Last week

It just hit me that we only have this week to work on our assignment! 0:
But its alllll good. Because Alisha has been a good girl and has finished her video, her sound, her credits. And now all she has to do is think of a name and add that to the start :)
I am very proud of my self for actually finishing it on time - stress free! But it has been really annoying me becasue I cannot think of a name that suits my film. Ive thought of some random names, and they just dont go. Ive had some suggestions. Here are some of the titles that have come up
- fat fish
- the adventures of the fishing man
- down in the meadow
- fishy
- fish and chips
- man + fish

I still have to decide!

Sound

So I have been working on my sound for ages and have been trying to think of a song to play in the background. I asked my friends and they told me to use a song that they would sing. So I asked them if they would actually want to sing in my video and they aggreeed so we went out side to recored it. Meghna, Izzy and Sarah were singing and we were trying out different vocal sounds so that they sound like a man. They also sang individually, and in the end i chose to use Sarah's recording because it actually sounded like a man. When I put it with my video, I found that the song was too long for the part that i wanted it to play for, so I had to edit it by cutting out the last bit, and it sounds really good! I have also found a burping sound for the fish and footsteps for the man when he is walking. I do not know if I am going to use the footsteps though. I have to make that decision later. I have also found a chomping sound for when the fish eats the man. When I play it back, it looks and sounds really good, except that I do not know if I want to add any other sounds in the silent areas. Does it sound like an awkward silence? Or does it sound good? I will have to ask my friends and find out!

Appraising Aniamtion Task

Factory from citrusink on Vimeo.

2. In the film ‘Factory’ there were a variety of objects and shapes included in the video such as in the starting scene was a large factory with business like people with briefcases walking into the factory with smoke coming out. The scene then moved upwards to the top of the building and towards the sky and we saw more smoke and two blimps with sea ships attached to them. We then get to look at the inside of the factory, and are looking at the inside of an office with a lot of cupboards, files and cluttered objects such as computers, floorboards and a microwave. People are walking past this office and walking into what it would seem to be another office or different section of the factory. These people are still holding briefcases. On the very right hand side is a small closed up office with a lady sitting there working. This space takes up half of the screen area and is mostly black which contrasts against the white. Out of the ordinary is a mechanical hand (which you might find at a toy machine) coming in and grabbing nothing and then dropping it somewhere else at the top of the screen. We then get to look into the little right cornered office where the lady was working before, except this time we are close up, and can now see that the lady is working on multiple computers with different sets of keyboards. We can also see that there is a printer and other electrical equipment. Another person is looking through a window at the woman and what she is doing. She then walks away as another person takes her spot. Could these people be the same people that were walking past the big office before? We are then taken to a rather unusual scene where you can see two men with wrenches playing with some screws on machines. In the top right hand corner, it seems to be either a camera or binoculars. The man on the left is using his whole body to work the wrench and he is going faster and faster as the machine keeps pumping. The other man is merely using his hand. We then come across another man using something that looks like a wrench, but I don’t think it is. He is using that instrument to pump a similar machine as to the other man in the other scene. But in this scene a blender is on and making sound. This whole video was in black and white and had no one talking. However, the meaning was clear as the sounds of machines were clearly heard and recognized. The subject matter of this video is that of a factory with different mechanicals and jobs inside it to keep the factory going and alive. My over all impression of the mood of the work is that the people working in the factory do not like working there. I think this because the video is in black and white which could mean that the people are not happy. If the people were happy they could be shown in a more vibrant and colourful way. I also think that the people are being worked too hard and that everyone is treated the same which means that it is boring because everyone wears the same thing and acts the same way. It makes me feel gloomy, sad and unhappy for the people inside the factory. In the movie, you can straight away tell that the picture of the factory was the background and the smoke and people walking into the building were edited in (in the foreground). You can then hear the sound of a machine going off in the background somewhere. The blimps have also been edited in. You can then see that the hand has been filmed and then edited into a different program. You can also hear the sound of the hand. Next, you can hear the sounds of the key boards typing and buttons beeping in the person’s office. After this you can hear the machines pumping with the men with the wrenches and finally hear the food blender go off in the last scene. All of these things have been edited in with sound cues and visual effects to create this video.

3. Matreyek has used visual literacy such as colour, line, movement, shapes, scale and sound to create his film. His simple black and white tone adds to the mood that it is gloomy and sad, and that no one wants to be there. At the start, the scene is mostly white, until you go inside the building where it becomes darker, and as the film goes on, it gets darker again. This is defining the bad mood again. The movement of the people is very ridged and robot like when they are walking and working. There movements are not natural and are not smooth. Also, the big hand in one of the starting scenes has big movements and very distinctive movements as it works away across the screen. Furthermore, the use of unnatural sized items adds a different meaning and effect to the film. The large wrench compared to the small wrench in one of the scenes is contemplating two different jobs in the factory. In addition, the sound of the film is hard and rough. It reminds me of a hard worker such as a builder at work. These sounds aren’t soothing and peaceful. But apart from that, the sounds are clear and you can tell the different volumes that are used which is good. The closeness of the office scene is showing us that the hard worker in the office is not an easy job. From the scene before that, you just thought that the lady working in the office was a big job. This is how they used different camera shots of the same scene to communicate a different meaning.

4. My interpretation of the work is that the artist is trying to show everyone how much work goes into a factory or really anything in the world. There are little people who work hard for the big people. Sometimes the small people do not get recognized and nobody thinks about them. I think that it also trying to make people understand that it’s not always sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. In this video it is black and white and dull – not very happy in this factory! I think the intended audience for Matreyeks work would be anyone from teens to adults. Matreyek has some odd ideas and they need to be old enough to understand and appreciate Matreyek’s techniques. The visual language such as size, shape, tone and colour help inform my interpretation of a gloomy factory by being black and white, and not being colourful and cheerful at all. Matreyek has used sound with the animation images to create meaning by in the last scene, created the actual sound of the blender. It adds the emphasis that the people are actually doing hard work. This factory is loud, and the people working in there are angry that they don’t get recognized and because this is their job and they are stuck there. With the animation of someone working really hard, and the sounds of machines going off in the background represent the same meaning as a factory.

What Anusuya said: I think it is showing how people’s lives repeat itself everyday. I feel like it is very slow and boring.

What Gabby said: My interpretation is that the artist is trying to say that many workers live boring, repetitive lives and they will stay that way unless they decide to change them. Work is not always fun and life can get repetitive.

What Aakanksha said: I think that it is about people doing work. These people think this is rather boring.

What Mummy said: It is about someone going to work and hating their surroundings, environment and job.

FishingMan

At the moment, I have been naming all my files ''fishingMan'' and so on. That was just the name that I gave it because it was simple and easy. I jsut thought that I should keep you updated, so I think that this is the nearly fnished product without sound! enjoy!

Sounds

I have started to look for sounds and I thought that it would be really easy, but apparently it is really hard. I have looked all over garage band, and have found that it doenst have many sounds that I was looking after. I have tried to put some sounds inot the video, but they didnt really work. I have recently tried to look up some more sounds on google and have had many good findings! It was so much fun, But i dindt think that would take so long and be so hard. I am still looking for a name which is really annoying me. I have found a burp sound on google. Actually, i have found many burping sounds and i need to see which one that I like the best. I also forgot to tell you that everyone said that I should also get my fish to laugh, but unfortunetly I don't think I can. I have tried heaps if things to make it laugh, but I have failed miserably. I have also found a few whistling noises and a footstep noise. I found the footstep noise on garage band which I was happy about, but was really hard to find and I found it at the last minute.

Ipads and Open day

On open day, we got to play with iPads. It was heaps of fun. Mr P showed us this program that we could use as animation-ish. I really liked the program and I did a few short videos. I also downloaded the app onto my own iPad and have done heaps of videos at home. In that lesson, Izzy, Meghna and I also did Glee on Mr P's iPad which was fun, funny and entertaining. I just liked looking and playing with the iPads and just relaxing because this lesosn was on the last period on a friday afternoon. I also found out that I can get a graphics calculator on an iPad that does everything a year 10 students needs to use in a graphics calculator. I thought that was pretty amazing because a graphics calculator is really expensive, and when I need a graphics calculator, i am sure that someone would have put out an app that covers everything that I will need that is even better than the app that they have now.

Assignment and Name

We also got given an assignment which we have to complete before the end of term. I still have to do this and I hope to do that soon. Also, I need to make up my credits. I need to think of a name that I want to give my video and opening and ending credits.

The lesson that I forgot what Mr P called it

On one Friday, I forgot what Mr P called it but it was where everyone in the class showed each other what we had done and how far we had come. It was really interesting to see what everyone thought of my film. And I got some laughs and compliments. I also got some recommendations in sounds and I think when I am doing my sounds I will keep the recommendations in mind. Some of them include a burping fish, a whistling man and some splashes in the background. I can’t wait to do my sound because I think that it will be really fun and exciting. I almost forgot that we don’t really have much time left. That counts for all subjects!

School

So in school, I had to edit it in other ways that I wasn’t capable of until Mr P helped me. I cut even more out, and I slowed down sections and sped up sections. I showed it to some of my friends, and they told me that I should sped up some sections that I didn’t do anything to, and in one spot, I had slowed it down, but they thought that I should speed it up, so I listened to them and actually liked it better than before. This is what I think will be my final video without the sound. This took me a long time because Mr P and I had some trouble getting the right format to work in iMovie. We finally found out that we had to make it into a DVD file or something like that. After we did that, it worked fine. However I had another problem when I came back and wanted to change something, it didn’t work, so I had to change it into a normal file that I could put into stop motion, and then transfer it out of stop motion into a DVD file and then back into iMovie to work it properly again. I thought that I was pretty smart in doing so because it worked really well.

Whole video

This is my whole video. I have not edited it this, and it is really bad, but I thought that I should up load this to show how far I have come and how much I have worked to get it edited. The thing that is wrong with this is that I tried to move the camera and the person at the same time and it really didn’t work out. It looked really stupid and funny now that I look back on it. I am glad that I changed it!

Failed attempts

Here are some of the practise videos that really annoyed me and angered me. Haha.

In this one, you can see that the arms are really floppy, and the eyes are really weird and that the legs and pants are really weird and look totally funny. The mouth also looks retarded as well

In this one, I didn’t realize how big the head was. The legs are even smaller than the one before. The legs, face, mouth and arms look also floppy and not fit for an A assignment.

Man vs. Man

Im going to show you the difference between my two men. This one was the original, and I had some help from Sarah for the hair. I dont have a picture, but I have a video that I will use to show you instead.
This picture is of the new man, and the one that I actually used in my video.

Pros
- easier to film because it is smaller
- easier to manuvere because it is smaller and stiffer because I havnt been touching it and nothing has touched the fresh new clay

Cons
- It took me a while to make it when I should have been able to use the old man
- It was nearly the same size as my fish (which was funny, but I guess more realistic)

Differences
- size
- It has sticks in it
- It could actually stand up and walk

Thinks I like about it
- Its cute
- It could actually stand up and walk

The day of filming

The day of filming was torture for me. I woke up at about 9 am and started to film. It started really annoying me and I couldn't stand him up any more and he tried to to fall down alot and it was really starting to annoy me. I did many goes and all of them were fails. But I kept trying to film anyways because I had no choice because I had chose to film on the last couple of free days of the holidays. I just kept filming and re filming and re filming and re filming. I also had to take care of filming matters. I tried heaps of different angles. It was really annoying sitting on the floor for ages and not moving and also trying to keep my hands out of the shots. When my mum came home from shopping, I asked her if she knew how to keep my man up and she said to stick toothpicks into the body that will make it stand straight. Oh I forgot to mention that the body was kind of morphing and getting all wrecked. After I had put the toothpicks into my man, I tried to film again and it actually worked and stood up and walked! I was soooo amazed! I did a few more takes and then I decided that I should make a whole new man because not only was this one looking really tattered and wrecked, it was also getting held down, and you couldn't even see the legs and you couldn't tell the difference between the kankles and the pants. The shoes were also getting really big and the actual man was just really annoying me. As Mr P said before, it is easier to film with smaller things, so I remade my man smaller and better. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't have enough clay to make another one because I couldn't use the same clay from the other man. (I forgot to tell yo that the other man was getting all fluffy from falling down all the time and was getting black and didn't look nice.) I finally made my man, all clay because I figured out that using paper for the head didn't really make a difference. So I put took picks through the head and the body, and then through the body and both legs. I made the shoes again, but smaller so that when they got squished they wouldn't be really big. When I re filmed AGAIN, it went really well and I was happy when it was all finished. I am sorry to say, but the happiest memory of that day was when my fish ate my man and i had the chance to muck up my man and destroy it for good. When I filmed I didn't know how to save it and then work back to it because I knew that I had to make changes and edit it. I saved it so many times in heaps of different ways and I tried to call friends but I didn't know if it would work and if they were right. I finally decided that one of the ways that I saved the file would be right. Also, just in case it didn't work, I saved all the pictures as pictures so that I could put them all into stop motion if I needed to. That made be secure that one of the ways would work. After that, I started to edit it alittle bit and I took out some of the stuff that I didn't think I needed. I used the camera to go high and then back low again and it didn't really turn out so I thought that I would take it out, I took it out and my film looked alot better. The film used to be 1 minute and 30 seconds, but after i edited it, it was only approximately 30 seconds. After I think that I thought that I had done enough work on the holidays, I thought that I could finish. I closed the laptop and packed it away to bring it back to school.

My fish

I blogged before about the fishies that I had used as inspiration. Here are the photos that I used mostly.
I used this fish as the basic shape and everything for my actual fish except that I didnt use those colours. I really liked the eyes and the fins and especially the tail. I also like dthe smile that really wanted to keep.

I used the colours of Flounder because I like this fish because its happy and positive and reminds me of the little mermaid. Blue and yellow were good colours because the audience would not be expecting the fish to eat the man when it looks as cheerful and happy and innocent as my fish.

I got my inspirtaion for the dots from this fish. I used the idea on the dots from the tail on this fish on my tail and fin. I also liked these colours but I did not think that these colours would not look good in my film.

Making my fish -
It was just a yellow sphere, and then I covered half of it with blue plasticine. I then made the eyes like the same fish above. I made the circle the eyes are standing on with blue to keep two colours. I then made the mouth with the same blue. I thought of making it like the same mouth as above but I thought it would look weird. I also tired to do it but it was really hard to make it and it didn’t look good on my fish. I made the fin on top of the head and the tail with just blue. But then I decided to put some yellow dots on the fins and tail so that it would be a lot more colourful and different. I thought about doing dots on the whole body with yellow dots on the blue body and blue dots on the yellow body but I though that it would be too much. I really like my fish and I thought that it was really cute and that it turned out like I had planned it. I thought that my research helped me a lot with what I wanted my fish to look like and some colour schemes and different ideas that I could put into one whole idea to make it really good. The top picture is of the best picture that I could find of my fish. I threw away my man and my everything else except my fish. I dont know why this is, but I kept it. Although its no use because the face is all messy from eating my man.

Trouble

In filming my stop motion, I had heaps of problems along the way. Some of these include having to make my man again and making my fish and setting up my film set again and again. When I did my test run, it was really easy and I thought that my final filming would be quick and easy. I talked to mum and she said that I could use one of her sheets as my background. First of all I needed to iron the sheet which took my really long. I tried to do it myself, but failed miserably. I couldnt get the wrinkles out, so my mum had to do it for me. After the sheet was ironed, I set up my whole upstairs area into a film set with my 2 lamps and everything else that I needed. However, I did not know that my man would not stand up let alone walk on the carpet that the sheet was on. I got really fustrated because I had spent a long time setting everything up late at night so that I could film the whole of the next day. Unfortunetly I had to pack up my set and bring it all downstairs into another room where I was pestered to keep clean by my mum. I set it up and made sure that my man could stand it. It wasnt as good as standing and walking him on the floor, but I wanted the white background and flooring for my film. It would look weird if I had two different colours for the background and the floor. So the next day I started filming - like I said, I thought that it would be really quick and easy, but it wasnt.