THE ART OF CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. A Cinematographer is the person in charge over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, and responsible for the technical decisions (i.e. Composition, frame, lighting, filters) working on a film. They are responsible for translating the storyboard into a film. It is important for the Cinematographer to realise what the Director wants in an artistic way. 

Eric Castro, Cinematographer

Roger Deakins

2. Roman Polanski insisted on using a hand held camera in the film Chinatown. He wanted to try and communicate a sense of intimacy and spontenuity with his actors. Roman Polanski insisted on the Cinematographer John A. Alonzo to use the hand held camera, especially on Dorothy Faye Dunaway. Dunaway is an American Actress who played one of the characters in Chinatown. Roman Polanski wanted to make her look beautiful through out the film, so Alonzo reflected a natural light constantly onto her face. 

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway

Roman Polanski

3. The Cinematographer for Apocalypse Now was an Italian man called Vittorio Storaro, who collaborated with the director Francis Ford Coppola on a number of films. Storaro won an Oscar for his work in the film, which has attributed to its iconic look. His working philosophy was based around his use of colour, and how different colour connotations can give the audience different meanings and reactions. 

Vittorio Storaro

Apocalypse Now

THE CUTTING EDGE: THE MAGIC OF MOVIE EDITING

1. Eisenstein's ideas about montage have been described as 'revolutionary'. He was the first real director, who's staging ideas and incredible juxtaposition of images were absorbed into American Cinema. Sergei Einstein who came from Russia was part of the Russian revolution of film editing, using different effects and wanted to inspire the nation with this medium. His work was described as seeing editing like history, as a clash of images and ideas. The meanings were not in the shots themselves, but the collision of the shots being put together like the speed, volume and Rhythm. A collision sparks a new meaning higher of order. The messages between each cut and edit can determine the outlook in the context. Einstein reveled in his cuts, wanting the audience to know it's a film. 

    

2. A film that has been influenced by Eisenstein's Montage theory is 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day'. There is a slow tense build-up with the young John Connor and all the characters coming into context. To create a nightmarish quality at that specific scene, the edits speed is in slow-motion, to create this tense build-up. Then there is a cathartic break, which helps kick the action into gear. Watching this scene takes me back to my child-hood years when I first started watching it. Seeing the scary terminator come towards John Connor, made me think the terminator would come towards me because I was relating to how he was feeling. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRX12zkY9PI        

3. The Kuleshov effect is a film editing montage effect demonstrated by Russian film maker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910 and 1920's. The experimental piece of film about the soup, coffin, and the little girl playing with the teddy bear, shows this technique being used. The power of montage is editing one shot/sequence, a second and a third when put together, create a more powerful meaning. It is usually the third scene that has more emotional meaning. First shot is the man staring hungrily at the soup, through a blank expression. The second is of the man staring with the same expression at the woman, but it seems more lustful. The third shot, the man is staring intently at the little girl, but with the same expression as the previous two scenes. 

FROM PENCILS TO PIXEL

1. Animation styles developed over the years and have a rich history. I am interested in 2D hand-drawn animation, especially the Japanese style, commonly known as Anime. I have grew up on watching Anime when I was a child, and was memorised by the big eyes and unrealistic hair. The culture behind it has it's influences (Meiji Era, Harajuku Fashion) making it unique to western style animation. Japanese animation before it became digitalis, focused more on the art of drawing, through lines, shapes and tones. Where as a lot of western and digitalis animations are more simplified and use block colours. Observing the way characters interact, eat, dress and live (Tatami houses, Sailor and Kimono, uniforms, importance towards food) were a culture shock to me, so that's where my interests began. 

                      

2. John Lasseter said in the Pencils to Pixels video, 'What makes a drawing become an emotion, movement and humour? It comes from all these animation principles that have been developed over the years'. When drawing something, you have to think what it would be like if it were to exist in the real world. I always think about how the body would move, how they would talk and dress according to their personality. The first 3D character animation by Lasseter 'Andre and Wally B (1984)' shows theses principles. Andre has cute, big eyes, a funny over-sized nose and a toy tin soldier hat. So by looking at this character, you know there will be child like humor involved. The motion of his unproportioned body is smooth and exaggerated, but created to follow human characteristics in a similar way. 

              

3. Spongebob Squarepants is a character I think is believable to the audience through his personality. Spongebob is based on the Sea Sponge creature found in the ocean with a funny twist. Instead, Spongebob is drawn as a kitchen sponge, something the audience can be familiar with. He wears a nerdy outfit, has two buck teeth and geeky voice, which is a common stereotype for geeky people. His personality is warming, bubbly, childish and fun so already it makes the character alive. I also considered the fact he has a home, a best friend, a pet, neighbours, a job and hobbies like most people in this world, so his 'life' is similar to our lives. 

      

4. Miyazaki Hayou inspired many animators and artists through his films. The way he directs action and tells a story is different compared to Western animation. When Chihiro enters the room full speed, then trips at the carpet, she lands on her face with her feet over her head, that slowly come down as she pulls herself together. The action is exaggerated in a very elegant way, to emphasise the emotion and movement in the story. Through this, we empathise with Chihiro's pain and shock. Miyazaki , and many other Japanese animators, celebrate the quiet moment of film. What this means is that Miyazaki takes time to appreciate the surroundings and what is happening in the context. It gives the audience to observe the backgrounds and characters. Japanese people, especially the very traditional ones, communicate messages through their gestures rather than dialogue. In 'Howl's Moving Castle' (Hayou Miyazaki) the scarecrow uses his gestures to communicate and surprisingly everybody understand him. Just a nod or a bow are signs of welcome and agreement, especially in Japanese culture. 

THE BRITISH DOCUMENTARY

1. John Grierson, the former street preacher who founded the movement, gave a definition of what documentary was. He said 'Documentary outlines the patterns of independence'. There are areas which I agree with but in this case I disagree, just for this video. This British documentary relives the economic crisis of the 1930's and the Second World War. There is a scene where the bombs reigned down and the men march off to fight. The documentarist kept the focus on the life of ordinary people. It shows the connection between people supporting each other to get through this long, hard journey. You could say the men singing, is a positive way of showing each other support and team work. Independence wouldn't have won the war, so documentary doesn't just outline independence.

               

2. The British Documentary Movement depicted what was not seen by large audiences. The audience couldn't see how the country relied on the hard labor of the working class, until it was given a nationwide release. To achieve this social purpose, documentary needed to reveal the truth about British lives. Britain was in the grip of 'The great depression' at the start of the 1930's, following a worldwide stock market crash that had fallen by half. There are shots showing potters, shepherds and fishermen, giving publicity to the government for their contribution to the economy. Documentarists believed this would get Britain back on its feet.
        

3. 'London Can Take It' from 1940 was nominated for an Oscar award in the US. It was about how the Capital were bearing up under German bombing raids. It was hoping it would sway the US public towards an alliance with Britain. At 6:30, the link below shows footage from the film. It is a powerful film, because it is showing the horrific reality that Britain is facing. It is like your worst nightmares are being projected onto the screen, with the bombing of the Germans killing innocent people. It fascinates me to watch events happening that I will not experience in my life. The documentarists approach the subject with a close-up on the frantic workers and weapons used to defend the country. There is a lot of negativity within the film, such as the dialogue describing the raid sounds as 'The Symphony of War'. It's makes me anxious to hear the loud warning sirens because it indicates Britain is under attack.

         

THE WORK OF CHRIS CUNNINGHAM

1. Bjork and Chris Cunningham both collaborated to make the music video 'All for love'. Bjork wanted the video to be about female robots being built in this robotic world, but capturing this sense of sexuality and homosexuality. Chris Cunningham loved engineering and found this video an opportunity to express that. Bjork's role was to model her face and lip syncing, while Cunningham would be shooting and directing her face and video. They wanted to try and capture a heavenly feel, by making the robots and surroundings white. There were also a lot of erotic scenes because they wanted to melt through this white, hard surfaces of the robots with love. 

                     

2. When creating the music video 'Portishead', he used a lot of techniques to techniques to make his video different and stand out compared to other similar directors. He used slow-motion to make a floating visual effect. Objects move and float (laces, clothes, hair) and puts a focus onto them by using shallow depth of field. There were also other effects such as low lighting and cinematic, especially when these visuals are in sync with the rhythm. 

            

3. When creating Portishead, they used a certain technique to create the tripping effect, slow-motion effect, where the objects are floating about. A simple way of doing this would be filming with a high-speed camera and played back at a normal rate of 24 frames per second. A high speed camera can film up to a quarter of a million frames per second by running the film over a rotating prism instead of a shutter. The short bursts of recording when edited and stretched over a long period of time create super-slow motion effects.

Rotary prism camera

SAM TAYLOR WOOD'S PHOTOGRAPHY

1. Sam Taylor Wood's film and photography have similar relationships with each other, even though they are different medias. The first key relationship was how both works were portraits of Sam Taylor Wood herself. They reflected how the artist see's herself and what other people may think of her. One of her photographic pieces called 'Slut (B.1967)' is a simple close-up of her face, highlighted against the black background. On her neck is love bites, indicating she has been sexually intimate with another person, but because she is smiling it tells the audience it was an enjoyable, sinful pleasure. The film 'Still Life' may not be a physical portrait of herself, but more of a metaphorical portrait. In more detail, the decaying fruit may represent how she felt at times in life; still and breaking down due to problems and incidents over time. Both her Photography and film work shared a negative vibe in most of her collections. Sam Wood is telling the audience that a lot of events in her life have been negative and effect how she feels, by portraying it in her work.

Slut (B.1967)

Still Life

2. Another photographer who uses film as an integral part of their work is Sophie Calle and John Smith, both who worked together on a lot of film installations. Sophie Calle produced a real-life narrative film called 'Double-Blind', that showed her journey and relationship with Gregory Shepherd. But they both record it separately and they are both strikingly different. Although they talk about human relations, desires and sexuality, the way they use cam-recorders changes the narrative and challenges the viewer. John Smith makes many films and Biographies. 'The girl chewing gum' (1976)', is a narration describing what is going on over the busy streets of London. the descriptions sound like instructions and become more absurd and fantasized as it goes on.

Double-Blind

The girl chewing gum

3. The use of multi-screen installation in her work reflects narrative by showing different events that are going on in her collection. Using multi-screen helps to give different points of perspective at the same time, sewing points up together to make a narrative. Her multi-screen piece 'Sigh' is about the absence of instruments and a focus on what musicians do, by using motion  and their breath. All 8 screens help you to become drawn in.

Sigh