Improvements on Shots

This has been improved by putting Duke
on the right side; there are leading diagonal
lines of the car park, and the cars on the left
keep the farm balanced

This is the Original first shot; Problems with

it are that  Duke is too central, there is a bin in
the background and there is too much empty
space.

This shot has many problem. The most
obvious is that you can see some students
with filming equipment on the right. Also
both charters are on the left of the frame
which means it isn't balanced.

This shot has been significantly improved;
Dan is on the left near the bikes, the leading
lines of the college building keep him separate
from the right side of the frame and the light is
kept on him rather than the right side.

This shot is more central, there is nice
background light, both hands are even
and the leading lines of the road help
to show the centre of the frame.

The handshake shot has no interesting
background. The amount of hand shown
isn't even, and it needs to be central.

We decided to change this shot, and
just have Duke walking past the
refectory. It is more interesting, as the
leading lines are definitive, it gives
an interest to the scenery and the lens
flare is interesting.

This shot is very bad. The characters
are far away which means that focus
is on everything else. They are too
close together which means they have
no space to move, and you can see
there camera equipment.

This has been improved as there are
diagonals, the background is more
interesting and the characters are shown
at an angle.

This is the shot of Duke and Katie
looking at each other; This is wrong
as it is is too central, there is a car that
blocks the characters and the focus isn't
on the characters.

Analysing My Cinematography

This frame is when Dan is first introduced, and we see a student flying away. Not much in terms of cinematography was taken into account when this picture was taken. First of all, the van on the left wasn't originally meant to be in the shot; it was just an inconvenience that occurred when taking the picture, which could have been fixed if we had either shot somewhere else, or waited for it to move.
 The subjects of the picture (in this case Dan and the flying student) are fairly central which means the the picture isn't really interesting. The 'flying student' is blurred, and is also in a bit of an awkward position. This could have been avoided by reshooting.
The cars on the right make the picture unbalanced, and the diagonals are also unbalanced.
A really bad thing about the picture is that Dan is carrying the camera bag which is really bad composition.

This picture has plenty of problems. The main obvious problem being that you can see a camera crew on the left of the frame, and Dan is still holding the camera bag over his shoulder. These continuity errors make the picture very bad as it is obviously not what is meant to be happening in the frame.
Duke is to the left of the frame, a little of of focus. Dukes positioning isn't good; as there is a van in front of him, he blocks it off, making it uneven and unclear. There is a lot of clutter in this picture.

The rule of thirds in this picture has not been followed well; all of the action is in the left side of the frame which means the it is uneven and attention cannot be given to all of the picture.
There are bins in the background which make the picture incredibly boring and show that not much effort was made when it was taken.
There are no definitive leading lines in the picture that are relevant, and the picture was shot at an awkward angle, which shows no dedication and poor effort.

The focus of the picture, being the four people at the table, is off centre; this means that most of the right side of the frame is pointless, and just adds more clutter to the frame. This means that rule of thirds hasn't really been applied, due to the lack of interest in the right side of the frame.
The top third of the frame has the same problem; the camera could have been a bit lower, in order to limit the amount of needless space.
The diagonal lines of the table provide no use to the frame either, which isn't good, as they could have been used well for this particular picture.

This shot was meant to be of the reception area, with no clutter; in the frame you can see the three girls on the right that  look like they clearly shouldn't be there at all. the same also goes for the mannequin on the left. If these weren't shot in frame, this picture would have been substantially better, the leading lines and lights on the ceiling provide interest to the top half of the frame, and there isn't much clutter; the stairs provide interest on the left, ale the doors, and moving to the oft of the frame, the reception desk has much about it that provides interest, such as the changes in height and colour, and the windows behind it give an outside view.

This is the shot in which Dan and Katie walk away from Duke after their first meeting. The main problem with this shot is that Dan in carrying the camera bag on his shoulder. This error shows that we weren't paying as much attention as we should have, when taking these pictures.It means that the shot isn't realistic.
Another problem is that the both characters are too far away, and also too unbalanced. the way that Katie is turning to wave and Dan is just walking away doesn't really make sense. This shot could have been done closer to the characters, as they are supposed to be the main focus.

2nd Animatic

This is my 2nd animatic for the short film, 'Duke Goes To College'. This animatic includes photos to realistically represent what it will look like when it is being filmed

Rotoscoping Research

Research on Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping in an animation technique in which animators trace over footage frame by frame. It is used in live action and animated films. Originally, the live action film was projected onto frosted glass panels and then was redrawn by animators frame by frame. The projection equipment was called a rotoscope, hence the name, but eventually, the device was replaced by computers. In VFX, the term rotoscoping refers to the technique of creating a matte by hand for an element on a live action plate so that is can be composited over different images and backgrounds

The rotoscoping technique was invented by Max Fleischer; the technique was first used in his series 'Out of the Inkwell' in 1915. Fleischers brother dressed in a clown outfit, as the character Koko the Clown. The same technique was used in many of Fleischers cartoons; his most famous being the Cab Calloway dance routines in the Betty Boop cartoons from the 1930's. Eventualy many other animators caught on to rotoscoping, including the producers of Looney Tunes, and Walt Disneys animation team used rotoscoping for the creation of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' in 1937. From then, the rotoscope was mainly used for studying human and animal motion.

Lord of the Rings (1978) - Boromirs Death

This clip from the 1978 film 'Lord of the Rings' there is a fight scene before Borormir is killed; Rotoscoping is used to add the characters on to the background, the characters fighting Orcs and such, onto a background of a wooded area. The characters are placed onto the background to make them look as though they are interacting with the woods. The clip is fast flowing so that the viewer doesn't really have time to look for mistakes, or anything that is out of place. The animation focuses on the characters, and not so much the background. Due to the limits in animation at the time, this is a well executed piece of animation.

Animation can be useful when working in After Effects

Rotoscoping can be used to create shapes and then can be used to track each shape; for example creating the shape of a gun, and tracking it to the movements of a mans hand.

You can use the rotobrush tool to Isolate an image and put it on a different background, like in the 'Lord of the Rings' clip. This applies to us, as we can only film in college. You could shoot a section and then isolate it onto a background of a field. This gives the view of a character in a different location.

Green Screen Research

Green Screen or 'Chroma Key' is a special effects/post production technique for compositing two images or videos together based on colour hues. The technique has been used heavily in many fields to remove a background from the subject of a video or photo , particularly in newscasting, motion picture and video gaming industries.
  A green screen is manly used to differentiate between characters and the background. A green or blue screen is used, as they are easy to differentiate  between skin tones and clothes.

One of the first uses of chromakey was used in the 1940 film 'The Thief of Bagdad'. This was done by Larry Butler, who is credited for the development of blue screen. He invented blue screen and travelling matte techniques in order to achieve the visual effects which were unprecedented in 1940. He was also the first special effects man to have created these effects in Technicolor, which was in its infancy at this time.
In 1950, Warner Brothers employee and ex-Kodak researcher Arthur Widmer began working on an ultra violet travelling matte process. He also began developing blue screen techniques. One of the first films to use them was the 1958 adaptation of 'The Old Man and the Sea'

This is an example of green screen used in the 2012 movie 'The Avengers'. Green screen is needed here in order for live action characters to interact with CGI, such as lasers and fire and even characters like the Hulk and Iron man. This use of green screen is convincing, in the fact that the background image looks as though it is really there.

Matte Painting Research

A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is nonexistent in real life or would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to build or visit. 
  Matte painters and film technicians have used different techniques to combine matte painted images with live action shots. At its best, depending on the skill level of the artist, the effect is convincing, and creates an environment that would otherwise be impossible to film. 
  In 1905 a man called Norman Dawn developed a technique that joined together a photograph, and a painting to enhance the environment being shot by the camera. Dawn, a photographer himself, took his photos and paintings and placed them on a large glass sheet. Black tape was then placed over the the parts of the camera where the painting would go. After the camera was positioned properly, the live action scene would take place. What resulted was a combination between a simple painting and an actual live scenery. 
  
The earliest matte paintings were all either created by hand, or mixed with photos; about 80 years after Dawns creations, there was another milestone in the styles history. With the enhancement of the computer and its programmes came digital painting. This type of painting gave images a much more realistic look, and painter Chris Evans was the first person to ever create a digital matte painting that was used in film. In 1985, Evans blended a scanned image with digital painting to create an ultra realistic scene that was placed in the film 'Young Sherlock Holmes'. This paved the way for the type of digital matte painting that is used in many many films today.
  Some of the most notable matte paintings came from movies like Star Wars, Planet of the Apes, the Wizard of Oz, King Kong, and Indiana Jones.

This is a matte painting from the film 'the Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring' (2001). This matte painting creates the image of the city of Rivendell. This is an obvious fictional place created for the film which meant that it would have been pretty much impossible to recreate in real life. This painting, with additional digital creations, successfully pictures the city of Rivendell. It is convincing, as many different factors have been given detail, such as interactions with light and shadows, colours and interactions with the environment 

Breakdown Sheets

Breakdown sheet 1 from Christen Saptou

Breakdown sheet 2 from Christen Saptou

Production design work from bengsharrison

Working Between Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects

During your film projects, you may need to take files from Premiere Pro, and Import them into After Effects. There are many ways of doing this;

The first way and easiest way is to press File - Export Media. This will allow you to take your footage out of Premiere Pro, and have it save onto your computer; you can either save it as an uncompressed AVI, or as a Quicktime movie. You will need to change the codec to a PMG.

This is a what a Premiere Pro document looks like.

This is what an After Effect document looks like.

Saving your work is also important in Premiere, as losing your footage means that it obviously cannot be taking into After Effects.

Once your footage has been exported from Premiere Pro, you can then open After Effects, click File - Import, and then select your footage and it now be in an After Effects document.

A quicker way to put Premiere Files into After Effects is to highlight all of your footage in the Premiere timeline, right click, and then click Replace with After Effects Composition; if you already have After Effects open at this point, a new After Effects Composition will have been made with your Premiere footage.

A disadvantage of this method is that your Premiere footage will have been deleted, as it will now ben in After Effects.

This means you will not be able to make any changes to your footage if you need to. An easy way to solve this problem is to highlight all of your footage, and duplicate it this ensures that you will always have back up footage in Premiere, just incase you need to make adjustments. You may want to save your Premiere file at this point

These are the easiest ways that you can open Premiere files in After Effects.

Dan Collinson Character Bio

Duke hayes character bio from bengsharrison

Dukes Mood Board

This is Dukes mood board. It is basically a collection of images that represent his personality and his style; this helps to represent Dukes character in the film, and helps to give us an idea of what he will look.

Animatic Review / Peer Feedback

My first attempt at creating an animatic for my film 'Duke Goes To College' was definitely not of professional standard by any means; the shot lengths weren't accurate, and the storyboard pictures I used were not great. The animatic doesn't have any shot movement, apart from the zoom at the end, where the camera will zoom into my eyes.
The animatic doesn't flow as well as it should. Overall, it isn't really an accurate representation of what the final film will look like.

Below is my Animatic Feedback

Animatic peer feedback-1 from bengsharrison

Location Recce Part 2

Location Scouting Report Scene 2

Location Scouting Report Scene 3

Location Recce

Flying Effect

This video shows the flying effect that I created in After Effects.

I first filmed myself jumping into the air, and then walking off screen. This footage was then imported in to after effects, and the background footage was placed underneath the jumping footage in a separate layer.
I stopped the jump footage, just before my feet left the ground, i made a freeze frame, and then masked around my whole body with the pen tool.

Animatic Peer Review

Below is my Animatic Peer Feedback from Edwyn

Animatic peer feedback from bengsharrison

My First Animatic

This is the animatic created using the groups storyboards of our script. This animatic includes dialogue by characters, types of shots, and ambient music in the background.

VFX Test Footage

This is a clip which I created in After Effects. In After effects, I managed to create a flying effect with minimal effort. This consisted of filming myself jump into the air and walk off screen, then background footage was shot. Then in After Effects I split the raw footage with the background footage, and then made a mask around my body. Then using key frames, I moved myself up off screen. This is the finished test product.