Monday 31 May 2010

Wide Sargasso Sea photo and text developments

Now that the animation is finished I wanted to try some flat pieces; I would have liked to have made a book but time really isn't on my side so I've just been developing some photos that I took by adding in the text. I photographed the strips of text (printed onto tracing paper) and cut away the backgrounds so that parts of the text were left then used photoshop to layer and lighten etc. I quite like the images; the text picks up the colours on some and isn't too overpowering; it fits well with the content as it looks like smoke and the big scene in the book is a fire.

Saturday 29 May 2010

VIDEO! + the end is near :(

I have FINALLY done my Wide Sargasso Sea stop frame after a week or so of testing and making, this is the unedited version:

Wide Sargasso Sea unedited from Emma Brown on Vimeo.



I'm very happy with it, I would have liked to have done more text but the set began to deteriorate and the light was going funny because of this but I am happy with it. The colours of the images look beautiful, I'm really glad I didn't end up ripping them (which was my original stop-frame plan). I need to edit and then possibly create some extra piece to go with it.

Having a slight panic as final hand in is on FRIDAY (oh no) but I think everything's under control...probably not though.

Saturday 15 May 2010

Wide Sargasso Sea Moving Image Tests

Over the past week I developed my Wide Sargasso Sea imagery by using projections and silhouettes to try and express a narrative that was easier to understand, I was really happy with the photos, they had exactly the kind of look and feel to them that I wanted to capture the inner turmoil of the girl in the book. I wasn't sure where to take them next though and John suggested I try some video work but through the shape of a little girl. I've been experimenting over the past 2 days using After Effects (never used it before eek!) and Photoshop to see what the images would play like through the shape of a person.

The images:
This is just a sequence of all of the images together that I quickly made using iMovie; all of the photos are portrait which means that they don't actually fit into the normal dimensions for video but I'm still going to try and make it work:


Test 1:
I did this quick test using the video above and a path on After Effects, the quality is really terrible though and I wasn't able to choose where the mask covered so it's in the same position on every photo which isn't something that I wanted.


Test 2:
This was also using After Effects and this time I used the actual photos and inserted them as a sequence, the timing is something that I couldn't work out which is why it goes incredibly fast and then is just black at the end. This is obviously a HUGE problem and again I wasn't able to position the mask myself and it always ends up being too big. The photos are pixelated again so all in all not going too great.


Test 4:
I managed to slow the time down on this one and the silhouette is stretched across the screen but this doesn't really improve things, the quality is terrible:


Test 5:
After some unsuccessful attempts using After Effects I decided to just try out the mask on Photoshop; this meant that I could position it onto the photo wherever I wanted and I was able to introduce text into the images. I don't like the size of the text on this sequence it's way too small. I slowed it right down though and the photos seem to be a bit clearer.


Test 6:
I edited the text on this to make it larger and more spread out on some, the photos are going quicker but the text is a bit slow. I do like the images though, they look really good through the silhouette.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Wide Sargasso Sea experimentation

Over the past few days I've been experimenting further with my new project. Yesterday I took some photos using the under lit contraption in the photography studio which produced some nice results. I printed the layered images onto baking paper and the slight translucency to them meant that I was able to layer them on the lighting and photograph them. Here's a link to most of the photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46995107@N07/4581265019/

Tomorrow I'm heading home to try some projections and photography (maybe a film if I can process things in my mind quickly enough) and try to make the project a bit more developed.

Monday 3 May 2010

Wide Sargasso Sea

Last week I started a new project, I wanted to squeeze one more in before the END (oh god) so I chose to set myself another literature based brief. I'm responding to a section of the book 'Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys which is a sort of prequel to Jane Eyre which is set in Jamaica/Dominica and deals with issues such as slavery, insanity and Obeah. I've been looking at the first section of the book which is written from the point of view of Antoinette (the main character and Mr Rochesters mad wife in Jane Eyre) as a young girl. I picked out some of the most visual parts and began creating simple almost childlike paintings on white tissue paper using watercolour. I wanted to take imagery and split it into simple shapes and colours and I intend to use the paintings to create layers. I want to try and use acetate and possibly even projections (inspired by Katrina Currie's wonderful Beachhouse photography) and later incorporate text and maybe some silhouettes. I also had the idea to try and create a layered image in some form of box using acetates, possibly lit from behind.

Today I photographed the paintings and I've been playing around with the colours and layering in Photoshop, something I've recently been using a bit more since Chekhov. I'm quite pleased with some of the results, there are 3 main scenes; mountains/sea/'tree of life', the garden and the burning house. Here are my favourite images from today:



Panic Animation with SOUND

Here is the finished Panic animation with some more homemade sounds from myself and Matt Akers. I wanted something light-hearted, a bit silly and I think I've definitely achieved that so I'm really happy with it. The sound makes such a difference!

Panic from Emma Brown on Vimeo.

Sunday 2 May 2010

Chekhov Animation

Here is the full version of the Chekhov stop-frame. I've added some sound, it's taken from the original 'Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' which John Walsh told me to look at for inspiration but I thought seemed quite appropriate to borrow from as I have no idea where to find atmospheric music that doesn't sound completely terrible and forced. I tried to pick out sections that were fitting for the parts of the film and the crossover of pieces of music isn't very smooth but in a way it sort of fits well with the jerkiness of the actual animation. It still needs a bit of work and I've also got Nosferatu music to play around with as well. I'm happy with the animation, again that home-made feel looks great with my style of work.

Enid animation developed!

Here is the (hopefully) final version of the Enid Blyton animation, I made/recorded all the sounds myself (with the help of the fantastic Matt Akers) and there is even video evidence of them being recorded! I'm really pleased with it, it has such a homemade feel to it which I think suits my working style perfectly.