Start of Film Making DP2
I am the director for this project, therefore my role as director includes directing the actors and film crew in the film making process.
Responsibilities
Directors are responsible for overseeing creative aspects of a film under the film producer. They often develop the vision for a film and carry out the vision, deciding how the film should look, in other words they make their vision come to life. They are responsible for turning the script into a sequence of shots. They also direct what tone it should have and what anaudience should gain from the cinematic experience. Film directors are responsible for deciding camera angles, lens effects and lighting with the help of the cinematographer, and set design with the production designer. They will often take part in hiring key crew members. They coordinate the actors’ moves, or blocking, and also may be involved in the writing,financing, and editing of a film.
The director works closely with the cast and crew to shape the film. Some like to conduct rigorous rehearsals in preproduction while others do so before each scene. In either case, this process is essential as it tells the director as well as other key members of the crew (director of photography, stunt choreographer, hair stylist, etc.), how the actors are going to play the scene, which enables them to make any necessary adjustments. Directors often use storyboards to illustrate sequences and concepts, and a director’s viewfinder to set up camera angles.
The director also plays a key role in post-production. He or she works with the editor to ensure that the emotions of the scene and the close ups, mid-shots, and wide or long shotsappropriately reflect which character is driving the narrative. The director also advises on the (color) grading of the final images, adding warmth or frigidity to the composition of the shots to reflect the emotional subtext of the character or environment. The director will sometimes participate in the sound mix and musical composition of the film. Promotion wise, if a director is well known his name and image is used to promote the film alongside the stars of the film, but having an image is not the primary function of a director, as they are judged by their creative talent and ability to run a production. It is the second most powerful “behind the scenes” profession, behind the producer.
Link to Virtual Environments project presentation
Virtual and Conceptual influences
The virtual environments project involved many visual and conceptual influences that affected decisions during planning as well as final outcomes. I began the process by deciding whether I wanted to create a superhero or super villain, my decision was to go with the production of a super villain because I thought it would be more interesting and exciting to build an evil lair and character under this genre. Visual influences include researching previous super villains online, using websites such as ‘comicbooks.com’ and ‘uk.comics/top-100-villains.’ Such websites had links to images of super villains and information on specific powers and characteristics which had a heavy influence in my decision process. Similarly researching ‘lairs’ and ‘hideouts’ on Google kick-started my idea of a tree house lair, this triggered the development of my character and how he should have some sort of animal characteristic living in a jungle tree house. When designing my character I wanted to design him as half human half creature and the tree house idea made me think of jungle animals like gorillas which is the base of my character. Designing my character consisted of many stages, beginning with practice sketching body shapes and various positions. After getting the grasp of sketching body shapes I moved on to character styles. I began with a toddler character which progressed to a monkey then to studying King Kong and gorilla faces and features to converge with a human to form one ‘creature.’ Furthermore during the production of my lair I played around with many ground structure designs and layouts before ending up with the final layout I have rendered, lair design influences came from understanding both famous superhero and villain lairs and caves such as ‘the bat cave’, the Fantastic Four and the Jokers lair.
In terms of construction and content I tried to focus on a Disney based genre, nothing too violent or graphic with objects such as missiles which I consider to be a stereotypical item of a super villain. Other objects suggesting my character is evil include, a circular fuse bomb. Other than this my character has a desk and computer, bed and couch, I provided these items because regardless of the characters nature he needs basic living facilities and an evil villain does not necessarily keep all his evil concepts within his lair as the mind occupies for many of these. I had to make decisions on what my characters aim is that is why I modelled the bionical legs as they are his current project. In terms of materials for my lair I simply had to find wood textures because wood is one of the only available materials in a jungle available to build with.
Character design
I have been doing a lot of body movement sketching and designing to try and create my super villain, I have changed my ideas since previous posts, I am moving away from the toddler super villain idea because I think that it would be a better idea to create a character from the lair I design. I have been developing ideas by bringing together different visual characteristics such as half animal half human, powers and environments, my most recent idea has come from the fact that my lair is in the form of a tree house and I am thinking some sort of evil human/baboon would fit the scene nicely
Superhero Lairs
I have been sketching some body movements in preparation for the final design of my character, I have been working on grasping positioning such as running, flying etc. For my character I like the idea of a young villain, I’m thinking a baby/toddler character who’s powers include something along the lines of changing peoples mental age to that of a toddler resulting in grown ups playing with toys and having tantrums, my character wants to be king of the toddler world using another one of his powers to change people into evil toys (toy story) to form an army of these toys who will help him turn all the adults in the world in young children.
My character
Looks can be decieving, villain characters generally have similar characteristics as shown on the slideshow below, we have the non human (alien) villain, the butch muscular villain, some in fancy suits and others who don’t quite look like they could be an evil character, after researching into villain characters I have decided to design one who looks a little less ‘villain like’ what ever that stereotype is.
Previous Villains
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Animation term 2 start
I have just started my 5 week course in 3D animation using the software 3D studio max which currently seems very confusing but I am sure tutorials will soon sort that out, the project brief is to design a lair for either a villain or a super hero creating at least four rooms for them to do their “work” in. Regardless of which one I choose I will design the character and include rooms such as a bedroom, weapons room, garage, computer/surveilance and trophey room within the lair. Super hero’s generally have similar characteristics therefore I am going to desing a super villain who will have unusual evil powers which includes a twist of humour, now the designing must begin..
