BSA106-Blog Research

The time period for German Expressionism is between 1919-1931.

The characteristics for German Expressionist film are

• Unnatural set design 
• Distorted and exaggerated angles
• Composition of unnatural place 
• use of oblique (slanting) angles and non parallel lines
• a moving and subjective camera (POV)
• Unnatural costumes, hairstyles and makeup
• Highly stylized acting

The key themes are

• Madness
• Criminality
• Fracturing of identity

German Expressionist film influences film genres such as psychological drama, horror and film noir.

The film, Pan's Labyrinth of contemporary film director Guillermo del Toro, was inspired by German Expressionism. This can be seen in the dark, twisted tale of Pan's Labyrinth paired  with its equally dark, twisted visuals. 

The set design in unnatural, filled with creepy and intersting characters such as this guy:

and Pan

The set design

References

Kundsen, T (2016, August 12) Watch: How German Expressionism Influences Cinemas Dark Side.[Blog Post] Retrieved from
          https://nofilmschool.com/2016/08/german-expressionism

del Toro, G (2006) Pan's Labyrinth [Motion Picture] Spain: Telecino Cinema, Estudios Picasso, Tequila Gang, Esperanto Filmoj, Sententia Entertainment

BSA126/BSA125-Poster Critique

This is the poster I created for my animation, In Happier Days. I am very happy with it. Next time I would make the top of Aeron clearer to see by putting some sort of highlight around him to make him pop from the background more, something like a red glow.

I would also change the text a bit to make it more like a movie poster. 

BVA142-Project Timeline and Updates

BSA106-Film Review-The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

This German expressionist film directed by Robert Wiene has an interesting use of set design and colour.

It's colour use for the screen overtones interests me as it gives a different look to the usual black and white. Colours such as blue, teal and yellow were heavily used. Pink and bown were also used.

It's use of dialogue cards in-between shots gave a different look and feeling to the modern day films where it is all spoken. They also looked interesting, its almost if it is a piece of work art.


Covering some of the film made the audience focus on what is important, such as a persons face. Where we now have cameras that we can zoom in with. The creepy close ups made for a very eerie and odd atmosphere


The costumes where quite cool, the main characters having distinguishable looks from the crowd. the old guy, Dr. Caligari reminded me of DC's villain The Penguin.

The make up emphasizes the actors facial features and gave me a quite the Addams Family vibe (did the director take inspiration from this film or German expressionism for The Addams Family?)

The set design made the film look distorted and strange, which when paired with strange characters such as Caligari makes it look almost normal. Bold shadows and highlights elevated the strange angles and placements, creating an interesting world for the characters to interact with and on.

The music and atmospherically sounds that were paired with the shots sent chills down your spines, its creepy squeaks and high pitches sounded very strange.

There was some fantastic transitions between scenes, overall making the film look reasonably smooth as it told its tale of horror.

This film really built up the dramatic tensions and it was quite interesting to see how it was done without the use of the technology we have now. This film seems to mix theatrical acting with the use of cameras, therefor every movement is picked up and makes the scenes look more dramatic and visually interesting.

Overall a very interesting film visually and I may take inspiration from this for my stop-motion in semester 2.

BSA106- German Expressionism Slideshow Notes

After WW1 Germany suffered defeat and the democratic Wiemar Republic emerged. Government subsidized the film conglomerate (UFA) to compete with other countries in film. This lead to the Golden age of Cinema in Germany, lasting from 1919- Hitlers rise to power in 1933.

Most important artistic component was the German Expressionist film, which flourished from 1919 to 1931.

Expressionism= Broader artistic movement that flourished in Germany (Early 20th century)

• Painting
• Sculpture
• Architecture
• Music
• Literature
• Theater

Impressionism vs Expressionism 

Impressionism is concerned with surface reality, expressionism sees the world through the filter of human perception and emotion.

The stylized set design, shadow lighting of German films were admired and imitated worldwide.

Expressionism meant creating stylized films using artificial set design, elaborate costumes and unnatural makeup.

Cinematography emphasizes bold contrasts of dark shadows with bright highlights. 

Chief characteristics

• distorted and exaggerated settings
• compositions of unnatural places
• use of oblique (slanting) angles and non parallel lines
• a moving and subjective camera (POV)
• Unnatural costumes, hairstyles and makeup
• Highly stylized acting

Protagonists often experience extreme psychological states, reflected in their strange environments.

Key themes

• Madness
• Criminality
• Fracturing of identity

Most famous expressionist film is Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Set design was very unnatural with slanted walls, floors and ceilings. Exterior is also very artificial. Strange looking titles.

Expressionism=Hollywood's psychological dramas, horrors movies and film noir.

The first vampire film was Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror. 

Cinematic effects

• Low camera angles
• Makeup
• Costume design
• Lighting
• Editing-creates eerie mise-en-scene

Metropolis was on of the most influential Sci-Fi films. Vast sets, thousands of extras, and special effects nearly made UFA go bankrupt. Most expensive German film in its time.

Had a combination of stylized sets, angles, bold shadows and artificial theatrics.  Influenced films such as Blade Runner (1982) and Tim Burtons Batman (1989)

BSA125/BSA126-Dolores Jones-Assessment 2

This is what my PDf file will look like when I hand it in for my assessment

BVA103-Introducing Direct Quotations

For this assignment we need at least 3 direct quotations

Use own language, keywords in our sentences.


Exercise 1

The economy is looking much brighter
"Millions of new jobs are emerging. Things are really on the upswing." (Frank Rank, writer in an online magazine)

1-
The economy is looking much brighter, as it is "really on the upswing," according to banker Frank Rank. "Millions of new jobs are emerging" he asserts, which is having a positive impact on the country as a whole (Rank, 2017)

2-
Frank Rank, a writer for World Economy speculates that the current overall world economy is looking much brighter, postulating that it is "really on the upswing" showing the positive impacts on businesses as "Millions of new jobs are emerging" (Rank, 2017)

Rank, F (2017, March). The state of the current Economy. World Economy, 23(4).                            Retrieved from www.fakeurlhere.com 


It is more important that ever for Americans to forge a common identity.
"We need an identity that binds us together." (Frank Hairpiece, from a chapter of a edited book)

With the current state of affairs in America, it is more important that ever for Americans to forge a common identity. Frank Hairpiece, the editor of American Lives believes that in this devastating time America needs a common identity, stating "We need an identity that binds us together," His views are shared among many other Americans (Hairpiece, 2019)

Rank, F (Eds.). (2019). American Lives. New York, America: Potato Publishing

Animal rights represent the next stage in human moral development,
"If we don't change our ways, future generations will judge us harshly. We need to achieve a higher state of consciousness and empathy" (Yoshi Om, from a This American Life podcast)

Animal rights represent the next stage in human moral development. Yoshi Om, a speaker from podcast This American Life believes that humans do not change their ways "future generations will judge us harshly", he observes that the current human morality will have consequences, indicating that humans need to "achieve a higher state of consciousness and empathy," (Om, 2018)

Om, Y. (Producer). (2018, August 6). This American Life[Audio podcast]. Retrieved from 
             www.notthisamericanlife.com

Exercise 2: Structure these sentences to integrate the quotes more elegantly. You can change the way the quote is introduced, embed it into the main sentence, use a better signal word, remove some of the quote—whatever works, and keeps the focus.

Violent movies are popular for all kinds of surprising reasons. It is well known that they appeal mostly to teenagers. Holman Jenkins writes a column for the Wall Street Journal. He states that, “ teenagers swarm to horror flicks so the boys can demonstrate their manly unflappability and girls can demonstrate their vulnerable desirability. Boys and girls who fulfil these roles are rated as more sexually desirable than their peers” (2013, para.6). So perhaps horror films do not cater to a taste for violence, but rather to the desire to show off before the opposite sex.

Sociologists argue about whether or not violent television creates more violence in society. But maybe this strict cause-and-effect misses the point. “Sex and violence-drenched entertainment can desensitize a whole society. It can drag us down to the point where nothing is morally unacceptable, where nothing makes us blush. What happens to an unblushing society? Central Park joggers get raped and beaten into comas. Sixth-graders sleep around. Los Angeles rioters burn down their neighbourhoods and murder their neighbours. The Mendez boys blow off their parents’ heads.” Jeff Jacoby wrote this in the Boston Globe (2013, p.113). The point is that by overcoming our inhibitions, we lose an important protection against some of the terrible things that people are capable of.


It is a well known fact that teenagers flock to horror films, but it isn't because of their taste for violence. Wall Street Journalist, Holman Jenkins writes "teenagers swarm to horror flicks so that the boys can demonstrate their manly unflappability and girls can demonstrate the vulnerable desirability" (2013, para 6) So horror films doesn't cater to those with a tast for violence, but rather a persona desire to show off to the opposite sex.


In overcoming our inhibitions, we lose an important protection against the terrible things humans are capable of. Jess Jacoby writes in the Boston Globe, “Sex and violence-drenched entertainment can desensitize a whole society. What happens to an unblushing society? Central Park joggers get raped and beaten into comas. Sixth-graders sleep around. Los Angeles rioters burn down their neighbourhoods and murder their neighbours. The Mendez boys blow off their parents’ heads.” (2013, p.113) Because of this, strict-cause-and-effect method of perception, we have sociologists arguing if violent television creates a more violent society. 

BVA103-Uncanny Valley, Complex and Complicated-Brainstorm

Snapshots of the Article A Critique of Animation by Anslem Franke to do with the Uncanny Valley, Complex and Complicated.

Erhard Schüttpelz has suggested a useful distinction between “the complicated” and “the complex,” which helps to understand what is at stake in such a scene. According to Schüttpelz, “complicated” is anything whose operations can be computed, like train timetables. A conversation at a bar, however, is “complex”: it is ambiguous, and its many layers of meaning (and of animation) involve more factors than a simulation can easily take into account.  The difference between the complex and the complicated was and continues to be the foremost frontier of modernization. By means of standardization and computation , modernity seeks to turn complexity into something that is merely complicated. War has been the prime engine of advance on this frontier.

This scan of an actor's face was developed by the Avatar CGI team in conjunction with the University of Southern California. Their objective was to produce Emily, a hyperreal CGI character modeled exactly after the real-life actor whose face enabled the scan.

But this critique rarely targeted the phantasms  of popular fiction directly (although sometimes it did); rather, it was directed at the “magic“ that he identified in the seemingly inconspicuous representations of purely operational processes. Such a dialectical inversion resounds with Benjamin, and indeed I was often tempted to see films like Between Two Wars or As One Sees as a realization of what Benjamin demanded from the Surrealists in 1929, namely, that they exchange “the play of human features for the face of an alarm clock that in each minute rings for sixty seconds.”

“Life” in Harun’s world and work is diagnosed like a patient in critical condition. I would call the diagnosis “clinical positivism,”  a monitoring of life-systems at their critical margins. Capital’s solution to the crisis of the absolute negation of life, it turns out, was its techno-social reconstruction. The patient had to be reanimated, and in the course of this reanimation (and thus de-alienation and de-objectification), the oppositional matrix of the disciplinary society had to be undone. What followed from this was the well-known collapse of dichotomies , which Harun captured like few others. When he analyzed the links between production and war, it was by way of an emphatic immersion in its logic, a dialectics that put itself permanently, and empirically, at risk. He then became a technician, one who relied, to paraphrase Benjamin, on an action to “put forth its own image”—“as if the world itself wanted to tell us something.” But when he portrayed the absurd theater of the grand de-alienation of neoliberalism, he was not only truly Brechtian; he also delineated how desire, the dream of transformative mobility, and psychic life as such had turned into a resource. The way people now had to “put forth their own image” demanded a rather different response.

This is why the image of the motion-capture technique used in Avatar matters. This image, showing the actor in the lab and the resulting digital character next to each other, is an image of the production of images, and it represents the solution that was applied to the “problem” of the technological negation and subsequent reconstruction of life. It is an image that is paradigmatic for our current moment: humans pushing machines across the uncanny valley, beyond the winter of artificial intelligence. The winter of artificial intelligence: this refers to a period of several decades in which AI and robotics failed to fulfill the horizon of expectations in reconstructing and automatizing life. It describes the temporary inability of the machine to cross from the merely complicated into the realm of the dynamically complex. The winter of artificial intelligence: an allegory, also, for the reductionist, militaristic reality principle of an “administered life.”  But above all, it was a “problem” at the junction between technology and imagery, one that demanded to be solved.

The solution is represented in the image of motion-capture technology. Harun spoke of how digital animation hit a limit (not unlike the “winter of artificial intelligence”) when it tried to reconstruct the human walk (again referring us back to Marey). It always looks mechanical, and never organically alive. Not only is it cheaper to use real actors in motion capture than to produce characters from scratch in digital animation, it is also the way to ensure that technology today has always-already been pushed beyond the uncanny valley, because that valley itself is now bridged by the investment of life into machines. In augmented realities, “intelligent environments,” and “self-learning systems,” the organic and the machine have formed intricate networks. Living beings now supplement the machine and provide it with that part of animate intelligence which to date it has not been able to (re)produce by itself.

Thus, the “frontier” between the complex and the complicated has transformed: the complicated now “accommodates” and “frames” the complex, by monitoring its flows and registering any deviations from the “patterns of life,” using them to expand their scope by means of generative algorithms. Harun referred to the data maps of operational computer animations that are used to monitor complex systems—from factories to cities to battlefields—as “ideal-typical” images, images that seek to outperform cinematographic and photographic representations, and indeed the reality of life itself. Reality is then no longer the measure of an always imperfect image. Instead, the image increasingly becomes the measure of an always-imperfect reality. It was this inversion that Harun’s work never failed to put back on its feet. 

BVA103-Brainstorm Ideas for Areas of Focus for Assessment 1

Identify and analyse the contributions of Muybridge, Marey and Faroki to the development of film, gaming and animation in A Critique of Animation. 

Muybridge

• English photographer
• His work consisted of photographic studies of movement
• First photographic study failed due to not having a fast enough shutter.
• Gave lectures on animal locomotion

Marey

• French physiologist
• Invented a high-speed camera gun
• Created a series of pictures to depict movement
• Invented Chronophotographic fixed plate camera with a timed shutter in 1882
• Strong inspiration for Thomas Edison and Louis Lumiere

Farocki

• German Filmmaker 
• Created many political essay films 
• Explored 'operative images' in his films, technical images created for military and surveillance rather than public consumption.

Identify and analyse Anslem Franke's main arguments in A Critique of Animation regarding motion capture technology and the film Avatar.







Identify and analyse the terms "Uncanny Valley" and 'Complex' and 'Complicated' in Anselm Franke's 2014 article, A Critique of Animation 

Uncanny Valley

• A theory first discussed and discovered by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in the Japanese journal, Energy in 1970
• Mori's graph has several objects placed upon it with human appearances.
• 
• Anslem Franke links between motion capture and Farocki.
• 
  

BVA125/BVA126-Poses and Expressions for Dolores.

These are my fully coloured/lined/shaded poses for my character Dolores Jones

These are my fully colouredlined/shades expression sheet for Dolores.

BSA106-Blog Research

Summarise the different approaches to montage between the following film makers.

• Sergei Eisentstein

-Metric-Based purely on timing/number of frames
-Rhythmic-Cutting for continuity or by the content/movement within the frame
-Tonal-Includes the tones of shot (lighting/shapes/shadows) The content of the visuals influence the emotional response.
-Over-tonal-Combination of metric, rhythmic and tonal.
-Intellectual-Where the above methods seek to evoke emotional responses, intellectual seeks to express ideas by creating relationships between opposing visual images.

• Dziga Vertov

Montages were cut together to thematic connections or for emotional effects of juxtaposition. His approach to montage and film was to create cinema that captured real life. Use of the Dutch angle and fast cutting, Slow and fast motion. 

• Vsevolod Pudovkin

Linked frames together. Many filmmakers now use his techniques. Editing is an art form, unseen in other art forms. Used juxtaposition to create an relationship between film and audience. Emotional content from seen comes from editing, not so much actor. he used his editing to convey emotions and ideas to pull the psychological strings of his audience. 

His editing techniques were
-Contrast-Cutting between two very different shots together to another to link them to force a view to compare the scenes.
-Parallelism-Connecting two scenes visually. Used to jump from a time period or location 
-Symbolism-Relationship between two scenes.
-Simultaneity-Cross-cutting scenes, going back and forth between films.
-Leit Motif- Recurring musical phrase connected to a place, person or theme, 

BSA106-Film Review-The Lobster

While I can't say this is the weirdest film that I have watched, Crank-High Voltage currently holds that title, this film was interesting in its ability to confuse, amuse and disturb me in the running time of 1 hour 59 minutes. 

People in this dystopian society have to find a mate within 45 days or be turned into an animal of their choice. An interesting concept for a story line, which was then executed over a painstakingly long time filled with nearly unemotional dialogue and strange characters who one remembered by their 'defining feature'.

For the most part my face was screwed up in confusion, or open in nervous laughter as I tried to find dome sense in this nonsense filled movie. 

At times the movie felt very depressing, which was then elevated in a strange way with the seemingly comedic satire as it referenced very real idea within the society that we currently live in. 

It was strange and unsettling to find comparisons and similarities between the ideas portrayed by the characters in The Lobster and within our society. Such idea as everyone must be in a relationship and how many people seem to shun the single people. 

I think this idea is most heavily seen in Desi communities where any female over their average marrying age, who is single woman is shunned or made fun of by members of their community and family. I have plenty of real-life stories where people have been forced to marry someone they don't want to, or rush relationships to save themselves from dishonoring their family or suffering the backlash from the tight-knit communities and family. 

Overall this movie was interesting in its satirical comments and while I wouldn't watch it again, I would recommended it as a movie to watch if you want to watch something unsettingly close to reality. 

BVA103-Tutorial Task 3

WIPO- World Intellectual Property Organisation  

  

This organisation provides IP services that encourage individuals and business to innovate and create. They provide knowledge to help people to understand Intellectual Property (WIPO, 2019).  

 The origins of WIPO can be traced to 1883, when 14 countries signed the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (The Writers of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017). 

 WIPO’s membership consists of more than 180 countries. Its main policy-making body is the General Assembly, which convenes every two years. WIPO also holds a biennial conference, which determines the organization’s budget and programs. More than 170 nongovernmental organizations maintain observer status (The Writers of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017). 

Berne Convention  

The core of the Berne Convention is its provision that each of the contracting countries shall provide automatic protection for works first published in other countries of the Berne union and for unpublished works whose authors are citizens of or resident in such other countries (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019) 

The Berne Convention, adopted in 1886, deals with the protection of works and the rights of their authors. It provides creators such as authors, musicians, poets, painters etc. with the means to control how their works are used, by whom, and on what terms (WIPO, 2019) 

UNESCO 

UNESCO’s initial emphasis was on rebuilding schools, libraries, and museums that had been destroyed in Europe during World War II. Since then its activities have been mainly facilitative, aimed at assisting, supporting, and complementing the national efforts of member states to eliminate illiteracy and to extend free education. UNESCO also seeks to encourage the free exchange of ideas and knowledge by organizing conferences and providing clearinghouse and exchange services (Mingst, K. 2018) 

UCC 

Universal Copyright Convention, (1952), convention adopted at Geneva by an international conference convened under the auspices of UNESCO, which for several years had been consulting with copyright experts from various countries. The convention came into force in 1955 (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 1998) 

TRIPS 

An international agreement amongst all the members nations in the WTO, effective as of 1st  January 1995. Specifies enforcement procedures, remedies and dispute resolution procedures.  

WTO 

The agreements cover goods, services and intellectual property and set procedures for settling disputes. The WTO require governments to make their trade polices transparent. WTO agreements contain special provision for developing countries, including longer time periods to implement agreements and commitments, measures to increase their trading opportunities, and support to help them build their trade capacity, to handle disputes and to implement technical standards (WTO,2019)  

  

(2019). World Intellectual Property Organization. Retrieved from 

https://www.wipo.int/portal/en/index.html 

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2019) World Intellectual Property Organization Retrieved from 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/World-Intellectual-Property-Organization 

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2019) Berne Convention. Retrieved            from     https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berne-Convention 

https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/ 

Mingst, K. (2018) UNESCO. Retrieved from 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/UNESCO 

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (1998) Universal Copyright Convention. Retrieved from 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Universal-Copyright-Convention 

WTO (2019) What we do. Retrieved from 

https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/what_we_do_e.htm 

Wikipedia (2019) Retrieved from 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIPS_Agreement