Trailer+Grad Panel Review+Final Week Production

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/40128359

Grad Panel Review: https://vimeo.com/40639446 (password: apr19)

Final Week Production: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At8OprUzORF2dEdTeUNvVXUtMVktX01MSm9IODUwaFE

Grad Film animatic

Animatic on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/33826983

Tension Chart

Part 1:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B98OprUzORF2YmVkZmNlNTktNTg5OS00Yzc5LWI3MDEtN2E5M2I1OGVjMGE2

Part 2:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B98OprUzORF2NTU4YmJlMjAtYWQ3NC00NjMxLWIwZGUtYjc1MjQwYTQ1MDY0

Revised Production Schedule

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At8OprUzORF2dHZPM3VvendNTlJwUmhsTFpQNzlnQ0E#gid=0

Animation Schedule:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At8OprUzORF2dHZPM3VvendNTlJwUmhsTFpQNzlnQ0E#gid=1

Film Review

Film Review – “La Luna”

Pixar Studio produces its new short animation “La Luna” and shows it to public during the Annecy International Animation Festival this year. The film attracts audiences’ attention and receives widely praise. It is written and directed by Pixar’s head of story Enrico Casarosa, an famous Italian artist who began work as a storyboard artist before working his way up as an animator.^[1] “La Luna” is his directing debut with the short film.

The story is inspired by Casarosa’s own relation with his father and grandfather in the Genoa Sea.^[2] In the beginning of the film, a little boy and his father and grandfather are sitting on a small boat in the sea. Suddenly the giant and bright moon majestically rises up into the dark sky. The father then holds a ladder and they use it climbing up to reach the moon. After landing on it, they see countless shining stars on the surface. Their work is to clean up stars off of the moon. Everything goes well initially, but then a huge star falls onto the moon. They get scared and have no idea about how to deal with it. At this time, the boy starts to look over the star and climbs up to the top of it. He uses a broomstick knocking it and then it falls apart into many small pieces, therefore they can continue to work. After the clean-up completed, they go back to the boat. The scenario zooms out and the full moon changes back to a new moon.

This animation does not only have a great storyline, but also perform amazing sound, visual and aesthetic effect. Justin Pearson plays the role of the sound designer. In order to achieve realistic sound effect, he really found a wooden boat and made sound recording when it’s floating on the lake as well as people were paddling the boat. The stars are another key part in this film. I was wondering how stars would sound like before, and “La Luna” gives me a satisfactory answer. They sound like glass-made objects which perfectly match their shinny appearance and create magical atmosphere for the animation when stars touch each other.

The visual effect of this film is also remarkable. Here is a scenario that I want to review. In the beginning of the animation, the dark sky adds mysterious element to the story. Suddenly the moon jumps out into the sky and becomes the only but powerful light source in the screen. The yellowish light from the moon strongly contrast with the dark blue sky which attracts audiences interested in exploring more about the giant moon. There are lots of scenarios in this film impress me in terms of the graphics rendering, 3D effect and character motions, which demonstrate Pixar’s leading technology in animation production.

In the aspect of aesthetic, the director elaborately designs surrealistic story plot and scenes for “La Luna”. The family’s work is pretty fantastic. They need to climb up a ladder to land on the moon, and clean off the stars in order to turn the full moon back to a new moon. Those behaviors are obviously impossible in real world, but it recalls audiences’ memory about their family love and dream in childhood. The film is obviously made with an immense amount of love, passion, and personal inspiration, and that certainly shines through in the short.

This short animation is one of Pixar’s best in years. It does not only provide me great visual experience, but also inspire my ongoing graduate film. As a good animation, the character motions (facial expression, gesture, movement) should lead audiences to following scenes, which means to get people to know the character’s intentions and motivations. “La Luna” sets a great example in this aspect. To improve the continuity of my graduate animation, I need to re-design the camera angles in some of the scenes, combining with adding more proper guiding frames between the character motions.

“La Luna” is currently touring around film festivals, and will be shown in front of Pixar’s Brave in theater next summer.^[3] This is a great short animation and definitely worth watching it.

References

[1], [2], [3]. “Telluride Review: Enrico Casarosa's Wonderful Pixar Short 'La Luna'” by Alex Billington, Sep.3^rd, 2011

WHY presentation

One day, when I was cutting my nails on the toe, I came up with a question: who is going cut my nails on the toe when I am old? So I had the idea for my grad film which is about a forgetful old lady who is struggling to cut her nails on the toe. She attempts so many times but they all failed at the end. She is sad because she cannot get things done, and she is helpless in the room by her own. Fortunately her husband comes back home at the end of the story, and helps her to cut her nails on the toe.

There must be a day that I will be too old to walk fast, too old to bend my waist, too old to memorize everything happened in the past, and even my loved one. And at that time, is there anyone can cut my nails on the toe for me? Or is there anyone can stay with me? I think most people might have the similar thought. Therefore, by making this animation, I wish the audience could get to know how the elderly feel when they are alone. On the other hand, people should cherish the one who cares about you, because she or he might be the one that accompanies you till the end.

My animation will be hand drawn, 2D, and digital coloring of a water color effect with soft and loose outlines. After researching online, I found that a Japanese movie called My Neighbor the Yamadas uses a very similar style as what I am pursuing. My Neighbor the Yamadas is an animation about the daily lives of the Yamada family. There is not any main theme in the movie but just little detailed things happened in their lives. The entire animation was drawn and painted on computers which was the first for Ghibli studio. After watching the movie, I have a déjà vu experience with what happened in the movie. I think this is one of the most successful parts of the movie because it lets its audience to relevant the plot in the movie to their own experiences.

I think nowadays people ignoring the elderly in their families because of heavy workload or economical reasons. But through my film, I want to let people know that the elderly sometimes just need someone to stay with them and care about them. I want to create a happy and touching ending for my film. Therefore, my audience might start to think what if there is no grandpa? And then realize the loneliness of the elderly.

There will be no dialogue in my animation, the emotions of my character will be showed from her facial expressions and body movements. However, there will be background music play through the whole animation. I will use a slow-paced instrumental music which is similar to the pace of the story and also the main character. I am looking for mucis pieces that has a Joe Hisaishi style, which sounds a little bit sad. Furthermore, there will be sound effects that match the acts in the animation as while.

Overall, the presentation helps me to get my ideas gathered, so I have a clear idea of what direction I will be going to.

 Animatic:

http://vimeo.com/30205396

Project Proposal 

Summary

My grad film is called “Amnesia” (not finalized); it will be approximately 3 minute hand drawn 2D animation. It is an easy funny and touching story about a forgetful old lady who is struggling to cut her nails on the toe.

Synopsis

My film illustrates the loneliness and helplessness of a forgetful old lady by her several failed attempts of cutting nails on the toe, and her happiness of recall her memory with her husband.

Description

In my story, a forgetful old lady is struggling to cut her nails on the toe, but she fails so many times to reach her toes. She wants to use a small ladder to help herself, but she forgets what she was going to do when she is moving plants from the small ladder. After spending time on some other things, she remembers her origin and gets set to cut her nails again. But she still could not get the nails cut by her own. She sees a photo of an old man and her, so she tries to remember who he is. She feels helpless on her own, and I intend to let the audience feel sad for her at this point because she lost her cherished memory. The last part will be the climax of the story which her husband comes back from shop with a stool he just bought for her, and the old lady recalls all her memory with her loved one. After all, he helps her to cut nails on the toe.

Visual Treatment

I will be doing a hand drawn 2D animation piece, all the animation will be done hand drawn. After scanning the drawings into computer, I will color them digitally in Photoshop and then animate in After Effects. I will keep the line quality loose and light which keeps the organic feel of traditional animation. The colors will have a light tinted water color effect. A visual example will be My Neighbor the Yamadas. (see last post)

Sound Treatment

There will be no dialogue in my animation, the emotions of my character will be showed from her facial expressions and body movements. However, there will be background music play through the whole animation. I will use a slow-paced instrumental music which is similar to the pace of the story and also the main character. Furthermore, there will be sound effects that match the acts in the animation as while.

Budget:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At8OprUzORF2dFBlSjd2Yk43b0VwQ2xRRURwMlg2Qmc&hl=en_US

Production Schedule:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At8OprUzORF2dERxY1A4dVlVQVBNNTRDbEdVWjNwd3c&hl=en_US

Sample Visuals: