This is a mood board for our second film. The poem is about isolation so we tried to gather images that portrayed this emotion.
We also decided to basically portray the poem by using all the pictures from the film

I have been thinking about what gives a film something more than being just a story being told, what gives it the edge, and am thinking about the film Seven.

This film is a story about two American cops, who are put together as a team though they have little in common and are not pleased to be put together. The film follows their investigation into a serial killers gruesome murders following the seven deadly sins. The film is clever in that you don’t ever see the murders taking place, so there is no gratuitous violence but you do see the analysis of these murders in detail. The cinematography is amazing, the atmosphere that is created in the city shots is really atmospheric, the camera angles are very personal, brining you close to the two main characters and helping you understand them. The city- which remains unnamed throughout the film, is shot is dim light, often just seen by torchlight, and there is a green kind of fog over the whole place, this is really atmospheric.

The film was nominated for an Oscar for Editing, and the opening credits give a taste of the great filmmaking that went into this film, the music and the cuts. Close up details of the fingers of the murderer and some of his victims, really gets your blood pumping, tension builds even from the opening credits. I also plan on trying to replicate this type of text in my 2nd film as it gives you the feel that something is going wrong or will go wrong and this is what i want to achieve.

This was the mood board we all created for the first project. This mood board includes odin as our poem was complicated so we decided to just look at a section of the poem which included this gods name.
This mood board also includes the types of colours and backgrounds that we decided to use because of our research and previous knowledge.
The backgrounds we were planning to design originally included icy colours and ruins with great detail from the past.

Background number 3 for 1st film

Background number 2 for 1st film

Background number 1 for 1st film

My Instructional video

Instructional videos

I have watched a lot of instructional videos. If you want to know how to do something you can be sure someone will have filmed themselves doing it and posted it online… but how to make one that is interesting and actually instructs!?

Some simply are PowerPoint presentations with a voiceover, not what I am looking for as I want this to be a film, not just PowerPoint’s.

I did a lot of online research, there are plenty of sites telling you how to make a good instructional video, and mostly they are fairly common - sensical – if that is a word!!

http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/185/six-steps-to-creating-high-quality-video-training

http://www.ehow.com/how_2107969_make-instructional-video.html

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2010/01/creating-brief-instructional-videos-and-more-with-jing/

these sites above are just a sample of the many many on offer…

Main points seem to be : good planning, look at the camera, clear speech, try to make it interesting, keep it short, get the presenter to present/instruct and not to ACT,
Anyway, I looked at lost of these sites, and at lots of instructional videos too.

I decided to do an instructional video on how to do a magic trick with a coin, simple to explain, and my two wee brothers love this trick so I know it has some appeal!!

I got my friend to do the piece, and tried to keep it relaxed and informal.

We planned the trick and how to explain it and I think after a few trial runs we managed to whittle the trick down to the few key points in the vid.

Then once it was filmed, I thought that I would like to make it stand out so I added an effect using photoshop which I think adds interest to the trick and does not take anything away from the instruction.

this is a stop motion of a bike chained to a post in NYC, dead interesting, the music really adds to it, if you changed it you would change the whole feel of the film. Interesting therefore making me realize you need sound in your your films.

Camera angles

Camera angles

One of the great things about doing this course is being taught to think about how films are made and what makes them what they are.

I have been thinking about camera angles and their effect. This is England, by Shane meadows -2006- was really enhanced by the camera angles, a great film, the technicalities of the angles and direction made it…the use of contextual clips and soundtracks cut short and fast and then panning back to for example the main character getting up really adds to the whole feel of this film.

When thinking about making a film I want to remember the importance of such things as camera angle, to accurately get across the sense of what I want to show, things to consider include the framing of the shot, ie the length of the shot, which of course depends on what you ar trying to show.

The actual angle of the camera can totally change the feel of the shot, if you think of an eye level shot from about 3 m away as being a normal kind of shot, simply portraying the action as it happens, then you can see how other angles might vary the effect - for example a birds eye view can seem surreal, things not being necessarily recognisable when seen from above, as we don’t normally see things in this way. An angled shot from a lower height can make the viewer see things through the eyes of one of the characters for example. Conversely when you shoot from below the subject you can make them seem taller or more important, so you really have to think about more than the plot or plan, and look at what you want to say/portray before you decide on the best angle at any point.

The higher the shot the more general the shot generally, so can be used to give an overall picture or scene setting for example.

When I shot an instructional video for example I just shot straight at the instructor, which is I think suitable for this type of film. I didn’t want the audience to be confused or take their mind off the subject by using any other angle.

In a story though, I would want to get over feelings, or fear for example and the angle can add to this greatly.

I was searching to see if there were any games from or inspired by the ghibli team when I found this, shame that the rights for these films have been bought up by Disney, but that's life...anyway, the trailer looks great, so different from say world of warcraft, the characters are always in focus, the backgrounds not, does this emphasise the character, the background is much more in the background than in say world of warcraft or the animation The Deluge below where the background is more integral, is this type of set more imaginative, as the user only gets drawn in because of their imagination, and it is still so appealing, i'm not sure that this type of set is as commercially successful in the west, i want to find out more about how popular it is in Japan where it is made.

I love this trailer, the artwork is amazing, it really makes you want to join in the game as it is so realistic and magical. I have been playing this game for a few years and it still draws me - and my friends-into it. I'd love to be able to create such an atmosphere through this medium. Does gaming have to have this realistic feel though, this is what i am wondering, look at the deluge, amazing, but not realistic as such, look at the studio ghibli stuff, again more food for thought, would it be good to create something different in gaming?

i love this film, and the others from this studio, it has been one of my favourites since i first started watching these films, the atmosphere created and the echoey soudntracks really draw me into the films. they have a special quality, not like other animations, they have commonalities unlike other animations or films - usually a young female lead, usually a sweet old lady, a magical or secret place, and a lot of animals, birds etc. it is not just these features which make them special, but it is interesting to see the common threads and to wonder about the formulas used by this very successful studio. the first film was produced in 1987 and the first commercial success started to be noticed around the time i was born, so i hae been watching these films for most of my life- which seems bizarre!

I decided to look at more tutorials on Photoshop to improve my knowledge of Photoshop.
This video shows how an artists starts off her ideas for her own character designs -surprisingly it's how i do it. She does this by doodling a lot and if she starts to like the character from the doodle she will then stick to the design and perfect it.
I have also learnt some very nice new cool tricks for example if u pick a certain paintbrush the softness of the line changes depending on how hard you push down.

Since i have started to use Photoshop a lot more during this course i needed to learn how to
use it more and better.
This video is just one of many tutorials on Photoshop on YouTube. After watching this video i now feel like i can shade better on Photoshop and make things look more 3d. now I have to apply this...

My Reel from Edfranklyn on Vimeo.

I was in the search for inspiration for my character designs and came across this witch is a video of a lot of different characters.It shows how a few of them have been transformed from still pictures in a flip book to moving images on a screen.I like the first character and how he has no face but yet has loads of character this is done i think by how fluid his movements are.I recon i could use this information when i start making my flip book animation.
This video is also very fast paced witch i think helps as it engages you more in the short video.
This is also something i recon i could incorporate in my later work.

"Déluge" - Le film by Lisaa-animation
while searching through some of the French art college animation sites I found this short animation, it is so amazing, the model of the boat, the backgrounds, the shaky edges and the haunting soundtrack…makes me wonder how I could make a character really different, with a different type of design, less traditional, more …well…arty…but am not sure I could pull it off…more food for thought. i love this site, the students have also included video of their thought processes, how they designed the characters, the models they made etc etc, the background and set design can all be seen separately and i love that each of them are so great standing alone, but then when put together are amazing. this is very different from the style i seem to use, and i wonder if i should incorporate some of these ideas.
i am now seeing that the more you look at the more inspired you can get and the more ideas you have to draw on and give you a different edge...

Human Skateboard by PES

I love youtube, I love skateboards…so was so pleased to find this awesome piece of stop motion animation. Kind of bizarre how the soundtrack mixes with the action, and though you know it is stop motion - yes nobody got hurt during the filming of this movie- …as they say…it is so much more effective for using real life characters…food for thought..now I have to see if I can make this tie into my work…inspiration though, really inspirational…Im thinking of how the sounds and the action don’t really have to match and how this can add a new edge…play tricks with your mind…

I am so interested by this image, i love the classic designs from old comic books, this one is for sale online for 7500 dollars, WOW, i love that the old designs have become such classics, i would love to think that i could design something that ages so well...
i used to read the old super hero comics when i was very young, l loved them, silver surfer especially, and of course batman and those villains...these have seen a re emergence lately, but the films are mostly action films with actors and a lot of special effects, i am wondering about tyring to create a character along these old classic lines, would this work today...

I love the simplicity fo this character design, it seems to me a bit like power rangers meets world of warcraft meets Braveheart...but brilliant, though from this you only get a flat feel, how will this be when animated?
I'll have to try and find it, what are the colours? Now i have said braveheart i can see blues...

Barbarian character design, in Michael�Lovitz's Character designs, product designs & prelims - misc artists Comic Art Gallery Room

Barbarian character design, in Michael�Lovitz's Character designs, product designs & prelims - misc artists Comic Art Gallery Room

Disappearing coin trick tutorial - YouTube

Disappearing coin trick tutorial - YouTube