Colour Research # II - Visual Emotions

Colour will again play an important role in the outward emotions of the characters. As my great love will always be “Bande Dessinée (BD)”, which I would assume would translate to something like a graphic novel, I am genuinely happy to find storyboarding quit similar to it. The intense use of visual language to represent movement and emotions is something present in BD which I would like to mirror in my storyboard. The strong emphasise on these visual cues will be portrayed through intense colour language.

Here I will try through some examples portray my view of some emotions and how they can be represented through visual symbolism.

First though I will have a look at some famous BD artists and try and find some recurring patterns which should invoke a certain school of thoughts. This can allow me to either try something different or accept conventions and work with them. There are many absolutely stunning authors/artists out there and the amount of work available is staggering. I will start looking through a few of them. These don’t portray emotions as vividly as I intend to do, focusing rather on facial expressions and minimal signs to represent to mind set of their characters. The first image come from a book called Souvenirs d’un Elficologue, drawn by Jean-Paul Bordier. It uses subtle lines to represent shock and quick movement. We might have though in the second image that the character was simply being angry. Yet with the addition of the lines we reach another level of intensity that is quit interesting. It would be interesting to identify which type of emotional signs can be used, while mixing them with strong symbolic colours, which should result in quit a potent extreme of exteriorly portrayed emotions.

The second set of images where drawn by one of my favourite artists. Juanjo Guarnido. The series is called Blacksad and represents a fictional 50’s America using anthropomorphism to symbolically represent the characters. Blacksad, the main character is depicted by a black cat with a white nose. All other characters are represented by animals that fit their main trait. The artists strong use of emotions through facial contortion is interesting as well as the movement implied through dynamic lines. These images explain my initial goal, which is to represent emotions through lines. I then will emphasize these lines through colour and some added depth to the shapes.

 My next step was to draw a few faces of my own and experiment with emotional sighs as I shall call them. They do not have any specific motif for now. I want to do this quit organically and let emotions come through the mark making. This is a beginning and I am running out of time. Ill spend more time on it tomorow.

I tried using soft colours but they don't work and just look like cheap 90's style signs. I will do more drawings using traditional methods as I belive it will look much better that way. And I will take my time. 

Colour Research # I - Colour Chart

Colour Harmony is something I really want to focus on. The visual language portrayed through colour is as important for me as any story. A few primaries and some essential secondaries are needed to bring out a colour chart for any piece of art work. I have already defined earlier this year the effects of colour on the emotions. I will not blabber more about it. Instead Ill try and pin point the different aspects of colour that will be relevant to my story.

All colour depends on light, therefore, I must choose the light according the location of my story. If I decide to install it in a sub-Saharan Africa, then I will have to consider colours under a strong and bright light. If I decide to set it in Paris, the light will be drastically different. The time of day also influences the spectrum.

My main emotional goal is happiness. It is a joyful and mischievous story therefore I wish there to be light. Let there be light! A sunny day implies a stronger amount of desaturated light. Washed out beiges, blues and greens could serve as a basic. The beige spectrum is one I enjoy a lot and it should consequently be present on a wider range than the other colours. Red as a spot colour is extremely useful to portray moments of panic or strong action.

I started some colour sketches to play around in finding the right “colour map”. Not meant to represent anything, they are simply there as a variety of colour values and tonalities. I stayed in a similar chromatic range, as it is better to start by the base. Later on, spot and differential colours will be added to complement and bring out the whole piece.

          Staying in a brownish hue of colours, from oranges to browns, passing through reds and beige, I added a slight impression of desaturated light blue, which I think fits rather well. This anticipates the association of earth and sky in the final storyboard. On a technical note, I have used the Dual Brush setting on the chalk brush with a slight spread, which gives that interesting texture look. This is interesting as it does not involve using complicated and rather limited texture brushes. 

The second piece is a highly burnt study of fiery colours. As I may intend to use fire in the story, I reckoned that finding some tonal values for that element should be useful later on. Hints of green found their way into the piece, and it being the complement of red, it creates a strong simultaneous contrast in some instances.

More studies will follow as I go through different colour combinations, and as I get closer to actually starting work on the actual story board. These studies will also be used for the character designs, as the different colours should also represent their inner temperament. 

Brainstorm # I - The Fire Extinguisher

So here are some of the brain storming ideas I had. Not anything concrete yet, but I hope that through continuous research and the feedback of my class mates, the project will move on. Though the plot might change, I believe that some indispensable plot element can benefit from some research even now. First off the prop, character and scene, while still vague, will require some research to accumulate enough experience to move on in a new direction with them.

I started playing around with some ideas around last week, here are the first ideas.

1.      Some ideas on the Fire Extinguisher.

I will start looking at the cause and effect aspect of each part of my story.

A fire extinguisher implies the need for fire. Unless it is used as something else than its original purpose. Fire allows for some interesting light and colour experiments. It also implies a change in the colour and its intensity due to the change in the light source. While my objective is to try and avoid the direct route, fire really is a nice element to play around with. It is a very strong cause, resulting in highly altered consequences.

A fire extinguisher is also a heavy object. Its weight could start an interesting chain of event should it be applied to a weak surface. It is a cylindrical object, which implies it could roll.

The initial location of the object should be decided. My initial idea is to have someone living inside the joke shop or even inside the joke shop. If inside the joke shop, should it be a prank item or a real fire extinguisher.

An interesting aspect of the prop is the thrust it can create. This was wonderfully demonstrated by Wall-E, who uses it to dance around space, which links up with an idea I had of having my trapeze artist dancing around with a fire extinguisher.

There are a few videos on the net of fire extinguishers being used as propellants. Though most of them seem fake, I like the idea very much. It gives a reason for how my trapeze artist could gain some momentum in a very short time.

Maybe this is pushing it, but I believe that in such a short animatic, speed is paramount.

Fire extinguishers are usually red. Yet old pictures demonstrate that they weren’t always. Red is the colour given by society to represent danger. Yet other society might interpret it differently. For example, they could see them as life savers and paint them blue. The colour will depend on the surrounding colours. I have multiple ideas on the colour range, though I will take a look at that a bit later when I deal with the setting. My main goal is still a strong colour and shape harmony, like a carefully built ballet.

Now obviously, I don't want the video to look like a fake. This will be the challenge, make it look believable. The characters will be of paramount importance to justify the chain of action.

The Rope Review

Whose role is it to decide on inferiority and superiority? Everyone creates a sphere of influence around them, choosing the different types they need to enhance their social status. Most think that their sphere is unique so as to believe all revolve around them. The quality of the people present around also influences the quality of the reflection one gives to society. How easy is it to consider yourself superior when around characters whom are not familiar in your way of seeing the world. Easy it becomes to advocate your own intelligence and superiority when others are not capable of displaying the same level of education and experience. Yet a unique sphere is only one in the myriad of spheres present in society. One must always challenge himself, throwing his intellect headlong into others and the result being always more intricate. The two primary characters in the film Rope, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1948, fail to grasp that concept.

The Three Important Actors

Set in upper class New York, the story takes a very direct direction concerning the set design. At the very beginning of the film we are shown the apartment where all will be played. Though we do not know the exact amount of time we as viewers will spend in this room, the constant suspense and balanced use of camera and light play eases the whole experience. The two characters are what you could call Aesthetes. This 19^th century movement, characterized by Oscar Wilde saw emotions and aesthetics as more important that moral and society values. They see murder as a thrilling adventure, even when David, the victim, is a close friend and former school mate. They want to prove their dominating intellect by committing the perfect crime. They bring up a whole theory of murder without motif, and a sordid view of inferiority. They consider themselves as superior beings thanks to their higher than average intellect. After considerable planning and shifting around the set, they are ready to introduce the first character, the maid, Mrs. Wilson. She enters and is surprised by all the shifting that occurred and is astonished as to why they decided to put the food on the chest. She serves as a down to earth “inferior” that still plays a major role in bringing down the masterpiece of the two “superiors”. They decide on who to invite based on the intellectual level of each and their relationship to the victim.

We find the father and aunt of the victim, his fiancé and her ex-lover. Added to that is Rupert, who acts as a highly intellectual. He also acts as a critic for the perfect crime or at least he should have. In the end he serves as a reminder of the strong complex of inferiority present in the two protagonists. The amount Intelligence is showed through the inverse amount of bragging one does. The constant affirmation of their superiority decreases their reliability, and Rupert serves as the object of comparison.

The infamous chest/table

The acting is excellent, and as Jason Pitt from Crucial-Fim.com says, “Everyone involved, from an acting standpoint, handle themselves quite well- The two friends responsible for the murder, John Dall as Brandon, the cockier of the two, and Farley Granger as Phillip, who loses composure as the film progresses, as he becomes more paranoid about being caught. The star however, is obviously James Stewart. His Rupert Cadell is perfectly restrained throughout the film, without losing an ounce of the charm you'd expect from him.” (Pitt:?)

The atmosphere created by the almost claustrophobic feel of the room, is a nice metaphor of the tense situation the actors find themselves in. Vincent Canby, from the New York Times implies this when he says that “the film is so chilly you could ice champagne in it or place it around a silver serving dish of fresh caviar.” (Canby: 1984)

The set of Rope, with Hitchcock in the middle.

Hitchcock wanted to demonstrate how a theatre piece could be transcribed to cinema while keeping the essence of theatre present. His use of little to no editing helps to create this. The massive cameras of the time, almost bigger than a man, required constant shifting of the props, which led the actors to fear sitting down, as they weren’t sure whether a seat would be present or not. Canby explains this, sying that “Hitchcock was interested in seeing whether he could find a cinematic equivalent to the play, which takes place in the actual length of time of the story. To do this, he decided to shoot it in what would appear to be one long, continuous "take," without cutaways or any other breaks in the action, though in fact there would have to be a disguised break every 10 minutes, which was as much film as the camera could contain.”(Canby: 1984). For the transitions, the camera would zoom in onto the back of characters, or on the back of the chest, in a dramatic zoom in of Rupert opening the chest and discovering the insides.

Rope is a masterpiece, a stunning play-like film clearly depicted by wonderful actors. The suspense is clear, and its moralistic views on Nietzsche’s work can be taken with a pinch of salt. Yet what really comes out in the end is that through their high intellect, the two protagonists demonstrate that intelligence is not the required aspect to be superior. Modesty is surely the first step.

Bibliography,

-         http://www.critical-film.com/reviews/R/Rope/Rope.html

-         http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/060384hitch-rope-reflection.html

-         http://blogcritics.org/video/article/alfred-hitchcocks-rope-review/page-2/

Images,

-         http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/06/book-review-the-wrong-house-th.php

-         http://www.aintitcool.com/node/42051

-         http://fantasmocinema.blogspot.com/2010/12/fantasmo-episode-60-team-fantasmo-vs.html

-         http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/great-directors/hitchcock/

Mea Culpa and a different start.

Having trashed the earlier project, and being extremely disappointed with my failure to succeed, I want to try and pin point some of the main failures, especially those where I know I should have succeeded. I enter this project with a different mind frame, as the future has brightened up a bit, clearing up the many clouds in my mind that impede a logical and organized work ethic. Last project was highly cut up for me, with the Christmas break not acting as I had intended. Rather than acting as an occasion to do more work, it acted as a break and a strong diverter to my ambitions. Thankfully this project will be done in one streak, which should allow me to concentrate fully on the given task. Though I am listening to Je ne regrette rien from Edith Piaf, it is not what I am thinking and only the success of the next project interests me today.

I would say that a lack of motivation, added to a lack of organization, was the main reason for the debacle of Unit 3. I have resolved myself to using time tables and lists more often during this unit and the following. A clear repartition of the different tasks assigned to me, with a useful chronology of importance should help me avoid the lack of focus sadly characteristic of my work method.

My computer on the way to being fixed should lighten up the load of work I had to do during one day at university, and will enable me to focus after work and on week ends on the academic work, an aspect I had relegated to a less than important secondary role. Though it stays secondary in opposition to my art, it will now receive the same amount of effort.

Now on to the current project, for which I am, I must say, highly motivated. The brief while being very intense seems to me to allow a bit more freedom of choice as to where the story must go. My given story tools are:

Prop: Fire Extinguisher

Set: Joke Shop

Character: Trapeze Artist

A very interesting mix and ideas have been cogitating in my head for about a week now. I will write and play around with my ideas for this week and the next, with hopefully a clear idea of the main characters and their actions should be clear for the next weeks.  The story will still be worked on until the end, but I wish to focus on perfecting it. As was said before, characters direct the story, and I wish to give my characters a profound set of characteristic. The time given, 1 minute, is short, but if at least the public is aware in the Art Of publication of their traits, the story becomes that much more comprehensible. Yet playing around with the character’s stories will bring up some brain storming which can only help the story and their respective behaviour. Bill Johnson on his text on Character and Story says that “dynamic characters promise to take a story's audience on a journey. The key issue to understand is that it is because characters in stories act out to resolution and fulfilment issues of human need that they engage the attention of an audience”  My main concern regarding the depth of my characters is related to my idea for my first story.

I wish to create a short and quick story involving some children playing around with material from the joke shop. Yet I see it as an animated short rather than a resume for a grander tale. Though the characters will have depth and personality, I still am in the process of finding a way of depicting that on screen. Their emotions will represent their personality. What will be lacking, at least as I see it now, is a strong sense of a back story. There is as of now no clear reason why they do what they do apart from simply childish mischief, the cause, and everything that results, the effect. Yet I am supposing this will be enough for a short animation.

I will need a list to define my main objectives and I will update this list every week as my priorities evolve and work realized.

In order of priority:

·        Story Conception

o       Establishing the main series of events and their consequences.

o       Establishing the setting, the time of day, the weather.

o       Write down the full story as a resume of the animation.

o       Write down the story as if for an animator.

o       Finish storyboard.

·        Character Design

o       Characters create story.

o       Define main characters.

o       Define their roles and attitudes.

o       Identify physical representation of their psychological attributes.

o       Do the necessary research on different characters.

o       Define background and aptitudes.

o       Emphasize on the inter-relationship and interaction of the characters.

o       Character’s goals.

o       Decide on colour range.

o       Origins and looks.

o       Design Characters.

·        Set Design

o       Decide on location.

o       Reflect on influence of set on characters.

o       Evaluate the amount of symmetry between set and characters.

o       Decide on colour range, reflecting characters.

o       Research different architectural styles.

o       Settle on influence.

o       Identify the epoch the film will be based on.

·        Soundtrack

o       What soundtrack to use.

o       Decide on mood and atmosphere of the animation.

o       Reflect on which sounds to use.

o       Identify the necessary sounds to the excessive ones.

·        Academic Writing

o       Put considerably more effort in writing the film reviews.

o       Start research on essay early enough.

o       No procrastination.

As I said earlier, this is list is neither final nor exhaustive. It is here to help me stay true to me objectives, while trying to be as profound as possible. My next post will include some story parts I have written down over the past week. They are quick notes, written on a train, in a café, on my bed, sometimes on my desk, etc.