JasonThe Kre8tif! Festival gave all us QUT students the chance to attend masterclasses, speeches and talks given by the cream of the crop of the digital media/ creative industries. There was a lot to take in, and here are some of my notes from the 3 days.
Day 1: Keynote address (15/12/10)
Jason Manley
Ø Background is in games development.
Ø Conceptart.org – first place for students to study, learn and share art online, in an organised and cohesive way.
Ø Online Community – to share art and knowledge.
Ø Massiveblack.com
Ø First NextGen games developer in China.
Ø The Art Department – virtual art school for digital and traditional media.
Ø Motto for The Art Department – “Harnessing your imagination. Evolve your career”. Manley is inspired by finding new ways to keep supporting the business and students as well.
Ø The Art Department – stream over the instructor’s desktop live, so that they can take over your program and paint over what you are doing. Interactive in so many ways. There are demonstrations, lectures, and presentations. Teaches entrepreneurial activity, business, and legal. Gives the instructors or “veterans” a chance to teach and create and focus on art, and reinspire their creativity.
Ø Currently building a full production and IP development program, and has a 5 year plan for doing so.
In Business
Ø Partnership agreement – intellectual property is something that you need to protect for all creative ventures, and especially online. Note down all the ‘what ifs’ and what could possibly go wrong. Put all this in writing.
Ø The importance of utilising social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – as it can quickly deliver content for sharing. You need to constantly make people aware of what you are doing.
Ø Importance to use these networks to build relationships, and also to build them in real life.
Ø Need to learn how to constantly diversify your work.
Ø Making connections is the most important thing you can do for your career.
Ø When forming a business – think about the entire process. Who communicates with who? Who’s in charge of what? The clearer you are on this the more chance you have of being successful.
Ø “Dreamlisting” your clients can be helpful, via LinkedIn etc. Search desired company and keywords.
Ø Service businesses are dead-end – creating content will keep you afloat.
Ø When creating new IP you want to test the market – gauge interest. There are a number of ways that you can put content out to test interest. Start small – and if there is no “vibration” then don’t keep going and risk an unsuccessful venture.
Jason teaching at The Art Department (TAD)
massiveblack.com: providing illustration, artwork, animation and 3D assets for the entertainment and advertising industry.
Shawn Kelly Masterclass (15/12/10)
"Animating for Live Action Films"
Importance of Planning
4 types of planning
- Visualisation
- Observation (constantly being open to the world around you)
Ø Showed a video that he shot in the mall, that he placed in his lap whilst reading a book. Found it very interesting that nearly all groups of people walking together walking in sync. However animating this can look really strange and unrealistic, so another lesson also is, don’t copy everything you see from real life!
Ø Be curious...always try and find references to help you – watching videos of real people to model your animations and drawings on.
Animators are like actors...
Ø And as such must try to understand how an actor might think.
Showed “Transformers 1” (my favourite movie!!) scene selections, and the animation and behind the scenes work that went into it. Watched destruction of bus by Decepticon on highway.
Staging
Ø Anticipation – creating a sense of what’s to come, make it more exciting for the audience. Advanced anticipation – preparing for a movement.
Ø Little movements
Creating silhouettes
Ø ...and shadows on primary body parts gives more depth to a character and as such creates more realism.
Secondary action
Ø In scenes – supports main idea of the shot without drawing away from main performance.
"Be observant of the world around you, and reference real-life movements to help with the detail in your animations"
The award-winning scene from Transformers
David Freeman Masterclass (15/12/10)
“The Secrets behind Pixar’s Magic”
“Beyond Structure” (at Universal Pictures)
Technique 1: For some of their movies, marketing would never approve.
‘High Concept’ – the big intriguing idea – one or two sentences.
Technique 2: Visual storytelling.
Technique 3: Feature real underdogs.
Technique 4: Artfully use the 75 empathy techniques.
Emotioneering techniques – used to address the subconscious.
Scenes from Wall-E shown as example.
Ø “Little Human Touches”.
Ø “Everyman” – understand our frustrations also.
Ø Recommendation: watch the movie “How to train your dragon”.
Wall-E: pulling at audience's heartstrings
Technique 5: Sophisticated psychological insight – don’t talk down to the audience.
Technique 6: Let it get ugly. Don’t protect the audience from some harsh reality.
[Examples of Pixar movies has worked on – Toy Story 3, A Bugs Life, Up, Wall-E, the Incredibles, Ratatouille]
Technique 7: Echo the central issue in more than one character or plot line.
Technique 8: Poignant and funny can go side by side “Slide into poignant, you can slip into comedy”.
Technique 9: A group, working together, can win.
Technique 10: The Brad Bird addition – A person can be uniquely himself or herself, and part of a close-knit family too.
Technique 11: Toss in something wonderfully unexpected - for the unexpected gives birth to delight.
Interview with Ralph Simon (16/12/10)
Book recommendations
“The Firefly Effect” – by Jennifer Acues
“Information is beautiful” – Data Visualisation
Day 2: Keynote address (16/12/10)
MDeC Representatives' speeches
Ø Scriptwriting, storytelling and drawing, are all key in developing creative content.
Ø Aspirations of government through its creative initiative.
Day 3: Business Track
Reza Rezali – growing into a bigger market.
Vice President of MDEC – Divide your time between business growth and seeking business markets and building the IP that will move your business forward.
Din Altit (17/12/10)
"The Fundamentals of Packaging a Project Successfully"
Ø Changing landscape of media content is extreme.
Ø Creation of media is everywhere, as technology is cheaper.
Ø Back then, creative process was limited to what technology is cheaper. Now it’s the opposite.
Ø Audience today are in control and they are picky. They want high content, and content that is on the go and quick.
Ø Transmedia storytelling – positioning the audience in a powerful position. Now it’s about the VUP: Viewer, User, Player.
Ø The story and market is shifting and must adapt.
Ø Think about cross promotional activities – how you can get to them.
Ø The TV-show “24” – Ancillaries was the only thing keeping it on the air – otherwise it was making a loss with every episode.
Ø Content-driven product will soon be consumed on the internet.
Ø Financial structures are changing – entertainment financing requires a lot of creative thinking.
Ø With minimal financing – must offer incentive. Partnership with other companies becomes increasingly important – mergers, e.g. banks merging to help each other survive.
Ø Is your story original? Research the market/people that may be interesting. Is your title catchy? Can it capture imagination when you just say it?
Ø It’s a visual world – so work on your visual.
Ø Budget and Financial
- Proposed budget/episode
- Budget structure: co-production, incentive, equity
- Comparables of similar 3 shos cost vs. profit.
Ø You can find creative solutions even if you don’t have a lot of money – solution is to partner up with people.
Din Altit mid-action
Leah Hoyer (17/12/10)
"Developing Strong Characters for Animation"
Leah Hoyer: Walt Disney Guru
Elements of character
Ø Motivation Level (things a good friend or mother would know)
Ø Strengths and weaknesses.
Ø Kim Possible as an example
Ø Sensitivities – pushes buttons
Ø Desires, Hopes and Fears
Ø Issues
SpongeBob Squarepants is:
Ø Blissfully unaware of his stupidity.
Ø Has little ability to read emotions of others.
Ø Can be hurt by friends who may seem disloyal or don’t share his enthusiasm
Spongebob on screen
Deep Level (Things their psychiatrist might not even know)
Ø How their strengths overcome their weaknesses... or don’t.
Ø Why they have the sensitivities and issues they do.
Ø How they change when they are really tested.
Are they strangers, acquaintances, best friends, or your psychiatry patients?
Ø Surface level – age, gender, species, physical.
Ø Attitude level – personality, intelligence.
Ø Motivation level – hopes, fears, strengths,
Ø Deep level – why they have their outlook and traits. How he changes in times of conflict.
Within these lie weaknesses, sensitivities, issues.
When your character reaches a rich level of development they:
Ø Talk for themselves.
Ø Are easier and more fun to work with.
Understanding psychology and life experiences is important – applying character development to your project.
Recommendation: “Triplets of Belleville” written and directed by Sylvan Chomet (2003). This is a must watch French cartoon.
In becoming a better character and storyteller:
Skills you need to develop and hone:
Artistic skills: drawing, colour sense
Other key skills: acting, observation
Writing, psychology, life experiences.
Ralph Simon (17/12/10)
"How Mobile Social Networking and Mobile is Accelerating Great NEw Opportunity for Malaysian Creativity"
Ø Chad Hurley – YouTube founder
Ø Are you a cross-platform creator and thinker?
Ø The one thing that colours all of the platforms – TV, online and out of home...is CREATIVITY.
Ø The 4 Cs are important – content, community, communication and commerce. These are the basic constructs around which your thinking can be organised to get your development happening.
Ø Steve Jobs and Apple – transformed the way people live with the Iphone.
Ø Product vs. Customer – Ask an Old Media company this question “what is your product” and they will say “the content”. A New Media company on the other hand will say “our audience – the listeners, readers, and surfers”.
New Media is catching up with Old Media in a big way.
Ø Twitter is a 3.7 billion dollar company and it is only 3 years old!
Ø New way of thinking must involve – cross-platform thinking/cross-media thinking.
Ø What can be your best tools?
- Colloquial innovation = local longevity
- Excellent graphics and VI
- Memorable user experience e.g. the Iphone
- Strong leading edge technology
- Awareness of international trends
- VC funding from MDeC or KL VCs?
Ø Remember the “Elevator Pitch” often used in Silicon Valley – if you see an important person in the elevator who could be of great benefit to you, you have maybe 6 floors to get your point across and pitch your brilliant idea!
Ø Significant Malaysian movers and shakers are KRU Studios, Zee Avi, 6ixth Sense.
Ø Look at Lady Gaga’s brilliant trans-media strategy – House of Gaga.
Ø Life is becoming more like what is happening here at XMedia Lab – creative, innovative and crossing boundaries.
Some snapshots from Ralph's presentation
Some interesting/equally just as disturbing statistics from around the globe
House of Gaga - good example of trans-media strategies being employed... who knew?
Life becoming more X Media
Ralph Simon's talk was definitely the one that I found to be most relevant - in terms of his concepts about marketing your product/brand as well as new media vs. old media trends. He was entertaining and energetic, delighting the crowd by sporadically bursting into Malay every now and again, as well as throwing out local names and phrases. I can understand the reasons behind his immense success, and I hope to be able to follow his exploits over the next few years...
