How Cinematographers Use Geometric Shapes to Tell Stories with Visuals: Analysis

     Through out the time of animation animators have made infamous, beloved, and odd characters. besides their action that made them memorable, what help us define them the roles that they were given? Geometric shapes help us conceive the idea of what role they hold, as in protagonist/lovable or evil/antagonist. This doesn't just apply to animators but all of cinematography.

     Geometric shapes have everything to do with animation when you truly pay attention to it. As being a former animator i can definitely see it. For instance,  though its not animation, what do you think of Sauron (TheDark Lord in Lord of the Rings). Isn't his armor very sharp, jagged? Also with animation, like the Horned king in The Black Cauldron, he's thin, sharp edged and sinister. Villans are usually filled with triangles (made up of for their shape). Take Maleficent for instance, her horns and face a practically made up with triangles. The antagonists tend to have sharper shapes that highlight the contour of their body. Another example, the Devil,  what is his goatee in the shape of? A sharp triangle. If you can put in subtly it will produce an emotional effect on the viewer without them even noticing.
     Another shape that gives off a emotional value is a square/quadrilateral. Think of the movie Up, the main protagonists face is made up of a square. Possibly meaning he's stuck in his old ways, he doesn't want to change to what society has now. I say that because when you see a younger version of him, his face is round. Quadrilaterals can also give off a feeling of being limited or trapped in whatever situation is being presented.
     When you think about it, looking at all these characters in movies, shapes being a part of what people associate in them makes perfect sense.

Weekly comments

   This week was decent. It could have gone a lot better (not school related). During this week i actually got finished before everyone, I wasn't rushing or anything I just worked on my projects faster than usual. I hope that doesn't mean my grades will be lower. I doubt it.
   The only thing that bothered/frustrated me this week was personal problems, nothing with school.
   A thing that made me happy was like I said, being ahead of everyone and being able to relax for a bit. I don't really get to that point because i usually procrastinate.. Still a problem.
   To be honest, nothing really interested me this week, especially related to the class. The only thing would be Dank Crusader memes but i learned the hard way why that's not a good idea. Haha.
   I am still a bit interested in photo restoration in the future but drawing in Photoshop seems to me be a bit more interesting. Because I still don't know how to do it correctly.
 

Article/video response(analysis): 

  Theme, oh the use of them. It is usually a essential asset to a story. When I was little I understood it but didn't at the same time. I thought it only required a vague generalization for the story's "moral of the story". Oh how I was wrong. A theme is a more related, detailed analysis of what the story's lesson is whether it being a show, movie, book etc. For instance, when you look at the "Return of the Jedi", you don't just say "good conquers evil"; NO THAT'S TOO VAGUE, you should probably say something like "Though one has been corrupted to their very soul, they always have a chance to redeem themselves". People always thought the movie was about Luke's return but when you actually look at it, it was about his father Darth Vader. Of course the only way to truly see the them is to study the film. Also to study the protagonist's journey and see how it molds them. Looking at that analysis and compare it to the movie, it makes more sense than just saying the generic "good conquers all".

  Themes can be thought of before the creation of the story or just materialize before the writer while creating his/her project. Either one works depending on the person creating the story. There is no rule book on how to create a theme, it just happens. It can be called a loose theme. From personal experience, its good (for me) to have a rough idea but to draw in the details later. Just so I can be organized in some way. You don't need to but that's my personal recommendation.
  It's hard to imagine a movie or any type of media without some sort of theme. Kids movies have upbeat motivational themes and adult films tend to have realistic themes that tend to connect sometimes almost on a spiritual level. Themes tend to show a comparison to what the writers state of mind is in. Sorta subliminal subconscious message that wants to get out. It's interesting because you can see it a lot within the writers work.

Weekly Comments:

This week has also been tolerable to me. I mean, I tend to almost always have a pessimistic attitude towards a lot of things but that isn't the point really. Procrastination has begun to shift in, as if it never has left ha. I need to work on that, obviously. In class we had to do a crossbreed project... I had such amazing ideas but my level of knowledge in Photoshop halted my attempts. I had originally tried to create a Panzer/Turtle hybrid. It was a fiasco. I then tried a shark and a submarine, less complicated but still din't work. My final attempt and creation was a shark/horse hybrid. It was tolerable. I'm kinda wanting to learn how to paint in Photoshop, my art teacher from my high school recently let me borrow a book from her that talks about painting styles, design, etc. I was really interested in the book because she actually let me keep it for a bit. I read a bit, studied a bit, I might even by it (not from her though).

This is actually the book cover. I would advise looking into it because it gives step by step details to do some special techniques. It sure interested me enough to where I would advise it to you. You can get it on Amazon or at a book store.

        The world of cinema has a lot of requirements to give it that chance to connect with the viewer. For instance, music or lighting or even the camera angles. Music is one of the important pillars to making a memorable scene or to help connect it to a movie(s). Best examples, the "Star Wars" saga. everyone can immediately connect songs like "The Imperial March", or "Duel Of The Fate" ( the really epic fighting music in the prequels). Everyone knows them, so why is it that when it comes to certain movies why does the music not get recognized like it should?
    There reason is because some directors just want fill in music or music that has been recycled/used in popular movies, within legal boundaries of course. The music that is used is to just add a sense of whatever emotion they want the viewer to have without them noticing. That's exactly what it does. Take the marvel movies for instance; like in the video "The Marvel Symphonic Universe" by the channel Every Frame a Painting on YouTube. They (the channel) interviewed random people on the street. They asked them if they could sing a Star Wars song off the top of their head. Everyone passed, then they asked them to sing a Marvel universe song. No one could think of one.
   It's quite interesting when you think about it, even when marvel has such amazing movies, characters, they still are not the #1 highest grossing movies. Why? Because they along with many other movies don't engage in the zone of music to help connect with the viewers. They want to play it safe to where if they don't do out of the norm (copy and paste kinda norm) music; which is completely understandable at times, they loose the chance to place a mark on the fans. It can majorly harm the reputation and impact of those movies within cinema history and upon the young and old fans.

Weekly comments:

     These past weeks in Video Production at Boces have been very entertaining, enjoyable, and influential. Last week (sep 12- sep 16) we learned how to correct images that had damages. though I have never really used photoshop except for once in 10th grade; which was to fix an abomination that I called an art project, I caught on pretty quick. In my opinion. Though I do have to still learn the terminology and the steps in order to preform actions within Adobe Photoshop I do understand how the tools work. 

     We restored an old photo of two children ( a baby and a toddler) that had folds and creases that harmed the integrity of its originality.

(The top is the original, The bottom is the restored and colorized version)

      This project was one of my most proud moments of my life. The reason? i got to restore an old photo that has sentimental value to another human being. the idea that if someone lost a loved one and had a photo that reminded them of the lost loved one and it was damaged, wouldn't they want the picture restored? Obviously they would and a profession that could offer a job like this to someone who finds completion in doing something like this, its absolutely amazing. Of course I enjoy doing other things but if this was my job, I would be more than satisfied. 

      This week, this week has been good to me; thankfully, with the effort that I have put into projects. Though I could have done more for those projects I am still content. We have done a lot within our class that has been very influential on me and what my future may wanna hold. I would like to learn more within Photoshop, nothing specific but to learn the terminology, the shortcuts, etc. I believe this year will be a lot more influential than any other year in my life.

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