This year’s flatpack festival was a big success, and I enjoyed event that I attended and took full advantage of my free wristband given as thanks for volunteering.
Shorts on walls was an opportunity to network with fellow animators and professionals and watch the region’s short films. It was a mix of work from both students and professionals. I also took the opportunity to hand out flyers for our end of year Animageddon. Here are some of the films shown.
First up was A Model Christmas by Chris Randall. A combination of creature comforts and Lego, shoppers around Birmingham city centre were asked “What would you like to win this Christmas?” and the vocals were used with the Lego characters in a quirky stop motion animation. As it was ‘what you like to win’ as apposed to ‘what would you like’ it allowed the people interviewed to be as ambitious as they liked with their ‘prizes’.
Dougie’s First Day was a stop motion animation that uses slapstick humour as its main device. Though some of the gags were funny, they seemed a bit repetitive after a while but I enjoyed the style of the animation.
Trolley was an interesting film about quiet young man, misunderstood by his peers. I enjoyed the mix of live action and animation in this one, the animation used to express the guy’s quirky imagination, entertaining thoughts of conquering the taunting individuals with a giant metallic bird and a dragon made of trolleys.
Arguing is a Nice Hobby was a CGI animation about an old couple who argue a lot at each other, they then get signed a record deal where their shouting matches make them famous. I wasn’t too keen on this animation, I liked the style of the characters but they seemed a bit too simplistic for the poses and emotions targeted. Also the story didn’t have much to it other than the novelty of an old couple arguing on stage in a rock band.
Bicycle Diaries/ Revolution by Steve Chamberlain was an interesting film constructed from videos of Steve’s long cycle across Mexico overlaid with a rotoscoping and abstraction technique that worked well to make the videos more like memories of a journey, fragmented time where one day blends into the next with the turning of a bicycle wheel.
The highlight of the evening was Moonbird by the Brothers McLeod, a dark fairy tail about a little girl and an evil witch, a story of an ultimate battle of dark and light. The use of black and white emphasises the good and evil sides, and the soundtrack works fantastically with the visuals. Definitely a must- see for all.
Friday, 2 April 2010
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Current projects
Environ-mental
The Brief
(Har har)
Create an animation or series of animations that adress climate change issues in an entertaining way. Consider a variety of delivery methods so that the message can reach as many people as possible. Target audience UK 13-50. Target those who may be interested in making changes in their lives to reduce their impact on the environment.
People who know a little about climate change already and want to help and/or
People who just need more motivation to take action and/or
People who have heard of climate change but may need more information about what they can do.
See my Development Blog For more information.
The Brief
(Har har)Create an animation or series of animations that adress climate change issues in an entertaining way. Consider a variety of delivery methods so that the message can reach as many people as possible. Target audience UK 13-50. Target those who may be interested in making changes in their lives to reduce their impact on the environment.
People who know a little about climate change already and want to help and/or
People who just need more motivation to take action and/or
People who have heard of climate change but may need more information about what they can do.
See my Development Blog For more information.
Monday, 1 March 2010
New Website
Well my website seems to be looking good, please contact me if you find any bugs and tell me which browser you're using. I'm trying to get it compatible with the most popular browsers and even for iphone users.
Check it out: laurennewman.co.uk
Check it out: laurennewman.co.uk
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Ed Hooks- Acting for animators notes
Ed hooks, author of ‘Acting for Animators’ has a Stockpile of tips regarding how acting skills can be implemented into animation. If you can’t attend one of his master classes, I’d recommend you take a look at his book and sign up to his monthly newsletter, where you can read his craft notes on new releases.
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Stage actors work in the present movement, animators work in an illusion of the present moment, but the acting principles are the same.
Emotion and empathy
Ed Hooks describes emotion as an ‘Automatic Value Response’. While thinking tends to lead to conclusions, emotion tends to lead to action. Humans only empathise with emotion. Empathy literally translates as ‘Feeling into’ unlike Sympathy where the audience ‘feels for’ the character. While sympathy can work for short periods of time, ultimately you want the audience to relate to your character, that’s where empathy comes in. Ed had the example of the opening scene in ‘The Emperors New Groove’ to illustrate the use of sympathy where there should have been empathy. When a character stops making an effort to secure his or her own survival, the audience cannot empathise with them.
Empathy doesn’t work for characters you can control completely; it requires a certain amount of distance. In games when you have full control, you can’t empathise with the character. If it gets eaten by a zombie as it was you that made it happen. In The Sims however, the user has a certain amount of control but the characters ultimately have their own free will, their own personality, motives and reactions to your influences. The audience could feel empathy in the right situations. While they can take away all the windows and doors to a room, they cannot stop the Sim inside from crying or complaining of hunger. Read my review on The Sims 3 here.
Moving illustration vs. performance
Reality is very different from theatrical reality. In reality, you get 100% of everything, boring or not. In theatrical reality scenes are constructed for the purpose of telling a story, each scene has form.
If you can freeze frame a character at any given moment and understand what they are doing at that moment in time, then you have a good scene. Good performance is the following:
An action in pursuit of an objective, overcoming an obstacle
A character plays an action until something happens to make them play a different action. Obstacles= Conflict, there are three types:
• Conflict with self
• Conflict with a situation
• Conflict with a person
A child character mostly encounters conflicts with their situation, even if that involves another person. For example when Coralline wants to plant seeds in the rain and her mother doesn’t allow her to, this is conflict with her situation. Coralline, like most young children, accepts the authority of her mother so her conflict is with her situation, the rain outside more than anything else.
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Stage actors work in the present movement, animators work in an illusion of the present moment, but the acting principles are the same.
Emotion and empathy
Ed Hooks describes emotion as an ‘Automatic Value Response’. While thinking tends to lead to conclusions, emotion tends to lead to action. Humans only empathise with emotion. Empathy literally translates as ‘Feeling into’ unlike Sympathy where the audience ‘feels for’ the character. While sympathy can work for short periods of time, ultimately you want the audience to relate to your character, that’s where empathy comes in. Ed had the example of the opening scene in ‘The Emperors New Groove’ to illustrate the use of sympathy where there should have been empathy. When a character stops making an effort to secure his or her own survival, the audience cannot empathise with them.
Empathy doesn’t work for characters you can control completely; it requires a certain amount of distance. In games when you have full control, you can’t empathise with the character. If it gets eaten by a zombie as it was you that made it happen. In The Sims however, the user has a certain amount of control but the characters ultimately have their own free will, their own personality, motives and reactions to your influences. The audience could feel empathy in the right situations. While they can take away all the windows and doors to a room, they cannot stop the Sim inside from crying or complaining of hunger. Read my review on The Sims 3 here.
Moving illustration vs. performance
Reality is very different from theatrical reality. In reality, you get 100% of everything, boring or not. In theatrical reality scenes are constructed for the purpose of telling a story, each scene has form.
If you can freeze frame a character at any given moment and understand what they are doing at that moment in time, then you have a good scene. Good performance is the following:
An action in pursuit of an objective, overcoming an obstacle
A character plays an action until something happens to make them play a different action. Obstacles= Conflict, there are three types:
• Conflict with self
• Conflict with a situation
• Conflict with a person
A child character mostly encounters conflicts with their situation, even if that involves another person. For example when Coralline wants to plant seeds in the rain and her mother doesn’t allow her to, this is conflict with her situation. Coralline, like most young children, accepts the authority of her mother so her conflict is with her situation, the rain outside more than anything else.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Rob Sprackling
Writer, Rob Sprackling talked about comedy in film and how to keep the audience engaged. He emphasised that each scene should be a self contained story or joke while also contributing to the main narrative.
He explained a good way to come up with high concept, big ideas, by combining things that wouldn't normally fit together. First start off with a world, then clash it with something completely out of that world. His upcoming film 'Gnomeo and Juliet' illustrated this perfectly with a classic romance inside the strange world of gnomes.
Character is critical- Often more important than story...
The central character takes us on a journey, he goes through an emotional change, learns something. The central character must be 3D, with a back story and a future (or goal). Other characters are 'one note' each one bringing out different qualities in the central character. Rob showed us clips from Mike Bassett: England Manager where the audience follow the story of the central character, who goes on an emotional journey as he is knocked from a fan favourite to one of the most hated men in England after several big losses.
Theme- Have something to say
Have a think about what the film is about, is there an underlying message? In Toy story, the theme is jealousy. Rob talked about 'The Queen's Corgi' where the themes are leadership, responsibility and self sacrifice.
Structure- 3 acts and more
First 10 minutes- Find out what the film is about.
End of first act- Turning point, change.
Middle act- solve the problem, find out what to do.
Third act- take action and resolve the problem.
Green Monkey
Rob's film Green Monkey is a short, simple film where there is a pay off at the end. It uses a interesting device where an event has happened and is re-told through several points of view to a detective.
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