Digital Filmmaking: Experimental Techniques

Final Film Research Ideas

2012-11-02T03:19:28Z

Len Lye

Norman McLaren

Neighbours by Norman McLaren, National Film Board of Canada

Ishu Patel

Bead Game by Ishu Patel, National Film Board of Canada

Anouk Préfontaine

System Error by

Arthur Lipsett

Very Nice, Very Nice by Arthur Lipsett, National Film Board of Canada

Thomas Edison's "Anna Belle Serpentine Dance"

Joanna Priestley

Reading Assignment - Due Nov. 14

2012-10-31T02:16:49Z

You will have two reading/writing assignments due on Nov. 14. I will put the books and dvds on reserve in the Library for you. There will be a 4hr checkout, so make sure not to wait until the day before they are due to check out the dvds/books.

Reading/Writing #1

Watch:
Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon
PN 1997.A1D474 2002 DVD

Write:
General reaction to the film? What did you find interesting with this film? What surprised you? What made the narrative effective?

** There is not a reading required for this. I do suggest for further information you read the notes that are included on the DVD.

Reading/Wrting #2

Watch:
Bill Plympton's Dog days a collection of short films, 2004-2008 (You may choose what film to watch)
PN1997 .D6392 2009 DVD

Read:
Independently Animated Bill Plympton - Chapter 8
PN 6727.P59Z46 2011

Write:
A response to the reading. What did you find interesting about what he said? Do you agree with his advice?

Final Film Ideas - Inspiration

2012-10-25T01:52:04Z

MIWA MATREYEK - http://www.semihemisphere.com/Home.html

Jonathan Hodgson - Feeling My Way

Jonathan Hodgson - Nightclub

A History of the Sky - Ken Murphy

More information - http://www.murphlab.com/hsky/

Jordan Greenhalgh

Chris Marker, La Jetee - ( The full film is in the library)

Martha Colburn

Visit her website - http://www.marthacolburn.com/

Music video for Snorri Helgason's song Mockingbird
Directed By: Elisa Vendramin, Claudio Gasparollo, and Tim L Schafe

For more videos - https://vimeo.com/gotye/videos

Final Film - Research Resources

2012-10-25T01:36:42Z

National Film Board of Canada http://www.nfb.ca/

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/

http://www.shortoftheweek.com/

https://vimeo.com/channels/animationandpuppets

http://www.ubu.com/film/

http://www.submarinechannel.com/

http://www.stashmedia.tv/

Digital Compositing/ Animating the Face

2012-10-17T03:46:36Z

Buildings and Vampires - Directed by: Sebastian Baptista & Nico Casavecchia

Buildings & Vampires from Nico Casavecchia on Vimeo.

Kristen Lepore - Guess Who

Guess Who from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Check out her website - http://www.kirstenlepore.com/

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On - Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp

Terry Gilliam's Dancing Teeth

Cel Animation

2012-10-17T01:46:32Z

Early Walt Disney Studio's Documentry on their animation process.

Yogi Bear, Bear meet Bear, 1961
Go to 3:55 to best see the use of multiple cels. If you look at the top half and the lower half of Yogi's body you can tell they are on different layers because the paint does not match.

Ren & Stimpy , Pencil Test

Hand Drawn Animation - Inspiration for Class Filim

2012-10-16T22:38:26Z

Winsor McCay, Gertie the Dinosaur, 1914

Gertie the Dinosaur (Winsor McCay, 1914) by dephaad

Max Fleisher, The Tantalizing Fly, 1919

Don Hertzfeld, Rejected, 1999

Christy Karacas, Space War, 1997

Tutorials

2012-10-16T17:11:37Z

Animating the mouth using After Effects
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/lip_synch.php

The basics of motion tracking in After Effects
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_keyframes/video/after_effects_apprentice_video_tutorial_8/

Tracking in After Effects - Workflow
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS0D2A799F-1176-44e8-8E4B-330BF1D8B1EDa.html

Ryan Trecartin - Due Oct. 15

2012-10-10T04:00:42Z

Watch and respond to:
http://www.ubu.com/film/trecartin_tommy.html

Read:
http://moreintelligentlife.com/blog/whitney-ford/qa-ryan-trecartin

You need to do a writing response on your reaction to the video and then something that you took away from the interview. Make sure to include both. I suggest watching the video then reading the interview and then revisit the video.

Title your paper: What you would write if you commented on this video on YouTube

Additional interview:

http://wexarts.org/wexblog/?p=299

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/ryan-trecartin-in-conversation/

More Videos
https://vimeo.com/trecartin

A couple more videos that use green screen.

2012-10-02T02:53:05Z

Ok Go, WTF Music Video

Making of: http://www.collegehumor.com/video/5805208/making-of-ok-gos-wtf-music-video

Yeah Right! Directed by - Ty Evans and Spike Jonze (clip selected from film)

Music video for Snorri Helgason
Co-Directed by Elisa Vendramin, Claudio Gasparollo, and Tim L Schafer

Chroma Key / Video Mattes

2012-10-01T21:55:57Z

Three Transitions, Peter Campus, 1973

Tango, Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1981

TANGO by Zbigniew Rybczynski
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Steps (excerpt), Zbigniew Rybczynski

More about the film:
http://www.zbigvision.com/StepsFilm.html

The Chemical Brothers - Swoon

Jamala - Smile

Behind the scenes photos.

Stan Brakhage

2012-09-13T04:20:00Z

Opening paragraph of Stan Brakhage's first book, Metaphors on Vision:

"Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, and eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'? How many rainbows can light create for the untutored eye? How aware of variations in heat waves can that eye be? Imagine a world alive with incomprehensible objects and shimmering with an endless variety of movement and innumerable gradations of color. Imagine a world before the 'beginning was the word."

- Stan Brakhage

Books and DVDs on Brakhage in the Library:

By Brakhage an Anthology
PN1997.B735 B9 2003 DVD

Philip Taaffe : Composite Nature
ND237.T28 A4 1998 (Tweed Library)

A great website with stills from Brakhages films.
http://www.fredcamper.com/Film/BrakhageS.html

An introduction to Brakhage.
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/272-stan-brakhage

Reading/Writing Assignment: Due Sept. 19 (You should have at least half a page typed single spaced.)
Watch: Mothlight and another film of your choice from the dvd By Brakhage an Anthology, which is on reserve in the library.

Read: Mothlight and Beyound by Fred Camper

Writing Response: After watching and reading the article on Brakhage what do you think he was trying to do with his films? How was he using film in a new way both technically and conceptually? You may reference Fred Camper's article in your response.

Mothlight by cinefalo

Actions and Batching in Photoshop

2012-09-13T04:19:20Z

If you want to print out your film stills to draw on them directly or if you want to trace over them on a new drawing you might want to alter the original image. For instance if you wanted to experiment with drawing directly on the print outs you may want to change them to black and white and heighten the brightness and contrast. You can do this with one image and then apply it to a whole folder of images, which is called batching. I showed how to do this in digital arts1 and time-based media, look for you notes. Here is a tutorial I found online goes over actions and batching.

You can also put an effect on your film before exporting it as stills from Adobe Premier of Final Cut. So you could change your footage to black and white and heighten the contrast as an effect too. Then export it as still, and take it to a printer to print.