Week 5 Post

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Caleb

Hello everyone,

Here are three looping videos that I found on YouTube for this week’s post.

This Minecraft loop incorporates sound alongside repeated visuals. The player/camera moves forward in an already visually perplexing environment as the screen is framed by different types of blocks each second or so. The sound of the loop is one that uses “Shepard’s Tone” to simulate an ever-decreasing sound. The editing of the sound and movement of the player/camera adds a rhythmic pattern to the loop. The video itself ends the loop by the player breaking a block which returns the loop back to the beginning. There is a slight moment where the editing from end to beginning seems just a hair off of perfection, but I believe this comes very close to nailing it.

This looping video contained some useful information regarding creating loops while being a loop itself. The difference here, however, is that this loop is cyclic. Rather than having repeated elements within a single loop, this video cycles its content once per loop and contains a lot of visual elements that could partially place it into a frantic category. The creator uses an audio cue at the end of the loop to cycle straight into the beginning and even includes a countdown to the loop restarting. They also edit the footage by cutting a single recording in half and then placing one half at the start and one at the end to simulate the video continuing after the loop begins.

In this video, we see the creator interact with themselves to create a loop. I find videos that duplicate the creator to be very interesting and clever video editing. They had to record both of these instances and then combine the footage by either layering or resizing the footage to match up. The audio is important as well, the space between responses seems reasonable and the loop transition is barely noticeable. Another cyclic example as the previous but with less elements and a more simplistic concept. The creator also made sure to follow with their eyes the location of their duplicate to add to the illusion.

Thanks for reading!

-Caleb

Brumes d’automne Blog Post (Week 3)

Andrew Higgins

Personally, I did not fully understand what the film was trying to say with the editing and montage, but I did get the sense that it was supposed to invoke feelings of longing, sadness, passion, etc. When she reads the letter, we see that she is affected in some way, but I was not sure of the contents of the letter until Will told us in class that is was her lover breaking up with her.

The scenes of the lake and fog definitely feel like sadness, but I didn’t get the feeling of nature ‘losing its density and unity’ like the director had stated.

McCloud “Time Frames”

Courtney Minden

While comics and cinema are two different forms of storytelling, there are some areas where their expressions can look similar to one another just like how time interacts. This could be how the characters are arranged within a comic to how the shots in a cinema are organized for fluidity. However, the time in comics and cinema are seen differently.

Let’s say that someone wanted to change this small snippet from McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” strips for an example into a movie scene. In this comic example, time is measured through the size of the frames. The side panels are seen as shorter to represent a smaller amount of time passing while the longer panel is seen to represent a longer amount of time passing. Now, if this were within a movie, the side panels would be seen as a few seconds of the individuals speaking their lines. As for the longer panel, it would be translated into a long shot of the man just sitting there thinking to address time.

Now, how about turning a cinema into a comic. One of my favorite childhood movies was “Home Alone” with the battle plan being my favorite part of the movie. In “Home Alone” during the preparation sequence, Kevin is seen setting up different areas of the house with traps before the Wet Bandits come. If this scene was a comic strip, the traps would be seen in different panels.

Home Alone hit theaters 25 years ago. Here's how they filmed its bonkers finale.

Comics use their panels by size or order to help explain time while cinema must use shot duration or shot placement to explain time. Even though they have different ways of telling time, they still use these methods to tell their stories.

Time Frames

gkipp23

McCloud presents a lot that is both intensely, exclusively staked in the medium of comics, but almost equally ideas that translate to cinema. As McCloud says, comics readers are conditioned through Western media conventions to expect linear progression- the same is true of film. If you’re breaking the natural chronology of things than you must strictly communicate that through visual technique (as we discussed via Run Lola Run). 

I think McCloud’s ideas surrounding ambiguous duration can also be applied here. A single panel of two men staring at each other in a courtyard- with no dialogue it’s entirely contingent on surrounding panels to imply how long this panel lasts. The same is true of replicating this panel in a cinematic shot- If we cut to different locations on either side of it, than the true duration of the image we’re seeing is entirely ambiguous. If we are cutting to close shots of dialogue from either men, than we might interpret that intermediary shot as a more literal rendering of the lapsed time; The idea of dilating time with the camera and with comic panels are entwined in ways like this. 

McCloud writes that “Time and space are one and the same,” and in the manner that he elaborates on this, it is equally applicable to film. Every cut is illusory and veils the passage of time, the mutation of space. The first step in utilizing this is being conscious of that inherent power of cutting that we often take at face value. 

Time Frames by Scott McCloud

Mailei

It’s fascinating how you can simulate the progression of time simply through the format in which you convey it. Comics are very different from video, but some things still hold true no matter the medium. For example, lengthening or shortening a shot can give the illusion of slower or faster time, just by increasing or decreasing the focus or even simply changing the dimensions of that focus.

As someone who enjoys creative writing, this is a practice conveyed in the written form too. In order to simulate pacing or progression of time, you can enhance or detract focus on something. If I spend two paragraphs talking about the ticking of a clock within the span of a minute, that minute will feel a lot longer than if I only wrote “a minute passed”.

The reason for this is that by affecting the pacing at which our audience perceives a narrative, we are able to control their perspective on the passage of time within that narrative itself. McCloud discusses numerous ways to achieve that effect – adjusting the dimensions of a panel, adjusting the gutter, arranging the placement of dialogue or lack thereof, the actions and detail of a sequence, and the detail at which that sequence is articulated. And although a film doesn’t have things like panels and gutters, we do have frames, shots, sound design, and other such audio-visual effects at our disposal to emphasize the level of focus and attention brought to a specific moment in time.

Break Space Video

Courtney Minden

For my break space video, I decided to do a somewhat thought process and emotion kind of style with me going back and forth between by dog and my homework. I tried to keep the duration less than 2 seconds for each clip. Well, here is the final product.

Week 4 Blog – Jackson

Jackson

When reading this short comic strip about Time Frames by Scott McCloud all I could think about was the translation of said comics, or manga, to animation and sometimes, rarely, film/live action.

The whole concept of time and sound wasn’t something you would think of in the moment but would understand subconsciously. Yet through the description and examples that McCloud gives, you can clearly understand more how some talented animators and directors can translate those action lines and blurs into amazing shots. Take simple frames like this that show motion and actually portray that motion well.

Here is some other examples of motion done in comics/manga that were translated to animation.

There was able the talk of space and its use to portray time as well. An iconic shot and panel in a manga that I think about when reading that section was this:

This single drawing took up the full two pages of the book and I think is a perfect depiction of what McCloud was talking about. A  scene where it goes outside the bounds of the page to show how massive and how much time it should take up. As when this was animated, it went on for several seconds.

A director that I think uses the essence of time and cutting to its fullest advantage is Edgar Wright. Many of his movies feel like they are ripped right out of a comic or storyboard. Every second is intentional and matches the beat of each sound perfectly. He is a master of montages and the use of time and direction in them. Here is a quick video to show his skill: