Final Presentation

Overview

This is the final blog in regards to my major digital media assignment, "Should have taken acid with you", to outline the main elements guiding the final composition, to be found below.

Visual Style:
The visual style adopted for the music clip "Should have taken acid with you" is meant to resemble a 1960's home cine film. A cine film was like an old fashioned version of a home video camera, and captured coloured movie, which you could watch on your home projector. (See picture below).



It has a very distinct lustre and colour to it......generally slightly jolty and out of focus, and was often faster than real life. The link below shows a great example from the 1960's of a family cine film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN1H5X01Qmo

Cine films also has quite a washed out, but still colourful colour pallette, and often had dust/lens interference when played through a projector.
The film clip, "Should Have Taken Acid With You" adopts the method of stop motion, combined with special effects, applied in Adobe after affects to recreate the "home cine" feel.

Why Choose the Cine Style?
I chose to use the cine style for the video clip because it is a visual aid to communicate the storyline, but also to create a strong synergy between the film and the song. The 4/4 beat is ideal to keep time to the jolty, 25 frames per second beat of the song, and meant i didnt need to stress out too much about the smoothness of the footage.

The Storyline
The storyline is about two young lovers who go on acid trips together. The film is mainly shot from the perspective of Cyrell, the lead boy and shows his progression through the acid trip, eventually peaking, then falling into a darker place. The final shot, where Cyrell is holding Skye in his arms is meant to imply that maybe Skye was never really there in the first place, and Cyrell's trips are in an effort to reconnect with her. How you interprate it is up to you.
The overall intention of the clip is to portray what an acid trip could possible look like.

One Liner
"Let's melt our tongues and become unglued forever".

Synopsis
Skye and Cyrell are two young lovers from the 1960's who keep their secret from the rest of the world. Bound together with a mutual love, the two decide to go on a trip, of which Skye goes missing.
This then sends Cyrell spiralling out of control, to fall into a dark abyss of which he will never climb out again.

Organisation and Planning
One thing i do recommend to anyone taking on a stop motion project which involves actors, is to plan and designate filming days, of which the actor is aware they will be required to attend. This will prevent any stress from actors not being able to make it, or being difficult with their availability.
Next time around i will be writing a schedule and deadline i need to meet, and include highlighted filming days, so the actors are not only aware when they are required, but are also informed of why things need to be done by a certain date, in interest of final render and time management.


Final Cut Video
The link below will direct you to the final cut. Thankyou for following my blog and keep checking my posts for updates on new projects!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAHmswqkzAw

Promotional Package

Production Shoots for S.H.T.A.W.Y.

Over the next few weeks i will be working from my animatic to produce my final film clip. This Sunday shoots will be located at the Marino Lighthouse, and Hallett Cove boardwalk, at 10am sharp.

Should Have Taken Acid With You

CONCEPT Psychadelic Lovers: Let's melt our tongues and become unglued forever. The film clip “I should have taken acid with you” is about two lovers on an acid trip. The clip takes you through the pleasure of their trip, but swiftly transcends from bliss to a sinister realm. The final shots link the story together, and show Cyrrel and Skye, his lover, slumped against a wall as junkies. Is this a foresight, reality, or just a bad trip? The Characters of Skye and Cyrrel are two youths from the late 60's, experimenting with drugs. They are happy go lucky type characters, who love each other, and are brought closer together by their love for "going on trips". But do they indulge too often and when will it all end? Will their love endure? ENVIRONMENTS VISUAL STYLE STORYBOARD: KEY CAMERA SHOTS AND SCENES ANIMATIC The vintage theme is imperative to the message, and also to linking the live action to the music.Through character costume, and visual effects of the stop motion itself, "Should have taken acid with you" aims to appear as an authentic flashback in time, whilst relating to the modern interpretation of the psychedelic movement of the sixties. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkuP46VpPes

Final thoughts on Histoires Petite Pomme

Upon reflection, Histoires Petite Pomme came together well, despite organizational setbacks.
I cannot help but wonder what kind of a result we could have produced if Camilla, Simon and myself had began working on the film earlier, but that's all hindsight now!
From day one we did have set back, like Simon's absense at the beginning of the year, but overall everything ran okay.

Tiny details and fine tuning are now evident in my film, and require further editing, but this is all learning, and i can now use Histoires as a reference for future expeditions in the land of digital media!

I am glad we explored the texture/cut out/ collage style, because the film we produced was different to the rest of the class, and therefore added a different element to the viewings. I really feel i developed my skills in art design, perspective, screen shots and photoshop during this semester, and now have the confidence to apply this knowledge to future works. In particular the use of Premiere will be useful, as i have sat through a few online tutorials and now have a sound knowledge of how to use it (though more training would always be nice).

I think Histoires Petite Pomme did communicate the story well, and made people laugh, which was one of NICE PEAR STUDIOS key visions/business aims. I also think the use of tools like the old cinema introduction to establish the story, and draw the audience into the film was a successful aspect of the animation, and the song "i think i like u too" by French Band "Jamaica" really worked well with the pace of the film. THe soundtrack and the film worked well together, particularly in the "Monsieur Banane" tension final shot, when the music reflected this tension in the bridge. Key scene changes also occcured at the chorus transitions,(the "a short time later and cow leaf church scene" and obvious instrumental standouts (for example, the chunky base line at the beginning cueing the curtain the raise).

I think timing wise, it could be even more fine tuned, but the key ideas to time it with the song worked well.

Overall, although it's not a block buster, Histoires Petite Pomme is something i am proud of, and love sharing with my friends, to show off the cool stuff i do at University!!!!

Anyway, without further ado, i thank you fabulous readers (all three of you) for keeping in touch with my progress. I would also like to thank Josh and Lisa for you help throughout the semester, and your understanding of how different groups work!!!!!! And just incase you havent seen the film, here's the link to it on Premiere.

Histoires Petite Pomme from Jonathon Hyde-Neary on Vimeo.

Regards,
Jonathon Hyde-Neary

Histoires Petite Pomme's Premiere on facebook and Vimeo!

Now the world can have the Histoires Petite Pomme experience in their own living room/office/ bedroom etc!
Excited to show everyone our hard work..............
Thanks.
Jonathon Hyde Neary

Histoires Petite Pomme from Jonathon Hyde-Neary on Vimeo.

Digital Media III

Well, how do i sum up this course?
Firstly, i went inot the course wilth only basic understandings in Adobe Photshop, and no experience with Flash or Premiere.
Currently, I can safely say I have a sound basis of understanding of the programs, in completion of the course. It's great to have this knowledge to build on, and it will really aid my presentations and future displays of any media in the course.
It's great to work on an animation, and see it come to life. The animations i'm proudest of are the leaf church animation, and bird flying past the tree animation in our final submission of HISTOIRES PETITE POMME.

It was a challenging course, and my skill levels did hinder the final submission in comparison to the rest of the class, and at times prevented me from starting assignments due to a lack of belief in my own ability. But the lecturers, Josh and Lisa, helped me overcome this, and did a fabulous job at teaching the class.
Problems began with our assignments from day one, with Simon being overseas for the first three assignments. But Camilla and I overcame this, and we eventually got on track.
Throughout the semester, we hads problems with organization, and regular group meetings due to busy schedules and other assignments, which lead to a final dash to complete our final submission in two weeks! But we eventually produced a short animation of what i, and the rest of the group are proud of, and we surprised ourselves with the ability we actully had!
A special mention to Camilla, and her efforts, as she started the course without the luxury of knowing how to use photoshop. Well done! Simon also did extremely well, considering his personal circumstances outside of the course. We were and odd group, none of us standouts with our abilities, so the final animation is great to see. Well done guys.

Organization is a must for this course, although I did not adhere to this all the way through, which lead to almost 4 days of no sleep! As you would imagine, i was not very well, and Josh saw the state of me (i could barely talk), and Lisa got a phone call from a very dazed and confused Jonno. And to think, i drove home!
So out of this, if I have left being able to do basic in animation, and have learnt a valuable lesson about the effect of sleep deprivation on one's health and well being. DO NOT EVER STAY AWAKE FOR 3 DAYS. IT IS NOT PRETTY. Although i did get a few comments on how good my hair looked, considering the circumstances.....bonus points tp the issuers of those comments.

The Lecturers and Tutors.
The course was enhanced by the Lecturers and tutors. Without them, the course would have been totally different!

Lisa was great, and is a credit to the school of design. Her endless willingness to help students out of hours, and her knowledge makes her a great teacher in the making. I am proud to say that we have studied together before, and she is still the most intelligent student i know.

Josh was also outstanding, and has a wealth of knowledge to offer students. He is the most chilled out teacher at the school of design, and really engages with the students in the class. He makes university a fun and engaging place, and i was excited about this subject because of the atmosphere created by both Josh and Lisa.
(I am not writing this as a suck up, and all my words are in honest reflection).

Improvements could be made in a more comprehensive run through of how to use Premiere closer to the date of film submission, as what i learnt did not support a confident use of the program, which proved to throw 12 hours of problems at me prior to submission.
It could also have a more specified pre-requisite description for students who do not know how to use the programs.

But overall, even though I'm not expecting a High destinction for the course, personally i have learnt a wealth of knowledge in animation, digtal media and group work, of which i will be able to build upon in future subjects and assignments.
Thankyou to the lecturers and all of my three blog followers!

Cheers, Jonathon Hyde-Neary.

PREMEIRE THURSDAY, 1PM FORUM LECTURE THEATRE.

Hey guys, please come and check out Nice Pear Studios film premiere of Histoires Petite Pomme.
Our film will be shown at 1pm in the Forum Lecture theatre, Adelaide uni at 1pm.
Please come and check it out, it was almost the death of me over the past two weeks!!!

Jonno

Final cut

Im so surprised the human body can function for three days without sleep!
But if you saw me on tuesday morning, that is most certainly the result of sleep deprivation. Couldnt talk, walk or even function!
But the main thing is we had the movie Histoires Petite Pomme ready to role!
Although improvement could be made to various aspects, it did come together quite well.
The final cut will be added to our facebook page at some stage this week, so look out for it!!!!

Anyway, keep watching out for more details on the premiere of Histoires Petite Pomme, tomorrow afternoon at 2pm.

Thanks.

Church shot

Nice Pear Studios just completed the shot of the church before the wedding!
The link will be posted soon. In this scene you will see a cow's head move, and a leaf fall of the tree and float into the camera shot!

The link will be posted soon from facebook and vimeo.
Keeping you tuned in with the progress.
Jonno

here's the link to my animation, added to simon's vimeo account.
http://vimeo.com/12318413

Cheers.

UPDATE

Naughty Miss Pomme has been flirting on the tree again.....

Who knew an apple could be so seductive?!

So the animations are churning full steam ahead!!!!

Watch this space, videos coming soon.

DORMENT BUT ALMOST READY FOR THE STORM! Screen shots and link to animation.

Good morning friends and followers, on this fine winter Friday.
The countdown has begun until the premier of HISTOIRES PETITE POMME, and boy have we been working!
All other major assignments for the other subject have almost been completed, so it's full stream ahead with this film!
So far i have animated a bird flying through the sky, and hooligan strawberry on a bike, riding past a hopsital, a love ketter scene and updated key backgrounds!

Looking forward to final submission.
Check out the latest video on:
http://www.facebook.com/video/?oid=102916273080199#!/video/video.php?v=430040535498&oid=102916273080199

here are some screen stills to give you an idea of the film!!

The theatre in the opening shot.

Tree scene, with bird flying past and apples action on the right hand side.

Miss Pomme inundated with love letters from Mr Apple.

Mr Banana's angry glance at Mr Apple's and Miss Pomme's wedding.....why could he be angry?

Hooligan strawberry rining past the "HOSPITAL DE PARIS".

Dr cucumber, shocked by the baby he just delivered and nervous about the up and coming commotion.

Mr Pomme see's the baby thas not his.
Devastation. The truth is exposed. :(Miss Pomme, "oops! what should i do!?"

FINAL SHOT, MR BANANA "WHAT?!".

Thankyou,
Jonathon Hyde-Neary (aka Clive)

web design

YAY WEB DESIGN IS AMAZING! MY WEB DESIGN NOT SO AMAZING......
BUT CHECK IT OUT.....GOOD LECTURING BY LISA.

Posters

Here's a few posters from my up and coming project due next wednesday!

Regards, Jonno.

Blood, The Middle East

I was randomly watching music videos of songs i love at the moment, and i stumbled across ths fantastic "collage style" video clip for the song Blood, by The Middle East.
Though it is rather jolty, i think we can adopt a similar graphics style for our Historois Petite Pomme animation, in a more smoothly animated way.

Follow the link to see more...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSKrrMb9bnE

Looking forward to developing the movie more.

Cheers, Jonno

Presentation day

Our class's work is outstanding! Very tough competition, but i still love our animation idea.
Though our abilities arent as comprehensive as the other staff members, we still have a good laugh and enjoy creating our silly story.
Jonno

Stay in touch with Petite Pomme!

Hey Guys,
Stay in touch with what is happening with Petite Pomme on our facebook site!
The link is:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=102916273080199
Enjoy, and please join!

Jonno

UPDATE ON "HISTOIRES PETITE POMME"

Hey followers! Just an update on "Histoires Petite Pomme".

Here are all the scenes.

Also, check out the facebook page.

NAUGHTY MRS MILKY WHITE

Lisa posted this on my facebook wall, it is very much suited to NICE PEAR STUDIO'S Histoires Petite Pomme short animation.
ENJOY!

http://www.threadless.com/product/467/You_ve_Got_Some_Splaining_To_Do?utm_medium=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=April-15-2010_041510+Thursday&utm_source=041510+Thursday

MADAM MILK HAS AN AFFAIR and NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Lisa posted this on my facebook wall, it is very much suited to NICE PEAR STUDIO'S Histoires Petite Pomme.



Check it out!!!





THE NEWSPAPER:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=102916273080199&v=app_2392950137&ref=ts#!/video/video.php?v=430045445498&oid=102916273080199







MILK LINK:

Histoires Petite Pomme, ideas and animatic

So, it has been a while, but i assure you, i have been rather busy!
Nice Pear Studios have been working hard on their latest short animation
"Histoires Petite Pomme" or "Little Apple Stories".
The backgrounds are looking great, and you can really get a feel for how the film is going to grow!

We have recently decided to go with a French inspired theme, and it is really working for us!
Anyway, plenty more to be done! Check out our animatic to help us with timing!
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=428081929427&oid=102916273080199

Ciao!

Jonno

Premiere

A brief introduction into premier outlined the importance of exporting correctly, and we also learnt how to apply effects to videos.
Looking forward to meeting with my group today, as Simon only arrived back from Malaysia yesterday morning and we have a lot of work to catch up on!!!! Camilla and i have developed ideas in styles we wish to follow, and a possible simplified storyline, so it's just a matter of confirming everything and getting the ball rolling!!!!

KARMAFACE CONCEPT PITCH

KARMA FACE CONCEPT PITCH

DEDICATED TO YOU KNOW WHO

Karmaface Powerpoint

Here's my slide show which you didn't see because of my nerves!!!!!!

Gone in 60 seconds!

I litterally just completed my 60 second pitch.
It was a disaster, i didnt show all my slides, and just got so nervous i didnt say what i wanted to!
But I do like my idea, whether or not it gets chosen is another story!
I'm extremely upset with myself though, usually i ace presentations!!!!!!!
Ah well, you learn from your mistakes.

Jonno

Mr top hat stick man does the walk!

Currently in the tutorial, learning about the different stages of animating a walk.
The walk cycle consists of a contact, down, passing, up and another contact, all done within a thriteen frame restraint.
I'm looking forward to creating my actual character and applying the walking to the character!!!!
We also learnt about "inbetweeners"; people who work for animation companies who purely draw inbetween drawings of a character (between the main frames).
Great tutorial so far, although i have been a bit of a pain in the arse asking for "extra help" as i can be slightly special at times. :)
Anyway, back to it!

Jonno

Ideas for my narrative

So, i have been racking my brains out to come up with an idea for our first video.

Thus far, i have come up with two options:
The Adventures of PAM!
Pam is a middle aged woman from Modbury Heights (outer suburbia Adelaide).
The movie would be on average daily events like returning a garment to a shop, but it would evolve into a psycho catastophie, when "evil pam" or "pams evil side" takes over when things don't go her way. This would be where the fun starts, and her exaggerated angry housewife persona is amplified.

Option two is a bit more fun.

The Character is: Kathy Canooky
The name of the film: KARMA FACE

The short film will be based on real life events of recent months. The character, Kathy Canooky, is a Canadian woman who has a bad case of Karma Face. Karma Face is a quoted on urban dictionary as:
"A once moderately attractive person, after becoming a homewrecker, turns into an ugly hag".

So the narrative could follow the direction of how she caught her very severe case of Karma Face, and the moral of the story will be "never mess with a stupid snail man who is in a marriage of 35 years, and think you will get away without having a face like a SMACKED ARSE".

I personally prefer the second idea, as i can have a lot more fun with the underlying messages!

Anyway, i wil post character profiles up soon, to keep you up to date with how the characters are coming to life!

Jonno

Creating a Bouncing Ball in Flash

Lisa's lesson on tcreating a bouncing ball on flash was great, although i do feel i am a bit of a dum dum, as i found myself getting behind several times during class!

I did have a few troubles working out how to create a "Tween" but i eventually (i don't know how) resovled my issues and got the ball bouncing!

I did, however, have a few issues creating the "squashed ball" , the resizing was fine, but after i had inserted a new fram either side of the existing, and "squashed" the ball, it ended up going a bit mental!
Does anyone know what went wrong!??