This week lecture covered camera movements and composition: after analysing the theory I will be trying to apply this knowledge to the VR immersive project I am part of.

Just as it happened for a good book and a mesmerising painting, films have their unspoken language too, they communicate with a visual language which is used by directors to plan their movies, since from how a camera is placed it can tell a particular story. there is a “Shot Dialogue” since the most basic unit of a film is a shot. Each shot can mean something on their own.

Composition in storytelling

Composing an image is an incredible process that concerns where we place our subjects of interest and why they are positioned there through a simple shot we are able to tell a story and convey emotions: composition is a technique that can infuse meaning as well as visual splendour. It has the ability to attract audience attention the important thing is what should they be looking at, and how to you get them to look at it.

These elements above all contribute to make your composition better express and convey the desired message. In order to highlight an action, a movement or even a character creating a frame within a frame may be an efficient expedition: using lines in perspective that converge to a point where usually the character is placed; to help the composition not only windows or doors can create a frame every object can serve as one.

The control that a director can have on a scene can be categorised into artificial (the control of the aesthetic and where we should be looking) and primal (where power dynamics lies- what subject holds more weight in the narrative at that moment in time in reference to other people or environments)

“The size of an object in the frame should equal its importance in the story at that moment.”

Alfred Hitchcock

Composition does not have to be focusing on the one shot it can be a cumulative effort whose meanings emerge over the course of a film: just like in the narrative it can witness some evolvement and development taking different directions and intentions. However in order to achieve a better composition in a scene filling the frames with elements is not compulsory: even the lack of props or characters can convey meaning by reducing the amount on screen the director can create unique moods, less can be more.

When the camera frames a scene it make different moments either to follow the actors on the screen or to showcase a frame. Movements and Composition should be working hand in hand since when the camera is not static the lines and composition details of a frame may vary altering the overall meaning and power of it. They also help enhance one another showing an element at fist and then panning to reveal other elements.

Overall composition should carry meaning displaying emotions not only visual appeal.

Composing Movement

Akira Kurosawa implemented the movement in his film composition at his advance: he used natural movements of the elements, for example showcasing rain or fire that may reflects the characters state of mind, he also made use of group movements with which you can enhance emotion having crowds movements since it “feels bigger”. Regarding its use of the movement of the individual every characters has certain movements that make them distinctive to the eyes of the audience, this movements are also exaggerated e.g. when a character is sad and ashamed it stands down. He is also famous for his fluid camera moves: each movement created and narrated a story having a beginning a middle and an ending in it. He also has this characteristics of editing using cuts on movements and they would end up appearing to be very subtle almost invisible.

He understood that is the visual stimulation that hits the audience and that this various movements should “cooperate” with each other to create compelling compositions.

How David Fincher Hijacks Your Eyes

David Fincher visual style in his film is very distinctive this also depends the way he uses camera movements: the camera matches exactly the velocity of the moving character in the frame, what this moments achieve is to lock the audience in into the behaviour of the character: he makes you enter in his reality. Behaviour holds a very important role in this process since it can tell a lot about a character and its personality and feelings, in order to create an emotional bridge between what the character feels and make it accessible to the audience. Is not a coincidence that the word “emotion” itself carries “motion” in it since emotion express themselves physically.

What is Cinematography?

Cinematography comprehends how directors show an action within a scene: is all about communicating with the viewer. Even though

cinema is a language and like language you must learn how to speaks all the elements that are part of cinema.

Cuts & Transitions

Cuts and transitions are an important and dynamic aspect of editing in a film production process. The most basic edit that you can do is the cut going to one shot to another. But the are may other cut types: the cutting action- cutting to one scene to another when the subject is still in motion; the cut away- cutting to an insert shot of something and then back; the cross cutting- where two scenes are intercut to establish continuity; the match cut- that uses elements of one scene in the transition to the next scene; the fade in and out- when one scene closes with the image disappearing (fade-out), then transitioning into the next scene, which slowly comes into view (fade-in); the smash cut- abrupt transitions; the l-cut- in which the audio from preceding scene overlaps the picture from the following scene.

Which ever cut, transition or editing you may choose is when and how you use them to tell your story.

How can this be applied to the immersive project using VR?

So considering everything stated above, camera movements, editing and cinematography in general are an essential part in cinema and in particular in films. Our project consists in a person taking part in the Virtual Reality environment and witnessing a narrative involving two seagulls talking to each other (even with the player) and probably even having an acting role in it. I think that cinematography rules and notions cannot be applied in the “traditional way” since everything would be seen in variable perspective of the player, however these notions can be applied to the Previs stage to better visualise the development of the narrative and the positioning of the various characters, props and environments in the VR environment. In this regard the camera movement, even if in this case is employed slightly differently, can have a “common ground” which is attract the audience or, in this case, the player: the player must be included in the narrative, not just in an interactive way but also visually. For example we decided that the dialogues between the seagulls are going to be displayed using speech bubbles to resemble the comic style of which this project is an adaptation of but also to clearly show to the viewer what the seagulls are saying. Moreover, in the same way dynamic and movement is important to achieve a better composition, the dynamics in which the actions will take place in the VR will have an important role. Even though we are not producing a short film or video material but an immersive experience instead, there are going to be some sort or “transitions” between one comic sketch and the next where the player would have the possibility, by doing some action, to change scene along with the characters in the virtual reality environment.

In this moodboard I have created I picked films and comics that might be reliable to get some inspiration for our project since they all involve anthropomorphic birds with emotions and expressions proper of human beings. They are the following:

• Angry birds: it previously was a video game which was then adapted into a film and a tv series. The most inspiring aspect is that they took inspiration for their character designs from existing birds using their features to exaggerate and amply them into they cartoon adaptation. The Yellow Angry Bird, for instance, is an American Goldfinch.  In the game, it’s special ability is to have sudden short bursts of speed. 
• Finding nemo, in this Disney movie, they are portrayed as greedy, single-minded eating machines who only shout one word: “Mine!”. Seagulls briefly appears also in the prequel “Finding Dory”. Similar to the seagulls in the film, seagulls in real life are also known for being a very opportunistic bird that will approach people trying to obtain their food in urban locations. They can also be aggressive when trying to obtain food, so in some places feeding these birds is not only discouraged, but also illegal. This is an aspect we wanted to add income of the comedy sketches we are writing to include in the narrative. The seagulls’ design is based on Feathers McGraw, the antagonist penguin from the Wallace and Gromit short “The Wrong Trousers”.
• Rio, in this film the main character Blu is a completely domesticated – and flightless – bird who has lived his entire life indoors, so he has strongly human features and behaviour and his knowledge over what humans study comes to help in a few scenes to help solve problems he encounters; since he has never lived with other birds his movements can be an inspiration for our Animation process considering they would be more “human like”.
• Spies in disguise, in both this film and Rio the Character designer Sang Jun Lee worked in these two projects here he contributed in the character design process for the birds, so conducting a research over his work would be very useful. The three other pigeons which don’t talk differently from the character dabbed by Will Smith represent different aspects of pigeons: as the Directors say themselves “Crazy Eyes is like that gnarly pigeon that you see in the city eating garbage (which can be inspirational for one of ours Seagull characters). Lovey is those cuddly ones that you see huddled up on the top of rooftops and Fanboy is the one that you see always following somebody else so they each represent a type of pigeon.” This process was very useful in order to differentiate them from the human character trapped in the pigeon body. Crazy Eyes is distinguished by his unfocused green and blue eye which is a feature that may work for one of our seagulls the childlike looking one.
• Joshua Barkman comics of seagulls; obviously I have also include the comics on which this project is based on which is “False knees” I especially gathered these sketches including seagulls since their will be useful to generate some ideas for sketches that we are going to write for the narrative; what is useful is the dynamic of this jokes: there is always a clever seagull talking to a more clumsy seagull and the difference between them is what create the comedy and make people laugh, which is what we want to achieve.

We wanted to include in the storyline both seaside and city environments since that nowadays seagulls can be easily found in both. Brighton is the ideal place to set our narrative: it has the seaside side where it can be difficult to eat in peace since you always have to be on alert because a seagull may appear from nowhere and steal you food (idea for a sketch) and it also has the city environment where is easy to find them peaking from the garbage (starting from this I thought that a funny idea may be to create a sketch where they have a “Lady and the Tramp” kind of situation where they have a dinner outside of a restaurant eating some garbage from that same restaurant and ending up find themselves slurping up the same long noodle for instance.

Next step was starting working on the characters design and concepts to use to after model the seagulls to include in the virtual reality environment. I started by using some real life reference pictures and carrying out a study of the main pictures of this intriguing animals. As I noted in this picture beneath, I have noticed that they tend to a have a quite flat head, their neck is quite thick, their eyes are small and mean and kind of soulless (ready to attack), their beak is sharp, they have grey wings and a big body which can be stylised into a half circle when I draw its structure I even noticed that on their body they don’t have very defined feathers; the legs are characterised by very pronounced knees and thin legs.

So starting from real life I started to stylise and draw some characters ideas using the outcome of my observation and their “normal” actions and expressions. I also included some sketches involving some expression that I may take in consideration for the final characters.

I After tried to create a more precise characterisation for our main two characters based also on “false knees” seagulls personalities and the outcome of the moodboard as well as the study on features proper of seagulls:

He is characterised by a really flat head and his distinctive feature is his eyes which are unfocused and of different dimensions, he has a slightly bigger body and paws.

This second seagull on the other hand, has a more “pointy” head (pointing out the fact that he has a brain, smaller body and paws and his eyes are more expressive and “active”.

I thought it might be useful to create an expressions concept for both seagulls since eyes and eyebrows are essential to interpret characters feeling and better understand and defining their personality as well.

Comedy genre

The comedy genre humorously exaggerates the situation, the language, action, and characters. Comedies observe the deficiencies, frustrations of life, providing fun and a momentary escape from day-to-day life. Comedy is a performance of light and humorous character with a happy or cheerful ending which may also lead the audience to reflect on serious life matters. Just like Joshua Barkman does in his comics, by taking every day circumstances for the animals we see around us in urban areas, like raccoons, rabbits, and various species of birds, and applies absurdly humorous conversations or thoughts adding a degree of seriousness to them but using comedy lighten them. 

Comedies usually come in two general formats: comedian-led (with well-timed gags, jokes, or sketches), which resembles more with Joshua Barkman’s comics, and situation-comedies that are told within a narrative.

Even though comedy is aimed for making people laugh another aspect of it is to make people reflect and has a degree of seriousness in it as if the division between them becomes blurred. Humour can be considered as a copying mechanism a way to express serious subjects but with the excuse of keeping it light.

Comedy Duos

“I think the thing that people love about double acts is it reminds them of their two best mates down the pub, or the relationship they have with their best mate,” Dominic Wood.

A comic duo in theatre and cinema indicates two actors where they comedy act relies on their asymmetric relationship (meaning they look different from the way they look to the way they act) which is intended to stress their differences in a grotesque way. They do tend to have some common features: they usually have the same age and they share the same ethnicity and profession, however their sketch usually highlights their differences especially referred to their personalities.

In cases of comedy duos one of the two comedians (once the leading comedian) impersonates the strong, volitional figure, and is depicted as a serious, reasonable and totally reliable person, while the other (usually the shoulder) is painted as a often rude figure, unintelligent or coarse, however funny and comical to excess for the hesitancy and embarrassment shown within the gag or sketch staged. The comic actor who plays the ‘serious’ role within the couple, must not necessarily be devoid of a sense of humour. In fact, often the laughter is aroused by the reply of this actor to a joke provided by the shoulder.

• Lauren and Hardy

One of the earliest duos to find success, Laurel and Hardy were a study in contrasts in many ways. They began working as a duo on-screen so early their first films were all silent shorts. However, their career carried on for decades, delighting fans of slapstick humour and helping to bring the comedy duo as a concept to the big screen. They made more than 100 comedies together, with Laurel playing the bumbling and innocent foil to the pompous Hardy.

• Totò e Peppino

They were one of the most well known Italian comedy duos in one of their films “Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge” (1956) they even pay a tribute to Lauren and Hardy since its plot follows the one from Lauren and Hardy’s film “Sons of the desert” (1933). They were two actors from Naples when they were making movies together in the duo Totò was the lead and Peppino the shoulder: Totò had a really expressive range of facial movements and Peppino had a face of good-natured person.

• Lillo e Greg

Lillo and Greg are one of the most loved and talented contemporary comedy couples in Italy: an irresistible duo that for years has held the bar on TV, at the cinema, in music and on radio. Greg shoulder Lillo has the leading role. However the two roles in this case are not the traditional ones because the comical aspect of Lillo is very accentuated his role as a victim. 

• Shrek and Donkey

In Animation this Comic duo is one of the most famous among the animation movies: Shrek being the hero is grumpy and hot-tempered, but is also caring and brave and Donkey has some annoying traits, flightiness and occasional cowardliness, however he is a good-natured, golden-hearted, sweet, and euphoric character. He is a deeply caring and loyal friend who will stick by his best friends side and be supportive of them through thick and thin, especially Shrek. What makes them work so good together is they very different personalities but also the fact that they are both outcasts at first.

This week we had our first meeting as a group, where we established our role within the projects and the concept behind it. We first confronted the two briefs from both courses (MA 3D Computer Animation and MA Virtual Reality) and we shared some ideas on the narrative of the project since we know that it should be structured as an immersive group media prototype based on an adaptation of a cartoon which in our case would be the comic “False knees” by Joshua Barkman. We after agreed before our next week weekly meeting we should research into the comedic genre and will argue how this genre reflects in our adaptation through the characters, storytelling, content, design, technique and style. The author often features creatures found in Ontario, such as squirrels, birds, racoons, however we are going to include in the virtual reality environment some Seagulls since they are notoriously considered to be as an aggressive species of birds and many animations are featuring them, moreover the author has made some comic sketches we could use to get some inspiration create our own sketches and puns.

Us from the MA 3D Computer Animation will work on both the characters, the seagulls, and environment concept, development, modeling, rigging and texturing and the members from the Virtual Reality course will work on the development of the virtual reality environment first concentrating on the script writing in Unity showing us also how it would work (we planned a session were they would show us how to “move” within this environment to to get a better understanding on how to include the 3D models in it. We are all included in the research of the comedic genre. I think that the collaboration within this two fields can be very interesting and that all together we can archive something innovative and original.

I will try to find some examples of previous animations including seagulls or birds in general to get inspiration from as well as reading some comedy sketches from the author itself so that I can create a mood-board out of it. We agreed that the narrative should include two main seagulls with distinctive personalities since that in comedy genre a “duet” dynamics is really functional such as the famous comedic duo of Laurel and Hardy where Laurel would play the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy’s pompous bully features. The person playing and having the control in the virtual reality environment word be living the experience in first person impersonating an actual bird witnessing the puns next to the other birds at their same levels.

Esme and I tried to think of some narrative coming up with the script involving the two birds in different environments: we thought of some plot set in the city of Brighton since we can the seaside and the pier settings as well as the city one were in the last few years has been largely populated by seagulls. We are also going to create some storyboards and animations out of it to better visualise our Animation Process. We thought that also some PreVis animation and scene settings planning may help for the visualisation process and to see how it would work within the environment of VR.

In our meeting we agreed on sharing all our ideas on a platform to get the update from everyone’s development which is Miro a digital whiteboard that makes it easy to collaborate with others. The software allows you to create notes and designs, move things around, and communicate through embedded video calls or online chats.

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOTsXnB8=/?invite_link_id=529926724090

Esme and I, since we are from the same course and will work on similar tasks for this project, we thought it might be useful to have a pallet page to share our progress.

https://padlet.com/esmeduncan99/kc04ozilhwg9bs8q

“Professionalism is not the job you do, it’s how you do the job.“

 Professionalism helps you to impress and inspire others, is a really important quality. When thinking of professionalism I firstly link it to workplaces and business environments, however professionalism has many facet and can be applied to smaller occasions especially those linked with group works both in a school environment or other events, not necessarily only work places. When being professional and working with professional people its always easier to develop a more creative environment to work in where the best results can be achieved easily.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines professionalism as “the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterise or mark a profession or a professional person”; and it defines a profession as “a calling requiring specialised knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation.”

So, what I am aiming to get out of this collaborative unit project is to strengthen my skills as an animator and modeller and explore the discipline with whom I am going to collaborate with. Some keywords I associate with the term “professionalism” are: Competence, Knowledge, Conscientiousness, Integrity, Respect, Emotional Intelligence, Appropriateness, and Confidence. Within this group of words the one I find that is not always linked to professionalism is “emotional Intelligence” since managing your emotions, and having a clear awareness of other people’s feelings is very important especially if working in a group with other people.

With some of my peers in my course we had a meeting with people from other course and it was so great and interesting to talk to them about their course and their background. We found some people from The MA Virtual Reality course who we can collaborate with since they were given a brief concerning an Immersive Cartoon Adaptation where they have to create and deliver an immersive group media prototype based on an adaptation of a cartoon; they showed us the comic they were thinking to work on which is the False Knees series, where Joshua Barkman depicts birds and other fauna in casual conversation, philosophical quandaries and wonderfully relatable banter. It would be related to the comedic genre and a research on how this genre reflects in the adaptation through the characters, storytelling, content, design, technique and style. I have found it perfect for me, since I am very fond of visual arts (both 2D and 3D) and working with animated characters is my interest. What I can contribute in within this project is the development of the characters the modeling of the characters their rigging and texture and the animation to “incorporate” within the virtual reality environment. I look forward to collaborate for this project since I am sure I will work on something new and maybe this would help me to find new interests and possible fields I could work in the future.