Today is the day that my experimental project is finished, and handed in. I am writing this blog piece, not so much of an 'aftermath' of the whole development, but moreso, as a look back at the whole project. This blog piece today is written on the day before the final deadline, here's hoping!
So, my film 'alea iacta est', is finished and ready for the whole world to witness. I must say, I am very proud with how the final thing turned out, and honestly quite chuffed at the progression of the piece. I also released the films score on YouTube, just to keep it as a somewhat timesake as the first score I've ever created. I feel like I've managed to take inspiration from my influences and apply them as best as I could, and I feel it shows. I plan on, in the future, creating more work like this, especially when it comes to the rotoscoping animation segment. I would love to create something in the vain of Richard Linklater's Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly. So that is it with this blog. Thank you for following me through this development and seeing the whole thing finally come through!
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Sound is another important factor in filmmaking, and when it comes to my film, I was originally stumped when it came to sound design. That is why I wrote about David Lynch and how he managed to write and create music by himself, despite having limited musical practice in his early life. Hearing this was extraordinarily humbling to me, and it allowed me to experiment on my own a little bit. When it comes to music, I’m more into American Hard Rock, such as Pearl Jam, Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe, however this style of music would not be fitting. I also wrote a blog post about British New Wave band Duran Duran, and how the bassist John Taylor was able to create simple yet groovy lines. One piece of music from the band I took inspiration from is the song Tiger Tiger. So, with that in mind, I set up my bass guitar, amp, audio interface and begin recording. For recording, I was using the software Audacity, and made sure to have the settings in check. As of now I have the final cut of the film (minus colour grading), so I’m constantly having it play back and forth on my laptop whilst I play bass lines. After a few recordings I have a listen through them to see what could be improved and immediately begin to re-record more and more lines. Although there is going to be one long bass track in my film, I also recorded small bass effects to use in place of real-life sound effects.
Having constructed what is the final soundtrack for the film, I am chuffed. In my first development blog post, I talked about how I will test out some rotoscope animation. This post will discuss that process, as I have managed to create a rotoscope test based on my influence of Len Lye. The whole rotoscope creation is just difficult to explain without sounding to convoluted. I made the test in Adobe After Effects by creating a mask on the live action layer. What I would do is draw over the actor with a mask, set a keyframe, and every single frame, make minor adjustments. This resulted in the abovementioned test. As you can probably see, the clip underneath the rotoscope animation is the shape test that I showcased in last weeks blog. This is something I intend on keeping up. Although this easily could have been achieved with Adobe’s built in Roto Brush Tool, I had to leave that out as it would not work on my piece of footage. I believe this is due to camera motion along with intricate walking and perspective changes. However, I will have more static shots in my film, so the Roto Brush Tool will for sure come in handy.
My next blog post will discuss the soundtrack, something which I am eagerly awaiting to complete to hear the results. One thing that always stumps me when making a film is the title of it, and this one was no different. Well, I found it. The title of my experimental film is going to be ‘alea iacta est’, which is Latin for 'the die is cast'.
The phrasing of this is a peculiar one, and so it is quite strange tying it to my experimental film. However, I didn’t stumble upon this phrasing. I am part of an online animation website, where we have a private discord server to talk nonsense and trivial things. During one of these sessions we were discussing Roman Empire Military strategies and tactics, and I searched for a website for us to read up on certain details. Anyway, while reading through it the phrase ‘alea iacta est’ was used in correspondence with some detail about the military, and it got m attention. I looked up the definition and made note of it. I got back to creating more shape animations last week, when the thought of the phrase came into my mind. The phrase refers to die, and although my experimental film is not littered with any obvious Roman symbols, I took note of the number of cubes I created for my project, and made the connection. And that is how I found the phrase 'alea iacta est’ and made it my own. So, in last week’s blog post I talked about how I was going to test out some shape animation. Well. I did it. I mentioned in the Hans Richter blog post about how I was going to create shape animation but give it a more modern feel. Well, again, I did it. I created some shape animation. This was honestly not as hard as one would imagine, and the actual test footage looks good. I feel like this would work well underneath the rotoscoped layering, so I’m going to adjust the frame rate and lighting issues I’m experiencing with the clip. This whole test was done in Adobe After Effects, and now I feel like I’ve got the hang of it somewhat. How it was done is quite incredulous to explain, so I’ll do my best in doing so. Below are four screenshots of a clip opened in After Effects. Each screenshot showcases a shape, be it a coloured cube, lines, dots or the other coloured cube. In each composition, I made movements to each one, so for instance, the lines, they move up (or down), and with the cubes, they rotate. Once I got each shape final composite and movement down to a t, I then compiled them into one composition, made some sizing and scaling adjustments, did a pre-render then exported the clip. And the example linked above is that exported clip.
here to edit. I intend on doing many, many more of these shapes. I will not be writing about the other ones, as they all will follow a similar pattern of construction. My next blog post will about rotoscoping, so stay tuned for that! This is the first section of the development stage for my film. My entire project idea follows around a guy who is transported to the world of shapes and replaced. Here is a selection of storyboard shots that I have drawn out: Very basic? Of course. Normally I don’t go into full swing when it comes to writing out storyboards, but that’s how I make my stuff. If I can keep the planning simple and easy to follow, it will allow the production to, hopefully, go seamlessly. Now, I don’t want the film to be a spontaneous mishmash of ideas, so the on-the-cuff stuff should be kept to a minimum. I intend on filming within a week, so my next blog post will be about the shape animation, as the rotoscoping will be a precarious stage to partake in.
My previous blog posts on Len Lye, David Lynch, Hans Richter and Duran Duran detailed aspects of their work that I would like to implement into my own. I plan on referencing one of my older films called Trip’d which came out nearly two years ago. Trip’d focuses upon a guy who takes a drug and is transported to a world of cartoons, and this is something I’d like to explore again. I don’t have a title yet, however, I do have my idea for it. Here is the synopsis in its barest state:
“A young man, bored, is transported to a place of colourful shapes, but he soon discovers that he is replaced by a shape figure in the real world” Very similar. I know. While there are big glaring similarities between my new idea and Trip’d, the planned techniques will make the final film. My goal is to use have the main guy watch TV and change channels. When he changes channels, it’s of shapes rotating in such a visceral and peculiar way, and we notice the young guy is in this world. Then, in the real world, the guy is replaced with the shape-man. For this, I plan on rotoscoping over the actor and have the shape animation play underneath them. The musical score is going to take direct inspiration from David Lynch, and I plan on trying to create something in audacity that fits the emotion and setting of my experimental film. Duran Duran were one of the biggest bands in the world in the early-to-mid 1980’s, with their first three albums garnering critical and commercial success. This band has played a huge influence on my life, the bassist John Taylor, who made some of, in my opinion, the coolest basslines ever.
I mentioned in the David Lynch blog post about how I intend on making my own score with a slight experimental feel, and how I will most likely concoct it on my bass guitar. John Taylor, is the reason I picked up bass, so my intention is too creating a bassline that is surrealist, like the basslines to Tiger Tiger and Is There Something I Should Know? (Monster Mix). While the basslines to Girls on Film and Rio and essentially iconic in the modern era of bass playing, those basslines are much more commercial when it comes to what I am making and taking inspiration of. Hans Richter was a German painter who became more widely know for his experimentation in film. Widely known for his abstract film Rhythmus 21 (1921), which for years he claimed was the first ever abstract film (this is not true, as it has been disputed by the likes of Bruno Corra and Walter Ruttman), has gone on to serve as a staple when it comes to experimenting with shape animation.
Rhythmus 21 focuses on movement and sizing of rectangles and squares. If this was made today, it would be disregarded as an After Effects shape test, but at the time, it was innovative in terms of repetitive motion and animation of shapes. While many would point the so called ‘obvious’ connection to German Expressionism, this is something I don’t find true, more so, a connection to cubism. Hans specialised in modern art years before his film and became heavily influenced by cubism when making his works. While Rhythmus 21 might not have the intricate detailing, colours or pattern design that many cubist works of art had, it still stood out at the time. Especially when you consider that animation at this time was really in its infant stage. I plan on making a direct correlation between Rhythmus 21 and my own experimental film, however, I would like to apply a much more modern look to it, by having cubes and cuboids move more in a 3D z-space and allowing shape rotation. While I disregarded Rhythmus 21 as an After Effects test if it were made today, I will be replicating this in my project, as After Effects allows for multiple shape layers to be present. David Lynch is an American Film director, widely known for his critically acclaimed TV series Twin Peaks, along with his films Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. Out of the foray of mainstream film directors currently working in Hollywood today, it is safe to say that David Lynch is the most experimental of them all. From his kooky storylines, oddball and miscoded characters and a distinct style of score, you know you are watching a David Lynch film, even if it is Dune.
David Lynch isn’t on my experimental film module prospectus; however, I am too interested to not include him in my film. One of the things that stand out to me regarding David Lynch is how he co-creates the musical score, something that surprised me. From the beautiful theme of Twin Peaks, to the bodacious score for Mulholland Drive, this level of auteurship is magnificent. It is something I want to implement in my film, too. Although my musical tastes fit more to American Hard Rock bands such as Pearl Jam, Guns N’ Roses and Motley Crue, that didn’t stop me from picking up the bass guitar. I intend on referencing British New Wave band Duran Duran for my project. One of Lynch’s more internet-loved works is Rabbits, a surrealist look on a group of human-like rabbits in a state of psychosis. Although the visuals and story are just about as David Lynchian as any of his projects, the actual musical score itself is bonkers. This is something I would not mind implementing into my own experimental film, by creating a bass score for my own work. Maddening. |
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January 2020
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