Rachael's Blog

FINAL BLOG POST

rachaelsblog10 — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 20:33:38 +0000

Keeping a blog for this project has been useful because it saves time when you need to refer back to an article and you can also use it to check what you still need to do. The blog has been easy to use and update, when I made progress in this project I just put it on here every week rather than leaving it weeks on end to update.

The final plan now is to write the report about A Scanner Darkly April-May.

Tutorial 25/3/2010

rachaelsblog10 — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 20:21:55 +0000

After my tutorial with Oksana a number of issues were raised for my report. For my literature review I need to break it down into sub-sections eg: historical context, development, issues/debates. I also need to expand on some parts and make changes to how I have referenced the authors. Some of it also need re-wording as I have mentioned the same thing two or three times.

On the analysis side I have decided to use ONLY ‘A Scanner Darkly’ as this is enough to work with and there is not much time left. Also when I watch this film again I need to develop an argument/point of interest so I have something to work with. At the moment the analysis I have done is basic and needs a purpose. To help with analysis I will use The art of watching films/Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis Petrie.

Another idea was to base the project on the historical development which would mean watching more 2D films and talking about each of these. The downside to this though would probably result in me watching a lot of Disney films which wouldn’t be good for analysis because they are all similar to each other which is why I have decided to stick with A Scanner Darkly.

The Analysis tables need to have a timeline so you know when the events/scenes mentioned occur, eg: 0:05, 0:25, 1:21 etc along the side. I also need to set these tables out better so its more clear.

Update

rachaelsblog10 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:27:13 +0000

This week I have been reading Makin’ toons inside the most popular animated TV shows and movies by Allan Neuwirth. Although not really relevent to my literature review it goes into great detail about some animated TV shows. Such as how the shows went from initial sketches right through to development/story and what has made them successful. You get an insight into were the creator/directors got their idea from.

As my project is on 2D yesterday I went to see the princess and the frog and really enjoyed it. It really made a change to see a traditional drawn cartoon instead of CGI. As it was a Disney film there was your usual big song and dance performance throughout the film. The story was told well accompanied by some really good Disney animation. The backgrounds were realistic and stunning in some scenes. If Disney can keep making films like this I definitely think 2D is slowly going to be on the way back and be successful again. I would recommend this film if you love 2D.

Princess and the frog(2009) [online image]. Last accessed 21 March 2010 online at: http://www.bscreview.com/wp-content/gallery/princess-and-the-frog/princess-and-frog-disney5.jpg

Screen cast complete

rachaelsblog10 — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:12:02 +0000

I spent the whole of yesterday recording and re-recording mistakes/sentences in my screen cast, it took longer than I thought. I wrote my script out in rough first then typed it up, and arranged my images in order so they would match up with the narrative. I recorded a couple of sentences at a time this made it easier to move around on the timeline in sync with the images.

Today I edited it and completed the written supplement. I have to admit I had no idea what Windows movie maker was before I made this screen cast, but it was really simple to use. Although if I was to make a screen cast in the future and use video footage I would have to follow the instructions on blackboard because I have no idea how this is done.

On the recording problem (see start of the screen cast post) I decided not to use the external microphone I booked out from the media center because when I was talking into it movie maker it would not record this but adobe soundbooth would. Importing from soundbooth to movie maker as a wma file didn’t work either for some reason, yet you could hear the recording in soundbooth. So I used the integrated microphone on my laptop, I would have used my phone but I don’t have my usb cable with me to connect the phone to laptop. Also the audio imput in windows movie maker kept on changing on its own.

I have played back my screen cast to check for errors, all I need to do now is reference the film images on the credits page, then publish it as a wmv file on DVD and print the supplement.

Yesterdays lesson 11/3/10

rachaelsblog10 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:59:27 +0000

Yesterday we were looking at each others blogs to make sure the links work etc… we then had to mark each others and provide feedback with reasons to the rest of the class.

The feedback I got was that everything was ok but I need to make more detailed reflections on my progress/actions/class activities, so starting from this week I will be doing that. Blog updates this weekend are going to be about my screencast/written supplement. The literature review is almost complete, slightly running behind with this as it should have been finished last week ( need to have a read of the following books: Animated films / James Clarke and Makin’ toons inside the most popular animated TV shows and movies / Allan Neuwirth ).

After the screencast is done which should be 16th/17 March I will continue with the analysis of A scanner darkly, Persepolis, and I need to watch the Triplets of Bellville (should have watched this a while ago but its been out of stock on all major sites,brought it of ebay yesterday so I will probably be watching this next weekend).

Over the easter holiday I will be continuing with the analysis of films and starting to write drafts up for the other sections of the report. Found a useful book to help with the analysis at Adsetts: The art of watching films/Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis Petrie.

Start of screencast

rachaelsblog10 — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:40:54 +0000

Finished writing the script today and looked for images on google. The recording hasn’t been going well in windows movie maker, so I am going to record it in adobe soundbooth, then import it to movie maker. I think I need to talk LOUDER which maybe the problem with the low quality of sound I am currently experiencing.

Task for Wednesday:

1. Complete recording and place in the appropriate sections of screen cast.

2. Add some title slides and a credits page.

3. Save/publish to disc

My sceen cast is about the style and techniques used in 2D animated films, main focus though is on a scanner darkly.

Film analysis

rachaelsblog10 — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:04:54 +0000

These are notes I made from watching the films

A scanner darkly analysis

Persepolis analysis

A scanner darkly and persepolis

rachaelsblog10 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:50:14 +0000

So I sat down to watch A scanner darkly and Persepolis, neither of which I have seen before to be impressed by one and disappointed by the other. A scanner darkly was visually appealing to watch with the realistic movement of the characters which were rotoscoped, this captures the movement just as successfully as motion capture sometimes used in CGI. I liked how the characters look like they are consistently moving when it’s really the effect of lighting used really well. The style of this film matched perfectly with the narrative, Persepolis on the other hand seem quite the opposite. While it’s a true story and not a happy subject matter I don’t think the whole film needed to be in black and white, I did slightly loose interest in this film because of this. A lot of the scenes looked the same.

Tomorrows plan:

Put analysis tables of films onto blog
Finish writing script for blog and record, then look for images.
Wednesday finish screencast draft.

Busy week ahead…….

rachaelsblog10 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:56:22 +0000

For next weeks lesson (11/3/2010) I need to have a draft of my screen cast which can be about 1) My research/research trailer or 2) Talking about a specific part of my research. For this I need to use Windows movie maker and book a microphone out to record (8/3/2010).

In class 4/3/2010 we looked at some previous screencasts by the games design students. The first one did seem impressive at first but watching it back I realised it didn’t have much information about their research, the clips of Avatar distract your attention from what is being said. Some had a poor sound quality and this is because they used a built-in microphone on their computer. It’s also a good idea to record in small sections then you don’t rush through your script and any mistakes can easily be recorded again without you having to do the whole thing again.

Over the weekend I have watched a scanner darkly and Persepolis while making brief notes in table which I will put on the blog later.

I now need to start work on my screen cast and look at the books mentioned in the previous post. By this time next week I hope to have finished the literature review if I need to add any more to it.

Literature review draft

rachaelsblog10 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:27:07 +0000

Literature Review

After doing some research this week I have written a draft. I maybe be adding to this later because I found the following books at adsetts which may be useful:

Understaning Animation: Paul Wellls
Re-imagining animation : the changing face of the moving image: Paul Wells, Johnny Hardstaff.