Category: Design for Animation

This week I conducted a very in-depth academic discussion and research on this The major film theories: an introduction.

We can think of filmmaking as a window through which we can see the world. Cinematic art is a product of the tension between representation and transformation. “Its aesthetic basis is not what the world already presents, but the aesthetic use of the things or methods of presenting the world.”(p148) Jean Millet believes that “only after overcoming the dramatic aesthetics such as constant angle and duration, can film become an independent art from theater” (Andrew, 1976, P107) And in order to create a self-sufficient work, the traditional artist always represses the real (however realistic the purpose may be)…he simply experiences again (in a new way) the patterns that shape his daily life and behavior… (p159) Movies are a bottom-up technological process, which starts from nature and integrates our thinking with nature. It enables us to rediscover the world itself that has been occupied by scientific knowledge and forgotten by us. Cinema must submit to a purely psychological world, exchanging the connections between appearances in the real world for connections of a psychological nature. The greatest difference between a film and a dream is its integrity. “Whereas a dream evokes certain fantasies and emotions” that confuse or euphoria us in our waking hours, a beautiful film dissipates the energy it exploits. It takes “natural representations, reorganizes” (p208) them in the order of mental operation, and finally evokes our emotions. It puts these representations in the right order, “giving them a final sequence that obeys only the laws of the operation of the mind”, thus excluding the chaos of reality and allowing the viewer to complete a complete experience. “The viewer indulges in the things of the imagination, lost in a world detached from the needs and wants of reality”

Bibliography

Andrew, J.D., 1976. The major film theories: an introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Critical Report Structure

•            Title: Subtitle

•            Acknowledgements – Optional

•            Abstract

•            Key Words

•            Contents Page

•            Introduction

•            Literature Review

•            Main Body of Text

•            Conclusion

•            Bibliography

•            Image List

Also, we talk about how to develop a research topic, experiment, and critically evaluate methods, results, and their implications in a range of complex and emergent situations and articulation of criticality, clarity, and depth. Communicating a diverse range of intentions, contexts, sources, and arguments appropriate to your audiences are very significant processes in research topic development.

This week we learned how to build an argument during the process of developing an investigation, clearly state your contention, identify the important reasons/premises of your argument, identify possible objections, research evidence that supports your reasons and/or reduces objections, structure your argument so your points logically lead to your conclusion and clearly state your conclusion bringing together your thesis statement and the supporting points are very significant steps of building arguments. Also, we need to consider areas of professional and academic development that motivate the investigation study. At the same time, we also learned some relevant knowledge about literature review

”A literature review has four main objectives:

It surveys the literature in your chosen area of study

It synthesises the information in that literature into a summary

It critically analyses the information gathered by identifying gaps in current knowledge; by showing limitations of theories and points of view; and by formulating areas for further research and reviewing areas of controversy

It presents the literature in an organised way“

Sources Available at: [https://www.rlf.org.uk/resources/what-is-a-literature-review/]

During the week we discussed documentary policy and animated documentaries, learned about the history of animated documentaries, and watched and discussed some excellent animated documentaries. Animation is often use to to ‘clarify, explain, illustrate and emphasise’ (Honess Roe, 2013,: 9)

The one I really into is Waltz with Bashir is a 2008 Israeli adult animated war documentary drama film written, produced, and directed by Ari Folman. It depicts Folman’s search for lost memories of his experience as a soldier during the 1982 Lebanon War. ‘Animation, in part through its material differences from the live-action film, shifts and broadens the limits of what and how we can show about reality by offering new or alternative ways of seeing the world. It can present the conventional subject matter of documentary (the ‘world out there’ of observable events) in non-conventional subjective, conscious experience – subject matters traditionally outside of the documentary purview’ (Annabelle Honess Roe, 2013: 1) This animated documentary gives an unprecedented perspective on the war and is very impressive

Bibliography

Roe, A.H., 2013. Animated Documentary. Palgrave Macmillan UK, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137017468

This week we learned about the conceptual division of these two forms of animation, abstract animation, and conceptual animation and at the same time watched and analyzed some representative works about these two forms of animation. Those are the animation or film works that contain no acting and do not attempt to reference reality or concrete subjects. They rely on the unique qualities of motion, rhythm, light, and composition inherent in the technical medium of cinema to create emotional experiences.

The abstract art animation I want to share here is the animation created by Josef Heks at Start VR, which is also the field of animation that I really want to explore because I find the effect of this animation very fascinating, and it will remind people about life, the universe, and philosophy, etc. There are many fields, and this kind of animation is also very healing. It is one of the fields that I really want to get involved in.

Film The Post (2017)

Story Arc

Stage 1:

One local family newspaper, The Washington Post, prepares to go public and sell shares due to financial distress.

Stage 2:

Ben, the editor-in-chief of The Post, noticed the strange actions of a Vietnam War editor of the New York Times, and he always hoped that the Post would become as influential as the New York Times.

Stage 3:

The New York Times broke the shocking news about the Vietnam War.

Stage 4:

The Post begins an investigation into the source of the story, hoping to get some other coverage before the New York Times.

Stage 5:

A Post editor found the source behind the New York Times story through an old friend.

Stage 6:

The core members of the Post’s newsroom spent a day sorting through the documents and preparing to report, because the Nixon administration had issued a ban on the New York Times, and their move would be tantamount to the demise of the Post.

Stage 7:

The Post still decided to report on this resistance to the ban, and they, along with the New York Times, were sued by the Nixon administration.

Stage 8:

Newspapers across the country scrambled to report the contents of the Vietnam War document, setting off a wave, and the Supreme Court’s final decision said the Post and The New York Times were not responsible for their action.

Characters Archetypes

Heroes: Kay Graham, Ben Bradlee

Allies: Ben Bagdikian, Fritz Beebe, Meg Greenfield

Herald: Neil Sheehan

Shapeshifter: Robert McNamara

Threshold Guardians: Arthur Parsons

Shadow: Daniel Ellsberg

Timeline:

JUNE 13, 1971:

The Times publishes its first story about the report under the headline “Vietnam Archive: Pentagon’s Study Traces Three Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement.”

JUNE 15

The Nixon administration secures an injunction to block further stories by charging that Ellsberg committed a felony by leaking the papers. The Times appeals and the case quickly goes to the Supreme Court.

JUNE 18

After internal debate led by new publisher Katharine Graham, the Washington Post begins publishing its own series, based on copies provided by Ellsberg. The Post’s first story runs under the headline “Documents Reveal U.S. Effort in ’54 to Delay Viet Election.”

A federal court refuses the Nixon administration’s request for an injunction. More than a dozen other newspapers start publishing their own stories.

Topic title: Combination of actor performance and VFX

Keywords: film acting, filmmaking, VFX, performance skills, cooperation, digital effects