First Presentation
For our first marked task in this module, we were tasked to source an article from the journals "Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal" or "Animation Practice, Process & Production". We settled for a journal article on "motion comics". We liked the idea because we are all interested in filmography and different aspects of pre-production. I think that it is quite relevant because they are essentially storyboards, and a great way to visualise parts of a production.
We took different aspects of the artcile and made it into slides. I think that the presentation went pretty well, although I could have revised what I was saying a bit but it was a good start to the term.
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RYAN HOLLINGER
Animated documentaries
This weeks talk was from a former student, who for his final year, produced quite a touching and warmhearted animated documentary about the roll of pets in our lives. Done quite well with a stylistic use of texture, it worked brilliantly. It also seemed like it was quite above the curve using this "stepped" method of animation which has recently been pushed into the mainstream with such releases such as Into the Spiderverse this year.
He gave some really good insights to the level or research and premeditated thought which goes into the making of a final year project, and has had me thinking about what maybe I will be doing. I have a couple of story ideas myself, which would make sense to develop more throughout summer for a final year piece before final year.
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Ryan discussed some aspects of what makes a documentary a documentary, and why someone would choose to use animation to explore a real life scenario or topic.
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What constitutes a documentary?
There are a couple of different types of documentary;
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Persuasive: Presents a 1 sided argument. From the offset, the personal opinion of the film maker is going to be embedded into the flow of the narrative, i.e. the likes of Michael Moore.
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Interrogative: Considers both sides, and puts together a situation which allows the viewer to make up their minds for themselves. Arguably, this should be the true definition of a documentary.
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Exploitative: Does not interfere at all with the subject, can be described as a Fly on the wall documentary.
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Reflective: The filmmakers perspective is centre of attention as they investigate the topic. Arguably the most artistically involved of the aforementioned areas.
Ryan goes on to make the point that animation is a great way to abstract the audience and narration of the facts. For topics and themes in which it may be a very dark or heavy topic, or interviews where the person in question may want to remain anonymous, it seems ideal. However, the important fact that film makers need to keep in mind that it is still abstracting and therefore must not get carried away with visuals so much to distract from the actual narrative going on.
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He showed us some great examples, a particular one which I looked up in my own time is a delightfully surreal film called Waking Life (2001). It is a surreal experience bounding into the realms of dreams and the foundation of reality.
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At the end of the lecture, I talked to Ryan about some ideas which I have for personal project development. It was really helpful, and gave me some great food for thought.
LECTURE 2; NARRATIVE IN VIDEO GAMES
Brain
This weeks lecture was on how narrative is woven into games. As someone who has always been a fan of indie art games, this was pretty interesting.
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The first thing that Brian brought up was how games portray a narrative;
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Cut scenes - pre-rendered animations where story is revealed similar to a movie
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Game play - the player experiences story through other actions happening around them.
Triple A games tend to have cut scenes as the main source of story. It is easier to spoon feed the audience what is going on, and if they are playing a triple A game in the first place, they are likely looking for something to switch off to, not think about to hard. Indie games, or games with less of a budget to put together animation for cut scenes, need to rely on more intuitive mechanics to streamline a cohesive experience to the audience. For example, the Stanley Parabol, a brilliant indie game, which has no cut scenes, and the entire story is relayed by player actions and a narrator who responds to them.
Another method of making the player experience a story is morality systems - different discussion which you choose yourself lead to different story twists.
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Brian goes on to talk about how most games have what is known as a "linear" narrative structure- player triggers one event, then the next, and so on so fourth. Which is all well and good, and often the cheaper option for most games. However, a great way to introduce different levels of depth to your play through with a branching narrative path. This however, requires a lot more money, and very good writers, something which I think is very lacking within the video game industry.
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Overall, I thought the lecture was really interesting, and particularly relevant to me as I wish to develop a story driven VR game for a company project.