Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Work & Play: Frame by Frame

So, this project progressed kind of weird, I think I have a good bit of quantitative stuff.

Statement of Intent:

This project is going in a traditional/digital quirky collage-y feel.

So I started with this idea of jellyfish apocalypse and the whimsical-ish story I pitched in class. I think with a good bit of editing I can keep it even more short and sweet. What I've learned from this assignment is a lot about my materials and I'm getting closer to finding the materials that will be best in the film. My larger theme is really about my interest in apocalypse and I like the unexpected nature of Jellyfish ending up destroying human civilization especially if they can fly. I think doing this as a combination of film (at first) and stop motion will push me as well.

In conclusion, I want to create a visual experience that focuses on a combination of drawing and frame-by-frame. To do this I will use a combination of mixed media and film.


Estimated Timeline:

Act I finished by next Tuesday
Act II finished by next next Tuesday
Act III finished by the following ^ Thursday

Technical Needs:

DSLR for film parts and HD Web Camera for stop motion parts.

Material Needs:

White Acrylic
Vine Charcoal
Paper
Water
Brushes

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Further Developments I

Materials Ideas:

So after leaving class yesterday, I thought about "transparent" materials that I could use. Mylar came to mind, and so I've been experimenting with using it as either a base to draw the characters on- or as a whiteboard . I like the idea of the transparency because it's something different you don't see a lot.

Film Ideas: 

One of the ideas which emerged through class on tuesday was- what if I combine the 1st Idea and the 3rd Idea? How would that work out? Knowing that I didn't have to use footage but could use pictures was interesting- but it would just take the magic away from the illusion if the image were still...So then I started thinking, what if I could-- manufacture this jellyfish world I was thinking of in real-life? This seems like it would be kinda hard, but I've been thinking of a LOT of different methods- they all seem possible but kind of impossible.

Water Projector?
So through my research I've been getting a little farther on my weird aquarium projecting idea- I found a pretty awesome video that opens even wider horizons and ideas for me. 
Here are some other things I found which were cool- but not as helpful:


Also: something I did with some free-ware:

Interesting eh?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Assignment Write-Up

I think the conceptual development today was very helpful. I'm really liking the idea of everyone making/creating these experimental "machines." I wish I could think of one, but I really want to approach One-Frame-At-A-Time as a conventional film we view in a darkroom. I want to get some interactivity with the audience as well- which I had with the ramen piece but I'm not sure how I could go about this with the ideas I had now. Projection mapping seems interesting but very difficult. In my middle school we had one of those projectors that has a screen that is also a touch-screen, which was really awesome. That would be so nice to have now. By the way: LOOK AT THIS STUFF



That is crazy-awesome-insane right there. So Supplies I plan on getting and/or bringing on Thursday:

Mylar
Tracing paper
Jelly
Dry Erase Markers
Pens
Nail Polish
X-acto
Different varieties of papers
Watercolor
Brushes
Acrylic
Something that can control water on a flat surface?
Pyrex/ziplock bag/Something clear that can hold water
Other du-dads

I just thought of something to make it somewhat interactive! I could get one of those big ol' used/discarded aquariums and while people are watching the movie it can be filling with water and then the projection can be somewhat mapped to show the jellyfish glowing within it.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

3 Concepts

Concept I:



A woman buys a teapot and upon first using it is transported to an alternate universe.

So, a woman goes to a second-hand store or market and buys a teapot that is really cool and kinda futuristic-modern looking. At home she puts it on the kettle and upon it first whistling and the steam starts rising she is transported to a different world- Via the steam lifting her up. She if flying now on steam in this different world and starts looking around her at the sky and the grown below her. As she starts flying over the sea the clouds of steam dissipitate and she is dropped down towards the water where she lands on a huge wobbly jellyfish. There she rides it and realizes the huge jellyfish is surrounded by smaller jellyfish at its side. (they are above the water) It's started to get a little darker and they come upon a huge city that has all these little specs of light. As she gets closer she realizes they are flying jellyfish. The sea gets rougher and the jellyfish wobbles more causing her to fall off into the sea of other jellyfish but just before she hits the water the teapot transports her back to her kitchen and as all of the water has boiled out.

Concept II:



Kind of in this style.

I want to chronicle the making of a delicious meal of something I like but most other people don't: Ramen.
I think it can be a totally healthy food depending on the way it's prepared. So, for this I want to use Pixelation. I will show the vegetables being made and being put in the ramen and the seasonings putting themselves into the ramen, etc., and at the end show the nutrition facts of what I've made and everything I just made being instantly eaten.

Concept III:



Kinda like this.

So- in order to get an idea of what I'm trying to do- I will be posting a video here of this animation/film thing I saw that was super cool.

The space I want to use for this is Parkside's Courtyard- if you don't know it, it's a really old and bushy courtyard between these two super old buildings (circa 1910-20) and I want to animate these two characters that are just white outlines fighting to the death. This will be a combination of film and frame-by-frame animation. All the backgrounds are film but the characters a drawn frame by frame.

The only problem with this is I've been wanting to do something with 48fps but I;m confused as to what this will cause my animation to have to be drawn at.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Assignment Write-Up

The reading was pretty hard, but was honestly very interesting too. It was challenging thinking in this vocabulary as well.

SOPA was preventing me from looking at any of the other stuff on ubu.com today, but I will be looking at it later. I was thinking of one frame at a time recently and tried to do a little experiment- the frame wouldn't stay still because I was lacking a tripod. Nevertheless, it will probably end well enough if I acquire one. The scanning in idea is interesting but I'm too impatient and if I used wet media I'd have to wait for it to dry. I will probably end up doing some collaging which I'm totally okay with. Either that or papercutting- actually...That would work with the scanning idea. The only thing that sucks about that is I left my scanner at home this semester and the scanners at school suck notoriously. OH well. we'll see what happens.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Reading

The withering of an aura is bad. Despite the artist's intentions, if the aura is destroyed the value of the art is as well. Not just because of the uniqueness of the object is disregarded but because the essential problem stated in the beginning would be aggravated even moreso; the exploitation of the proletariat. The more an aura withers the more it's memory is forgotten and the more we try to fill our consciousness with more reproductions that distance us from an "original." The value of an aura is a fraction of the value of the piece, as being in the presence of the original and only supersedes that of a copy. It is also unique to the object it is attached to yet it relates to the distance the art is to the viewer- the more reproductions of an object the higher the aura but the lower the value of the object.


A film's aura- let's use Vormittagsspuk, the aura is encompassing illusions and . The illusions are created with various methods, but the film is mostly confronting the viewer with numerous effects and transitions that are challenging our perception- because of this the aura is fleeting- as cuts are reproduced numerous times as well as juxtaposed with different cuts repeatedly. Yet, throughout the piece there are many cuts that are very beautiful but are only shown once. The quality is really in these cuts and the rarity of them. The originality and aura is procured from the shots being reproduced- if they weren't there, the piece wouldn't be as challenging and interesting. What Hans Richter has done is utilize the substance and presence of the original between many reproductions.

--
Some Good Quotes for later:

“The film has not yet realized its true meaning, its real possibilities. . . these consist in

its unique faculty to express by natural means and with incomparable persuasiveness all that is fairylike,

marvelous, supernatural.”
"This situation might also be characterized as follows: for the first time—and this is the effect of the film—man has to operate with his whole living person, yet forgoing its aura. For aura is tied to his presence; there can be no replica of it."

"Approached in this fashion the film might represent an incomparable means of expression. Only the most high-minded persons, in the most perfect and mysterious moments of their lives, should be allowed to enter its ambience."

"To pry an object from its shell, to destroy its aura, is the mark of a perception whose “sense of the universal equality of things” has increased to such a degree that it extracts it even from a unique object by means of reproduction."

"Every day the urge grows stronger to get hold of an object at very close range by way of its likeness, its reproduction"
--

The objects ready-made status isn't veiled or hidden at all- but is transformed. The hats are not just hats- they are floating hats that move in unison. The clocks are not just clocks- they are faster and are veiled over top each other. These reproductions are seen as unique because they have been transformed in some way.