Factory Essay

FACTORY FILM

Miwa Matreyek is an incredible animator.  She is the creator of the animations Digitopia and also Circus. One of her animations though that I find the most interesting is her animation Factory. Factory was created in 2004, portraying two messages, 1; that technology is taking over the used of human labour and 2; the revolution of technology.

The use of black and white for the colour scheme has an effect of making the audience feel dull and sad. It is displaying a message of work being a miserable environment. At the beginning of the animation workers are shown walking into the factory and checking their watches. This is producing a message of people being workaholics. These workers also help to show the factories that have been placed in the image introduction. The factories have been made in dark shades, using sharp and edgy lines. The use of these lines helps the audience to see the factories in a way that displays them as an unhappy place to be. The sharpness shows that the factories are a hard place to be. 

To me the most striking element in the animation is the machines, gadgets and robots used in the factories. These are in motion while the workers are watching them and one person is controlling them. This is portraying the revolution of technology in todays working environments. Technology has improved significantly over a short period of time and the revolution in factories is defiantly shown in the animation of factory. The use of a human hand being interpreted into the technology of the factory is showing that although humans work, technology is taking the jobs of many workers now days.  

The uses of sounds that are played through out the film display the importance of the message. Through out the duration of the film there is no human noise what so ever. Mechanical and robotic noises are the only sounds heard through out the film. This is helping to prove the message of technology revolution in factories.  Although the sounds help to provide evidence to the message being displayed, it is also creating a bored and sad mood to the film. This mood makes the audience think of factories as a depressing miserable place and somewhere they would rather not be.

The techniques used by the animator are smooth and complex. There is a excessive use of Photoshop as well as I-stock. It is evident through out the film that there is much use of Photoshop. An example of her excessive use of Photoshop is from the introduction where she has produced an image of factories, clouds, smoke and workers.

It is obvious that most of the elements used in the film are adding to the message by either the use of colour, sound of people. Personally I think that the repetition of the same objects could have been improved to make the film more enjoyable to watch as well as an addition to the message instead of just the use of people working in a factory that has been technologically improved. Though the statement and message that the artist Miwa Matreyek is trying to display is still very evident in the film.

E-PUB SCENE COMMANTARY

Introduction:

This is the introduction to Lauren and I’s film “Never Give Up”. This introduction style was chosen as we thought it was a creative and would be able to grab the audience’s attention. We chose the colours for the introduction book because they all compliment each other and is the appropriate colours for our target audience of both boys and girls. The shading of the letters was chosen as we thought it was a better than having just normal letters, also incorporating more creativity. There was a minor problem with the book, as when it was opened it would not stay open. This problem was overcome by gluing the pages together.

Scene 1:

This is scene 1 of our animation. This was the first scene of animation were the clay man was used. As this was our first scene it was the worst scene out of all of them as we were forming the mans steps and actions. This scene was challenging, as we had never used the clay man before. Our main problem in this scene was moving the clay man (Benji); although this problem was quickly overcome by learning to move Benji in a human like manner. This scene was filmed at a medium camera shot, as we did not want to complicate the first scene. Our scenery for the duration of the movie “Never Give Up” is plain and simple only consisting of a blue sky, two trees and a brown floor. This scene also consisted of a balloon stall as well. The scenery was plain, as we did not want the audience to focus on the scenery but on the characters and the story line. As this scene was our very first scene filmed it was very exciting for both Lauren and I as creators and directors.

Scene 2:

Scene 2 was the beginning of the movie plot. This was a complicated scene, as we had to trip the boy using a dog and also have the boy fall over. This proved to be a difficulty as it was a challenge to make the boy fall over. This problem was over come by using string to hold the man up right as he was falling to the ground. The scene, just like the first scene, was filmed using a medium camera angle. As before we did not want to get to technical with the camera so the audience would stay focused on the movie. The dog was chosen to be the cause of the boy losing his balloon because it was suited to our target audience (children). Having an animal would help attract the audience to our film as children are interested in animals more so than humans.

Scenes 3

This scene was a scene that had been forgotten to put into the movie. This had to be filmed last minute, as the movie did not make sense. The scene displays the boy sitting up from when the dog tripped him over and letting go of his balloon.  This scene was filmed similar to the scenes both before and after. It was easy to film as the only complication was the balloon floating away. Like the scene 2 we overcame this problem by using fishing string. It was difficult to steady the balloon as it hung from the string but as we progressed with the scene it became much easier and the end result was pleasant.

Scene 4

Scene 4 was the beginning of the more complex scenes. In this scene we floated the balloon through the sky. This was done by using fishing line, to hold it up. This was a difficult scene as the balloon could only be moved a fraction for each shot as well as trying to keep the balloon still while it was held up. This scene was taken two times; the first attempt at this scene was a very poor attempt, we took it as more of a learning scene and a time to figure out the basics then a usable scene. The second make of this scene was much better and much more fitting for the movie. The scene was much smoother and better quality then the first take.

Scene 5:

This scene is the boy finding the balloon while he is walking through the park. It was a simple scene as it was the smallest scene using the characters. This scene was also the first only scene with the addition of Photoshop. This scene, just like the others is filmed using a medium camera angle. Photoshop was used in this film when the boy looks up into the tree and thinks of an idea to get it down. Lauren and I wanted to use a question mark to make it more clear to the audience that he has thought of an idea before he walks off the set.

Scene 6:

Scene 6 is the scene of Benji’s first attempt getting his balloon back. He does this by using a red ball and throwing it at the tree where the balloon is placed. This scene proved to be a very complex scene. Problems that we faced were; the ball not staying in Benji’s hands and string falling off the ball. These problems were overcome by using a toothpick between the ball and Benji’s hands. This held the ball in place as we adjusted and moved Benji. The fishing line was then wrapped around the ball various times so that it would not slip off during the middle of shooting the scene and so that it was supported sufficiently. We then had to use the technique of the ball flying across the air. This technique was used when Benji missed the balloon and the ball bounce off the tree and falls to the ground and off the scene. This section of the scene was the more simple section as both Lauren and I had practiced it in scene 4.

Scene 7:

This scene is the second and final attempt of Benji throwing the ball at the balloon stuck up in the tree. This attempt also fails with the ball rebounding again and bouncing off the scene.  This scene is a short scene and is quite similar to the scene before it, scene 6. The same technique of the use of fishing line was used, like the scenes prior. As per the other scenes a medium camera shot was used to focus the attention on the story and character.

Scene 8 only a short mid camera shot, displaying Benji giving up on getting his balloon. This Scene of the movie shows the beginning reason to the title “Never Give Up”.  The sadness that Benji is feeling is evident in the scene from his body posture and not just him turning away from his balloon. His head is hung low as he sits between the two trees (one containing his balloon) on the ground, folds his arms and cries into his lap.  This scene then moves onto scene 9, of Benji crying.

Scene 9:

Scene 9 is continuing on from scene 8 and is the last scene using the characters and set. In this scene we use the same set, still showing the simplicity of it so that the audiences attention is on the characters and the story-taking place. A medium camera shot is used still for this scene, as we did not want to move the camera angle too much so that we did not lose the audience’s focus. It is a scene displaying Benji crying to the audience about the loss of his balloon and the hurt and sadness he is feeling from it. This shows his feeling of failure and not getting the balloon. A Benji sits on the ground with tears running down his face; we took this as the opportunity to have the float down from the tree by the wind and land beside him. Though we use the fishing line technique to do this. A matter of second’s later Benji’s head turns towards the balloon in astonishment.  The challenging part of this scene though comes when we have to stand Benji back up. This was challenging as his arm were very small and it was hard to find a standing method that didn’t seem awkward during the film. This scene then ends by blacking out and returning to the book were the credits are shown.

Credits:

The final scene for our movie is the credits scene. In this scene the booking is closing up representing the ending of the story and then, Lauren and I, the characters, and mr Andrews are all displayed in the rolling credits. The credits scene was made to showing the ending of the film. This scene meant the most to Lauren and I as it was our final scene for our movie after the producing of a 2-term movie assignment. For this final scene we stayed with the same colours as the Introduction scene. We decided to have our credits sliding down the back of the book, and then being placed on the page once the credits had finished. Although the one problem we had with this scene was the speed of the credits rolling. The credits rolled down the page much to fast for our liking. There was no time to reshoot the scene so Lauren and I decided to then place the credits back onto the page so the audience was able read them more clearly. Once this scene was done Lauren and I were relieved to only have to add the soundtrack and then have the final product.

MOVIE POSTER

Final Evaluation

PART 1

I am happy with my final e-pub result. All the items that were required I had put into the e-pub plus a background image for each of the slides and an extra chapter containing the song used in the introduction, through out the movie and the conclusion. The time length needed for the e-pub was defiantly more than I had planned. Although I finished the e-pub, I would have liked to add better voice recordings into the e-pub. The voice recordings that I used were hard to hear and background noises were evident when listening to them. Images would have also been good to put into the e-pub to show parts of the movie. Although my time length was very restricted so I was not able re record the voice recordings as well as add in extra images to the chapters.  If I got the chance to start over with the project I would defiantly use my time more wisely, therefore being able to have satisfactory voice recordings and the addition of images.

PART 2

I think that my poster and my e-pub turned out close to what I had wanted them to. My poster was exactly how I imagined it, and my e-pub was very close to what I had imagined it to first look like. The poster for my movie is able to portray the animation style as it displays the characters in clay as well as the target audience of kids by the colour scheme used. The e-pub is able to show the style of the animation by also the use of colours. In the e-pub the use of cool colours was used to show the target audience of children. During the making of the commentaries there was very little problems. The only problems that occurred during this time were the exporting of files. All my files had to be exported into a different format so that they could be used in garage band.  I had all the necessary materials needed for the poster as well as the e-pub. The steps that I used for the making and development of my poster and e-pub was to plan what I thought was required in the e-pub and poster and then add them in a way that the audience could see what they portrayed.  Although this became an issue as it waste a lot of my time in the making and developing of the movie e-pub and poster. I did not complete many reflections during the time of this project as my time was focused on the making of the e-pub and poster.

Title Image

Today in Creative Media I started my title image for my iBook. I started by finding both a background photo and a photo of both Ben ( character) and Baxter ( Dog). I cut out the dog using a mask and a brush then i added it to background image. Next lesson i will be looking for ways to not notice the blur of the character and dog.

BEN AND BILLY BAXTER

These are the two new members of our movie. To the left we have our new man Ben who is a remake of our first man. we had to remake the main character because the first man was very small and thin. this mean that he was hard to move around and walk and that he also became very "mooshy". Billy Baxter is also our dog. Billy Baxter will be the cause of Ben loosing his balloon in the first place. Billy Baxter will also run on the scene during the very last scene just before the credits start.

SCENE DIRECTORS

Intro- Lauren
1-2 - Georgia
3- Lauren
4- Lauren
5- Georgia
6- Lauren
7- Georgia
8- Lauren
9- Lauren
10- Georgia
Outro- Georgia

Reflection 17/09/12

Before handing in the assignment today, we had to add in the music and put the film together. This was done by firstly putting our movie together and moving it into garage band. the music was then added into the film. both 'I Won't Give Up' and the 'I Wont Give Up Instrumental' was added into the film. The music was then put together and faded. Once the music was added THE FILM WAS DONE!!! woo.

REFELCTION 17/09/2012

WE FINISHED OUR MOVIE!!!! Today Lauren and I finished our animation! wooooo! two terms of creating a film finally finished. It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders when handing in the assignment. I am very proud of lauren and myself on our end product and i think for our first film we have done a great job. yes it isnt very smooth and looks a bit dodgy but its great for a first movie. :)

REFLECTION

Today Lauren and I have decided to change the 7th and 8th scene from the man getting a ladder to climb up the tree and the police man to coming onto the scene, to using a red bouncing ball. This bouncing ball was used by the man who throws the ball twice at the tree but misses boths times, this is then were the boy gives up and sits down on the middle of the scene and cry.

Scene 10

This is the final scene 10 for mine and laurens movie Never Give Up

Intro

this is the intro to mine and Laurens movie Never Give Up

SCENE 9

This is mine and Laurens final scene 9 of our movie Never Give Up.

SCENE 8

This is Lauren and mines final scene 8 for our movie Never Give Up

SCENE 7

This is Laurens and I's final scene 7 for our moie Never Give Up

SCENE 6

This is the final scene 6 for mines and Laurens movie, Never Give Up

SCENE 5

This is scene 5 of Never Give Up.

SCENE 4

Scene 3-4 final of Never Give Up.

SCENE 3

This is the final scene 3 to mine and Laurens movie Never Give Up.

SCENE 1-2

This is the final scene 1 and scene 2 for Lauren and I's movie Never Give Up. These scenes are different to all the following scenes of the movie.

REFLECTION 20/7/2012

Today Lauren and I could not film, because there were no cameras left. so instead we decided to check our blogs.
So far this week Lauren and I have not done much, we have changed the backdrop of our set and thats about it. we also watched an animation made of books. it was enjoying to watch and see how the books were used creatively to show everyday things. My favorite part of the animation would have to be the trees, they were created so amazingly and it made the animation look really cool. Overall the animation was made of cut outs, paper and of course Books.

iStopMotion Practice

2 weeks ago Brianna and I  practiced using iStopMotion. Sadly i am having technically difficulties and it is not being able to upload. Soooo i will tell you the basic outline of what happens. it starts off with a variety of different coloured texters sliding on from the left. they then start to clip to each other. they are then shown making a circle lying on the floor. finally they form a circle standing on the floor. although we had a minor mistake were the testers fell down during filming so it is a bit rough. overall though i think that the iStopMotion practice went well and i am glad to be using iStopMotion as the main filming technique for lauren and I's movie.

Reflection

Yesterday, Lauren and I started to make our claymaiton characters. so far we have made the body, clothing and face for our boy ( the main character) we have also made the set and paper props. We now just have the other claymation props like the police man and ladder left to make. Hopefully we will be starting filming soon! cant wait to start making our movie :-)

WALKING MAN

Hello my name is Georgia ;)

Definitions

Animation 
The state of being full of life or vigor; liveliness.
The state of being alive.

keyframes
A key frame in animation and filmmaking is a drawing that defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition.

Tweening
inbetweening or tweening is the process of generating intermediate frames between two images to give the appearance that the first image evolves smoothly into the second image.

MY STOREYBOARDS

PROP LIST

PROPS LIST

Props List:

• Medium sized boy- clay
• Balloon stall-Paper
• Balloons-Clay
• Dog- Clay
• Leach- Clay
• Big Tree- Paper
• Small Tree- Paper
• Medium Tree X2- Paper
• Mini coin- Clay
• Grass- Paper
• Shrubs X4- Clay
• Flower Plants X 3- Clay
• Ladder- Clay
• Light Bulb- Photoshop
• Balloon Holder- Clay
• Police Man- Clay
• Phone- Clay
• Sky- Paper
• Clouds- Paper
• Wind Lines- Paper

Colour of Clays needed:

• Red
• White
• Skin Colour
• Blue
• Green
• Yellow
• Orange
• Black
• Brown
• Purple
• Dark Blue
• Gray

Colours of Paper needed:

• Green
• Brown
• Blue
• White
• Dark Green
• Yellow
• Pink

BOUNCING BALL

this is my bouncing ball animation.

shot list

Never Give Up- Shot List

Scene 1

1.   Full screen shot of park with Balloon stall -2sec

2.   Boy walking into park from right -5sec

Scene 2

1.   Boy walks up to balloon stall -3sec

2.   Boy puts money in box -2sec

3.   Boy takes balloon –2sec

4.   Boys keeps walking

Scene 3

1.   Boys walking through park

2.   Dog comes onto set running

3.   Boy see’s dog

4.   Dog lead gets twisted around boys legs

5.   Boy lets go of balloon

6.   Balloon fly’s away

7.   Dog runs of set

Scene 4

1.   Close up of boys face

2.   Tear comes out of boys eye

3.   Boy looks to sky

4.   Close up of balloon floating through sky left

5.   Zooms out to boy looking at balloon

6.   Boy runs out of park towards left

Scene 5

1.   Boy runs on from right

2.   Balloon gets stuck in right tree

3.   Boys looks up at tree with light bulb above his head

4.   Boys walks off set on the right

Scene 6

1.   Boy walks on with ladder

2.   Boy puts ladder against tree

3.   Boy climbs up ladder but still does not reach

4.   Boys walks down ladder

Scene 7

1.   Police man walks on from right

2.   Police man walks over to boy

3.   Boy finally gets down ladder

4.   Boy asks police man to do it for him

5.   Close up of boy talking

6.   Close up of Police man talking

7.   Police man about to do it when phone calls

8.   Police man talking

9.   Police man walks off to the right

Scene 8

1.   Boy looks at balloon

2.   Wind starts

3.   Balloon blows to left tree

4.   Close up balloon in tree

Scene 9

1.   Close up of boys face

2.   Boy starts crying

3.   Boy sits on ground

4.   Boy puts head on lap

Scene 10

1.   Full screen shot of boy, tress and balloon

2.   Wind comes up

3.   Balloon blows out of tree

4.   Wind drops

5.   Balloon lands beside boy

6.   Boy looks up

7.   Boy grabs balloon

8.   Boys stands up

9.   Boy smiles

10.                 Camera zooms in from whole screen to just the balloon filling up the picture

11.                 “The End” appears

NEVER GIVE UP OUTLINE

 NEVER GIVE UP

-       Little boy walking through a park

-       Little boy buys one balloons from a balloon stall

-       Pays for his balloon

-       Grabs them and starts walking again

-       Walking with his balloon

-       Gets twisted up in a dogs lead

-       Lets go of his balloon

-       They float away

-       He chases after them

-       Keeps chasing after them

-       They get caught in a tree

-       He stands there and thinks of what he could do to get it down

-       Walks out of the screen

-       Walks back in with a ladder

-       Try’s to climb up tree and still doesn’t reach

-       Climbs back down

-       Police man comes and asks him what’s wrong

-       Police man was about to help and then gets a phone call and has to leave

-       He then looks up and they have floated to the next tree

-       He then gives up and sits on the ground

-       Wind then blows the balloon back out of the tree

-       Balloon lands beside boy

-       Boy smiles

-       THE END!

My Sad Avatar

This is my sad avatar of brianna. I started with taking away blemishes. then i changed her hair,eye and lip colour. once that was finished i then added a background after i cut out the green screen. the backgroud is off flickr and its a photo representing deforestation. i then gave brianna a wooden body to represent the forest being cut down and used as her body. i liquified her eyes so that it was easier to see her sadness of the situation he is in.

My Happy Avatar

This is the first avatar i made of Brianna. I started by taking away her blemishes, then changing her hair, eye, lip and shirt colour with the paint brush and a mask. i then gave her new teeth which i blend in with her original teeth. i then made a backgroud which was of stars and a forest which i joined together. I then added a new skin to her which i gave a low opacity.

My Animal Emotion

When we were exploring the liquify tool on animals i decided it was easiest to try it on a kitten. i liguified the eyes of the kitten to make them larger showing more sadness in them. i then made its mouth smaller to show more emotion.

My Brush

This is the brush that i made during mr Andrews Tutorial. It was quite simple to make with just painting the brush pattern i wanted then going to the edit menu and selecting define brush presets and new brush would appear at the bottom of the list. i could then use this brush for whatever purpose.

Emma's Touch Up

This is my ugly touch up of Emma Watson. i applied normal layers coloured them in, masked them and then coloured the hair and eyes. i also touched up her pimples with a healing brush. i also cloned her eyes to form the new eyes above and below her original eyes.

Playing Around

Tonight i played around with photoshop. i joined two photos together and changed the colour, i also added text to it.

My Skin

This is the skin i made during Mondays creative media lesson. I found a tutorial website that helped me figure out how to make it. It was easy to make while going through the steps. The only thing i really got stuck on was the foreground and backgroud colour but then Mr Andrews helped me figure it out. Overall i am proud of my first attempt of making a skin.

CHARACTER PROFILE SHEET

Character Profile Worksheet
Basic Information/Statistics

Name: Simbu Age: 10
Current Residence: foretombia
Occupation: monkey trainer Talents/Skills: tree jumper and transportation

Physical Characteristics:

Height: 120cm Weight: 32kg
Race: forestian Skin Colour: olive, changes with mood
Eye Colour: green Glasses/Contact Lenses: none
Hair Colour: red Facial Shape: oval
Distinguishing Features: scar above right eye from a monkey scratch
Style (Elegant, shabby etc): casual yet elegant. She would wear shorts and a shirt but they would be classy. q
Dress/Clothing: simple, shorts and a shirt.
Mannerisms: cracking your knuckles
Hobbies: playing with her pet monkey, music and tree jumping
Favourite Sayings: we must bring our own light to the darkness
Speech Patterns: (straight to the point, long winded) straight to the point

Emotional Characteristics

Strengths: honesty
Weaknesses: organization
What motivates this character? Support from her peers
What frightens this character? Tigers
What makes this character happy? Her friends and her pet monkey GewGew
Introvert or Extrovert: extrovert, she is very out going and happy

What is this Character’s Goal?


Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes

Educational Background: forestians remember everything 100 times easier than humans so only 3 year of schooling is needed.
Character's short-term goals in life: to bring train over 20 monkeys
How does Character see himself/herself? as a shy immature forestian
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others? A crazy and loud forestian
How self-confident is the character? Simbu thinks that she is not self confident in her.
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof? Simbu doesn’t not get emotional, only if someone talks about her family, friends of fellow peers. She is also not ruled by logic, she does what she pleases without any thoughts
What would most embarass this character?
Best Characteristics: caring, honest, friendly and positive
Worst Characteristics: rebellious and controlling
Does the character have any prejudices? no

Additional Notes on This Character:

My character is a young independent child. She doesn’t like being ruled by her parents therefore she is rebellious.

This is my fist touch of my avatar photo (Bri). For my first touch up i just played around with things. Firstly i fixed the blemishes. The I got a photo of teeth, and replaced her teeth with new ones so that you couldnt see her braces. once i finished that i changed her eye colours, hair colours and lips colours. i thought my first edit of my avatar photo was pretty good and i cant wait to start doing my main avatar photoshop!

EMOTIONS

This image shows anger. shown by top lip is raised,top teeth being showned, eyes closed slightly, nose scrunched in and eyebrows lowered. This shows that the little girl is feeling angry.

EMOTIONS

This image shows that the man is very anger. This is shown by his nose being scrunched up, eyebrows scrunched in, mouth opened wide, teeth showing. One is is wide opened while the other is closed a little.