Cinematic techniques, Cross platform? I sure hope so!

After talking to a librarian about what books are often taken out by film students (as well as asking in town about animation books) I was pointed towards "Flash Cinematic Techniques" which on first glance looked to be useless for me as it was the wrong platform but nevertheless the subtext "Enhancing animated shorts and interactive storytelling" was enough to pull me in.

The book starts off by covering types of animation and how they would be used to replace  iconic scenes. As I mentioned in a previous blog, Animated characters have to over compensate on their display of emotions as they are not director friendly like human actors are which the book goes into detail on.

The book also covers a general FAQ about the flash workspace (which although interesting was not necessary to my project) as well as teaching the reader about different techniques they can use to get the best result in art.

The main section that I knew I would be using as reference was the in depth descriptions of the camera angles and the general shooting space. This chapter demonstrates how camera angles can be used to create a better scene, for example if a camera is placed above a character the viewer will perceive them as a small or insignificant character. If the camera is lower down however and they see the character from a low point they will perceive him as tall, powerful and a stronger character.

The book also helped me understand storyboards more clearly and how detailed they needed to be for the emotions to be captured properly. With this in mind when it comes to the laying out of the storyline (after it gets approved) I  know where to start and hopefully finish as well as allowing me to better plan my time along which scenes could take the most time or would need additional editing and planning.

Bibliography

• Jackson, Chris. Flash Cinematic Techniques: Enhancing Animated Shorts and Interactive Storytelling. Oxford: Focal, 2010. Print.