Category: Design for narrative structure, film language and animation

Topic: How Shin’ichiro Watanabe makes animation with multiculturalism ———The Case of <Cowboy Bebop> and <Samurai Champloo>

Audio-visual presentation:

Presentation Powerpoint

Research topics:

1. How Japanese animation has been impacted by foreign cultures (analysis of Watanabe Shin’ichirō’s trilogy as an example) (mainly Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop )
2. An analysis of why the Joker is held in high esteem as a villainous character

• Areas for research.

I will focus on how Watanabe Shin’ichirō blends the different cultural traits of East and West into his own unique style of animation creation.

• How this relates to design for animation.

Analysing the film and visual style of such a distinctive animation director could help to provide creators with ideas for their own productions.

• Things to look out for and what to pay close attention to

I will probably devote some content to the period in which he created his works, and then analyse some of his scripts and animation techniques in terms of film language.

• Narrative structure

What I think is most worth analysing about his narrative is how he uses stories of Eastern philosophical thinking to reflect traditional Western values. (Like Feminism, Liberalism)

• Use of film language in research

One of the most rewarding aspects of his creation is his blend of movement and background music, which often makes the character’s fighting movements as graceful as dance and his choice of background music is very reminiscent of the character’s state of being.

Disney Animation

The artistic style of Disney’s animated films includes: mainly drama, storyline twists, distinctive characters, vivid and exaggerated action, beautiful music and suitable for the aesthetic taste of most audiences. In terms of scripts content, Disney tends to depict gorgeous dreamscapes with a focus on children’s feelings.

• Disney animation conveys the love of different races, the harmony between man and nature, and the love between men and women, giving children an earlier sense of some philosophical truths and humanistic concerns. The humor, enthusiasm, childishness and playful spirit embodied in the animation are precisely what satisfies this psychology of adults, giving them an energetic and optimistic mindset.
• Disney animation is characterized by a strong sense of humor and entertainment, with both early modern and serious witty productions bringing the audience into a light-hearted and humorous environment.
• Disney animation also has a strong traditional familyism to it. <Finding Nemo> is a story of a single father who tries everything to find his lost son, and <The Incredibles> is not about Superman saving the world, but about how families should stick together, overcome obstacles and love each other. “Family” is almost the core theme of American cartoons.
• Disney animation attaches great importance to personal values, affection, the environment and the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature, and it makes this American spirit, the American mindset and values to the widest extent and can be well integrated into the entertainment of cartoons, which is recognized by animation audiences all over the world and thus becomes popular worldwide.

<Lotus Lantern>

An animation film produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1999, this film is based on the Chinese myth of the same name.

• Story line

It was originally forbidden for a heavenly god to fall in love with a mortal. However, the Three Saints’ Mother in the Heavenly Palace was determined to fall in love with Liu Yanchang, a scholar on earth. Despite the objections of Erlang Shen, the Three Saints’ Mother took her divine weapon, the Lotus Lantern, to the mortal world and married Liu Yanchang, giving birth to a son named Chen Xiang. The seven years of peace and happiness soon passed, but one day Erlang Shen suddenly came down to earth and threatened her with the precious lotus lantern and was crushed under Mount Hua. A beautiful family is shattered. Chen Xiang learns of his origins from the God of the Land and sets out on a difficult journey to find his mother in order to retrieve the lantern and save her. After years of trials and tribulations, Chen Xiang grows up to be a brave young man, and with the guidance of Monkey Sun, he acquires a divine axe. In the end, lotus lantern and Chen Xiang become one, defeating Erlang Shen, splitting Mount Hua and rescuing his mother.

• Similarities

In terms of the story script, although the film is based on traditional Chinese mythology, it encourages individual thought and will, such as the Three Saints’ Mother who bravely pursued her true love because she loved Liu Yanchang so much that she defied the rules of heaven. This is similar to Disney’s emphasis on personal values. Chen Xiang’s struggle to defeat Erlang Shen to save his mother after being separated from her, and Monkey Sun’s willingness to help Chen Xiang even though he is an outsider because of his origins, all stem from the human heart’s love for his mother, which is also highly compatible with Disney’s strong family values. From the point of view of character performances, this is the first fully commercial animated film from Shanghai Animation Film Studio, and they refer to a lot of Disney’s performance style to make each character’s personality distinct through their acting. Monkey Sun’s performance is more smooth and humorous, highlighting the monkey’s spirited and quirky symbolism. Erlang Shen, the villain of the film, is given a relatively small range of movement by his creators, in an attempt to show as much of the maturity and arrogance of Erlang Shen’s character as possible.

Notes for this week

3 Golden Rules of editing

• Editing should remain invisible to the eye, only the effect is to be experienced – the best cut is the one you do not see
• The storyteller should never let the audience get ahead of them – less is more
• The audience has to be a participant, not just a spectator

Continuity

• Graphic relations
• Rhythmic relations
• Spatial relations
• Temporal relations

Continuity Editing

• Spatial continuity
• Temporal continuity

• Take 2 films you enjoy and break down the character development and story development throughout the film:
• Analyses how the main characters evolve
• Analyses how the characters drive the story
• If there are similarities between your films point this out and why you think they are following a similar structure if so.

<Good Hunting>

This short animation film is episode 8th of < Love, Death and Robots> , and the narrative could be separated into 2 parts: the ancient age of magic and the modern age of technology.

The protagonist is Liang, a man who is curious about the unknown and willing to take on new things and dig into them. The first part is happened on ancient times still filled with the power of magic. Liang follows his father to catch a Hulijing, and on the way he meets Yan, a young Hulijing and he has been with her ever since. As time passed, and at the same time as technology advanced by leaps and bounds magic was disappearing, and gradually Yan lost the magic to transform into a fox. However Liang is brave enough to embrace the great changes in technology, and he begins to learn about steam engines and mechanical construction, and to create small animals that are given life by technology and mechanical. In the end, Liang gives Yan also regains her magic-age powers through the power of machinery —– turning into a mechanical Hulijing and starting her hunting at night.

The whole story evolves with the changing times and the growth of the main character and it’s a liner narrative. The main character Liang moves the narrative from indecision about the whole macrocosmic era to a later glad acceptance. At the first, due to his father’s admonition, Liang was always wary of Hulijing and curious as a teenager. It wasn’t until he met Yan and realised that hulijing wasn’t essentially trying to harm people that he began his change and was willing to support Yan as an exorcist. Then in the great age of technological advancement, he began to abandon his old knowledge of exorcism and began to learn about scientific mechanics, and he began his change again to drive the whole story forward to the second part. Yan lost her powers in the new era, Liang sets out to help Yan transform her body to make her a hunter again. From the view of the old age, Liang has done something unbecoming of an exorcist. But from the second part of the new era, the old time demons have become capitalists and colonists, and Liang is still holding on to his beliefs in his own way.

<Zima Blue>

This short animation film is episode 14th of < Love, Death and Robots> and it mainly talked about the renowned artist Zima recounts his mysterious past and rise to fame before unveiling his final work.

The story begins with a journalist named Claire who on her way to visit Zima, tells how his work became famous and his signature technique ‘zima blue’. ‘Zima blue’ is a colour that is difficult to describe precisely and Zima would always add this shade of blue shadow to his huge artworks. When she met Zima, Zima wanted her to help himself spread the truest story about Zima to the public. Zima told Clare  he paid a visit to a planet called Kharkov 8. There he underwent a physical transformation of the human body to the extent that it gave him god-like powers, he could breath without oxygen, he could physically withstand any environmental condition without protection and so much. From that moment he began to ponder the truth of the universe. He travelled through it and finally understood that it spoke a truth that even his great artworks could not express.

At this point Zima takes Claire to an excavated swimming pool at the construction site which is his final work. He claimed that this was his quest for the truth about the universe and that he was not a man who had been transformed into a machine. He was invented a long time ago by a young inventor to clean his family’s swimming pool. The inventor created many robots but his favorite was this swimming pool cleaning robot. Out of interest, the inventor experimented with further modifications until the robot became fully autonomous. After the death of the inventor, he was passed on to a number of people and eventually became Zima after many modifications and upgrades. The pool in front of her was where Zima had first worked, and Claire understood that the inspiration for ‘Zima blue’ had come from the pool tiles Zima had seen before.

At the end of the night, the stage was filled with spectators, Zima switched off his brain control system in front of the public and dismantled himself step by step in the water until the original robot reappeared and started his original job. This is the truth of Zima’s exploration of the universe, the artist’s evolution from humble origins as a pool washer. In this way, he claims, he can appreciate his surroundings so that he can experience the satisfaction of a job well done. Zima Blue’s quest for the truth is finally over. “He’s going home”.

This impressive short film is told in interstitial narrative, the author pieced together a complete story of Zima through Claire’s recollections and Zima’s own recollections. Because of the different people recalled before and after, the viewer is always left wondering about the image of Zima, which can give a sense of contrast to the whole narrative.

Notes for this week

Things need to keep in mind:

• A good story need to be read, engage and surprise.
• Structure and treatment of the production needs to be the backbone of storytelling. They are the means conveying the story to the audience.
• The design, movement, staging and performance of the characters should drive the narrative.
• It is important to relate a universally experience to the character or story development so that the audience will immediately associate with those characters and their dilemma.

Character Weakness

1. Psychological – A weakness that only affect the hero
2. Moral – A weakness that immorally hurts the characters surrounding the hero

• Hero always has both moral weakness and psychological weakness.
• The weaknesses hero encountered need others to exist to be weaknesses such as prejudice, impatience, greed, pride, and dishonesty. Because it’s easy to create both moral and psychological need for the character.
• Make sure at least one other character is harmed by the protagonist weakness so that the audience will notice that weakness.
• It is necessary to enable the audience to pick up the lessons that embedded within the story on the audience own. It is not advisable to make the audience feel strongly preachy.

Film analysis———<Ash is Purest White>

<Ash is Purest White> a film directed by Zhangke Jia, 2018

Story Arc Breakdown

• You——-a character is in a zone of comfort

Qiaoqiao is the lover of Bingbing (the head of the local underworld), so that she has always been Bingbing’s good assistant and got along extremely well with Bingbing’s brother. She has always believed that Bingbing’s worldview that the world is based on righteousness and always defend the justice in his heart, even if using violence.

• Need——-They want something

She has always hoped to build a family with Bingbing and stay together forever. But Bingbing as the gang leader, he is worried that he will put Qiaoqiao in a dangerous situation so he has not promised Qiaoqiao.

• Go——-they enter an unfamiliar situation

Once they run to a party together, they are attacked by a group of hooligans driving motorbikes on the way. Bingbing has no other helpers around and is beaten up and bleeding. Qiaoqiao picked up and fired a shot, scaring everyone away. After that, Qiaoqiao goes to jail and loses the man who meant the most to her.

• Search——-Adapt to it

In prison, Qiaoqiao’s most precious years of youth were lost and she aged rapidly. But Bin Bin never visited her once. Five years passed, and after her release from prison, Qiaoqiao found that the whole world had changed forever, but the only thing that remained the same was her sincere feelings for Bingbing. When she heard that Bingbing was in Chongqing, Qiaoqiao went to look for him. During the journey, Qiaoqiao still believes in the worldview that Bingbing used to believe in in the old days and uses it to support her in her quest to find Bingbing.

• Find——-get what they wanted

When Qiaoqiao finally finds Bingbing, who by now has a new girlfriend, Qiaoqiao’s persistence over the past ten years or so finally caves in. Penniless Qiaoqiao relies on her own survival wits to fend for herself and prepares to return home to continue her small business.

• Take——-pay a heavy price for it

On the return train, Qiaoqiao meets a man from Xinjiang who falls in love with Qiaoqiao at first sight and manages to attract her, but when he hears that Qiaoqiao has just been released from prison, he pays little attention to her. Qiaoqiao gets off the train and heads back to her hometown.

• Return——-then return to their familiar situation

Meanwhile Bingbing is left with a permanent disability in the lower half of her body due to cerebral palsy caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Qiaoqiao picks up Bingbing and they live together again but after everything they’ve been through, they don’t have the same relationship as before.

• Change——-having changes

The world has changed, Bingbing’s former minions are all doing well, some give him respects, more do not and give him a hard time. Only Qiaoqiao is unfailingly loyal to him, pushing him around and giving Bingbing respect in front of the others. One day, Bingbing found he could stand up. He sent a message to Qiaoqiao and left on his own.

Characters Archetypes Breakdown

• Hero

Qiaoqiao is the hero of this film, no matter how things and people around her change, she is always alone in her belief in her original values and can still face and accept her future life with grace after the betrayal of Bing Bing and the way people around her treat her. The film revolves around righteousness, but only Qiaoqiao holds on to this belief throughout. When she sees the distressed Bingbing, she chooses to accept him and show him respect and at this point she is more like the Bingbing of old.

• Mentor
• Threshold Guardian
• Herald
• Shapeshifter
• Shadow
• Trickster
• Allies(sidekicks)

Notes for this week

Three kinds of story curves by Kurt Vonnegut:

1. A protagonist who lives better than the average person encountered a predicament, he broke free from the predicament, and finally got something better than the original.
2. An ordinary person encountered a good thing, but then encountered a predicament. After he solved the problem, things changed for the better.
3. A person with a bad life encounters many good things at different stages, everything seems to be getting better, suddenly encounters a predicament, and then becomes better again.

Story Arc

1. Exposition: Introduction of setting, characters, problems.
2. Rising action: Characters struggling with problems
3. Climax: Tense moment of crisis.
4. Falling action: Movement toward an ending.
5. Resolution: Final outcome.

Story Circle

1. You: A character is in a zone of comfort.
2. Need: They want something.
3. Go: They enter an unfamiliar situation.
4. Search: Adapt to it.
5. Find: Get what they wanted.
6. Take: Pay a heavy price for it.
7. Return: Then return to their familiar situation.
8. Change: Having change.

Terminologies and definitions Character types

• Protagonist: Main character, the hero or story driver (good or bad).
• Antagonist/s: Stand against/challenge the protagonist but can have something to learn or redeem.

• Dynamic: Experiences inner growth/ change and learns.
• Static: No growth or change, repeats actions no lessons learnt.
• Round: Developed, understood, life like, deep relatability.
• Flat: Undeveloped, one dimensional, minimum insight.

Research Activity 1

• Settings & Props

Firstly we could clearly find out that the whole scene was set in a chemistry or biology lab because of these test tubes containing reagents of various colors，and it also reveal to the audience that the identity of the character in the play would be a teacher, student who major in chemistry or biology because of the class information was put on the door in the beginning.

• Costume, Hair & Make Up

The fox who always foucused on his experiment always wearing a bright color uniform all over besides he put a white cover outside of the uniform. Although he was wearing bright color clothes all over, he still did not get any stains during the experiments. It tells audience he is a reliable person and got enough patience furthermore he should did well on his experiment. All of these facts make enough contrast to other 2 characters the female fox dressing casually shows she was careless and the other one wearing a T-shirt was same.

• Facial Expressions & Body Language

• Lighting and Colour

First it would be natural lighting and the main color is a warm color with mainly orange, and the main character wearing a more cold color uniform, this setting highlight his action.

• Positioning of characters/objects within the frame

This is a parallel composition. The fox doing his experiment stand on one side another two characters share another side both. This is a good for the narrative, because of that it is equivalent to telling the audience that he has a dominant position in the narrative of this scene.

• What role does the shot choice (Cinematography) play in the scene.

It is a mid-shot could show the character’s actions in the scene.

Research Activity 2

• The mise-en-scene in this picture

From the neat white quilt and the small stall at the end of the bed, it can be seen that this scene should take place in a hotel. The men and the women lie on both sides of the middle line of the screen. The creator should want to break this absolute balance of the middle composition, so deliberately lift the quilt on one side to break the middle line of the frame, increasing the story of the frame and creating a sense of anxiety. Besides the light of this frame uses warm colors, the overall brightness and purity are not high, but it brings a sense of strangeness.

• The characters placed in the frame

The arms of both of them are embracing, which is an insecure posture. Although the man only slightly completely completes his left hand, this is still enough to reflect the guard mood of the two.

Research Activity 3

• Can you describe the relationship between the characters?

The relationship between hostess and housekeeper. The lefthand side women is the hostess, another side women is the housekeeper.

• How do we know what the relationship is?

The woman on the left is more relaxed and leisurely, and her expressions and movements give people a sense of unfettered freedom in this environment. On the contrary, the color of the woman on the right is monotonous and solemn. She should be wearing uniforms and her hands clasped on her chest. It could be found that she should be working in a polite manner.

• Can you describe how the mise-en-scene works together to tell us what the relationship is?

On the side of the hostess, the lighting of the whole scene is much more brighter, and her dressing set off the innocence and kindness of the hostess. The scene on the side of the housekeeper is dark, and the housekeeper’s black uniform also blends her silhouette with the dim background, symbolizing the darkness of the housekeeper’s soul. The two formed a sharp contrast and laid the groundwork for the conflict.

Research Activity 4

• Can you describe the mise-en-scene in this picture?

This frame is based on central composition. The girl is in the center of the frame and vision, and the surrounding scenes fade away behind the girl. The overall tone is cold although there are more warm colors in the scene because of that the purity of the colors is not high, but the colors on the girl have deliberately increased the purity, which could more highlight the protagonist and attract the attention of the audience. The girl’s movements seemed to indicate that she wanted to hide something, perhaps her identity or her face.

• What type of shot is it?

Mid-shot.

• What is the camera angle?

The angle would be eye level.

• Where is the character located in the frame?

She stands in the mid of this frame

• What is she wearing?

Brown robe and red headscarf.

• What is the depth-of-field?

Deep focus.

• Describe the colour palette?

The overall tone is cold although there are more warm colors in the scene because of that the purity of the colors is not high, but the colors on the girl have deliberately increased the purity, which could more highlight the protagonist and attract the attention of the audience.

• Describe the lighting?

It’s more like high key lighting. The whole scene is bright but cold, and maybe uses more filler lights to form the dark side of the girl’s face, she does not want to be discovered.

Notes for this week

The elements of Mise-en-Scène

• Setting & props
  • Build from scratch or find a setting which already exists.
• Costume, Hair & Make Up
  • As an instant indicator to audience of a character’s personality, status and job.
• Facial Expressions & Body Language
  • Provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling/ reflect the state of relationship.
• Lighting and Colour
  • Different lighting to achieve different effects. Relate with the colour of emotion.
• Positioning of characters/objects within the frame
  • Draw audience’s attention to the important object/ indicate relationship.

Politics And Persuasion In Entertainment

The center of popular culture research is the media, and the first of which is film and television. Film and television integrate audiovisual means, and convey information through images, pictures, sounds, subtitles, and special effects, giving the audience a strong sense of presence, witnessing and impact. These media characteristics make film and television more attractive than print media, and the convenience, ease and casual charm of viewing is unique. It is not only a window for people to understand and recognize the world, and a means to obtain news and information from the outside world, but also a major provider of rich cultural life and entertainment. The emergence of film and television has prolonged people’s daily exposure to the media several times. Watching film and television has become the main content of the public’s amateur life, and people have gradually been regarded as the prison of film and television images. This has not only greatly changed people’s lives, but also exerted extensive and profound influences on the political, economic, and cultural aspects of modern society.

Q：Use the remainder of the session to research examples of politics affecting media in one or more of the following media.

A：< A Clockwork Orange> which made by Stanley Kubrick on 1971.

This is a film that explores humanbeing and thinks about the human growth. The story takes place in the 70s, and the whole story revolves around Alex. From the beginning, the main actor is in the most primitive and self-conscious state, such as drinking milk with added drugs, rape, promiscuity, fighting, and a series of crimes. After that the thing developed to Alex is sentenced to imprisonment for manslaughter. During his imprisonment, the priest begin to guide him for treatment to read the Bible, and Alex do quickly starts to change into a good person. Soon the government tell him that he could be released from prison faster after accepting the experiment, and Alex who had already begun to change, couldn’t wait to accept it. As a result, the staff begin to treat him with brutal and cruel treatments day after day, such as injecting drugs, being forced to watch violent and pornographic videos repeatedly, etc. These barbaric treatments have had a serious impact on Alex. From then on, as long as he has thoughts of aggression or sexual desire, he will cover nausea and fear. He has become a good person, but in fact he should have become a cowardly good person. He has lost the most basic choice of mankind.

The film caused great controversy, and different views on the large number of violent scenes in the film. Critics believe that this is a beautification of violence. In fact, it is true. However, we cannot conclude that it is wrong or incorrect just because it is violence. We appreciate violent movies, isn’t it just for our inner violent impulse. Moreover, the violence in the film just reflects Alex’s inability to choose in the first stage and is completely driven by nature. At the same time, it also triggered political thinking, whether it is worse for people who commit violence or the governments and the high class to make ordinary people into robot-like. And they do really have the power to determine a person’s power to choose.

Notes for this week

Audiences can be persuaded or influenced by:

• Social media
• Broadcast News and events
• Film and Animation
• Television

Audience can be potentially persuaded or influenced by:

• Broadcasts
• Print Media
• Mainstream Film and Animation
• Independent film and animation
• Games
• Podcasts
• Social media / internet profile

The key areas

• Political persuasion
• Commercial persuasion
• Race
• Gender
• Equality
• Disability
• Ethics

Gesture and pose

• Large eyes are appeal.
• Exaggeration needs to be fully interpreted.
• Fluidity is important.
• Remember creating curve to avoid stiff posing.

My understanding of the history of film, animation and VFX

The development of VFX technology or other new media technologies for example VR and AR cannot completely replace the charm of traditional film language. The language of film has developed for hundreds years, obviously the creators have developed a enough mature and systematic film language to convey the script to the audience. These can be clearly reflected in two points on the storyboard and editing. <Justic League(2017)> which film had extreme use of CGI which made it look too much fake and break the story line and rules somewhere. But things become different when the version of Zack Snyder final cut was published, audience’s comments suddenly reversed. The secrets of it is that Zack Snyder put the storyboard more closer to the original script and redesignd some cuts to resonate with the audience. Besides he deliberately deleted or adjusted some excessively gorgeous special effects, so that the audience’s attention was always focused on the storyline. So that I could have a conclusion too much VFX or other trendy technologies would assist the creator to better produce gorgeous shots, but the core of film and animation creation is always surrounded by the script and film language.

Timeline of film

• 1895, Moving pictures projected onto a big screen.
• 1877, Eadweard Muybridge set up a camera system to take a series of pictures of horses in motion for his bet. It’s the basis of film.
• 1891, Thomas Edison had perfected the Kinetoscope.
• 1892, Emile Reynaud projected the first animated film on his Kinetoscope.
• 1890s, Serpentine dance becoming early film because there was no cinema.
• 1895, Robert W. Paul and Bert Akers had invented the first British 35 millimeter camera
• December 28th 1895, Lumiere brothers demonstrated their invention of motion pictures in Paris. It includes scenes of people coming out and a train coming. Just simple shots.
• February 21th 1896, Robert W. Paul demonstrated his projector the theatre graph. Also Lumiere system was displayed in London.
• June 1896, The Derby, one of the earliest examples of newsreel by Robert W. Paul’s Kinetoscopes.
• George Méliès – One of the first filmmakers to use special effects.
• 1893, Thomas Edison constructed the world’s first film production studio, the Black Maria.
• 1896 or 1897, Alice Guy-Blaché began making films for Gaumont
• 1897, George Méliès built the world’s first film studio in Montreuil made entirely of glass walls and ceilings. (According to the YouTube video ‘BBC Paul Mertons Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema.’)
• 1900, George Smith showed close up for the first time in film.
• 1901, James Williamson The Big Swallow using extreme close-up. He developed multi shot films and cutaways.
• 1902, La gallina misteriosa (Pathé Frères, 1902) A chicken-and-egg comedy about what came first.
• 1903, George Smith used close-ups to highlight the personalities of the characters and fades out to show the transition from dream to reality.
• 1905, People are wooden and curious when they reaction to the camera for the first time recorded by Alice Guy-Blaché.
• 1900s, André Deed, the first comic star in cinema. He had strong personality.
• 1902, A trip to the moon is one of the most famous films at the time. The first ever worldwide success in fiction film.
• 1911, Max Linder, the most popular comedian in the world. His comic creation of the coat was remembered by other comedians.
• 1917, the First World War caused Max Linder depression because he narrowly escaped death.
• 1918, Hollywood took over as the leader of world cinema the end of the First World War. The language of cinema was already fully formed.
• 1923, Pathé was able to take over Star Films and the Montreuil studio. George Méliès burned 500 negatives of all his films.
• 1925, Max Linder committed suicide.