Interview question list

1. What is your gender

2. What film genres do you like?

Comedy 

Thriller

Adventure film                           

Romance film                 

Documentary

Horror film

Action movie

Crime & gangster film      

Science fiction film                     

Musical film

Epics/historical film

3. What elements about a film attract you to watch it?

  Story/Characters/Dialogue/Poster/Colour tone/Music/Other _____

4. Have you made a short film before? If you have, are you more interested in pre-production phase or post-production phase?

5. Are you focusing on colour when you watching films? Yes/No

  If it is yes, can you briefly describe what specific colour it used?

6. Compare with the three set of video clips, which set are the highest colour saturation and which set are the lowest? What emotion feeling are they bring to you?

7. After you watch the different colour lighting test, do you think the colour in the videos are the desaturated colour or saturated colour?

8. After you watch the third video clip, please write down three words to describe what is the feeling it brings to you?

9. Do you think uses of colour in film burn effect (like some bright lights in this clip) are desaturated or saturated? What effect did this have on you?

(I will randomly turn off the sound and music to test different people with the same questions (6 to 9), and then analyze whether their answers are same or not.)

Interview question list (draft)

1. What is your gender?

2. What film genres do you like?

Comedy 

Thriller

Adventure film                           

Romance film                 

Documentary

Horror film

Action movie

Crime & gangster film      

Science fiction film                     

Musical film

Epics/historical film

3. What elements about a film attract you to watch it?

  Story/Characters/Dialogue/Poster/Colour tone/Music/Other _____

4. Are you focusing on colour when you watching films? Yes/No

  If it is yes, can you briefly describe what specific colour it used?

5. Have you made a short film before? If you have, are you more interested in pre-production phase or post-production phase?

6. Compare with the three set of video clips, which set are the highest colour saturation and which set are the lowest? What emotion feeling are they bring to you? (Because I used three different lens, all of them I recorded two clips, one is front depth of field and one is back depth of field. Three lens created three different colour tone, so that I want to test what different colour tone between man and women prefer)

7. After you watch the different colour lighting test, which colour tone do you like and which type of colour combinations do you like?

8. After you watch the third video clip, please write down five words to describe what is the feeling it brings to you?

9. Do you like the film burn effect (like some bright lights in this clip)? What effect did this have on you? Please use three words to describe the feeling this effect brings to you. (Because the film burn effect was used in post production phase that created different bright colour lights in the video. so, I would like to interview the audience what are the different feeling between use of colour in pre-production and post-production phase.)

(I will randomly turn off the sound and music to test different people with the same questions (6 to 9), and then analyze whether their answers are same or not.)

Finished editing about the third colour testing

Today I finished editing this clips. This time I try to use projector to project different colour videos on the white wall to create different colour tones. I also used after effect to create film burn effects on the post production phase. And I want to find the different colour feeling in pre-production and post-production phase, based on the same sequence.

Study how to create film burn in After Effects

Today I started to study Film burn in After Effects, which I want to use in my test clips. I really love this effect, because it looks bright and colourful and it also can link different shots with a soft way. However, some people think this effect looks too over in a short film that they will jump out of the story. But I think it depends on the story. When we need to create something dreamlike or fantasy, this effect will be very useful can let audience have that feeling. And I also download some clips and try to create what feeling i want.

Shooting about the third colour testing

Today I have done the shooting about the third experiment colour testing. This time I used projector to create different colour. I used different video clips to project the images on the white wall. The actress stands in front of the white wall, so she will be influenced by the images which were projected on the white wall.

After shooting I was checking the clips, I found a problem that the video clips projected on the wall was flickering on the camera. I searching the answer on the internet, maybe because of the frequency of shooting is not the same as of frequency the video played on wall. I will try to find the way to solve that problem.

Finish editing: colour testing through different colour lights

Colour testing through different colour lights

On Wednesday, I did an experimental testing about different colour of lighting on video. I used different colour gels to do this test, based on the same character and the same location. The final images that appeared on the screen are completely different.

First, I just used single colours (green, red, blue, yellow and purple) for testing, each images showing a different feeling and clarity. Red is the most unclear colour between these images. Because of the local colour (the background of white wall and the character itself) are different, so the different colours are not the same. So, the reflections of the atmospheric colour are also different.

Then, I used the combination of two colours (red and green). In the same environment, the character move her body to face different colours, it also create different feelings, the green light is more clear than red light.

 At last, I used different types of combination create warm and cold atmosphere to test that colour have different temperature feelings.

Shooting about the second colour testing

Today I have done the second experiment colour test. I used different colour gels on two lights to create different colour tones in one room. I want to try to use a clean room to make the scene looks more simple, only have white walls, so that it can have a clearly colour after I used colourful lights. I also ask the character dress simple clothes to make the frame not influenced by the complex patterns and colours.    

Local colour and Atmospheric colour

The difficulty in analyzing colour is compounded by the fact that objects are seldom viewed in a atmosphere totally removed from all external optical influences. There is a clear distinction between local colour and atmospheric colour. However, the physical objects are always affected by atmospheric colour. Not only does the sunlight change constantly through the day, but coloured objects influence one another.

 

In planning and shooting a modern colour film, the director, the cinematographer, the production designer, and the costumer must be constantly aware of many factors, if they are to control and manipulate the colour to conform to their aesthetic vision.

The history of colour in films

1890s

Colourful hand-painted magic-lantern slide shows anticipate filmmakers’ and audiences’ preoccupation with colour in moving images.

1916

D.W. Griffith uses elaborate tinting techniques in Intolerance, but most of the original print has been lost.

1925

Hand-colored frames are featured in Russian film Battleship Potemkin.

1920s

Two-colour Technicolour film allows for colour sequences in films such as Ben-Hur and Phantom of the Opera.

1932

Technicolour perfects three-tone Technicolour film.

1935

The first feature colour film, Becky Sharp, is a commercial failure.

1952

Eastman Colour film, simpler and more economical, comes to the scene.

1990

Ju Dou, by filmmaker Yimou Zhang, features Technicolour technology, which enjoys a resurgence in China around this time.

2002

Far From Heaven released, signaling homages to Technicolour in American films.

Reference: Dennis Petrie, 2011. The Art of Watching Films. 8 Edition. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.

New Designers Exhibition

I went to the New Designers Exhibition with classmates in London last week. It was a fantastic show that inspires me a lot. Not only for the short film part, but also comes from other aspects, such as illustration, graphic design, production design, media, etc. There are so many talented students who study art have many amazing ideas and put that in their works. And we also watched some short films which were made by some students from different universities in UK. Some of them are quite good. The costume and props have been designed and the location has also been considered, so that the image looks very suit for the story. But some of the short films also have some problem. Such as soundtrack, some part the voice is too high, and there are some noises in some part. Compare with school's work, I prefer our school's works, especially a story associated with painting and imagine. I think the script is very creative, and the frames in that film are also fantastic.

Reflective journal: Use of colour in production design

Production designers function as architects, interior designers, … historians, … diplomats, and ultimately, observers of human behaviors-and all of the fragilities of the human heart…

-----Wynn Thomas, production designer

Nowadays, 95% of films are colour film. Most modern filmmakers feel that colour cinematography allows them to create more powerful, realistic images and to communicate better with audiences. So that colour as a symbol in films can create many useful meanings. The production design is not only use different colour to decorate films, to make it more fantasy, but also use a serious of specific colours to make the film have time and symbolic.

As members of the design team plan the look of a film, they are likely to consider establishing a colour palette – a limited number of specific colours used or emphasized throughout the film to subtly communicate various aspects of character and story to the viewer. Colour used in this way becomes more than mere decoration for the film; it enhances the movie’s dramatic elements.

With the development of audience’s requirement through colour films, the film makers need to stay current with developments in colour photography and keep its impact on viewers in mind as they plan a movie’s visual design.

Reference: Dennis Petrie, 2011. The Art of Watching Films. 8 Edition. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. 

Reflective journal: Different film stock

The definition of smooth-grain and rough-grain film stock.

Smooth-grain film stock produces an image that is extremely smooth, or slick.

Rough-grain film stock produces a rough, grainy-textured image with harsh contrasts between blacks and whites and almost no subtle contrasts.

A cinematographer may use both types of stock for different effects in films. For example, a romantic love scene would probably be shot with smooth-grain film, a riot or a furious battle scene with rough-grain film. So, the same colour in film can also bring different effects by using different film stocks. Smooth-grain film stock can create fine tones, artistic shadows and contrasts. Because of the clarity and artistic perfection of these images, they often have a more powerful visual impact the does reality. Rough-grain type often associated with documentary here-and-now quality. Thus, we can change different effects in post-production phase to make the frames and tone more close to the scripts.

Reference: Dennis Petrie, 2011. The Art of Watching Films. 8 Edition. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.

Colour wheel

Colour attracts and holds our attention; our eyes are more quickly attracted by colour than by shape or form.

Colour affected by many aspects, such as saturation, intensity, lighting, value, etc. value refers to the proportion of light or dark in a colour, coloured surface with the normal value of a colour which we can expect to find the colour represented on a colour wheel. Artists use this device to help clarify the relationships between the primary and secondary colours.

Anything lighter than the normal value is a tint; anything darker is a shade. Therefore, pink is a tint of red, and maroon is a shade of red.

Finish editing about colour testing

Colour testing through three different lens

These frames were shot in the same period of time. From these photos, we can see that when we use different lens with a same camera, the footages of the colour are different.

When we use the same lens, different focus are also can create different colour. Focus in the former, the details is more clearly, more saturated colors. The focus in back side, the colour is more clutter.