Production Plan & choices of characters

This is my production plan for my animation.

Nov 24th -30th
 Collecting photos from sites, resize, cut out the animals, and organize it in to the shots.
Dec 1st - 7th image trace all the images, crop again, add feather, and expand to all the photos
Dec 8th - 15th animated scene using puppy pin tool from shot 1- 10
Dec 16th- 20th animate the shots 11- 18 and organise the the two montages as well as adding the glitch effect on to it
Dec 21st-26th put together in premier pro, add sound effects and music.
Dec 26th -30th Finalisation through premier, add filter, special effects, and export



The Character list
To Finalize the characters of the animation i minimise to these four that would each represent a part of the eco system and there own role in terms of Chernobyl.

Beavers are the first to appear after the plants have reemerge in chernobyl they dig up the rivers to it size for running water to run through the forest for other animals. They used to be killed before Chernobyl disaster as they are a problem to farming often ruining the crops.

Elk They are the second to emerge after the beavers, they eat grass, and they are often prayed by wolves, and eagles when they are dead. Furthermore they used to be hunted for their head, meat, and fur.

Eagles they are the second predator of Chernobyl they eat the leftovers of other predators, they use to nest around the forest, since chernobyl they manage to use the fire tower that are abounded to nest.

Wolves the top of the food chain in chernobyl they were hunted as well before chernobyl for their fur.

These four would represent the animals in Chernobyl.

And here are the potential outlook of the animals.

Chernobyl Disaster Background

Chernobyl was the first nuclear power plant in Ukraine, a peaceful atomic energy program of the USSR. Just 3 km away from the nuclear power plant Propyat was built it was used to house nuclear experts and workers that are working in the nuclear plant, it was aim to be a forward thinking town with modern planning and architecture.

Chernobyl Accident 1986

(Updated November 2015)

• The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel.
• The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere and downwind – some 5200 PBq (I-131 eq).
• Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning.
• UNSCEAR says that apart from increased thyroid cancers, "there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident."
• Resettlement of areas from which people were relocated is ongoing. In 2011 Chernobyl was officially declared a tourist attraction.

However, on April 26th 1986 reactor number 4 went in to melt down it was over heated, and blew up at the end.  It took an entire day to evacuate Pripyat. Which leads to all the wreak havoc to human health, almost three decades after the disaster. As this is one of the very first nuclear accident happen all over the world therefore it took some time for the government to realise how far does the damage goes and how to control the radiation that is coming out of the plant. While the reactor number 4 was The New Safe Confinement will make the old Chernobyl shelter and remnants of the damaged reactor safe and environmentally secure. Completion of the project is scheduled for the end of 2017. The total cost of the Shelter Implementation Plan, of which the New Safe Confinement is the most prominent element, is estimated to be around €2.15 billion (US$3.09 billion). The New Safe Confinement alone accounts for €1.5 billion. This sarcophagus would be used to contain the radioactive emissions of chernobyl for the next 100 years. 

This two clips shows the current situation on the Chernobyl plant how the government is planning to contain the radiation, and as well as some of the secret facilities near the plant that cost way more than the actual plants. Which is said to be used to detect missiles across Europe. This shows that attention still has to be raised on to Chernobyl, as many problems are still floating up on the horizon.

Environmental and health effects of the Chernobyl accident

Several organisations have reported on the impacts of the Chernobyl accident, but all have had problems assessing the significance of their observations because of the lack of reliable public health information before 1986.

By 2000, about 4000 cases of thyroid cancer had been diagnosed in exposed children. However, the rapid increase in thyroid cancers detected suggests that some of it at least is an artifact of the screening process. Thyroid cancer is usually not fatal if diagnosed and treated early

The disaster released at least 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Much of the fallout was deposited close to Chernobyl, in parts of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. More than 350,000 people resettled away from these areas, but about 5.5 million remain.

Contamination with caesium and strontium is of particular concern, as it will be present in the soil for many years.

After the accident traces of radioactive deposits were found in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere.

But wind direction and uneven rainfall left some areas more contaminated than their immediate neighbours.

Scandinavia was badly affected and there are still areas of the UK where farms face post-Chernobyl controls.

Despite the lasting contamination of the area, scientists have been surprised by the dramatic revival of its wildlife.

Wild horse, boar and wolf populations are thriving, while lynx have returned to the area and birds have nested in the reactor building without any obvious ill-effects.

Sound effects (ambient noises and off screen sounds)

https://freesound.org/people/AdamWayneGistarb/sounds/241739/

This is a recording of the recorder walking on grass with boots, Although this is not a recording of a animal walking. However, with a few duplicate layers of this same recording i was able to layer this recording in to sound of animals walking on grass, used on shot 2 of the film of the three wolfs walking towards the pond. This once again shows that sound does not particular need to be exactly the thing that it is representing. Things that makes the noise that is suitable for a certain scene, might be as well as something completely different.

https://freesound.org/people/AGFX/sounds/43380/
In some cases the sounds are exactly as the content of the film, in this case this recording of 2 days old chicks were used for my eagles chicks on their nest. Which matches very nicely to the slight movement of the chicks in the animation.

https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/328297/
Forest at dawn in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve with some birds, chachalacas, insects, mosquitos and crickets (recorded from the path behind Santa Teresa houses).

Recording of the ambience of a forest, this recording is six minutes long and under creative commons 2.0 license. It mostly involves sounds of wind blowing on trees, leaves and grass, sounds of different kinds of birds and insects. i found this recording particularly useful to lay as part of the back ground through out the film. With this recording attach the animation seems to come more lively and active. Moreover the sound of raven recorded in this clip, fits exactly on to the gun shot of the wolf in shot 4. Which happens in nature often as a loud noise is made animals react quite instantly with sounds. ravens flying away and making their sounds makes the whole scene seems more natural.

https://freesound.org/people/coolguy244e/sounds/266915/
For the gun shot sound effect, this recording is made out of the sound of a door slam with alteration of the speed and pitch of the sound, it sound very similar to a gun shot. Making it perfect for this above scene.

"snow effect" for logging scene and water movement for river scene

I learnt how to create snow effect through this tutorial on youtube and by changing the direction and color of the snow i was able to create this effect of the wood and dust flying around the frame as the loggers are cutting down the trees. This made that shot vibrant and interesting adding that extra layer on the animation.

I made this river move reflecting some of the weird clouds of the sky, i learnt the technique from this video on how to reflect and place displacement map on the layer. However, i than twitch it to only the river unlike the tutorial that made the entire bottom half of the frame to water.
The reflection is not actually the image of the sky to create is "weird" water reflection effect.
This signifies the radiation in this area of chernobyl unlike the scenes before this.

Both of this effect adds to the overall aesthetic and mood of the animation, however i feel that both of the effects are rather partial and sticks to the narrative. Therefore acts as a part of the narrative rather than a stylistic effect created for aesthetic purposes.

Glitch and vintage film effects

After watching this tutorial on youtube, i applied this on to the final shot of my animation as to create a glitch of the scenery that would reveal a past photo of the chernobyl while zooming out on a landscape of Chernobyl. Once again reminding the audience that this story is of chernobyl, and too add this dramatic effect of the slight split of reality from the present to the past.

The final shot of the animation zooming out of the sunset of Chernobyl which all the buildings are covered with trees and nature as the nature once again take over this place rather than the humanity.

this is the photo glitching in between this shot showing the chernobyl when the incident happened not very long ago showing that the area have been evacuated 

This shows the effect applied before and after this photo inspired by tv glitch from lack of signal and glitch from computers when they crash.

                              

The montage of the film that act as flash back needs a slight effect like old film stock with dust on the the lens, therefore i applied the same glitch effect on to the black and white photos of the montage which works perfectly with only slight tweaks to make it black and white, i add some black screen in between the sequence and the montage and in-between the black i added some white noise which usually hear from old televisions and radio. Which applies to the  "radiation" wave that may affect radio and television signals, as well as signifying that period of time  in the 1980s where television and radio are still the main medium to communicate information.

This two shows the effects slightly of how the montage would look the effects of glutting is very slight almost not noticeable due to the speed and the images being black and white and having a certain period of history. Meaning that the original photographs were already aged so with this effect it adds to the time and age of the montage.

This shows the structure of the two glitch each includes ten images flashing towards the audience, while leaving 2 seconds before the start of the montage with the white noise to notify the audience that this is out of the time frame of the animation. 

                         

Sound Week 6

Sound is a a major part of motion pictures, as the soviet director Sergei Eisenstein would say "synchronisation of senses" Linking the movements with the sound creates an entirely different experience perceptually.  As found in earlier readings we have realised sound of motion pictures are very often recorded separate from the pictures, and that many sounds that seems to be the sound in a film is often not what you think it is. For example door slamming, footsteps ect...
One of the most important characteristics of sound in terms of human continues is that when a sound and image occur at the same time, we perceive it as one event but not two, our mind automatically search for patterns.

Sound is often shown as a accompaniment towards the images, however, it can actually shape what we see, and alter our understanding of images. For example a character dialogue  can often lead the audience to a certain focus with in the frame. An offscreen sound can hint to the audience what may be going to happen, with out sound we might not even realise some of the details of a certain frame only with sound the images could work well in a  narrative. Sound in another word would be the narrator of a motion picture, it leads the audience eyes to the things the director is focusing on.

Reading sound film art
"An abrupt silence can jolt us and arrest our attention (7.5, 7.6). Just as color film

turns black and white into grades of color, so the use of sound in film will include

all the possibilities of silence."

lack of sound can actually be a type of effect and can draw attention and forces the audience to focus on the image, and allow more space for own interpretation and imagination.

This effect can actually be used in my animation as an effect to draw attention, in the montage part of my film, which is flashing black and white images of the chernobyl 20 years ago. with silence on that part of the film would make a huge difference in terms of how the audience interrupt the film, and drags the focus on to that as the "climax" of the film.

Sound also represents distance 

The further the sound comes from the softer the sound may sound to be, this is often used in most films, as dialogue of characters comes in the back ground music or noise turns down.

Most importantly sound effects creates the "realness" of a film with out sound effects the silence would make the film look dull and not lively. Which would be distracting to the audience, music acts as something similar only it usually is used to fill in the gaps between dialogue and silence, and of course to create mood.

Sound is actually used quite unrealisticly in most modern films, it very often act as a device to shift attention of the audience on the certain subject with in the frame, in a beginning of a scene something could be so loud that you can not ignore, while later in the scene when focused in characters dialogue the noise completely fades. 

Sound can even be used in hiding certain changes and shot change, with sound it links the images in to a flow, almost always act as a 

Fantasia on Greensleeves

Fantasia on Greensleeves by Ralph Vaughan Williams
He was a english composer Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.
the song first appeared in 1850 in a form of ballad and later published in a few books and used in different operas and with different version of lyrics, not until  In 1934 ralph arranged his 'Fantasia on Greensleeves' in which another old folk tune 'Lovely Joan' was incorporated into the central section of a melody which begins and ends with Greensleeves. The meaning behind this tune remains a mystery as diffferent version of lyrics has very different connotations, it was once a political tune, once a love ballad, and many other forms. Nevertheless this tune has been used for over 400 years, and has been used in films, opera, festivals, concerts. 
This piece of music can be interrupted as very different meanings and feelings, as often the listener can feel sad, excited, mysterious, and many others, the piece is so open to imagination that it can be used in so many different mediums. This song feels peaceful, uplifting, and at the same time mysterious all the qualities of the nature. which really suits the theme of the animation, and as this piece of music has a huge difference in the volume in the beginning towards the end the change is quite a big gap. Which is a very good tool used to build up the atmosphere of the film/ animation.

Moreover this piece of music is under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/ creative commons 1.0 that means that it is free to use and modify even for commercial purposes. This makes it a great piece to use in my animation. Furthermore this piece of music is universal, nearly all the world have heard this tune or melody before somewhere, and often it brings back childhood memories. Which suits the overall mood, style, and theme of the animation.

http://hubpages.com/entertainment/FolkSongGreensleeves-Greensleeves