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/