Wednesday 13 January 2016

Animated Reality - Film & TV Colab- Microcosm


In this collaboration we were given the task of finding an interesting person in an interesting place and creating an animated documentary about them. This could be based on anyone and anywhere around Edinburgh so the possibilities where limitless.

For this project we focused our attention towards a small square of run down houses on Lindsay Street which is situated quite close to Ocean Terminal. Our attraction to the place was its overall look, being very degraded and run down. These houses are also very small, box like in shape and were surrounded by a rather unfriendly looking concrete wall which segregates these houses from the newer flats and other buildings that surround the square.  Our character of interest was a man called Colin Wallace, whom Wayne has met and was happy for us to film him. He lives in the square and has a history with alcoholism, and apparently signed the lease to his house in the square when he was drunk. He seemed like an interesting character and indeed was willing to talk about the square, the people who live there and the things that go on around Hamilton Wynd.

Week 1

In the first week once given the brief, we were told to go off and decide where and who we would basing our film on. Once sitting down and having a discussion and and a think, we came up with a few ideas for possible things we could do. We thought about focusing on flesh market close and talking to the homeless people that live there and exploring the things they see day to day. We also had the idea of focusing on a homeless man that sleeps on a bench in Regent Road Park, the location being an interesting one as it looks over Holyrood and has a full view of Arthur’s Seat. And we also had the idea of basing our film on Colin Wallace a recovering alcoholic that lives in a small square of council houses near Ocean Terminal that Wayne knew from a past shoot that he had been on. We ended up going with the last one as Wayne had said that Colin was wiling and happy to be filmed, but we also wanted to ask the homeless man up at Regent Road Park and see if he would be interested also, possibly giving us something to fall back on if Collin ended up not wanting to. 


That week we had plans on the Thursday to go up to Lindsay Street at 4-5pm to go and have a look round at the square. However because it was getting dark very early now we decided against that idea, due to it possibly being dangerous and ourselves not really knowing the area all to well. We did however visit the homeless man up in Regent Road Park and asked him if we could base our documentary on him, he declined however so we knew that Colin was the one to go for. The next morning Wane went up to Hamilton Wynd and took some photos of the area so we could get an idea of what we possibly wanted to film in the square and get a feel for the location.

Once we knew what we were doing, we had the rough idea of getting Colin to show us round the square and as we do so get him to talk about the other people that live there and I could animate the people he describes. But again this was all dependant on what we got from him. However my main concern was that I didn't want to undermine these people in anyway with the animated characters so we needed to think of a way round that problem. We also want to explore Colin as a character himself, hopefully filming him in his own house. We ended up realizing that ultimately the incorporation of the animation for this documentary was going to be dependent on what we got from Colin and the footage we took at the location.

For the initial idea I had a play around with a character we could have animated in the film standing around smoking, possibly in one of the alleyways. I chose an astronaut as it does not have a person visible inside and keeps it from being undermining. However I knew we probably were not going to go with this idea but I had a play around with it before we moved on. 

Week 2 

This week was not as busy due to myself and Wayne having to focus on other projects. However on the Wednesday we did mange to get up and spend some time at Hamilton Wynd. While we were there we went round and took some b-roll footage that we could possibly use at a later stage. However it began to rain pretty hard and was really wet later on in the day so we didn't mange to get much. Being up at the location prior to meeting Colin was something that was surprisingly helpful as we were able to walk round and set up shots that we thought would be interesting. It also gave us time to have a think about the kinds of things we could show in this documentary and allowed us to plan what we wanted Colin to show us and talk about as there are loads of interesting things dotted around Hamilton Wynd. 

Wayne taking some B- roll footage


Sound equipment we used 



Week 3

On the Tuesday I actually met Colin for first time. He is definitely an interesting character and I knew as soon as he began to talk about himself and what has been happening in Hamilton Wynd that he was perfect for our film. We first off asked Colin if he was happy for us to film him walking around the area. Wayne wanted to get some slow motion shots of him doing this since we liked the look of the tests we did prior and thought it would be nice if we could use some in the film. While Wayne and Colin were doing that I just stood in the centre of Hamilton Wynd and recorded some ambient sounds of the area, again for the film in case we needed it later. Once this was done we asked Colin to show us round and talk about the experiences and memories he has about the place as we walk around. We did this a couple of times and we got some really nice footage and some good stories but unfortunately the sound got screwed up so we were unable to use them which was pretty annoying.

The next day, which was a reasonably dry day we went up and found Colin pottering about in the communal garden. It was a this point we got some shots of him doing this as various neighbours began to come out and talk to him, which was perfect and was exactly what we wanted. After talking to Tracy the Film and Television tutor who suggested we talk about the communal garden with Colin I decided to ask him about it as he walked about the garden, we got some nice shots but we again did not end up using the recordings, but we did like the idea of possibly centering the film around the garden. Later we continued to get more B-roll footage of the garden since the weather was decent.

Before we went up the next day we thought we should print out some documents to post round Hamilton Wynd, just telling the residents who we were and what we were doing. Posting these when we got there, we noticed that the weather was overcast but the sun was braking through the clouds creating nice shadows, so we decided to take more external shot while the weather was nice. We thought this would be a good way to spend our time since Colin ended up being busy that day.

 Week 4

Because the weather was really bad this week, we decided to take some shots of the interior of Colin's house. We knew we would be doing a recorded interview in here with Colin, so we wanted to get as many shots for the B-roll as we could. At this point we did not have proper lighting equipment however Wayne did have a small LED light that we could use at our disposal so I mainly held that for him while he focused the shots.



On the Thursday Colin arranged with us to meet him down at Stockbridge, so that we could go and film his new flat which he called "Gods waiting room" due to it being really nice and filled with old people. We planned to film him in his new flat and then go back to Hamilton Wynd and film an interview with him there later on. We needed to get the interview done that day as Colin was having to move the majority of his stuff over at the weekend meaning his flat would not look the same and we could not use the b-roll that we shot earlier in the week. Extra equipment like lights and stands were hired out also so that we could make the lighting a bit better in his house for the interview as it was very dark in there also. When we were at Colin's new flat we ended up getting shots of him looking out of the window and coming into his new flat with his boxes. By this point we had the idea that we could also convey his transition from Hamilton Wynd to his new home being something we could possibly use in our film. Once we were finished, Colin ended up needing to leave so we ended up not being able to the interview that day. We ended up planning to do it on Monday, and we were just hoping that there was enough stuff left at his house to make it look like it was in its original state. Colins house was an absolute mess however it was a beautiful mess and we wanted to capture it in that state.

The "Beautiful mess" of Colins house

Week 5


Finally we got round to doing the interview with Colin. By this point there was not much left in Colins house, but because we shot him close up and at a position were you could only see the pictures in the background this gave us a way to get around this problem. Before the interview I made up a series of questions for Colin to answer as a way to keep him on track as he tends to go of a bit. These questions consisted of things ranging from the communal garden, what are the people of Hamilton Wynd like and what he studied at university.


The whole interview lasted an hour and a half which wasn't to bad and we ended up getting some really personal and eye opening stuff from Colin which we knew was going to be "gold" in the film. While I would be interviewing Colin, Wayne would do the filming. We constantly had the problem of the SD cards for the black magic camera filling up with memory due to the size of the HD film files that it was recording. I would need to copy the files over every so often, which while was annoying actually gave us brakes during the interview on the plus side. Besides this the interview went really well and we had all the footage we needed to being editing.


Sound equipment we used to record Colin in interview
 The rest of the week was spent editing the film. We had a lot of footage to go through so the fist day was spent going through it and choosing the things we could use and wanted to have in the film. There was many different cuts of the film that we had came up with, due to what much of what Colin had said in his interview being things we wanted to include in the film. We actually even had a 10 minute version which with the amount of footage we had could have been done, but ultimately we wanted something that was not too long and was engaging. This meant we constantly had to get rid of stuff that we thought we didn't think we needed or didn't think we should include. Another thing we faced was creating a narrative out of all of this footage, however because some of the things Colin said linked we were able to tie it all together.



Because this was meant to be an animated documentary and we didn't want to add any animation at the risk of undermining the footage I decided I wanted title to be animated at least. I ended up Just writing the title in my handwriting, looping it bubbling at first and placing it on one of the walls we shot in Hamilton Wynd. I was not really happy with this one so I ended up creating another one copying a font of which again I bubbled, however this time I tested it on the wall but also did a few tests with some other B- roll footage we had taken, however we ended up putting it between two buildings in the final film.





For this project I feel that the overall outcome was quite good. I feel that to begin with we were a little slow in the begining coming up with an idea and a person to base our film on, but once we got going we knew what we wanted to do and I feel we ended up coming out with something we were happy with. I will admit I would have liked to do some animation but with the overall theme and the character of Colin, I feel that if animation was added it may seem a little out of place. My main concern was undermining the residents with it, which is something I think we have avoided. However the titles and credits are indeed animated due to the fact that I did at least want some animation to be in there keeping to the brief. For me at least working with Wane was really good experience. He is a really good person to collaborate with, any suggestions I had he would accommodate and take on board and indeed vice versa. He knew what shots he wanted to get and his skills with getting good looking ones are very impressive, and of course I helped him with setting things up recording e.c.t.  I also had the role of compiling questions to ask Collin and planning what shots we wanted to get over the course of the week and when it came to editing we both worked on putting our film together and again I added the animated titles. 
Overall I have enjoyed the experience, indeed there were ups and downs, but I think what we have produced is something that I am proud of and is something I think really captures Colin as a person and the community of Hamilton Wynd.

World In A Room

World In a Room 

So in this project you only have 2 characters in 2 rooms. One character must be animated in stop motion, the other in the 3D animating software Autodesk Maya. With these two character we have been given the challenge of creating a narrative within the setting of these two rooms with a door dividing them. The narrative can literally be anything we choose but there needs to be a knock at the door at some point during the film, and this is the only guide line. At this point in the project we have two initial weeks to come up with a narrative and learn a bit of Maya.

Week 1

I approached this project initially with a lot of different ideas. It was so difficult to choose a theme as the project is so broad but I ended up coming up with 2 ideas I could go with.  My first idea was having a horror theme for my film. I knew I wanted to see if I could create a tense atmosphere with the characters and really make use of the lighting and appearance of the characters. I wanted to use the skeletal like features of the stop motion metal armature to my advantage and make it the monster/creature in the other room, and having the 3D character Norman (that's his official name) act as our protagonist/victim.


Idea 1-  Thumbnail Horror Storyboard


Idea 2- Thumbnail Gravity Idea Storyboard




















My second idea was to have the stop motion character be really annoyed at something and we later realize that its Norman not answering the door. The reason why is due to the fact that the gravity in the other room is different for Norman, so he is actually standing on the side of the wall opposite the door and is unable to reach it to answer. I really quite liked this idea as I planned to have it cut in a way that would build the suspense. Cutting back and fourth between the two until the stop motion character finally opens the door and falls through because of the gravity in Normans room.

After a bit of thinking and a small pitch to a couple of my fellow animators I began to realize that the horror idea was just really cliche and I opted for my second idea instead. I just like the fact that with the second one I can make it quite funny, focus on emotions and movements more and it allows me to give equal amount of time to both characters.

Week 2

Now that I had a rough narrative I went ahead and created an animatic. The animatic allows me to get the narratives timings right so I know how long each sequence needs to be. Something which in this case was important because I wanted the cutting back and forth between characters to get faster as we progress to the end of the film. And hopefully if effective making it funny.




Week 3

Once planning and the animatic was complete I began to make a start on the Maya section of the film. This week was spent having refresher Maya tutorial sessions with Mike, something which was really helpful and really needed as I couldn't for the life of me remember any of it- not having done it since the walk cycle project in 1st year. This time round using Maya and having prior experience of using it- things coming back to me as we went along- I had a much better time with it. It did not confuse me as much as it did prior and I was much more familiar and aware of where everything was. Maya seemed a lot more easier this time around.

Week 4

Continuing on with Maya I began to animate my first couple of sequences. The first scene I began to do was the slow reveal of Norman standing on the side of the wall. I did some test initially just to get my bearings with the reaching up movement I wanted him to do. A first of all tried to do it by myself first to see if I could get the movement right and it did look ok but not amazing. We were recommended and encouraged to actually act out the movements ourselves, and honestly I found myself doing this anyway but I thought I should do some full body movements and record them so I can translate them into the way Norman moves. I find that for an animator and particularly myself this is a really good way of figuring out how a character moves. You do indeed have an understanding of how it moves but if you act it out physically yourself I find it definitely gives you a greater understanding. I found myself doing this with all of my scenes and strangely I mostly only did this with Maya and less so with the stopmotion part of my film.



Week 5 

Animating the stop-motion section of the film was personally my favourite part. We were given the set of the room just like the one in Maya and a simple, bare armature to work with acting as the second character. My actual animating time for this section was short, due to us only having half a day each in the dark room because of time constraints and the fact that there are 16 of us in 2nd year. For most of the day I ended up helping my animating partner Francesca as she had a few shots where lighting was key for some of her scenes, so we spent a bit of time trying to figure that out. Again this ment less time to animate and I ended up starting at 7pm so time was really against me. 


Once I had my lighting sorted out ( just using the basic 3 point lighting set up) and my character in position, I decided to place my animatic over the live footage in Dragon Frame allowing me to follow the timings of my scenes while animating. This was quite handy as I knew how long I had for each scene and I ended up not wasting time guessing how long each scene had to be. The armature itself was easy enough to work with, all though I did have some problems with posing it because it had some loose joints, some tight joints and no foot pivot which hindered the walking scene a bit. However I still enjoyed it none the less and it was nice to animate something physical for a change. Working with a set was pretty cool too as it was really easy to animate in. All of the walls could be removed allowing the camera to (like the picture below) get behind or in front of the character allowing more space for the camera and easier access to the armature.


In the end animating went pretty smoothly and I manged to shoot all of the scenes I needed, so I was really happy with that. However if indeed I had more time I would re-shoot the beginning and end scenes. The beginning mainly because the armature does not move at all, he is just staring at the door. I would have rather had him pacing back and forth to show or give an initial indication that he is unhappy about something, helping to better introduce the character. For the end sequence I wanted to literally turn the room sideways in post as he falls through the door, however because I didn't have much time and had to rush, I just shot the scene close up so I ended up not being able to achieve this. 

Week 6 

This week I just got back into Maya and was still tweaking the first reaching up scene. I ended up doing many versions of it but by the end of the week realizing I had spent to long on this scene and I quickly moved onto the next. This ended up being the jumping scene which equally ended up taking just as long to do. I had to sit and think about how I wanted Norman to jump while at the same time be reaching up and how I could make it look convincing. I went through the same process as before, filming myself doing the actions and then translating that into Maya. It did take me a while but I think I got it to a point were I was satisfied with it. 




Week 7

This was an extra week that allowed me to get some of the Maya sequences finished and finally get my editing done. Once everything was together, editing was done pretty quickly. I again referenced my animatic for timings and such but in the final film inevitably some things ended up being different. For the sound I just used free sound effects from Free Sound. org, using them very sparingly. I ideally do definitely want to go and record my own sounds for the film at a later point as the ones I end up choosing are not exactly the best. The characters sounds for example are definitely things I would record myself as adding in pre-recorded voices just does not sound right and would not fit right in the film. However because it was all I had at my disposal, I just ended up having to go with it. Premier ended up giving me a few problems to, especially when I wanted it to render the film. I kept constantly trying to render it in HD and it kept failing for some unknown reason, I manged to get a render but it was not the final version so I'm just going to go with that for the time being.


Overall this project has certainly had its ups and downs. I have really disliked Maya at some points and enjoyed it at others. However I know that with more practice at it I will get better and much faster as I use it more and more. Lack of time has been a big issue for me, especially with the time we had allocated in the dark rooms and with the amount of time I take in Maya. I realize that now and in future projects that it is something that I need to keep on top of and this project again is definitely something I will be coming back to, to re-edit and add my own sound. But I think what I have produced is something I'm at least happy with but I know there is definitely more room for improvement.