Animation

Old animation has been in the publics mind for decades and still it keeps peoples attention just as much if not more than newer animation. I have always been very interested, in older music and older animation. The soundtracks and sound effects in warner brothers animation is so on point it makes every piece of theirs a work of art. In filmmaking these two can be the difference between an alright film and a good film and there sound effects and score really add a lot to their aniamtion. The style of animation is very retro with odd shapes and sizes and very vivid colors. The style is very loose but at the same time completely in order. The sense of space is as good as any animation you would see today, Eveyrhting feels open and the dof is very realistic every scene has a bit of blur which makes landscapes feel very large. There couldnt be any more character to this cartoon. Everything from the way its drawn, to the voices, to the sound effects and the characters characteristics give the piece an overall character that you cant find in any other animation. The animiation feels very alive from the start because of the characters looks and their voices, so right away you get pulled in, then the story comes alive with a twist and funny moments. All these elements are used to make the video watchable the whole way through, Videos are only as strong as their weakest link and since every area is of a high standard you get caught up in it. Specifically the music, it adds so much quality and fits with the animation perfectly.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFM8i6jJFOc

Editing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsOaTEouwpA


The piece I chose is all stop motion. So right off the bat the editor needs to decide how many frames he wants to keep, per still. Maybe he’ll put a dissolve in between each frame or a frame of black. Maybe he’ll give some shoots a ramp effect and give them less frames. The editor’s job becomes much bigger then just the cuts within the scenes. The editing in this piece is very well done, all the cuts are pulling the viewer to the final outcome. Is there a “right” place to cut or not to cut? Are the cuts seamless or obvious? In my opinion a cut is either a good cut or a bad cut. You never know what the editor had to work with. I like how the piece cuts between all different coins perspectives. The sound effects really make the piece believable, and entertaining. The movement of the coins organizes the shots, the composition in the shots are all close shots except for a few far shots. Overall the cuts are very smooth and it’s because of the movement of the coins. When you watch the piece without audio you can really see how the movement of the coins influences the cuts. What determines the order of the shots is what’s going to bring the piece closer to the ending and what feels right. But editing is also never just an order, it’s the process of elimination so you try a lot of things and eventually it will just feel right. My favorite shot in the piece starts are 36 seconds.

Websites

Recently I’ve been getting into web design, because of this I've been visiting websites to gain perspective on the kinds of websites people want. I would never go on the internet to go on the internet, and look for websites. Without my goal to design websites I wouldn’t visit many websites but my routine websites. I would only visit Google.com, Digg.com, Gmail.com, the forums I’m apart of for design and film and all the websites I use for textures and brushes to use in Photoshop and Cinema 4D. I have something to gain from all the websites I visit. The way I use the internet is very self centered I don’t go on the internet to kill time, 95 percent of the time its work based. Most of the websites I visit are based upon user generated content. Whether it is a story a user posts, or a high quality image that someone took on their trip to Belize. The type of media I view regularly usually happens to be stuff I stumble upon by chance, whether that is a short video or graphic design. Then there are documentaries that I’ll keep an eye out for and watch on netflix. I usually interact with the media I’m involved with by taking notes on what I think is clever or taking a screen shot of it. If it’s a close friend or someone I know, and they ask for my opinion, then I interact on the actually website and give them my two sense. The internet is my lively hood, I couldn’t do anything I do without it. Whether it is sending a video to a client, looking for a public domain video or creative commons photos, the internet allows me to do what I want to do.

What I hear

Right away the hallway has a strange echo, and my footsteps sound much louder and bigger then normal. I click the elevator button, wait, and don’t hear anything. Then I slowly hear the elevator getting pulled up closer to me. I walk in and stand and wait with 3 other people. The elevator hits some part of the building as it goes past certain floors and makes a distinctive clanking noise. Then a loud burst of sound comes from a ladies cell phone of a techno hammond Bossa Nova. She begins talking. Then the elevator rings and the doors screech open. I hesitate before I walk out, being at a floor I've never seen. I hear people talking and machines running. I began to follow the people from the elevator as if I know where I'm going. Eventually we get outside, and all I hear is the sound of from the river wind and cars, which all dissolve into one another. I begin to walk down the sidewalk adjacent to the highway. There are no trees people or animals. The wind, water and the sound of my shoes are constant, the only other sound I occasionally hear is a passing car. Eventually I know I'm close to home when I hear some birds and more people. I continue to walk I hear more cars and then I hear a bigger car coming my way, it’s a typical NYC tour bus. I hear slow talking guy mumble something about a building, then the motor sounds up again and slowly fades away into the distance. I walk by someone sitting down talking on their cell phone, and then a lady with a baby carriage rolls bye. The wind kicks up as I get closer to the water and home, I make a sharp turn to go up my block, and quickly have to shuffle out of the way of a lady. The wind kicks up and a dog from the park begins barking. The leaves on all the trees really begin to rustle, and eventually, the gritty sound my sneakers make on New York sidewalk stops and I know I reached the front steps to my building. I open my lobby door, and right away my lobby has a loud echo and my footsteps sound much louder and bigger then normal. I hear the distinctive sound my door makes when it shuts, and I'm home.

Design I Like

Design to me should be based around what the product be designed for is saying. I don’t like design where it becomes about the design, and the product has no business being with that design. The best design in my opinion is also very simple, but thought provoking. Beauty, functionality, interactivity composition, balance, color, and typography are aspects which I like but it all depends on what its being designed for.

One type of design I like is old record covers. For example, this old record represents a simple design which hits on beauty, composition, balance, and color.A lot is being said with this design when the concept is fairly simple.





These two covers represent texture to me, a lot went into the feeling of the design.



Composition balance and color overpower these record covers.


I like these record covers because I feel like there flowing, as if this was the original idea they had and they went with them, they just feel right, like there not forced upon the subject, at the same time a lot of meaning is there.



These designs have a lot going on, both of them are very busy. At the same time there composition has a clear order. Both seem to be making order from disorder. The colors used on them are very important to the vibe of the music, which they fit perfectly to IMO.




I guess I like design where I feel as if the designer stopped thinking, and let the ideas flow, to whatever the product makes them flow, the designs I like act like a voice for the product, so yes composition, color, balance etc are important to me, but there is no set path in mind its whatever feels right.

Response To Movie

The cinematography in the documentary Rivers and Tides, not only brought the movie to a whole other level, it helped to get the subjects point across. All the shots had composition that was very appealing to the eye. The movie was about this guy who makes art out of things in nature. And the movie itself was art. Some of my favorite shots in the movie were this crane shot while the subject was putting together all the twigs and branches to make this huge circular structure. The shot allowed the viewer to see how big and beautiful the artwork he made was. Another one of my favorite shots was towards the end of the movie when the subject was taking these roots in the country, and making a mega collage. The goal of the cinematographer and director was to show art with art. So the framing of the art would be art itself, everything the artist did was just inflated with their shot of choice. There wasn’t much control of depth of field in the movie most very fast lenses, every shot was pretty much all in focus, but since it was a documentary and the composition was perfect, it didn’t matter. The overall theme of the film was to show of deep everything really is, in order to do this the shots need to be above in beyond. Their goals were easily accomplished with montages of the artwork and the subject on the field doing his artwork, they really conveyed what this guy was doing. All around Rivers and Tides is a very well done, relaxing documentary. The subject of the documentary is also a very good character and the movie is very thought provoking.

Don't Turn Left on Steinway

So here I go, I’m really dreading this whole blog thing, but I guess it s a good thing, tension is always good. My name is Paolo, I’m a filmmaker, at the moment I’m in the process of making a short film , and waiting on funding for a documentary. Recently with my school we visited the Museum of the Moving Image. Lots of very cool stuff, two things which stick out to me right away were their array of old cameras. Which really showed the progress from one camera to the other. I’m very interested in animation also, so the animation section was awesome to me. I loved to see some of the first steps of animation, and how it got where it is now. The Mutoscope was really cool, it was made by Herman Casler who happened to work for Thomas Edison. Basically it was a series of flash cards, and you would spin the handle on the outside of the machine to give the illusion of motion. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCJeOca-GQU) This is sort of like it, only the original machine had much fewer images. The animation Flying Circus by Monty Python was very funny, what was even funnier is how much South Park ran with their whole vibe and technique. The feral fount was also another one of my favorites, it was like live action animation. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JRu8rQlM3o)Basically this spinning machine had a series of objects on it which would give you the illusion of something happen when the strobe light was turned on. The last thing which sticks out to me was the great train robbery and specifically their use of rotoscoping. Basically they would paint every frame of lets say the actresses dress to give the audience a feeling of color. I’ve done a lot of rotoscoping and I thought it was very cool to see some early usage of this technique. I’ll end my blog on a high note, two of my favorite songs this week.

First song tough its either:

Summertime by Herbie Mann:
http://www.imeem.com/jazzmusic/music/Gi8q5Nae/herbie-mann-summertime-live-at-the-village-gate/

Or

Get Thy Bearings by Donovan
http://www.imeem.com/skatelrg/music/eD5S8n76/donovan-get-thy-bearings/

And the second song:
Wrath of Kane by Big Daddy Kane:
http://www.imeem.com/people/TdOYwQ/music/B0Emi0wg/big-daddy-kane-wrath-of-kane/