cloning

key framing

Green Screen

How to organise clips on final cut pro

Animation Presentation

Final Animation Piece

Group brainstorm

Our Groups Brainstorm

Storyboard group advert

Our Group's Storyboard

Air Jordan Presentation

16.3.1

History Principles & Development of Editing

In this essay, I am going to analyse continuity editing and how it has grown in the past century. Continuity editing is all about creating action whilst hiding the edits from the audience and making all of the footage flow smoothly. Continuity editing can also be known as Transparency editing as the audience won’t see the edits. Because of this, the audience find it easy to understand and just follow the dialogue. In the context of development of editing principles, I will be examining the work of Georges Melies, Edwin S. Porter, and D.W. Griffiths. I will be comparing all three of their film making successes. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate the advances of continuity editing, I will be comparing the original films and the present films today.

George Melies is a French film maker or the first 'cinemagician' to be around the 18 & 1900's. George is not only a filmmaker, but one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. In the fall of 1896, Melies was in Paris shooting a bus coming out of a tunnel when his camera jammed in the middle of the take. When he got the camera working again, a small car took over the spot of the bus. After reviewing the footage, he discovered that the effect of the bus leaving, then the small car appearing on the screen was a start of a new filming technique. This is known as a Jump Cut. Melies went straight to work with his discovery, creating films where the actors disappear, then shortly reappearing couple of seconds later. Through his still photography and magic lantern experience, Melies also introduced editing devices such as the fade in and out shots, overlapping dissolves and stop motion photography.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, another key figure to get a start in the filming industry was Edwin S. Porter. Porter started off as a projectionist, setting up the first ever Edison projector in Koster & Bial's music hall in New York city in April. For a few years, he'd operate his own equipment until 1900 when he joined Edison manufacturing company and became head of production in Sky Light Studio in 1901. The next 5 years he served Edison as his director and cameraman.

Porter's projectionist background gave him some unique insight into film, greatly influenced by George Melies, especially 1902 'A Trip To The Moon' which he often duplicated for distribution, for Edison.. illegally. Porter decided to try his hand at narrative film with the 1903 'Life Of An American Fireman'. Now firemen are common subject matters for early films. What Porter did was rather unique, he took stock footage from the Edison library and spliced it together with stage scenes to create a fictional narrative. Porter was stuck in his tabloid mentality, constructing each shot as a complete scene. A Temporal Overlaps is where action is duplicated from one end of the shot to the other. For example, in the 'Life Of An American Fireman' in the opening shot where the firemen are rushed down to the pole, followed by a shot of the bottom of the pole before the firemen land.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk - A Trip To The Moon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4C0gJ7BnLc - Life of an American Fireman.

Porter was beginning to forge a new cinematic language, through his work we start to see that the most basic unit of cinema was not the scene as Melies and his contemporaries thought, but the shot. Meaning came not only in the spatial arrangement of objects and actors in a frame like in a theater, also in still photography, but in the way that shots are arranged in time. However like George Melies before him, Porter would only take editing so far. Cinema would require another artist to build on their work and expand the editing vocabulary.

In 1908, just before leaving Edison to start his own production company, Porter hired a young starving actor to fill the lead part in ‘Rescued From An Eagle’s Nest’. This would end up being the first break of a 40-year-career of one David Wark Griffith (D.W. Griffith).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TCvomchAig - Rescued From An Eagle’s Nest

The seventh child of a Confederate Army Colonel from a rural of Kentucky, D.W. Griffith tried everything from hop picking, selling encyclopedias, door-to-door to acting. His lifelong ambition was to be a writer falling in love with Victorian style of literature, especially that of Charles Dickens. However his poems and plays were unremarkable so he tried his hand writing scenarios for movie companies. Working under the stage name of Lawrence Griffith, he submitted an adapted play to none other than Edwin S. Porter. Porter rejected it for having too many scenes but he hired Griffith to star in one of his films. After a while, Griffith found a position at Biograph, a production company struggling in debt and looking for directors. Under a $45.00 per week contract, Griffith would make over 450 films from 1908 to 1911, pushing cinema out of the primitive tableau mentality and into a multi shot medium that we would now recognize.

One of Griffith’s first inventions was the ‘Cut-In’ first used in ‘The Greaser’s Gauntlet’ in 1908, just four months after his first film for Biograph. Griffith cut from a medium long shot of a hanging tree to a full shot in the middle of the scene to emphasize the emotional impact of an exchange between two actors. A brand new concept. Griffith continued to experiment with alternating shot lengths using multiple camera setups to create a scene through what’s called continuity editing.

Continuity editing is cutting between shots with the purpose of maintaining smooth sense of continuous space and time. With multiple camera setups being used, the 180 degree rule evolved out of practise. Griffith as well as his contemporaries discovered that if you kept the camera on one side of the axis of action, thats the imaginary line where movements and eye-lines occur, you can avoid continuity editing problems of confusing geography when cutting from one angle to another.

Griffith’s next invention in editing was one that would become his favourite, intercutting or cross-cutting. Bouncing between two different scenes in a parallel action which he first put to use on ‘After Many Years’ in 1908. Through varying the spatial distance with long, medium and close up shots and the temporary length of shots, Griffith began to establish the tenets of classic Hollywood continuity editing. Through practical solving and experimentation, he and contemporary filmmakers who often copied the style, brought about concepts like the Establishing Shots, Reverse Shots, Matching Eyelines, and Cutting on Action, everything we think about in terms of continuity editing.

Griffith released an independent in 1914 that would be cinema’s most expensive movie ever made. That film was called ‘The Birth of a Nation’.  This film was a culmination of all Griffiths editing and cinematic techniques. D.W Griffiths remains a controversial figure of history but he almost singlehandedly invented the conventions of editing that would establish the continuity style of cutting that is still very much with us today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9UPOkIpR0A - A Birth of a Nation

Last but not least, I done some quantitative research and found out some interesting information. I asked 2 questions around college, the questions were;

Question 1 - "What are your thoughts about CGI Movies?"

- "Watching CGI Movies are great, it feels like I'm watching a fake but real movie at the same time."

- "CGI movies are intense, it gets me fired up."

- "Don't really enjoy watching them, just prefer all natural."

Question 2 - "When you see a movie that's been remastered, what changes do you expect?"

- "Better performance in technology for sure."

- "More realistic scenes, perhaps better storyline."

- "Having the feeling that the remastered version is way better"

Even in the birth of cinema, the first 20 years of film-making, the history of editing has been the story of film-makers learning from each other and adding their own voice into the mix. Cinema was becoming a language, and editing is the syntax.

In conclusion, for my part I believe that editing is a very important element when trying to create a great film. Without editing, movies or any type of clips would be tedious to watch. In order to engage the audience to the fullest, you must have editing in films. Comparing to the oldest movie to date, you can clearly see that film-making has come a long way. For years to come, more and more unimaginable technology are soon to be created and it's only the beginning of the future.

Final film

TV Advert - Nike Air Jordan

Nike Advert Evaluation

Our Idea

For our group, me, Louis, Fatima and Daniel came up with an idea to film a shoe advert. We agreed to make this advert because we thought it would be humorous and engaging for the audience. Our initial idea was to make the main actor (Me) playing basketball in the sports hall, shooting hoops but failing every time. We also had the idea where I meet a stranger with 'magical' sneakers (Daniel) that manages to persuade me to wear a pair of Air Jordan's. Our last idea was to get a female spectator to watch me play basketball and then fall in love, whilst wearing the pair of Air Jordan's.

Why This Idea?

We decided to make this advert because we wanted to send out a clever and manipulative message to the audience about the product. The message we sent out is that wearing these pair of trainers can make you feel lighter and to have that 'glide' feeling. Also, we wanted to show the audience that by purchasing these sneakers, it could improve your performance in sports. Having this type of idea is perfect when producing an advert like Air Jordan's because it makes the audience feel more reassured and satisfied.

Shot Compositions

The type of camera angles we used in our advert were long, medium, and close up shots. We used a tracking shot to panel me running up to the hoop to keep the audience's attention. When Daniel was in the corridor where I was taking a break to drink, the angle slowly closed in from a medium range shot to capture the shoes that Daniel was wearing. We also used a close up on the sneakers and the logo to represent the product. Finally, the shot cuts again to a slow motion angle when I shoot the ball in the hoop. This ends with me finally getting the ball through the hoop with a low angle shot of the basketball dropping down from the hoop.

Air Jordan XX9 'Get Up'  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhfE2IJWNJI

At the start of the advert, you can see a baby girl reaching her hand in the air and the song 'Do Your Stuff' by Perk Badger playing in the background. This is trying to show that the advert is already trying to represent a sports type of genre such as basketball. Also, you can see close up shots on the shoes they're trying to promote. We got ideas from that and agreed to film it similar to this advert. Furthermore, in the ending of this advert, you can see the male leaping towards the hoop in slow motion. This also inspired us to film something similar to that. Lastly, the ending ends with the products name and brand. We wanted to do something like that as well because we thought the audience would be more interested in buying due to the large logo and that 'right in your face' font.

Strengths & Weaknesses

During this project, we had great communication and creative skills. This allowed us to plan our idea to the fullest extend. Also, the strengths I had whilst making this advert were having great communication skills, which helped me out a lot. This made the planning and the editing quicker than I planned. Also, my organizational skills helped a lot when I was our shoe advert because it didn't cause any delay or any interfering. Furthermore, my past experience in filming and editing assisted me greatly, allowing me to adapt to the environment of this project quicker.

However, there were a few weaknesses. Due to some people not attending, it made it harder for us to film the advert. We had to wait couple of days to carry on filming which made it more difficult to get to the editing part. However, the actors did come in and we managed to complete the filming then start editing. Another weakness we had was the audio. The audio wasn't very clear when me and Daniel was speaking. You could hear us speaking but just about which could have been improved. Last but not least, the cameras we used to film was shaking when Louis was filming me in the sports hall. I believe our advert could have been better if these little mistakes were avoided, but in my opinion I still think our advert was a success for our first time.

Animation Evaluation

Claymation Evaluation

Our Idea

For our Claymation idea, me, AJ, and Mohammed came up with the thought of creating a fighting scene using stick figures. The classic game called ‘Mortal Kombat’ inspired us because a fighting game is perfect for Claymation and Mortal Kombat will make it even more enjoying to make. Our roles for our idea were;

• Snapping shots – Mohammed
• Creating the Characters – Hakim
• Moving the Figurines - AJ

Stickman Fight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NNDRfQSCTE 

In this video, you can see that our work is quite similar. As you can quite clearly see that the stickmen in this YouTube video are fighting each other continuously, just like our one. We also notice that they use the same 2D effect as we did to create that 1v1 atmosphere, and they also executed combos. Furthermore, sound effects were used throughout the video to create that back shivering feeling. Comparing to our work, we also used the same type of ‘Bang’ and ‘Boom’ effects, giving us ideas before making this project.

The Process

The process of creating this idea was to first get fresh clay and start making figurines of characters that are in the game. We then started to roll, stretch, and bend the clay to create the writing that’s in Mortal Kombat. After finishing the clay making, we then put the clay in front of the camera and started snapping the shots. We used a continuous sequence to create the illusion that figurines have a mind of their own.

Furthermore, we then saved the shots we created and uploaded it onto Final Cut Pro. After, we added sound effects and text to make the clip look at a professional standard. Last but not least, after all the exporting and editing, we then uploaded the completed video onto YouTube for others to view. The upload time took roughly 20mins to complete.

The Feedback

After we had uploaded the completed clip, we got 4 of our classmates to take a look at of what we produced. All 4 have liked the video and they’d recommend it to their friends and family. After gathering all the feedback, it seemed that all of them said “The only negative about your clip was the storyline.” We then viewed our video again and realised the storyline did need improving, and it could have been a lot better.

• Dylan - ⅘
• Fatima - ⅘
• Fatmata - ⅘
• Jack - ⅘

Strengths & Weaknesses

One of my biggest strengths during this project was to be able to organise the equipment and the clay. I feel that our group progressed in a faster pace due to my organisational skills obtained from similar projects. Another strength we had as a team included communication skills. We assigned each other different roles to do speed up the process of this project.

However, we did have some weaknesses. Every 10-15mins we would stop to have unnecessary conversations to our classmates about irrelevant topics. This slowed down our work rate and lost valuable time. In spite of all that, we learnt to become more focused and also to be able to work at a faster rate. This has impacted us greatly.

Intro To Editing - 16.1.1

Intro To Editing

• Editing is the process of selective shots put together to create a good narrative. Cutting out the unnecessary footage and then putting together the important clips.

• Elliptical editing is when you don't see the entire footage, only cuts to the action, allowing to fill in the gaps. For example, when someone gets shot in a film, you will see them in the next clip in a hospital waking up.

• Non-diagetic sound is when you use additional sounds in the background where only the viewer can hear, not the actors. For example, a woman finds her husbands clothes with blood on the floor

• Long shots is when you show the atmosphere around the person to view a wide perspective of the picture.

• When the camera shows the actor bending over to pick up something, however not showing the part where they actually bend down, only showing the arms in the footage.

Hustle

• Shot reverse-shot is when a two people start talking to each other and the camera shots switch every time they start speaking.

• Eye-line matching is to show the audience what they will want to see what the character on screen is seeing. 

• We cut to other members of the group because we can see the characters facial expressions and to make it seem more interesting for the audience.

• A wipe is a digital effect which one goes across the screen and the other behind the screen. 

• Using quick cuts is to create excitement, fast rhythm and suspense 

Key Words

• Jump cut is when footage of a film is cut and skipped to the parts where its more interesting to watch. For example, an interview is taken place and the footage is skipped to the important information or skipped to facial expressions.

• Flash back is used in films where they recap what happened in the past then immediately going back to the present, showing us what happened before the present situation.

• Flash forward shows the future situation then goes back to the present stage.

Animation Timeline

History of Animation

Max Fleischer - Out of the Inkwell - Late 1800’s / Early 1900’s

Max Fleischer is an animator that was born in 1883 in Vienna. Fleischer has said to be one of the pioneers of animation due to his incredible imagination and inventions. Fleischer invented the rotoscope, along-side with his brother in 1915. The rotoscope is a remarkable device because it creates realistic animation such as Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Popeye, and Superman (Also his character inventions) to theater screens and was also accountable for other technological creations.

Winsor McCay - Gertie the Dinosaur - See on blog for presentation

Pat Sullivan - Felix The Cat - 1910’s / 1920’s

Pat Sullivan is an Australian cartoonist, film producer, and an animator  that was born in 1887, Paddington Australia. Sullivan’s work is best known for Felix the Cat silent cartoons.  Sullivan had a friend named John McCrae, an Australian writer who lived together. John McCrae was told to draw the cartoons whilst Sullivan supplied the ideas for the cartoons. Felix the Cat was one of the longest running cartoons that was ever recorded and a cartoon that was viewed more than 2 generations. In this current day and age, Felix the Cat is ranked 28 on the ‘50 Greatest Cartoon Character of All Time’

Walt Disney - Steamboat Willie - 1920’s / 1930’s

Walt Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago Illinois, US. Disney is a entrepreneur and animator that is known for creating fictional character such as the famous Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. Disney would make the animators and directors come together and discuss how the storyboard would be like and then they’d go off to sketch a rough drawing. Steamboat Willie shows Mickey Mouse on a boat with a few other characters on board. This was also Mickey Mouse’s debut to cartoon life and one of the first synchronised sound along with character sounds and character score. Steamboat Willie included:

• Hand Drawn Cartoon
• Time Limitation
• Black & White
• No Voices
• Basic Animation

Walt Disney received four honorary Academy Awards and won 22 Academy Awards from a total of 59 nominations. Walt Disney is arguably the greatest animator / entrepreneur of all time.

Hannah Barbera - 1940’s / 1960’s

Hannah Barbera’s famous characters:

• The Flinstones
• Yogi Bear
• The Smurfs
• Scooby-Doo

Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Inc., founded by the animation team of Joseph Barbera and William Hanna in 1957, rose to prominence as the first successful producers of cartoons for television. They are perhaps best known for developing a formula for inexpensively-made cartoons, which relied on characterization and topical, verbal humor, rather than fully animated action, as had been common among cartoons produced for theatrical release. By the mid-1960s the company had achieved a string of successes including producing the first animated series to appear on prime-time television, The Flintstones.

Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin - Noggin the Nog & Bagpuss - 1960’s / 1970’s

‘Bagpuss', 'The Clangers', 'Noggin The Nog', 'Ivor The Engine' - just four of the fabulous childrens series conceived and animated by Oliver Postgate and his SmallFilms partner, the camera-shy Peter Firmin. Oliver was the writer and director for most of the films, sharing animation duties with Peter, and narrating them too. Then there were the tie-in books, the TV-Land comic strips and annuals. In all SmallFilms were in production for twenty five years, spanning generations, filling the BBC's 5.30pm slot just before the news, or the  lunch time slot just after it, or repeated during those long Summer Holiday mornings  until the mid-80s, when 'The Powers That Be' deemed them too old-fashioned and out of touch with their modern audience. The clever techniques used for the character was animation that an illustrator drawing each frame and the style were old fashioned.

Nick Park - 1990’s

Nick Park, in full Nicholas Wulstan Park (Born Dec. 6, 1958, Preston, Lancashire, England) is a  British animator and director of stop-motion films that often feature his characters Wallace and Gromit.

Park demonstrated an early ability to draw, and by age 13 he was animating his cartoon creation Walter the Rat with his mother’s standard 8-mm movie camera. When he was 15, one of his homemade films was shown on television as part of the BBC’s Young Animators Film Competition. Nick Park mainly uses claymation in his work. Claymation is a particular type of stop frame animation. Models are made and the scene is captured with a camera. After each picture is taken, the models are moved a tiny bit and eventually, when the images are all viewed together, it can appear that the models are really moving. Aardman Animations are leaders in this field with their Wallace and Gromit series of short and feature-length films

Advanced Technology - 2000 / 2010

As generations pass, we see that animation is much more easier and quicker to produce. The visual effects on modern day animation is far more crisp and the textures is more realistic to look at. Top 5 softwares you can use to make stunning HD and 3D animation is Photoshop, 3D’s Max, Mari 2.0v2, Unity Pro 3, and Premiere Pro CC. As digital technology has improved, both for creating animations and watching them, it has become increasingly popular for use in animation. Toy Story (1995) was the first major animated movie to be made entirely using computer animation, and the trend has continued to develop from that point. Animations which are made for the Internet and computer games are also created using digital programs.