Pics that I took and some common problems

These pictures I took when hanging out with my family last weekend. All were edited in Photoshop since the colors hadn't been so good and the shapes hadn't been tough enough.

I like the second the best because it looks kind of beautiful, but I always feel very lonely and sad when looking at this. The colors are good and contrast enough, the sky and the branches are balanced as well. However, the two others don't satisfy me much, since I hoped they would get the better structure and lighting.

The 1st one was kind of dark, the details seemed to be very unclear. I had to adjust the brightness and the contrast option to make it brighter and clearer. However, the colors seem to be muted and the sun lights don't look real and clear enough. Besides that, the structure is not good enough, it doesn't follow the one-third rule. There are too much space for the bottom and too little space for the top. This makes the picture look weird and ridiculous.

The 3rd one is much brighter, but the problem was also the lighting. I forgot to turn off the flash, then I took this while it was mid day. Therefore what we just can see is the yellow shape of the flowers, not other elements such as the stamen and the petals.

These problems sound very typical, but it's really easy to cause them too. So I have to take care of the lighting as well as the structure for the next shooting.

"Father and Daughter"

The title of this 8 minute video, Father and Daughter, caught my attention. It's kind of simple, but there're tons and tons of things between a father and a daughter. So I watched it. And I was really touched by the style of animation, the music as well as the script.

The story is about a father and a daughter riding along the countryside. Then he says goodbye to his young daughter, and she couldn't find him for ages. Time passes by and she grows older and older. However, the love and the deep longing for her father are never faded.

What makes me really surprised is the style of this animated film, it's totally done in pencils, charcoal and a software called ANIMO. While many modern animated films tend to be drawn based on 3D and computers, this kind of animation reminds me of the old style animation in the 1920s, which may make the story more touching and memorable. Besides that, I think that's the best way to represent the beauty of Dutch countryside's sightseeing. Moreover, there is a really specific characteristic that is always used in Dutch animation; that's the "non-verbal" or "no-dialogue" effect. Therefore, audiences can only communicate with the movie through the background music, the gesture, and the movement of the characters, etc. Due to these special effects, "Father and Daughter" becomes much more special and embedded in viewers' memory.

"Father and Daughter is a film about longing, the kind of longing which quietly, yet totally, affects our lives” is what Michael Dudok de Wit said about his masterpiece.

Some scenes:




Some other related information:

- Running Time: 8 minutes 30 seconds
- Year of Release: 2000
- Production: Cloudrunner Ltd, UK, and CineTe Filmproductie bv, Holland
- Script, Design and Animation: Michael Dudok de Wit
- Other Contributors: Normand Roger (Composer), Claire Jennings and Willem Thijssen (Producers), Arjan Wilschut (Main Co-Animator), Jean-Baptiste Roger (Sound), and Alistair Becket and Nic Gill (Technical Directors)
- Awards include:Independent Film Award, Ottawa International Animation Festival, 2000; Grand Prize, Cinanima Animation Festival, 2000; Grand Prix Narrative Films, Holland Animation Film Festival, 2000; and Best International Animated Film, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, 2001

Reference:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279079/
http://www.awn.com/oscars01/animfather.php3