Category: the world of animation

During this last term in university, we were asked to produce a research poster to demonstrate our understanding of the history or development of one nations/area’s animation.

Our World of Animation class has taught us a lot about different genres of animation and the differences in animation between not just the East and West but also between animation for children and animation for adults.  I think it is interesting that  animation can reach all audiences. Before this term, I was aware that animation is used for children and adults alike but did not realise that there are documentaries that are animated. I know I particularly enjoy anime and spend a lot of time watching it.  It has had a profound impact on what I choose to draw and animate, and I naturally gravitate towards Japanese animation.

Learning about sound effects, light, music and cinematography has made me realise that there is more to animation than simply drawing.  All of these elements are needed to make the film enjoyable and more interactive and engaging to the audience.  Without all the elements the film would be flat and not capture the audience.

For this latest project, designing a poster, we were in groups again.

The process of collaborative group work is both enjoyable and stressful for me.  On one hand it is nice to have others alongside you to encourage and guide and to bounce ideas off.  On the other hand, I like to have things done in advance and get very stressed out if things are not given to me on time to work with.   Unfortunately, this has been true of this assignment.  I felt I was constantly asking one member of the group for her information.  I received it two days before the poster was to be printed leaving me very little time to design the poster and putting pressure on me.  This was very stressful. On a positive note, I realise that in life, learning to cope with stress is a good thing.

For me, the drawing and the design of the poster is what I am the best at and that is what I enjoyed the most.  I am much more confident at design and drawing. I feel the final design is good and we are all happy with it.  I have a little experience in using InDesign as I have used it previously in tech, and have access to the software at home, so it was decided that I would put the design of the poster together.  A template for the poster was provided by one member of the group in sketch form.  I took her sketch and did three different variations of the poster asking for input from the others along the way.  Once they were all done, I showed the others in the group all the posters and let them choose which they felt was the best design.  The final submission being chosen.  The research and writing element of this assignment, of any assignment, is always the most difficult.  Being dyslexic has really made me unsure of what I am to write and how to get my thoughts down. I know I struggle to get down on paper what I have in my head, to formulate ideas in a cohesive way and I need a lot of help to structure and plan writing tasks.

I realise my research could be more complete.  However, as this film is the first fully Korean film there wasn’t a lot of information to find.  I know I tend to compensate by taking on more of the production/animation side of projects to make up for my writing skills.  This maybe doesn’t share the group’s workload equally, but I think it is better to play to everyone’s strengths.  I do have access to tutors, but it is very difficult to approach a stranger to ask for help when I do not know them and they do not know the subject.  I have good home support and should access advice and support there before I get to the overwhelmed and anxious state.

To summarise, I have enjoyed learning about Korean animation. I thought the film was good.  I particularly thrive when drawing, designing and animating.   Working with others presents challenges but on the whole is a positive. My biggest area for improvement is recording my research and then writing up the reflections.

My Group for the research poster was on Korean animation. My team included Amy, Alyssa, Shane and me. We decided to focus our research on the Korean animated film Red shoes and the seven Dwarfs.

We each took different aspects of the film to make research notes on.  Amy researched  the production and the distribution companies. Alyssa researched the budget, profit, and marketing of the film. Shane was to research the controversy that surrounded the film.

My Research notes were on the behind the scenes of the film.

Red shoe and the seven Dwarfs was produced by sides and which a production team of over 200 people, this film was the first 3D animated feature film to be created entirely by Korean animators and to be released in cinema world wide.

Screenplay and direction of the film was done by Director Sung Ho Hong.  The Animation director and character designer was Jin Kim who has worked on films like Moana, Frozen, Tangled and Big Hero 6 as well was many other projects over his 20 year career at Disney.

Writing credits go to

WoongSub Ahn(original story)

Sung-ho Hong(written by) (as SungHo Hong)

WooChul Jung (original story)

ChangWon Kim (original story)

Woo-seok Yang (original story)

Red shoe and the seven Dwarfs took 10 years to produce from synopsis to the end film.  It was released in South Korea in July 2019.   This was the first all Korean animation production from start to finish and as a result Locus Corporation often ran into technical difficulties as this was their first time doing things. They had to learn and fix mistakes along the way.  Doing things for the first time always is difficult.  It takes time and requires a lot of hard work. One wrongly drawn line can cause a lot of problems for someone else down the line so also matching voice dubbing to English was a challenge.  So, it did take a long time to produce.

Having to compete with well-established global studios makes the production environment in Korean difficult but since the release of this film, Locus Corporation are hopeful that all Korean animation will be ongoing.

Red Shoes and the Seven dwarfs was released world wide over the next two years either in theatres or online. It was released in the UK on the internet on 22nd June 2020 under the name Snow White and the Red Shoes.

.

Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs production and companies are:

• Locus Creative studios (Locus corporation)
• Warner Bros
• Sidus Pictures
• Next Entertainment World

We got together to design a poster to reflect our research.  Alyssa drew out a design plan/idea for the poster and gave it to me. (See Below)

I tried my best to stay loyal to the final design however, aour final poster design we settled on was a little different.

We though by doing this we could have each of our character have two speech bubbles talking about each of research notes.  We identified whose notes were who’s by making each a different colour.  Amy had a yellow speech bubble, Alyssa blue, Shane is lilac and I was red.

As Webtoon is very popular in Korea, we originally had the idea to make the poster look like a Webtoon.  However, in the end this is not what we achieved but it is in a comic style.

Once I received all the information from the other collaborators, I had the task of designing the poster.  Alyssa had a lot of input into the design and sent sketches of how she thought the poster should look.

Using InDesign, I assembled the poster trying to use the template provided by Alyssa.  I designed three versions of the poster and sent them to the others and the final poster presented is the one that everyone agreed was the best.

We had 3 poster designs to choose from but in the end we decided to go with there 3rd one.

1000 reflection

This semester we have looked at the World of Animation and in particular how editing, colour, sound/music and framing all contribute to enhancing the film and fully immersing the audience/viewer in the film in a holistic way.  Each week we learnt how a different aspect of film making helps to contribute to the overall immersive experience of watching a film to an audience.

For the first couple of weeks we had lectures to teach and highlight how we were going to go about analysing film. Week 1 we had an introduction to the module, where we learnt what the course entailed.

We watched 3 short films together as a class.  These were ‘Whiplash (2014) by Damien Chazelle, Isle of Dogs (2018) by Wes Anderson, and Sandman (1991) by Paul Berry.  These films are all very different genres and were shown them because of their differences and their ability to highlight how film techniques such as sound, colour, editing and framing all help tell the story.

During week 2 we had a lecture on cinematography & mise-en-scene.  Cinematography is art and technology behind film making.  This includes the use of lighting, camera settings, filters, blocking, dynamic angles, movement and colour and general composition of a scene.  Mine-en-scene is anything that is in front of the camera lens including the light, colour and actors too.  Cinematography and setting the scene are a vital part of film making and help the audience to fully engage themselves in the film and bring to life acting and words through the lens.  Cinematography allows the audience to understand their placement within the filmic world.

Over the course of week 3 we had a lectures on sound & editing. We learned about diegetic and non-diegetic sound.  Diegetic sound refers to sounds that exists within the film world’s logic.  It can be onscreen or happen off screen but always happens when the action takes place. Eg, when a bullet fires from a gun, you will hear the sound.  Non-diegetic sound  refers to sound that we as the audience can hear, but that is not taking place within the world of the  film itself, for example, background, scary music that alerts the audience that something is about to happen, but the character in the film would not be aware off.  We learnt about sound design, sound mixing, (theory of editing) classical continuity, soviet montage, (temporal logic) the logic of time and (continuity editing) intercutting and match-of action.  The use of sounds/music in crucial to the filmmaking process. All of these aforementioned techniques and strategies have a huge impact on the film’s audience as well as on the underlying storytelling of the film.

In week 4 we were placed into different groups for the assessment.   Our assignment was to produce a presentation to analyse an animated short film. This presentation was to be under 10 minutes and was to be done within a group setting. 

At first, I was worried to work in the group chosen for me as there was a high chance I’d would be working in a group with people I had yet to met. I was put into group 5 with Chris, Ellen and Zoe who I hadn’t met yet. However, once everyone had gotten into their groups and had a team building exercise within the class to help us to get used to working with each other, I felt more relaxed and comfortable and it was actually good to work with people I didn’t know. Once the team building was completed every group was then each assigned a short animated film to analyse. Group 5 were assigned the short film called ‘ Nodding off’.

After the class was over we all agreed to make a discord chat to later discuss how we were going to analyse our short animated film. The next day we quickly got around to sorting out everyone’s part in the group presentation. We decided to break the assignment into 4 areas with each of us to analyse a specific area.  The areas that we broke the film into were – colour/atmosphere, editing, sound and framing/camerawork. We  each picked one topic to make notes on. Chris did sound, Ellen did framing/camerawork, Zoe did editing and I did colour/atmosphere.

I enjoyed doing research on colour theory in film. I researched a few websites about colour theory and took down some notes.  I also watch several YouTube videos explaining colour theory.  This I found much easier to learn from as I am very dyslexic and it is easier to watch a video and learn than to read.  

My experience in working with Chris, Ellen and Zoe was very positive.   We all kept each other up to date and informed. This happened every time someone added or edited notes.  Everyone worked well together and pulled their own weight. I also felt that everyone had done a good amount of research and had a good understanding of what it was they were researching.  There is always room for improvement and If I was to do this again I would try to write more on atmosphere and how the colour impacts the viewer.