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.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
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.
Friday, 12 December 2008
Interactive Project Evaluation
At the beginning of this project I was daunted by the idea of having to use Flash, as all of the other examples we were shown were flash based. After a bit of research I decided to make a movie, as editing is more of a key area for me to work in. I started looking at Lev Manovich for my theory research. After reading some of his book ‘Language of New Media’ I read that new media has to be mentally interactive as well as physical. An example he showed was a film made in 1929 Soviet Union called ‘The Man With The Camera’ and it was an avant-garde film consisting of shots of objects and places. Manovich explains how the film is about representation, and how the viewer has to mentally interact with the film to understand its meaning and context.
Once I got into the filming stage the project cam a lot more interesting. After filming I made three edits for my project, but then realized I needed all the edits to be in sync with each other. So I had to spend hours re-editing. The problem was one edit had too much at the start and one had too much at the end, so after many hours of editing I finally got three edits that were all in sync. I then put the edits into flash and made a mock up site. After the crit I had a fair few changes to make. First was the fact that none of the characters were introduced properly, also I needed to show how the real website would look, so I had to make a mock up of the showing someone hovering over the clip and it becoming bigger.
After I made the changes I think my product turned out successfully, I think my video related well to the theory side of the project, and I think the overall project was a success, I think the changes I made, made the whole project look and feel better.
Once I got into the filming stage the project cam a lot more interesting. After filming I made three edits for my project, but then realized I needed all the edits to be in sync with each other. So I had to spend hours re-editing. The problem was one edit had too much at the start and one had too much at the end, so after many hours of editing I finally got three edits that were all in sync. I then put the edits into flash and made a mock up site. After the crit I had a fair few changes to make. First was the fact that none of the characters were introduced properly, also I needed to show how the real website would look, so I had to make a mock up of the showing someone hovering over the clip and it becoming bigger.
After I made the changes I think my product turned out successfully, I think my video related well to the theory side of the project, and I think the overall project was a success, I think the changes I made, made the whole project look and feel better.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Dziga Vertov. The Man With a Movie Camera
'The Man With The Movie Camera' is a Russian film made by avant-garde film directer Dziga Vertov in 1929. This film is is refered to alot in Lev Manovich's 'language of New Media'. Manovich refers to it alot as the film only contains shots of objects and people that are only on shot for a few seconds and the shots are accompanied by a small sentence briefly explaining what's in the shot. Manovich talks about the films, narrative and filming style, and how for its time was pushing the boundaries of filming styles.
"It proposes an untamed, and apparently endless unwinding of
cinematic techniques, or, to use contemporary language, ‘effects’, as cinema's
new way of speaking.”
'The Man With The Movie Camera' is trying to provoke viewers by tempting them interact with the film, trying to get the viewers to understand what the directer is saying and pushing the viewer to make their own assumptions and opinions,
"Along with Vertov, we gradually realize the full range of possibilities offered
by the camera. Vertov's goal is to seduce us into his way of seeing and thinking,
to make us share his excitement, his gradual process of discovery of film's new
language. This process of discovery is film's main narrative and it is told through
a catalog of discoveries being made. Thus, in the hands of Vertov, a database, this
normally static and "objective" form, becomes dynamic and subjective. More
importantly, Vertov is able to achieve something which new media designers and
artists still have to learn — how to merge database and narrative merge into a new
form.”
I find the film very interesting, for a film made over 70 years ago it still has originality about it, its still challenging minds of the viewers, raising questions. I see the film as a way to make my video, to create something that challenges the viewer, engaging them. Making the question whats going on, and coming away with their own meaning and understanding. This is a hard task to achieve for a student, but something i hope to work on.
The Man With The Camera. Clip taken from 'Youtube' and is part 2 of the film.
"It proposes an untamed, and apparently endless unwinding of
cinematic techniques, or, to use contemporary language, ‘effects’, as cinema's
new way of speaking.”
'The Man With The Movie Camera' is trying to provoke viewers by tempting them interact with the film, trying to get the viewers to understand what the directer is saying and pushing the viewer to make their own assumptions and opinions,
"Along with Vertov, we gradually realize the full range of possibilities offered
by the camera. Vertov's goal is to seduce us into his way of seeing and thinking,
to make us share his excitement, his gradual process of discovery of film's new
language. This process of discovery is film's main narrative and it is told through
a catalog of discoveries being made. Thus, in the hands of Vertov, a database, this
normally static and "objective" form, becomes dynamic and subjective. More
importantly, Vertov is able to achieve something which new media designers and
artists still have to learn — how to merge database and narrative merge into a new
form.”
I find the film very interesting, for a film made over 70 years ago it still has originality about it, its still challenging minds of the viewers, raising questions. I see the film as a way to make my video, to create something that challenges the viewer, engaging them. Making the question whats going on, and coming away with their own meaning and understanding. This is a hard task to achieve for a student, but something i hope to work on.
The Man With The Camera. Clip taken from 'Youtube' and is part 2 of the film.
Bruce Naumen, Good Boy, Bad Boy
Bruce Naumen created a installation in the 'Tate' gallery, where he had two screens with one woman saying that everything is great, and the other screen had a man contradicting everything the woman said. The two videos are shot in the same way with Portrait close-ups. The video challenges the viewers to interact with the videos. The viewer is prompted to make a choice of which character they choose to follow or believe.
Lev Manovich talks about this new form of producing cinema in his book "Language Of New Media"*. Manovich talks alot about the evolution of technology, in particular the evolution of cinema, Manovich is trying to say that all technology is growing and cinema is trying to catch up, by developing new styles, new meanings and new perspectives, all to distribute data. He refers to a style of filming that i think relates to Naumen's video.
" a time-based mosaics of different shots — in the
end of the century it came with the technique to accomplish the similar result
without montage. In digital compositing, the elements are not juxtaposed but
blended, with their boundaries erased rather than foregrounded."
Here he's talking about taking different shots from within a film, or different angles and putting them together to create new meanings, changing the perspectives of the viewer. Manovich goes onto say
"we can better understand how this new key technique of
assembling moving images redefines our concepts of a moving image"
I think Manovich is trying to say how new forms of cinema are evolving to reach out and interact with the users, and this is what i think Bruce Naumen is trying to do. He has taken two different shots of two people contradicting each other and blended them so the viewer interacts with the cinema making their own assumptions and opinions based on the video they want to see.
*Lev Manovich Language of New Media, 2001, MIT Press
Quotes= Chapter 3 Composting, Compositing and New Types of Montage
Bruce Naumen, Good Boy, Bad Boy.
Video Is from 'Youtube' and is shot in the 'Tate' Gallery
Lev Manovich talks about this new form of producing cinema in his book "Language Of New Media"*. Manovich talks alot about the evolution of technology, in particular the evolution of cinema, Manovich is trying to say that all technology is growing and cinema is trying to catch up, by developing new styles, new meanings and new perspectives, all to distribute data. He refers to a style of filming that i think relates to Naumen's video.
" a time-based mosaics of different shots — in the
end of the century it came with the technique to accomplish the similar result
without montage. In digital compositing, the elements are not juxtaposed but
blended, with their boundaries erased rather than foregrounded."
Here he's talking about taking different shots from within a film, or different angles and putting them together to create new meanings, changing the perspectives of the viewer. Manovich goes onto say
"we can better understand how this new key technique of
assembling moving images redefines our concepts of a moving image"
I think Manovich is trying to say how new forms of cinema are evolving to reach out and interact with the users, and this is what i think Bruce Naumen is trying to do. He has taken two different shots of two people contradicting each other and blended them so the viewer interacts with the cinema making their own assumptions and opinions based on the video they want to see.
*Lev Manovich Language of New Media, 2001, MIT Press
Quotes= Chapter 3 Composting, Compositing and New Types of Montage
Bruce Naumen, Good Boy, Bad Boy.
Video Is from 'Youtube' and is shot in the 'Tate' Gallery
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