How to train your Dragon 2 and End of the Semester

How to train your Dragon 2 won the best animated film of the year.  Honestly, this film was so good It had my eyes glued to the screen from the opening scene.  The animation was extremely professional and well done.  The story line was extremely well thought out.  There is not much to say about this film EXCEPT THAT IT WAS FREAKING AMAZING!   This was one of those films that people in the movie theaters could give a round of applause and it WASN'T awkward.  The story truly brought out the character yet again! This movie is simply spectacular in its animation style and it brings a whole new level of adventure to its previous film.

Throughout this semester analyzing these films has brought to light for that christians can be animators. While its unfortunate that they can't express to the public directly about their faith, it is however possible through art.  Throughout this class we examined many films that were created by christians that do not directly relate to christianity and are still beautiful in their own right.  While I do believe that there is a need to have films such as fireproof for the believing community, it is not always effective at bringing people to christ.  I'm sure that they're some cases where this has happened because I have heard of people coming to christ through this form of media, it's less likely I think.  I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to take this class and learn this extremely informative piece of information.

The Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess

This is unfortunately the only Zelda game I have had the pleasure to play.  I was only able to get through half of the game, however because of its length and unfortunate demise of my wii, I was unable to finish the game.  I was mildly addicted to this game and I wish I had the pleasure of finishing it.  This game was full of adventure and exploration.  With the wii's new controller it made very fun to use a hand held controller that allowed you to aim whatever weapon you had in the game and point it at particular targets.  This made the gameplay have an exceptional amount of difficultly.  The story line that I played through was amazing in and of itself and left you wanting to play more and more.  Today zelda fans would admit to the twilight princess as being one of the best in its class of the zelda series.  Although most zelda fans absolutely love zelda ocarina of time there is still something to be said about the twilight princess.  For me the twilight princess was a great game to enter into the zelda series and I suggest it even for people who have never played a zelda game before.

Smash Bros Wii U

Super Smash Bros has been one of my favorite video games since it first came out on Nintendo 64.  Though I didn't seriously get into the game itself when it came out on the Gamecube as Smash Bros Melee, it has always been close to my heart.  Super Smash bros has been one of those amazing games that brings friends together for years.  With the new release of Smash Bros Wii U it is bringing people together like never before.  With its new 8 player local play it literally doubles how many players you can have on one console since Brawl.  With the new Wii U some of the new features include Vs. Mode, 8 Player smash, Smash Run, and Smash Tour, which is all the multiplayer modes.  Single player includes, Classic Mode, All-Star Mode, Home Run Contest, Trophy Rush, Target Blast, Multi Man Mode, Training Mode, Event Mode, Special Orders, and Movies.  All of these modes have made the new wii u original in its new direction for the Smash Bros series.  I am extremely excited to try this game out once I can afford to buy myself a Wii U myself, but until then I will be watching game plays online and enjoying the game from afar.  For Nintendo fans, this is a must have game with great improvements to the previous game brawl.  Although the mechanics have changed a lot since the previous game and many new beloved characters have been added to the game, it is a great game!

The 4400

I am currently watching the 4400 on Netflix.  In many ways the film reminds me of Lost in the sense that the people involved, in this case "the 4400", were lost for about three years and have come back to earth looking exactly the way they were when they left.  In other words they have not aged a day.  Some people have come from a completely different time period.  There is on man in particular who came from the 1950's when blacks were suppressed by white men and it is strange to him that he is now a free man in this new world.  Though I have not finished watching the series, so far I can asses that this film is great a telling a story.  Every single episode leaves you guessing what is going to come next.  For anyone who is interested in mystery and suspense the 4400 is a great watch.  However, there was apparently a drop in fan base around 2007.  The show launched in 2004 which is interesting to note because this was around when Lost had come out in 2004 as well.  When the fan base dropped so was the show, however up until now I have been addicted with the show.  I think that it has great potential and a lot of people want the show to make a comeback.  It's sad to see the who go, but if they're are enough people who decided to watch the show again, the show might make a comeback.

Despicable Me 2

Despicable Me has been a widely watched animated comedy film.  While this film is mostly directed for children I also believe that it is a film for all ages.  Many of the critics would say that the original Despicable Me was good enough because the story ended on such a happy note with the father character turning away from villainy and become a father.  It had the audience feeling satisfied with the ending and with the second film people were lost.  However, I would have to disagree and say that I think that continuing the film was a great idea.  It brought about just as much joy and laughter from the audience with its cute little "minions".  The plot line is not as sound as the first film, but It rifts off the first film very well as it uses the fathers past as a way to transition into the next film.  From an animation perspective everything very professionally done and it looks great on the big screen.  The level of comedy still holds up with timing and camera usage.  This is a great film for people of all ages and a must see for any up and coming animators.

Link to the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwXbtZXjbVE

Lost

Lost is a film that came out with its first season in 2004.  I just recently watched the entire film over this semester and I must say it is one of my favorite tv series now.  Before I had ever watched the film itself I had some mild misconceptions of the film.  I knew that it was a very long tv series and I thought, because of its sheer length, that the film was not worth investigating.  However, one day I randomly decided to watch the first episode to see if I would like it.  From the very first episode to the last I was literally hooked on the show asking for more.  It took me about 2-3 months to finish the show in its entirety, which means that one could say I was literally addicted to it.  The most fascinating thing about the show for me was the great use of story telling and how they used a ton of flash backs in the first three seasons to help guide the story of the present as well as "flash forwards" to keep you on edge and wait for some pre-destined end to occur.  While in the last three episodes, the viewer was being told events that were to take place, however the film brought you on a ride that got you to that pre-destined event in an unimaginable way.  Being and animator and a film lover, if anyone is looking for a great film to watch I highly suggest Lost.  It will teach all of us DMA majors a little bit about how to tell a story.

Sly Cooper and Rachet and Clank

So a few weeks ago we had talked about in class about video games.  I decided to cover a blog about two video games that are close to my heart.  Sly cooper and Ratchet and Clank came out with two trailers for feature length films that they were going to come out with.  Sly cooper is due to come out in 2016 and from the long list of comments on the trailer on youtube, there a lot of complaints about the movie that i've noticed.
link to the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbXEKZVonko

The biggest problem with this film that most people have a problem with it the models themselves, while a lot of the camera angles and cinematic sequences have been throughly thought out, the character models to not seem to fit the original dream of the sly cooper series.  Most of the comments go a long the lines of "If you ruin this for me, you're ruining my childhood."  In other words its very clear from the trailer that the creators of this movie are doing something the original fan already have a problem with.  While I am extremely excited for this film because like a lot of the other commenters on youtube, this video is also apart of my childhood and I don't want to see it ruined myself.  On the other hand, I also believe that this sort of thing is happening with a lot of new animated films.  It's kind of like how the new stars wars films were for the old stars wars fans.  Animation and effects always seem to disappoint for some reason.

On the other hand from what I have seen of the rachet and clank movie teaser and E3 trailer, the rachet model has a little bit too childish model for people however all in all, I think insomniac is doing a much better job.
links to trailer and E3 trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx1oyMUxmkc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y_cY_miDxo

With the release of the new E3 trailer I am extremely excited for the Ratchet and Clank series.  It looks really well done and even if the story in this film is not based off of the stories told within the video games themselves, I do no think I will be disappointed.

I hope that one day that all video game related films and animated films can remember to truly bring to light the emphasis of the original story.  It is a hard thing to accomplish i'm sure, but we have the technology to do so.

Next semester

The whole next semester I'm looking forward of looking into some of the next digital media classes. I'd like to learn a little bit more on the background and just how everything works because for film I'm very interested in filming different things and cutting pieces out making it my own piece. So by saying that next semester I've looked into the next step for me for digital media arts and possibly a stage where he could be my second major.

Lessons from zombie brains

On a final note, (yes this is really my last post. I'm serious this time.) I think I understand why freshmen animators are not expected to run out and try to make films. Planning out the shots, scripting, acting, then the whole business and legal side of things...film making is hard and it gets harder the more people involved that can't see into your head. (So be sure to work with telepaths Junior and Senior year) But provided you have a good team of friends to help you, keep persevering, and have the hand of God move for you, stuff happens and you make a film. Brain Games, the zombie film a few of us hoped to have done by Halloween, is done all but for audio leveling. It was fun and as Chesterton (& Prof Leeper) reminds us, "If it is worth doing it is worth doing badly." So good semester all and to all a good night.

CHRISTMAS TIME!

So I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this class. It opened my eyes to different ways of animation as well as live action films. I also got to learn about how the Christians can influence film without making crappy movies such as Fireproof. There is a lot of work that the Christians need to do in Hollywood and I think that the first step to doing that is excepting that we are not in charge anymore. This class showed me all the wonderful things that film can do to us and how it can make us feel certain feelings. Over all, I think this was my favorite class but I am excited for Christmas Break.

Les Miserables

As I had mentioned earlier, The Last Five Years is my favorite off broadway play but my all time favorite play is Les Miserables. I got to see it twice at The Huntington theatre in downtown Huntington, just a block away from Antiqueology. The theatre was small but the performance was absolutely stunning. The music and the cast were fantastic and the singing was top notch. The chairs were very close to the stage which helped bring the audiecnce into the world of the actors. Broadway is an amazing thing and I personally like it better than film. There is a closer bond that is made and that is why I like it so much.

Fallout 3

When we talked about video games, I thought it was interesting that everyone talked about how much they like games that have to deal with story and characters and graphics. Now all these things are good and I agree but what makes or breaks a game for me is a character that no one ever counts as a character. The music. The Fallout series are the best examples of this. The music that plays during the game is played on a radio throughout the whole game. The music ranges from Dean Martin to Frank Sinatra. The music is everything that I love about a game. The music sets the time and the period for the game. Its nice to listen to some music while playing the game. It also helps that they such a wide range of music. Music makes the game and that is why I count it as a character.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1

The Hunger Games series have always been a favorite of mine. I liked the books and I really enjoyed how the movies portrayed the books but I was nervous about this film. I knew that the first half of the book was so boring that I stopped reading it. I had worries about the film being the same way but I was wrong. The action takes place after the events of Catching Fire. Katniss is in District 13, a secret district that the government thought was destroyed. Katniss is needed to lead the revolution against the capital. The story for this one is somewhat strong. The action is well paced and the story doesn't drag at all. I think that this one is good, even though I don't think it is the best in the series.

Interstellar

So I tried to avoid this movie for as long as I could because I wanted to see it after the hype had died down. The problem with Nolan films is that they are always over hyped and once you see them, they just are decent films. That is how I felt about Interstellar. The story is about how the Earth is dying and how we need to find a new place to live to repopulate the human race. NASA finds a wormhole that allows them to travel to another galaxy which would allow them to try and find a planet for humans to live on. I thought that this movie was good but it was not as amazing as very one made it out to be. Yea the ending was pretty cool but I felt like I have seen it before. Overall I enjoyed this movie but not as much as everyone else.

Same rules apply

When it comes to foreign films, I feel that it is either British films or Japanese films are taking over America. This is why I enjoy this film so much. Filth is a Scottish film about a corrupt police officer that, with the help of booze and lots of drugs, will stop at nothing to try and get a promotion. That means he is willing to throw anyone and everyone under the bus to get it. This film, aside from all of the adult content in it, is amazing. It tells a story of corruption and the consequences of trying to get it. The film is a wild ride from the start til the very end. This is one of my favorite foreign films and I think you should check it out.

The Last Five Years

So one of my favorite off-Broadway musicals of all time is getting it's own movie. I absolutely love this play because of how weird it is. The story is about a relationship that lasted five years. The two characters in the named Jamie and Cathy. The interesting thing about this play is that Cathy's perspective is backwards whereas Jamie's perspective is goes forwards. This is great because the music is amazing and the acting is wonderful. Everything about this play is amazing and it is even better that they turned it into a movie!

The Year Without A Santa Claus

So this is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. The movie is about how Santa Claus decides that he does not want to do a Christmas Eve run and this causes Mrs. Claus tells the audience that Santa was sick and actually had a bad cold which made him take a vacation. This causes his two elves, Jingle and Jangle to go out to find children to convince Santa that the spirit of Christams was alive and well. Before they can do this, they have to get past the infamous Heat Miser and Snow Miser. The brothers cannot agree to get their part of the deal done and because of this, the two elves are forced to go to there mom, Mother Nature. I love this movie because it's simple, its cute, and it's a great Christmas Classic.

Big Hero 6

Disney has come out with some wonderful films in the past few years. Films such as "Frozen" and "Tangled". However, Big Hero 6 was different in the fact that it is the first Disney film that introduces an animated Marvel universe. This movie has a lot going for it, with a lot ridding on its shoulders, you could see how bad it would have been if they failed. This movie is about the special bond that develops between the plus-sized inflatable robot Baymax, befriended by Hiro Hamada. The two team up with a group of friends to prevent a new evil from taking over the world. The animation in this film is wonderful as they combine San Francisco and Tokyo together. The world that they created was wonderful, fresh, and new. The characters were funny and the story was heart warming.

Gone Girl

This movie is tied with "Nightcrawler" and "Birdman" for being my absolute favorite movies of the year. I can't really explain the plot of Gone Girl without giving away too much but the plot is about a man and his wife and on there fifth anniversary of there wedding, the wife disappears. With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man see the spotlight turned on him when its suspected that he may not be innocent. This movie is amazing on a whole different level. This, however, is one of those movies that I cannot bring to justice by talking about it so go see it yourself. 

Fury

Fury is a unique film because it is so different from the rest of the war films I have seen. Unlike movies such as "Saving Private Ryan", a movie that does show the dark side of war but it also has a tone of "We are America, we kick ass!" This film shows how much war devastates everyone around it as well as everything in it's path. The film takes place in April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push into European Theatre, a battle hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Pitt) who commands a Sherman tank and it's 5 man army as they cross into the enemy territory on a deadly mission. Not only are they out gunned, they are also out numbered. This movie is great because its about these men facing the overwhelming odds in there attempt to get into the heart of Nazi Germany. This movie is a very dark war movie and it shows that war is not ever grand. There are a lot of good war movies out there but I feel that this movie is the best because of how the portrayal of war is shown.

Birdman

One of the more obscure movies of this year is probably my all time favorite movie: Birdman. The plot of Birdman is about a washed up actor who was an iconic superhero in movies, must overcome his ego and the troubles of his family as he tries to create a Broadway play to reclaim his past glory. The plot is a little weird but the movie was amazing. It is made to look as though it were all shot in one continuous take. Not only is the plot and camera work wonderful, so is the music. The music sounds like it is taken from the jazz players that play on the streets of New York. This movie also has a great cast with actors such as Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Zack Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, and finally Edward Norton. This movie is amazing for all these reasons but the real reason why I love it is because of my huge obsession

with Broadway.

Nightcrawler

So I had the opportunity to see this amazing movie and I have to say that I absolutely loved it. The story is about Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal). Lou discovers the underbelly of the night scene: recording all the crime that happens at night. He turns the videos into cash by selling them to a local tv station that is trying to get its rating back up. The plot is simple but it is wonderfully put together. That acting is wonderful and there is so much tension in the movie that the final act will leave you speechless. I wouldn't recommend this movie to a lot of people because there is some graphic violence in it but if you can stomach that, then see this movie. 

The End

So here we are in the end.

...

A bit drab. Too dark, not enough color.
<insert monotony br: ^1000% cd/exe.07734>
...
Better.

So we watched Mirror Mask in class. At first I thought this was going to go like Labyrinth, where the girl makes a wish and has to deal with the consequences. Then she fell down a rabbits hole, I called Alice in Wonderland. But when she saw herself in the window, I muttered "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". In the end, it was none of those things. I remembered what we learned about not having expectations and learning to take a movie up front without reading too deep for our own preferences and agendas. This in turn got me thinking about politics, which got me thinking about lawlessness, which lead to thinking about the wild west, which led to train heists, which lead to "train of thought", which made me think of all the lessons we have learned over the course of the semester.

1. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
2. Always do the readings.
3. You can't force a lesson into your art without poking a hole in it.
4. Write what you know, and recognize you know nothing.
5. The sad thing about "finding" God is that once you have Him, you stop asking questions, which in turn means you stop finding answers. Which leads to films like Fireproof.
6. Learn to be silent in moments of despair and to appreciate the darkness so as to better know the light.
7. Look to see the fairy tale, but don't try to turn your own page.
8. There is no "new" thing in art. Just retellings of the same great things.
9. When at your best artistically, your art will tell you.
10. When you can't see the forest, you will walk into trees.

So thank you for the good tree smacking....

I can say we are all better for it.

A fun sabbatical to you and a merry Christmas to you all!

FINALS

Finals week has literally messed up my sleep schedule, my internal, clock and my work space in my room. On top of it all, I haven't eaten a legitimate meal in 3 days. 

It really begs the question of why so we take finals? I mean, we're tested on the material throughout the semester with quizzes and such, so why is it that at the point when we're SO close to being done, we have all this stress thrown on us? For me, finals are pointless. Maybe they have a good reason and maybe I'm wrong but the copious amounts of stress every student has isn't right.   

The Man Who Planted Trees

I think of all the movies that we watched this semester this is the one that stands out most in my mind.  It's such a beautiful story that's told in such a simplistic way that it's practically magic.  I know that it's been a while since we watched it but that should tell you something about how much I've dwelt on it.  I loved the animation, the story, the characters and the message held within.  While most movies or programs that have to do with preserving nature do it in a manner that it downright insulting, this story was so expertly crafted that it practically made me want to go and plant trees in a barren wasteland myself.

It's also a story that I've been able to tie back into my own faith as well.  The way I see it, the character of Bouffier is like Jesus.  Tirelessly planting the seeds of faith in a land that is both inhospitable and broken.  The trees could not plant themselves and it took God in his infinite wisdom, mercy and love to make the effort to do all the work for us.

A truly beautiful story with an equally beautiful animation to go alongside it.  Just wonderful.

Pan

I am ticked.  Over the Thanksgiving break we were blessed with a teaser trailer to the new Star Wars movie coming out next year, the new Jurassic Park (ehhh...) and the newest edition to crap Peter Pan movies... "Pan."  Already I can tell this movie is going to be a gigantic turd blossom and it has nothing to do with Hugh Jackman. I'm just going to start asking the hard questions... Why is Tiger Lily clearly not Native American?  Since when did Blackbeard have a flying ship?  What's with the child slavery?  Is this Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?  When was it ever established that Captain Hook and Peter Pan were friends?  Why are you creating additions to the mythos of Peter Pan when you clearly have no idea what the hell you're doing?  ARGH!  This is going to be another one of those "Maleficent" type movies isn't it?  Where the bad guy is just somebody who's misunderstood and just needs a big hug to make all things better? (Barf)  I'm not excited for this movie and I hope that it tanks at the box office.  (I could be wrong about all of this and if it's a good movie good for them.  I just don't have any faith in what I've already seen)

Big Hero 6

Alright, I just recently saw this movie and I gotta say that it was pretty awesome.  I was emotionally connected with the characters, the visuals were gorgeous, the storyline was cohesive, Baymax was hilarious, the voice acting was spot on, and I got sucked into the film.  Most times I'll be able to guess what's going to happen in a movie but I didn't even try with this one.  I was just having too much fun to even try.  This is a prime example of Disney yet again showing off their Marvel chops by making yet another comic book series into a film.  I've never read any of the Big Hero Six comics, because I just don't read comics in general, but I can only guess that they're a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to future installments of the marshmallowy robot Baymax, Hiro Hamada and all his hare-brained friends.

20,000 Leagues

I recently re-watched Disney's 1954 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and was pleasantly surprised by how well it holds up by today's standards.  While there is some definite cheese (as to be expected in a movie this old) it doesn't come off as truly cheesy.  The sets are amazing, the acting is top notch, the storyline is beautifully adapted from Jules Verne's book, the giant squid battle is terrifying, the characters are relatable, and it's filled with social commentary that's still applicable to today's society!  What's there not to like?

It was because of the book and consequently, this movie that made me want to join the submarine force in the first place.  Let's just say that submarine life is practically nothing like they portray in the movie but that's okay because it's supposed to be an idealized form of underwater travel.  If there was any movie in the world that I could remake it would be this one.  Sadly, remakes have been made in the past and all of them have been absolutely terrible.  This is still the only version that I'll watch because it's just that good.

If you've never seen it I highly recommend it.

The Expiration Date

It's not everyday that a REALLY GOOD idea comes along, but when they do they become the very fuel for creative fires around the world.  Just look at the new music videos created for U2's new album "Songs Of Innocence."

With that being said... Do ideas have an expiration date?  A lot of people scratch their heads when I ask this question.  What I mean by it is... When does a good idea stop being a good idea?

A prime example of this in my mind is the television show Spongebob Squarepants.  I distinctly remember the very first episode I ever saw and I what I thought at the time was that it was extremely bizarre.  What I didn't know was that it was going to be a massive hit that would become a worldwide phenomena.

For a while the episodes only got more hilarious and was something I considered to be pure genius.  That was until the first movie came out.  While it had it's moments I felt betrayed by what I had grown to love and cherish.  Not long after that the episodes became redundant, stupid and downright insulting to my intelligence.  Maybe this was because I was getting older but that can't be because I still laugh my ass off at the earlier episodes.

Recently, I discovered that the creator of the show jumped ship after the movie because he had done everything he wanted to do with the show.  To that I applaud him heartily, and it also helps me to understand why the show really started to tank.  The people left behind fell into formulaic storytelling which is lazy, but for some reason racks up revenue like you wouldn't believe.

Spongebob has been tainted by this and it doesn't hold the same revere in my mind for being creative that it once did.

Inversely, Bill Watterson, the creator and illustrator of Calvin and Hobbes never tried to keep the comic strip alive longer than it needed to be.  When he was done he retired the comic and has never looked back.  Thus, giving us a truly timeless piece of history that has never been blemished by overblown budgets, cheap merchandise, or bad storytelling.

When an idea reaches it's logical conclusion just end it!  Don't keep it on life support or you'll get this tripe...

It's A Looney World Out There

Looney Tunes will always stand in my mind as the quintessential cartoon.  It had heart, charm, wit, hilarious slapstick, and the greatest voice actor of all time to give breath.  While many people who worship at the altar of political correctness scoff at it's off handed and many times racist humor, I love it for all that it is.  It's a piece of our history as America and to denigrate the masterpiece that is Looney Tunes is to deny one of the very things that makes America such a beautiful place to live.

Walt Disney at the time was creating his own cartoons using Mickey Mouse, and if you look at his early work it's not all that different from Looney Tunes.

It wasn't until later that Disney took a more family friendly approach to it's cartoons.  However, Looney Tunes in it's heyday never backed down from a good joke.  Just take a look at THIS classic short.

In the end, Looney Tunes shaped the very face cartoon comedy for years to come and without it we would be a far more sad nation.

Book Of Life

I know it's been a little while since the release of this film but I have yet to weigh in on the subject.  I have to say that for a smaller production company putting out a visual masterpiece like this was quite stunning.  The colors were vibrant, the sets were amazingly designed and the stylized approach was unique but still endearing.  What I can't really vouch for was the storyline.  I felt that it was a little convoluted and really dysfunctional.  Not to mention it's the type of story that you can guess the outcome in the first 10 minutes.  Not to mention the message is about as subtle as a purple elephant at a munchkin convention.

All in all, it was a pleasurable movie to watch for just the visuals but still flat when compared to other movies for the storyline.

I'm Not Entirely Dead Yet!

Monty Python will always stand in my mind as the greatest comedy troupe that has ever existed.  While some may protest that the Marx Brothers deserve this illustrious title I say to them that you can't even compare the two to one another.  Monty Python single-handedly changed the face of comedy by throwing caution to the winds and breaking modern form in every way possible.  Some would call their work nonsensical but in order to truly understand the reasons behind their comedic choices you have to know the ins and outs of British society at the time.  Everyone knows that Brits have a tendency to be a little stuffy.  Just watch Downton Abbey.

Men dressing in drag?! Most Unorthodox!

So what are a group of unruly, non-conformist men supposed to do in that situation.  Mock it into oblivion!  That's precisely what they did.  They used bitting wit and satire to deconstruct the societal norms that they believed to be oppressive and downright stupid.  It may not look like brilliance at first, but when you know why what they were doing was so earth shattering it really comes into perspective.

Music To My Eyes

Throughout the duration of our class' music video phase I found myself very much enjoying the variety of music and the creativity that went into making some of those awesome music videos.  I think of all the ones I saw my favorite has to be "Let Forever Be" by The Chemical Brothers.  Such a surreal song with an even more surreal music video.

Those transitions still wig me out but I find them amazing at the same time.  Not to mention the song just kicks it out of the park.
I have a deep appreciation for music and music videos.  Some of my favorite songs of all time have crummy videos and there are definitely awesome music videos to songs I absolutely detest.

I love Van Halen's music but their music videos were anything but inspirational.  Rather, they were fun and whimsical in that 80's sort of way.

Here's an example of an amazing music video from Peter Gabriel.

Christmas vacation

So the semester is ending and Christmas breaks coming up. I'm glad to go home to see family take a nice break off of college. And for J term I will be going to Nicaragua for a trip with the baseball team. We will have camp set up down there to do drill work with the little kids down there trying to prove their game baseball

The year recap

Throughout the whole semester DMA has really taught me a lot of new things behind the history in behind house to produce to look into the video on its purpose. Prof. Leeper taught us a lot of unique differences in how the video works and how it needs to be produced in what we look forward to behind the scenes how we tell it's true meaning. So throughout the semester we went off different topic like music videos like the history behind this digital media. Also some topics that I really enjoyed we talked about was video games I deafly got into that topic more than probably other topics I was more involved and interested I kind a new the background behind video games and how they were made and what the purpose was for some people. So as I going to next semester I have to decide if I Mike's digital media arts and if I want to pursue more classes and digital media arts.

Sunshine in a Bag

Man, oh, man, the whole time we were watching music videos, I was just waiting for Gorillaz. Any Gorillaz music video. Because I love them. I was talking to Ballinger about how he didn't put on anything by Gorillaz, and he said, "Yeah, I would really love to have a whole hour just related to them and how their style changes as the years go on." And that would be awesome. But that didn't happen.

Still, it was really cool to see that live performance. I wish I could have been there for real because it's a very innovative thing they did. There was so much timing and testing that went into that. They talk about it in their biography Rise of the Ogre, which I have on my shelf right now don't judge me

"Cara Speller: So much work went into that performance. It's months and months and months and days and nights and weekends of everyone's time and the thought that anything about it could not be to its full potential is really heartbreaking. So yes, it's always nerve-wracking and there are always things that you never thought could go wrong that do go wrong, right at the last minute to keep you on your toes" (p. 118).

I was a little put off by the rap because it is not the original "Clint Eastwood" rap, which is so much better in every way, and I have it memorized, yes. I highly recommend checking out the "Clint Eastwood" animated music video for the original rap. (The lip syncing is also INCREDIBLE?! Like, wow.)

It's also fascinating to watch their early music videos and then look at their newer ones and see the difference.

"Clint Eastwood"

vs. "Do Ya Thing"

Two completely different techniques, even! One's 2D (no pun intended) animation and the other is CGI.

Gorillaz are fab, and I wish I had gotten into them sooner. I'm so excited for their new album in 2016!! It'll have been six years since their last one!

And with that, I am done with my 20 blogs.

Mr. Ten Below

I'm Mr. White Christmas,
I'm Mr. Snow...

My roommate and I watched A Year Without a Santa Claus today, and it fits with the theme of musical film that a lot of people are talking about. Probably. I mean, with the classic Heat Miser and Snow Miser songs...

Snow Miser is so much better than Elsa, by the way. Heeee's TOO MUCH.

Snow Miser and Heat Miser are wonderful mostly because of their puns. Their lame snow and heat puns. My goodness...

I also love the old school stop-motion style that was used in a lot of Christmas specials.

My roommate commented on the shortness of Christmas specials. A Year Without a Santa Claus is only about 45 minutes. But that's because they originally aired on TV, right? When you watch the DVD of it, you can tell where they cut off for commercial breaks.

Anyway, I don't know what the point of the blog is other than to say if you need something to watch for Christmas, watch A Year Without a Santa Claus.

Have a good finals week darlings

You'll do great. Don't even worry about it. It'll be fine. You'll go home, catch up on sleep, maybe leave and never come back, maybe come back for a few more years, who knows. No matter what, y'all will be fine. You'll move on and get through it.

Peace out bitches ✌

Irma - Save Me

If you don't think this music video is amazing, go home. Just, just go home. Can you imagine the amount of work that was put in to creating the digital projection? It's so well done, and the whole video all together just warms your heart. I think the children really gave it a sense of warmth. It's quite beautifully done.

The Rifle's Spiral

I never get tired of watching this music video. I have a place in my heart for stop motion animation, and this is absolutely gorgeous. If you ever get a chance to take a look at the making of this music video, I highly suggest you do so. They even use DragonFrame! Which is a program all you animation majors you will learn about very, very soon. The work and process of stop motion is amazing and can be incredibly tedious, which means that the people at laika deserve some major respect for the movies they produce. And so do the people who made this video!

Simple Math

What a fantastic look on the value of life in this music video. It's really amazing how something like this can really make you think and reflect on your own life through this man's life story with his father. The way that everything just crumbles around him both in the past and present is really astounding in a beautifully artistic and abstract way. I love it!

Let's Talk about Massive Attack

This is a music video that Ballinger showed my class 2 years ago, and it always stuck with me to now. I love everything about the feeling of this music video, as well as most of their music videos. They cast an amazing vibe that makes you want to watch them over and over again just to keep your heart beating at the rate this video makes it go. Take a look and see for yourself!

Dumb and Dumber To?

I remember very distinctly the first time I watched "Dumb and Dumber."  It was the day before Thanksgiving in 1999 and I my family was visiting relatives up in Washington State.  We were all sitting around the fireplace drinking hot cocoa and my dad looked to my grandfather and asked him what movie we should all watch together.  He looked over to me and then emphatically said "Dumb and Dumber."  I had never heard of this movie before that moment because at that time I was living a very sheltered existence. So, my grandfather walked over to the movie cabinet, fished around inside for the VHS, found it and promptly popped it into the player.  For the next two hours I was laughing so hard I cried until my tear ducts hurt.  Yes, the movie does contain stupid humor.  Yes, the humor is at times crude.  Yes, it is neither wholesome or thought provoking.  And yet, it was beyond hilarious.

So when I heard that they were making a (legitimate) sequel, my heart both leapt and sank at the same time.  Why were they making a sequel to a hilarious movie?  Why after 20 years?  Just... WHY?!  Then I saw the trailer for it and my hopes were somewhat raised.  It didn't matter if the movie stunk.  I was going to see this because of some misplaced sense of nostalgia.

Well... I went and saw it.  There were times that I laughed.  However, I found myself more disheartened by the experience than elated.  Maybe it's because the snobbish tendencies of my artistic pallet have grown over the years or maybe it's because seeing Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey act like adolescent idiots while being in their 50's is slightly off-putting.

Regardless, based upon the film I know that the cast and crew had an absolute blast making the movie and it shows.  What is sorely lacking in this film is an original script.  If they had changed the storyline drastically instead of rehashing the original it would have been a lot funnier in my opinion.  All in all, it was neat to see Jeff Daniel and Jim Carrey at it again but it was more of a letdown than a pick-me-up.

Broadcasting

The last presentation he gave was about broadcasting. About this tree broadcasting out all started you also talked about the inventors behind broadcasting.he talked about his past and broadcasting from high school to now only four year senior who is in the brodcasting field he also talk about how there video last year made ESPN. He definitely gave some good detail and information behind the whole broadcasting thing and some new things about me in general and broadcasting.

Conformity

Conformity: To abide or accept with rules, standards or laws.

And that's exactly what I been doing with these anime films if I have to admit. Watching The Wind Rises last week finally turned my interest on anime. With this specific type of genre you never know what you're going to get into. Especially with Hayao Miyazaki. In The Wind Rises you watch the destiny of a Japanese aviation designer unfold as he struggles with his occupation, creating fighter planes during WWII. What I like most about this film is the sound. Throughout the movie the sound of the aircrafts were made by mouth s if a little child would make. As well as the monsterous earthquake in the scene I shared below.