Fred Mortagne is a French film maker that makes skateboarding videos. As well does he make skateboard videos he creates 'gimmick' videos, which serve no purpose but are very cleverly shot and edited. Mortagne has an amazing editing style, he can make clips that are very smooth flowing, as well as making something look glitchy, I think his style is very effective.
In this first video he takes the idea that skateboarders are always moving, then takes that idea and flips it on its head, by making the objects move towards the skateboarder the video is given a new edge, taking the norm and reversing it. I also think the editing style reflects this, the editing is very choppy and looks very effective.
This next video is shot by Fred Mortagne and is a video of American band called Schwervon! The song its self is very distorted but the filming style and editing reflect this very well, the film is very distorted and feels disjointed and slightly creepy, Mortagne captures this very well in his film, he has a great way of portraying feelings and emotions through shots, without the aid of narration. This is something i would like to emulate.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Chill Magazine Advert
This short film is for a French skateboard magazine called 'Chill' and the film is made by a French skateboard videographer Fred Mortagne. The film follows a skateboarder through the streets of Paris and the way the film is shot presents a story, as the skateboarder moves from one scene to another. The film has a 'fly on the wall' style but is more simple. The motion graphics that appear on the floor give the film a slight edge, its like the graphics are doing the narration for the film, but in a very simplified way, i like the way this is done. I would like to portray my ideas about my film in this way. Trying to find a way to narrate and tell my story in an unconventional way, that way my film has an edge and looks different to other skateboard documentaries.
Fly On The Wall Documentaries
The film 'Don't Look Back' by D.A. Pennebaker, is one of the greatest 'fly on the wall' documentaries ever made. The film follows singer Bob Dylan as he tours England in 1967. The film has no narration, no interviews with any characters, just simply follows Dylan around London on his encounters. The film captures some epic moments, like Dylan's interview with 'Time' magazine when a heated argument breaks out, the film also captures a moment when a waiter working where Dylan is staying tries to attack him.
The film has a very raw and real feeling, no shots looked faked, or made up. The way the film just follows the characters gives the viewer the feeling of being in the room with the characters.
Fly on the wall style gives a natural feeling to documentaries, which is something i would like to show, for example i think a film is more believable if you can make up your own mind about the story rather than being told what your seeing is real.
The film has a very raw and real feeling, no shots looked faked, or made up. The way the film just follows the characters gives the viewer the feeling of being in the room with the characters.
Fly on the wall style gives a natural feeling to documentaries, which is something i would like to show, for example i think a film is more believable if you can make up your own mind about the story rather than being told what your seeing is real.
Badly Drawn Roy
Badly Drawn Roy is a parody of the standard documentary style. A style which is not based on props and actors but has a narrator telling the story, and conducting interviews with his subjects. The point of this style of documenting is for the viewer to see the film makers subject from an outside view, but as they watch the film the viewer is brought in to feel like they know the subjects as they see them in every day life and learn how they feel and think. The only draw back from this style of filming is the content can be very biased, as the film maker is trying to make a point about his subject he also has the control to choose the footage that the viewer see's, so the film maker can controls what the viewer sees, so then the viewer gets the film makers views and opinions from the film.
Badly Drawn Roy is taking the rules and conventions for standard documentaries, but given his film an edge, by have the subject of his story a cartoon. Which comes across as a ludicrous idea, but the way the film is shot makes the story almost feel believable by the way the actors show their emotions in a way people do in standard documentaries.
Badly Drawn Roy has given me ideas to think outside the box when it comes to documentary film making, the idea of trying to come up with something different to the norm but still convey my ideas a thoughts.
Badly Drawn Roy is taking the rules and conventions for standard documentaries, but given his film an edge, by have the subject of his story a cartoon. Which comes across as a ludicrous idea, but the way the film is shot makes the story almost feel believable by the way the actors show their emotions in a way people do in standard documentaries.
Badly Drawn Roy has given me ideas to think outside the box when it comes to documentary film making, the idea of trying to come up with something different to the norm but still convey my ideas a thoughts.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Epicly Later'd
Epicly Later'd is a documentary produced by VICE magazine, and is a documentary that talks about and follows the lives of famous professional skateboarders. The filming style is very raw, uses lots of stock footage of the skateboarders past as well as new footage, and has lots of interview sections.
I really like the way the show is shot, each video is about 5 mins long and if each video is split up into parts.
The idea behind the documentary is that the viewer gets to see what these professional skateboarders are really like, as the main target audience is skateboarders this is something that would interest them a great deal as the only time these skateboarders are seen is in skateboarding videos and magazines, so through this documentary it gives an insight for the viewer, which makes an interesting watch
I really like the way the show is shot, each video is about 5 mins long and if each video is split up into parts.
The idea behind the documentary is that the viewer gets to see what these professional skateboarders are really like, as the main target audience is skateboarders this is something that would interest them a great deal as the only time these skateboarders are seen is in skateboarding videos and magazines, so through this documentary it gives an insight for the viewer, which makes an interesting watch
Monday, 20 April 2009
Anton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn is one of my favorite directors, his most famous film to date is "Control" The film that depicts the life of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. The film Control is filmed all in black and white which gives the deep and dark feeling as well as being shot in Manchester, the film paints a picture of Manchester in the 1980's, using amazing landscape shots the streets look amazingly beautiful in an ironic way. I am fascinated the way Corbijn can make a bleak street look deep and meaningful, I think that each shot in Control could be used as a photography picture, i think this is helped by the fact that Corbijn has been a professional photographer for over 20 years.
The films style is something i would like to emulate, showing my story with beautiful looking shots that show the surroundings and the characters with a nice blend.
Corbijn Interview + Control footage (Joy Division) subtitled
New Official Control Trailer [Anton Corbijn]
The films style is something i would like to emulate, showing my story with beautiful looking shots that show the surroundings and the characters with a nice blend.
Corbijn Interview + Control footage (Joy Division) subtitled
New Official Control Trailer [Anton Corbijn]
3 Minute Wonder
3 minute wonder is a series of short films produced for channel 4. Each film is 3 minutes long and is 'home-made'. Each short film has a theme, and the video expresses the film makers about there views. The themes range from clouds to graffiti, the point is if your interested in something, make a film about it.
The films a mostly created on a small budget, using one camera. Most videos have a narrator to give the stories some narrative, this also helps the film maker express his views clearer. The style and editing of the films vary between film makers, depending on their skill in filming and editing. However the home-made style is present in most films which gives each video a slight edge, which makes it interesting to watch and i think it shows that the film maker is really interested in his theme.
Each video is trying to be thought provoking, which is a challenge with only 3 minutes to fit everything in. So each shot has to be right, the voice over has to have the right tone in voice, the right things have to be said, but what i found that needs to be just right is the music, the music is what makes most of the videos perfect. In the 3rd example i've shown there is know music, only the sounds of the characters, but the sound is slightly muffled, which adds an eerie effect, but it also gives the idea that the break dancers are in there own world, which is the point of the video, and i think it is one of the best produced films.
Free To Skate
Marcus Lanyon
Kombat breakers
The films a mostly created on a small budget, using one camera. Most videos have a narrator to give the stories some narrative, this also helps the film maker express his views clearer. The style and editing of the films vary between film makers, depending on their skill in filming and editing. However the home-made style is present in most films which gives each video a slight edge, which makes it interesting to watch and i think it shows that the film maker is really interested in his theme.
Each video is trying to be thought provoking, which is a challenge with only 3 minutes to fit everything in. So each shot has to be right, the voice over has to have the right tone in voice, the right things have to be said, but what i found that needs to be just right is the music, the music is what makes most of the videos perfect. In the 3rd example i've shown there is know music, only the sounds of the characters, but the sound is slightly muffled, which adds an eerie effect, but it also gives the idea that the break dancers are in there own world, which is the point of the video, and i think it is one of the best produced films.
Free To Skate
Marcus Lanyon
Kombat breakers
Friday, 10 April 2009
Lego shop's 3d installation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3031460.stm
Lego shop's have now installed an instillation that allows customers to see the toy in the box in a illustrated 3d model
![]()
Lego shop's have now installed an instillation that allows customers to see the toy in the box in a illustrated 3d model
Friday, 13 March 2009
D&AD Evaluation
I think this has been one of my most successful projects. I set out with an idea to achieve this traditional Chinese style looking animation, which told a story that related to the 'Journey to the west' tale. It took my a while to get a concept of what I wanted to happen in the story, I couldn't stick literal to the song as the lyrics weren't strong enough to make a narrative, so I decided to use the scene the song is set in (a volcano) but incorporate my own narrative, something that will be interesting to the viewer to watch. My only problem with this is that the story will appeal more to fans of the tale, where as viewers that are unfamiliar with the tale are less likely to understand the story.
The main problem I had was character animation. I have never attempted such in depth animation and I think I diving in at the deep end with this project, problems with this meant loosing some of the characters from my story, as the time it to took to animate 10 seconds of movement with one character was a long process and I simply did not have the time to repeat the process. However I still think that the majority of the animating is successful and looks very effective.
I am very please with the final outcome. To make the animation have a nice look I animated the whole video in Adobe After Effects the took the clip into Final Cut Pro where I made the editing tighter and added a strong looking vignetting look, and added a rough border, all these affects gave the video a dark look to it which I think makes the animation look a lot better.
The only changes I would make, would be to have a few more close up shots of my main characters, so then I could show more emotions of the characters, but apart from that I think my video is a success, and I thought I stuck well to my original idea.
The main problem I had was character animation. I have never attempted such in depth animation and I think I diving in at the deep end with this project, problems with this meant loosing some of the characters from my story, as the time it to took to animate 10 seconds of movement with one character was a long process and I simply did not have the time to repeat the process. However I still think that the majority of the animating is successful and looks very effective.
I am very please with the final outcome. To make the animation have a nice look I animated the whole video in Adobe After Effects the took the clip into Final Cut Pro where I made the editing tighter and added a strong looking vignetting look, and added a rough border, all these affects gave the video a dark look to it which I think makes the animation look a lot better.
The only changes I would make, would be to have a few more close up shots of my main characters, so then I could show more emotions of the characters, but apart from that I think my video is a success, and I thought I stuck well to my original idea.
Traditional Chinese Animation
This video is a very smart 3D animation using traditional Chinese drawings. I think it has an amazing style and i really like how slow the animation is, it works really well with the slow music. The music is similar to the song i have to animate to so it's a good example to look at how i am going to edit my film. Although to achieve an animation like this is a bit ambitious i think this is a very clever animation relating to the sort of style i want to use.
Ghost Patrol
Ghost patrol is one of my favorite artists, he is from Australia, and has a unique style, influenced by graffiti and fine art. His drawings of characters inspired me the most, his illustrations have a simple look, with calming colours, they appear to be very fragile yet the situations the characters are in gives them strength, this creates a nice blend of simple drawings but with emotion. This is something i am taking on board, as my character designs i want them to appear simply drawn to fit in with the Chinese traditional style, but want to reveal their inner strength as they are trapped in a volcano. How Ghost patrol achieves this is by the characters facial expressions and their postures, this adds up a lot in animations so it is something i wish to master.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Editing to music
For a music video to be successful it has to be relevant to the video in some way, maybe not in a literal way, so the video does not have to follow the lyrics word for word.
A good way of making a video relevant to the song is to have to video edited to the song, so when you play the video to another song it does not match. the editing has to be timed to the video, reflect the mood and style. This is the most important thing i have to remember when making my finished product.
This video is by a DJ called Venetian Snares. The genre of his music is known as 'Glitchcore' which basically means the music is is heavy and a lot of the sounds are glitched for effect. So when a music video was made for the song the editing had to reflect the song. The video has a lot of quick editing with a fast paced style. Because the video works so well with the song and reflects the style of the song, if you were to put the video to another song it wouldn't work at all.
This next video is by brian allen carroll. The video is made for the song "danse macabre" by saint-saens. The video contains shapes and objects that appear and move to the instruments played, its another good and more simple example of editing to music. The video shows how simply and effective editing can be, using simple shapes that move in time and reflect the instrument being played.
This video is good research for me as i will have simple characters and animation, so with my characters they will move with the melody, and as the video has lots of weird noises i want to have shapes that will move to elements of the song, for example maybe have smoke from the volcano that moves with the sound of the flutes. Hopefully if i can pull this off my video will have created a style that connects with the song and look really effective.
A good way of making a video relevant to the song is to have to video edited to the song, so when you play the video to another song it does not match. the editing has to be timed to the video, reflect the mood and style. This is the most important thing i have to remember when making my finished product.
This video is by a DJ called Venetian Snares. The genre of his music is known as 'Glitchcore' which basically means the music is is heavy and a lot of the sounds are glitched for effect. So when a music video was made for the song the editing had to reflect the song. The video has a lot of quick editing with a fast paced style. Because the video works so well with the song and reflects the style of the song, if you were to put the video to another song it wouldn't work at all.
This next video is by brian allen carroll. The video is made for the song "danse macabre" by saint-saens. The video contains shapes and objects that appear and move to the instruments played, its another good and more simple example of editing to music. The video shows how simply and effective editing can be, using simple shapes that move in time and reflect the instrument being played.
This video is good research for me as i will have simple characters and animation, so with my characters they will move with the melody, and as the video has lots of weird noises i want to have shapes that will move to elements of the song, for example maybe have smoke from the volcano that moves with the sound of the flutes. Hopefully if i can pull this off my video will have created a style that connects with the song and look really effective.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Animated Music Videos
Searching through Youtube i found a play list containing some of the best animated music videos ever. Looking through this I'm starting to understand how music videos work, an animated video has to stand alone, so if you watch the video without the music you can understand what the video is trying to say. From my research i found that each video has some kind of narrative, although the video is not a literal representation of the song i.e the animation does not follow the lyrics word for word, but portrays a story in a way people can understand. The good example i found is a video for a band called Los Campesinos, the video is called "You! Me! Dance!", the video is about the evolution of a civilization, and in the video the civilization grow to a point that they start to destroy each other then eventually they move to another planet and then the process begins again where they start to destroy each other again. The video has a strong message but the actual song is about dancing, the only relation is that in the video the characters appear to be dancing in the video, also which i think is the most important for a music video is that the events of the video match the song, so a lot of moments are in sync, which makes the video much more visually interesting.
So for my project i want to create a scene that relates to the video in the way that the style of the song matches he animation. so i'm going to have a narrative but its my own story which relates to the Journey to the west but doesn't match the song word for word, so it will be a narrative story but its a non-literal video.
So for my project i want to create a scene that relates to the video in the way that the style of the song matches he animation. so i'm going to have a narrative but its my own story which relates to the Journey to the west but doesn't match the song word for word, so it will be a narrative story but its a non-literal video.
The Avalanches Frontier Psychiatrist
The Avalanches are an elctro-indie band that make songs using beats, samples and loops. so for this music video Frontier Psychiatrist the entire song is comprised of samples and loops, There album is said to use around 3,500 samples. So for this video which contains a lot of samples the music makers have looked at what each sample sounds like and created a literal video for it, for example when the record scratches the shot shows a record with the needle slipping off. i think this video is so successful is how surreal the scenes are, so the music video has a literal elements, but has no narrative which makes it an interesting watch.
Friday, 16 January 2009
Stop Frame Animation
I'm researching stop frame animation because i think it has an amazing style to it. i think it gives any animation an edge and a unique look. It's a style i am considering in using for my characters in my animation, i think it would work really well with the music.
That video is by an artist known as ljudbilden & piloten, trying to get information about him is proving difficult, the best thing from him I've found so far is his blog
http://ljudbilden.com/wordpress/
His artwork has an amazing yet simple style which portrays to stop motion work really effectively.
The only problem with stop frame is that it can be very time consuming, so if i were to use it i would have to plan in great detail how i am going to draw, however i think it would be a great experiment in animating.
That video is by an artist known as ljudbilden & piloten, trying to get information about him is proving difficult, the best thing from him I've found so far is his blog
http://ljudbilden.com/wordpress/
His artwork has an amazing yet simple style which portrays to stop motion work really effectively.
The only problem with stop frame is that it can be very time consuming, so if i were to use it i would have to plan in great detail how i am going to draw, however i think it would be a great experiment in animating.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Traditional Chinese Artists
After a Wikipedia search i found lots of information about traditional Chinese art. Researching artists like Wang Hui who Lived in the Qing Dynasty, and his work consisted of water painting and detailed sketches of people, buildings and landscapes. This is a style i am going to try and base my backgrounds on. I think it has a unique style to it which i think relates to the song really well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Hui_(Qing_Dynasty)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Hui_(Qing_Dynasty)
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
D & AD Project
I have chosen the music video brief, in which i have to design a video for a band called Monkey, and the song is 'Pigsy in Space'. Monkey is a band comprised of Blur's Damon Albarn and British artist Jamie Hewlett. The songs on their album are based around a traditional Chinese story called 'Journey to the west'. The story is about mythical creatures traveling from India to China with sacred scrolls.
The Particular song D&AD have chosen to use is 'Pigsy In Space', this song is the part of the tale where the main characters are trapped in a volcano and the only way to get out is to obtain the magic fan which belongs to the iron queen. This story gives me a plot to base my video around.
The brief states that the video has to have a new style, and to stay away from the monkey style which Jamie Hewlett has built up. His artwork is most know for the band 'Gorillaz' who were an animated band fronted by Damon Albarn. So to make my animation look different i want to use traditional Chinese painting style for the background, and for the main characters i want to have a Chinese style to them but put my own edge to them.
This video was made for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the video is by the band 'Monkey' and is based on the tale 'Journey to the west' for a short clip its very effective with a great style and clever animation, although i can not replicate this style its a good starting point for research.
This link is to Wikipedia's page about 'Journey to the west', the page explains everything about the story, also touches on the origins. It says the original author is unknown but was supposedly first written in the 15th century.
This link is to Wikipedia's page about the band's version of 'Journey to the west'. The page explains how the band have turned the story from a complex story of 100 chapters into a simple story which they have adapted to a opera and a album. The Wikipedia page lists each chapter and the events which take place, so this was very good research to find the scene i want to base my animation on.
All the lyrics to the song 'Pigsy in space' are in Chinese so i used a lyrics website to find the meanings, once i found the lyrics i discovered that the lyrics referred to the volcano scene, so from this i found the plot for my video.
The Particular song D&AD have chosen to use is 'Pigsy In Space', this song is the part of the tale where the main characters are trapped in a volcano and the only way to get out is to obtain the magic fan which belongs to the iron queen. This story gives me a plot to base my video around.
The brief states that the video has to have a new style, and to stay away from the monkey style which Jamie Hewlett has built up. His artwork is most know for the band 'Gorillaz' who were an animated band fronted by Damon Albarn. So to make my animation look different i want to use traditional Chinese painting style for the background, and for the main characters i want to have a Chinese style to them but put my own edge to them.
This video was made for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the video is by the band 'Monkey' and is based on the tale 'Journey to the west' for a short clip its very effective with a great style and clever animation, although i can not replicate this style its a good starting point for research.
This link is to Wikipedia's page about 'Journey to the west', the page explains everything about the story, also touches on the origins. It says the original author is unknown but was supposedly first written in the 15th century.
This link is to Wikipedia's page about the band's version of 'Journey to the west'. The page explains how the band have turned the story from a complex story of 100 chapters into a simple story which they have adapted to a opera and a album. The Wikipedia page lists each chapter and the events which take place, so this was very good research to find the scene i want to base my animation on.
All the lyrics to the song 'Pigsy in space' are in Chinese so i used a lyrics website to find the meanings, once i found the lyrics i discovered that the lyrics referred to the volcano scene, so from this i found the plot for my video.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
