Personal Research Project - Artefact 3
The aim of my third artefact was to measure the effectiveness of both the traditional and digital special effect techniques tested in my second artefact. To do this I produced two short 30 second video clips showcasing the two different zombies I had created using prosthetic make-up and with After Effects. I then conducted a survey and recorded a series of focus group discussions in order to see which use special effects people generally preferred. I also included questions to do with realism in film to grasp a better understanding of their views.
For my first clip I produced a short clip showing an actor dressed in prosthetic make-up chasing a girl through the park; my second showed a girl turning on her bedroom light to a CGI zombie hiding behind the door. The prosthetic make-up effect was a fun and easy to film, where applying digital effects was fiddly and time consuming.
My results showed that the majority of audiences definitely prefer realism in horror films. They also generally defined realism in creatures as having human or animal like characteristics that we can relate to and identify with. The vast majority of people also preferred my prosthetic zombie test clip deeming it far more realistic and scary due to the realistic skin textures and filming in live action.
Overall my results show that using traditional make-up techniques is cheaper, faster, easier to work with and overly looks more realistic than using CGI. I think CGI has the potential to provide effective realism however requires highly paid skilled digital artists, more time and a much higher budget. Therefore I have found that traditional special effects
For my next artefact I shall be testing the time, cost and effectiveness of combining the use of prosthetic make-up with CGI to create a similar creature.
Here is the clip I made using a prosthetic make-up zombie:
Here is the clip I made using a CGI zombie:
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Client Project Progress
Progress on this project has not been too easy. Adobe Premiere is basically a piece of shit in terms of reliability, its slow and crashes every 10 minutes, or it cuts off the sound for the entire computer leading to restart every 10 minutes. Also despite the client being extremely happy with my work so far it seems I have a lot of changes to be made due to copyright and design issues. I have mainly been using footage from various films and documentaries and at his stage simply mixing them together, I do intend to add more interesting visual effects once the basic design layout is complete and therefore overthrowing the copyright laws, however my work does look a little 'thin' in terms of effort. Therefore I have begun to film more stuff myself for use in the video, starting with footage from Happy Go Lucky itself last Friday. I will continue to capture footage throughout Easter to add to my video as well as adding further visual effects to the final edit.
Also I have begun using Sony Vegas Movie Studio instead of Premiere and it is a dream to use so basically I have a lot to do but am confident the end result should meet its requirement.
Here is the video so far (prior to the alterations that need to be made):
Progress on this project has not been too easy. Adobe Premiere is basically a piece of shit in terms of reliability, its slow and crashes every 10 minutes, or it cuts off the sound for the entire computer leading to restart every 10 minutes. Also despite the client being extremely happy with my work so far it seems I have a lot of changes to be made due to copyright and design issues. I have mainly been using footage from various films and documentaries and at his stage simply mixing them together, I do intend to add more interesting visual effects once the basic design layout is complete and therefore overthrowing the copyright laws, however my work does look a little 'thin' in terms of effort. Therefore I have begun to film more stuff myself for use in the video, starting with footage from Happy Go Lucky itself last Friday. I will continue to capture footage throughout Easter to add to my video as well as adding further visual effects to the final edit.
Also I have begun using Sony Vegas Movie Studio instead of Premiere and it is a dream to use so basically I have a lot to do but am confident the end result should meet its requirement.
Here is the video so far (prior to the alterations that need to be made):
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Realism in Horror Films
Through my research I have found that people generally view realism to be one of the most important elements that can be found in modern narrative cinema today. This concept could be seen as rediculous as to why the filmmaker has to cater to the trap of realism, particularly in the horror/fantasy genres which allows an almost unlimited creative license. Realism is used so that we can identify with the characters and therefore go on the same ride emotionally. Some people prefer films to provide realism and therefore emotional intensity so that the film is a more thrilling experience which attacks the senses i.e. fear, sadness, happiness, confusion; where others may prefer films to provide fun and imagination, or even to be artistic and magical.
The question is however, how does an audience justify something as being realistic or not when it does not even exist? When we look at the vast array of creatures that appear in horror movies i.e. zombies, vampires, witches, killer dolls, monsters, giant sharks, gremlins, demons, werewolves, ghosts and mutants; noone has ever seen these in real life. So how does an audience define what creature special effects and appearances are truly realistic when the majority of them do not even exist in the flesh?
The true realism of these creatures is still debatable however they can be subconsciously related to a few main factors:
1. Realism is based on audience assumptions usually produced in modern film or literature. Although there have been numerous differing stories and appearances about mythical creatures from all around the world, people in modern day western society will instantly relate to images of horror creatures portrayed in modern film and literature. For example the modern day appearance of a zombie was set to what it is today through George Romero's imagination in Night of the Living Dead. There had been pictures and stories of zombies prior to this, however he set the standard for what we all relate to today; therefore when an audience watches a zombie movie they would subconsciously base its realism of that mental image of this imaginary creature which was actually created for Hollywood.
2. People may expect the majority of mythical creatures to be more human like in appearance as they can subconsciously relate to them, therefore can be seen as being more realistic. For example noone has ever seen God or aliens but we usually presume that they are of human form so if they were portrayed like this on film we would consider it realistic, where as if God was portrayed as giant penguin with a mohican on film, then probably not.
3. Other creatures in horror and fantasy films can be related to what we know about the animal and psychical world. Numerous horror icons in film are a distorted or magnified representation of things that already exist i.e. Jaws, Chucky the killer doll, The Thing. With these the portrayal created on film using special effects can often be alikened to how they look in real life, and more specifically, their ergonomics. Ergonomics relate to the way in which these creatures move and react in real life i.e. CGI may look unrealistic at times since it does not breathe, move, titch and react naturally as a genuine life form.
I'll will be looking into this deeper and producing a survey to aid my 3rd artefact.
Through my research I have found that people generally view realism to be one of the most important elements that can be found in modern narrative cinema today. This concept could be seen as rediculous as to why the filmmaker has to cater to the trap of realism, particularly in the horror/fantasy genres which allows an almost unlimited creative license. Realism is used so that we can identify with the characters and therefore go on the same ride emotionally. Some people prefer films to provide realism and therefore emotional intensity so that the film is a more thrilling experience which attacks the senses i.e. fear, sadness, happiness, confusion; where others may prefer films to provide fun and imagination, or even to be artistic and magical.
The question is however, how does an audience justify something as being realistic or not when it does not even exist? When we look at the vast array of creatures that appear in horror movies i.e. zombies, vampires, witches, killer dolls, monsters, giant sharks, gremlins, demons, werewolves, ghosts and mutants; noone has ever seen these in real life. So how does an audience define what creature special effects and appearances are truly realistic when the majority of them do not even exist in the flesh?
The true realism of these creatures is still debatable however they can be subconsciously related to a few main factors:
1. Realism is based on audience assumptions usually produced in modern film or literature. Although there have been numerous differing stories and appearances about mythical creatures from all around the world, people in modern day western society will instantly relate to images of horror creatures portrayed in modern film and literature. For example the modern day appearance of a zombie was set to what it is today through George Romero's imagination in Night of the Living Dead. There had been pictures and stories of zombies prior to this, however he set the standard for what we all relate to today; therefore when an audience watches a zombie movie they would subconsciously base its realism of that mental image of this imaginary creature which was actually created for Hollywood.
2. People may expect the majority of mythical creatures to be more human like in appearance as they can subconsciously relate to them, therefore can be seen as being more realistic. For example noone has ever seen God or aliens but we usually presume that they are of human form so if they were portrayed like this on film we would consider it realistic, where as if God was portrayed as giant penguin with a mohican on film, then probably not.
3. Other creatures in horror and fantasy films can be related to what we know about the animal and psychical world. Numerous horror icons in film are a distorted or magnified representation of things that already exist i.e. Jaws, Chucky the killer doll, The Thing. With these the portrayal created on film using special effects can often be alikened to how they look in real life, and more specifically, their ergonomics. Ergonomics relate to the way in which these creatures move and react in real life i.e. CGI may look unrealistic at times since it does not breathe, move, titch and react naturally as a genuine life form.
I'll will be looking into this deeper and producing a survey to aid my 3rd artefact.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Personal Research Project - Artefact 2
The aim of my second artefact was to measure the time-cost effectiveness of the design processes for both traditional special effect techniques and digital techniques. To do this I decided to create two zombie creatures, one using prosthetics and make-up, and the other using digital technology whilst filming, photographing and timing the processes.
To create my prosthetic zombie I hired my make-up artist friend Zannah for assistance and used liquid latex, nose putty, toilet paper and face make-up to build up an actor’s face. We began by applying a layer of liquid latex and then used toilet paper to create a wrinkly skin texture. We then used a combination of nose putty, latex and toilet paper to modify the actor’s features such as his eye sockets, nose and chin to give a deformed zombie like appearance. Finally we applied white, black, green and red face paint to give the desired look I required. This process took 1 hour and 55 minutes to complete and found it to be a lot of fun.
To create my digital zombie I used Adobe After Effects to create a similar effect on the same actor. This was a more complicated process but only took 1 hour and 40 minutes to apply the desired zombie effect, however it took me an extra 20 minutes to motion track just 2 seconds of footage.
Overall I found traditional make-up special effects to be much more time-cost effective than digital even though the design process took longer. This is because even once the digital effect is complete, the artist still has to carefully motion track or animate every millisecond of footage, where once the make-up effect is complete you simply have to film it.
For my next artefact I shall be evaluating the effectiveness of each special effect by shooting some footage with each and gaining feedback.
Here is the design process footage for the traditional prosthetic make-up technique:
And here is the design process for digital technique using After Effects:
The aim of my second artefact was to measure the time-cost effectiveness of the design processes for both traditional special effect techniques and digital techniques. To do this I decided to create two zombie creatures, one using prosthetics and make-up, and the other using digital technology whilst filming, photographing and timing the processes.
To create my prosthetic zombie I hired my make-up artist friend Zannah for assistance and used liquid latex, nose putty, toilet paper and face make-up to build up an actor’s face. We began by applying a layer of liquid latex and then used toilet paper to create a wrinkly skin texture. We then used a combination of nose putty, latex and toilet paper to modify the actor’s features such as his eye sockets, nose and chin to give a deformed zombie like appearance. Finally we applied white, black, green and red face paint to give the desired look I required. This process took 1 hour and 55 minutes to complete and found it to be a lot of fun.
To create my digital zombie I used Adobe After Effects to create a similar effect on the same actor. This was a more complicated process but only took 1 hour and 40 minutes to apply the desired zombie effect, however it took me an extra 20 minutes to motion track just 2 seconds of footage.
Overall I found traditional make-up special effects to be much more time-cost effective than digital even though the design process took longer. This is because even once the digital effect is complete, the artist still has to carefully motion track or animate every millisecond of footage, where once the make-up effect is complete you simply have to film it.
For my next artefact I shall be evaluating the effectiveness of each special effect by shooting some footage with each and gaining feedback.
Here is the design process footage for the traditional prosthetic make-up technique:
And here is the design process for digital technique using After Effects:
Client Project - Happy Go Lucky test video
Here is a brief sample of the video I am producing for my client Happy Go Lucky. Progress on this has been fairly slow due to the sound cutting out completely every 10 minutes when I use Adobe Premiere and have to restart. I told Simon about this in tutorial and he reminded me to simply record the timecodes for the audio so I know when to alter the video even when there is no sound.
The final version shall be approximately 60 minutes long, include more interesting visuals effects and with tighter editing. I showed this to my client over the weekend and he was so far extremely impressed.
Here is a brief sample of the video I am producing for my client Happy Go Lucky. Progress on this has been fairly slow due to the sound cutting out completely every 10 minutes when I use Adobe Premiere and have to restart. I told Simon about this in tutorial and he reminded me to simply record the timecodes for the audio so I know when to alter the video even when there is no sound.
The final version shall be approximately 60 minutes long, include more interesting visuals effects and with tighter editing. I showed this to my client over the weekend and he was so far extremely impressed.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Personal Research Project - Artefact 2 Research
For my second artefact I plan to test the difference between using traditional special effects and digital effects in terms of the time, cost and design process involved to create these effects. Therefore I intend to measure this by producing two video clips - one displaying a zombie created using make-up and another created using digital technology. The first zombie shall use an actor transformed using a mixture of face-paint,liquid latex,nose putty and toilet paper; while the second zombie shall also use an actor, though transormed using Adobe After Effects. I shall be photographing and possibly filming the design process in order to measure how time-cost effective they are.
Here are some tutorials I shall be using for guidance with this artefact:
For my second artefact I plan to test the difference between using traditional special effects and digital effects in terms of the time, cost and design process involved to create these effects. Therefore I intend to measure this by producing two video clips - one displaying a zombie created using make-up and another created using digital technology. The first zombie shall use an actor transformed using a mixture of face-paint,liquid latex,nose putty and toilet paper; while the second zombie shall also use an actor, though transormed using Adobe After Effects. I shall be photographing and possibly filming the design process in order to measure how time-cost effective they are.
Here are some tutorials I shall be using for guidance with this artefact:
Personal Research Project - Artefact 1
The aim of my first artefact is to research which types of special effects people prefer and whether their artistic background and taste affects this decision. My initial theory was that generally people from a more creative background i.e. people who studied fine art or media at school, have an interest in fantasy/horror literature and film, underground music and hallucinogenic drugs may prefer traditional special effects such as puppetry, models and prosthetic make-up, where people involved in more mainstream culture would prefer CGI. To test this theory I therefore constructed a questionnaire and distributed it to people via Facebook. This questionnaire assessed the test audiences taste in films, music, literature and their general interests before asking them to compare a selection of film clips showing similar creatures created using both CGI and traditional techniques, and state which ones they liked best and their reasons. These clips involved comparisons between giant alligators, werewolves and ninja turtles.
The results proved that my theory was fairly accurate, the people who had never studied art or media, never taken hallucinogenic drugs and were less interested in the horror, fantasy and sci-fi genres of film and literature seemed to generally appreciate CGI over traditional special effects. The results also showed that some people favoured different effects for a variety of different reasons; some preferred the creature effects due to its realism, where others preferred an effect due to it being humorous or visually interesting.
Overall I found this to be an effective study. For my next artefact I shall be creating two creatures, one using prosthetic make-up and costume, and the other digitally using Adobe After Effects; I will then look at how using each technique affects the cost, time and design process.
The results proved that my theory was fairly accurate, the people who had never studied art or media, never taken hallucinogenic drugs and were less interested in the horror, fantasy and sci-fi genres of film and literature seemed to generally appreciate CGI over traditional special effects. The results also showed that some people favoured different effects for a variety of different reasons; some preferred the creature effects due to its realism, where others preferred an effect due to it being humorous or visually interesting.
Overall I found this to be an effective study. For my next artefact I shall be creating two creatures, one using prosthetic make-up and costume, and the other digitally using Adobe After Effects; I will then look at how using each technique affects the cost, time and design process.
Here the links to the questionnaire I produced:
Questionnaire Part 1 - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=uXXN9HpiC49A7eeEvMz8ig_3d_3d
Questionnaire Part 2 - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=sPXHVgSQffZnAy2VPU3Opg_3d_3d
Here is a spreadsheet I produced to show my results and the method in which I used to distribute the questionnaire:
Here are the clips that I used for comparison to determine which types of special effects my test audience preferred:
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Live Client Project Proposal Visualisations
I recently had to produce a client proposal for my Happy Go Lucky nightclub visual display film explaining what exactly was going to be produced and an overall idea of production schedule and budgeting. I also had to produce some visualisations depicting what the film might look like. I produced these images below using photoshop to give any idea of the kind of imagery and effects which may be present in the film.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Artefact 1 - Experimentation
For my first artefact I shall be comparing prosthetic make-up to CGI by creating a deformed zombie like creature using both techniques. I shall be using Z-Brush to digitally sculpt my CGI zombie as I feel this gives the most control and is easier to use from a beginners perspective than other 3D modelling programs. I have recently purchased a book to teach me the fundamentals of Z-Brush as this definitely looks like a program I would like to use more in the future. However here are some zombie and creature designs I made before studying the book.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Progress with CGI & 3D Animation
Since the purpose of my personal research project is to compare the difference between traditional special effects and computer generated special effects in film I have set myself the fairly ambitious task of creating artefacts using these different techniques - prosthetics, puppetry and 3d animation. Since I have basic to no knowledge of any of these I am going to have to be a very fast learner and depend highly on others for help when producing these artefacts. Fortunately I have friends that help me with all of these however I would feel better if I attempted to do as much as possible through my own learning. I am a fairly qualified in terms of fine art therefore prosthetics and puppetry does not pose a great threat to me at the moment, all I need is money for resources; however the 3d animation is something that I have never been taught properly as well as being a skill that is notoriously difficult to master. I have always presumed I was limited to 3D Studio Max as a 3D animation program since this is what I was introduced on the course, the interface alone for this seems daunting enough let alone the sculpting tools. However this week I have been looking at alternatives;I have recently obtained copies of Z Brush and Maya and have found these much easier to get to grips with. I am currently working on creating a zombie head on Z-Brush and creating a basic crocodile body structure in Maya by referring to various video tutorials on Youtube. Maya is tricky but I am finding the interface much easier to navigate and am getting to grips with the modelling basics.
Maya - Basic modelling tutorial
Z-Brush - Basic modelling tutorial
Since the purpose of my personal research project is to compare the difference between traditional special effects and computer generated special effects in film I have set myself the fairly ambitious task of creating artefacts using these different techniques - prosthetics, puppetry and 3d animation. Since I have basic to no knowledge of any of these I am going to have to be a very fast learner and depend highly on others for help when producing these artefacts. Fortunately I have friends that help me with all of these however I would feel better if I attempted to do as much as possible through my own learning. I am a fairly qualified in terms of fine art therefore prosthetics and puppetry does not pose a great threat to me at the moment, all I need is money for resources; however the 3d animation is something that I have never been taught properly as well as being a skill that is notoriously difficult to master. I have always presumed I was limited to 3D Studio Max as a 3D animation program since this is what I was introduced on the course, the interface alone for this seems daunting enough let alone the sculpting tools. However this week I have been looking at alternatives;I have recently obtained copies of Z Brush and Maya and have found these much easier to get to grips with. I am currently working on creating a zombie head on Z-Brush and creating a basic crocodile body structure in Maya by referring to various video tutorials on Youtube. Maya is tricky but I am finding the interface much easier to navigate and am getting to grips with the modelling basics.
Maya - Basic modelling tutorial
Z-Brush - Basic modelling tutorial
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
PRP Feedback
Receiving feedback for the first part of this module last night was a bit of a kick in the balls. To be fair I really hadn't worked on my special effects research report as hard as I should have done though at the same time it was definitely not the easiest of tasks, especially considering the lack of reading material available on special effects. Here are some main points that I noted from talking to Jools today:
Receiving feedback for the first part of this module last night was a bit of a kick in the balls. To be fair I really hadn't worked on my special effects research report as hard as I should have done though at the same time it was definitely not the easiest of tasks, especially considering the lack of reading material available on special effects. Here are some main points that I noted from talking to Jools today:
- Key issues are not clearly highlighted therefore report feels repetitive and superficial - I need to define what makes a special effect effective in terms of realism. This will make it clearer as to what I am trying to achieve through creating the artefacts this term.
- Argument would have strengthened by making reference to work of others who discuss similar issues - Was unclear as to what this meant initially as I had made some clear references to veteran special effects artists such as Tom Savini and Stan Winston and their opinion on the subject matter. This was diffiuclt to elaborate on too much due to lack of sources. It was suggested that I talk to the puppetry and effects course leader at NTU, Sean Myatt, for a more in depth opinion.
- Very poor attendance, shows lack of professionalism - I lost considerable marks on this essay due to my lack of attendance and failing to show that I was truly engaging with the project. I was unware that this would effect my grade so severely as I probably did not read the learning outcomes properly. Fortunately I should be able to greatly improve this pulling my socks up and engaging properly with the course for the rest of the year.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Live Client Project - Collecting Resources
Over the Christmas holidays I have been researching and collecting footage that could be used for my psychadelic visual display film for my client Happy Go Lucky. I have collected numerous pieces of footage which I feel relate to jungle music and the scene surrounding it; this so far includes footage from various wildlife and nature documentaries, cartoon gangster footage from Snoop Dogg's The Blue Carpet Treatment film, footage from various jungle raves such as Best of British and AWOL, softcore porn footage from various films and other surreal footage from films which I feel would be suitable. I have researched into the work of other VJ artists, some who have used copyrighted footage as I intend to myself; these artists have evaded copyright infringements by manipulating footage to such an extent where it is barely recognisable, I intend to use this same technique.
I am also currently researching various programs which would be most suitable for creating this project, Arkaos seems to be a very interesting program and am currently getting to grips with it.
Snoop Dogg's Blue Carpet Treatment
Rainforest: Beneath the Canopy documentary
Over the Christmas holidays I have been researching and collecting footage that could be used for my psychadelic visual display film for my client Happy Go Lucky. I have collected numerous pieces of footage which I feel relate to jungle music and the scene surrounding it; this so far includes footage from various wildlife and nature documentaries, cartoon gangster footage from Snoop Dogg's The Blue Carpet Treatment film, footage from various jungle raves such as Best of British and AWOL, softcore porn footage from various films and other surreal footage from films which I feel would be suitable. I have researched into the work of other VJ artists, some who have used copyrighted footage as I intend to myself; these artists have evaded copyright infringements by manipulating footage to such an extent where it is barely recognisable, I intend to use this same technique.
I am also currently researching various programs which would be most suitable for creating this project, Arkaos seems to be a very interesting program and am currently getting to grips with it.
Snoop Dogg's Blue Carpet Treatment
Rainforest: Beneath the Canopy documentary
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
SPP3 Showreel
For the second part of my SPP3 submission for this term I was to create a showreel showcasing my best work in the form of an attractive audiovisual display. This showreel could hopefully be sent to employers to show off my skills and style of work.I plan to create an updated version of this once I have completed my course. Here is the current result:
For the second part of my SPP3 submission for this term I was to create a showreel showcasing my best work in the form of an attractive audiovisual display. This showreel could hopefully be sent to employers to show off my skills and style of work.I plan to create an updated version of this once I have completed my course. Here is the current result:
Sunday, December 14, 2008
SPP 3 - Catalogue Entry
Successful Practice 3 - Catalogue Entry Rationale
Over the past few weeks I have been gathering up and assessing the various work I have produced throughout my time at university in order to create a catalogue entry for the NTU Multimedia exhibition 2009. The purpose of this catalogue entry will be to showcase my work and skills in order to show to employers and further my career as a multimedia practitioner.
Throughout the three years that I have been studying multimedia I have been given the chance to experiment with all sorts of media ranging from animation to web design to audiovisual production; however in my second year I chose to focus primarily on audiovisual production/film. Through studying audiovisual I have been given the chance to work through every phase of film production from pretty much every position in the industry including director, cameraman, writer, sound, editor and art production; this has allowed me to evaluate myself and which aspects of audiovisual media I enjoy the most.
Therefore after much thought I have managed to narrow down my main skills and interests in multimedia to four main areas; these are audiovisual production, visual special effects, digital art and corporate identity design.
Regarding audiovisual and film production I feel confident in all areas of the subject including scriptwriting, production planning, camera work, direction, lighting and sound, however my main skills and interest lie in the post-production phase. This phase involves editing, visual effects and sound production. I see this as being one of the most artistic phases in that it gives you the ability to manipulate and transform some basic footage into something more visually spectacular. I am confident with and enjoy using programmes such as Photoshop, Premiere, Aftereffects and Fruityloops to add various artistic visual and audio effects to film and am keen to exercise these abilities in my future career whether working with music videos, film, advertisements or visual art nightclub displays.
Corporate identity design is another aspect of multimedia which I find extremely interesting. During the first year I worked on creating an identity package which would brand and help promote the NTU Multimedia course by use of a website, logos, promotional video and leaflets. This would allow me exercise a variety of different skills as well being creatively flexible to design multimedia products for a variety of different companies. I particularly enjoy the design process of creating an identity solution which would promote and sell a company or product most effectively. I am currently working on an identity product for nightclub promoter and would hope to do more of this in the future.
Digital art created using Photoshop, Illustrator, photography and sculpture is a skill which I discovered at art college prior to studying multimedia. Again creating surreal and colourful imagery is something that I would happily pursue a career in.
Therefore terms of career aspirations I would most likely want to work in audiovisual post-production or graphic design within film or television, preferably producing work that is visually impressive such as in the horror and fantasy genres. I would also be keen to work in the music industry taking care of art production that may be required with promotion. Scriptwriting is also something I would to work on in my spare time, maybe writing surreal horror comedy scripts similar to Jack Frost, about a killer mutant snowman, or Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
The images I have carefully selected for my catalogue entry I feel reflect my interests and general style of film making. Some of my main interests are drum n bass/jungle music, urban culture, wildlife, travel, surrealism and horror movies. The images I have used to produce my introduction page combine all these interests and therefore the style of my work. I have produced a dark and edgy, though colourful, urban background along with characters combining wildlife and urban and pop culture to form surreal comic horror figures. I feel this sums up the style of work perfectly.
The screenshots and images of my work I have used also reflect the surreal horror related side of my work. I have again used a blend of light and dark, combining colourful imagery with figures of dark horror; for instance the screenshot of the clown lying in bed with the colourful disco light in the background I feel represents the essence of my work – dark, comical and colourful. The images also show off a variety of different skills relating to artistic design in graphics, visual effects and art production in film.
In terms of artistic design there are many films and work of arts that I appreciate and take influence from, however the more famous practitioners would include Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Robert Rodriguez, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. These directors have all overlooked the art production and design in films that I wholly respect. In particular I appreciate the dark surreal sets and character design of films by Tim Burton such as in Beetlejuice, Batman Returns or A Nightmare Before Christmas; I would say my work is fairly similar to his style of film making in terms of the dark and surreal feel. Quentin Tarantino I appreciate for his quirky and surreal scripts and art production mixed with some ingenious editing techniques in films such as Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. John Carpenter for his frightening use of lighting and camera work in Halloween. Robert Rodriguez for stunning visual effects artwork in Sin City and Planet Terror; these make incredibly inventive and effective use of digital special effects to create two films which make a impressive visual use of darkness combines with colour. Finally Trey Parker and Matt Stone for their ingeniously surreal and controversial sense of humour used in South Park and Team America, I would take much influence in my work just from the pure insanity of their ideas.
Overall I hope my catalogue entry and showreel will help place me in a company which is creative visually and idealistically with no boundaries to design and thought process allowing my ideas and artwork to flourish.
For the first part of my Successful Principles and Practice 3 module I was to produce 8 images which could be used as catalogue entries for the Multimedia 2009 end of year exhibition. These catalogue pages are to be seen as a represenatation of myself, my skills and my aspirations within the multimedia industry, therefore I created various background images which I felt reflected my interests and style of work, these images also showcased images from some of my best work. I also had to write a 1000 word rationale report about the images I had selected and my general skills and career aspirations.
Here are the images below:
Successful Practice 3 - Catalogue Entry Rationale
Over the past few weeks I have been gathering up and assessing the various work I have produced throughout my time at university in order to create a catalogue entry for the NTU Multimedia exhibition 2009. The purpose of this catalogue entry will be to showcase my work and skills in order to show to employers and further my career as a multimedia practitioner.
Throughout the three years that I have been studying multimedia I have been given the chance to experiment with all sorts of media ranging from animation to web design to audiovisual production; however in my second year I chose to focus primarily on audiovisual production/film. Through studying audiovisual I have been given the chance to work through every phase of film production from pretty much every position in the industry including director, cameraman, writer, sound, editor and art production; this has allowed me to evaluate myself and which aspects of audiovisual media I enjoy the most.
Therefore after much thought I have managed to narrow down my main skills and interests in multimedia to four main areas; these are audiovisual production, visual special effects, digital art and corporate identity design.
Regarding audiovisual and film production I feel confident in all areas of the subject including scriptwriting, production planning, camera work, direction, lighting and sound, however my main skills and interest lie in the post-production phase. This phase involves editing, visual effects and sound production. I see this as being one of the most artistic phases in that it gives you the ability to manipulate and transform some basic footage into something more visually spectacular. I am confident with and enjoy using programmes such as Photoshop, Premiere, Aftereffects and Fruityloops to add various artistic visual and audio effects to film and am keen to exercise these abilities in my future career whether working with music videos, film, advertisements or visual art nightclub displays.
Corporate identity design is another aspect of multimedia which I find extremely interesting. During the first year I worked on creating an identity package which would brand and help promote the NTU Multimedia course by use of a website, logos, promotional video and leaflets. This would allow me exercise a variety of different skills as well being creatively flexible to design multimedia products for a variety of different companies. I particularly enjoy the design process of creating an identity solution which would promote and sell a company or product most effectively. I am currently working on an identity product for nightclub promoter and would hope to do more of this in the future.
Digital art created using Photoshop, Illustrator, photography and sculpture is a skill which I discovered at art college prior to studying multimedia. Again creating surreal and colourful imagery is something that I would happily pursue a career in.
Therefore terms of career aspirations I would most likely want to work in audiovisual post-production or graphic design within film or television, preferably producing work that is visually impressive such as in the horror and fantasy genres. I would also be keen to work in the music industry taking care of art production that may be required with promotion. Scriptwriting is also something I would to work on in my spare time, maybe writing surreal horror comedy scripts similar to Jack Frost, about a killer mutant snowman, or Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
The images I have carefully selected for my catalogue entry I feel reflect my interests and general style of film making. Some of my main interests are drum n bass/jungle music, urban culture, wildlife, travel, surrealism and horror movies. The images I have used to produce my introduction page combine all these interests and therefore the style of my work. I have produced a dark and edgy, though colourful, urban background along with characters combining wildlife and urban and pop culture to form surreal comic horror figures. I feel this sums up the style of work perfectly.
The screenshots and images of my work I have used also reflect the surreal horror related side of my work. I have again used a blend of light and dark, combining colourful imagery with figures of dark horror; for instance the screenshot of the clown lying in bed with the colourful disco light in the background I feel represents the essence of my work – dark, comical and colourful. The images also show off a variety of different skills relating to artistic design in graphics, visual effects and art production in film.
In terms of artistic design there are many films and work of arts that I appreciate and take influence from, however the more famous practitioners would include Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Robert Rodriguez, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. These directors have all overlooked the art production and design in films that I wholly respect. In particular I appreciate the dark surreal sets and character design of films by Tim Burton such as in Beetlejuice, Batman Returns or A Nightmare Before Christmas; I would say my work is fairly similar to his style of film making in terms of the dark and surreal feel. Quentin Tarantino I appreciate for his quirky and surreal scripts and art production mixed with some ingenious editing techniques in films such as Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. John Carpenter for his frightening use of lighting and camera work in Halloween. Robert Rodriguez for stunning visual effects artwork in Sin City and Planet Terror; these make incredibly inventive and effective use of digital special effects to create two films which make a impressive visual use of darkness combines with colour. Finally Trey Parker and Matt Stone for their ingeniously surreal and controversial sense of humour used in South Park and Team America, I would take much influence in my work just from the pure insanity of their ideas.
Overall I hope my catalogue entry and showreel will help place me in a company which is creative visually and idealistically with no boundaries to design and thought process allowing my ideas and artwork to flourish.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Live Client Project - Happy Go Lucky nightclub projection video
Drum n Bass projection visualisation video
Ambient projection visualisation video
As can be seen by the flyers above the promoter uses a frog as their identity or is 'the face of Happy Go Lucky', and I intend to build on this image as a starting point for my visualisations. Over the next few months I shall be collecting videos and imagery which relates to frogs,animals,flora and fauna among other things which represent the jungle and the music. I will also be learning more and getting to grips with various programs used to create these videos as well forming some sort of narrative and meaningful structure for the video so that it is not just a random string of clips. I am really looking forward to starting work on this.
I have recently been putting a lot of thought into what to actually produce for my live client project. I had recently chosen to produce a identity promotion package for a new local jungle and dubstep music promoter in nottingham; this would involve creating flyers,posters,website,promotional video and possibly banners and backdrops to use on the night. However after speaking to Simon he advised that I focus purely on my specialised field of multimedia - audiovisual, so he suggested that I make a advert or promotional video which makes use of my area of audiovisual interest - visual special effects/video editing/postproduction. However after thinking about this I realised firstly there wasn't much scope for demonstrating my visual effects skills in depth creating a advert for a small club night as they just wouldn't suit the image of the music,the venue or the promoter; and secondly I don't a video advert would be all that much use in promoting and helping sell the night.
After talking to my client we decided that instead of producing an advert, I would create a psychadelic projection video which could be used at the Happy Go Lucky club nights to enhance the experience as well as promote it. Suddenly I'm well excited about this project, unsure as to why I never thought of this before as creating these kind of visuals used in VJing is something that I have wanted to learn about for a while but guess I just forgot. This project will much more fun to work on,will benefit the client much much more, will let me exercise my visual effects skills with After effects and Premiere as well again skills with similar programs, and generally be a greal deal more interesting to work on! Here are a couple of examples of the type of thing I intend to produce:
Ambient projection visualisation video
As can be seen by the flyers above the promoter uses a frog as their identity or is 'the face of Happy Go Lucky', and I intend to build on this image as a starting point for my visualisations. Over the next few months I shall be collecting videos and imagery which relates to frogs,animals,flora and fauna among other things which represent the jungle and the music. I will also be learning more and getting to grips with various programs used to create these videos as well forming some sort of narrative and meaningful structure for the video so that it is not just a random string of clips. I am really looking forward to starting work on this.
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