26/02/2018 - CROSS COLLABORATION EDITING 1

We all got together as we had all agreed on the Monday to record the audio sections of our film, and also edit our footage and audio together with our planned rotoscoping animation. However Oliver (with the full script, storyboard and plan) and James (our only expert in visual effects and post production) were nowhere to be seen. James arrived a while later, however Oliver was a complete no-show across the whole day, and didn't really provide any explanation for why he was unavailable. This disappointed me a bit as he has specifically placed himself in a position where the entire production was relying on him, and had even asked to take the leadership/directional role. I also felt that gender issues and misunderstanding/lack of awareness were one of the key areas of interest in his artistic practice, so it was a bit disappointing to see him not willing to properly see through a project which should have been of the upmost importance to him. Had we followed me idea about the gentrification of Anglia Square, or another topic around an issue of importance to me such as ecology or the environment, I would ensure I was in every day to make sure the outcome was correctly voiced, factual and as appropriate as possible, because it was a topic I had specifically brought to the table.


Because of these issues we were several hours late with the proper starting, as we lacked many of the key informative documents and guidances that would have allowed us to begin. Between the group of 3 Fine art and 5 Games art and Design, with no script or storyboard, we had little idea where to begin with organising effectively. We got on with the audio recording as far as possible, and also had a little masterclass in rotoscoping.

Thankfully James was not too late, and when he arrived he immediately explained how there was a student share file system on these computers which would allow us to pass files back and forth easily and all contribute to shared folders. Once we had filled a shared file with all of our audio and footage for 'Genderbread', it was then much easier to share roles out and get everyone involved in different areas of production. This shared folder system was definitely one of the most useful tools in our collaborative experience.


I started work on a credits page for our film. Keira had suggested the use of a closing jingle inspired by examples from Japanese film, so I left her to find some music for this closing section, but also began working to find a nice house font for our footage. I chose Sunflowers from DAfont for it's combination of legibility and also craft based/ handwritten aesthetic.
With the mental image I had of the animations and rotoscoping drawn overtop, I thought this font would match that style well and give the entire footage the sense of having been embellished post production. This font also featured inflexions at either end which enhanced it's decorative nature.

 I then went to look at the rotoscoping happening on the other side of the computers we were all using. We discussed the handwritten natue of the fonts I had chosen, and then also looked into some example stylistic icons we could use to represent some of the different forms of attraction discussed in the video. (see surrounding above images) I hoped aspects such as this would add to the professionalism of the video and help drive Oliver's concept home.

However as everyone continued to work, it was becoming clearer that getting his entire concept across as he has intially pitched it to us was going to be incredibly difficult. Rotoscoping the animations would have been very longwinded and labour intensive, and we were all unsure if it would be correctly meeting the brief, as rotoscoping with photoshop as we were doing was definitely post 1950's, although the technique did exist at that time in a more rudimental format. As well as this, there was increasing humor around the actual unsettling nature of the genderbread persons blank white eyed stare, culminating when Lewis added his rotoscoped brain to the footage.

We trialed adding the brain to a speech bubble and I also suggested some small outline stylistic changes to give the work some additional definition. It was really good experience in confidently yet respectfully suggesting changes to another persons ideas, and I managed to articulate all of my suggestions successfully, even though some of them required extra work to be done by other people in areas. This was a really valuable area of the teambuilding exercise for me.


Keira had by this point found a really funny bit of audio of Japanese ladies playing music by blowing through leaves. We all agreed initially that the music was too high -pitched and tinny to play at this stage, but I also suggested that something like this could provide a positive and uplifting note to the end of our announcement. The angle we were taking was to present an issue that some people struggled with or felt intimidated by in it's complexity and the level of offence which could be caused if wrongly handled. So after a big load of sensitive, important information, I thought ending on a lighter tone could really settle the issue comfortably in peoples heads as something they no longer needed to be afraid to address. I used Premier Pro to lower the pitch of the song, and it immediately sat better in credits sequence and was less comedic and more generally jolly instead.

Although we made a lot of progress today, it was definitely hampered by the lack of Oliver. I also feel like our morale as a group towards this project was also greatly impacted, as this had very much been Oliver's vision and a project which was very close to his heart and artistic practice, working to deliver it to his plan without any of his accompanying material or inspiration was challenging. Hopefully he would be in to help us finish it on Wednesday, as atleast this would allow him to be present for the finishing touches and to ensure it had the correct dialogue and voice for the educational format he had designed.