Evaluation of Digitopia:

Year 9 Creative Media

Appraising Animation

Focus Questions ~

·      Identify the imagery by listing what you see e.g. the subject matter, objects, shapes etc.

o   Visual symbols

o   Something about god/spiritual

o   Indian Hindu gods

o   Symbology

o   Energy and goodness is flowing out of the god

o   The eye symbols that it can see everything

o   Blue represents heaven

o   Utopia- song

o   It's a desirable place

o   Making hands in the experimental bit

o   Hands have bell me like robots for them

o   Utopias getting scary

o   Hands were such a huge thing and so cool they all needed it as a leg

o   Angels or people who have died going to heaven

o   Or people end up becoming a total hand after all operations

o   Plain back and white

o   Big singular eye

o   Reversed the machines became the hands and the hands dominated utopia.  

·      What is your overall impression of the mood of the work

My overall impression of the mood of Matreyek’s work is that she is very spiritual in her work and really expresses her feelings. She also communicates very detailed messages that really connect to the audience. In Digitopia she is trying to convey the mood of fantasy and spiritual goodness pouring from the gods (hands).

·      Watch and Listen for visual language cues, sound cues and editing cues.

Visual language cues consist of Indian Hindu gods, symbology and blue, black and white coloring and the sound cues was the Utopia song playing in the background, symbolizing that it is utopia. The editing cues where magnificent as so many techniques where used. I observed the editing cues of stop motion, animation-ish and Photoshop, then all combined together by either importing or exporting into each of the programs.

 Analysis ~

·        Notice the visual language used by Matreyek's e.g. colour, line, the quality of the movement, shapes, use of scale etc. - list what you identify

Colour:

                    o Black and white very plain to make the blue stand out.

o                   o  The black and white is the mountains and the ground.

o   The blue effect in the background represents heaven and the energy and goodness is flowing out of the god.

Line:

o   The lines in this film were extremely sharp where the movement and life was down the bottom (black and white).

o   Energy and goodness is flowing out of the god

o   At the top where it represented heaven in blue and where all the gods where placed, the lines where very soft and flowed with the music.

The quality of the movement:

o   The quality of the movement was great as the hand movements in Istop motion were very gentle and moderate, visualising hands taking over Utopia’s thoughts, actions and homes.

      Shape & use of scale:

o   I personally thought that Matreyek’s scale and shapes could have been more refined and closely observed for changes, because most of it was untidy and you couldn’t really tell whether that was the look she was going for or not.

·      Notice the sounds - list these identifying their type and quality

     o The only sounds included in the Digitopia film is the Utopia music, the quality is high and it makes the effect on the video by reassuring you that it’s a desirable place.

Interpretation ~

·      What is your interpretation of the work?

The meaning of the work of Digitopia is that Utopia is a desirable place for some people. In this Utopia the Hindu gods and energy and goodness flowing out of them are hands. People became obsessed with the whole idea of hands being the main object of their land and everything reversed the machines became the hands and hands dominated utopia.  

·      Survey friends and family ~ what do they think the work is about?

My Family straight away just looked at the film and didn’t understand the meaning and why Matreyek would make such a weird video. I really do think that to really understand and appreciate the film you have to be spiritual and be able to know the techniques used to create such a beautiful piece.

·      Who do you think is the intended audience for Matreyek's work?

The intended audience for Matreyek’s work are very spiritual people and mainly people who work with computer techniques and all the program’s used to create her videos, which really do begin to amaze you when you know what effort has gone into everything.

·     

    How does visual language inform your interpretation?

The communication of visual effects, straight away gives the interpretation of   basically a really weird video, but as you really look into the details and think what it may be all about it all begins to amaze you.

·      How has Matreyek used sound with the animation images to create meaning?

The sounds in Matreyek video creates the whole meaning of the video as when it says utopia in the song repeatedly in a real slow smooth tune it gives you the impression of the pleasant Utopia trying to be conveyed. Without the sound you would get mixed messages of what the film is really about and would change the interpretation immediately.