Group- Me, Katie, Patrick and Emma
This week we are focusing on cinematography to create more dimensions within are world while using warm and cool tones. I am still looking at lighting techniques and angles to create atmosphere within my sketches. Over the week I will be looking at cinematography, lighting, dimension, shading techniques while still referencing the research I did last week on cool and warm tones and how it affects atmosphere and mood and emotions within the viewer and applying it to my work for this week.
However this week I was unable to attend class due to being ill so I was able to get all of the research notes off my other teammates which I’ll be able to apply to my work for this week. I started by looking at four of the artists that Conann had mentioned during the class including a photographer, concept artist, creature designer and a storyboard artist. I did research into all of the artists but to me these are the ones that stood out the most.
Research-
Ansel Adams-Sketchbook 3-Page 2
Bio: He is a photographer and environmentalist and was born in San Francisco California, unfortunately he had a pretty solidarity childhood and was not able to fit into school. He still stayed strong and was able to find comfort within nature through the Sierra Club that he had joined due to this club he was able to grow as a photographer and find success in his early years. Reference- for information click Link
My thoughts: on his work when looking through his website was that I really love the style with the black and white to me looks classic when looking through his body of work you can really see how the tones work well with each other in creating depth. To me his work looks very peaceful and surreal and over all very beautiful.
The images below can be found at- Reference- Link
Craig Mullions-Sketchbook 3- Page-3
Bio: He was born in 1964 is an american digital painter and leading international concept artist, he’s created art books, TV and films he is considered one of the first to pioneer digital painting. Reference- For more information click –Link
My thoughts: on this artist is that his work is very unique he has a lot of work on his website due to the vast amount of work I was only able to look at some of it but from what I looked at I found his work extremely beautiful the amount of details in his work is amazing you can really see the passion in his artwork. What I really found amazing was the use of mediums that he uses and how he doesn’t focus on just one but experiments with many such as watercolour, oils, mattes and digital.
The images above can be found at-Reference- Link
Neville Page- Sketchbook 3- Page -4
Bio: He was born in England and was raised in Manchester and Illinois, where he moved to Hollywood at the age of 17 and graduated from the Art Centre College of Design with a degree in industrial design and went on to teach students in Switzerland. Reference- For more information click- Link
My thoughts: on his work was that when looking through his portfolio of work it gave me a better understanding on how many people are involved within a film and the kind of people who influence a film. He created some of the creatures within movies that I grew up loving movies such as Men in Black, Narnia, Avatar and many others some of which are well-known.
The images below can be found at- Reference- Link
Ryan Woodward- Sketchbook 3- Page- 5
Bio: He is 45 years old and was born in 1972 in Salt Lake City Utah and attended the Brigham Young University. Reference- For more information click Link it was extremely hard to find information on Ryan so this link is there for anyone who is interested in reading other websites.
My thoughts: on Ryan’s work is that he gave me a real sense on how to compose a shot within my sketches but still keeping it simple the entire time and how to avoid over doing it when sketching. What I’m trying to keep in mind is not compromising the scene that I am trying to create and to keep it simple and relative to the world that I have been placed on. Ryan has also worked on films such as Iron-Man, Avengers, Spiderman, Thor and many more that I’ve been made to watch over and over again due to my dad but to be honest I actually really liked them but I wouldn’t tell him that.
The images above can be found at-Reference- Link
Research-
Cinematography Sketchbook 3- Pages 6-7
Definition: Also known as the Director of Photography “DP” is responsible for all of the visual elements of the film such as composition, lighting, camera, motion, colour, depth and focus. Reference-For more information click Link
My thoughts: on the article mentioned above really helped me when researching this week , it helped me pin down areas of cinematography that I needed to look at to get a better understanding and knowledge of this area this article mentions a few directors that I have looked at in the last week and many others that I will look at for this week to get a better view on how to create visually pleasing sketches and landscapes focusing in on tone.
Cinematography 101: What is Cinematography? is a video that really helped me visually as it gave me an insight on how cinematography is more like a language the viewer has to interrupt i.e. what has been displayed to them and how they view the footage is vital in understanding cinematography.
The next video that I looked at was the Top 10 Cinematographers this video has led me to research Directors of Photography which are mentioned below the reason behind this decision was to get a sense of their styles and how they create beautiful shots while using composition, lighting, colour, depth and motion. Also a video on every cinematographer who won for the best film in cinematography between 1927-2016 listed below.
My next step in my research was looking at particular directors to see why they are voted one of the best cinematographers of all time this time looking at their body of work that they have worked on and how they go about creating the scenes with their own style while still focusing in on how to build scenes.
Emmanuel Lubezki- Sketchbook 3- Page-8
Bio: He was born in 1964 and is a Mexican cinematographer who sometimes goes by the nickname Chivo which means goat. He is known for his groundbreaking use of natural light and continuous uninterrupted shots in cinematography. He has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards which he has won for 3 consecutive years for Gravity, Birdman and The Revenant. Reference- For more information click Link
My thoughts: on his work is that I really love his style and how he incorporates the natural light within every shot that he produces making the surroundings look beautiful while also making the actor shine as well. While researching Emmanuel I found two videos that were helpful to for understanding his style and how as a cinematographer he focuses on scenes and how to creates the shot.
Roger Deakins- Sketchbook 3- Page- 9
Bio:He is an English cinematographer however he is a member of both the American and British Society of Cinematographers. His work has won 3 BAFTA’s awards for Best Cinematography and has received 13 nominations for the Academy Award some of his films includes Shawshank Redemption, Fargo and many more. Reference-For more information click Link
My thoughts: on Rogers work is that the light within his scenes are very motivated as this appears to be the look that he is going for by using natural light from different elements in the film that could radiate light natural light such as windows and candles. The video below I used to help me get a better understanding of Mr. Deakins style through story.
Wally Pfisher- Sketchbook 3- Page-10
Bio: He was born in 1961 and is known for his cinematography/director role. He has won an an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Inception, he has also worked on the Italian Job and Moneyball however his directional debut was with transcendence through Alcon Entertainment. Reference- For more information click Link
My thoughts: on his work is that he also likes to work with natural lighting but in his more recent films are more stylised giving that natural warm glow but through lights being more lit but without the sense of that the scene has been lit. The video below is just to help me get a better understanding of his style within his scenes.
Robert Richardson -Sketchbook 3- Page-11
Bio: He was born in 1955 and is also an American cinematographer he graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in film and animation he has also won Academy Awards for Best Cinematographer for 3 separate years for JFK, Aviator and Hugo. Reference- For more information click Link
My thoughts: on his work is that he uses a lot of harsh lights for creating dramatic effects. while researching I noticed that he isn’t motivated by light that he is moved by the story and how he can create the scene through the story line while creating the light after the story line has been decided.
Research-
Learning Cinematography -Sketchbook 3- Page 12-13
Reference-Website Link- Link
On this website I was able to look at cinematography better by looking at different articles on exposure, aperture, shutter speed, shot sizes, camera angles and camera moves. As I was missing from class I thought it would be best to look into the information that they went over just so I don’t get left behind. As I wasn’t able to attend class I read articles on each of the things that I missed so I could get caught up. Below is some of the information that I looked at with relevant references.
Next I looked at the 12 most popular shots among the directors of photographers the the information is located at Reference- Link the images below are from my sketchbook 3 Pages 13-16. All the imagery used within my sketchbook can be found at the same link.
Below are some videos that helped me get a better understanding of what each shot was talking about through videos which I’ll link instead of adding cause there is a lot of them.
- The Aerial Shot Reference-Link
- The Establishing Shot Reference-Link
- The Close-Up Shot Reference-Link
- The Medium Shot Reference-Link
- The Dolly Zoom Reference- Link
- The Over the Shoulder Shot Reference- Link
- The Low Angle Shot Reference- Link
- The High Angle Shot Reference-Link
- The Two Shot Reference- Link
- The Wide/Long Shot Reference-Link
Next I looked at lighting where I focused my attention to the different types of light angles that are used to create certain effects. The image below is from my Sketchbook 3- Page-17.
Now all I had to do was work out how I can take all of the information that I just obtained and use it to create better looking tonal’s for Mondays class in order to do so we met up as a group to decide a certain way we want are world to look while keeping cinematography in mind.
What we decided was that the main light source within are planet as we have two sides of our planet we decided that they would have different light sources the warm side would have cool natural light and the cold side would have dark dim lighting due to the crystal light source. We also decided that the planet would look completely different from the top to the bottom so the warm areas of land would consist of cliffs, mountains and spikes were as the cold surfaces would consist of ridges, edges, caves and arches. This would mean that the warm side would be more open and the cold side would be more enclosed.
My sketches-
These are my sketches for this week I’m happy over all as I wanted to focus on simplicity and surreal aspects when creating these sketches. Overall I was trying to keep it relating to past weeks work while also infiltrating in some new ideas that we explored over the new week. However I wish I was able to create more work but I’m quite happy with what I produced.
Week 8
This week we had no class so I used this week to continue on with the work we had previously been doing while continuing on with other aspects of the course.
However in class we were given a presentation on a project that is in the process for a TV show on Chinese television however before it reaches this stage it will have to go through an online test before proceeding to television. The concept was very interesting but overall I think it was too complex for the age group that they were targeting but overall really good interesting ideas that when simplified will be a brilliant tv show. There characters were all underdeveloped but there villain is really interesting he is a chimp in a space suit that lives of children’s emotions his design is really nice.
I actually found this presentation very insightful into other organisations and festivals that China hosts every year also getting to see the nominations/ winners of the Beijing College Student Film Festival. It was really nice to see animations from other countries there was this one film that stood out that I am unable to find online but it was called the Eagle & Chicken, I just really loved the story that was portrayed by a group students. The short film was about an eagle that continuously eats the farmers chickens but the way in which it was portrayed was hilarious.
My Sketches –
Here I was trying to bring in everything we have been working on together and focusing on how to include all our work without over doing it. Overall I think they went OK but I preferred last weeks work then the work I created for this week but you win some and you lose some. The same with this week I feel I could have produced more work but I’m still glad with the outcome.
Reflection Week 7/8
- These week however we took a step back in the wrong direction and the work become difficult and annoying which is expected working in a team however I thought we were on the on the road to progress but I guessed wrong.
- Communication started to fail again meetings were not existent except for Katie and I which actually went really well we worked well together in getting the story sorted and the image and look to the world figured out, we tried to meet as often as possible to communicate as often as possible to make sure that we were on the same page and were heading in the right direction.
- We did put up in the chat the ideas and other stuff but it’s hard to rely information without being able to explain the ideas fully, which I think hindered us when it came to presentations as it became to me quite noticeable and are tutor Conann was quick to point out who wasn’t communicating within the group, to me I amazed by the comments as they were on point and completely correct.
- Overall for the week I wish the other group members were able to meet more often as four heads are better than two and I can only think of what the world could have been like if we were all together.
Shannon Murray - University of Ulster Animation 