Research - Week 6

19/03/2019

Feedback for my presentation More work needs to be done on the question, pre-production needs to be done quicker,timeline a little optimistic more pre-production content completed, and examples of my influences' work would had been good. I also already have solid research completed that I saw as secondary at the time, but I now is more primary. However, there is potential for the project to come out great. I may need to apply for a peer tutor to help me out with the question.

Students asked whether the split screen would divide the screen or show two different frames. The idea that in films nowadays, they use colour for the present day and black and white for the past. One question the reason why one is in colour and the other in black and white. Continue to look at colour and black and white examples in film.

'Documentation' group task
We came together and read the document, but it was hard for us to process and understand from reading, so we narrow down keywords in each article and tried to understand from there and did as much as we could. I wrote up notes as I went, which became the script for our presentation next week.

We tested the script I wrote as we read and discussed the 'documentation' document, which is typed up above in this blog. Bethany's sister was our test subject and we were seeing if she could understand it and we know she is a good listener. Bethany's sister could understand it, which was good enough for us. Bethany was going to sort out the slides for the presentation next week. I had the script already typed into my blog, so I just needed to sent it to them by email and they provided to me, their student emails. We also decided that Friday was the best day for us to meet up again about this presentation.

Bethany managed to receive my email fine and we will be discussing in a group email when on Friday to meet up and to organise our presentation further, as well as sort out some examples of artists who have applied this type of methodology; documentation. 

'Documentation' script
Deep meaning in components in what we're already doing. Components like the research question, methodology, documenting, planning, conclusion and result.
What we gain from applying these components / processes, whether it is we're gaining emotion or intellectual  experience.

Research questions helps students show they understand their work and evaluating if the course work will help us improve in our creative field

It is not only one creative discipline that is explored, but is much more diverse and you look at a multitude of other creative disciplines.

One part of methodology is showing your understanding, and the other part is paying attention to detail on your understanding.

Analysis of Result is basically what we already do in our blogs, development, and background tasks that lead us to our findings, and how we should view different ways of researching.

How to use documentation as a tool and what you gain from it. That there are a range on how to document research in creative or digital forms e.g. video, photography, sound recording. 
For effective evaluation towards research, we are to aim for particular behaviours and self-discipline. It also tells us that documenting as we go is in fact, the best way to go.

The complexity of overlap tells us what can go wrong in documentation and how it can be fixed.

22/03/2019

We met up and came together at SIT and tried to find artist who apply active documentation, which took a while, but we eventually found some related on game design and animation. Bethany wasn't 100% certain what we were doing and emailed Bex. I told Bethany about the stuff on Blackboard, but she emailed Bex anyway. 
I was concerned about what we're going to say and who going to say what for the presentation, and that we are not prepared enough, but everyone was fine about it.

23/03/2019

Bethany sent us an email with an attached snapshot image from Bex saying that we should check Blackboard, just as I suggested yesterday.

I came up with an idea that night to undergo camera and post-production tests tomorrow, but will do most of what I have in mind (camera shots) if my flatmate is well enough. MetService says it's going to be another hot day tomorrow.

24/03/2019

I started the day by reading and taking notes from an old book on colour in film and photography that I issued from the SIT library a while ago. It's going to be tricky to apply APA referencing for this source because it doesn't have definite names for the author, only  'Editors of Time-Life Magazine', and although it states it was published in thew United States by Time Magazine, it doesn't indicate where in the United States it was published. I may have to guess.
This publication seems to focus more on photography, but it does have relevance towards film and moving image.

According to the SIT library catalogue, the book's title is Color
It's also interesting to note that the SIT library got the book on May, 16 1990. The return dates still range from then to the present day. The previous time this book was issue was in 2003, just 16 years ago. It still has labels on it with 'Southland Community College' and 'Southland Polytechnic Library'.

Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

• There wasn't a fully practical method for everyone to use colour in film and photography until the intoduction of Kodachrome in 1935, which was invented by Leopold Godowsky Jr., and Leopold Mannes. It was hard to come by beforehand and was limited to amateurs and professionals in the field

Eastman Kodak Company. (1922). Untitled [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

• As decades passed since then, colour has commonly been used and chosen over black and white
• Colour adds an exciting dimension to any subject and has proven to be 'a challenging medium of expression'
• Beauty can be captured through colour
• In the days of film, the process of colour photography started out as black and white negative before colour was superimposed onto the film. Filters were at time, used for white balance.

Milito, S. (n.d.). Daylight film in daylight [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

Milito, S. (n.d.). Tungsten film in daylight [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

Milito, S. (n.d.). Tungsten film with 85b filter [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

Milito, S. (n.d.). Tungsten film in tungsten light [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

Milito, S. (n.d.). Daylight film in tungsten light [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

Milito, S. (n.d.). Daylight film with 80a filter [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

• Colour can add context, meaning, symbolism, set a scene in a particular time of day or time period
• It's believed that colour changes with time
• If applied creatively, colour can be used to bring out abstract, complex personalities and emotions that cannot be clearly achieved through black and white

Turner, P. (1967). New guinea faces [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

• Looking at how colour or black and white is visually used in a time period helps sell the illusion of the scene being set in that particular time period
• In particular contexts, colour can achieve intimacy and the sense of soft textures that couldn't stand out if captured in black and white.
• Colour can make the viewer identify him or herself with the image, as though they have been there before themselves.
• In Farrell Grehan's 1967 colour photograph, Mt. Olympus, he made contrasting colours in the foreground go out of focus, in order for subdued colours to stand out more.

Grehan, F. (1967). Mt. olympus [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

• Colour itself can be a subject itself
• Natural colours can bring authenticity to an image
• Colour can bring out contrast to aspects in an image that would be otherwise, unnoticeable at first sight in black and white.
• Colourless objects like silverware can effectively stand out if included in imagery that strongly consists of vibrant colours. I don't think such imagery would be as effective if transferred or captured in black and white.

Turner, P. (1968). Silverware [Photograph]. In Editors of Time-Life Books. (1972). Color. New York, NY: Time Inc.

• Using colour in an image can make it a center of attention.
• Physicist, James Clerk Maxwell discovered an effective way to use colour filters as means to control shades of gray in a black and white photograph and for when colour is introduced onto a black and white negative (both in viewing and processing). He was only 30 years old and he didn't do it to make a technical discovery, but he aimed to make a visual point for a public lecture. It would had been sometime between 1861 and 1862. The colour filters he used were red, green, and blue, which is possibly why we have the RGB colour profiles nowadays.
• Maxwell's method was the most practical method to achieve colour photography up until the 1930's.
• Colour used in film in 1917 was described by Leopold Godowsky Jr., and Leopold Mannes as 'murky and unnatural', so they set out to fix that.
• Godowsky Jr., and Leopold Mannes experimented with fitting their own colour filters and lenses onto a movie projector at a movie theater in New York, which brought satisfactory results, but the projectionists of the time didn't have the patience to continuously set up filters and lenses
• Instead of realising the need to re-educate American film projectionists, they changed their methods to adding colour dyes to film stock, which they believed would make their brand of colour film more user-friendly for film projectionists
• Until they they came up with the idea of experimenting with colour dyes onto film, Leopold Godowsky Jr., and Leopold Mannes worked in orchestras full-time, but then they quit their job to focus more on developing colour film. Similar to animator Richard Williams, they would work as musicians during the day and then work on colour photography in their spare time.
• It is still hard to believe that the men who made colour film and photography more user-friendly were musicians at heart.
• After leaving work in orchestras, they moved to their parents' apartments. This is where they invented a two-layer photographic plate, which allowed colours to be applied at a more appropriate quantity. They rushed off to get it patented.
• As a result of the two-layer photographic plate, Leopold Godowsky Jr., and Leopold Mannes were starting to get noticed by influential people in industrial and academic fields.
• Their parents thought their innovations were a waste of time and preferred them undertaking musical careers. Their parents were fed up with their work on colour film so much that they were evicted from their parents' apartments and no longer received financial support from their parents. Their parents made them choose between musical careers or become homeless by continuing to experimenting with chemicals and film.
• Leopold Godowsky Jr., and Leopold Mannes received support from an investment firm that were impressed by their work.
• Just prior to the First World War, German chemist, Rudolf Fischer and his assistant, Johann Wilhelm Siegrist radically changed Maxwell's colour film method by using standard colour dyes onto processed black and white film.
• Fischer and Siegrist's method influenced Leopold Godowsky Jr., and Leopold Mannes in the mid-1920's into trying the method, but found high difficulties in achieving it because it wouldn't work on their patented layer film, so they went towards another option, in which based on Fischer and Siegrist's work, lead them to using different chemical called dye couplers.
• They were introduced to Eastman Kodak after the researchers there in 1930 managed to achieve black and white film that could perfectly adapt to colour
• By 1933, with the help of Eastman Kodak researchers, Leopold Godowsky Jr., and Leopold Mannes managed to develop colour in film for home movies, bringing colour film to the masses. Despite only applying two primary colours, it still achieved reasonably good results. Eastman Kodak was so impressed they wanted this innovation to be publicly marketed right away, even though there was room for technical improvement as far as Godowsky Jr., and Mannes were concerned.
• On April 15, 1935, the colour film stock for home movies developed by Godowsky Jr., and Mannes went on sale to the public as 'Kodachrome'. A year later, the film stock became available to 35mm still cameras.
• They continued to work for Eastman Kodak and developed other types of colour film stock for consumers like; Ektachrome, which applied dye couplers and was film stock that could be processed in any darkroom. In addition to Kodacolor, in which enabled you to enlarge colour negatives.

Thistle33. (2016). Kodachrome K135 20 Color Reversal Film. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodachrome#/media/File:Kodachrome_K135_20_Color_Reversal_Film_Expired_in_1961.jpg

Thistle33. (2016). Kodak Ektachrome F 35mm Slide Film, E-2 Process, Expired: February 1963. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ektachrome#/media/File:Kodak_Ektachrome_F_35mm_Slide_Film_-_Expired_February_1963.jpg

Thistle33. (2016). Kodacolor 120 Color Film (Expired: 1957). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodacolor_(still_photography)#/media/File:Kodacolor_120_1957_Film.jpg

• Much more easy-to-use and high quality colour film became available to the masses following the Second World War. This was a result of Agfacolor in Germany being taken over by Allied forces towards the end of the war. By this time, Godowsky Jr., and Mannes were more than satisfied with what they had achieved and done, so they left Eastman Kodak to pursue musical careers. Godowsky Jr.'s interest in colour still continued and he helped develop research into colour television.
• Because of the availability of easy-to-use and high quality colour film, a majority of camera enthusiasts in America were starting to prefer colour film, rather than using black and white film.
• By 1964, there were more colour images being taken by budding photographers in America than black and white images
• It is suggested to take images in a sunny or shady weather to achieve natural-looking colours
• Surfaces are believed to become very much textured and interesting during late afternoons. This is something relevant to my research because that is thew time of day I am aiming to film my dramatic sequence and it's something to keep in mind during the filming

Things didn't go as planned for the filming. There was rain outside whenever I was going to do filming with my phone, my flatmate was still unwell, but I did manage to test filming one type of camera framing that I have story boarded. This type of camera framing was to have the camera panning across the location, establishing the location and pans to the unit's sliding door. It was the only thing to test filming that I could think of without needing a person to film and was not wet. I didn't film in the rain, so that it wouldn't wreck the phone.

I have also came up with a new storyboard frame, which is to have the character move forward from very close to the camera (black frame). Looking back I should had the test filming planned, in which I could had done more test filming today than just of one camera framing, as well as done way more colour and black and white tests.

I have sent the test footage from today and from a couple of weeks ago to Google Drive, so that I can import them on a computer and do some colour and black and white tests on DaVinci Resolve.

I started off by experimenting colour with the first piece test footage I took and did some stuff with the colour wheels. I was trying to add red an blue. Red meaning the anger and intensity in the dramatic sequence, but I wanted to blue in there as well because blue meaning the depressing resolution that is to come. I gave red to the Lift colour wheel, which is shadows or dark parts of the colours in the image and blue to the Offset colour wheel because it sets the image's overall colour. The result brings the blue more prominent than the red. I also experimented with the Curves, but it didn't bring any clear adjustments to the image.

I think I could try more variants with the colour wheels and perhaps use blue in the Lift colour wheel and use red in the Offset colour wheel, which is the opposite of what I have just done.

NOTE: The snipping tool wouldn't come up on the computer I was using in The Clinic, so I just took pictures of the progress with my phone

I experimented with doing the opposite and found that it did indeed. Red seems to be more prominent than the blue now. I believe that the red is more important because the sequence is about an argument, but at the moment it could be improved and it currently shows either a nostalgic look or a yucky brown look, but we'll see what more experimenting will produce and see if it brings more cleaner colouring.

I looked at the colour wheels again and tried to think logically. I put the Lift colour wheel back to normal and adjust the Gain colour wheel because gain is meant to change colour in the highlights and I want to try and see if I can get away with a cleaner look by adding the blue to the highlights. The results were that the colouring made the scene somewhat more menacing and depressing, and monotone. It almost lacks colour, which nearly defeats the purpose on why I doing these post-production tests.