Studio Ghibli

Japanese Animation

Studio Ghibli is very famous animation and film studio in Japan. Founded in June, 1985, the studio is headed by the directors Hayao Miyazaki andIsao Takahata and the producer Toshio Suzuki.

They have produced a lot of pure and touching films with great drawing style and manage to keep wide range of fans.

List of Ghibli movies

• Grave oh the Fireflies
• kiki’s Delivery Service
• Laputa: Castle in the sky
• My Neighbour Totoro
• Howl’s Moving Castle
• Ponyo on the cliff by the sea
• Prince Mononoke
• Spirited Away

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Some of these stories have historical background and hidden meaning in it.

In Princess Mononoke, people say that it has got many themes hidden

• aborigines in Japan
• culture vs nature
• human vs god
• 権力と民衆

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the highly well known Animation Film Directer in Japan, also as film maker and comic writer. These films i have listed of Ghibli, most of them were directed by him which are most popular animation films in Japan and also in other countries. However i have found out in lecture that he was greatly influenced by Walt Disney, style of drawing,  expression of characters and some of the movement. Studio Ghibli films are always presented by Walt Disney Studios in other countries.

One of my favourite film from him  Spirited Away

This is a fantasy adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film theme is dislocation and it follows a sullen ten year old girl who is in the process of moving to a new neighborhood with her family, leaving her old friends and school behind, and chronicles of her adventures in a world of spirits and monsters.

Hayao Miyazaki said this film poses Japanese social problems contains critical commentary on modern Japanese society concerning generational conflicts, the struggle with dissolving traditional culture and customs within a global society, and environmental pollution.

But there is a rumor about this film that the story is based on people who got abducted to other country and compelled to work…

Animation

American Animation

The Adventure of Andre and Wally B

The animation on the feature was truly groundbreaking at the time, featuring the first use of motion blur in CG animation and complex 3D backgrounds, where the lighting styles and colors were inspired by Maxfield Parrish, made using particle systems.

 

Walt Disney: Bambi

they have researched and studied a lot about deer facing at real beer in their studio. As you can see in this film, atmosphere had created by their elastic strides and exaggerated movements. Which helps for  evoking the heart warming Disney feeling with aplomb.

 

Depth of field in Animation

 

 

 

This technique is very popular in Animation. Make it blurry for the place where you want it to look further. It can increase the depth of flat image.

 

Japanese traditional landscape painting (Nihonga)

Which gave an influence to Disney animations. Drawn in many layers,  blurrier as it is further back and focused on one place.

 

You can see depth of field ↓

http://mrdoob.com/projects/chromeexperiments/depth_of_field/

Example of depth of field from Bambi

 

Animation

Animation

Norman McLaren

Norman McLaren was a Scottish born Canadian Animator and film directer, he is remembered for his experiments with image and sound as he developed a number of groundbreaking techniques for combining and synchronizing animation with music.

 

Pas de Deux

Cinematic study of the choreography of ballet. A bare, black set with the back-lit figures of dancers Margaret Mercier and Vincent Warren create a dream-like, hypnotic effect.

 

Norm McLaren quote

“Animation is not the art of drawings that move but rather the art of movements that are drawn,” McLaren once remarked, as quoted in Americas. “What happens between each frame is more important than what happens on each frame. The basic substance of the cinema is movement – at its lowest physical level, the movement of lightwaves and soundwaves . . . it is the motion that speak to us.”

Structuralism

Structuralism

Intertextuality

Intertextuality

Whenever we look at something we sift through all bits of information in our heads to make meanings, we combine texts to create a complete picture in our head. Text doesn’t mean only text writings but also film, model and etc… This combination of text is referred to as intertextuality?

Its how things are connected to each other and how things in media influence each other for development and change.

Examples of intertextuality

 

Semiotics

Semiotics

semiotics is the general study of signs.　Represent something by using arbitrary symbols, symbolic text and Iconic (related realism).

Realism

Realism

Some people say that the first purpose of art is to recreate reality. They are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation. The Realist artist portrays subjects in the most straightforward manner possible without idealizing them, and without following previous art theories.

 

What’s Uuup !?!? ;)

Hello I’m Erika Arai, I’m currently studying BA Special effects at the University of Hertfordshire.

This blog is to help me summarise everything i’ve learned in my lecture.

I look forward to sharing with you my personal perspective on the topics.

I make a lot of grammatical  mistakes so bear with me 🙂