly looking for something. Then there is a series of POV shots showing at the characters in the car looking down the road and then of the cars and other activity in the direction they look. We are then introduced to Steve McQueen’s car in a very creative way. The driver of the other car looks in his rear view mirror and McQueen suddenly appears from the other side of a hill. We then jump from the mirror, to the driver of the car, and back to the mirror, beginning to add suspense with short, violent cuts.
Finally, we get close up of the driver of the first car buckling his seat belt, letting the audience know that the chase is about to begin. Shortly after this shot the music kicks in and the chase is on. The editor does a terrific job of creating suspenseful and edge of your seat type of scene. The shots are short and jump constantly from car to car, driver to driver, creating a chaotic like mood. The editor moves from long, tracking shots of the cars going by, to close ups of the drivers in the car, constantly cutting and holding shots for no longer than 3 or 4 seconds. The chase finally ends with a spectacular explosion (like any car chase should end) and again the editor of the film has put together, through the use of extremely short shots and a back and forth cutting, an extraordinarily suspenseful and thrilling chase scene.

The World I Hear

It’s pretty astonishing to really stand in the middle of a city block, close your eyes, and focus wholly on the sounds being produced around you. For me the ambient sound of New York City is something that is absolutely amazing. If you were to go anywhere in the city, from Midtown Manhattan to the South Bronx, there will not only be a unique abundance of sound, but sounds that can very easily create a mood or a specific environment. For this exercise I focused on two places that I visit quite often, right out side of Hunter College and in the middle of Astoria Park.
When you really listen to what goes on outside of Hunter there are countless sounds and textures that are created. For most of the day this area produces the sounds of a bustling and energetic location. Like most places in the city, the sounds of cars, trucks, and emergency vehicles dominate over most other sounds. There is a constant ebb and flow of horns honking, engines running, trucks barreling down the street, and the occasional siren blaring. For many this might be annoying or distracting but this is the soundtrack to my education. I study, read, think, and learn in this environment and for me it is almost soothing.
In Astoria Park the prevalence of traffic sound still exists, but does so in a very different way. Running straight over the park is the RFK (or Tri Borough) Bridge. There is a very constant buzz of traffic created by the cars and trucks that cross the bridge, but unlike the area around Hunter the sound here does not vary as much. It is smooth and calming, reminding me of the sound river water makes as it flows downstream.

Reflection of MediaP 150

Overall I must say that my experiences in MediaP 150 have been, for the most part, educational, informative, and entertaining. The lab and lecture layout of the class has helped me to both understand film and media through the hands on and what I found to be real life experiences as well as the lectures, which gave me more explanation of the different aspects of what we were learning.
I would say that the only negative that I found that the class presented was the lack of time for each of the lab demos or projects. I think that if there were more than one film camera demo, more than one HTML demo, and more than one Photoshop demo the students would be able to retain more of the information. I thought that there was too much information crammed into a short amount of time.
Some things that I learned from the semester that will always stand out were the still and moving image composition rules and shots we went over near the first few weeks of the semester. Those ideas and rules were new to me and I found it very insightful and helpful to be able to try these techniques and rules out with the hands on projects.

Design I Like: There Will Be Blood Poster

One functional media design that struck me was a movie poster, probably used as a subway advertisement, for Paul Thomas Anderson’s film There Will Be Blood. The movie happens to be one of my favorite films and I think that the poster not only attracts an audience member like myself but also shares with the observer of the poster a bit of what the style of the movie is.
While the poster may lack an over the top graphic or even appear a bit dull there is a great deal of detail and expression in the limited text and graphic displayed. When examining the composition and balance of the poster it is striking how the text on the poser is both centered horizontally and positioned in size order vertically from top to bottom, with the bottom “COMING SOON” as an exception, maybe to draw attention to an approximate release date. The first phrase, ranging 3 lines, reads “WHEN AMBITION MEETS FAITH” sharing with the audience a theme of the movie with a simple sentence. The next line reads “DANIEL DAY-LEWIS” shown in a font a bit larger, which strikes the eye and grabs the attention from the first to the next line. Directly under Daniel Day-Lewis’ name is the title of the film There Will Be Blood, presented in again a much larger font but this time the font style is different. The Title is written in an Olde English style, like a font that you might find on an old book or bible. The style again relates the bible type look to the theme of the movie, which is a conflict between the rewards of the church and the rewards of capitalism.
After the Title the poster shifts downward with a striking but thin red line moving down the horizontal center of the poser to the smallest text reading, “Written for the Screen and Directed by/ PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON” giving credit where credit is obviously due to, the mind behind the wonderful film. The final color or background that the text positions itself on is an old black book cover with a worn and tattered binding, proving an overarching backdrop of religion and an historic or antique mood.

The Cinematography of Shutter Island (2010)

In Martin Scorsese’s 2010 drama, Shutter Island, the story of an ex U.S. Marshal, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is told through the use of a very noticeable filming style. I found that the filming style and choice created not only a specific feeling for the location of the movie but also created a character that as an audience member I was able to feel. When looking at the actual location of the film, a small island inhabited by a high security mental institution, there is a very specific mood created by the way in which the island is presented. Most of the shots of the location, and specifically when DiCaprio’s character is “introduced” to the island, are done in a very wide angle are usually high angle shots which create a feeling of loneliness and an unnerving feeling of sterilized life.

The way in which DiCaprio’s character is presented also creates a specific mood or feeling. In the beginning of the film most of the shots of DiCaprio are close ups or medium close ups and are usually low angle shots. This creates an idea of strength and reasoning possessed by this character over the rest of the characters in the film. As we begin to recognize the psychological problem that DiCaprio’s character has the angles and shots begin to shift and we find more shots of DiCaprio circulating around the character and shooting him from a high angle. This creates a mood or feeling of mental unstableness and unease in the character. In these two instances, with the presentation of the location and the main character throughout the film, the Director of Photography along with the Director of the film are able to create mood or feeling through their camera work.