Our lecture last week consisted of Bill showing us quite a lot of Bambi and nearer the end he showed us My neighbour totoro. I havent actualy seen bambi and its one of the disney films i missed out when i was a child, but i did watch my neighbour totoro when i was a child, along with some of the other studio ghibli cartoons.
What i found interesting in this cartoon was how there was no binary opposites. From a director who took influence from disney, it was surprising to see such a strong structured story which was well recieved without an obvious goody and baddy.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Family guy - return of the jedi spoof
i watched this with my brother the yesterday and i found it enjoyable....some parts of it did drag on but i guess its part of family guys humour.
to start of, i remember watching return of the jedi on VHS when i was a kid and it was probably one of my favourite child hood films, so the scenes, lines and characters aren't unkown to me.
Obviously the main aspect to point out is that this relates to intertextuality immensly since its basically a re-telling/spoof of return of the jedi. but whats interesting is that this special episode is intertextual with its own franchise as well as the star wars. throughout the episode, they have jokes which relate back to famil guy episodes from previous seaasons like the "Conwey Twitty" videos and they also bring characters from the Cleveland Show and American Dad. It kind of shows how big and well known Seth Mcfarlans cartoons have gotten that he can effortlesly throw in previous gags and other characters and know that his fans will get it.
Moving away from intertexualality, i noticed that not only in this episode but for many of the recent episodes, they have changed the way they animate. Some scenes have been replaced with CG for a quicker and easier way to get a sharper and clearer image. As they have a bigger budget, they can now afford to invest in these techniques. Though i think the look of it is good and has the same style as the animation, its frame rate and is a lot smoother than the traditional animation and it sticks out like a sore thumb.
to start of, i remember watching return of the jedi on VHS when i was a kid and it was probably one of my favourite child hood films, so the scenes, lines and characters aren't unkown to me.
Obviously the main aspect to point out is that this relates to intertextuality immensly since its basically a re-telling/spoof of return of the jedi. but whats interesting is that this special episode is intertextual with its own franchise as well as the star wars. throughout the episode, they have jokes which relate back to famil guy episodes from previous seaasons like the "Conwey Twitty" videos and they also bring characters from the Cleveland Show and American Dad. It kind of shows how big and well known Seth Mcfarlans cartoons have gotten that he can effortlesly throw in previous gags and other characters and know that his fans will get it.
Moving away from intertexualality, i noticed that not only in this episode but for many of the recent episodes, they have changed the way they animate. Some scenes have been replaced with CG for a quicker and easier way to get a sharper and clearer image. As they have a bigger budget, they can now afford to invest in these techniques. Though i think the look of it is good and has the same style as the animation, its frame rate and is a lot smoother than the traditional animation and it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Aniamtion
In this lecture we were shown Phantasmagoria again which was one of the first animations made. however we were shown a video made 2 yeatrs ago which was an homage to this. I have to say the new one didnt compare to the old. It was sluggish and slow and didn't flow and wasnt as dynamic as the version made 100years ago. It was immposible for the 3-D version to make all the different transitions the 2-D one did.
Metamorphisis and transformations are said to be difficult to do but i can think of examples where theyve been quite successful, such as the werewofl transformation in Van Helsing.
We were then shown a clip from loooney toons were daffy duck was being manipulated by the animator, which is seen through the eyes of the viewer. His appearance changes, the environemnt changes and also he's sometimes muted or made blind. However he always mantained character, which gave him a sense of reality as he reacts in different situations, but is always in character. this is incredibly affective as being part of the audience, i felt i could relate to the character and his reactions made me react in one way or the other.
Bill also showed us an animation by the Quay Brothers which was very surreal and was more of an art piece than anything else. the style reminded me of two stop animaters which are David Firth and Jan Svankmajer. Both have dealt with very surreal subjects and environemtns. In the Quay brothers animation, he only used music to compose the movement of the characters, but with Jan, his soundtrack is purely just he sound effects, such as the creak of the chair or the footsteps of the character. I deffionatly feel that this is much more affective since although the music can help emphisise the atmosphere or environemnt, jan svankmajers animations makes you a bit edgy about what might happen next since the environments you are in are very surreal and you never know what can or might happen.
Metamorphisis and transformations are said to be difficult to do but i can think of examples where theyve been quite successful, such as the werewofl transformation in Van Helsing.
We were then shown a clip from loooney toons were daffy duck was being manipulated by the animator, which is seen through the eyes of the viewer. His appearance changes, the environemnt changes and also he's sometimes muted or made blind. However he always mantained character, which gave him a sense of reality as he reacts in different situations, but is always in character. this is incredibly affective as being part of the audience, i felt i could relate to the character and his reactions made me react in one way or the other.
Bill also showed us an animation by the Quay Brothers which was very surreal and was more of an art piece than anything else. the style reminded me of two stop animaters which are David Firth and Jan Svankmajer. Both have dealt with very surreal subjects and environemtns. In the Quay brothers animation, he only used music to compose the movement of the characters, but with Jan, his soundtrack is purely just he sound effects, such as the creak of the chair or the footsteps of the character. I deffionatly feel that this is much more affective since although the music can help emphisise the atmosphere or environemnt, jan svankmajers animations makes you a bit edgy about what might happen next since the environments you are in are very surreal and you never know what can or might happen.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Violence
The lecture started out with quite a shocking scene from a film called "Hapiness". Shocking in the sense that it has a conflicting soundtrack with the footage but also shocking as these events have happened in the past. However during this footage, i heard a couple of students around the lecture theater laugh or giggle. It may have been because of the fact that they knew that this isn't real and is only acted out for a film, therefore it's easily to laugh at it's surreality. OR it could have been because that we've seen and played games and videos more extreme that we are de-sensitised by any form of violence.
Bill went on to talk about video games and the "glory" of headshots. the idea of rewarding the gamer for a more gruesome kill could be a factor which helps to desensitise an audience.
the whole idea of making violence seem the norm has produced many games and it reminds me of the game "Fat Princess". This seemingly inncoent looking game has bold colours and cute looking characters which seem to been taken straight from a childs story book. However when you start attacking the other team, it becomes quite graphic and can sometimes turn into a bloodbath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCO9eBuDkD8 FAT PRINCESS GAMEPLAY
On the next level up, the online cartoon "Happy Tree Friends" bases its comedy and ability to entertain solely on this play of first impressions. The introduction of the videos and layout of the website is incredibly "cutesy" and innocent but when you watch the cartoons, they get into situations where they get decapitated and brutally slaughtered by unfortunate events
http://www.happytreefriends.com/ HAPPY TREE FRIENDS
our society has become so used to violent images that we've come to laugh at it and it has become an element of comedy in some parts like we see in happy tree friends. however, we could say that cartoons like tom and jerry and the looney toons cartoons have helped desensitise children to violence. Although they arent violent in the sense that you see blood or heads come off, they feed the notion that violence can be funny.
Hollywood have also got a lot to answer as all films have made violence "sexy" and more appealing in film. We discussed in our lecture about this and looked at kill bill, where the violence is taken to the extreme. we also compared how a real gunshot would sound to the ones we hear in films and how much the gunshots in films are made to be much more dramatic and stylish. Films like the matrix in particular, where there are countless bullets and guns being shot when we all know that this could never happen in real life. When neo holds the two uzis on each hand, he wouldnt have been able to keep the shot on the target in reality, his aim would have been all over the place, same with when they hold the guns at a 90' angle, and he would have been deaf after the gun fight with the SWAT team. However we dont look at films as a reality anymore and just watch in awe at how cool/sexy violence can get.
Bill went on to talk about video games and the "glory" of headshots. the idea of rewarding the gamer for a more gruesome kill could be a factor which helps to desensitise an audience.
the whole idea of making violence seem the norm has produced many games and it reminds me of the game "Fat Princess". This seemingly inncoent looking game has bold colours and cute looking characters which seem to been taken straight from a childs story book. However when you start attacking the other team, it becomes quite graphic and can sometimes turn into a bloodbath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCO9eBuDkD8 FAT PRINCESS GAMEPLAY
On the next level up, the online cartoon "Happy Tree Friends" bases its comedy and ability to entertain solely on this play of first impressions. The introduction of the videos and layout of the website is incredibly "cutesy" and innocent but when you watch the cartoons, they get into situations where they get decapitated and brutally slaughtered by unfortunate events
http://www.happytreefriends.com/ HAPPY TREE FRIENDS
our society has become so used to violent images that we've come to laugh at it and it has become an element of comedy in some parts like we see in happy tree friends. however, we could say that cartoons like tom and jerry and the looney toons cartoons have helped desensitise children to violence. Although they arent violent in the sense that you see blood or heads come off, they feed the notion that violence can be funny.
Hollywood have also got a lot to answer as all films have made violence "sexy" and more appealing in film. We discussed in our lecture about this and looked at kill bill, where the violence is taken to the extreme. we also compared how a real gunshot would sound to the ones we hear in films and how much the gunshots in films are made to be much more dramatic and stylish. Films like the matrix in particular, where there are countless bullets and guns being shot when we all know that this could never happen in real life. When neo holds the two uzis on each hand, he wouldnt have been able to keep the shot on the target in reality, his aim would have been all over the place, same with when they hold the guns at a 90' angle, and he would have been deaf after the gun fight with the SWAT team. However we dont look at films as a reality anymore and just watch in awe at how cool/sexy violence can get.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
New Media
This lecture was the start of our new lecture. I found this was a very interesting lecture which touched on video games and film and the way it has been improved. Although i felt it wasnt structured in a way which was easy to follow, many interesting points were touched on.
From what i remember we first touched on film and wathed an old black and white silent film calledThe life of an american fireman by Edwin Porter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM-DhskWrDA
the 2nd half showed some firemen saving a woman from a burning house. however the event was repeated but had two different viewpoints. looking at it now it seems unnecersary, broken and boring to watch but what edwin porter touched on was the idea of looking at an event in more than one viewpoints to further engage the viewers. We then watched another film where at the end, the actor was directly interacting with the audience by pointing a gun and shooting toward the screen which lead to our discussion about video games.
This end scene with the gun inspired games like Wild Gun where by it was a live action video game where you react according to what the actors do on screen and depending on your reactions, different events will take place. the modern day equivalent would be something like Heavy Rain where quick time events is the main aspect of the game.
What i found interesting about this was how this game is more film than game. However not all videogames have managed to make this combination successful. Story is almost a small aspect in some games. whenever you want you can skip cutscenes and jump straight into gameplay and when you can't, you only wished you could.
From what i remember we first touched on film and wathed an old black and white silent film calledThe life of an american fireman by Edwin Porter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM-DhskWrDA
the 2nd half showed some firemen saving a woman from a burning house. however the event was repeated but had two different viewpoints. looking at it now it seems unnecersary, broken and boring to watch but what edwin porter touched on was the idea of looking at an event in more than one viewpoints to further engage the viewers. We then watched another film where at the end, the actor was directly interacting with the audience by pointing a gun and shooting toward the screen which lead to our discussion about video games.
This end scene with the gun inspired games like Wild Gun where by it was a live action video game where you react according to what the actors do on screen and depending on your reactions, different events will take place. the modern day equivalent would be something like Heavy Rain where quick time events is the main aspect of the game.
What i found interesting about this was how this game is more film than game. However not all videogames have managed to make this combination successful. Story is almost a small aspect in some games. whenever you want you can skip cutscenes and jump straight into gameplay and when you can't, you only wished you could.
Monday, 8 November 2010
Binary Opposites
Binary opposites wassomething that i grasped hold of very easily. Itt was basically something that we all see in every form of entertainment/media we come in contact with. books, films, and comics all follow this sort of opposition to give their story balance and interest to their viewer.
Go(o)d (d)evil
Life Death
Light Dark
Male Female
White Black
Land Sea
these comparisons are obvious binary opposites. the collumn on the left is often favored over the other in some way be it for good reason or bad. we prefer good,life and light over their opposites. Males were often (and still are in some countries) the dominant gender and there have always been a racial divide between whites and blacks.
land and sea is a bit more complex as its obvious that we're land creatures, but structures like piers allow us to enter a part of our binary opposite. when we do enter our binary opposites, things start to get interesting and we start to lose ourself in some way.
Piers allow us to "step onto the sea" and we're in a anomoly zone where unusual activities happen. i.e. meeting of lovers/romance, drug dealing. Better examples is when we enter dark places like clubs or cinemas. we usually wouldnt sit in a dark room full of strangers or enter a crowded place where we know suspicious things happen. it goes against our natural instincts but we go back to these because we like this.
Knowing the importance and our inerests in binary opposites is important as applying this to film causes the viewer to become inticed by the film.
Batman was an example brought in both the seminar and lecture. Batman is obviously the hero of the main story and he has many villians. However we know that he has a troubled past and in the end, he's a brute who uses violence to solve most of the problems he encounters. essence of good and evil. same can be said about his villians. all of whom have a history and a reason for their actions and none are completly "insane".
Another example is Frankenstein. The story of this has many binary opposites involved Frankenstein creating the monster immediatley touches on...
God (Frankenstien) and Man(the monster
Human(Frankenstein) and Non-Human (monster)
Life and Death
Parent and Child
These may be the reason why it is one of the most iconic horror stories of all time and why it is able to capture the audiences interest in whatever time period.
UPDATE 03/12/2010
My friend told me about the new film Megamind and told me the story line. apparently the main character is a super villian who kills his arch nemesis near the beginning. however this means that there is no binary opposite of the villian, rendering his existence useless. It reminds me of the scene in Dark Knight when batman interegates the joker and the joker says "i dont wanna kill you. What would i do without you. you complete me"
Back to megamind, the villian then creates a new superhero but he ends up doing bad things and the main villian ends up being the superhero.
I think thats the main plot of the story but i found it was a really nice twist on the whole binary oppposite theme most fillms have. it shows that even though the theme has been used for years, certain twists to them still keep it fresh and interesting.
Go(o)d (d)evil
Life Death
Light Dark
Male Female
White Black
Land Sea
these comparisons are obvious binary opposites. the collumn on the left is often favored over the other in some way be it for good reason or bad. we prefer good,life and light over their opposites. Males were often (and still are in some countries) the dominant gender and there have always been a racial divide between whites and blacks.
land and sea is a bit more complex as its obvious that we're land creatures, but structures like piers allow us to enter a part of our binary opposite. when we do enter our binary opposites, things start to get interesting and we start to lose ourself in some way.
Piers allow us to "step onto the sea" and we're in a anomoly zone where unusual activities happen. i.e. meeting of lovers/romance, drug dealing. Better examples is when we enter dark places like clubs or cinemas. we usually wouldnt sit in a dark room full of strangers or enter a crowded place where we know suspicious things happen. it goes against our natural instincts but we go back to these because we like this.
Knowing the importance and our inerests in binary opposites is important as applying this to film causes the viewer to become inticed by the film.
Batman was an example brought in both the seminar and lecture. Batman is obviously the hero of the main story and he has many villians. However we know that he has a troubled past and in the end, he's a brute who uses violence to solve most of the problems he encounters. essence of good and evil. same can be said about his villians. all of whom have a history and a reason for their actions and none are completly "insane".
Another example is Frankenstein. The story of this has many binary opposites involved Frankenstein creating the monster immediatley touches on...
God (Frankenstien) and Man(the monster
Human(Frankenstein) and Non-Human (monster)
Life and Death
Parent and Child
These may be the reason why it is one of the most iconic horror stories of all time and why it is able to capture the audiences interest in whatever time period.
UPDATE 03/12/2010
My friend told me about the new film Megamind and told me the story line. apparently the main character is a super villian who kills his arch nemesis near the beginning. however this means that there is no binary opposite of the villian, rendering his existence useless. It reminds me of the scene in Dark Knight when batman interegates the joker and the joker says "i dont wanna kill you. What would i do without you. you complete me"
Back to megamind, the villian then creates a new superhero but he ends up doing bad things and the main villian ends up being the superhero.
I think thats the main plot of the story but i found it was a really nice twist on the whole binary oppposite theme most fillms have. it shows that even though the theme has been used for years, certain twists to them still keep it fresh and interesting.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Intertextuality
This was the one lecture which i missed and was thoroughly disaapointed after asking people what the lecture was about, looking through their notes and looking at the slides and document files on studynet.
From what i gathered the lecture was purely based around films and tv shows which really caught my attention. It;s impossible for me to say what i though of the lecture (obviously) but from what i read, it seems like intertextuality is the equivalent to post-modernism in fine art.
post-modernism points out the fact that no piece of art or idea for an art piece is original in any way shape or form. therefor the idea must have been generated from another piece or more likely several pieces. this makes the final outcome a work of several arts. also it can be argued that the artists didn't know that the idea hadn't been done before which brings in the idea of the unconcious and self-concious mentioned in the slide.
In the context of films and tv shows it is exactly the same. i immeditaley think of family guy, much like many other people would i think. the show basically only consists of references to 70s-80s tv shows and films based around a fairly loose storyline. if i was able to, i could probably list every single film i've ever seen in my life and make an epic spider diagram showing what element of the film is intertextual to what and not one film will be original, since the subject is so wide open. story lines are also intertextual. sure you can add all sorts of variables, characters, obstacles and settings but in the end it all boils down to a genre such as horror, quest, action, romance. I remember beng told that there are only a certain number of different genres/types of stories and shakespeare touched on every single one.
going through the slides, i always thought that bram stokers novel was sort of "the core" of the dracula franchise and everything else was intertetual from that. but never really questioned that he took influence from other novels.
From what i gathered the lecture was purely based around films and tv shows which really caught my attention. It;s impossible for me to say what i though of the lecture (obviously) but from what i read, it seems like intertextuality is the equivalent to post-modernism in fine art.
post-modernism points out the fact that no piece of art or idea for an art piece is original in any way shape or form. therefor the idea must have been generated from another piece or more likely several pieces. this makes the final outcome a work of several arts. also it can be argued that the artists didn't know that the idea hadn't been done before which brings in the idea of the unconcious and self-concious mentioned in the slide.
In the context of films and tv shows it is exactly the same. i immeditaley think of family guy, much like many other people would i think. the show basically only consists of references to 70s-80s tv shows and films based around a fairly loose storyline. if i was able to, i could probably list every single film i've ever seen in my life and make an epic spider diagram showing what element of the film is intertextual to what and not one film will be original, since the subject is so wide open. story lines are also intertextual. sure you can add all sorts of variables, characters, obstacles and settings but in the end it all boils down to a genre such as horror, quest, action, romance. I remember beng told that there are only a certain number of different genres/types of stories and shakespeare touched on every single one.
going through the slides, i always thought that bram stokers novel was sort of "the core" of the dracula franchise and everything else was intertetual from that. but never really questioned that he took influence from other novels.
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Another movie and Semiotics lecture
Finally found some time to watch a film and watched predators with my bro. deffinatly the second best predator film, bout time to be honest after all the awful films they made after the first.
The design of them were pretty good but you can see the "bulkiness" that they had in the AVP films, which looked pretty bad in my opinion. only one of them looked like the original. Notably though there was a scene with an explosion and the visual effects were actually quite bad! itreminded me of a lecture where we had a small discussion about re-creating fire in cg and how its one of the most difficult to do since its so free flowing.
SEMIOTICS
i remember this lecture starting out to be quite confusing at first where we were told about a cybernatic feedback loop. something that was quite difficult for me to understand on a thursday afternoon. but it was a little more clear with the activity.
the iconic and arbitory theory was also quite confusing though the theory was probably worded in a more complicated manner than needed. an interesting point was raised during the seminar which conflicted with said theory. We were told that an image of a cat would be more iconic(realistic) than just the word CAT. however a more arbitory form could be more realistic than an image. If say someone didnt know how ZEUS the god looked like but read about him in books and stories, wouldnt the word ZEUS be more iconic than an image of a bearded man?
The design of them were pretty good but you can see the "bulkiness" that they had in the AVP films, which looked pretty bad in my opinion. only one of them looked like the original. Notably though there was a scene with an explosion and the visual effects were actually quite bad! itreminded me of a lecture where we had a small discussion about re-creating fire in cg and how its one of the most difficult to do since its so free flowing.
SEMIOTICS
i remember this lecture starting out to be quite confusing at first where we were told about a cybernatic feedback loop. something that was quite difficult for me to understand on a thursday afternoon. but it was a little more clear with the activity.
the iconic and arbitory theory was also quite confusing though the theory was probably worded in a more complicated manner than needed. an interesting point was raised during the seminar which conflicted with said theory. We were told that an image of a cat would be more iconic(realistic) than just the word CAT. however a more arbitory form could be more realistic than an image. If say someone didnt know how ZEUS the god looked like but read about him in books and stories, wouldnt the word ZEUS be more iconic than an image of a bearded man?
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Realism Lecture
I thought this lecture linked heavily to my subject in an obvious way as that's what my subject is all about. creating something thats fake or digital and placing it into a real environment.
one of the things i noted down was "Plato's cave". i found the theory interesting even though im not entirley sure what this represents or is meant to reflect.
Phantasmagoria was also something i found fascinating, illusionistic spectacles before cinema. today we're bombarded with all forms of entertainment and digital films which make our imagination come true and maybe even create imaginations for us. not only in films but childrens toys and gadgets help us become entertained and come in all sorts of shapes, lights and sizes. To be in an era before cinema where evrything is only "real" is hard to imagine. but if we are surprised even to this day that someone can disappeaar out of thin air or pull a rabbit out of a hat right in front of us, then it must of had such a bigger impact when cinema and tv were non existent.
Mashiro Mori created a chart which determines what the human mind thinks is uncanny and what is "normal"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mori_Uncanny_Valley.svg
i found it true in what he says in the chart, but an argueing factor were things like how we're all used to watching digital animations and how they are becoming more realistic. will the chart still be the same when CG and robots become more belivable? also we can argue that we are already used to the uncanny as photos in magazines, internet everywhere are digitally altered or enhanced or even done physically through botox and operations. When watching films, i sometimes cant tell when the actors are real or digital!
one of the things i noted down was "Plato's cave". i found the theory interesting even though im not entirley sure what this represents or is meant to reflect.
Phantasmagoria was also something i found fascinating, illusionistic spectacles before cinema. today we're bombarded with all forms of entertainment and digital films which make our imagination come true and maybe even create imaginations for us. not only in films but childrens toys and gadgets help us become entertained and come in all sorts of shapes, lights and sizes. To be in an era before cinema where evrything is only "real" is hard to imagine. but if we are surprised even to this day that someone can disappeaar out of thin air or pull a rabbit out of a hat right in front of us, then it must of had such a bigger impact when cinema and tv were non existent.
Mashiro Mori created a chart which determines what the human mind thinks is uncanny and what is "normal"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mori_Uncanny_Valley.svg
i found it true in what he says in the chart, but an argueing factor were things like how we're all used to watching digital animations and how they are becoming more realistic. will the chart still be the same when CG and robots become more belivable? also we can argue that we are already used to the uncanny as photos in magazines, internet everywhere are digitally altered or enhanced or even done physically through botox and operations. When watching films, i sometimes cant tell when the actors are real or digital!
Saturday, 23 October 2010
T2
Some mates came over to my place to help take care of the house whilst my parents were away. Ended up as me starting on the shedload of work i gotta do and them playing ps3...
but they got bored and started going through our dvd/blurays and ended up watching terminator 2. needless to say i got hooked, even thouogh i've seen it like 100 times (not an exageration).
but yeah in my opinion its probably one of the best sequels of all time. the thing that deffinatly stands out for me is the t-1000 and how the transition from a metal blob to a live action actor is so flawless, even to todays standard. how it captures like and its reeflective properties is simply outstanding. not to say that every other aspect isnt such as the soundtrack, story and characters.
the characters really shine for me in this. you can see a clear progession and development in them as you go through the film and expercience what they do. sarch conners character is a real shocker if you think about it. how she went from really girly and innocent from t1 to the crazy, butched-up, in-your-face badass she is in t2!
Anyway even though i didnt get any work done in that 1 1/2 hours it was awesome watching a film which really got me into VFX when i was younger and it also gave me something to blog about....yeah!
but they got bored and started going through our dvd/blurays and ended up watching terminator 2. needless to say i got hooked, even thouogh i've seen it like 100 times (not an exageration).
but yeah in my opinion its probably one of the best sequels of all time. the thing that deffinatly stands out for me is the t-1000 and how the transition from a metal blob to a live action actor is so flawless, even to todays standard. how it captures like and its reeflective properties is simply outstanding. not to say that every other aspect isnt such as the soundtrack, story and characters.
the characters really shine for me in this. you can see a clear progession and development in them as you go through the film and expercience what they do. sarch conners character is a real shocker if you think about it. how she went from really girly and innocent from t1 to the crazy, butched-up, in-your-face badass she is in t2!
Anyway even though i didnt get any work done in that 1 1/2 hours it was awesome watching a film which really got me into VFX when i was younger and it also gave me something to blog about....yeah!
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Culture Lecture
The first lecture that i had and i found it quite interesting.
From what i remember we began to talk about culture and what it is. What i found interesting was the fact that we use the word all the time yet the meaning of it is so diverse and flexible that there may as well be no definition for it.
During the lecture i made a few random notes. things which were fairly pointless like animare = give soul in latin and names like Raymond Williams and Lucretius (99BC-55BC). The thing that stood out for me in the lecture though was the video clip. Not only because videos is a breath of fresh air in lectures but also because of the fact that i found it geniunley entertaining. The clips were by Georges Mieles who directed these in 1902. They were the first to use any sort of special effects and they were astonishing at the time and i think hold a certain element of charm even to this day. It was a bit quirky and funny and it was nice seeing how we got from that to special effects as we know it today. Brilliant stuff, didnt know about him before the lecture.
During the seminar, culture was brought up again and we started to discuss how our profession (animation) had anything to do with culture. I think animation has an effect on the "youth culture". Animations come in a variety of styles and are aimed at certain audiences. For example family guy and south park are obviously aimed at teenagers +. Rude and offensive jokes as well as random clips of events or 80s references is what we sometimes think of when it comes to this show. But they also touch on subjects that are currently big att he time, like us elections and the economic crisis. May it be related to celebrities or current events, family guy always expresses an opinion on the subject and may influence the audience or even educate the audience on what is going on. I admit im not so big on reading the papers and there are some things in family guy or other shows like south park, where i get "updated".
From what i remember we began to talk about culture and what it is. What i found interesting was the fact that we use the word all the time yet the meaning of it is so diverse and flexible that there may as well be no definition for it.
During the lecture i made a few random notes. things which were fairly pointless like animare = give soul in latin and names like Raymond Williams and Lucretius (99BC-55BC). The thing that stood out for me in the lecture though was the video clip. Not only because videos is a breath of fresh air in lectures but also because of the fact that i found it geniunley entertaining. The clips were by Georges Mieles who directed these in 1902. They were the first to use any sort of special effects and they were astonishing at the time and i think hold a certain element of charm even to this day. It was a bit quirky and funny and it was nice seeing how we got from that to special effects as we know it today. Brilliant stuff, didnt know about him before the lecture.
During the seminar, culture was brought up again and we started to discuss how our profession (animation) had anything to do with culture. I think animation has an effect on the "youth culture". Animations come in a variety of styles and are aimed at certain audiences. For example family guy and south park are obviously aimed at teenagers +. Rude and offensive jokes as well as random clips of events or 80s references is what we sometimes think of when it comes to this show. But they also touch on subjects that are currently big att he time, like us elections and the economic crisis. May it be related to celebrities or current events, family guy always expresses an opinion on the subject and may influence the audience or even educate the audience on what is going on. I admit im not so big on reading the papers and there are some things in family guy or other shows like south park, where i get "updated".
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)