No description available.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the overlooked technical role of cinematography, by discussing its artistic effects. I intend to examine the career of a single cinematographer, in order to demonstrate whether a dinstinctive cinematographic style may be defined. The task of this thesis is therefore to define that cinematographer’s style and trace its development across the course of a career. The subject that I shall employ in order to achieve this is the émigré cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan, who is perhaps most famous for his invention ‘The Schüfftan Process’ in the 1920s, but who subsequently had a 40 year career acting as a cinematographer. During this time Schüfftan worked throughout Europe and America, shooting films that included Menschen am Sonntag (Robert Siodmak et al, 1929), Le Quai des brumes (Marcel Carné, 1938), Hitler’s Madman (Douglas Sirk, 1942), Les Yeux sans visage (Georges Franju, 1959) and The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961). During the course of this thesis I shall examine the evolution of Schüfftan’s style, and demonstrate how Schüfftan has come to be misunderstood as a cinematographer of German Expressionism. The truth, as I will show, is far more complex. Schüfftan also struggled throughout his career to cope with the consequences of exile. In this thesis I will also therefore examine the conditions of exile for an émigré cinematographer, and in particular Schüfftan’s prevention from joining the American Society of Cinematographers. I intend to demonstrate how an understanding of cinematographic style can shed new light on a film, and to give renewed attention to an important cinematographer who has been largely ignored by film history.

Le contrôle de caméra virtuelle est aujourd'hui un composant essentiel dans beaucoup d'applications d'infographie. Malgré cette importance, les approches actuelles restent limitées en terme d'expressivité, d'interactivité et de performances. Typiquement, les éléments de style ou de genre cinématographique sont difficiles à modéliser et à simuler dû à l'incapacité des systèmes actuels de calculer simultanément des points de vues, des trajectoires et d'effectuer le montage. Deuxièmement, elles n'explorent pas assez le potentiel créatif offert par le couplage potentiel d'un humain et d'un système intelligent pour assister les utilisateurs dans une tâche complexe de construction de séquences cinématographiques. Enfin, la plupart des approches existantes se basent sur des techniques d'optimisation dans un espace de recherche 6D, qui s'avèrent coûteuses et donc inadaptées à un contexte interactif. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons tout d'abord un cadre unique intégrant les quatre aspects clés de la cinématographie (le calcul de point de vue, la planification de trajectoires, le montage et la visibilité). Ce cadre expressif permet de simuler certaines dimensions de style cinématographique. Nous proposons ensuite une méthodologie permettant de combiner les capacités d'un système automatique avec une interaction utilisateur. Enfin, nous présentons un modèle de contrôle de caméra efficace qui réduit l'espace de recherche de 6D à 3D. Ce modèle a le potentiel pour remplacer un certain nombre de formulations existantes. / Virtual camera control is nowadays an essential component in many computer graphics applications. Despite its importance, current approaches remain limited in their expressiveness, interactive nature and performances. Typically, elements of directorial style and genre cannot be easily modeled nor simulated due to the lack of simultaneous control in viewpoint computation, camera path planning and editing. Second, there is a lack in exploring the creative potential behind the coupling of a human with an intelligent system to assist users in the complex task of designing cinematographic sequences. Finally, most techniques are based on computationally expensive optimization techniques performed in a 6D search space, which prevents their application to real-time contexts. In this thesis, we first propose a unifying approach which handles four key aspects of cinematography (viewpoint computation, camera path planning, editing and visibility computation) in an expressive model which accounts for some elements of directorial style. We then propose a workflow allowing to combine automated intelligence with user interaction. We finally present a novel and efficient approach to virtual camera control which reduces the search space from 6D to 3D and has the potential to replace a number of existing formulations.

This paper thoroughly examines the production of the thesis short film, Armed With A Heart, from conception to completion. Each area of the film's production is carefully dissected, including the writing, production design, cinematography, editing, sound, technology, workflow, and direction. Each of these areas contain a myriad of decisions that were made in effort to fulfill the overall vision of the movie as being a character driven, psychological thriller produced with a high production value. The aforementioned decisions are discussed at length. Documented feedback from test audiences is also reviewed in an attempt to objectively critique the final film.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities in fulfilment of the degree of Master of Arts by creative research in Film and Television, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / In this dissertation I examine the roles of the cinematographer in fiction feature film production. I begin the discussion with a historical review of the emergence of cinematography as a specialised field in early cinema. This corresponds with developments in camera technology that enabled accurate framing, lighting and the possibility of movement. In order to provide a framework for further discussion, the first chapter proceeds with a review of formal definitions and less conventional definitions of the role of the cinematographer. The focus in these discussions is on the cinematographer’s engagement with the design, development and application of a unique ‘visual style’ in the articulation of the director’s vision for the film. A large component of this research pertains to the work of the cinematographer in South African feature film productions. The second chapter presents an analysis of two very different South African feature films Oil On Water (Matthews, 2007) and SMS Sugar Man (Kaganof, 2008). I was the cinematographer on both productions and the discussion engages a reflexive mode of analysis. The third and final chapter is an analysis of the accompanying film Impunity (Mistry, 2014), which forms the creative component of this research. I conclude with establishing that the creative engagement of the cinematographer in the design of a coherent visual style contributes to a nuanced and engaging cinematic experience and richer visual vocabulary. / MT2017

A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Mater of Arts in Digital Arts: 3D Animation by Coursework and Research Report, 2017 / During the colonial era, stereotypes of Africa were created and normalised in order to gain, maintain and justify colonial power. Europe during the colonial era, defined itself, using binary thinking (stemming from the Enlightenment period), against the "Other". This was used to establish a definition of the savage against which Europe was defined as civilised; Europe, deeming itself rational, used nineteenth-century African ways as an opposition by which the binary of rational against irrational could be expressed (Loomba 45). Colonial depictions of Africa often overlooked complexities and distinctions and represented the continent as a homogenous land and created oversimplified representations of the people and places (Harth 14). From the repeated production of imperial imagery, a regime of representation was created portraying Africa as a primitive wilderness, inferior to Europe, and as a site of colonial adventure. More recently, Triggerfish Animation Studios, based in Cape Town, created the films Adventures in Zambezia (2012) and Khumba (2013). This research argues that both films contain colonial stereotypes that conform to the regime of representation depicting Africa as a homogenous land of animals and landscapes, and repeat the colonial single story of an Edenic Africa. Khumba (2012), although still containing colonial stereotypes, offers a less stereotypical depiction than Adventures in Zambezia (2013). / XL2018

No description available.

Orientador: Fabiane Renata Borsato / Banca: Silvia Beatriz Adoue / Banca: Ana Lúcia Menezes de Andrade / Resumo: Os contos populares têm por natureza a capacidade de se propagarem no tempo e no espaço. Desde as épocas mais remotas as civilizações mais distantes compartilhavam as mesmas histórias com algumas modificações que geralmente diziam respeito ao contexto em que viviam. Com base no princípio de que esses contos tendem a se perpetuar na história, estudaremos quatro versões do conto que hoje é conhecido como A bela adormecida, são elas: Sol, Lua e Tália, de Giambattista Basile; A bela adormecida no bosque, de Charles Perrault; A bela adormecida, dos irmãos Grimm; e, por fim, sua adaptação cinematográfica, A bela adormecida, de Walt Disney. Para tal, propõe-se um panorama histórico do gênero conto (especialmente do conto maravilhoso) e também do cinema de animação, pois acredita-se que o contexto histórico foi determinante para a concepção das obras. São feitos também apontamentos teóricos sobre as duas linguagens, ressaltando os aspectos que contribuirão para a análise das narrativas literárias e fílmica. Pretende-se, portanto, evidenciar as mudanças ocorridas no decorrer das diversas publicações em relação às instâncias narrativas, ao enredo e também quanto à tradução das obras literárias para a narrativa cinematográfica / Resumen: Los cuentos populares se difunden en el tiempo y en el espacio. Desde los tiempos más remotos, las civilizaciones más distantes comparten las mismas historias con algunas modificaciones que generalmente dicen respecto al contexto en que vivían. Fundamentado en el principio de que estos cuentos tienden a perpetuarse en la historia, estudiaremos cuatro versiones actualmente conocidas como La Bella Durmiente, siendo ellas: Sol, Luna y Talia, de Giambattista Basile; La bella durmiente en el bosque, de Charles Perrault; La Bella Durmiente, de los hermanos Grimm; y, finalmente, la adaptación al cine, La Bella Durmiente, de Walt Disney. Para este fin, proponemos un panorama histórico sobre el género cuento (en especial el cuento maravilloso) y también sobre el cine de animación, una vez que el contexto histórico fue fundamental para la concepción de las obras. También haremos apuntes teóricos sobre los dos lenguajes, destacándose los aspectos que contribuirán para el análisis de las narrativas. Con eso, pretendemos demostrar los cambios relativos a las instancias narrativas literarias y fílmica, al enredo y también a aquellos ocurridos en la traducción de las obras literarias para la narrativa cinematográfica / Mestre

A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Masters of Arts in Digital Animation at the University of the Witwatersrand (School of Digital Arts) Johannesburg, South Africa / In recent years, the quest for capturing authentic emotion convincingly in computer generated (CG) characters to assist exceedingly complex narrative expressions in modern cinema has intensified. Conveying human emotion in a digital human-like character is widely accepted to be the most challenging and elusive task for even the most skilled animators. Contemporary filmmakers have increasingly looked to complex digital tools that essentially manipulate the visual design of cinema through innovative techniques to reach levels of undetectable integration of CG characters. In trying to assess how modern cinema is pursuing the realistic integration of CG human-like characters in digital film with frenetic interest despite the risk of box office failure associated with the uncanny valley, this report focuses on the progress of the advances in the technique of facial motion capture. The uncanny valley hypothesis, based on a theory by Sigmund Freud, was coined in 1970 by Japanese robotics professor, Masahiro Mori. Mori suggested that people are increasingly comfortable with robots the more human-like they appear, but only up to a point. At that turning point, when the robot becomes too human-like, it arouses feelings of repulsion. When movement is added to this equation, viewers’ sense of the uncanny is heightened when the movement is deemed to be unreal. Motion capture is the technique of mimicking and capturing realistic movement by utilising technology that enables the process of translating a live actor’s performance into a digital performance. By capturing and transferring the data collected from sensors placed on a body suit or tracked from a high definition video, computer artists are able to drive the movement of a corresponding CG character in a 3-Dimensional (3D) programme. The attention of this study is narrowed to the progress of the techniques developed during a prolific decade for facial motion capture in particular. Regardless of the conflicting discourse surrounding the use of motion capture technology, these phenomenal improvements have allowed filmmakers to overcome that aspect of the uncanny valley associated with detecting realistic movement and facial expression. The progress of facial motion capture is investigated through the lens of selected films released during the period of 2001 to 2012. The two case studies, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Avatar (2009) were chosen for their individual achievement and innovative techniques that introduced new methods of facial capture. Digital images are said to undermine the reality status of cinematic images by challenging the foundation of long held theories of cinematic realist theory. These theories rooted in the indexical basis of photography, have proved to be the origin of contemporary viewers' notion of cinematic realism. However, the relationship between advanced digital effects and modern cinematic realism has created a perceptual complexity that warrants closer scrutiny. In addressing the paradoxical effect that photo-real cinematic realism is having on the basic comprehension of realism in film, the history of the seminal claims made by recognized realist film theorists is briefly examined.

The Utah State Standards for media arts are general and therefore give teachers a great deal of freedom in how they present the content for media arts courses. How the teacher engages students and project assignments are left to the teacher as they walk the students through the process of making films. This thesis explores how an art teacher might use music videos to teach filmmaking techniques and engage students in the process of meaning making. My research hypothesis is that, by educating students to understand and interpret the messages they consume through media, I can help them recognize the hidden texts in visual culture. My curriculum provides students with learning activities that foster the development of critical thinking skills and also techniques for analyzing images. An important part of the curriculum for this unit is a critical study of music videos wherein the students examine music videos using semiotics and qualitative film analysis. The students explore filmmaking techniques and the processes needed to create their own messages in a music video.