Shynola vs Gallagher

Production company Shynola is a group of visual artists based in London, there were original three but Gideon Baws died in 2008 and they carried on as a two piece. They worked on Coldplay's 'Strawberry Swing' which was released in September 2009. There were some problems after it was released as Own Trevor who directed Andy Gallagher's 'Something Else.' They were caught up in disputes over the similarities of the two productions, although Shynola had actually never seen Trevor's work.

Shynola worked on Coldplay's 'Strawberry 

All of the input for the music video was done by Shynola, during something like this musicians have no input in what is happening. The ideas behind it were Shynola's little ideas "It was our little story: superhero saves damsel in distress.'' This idea came about through characters such as Sleeping Beauty, Flash Gordon and Orpheus. The original ideas came from one particular artist it was a section of Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer video. Shynola also noted that vertical pixilation and chalk animation has been made hundreds of times in the past. 

The ideas came about from seeing inspiring photographs from Jan Von Holleben and one image in particular from Abelardo Morell. The ideas which were taken from the photographs were of a person flying with animated chalk background, Shynola wanted them to move so they could create a video. 

 Jan Von Holleben and Abelardo Morell images had inspired them. 

Shynola posted a link onto her website stating that they hadn't caused any plagiarism and that the ideas they had adapted were universal ideas such as Superman ''Flying through the air. We believe Siegel and Shuster, creators of Superman, has probably the best stake in the claim for copyright on this one.'' One of the references for this video was Windsor McCay. Both in terms of design, and in terms of the dreamlike weirdness. With the influence featuring heavy and very noticeable  For the Dustbin Lid and Umbrella prop Shynola liked Jan Von Holleben use of regular household items for surreal uses, which I stated before that Shynola liked him before with his 'Dreams Of Flying' giving them inspirations. 

As Shynola states it is easy to find similarities in pieces of creative work as everybody isn't going to be able to come up with completely different ideas every time. This shows how easy it is to suggest plagiarism and convince artists that they are doing something wrong. Plagiarism is a very common thing to occur in music videos with even recently, Katy Perry got accused of it with her single 'Roar' which has is similar to works by Sara Bareilles and Dillon Francis. 

I don't think that Owen Trevor is right, I think what Shynola is doing is correct, I agree that creative visuals will have similarities and that ideas will be close to those who have done it before. I don't think that Trevor is right in the way he criticises Shynola and definitely not the way he does it so publicly. Shynola is right by stating their opinion and telling Owen Trevor that they did nothing wrong. I think that by making it public and stating how ideas can be crossed even though they aren't actually linked, this is because ideas can be adapted.

http://www.promonews.tv/news/2009/09/23/breaking-news-shynola-respond-strawberry-swing-%E2%80%9Csimilarities%E2%80%9D-claims - 30th September 2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shynola - 30th September 2013

Evaluation - Looking Back

The most important things I have learnt so far are; the importance of team work, learning to edit and using others work to get ideas of your own.

The importance of team work will be important in the future projects because in all projects you will have to work with different people and it's important that you get on with them and they take their ideas on board. While being able to edit on this course is very important as it is used in every project therefore it's essential that you know how to do it. When I started I knew nothing about editing but now I can say that I am a lot stronger. The final thing I have learnt on this course is that you can look at others blogs and compare them to get more ideas.

1) With the overall assignment, identify what it is you are most pleased with and why?

The thing that I am most pleased with is our practice pixilation, I really like it because it was just a simple idea that worked well. I think this one worked the best because we had practice beforehand so we knew what we were doing.

2) What do you think you could do better if you had the chance to turn back time?

I think that if I could turn back time I would change the way Bowie Bits worked because we needed to take more photos in order for it to worked properly and to make sure that it was saved in the correct way.

3) Look back at the work you have undertaken in this first assignment and think of three different occasions where you have hit a problem, and discuss how you overcame that problem.

One problem that I had was during our vertical pixilation, we had to adapt our idea because it was too complex. We overcame this problem by breaking it down into smaller ideas that could be completed in time. Another problem that I encountered was during practical pixilation was that the scissors wouldn't stay on the chair so we had to change our idea. We changed it by changing our idea and worked around the problem. The final problem that I encountered was during Bowie Bits was how we were going to make it look as though the theme was disco dancing. Our group managed to overcome the problem by coming up with different ideas of our own and working with them. This way we had a few ideas that we could play with and see which one worked the best.

4) Look back at your blog. What do you think of it? How does it tell the story of your first weeks of learning?

I really like how my blog has turned out because I feel as though I have put a lot of effort in which I feel has been shown. I think it shows how my first weeks went because I have documented everything from the successes to the failures. It shows how I will improve in the future on projects and what I would do again.

Our Vertical Pixilation - Green Group

On Monday everyone was assigned a group, each group contained about 16 people. Right from the start our group knew that we wanted to do something involving space, I think doing space was a really fun idea because there were a lot of ways of doing it. Other members of our group thought that it would be a good idea for our pixilation to be to different nursery rhymes, which is where the idea for a cow came a long. Our group came up with some very funny but not necessarily practical ideas.

Our group was each given a piece of paper and we went into two groups of eight to see if we could get anymore ideas, there were a few ideas floating around so we decided to go with them. The main idea would be that a cow would be chased to space and then would be in space until he fell out of space and onto an egg and squashed it, with the ending being a conspiracy with a paper saying that the egg killed himself instead of the cow actually killing him. The two songs we based this around was 'Old McDonald had a farm' and 'Twinkle Twinkle little star.' Then two members of the group drew the idea onto the story board adding on information and songs where needed. Each person then wrote on the directors planning sheet what they felt like they contributed to the group and what they would bring in. I felt that I contributed by coming up with some good ideas and I brought in 'Green Wellies' for the first scene where the butcher was trying to kill the cow.

Day 2 was our filming day, I think it was hard for our group because we were the first group, first thing in the morning. I however still think we did very well. The first problem we encountered was that we didn't have enough props which meant that some people were making them first thing in the morning. Due to our pixilation being in space we had to make sure that everything was black which was hard because we didn't have a lot of black material to cover the entire area, however I think that we made the most of what we had. After that the only other problem we had was that we had to adapt to our ideas as we went along and had to change somethings around due to the complexity of it.

                                 

  These are shots from each of the different scenes.

I do however think that our group did a very good job of working together and making sure when moving around the set each person had something to do this started from about 15 minutes in when everybody got into a good routine. I think that this was important because else we wouldn't of had enough time to get everything done. I was really impressed with how our pixilation came out because of how we had to adapt and change our ideas throughout.

However if our group were to do this again I think that we should go with an idea that is a little simpler to film and have a few more solid ideas, this way we would be able to stick to our storyboard and not have to worry about things not being unsuccessful. Although due to it being our first time of doing a big pixilation I think that our group did very well. I think that this project was a great learning curve.

This is our video

Day three I edited it on my own. I cut down each of the songs and then sped them up so they were in time with the lengths of each scene. I put each song to the relevant scene. I edited on my own because I wanted the chance to see if I could do it. It was very tough because there was quite a lot to edit in the time we had but I think I did well and that the video looked as good as I could have wanted. The biggest challenge I had while editing was working out how I would change the orientation of the photos.

Although I think that this was a challenging project I think that our group did really well.

Her Morning Elegance

Her Morning Elegance was made in 2009 it was directed by Oren Lavie and produced by Michal Dayan. There were 2096 still photos shot, each of them by Eyal Landesman who similar to Lavie is based in Israel  Although after his success of 'Her Morning Elegance'his work has been shown all over the world. Before this Landesman had a fascination with the human body, motion and dance which is strongly shown in the music video. It was his idea that illusion, imagination and documentary should all come together in his photography.

The music video was shot in Tel Aviv, Israel which is where both the director and photography are original from, to film and edit this they use very simple technology. The photographs were taken using a Canon 5D. The process took them 48 hours to film with them working non-stop. I would have thought that this would have taken them a lot longer than 48 hours because of the amount of photos being taken and how the actress played by Shir Shomron who would of had to have moved after every shot. This shows that because of limited time shooting that the most important thing while doing a shot like this is planning. 

Landesman felt like the most challenging part of putting the whole process together was how it would all fit in the time of the song as it was only 3.20 long. He wanted to catch each and every moment at 1/1000 seconds so therefore he had a lot of work around. This was only Landesman second time of using stop motion animation and so he had to sit down with Oren and the husband and wife animation team of Yuval and Merav Nathan to discuss the process of what they were going to do through a storyboard. I think that the reason why it became so successful is because it shows that every element is as important as the last.  

A number of the shot's that were taken

The video got incredibly successful with it being nominated for a Grammy award, this was the first ever stop motion animation to be nominated for one. I think that this video deserved this nomination because the idea is very different and unique but it follows a simple concept. I think that this video shows that you don't need a lot of money to make a very successful stop motion. I think that as long as you have a thorough idea of what you want to achieve then it is possible. 

My favourite shot from the video

Later on the 2096 photos were printed out and put into a gallery where photographers from all of the world could come and visit and buy them although there was only one copy of every photo. 

I really like the way vertical pixilation is used in this piece because for the most of it they are looking to the side then as they move around it tells a story but sometimes they are looking straight at the camera which makes it look a lot more real. 

http://www.hmegallery.com/video.php -September 22nd

http://www.hmegallery.com/photos.php -September 22nd

http://petapixel.com/tag/oren-lavie/ -September 22nd

http://www.jpost.com/Arts-and-Culture/Music/In-the-frame-for-a-Grammy -September 22nd

Sorry I'm Late and Vertical Pixilation

Sorry I'm late was written and directed by Tomas Mankovsky with it being produced by James Studholme.

Vertical Pixilation is where the camera is in the ceiling and the camera is always in the same place with the action moving around this is done so it looks as though the object in the shot is moving. In each scene things are moved around to make it look as though everything in the scene is moving forward. If the correct equipment is used then vertical pixilation can be done anywhere, when they first started working on 'Sorry I'm Late' it was filmed in Tomas' flat using the floor space. 

The camera is high up but there is a lot of cables down below to make it work. 

The most important thing when working with this type of pixilation is the movement, if the movement is too big it won't look right and it will look very jumpy while also if the movement isn't enough then it won't work that way either. Although as stated at sorry-i'm-late, there is the possibility that the camera can also be moved when moving especially 'walking' but they decided not to do it this way as it would have been too complicated to do due to the lack of space they had. 

The plan for 'Sorry I'm Late' 

They did a casting where people had to come in and act out what Tomas had already done, they had to cast four people these roles were for the late guy, the girl on the swing, the front of the panto horse and the back of the panto horse. The late guy had the main part because the video was based around him the guy that played him was called Simon Carroll Jones.The actual shoot was shot in the Amadeus Centre in London. Although the majority of it was planned some of it wasn't including the shark attack as they hadn't had enough time in the studio to work it out so Tomas had to show by hand how he wanted it. 

Tomas showing the shark scene exactly how it wanted to be done. 

I think that the hardest part of this would have been for them to make it look as though he was actually swimming, although after researching and reviewing how they did it I have a feeling that the only hard part doing that would have been trying to get the moment correct to make it look as though they were actually swimming. To get the sea there is a transparent gel with a blue tint which is placed under the camera, I think that worked really well and it was very effective. 

The transparent gel which was used to create the 'water' effect. 

I really like the idea and concept of this I think that it's different but really fun to watch, I like the fact that it's just a simple idea using a number of props. It fun to watch and think about how so many movements can be made by just lying on the floor and moving around with the set. I don't think that there was a lot of money gone into this but I think there was a lot of time due to how good it looked at the end. 

http://www.sorry-im-late.com/watch.html -September 21st 

Mat Whitecross 'Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall'

Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall was sung by Coldplay and directed by Mat Whitecross in 2011. 

It is a mainstream music video. The opening shot is of the city landscape which is over the city of London as this was filmed at Millennium Mills which is just over the Thames. it then goes straight into the artwork which mirrors the lyrics that the band are singing. The artwork carries on mirroring the lyrics up to 0.52 where it follows the trails of paint for 10 seconds and then paint covers the grey areas until the band come together in an LED lit room. This continues for the majority of the music video with occasional shots of the band being filmed in front of a skyscraper which is Pixilated. It ends with various long shots and close ups of the drummer using Pixilation in the background for the design on the paint on the building. 

The opening shot of the city. 

I think that the production looks modern due to the skyscrapers in the city and then when they're in the LED lit room, this is because I think that this is because the colours are so bright it suits the movement in the song. The song is also very unusual yet  it manages to work very well. I think that the music video works well for what it is, it's able to tell the story through the lyrics which is the main purpose of this video. The music video is fun and lighthearted, when watching this is because of the bright colours used throughout the video. The people in this music video are the band Coldplay the members are; Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman & Will Champion. 

The LED lights look really effective in this music video. 

I found out the idea came about when Coldplay had a photo shoot with graffiti artist 'Paris' and their photographer asked if Mat would come down with a film camera to mess around during set. While looking at the artwork that Paris did Chris thought that it would be a good idea to just film the video there and then with the artwork in the background. Mat decided that it would be a good idea to come back another day and animate the graffiti into stop-motion. Due to the lack of time they had it became very hard to film it all. I think that the idea for this video is to show the expression of graffiti art and to entertain people. Although they managed to film and make this video in a couple of days it is a high budget film, due to the success of the band. Therefore this music video had a lot of money and thought gone into it. 

Mirroring the lyrics. 

This music video was well received and got many positive reviews especially one from Rolling Stones saying "The vibrant, colourful clip is well-suited to the song, which has a shaky, excited energy and the sort of optimistic, romantic lyrics that have made Coldplay one of the world's most crowd-pleasing rock bands.'' This shows the excitement that there was from this video. 

Another review from The New York post ''the clip proves that the boys are just as interested in pushing boundaries with their videos as they are with their music.'' This comment proves that it was something that not everyone would do and them breaking out of the ordinary caused them a lot of success in the video. While The Sun calls it a ''colourful affair.''

I think that this music video was produced very well due to the lack of time they had. I think that for a mainstream band this was a risk to take but it paid off. 

http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2011/07/01/coldplay-every-teardrop-waterfall-mat-whitecross  - 18th September

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/viral-videos/469492/coldplay-gets-colorful-in-every-teardrop-is-a-waterfall-video - 18th September 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Teardrop_Is_a_Waterfall - 18th September

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed is how long the shutter remains open on the camera while the picture is taken. If the shutter speed is slower then the exposure time is longer. The length of the shutter speed I had was 1/200. This meant that there wasn't much exposure but it looked better as it spun quicker. The quicker the shutter speed the less blurry it is as if it's slower it's taking longer and the quality of the image goes down.

How shutter speed works? 

I came up with the idea of mine I thought of doing it as the moon to the sun but then I realised that this would be hard to do and therefore changed it to a sun set and sun rise. I thought that this was a good idea because the colour of the sun changed a long with the sky. The sun got bigger as it got higher and went into the clear sky I thought this would work well because it wasn't a lot of movement but it was changing colour which would work well on the turning table. 

My inspiration came from these two photos. 

I think that the size of the sun worked really well because it went in a rotation and continued so that it looked as though the sun would go up and down all day. I also think that colouring one of the spaces in grey was a good idea because that showed where it started because that was to show the darkness before sunrise. I think that the sky didn't work as well as I wanted it to because the colour of it wasn't great. I tried to change the colour from dark to light to show sun set to sun rise which was from the start of the day to the end of the day. I think had the sky been a similar colour it would have looked a lot better. 

My Turntable. 

We compiled our work together in one big video and this was the result. My turntable is from 2.15-2.21. 

I don't think the difference between the 16 shutter speed to the 32 makes a lot of difference because when sped right up it wouldn't be much of a change because the speed is the most important thing. The turntable animation and Praxinoscope are very similar in that they both do the same thing. However the turntable animation isn't as successful as the Praxinoscope when it comes to the finer detail. 

http://katieelaine824.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/diagrams/ - 16th September

Turntable Animation ft David Wilson's 'We Got Time'

A Zoetrope and a Praxinoscope can be used to produce action through still images in quick succession. This was used in 'We Got Time' which was directed by David Wilson.

I think that this video is very cleverly put together, the concept of it is unusual even more so for a music video. I really enjoyed watching it because it is fascinating how the still images can tell a story. It's a different way of producing a music video but the ideas are simple even though the drawing are a lot more complicated. My favourite part of this music video is when the deers overlap each other because it looks as though they are moving away while in reality it is just because of the Praxinoscope. 

The Praxinoscope was the successor to the Zoetrape and was invented in 1877 by  Charles-Émile Reynaud a French science teacher. It is an animation device which has inner circles of mirrors,

so that the reflection of the images moves either left or right as the mirror turns. 

The animations were created by hand. David Wilson drew them over five weeks this was because he felt like the rotational leaping fitted well with the theme of the video as the animation was based around the life cycles and the cruelty of nature. In this animation it shows how the death of one animal means the new life of another. It  also shows how parallels can be shown between these cycles and the difficulties of our human relationships. 

There are 16 lines drawn on one of the disc's and the mirrors on the turn table are spun to match up to create a static lines. The animation is then placed onto the line or in the space and they animate but stay in a stationery position. However if they're 15 disc's they will move from left to right because the deer is moving faster than the turn table while they're 17 discs the deer would be moving from right to left because the turn table is moving faster than the deer. When they are all placed together at once it creates an animation where the deer is moving in both directions.  

‘Mobius’ Review

'Mobius' was made by Eness between the 6th-20th May 2011 in Melbourne, Australia at Federation Square.

Mobius is twenty one large triangles that move to look as though they go into the ground in a pattern, therefore looking as though the ground is actually swallowing up the triangles. The result of it is an optional illusion with them using a time lapse to get all of the movement.

Mobius was created by a group of people who along with the public move all of these shapes after each shot. Due to the location of the shot many people were walking by and therefore stopped to help them move the triangles. Although due to it being in a very busy area this could have caused problems for the director, as people were walking around and they could have walked in front of the camera and get in the way. This is because the camera would have had to have been put quiet far back so all of the triangles could fit into the camera frame.

Getting everything in the shot would have been the most important issue, due to the effect that it created. 

This idea was more than just placing giant green triangles in the middle of Melbourne. There was an important issue behind this idea. The triangles speed up when the movement of the people speeds up which is a relation the economic climate. It also shows how even while this is going on the world around them is still moving and changing around despite these triangles which are moving around them. 

I think that the most amazing shot of this is at 0.45 where we have a close up and get a shot to see the size of the triangles and how they are moving about. I think that it's a very clever way of doing it because it feels as though you are actually inside of the triangles and the size of them is quite scary considering how big they actually are. 

The size of the triangle is scary because of the extreme close up. 

The colour of the triangles also represent nature and how natural the environment, green is a strong colour which stand outs. Due to it being over the course of two weeks, filming it at the exact time a week later would have been important because of the weather and how light it is. This would have been harder to do especially in the places where they filmed at night because they would have been relying on the lights from the buildings. If the weather had been different they would had to have waited until the weather was clear like it was in the previous week. The places where the triangles were placed would have been important because it would have been in big areas of space but also where there was an important meaning behind it. 

As well as outside the triangles where also filmed inside, in an auditorium.  

I think that the idea behind this is really good and the concept is excellent. The issues that the director would have had, I think have been overcome therefore giving you a very successful production. 

http://www.eness.com/?r=project&p=21 -15th September 2013

Professor Kliq – ‘Wire and Flashing Lights'

Professor Kliq – ‘Wire and Flashing Lights was a short film made by Patator Prod in May 2013. If features the music of Professor Kliq (Mike Else.)

Wire and Flashing Lights was created in a very sophisticated way it was created using sleek stop motion which allows it to look as though the objects are moving on their own, however it is done through a series of photographed frames creating a movement where the photographed are edited into a series of frames which creates the movement. The type of movement the objects are doing is referred to as object animation.

Object Animation- the type of movement done by the objects 

A lot of shots would have to been taken to create this, after every small movement a shot would have been used. After every small movement it would have been important to take hundreds of photographs especially when he was running as of instead it would have been stop and start which would slow the production down as the movements wouldn't have been as quick and smooth.

The plan for the shots that needed to be took and after which move to make it look effective.

The sound waves and the shapes are morphed together where the visuals represent the liveliness of the music to the fullest. Therefore the animation is bold and there is a great strong beat which can't be missed. The soundtrack was found on Creative Commons where the director could access the music without any trouble. Mike Else's type of music is realised for creative animation and video games although he didn't like it being used this way so he changed a few things on the track. After he had done this he was approached & was asked if it was possible for them to used his music. The track kept the same name with the title of the track being 'Wire & Flashing Lights' 

It is a very simple idea with it only being made from bent wire, cord and paper. This low tech idea has a highly creative outcome due to the stop motion. The wire is used to create the characters and the surrounding scenery the wire bends throughout the performance to go to the music, which in turn creates an energetic union between the music and material. The background is just created by a cardboard box with 3d shapes created around it to make it look as though it's actual blocks. Different size boxes make it look as though the characters are moving around the boxes. 

 (left) Boxes that are used for the blocks & (right) used in shot.

This production is a really good idea because it is fast moving and enjoyable to watch. This with the sound track creates an incredible film. 

http://www.skwigly.co.uk/plastic-and-flashing-lights/ -15th September

http://createdigitalmotion.com/2013/07/stepping-up-the-groove-wire-and-flashing-light-stop-motion-animation-cc-success-story/ -15th September 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion -15th September

Norman McLaren & Neighbours...

Norman McLaren was born in Scotland in 1914. He got his inspirations for film making from Russian filmmakers Eisenstein & Pudovkin along with German animator Oskar Fischinger. He became interested in film-making while at Glasgow School of Fine Arts where his interest in dance lead him to documentaries and the making of Seven till 5 which was influenced by Eisenstein.  

Sergei Eisenstein who influenced McLaren's first film 'Seven till 5'  

In his work McLaren thought that was important to control every stage of production. He also wanted people to experiment with new techniques, he was one that was always coming up with new techniques. He did a lot of drawing and etching on film which lead him to paper cut outs which was used in Rythmetic which was made in 1956. Another technique he did was animation  in a chalk drawing through a series of modification which was in his production of Là-haut sur ces montagnes in 1945. C’est l’aviron in 1944 used the technique of cross fading. While he wasn't the first person to use pixillation in 1952, Norman McLaren made it well known in his most famous film 'Neighbours' 

McLaren's most successful work 'Neighbours' in 1952 

Many thought that this piece of work contained a lot of animation but he used a variety of techniques through pixillation, these techniques included speed photography which was usually used a fast motion therefore looking as though it was actually animated. McLaren also used some stop frame techniques to make it look as though the actors levitate although it only looked like this due to the techniques he used. I think that the production of 'Neighbours' is a very humorous way of portraying a serious problem. I think that the camera movements in this is done very well as its very simplistic but McLaren makes it look good due to the photographic element of two people. I can see why this production was described as 'one of the most controversial films the NFB ever made' I think that this was a very risking film that McLaren made as the reasoning behind it was very political as he stated 'I decided to make a really strong film about anti-militarism and against war' I think that this could have gone against him.

He always wanted to make sure that his work stood out from the rest by coming up with new techniques and ideas of his own. 

McLaren always made sure that his work was life like which meant that his work stood out from others, including the humorous aspects of Neighbours. He also wanted to make sure that his work expressed a concept of beauty which was based on harmony and balance Although McLaren liked to change things up on his films even in his later films he never went away from abstract expressionism. 

His life experience had a big effect and his personality shone through his work especially type of work that he did including five of his films directing relating to the war effort. These films were Keep Your Mouth Shut, V for Victory, Five for Four, Hen Hop & Dollar Dance. V for Victory was a very simple film and he did this so he could show people that they could make their own hand held films. 

'V for Victory' which was one of his simplest films 

As an artist Norman McLaren was very successful, with his most known and famous film 'Neighbours' winning and Oscar. He also got a Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival for Blinkity Blank. Three years after his death in 1987 Don McWilliams produced a full length documentary on his life and work at the NFB titled 'Creative Process: Norman McLaren.' 

'Overview of his work' - http://www3.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/filmmakers/Norman-McLaren/overview.php -15th September

'Neighbours' - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbours_(film) -15th September

Norman McLaren 'Biography' - http://www3.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/filmmakers/Norman-McLaren/biography.php

GISELE KEROZENE

Gisele Kerozene was directed by French Film producer Jan Kounen in 1989. 

It starts off with four witches worshiping a bird like statue, when a thief flies in and steals the statue. The thief then flies off on her broomsticks, leaving the other three witches to come and chase her. It seems as though it's set in a very modern city with very tall buildings. The four witches chase the thief around the city where each of the witches manage to get injured while also in the process injuring a patient and nurse. The final scene is of the thief pointing a gun to the head of one of the witches however she laughs it off and then gives the statue back. It seems to her as though it is all one big joke. 

The witches worshiping the statue before it gets stolen. 

I think that this production looks very modern due to the city it is set in, the soundtrack is supposed to be the voices of the witches and Jan Kounen does a good job of this because they sound exactly like witches. The sound at the start is 'humming' where the witches are praying to the statue, although throughout it is the sound of witches voices. This film does work for what it is, as it's about doing all they can to get the statue back and in the end this is what they manage to do. I think that the purpose of this film is for it to be humorous and that is what it does, when watching although ridiculous it does make you laugh. Although directed by Jan Kounen it is produced by Elsa Cayo and stars Abel Abouliaten, Pascal Banos, Jean-Baptise Sastre and Jan Kounen himself. I think the reason that Kounen produced this was to entertain people because there is no concept to it therefore couldn't of been made for any other reason. I think that it is a short low budget film I think this because it was one of Jan Kounen's earlier pieces therefore he was just starting out and wouldn't be able to afford a lot. I don't think much money has been spent on it because it is a  very simple concept which he even cast himself in. 

The thief who stole the statue. 

Many people believe that the purpose of this was just to be funny 'This one is actually very short, but hilarious. If you could find it anywhere, just watch it! You won't regret a little delirious moment!' All reviews of this production feel that what it is trying to achieve is actually pointless but think that it is worth watching because of how much it will make you laugh. Although others think that the whole thing is pointless 'The film has no plot but what it has in its place is horrid, repugnant style that is deliberately grotesque and overblown. It is bloody for the sake of being bloody; it twists the faces of the characters for the sake of being gross and it is simply unfunny and unpleasant to watch.' This is due to the unusual production that Kounen uses and many won't agree with the way that he does things. Many have noted that although it is pointless it has been done well 'I will acknowledge that the stop-motion technique is clever but only technically' this is because of the way Kounen has managed to edit it to make it look technically very good. 

Although there is little concept I think that the may point of this way for it to be funny and that is what it achieves because the whole thing is utterly ridiculous.

Reviews- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097436/reviews?ref_=tt_ql_8 -13th September

Pixilation

Film is changing, and it can't help but keep changing. - Norman McLaren

Pixiallation is the stop motion animation technique that consists of shooting one frame at a time with either characters or objects whose movements are entirely controlled by the film maker. Although made famous by Norman McLaren pixillation goes back to trick films where using special effects marked the early years of film making, these techniques were made famous by Segundo de Chomon of Spain in 1905 and Roméo Bosetti of France in 1912.

The silent film El Hotel Eléctrico by Segundo de Chomón which was one of the first forms of special effects later known as Pixilation. 

As Marcel Jean says Pixilation is about reality and how the film makers explore the techniques, it is an interaction of the actors and objects that are formed in a three dimensional setting. Through Pixilation the film makers have found a way of telling the story which can be interpreted in many different ways depending on how the audience sees it.

Norman McLaren most famous work was Neighbours which was a humorous but slightly extreme version of a real life event. In both 'Neighbours' and 'A Chairy Tale' within the stop motion where the inanimate objects have been given personalities. The soundtrack in 'Neighbours' is matching to the movement that they are making, although the soundtrack would have been made after the pixillation an example of this is when something dramatic is about to happen the music gets a bit more tensed. The movements are minimal which causes the most impact this is because it is being filmed in a small space where the camera doesn't move at all, it's the movement of the actors and objects. In Norman's work he tells a story where there is action and conflict in a humorous way.

Norman McLaren's most famous work 'Neighbours' 

Jan Kounen who is a French film director born in Holland was influenced by parts of McLaren's work of 'Neighbours' in his production of 'Gisele Kerozene'. Jan's used a lot of movement of the actors and he makes it look as though the witches are actually flying on the broomsticks. The narrative is told in three parts, with the main plot being them wanting to get the statue back off the fourth witch. Similar to Norman McLaren's there is conflict and action which is interpreted in a humorous way so that the tone is less serious. This soundtrack were little pieces of audio which were used to make it sound as though the witches were talking.

Jan Kounen's most famous work 'Gisele Kerozene'

While Jan Kounen and Norman McLaren's work were both about conflict, this area of Jan Svankmayer's work was about humorous nightmare stories. As Svankmayer's work had unorthodox tones to it this meant that he got banned from movie making for a period as his ideas were seen as disturbing for the time. The sounds that he used were exaggerated these were especially used in his eating scenes of 'Food'. His disturbing ideas were seen as dark humour by Michael Nottingham who said Svankmayer was mocking the social ritual's. The narrative story is showing the strange relationship that people have with food. Similar to the other two Svankmayer also used pixillation to move inanimate objects.

Other ways of using Pixillation are through green screens, which is the way Aardman Animation produced a music video clip for Peter Gabriel. This way the green screen can match the soundtrack. Less known about artists such as André Leduc who used pixialation at the National Board of Canada where he explored techniques for fantasy in his three films Tout écartillé , Monsieur Pointu and Chérie, ôte tes raquettes.

http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/07_pixillation_project.html -12th September

http://www3.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/techniques/pixillation.php -12th September

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_%C5%A0vankmajer -12th September

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_(film) -12th September

David Wilson - The Bay Review

Metronomy - The Bay is a music video directed by David Wilson, which was released in June 
2011.

The production starts of with a helicopter shot over the ocean which leads us to a shot of the landscape with hotels and houses. Next is the singer walking towards the camera and the camera splits into three with the center shot focusing on his shoes and the two other shots showing the scenery. The band are performing showing the scenery around them, after this there is a shot of women in swimming costumes that are performing around them. The band spend the next couple of shots performing on the pier this is due to Metronomy's album being called 'The English Rivera' therefore the pier is a recognized feature in Torquay where it was filmed. After this there is a car scene where the band are performing while one of them is driving the car. The final scenes are helicopter shots of the town and the band performing with the ocean and landscape behind them.

The three shot. 

I think that the video looks as though it is being filmed on a sunny location. This is because the inspiration behind the video was Elton John's 'I'm Still Standing'. Other scenes will also be recognised as David Wilson adapted some of the scenes from Elton John's music video to fit Metronomy's ideas; such as the car scene and the helicopter view of the landscape. The dancers in swimming costume also add to the effect that you wouldn't think it was being filmed in Torquay but a more exotic location. The sound of the video is an electro sound which I think goes well with the atmosphere David Wilson is trying to create, which is a lay back summer video. While David Wilson directed it, it was produced by Patrick Craig and Tamsin Glasson. The video is very light hearted because of the summer feel to it this way it makes you feel joyful when watching it. The timing of the video is also very good because in the first shot the music fits well with the movement of the waves.  

         The beats which go in time with the movement of the waves

The music video has been created as a form of artistic expression but also to entertain you, this video was created so that people would be able to understand not only the concept of the song but also to enjoy the video. David Wilson and the rest of the production team do an excellent job in representing Torquay, they make it look as though Torquay is a beautiful location which is full of sun, although this isn't usually the case. I think that this video looks like it would take a few weeks to film with a lot of planning, therefore it surprised me when I discovered the little amount of time David Wilson did it in 'The video was shot over two days in May 2011.' Without knowing the location I would have said that this music video would have taken a lot of time and money, although as I know the location I know that it was a low budget production as stated 'With a budget of around £20,000 to make the video' although David Wilson did state that budget increased in an interview here ''It kind of grew a bit, but I'm pretty sure it ended up being something around £22,000.' 

Looking at this shot, you wouldn't automatically assume it was Torquay. 

I think that due to it being shot in Torquay and the weather not being very good it would have been hard to film because of the weather changing which is stated by David Wilson in an interview 'The biggest obstacle was the weather! We were extremely lucky, but actually lost quite a bit of time, and quite a few shots, waiting for clouds.' I also think that the filming with the helicopter would have cost a lot of money but due to them working with the English Rivera tourism company it didn't cost as much 'The Tourism company paid for half of the helicopter stuff, so we went halves on the footage. The deal is that they could use any of the helicopter footage for whatever they desire. The helicopter was in the air for a while and went on to shoot the rest of the English Riviera coast later that day.' I think that this was one of the biggest factors as to why it was so successful because the money could be used to focus on other areas. 

This music video was very successful and the way that David Wilson directed it and used the location and weather to his advantage meant that it looked very similar to Elton John's 'I'm Still Standing' which is the setting which he wanted to create, for the couple of days that he had to shot in it was very detailed and successful. 

David Wilson interview 11/09/13 - http://www.musicvideotheory.com/2011/08/director-david-wilson.html -11th September

11/09/13 - http://skyatlantic.sky.com/adam-buxtons-bug/bug-bites-metronomy-the-bay -11th September

11/09/13 - http://www.thisisdavidwilson.com/films/film_menu.html -11th September