Studio Shoot - Set Building

Once the walls were firmly secured and in the correct position for the shoot, we began designing the interior of the prison walls. The crew managed to gather a load of old books from the charity shop, in which we all tore every page from it and sorted them form the lightest to heaviest pages.

We broke off into small teams to work of different parts of the wall. Two people were pasting the pages at a time, whilst two people would stick them onto the walls. To speed up the process, we had an extra person use a brush to go over the pages in order to make sure it stayed stuck on the wall.

As we got closer to the centre of the room (where the bricks would be placed), it was decided that the pages would curve around the centre, indicating to the character that there is something behind the wall. We made sure that every part of the wall was covered completely before continuing on.

We did have a couple problems during this point, as the wallpaper paste on the pages was making it incredibly heavy for it to hold to the wall. Therefore, this created a problem of the pages peeling back. This problem was rectified by using masking tape to secure it into place by sticking it on the top of the wall and over to the other side so the camera wouldn't pick it up during filming.

On the other side of the centre wall, we painted it in black. This would therefore cover the 'wooden' look from behind when shooting it from this side (after the character breaks through).

The foam bricks were brought in to be used as the inner bricks of the wall (of which the character would break through). After a test, it was decided that clay would be the best material to cover them in, as it would give the desired crumble effect once dried. Therefore, a group of us covered all the required bricks with clay by mixing it in water.

 Once dried, we tested the bricks by stacking them in the hole (some bricks had to be cut in half for it to fit). Laura decided that the bricks would look better painted maroon, therefore we began to test out how a clay covered brick would look once painted. We then painted all the bricks and let the dry before continuing.

The outcome (above picture) was achieved by only sticking the side bricks onto the wall therefore allowing the actor to break through the middle without any struggles.

The hole was then to be carefully covered whilst still implementing the curve and keeping the consistency from both sides. We had to make sure that the wall wasn't too heavy that the pages would peel off, however if it was too thin then the bricks would be visible from the other side. Thinner pages were chosen and we used less wall paste in order for it to weigh less.

The final step in creating the set was to tea stain the pages, giving a 'weathered' and 'used' effect.

During the day of filming, we placed the props and took pictures (in which Leanna was in charge of continuity). The mattress was a problem at first because it kept sliding due to the actor's movements during the beginning of the scene. This was rectified by taping the underside of it to the floor, giving it less chance to move when pressured.

Studio Shoot - Lighting the 'Creative World'

After designing the set, we had enough time to test the lighting. As we were testing out the creative world scene with the stacking of the TV's we decided that the light from them will be enough for the scene as it creates a nice outline for the actor.

We wanted the scene to have a contrast between the prison and the creative world. With the TV's being the focal point of the creative world, we had to emphasise on its presence, therefore it was decided that we should make this scene dark in order to allow the light from the TVs to highlight the scene.

We noticed that the lighting on camera may have been too dark as the TVs didn't produce enough light to fill the entire set, making the actor less noticeable. To counter this, we included a light from behind the TVs which allowed the actor to be seen, however due to the bulbs being yellow, it gave it too much of an indoor atmosphere. This then allowed us to decide to use a blue filter, which gave off a more digital and environmentally cool effect. 

Maya 3D - Creating the Spaceship

For the first session, I was required to create a 3D spaceship on Maya. This was a fairly simple process. The 'extrude' tool was essential in making this, as it allowed me to drag objects out of another.

The first step was to create a cube. I used the scale tool to expand it to the length that I was happy with. By selecting a face, I was able to use the extrude tool simultaneously with the scaling tool in order to drag out another object from the cube. This allowed me to create the wings of the spaceship. I was then able to drag the wing to the side in order to make it look more authentic. The front of the spaceship was extruded outwards and scaled down for it to have a slope.

The next step was to create the indents on the ship. This, again, used the extrude tool in order to scale down a face of an object and then dragged inwards, therefore creating a gap inside.

I made sure that the holes were on both the front and back of the ship (where the thrusters would go).

 Once completed, I had a solid look for the spaceship, which would be the base of the design. However, to make it look less clunky, I used the 'mesh' option by selecting the whole object and holding spacebar. This gave me the option to smooth the object once selecting form the mesh menu. I changed the division levels to 3 and applied it to the object, thus giving me a more curved and natural looking object.

I was happy with the overall look of the spaceship, therefore the next step was to create the texture. I used the Blinn material by highlighting the entire spaceship and changing its colour to Jet black. I then decided to colour in the holes where the spaceship's engines would be.

For this process, I selected the face option and used the paintbrush tool to select the inside of the hole. I then neatened the selection by using the shift key and single selecting areas which were unselected. Once i was happy with the selection, I changed the colour to a light blue, giving a futuristic/sci-fi look. I noticed that some of the blue had come through on the other side. To fix this I had to select the affected areas and re-colour them black. I repeated this process to each of the holes in order to get the final outcome. (pictures below).

Professional Toolkit - Photography - Broad and Narrow Lighting

During the photography workshop in the studio, we gained vital tips on the way lighting has a great effect on the way a picture can be perceived due to the positioning of a subject.

We looked at paintings of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn and Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio, in which they utilised two different techniques of lighting in order to give off a certain style.

Narrow Lighting - This refers to when the lighting highlights the side of the subject which defines the cheekbone, creating shadows and allowing for a more dramatic/picturesque outcome. One side of the nose will be lit whereas the other side will be shadowed, allowing the subject to look more aesthetically pleasing.

Broad Lighting - This refers to the lighting in which it fills the side of the subject's face by highlighting all areas of their face. This in turn gives the picture a unique element, in which the subject's facial details are more present to the viewer.

Rembrandt's paintings utilised the use of broad lighting by filling the subject's face with light that highlighted their features in order to show their heritage. This in turn gives the viewer the knowledge that the paintings represented a real person i.e. The person in the painting wanted their nose to be prominent so the viewer knows that they come from a long line of people with similar noses.

Caravaggio's paintings used a more dramatic approach, highlighting the narrow side of the face. this will therefore create shadows around the cheekbones and under the eyes, which brings forth more of a 'captured moment'.

During our studio shoot, we were tasked with trying to replicate the broad and narrow lighting techniques. We were split up into groups and tested the lighting on two subjects. We were given advice from Beytan on how to direct during a photoshoot, such as using your hand to show the person where to look and not being afraid to manipulate their hair (as long as we had permission to touch first).

The above picture was a narrow lighting shot, in which we positioned the light to the subject's right side. We then got her to turn her head slightly in order to create a shadow under the cheekbone. It was also vital to get the studio lights reflected from her pupils.

The second picture is one I took in which the lighting is broad. This details the subject's cheek, covering most of the face and showing more of the facial features. 

Photo

Fields and Frames - Phenakistoscope and Scanimation

I looked at various different techniques of optical illusions. One of the instruments used in the early 1900s was the Phenakistoscope (created by Joseph Plateau), an innovative tool which allowed for the first ever animated frames to be viewed by the audience more than one at a time. This is usually presented on a circular dish, in which there would be a selection of frames painted onto the wheel. Once spun, the frames will be a continuous movement, which appears fluid to whoever is viewing it.

This object gives off a very hypnotic and visually enticing aspect to it. I also like the fact that you have to physically interact with the object in order for it to respond with the animation.

This lead me to an idea of combining different elements onto a phenakistoscope in order to create an interactive viewing of the image. This would therefore reveal certain aspects of the animation. I was thinking of incorporating an anaglyph 3D aspect onto a 2D animation, however by adding a strip of invisible ink onto the animation, this will reveal a hidden part which will be viewable through UV light.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2473049/The-Victorian-version-Vine--Hypnotising-animations-created-19th-century-phenakistoscopes-captured-gifs.html

Scanimation is another technique that I am considering on using. This is another animation style which focuses on optical illusion, in which frames of an animation are superimposed. They are then edited on Photoshop, cutting out certain lines from the image. Once completed, a piece of lined tracing paper is then used to create a sense of movement through optical illusion.

http://www.socialphy.com/posts/do-it-yourself/15193/Create-your-own-animated-optical-illusion.html

http://www.opticalillusions.co.uk/line-illusions/line-illusion-4/

Fields and Frames - Stereoscope

For the Fields and Frames project, I researched various different styles of editing and using a frame to bring out the most, making an entertaining but meaningful piece.

I did some research on 3D gifs, which are basically two images which are positioned slightly away from each other (two different perspectives of the same subject). They are both edited together in which they flicker between the two, creating an almost holographic/3D depth to it.

I looked at some of the work from Joshua Heineman, who uses old photography and transforms them in order to create a 3D gif. The picture above proves how effective this style can be, in which it creates an edge to the picture, making use of the background and foreground which gives the image a sense of depth.

This method is basically a digital form of a stereoscope. A stereoscope is an object which was a form of entertainment in the 1800s onwards which allowed users to view two similar photographs through each eye. This gave the photographs a sense of depth, as the eyes would merge together a three dimensional image.

http://gizmodo.com/5017847/3d-gifs-made-from-old-stereo-cards-are-stupidly-simple-effective

http://lunaticadesnuda.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/digitalized-moving-images-from-usa-of.html