The Circle of Life

Globalisation of Culture and the Relationship Between Japanese and American Tradition

I was glad to see Totoro in the lecture because it's one of my favourite anime from my childhood. As a child I grew up on a mixture of eastern and western animation with Disney classics like 'the lion king' (which itself is mostly taken from 'kimba the white lion') and Miyazaki classics like 'Laputa'. This makes me appreciate the differences in the eastern and western animations due to my childhood affection toward both. While Anime tends to become more farfetched and zany, Disney was always centered around a key protagonist who goes on some sort of adventure.

'Andre and Wally B' was revolutionary as it was the first 3D film to incorporate motion blur. It also made extensive use of particle systems for the environment and shape deformation for the fluidity of characters movement.

I Move, Therefore I am

Art vs Commerce

Whilst 3D animation may be the main method of animation, there is still traditional 2D and stop motion that are still used extensively in the industry. It's easy to see why less studios utilise this method as 3D has more tools to make it easier for the animators to get their work done more quickly and efficiently.

An interesting example of a range of styles used in one video would be 'Ryan' which shows an interview with Ryan Larkin before he died.

The incredible thing about this animation is how vibrant and expressive each part of the video is, even though it's an interview.

A real arty film that uses frame-by-frame animation over camera footage is 'A scanner darkly' which really jumps out at me as one of the most visually adventurous films of the modern era as the film could've quite easily been just filmed with cameras.

Shoot and Cut

Violence and Media

Violence in media generally comes under fire regularly from the press as it's an easy target. Videogames seem to be the form of media that garners the most attention with titles such as 'Modern warfare 2' and 'Manhunt' taking centre stage as perveyors of violence in unnecessary ways. These titles were constantly criticised on the internet and on news shows as it was teaching children that murder was ok.

Even though these games both have an '18' certificate on their covers they will inevitably become the possession of a small child by some means. However when relating violence to CGI models is there any way of suggesting that this is any different to real life killings?

To Infinity and Beyond

The Science Fiction Genre

This lecture focused on classic sci-fi films such as 'The Thing' and 'Metropolis' as films that have captivated audiences and inspired films and other media.

After the seminar I just had to watch 'The Thing' and can say that it's quickly moved into my favourite top 20 sci-fi films as it combined great horror (with authentic effects that were truly disgusting - props to the special effects team) and fantastic storytelling of an alien that crash lands on earth and begins to present itself as a human on multiple occasions until the crew succumb to paranoia.

Metropolis also seems like a film that is worth watching if only to see the 'original sci-fi film' in action.

A Brief History of the New

Approaches to New Media

As a self-professed Geek I would like to express my excitement for the sequel to Tron. Lightcycles, Jeff Bridges, Daft Punk, Lights. What more could you want?

 

I'm glad my dad showed me the original Tron when I was younger as it helped me to fully appreciate the visual effects of films since then. I'm hoping that the new film will be just as revolutionary to the current audience.

Another classic sci-fi film that is getting a form of addition to the series is 'The Thing'. The prequel is going to be released in 2011. John Carpenter seems to be unhappy with the studio behind the prequel as he thinks that they are merely cashing in on the originals popularity. However they have stated that it won't be a CGI-fest and that it will use mostly physical effects just like the original. (yay!)

Two Sides to Everything (and a bit in the middle)

The world in 2 sides...

G(O)OD =/= (D)EVIL

LIFE =/= DEATH
NATURE =/= CULTURE
LIGHT =/= DARK
HAPPY =/= SAD
WHITE =/= BLACK
MALE =/= FEMALE
LAND =/= SEA/SKY
HUMAN =/= NON-HUMAN
YOUNG =/= OLD
PHYSICAL =/= DIGITAL

(Left is Traditionally Privileged over the Right)

Structuralism is how we make meaning in the world. Where there's life there will naturally be death.

What really interested me was the table that included Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as not good or evil but in reality Dr Jekyll wasn't all good to start with so he should be closer to Evil. You have the opposite in Vader however as he started good (supposedly) became bad (supposedly) and then became good again. (he's also a cyborg which leads nicely to...)

I thought that calling CGI characters Cyborgs was strange but an interesting idea considering they are computer generate figures with human images which is essentially what a cyborg is.

We compared Comics and Novels for binary opposition in the seminar because Comics are generally mostly images, whereas Novels are almost completely made up of words. But even then there are Graphic Novels which blur the line between comics and novels.(Watchmen, 300 for example) this then led to talk about comic-to-movie conversions and did comics contain enough content.

Nothing New

Intertextuality actually seems pretty awesome to be honest. Especially for me considering I've been looking out for these kinds of things ever since I got interested in Films.

The planet of the apes reference is a fantastic example of intertextuality as it has been reproduced in so much media. Another reference to Simpson's...

The classic 'Planet of the Apes: Musical' Starring Troy McClure! (Somehow I always relate something I hear back to the Simpson's)

...I had that song in my head for the rest of the day as well...

The Simpsons is a good example of using intertextuality as well as most episodes feature some kind of joke or pun that requires knowledge of media to understand.

Case-in-point:

However this can go too far when used as every pun or joke (I'm looking at you Family Guy...)

I also have a fascination for 'The Rock Drill' (which I studied twice for both my Art GCSE and A-Level) because of it's use of raw shape in unique ways. I'd never thought of it like Geiger's Alien however!

Reading the Signs

Semiotics is the study of meaning. I still don't know why we began the lecture with a drawing test though...

Denotation: Literal meaning

Connotation: What it suggests

Myth: The 'world-view' (ideological/political)

The fact that even fonts can change the meaning of a word (as evidenced in the Lecture with the various genres of music. I particularly liked the inclusion of the clothes that 'Alex' and the 'Droogs' are wearing and the meaning behind them.

The 'TeleShop' adverts also show the world we live in presenting guns in typical images of the common couple.

Malcolm's Lecture got us talking about semiotics in films. We naturally chose John McClane considering we were a group of 4 guys who love action movies. (Die Hard rates pretty high in out top films lists)

McClane's character wears the white vest throughout all four films which becomes a part of the image of his character.


Denotation: serious man, tattooed, receding hairline, exposed arms, gun clearly visible, hurt, stubble, dirty
Connotation: dangerous, old, rebel, angry, rushed for time
Myth: on the run, thief, terrorist, wrong side of the law

This shows that we can get the wrong connotation of someone by their image as John McClane is actually the good guy trying to stop someone with that description.

Can you tell what it is yet?

I can't help but thinking of this scene from the Simpson's after viewing the 'Ralph Going's image presented in the lecture.

anyway! after that quick interlude I want to to talk about the use of realism in 3d animation and how the synthespians replace actors in their roles.

Ivan gave the example of 'Final Fantasy: Spirits within' as synthespian's replacing actors in a fully animated film which was elaborated upon by Malcolm in the seminar afterwards. This led to a discussion on the animatrix film 'Final flight of the Osiris' which used the same technology (and some characters) from the Final Fantasy film.

He also talked about the use of synthespians and the film 'Simone' where a woman is modelled and shown to be real. This example of catharsis (what you take from assets you view) segued into the fact that actors effectively take a characters identity and almost become that character in the film (Erin Brokovich was used as the example)

Realism within our discipline

The first lecture was nicknamed 'This Rough Magic' which is a suitable title for Prospero's magic in 'The Tempest'. This suggested that his abilities would make the public be astounded and in awe of him and that the course we are on is an aim to do just that.

If you were to show someone from the middle ages anything created in the animation industry they would probably think it was some form of black magic and would burn you at the stake.

Starting a Blog...

Never thought I'd start my own blog but here it is and I'm sceptical as to how it will turn out. I'm not used to the whole blogging scene and quite frankly don't see the point, but hopefully after many months of blogging I'll be happy to share my thoughts with the world.

I am not expecting the greatest turnout to this blog as I wont be publicly advertising it (considering it's part of the course and will be mainly for my musings from the lectures/seminars)

But part of me wants to turn this blog into something amazing with my favourite music, games, films, TV .etc of the week. However at the same time I don't want it to turn into twitter or something where I am constantly updating to let people know what the favourite button on my shirt is.

I plan to update this thing once a week (generally on Thursday after the media histories lecture) but since I didn't start the blog till today I'll be doing the realism update in the future and carry on from there.