Production Journal Reflection Week 4

Reflection Journal Week 4 - The uses of Montage in films


In this week's lesson, we talked more about montage and how they are categorize into different types.
Before I talk more about them. Lets get a basic understanding of what a montage is for.

According to film,
The functions of Montage is using a series of shots that weave together to communicate an information over a period of short time.

In other words, the objective is to make the cuts 'invisible' to the audience understanding.

However, through the use of this there are different types of montage to convey that understanding.
Such as:

- Metric
- Rhythmic
- Tonal
- Overtonal

In terms of preference, some of my favourites would be Metric and Rhythmic simply due to the tension of the film approach it creates. I like action films a lot as it creates alot of adrenaline and energy. One example of Metric montage is this advertisement I saw back when we were discussing about our TVC project.

 

A - Polic

B - Thief

As you can see, the tension builds up in character A is shown seeing B and thinking about chasing him. At the same time, B has noticed that A wants to chase him and wants to run away. To demonstrate the chase that follows, the editor uses an identical number of frames to display a close-up of A as he does to display the face of B. Once the chase begins, and the film maker cuts back and forth between A and B, the shots of each one of them gets progressively shorter as A reaches B. As the chase reaches the climax the length of each shot may get shorter but they remain the same with respect to A and B. The video ends with an unexpected twist when both of them stopped to take a look at the washing machine, thus creating a punchline. The trick is to create tension by shortening each shot while preserving the original proportions of the formula.

"Over a period of time, however, barring a few film makers, montage has been practically reduced to the use of a succession of visual images and/or sounds to create emotional impact."

- Vasuki Belavadi

The other montage I mentioned earlier is the Rhythmic Montage. While in metric montage, the content is determined by the absolute length of the sequence, in rhythmic montage, the action within the frame is given equal weight as the actual physical length of each shot. The rhythm of the montage hence conflict with the rhythmic of the movement within the frame, as a result generating tension too.

However, to my understanding, this seems more confusing than metric montage as I feel the frames do not piece together in a chronological order sometimes. At times I may even get lost at what is happening. In other words, not much of a clarity of what is happening. Could be many things happening at a scene, and less sense of focus.

 To conclude, montage are used to show what is happening in the scene through the use of different cuts, and piece them together. Some may be used to create tension or the opposite. It is being used depending on situation of the story in the film. However, I feel that the mixture of montage in a film gives a better understanding. A mixed of emotion brings the viewer's on a roller - coaster ride and thus making the film more interesting!

 

Technical Journal Week 3 - Facial Rigging

Different approach to Facial Rigging


 If you are interested in rigging stylized animation or for games, you might want to check out Judd Simantov.


Here's his reel,

As for facial rigging I am also looking into his tutorials for my RnD project as I plan to combine his method of rigging into mine, if that is even possible. But before I talk about mine, lets look more into how Judd Simantov preferred way of doing his.

In this image from a video, he explains how joint placements on facial rigging affects skinning.
Basically how this works is that he place joints at different parts of the face where anatomically affects the facial expression. Through the use of joints he skins them to different parts of the face where it affects a portion of the area. With this, he can form any facial expression and set a switch to activate them. Note that the circle dots on his face are joints.

Here are some of the examples he did through this method of rigging. Pretty effective huh. As I mentioned before about the switch, his way of doing it is using a set of curves to set up a switch to activate them. Like example 3 joints moving the eyebrow and etc.

As you can see, the set of curves in red that was set up beside Tarzan is the switch. When you select each individual curves that represents that part of the face you want to control, a list is shown at the channel box where the switches creates different forms of facial shapes. From there, you will be able to create huge variations of facial expression. In the video he explains, this approach is effective due to the results of advantages it can produce when forming a very cartoon Disney like animation, such as the exaggeration of facial expressions. How this is done by first using the switch to form an expression, and then further moving the individual joints to tweak them. Judd's way is what you would call Facial Rigging With Joints.

Now that you have a basic understanding of Judd's way of facial rigging, here's mine. As shown, the way I did was somewhat similar to his. Having a set of curves to control my character's expression. However, mine actually works very differently. Each curve I move represents how I would form the face, and my set of curves which are called a U.I doesn't have a switch at all. This way of rigging is commonly known as Facial Rigging With Blendshapes. Now you may think, isn't this so much easier to form facial expressions?

If you would to look at a visual point of view, Yes! However, there are many restrictions to this method. First of all, you can't tweak the expressions like Judd's method. In other words, you can't exaggerate facial forms as well.


Therefore, for my RnD project I am looking ways to combine both methods or maybe a mod version of Judd's method. This may take some time!

Production Journal Reflection Week 3

Reflections on the Form and Content, Film Language and Semiotics discuss in Week 3

In Week 3, we were shown slides defining what are form, content and having an understanding of the relationship between them. Moreover, we had a rough understanding of the types of film language and Semiotics. Some of the list pertaining to my thoughts are:

1.       Semiotic Terminology – Connotative and Denotative

2.       Lighting

3.       Western Influence on Percpetion

Thinking way back ever since I was a child, I had never really taken notice of the connotative and denotative language in a film or pictures. Although, I may be aware of them subconsciously, it was in a way effective to the subtle touch to the person's emotion. I remembered vividly my Dad told me, a red rose symbolizes love and romance, and a time-honored way to say "I love you." whereas a yellow rose evokes a feeling of warmth and happiness.

In this context, let’s say a guy would to give a rose to a girl, just by looking at the colour of the rose tells us a lot about the intention; whether it is a rose for love or friendship. The form and content is the rose and colour. These are things to be aware,  as you wouldn't want to give the wrong colour of rose to the love of your life right? But have you always wonder how does it affect us?

Connotation: is the emotional and

imaginative association surrounding a word.

Denotation:

is the strict

dictionary meaning of a word. 

 

In relation to the form and content, I believe understanding simple semiotics was how we were brought up in society. Like the example of yellow and red rose. However, my biggest curiosity is, are there other forms of conveying the language? How would a person notice if something has a connotation or just a denotation meaning, and if so how does it affect ones perception of the film.

From my stand point of view, I believe that connotations and denotations should not entirely be aware of, be it in the forms of lighting, western influences and camera angle. It should approach in a way that taps into our sub consciousness to spur our curiosity, not in a direct manner, but instead with emotion. I feel that humans are wired in a way that thinks with their emotion, visually and verbally.

 

 

This is one good example of how Apple taps into people’s subconscious mind in conveying the message.

As Simon explains the word, ‘why’; it psychologically answers our emotional and behavior part of the brain, as a result people would pay attention, or in film’s methodology I believe through the use of Mise En Scene and Semiotics. And of cause there are other components that contribute to the mood of film language.

Here are some forms of film language through the use of lighting

Light from below giving a sense of horror.

Lighting that creates a mysterious feeling. Often use in antagonist to show evil or

simply hiding the person's identity.

Western influence in placing the props. This is very interesting as it tells us in the scene which object and what placing to look out for that give us clues of what a scene is about. Something that I would have never figure out till I what told.

Western influence: always from left to right. In some cases left means good right means bad.

In today’s film, semiotics with the use of connotation has become more common but less used. I feel this is due to the fact that connotation is a form widely used to gain attention and interest from people. I mean, isn't it a good market strategy? However, too much in a film may result in a negative effect, as the majority of the consumers prefer a less complicated and somewhat easy to understand film. In fact, it has became so common now that people see everything in a connotation perspective. As wouldn’t it be better if something means more than nothing?