Entertainment Design | Week 2

15/01/2019 | Week 2

Wynne Pankusya

0333258

Entertainment Design

Film Production & TV Production

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In-Class

15/01/2019 Tuesday

This class covers about Film Production. 

Concept Art

We might not realise that concept art can affect a lot even before  the process of film making in the entertainment industry. Concept art able to tell a story by visualising and even let the investors know what will be the outcome even before they start filming. It needs to be convincing enough so that people believe that it will be a great movie. At the same time, concept art helps the production team to know what they are about to shoot or create. 

Fig 1 Example of concept art. It tells you a story and brings curiosity even it's just a still picture

Mise en Scène

Mise-en-scene is an expression used to describe the design aspect of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story". It helps to create a sense of character, mood, and setting and also communicates to the audience. One of the aspects of it is the 3 point lighting which is key light, filler light (to decrease the shadow) and back light (to show the back ground)

There are some elements of Mise en Scène:

• Rule of thirds
• Depth
• Setting and props
• Costume, hair, and makeup
• Facial expression and body language
• The positioning of characters within the frame
• Lighting and colour

Fig 2 Blake Edward's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) using three point lighting technique to illuminate scenes. The subjects in frame are properly highlighted, faint shadows are visible in the background, adding the depth of the frame

Visual Effects (VFX)

Visual effects or VFX is the method by which imagery is created or manipulated in film making to create a visual that couldn’t be build by shooting with camera. Usually some parts of the movie cannot be done during live action shooting, thus VFX will be needed to make a perfect/better scene. Visual effects can be added to live-action, captured through techniques such as green screen, matte painting, rear- and front-screen projection, miniature or forced perspective sets, computer graphic objects, characters, and  environments, also compositing of images recorded in many ways. A big part of VFX is matte painting where it is used when it’s impossible to shoot a scene so matte painting takes part to fill the hole/mask.

Fig 3 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 Visual effect breakdown. This shows that most of the scene are actually fake and not in the real world.

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Blog Question

15/01/2019 Tuesday

Filmmaking is a craft, what are the stages involved from beginning till end and how does it differ between live action and animated films?

In film making, both live action and animated films may have similar steps in the process. In live action, the process of production is divided into 3 parts which are Pre-production, Production and Post-Production. 

The first stage is Pre-Production. This is where the idea started and all the plannings ahead. In this step you have to decide the objective, target audiences, deadlines and also budget. Then move forward into scripts and storyboard. The last parts is to choose the suitable cast and film crew, location of shooting and constructing sets. This part is important since it is the root of every film produced.

The next one is Production. Production is where the filming starts. On this stage, everything that already been planned in the Pre-production steps will be done. There may be some changes but still it depends on the Pre-production. 

Post-production is the last step of film making. This is the part where all the raw footage will be edited and combined into a finished product. After it is all done and completed, the final cut will be published and released to cinemas or consumer’s media.

In animated films, there are more complicated steps especially in production part and also different from live action films :

1. Story and Story boarding

2. Editorial

3. Visual development

4. Pre-visualisation (characters, environment, props, etc)

5. Modeling

6. Rigging

7. Layout

8. Animation

9. Character animation

10. Crowds animation

11. Character effects / simulation

12. FX

13. Technical Director

14. Matte Painting

15. Lighting

16. Image finalising

17. Music and sound design

Both film making either in live action films or animation have similarity for the audience. The big difference comes because live action mainly focuses in acting and animation focuses in illustrating digitally. This is why both of them have different process. 

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Progress

15/01/2019 Tuesday

After the previous feedback, I tried to create a similar synopsis with different changes. I tried to find a suitable hook for this kind of story.

Fig 4 Synopsis update

Feedback:

It is still lack of interesting part. There should be a purpose for the game and find the problem that the main character faces. Maybe find a similar game that could be your reference.

17/01/2019 Thursday

Based on the feedback, I tried to change the whole storyline to be more interesting. And to make sure the visualisation will be clear, I searched for some visuals that would suit the game so that I know how the game would look like. I also created some compositions for the  poster to see wether it suits the story or not.

Fig 5 Synopsis update

Fig 6 Mood board for the poster

Fig 7 Composition sketch for the poster

Fig 8 Composition sketch for the poster

Feedback:

The story synopsis is fine. And the sketches of the composition looks good. Choose the one that you feel could communicate the story's hook and also looks attractive to the audience. Proceed from the chosen sketch Photoshop composition. 

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Reflection

I found a lot of Mr.Mike's lectures are very helpful. It helps me to know more about multimedia platforms, films, and other things that was not taught on my previous modules. I also observed that this projects will train us when we actually work with companies therefore I found this module very helpful. In creating a poster design, if we know what kind of story or concept that we wanted, everything will be directed and easier on the next steps which are the microsite and on-ground activation. 

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Photo Sources

Fig 1 https://kotaku.com/2017s-best-video-game-concept-art-1795841555
Fig 2 https://collegefilmandmediastudies.com/mise-en-scene-2/
FIg 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkqTeQHFoBY