Explainer Video Blades Animation

Here is the new advert for Blades Animation. I am going to produce a making of blog to accompany how the video was made. Though for now I am going to post the video please let me know what you think.

Richard :)

          

300 2

I recently watched the second 300 movie Rise of an Empire. I cant say I have been looking forward to seeing this particularly but there isn't much on at the moment.

Before the showing they previewed a couple of extended scenes to which one audience member ran out of the screening with his hands over his ears to avoid any spoilers (it wasn't me). Captian America 2 looks amazing I'm really excited for this. The first film was good up until he became Captain America then they didnt really seem to know what to do with him and it went a bit rubbish. But this looks great cant wait!

So 300 its okay not great but not bad either. Its set before during and after the first film and follows the larger events of the Persians invasion. Its a bit odd in that one of its messages is that the first film is dumb by regurly referencing the events of the first film and telling you the characters and events are dumb. This is odd because this isnt a particularly clever film and doesnt seem to have a whole lot to say either.

The reason this is elevated to okay rather than bad is Eva Green who is amazing she is by far the best aspect of 300. Her performance is incredible she absolutely blows every other actor off the screen with her portrayal of the villainous Artemisia. It is worth watch 300 just to see Eva Green. The other characters are just buff men holding swords hitting one another. There is very little to the other characters in this they really are only in the film for the fighting. Which is the main reason I imagine people go to see this. From that aspect this is good, the action is entertaining although the CG blood is very poor and definitely takes you out of the experience of enjoying the film.

I really liked that the film was mostly set at Sea as there doesn't seem to be many naval war films around so that was a memorable aspect of the film. The other memorable moment of the film is Themistocles (Sullivan Stapelton the main hero) secret weapon towards the end, this made me laugh as its pretty stupid!

As I've written this I'm going to upgrade my opinion if this film to a very positive okay, still not good. I wouldn't buy the DVD but if it was on Netflix I would add it to my watch list although I'm not sure how quickly it would get watched!

What I'm doing!

Hi so first a couple of quick recommendations go and watch both the Lego movie and Dallas Buyers club, I watched them last week and they are both great. If you can only see one then watch the Lego movie, a great piece of animation! 

This week has been fairly productive I am finally nearly finished with the new advert for my website the only element to complete is the voice over recording. It currently has a scratch track of me reading the script. A process I totally hated even though I was the only person in the studio I still felt very self conscious about recording my voice. Once the voice over has been added I will do a final cut of the advert hopefully shaving about 10 seconds. Then it will be uploaded to the website. The advert is likely to be online March 21st. On the same day the website is due to have a minor facelift. Mostly just an updating of the banner and a few of the other photos in use.

I have additionally began working on a second video for the website that will help explain the price of animation. Its not uncommon for me to be asked how much for some animation like its a packet of crisps. I've regularly been asked how much for some animation a bit like toy story but a couple of minutes long. Unfortunately it is not that easy to give an answer to that. For those wondering things to consider when pricing up an animation I work out how long it will take me to complete, this is affected by how complicated the animation is, materials, how long the finished product will be, style, do I need additional people ie actors, musicians etc. Lots to consider so the more specific someone is when asking the more accurate the quote will be, Its actually better to say how big your budget is then I can work out a project that will fall within it. 

Part of the process of making a piece of animation is scripting, story boarding and sound. Although these have different titles they are all part of the same process. When coming up with an idea I work through a sketch book making notes and thumb nails, from here I'll make a list of things that will happen then go between scripting and story boarding. Normally story boarding before scripting but the process goes back and fourth between these parts. When writing the script I might think of a better idea and will then update the story board, so lots changes at this stage. I story board on post-it notes and then lay them all out on the wall to begin to get an idea of how it will look. At this stage its really easy to change parts around by rearranging the pictures. 

Once I am happy with these parts I record a scratch track of the script. This is me standing with my microphone recording all the voices. As noted earlier this isn't my most favourite part but its essential. During this stage the script is likely to change again. I record every part as written though whats written doesnt always sound as good when spoken so lots of changes will occur at this stage. When recording I can see the script and the story board so have a good idea of what Im doing. 

Once recorded I scan the story board and import all the sound into final cut to edit together an animatic. This is the story board and sound cut together to allow me to see the timings and get a better idea of how the finished short will look with out having to animate. It is the best opportunity to look at it and decide if it is any good and wether or not it is even worth making. 

Yesterday I finished the animatic and felt reasonably happy with it, then when watching it again this morning changed my mind. Today has seen me reworking the whole thing, its been completely re story boarded, the sound that I recored previously is fine though I've trimmed chunks off. The problem was visually it was just flat and slow. Below is the completed storyboard. I plan on animating it in the last couple of weeks of March, aiming to get it online by the middle of April. 

Finally below is a photo said i'd add ages ago of a set and puppet I've made although forgot about. The puppet is complete to how I'd like him though there still some work to do on the set. I'm still a long way off animating this as its not a priority project its just a bit of fun on the side.

Okay thats enough!

Rich

Robocop 14

So it's been ages since I last went to the cinema but on Friday I went to check out the new Robocop film.

It follows officer Alex Murphy who is a tough undercover cop trying to solve a case with his partner Lewis. After a failed attempt to arrest crime boss Antoine Vallon he orders a hit on Marphy as revenge. A minion plants a car bomb on Murphy's car resulting in him being hospitalised with extreme injuries. His Wife agrees to have him turned into to a cyborg police officer named Robocop. 

The film is okay the action scenes are good similar to GI Joe or any number of superhero films where a meta human fights Robot or big Robots. There's a fun shoot out pitting Robocop against an army of drones and a fine fight against a bunch of ED209s. The second attempted arrest of of Vallon is provides a shoutout in the dark lit mostly by gun fire. This is serviceable but nothing special it reminded me of Hit Girls rescue of KickAss from the movie KickAss except it lacked the same emotional impact or the excitement of the underdog overcoming the odds. Vallon was unfortunately very underdeveloped and had little interaction with Murphy or Robocop due to his hands of nature so there was little reason to get emotionally invested in Robos pursuit. 

When I first wrote this I totally forgot to even mention Joel Kinnaman so I guess he turned in a largely forgettable performance. To be fair to him he was fine at pretending to be a robot and his voice was good though not as good as Peter Wellers. 

Other than the action which for an action movie was a bit thin on the ground especially when compared to all the debating and discussion about man versus machine. I really enjoyed Gary Oldman as the scientist/doctor who felt torn over his actions in the creation of Robocop. The rest of the characters were a little bland Micheal Keaten was fine, Jay Burchil provided a couple of smiles as did Micheal K Williams as Lewis. Jackie Earle Hayley was an interesting and enjoyable character who I would have liked to have seen more of. Robocops Wife and Son have a larger role in this film though other than looking good Abbie Cornish did little other than blubber her way from scene to scene. Although there was ample time to allow everyone an opportunity to shine non of the characters really stood out as memorable. 

There were a handful of propagand broadcasts sprinkled throughout hosted by pro robot supporter Sam Jackson. These fell a bit flat for me as they were to similar to actual news broadcasts that can be seen on Fox News US though not as extreme. 

The tone of the film throughout is very serious and pleased with itself for having digs at US foreign policy near the start a couple of stolen lines from the previous Robo film, a dig at Transformers and other various bits of head nodding to the previous film. 

As I stated at the start Robocop 2014 is okay though lacks anything that stands out as new or memorable best just to wait for it to be on Netflix.

If you do have Netflix just watch actual RoboCop as it is miles better than RoboCop 14. The characters are better, the hero is more tragic, the action is far more memorable, there is a very genuine sense of danger for our heroes as the villains are totaly mental, the film is witty, smart and just plain entertaining! There is also an actual point to the existence of RoboCop in this version. Detriot is totally going to help it seems like a genuinely scary place to live and the police clearly cant cope. So they produce RoboCop to try to clean up the streets. In comparison the new film seems to just want to make him for the sake of making him. As theres no sense that crime is out of control or particularly a problem in this films future detroit.

So go watch actual RoboCop!!!

News and Wolf of Wall Street review.

I'm currently working on a bunch of different projects two of which are drawing to a close. The first is an advert for Blades Animation, this has been ongoing since the summer. All the animation sections are now complete and 90% of the live action has been shot? I have began editing the explainer video which currently runs at approximately 1 minute 15 though I'm aiming to have it down to under a minute. The main work left to do is the compositing which I'm starting work on tomorrow so will hopefully have it finished early next week. 

The second project I'm working on is a short film that I'm hoping will come in at under 2 minutes. The puppet was completed today and the set is nearly complete just some touching up on the paint work to do. Photos will be uploaded shortly. The actual animation won't start till some time in February. 

I finally got to see the Wolf of Wall Street this week and it's amazing the best film I have seen in ages. The film sees Leonardo DiCaprio playing Jordan Belfort who starts out trying to make a career on Wall Street as a stockbroker. After a short stint at his first firm he is left unemployed as the business fails. Jordan finds a job selling penny stocks and works his way to starting his own firm.

I was worried that I had hyped it up to much for myself and would be left underwhelmed. Not so the film is fast, frenetic with a great energy that doesn't let up until the final act, when like all great party's over indulgence catches up with the films characters as they deal with the consequences of their actions. There are so many great scenes that are at times hilarious, I had a huge smile on my face from start to finish. I though the film looked fun from the trailer but it was much funnier than I anticipated, I can't recommend this movie enough, go see it!!!

12 years a slave.

Just got back from watching 12 years a slave it's really good but very heavy going. It follows Solomon played by Chiwetel Ejiofor who is kidnaped and sold into slavery.

The film is divided into different sections as Solomon travels from owner to owner, the pace is slow although a huge amount of time is covered in approximately 2 hours. The film doesn't concern itself with dates or amounts of time during Solomon's ordeal. 

The biggest reason to see this film is for Chiwetels performance, he's amazing throughout. A mention needs to go to Lupita Nyong'o who plays Patsey another long suffering captive, who is equally good. The performances by all the cast are great showing the remorseless brutality, suffering and emotion the people endured. 

The events focus on Solomon's journey rather than getting heavily caught up with his relation ships or the politics of his situation. This allows you to see how awful the conditions the prisoners were kept in and how they had to suffer. Leading you to see the choices Solomon is faced with if he is to survive. The conversation with his fellow prisoners on the boat is a good example of this both offering different choices but both leaving little hope.

Visually the film is fantastic, the story is punctuated by beautiful shots of scenery and filled with colour. There are some lovely lingering shots allowing you to absorb the moment rather than cutting off to see what's next. 

A film that should definitely be watched as a great film and to experience, to see the horrors of slavery.

American Hustle

Going in to watching American Hustle I knew very little about the film. I hadn't seen the trailer, though I had seen the poster so I knew that I fancied Jennifer Laurence and Amy Adams and this looked like a film that had been produced to win some awards.

Upon arrival at the cinema I had still not received my Orange Wednesday code which was disappointing, my back up was to use my Odeon card as I thought I had accumulated enough points for a free visit, WRONG :( I was 30 points short due to the price increase. The Birmingham Odeon now costs a disgusting £7.95.

The trailers prior to the film starting were all acting films, heavy on emotion and looks to the camera for an Oscar.

American Hustle see's Christian Bale and Amy Adams play a pair of Con Artists who get caught out by Bradley Coopers FBI agent. Who then forces them to perform a bigger con in an attempt to catch out crooked politicians and Mobsters.

The film is slow to get going and I found myself drifting off a couple of times at the start. Once it did pick up I quite enjoyed the movie. The story is fairly simple and the con is straight forward and easy to follow. The story aside this is a film to check out for the characters and performances. The five main characters are all great to watch, I would have liked to have seen more of Jennifer Laurence as Bales bonkers wife. I liked all the hair styles particularly Bales hair construction scene and Coopers curlers. 

There was a distinct lack of violence resulting in no sense of danger for the characters, at no point did it feel like there was any risk for anyone on screen. Although I really enjoyed watching the characters and the performances I didn't really care about any of them leaving me cold to the films conclusion. Criticisms aside check out this film it's entertaining, with come good humour, although nothing amazing.

New year

During the Christmas period I've seen numerous top film lists being posted on Facebook, Twitter etc and have been asked what my favourites of the last year have been. Unfortunately I've struggled to give very comprehensive lists. Although I've been to the cinema loads over the last year roughly once a week I've forgotten most of them.

In the hopes of remedying this I am going to attempt to review each film I watch at the cinema, so I have a record of the films I've seen and to try to post blogs more regurly. I am also hoping to improve my ability to analyze and to articulate my thoughts on films more clearly. 

I think part of the reason I've struggled to be able to concisely list good and bad film from the last year is in part due to the shear number of similar films that have been released over the last year. I definitely felt like my interest was flagging due to the number of films that were filled with green screen animation. From talking too others they seemed less bothered by this than me. So maybe this is down to my interest in animation so am more aware of it. I mostly enjoy entertainment films but the number of movies I saw with explosions, robots, monsters, spaceships etc just became a bit of a blur. 

I'm tired of watching films where a couple of actors are stood in front of a green screen waving sticks at air only for the locations and extras to be put in later. This Christmas I saw the Hobbit and 47 Ronin. Although the Hobbit is the better film it could definitely learn something from 47 Ronin. Although the green screens of New Zealand are very beautiful it makes a big difference when the sets and locations are real. 47 Ronin did use CG but it also had a lots of fantastic practical sets and the colours were great. Unfortunately the fights were a total mess lots of close ups, poor lighting, choppy editing it would have been great if the camera had pulled back and just enjoyed the movement of the choreography. There were lots of other problems but the point I'm trying I make is the Hobbit coming at the end of a year of loads of "digital stuff" just being thrown unrelentingly at the screen was just to much.

At the moment the films I'm looking forward to the most are the Wolf of Wallstreet and Her. I'm sure I will see lots of Blockbusters again this year but will be approaching with caution. So hopefully this time next year I will have a big list of good and bad films I've seen and a blog with regular updates.