Collaborative Practice: Friday 19/10/2007
This morning I had my first meeting with Sophie to talk about the project. We had a general discussion about the kind of things we would both enjoy working on and looked at different methods that we like to use. I was keen to work with Sophie because of her experience in using paint on glass effects and experimental techniques in animation. Our methods of working are quite different as I am more inclined towards pencil and ink styles, I felt that it would be good to work together to combine our contrasting styles into one film.
We mainly talked about how our experiences have influenced our previous work and used this as a basis for developing new ideas. The idea of travel appealed strongly to us both, I suggested that we could present stories about our travels and each develop some ideas from what we have been told by each other. We both share a fear of flying and talked about how we could show this visually. We both wanted to work together using mixed media and possibly look into the idea of linking our work through the methods used rather than the style of drawing.
Other ideas that we touched on were a journey or race using space hoppers (we did this for a charity event), making an advert or title sequence (motions graphics and animation) and making puppets based on our perception of each other.
We have arranged to work on these initial proposals and develop some storyboards for when we next meet so that we will be able to decide which ideas have the most appeal and potential.
Next meeting: Tuesday 23/10/2007
Collaborative Practice: Tuesday 23/10/2007
Met with Sophie to discuss what ideas we had had about the project since Friday. Both felt that the idea of journey was one that we most wanted to explore. Talked about the idea of colour and animation methods. Made story boards together and thought it would be good to have an object that would guide the viewer through the environments that we want to portray, a seed or feather could be a possibility.
We would like to animate using paint techniques and have transitions that are sound, environment and colour orientated. For example, heat waves dissolving an image into another, paint colours mixing together or the sound of dripping water combining with visuals of droplets distorting the pictures.
The next time we meet we are going to present to each other photos, films and stories from our travel experiences so that we may start to develop what images we will be animating and how they can blend together.
Next meeting: Tuesday 30/10/2007
Collaborative Practice: Tuesday 30/10/07
Met with Sophie to present ideas, photos, film and our personal travel experiences. After this we talked about which elements we want to incorporate into the film. Decided on an initial time limit of 10 seconds each that will combine to make a 20 second film. Sophie will be mainly looking at San Francisco landmarks (Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Lombard St.) and Vancouver (Native art, Sea life). I am going to develop ideas about Sophie's time in Africa and her work with The African Children’s Choir. I would like to include elements of dance and also wildlife.
When we meet next we have arranged to show a storyboard of our proposed film and work with these to develop the way in which the transition between the two films will work. After this we will refine our storyboards ready for production and research the material we wish to portray.
We have also arranged a date that Sophie is able to come and animate at NSAD.
Collaborative Practice: Sunday/Monday 4-5/11/07
I have been working on storyboards for the collaborative project today and yesterday. The main areas that I have focused on are water, dance and nature. I have incorporated ideas for transitions between shots into the timeline and I will carry out research into methods of paint on glass animation in order to try and realise how I will be able to produce the effects that I want.
I hope to give the film a fluid and gentle feel, but also colourful and lively. With regards to the sound design, I hope to use foley sounds to change the atmosphere between different places, but I am not ruling out the use of music at this stage. These are areas I will discuss further with Sophie when we meet tomorrow.
Have also been thinking about ideas for the first self-negotiated project and plan to visualise my ideas in the coming week.
Collaborative Practice: Tuesday 06/11/07
Met up with Sophie. We looked at each other’s storyboards and talked about how they would be realised in paint. We also decided to cut out certain elements as we felt that the amount of material we had would not fit into our time limit of 10 seconds each. We looked at how we would blend the films together but how we also wanted them to have an individual feel. Sophie is working more on a natural flowing animation whereas I am going to focus on patterns in nature using certain stylistic devices. We have planned to use cut outs for parts of the animation and will layer up moving painted backgrounds during postproduction.
Next meeting will be on Wednesday 14/11/07 to begin filming. Before then I am going to organise paints and set up for animating. Sophie will be animating first.
Collaborative Practice: Thursday 08/11/07
I have been working on my ideas for the project and thinking about how I will go about animating and making preparations. Had a tutorial with Suzie and discussed key areas such as the reason behind doing the project, how I am collaborating with Sophie, what the final outcome will be and how to assess the success of the project. Talked about organising time regarding the animation process and producing an animatic in preparation.
Self Negotiated Unit 01: Friday 09/11/07
I have been thinking about my self negotiated project for a while now. I have decided to look into making a film based on games that people play when they are children, focusing on games with creative elements such as Etch-A-Sketch and Spirograph. I am going to make animations based on people's experiences of children's games shown using the game that is being spoken about. I intend to interview people to use as part of the films. I would like to experiment with a range of materials and techniques when making these films.
I am aiming to use this unit to investigate how I am going to realise this in film form to produce a selection of short animations based on the interviews I record, perhaps about 10+ seconds for each film. I would like to develop this further after this unit is completed into a longer film made up of these short films using a wide range of different people, materials and games.
Collaborative Practice: Week 12/11/07 - 19/11/07
Over the past week I have been mainly making preparations for filming the collaborative project. Animating was due to begin; however this was put on hold as Sophie had a minor car accident (she's okay!) and was unable to begin filming. We have rescheduled so that Sophie is now animating this Wednesday. I have spent the week finalising my storyboard, researching animating methods and gathering materials in preparation.
Today I have been helping to set up the area that we will be using to film. I hope to carry out some tests tomorrow so that everything is ready on Wednesday and Thursday.
I have also spent time working on my self-negotiated project by researching the ideas I hope to incorporate. After this week I hope to begin interviewing people for this project.
Collaborative Practice: Week 20/11/07 - 27/11/07
The majority of the filming and animating has been done by Sophie and myself this past week. I began tests last Tuesday, which produced successful outcomes. On Wednesday Sophie began her animating and we worked together to tackle unforeseen problems that arose while we were filming. We made a few storyboard adjustments together and altered the look of some scenes in accordance to how the other person felt it should appear. I have continued to work on animating my part of the project for the rest of last week and the beginning of this week; we are both currently on schedule.
After the initial filming has been completed we will both be compositing the images and editing as well as looking at foley to use on the final piece. I will be meeting with Sophie tomorrow to discuss any issues that may have arisen since filming last week and also to look at how we will progress with the project over the coming week
Self Negotiated Unit 01: Tuesday 27/11/07
Over the weekend I interviewed a few members of my family as a starting point to realise what kind of information I would be able to get for this project and how I would need to edit the sound to fit a short film format. I found that interesting information resulted from interviewing my two brothers simultaneously as memories of childhood conflict became apparent, such as building things only to have them taken apart by the other sibling. I had not previously thought of this but I feel I would like to find other examples to portray.
This initial information will be useful in helping me to think about getting a wider variety of responses from different people and to make me consider how the interviews can be portrayed through animation. I would also be interested to see if certain topics arise repeatedly in order for my film to feel that it has an ongoing theme rather than just a series of unrelated clips.
Collaborative Practice: Tuesday 11/12/07
Over the past week I have begun work on postproduction of my piece of animation for this project. I have been painting cut outs that will be used in the film, and also preparing the shots that I have taken for compositing in After Effects. I have met with Sophie and we have discussed the work that we have done so far. Sophie's animation is in a more advanced stage of production than mine currently, but there are a few issues with the aspect ratio and end transition between the two halves. These are the issues that we will be looking to address next. We will be meeting on Thursday this week, 13/12/07.