Animations Projects 3

Earth and Flames
I really liked this animation. I thought it was well done. The animation was awesome. I really liked the space scenes. I do not really think that Global Warming is a huge problem the way they say it is, but it is something that we need to think about.

Death of a Penny
This PSA was not incredibly necessary because pennies aren’t really necessary, but like I said in NVP he did say we could do it about anything. The animation was really good on this one. I got to watch a little bit while they were working on the animation, and it did take quite a bit of work.

Born from Nurture
This animation really confused me. I had even heard what it was about beforehand and I still didn’t get it. I think that it was supposed to be about three different children growing up in different areas, one was rich, one middle class, and one poor. It was supposed to show how they were different since they grew up in different areas, but all it did was show them growing up, they all said the same thing, and if they looked different I didn’t see it because it went to fast. And besides that the way they look doesn’t matter as much as the way their lives were different. This would have been a little difficult to show in a 60 second PSA though. So in short I think they had a good topic, just too complicated to do in such a short project.

Shooter McGavin
I thought that this one was pretty good. The animation was really cool the way they did it. And the way that they integrated it with live action stuff was pretty awesome. I think that it is really interesting that Josh who is probably one of the biggest gamers in the class was the leader of this project. I’m sure quite a few people in the class were offended by this attack on video games, but I think if they are honest they will acknowledge, the way Josh did, that the basic idea is true. Video games can have a negative effect on people, and should be played in moderation.

Animations Projects 2

Save the Swedish Fish
I did not really understand the point of this animation. I am not sure whether they wanted the sweedish fish to be eaten or not. The other candies made fun of the Swedish fish for not being eaten, but people seemed to indicate that eating the Swedish fish would be bad so I don’t know, it confused me. The animation did not seem very difficult either.

Birdbath
This was my group’s project so again I will try to explain it a little. First I would like to publicly apologize if anyone was offended by the blood on the road. That is what happens when you leave two guys alone to do that type of animation scene. Second, the looping, I am not entirely certain what happened with that, the guys assured me that there would be plenty of footage for the 60 minutes, they were planning to lengthen it a little but I didn’t think that it would have to be that much. And lastly the lack of words, we thought that we weren’t allowed to have any words at all in the PSA. We wanted to put something at the end to bring it all together, but we didn’t think we were allowed to so we didn’t. The truck was kind of our subtle way of working it in there and we hoped it would be enough.

On Call
This one was interesting. The animation was pretty good. But the story line was a little weak. I understood the part in church, my church has a thing at the beginning of the service that reminds people to turn off their cell phones because this is a real problem. But I did not get the woods part, I really don’t think that the animals would mind that much. I think that their original idea of having it ring in a movie theater would have fit in better with the story.

Animations Projects 1

Rolls
I thought that this animation was really funny, and well done. The animation was really good. It had an important message, and it got the point across well. The sound was really well done too. I like the fact that it was all done by mouth, they did a really good job with that.

Checkpoint B
This one was pretty good too. I, unlike most of the class did understand that it took place at the airport, but that was because I heard all about it beforehand from Nick and Ryan. I do not know if I would have gotten it without that. The artwork was awesome, Noah did a really good job on that. I think this is a somewhat important issue in our society. We do need to make sure that our country does not take airport security too far. Although since most of us would probably agree that it won’t go quite that far, this piece borders on satirical, which I think is pretty cool. I didn’t really like the shot at the end, but I do see how it fits in with the movie, so I am not completely against it. And I do appreciate the fact that they didn’t show blood splattering or anything.

NVP
Ninjas vs. Pirates, an interesting topic. Not sure that it actually falls into the category of something wrong with our world, but hey, he did say we could do it on anything. I liked the point that they made at the end, it was very funny. The animation was ok, I don’t think that it was the best that we saw, but it was pretty good. The fight scene was really good.

Musical Frequency
This was my group’s film so I will use this space to explain it a little. I liked the idea of our movie better than the actual thing. I guess our dreams were too ambitious for the time and resources that we had. As for the tiltle it really did not go with the movie the way it was at all. It went more with our ideas of what the movie would be like. Although it didn’t truly fit with that either. We never really had a good title. We originally called it Sam’s story, which didn’t really have anything to do with the film either. Our original idea was that Sam would go through his life pretty much how it was filmed, but basically the music would be different. Each main character was supposed to have their own strand of music and when they came in contact with each other the music would blend and create part of the song. I realize that this was a very ambitious idea and would have been difficult to do, and they did it all in the one weekend right before it was due, but I have to say that I was a little disappointed with how it turned out. The music did not seem to fit well with the rest of the film.

Whiskey and Toothpaste
This movie was very similar to Poetic Justice. It starts showing two guys One is rich(ish?) and he wakes up and brushes his teeth and goes through a regular morning routine. The other guy is homeless, living under a bridge, he wakes up and drinks whiskey and goes through his regular, our unregular morning routine. The film goes on with some interaction and such but I can’t remember all of it.
This movie was well done too. Although I can’t remember the actual story I do remember that I thought it was good.
By the way, the picture is of whiskey flavored toothpaste.

Well that is all of the Live-action projects. Overall I think they were pretty good. Yes they could use a little improving, but for being some of our first real movies that was to be expected.

Girl vs. World
This film is about a girl who is frumpy and unpopular. Then as the story goes along she starts changing herself and she becomes more popular. I am not entirely certain which came first. I’m not sure if she changed herself to become popular and it worked, or if she became popular and changed herself because she liked herself more that way. Or maybe they happened at the same time, she started changing herself because she didn’t like the way she was, and found that she liked her new self, and people saw how confident and happy she was and wanted to be her friend. I tend to think that it is the later because she genuinely seemed happier with herself, and I think that other people responded to that. And actually when she became popular I think she went out and found the friends herself, because she was confident enough to. This is actually a good lesson for most of us to learn, not that you have to change yourself, but that you have to be more confident in yourself. People like to be around other people who are confident and happy with themselves. People who are not happy, are mad or depressed or whatever, are not fun to be around. Who wants to be yelled at or depressed all the time? I realized this one time, I was thinking about the people around me, and the ones I like to hang out with, and the people that I like to be around are the happy people. The ones who make me laugh, the ones who are cheerful, and crazy. The ones who know that this life is short, and instead of being depressed by that fact, decide to live life to the fullest. The one’s who do not get mad at you for every little thing. When I realized that these are the type of people that I like to be around, I realized that these type of people would most likely like to be around that type of person too. So I changed myself a little, I tried to be more happy. I used to grumpy quite a bit, but I stopped that, and I am happier with myself now.

Trying to make friends in the DC, but it doesn’t work
I have to say that that is an awesome title. I actually like the fact that they didn’t feel constrained to a few words so they could actually describe the movie.
This movie is about a guy who is lonely so he tries to join a group and sit with them in the DC. He is annoying and spills something on someone. After this he is shunned from the table. The next couple of days they completely ignore him and move away. Finally he gives up on that group and he tries to join other groups but he is shunned from these too. He even tries to join the “unpopular” group and is rejected. Finally he gives up and sits by himself, alone, in the corner.
I thought that this was an interesting idea, but not fully developed. I like the basic idea behind the piece. But I agree with Leeper that he didn’t do enough stuff to actually be shunned from the group. And to be shunned from all the other groups? How did they know that he had spilled someones drink? And would they really be shallow enough to shun him just for that? The actual plot shown could have used a little more developing. The guy could have done a little bit more annoying stuff.
There was also quite a bit of discontinuity. But I thought that was kinda cool, it gave me something to look for as I was watching the movie because I heard from Matt beforehand about the continuity issues. Having discontinuity can distract from the scene, if the things that are not the same are major things in the scene. But I do not remember the continuity being that bad. I think it was mostly what they were eating, or drinking, or a shirt, or something smaller like that. So I think that it worked for them.

Coloring of the Soul
I think that this film was about a guy who was lonely and drew a picture of himself, then he went out and made some friends and he draws them into the picture. I thought that it was a good film. It had a good message and was nicely done. One thing that I remember is that this film was compared to Musical Frequency, which was the film that my group made. I guess people thought that music and art are the same thing. And I guess that they thought that the title was supposed to have something to do with the filmJ. But I will continue with that when I get to Musical Frequency.

Group 2 Poetic Justice
This is the story of two men. One man is rich, or at least upper middle class, a businessman, with a loving wife and a good job. He seems to have it all. The other man is homeless, he has no money and his “job” is playing his guitar on the street corners trying to make enough money to, well probably to buy more beer. As they go through the movie the first guy is rude and mean to the second guy. Then the first guy is fired and he ends up on the street corner next to the homeless guy. The homeless guy sees his plight and gives him all the money he had made that day.
This was an interesting film. I liked the story idea and I loved the setting. Downtown Huntington is so beautiful and fit into the story wonderfully. The only two things that I didn’t like/ understand were the life falling apart scene and the part where the homeless guy flips the other guy off. The life falling apart scene didn’t make sense to me. I did not get the pacing back and forth for what is was until he was fired. As for the flip off I am not going to wimp out and say that it didn’t bother me just because everyone else seems to think that it is ok. Yes I am a Christian, that is not the only reason that I was offended, but it is enough. My Christian values are displayed for the world in the way that I act. Because of that I will never flip anyone off or cuss. I feel these things are a bad reflection on me and my God. Why is it so wrong for Christians to be offended at the things of the world? Don’t you think that God is offended too? If God were in the room would you act out that scene in front of him? Guess what God is in the room. And don’t tell me that it is just reality. We still do not need to show it. It is not all of reality. Not everyone cusses and flips other people off. And the people who do these things are not all Christians. Some non-Christians see the offensiveness and unnessessaryness of these things and also do not do them. Flipping someone off is meant to be offensive, so why should I not be offended when it is shown on screen? Someone in their post mentioned that if we were in DMA we should not be offended by cussing. Why shouldn’t I be offended? Being a DMA major does not make the gesture any less offensive, nor does it make me any less offensive. What does being a DMA major have to do with anything? This is not directed only at the makers of poetic justice, but also at anyone who thinks that cussing and such is ok just because it is in the movies, or because the world expects it or for any other reason.

Ok, I am going to blog about our live-action and animation films that we did for class. This is a little bit hard for me because I do not really want to criticize anyone’s work. I was always taught that if I didn’t have anything nice to say I shouldn’t say anything. But I have discovered that a little bit of helpful criticism can be good, and I need some more blogs, so here it goes.

I am writing these blogs like three months after we watched the films, and because of this I only have my memory and other people’s blogs to know the stories. I have a pretty good memory but I find that I am not able to remember all of the stories. And the only person that I can find who wrote about all the Live-action projects was Caitlynn Lowe. And she didn’t write very much about the some of the films. So I will try my best to write something meaningful about all of them, but don't offended if I don't get it all right, or if I don't say much about yours.

Group 3 The Door
I thought that this was a cute movie. A guy approaches the door to heaven but finds that he is unable to open the door. Another guy come along naked and gets right in. The first guy tries some more but eventually gives up and walks away. As he is wandering along the paths he meets some homeless guys who take his ipod and clothes. He ends up back at the door wearing only his boxers because he had given everything else away. He realized that his earthly possessions were what was keeping him out of heaven before, so he shed his boxers and entered through the door.
It was a good idea, and it is biblically supported, although it is usually not our c lothes that keep us out of heaven. I thought that the set was pretty cool too. No one else thought to film their movie in a field. The three homeless guys were pretty funny, but I did wonder if they would be able to get into heaven since they took the guy’s stuff. I agree with Leeper that it didn’t have to be the door to heaven, but I don’t think that it hurt the piece the way it was.

Patch Adams
I am watching Patch Adams. It is an interesting movie, but very sad. The story is about a guy, Hunter Adams, who admits himself into a mental institution. While there he meets and helps the other patients. This helps him realize that he wants to become a doctor and help people all of the time. He enrolls in medical school, and meets a lot of different people there, including a young lady, one of his classmates who he falls in love with. He ends up helping most of the people that he comes in contact with in some way. He starts a “medical clinic” in his home to help anyone who needs it. At one point the lady he fell in love with went to the home of one of the patients to help him and ends up being murdered by him. Patch is devastated and tries to quit but everyone tells him that he is needed. He eventually works through his issues and graduates medical school.
The fact that this is a real story is amazing. I am awed by people who know what they want to do enough to just stand up and do it. I wish that I were more that way. Sometimes I depend too much on what other people say, what they think of me.
I just realized that there is no shot, no blood nothing. I have watched this movie at least two times before, and for some reason I always thought that it showed her death, or heard a shot or something. I have feared that scene for years. That is the one part of the movie that I really did not want to watch. Maybe that is why I did not notice this before. I always fast forwarded through that part, so I wouldn’t have to see it. This time I do not have a remote, and I was too lazy to get up, so I watched it. I now wonder why I thought that there was a shot. For some reason I can even picture the scene. Actually I just realized something. I am watching the made for TV version of the movie. It is possible that in the real version this scene is actually there, I do not know. But I do know that this scene is disturbing none-the-less. I still find it incredibly creepy and sad.
Overall the movie is good, but depressing. So if you are going to watch it keep a happy movie on hold for after it.

Bunny
I thought the bunny movie was pretty freaky. I am not entirely certain why, I think that it has something to do with the fact that Leeper mentioned that it was going to be creepy. I hated the bug, it would drive me crazy. I think that the bunny was entirely justified in his actions against the moth. But I wouldn’t have tried to bake it in a my cake, that is disgusting. I didn’t like the ending though. I do not really understand why he would crawl into the oven. That is an incredibly stupid thing to do. And then he sprouts wings and flies away with the moths. I just didn’t like it.

The Dog who was a Cat Inside
This was a weird animation. I did not really understand the point of the movie. I guess it could be said that the dog was like a person who is pretending to be something that they are not. It is like they have a whole other person inside of them, the person who they really are. But they are afraid that if they show people who they really are they will be rejected. I am watching Sweet Home Alabama right now and this kinda reminds me of that. In Sweet Home Alabama the main girl tells everyone that she is from a rich, southern, plantation family when she was really from a lower class s outhern family. She even gave them a different name. She was afraid that if she told them who she really was they would not accept her. And for her it was a valid fear because she worked in fashion design, and her made up background helped her get to where she was. But she was also afraid of telling her fiancé because she was afraid that he would no longer want to marry her, and this fear was not correct. When he did finally find out he was mad for a while because she didn’t tell him, but then he got over it and they went on with the wedding plans.

Work in Progress
This short film starts with two guys creating a huge grotesque machine monkey. One guy is kinda full of himself and is talking about how he creates things, I think. The other says that they should wait for her. We do not know who her is, but I get the feeling that they should wait for her too. Despite the second guy’s protestations they started the monkey up. We see a little girl walking through a wonderful fantasyland surrounded by wondrous creatures, animals that were mixtures of other animals. The girl enters the laboratory where the two men were working on the machine. This scares me, because the monkey is out of control. I did not realize that the girl was her, the one they should have waited for. The girl went up to the monkey and blew on it, bringing it to life. She takes the now living monkey out to live with the other created animals.
This story is heart rendering. While the animation is a little bit uncanny, the story was good. I do kinda see what they were talking about with the uncanny valley. Someone mentioned Polar Express as an example of uncanny valley, and I may have to agree with them. I did not like Polar Express when I watched it. And while I tried to pin down a reason I could not. The story was a little slow and childish but I expected that and it should not have bothered me. I think that the real reason that I did not like it was because the animation bothered me. Even now when I picture it gat a little weirded out. I am not entirely certain but I think that the animation may have killed that movie for me. If I were working on or directing Polar Express I would rethink the animation used in it.

Video Art post 1

We watched some video art in class. I have been reading people’s blogs and it looks like most of us (or at least the us that wrote about it) agree that video art is not for us. We don’t really want to make it or even watch it. I don’t know I wasn’t particularily fond of the stuff that we watched in class. I do not have any problem with seeing myself as an artist. In fact art is really more my field of interest. I am mostly in Animation because it is art that I could be paid for. (This is discussed more in my spooner blog) So I do not see why all videos are not art. Either they all are or they all are not. They all have the same basic elements. You can’t coral some and say this is real art, that is degrading to the people who make the other types of videos.

The first one we watched I think was the one with the lady floating in the water. Leeper said that it was very peaceful and then the oil made it creepy, or something like that. But that is not the feeling that I had. I did not see it as beautiful or clean. I was pretty much creeped out the whole time. I mean there was a lady floating in the water. Usually someone floating in the water signifies drowning and death, which I have to say is creepy. So the oil in the water just kinda fit in for me. I mean a lady floating in the water, why not have a pool of oil engulf her, it all fits together.

I found the piece with all the people marching across the screen rather boring. It really did not improve from the first showing. The only thing that I really noticed is that the puppets that they used were similar to the puppet s we made for our project.

Video Art Part 2

The one about the bird slipping on the rail did actually have a meaning for me. I saw it as kinda representing the slippery slope of sin. The bird kept trying to reach the bread, he knew that he would slide down the railing, but he kept coming back. He tried to prevent the slipping, but it didn’t work, and even though he knew he would fall he kept coming back. I half expected him to fall into harm at some point in the film. This really reminds me of people and sin. We try to reach for what we think will be a good thing, but we fall into sin because of it. And even though we know that doing that causes us to sin we keep coming back to it. It is like we can’t help ourselves we have to. And one major difference between us and the bird is that the bird could fly away and we can’t. The only way we can fly away from our sins is if God lifts us up and helps us to get away.

The piece by Bill Viola was one that I am not sure about. Even though he explained that Bill makes biblical stories in slow motion I still didn’t get the fact that it was the resurrection until they explained that afterward. The whole time we were watching it I was trying to figure out how it was made. I think I figured that the filmed someone jumping in the water and played it in reverse. Which is an interesting concept. The actual film pretty much creeped me out. Maybe I am just extra creeped out by bodies floating in the water. I think that drowning would not be a very pleasant way to die, but maybe it is the thought of dying in general that creeps me out. Maybe this is why video art is not something that really appeals to me, most of it that I have seen deals with death.

I watched Bruce Almighty this afternoon and it was interesting. I have seen it before but it was different this time. I saw more than just a movie this time, I saw a meaning behind the movie. The plot is about Bruce, who never seems to get what he wants. He works as a reporter, but he wants to be an anchor. He thinks that he gets all the wrong stories and he wants better ones. He wants more money and more things. Then another guy gets the job he wanted and his life seems to fall apart. Just as it seems that his life couldn’t get any worse he gets beeped. His beeper keeps going off until he finally gives in and calls the number. He is offered a job and told to go to a warehouse. At the warehouse he meets God. During his troubles Bruce gave up on God at asked why God wasn’t doing a better job. During the meeting God gives Bruce his powers. Bruce eventually discovers that he is not doing a good job at God’s job. He doesn’t know everything so when he didn’t know the consequences of his actions. The part of the story that really made me think, though, is that Bruce thought that he would be better at being God than God is. This is a thought that probably most of us have had at some point. Of course we don’t just come right out and say it, but it is there deep inside. When we pray and think that what we pray for has to come true because we know that it is best for us, we are trying to do God’s job. When we see the troubles of the world and think that God should do something about them, we are thinking that God is not doing it right. I know that I have been guilty of these kinds of thoughts many times. This attitude is complete arrogance, we think that we know better than God does. God knows everything, including the future, he knows what is really best for us. Bruce Almighty convicted me of the fact that I have been arrogant. I never thought that I would learn a spiritual lesson from such a mainstream movie, but I did.

We are talking about video games in class. The reason that I didn’t volunteer to do a presentation is because I am not very big on video games. I do not play video games, mostly because I am not any good at them. I have absolutely no thumb-eye coordination. If I were to start playing video games I would probably start with the Wii because then I could move the controller and it would work. When I do play video games now I do swing the controller a lot and it does not help. But besides my complete inability to play, I really do not see a point in video games. They seem like a waste of time. I think that I am kinda afraid that I will get addicted to them and not be able to stop. This would be bad because I do have a life, and I would rather use it hanging out with friends or something, than sitting in front of a box. I also do not believe that violent video games are ok, from what I have seen there is little point to them except going through the game shooting at whatever you see. I do not see a good lesson in this. I am not saying that people who play violent video games will go out and hurt someone, but if you sit there for hours shooting at things it has to affect you somehow. During the Wii presentation they showed a clip of the people playing the games. I watched the people’s faces while they were playing a shooting game and they really looked like they were shooting, they were that engrossed in the game. It looked like they thought they were actually in the game. When I do play computer games I prefer to play games that involve some thinking on my part. I like to play Nancy Drew, and Civilization, and sometimes the sims. Well those are my thoughts on video games for today. Maybe I will think something new or different after the presentations on Thursday.