ANIMATION PROMO

Add caption	Using still shots I intend to catch glimpses of students bustling around campus, in the halls and lounges (students generally enjoying themselves)
	Following prompts from the narration will cue in scenic images (mostly EXT) that establish the SIT Downtown location aswell as distinguishing features of invercargill. Perhaps images such as the monuments- Feldwick gates etc etc
	Location for on site interview with Vince Hayward. Will have to art department around the area to make it look more visually appealing.
	This was a play at having a for, mid and backround element for potential B-Roll sequencing of Vince acting out some of an animators work.
	Will use the greenscreen in this piece, with 1 animator at a time standing in front of the greenscreen. I will then composit the work of the current animator on to the backround to showcase that indiviuals work. Am looking into things that might go into the foreground as an extra element.
	This is how I work, in messy, unlegible scribbles.  In this blurb of nonesense it covers the structure of the promo piece, interview questions, talent, crew, potential locations also script basis and the beginning of a shot list.

    























































































































 BLOG STARTS HERE:  Sorry about the awful structure, i had a difficult time in getting the images on the page. 
-Anyway, first blog of the new semester! we are straight into it again. this time round in BDM 231 i have been assigned the task of creating a short promotional piece for the BDM Animation course.  

so far i have set myself up with do a "from the students for the students" kinda thing. where i am interviewing (hopefully) 2 different students about their experiences here and try to convince others to join, but basically covering it all from a students side of things.

the basic structure is pretty much

- intro= pace paced cutting of students doing student things with "quotes" playing overtop.

- SIT LOGO

- Voice over narration, introducing SIT Animation course and Invercargill(of course with appropriate video to follow up on)


- Interview set up with Vince Hayward about his expierinces so far in SIT life.




(Also hope to achieve a second interview with Eleven Cui to get her opinion aswell. NOTE: if i do get her on board i would ideally like to film this outside as a more interesting change of scenery, as well as making Invercargill look "free and spacious" to any potential students of the future.

- then comes the greenscreen profile bit. where 5 animators showoff some of their work on the o'l green screen behind them (which im hoping will look super cool)

which will help build us to the end of the promotional video, which will be either a sit logo thing ORRRR fade out on a group of animators laughing about in the greenscreen/ or pc lab.




so thats where i am at the moment.  my next step is to have a script that i can work with all printed out, so then i can do things such as storyboards and schematics etc. hopefully will go to shoot on this friday and get the profile bits + interviews done. with cut aways being performed in the weekend (shots of invercargill etc)

yeah....thats pretty much about it so far.... that i can think of...now im going home :)

2015. 2nd year round two!

ITS A NEW YEAR! which means a new start to this study life right? clean slate and all that jazz right?

WRONG!

17th of February we start our first day of class, and already the pressures on. It started off kindly enough, re-introducing ourselves to the classroom of new pals and old. I was glad to see 3 new international student additions to the classroom: Iris, Arman and Don (i hope that I've spelled their names correctly). By the sounds of it they are all very interesting individuals and i honestly look forward to see what they each have to bring to the table- well just have to wait and see right?

BUT THEN- we jumped straight into the assessment schedule. (a nice wee chat just to remind us that our holidays ARE really over) and already i can see the pressures rising. they are as following:
-Oral presentation on a chosen subject
-written exam (on 4 of the subjects from the oral presentation)
-Table play Cinematography (a filmed short showcasing our skillz)
- Blog (Yay, my favorite./ i failed at this so bad last year)
- and lastly a show reel (3 different 45 second shorts that show our works)

If i was smart i would start in this studying business right now. i would write scripts and look up definitions to prepare for exams. unfortunately for me i have the brain of an intellectual but the motivation of a sloth. -Which probably explains why i failed this paper last year and am currently resitting it.
-but this year will be different, this year will be a success. i need it to be. not only for the paper but for myself also. the reality hit me over this summer, the fact that when student life finally ends i have to find a way to make it out there in the world on my own. I have only ever lived in Invercargill and while i know my hometown i have very little in the way of connections. this year (Ideally) i would like to start making those connections. if there is an opportunity to get on a set or help in anything i need to jump for it. at this stage its more about getting the experience and making the right kind of friends than it is the money. I would be ecstatic to even just be coffee bitch on a major film project. gotta do what needs done.

ANYWAY. I have done a little work so far into this paper.  recently i watched Alfie (2004) directed by Charles Shyer, and i just loved the way that the film was shot. in the sense that the whole movie Jude Law (Alfie) breaks the 4th wall of cinema by constantly addressing the audience directly.this movie inspired me to begin planning for a table play that uses a similar technique (could be a bit fun to play around with) but used in a local setting.

anyway. that tends to be where things stand as far for the first week back. hopefully this year will be full of stress, laughs, amazing people, MOTIVATION and sleepless nights.
Forever the optimist- in saying that, itis only the 2nd day in.......and so many more to go.

PEACE
                 -Lana

Personal Profile Preparations.

Oh the joys of being a film student.


Alrighty, the following images are some of my early prep work in creating a small promotional film about a student at S.I.T...
AT random (drawn out of a hat) each film kid selected a different department at S.I.T. to conduct an interview type situation that promotes that students work and the S.I.T. facilities as well.
I was given the task to find someone in the "Fashion" department to co-operate and work with me.  Fortunately over the previous holidays i had worked with a pre-entry fashion student Tumanako, to which we became good friends at the end of it. Tumanako was my first choice to work with, but unfortunately his time at the course has ended (due to being only a half year long subject) and he has returned home up north.
However he was eager and able to lend me some names of people in the course that would be keen to help out.

One of those was Lenon Wakuwa. one of the friendliest people i have ever met. he has a definite charisma thats going to work out wonderfully with being in front of a camera.

Now i planned to stage 3 different shoots to complete this project. 

1)  Being the interview itself. held in an upstage theatre with a black backdrop. i will have various props such as posters and clothing that promote Lenon's works and the S.I.T. course too.

2)  I thought it would be an awesome idea (since its 'Fashion" that i get to do) if we staged a small catwalk scene. i mean what better way to show of his work than to actually have them modeled and strutted around in right!!RIGHT!

3)  And lastly i would like to collect little segments of B-roll. for instance i would get Lenon working with materials and show the process from start to finish. i would like to see Sketches, prepping, materials, pinning, cutting, sowing, making adjustments on a model etc. all that sort of jazz. 

so anyway heres my prep work:

New term, New thing's

 A couple of weeks ago I completed a script for a class assessment.
what started out with the ideals of equality for gay civil rights (Not in a preachy kinda way) slowly manifested itself into an overall equality issue with my Antagonist promoting total Nazism.

Basically:

Our protagonist Joel lives in a hyper reality. similar to our own. where minorities who don't fit a specific attraction (Eg: white skinned and gorgeous) are severely marginalised.
these ideals have been transported into a relatable High school type scenario, where the goal is simply to make it to the "prom"

but what happens when the rights to go to prom are removed for those that don't fit the stereotype? -unfair right, I mean everyone's allowed to go to prom! what do they do?

And to top it all off, Joel's best friends happen to be a black young woman and a gay young man?

the ideals being that "Prom" represents equality in the forms of movements such as gay/black civil rights. the idea that everyone has a right to be equal apposed to a selected few who hunger for power.


- well that was the initial idea anyway. whether or not that was pulled off in the script...probably not.  However today some useful feed back was received which id like to share.

1-perhaps toning back the Nazism concentrate and focus on one equality issue instead of trying to tackle a whole bunch of them.
- I agree, in the sense that hopefully targeting just ONE (I'm going to choose gay civil rights) with provide a much thorough and deeper meaning into my story.

2-rethink the concept. keeping the themes in mind.
- the dilemma in being I am a very poor poor low budget student.....and for some reason I decided it was good idea to make a Prom scene.......hmmm well if I do keep it at least its a challenge right? haha

3- some depth to Joel's character needed. he has no motives, only his friends do really.
- so what if, perhaps if Joel was gay? and he was the sole attraction of being marginalised? maybe?
 or if I don't choose to go down that path, what are HIS motives, not his friends?

4- and lastly. to find its own NZ voice.
- as I am Kiwi, reading the script leaves you with a somewhat western feel to it. (American) which to be fair, when I wrote the script it defiantly was an imitation , almost a mockery of how American High schools are portrayed.
now this is the feedback that stumps me the most. If I wrote it with an American style, how do I evolve this to a NZ type thing.
obviously im going to end up with actors who hold a new Zealand accent when it comes into production. so that might help out.

But preferably I think I would like to give it the American vibe. and if I wish to make it a mockery perhaps play up those elements and make it clearer or harsher?

hmmm, ohwell. at the end of it I guess I have a bit of rewriting to do .......:)

 This task is a homework piece that was due a very very very long time ago. (apologies).

Basically our classes assigned task was to compose a variety of shots using a range of lenses to compare each effect that each lens created. using only two compositions; close up and mid shots.
 the five different lens types are as follows
                                                                                                         

  

  18mm
  35 mm
  50mm
  75mm
  105mm

the photographs lining the left side of the page appear in the consecutive order as labelled above for the close ups and the mid shots. as you can see the 18mm give my (object/focus/ wonderful flatmate for letting me take unattractive photos of her)  a warped appearance. while allowing us greater perspective of depth in the background and foreground of the image, it becomes unflattering to the human eye. Dramaticising peculiar angles and shapes.

 generally the longer the lens the more appealing the image created. (well that the belief anyway). however my personal opinion in regards to the pictures shown; is that the 35mm and the 50mm are much nicer to the eye. this may have occurred due to the slightly different nature of each shit. for example: notice that the object stature may have slightly changed from smiling beautifully to having a small nap. other factors include lighting changes and slight angle variations. some shots appear at a higher angle than others (automatically making it more appealing than lower angles)

Rialto 48 Hours reflection!

With every passing year that I have entered the Rialto 48 Hour Film Competition, which is now a grand total of Two times, I have learnt many lessons. Some for the good, and many a lesson learnt from the bad. But that’s more or less what these times are for. Friendly competition that can further our experiences in the field of filmmaking. Using a system of trial and error I believe that in the next years competition we can perform something even better. Stepping our game up every time.

In our very first year of study at S.I.T (2013), our class decided to enter in a team (RAW). No one in our team had ever been involved with the Rialto 48 Hour Film Competition before. So as expected we were ill prepared. When the text came in just after 7pm everyone was in a frazzle. By trying to come up with a GREAT story our plot became lost and confusing. We had differed away from our assigned genre slightly and no one was on the same page. Progressing forward from these foundations was even more difficult, in the sense it’s hard to film a story that you don’t really understand in the first place. In simple terms, our staring had a domino effect around the team’s function for the remainder of the weekend. Disappointingly, We did not end up producing the film that we wanted.

Going forward from our previous experience aided majority of our decisions this year. (2014).  My classmate Brogan and I decided at the close of last year, that we would like to take a project with our sole control. So there would be a definite sense of leadership and direction. As a result she produced, and I ended up directing the short film under the team name “Umbrella Fortress”. The two of us spent many hours agonizing over things to get us ready and organized for the weekend. Our aim was to have a small crew with specific jobs (in the end we only brought along Kimberly-sound and Matt- gaffer).  An easy flowing weekend schedule so crew could have breaks and decent rest, actors secured, food sorted. And lastly we had drawn up a variation of 5-6 different scripts that could be manipulated into several genres.

We were prepared; there is no doubt about that.

As a result, when we received the message around 7pm on Friday 4^th of April, there were only three people in the room working on the scripting process. Brogan, Kimberly and I, (opposed to confusing room of 10-13 people all pitching in ideas). This system worked. It was far easier for people to pitch ideas, listen and discuss appropriately. Having the preparations and foundation in place made for a great start in our hectic weekend. Because we ran through the script fairly quickly, Brogan, Kim and I ended up leaving relatively early (11Pm) and getting a nice big sleep before shooting commenced at 9am the following morning.

I personally had prepared a quick rough shot list of what I wanted for the shoot, meanwhile Brogan had been organizing last minute props and making sure there was plenty of food around to suffice.

Overall the shots were powered through surprisingly quickly. Only getting caught up over one particular shot from our “dolly”. Which is merely an acquired shopping trolley, I found difficulty to keep the shot leveled due to the unsteady carpet of the floor I was rolling it over. Aside from that particular shot we ran through the action fairly quickly.

We even stopped partway through the day for a massive lunch break (longer than scheduled for) partly due to the fact we had been so quick. Shooting was completed at 8pm Saturday night, which is a stark contrast to the year before. At this time I estimate we were only halfway, perhaps ¾ done with our shoot. We still had a night sequence to put together and on top of that I had to keep resending the crew out to do pick ups of important details that they had missed. A process that continually delayed our progress further and further behind.

I ended up staying until 12:30am the Saturday night putting together a rough edit of “Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar”, while Brogan edited up our intro sequence and credits. Then heading home for another large rest, not returning to the edit suite until 9am. The amount of sleep received this year was a major blessing. We did not change our sleeping patterns for the sake of the competition and were very well rested compared to others. In 2013 I would say I received an estimate of 4 hours sleep the entire weekend. From the Friday morning until leaving for home Sunday night.

Our editing system was far improved from the year before. Brogan and I had found that our editor from the year before wasn’t “up to scratch”, in the sense that unfortunately they were not fast enough to cope with the hectic rush and pressure of editing. With that in mind we decided to elect myself as the editor, I feel comfortable and confident in majority of my editing skills. And I’m quick enough to power through it. Though one major error occurred in this process. Halfway through creating the rough, the computer completely froze. As a result we waited 30mins –an hour to see if the computer would fix itself. It didn’t. As a result I disappointingly lost half of the rough edit and had to spend an extra Hour re-doing what had been deleted.

In the end the edit was graded, and finished exporting around 5.45pm on the Sunday afternoon. Leaving us 1-hour spare of the deadline, only having to send the Wrap Up Forms.

In conclusion I found our efforts paid off having the vast amount of preparation that we did, a definite improvement from the year before. Even though our film did not end up a “blockbuster” and wasn’t particularly well received by the judges. I still feel proud of the product that we created and I am impressed with the effort and atmosphere that all contributed towards it.

Wreck-It-Ralph

two nights ago I re-watched "Wreck-It-Ralph", and in all honesty I had forgotten what a great movie it is. for those that don't know:

"Wreck-It-Ralph" is a Disney film that was released in 2012.  It follows the lives of Arcade game characters, in particular, Ralph. He's been stuck in a situation for the last 30years as playing the "bad guy" in his arcade game. And he finds himself looking to be the hero for a change. But of course on his quest he finds himself looking for the deeper meanings of life, Causing havoc and basically disrupting the entire arcade's system.

"Wreck-It-Ralph' is one of those rare films that can be watched over and over again and still be as enjoyable as the first time you watched it. The concept is well thought out, the script: well structured and believable, the characters are memorable and the animation differences between the eras of games has just polished it off.

My emotional response to the film was relativly good. i mean, even though the events that occur during this film are totally unrelated to my type of life. i was still drawn in almost immediatly, i was involved in this world that Disney had created. it was thouroughly well done

the Lead character Ralph is a totally relatable character. dealing with insecurites and overall just looking for acceptance for who he is as apposed to what he is (a bad guy with a generous heart). my favourite moment with this character, when we truely see how much he has evolved. Occurs in the climax of the film, when Ralph realises what is important in his life. and on his journey to "make friendships" with the characters of his game he has formed a very real friendship with Venelope. and acts as such. (soory about the brief explanation i did not wish to spoil the film for others)

moments that engagaed me the most generally involved his emerging friendship with a young Candyland girl called Venelope. my Favourite incident has been mentioned above, but another compeling moment  is Ralphs "all is lost" stage in the film. where he has been presented with an aweful challenge but must do a very wrong thing for the right reasons. .. tears were shed.

at no moment of time was i disengaged. i followed the story smoothly from begining to end without interuption of any kind.