Who is Pat Imrie? Pat is a freelance 3D artist with 12 years of experience in the animation and VFX industry. Over the course of his career, he has worked in many areas – TV programs, commercials, animation feature films, games and education. His hobbies include photography, 3D printing, Hill & Glen walks and history. It’s amazing to see how many extremely well-known films he has worked, with just a quick Google search! What did he cover in his talk? Pat went through the story of his career and it was really interesting and helpful to see the […]
Category: T1 Theory and Industry
R&D
For this online lesson, our focus was on R&D, which stands for research and development. This was useful because soon we would be starting our fantasy brief, which is the first big project that we will be doing. So, why is r&d so important? Well, the first part of it – research – is a vital stage for any project. We research in order to find inspiration and generate ideas, but also to focus in on the audience: what they want, what they like and dislike, and what the previous audience types were for any examples. These are both extremely […]
Representation
Here are the things that I learned in our online class on representation. Construction – This is the way that media text is put together. It is all of the editing and choice of camera angles we see in film. For example, this scene from clueless, in which we see from which angle the producers decided to shoot from, and what would make up the frame in those few seconds. Mediation – The process everything goes through before it reaches the audience. Like how scripts are rewritten, original footage edited and changed, magazine articles proofed and checked, and […]
Sound and Editing
Sound and editing are another two incredibly vital aspects within cinema. In this online lesson, we learned about a lot of technical elements and identified a few in examples from movies. Sound Ambient sound is general background noise and can be used to fill silences in order to make a setting feel more real. Dialogue establishes character and relationship and is an important way to provide content for the plot/story. Music is also used a lot, to heighten emotion and/or drama of a scene or help interpret the mood or genre. It can also build up or release […]
Mise en scene & Cinematography
Mise en scene is a French term and it is basically what is put in a scene or frame. It is all of the visual info in front of the camera that communicates essential ideas to the audience. There are five elements to mise en scene, settings and props, costume, hair and makeup, facial expressions, lighting and colour, and position of the characters or objects in the frame. Every aspect has hidden meanings that send signals to us for how we are supposed to feel. Settings and props are incredibly important, as they are usually the first things you see […]
Narrative Analysis
Narrative often gets confused with plot and story, and honestly, I have made this mistake before as well. Today, I learned about the difference between the three, as well as the proper definitions. Narrative is the way in which we receive a story. It can be watching a film or reading a book. It has also been described as “the art of storytelling”. The plot is what is visibly and audibly presented and in what order. The story is everything that happens in the narrative, as well as what we can infer or are referred to, for example sleeping and […]
Intertextuality & Context
If everything is made already, how do I make something completely original? “The anxiety of influence” – Harold Bloom The truth is, nobody can really make something that is 100% original. Everything is influenced by something, even if just by a little. This worries a lot of people and Harold Bloom described it as the anxiety of influence. You must remember, that when creating something, the world around you, everything you’ve heard of and seen is a part of the idea, and that’s not something bad, or something that can be helped for that matter. So what is intertextuality? […]
Semiotics
Our second online lesson was about semiotics, which is defined as the study of signs and symbols and their use of interpretations. In other words, it is the use of symbolism and the meaning behind an image, action, object, scene, or anything else. In this modern age, almost everyone is reliant on semiotics or has some form of semiotics in their lives, like in the media, on their phones, in the shopping center or on the road – symbols are everywhere and it is up to us to understand their meanings and values. Often, we interpret things differently, because every […]
Genre
Our first online lesson was a discussion and analysis of genre. Genres are various forms of identifiable classifications, or categories, which refer to repeating patterns and conventions. In other words, they are a specific type of music, film, literature or art. Genres are mostly heard of in films and books, where recognisable motifs and themes are included. These are called conventions, and they also have their own categories within media: Conventional settings – the surroundings used in a story. For horror, we usually see dark, ominous places like a spooky forest or abandoned castle. A graveyard, or cabin in […]