Unit 35 Research

Unit 35 Research

Artists first experimented with video art in the 1960s when video art first appeared. Video art relies on video and/ or sound to make new medium. In the 1990s, digital technology joined together with the video process, independent film-making and photography.

Nam June Paik is thought to be the founder of video art. He had his first exhibition with manipulated TV in 1963 at the Gallery Parnass in Wuppertal.

Over time, Nam June Paik worked with the Neo-Dada art movement, known as Fluxus, the artists were inspired by the composer John Cage who used everyday sounds and noises in his music. He showed his work at an exhibition known as Exposition of Music-Electronic Television where he scattered televisions everywhere and used magnets to alter or distort their images.
Paik was known for making robots out of television sets. These were made using pieces of wire and metal, but later Paik used parts from radio and television sets.

Nam June Paik, 'Robot K-456' and Charlotte Moorman (1964).

http://www.paikstudios.com/#top

Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii

fifty-one channel video installation (including one closed-circuit television feed), custom electronics, neon lighting, steel and wood; color, soundapprox. 15 x 40 x 4 ft.Paik siad that, 'The different colors remind us that individual states still have distinct identities and cultures, even in today's information age." He meant that each American state had its own history, values and diversity so he shows this with the individual shapes and colours.

Megatron/Matrix: here he created aneight-channel video installation with custom electronics; color, soundapprox. 132 x 396 x 48 in. (335.3 x 1005.8 x 121.9 cm)Paik said, '... our bodies are our primal connection to the world, but the effect on the viewer is of being assaulted by "too much information.' The 215 TV screens show different mixes images from the Seoul Olympics with Korean folk rituals and modern dance. Smaller clips play at the same time on multiple monitors, while larger, animated images flow across the boundaries between screens, suggesting a world without borders in the electronic age.

A modern video artist I am interested in is Michael Betancourt. He is a critical theorist, film theorist, art and film historian, and animator. He looks at the technologies of visual music, new media art and theory, and motion pictures.

 He has used old film footage with modern footage to create his video artwork.

http://av.vimeo.com/34521/441/136531114.mp4?token2=1390386989_e6abe2f72d9285a9905ae914e1cd3ea1&aksessionid=05c94bb07336b29f&ns=4

she, my memory (2002)

https://vimeo.com/12852487

Michael Betancourt made this in 2002, he used his editing software to render high quality footage into very low quality footage. He used small footage because low quality footage are 240p resolution. If he made them extend to fit in 4:6 screen then there will huge pixel with a blur.  

David Finkelstein, 'Film Threat' said '... an image of the woman he is seeking is caught and frozen within the rushing motion, and gradually blown up until the pixelization of the image makes it unrecognizable. This film uses a spare and powerful visual language to depict the unease that our memories can cause us..." about she, my memory.'

The Kodak Moment (2013)
https://vimeo.com/73802758: Michael Betancourt

The silent film actress Mae Murray, known as the “girl with bee-stung lips,” is shown in fancy dress, flirting with the audience. She is an early 20th Century Hollywood film star with her white face and red lips, a form that was already old when the source film was shot in 1922.  Here Betancourt has glitched and fragmented her movement. but she is still recognizable throughout this movie. The music is from an old 1920 recording of piano soloist Mary Hallock-Greenewalt playing Chopin’s Nocturne in G Major.

Glitch is used to describe these kinds of bugs as they happen in software, video games, images, videos, audio, and other forms of data. 

Contact Light (2012)

https://vimeo.com/38750375

Michael Betancourt

Contact Light explores the idea of the 'man in the moon' through glitches, optical illusions and the Apollo 11 and 17 missions in 1969 and 1972, designed by Michael Betancourt.

In Georges Melies' 1902 film "A Trip to the Moon," the astronomers are dressed as wizards, not scientists, putting the journey they make into fantasy-- seventy years later humans actually go to the moon.. It is possible to have seen Melies' film when it was new and to watched the 1969 moon landing as an adult. He has linked them together to make a juxtaposition of  old fantasy ideas of the moon and visiting it in reality that gave rise to this film.

The Process of Eupraxis in Making Dancing Glitch (2013):
http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/the-process-of-eupraxis-in-making-dancing-glitch-2013/
Dancing Glitch is a 2.5 minute long movie that is based around footage from the Louis Lumière film Danse serpentine, vue no. 67, then dancer/choreographer is Loïe Fuller, filmed in 1896. Betancourt liked early 20th Century artwork. The clip was hand coloured and the colour was animated. He compressed the digital file but kept some of the detail. Betancourt made this short film as the starting point for his exploration of how digital movies change to abstract art when experimenting with glitching to give extra layers to the result.

Jennifer Steinkamp
This artist is from Los Angeles, explores ideas about architectural space, motion using computer animation to engage viewers through use of transient elements in the natural world. Her work has been called ‘a darker view of nature thoroughly manipulated by man’. (Xandra Eden, University of North Carolina)

Our image this month is a still from a video, exhibited earlier this year at Greengrassi gallery London, which continues Jennifer Steinkamp says other artists who have influenced her are Turrell, Dutch painters, and Jackson Pollock. She begins planning each piece by visiting the site where it is going to be installed. She researches the context and history of the place and then creates a three-dimensional model to see how the projection will look. She describes the actual creation of the images as a combination of painting, sculpture and photography using computer paint programs and LED lights. This piece was made for the Hammer Gala 2007 honoring Mike Kelley, who was one of her favorite teachers. This piece is part of a series work in which she pays respect to her past teachers with trees dedicated to them.



this artist from Madrid calls himself SpY. he Installed the cameras with the “intention of not watching over anything,” SpY’s new intervention in Madrid features 150 fake surveillance cameras on the side of a building. The Spanish street artist is known for his appropriation of urban elements to make his message known and this newest Cameras piece is no exception.

Above artists were inspiration to me, they give me an idea: 'Spying' NSA , glitching and using light to create a pathway of exploration. SpY's ideas have influenced me to use CCTV cameras to film peoples' reactions to being watched. 

Stop Motion Ident Assignment evaluation

Evaluation for E4
I was given assignment 'Stop Motion in TV' by my tutor.

I chose the room at my boarding school because it is a modern room and had alot of space to film in.  E4 appeals to a young audience who love going out, sleepovers, being sociable and spending their time on heavy internet use like Facebook or YouTube. 
This room style will look like the early digital era. The couch will change colour randomly. The stop motion (Logo of E4) objects will fly out of the smart phones, laptops, computer, iPad tablet and window. The background will change into light purple. 
I will use the After Effect’s tool called Flare Light to make the ident look more like it is in the digital era. 

The camera movement will be done by using the dolly in each scene.
After Effect for changing the objects’ colour into purple. Use the Animation tool to make the objects moving. Photoshop to create the logo of E4. 
Sony Vegas Pro for editing the clips.
3D Camera tracker (After Effect tool)  (Matchmoving) can scan every the camera movement and then to create the tracker’s map for After Effect.

To gather my research I created a questionnaire using Survey Monkey and the responses from my class.and outsiders.
















This is homemade dolly. 

I used the cutting board, the knife and black pen to make the cardboard animation.

 Some of them were colours by using the oild pastels.

I cut them out by each frames.  

 
 This is brainstorming map which can help me to get idea.

After creating the brainstorming, I got an idea to create the shark.

I made the shark jump and eat the E4 logo. I thought it would be entertaining for the young and also the older viewers would find them amusing. 

Feedback
The feedback from the class was very positive. On the whole, they thought that the technical part of the ident was professional and good quality. One commented that the animation was "smooth and jerky" but that it made a good effect also, I had two positive comments about the lighting effects on the TV and phone. 

For the soundtrack the responses were positive and professional.

The comment about the creativity of the ident were, "smooth animation using a range of skills". Also, "a good use of the iconic E4 purple"

However, I had some comments that I did not really use Stop Motion.  I agree, I did create the animations digitally but feel that I agree with some of comments. However, I did not agree with the comment about the work being digital because I asked the tutor beforehand and it was agreed that I could use digitally stop motion format.

From the Survey Monkey I had 24 responses; 60% were female and 40% were male. The age range was between 18 years and 64 years old.

Figure 1

"It is lively and contemporary is style. The cardboard shapes suggest a variety of programmes. The whimsical nature of the animations is interesting, and intriguing." and "It tells me of something that I'm trying to find out, I assume it's do with children in adventure!" I think they were very close what my target. Next time, I would research about real E4 ident bit more. And then remodel the cardboard to make them appeal to the older audience. 

Figure 2

This asked the suitability of the music to suit the animation and the E4 audience type. It was felt that it was 'cheesy' and did not  have enough 'upbeats' to the track. i agree with this because I realise that the music was not suitable for a younger audience. It was the older age group who thought it was not suitable. However, the Ident is aimed at the younger audience who did not have any negative comments.


 

Figure 3 

Some people think the music is good (42%) however, some of them think it is boring (19%). this could link with the comments about it being too 'cheesy' and needing to be more 'upbeat'. The track could be more up to date and modern. I could have researched popular music which young people listen to.
the E4 logo received over 50% 'Fantasic' comments. I am pleased with the final production of it but I would improve the SFX like the comment said "Just as an example; when your rocket flies across the screen at about 0.13, you could add a shadow to the wall to add some more realism to the animations. Think of how the light would cast the shadow in the room if it was really there."  I will research about shadow, on the small stage with lighting. i could also take some photos of objects to study the shadow positions

I think this is good advice for the next time I do stop motion work.
"This is for most filmmakers one of the golden rules. Instead of zooming in, track forward. Going on your tracks sideways you've either got a dolly or a very steady hand (if its the steady hand lucky you!), both will have better effect than a zoom in this case."

Next time I will improve the camera dolly, remodeling the cardboard and pick the better location which have big space for the camera to film.  I would change the props to look more modern, when I find the modern props then I will relocate it into the living room. 

Unit 64 - Motion Graphics and Composting essay.

I'm researching about how the filmmakers used the Special Effect (Known as SFX)  I choose the film called 'Hugo' "Hugo is a 2011 3D historical adventure drama film based on Brian Selznick's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret about a boy who lives alone in the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris."
This film won five Oscars 'Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing'

Hugo is Scorsese's first film shot in 3D, of which the filmmaker said "I found 3D to be really interesting, because the actors were more upfront emotionally. Their slightest move, their slightest intention is picked up much more precisely." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_(film)

I'm going to explain all of this photos with SFX methods.

At the start, I can tell that scene is full of CGI objects. My guess is about 10 to 20 3D artists to created each the objects for example, they can make everything like the dust to earth. The 3D artists chose the sky image as 2D object because they make the computer ram's free space for the 3D objects. When The 3D objects' colour did not match other colour then the 3D artists use 'curve tool'. It can adjust the colour to match with other the colour and to make them looked realist. You can find 'Curve tool' in After effect or other SFX maker software. This camera's flying movement was creating by the 3D software in the computer. It's impossible for cameraman to do it on their own skills.

When the camera get closer then you might see the 3D objects with low detail change them into high detail. If the 3D artists put them with high detail from the start. They can cause rendering too long like 11 hours for 1 scene, getting errors or making the camera moving lagging. The steam from the train was creating by the 3D software. They looked unreal if they put cloud clips into it. Because the cloud clip is 2D object so that mean they look like cardboard then the camera move.

When the camera go into low mid air, you can see people walking and steam. It would be hard for the 3D artists/SFX editor see where the steam get light come from. 

 They switch to the light only mode, it help them to see where the light come from and to adjust the light and the steam. After Effect or 3D software can do it.

Some SFX editors used After Effect to remove the green screen background. The people clips follow the camera's movement at same time by using Tracker in After Effect or other matchmoving softwares. You can see blur on the people clips and other 3D objects. I can tell that they use 'Motion blur' when the 3D or 2D objects are very blur if the camera movement  is speed up. They are a bit blur when the camera movement is slow. The people clips are not just front on the layers. Some of them are behind the steam or the people clips.  

You can see the green line on the 3D objects. These many green lines show you that they are high detail. 

When the camera go into the heavy steam. The viewer can't see what is behind the heavy steam. The editor cut it and put 'fade out' effect in. It make the scene 1 fade into scene 2. So this mean it can trick the viewer thinking it is keeping filming all way here from the start. The scene 1 use the camera's fly movement from the comptuer and the scene 2 use the real camera movement on the large crane-car.       

 

 I can tell why the editors cut it into the 2 scenes. Because their computer rams can't handle lots of 3D objects. The scene 2 have lot of 2D objects than 3D objects. If they did not make the 2 scenes then they cause their computer froze.  

 This area is artworks, their sizes are same as kid's playhouse. they try to recreate the shot to match with the famous photo of the train crash. SFX editors adjust the colour and remove the green screen. They put the image of cloud behind the building in the layers.   

 There are two different shots, one main shot use by the professional camera and one small shot use by the action camera known as 'GoPro Hero' camera. They show you what is different between these shots. The small shot show you that green screen is behind the window and the wall behind her.

 When camera turn to her behind. Then the small shot show you the wall is moving away for giving the camera free space to film at her.

Unit 38 Soundtrack Production for the moving image.

Pick 3 different film clips from Youtube.
Analyse how sound is mixed, panning and how it is editing.
Where is panning used?
Which sounds are mixed in?
Has Foley been used?

Children Of Men

Mixed sound
Music from radio, car sound/ engine and people talking. The sounds make you feel that you are in the car.
Panning
for example, the lady point at the car with fire and then the sound pan to forward at the car with fire. You could hear lady shout behind you. The camera keep filming at them by around movement to create the sound panning. You hear the sirens from quite to louder when the police car pass to us.
Foley
Gunshot, window smash, people yelling, blood drop.
Editing

Heat (1994)

Mixed sound
The voices are muted or lower. In the Office sounds are louder by the chairs, desks and computer. The actors are yelling.  The level were mixed on a mixer of sounds in the office.
Panning
The nosy sounds is bit lower is when the camera is not looking at the actors' shooting. But they are louder when the camera is looking at the actors' shooting. The street sounds are louder. There are less dialogue. It's a large space to pan.
Foley
You can hear the bullets hitting on the floor and hitting on the cars' body.
Editing

Paranormal Activity 3 "Toby in Sheet" Scene

Mixed sound
The camera was on the top of the fan.
The fan nosy was create creepy scene. It mixed with the young teenage girl's foot step and the light flicking sound.
Panning
The fan keep move from west to east and then east to west. All the sounds are depending on what the camera see for example, the camera look at the young teenage girl write on the paper with pencil then pencil sounds was bit louder.  
Foley
Pencil sounds, kind of drum when Toby was gone in the sheet.
Editing

LARP: Journal

November 6th:
Richard showed us Superheroes documentary in channel 5. we then talked about real life people and their strange hobbies.

Me and Jonny talked about what kind of documentary that we want to make. Jonny was the one who picked the idea called Larping. I decided to go with his ideas because he was passionate about it and had lots of knowledge.
Jonny showed me what is larping in the website because I had no knowledge. He talked about weapons, costume, game rules, events and friends' hobbies.

November 13th:
Richard gave us little instruction, we had to make a film in between 2 to 3 mins.

Me and Jonny were doing some research about Larping.

I learned that LARP stand for 'LIVE ACTION ROLE PLAY'
Jonny to meet most people who are into Larping action.
Look at history of how it began.

Jonny was making storyboard concepts and showed me what he wanted.

November 20th:

We thought we were using stereotype looking people and stereotype Larp characters.
Me and Jonny had ideas,
a person wearing a hoody (teenager "Chav") wear a costume with a hood. (Assassin)
Dustbin man = High VIX jacket (Barbarian)
Kitchen worker = white coat/hour net (Healer)
Jogger (Archer)
Business man (Knight)

Jonny showed the website called Lorien Trust, it is company who sell weapons, costume, amours and make ups.

We planned to interview Jonny's friends and to film at Larping action.

Pre-production was starting,
I was doing health and safety, Call sheet and Cast list.
Jonny will film at one of the larp event.

November 27th:

 Jonny did a rough storyboard.
I looked for the font and found "Deutsches zierschrift" So I gave the font to Jonny.
Antony was doing shots?
Jonny can get the costumes for next weeks filming.
Jonny will colour the font at home.


December 6th:

Sean gave us a lift by using his mini bus. He took us to 'Hunter's way' road. I set the camera up and checking it. However the problem is the camera was not working with my SD Card 10 class and the tripod was unstable. We went back to York College to get other SD Card 8 class and replaced the tripod with better stable. We went back to 'Hunter's way' again.

I take the role as cameraman and actor.

When we finished the filming so we went back to York college and then we acted in the green screen.

Film Project (Shaun of the Dead) Unit 38

Me and Jonny joined up to make Foley sounds for the film, 'Shaun of the Dead'.

When Jonny was not here, I went outside and I was looking for the sounds. (soft winds and footsteps).
 I made few sounds so far outside. There were problems trying to get the right wind sounds because it was a noisy environment  with sounds like the cars, leaves rustling mixed in with the strong wind. I would not be able to get rid of the extra sounds digitally.

I went inside of York College. I looked for the sounds (footsteps indoor, fan noisy, hitting the wall with the shoes). I went to the small shop called 'Duets'  to use the real fridge. It created the sounds for fridge's opening and closing. However at editing, I could hear there were two people talking behind fridge opening and closing. I decided to remake the sounds. I went to the downstairs because it was quite and empty.   I tried to make a sound like the character's shoes as they hit the roadblock. However during editing, the sound was like a bit echo. I went to the office to get the fan and used it to make a sound like a fan sound. I used my voice to make a sound for Zombie's groan.

Jonny was here, he listened all of the sounds that I made. He gave me a feedback and decided to remake the some sounds that I made. For example, footsteps indoor sounded a bit like a splash. so we used a different flooring and found concrete made a similar sound. We also re recorded the sound when the character trips by using our shoes against the wall outside the college.
Jonny knew a  room which was very quite so we went to that room. Jonny used his voice for 'yelling-running man's' character sound. I made the sound like slipping on the blood by rubbing my shoes on the floor to create the sound. I had a idea and I told Jonny that I used my hand to scratch my head. It created the sound like the character when he scratched his head. I used whistle to create a sound like a car alarm.

At editing, we did not use EQ, Pitch and Reverb because I don't have a skill to do that. I need to learn how to use them. This is something I will do in the future.

We worked well as a team. Jonny and me divide the tasks between us and we listen to each other's views and take on board any positive criticisms.  Jonny can help to fine tune the sounds I have made and that is a good thing to do so we produce some quality work. However, if all of members are here then teamwork would be the best and with good time management we could complete the work earlier.

Cyber-bullies and Swearing videos for police evaluation

We were given a brief by the police, who visited York College's classroom. They wanted each group to make videos which are 2-3 minutes long, and then combine their videos into one.  They are aimed at young children about 12 to 14 years old who are learning about Anti-social behaviour.

My group choice was 'Misuse of Social Media' because I believe most kids have a lack of knowledge about cyber-bullying and new technology. So I used my best skills to make special effects to make this video a big selling point.
My group (Cyber-bullies) were me, Jackie and Naomi. My co-group (Swearing) were Jonny, Regan, Connor and Nyall.

Cyber-bullies

What I did (Pre-production): 
Risk assessment
Script  shot list.
Research, Notes and ideas for anti-social behaviour
Contingency plan

I created the Risk Assessment and Contingency Plan without any problems. When Jackie was not here, I found it a struggle to make the script shot list, so I worked with Naomi to do the storyboard and script. I put lots of my ideas into my Research, Notes and Ideas blog. I wrote about the Text message effect style from Hollyoaks. I researched facts about Cyber-bullies and taglines and then got the idea of how to create the quote.

What I did (Production)
Asst. Director
Cameraman
Camera works
Help other's equipment

Jackie asked me to be 2nd Asst. Director. During filming, I watched how Jackie directed the actress, cameraman and camerawork. After that, I helped Jackie to improve the camerawork. For example, Jackie used the zooming in on the actress in the close up shot without blur background.  I recommended her to use the Canon camera's lens which can use the close up shot with blur background, because I wanted the viewers' focus on the actress' emotion.

Jackie tried to make the camera focus on the actress with her phone on the medium height level. However, I prefer to use very low height level to look up at actress' face beside her phone with soft focus, because I thought it would create tension in the scene.

I chose York College's stair as a location because it showed the character's loneliness as the location looked empty.  I put the camera on the 4th floor to film at the actress walking downstairs. I made the camera pan down slowly as if to follow her out of the building.

What I did (Post-Production)

My role as Editor and SFX.

I edited the clips carefully because I looked for the best scenes' place for adding SFXs (Text messages).

I followed what Jackie wanted; for example, she wanted the text message to look like Apple's green text message. I create Apple's green text message in After Effect, by using Shape tools, colour and Apple's font. After that, I reviewed the text messages effect, and I decided that to make the words shaky and creepy in the text message. I made the text messages move like a fly around the actress for example in the 'downstair scene' and 'York museum scene'. I made the text messages look 3D by using After Effect and then following to actress, for example in 'the corridor scene'

.

Sometimes there were time management problems because I finished my editing role a bit early and the rest of the group were not ready to add the Foley sound, so they had to go out and record the sound earlier than the plan said.

I realise that the next time I film with a group we must copy all the pre-production plan to each member. This will mean we have copies of risk assessments, health and safety rules; scripts, storyboard; script shots and permissions all prepared for the group. Then we will not waste time asking which member did which work.

Communication with the other people was good; they kept in contact with me at all times. 

I think that we completed the police's mission because the videos can be shown to 12 to 14 year old young people, and the message is clear that if you bully him/her it is wrong. It lets them see what can happen to someone who is badly affected by cyber bullying. The film gives them knowledge about cyber bullying.

Swearing

I got the text from Naomi,and she told me that we planned to make a film on Tuesday.
I joined the group to make a film about Swearing. I looked at their pre-production folder and then I was bit confused because some of work was missing, for example the roles list, locations and permission. I was not sure which role I should take and which location we would film at. The storyboard was a good concept, however, I didn't understand what the detail of the story was about. I asked one member of them to explain it and what my role was.

What I did (Production)
Asst. Director
Asst. Cameraman
Camera works
Help other's equipment

During filming, Regan asked me to be Asst Director and Asst. cameraman. Regan took the role as Director and cameraman, so I watched while Regan directed to the actors, cameraman and camerawork. I helped her by adjusting the camera work to improve it. I made sure the camerawork was following the storyboard; for example, I looked at the storyboard and it said that we needed a specific wide shot with bit high height level. However, this camerawork was not my signature's camerawork, so I changed the camerawork from wide shot to close up shot. The wide shot of 3 actors was a bit bland because the background was more detailed than the actors. I chose the close up shot because I wanted the viewers to focus on the main actor's emotion.

The man caught us filming at York Museum Gardens. He told us that he was in charge of this. My group were unaware of the law and didn't have legal permission.

What I did (Post-Production)

My role as Editor.

During editing, I encountered some tricky technique problems. For example, the Nyall scene was shaky when Regan filmed him whilsy walking around him like 360 at the same time. But the bumpy grass made Regan unbalanced. So I added the effect called 'stabilizer' which could remove 'shaky'. 

I addes the 'blue' colour on some scenes to help the viewers to identify two different scenes. (The present scene is normal colour and the future scene is blue)

Communication with my group was quite good; however, Pre-Production was unprepared.