zoetrope strip

This is an example of the animated images i would like to use in my homemade zoetrope. These strips will be looped together to create a repeated pattern.

Homemade zoetrope

Here is a simple idea for creating my own homemade zoetrope.

1.    Start with a circular box or lid.

2.       Cut a piece of tape 3-4cm square (2 inches)

3.       Make a hole in the bottom of the box, just bigger than a marble.

4.       Stick tape on the outside over the hole and cut radially from the outside.

5.       Glue a glass bead from the outside so it extends beyond the bottom rim of the box- remove the tape.

6.       Draw a picture on a paper strip like you would on a flip book. The paper should be the same length as the box/lid.

7.       Make sure the paper strip goes in a loop.

8.       Cut slits into the black paper- same distance as the pictures.

9.       Make the black strip smaller than the container.

10.   Place the black strip around the edge of the box.

11.   Set the illustrated paper strip on the inside of it, with the illustrations between the slits.

Visualising Little Red Riding Hood- Sarah Bonner

In recent years contemporary artists have been appropriating and re-inventing traditional fairy tales. Subverting and interrogating received meanings, artists are challenging the traditional parameters of tales which convey ideas of gender role and racial identity. The fairy tale is being translated from literary text into visual culture. The artists recoding the tales address shifts in cultural attitude, engaging predominantly with issues of identity and discrimination. In this paper I examine the visual development of “Little Red Riding Hood,” investigating the manner in which the literary tale has been adopted by contemporary artists, how the visual responds to the textual, and cultural attitudes embedded in reiterations of the tale.

Critical literature dedicated to the field of fairy tale study is extensive, drawing its interpretive framework from historical and ideological discourses. Jack Zipes employs a socio-historical model for analysing the development and significance of the tales. Writing from a Marxist viewpoint, he argues that fairy tales embody the shifting cultural codes of history and, as such, they can be interpreted as records of social production. Zipes holds that the genre is as relevant to contemporary culture as it was for pre-literate society, especially in terms of gender politics and identity construction. His analysis of the illustrations of “Little Red Riding Hood” provides a sound basis for continuing research into visual representations of the tale. Where Zipes comments on the ideologies conveyed by fairy tales, Catherine Orenstein explores the historical and cultural meanings of “Little Red Riding Hood,”—its broad cultural incidences from cartoons and pornography to films and advertising, focusing closely on the construction and interpretation of gender. Bruno Bettelheim, a Freudian psychoanalyst of the genre, suggested that fairy tales were instrumental in developing children’s identity. For Bettleheim, children were able to locate in the text answers to their own trials and tribulations. Psychoanalysis constitutes significant research in this field, but it operates a closed system preferring universalities over individualities. Freud’s patriarchal meta-narrative favours boys’ development rather than girls’, and tends to ignore subjectivity as a whole in childhood development. Bettelheim’s assertions have been scrutinized by contemporary artists, who subordinate the prescriptions and constraints of fairy tale psychoanalysis to the interpretive freedom of narrative analysis—in particular, Roland Barthes’ conception of the relationship between text and image. These critical commentaries express the ubiquity of the tale in popular culture, emphasising its continued relevance on an individual and social level.

Although the critics mentioned above have informed my understanding of “Little Red Riding Hood,” my main aim here is to examine how contemporary artists are appropriating the tale and to what end. The text and image are intimately related, yet I propose that the image contains qualities that release interpretation from the strictures of tradition, making them more relevant and immediate in contemporary society. “Little Red Riding Hood” has sustained continued analysis and appropriation making it a forum for interrogation. References to the tale are abundant, indicating its presence in our cultural unconscious, and Maria Tatar identifies the tale as a place to “work through anxieties about gender, identity, sexuality and violence” (Orenstein i). In her 2002 study Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked, Catherine Orenstein claims that the tale “embodies complex and fundamental human concerns” (8).

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english/graduate/issue/2/sarah.htm

Little red riding hood- Influential images

The fair-tale Little Red Riding Hood is a dark story that warns children of the dangers of talking to strangers. Photographers have always been fascinated by the imagery depicted in the tale.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleybaccam/stunning-red-riding-hood-photo-shoots

Vogue, September 2009

 

mp4 Slideshow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFCKEsMftkc

This is the slideshow i created in light room. I have included one scanagram and one photogram within this slideshow. The rest of the images are captured from a handheld digital camera located outdoors. I based these series of images on nature.

I think my music choice has worked pretty well although it build up to a crescendo toward the end. I don’t think the last images fit in with the crescendo so this is something i would have to think about if i was to create another slideshow in the future.

Brainstrom

    I sketched out this brainstorm to help develop my ideas. It also made me look deeper into the topic.

QR code

<img src="http://qrcode.kaywa.com/img.php?s=8&d=http%3A%2F%2F" alt="qrcode"  />

example of little red riding hood model

Danielle is the model I want to use for my little red riding hood book cover.  She will work well on my cover as she has all the features I needed for this topic. I wanted a petite girl with long dark hair, as this is how the cartoon red riding hood appeared in the fairy tale.

 The red long coat also fits in well with the image I am trying to create, as it resembles the cape from the story. As I am doing a horror twist for my dust cover the red coat connotes blood and mystery.

I want her expression to be dark and dull, looking downward. I don’t want her to make eye contact with the viewers, as it will ruin the mystery feel to the image. The hood on the coat it up creating shadow on her face, which also makes it more dramatic. Her hands are slotted in the pockets to give off a laid back posture and to intimidate the viewers.

When shooting this image properly I will use the studio with the lights so it’s more professional. I will then edit the photograph on Photoshop to emphasise the darkness and shadows in the image. 

Example of zoeytrope

We were set out a task to put together a zoeytrope during the lesson. I searched for a series of photographs on the internet that would make this effect. I had to cut each indivdual square out on Photoshop then animated them to form this video.

Time lapse photography, in which a series of still photographs were taken one after another, provided the first “scientific” glimpses of ‘frozen motion. Using a series of cameras that were triggered one after another (an approach popularised more recently by which sci-fi film of the last 10 years. Eadweard Muybridge was allegedly able to settle a wager about whether all four of a galloping horse’s hooves were ever off the ground at the same time.

The Classic Age of Traditional (Cel) Animation

Realising that objects could be made to appear to move by displaying a sequence of images that differed slightly several times a second, one ofter the other, the pioneers of drawn animation developed a technique that remained largely unchanged for much of the 20th century.

Images were hand drawn and painted onto transparent celluloid sheets (from which we get the word cel), and overlaid to build up a single ‘frame’. Fixed background images were placed at the bottom of the stack of cels, and cels detailing foreground imagery aid on top. An overhead camera could then grab a snapshot of the apparently flat image. Drawing images over several multiple layers meant that background imagery could often remain unchanged and the background cels reused in multiple frames.

http://digitalworlds.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/making-pictures-move/

Viewing these images quickly one after another gives the impression of motion.

JPEG files vs RAW files

A topic debated regularly in digital photography is the choice of format to shoot with. All formats have their advantages and disadvantages so it is important for me to research each one before I make a decision. The most two common formats are Jpeg files and Raw file.

I think JPEG is the most well-known format and is familiar to most people. Most digital cameras use this format as these files need a lower amount of memory; therefore this is the correct format for photo images which are very small file for example Websites and emails. The JPEG file is very small compressing to perhaps only 1/10 of the size of the original data. Although when in the process of compressing the photograph some of the image will get lost and once save this data can never be recovered. The compression works by exposing the camera senor to light. Light energy then gets transferred into electrical energy which is then processed into a JPEG file. Information is then picked up while processing, the important data is used in the image and the information not required is removed.

Raw file information

The argument of JPEG vs RAW then comes down to a few considerations. Do I have the memory available to shoot in such a high format? Will I be able to use the format that I shoot my photos in? Will my camera be able to work fast enough for my needs? And possibly the most important; Can I afford to lose quality, or do I need the highest quality images available?


Original Image

Raw file

Jpeg file

ISO and Noise test

 ISO is used to figure out cameras sensitivity to light controlling the sensitivity of the sensor.  An obvious reason for the use of higher ISO's is so that it can be possible to take photographs in low light without having to have an extended shutter speed. Noise can sometimes be seen within an image when higher ISO is used in digital photography. Signals are produced when light hits the cameras sensor; some of the signals become distorted and change the result of the photograph. Noise can be seen when some of the pixels in an image changes colour.

 I wanted to do two different tests to see how my camera reacts to different ISO setting. Firstly I found a space in my house with very little light and took 5 photographs changing the ISO setting on each photograph. I used a tripod as I had to use long shutter times and wouldn’t have been able to keep the camera still hand held. I kept the shutter speed at a constant 20 seconds and aperture at f3.2. I carried out this test to see how the ISO setting would affect the sensitivity of the cameras sensor.

I am happy with the results I have got from this test because it is clear to see the effect that the ISO setting has on an image. It amazed me that the only variable was ISO and that the shutter speed and aperture were both constant, I have learnt that changing the ISO can make a big difference to what is captured by the camera.

I then went on to perform the 'noise test'. Like the ISO test I also had to find another low-light area where I could set up my camera on a tripod. This time because I already knew the effectiveness of the ISO I was able to alter the shutter-speed from picture to picture. I was now able to control the light levels throughout the images so that it would be easier to compare them with regards to noise levels. . This test is done to see how well the higher ISO settings on the camera work.

The outcomes of these images are very clear. I found that the picture on the lowest ISO is much clearer and cleaner compared to the higher ISO which is left with a lot of noise and distortion. As the ISO level was increased, the shutter-speed was decreased to help the additional sensitivity work well. The shutter-speeds were declining in the same fashion, each speed being halved. I also found out that although a higher ISO speed produces a much noisier photograph, it allows an image to be taken in an area with less light at a higher shutter-speed, this is helping this images becoming blurred caused by movement.