Intro / Outro Idea

Whilst looking through all the file sharing footage, I thought this could make a cool little intro or outro to put on the end of films that I make -

I'm not sure what kind of sound to put on it though.
And here's an edit I did purely for my own amusement, and to try out reversing footage. This won't be handed in, as it's really stupid, but enjoy -

Second Edit

Here's the second edit for my advert -

This one's exactly twenty seconds, which is cool, but I think some of the cuts are a little too fast. Again, I'm not sure about the soundtrack either, so there's still some work to be done.

Heider And Simmel Animation

Here's an interesting animation I found whilst doing research for the PRP essay -



This was an animation made in the 1940's for an experiment into 'apparent behaviour'. Participants were asked some questions about the three shapes after viewing this video, and, unsuprisingly, the majority of people viewed the large triangle as a villainous bully, the circle as tense and scared, and the small triangle as more relaxed, and more eager to provoke the larger triangle. This is pretty much the impression I got from watching the film too.
Later on, an experiment was carried out by Sandra K. Marshall and Annabel J. Cohen, whereby the same experiment was carried out but this time played to different participants with and without sound. Different sounds were able to distort or strengthen the emotions and actions percieved by most viewers.
This is great evidence for my research project, and I also think it'd be useful research for any animation topics too as it demonstrates really well how you can give an inanimate object a clearly defined character.

EDIT : Here's another awesome example of how sound can give and emphasize character.

Filming The File Sharing Frenzy

I filmed my footage yesterday in the Arboretum, and it went pretty well. I have pretty much all the shots I need, and it was fun to film too. Big thanks to Will, Matt, John and Realexis who helped out as both cast and crew!








And here's another version of the first edit, but with a different soundtrack. I'm not sure which I prefer really at this stage, but I think the first is maybe a little more succesful.


Annoyingly enough, in the second shot, where the file sharer is shown buying a CD, you can see the other table in the corner of the shot. I'll see if there's any way of hiding this, as although not enormously noticeable, it's quite an irritating error on my part haha!

First Edit

Here's the first (and really rough) edit for my file sharing ad -



There's still a lot of work to be done, this edit is twice as long as the brief states, and some of the cuts look a little rough. The sound too is in it's first stage, and will likely change drastically before the final edit. There's a silent edit here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhhhdRXE9Gk
However, I'm pleased with it at this stage, I'll be posting up tighter edits as I make them, as well as some production shots and more about the filming process.

Location

Here are some shots I took in the Arboretum for possible locations -







The Arboretum is a good location for this, and is pretty convenient as it's in walking distance both from Waverley and my house, so will be easy to transport equipment and props there.

Car Boot Sales?

After having a look at some car boot sales to get ideas for the stall in my film, most of them seem to simply have a table -




I think I'll still need a sign to make it totally clear what's going on, but this sign could be like the one in front of the stall in the second picture, just written on a piece of card and rested in front.

Pre-Production

I've chosen to use my idea with the two guys sat at the stalls, as I feel it's my most concise and effective idea. To begin filming, I'll need the following things -

- People
I'll need two guys to sit behind each stall, and react accordingly with what's happening, and then around 6 or 7 people to run to the download stall at the end.

- Filming Equipment
I'll need a camera and lighting equipment, but not sound recording equipment, as all the sounds in the advert are non-diegetic (none of them are created by any of the things we're actually seeing in the film). I'll make a short piece of music to accompany it, and provide a voiceover, but at this stage I'm unsure whether I should add any sound effects or not. This is probably something to worry about in the post production however.

- Location
At the moment I was thinking of filming in the Arboretum, I'll need to take some photos tomorow to help me visualise this.

- Props
I'll need several CD casess for the file sharer to copy, and I'll need to print out a front cover for each one so that it looks like an actual CD. I'll also need to make two stalls, which will need to be easy and quick to set up. I was thinking of making small structures out of wood, or maybe just use a table with a blanket over it and attach a wooden sign above it. This is probably the main concern at the moment, I'll need to figure out how to make them, and quickly!

Problems With Idea 1

After discussing my idea for the simulated client project, I feel a lot clearer about the idea. However, there are a few small problems, the main one being whether or not the fact that the second guy has copyed the first guy's CD is clear enough. I'll have to find a way to show this that fits neatly into the story, and doesn't disrupt it's flow. I'll also have to think some more about the aesthetics of the film, and exactly how I'm going to make the two stalls. They need to look home made and amatuerish, but not look like I've just kinda rushed them off.
Also, I need to emphasise the point that something wrong is taking place here. At the moment, I'm thinking the first guy should maybe burst into tears eventually or something, or perhaps, going with the idea of 'damage' to recording artists, that the crowd of people rushing to the free download stall damage or destroy the first guy's stall, or trample and damage the environment around it. These are just ideas at the moment, I need to solidify them a little bit.

I had another idea too, based around the idea of intimacy, for instance, when you download a CD, and miss out on the artwork, physical object, even the excitement of something like finding a rare album in a record store, you're losing out on the intimacy between you and the product. For this idea, I was thinking you could have two guys at a fairground, one with his arm round a CD, and clearly having a great time, and the second guy with his arm round a harddrive, who looks really miserable and keeps glancing jealously over at the other guy. I don't think I'll use this idea, but thought it'd be a good idea to have it in writing!

EDIT : I've had an idea for this, if we show the first man’s CD as clearly being a well produced CD, with artwork and packaging etc., when the second man buys it, and after we see the first man glance across at him, the second man puts the CD down on his stall, and points next to it and another identical copy appears in it’s place. He points again and two appear, then four, and so on. Then everyone rushes in and gets them. Still just a possibility at this stage, I'll try and think of some more ideas.

The Mighty Riff VS Terror Torrent

Here's another short animated storyboard for the simulated client project -



This idea doesn't fit as neatly into 20 seconds as the other one does, and would obviously be a lot harder to film. For this reason, I think I'd be more likely to go with the first idea, just because it's a lot simpler. However, I'm glad I finished this storyboard, purely for my own satisfaction!

Animated Storyboard

Here's an animated storyboard for the first file sharing idea, the one I already drew up a rough storyboard for -



The idea fits quite neatly into 20 seconds (this one clocks in at 24, but 4 seconds won't be too hard to trim off. I doubt the final film will have the 'The End' bit either), and stands as a solid little story. The music in this one is a Boards Of Canada, but this is used only to illustrate the kind of music I want to have in the final one and give a taste of the atmosphere I wanted to create. For the final one, I would create my own piece of (non-copyright!) music.

I'm still considering other ideas at this point, but this one does appeal to me. I'll try doing a storyboard for the second idea, and also keep trying to think of new ideas.

More File Sharing Risks

In terms of the risks of file sharing, I had so far only really identified damage to artists, the risk of finding spyware or viruses in the material you download and the possible risk of arrest. But I found this on Wikipedia that has given me a few ideas -

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing

"Recently, there has been a drastic increase of inadvertent P2P file sharing of personal and sensitive information. This became evident in 2009 at the beginning of President Obama's administration. On February 26, 2009 the blueprints to the helicopter Marine One were made available to the public through a breach in security through a P2P file sharing site. Access to this information has the potential of being detrimental to national security.[47]

Two days prior, the Today Show reported that more than 150,000 tax returns, 25,800 student loan applications and 626,000 credit reports were all inadvertently made available though File Sharing.[47]

Over the last six years identity theft has become more prevalent. On July 9, 2008 there was another inadvertent revealing of vast amounts of personal information through careless use of a P2P site. The “names, dates of birth, and social security numbers of about 2,000 of the firms clients, including Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer were all exposed.”[47]

In an attempt to avoid these security leaks, current legislation in the United States is being debated, the Informed P2P User Act.[48] According to this act, it would be mandatory for individuals to be aware of the risks associated with peer-to-peer file sharing before purchasing the software. Informed consent of the user prior to use of these programs would be required. In addition, this act would allow users to block and remove P2P file sharing software from their computers at any time.[49] The Federal Trade Commission would enforce these regulations"

An advert illustrating this risk could be a lot more sinister and scary than the current ideas I've been having. For example, my first idea was to have someone downloading material online, and then a shot of over their shoulder where you can see bank details and personal information on their screen as they're downloading. Then cut to another shadier individual downloading these personal files, and then maybe, I don't know, the original man finds all his bank details stolen and becomes bankrupt, or gets kidnapped and bundled into the back of a car whilst the other guy steals his identity. Needs a bit of work this idea, but thematically could work really well and be quite unsettling. I'm not 100% sure if this is the route I want to take with my film at the moment, but it's something to think about.

More Ideas!

I had a few more ideas for the simulated client project, which are -

1. A man stands behind a home made stall, selling some CDs. Another guy comes up to him, and buys one. Both men seem pleased. Then the guy who bought a CD sets up a stall right next door, and starts running off loads of copies. Whenever people walk past the two stalls now, the second guy hands everyone a free CD-R. The first guy looks a little bit uneasy, and gradually more and more people flock to the second guy, whilst the first guy starts to look more and more exhausted. It ends with a tagline along the lines of something like "Don't take the easy way out. Sharing copyrighted files online is harming musicians."



2. We see two characters, one representing, say, an independent band and one representing file sharing, presented as two characters in a fighting game like Street Fighter or Tekken. We cut to clips of people downloading music, and after each one cut back to the fighting game style footage where the file sharing character starts to pummel the band character. A voiceover could say something like "File sharing is harming music. Help it fight back - buy a CD", and then we cut to footage of someone buying a CD. After this the band character begins to start beating the file sharing character.

EDIT: Here's a rough script for this idea -
Flashy intro, showing two names and character’s faces bursting onto the screen. There’s Independent Band, and Download Dan (names not final, haha!). Band is shown to be very heroic looking and noble, Download Dan however resembles a villainous, cackling madman.
VOICEOVER – It’s the rumble of the century! A brave Independent Band with bills to pay takes on the mighty tyrant of internet file sharing software! Who will emerge the victor? Let’s find out.....FIGHT!
Cut to the two characters standing next to each other, with their names and health bars at the top of the screen like Street Fighter. The two size each other up, then Download Dan lunges, and we cut to footage of someone downloading an album online. Cut back to the fight and Download Dan attacks Band.
VOICEOVER – Oh, and that’s a nasty hit!
Cut away again to someone else downloading music, then cut back to Dan attacking Band again.
VOICEOVER – Ouch, and that’s another whack in the gut! Band isn’t taking this very well! Let’s see what our ringside commentator has to say about this!
Cut to a man stood in front of the pair fighting.
COMMENTATOR – Well Larry, file sharing is certainly battering independent music! If this continues, he could be outta the ring all together! So come on music fans, let’s help the big guy out!
VOICEOVER – Wise words there, but is all hope lost for our plucky pugilist?
Cut to someone buying a CD, and then cut back to the fight where Band begins to fight back.
VOICEOVER – I don’t believe it! What a turnaround!
Continue to cut away to people buying music, and after each one cut back to Band unleashing more and more intense attacks on Download Dan. Eventually Band beats him, and the ringside commentator runs in and awards him a medal.
COMMENTATOR – Ohhhhhhh, and it’s a knockout! Well done, music fans, I knew you’d do the right thing! Winks at camera
NEW VOICEOVER – Downloading copyrighted material harms independent artists. Help support art and the people that make it.

Up

WARNING! SPOILERS!

If you haven't seen this film, go see it! This review is intended as a discussion point after seeing it.



Up has a fair few suprises up it's sleeve, not just the plot which, whilst not totally devoid of predictability, is more than entertaining enough to keep you enthralled throughout, but also because some of it's themes are pretty dark for a Disney film. The opening montage, in which we see Carl and his wife Ellie get married, try for a baby and have a miscarriage, grow old together and then Carl at Ellie's funeral, is moving in a much deeper way than say, the death of Bambi's mother. It feels more real, this is a film that may be more likely to make the parents cry rather than the kids. Beginning our story with a grieving old man who feels lost and alone is heavy stuff for Disney, and it definitely pays off. Call me a cynic, but often with these films I kinda feel they get a little too bogged down in phony sentimentality, it often seems quite tacky, or cheesy, but here the entire film has a genuine warmth to it, and you do actually care about the characters. The severity of the subjects lend the film a weight and emotional depth few Disney films manage to achieve. In the final moments of the film, as the house Carl met his wife and grew old in, and his childhood hero plummet to their doom, it's quite a powerful moment.
However, whilst Carl's character feels wonderfully realised and is suitably fleshed out by a solid back story, Russell's character isn't explored quite as deeply. we know what we need to know about him, and he becomes a likeable character (it would have been perilously easy for him to have come off as annoying, but the film manages to avoid this), but the bits where he talks to Carl and provides a bit of backstory don't quite fill in the whole picture. In a way this is good, as it leaves some things open to the viewer's imagination and tries to get our brains working, but at the same time it means Russel's happy ending isn't quite as satisfying as Carl's. But this is a minor point, Russel is not the main character and certainly works well.
The film looks awesome too, with a whole army of lovingly rendered dogs and some beautiful looking landscapes. All in all, a top film, I'd say, and one of the best Pixar films I've seen in years, both in terms of style and substance.

It's Kyle Cabinet!

A reeeeeeeeeeeeally rough idea for a character -



I'm still not really sure if it's a good idea for the character to be a literal visual representation of a 'file', I toyed with the idea of just making it a file with googley eyes and legs, but I couldn't really make it look very likeable at all. Then again, how likeable is Kyle Cabinet here? I'm not too sure...

More Simulated Project Ideas

So, after studying the brief and finding out I only have 20 seconds for my short film, I've been thinking about what could fit comfortably into this time. I don't think I should throw my original idea out of the window, as it won't be impossible, but it would have to be incredibly fast paced! This isn't an enormous problem though, or even really a problem at all as it could make for somewhat of a sensory assault, which could be fun!
My other idea was to do it kind of like those Oxfam adverts, the one where it shows slow motion shots of poverty stricken countries and then says "...but for only £1, you can help" except replace the starving children with musicians. The voiceover could say something like "This is Larry, he's a band. He has to walk three miles to get to an amp everyday, etc. etc...but for the price of a CD, you could help!" This only really addresses the problem of downloading music rather than file sharing as a whole, and still needs a bit of work, so I'll keep thinking.

The Third Term Begins!

I've had a few ideas for our first project, to make a piece of multimedia that illustrates when and why file sharing is illegal and it's consequences. I think a short film would be the best way to do this, and was thinking it could be hosted by some kind of animated character, talking us through what file sharing is. I have a few ideas for what this character could look like, and once I've sketched a few out I'll post them up on here.
In terms of the consequences of file sharing, I need to do a bit more research as I could only come up with a few off the top of my head. There's a chance you could be arrested, but it's a slim one, and it probably won't act as much of a deterent. Instead, I think it'd be a good idea to highlight the damage downloading music can do to independent musicians and artists, as this is something some people may not be fully aware of.

Filming!

OK, so the script is finished (I went with the spoof documentary idea, and I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out) and has been emailed to both the actors, who are going to head down to Nottingham on Saturday 16th to film it. The rooms in the uni I wanted to film in aren't available this weekend however, so I'm going to have to film it in the library (in the study rooms for Tipler's office and the interview room, and then in a separate room for the room the time machine is kept in), downstairs in the student union (for Tipler's workshop), and then outside the university (for Roger's links to camera).
Hopefully this will all work out ok, it won't look exactly how I planned it, but as I'm running out of time I'm just going to have to go with it. I'm sure with a little imagination these locations will look fine.

A Slight Setback...

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that the deadline is actually the 22nd May, so the room that was booked from the 25th to the 27th is now no use to me. However, I've adapted the script, and personally think it is now a lot better than the last incarnation. The film is now a spoof documentary that focuses on Dr. Tipler's attempts to build a time machine, hosted by a Louis Theroux style reporter. The film starts off with the presenter stood outside a university, explaining that he's about to interview esteemed scientist Dr. Edward Tipler. However, Tipler doesn't really know what he's doing... The presenter knocks on his office door, finding him asleep at his desk. Then we get a bit of backstory on Tipler, framed through a talking heads style interview with him, interspersed with old footage of him and photos of him as a kid, etc. After this, Tipler shows us round his workshop, shows us some old, failed attempts at time machines, get's heckled by a group of students, and then finally shows the reporter his latest time machine, which is a chair like object you get strapped into. The reporter nervously straps in, and then the machine is turned on, causing a powercut. The lights go out, the screen goes dark, and we hear a large thud and the presenter in pain. Tipler manages to turn the lights on, and finds out that the time machine has disappeared into the past, however the reporter has not and has fallen onto the floor. The final shot is the reporter, back outside the uni, wearing a neck brace and summing up his experience with Tipler.
This will be pretty easy to film, and I think it has a lot of potential comic opportunities, the only problem now is whether or not the actors can make it at such short notice. If not, I don't really have time to find any more so will have to use people I know...!

Another Update!

Things are coming along quite well, with Elliot's help a room has been booked for filming between the 25th and 27th May, I'm just waiting on responses from the actors now. I've got quite a few props to gather, and a few to make, but nothing too difficult!
I'm currently re-writing the script again, to try and get it as tight as possible. If anyone reading this would look to see the script in it's current form, just give me a shout and I can email it out, all feedback is welcome!

Going Through Changes

After the feedback I received from the presentations at the end of last term, I've made some fairly big changes to the script. The story is fairly different now, but is definitely more suited to the 6 minute length, the original script was in danger of turning into a feature film!
In this version of the script, Dr Tipler is running a business to send people back in time to eliminate past regrets, for a small fee! Roger goes to visit him, we join them mid conversation as they’re discussing Roger’s regret, so we’re not entirely sure of what it is. Roger discusses it ambiguously but with enough detail for us to piece together a vague idea of what it was he’s done. Then, just as the Professor is about to pull the trigger to send Roger back in time, another Roger runs through the door, all battered and beaten up, a little worse for wear, and screams at Roger “Don’t do it! You’re making a big mistake!”, just as the trigger has been pulled and Roger disappears.
I'm in the process of scripting this out now, I have a first draft, the bare bones of the scene, so just need to flesh it out a bit. As the original time travel scene took around 4 minutes, I think this will fit nicely into 6.

The Problem Of Time (In A Film About Time Travel...)

In the presentation today the problem of my film's running time was brought up again. It seems my initial idea of splitting the film into three segments doesn't really sit too well with the brief, so I may have to do some severe editing.
Here's an extremely shorter version of the first half of the pilot.

I don't think this version is anywhere near as good, and doesn't really get across all the information you need to know. I think to shorten the script I will have to re-write large chunks of it rather than simply cutting some lines.

The Quantum Matter Oscilator

Here's the latest photo of the time machine. This one appears in the pilot, but in the actual film it'll have more wires and stuff all over it, and be plugged into a larger piece of apparatus.

The Pilot

Here's the pilot for 'Chuck Voyager' -

As one of the actors in the scene was unable to film before this deadline, I had two of my friends stand in for both the actors (it seemed pointless to get the actor playing Dr. Tipler to travel down here just to film a pilot that won’t actually be in the final film), so the cast in the final version will be totally different, as will the location, props, etc. The footage looks a little rough around the edges but I feel it gives a relatively good indication of how this scene will look in the finished edit.
The scene is a LOT longer than I imagined it would be! However, Elliot suggested allowing 6 minutes for the first scene on the film set, 6 minutes for this one and then 6 minutes for in the future, which is probably what I'm going to. This would give me 6 short films that could (kind of) stand alone but also work as a whole.

I just had a talk with Deborah and Danny as well about my third year project. Danny said my idea of doing a music video for a band isn't quite enough, so suggested doing a full audio visual package for a band, which is a cool idea.

Locating Locations...

Here are some shots of an old railway track up by the Butler's Hill tram stop. I think this would be the perfect setting for the scene in the future where Roger meets the robot. Having them walk down this abandoned rail way as the robot tells Roger what's happened to mankind will make for quite a striking image.

Logos

Here are a few ideas for how the opening title could look. These all look a bit rough at the moment, but they'll give me something to work from -

Final Scenes

Here's the Frameforge storyboards for the final scenes of the film -

Time Machine

I started making the time machine for the film, by painting up an old water pistol. I gave it a layer of white first to help the silver paint show up -


And then added several layers of silver paint -

This should be dry by now, so I can add more details in pen, and I'm thinking if I can find a clock face to fit in the back of it this would look pretty cool. It'd also mean as Dr. Tipler uses it on Roger, he could dial in the time by moving the clock's hands around, which would be cool!
I started painting a mask for the robot too, I was thinking if I get like a cheap bike helmet from somewhere, I can paint that silver too and it'll start too look more robotic. This mask still has a way to go however, it needs all kinds of wires and maybe some LEDs slapped all over it -

Robots!

Here's the storyboard for the first time Roger meets the robot -





And here are some more robot designs -




And here are some designs for the time machine itself -

Dr. Tipler, I Presume?

Here's another storyboard, this time for Dr. Tipler's laboratory. Once again, I've provided Frameforge and hand drawn storyboards, but unfortunately in all the Frameforge ones the time machine does just look like a gun...! It will look different in the actual film, there'll be some time machine designs posted up here soon. Here are the storyboards -





Here's a sketch of what Dr. Tipler could look like -