Research Task 4.2 - Case Study: Brandon J Wallace
Before starting this exercise, I have researched Brandon J Wallace's brilliant work on dissecting movie scenes, I had a look at his instagram profile to see his dissection of the "Get up" film scene. I liked the way he organised the shots, in particular where he separated the present time and the flashbacks within the scene, he changed the colour of the flashback moments and kept the present time in a noir style.
This change of colour according to the change of scene provides more clarity in what is actually happening within the sequence.
Furthermore, I based my storyboard task in his by using different colour palettes in different scenes within a sequence.
Exercise 4.2
For this exercise I needed at least 15 minutes of a sequence from a movie or TV drama of choice and my job was to storyboard the footage. To achieve this, I had to pause the film at points where there was a new "cut" or change of shot and thumbnail these key scenes.
This is a brilliant way for getting used to work at pace and helps to redraw and replan work without getting stuck in the laborious trap of redrafting with too much detail.
I also had to be reductive by using economy within my drawings so I could only draw what was needed to describe the scene. I also had to limit my time for up to a 2 hour limit and draw at least 20 frames in a sequence.
I picked a sequence from the "Dark Knight" film, in which Batman plans to capture Lau in Hong Kong, Lau works with the mob and he wanted to keep the mobsters money safe as a consequence of the Joker bank heist and also the police attempts to apprehend their money.
The first sequence (in black and white) shows Batman meeting with commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent, where they discuss how to capture Lau, they realised that since Lau's in Hong Kong, he's outside of US police jurisdiction and Chinese authorities do not extradite their nationals therefore the best way to capture him is for Batman to kidnap him.
The second scene (Marine Blue) shows Bruce Wayne meeting Lucius Fox in order to receive his latest gadgets and upgrades for his batsuit and the final scene shows Bruce Wayne meeting with Alfred, his butler and mentor, to plan the extraction from the building where Lau is. This extraction involves an aeroplane which will tow them midflight, putting things on simple terms.
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Reflections on the task:
This task has helped me in various aspects of drawing and planning which I will list down below:
- It was a good exercise to work fast in the planning phase of a drawing by means of thumbnails thus proving the uselessness of getting carried away with too much detail as I personally found the addition of detail to bring nothing at this stage and is a waste of time.
- It helped me to understand a bit more how to compose pictures within a sequence
- Regarding the previous point, this quality is particularly important for someone who is into creating sequential art be it in comics, animation and cinema.
- It benefited me in understanding which camera shot is the more adequate depending on what I'm trying to show to the viewer and offering more clarity in terms of understanding what is being shown.
- It also helped to see how pace is developed within pictures
- I enjoyed the different ways to portray dialogue within 2 or more characters
Things to improve or in need of further research:
- When I started making the first thumbnails I became tempted in adding more and more detail and realised It didn't bring anything beneficial, on the other hand, it just made the picture more confusing.
- I need to study more how to layout a comic book page in a way that keeps the reader engaged, although this exercise is highly beneficial in that sense, comic book panels have more nuances in terms of setting the pace and creating tension within a story by varying the panel relationship and size to create these qualities.
Reference:
"The Dark Knight" by Christopher Nolan
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