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АНАЛИЗ ЦИФРОВЫХ МЕДИАТЕХНОЛОГИЙ В КИНО И НА ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИИ
Тан Си-Кин
сотрудник отдела кино и телевизионного искусства Шанхайский издательско-полиграфический колледж Шанхай 200093, Китай
Аннотация. цифровые видео-технологии в кино и телевидении часто используют в индустрии кино и телевидения, рекламы, недвижимости и образовании, включая 3D анимацию, аудио-технологию, обработку динамических изображений и цифровой синтез. Однако, в конечном счете, любая технология, независимо от того, каким является ее формат и эффект, пока существует для обслуживания «основной выгоды». Существует теория «основной выгоды» в маркетинге. В данной статье автор анализирует цифровые видеотехнологии в кино и на телевидении под разными углами зрения.
Ключевые слова: цифровые медиа-технологии, индустрия кино и телевидения.
ANALYSIS ON THE DIGITAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN FILM AND TELEVISION
TAN siqin
The Department of film and Television Arts Shanghai Publishing and Printing College Shanghai 200093, China
Abstract: In this paper, the digital video technologies in film and television refer to digital video technologies frequently used in industries of film and television, advertising, real estate and education, including 3D animation, audio technologies, after effects, and digital synthesis. However, in final analysis, any technology, no matter how is its format and effect, is for serving the "core benefit". There is a theory of "core benefit" in marketing. The author intend to analyze the digital video technologies in film and television from various angles through this paper.
Keywords:digital media technologies, industries of film and television
Introduction
Along with the further development of digital media technologies and the continuously improving of the computing capacity of PC, high-end technologies such as 3D animation and after effects could be realized by one PC easily nowadays. A digital camera and a highperformance PC can realize one's dream of being a Hollywood director. The author intend to analyze the digital video technologies in film and television from various angles through this paper.
The format is subject to core benefit
In this paper, the digital video technologies in film and television refer to digital video technologies frequently used in industries of film and television, advertising, real estate and education, including 3D animation, audio technologies, after effects, and digital synthesis. However, in final analysis, any technology, no matter how is its format and effect, is for serving the "core benefit". There is a theory of "core benefit" in marketing. The value of a product depends on three parts (figure 1): part representing the core value of the product; tangible part of the product, including brand, function, feature and package; extension part of the product, including reputation, war-
ranty, delivery and after-sales service. What's core value? It's easy to understand. For example, a customer calls for a express delivery service. Then, he/she needs the speed of express delivery for informing the other party within minimum time; a lady buys cosmetics for beauty; while a customer buys a Benz car for showing his/her dignity and avoiding tiredness, which are beyond the car itself.
Figure 1. Core benefit
These are the core value and benefit of the commodity. A complete product concept is all-around, including core layer, format layer and extension layer. Promoting a product while ignoring those aspect is not a wise decision.
Similarly, the production of film and television video is also for serving "core benefit". To be specific, the essential of a video courseware is for education; the essential of a video advertising is to market the product and service. The core benefit of after effects of film and television is to reduce the difficulties and cost in early filming, and enable dangerous or impossible special effects which can't be completed by the actors. Any practitioner of application of video technologies should be aware of and pay attention to the trend that ignoring core benefit, and pursuing in audiovisual effects, which attends to trifles and neglect the essentials.
Preliminary Work
Taking the TV advertising as example, for keeping good communication with the customers and avoiding
unnecessary revision or rework, certain texts and pictures should be prepared to limit the direction of production before starting production, i.e., the preliminary work. The preliminary work should be well arranged if allowed by time.
Creative Draft. Using concise text to identify the style of title of the film: aroused or euphemistic, classic or modern, general description of overall tonality, profile of component element, 3D or 2D. A good creative features novel modeling, reasonable function and harmonious color matching.
Text draft for continuities. Text draft describes the content of each continuity with text. It requires cooperation and specific division of labor between text drafters and after effect staffs. It should be implemented with careful plan and arrangement. The subject, technique of expression and steps should be finalized. The general contents are shown as table 1. While examples of text draft for continuities are shown as table 2.
Table 1. Content of text draft for continuities
No. of continuity Audio effect
Classification of scene Time
Technique of expression remarks
Commentary
Table 2. Examples of text drafts for continuities
Technique 3D animation, edition of video
No. of Scene voiceover Audio time
continuity effect
1 A corner in Shangdi subway station. The wall, floor and media are composed by digital array of number "0" and "1" randomly. Suddenly, the whole digital array becomes real from the bottom to the top. In information era, digital products rush to us, like people rush out from the train. Melodious music 3 seconds
2 Moving crowd noise 3 seconds
3 Another corner in Shangdi subway station. The wall, floor and media are composed by digital array of number "0" and "1" randomly. Sudden- Directionless crowd Melodious music 3 seconds
ly, the whole digital array becomes real from the left to the right.
4 Moving crowd noise 3 seconds
5 Change to another angle. One corner in Shangdi subway station. The wall, floor and media are composed by digital array of number "0" and "1" randomly. Suddenly, the whole digital array becomes real from the center to the edge. In this good place of digit, your advertisement is needed for pointing out the direction for the blind crowd. Melodious music 3 seconds
6 On the platform of the Shangdi subway station, the media composed by digital array of number "0" and "1" is surrounded by real matters. Along with the zoom in of the camera, the digital array composing media becomes real from the bottom to the top, accompanying a golden flash. Take the opportunity, meet the requirement of people 6 seconds
7 Distant view. On the noise platform, there is a girl sitting on a chair, using a laptop. Zoom in. In this good place, media ofMeidipaile is your best choice. 10 seconds
8 Filming from behind, and seeing an effect picture of media on the laptop. 6 seconds
Remarks Strong contrast between crowd and quietness in the hall is deliberately arranged.
Preliminary sketch draft for continuities. The process of preparing preliminary sketches is also the process to smooth the whole thinking of the video. Therefore, before starting production, you have already played the whole video in your mind. Many problems in this stage should be found and fixed immediately. Otherwise, your video will be a mess and lack of logic if there is no preliminary sketches and overall plan for the production. Besides, the production of a video takes certain period. During that, many wonderful ideas may be forgotten. So, it's a must to carefully prepare preliminary sketch drafts for continuities, as shown as figure 2.
Colored preliminary sketch for continuities. For bidding project, it's a must to provide main and key frames of title made by plane or 3D design software such as Photoshop or 3D Studio MAX, shown as figure 3.
Figure 2. Preliminary sketch drafts for continuities
Above are the picture and text drafts for customer. For the producer, it's a must to prepare a detailed time shaft for the continuities, shown as figure 4. The production of 3D animation depends on sense of space. While the production of title depends on sense of time. The appearance time of every element in the title must be accurately and reasonably evaluated. The cooperation and join among elements must be thoroughly considered. Some times, the visual effect of colored sketches for continuities are great, but once put them into animation, the effect is not so good. The reason is lack of consideration of the cooperation and join among elements. The important elements are not highlighted, and there are too many superfluous secondary elements, which make the whole animation out of order.
Background music
Based on the experience of the author, the background music will improve the effect of video by 30%. So when showing customer the preliminary draft, a video without background music is absolutely unacceptable. We suggest
that the creation or selection of music should be prior to the production of video. The continuities are subject to the audio. Here is a problem of synchronization between video and audio. In some rough works, we can find a continuity with fast pace is accompanied with a slow music. This is caused by negligence of synchronization of music.
Figure 3. Colored preliminary sketch for continuities
For the source of music, original creation is preferred. If there is no enough time or budget, selecting existing music is also allowed. The author suggests SmartSound music library. That software allows free edition and integration among introduced musics, helping you complete a music which excellently fit the video in length immediately. It's also the only music software which can make your video vivid in a short time. The software can output a piece of music. This is a cost-effective choice.
Background music
Based on the experience of the author, the background music will improve the effect of video by 30%. So when showing customer the preliminary draft, a video without background music is absolutely unacceptable. We suggest that the creation or selection of music should be prior to the production of video. The continuities are subject to the audio. Here is a problem of synchronization between video and audio. In some rough works, we can find a continuity with fast pace is accompanied with a slow music. This is caused by negligence of synchronization of music. For the source of music, original creation is preferred. If there is no enough time or budget, selecting existing music is also allowed. The author suggests SmartSound music library. That software allows free edition and integration among introduced musics, helping you complete a music which excellently fit the video in length immediately. It's also the only music software which can make your video vivid in a short time. The software can output a piece of music. This is a cost-effective choice.
Color and composition of picture
Color. Different colors are for expressing different moods, and shading the atmosphere. Red means enthusiasm, blue means rationality, green reminds people to think about the lives. Strong contrast of colors will evoke the exciting moods of people. Excessively soft color will
make people feel quiet and comfort. The order of colors must be paid attention to. The key color should be high-
lighted. The contrast of colors should be obvious, and the whole picture should be harmonious in color.
Figure 4. Time shaft for the continuities
Texture. Different textures can bring different feelings to people, such as hard or soft, coarse or fine, bright or obscure, dry or moist, tenacious or crisp, lucid or muddy, etc. Metal should reflect light, glass should have strong refraction, while silks and satin should have highlight.
Composition of picture. The basic requirement of composition of picture are: 1, simple and concise structure; 2, complete visual image; 3, balanced overall structure; 4, diversified and uniform structure. Based on these four fundamental requirement, various elements of different textures can be organized harmoniously and uniformly. Therefore, it's a must to have a thorough study on the arrangement and division of picture, as well the order and speed of appearance, before design.
Foreground and background. Foreground and background is an organic component of the picture, which can highlight the main body, and enhance the sense of space and depth of the picture. In 3D animation, there is Z order. In video animation, there is space overlapping order. What's in the front is foreground, while the background is the covered ones. Techniques such as shadow, shining, tonal contrast and contrast between light and shade should
be used to distinguish the foreground and background. Generally speaking, the foreground moves faster than the background; the composition of background picture is complex, while the foreground is relatively simple. All in all, it's a must to harmoniously combine foreground and background.
Visual focus. Based on the physiology structure of human eyeballs, one person can only have one visual focus at one time. The sight of people can't stay on two different places at one time. The process of watching an artistic work is a process of moving visual focus. Therefore, two or more important messages should not appear in a picture at the same time. The audience can read thoroughly a static poster, no matter how many messages it conveys. While animation is different, every element has to appear at certain period. Therefore, important messages must be highlighted as the focus in the picture. Generally, we can highlight important messages by putting them in the center with flashing surrounding them, or at the golden section of the picture as foreground, or stereoscopic treatment.
Techniques and taboos for animation
Movement law. It's a must to understand the concepts of time, space, frame and speed, as well their relationships, for expressing the movement law of an object. The design of action must be exaggerated and varying based on related movement laws, thus to adapt to general visual experience and natural laws. Deliberated design of details determines whether a video work is excellent. For example, the arm of a character will move forward still after throwing out a ball. This is so called following action. Similarly, there are overlapping action, secondary motion and so on. If movement laws are ignored in design, the work must be a coarse one.
3D and 2D. Along with the mature of 3D technology, it has been widely used in video animation. However, improper usage of 3D technology will severely destroy the beauty of picture. On one hand, in production of film and television programe, virtual characters created by 3D software such as dinosaur and robot could be integrated into pictures taken in early filming by viewpoint tracing software such as Boujou. On the other hand, in programe marketing, 3D logo and heading must be integrated into 2D pictures harmoniously in style, tone and cadence.
Picture. When limited by certain conditions, and filming is not possible, then we can only use certain static pictures as material. However, if those pictures are treated properly, video animation effect is also available. For instance, moving or zooming one large picture can also bring effect similar to moving a camera. With using other techniques such as filtering and shading, surprising visual effect could be achieved.
Scene Change. The switch between cameras is so called scene change. Proper usage of scene change can smooth the video. The application of scene change is generally in accordance with the narrative method of the film. Novel and creative using of scene change can enrich the expressive force of the film. In later voice edition, music could be used to fulfill the join and scene change between
continuities. Light is also an important element in video. Proper usage of light will make the picture colorful. Remember, please do not use too much scene change, as that will distract audiences, especially big close-up, which is a taboo for advertising.
Rationally using resources
Video designs are all based on certain hardware platform and software resources. At the beginning of design, it's a must to review hardware and software resources. For example, shading an animation for a large estate with a PC is unwise. An animation of real estate of 15 seconds may need dozens of hours for shading if by a PC. Therefore, internet shading is recommended. Another example, it's not suggested to use precious geometry or picture as distant view or fast moving elements. Otherwise, the hardware load will be increased, and the shading time will be longer. However, for some close-up view, or broadcast quality works, it's a must to deploy advanced shader for 3D software for meeting the demanding requirement for advertising work.
Conclusion
Above are the experience of the author accumulated from years of practice. The author hope this paper can serve as a modest spur to induce someone to come forward with his valuable contributions, and remind the practitioners of video industry to rethink. Moreover, the author also wish to see more excellent video works of film and television.
REFERENCES
1. (U.S.) Winston Steward, translated by Han Jiang & Li Lihua, Digital Video Solutions, China Machine Press, 2004:1-262.
