MIA

As I will be creating an animation for my final project, I researched how the industry creates animation. In this clip I learnt about techniques for when lip-syncing the characters, from my favourite seiyuu (voice actor) Crispin Freeman who voice acted the part of Alucard in my favourite anime Hellsing.

In this he explains how it’s all done post-prodcution so the actor/actress have to fit their voice to the lip sync and that there is no point having a person with a great voice but can’t fit their voice to the animation. This was very useful as I can take this into consideration and know what to look for and expect when creating my animation.

15th Nov 2011

I really like this clip becasue of the humour created by the Shuusuke ‘s reaction to reading BL/Boy’s love (Shonen Ai). I also like the use of music through out, especially in the romance scenes, the reactions of the the other people around the Shuusuke, and the use of dramatic camera angles like canted angles and changing the Shuusuke to chibi form to show his discomfort.

15th Nov 2011

I liked this video because of the use of low key lighting and the different exaggerated facial expressions and mouth positions in the lip sync to create humour

15th Nov 2011

I experimented with different colours that I could use for when colouring my animation

15th Nov 2011

Fish Tank Analysis

Andrea Arnold’s documentary-style, emotional-drama ‘fish tank’ follows the life of loner Mia, an emotionally introverted teenage girl, who lives with her single mum and precocious foul-mouthed little sister on an Essex estate in Tilbury. She is shown to have a passion for hip-hop dance as it is her release from the goings on at home, but when her mum brings home her new boyfriend Connor, Mia whole world changes.

In an interview at the film festival Cannes, Andrea revealed her ideas behind the strange title for the film. Notably she stated that there’s a lot of life in a fish tank and it’s a small space so she felt it was a good metaphor for the film.

The film initiates with a mid-shot showing Mia wearing a vest and a tracksuit doubled-over against a blue background with lots of light giving the impression that she is outside. This could have been used by Andrea to represent the title of the film – ‘fish tank’. She stands up straight. It then cuts to a shot showing the back of her, and then she walks forwards. In contrast with the earlier frame, the frame is very dark and you can just about pick out that she is standing in a small, empty abandoned room high up, over-looking the estates outside. This immediately sets the scene for the audience as they are aware that she is not only a teenager, due to her clothes, but she is also from a less privileged background. This is backed up with her accent when she leaves a message on her friends phone whom she calls a “bitch” shortly after.

The director reflects effective surface realism by using real locations and settings such as the council flats and the traveller site and showed the road signs. A hand held camera is used to give the effect that the film is happening in real life, giving it a documentary feel.

The inner emotional realism is relatively realistic with the outbursts of anger and passion Mia shows when in the beginning she fights with her mum because the police called after she broke the girl’s nose for what both Mia and the audience would agree was terrible dancing. she later swears at her mum for laughing at her dancing as well as her anger towards Conner when she finds out he has another family. However when she goes to Conner’s house and urinates on his carpet I thought it was very unrealistic because I was confused as to why she would do something like that. I felt it made the character of Mia completely unrealistic because it was a very vulgar gesture although it made me laugh. It left me wondering how someone could ever be angry enough to do that, and if was out of revenge, why did she not trash his house. I also felt this way about the kidnapping of Kiera. Although it was portrayed realistically, and was very shocking as to how kids could be swept up by strangers, I didn’t understand what purpose Mia had in kidnapping Connor’s daughter. At first I thought she was going to take her to her flat, but then I realised that would be pointless so for me, the story lost direction.

The narrative and plot of the film was plausible because you could look out of the window and actually see the story of Mia happen to anyone on any day unlike a fairytale.