Mind Reader 2nd draft

          Ann and Lotte are roommates. They live in the same house,
          their lives are normal and plain. However, one day...

          INT. BEDROOM DAY
                    Rumble

          Visual effects: A flash of lightening hits Ann's head.(The
          frame is from clouds dropping through the roof to her
          tonsil, it is vibrating)

                              ANN
                    Ah.....(Through out the hitting
                    process. It sounds more and more
                    closer.)

          She lays in her bed, screamed.

          She sits up in her bed and pant for breath. Her hands
          touches her face, nose, everything is fine. She calms down.
                    Bangbangbang...(Door knocking)

                              LOTTE
                    Ann.. Ann.. Are you ok?
                    Bangbangbang...

          Ann take on her slipper and opens the door, her hair is
          sweated.

          Ann looks to Lotte. Her mouth is moving, but Ann can not
          hear Lotte's voice, it is distorted.

          Visual effects: A image appears in front of Lotte's heart.
          The frame illustrates the breakfast is on the table, she
          take on her shoes and go out.

          Ann closes her eyes and shakes her head. When she opened her
          eyes, the image still there.

          Lotte stop talking and go away.

          Ann turns back and look at the lens. She comes out an idea.

          Visual effects: a bulb lights up above her head.

          EXT.STRANGER'S HOUSE(ANN'S NEIGHBOUR)
                    Bangbangbang...(Door knocking)

          Ann stands in front of a house. She looks up to it.

          She knocks the door urgently, then hides behind a tree. She
          pops out half of her head to see what is happening.

          The stranger opens the door, but no one is outside. His face
          is angry, and he is cursing,but his voice is still
          distorted.

          Ann is focus on his heart which shows the boiled water in
          his kitchen. (Zoom in to Stranger's chest)

          Ann smiled.

          The stranger shuts the door.

          Ann takes out her booklet, it is writen John's address. The
          booklet also notes Sophia's address.

          Visual effects: John's name is highlighting and a green tick
          apears at the beginning of John's name. Ann's face is
          brighten and golden.

          EXT. OUTSIDE JOHN'S FLAT

          Ann stands outside John's room. She takes a deep breath and
          press the door bell.
                    RING...

          Her heartbeat is faster and faster.

          Visual effects: Her eyes are filled with hearts and lighted
          up. The camera zoom into her eyes:  John stands under the
          spotlight, he hand a Rose forward(The camera is moving
          around him 90° angle)
                         Sound of John opens the door

          Ann's heartbeat sound suddenly stops. The camera moves
          backwards to her face.

          Visual effects: The hearts in her eyes disappeared, Her face
          expression is severe. John's face is excited， but his heart
          illustrates he opens the door, Lotte stand outside.

           She turns to walk away, while Lotte is coming in.

          Visual effects: Lotte's heart shows a soap bubble, a balloon
          and a gum bubble blasts.

          Lotte looks at Ann, she collides Lotte and runs away.

                              LOTTE
                    Ann.. Ann..

         

          EXT. STREET DAY

          Ann walks on the road.

          Visual effects: The illustration of her heart shows the
          blood drops from her heart.

          She opened her booklet.

          Visual effects: Sophia's name is highlight. And the blanket
          of the rest of page shows Sophia's photo, she is speaking.

                              SOPHIA
                    I'm always stay by your side.

          Ann close the booklet.

          EXT. OUTSIDE SOPHIA'S FLAT AFTERNOON
                    Ring...

          Ann press the bell button. Her make-up is messy.

          Sophia opens the door. She smiles and stand aside to ask Ann
          coming. Visual effects: Sophia's heart shows she laughs at
          Ann.

          Ann look at her left side, Sophia is stand there, and her
          heart images is laughing.

          Ann look to the other side, Sophia is also there.

          She goes backwards and runs away.

          EXT. STREET NIGHTFALL

          Ann walks towards the show windows which reflects herselves.
             

          Visual effects: She can clearly see her hearts broken into
          pieces and blowed away by wind. she wipes her tear and walk
          away.

          Ann stands on the center of crossroad, the trafic lights
          turns red. Everyone brush against her, everyone's heart is
          revealed. Everyone's voice is distorted. It is loud and
          noisy. She can not endure, she raised her head up towards
          the sky, she roars. The night was vibrated by her sound.(the
          frame is zoom out from her head backwards to sky).

          End.

         

         

         

                             

                             

Acting Workshop

This is the first scene of my groups performance. It is intensive and emotional.

In this acting course, I know that acting is adding layer. Each time I change the emotion of the role, it will generate different effects. Acting is also a good way help me to write scripts. I should pay more attention on writing actions, but not the emotion. Because at that time, they are who the role are. This course improves my directing skills. I know hot to communicate with actors. When I direct actors performs like what I want. It is better to ask them what do they feel about, rather than ask them smile, angry directly.

What is more, the actors' performance will influence the quality of a film. This course is a good chance to meet so many professional actors. They gives me more opportunities to make my final project better.

Script: The mind reader

     Ann and Lotte are roommates. They live in the same house,
          their lives are normal and plain. However, one day...

          INT. BEDROOM DAY

          A flash of lightening hits Ann.(From clouds drops to her
          head) She lays on her bed.

                              ANN
                    Ah.....(Through out the hitting
                    process)

          She sits in her bed and pant for breath.
                    Bangbangbang...(Door knocking)

                              LOTTE
                    Ann.. Ann.. Are you ok?

          Ann opens the door, her hair is sweated.

                              LOTTE
                    Take care of your heart and......

          Ann looks to Lotte, she brings a cup of water and pills and
          keep talking, but Ann can not hear Lotte's voice. It is
          distorted, but Lotte's mouth still moving.

          There is a image appears in Lotte's heart. The frame
          illustrates Ann is taking pills. Ann can not believe her
          eyes, she close it while shakes her head , but nothing
          changed.

          Ann takes the cup and pills and close the door.

          She turns back she comes out an idea.

          EXT.STRANGER'S HOUSE(ANN'S NEIGHBOUR)
                    Bangbangbang...(Door knocking)

          Ann knocks the door urgently, then hides behind a tree. She
          pops out half of her head to see what is happening.

          The stranger opens the door, but no one is outside. His face
          is angry, and he is cursing,but his voice is still distort.

          Ann is focus on his heart which shows the boiled water in
          his kitchen. Ann's face looks happy.

          The stranger shuts the door.

          Ann takes out her booklet, it is writen John's address with
          a big heart and lip print on it. The booklet also notes
          Sophia's address. She use her pen circles on John's address.
          Her face is brighten and golden.

          EXT. OUTSIDE JOHN'S FLAT

          Ann stands outside John's room and hold a present in her
          hand, her heartbeat is faster and faster. She bring out her
          fundation powder, and fix her make-up. She take a deep
          breath and press the door bell.
                    RING...

          John opens the door his face is excited but his heart
          illustrates that Ann is not the woman he wants to see, he
          wants to see Lotte.

                              ANN
                    Lotte ask me give it to you.

          While she brings the present to him. He smiled hand his
          heart illustrates lots of heart graphics.

          EXT. STREET DAY

          Ann walks on the road. The illustration of her heart shows
          the blood drops from her heart. She decides to pour out her
          upset to her friend Sophia.

          EXT. OUTSIDE SOPHIA'S FLAT AFTERNOON
                    Ring...

          Ann press the bell button.

          Sophia opens the door. She smiles and stand aside to ask Ann
          coming, but Sophia's heart shows she roll her eyes and
          quickly shut the door.

                              ANN
                    Hi, I just mention you do not
                    forget attend next Friday's
                    Halloween party.

                              

                              

          EXT. STREET NIGHTFALL

          Ann walks towards the windows which reflects herselves. She
          can clearly see her hearts broken into pieces and blow away
          by wind. she wipes her tear and continue walking. Ann stands
          on the center of crossroad, the trafic lights turns red.
          Everyone brush against her, everyone's heart is revealed.
          Everyone's voice is distorted. It is loud and noisy. She can
          not endure, she raised her head up towards the sky, she
          roars. The night was disturbed by her sound.(the frame is
          zoom out from her head backwards to sky).

          End.

          

3D house composition

(1)

(2)

In last two weeks I found the 3D model that I will use in my future project. I have tried to composite the model in live action footage. (1) video is I use the 3D model to track the original footage and stick the 3D house on the stastic position. The original video is my desk. The camera shake is on purpose, because I want to track the position of moving camera. After correcting the right the position, the house was add lights and shadows. Lights and shadows helps the house looks reality.

In terms of (1), (2) is a  pan down shot that  illustrate the camera pans from high angle shot to cross the window. In this video, firstly, I shot the empty shot of my bed, all the movement of camera are complete in this process. Then I use AE to track the camera movement, and import the track points into 3DMAX. Finally is the most important step, adjust the position of house while let the camera cross the window. (The main purpose of this video is imitate the camera moving, therefore, I did not adjust the house precisely, it might be tilted. Please ignore the flaw.)

It is my first time to use 3DMAX, it is complicate and difficult for me to exchange 2D imagination to 3D thinking. However, after I touched 3DMAX, I find 3D filmmakers should do tenfold more things than 2D filmmakers when making the post-production. Besides, I feel more confident to make a fairy tale film. 

Traditional FT film VFX-------Case Study of Jack the Giant Slayer and Pan's Labyrinth

Jack the Giant Slayer and Pan's Labyrinth are two CGI films. Both of these films are full of virtual scene such as Acridid and the Giant, both of this role are 3D modeling. But they are FT film but not Fiction film is because Acridid and Giant are based on animal and human being, Fiction film is more about high-tech monster. 

3D modeling:

(Pan)

(Jack)

Adding background:

 (Pan)

 (Jack)

Correct mistakes: In Pan the leg of Pan's real legs are masked off, the picture below shows the real frame befre post-production.

(Pan)

Traditional FT films are relevant with monsters and the events are happened in mystery and natural scene such as forest, cave, valley and so on. Because tradition fairy tale is an ancient way to explain the mystery power in nature. Therefore, VFX in traditional FT are widely used to create the natural scene and freaks.

Comtemporary FT films------Case study of Amelie and Micmacs (2)

 The emotional addition. The philharmonic behind the actor is to push his emotion to the top. And the orange light wave around the elder plays the same role as philharmonic.

 (Micmacs)

(Micmacs)

 (Amelie)

The man flies in the sky and the man talks in the photo are sureal scene which are all made by layer composition. The motional photography and people float in the sky is only happened in film and dream. But the FT effects of it is based on the colour of film.

 (Micmacs)

 (Amelie)

There are also some other effects such as explosion and the photo frameis cracked by the vibration of explosion.

In conclusion, the FT VFX style is based on the fundamental colour of film. High saturation will make film looks more FT. Because most of people's childhood are brighten and colourful. The high saturation frame might recall every spectator's childhood period. No matter what VFX the film used, FT film style is only depends on the colour of frame and the from of animation, modeling.

Comtemporary FT films------Case study of Amelie and Micmacs (1)

Amelie and Micmacs are Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film. Both of these films are urban fairy tale films. VFX is a technique makes these films in FT vision. 

The first sight I see these film, the warm and saturation colour allows the movie to be more colourful and innocent. The following two picture are from each films, but the colour of these films are similar, due to the high saturation and slight yellow. They looks like from one film. This colour is the typical feature of Jeunet's film.

(Micmacs)

(Amelie)

An other effect Jeunet used frequently in his films is split screen. This is a method to compare or to show two events happened at the same time.

(Micmacs)

(Amelie)

There is one thing I should notice is in Micmacs, the split screen is used to compare the different speculation when he was put on the headgear, left side is danger, right side is safety. What is more, the graphic on his forehead shows the actor's thinking. Generally, people's thought is inner activity , but showing role's thinking on head makes film more humourous, and abnormal.

 (Micmacs)

 (Micmacs)

(Micmacs)

Animation, animation is also a part that makes films fairy tale style. The animation in Micmacs is to illustrate details of story, while the animation in Amelie is 3D animals. Besides, animals are innocent as children. Therefore, the the interaction between Amelie and animals create the FT vision.

 (Micmacs)

 (Micmacs)

(Amelie)

 (Amelie)

The reflective thinking about Gothic FT(Fairy tale) Case study

After I wrote the case study of Gothic FT film, I found that classify 10 case study films in visual style is better than story telling style, because my project is stress on the visual effects. And I find the VFX in fairy tale films are all similar, I classify VFX in four categories:

 1. Film Fundamental key: colour, light.

 2. Adding elements: objects(building, cars, clouds, fire, etc.), character(monster, ghost etc.), background(such as add a scene which you want in the door, window, or in the end of street), graphics(shape that can illustrate the emotion of character,such as when a teenager regain the confidence, the halo shinning around him, the halo is what I mean shape.).

 3. Correct mistakes

 4. Special effect: distortion(such as in The City of Lost Children, distortion is used to present the dream segment of children), shake(imitate earthquake effects), speed up and slow motion(when connect them together, the slow motion shot could enlarge the character's imagery and make it  more important).

Practically, all of these 4 categories appear in FT films, but only the objects, graphics, background and colour could vary for the feature of FT films' visual style, such as the Gothic FT film's building are almost pinnacle, and the big moon. Others component are almost the same. Therefore, analysis 5 different visual style case studies might make sense.

Case study of Gothic Fairy Tale

I have compared two films: 1.Sweeny Todd; 2. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Both of these two films are apparently Gothic style. This journal is to analyse how and why visual effects makes these films Gothic.

 Lemony

Lemony

Todd

If you watching the video above, you can easily understand the method  of the visual effects making. That should be 3D modeling, CG compositing, and environment changing. The most impressive portion is that the camera get through the street rapidly,while changing the angle precisely. It looks like the camera fly through the street. But the actual shooting is before the green background, only the human been are real, the buildings are all post-production compositing.

The elements make the film Gothic that should be the dark and cloudy sky.

Lemony Snicket

Todd

Like the two pictures above are the beginning of each film. The dark cloudy restricts the light in the scene, it presents the gloomy story is happening, because all the things with gothic features such as evil and empire is appeared in the night.

Secondly, the shadows should be clear and obvious contrast as the pictures below. The contrast makes the frame looks abnormal, it is hard to create in real light effects. The gothic fairy tale is in a word darkness.

Lemony

 

Todd