MA 3D Computer Animation

Final project direction

In the beginning, the project I was hesitant to make was stone, which was a story version I had drawn a long time ago, but never got around to making it. It’s a story that I love so much that I want to try and make it and finish it.

However, I think maybe the main character of this project is too simple. I’m afraid the overall effect is not good. Therefore, I gave up on this project.

I wanted to make a project that might be more technically challenging, so I chose to continue to make and modify the project proposal “Robbing” of last semester.

I have a detailed story in mind for this project, but I don’t have enough time to draw the storyboard. I will elaborate on the detailed story in next week’s blog.

Design and make character models

Reference and inspiration for the character design：

I like characters with personalities and independence. The heroine is a more neutral character. So when I design and make characters, I tend to look for independent, cool references.

These reference images are mainly used to reference the costume and avatar designs of the characters

This picture inspires me a lot. This image is the best reference for my character.

These references were enough for me to determine the initial direction of my character design, so I drew and made the initial character design. And use this character design as a poster of capturing the character. Poster design of the government hunting the protagonist:

The heroine was a famous thief who stole the wealth of various officials of the Jin State to help the people displaced by the war when the Jin State invaded the Northern Song. This poster, to introduce the character’s background, shows that she is a notorious bandit in the Kingdom of Jin. She was in danger of arrest at any moment.

As for the modeling, I have made at least 29 versions:

The making and calcuating the movement of clothes

As you can see, I made some changes to the clothes. The top of the character was originally a cape-like design, but I didn’t think the cape looked good and interfered with the character’s movement and performance, so I removed the cape. In several scenes, the character walked in the dark. In order to make the audience easily recognize the movement of the character in the dark, I matched her collar and belt with bright red.

Front and rear views of the model-The first edition:

After modifying the video model display-The final edition:

The clothes were made in Maya, and I was trying to make the characters look more alive, so I decided to calculate the clothes’ movement in Maya for the characters. This is a way to calculate the character’s clothes movement that I knew about it but had not yet tried to apply to my project. It is the first time I try to do it. In that sense, I feel it could be a new journey and challenge for me.

This is the fabric and the being bumped object in the Maya outline window:

This is the effect of fabric movement calculation in real-time when the character is moving:

The calculation of the fabric movement of the character is possible in Maya. But when the character has very intense movements and huge movements, I have to give up the fabric calculation for a while. Because the original rigging is more appropriate for intense motion shots.

Given the limited time and schedule, nothing is ever going to be perfect, and doing fabric calculation is not the main goal of my entire project, so I won’t spend too much time on this upper part. At least, at the moment the character’s clothes movement looks good to me at the moment.

Rigging and painting weight of each part:

I worked hard on the modeling and rigging. At beginning, I had a lot of problems with rigging, like weird weight distribution.
Finally, all problems are solved by drawing the weight of each part of the character over and over again.

I modelled in Maya and rigged using advanced skeletons, which I thought was an effective rigging way for my project. I also added extra bindings and bone controllers for the character’s hair.

至于绑定，我至少做了12个版本：

Map design of the two countries:

The Basic Elements of Audiovisual Language

To master the craft of film, learning the language of film is the first step, just as you want to understand a culture, the best way is to learn its language. In the Principle of Art, Collingwood says that if art has the characteristics of ideography and imagination, then art must be language. Compared to painting, the language of art is color, line and composition. The language of dance art is movement and music. The language of film art is audiovisual language. Audiovisual language takes audiovisual elements as the carrier to convey and receive information. Communicate and exchange ideas. To put it simply, it is the rules and techniques of lens use, picture editing, sound and picture combination in film creation. Audiovisual language is the beginning course of learning film creation. Not only can direct the scriptwriter, photography, editing of the various workflow. It also gives us the perspective of the creator before the screen. Although film integrates literature, photography, music and other artistic categories, audiovisual language has a completely different way of expression. Its verisimilitude and illusion. The images depicted by audiovisual language must be concrete, not abstract. The image of the face, let the audience instantly get a vivid impression. As is often said in literature, a thousand readers make a thousand Hamlets. The images presented in the film are accurate and realistic. Re-create without audience participation. This realistic representation of reality on the screen reflects the creator’s deep understanding of the real world and the ability to recreate time and space. It gives the audience the pleasure of controlling time and space. Different films have very different image and sound textures. This texture is based on the accurate grasp of light and shade, color, sound. A realistic recreation of reality. Arouse the audience’s daily perceptual experience, so as to convey accurate and rich information. However, if the details are ignored, such as awkward lines, suffocating acting, traversing props, cheap special effects and piercing shots, the illusion of reality carefully created by the film can be instantly broken. Let the audience play. Illusion and verisimilitude are like two sides of a coin. The pursuit of verisimilitude is to create the illusion of the screen world. By creating the illusion of three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional screen. It looks real but it’s not. Motor hallucinations and stereoscopic hallucinations are the most essential hallucinations. When the external stimulus stops acting, it can be retained temporarily for a while but feel. This is called a sensory afterimage. All kinds of sensory organs can produce sensory afterimage. Specifically to the visual is the visual afterimage. It can produce both positive and negative afterimages. The positive and posterior images can produce visual retention phenomenon. It means that an image can remain in the vision for more than 0.1 seconds after it disappears from the field of vision. Another cause of hallucination is simulacry. It refers to the phenomenon that objects that have not been displaced in space are perceived as moving by the audience. Like two flickering points of light on the screen. It looks like a single photoelectric, moving back and forth between the two positions, giving the viewer a sense of the depth of space in a two-dimensional plane. It is because the audience makes psychological compensation for what they see based on their daily life experience. For example, the perspective generated by the near large and far small, the object occlusion produces the front and back layers, and the depth layers generated by the air scattering. Motion parallax of a moving object and so on. In addition, modern film and television production, the use of stereo, surround sound. The illusion of space shaped by sound. It also gives the audience a realistic sense of presence. Using the illusion of images, audiovisual language can guide the audience to imagine, transform abstract concepts into visible images, and complete the narrative and performance. For example, the psychological distance is implied by the scene of the lens. The position of the characters is implied through the Angle of the shot, and the editing uses the technique of montage to combine the shots. Through the juxtaposition of a series of images, the illusion is generated between the shots, suggesting a deeper meaning. Understanding audiovisual language requires little learning because it evokes the most basic physical and psychological feelings. However, the freedom of expression in audiovisual language is a lifelong pursuit of many directors.

The basic elements of audiovisual language

What are the basic elements of audiovisual language? What are the ways we can analyze them? In analyzing the audiovisual language of film,

Usually the lens is the most basic unit. The word lens refers to different concepts in different contexts. A shot is what the camera takes from the time it starts shooting to the time it shuts down. You end up with raw, uncut footage. The cinematographer would refer to the shooting script and storyboard written by the director. The so-called shot in the clip refers to a piece of footage between two clip points. We understand audiovisual language from the perspective of the audience. The so-called shot here is the finished shot, that is, the frame between the two editing points. The camera position is the position of the camera. If the path of the camera position is drawn in the scene diagram, the set map is obtained. The frame is the edge of the film image, and composition is the structure and layout of the picture within the frame. Field is the size of the subject in the picture, the scope of the picture. Angle refers to the Angle between the camera and the subject. The action mirror is the motion of the camera. This includes changes in camera position, Angle and focal length. Light refers to the light effect in a scene, the light and dark layout of the picture. Color is the representation of color in the picture. The distance between the focus of the camera and the focus of the camera is called depth of field. Scene scheduling refers to the comprehensive arrangement of actors, cameras, lighting, props, costumes, scenery and other elements on the scene. Then there’s the auditory element, which is just as important as the visual element, but often underrated. Sounds can be divided into vocals, music and acoustics. Vocals include dialogue, narration and monologue. Music. All sounds except voices and music can be called acoustics. The above audiovisual elements are all inside the lens. The element that determines how the shots are connected is the clip.

15 audiovisual elements: picture frame, composition, camera position, field, Angle, focal length, depth of field, operating mirror, light, color, scene scheduling, voice, music, sound, editing.

The Excavation of the Script Core

The mining of the script core is how to better reflect the theme of the script.

Never let your audience forget what your main character really wants.

To do this, of course, you can use a variety of methods. Such as arranging for the main character or another character to speak or restate in a moment of emergency. There are also plays in which the characters speak directly to the audience about their desires in the form of a monologue. When you read or watch your favorite play, pay particular attention to how well the playwright communicates to the reader or audience the inner intentions of the characters in the play.

The first step is to understand what your story is about, or what kind of story you want to tell. In movies, we call it a theme. The general audience will generally understand the theme as family affection, friendship and love, or about time, life and small people, but this is still the representation of the theme.

As a scriptwriter, the theme of the story is divided into two parts: 1, ask questions 2, answer questions

The film raises questions, which are divided into table questions and inside questions. Table questions represent the story line, while the inside questions are the character growth line and puzzle line. The question you ask, and how you want to answer it, is what you want to focus on. The answer is your values, your attitudes, your thoughts, your thinking, your life.

What you need to stick to is your answer, because it’s your attitude, your way of looking at the world, your way of looking at problems. Once you get too much influence, this question will be lost. Of course, if someone tries to give you a better idea of the problem, for example, if you talk to someone about it during the creative stage, you’ll get a fuller perspective, and exchanging ideas is part of your search. But you have to answer for yourself. The steps we’re talking about here are the heart of a story.

I had a general idea of what to do, but I found the research area is too big. I want to focus on one aspect of the film for research. Therefore, I chose a more detailed topic in this research direction and field.

Does the success of a film depend entirely on the director’s audio-visual language skills? An analysis of the films “Infernal Affairs” and “The Departed”.

The director is the organizer and leader of the creation of film and television works, the artist who expresses his ideas with the help of actors, and the general person in charge of putting film and television literary scripts on the screen. As the synthesizer of various artistic elements in film and television creation, the director’s task is to organize and unite all the creative staff, technical staff and performers in the cast and crew, so that they can give full play to their talents and integrate the creative labor of all people.

The quality of a film and television work largely depends on the quality and accomplishment of the director; The style of a film and television work often reflects the artistic style and values of the director.

Its work contents include: study and analyze the script with the main creative staff, find the appropriate expression form for the script, and take charge of the artistic standards of the whole play; Work with producers to nominate and recommend actors for roles; According to the script and shooting requirements to choose the location or guide the construction of the interior scene; Guide the prop team to complete the preparation and arrangement of props; Direct the on-site shooting work; Discuss the publicity plan with the production company; Direct the lighting, stage management, actors, camera, sound recording, art, makeup, costume and other departments.

Evaluate the director’s work

What’s the best director choice? The best screenplay is the best story, the best cinematography is the best picture, the best actor is the best performance, and the best director? It seems that if any aspect of a work is good, we can say that the director is good. If any link of a work goes wrong, we can also say that the director is not good. So does the best director pick the best film? And what about best picture? Where should we start to evaluate directors? Should we judge directors by their technical ability? Is a director who can make beautiful pictures a good director? No, it’s the art and photography teams that actually make these images. The director can make demands, but how to meet the requirements of the director, or even beyond the requirements of the director, is a collaboration between photography and art. Even if the director is a good cameraman himself, he still needs an equally good operator to achieve the images he wants. Again, even if the director doesn’t understand any of this, a good cinematographer can make up for it. What does a director do? Character A enters the room and finds Character B dead. If you were a director, what would the picture look like in your head? Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles

The design, how to handle the position, how to handle the sound. How to control the pace, how to express emotions. There’s only one character listening to the recording, so how do you not get bored? The whole show takes place in a single room, and how do you shoot it to keep the audience’s attention. It all comes down to design. In fact, when the director’s job begins, all he has is a written script. Not fundamentally different from the novels we read. How to turn these words into pictures. That’s the director’s job. The basic measure of whether a director is good or not is what kind of shots he can design. When a director makes a film, it is like writing a composition. Every shot is a word, and every video is a paragraph. Everyone writes the same word and follows the same grammar. Some people write out poetry, some people write out can’t read. How do we evaluate the quality of a director? To experience the design of each shot. Try not to say everything in lines, try not to show it directly, try to show as much information as possible in as few shots as possible, do something that no one else can think of.

First of all, we can’t judge the director by the script. Although the director has a certain influence on the script, it is the screenwriter who completes the script, not the director. Given a story framework, the character’s personality and motivation are determined, and the theme ideas are expressed. That’s technically the writer’s job. Sometimes, we see a bad story that is illogical, and then we scold the director, in fact, the director is very wrong, most of the time the level of the script is not the director alone can decide.

Introduction：

This article is mainly about how the director tells the story with the lens.

A good script is indispensable to a good movie. However, a good script may not produce a good and attractive film, it depends on how the director uses the lens to tell the story of the script. This article will focus on analysis, camera axis, camera composition, camera Angle, moving lens and editing. Through the analysis of these elements, it summarizes the laws of shooting, movement and link of different cameras, so that readers can better understand the different shooting techniques and narrative methods of performance shots and fighting shots.These existing rules are very important for film creators, but they are not invariable. Different directors derive their own shooting styles based on these rules. This paper will compare and analyze how different directors use these camera motion rules to achieve better narrative effects.

Background significance：

The main purpose of this paper is to make a good script play its value and role to the greatest extent by analyzing and summarizing the shooting method of the lens. I spent a long time studying scripts, and a good script is the soul of a film and television work. But how the director tells the story is more important. The same script, different director’s shooting method and narrative method, can make the same script produce completely different effects. For example, the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs and the Hollywood version of The Departed. “The Departed” is a remake Hollywood film of the Chinese film “Infernal Affairs”。”The Departed” won the 79th Academy Awards for best director, best adapted screenplay, best editing, best picture 4 Awards, but the original “Infernal Affairs” did not get the Oscar nomination for best foreign language film! Is it because Martin Scorsese is so competent as a director? Or something else? This paper will focus on the differences in lens narration between the two films.

We’ll also analyze the two classic movies spirited Away and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in terms of acting and fighting scenes.

Acting shot: How does the director of Spirited Away use the shot to highlight the inner changes of the character, hint at the plot development and make the camera narrative flow smoothly。

Fighting scenes: How does the director o fCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon use the shot to alternates fast and slow scenes to shock and attract the audience’s attention.

Suppositions and implications：

Camera axis, camera composition, camera Angle, moving lens and editing. Through studying and learning these concepts, I understood how to shoot a scene, how to move the lens, how to switch lenses and when to switch lenses. Under what circumstances are these existing theories not followed. What happens if you don’t follow these theories, what are the good and bad consequences of it. For example: Normally, the camera needs to move along the axis, not cross the axis, unless in some cases there is some special, contrary to the law of camera movement is deliberately created by the director.

Through these studies, we will have a very clear and definite understanding of both the performance shots and the action shots. Let readers know how, how to make better films through the lens, how to tell better stories.

Excellent directors use similar rules, but even if they have the same script, similar story background, different shooting ideas, different shooting content, different shots, the quality of the work will be greatly different. Like Infernal Affairs and the Hollywood version of The Departed.

The selection of good shot content can make the audience better understand the environment and background of the protagonist, immerse the audience in the script, better stimulate the audience’s empathy for the protagonist, and thus better resonate with the film.If the camera narration is not good and the audience is always in a state of dissociation, no matter how good the script is, it will be difficult to succeed. The narrative methods and techniques of film scenes are still developing and evolving. It’s a question that a lot of filmmakers have been working on all their lives. Although the research in this paper is based on the previous summary and discussion of the director’s experience in using the lens, it does not mean that these experiences and methods are invariable. Based on these experiences, many excellent filmmakers continue to break through and create. At the same time, every director has his own unique shooting method derived from the law of camera movement. This paper only studies the methods of these three famous directors. In conclusion, no matter which method is used, the camera lens is meant to give the audience a better story experience.

Conclusion：

To sum up, the lens narrative method is not uniform, unchanged. Every director reprocesses and recreates his camera movements in accordance with the basic laws of camera motion. This paper analyzes “Spirited Away” and “Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger” in detail, and makes an in-depth study of their camera handling techniques. Their performances and fighting scenes have very important reference value and research significance. At the same time, this paper discusses, Infernal Affairs and The Departed, the two plays are similar, but there are still great differences in narrative techniques. It’s the two directors’ different interpretations of the same story. It reveals the important factors that affect the quality of film shot selection. With the further study of these elements, the application of animated characters, and the application of film theory, future research will create better methods to create more wonderful film and television works. Through the analysis of different film shots, we will sum up the laws and skills of excellent directors in film shooting and scenemaking. These rules and techniques can help us better present the works we want to create and better tell the story. Lens research is of great significance in films, animations and documentaries.

Articles on related research:

The story board:

Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation

Francis Glebas, a top Disney storyboard artist, teaches artists a structural approach to clearly and dramatically presenting visual stories. They will learn classic visual storytelling techniques such as conveying meaning with images and directing the viewer’s eye.

Movie Storyboards: The Art of Visualizing Screenplays

Movie Storyboards showcases a collection of storyboards in a range of styles, including some of cinema’s greatest moments and spanning decades of film history. Many are seen here for the first time, and all are accompanied by insights into the movies featured, their directors, and, of course, the storyboard artists.

The Art of the Storyboard, : A filmmaker’s introduction

Communicate your vision, tell your story and plan major scenes with simple, effective storyboarding techniques. More than 150 illustrations from the author’s and other storyboard artists’ work illuminate the text throughout to help you master the essential components of storyboarding, such as framing, placement of figures, and camera angles.

The Art of Movie Storyboards: Visualising the Action of the World’s Greatest Films

Storyboard artists are the first to give vision to a screenplay, translating words on the page into shots for the screen. Their work is a unique art form in itself. Many storyboards are beautiful in their own right, but ultimately the skill of the artist lies in their visual communication of a script, with multiple factors to consider: composition, movement, camera angles, special effects, and the rhythm and pacing of a scene.

Don Bluth’s Art of Storyboard

Don Bluth’s Art of Storyboard, a one-of-a-kind textbook that describes in detail the technical and artistic processes involved in crafting storyboards for animated films, the visual blueprints that lay the foundation for the animators magic. Don Bluth takes readers on a journey as only an artist of such vast skills and filmmaking experience can, going from the breakdown of a script, through story conferences with Don Bluth Films collaborators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, and onto the finished boards.

The Dark Knight Trilogy – The Complete Screenplays with Storyboards

This volume contains the complete screenplays of THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY: The Compete Screenplays of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises, with storyboards from each film.

Professional Storyboarding: Rules of Thumb

Storyboarding: Rules of Thumb offers highly illustrative examples of basic storyboarding concepts, as well as sound, career-oriented advice for the new artist. This book also features a number of veteran storyboard artists sharing their experiences in the professional world.

Storyboards: Motion in Art, Third Edition

I recommend this for any who want to learn the elements of storyboarding and animation. Even if you don’t plan on becoming a layout or storyboard artist, it will give you insight into forming strong compositional designs.

The composition：

Outdoor Photography Essentials: Easy to follow tutorials on exposure, camera settings, composition and light

T Outdoor Photography Essentials is divided into four sections:Section 1: ExposureThis section covers the exposure triangle: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. We also learn about common exposure problems and how to avoid or fix them.Section 2: Camera SettingsTake full control of your camera by learning how to use aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual modes. Other important settings such as metering modes, white balance, focus modes and focal length are also explained in an easy to follow way.Section 3: CompositionThe composition section presents 25 composition ideas from the rule of thirds to leading lines to concepts such as “the decisive moment”.

How to Take Great Photographs: Unlock the Secrets of Outstanding Lighting, Composition, Camera Controls, and More

Robert Hull introduces the powerful creative controls that DSLR cameras offers—from exposure settings, to focusing controls, to metering, file format options, white balance, and more—providing simple tips and strategies that will allow you to capture the image you have in mind, artfully.  In summary, readers will learn to identify a great subject and learn how to capture it in a way that makes viewers delve into the story behind the subject and scene.

Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers

How to make the audience “”feel”” the story while they are “”reading”” the story.  Marcos introduces the reader to a step-by-step system that will create the most successful storyboards and graphics for the best visual communication.After a brief discussion on narrative art, Marcos introduces us to drawing and composing a single image, to composing steady shots to drawing to compose for continuity between all the shots. In addition to setting up the shots, he also explains and illustrates visual character development, emotive stances and expressions along with development of the environmental setting to fully develop the visual narrative.

Photography: The Art of Composition

The factor that distinguishes the work of master photographers is their ability to see and describe scenes visually. The core of the book is a group of sixty exercise that readers perform to learn how to perceive points, lines, and shapes in static and dynamic settings. These exercises are structured enough to push photographers to develop their cognitive abilities while at the same time flexible enough to allow for individual creative expression.

The camera：

Experimental Filmmaking and the Motion Picture Camera: An Introductory Guide for Artists and Filmmakers

Author Joel Schlemowitz explains the basic mechanism of the camera before going on to discuss slow and fast motion filming, single-frame time lapse, the long take, camera movement, workings of the lens, and the use of in-camera effects such as double exposure.

Storytelling techniques for digital filmmakers: plot structure, camera movement, lens selection, and more

This book includes seven chapters, they are:the structure of a story, shot sequencing, the art of the close-up, perspective and point of view, camera movement, lighting color and exposure ， show and don’t tell

The dynamic frame camera movement inclassical Hollywood

This book includes six chapters, they are: American Cinema and German Angles; Purpose and Parallels; Dynamism,Seriality and Convergence; Constructing Scenes with the Camera; Between Subjective and Objective; An Art of Disclosures.

Master shots: 100 advanced camera techniques to get an expensive look on your low-budget movie

Master Shots gives filmmakers the techniques they need to execute complex, original shots on any budget. By using powerful master shots and well-executed moves, directors can develop a strong style and stand out from the crowd.

Narrative techniques of director lens:

Directing the Narrative and Shot Design: The Art and Craft of Directing

 The goal of this book is to teach specific directorial skills through specific directorial concepts and specific directing exercises, and to teach, develop, and evolve film enthusiasts’, film students’, and cineastes’ narrative filmmaking skills and visual storytellingabilities, to educate and train them to make professional films of a high artistic level and to develop their artistic talents and film craft skills related to directing.

Film Directing_Shot by Shot:Visualizing from Concept to Screen

As we all know, the universal units of composition are the long shot, the medium shot, and the chose-up. These shots are a development of the continuity system insofar as they are overlapping portions of a single space and only make sense in relation to one another. That is, they are used together to create a consistent spacial/temporal order. That’s because the shots are scaled to the subject and related to one another proportionately.

Classical Film Violence: Designing and Regulating Brutality in Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1968

Not only does Prince tell the history of American screen violence, but he analyzes the techniques by which filmmakers depicted violence.

The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video

Written by a working professional, The Bare Bones Camera Course is the most user-friendly book available on the subject of film and video production; it reduces the shooting experience to its essence, making complicated concepts easy to grasp. When you finish this book, you will know and understand how to shoot good pictures that will edit together seamlessly in post-production.

Projecting a Camera: Language-Games in Film Theory

In Projecting a Camera, film theorist Edward Branigan offers a groundbreaking approach to understanding film theory. Why, for example, does a camera move? What does a camera “know”? (And when does it know it?) What is the camera’s relation to the subject during long static shots? What happens when the screen is blank? Through a wide-ranging engagement with Wittgenstein and theorists of film, he offers one of the most fully developed understandings of the ways in which the camera operates in film.

Directing the camera: how professional directors use a moving camera to energize their films

The first half of this book is devoted to teaching a systemised approach that can be used to design the very best moving shot for any dialogue scene, no matter how complex or long. Bettman’s “Five Task” approach enables the aspiring director to quickly grasp this difficult element of directorial craft. In the second half the reader is taught how to shoot action sequences using moving and static cameras and the gamut of lenses to achieve the magic trick essential to shooting action — making stunts that are highly controlled and neither violent nor dangerous look completely mind-blowing.

The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol

The book further demonstrates how Warhol’s use of the camera transformed the events being filmed and how his own unique brand of psychodrama created dramatic tension within the works.

Total Directing: Integrating Camera and Performance in Film and Television

Total Directing is the first book to fully integrate the technical aspects of screen directing with practical methods for directing actors, thoroughly exploring how these two primary aspects of the director’s craft work together.From a perspective that seeks to balance successful work with actors and technically high-level production values, the complete directing process—from the start of script development through the delivery of a finished project—is discussed in detail, covering every aspect of preparation and decision-making with solid background information, practical suggestions, and clear illustrations.

How does your research fit into the big picture: the motion of the camera, the Angle of the shot, is the point of view that the director presents to the audience. The discovery and topic of the axis law of camera, the view and composition, the movement of camera and editing are the necessary research direction of “how to use lens to tell stories”. Together, these concepts tell us how to make and use lenses.

Reference:

Glebas, F. (2012) Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation. CRC Press.

Halligan, F. (2013) Movie Storyboards: The Art of Visualizing Screenplays. Chronicle Books.

Hart, J. (2013) The Art of the Storyboard: A filmmaker’s introduction. Taylor & Francis.

Halligan, F. (2015c) The Art of Movie Storyboards: Visualising the Action of the World’s Greatest Films. Hachette UK.

Bluth, D. (2004b) Don Bluth’s Art of Storyboard. Dh Press.

Nolan, C. (2012) The Dark Knight Trilogy: The Complete Screenplays. Opus Books.

Paez, S. and Jew, A. (2013) Professional Storyboarding: Rules of Thumb. Taylor & Francis.

Simon, M. (2007) Storyboards: Motion in Art. Taylor & Francis.

Mateu-Mestre, M. and Katzenberg, J. (2010) Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers. Design Studio Press.

Krages, B. (2005) Photography: The Art of Composition. Allworth Press.

Schlemowitz, J. (2019) Experimental Filmmaking and the Motion Picture Camera: An Introductory Guide for Artists and Filmmakers. Routledge.

Hockrow, R. (2013) Storytelling Techniques for Digital Filmmakers: Plot Structure, Camera Movement, Lens Selection, and More. Amherst Media.

Keating, P. (2019) The Dynamic Frame: Camera Movement in Classical Hollywood. Columbia University Press.

Kenworthy, C. (2009) Master Shots: 100 Advanced Camera Techniques to Get an Expensive Look on Your Low-budget Movie. Michael Wiese Productions.

Kocka, L. (2019) Directing the Narrative and Shot Design: The Art and Craft of Directing. Vernon Press.

Katz, S.D. and Katz, S. (1991) Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen. Gulf Professional Publishing.

Prince, S. (2003) Classical Film Violence: Designing and Regulating Brutality in Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1968. Rutgers University Press.

Schroeppel, T. and DeLaney, C. (2015) The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video. Simon and Schuster.

Branigan, E. (2013) Projecting a Camera: Language-Games in Film Theory. Routledge.

Bettman, G. (2013) Directing the Camera: How Professional Directors Use a Moving Camera to Energize Their Films. Michael Wiese Productions.

Murphy, J.J. (2012) The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol. Univ of California Press.

Kingdon, T. (2004) Total Directing: Integrating Camera and Performance in Film and Television. Silman-James Press.

O’Carroll, B. (2020) Outdoor Photography Essentials: Easy to follow tutorials on exposure, camera settings, composition and light. Independently published.

Hull, R. (2017) How to Take Great Photographs: Unlock the Secrets of Outstanding Lighting, Composition, Camera Controls, and More. Amherst Media.

Topic: How to tell a story through the lens

Key words: storyboard, moving lens, fight shooting, camera axis, composition, camera view, editing

Research map:

Description:How does a director use the camera to tell a story

Analysis:Camera axis, camera composition, camera view, moving lens and editing

These concepts taught me how to shoot, how to move the lens, how the camera cuts and when it cuts.

What are the circumstances in which these theories are not followed. What happens if you don’t follow these theories.

Evaluation: For example: Under normal conditions, the camera needs to follow the axis of movement, can not cross the axis, unless… There are some special effect does the director want to achieve

Performance shot: highlight the inner changes of the role, hint the plot development, smooth cohesion

Fighting scenes: alternating fast and slow, eye-catching and shocking

Case Study:

Performance shot: Spirited Away

Fighting scenes: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Analysis method：Zipper Pulls ，How does a director use time and space to tell a story

This is my questionnaire survey link:https://www.wjx.cn/vm/mpDtRP2.aspx

The following is the content of the questionnaire：

无间道与无间行者，电影问卷调查

Infernal Affairs and The Departed : Film Questionnaire Survey

Q1：你来自哪个国家？

Which country are you from?

Q2：你是否经常观看外国影片？

Do you often watch foreign films?

Q3：你更喜欢外国影片还是本土影片？

Do you prefer foreign films or local films?

Q4：如果你喜欢外国影片，哪个国家的影片是你最喜欢的？

If you like foreign movies, which country is your favorite?

Q5：下面有两组图片，你更喜欢哪一种画面风格

Here are two sets of pictures. Which style do you prefer

A:

B:

Q6：选取两个电影里，当地黑帮的经典对白：

你更喜欢哪一个当地黑帮的台词？

Take two classic lines from a local gang from a movie:

Which gang classic line do you prefer?

A: A man makes his own way. No one gives it to you. You have to take it.

A：路都是自己走出来的，没人会施舍你，你得自己争取。

B: What millions died that Caesar might be great! Which way is the road, you pick it yourself.

B：一将功成万骨枯。路怎么走，你们自己挑。

Q7：当你观看一部电影时，你更喜欢开放式的结尾还是一个确定的结尾？

When you watch a movie, do you prefer an open ending(do not a definite ending) or a definite ending?

这里有4组视频，每一组有两个视频。这两个视频，所叙述的情节内容相同，但是导演呈现的拍摄方法不一样。

 There are four sets of videos, two videos per set. These two videos narrated the same plot content, but the director presented different shooting methods.

Q8：第一组视频内容：警局卧底和上司在天台接头，被黑帮卧底发现。黑社会赶来寻找警局的卧底，上司为了保护警局卧底，牺牲。

The first group of videos: Undercover police officer and superior in the roof joint, was found by undercover gangster . Underworld came to find the Undercover police officer, superior in order to protect the police undercover, sacrifice.

在观看完视频后，你选择你更喜欢哪一个导演的叙事方式？

After watching the video, which director’s narrative style do you prefer?

A:

B:

Q9：第二组视频内容：黑帮卧底背叛黑帮老大。黑帮卧底联系上了黑帮老大，将他杀死。

The second group of videos: Undercover gangster betrays mob boss.  The undercover gangster gets in touch with the mob boss and kills him.

你选择你更喜欢哪一个导演的叙事方式？

which director’s narrative style do you prefer?

A:

B:

Q9：第三组视频内容：警局卧底拿到了黑帮卧底的犯罪证明，要挟黑帮卧底到天台见面，并帮他恢复警察身份。

The third group of videos: Undercover police officer got the undercover gangster crime proof, coerce the undercover gangster to meet on the rooftop, and help him restore the identity of the police.

你选择你更喜欢哪一个导演的叙事方式？

which director’s narrative style do you prefer?

A:

B:

Q10：第四组视频内容：警局卧底被杀死。

The forth group of videos: Undercover police officer killed.

你选择你更喜欢哪一个导演的叙事方式？

which director’s narrative style do you prefer?

A:

B:

Q11：这两个视频故事内容一样，你做出偏好选择的原因（可以从背景，色彩，镜头，运镜，光线，构图，演员，配音，剪辑等各方面叙述一个关键词）？

The content of these two video stories is the same, and the reasons why you make your preference (You can describe a key word from the background, color, lens, light, composition, actors, voice, editing，camera movement and other aspects).