(Non -Copyrighted Music)

 

1) a title, a short summary of your work, its process and what you got out of it and; 

Picture the Moment  

Process 

My media research project titled Picture the Moment, aimed to see if it was even possible to recreate a Studio Ghibli work within a live-action context. More specifically aiming to replicate that “Ghibli Aesthetic” and “feeling” of watching a Ghibli film rather than copying or adapting a scene one to one, as that would either be impossible or visually uncanny. For this, I had to prioritize using similar decoupage (shot choices) and compositions that Studio Ghibli films typically use to capture this feeling. This meant the shots being mostly static – movement being reduced to simple pans or zooms – mimicking the animation style and process. This is because Ghibli (and typically other animated projects) usually heavily emphasizes movement within the frame, rather than the movement of the frame itself. I also featured many close-ups of small details within a scene, to build up the world and immerse viewers into the setting, again, much like what Ghibli typically does to immerse their viewers into their films.  

To simplify my task, no CGI/Fantastical elements that would require heavy post-production would be featured, even though these fantastical elements are typical Ghibli trademarks. This is because the “Ghibli” feeling that I wanted to focus on, wasn’t fantastical or otherworldly, it was the concept of “Ma” (The gap, pause, or a space between actions).  

The process in which I went about exploring this concept began with what I wanted the visuals to look like, as I needed to have a strong vision and decoupage which I would need to mimic the animation process, where they have a shot in mind, and they execute without the need for anything extra. This usually results in each shot feeling purposeful. Even when there is a simple shot of a water drop falling, we know it’s purposeful, as an animator or several drew several frames of that action. To mimic that, I along with my camera operator Joshua Devereaux went and did principal photography of some locations, which gave “Ghibli vibes”. From there we took pictures that could be good Broll and locations for our plot, which I had not yet written.  

Because I was mostly focused on capturing the “feeling” of watching something Ghibli rather than adapting a scene from a film, this allowed me to experiment with different narrative devices that Ghibli uses and attempted to write something that would allow me to explore this concept.   

 

Story  

The plot of Picture the Moment is a simple story about a photographer reminiscing about his friend, who gifted him the camera he owns now. His friend also was a prolific photographer and enjoyed taking pictures of the everyday peaceful life of nature and Melbourne. It is implied that the friend is no longer in the main character’s life and throughout the story, it is about him going out and taking pictures of particular moments that remind him of his friend. Taking these pictures allows the protagonist to still feel connected to his friend, however, after taking a lunch break and the sun setting down, he realizes that he still feels alone. He goes back home on a tram to properly process this loneliness he feels.  

Even though I had stated that I didn’t want a one-to-one recreation of a Ghibli film, many aspects of the plot and visuals were inspired by them. Such as the opening being shot very similar – in terms of decoupage – to the opening of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989). Or the Melbourne statue scene inspired by Sophie walking through the city in Howl’s Moving Castle (2005).  

 

Conclusion  

While I undoubtedly faced many issues throughout production – especially during preproduction and planning, which I have already elaborated on in my Assignment 4 – I am personally pleased with the result, as dare I say, it kind of feels like something out of Studio Ghibli. Although admittedly a lot of that feeling is owed to the Ghibli music which is copyrighted, shown within Assignment 4. Without it, as seen in this submission, it sort of loses its magic, however, I am proud of the visuals, shot choices, and color grading which was the primary focus for this media research project. There are a couple of things that I would like to improve on such as narrative clarity, and a stronger decoupage so that certain shots feel more purposeful, rather than random Broll that looks nice. But being the first proper visual project, I have done within this degree, I feel quite satisfied and am looking forward to making better things with the knowledge I have gained within this experience.