Respecting knowledge

So over Thanksgiving break I was visiting family and while talking with my cousin who is an engineer the subject of what I was studying in college came up. After telling my cousin that I was a film major and a philosophy minor he proceeded to tell me how he thought those were both dumb, worthless areas of study. Basically he believes anything that is not engineering is dumb. This frustrated me and I got very defensive of my passion.

You know what I realized from this ordeal? That all knowledge should be respected, not just that which is interesting to you. I personally have no interest in nursing, but I respect that as an area of knowledge.

How does this relate to film? Well I realized that this logic can be carried over into film. Earlier this semester we watched some movies that I didn't like and I treated them like my cousin treated my college study. With disdain and dismissiveness. I figured that there was nothing I could learn from the videos. That is arrogant and says that only what I'm interested in matters. But this is not true. All film styles matter.

I need to learn this and adopt it as a maxim in life if I ever want to go far in film. You can't enjoy your genre. You have to have a broad range of experience. You should respect all forms of film.

Korean Wave

I was almost finished with my blog, but as you all know, electricity went off in the whole campus...

I am discouraged to write the whole thing again...but I will shorten what I had before...

Korean wave, which I have mentioned in my previous blog briefly, refers to the increase in the popularity of South Korean entertainment and culture such as K-pop, movies, drama series etc. in Asia and more recently in other parts of the world such as Europe, Africa, and Americas. In 2011, Korean wave added approximately $3.8 billion dollars of revenue to the South Korean economy.

Hallyu(Korean wave, started with the popular Korean drama "Winter Sonata" in 2002 and continues with Psy of Gangnam style. In case of "Winter Sonata", the set for the drama became the major tourist attraction, especially middle aged Japanese women. Also, Korean dramas are hugely popular in the Middle East. Korean dramas are screened several times a day. In case of  Iranians, they know better about Korean dramas than actual Koreans do. (No, I am not generalizing)

The interesting story is that when there was a territorial dispute between Korea and Japan, the prime minister of Japan publicly announced that he will stop listening to K-Pop. (He was known as a huge fan of it)

Egyptian K-Pop fans.

The question is how long would it last? or how far would it go?

Some experts believe that if Korea exported house hold electronics in 90's and cars past 10 years, Korean wave will be the major export for Korean economy. However, some critics believe that Korean wave will lack content that it has to provide more original stories, because fans are becoming tired of standardized contents.

Let's continue to observe how it unfolds.

Gangnam Style

Yes, Gangnam Style..

In the second half of this year, Gangnam style has been one of the most hot issues on and off line. Couple weeks ago, it became the most watched youtube video pushing away Lady Gaga.

Psy may became the most known Korea through this music, and the most successful Korean singer worldwide level making into the 2nd place of the billboard chart, and winning awards in America. His success in America basically means global success.

What is this phenomenon?

It is interesting to see how "unintended" effort led Psy to such fame, because there have been many Korean groups and singers that tried to expand their influence outside of Asia, ultimately aiming for America, but they were never there. However, Psy's "Gangnam Style" without any effort became the leader of "Korean Wave", which I will talk about in my next blog.

As a Korean, it is weird to hear Korean song playing in American radios. My friends in Russia tell me that even in Russian TV and radio, Gangnam Style is being played. It is even more weird to hear Huntington students singing it and dancing Gangnam Style.

I don't know how this is possible. I guess this proves the power of youtube.

Johnny Cash Project

I know it’s been awhile since we watch the Johnny Cash videos, but this one really stuck out to me, so I figured I’d blog about it.  I love Johnny Cash and have seen some of his music videos, but I have never heard of the Johnny Cash project.

After seeing the Johnny Cash Project Music video, “Ain’t No Grave” I was in awe. The video has so much power and it seriously touched me watching that. Seeing flashes of Crosses, skeletons, Jesus, and artwork reminded me of just how many people are out there all with a different outlook and voice. I just saw the artwork of thousand of people that I know nothing about, but somehow was impressed and moved by every single one of them.

Then I went onto the website www.johnnycashproject.com and I was even more astounded. You can look at each slide separate from the video and even contribute your own art. Then, re-watching the video had even more impact, seeing all of the slides together. All of these artists had one thing in common: Respect and love for Johnny Cash. It seriously is such a beautiful video and I could seriously watch it over and over again.

New Movies

The new movies that are coming out very soon are both The Hobbit and Les Miserables. Unfortunately, I have not read The Hobbit, but I have seen all of The Lord of the Rings movies, and I loved them, so my plan is to hopefully read The Hobbit before the movie comes out, because I like reading the books before I watch the films in the first place.
As far as Les Miserables goes, I have no idea what it's actually about, but I do know that it's a movie musical and I have heard about it before, but I never actually was informed as to what it's about. There are lots of famous celebrities in the film who are very talented, and I love the music for the film so I'm excited to see it. I would read the book before I watch the film, but the book is huge and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't finish it in time. Anyways, I think I can speak for almost everyone in saying, I'm super excited about these films coming, and others as well!

West Bank Story

I grew up on musicals, so when I saw that we were watching a parody of musicals in general, my heart beat fast with glee.

One of the things that I loved about this short was the way that it lovingly made fun of so many things. I personally do not think anyone who fit into the categories trolled upon would be offended. I know that I loved it all. The entire time I was just waiting to see what would happen next. Basically, I LOVED it. My favorite aspect was the musical/romantic puns. For instance when the Romeo type character went to his Juliet's window, he said a long spiel about the reality of what musicals do (sing a romantic song loudly and disturb the neighbors). The whole thing was just happiness in general.

Boggle

In a society of consumerism, often times we Americans seek entertainment (only) when we go to theaters. That being said, when we come across a movie like The Tree of Life, we do not really know how to respond. With it's exotic scenes of volcanos, planets, microscopic images, and more, this film was fantastically different then what I was accustomed to seeing.

The reason that I and just now blogging on this film is not because I have pointlessly been holding it off, but rather because I have been thinking about what I saw, and trying to figure out what to say about it. I have come to the conclusion that I do not really have much to say in addition to this film. It was a brilliant movie, though. Everyone that I have talked to about it has stated that they are STILL thinking about it even though it's been a while. It takes a truly well developed presentation to captivate the audience, though it may be small, for a sustaining period of time.

The main nugget that I got from this piece of art is that I need to learn how to interest the audience. Maybe the overall theme should not be as complicated as this one, but in my future works, I need to figure out how to make people think, and how to make the taste of my work linger for a while even after it's over.

Hollywood! Why not?

Yes, Hollywood...

In some presentations this week, and throughout the semester, Hollywood has been criticized for chasing the money. Also, it is easy to consider Prof. Leeper as an "anti-Hollywood", but is he really?

We have to remember that Prof. Leeper always makes the analogy of "junk food": "it is okay to eat them once in a while, but you shouldn't consume it everyday." I think it is a great analogy, because I also once in a while crave for McDonald's, but refuse to eat it everyday. I felt like some classmates were actively criticizing Hollywood, because they think that they have Prof. Leeper's full support. 

I would not condemn Hollywood like some classmates. If I expect art from Hollywood, that is a wrong attitude in the first place. If I seek beauty from Hollywood, I am a fool. However, for an entertainment, why not Hollywood?

Many people criticize "Product Placement", but in fact, I actually like to see them as long as they stay in Hollywood, because sometimes it is a shopping guide for me. There are actually some movies that I would watch just to think about what I might shop and wear in the future. I would not have tried "POM" juice, if I have not seen it in "the Greatest Movie Ever Sold". I tell you Pom is little expensive than usual juice that I would drink, but it tasted really good. ;)

Movies that are meant to be light should be taken lightly. For some people movie is an art, but some people movie is a business. Let it be... as long as, my conscious is still intact.

However, I think it is important in the first place to know and get use to "healthy" food, before you get use to "junk" food. Otherwise, you will crave for junk food everyday... 

I believe that criticism will never change Hollywood,. Let me reword that: criticism cannot change ANYTHING. With the mindset of Christ-like love towards Hollywood, may be we have a chance.

Saeglopur

I'm sure you're all sick of seeing Sigur Ros by now, but tonight they were randomly on my mind and I found myself searching through more of their music. Anyway, I found this one video of their's that had me so confused at first, but I made the connection at one point, and when I did, it knocked me over.

I really love Sigur Ros. This video is so powerful, and so beautiful. Once you understand it, diving deeper into the meaning of it makes it that much more amazing. This is officially my shortest blog post because this is all I'm going to say; this music video can speak for itself--the last thing I want to do is give anything about it away. 

*Disclaimer: There were a lot of Sigur Ros posts... I hope no one posted on this video yet, and if you did, I apologize--I sifted through the blogs and didn't see it anywhere, but I could have missed it. 

The Invisible Art

I remember one of the first things Dawn Ford said back at the beginning of the year when all the DMA people had that meeting in the screening room. She said, "Editing is the invisible art" meaning that it's rarely recognized directly by an audience, but yet the editing process is an art form consisting of just as many creative people as the actors/writers/directors etc.

I loved the way she put that. A common misconception people had when I told them I was studying film in college is that I'm another wannabe Spielberg who wants to be a big shot director filmmaker. But I don't. As much as I enjoy directing, or even just filmmaking as a whole, as a professional I aspire to be an editor. Why? Because every time I edit a project together, I feel really good. I really enjoy it. I love the challenge, and I love the open canvas for creativity. I love how within hours upon hours of footage there's a movie. There's a movie within all that footage and I have to find it and make it.

It makes me think of Michelangelo's take on sculpting. He believed that the sculpture was already in the marble, and his job was only to find it and release it. That's what I see editing as. Within all that footage there is a film, and there is a message. Every great movie was at one time nothing but footage without a purpose. It's the editor's job to find it and weave it together.

So, as my last blog post, I just wanted to talk about the aspect of filmmaking I find the most interesting. As Dawn said, it is an invisible art. As I'm sure everyone has been exposed to at least once, bad editing can destroy a film regardless of how strong the performance/writing is. Filmmaking is a collaboration of talents, and I find editing to be just as vital as directing, producing, writing, acting, or working as crew.

I will say that editing for me has always been a time consuming and frustrating processing, but I learn so much every time I really work on anything. And the reward of finishing and exporting a video is the best. It's like the best feeling.

Anyway, this is, as I've said, my last post, and I hope everyone does great on finals and has a great Christmas. See you in the Spring!


- R.

The First Rule of Fight Club is...

You do not talk about Fight Club.

For anyone who had Dawn Ford for Digital Tools and Media Management (I'm not sure what the other sections of that class are doing) and are film pro or broadcasting, we had to create a trailer for a film we really enjoyed. I chose to do Fight Club, and I decided to write a post about the movie because I feel as if I've watched it maybe 15+ times now.

Firstly, it's also a book. A very good book. I know we're all film or animation people, but literature is really the foundation of everything we've learned this year. Without books, I don't think that story telling would be at the advanced level it's come to now. So Fight Club is also a book, and you should read it because it's excellent.

Fight Club is an example of a film that excelled in all meanings of the word. The cast was infinitely perfect for their roles. Initially, Brad Pitt was not going to be cast because the studio thought he wasn't talented enough to pull off such an emotional and disturbing role. Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter were almost not cast because they weren't super big names like Brad Pitt. I can't even imagine this film with any other cast.

Helena Bonham Carter has long been my favorite actress, but she excels in this role. I can't even imagine any other person assuming the role of Marla Singer. Trivia about HBC as Marla Singer: She had her makeup artist for the film apply all of Marla's makeup with her left hand because HBC didn't think Marla would be particularly skilled in makeup application.

Edward Norton was the perfect choie as The Narrator. He can pull of the boring white collar worker, and he also pulls being the secret badass who can fight. Here's some trivia: Norton had to actually drop body weight and muscle mass while preparing for this film. Prior to this film, Norton was heavy into body building and was actually more jacked than Brad Pitt. Obviously, because The Narrator is the "nerdy" one, Norton couldn't be more in shape than Pitt, so he stopped lifting weights all together, and took up jogging

Finally Brad Pitt as the infamous Tyler Durden. This is, in my opinion, Pitt's best work. I've seen a lot of his movies and nothing has come close to his performance in this film. Every time I watch it I am blown away by his performance. Seriously, every time. Maybe because I'm actually not too much of a fan, but this movie was the game changer for him. Trivia: In the scene where Tyler asks The Narrator to punch him, Edward Norton really did punch Brad Pitt in the ear. Pitt didn't know Norton was actually going to hit him, so the entire reaction scene is real.

I don't know how to go into how much I love this film without spoiling anything vital, but I recommend it to everyone. It's a movie that you will not easily forget.

-R.

Marcia Furman

Marcia Furman is a local artist in my town, and I love her art so much. I had the pleasure of meeting her on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic. I first fell in love with her work when sh painted murals on the walls of churches here.

I think that she is one of the few artists I know that do a good job a including Christian aspects in her work, without being objective. She has a lot of Christian inspiration in her paintings, but it is not like she is  painting a bunch of crosses and nativity scenes. Her work is open for a lot of interpretation and is playful, relate-able, and enjoyable.

One thing that I find very interesting about her work is that she never draws faces on her people, but yet they are never creepy-looking. She says that it allows for the viewer to decided for themselves what the person is thinking. The viewer gets to decide the people’s emotions or even put themselves into the paining.

Here is just a bit of her work




This is based off of "Romans 7:15"


"It Just Comes Naturally


"This isn't the Way it Was Supposed to Happen"


"Faith Like a Child"


"Marvelous Light" (I actually have this one, and it is of out view in the Dominican)

If you want to see more of her art, she has a facebook page called "The Art of Marcia Furman"
She also has an Etsy account if you have an interest in owning her art.

An interest in Darkness.

Romans 7: 14-20

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

This is one of my favorite passages of scripture because it is so true to how I feel most of the time.
I think that this passage explains humans’ physiological interest in darkness. I remember a while ago in this class someone gave their thoughts on the subject of darkness. I don’t remember who it was but it was something like, “ We’ve been taught to play in the light our whole life, so we begin to become curious about what’s in the darkness”

Perhaps in a world of light, darkness speaks louder than light. I guess the same thing is true though with light. In a world of darkness, light speaks louder than darkness. It is very similar to the concept in “The Gospel Is…”, where silence speaks louder than words.

Small School Perks

I think that I tend to take HU for granted sometimes, and I'd like to use this blog post as a way to praise HU and especially our film department. I looked at a few other colleges that offered film or broadcast programs, but being here at HU for almost a full semester, I know I'm at the right place. I was talking to a guy that is in the photography program at IPFW. He said their equipment center consisted of 2 Canon 50D's. They had some old sony camcorders, but nothing more. IPFW is much larger than HU. He went on to talk about how IPFW's media program was on the upswing and that it was a good time to attend IPFW. I disagree with that. HU is the place to go for DMA studies. Our equipment center consists of HMC150's, Canon 7D's, a new Canon 5D, and of course the Red Scarlet X. Our school is tiny, yet we have all this great equipment. I could walk to becker right now and take out a Canon 7D and shoot anything I can dream of. Not every school is like that. HU is also just a great community. I really haven't met anyone that was rude or mean yet. Many of us leave our doors unlocked all the time, and we just all hang out together. I think the HU film program is attracting some really talented people. Everything one needs to make a film is here at HU. Keep it up Huntington University. Here is Professor Clark unwrapping the 5D Mark ii.

The Cartoonist

The other day when I was hanging out with a fantastic DMA friend here on campus and geeking out over comic books and their art, said friend introduced me to a man by the name of Skottie Young.

Something that I love about Mr. Young's art was the whimsical feel that they have. If you took Tim Burton, Dr. Seuss, and threw in a hint of manga, you would end up with a style similar to that of Skottie Young.

Since character design is kind of what I want to do with my life, I had so much fun looking at his designs and trying to learn from them. I've done some based off of his style, but none of them are as great, obviously. You should love his work, too, because it makes you think differently about what you thought you already knew.

Movie Sequels

My friends and I were randomly talking about sequels to movies, and I figured that I'd blog about it, because I think it's a topic within the film industry that is discussed a lot, sequels. In all honesty, I don't really like them, only because usually the original is the best one, and if there are sequels, I'd prefer them to do one, and not keep on going. An example of this is Shrek. I love Shrek, and I love Shrek 2, however when they came out with Shrek 3, it was not good. It was mostly about Prince Charming and not really about Shrek, and you could kind of tell that they made the film because they knew that kids would love it since both Shrek's were such a good success, but I did love that they had cute little babies! I sometimes won't even go to a film sequel because sometimes I just feel like it won't be as good, but maybe I should not have that mind set because I want to have an open mind to sequels. Sometimes they actually are good, but I just am not the biggest fan of them. This is just my opinion, I am sure a lot of you like sequels. As for me, I am O.K with making a second sequel to a film, but once you get to the third and fourth sequel, not for me.

Web Comic: Off-White

Kayla's presentation on web comics was pretty cool. I loved seeing the vast range of artistic styles and humor styles that web comics encompass. Her presentation was also pretty educational too about the different kinds of web comics and highlighting what it would be like to try and earn money off of web comics. 

Anyway, I wanted to showcase one of my favorite web comics that I've found. Okay two. 

The first is Off-White. Off-White is a wolf web comic about Iki, a young wolf who is actually one of the Guardians of the Earth. The art of this web comic is phenomenal. The two artists who've collaborated and created this comic are Anna Podedworna and Katarzyna Redesiuk. Each new page is filled with pictures that could stand alone as works of art. However, such good quality has it's downsides--the novel is coming along slowly. I've been following it for almost two years now. The story line is okay; I'm sure once it gets further along it will shape up and be better. 

This is Iki. He's rather...special.
http://off-white.eu/comic

And no, this isn't some dog-nerd, reminiscent-of-12-year-old-life obsession of mine. I won't lie, I follow it primarily for the art, but I think choosing wolves to tell the story instead of humans is, well, a lot more interesting. 

The second comic I find absolutely hilarious and brilliantly drawn and painted is Romantically Apocalyptic. Get hooked on this comic, it's worth it. The creator of Romantically Apocalyptic is Vitaly S. Alexius a brilliant Russian artist by the way, if you haven't heard of him, check him out. 

The main character in this comic is Zee Captain. He has a henchmen, kind of like the typical side kick that literally just gets kicked around. They appear to be the only two humans left on the planet, and neither is really intelligent enough to function like a normal last person on the planet would. Anyway....

http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/archives/page4

Christmas Films, Only for Christmas?

A lot of people, including myself have been posting about Christmas and Christmas films. My question is, are Christmas films only for Christmas? Do you personally not like to watch them unless it's Christmas time? For me, there are some that I like to only watch during Christmas, but then there are others that I can honestly watch all year around.

This is kind of like the preference about whether or not to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving whereas some people like to wait until after Thanksgiving. I think that it's fine to listen to music before Thanksgiving, and I think that it's great if you like to watch a whole bunch of Christmas movies all year around! The best thing about Christmas movies is that they put an immediate affect of happiness while you're watching and after you're watching, which is what I absolutely love!

6 days!

As we all know, Christmas is approaching! I know that we are all looking forward to getting finals over with, but I just wanted to encourage everyone to think positively and study hard, and you will do well and also be happy after you come out of the class with confidence about your performance on the exam. Since the classes are now done, I have noticed personally with people that there can be small bickering and irritation between groups of friends, mostly because they are stressed about finals and are ready to be able to go home and get away for a few weeks.
If you see this, remind them to just keep staying positive, because bickering about things will only make it worse on yourself and others as well. I posted this because if this is happening around you, I encourage you to stay confident, strong, and you will do great!

Signs and Wonders

I knew about signs and wonders before I got here from students and the website. I thought that it seemed really cool and I was glad that I was able to attend a couple this semester. I really like that the films are discussed in depth and the films that are shown really opened up my mind and even though a couple I did not really enjoy, I thought that it was a good experience. I hope to go to more next semester since I didn't go to many this semester. I thought that the films and discussions were success and informing!

Thoughts on the Course

• Well, the course is coming to an end, we only meet one more time, and I got to say, and I think I can speak for the majority here, this course absolutely rocked my socks. I loved watching all the films, and the course material was great. I came into this course, not expecting all of the crazy and fascinating films we've watched. From the hilarity to Pfffirate to the tragedy of World of Glory, all of the films we watched were awesome, and I couldn't have asked for a better class. Leeper completed his goal, he confused the heck out of me, but the confusion was in a way that I want to chase the answers and discover new things. Even if we spent a lot of time on animation, I think the live action films were better, and that may just be being biased, but even still, the course was great. I liked the idea to have the blog too ( even though I scrambled to desperately catch up at the last second) and Leeper is a pretty cool teacher. In the end, I'm excited to see what's next in my Film Production pursuit and ultimately want to thank Leeper for all of the good times and all of the super cool films!

The Grey

• I've been wanting to talk about this film for a while, so here's my chance! The Grey is one of my favorite films of 2012 and possibly one of my favorite films of all time. It stars Liam Neeson and the basic plot synopsis is that after a plane crash in Alaska, he has to lead the remaining survivors back to safety while being hunted down by a vicious pack of wolves. Now there are a lot of mixed opinions about this film, tons of people hated it and tons of people liked it, so what's the verdict? The main problem is this, a lot of people came into this movie expecting "Taken in the arctic" or "Liam Neeson punches wolves". Oh buddy, is it so much more than that. The film is about the inevitability of death and how we humans face it and what we do when it finally closes in. It's about the will to live and the question " what's the point of living? we're all going to die anyways". It's super deep and intellectual, and throughout the movie, every character faces this tragedy in a different way, much like any human that faces death will not react the same. The atmosphere in this movie is incredible, and unfortunately many people did not like this movie because they weren't expecting such a deep message about the fate of every living soul. People walked into the theatre expecting to rot their brains with some good Man Vs. Wild action, but instead got something entirely different. The movie is awesome, I love it to death and I really think everyone should give a view. It has some language, but I highly suggest you get over it and share your thoughts with the rest of the world.

Argo

• This may be a little late, but hopefully if you can snag a ticket to a dollar theatre and see Argo, you should do it. This film is amazing and definitely worth the price of admission. The best part about this movie was the historical accuracy. This movie is based off of a real life event, but it took scenes and elements from the Iranian hostage crisis and almost completely recreated them. At the end credits they did a comparison shot of some of the photos taken back in 1980 to some of the stills used in the films, and quite honestly you can barely tell a difference. The film is based entirely around suspense and the suspense will literally keep you hanging on the edge of your seat. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but make sure that you don't read what actually happened or else you will ruin the movie for yourself. Ben Affleck does an amazing job and all of the characters are pretty well developed. This is definitely one of the best movies of 2012, and I highly recommend seeing it. I wish I could show you some of the comparison shots from the end of the movie, but I can't seem to find any, which gives you more of a reason to go check out this film!

Rated R Movies

• I like the rating system that the MPAA uses to rate movies. This way I can know exactly what I'm getting into, but sometimes, people get skeptical. There are a lot of awesome and insightful movies, but a lot of people tend to skip out on these movies just because they are Rated R. People tend to instantly turn away from a movie just because of the rating. With that being said, there are a lot of crappy R Rated movies, but there are some good ones like The Shaw shank Redemption and Inglorious Basterds, these movies may not be insightful as foreign films by independent artist, but they are still very entertaining. People shouldn't just turn away from a film just because of it's R rating. If you are really sensitive to foul language, or just can't be in the same room as a screen that is projecting a sex scene, by all means, don't watch the movie, but don't take a quick look at the rating, see that it's R and then proceed to say "Aw man, it's rated R? what a piece of crap". I absolutely hate it when people do that, and if you are one of the people who do that, you need to do your research before you go bashing the very premise that is the R rating.

The Far Side

• I liked the presentation of Webcomics by Kayla the other day. It reminded me of my favorite comic series "The Far Side" by Gary Larson. These weren't originally started on the internet, but you can do a google search and find literally hundreds of hilarious single picture comics. That's one of the things I enjoy about these, is that most of them consist of one panel and they are funnier than any Garfield or Family Circus comic. Gary Larson is also a genius, while there are some panels that are flat out hilarious just by sight, there are some that require just a little bit of thinking. To me, there's two types of comedy, a funny hilarious on the spot funny, and a more complex, punchline based funny. I personally prefer the latter, because if you have to think about it, and when it finally clicks and you get it, it's even funnier than just a straight up joke or in-your-face kind of funny. I also like the distinct "art-style" so to say, and that is something that I notice with every single type of newspaper comic. They are all different from each other and some art styles I like ( Charlie Brown, Foxtrot, Calvin and Hobbes) and some that I think look disgusting ( Pearls Before Swine, Non Sequiter, Hagard the Horrible). Gary Larson, however, has made me laugh out loud, and the most I get out of any of those other comics is a slight chuckle. They're great, they're funny and I wish they kept making them, but unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Here are some good ones, and some that you kind of have to think about to get.

The 90's

• " If you don't remember this, you had no childhood". You've probably heard this at least once in your life, whether it be on Facebook or from an actual person. The point is, according to anyone who's ever said this, certain decades are better than other decades. I was born in 1994, so I couldn't exactly relate to EVERYTHING in the 90's but there were a couple things I caught onto, so naturally, I was more of a 00's kid. Nostalgia flows through all of us, and whenever something from our childhood is brought up, we sometimes tend to glorify more than it should. I'm not saying the 90's were bad or anything, but you have to understand that opinions are opinions, and there will never be a for sure answer on which decade was best to grow up in. I remember things from the late 90's well, and I can say that a lot of those things were better than things that were around in the 00's. Some examples include the N64 compared to the Gamecube. Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network back then compared to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network in the 00's. It's all just a factor of nostalgia, and when the kids of today are as old as us, they'll look  back and say " If you didn't say YOLO or SWAG, you had no childhood." That was a joke, because if anyone ever said that, they probably deserve a punch in the face, the sad part is, that will probably be said about 10 years in the future.

Meridian

• That video we watched on Tuesday was pretty cool, I only have one problem about it though. The pacing is too slow. I mean I get the point, he found the special thing at the end, and that's supposed to be the big surprise, so you watch the next episode to see what it is, but quite honestly, I think that was a cheap movie. Clearly the amulet he found at the end is pretty significant, but they could've just sped up all of the things that happened before that. I know they were trying to build up the character and his daily routine and the environment he lives in, but about 5 minutes in I completely understood. They could've just advanced the plot so he discovers the amulet about 3/4th of the way through and then maybe added more material and have a different surprise ending. This is just me nitpicking, but the beginning to me was a little slow, it might be my short attention span, but hopefully I'm not the only person who thinks this. I love to nitpick, and I'm not bashing this series or anything. Thank you to whoever posted it and sorry I forgot who you were!

Christmas Movies

• It's that time of year again, switch to any major channel like NBC, ABC or even Hallmark, you know what to expect! Every year it seems that new christmas movies come out, be I'm sure everyone can agree, nothing will beat the classics. The classics like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story and Santa Claus is Coming to Town all have this innocent and genuine christmas feeling to them, and I guess that's why they are labeled as "the classics". Along the way many other modern christmas movies like Christmas Vacation and Elf have in some cases earned their right as "not exactly classics but still movies you watch every year". I think it's weird to watch Christmas movies any other time of the year, just because of the fact that these movies were specifically made to be watched in December, that's just my opinion though, because I actually know some insane people who watch Elf anytime of the year. You've also got your share of unknown/kinda bad christmas movies like The Happy Elf, Jack Frost and Shrek the Halls ( I'm sorry if you enjoy of those, but Shrek the Halls? seriously?). All in all, it's the most wonderful time of the year, what else could I say?

The Fall of George Lucas

• Like everyone else, I enjoyed George Lucas in love, ( even if it did have a reference to the abomination known as Howard the Duck). What I really wanted to talk about though, was George Lucas and the Star Wars prequels. Now when the prequels came out, I was still a kid, and I thought they were the absolute best movies ever. Now that I've actually watched the movie with intelligent insight, I can't stop but think " What was Lucas thinking"? I'm not opposed to technological advancement in visual effects, but the dependency of special effects in this movie doesn't hold up to the story and actual intelligent plot of the original trilogy. I think the main problem with the story of the prequels is the fact that all three movies are centered around the transformation of Anakin into Darth Vader. As a result, we got an annoying kid actor in episode 1, and emo teenager baby boy in episode 2, and FINALLY we got the Anakin we were all waiting for (6 years after the release of episode 1) the psycho hellbent and slaughtering people. There were way too many vague references and it felt like alot of these extra things that were thrown into the story were just thrown in to make an extra action figure. Can you tell me what kid would even want an action figure of Jocasta Nu, the librarian that had a total screen time of 15 seconds in episode 2?

• It's a shame what happened to Star Wars, and now the new trilogy is this series only hope... I can only wish that Disney knows what they're  doing, and knows what's on the line.

Video Games as Art

• I really enjoyed the presentation yesterday about Video Games. I'm sorry I can't remember who it was but you did a great job! Anyways I love video games, and I hate the controversy surrounding the statement "Video Games cannot be art" they can too! Roger Ebert once said " Video Games can never be art" and quite honestly, he is the prime reason why this controversy even started. Roger Ebert was probably in college in the 1980's when video games first picked up, so basically he never got to experience video games, not back then and not back now. Of course I'm not claiming to have been alive back in 85' but the point of the matter is, you can't make statements like that without having prior experience. I'm not saying he can't hate or criticize video games, but it would be more like if I said "Movies can't be art" if I myself have never seen a movie. There are plenty of games whose sole purpose is to rot your brain and shoot people in the face with an M16, but then there are games like Journey and Limbo (note that both of those are indie games) that have a deeper meaning behind them. People also tend to get worked up when people claim that video games can be art, then they basically say "well if something as trivial as video games can be art then can anything be art?". No, not EVERYTHING can be considered art, it's just how something is interpreted and expressed is considered art.

Meridian

I was intrigued by the Meridian video series that we began to watch in class on Tuesday. The rest of the film was available to watch, and the story held my attention to the very end. While the concept of time travel is certainly not a new idea, this method was a little different, and the visual effects were good as well.

At times I did think the story was a bit overdramatic, but that may just be a characteristic of video created for the internet. Just like with web comics—film can be created and distributed without the need for a distributer who may try to change and limit your film's ideas. I'm reminded of Dr. Horrible's sing-along blog as another example of a film that isn't limited by all those risk-avoiders who can never approve anything different.

I also watched some of the behind the scenes that was posted to YouTube. Although some of the special effects "tips" that they gave were some that I already knew before (e.g. make sure you level your tripod!), it was interesting to see the other tricks they used, such as replacing the lighting in original fixtures with different bulbs and keying out the spill from the green-screened light on the computer screens. I know I shouldn't be surprised with some of the special effects with all our current technology, but I am anyway. Now I'm just anxious to start putting in into practice!

MERIDIAN PART 2!

  A few people requested part 2 so Here is Part 2 of Meridian from Mystery Guitar Man.

Part 3 is on Mystery Guitar Man's channel on youtube. I've only watched the first two parts so far and when I have more time and don't have to catch up on all my blog posts I'll watch part 3. I've been quite impressed with what he was able to pull off with the series so far, and I'm excited for part 3. Enjoy.

Art and Fear

   I've been enjoying reading this book. I'm getting more out of it than I would've thought.
     It's interesting that the book talks about how artists think of their art as part of themselves, not as something they make. That's very true for me, and I'm not sure I would've realized it if I hadn't read it in the book. Thinking about art as part of yourself makes you think of your bad drawings (or bad films) (or bad stories) as not just something bad that you made, but a bad part of you. The book seems to want artists to separate their feelings about their art from their feelings about themselves, but I think the artists are right. Art that you make comes from your brain and your fine motor muscles, so it seems to me that if your art is bad, you are a bad artist. Or you were just being lazy that day. Of course, you can improve your skills, and your brain is still learning, so I don't see much what the problem is. Just because you're a bad artist today doesn't mean you can't be a better artist three months down the road.

     Another thing the book mentioned was looking at your previous work and learning from it. We always hear this from art instructors (atleast I do), but the book added something else to that: it said base you expectations of what you can make in the future on what you have already made. Now that almost makes me mad. I don't want to base my future plans on my crummy pictures I make now. I know my present pictures aren't totally crummy, but I want to dream of being a much better artist who makes awesome pictures, of being an animator who knows how to draw gesture so well that viewers can always understand the motion I'm trying to portray. But as the book points out, dreaming like that, based on pure fantasy, can bring a crushing blow when those dreams never come true. And anyways, how are you supposed to gain that level of skill if you're dreaming from pure fantasy? Instead, if you look at your present pictures (or present films)(or present story writing), and try to imagine (and actually make) a progression from them, based on the skill level (or lack of skills) you see in them, to what you hope to accomplish in the future, don't you think you'll learn more? Make more progress, and faster?
     Yes, this post is probably really long and boring. If you've read this far, thanks. The book is much more interesting; read it.

Enchanted April

    The last Signs and Wonders of the semester was surprisingly light hearted. I kept expecting something unexpected and disappointing to happen, but everything just kind of fell into place. All the marriages that were strained were restored like in a fairytale, and the one lady who didn't have a boyfriend got one. And that was the end. It was so weird to see that kind of movie at Signs and Wonders.
     I liked the Lottie Wilkins character. She was a poet by nature, even though she didn't write poetry. She was just always saying the weirdest things, and she was always embarrassing her friend by talking like that. It was pretty funny.
     It was also interesting to get into the women's heads. Some stories narrate a character's thoughts throughout the movie, but this movie just narrated one or two thoughts from each woman, and it was a thought that was very important to their growth as characters.
    I don't think I would ever bother to watch this movie again, since it just isn't that awesome or interesting. It does have some humorous parts, and it's basically a fairytale that might put a smile on your face for a while.

Tree of Life

   So, I feel weird putting this up so late, but I typed it up at the beginning of the week and hadn't gotten around to finishing it and everything.
     Although Leeper said that this was like watching a 2 and a half hour painting, I still think it had a plot. It started with losing the son, then had creation, then had the story of the family that lost the son, then ended with acceptance of losing the son. Isn't that a plot? Half of the movie is flashbacks, but it's still a plot.

    I loved the creation part, especially near the beginning when it was showing all the stars and lava and clouds, and there were the thundering, rumbling sounds. Like some people were pointing out, it made you realize how big and awesome are the things God has created. How powerful and, frankly, scary, some of those creations can be. It makes you wonder what the Creator is like, if he chooses to create things like that. And this is the same creator who invented bunny rabbits.
    Also, how puny we are, and what a small part of this creation we are, physically. Did you notice that the creation scenes didn't even bother to show humans? We were one of the last things God created. He spent 5 days creating all that huge, awesome stuff, and then he created us. And put us on this one planet. In one garden. And that's where we fit; we didn't even fill up one garden.And the rest of his creation fills up the rest of space.
     Anyways, it definitely made me think of Job, and what God told him.
       One other thing that hit me in the movie is really just an odd thing particular to me. Whenever I think of how families have more and more kids, I generally think, "Well, that's great, but it must get pretty routine. Once you've had one, then each one after that is just another one." Like, I know each kid is different, and parents say they love them just the same, but that's just it. They say they love all their kids equally. Well, to me that means that you can't specially love each one; you just love them ALL equally. I've wondered how that works, and it just hit me in the movie. When you have the first kid, you love him tons. Then when you have the second, it's like having the first all over again. The only difference is that this kid is different that the other, and that makes it all the better, because now you don't get to love and know just one kid, you get to know and love two separate, individual kids. Of course, this may make no sense to you, and it's all just a guess on my part, but at least I have a theory now. I've also been wondering lately how God can love his children equally but individually, and this theory helps there, too. I mean, think about it. God has had children for thousands of years, millions of children. Don't you think by the time he adopted you, the 308,596,322nd child, into his family, things would've gotten pretty routine? Maybe you're slightly different than every other one of his children, but still, you're just another one. But maybe each of us is like the first kid in God's eyes, the first and only kid he's ever had, and that's how he loves each of us. That's why he's not content with the 99 sheep, he has to have that one more lost sheep.

The Routine

To produce a film about a tragedy right soon after it happened is always a tough situation. I don't know if you call it stupid or gutsy. I think in most cases it turns out good for the makers of the film because they are the first to capture how hundreds, or even thousand, of people must have been feeling after the events. But if it does happen to be too soon after the tragedy or offends people it could have dire consequences. That is a reason I appreciated the short film The Routine: Reflections from Ground Zero. It seemed to be a good timing, and the makers thought of it quick enough to even get the actual building. I can't say for sure but it probably connected people to the film and made them feel that there weren't alone. Aside from that it is just a well made film. It keeps you guessing what is going on until it is revealed at the end, then you really feel something for the characters in the story.

Sigur Ros- Glosoli

It has been made clear to me that I need to be watching more music videos like Sigur Ros’ videos because I am a huge fan of the ones we watch in class. I already blogged on Hoppipolla and now  its time to talk about Glosoli.

This video was so astatically pleasing, and even though I could not understand the words, I was moved. I suppose that sort of goes back to the idea that silence can speak louder and have more influence than words. I mean there’s this boy, who without even saying anything, got all these other kids to trust in him and take the jump.

I thought the parallelism to Jesus was really cool. It’s not easy to include it subtly and still have the same effect. I would say it was well accomplished in this music video. All of the other children follow the main child off of a cliff, trusting that there is something more out there than what they know.

I remember talking about post-modernism and living  in the moment when we watched the video. Post-modernism involves focusing on the moment, not knowing if there is really anything deeper to focus on. I’m not sure if Leeper said that video is post-modernistic or not, but I don’t actually believe it to be post-modernistic at all. In fact, I think the opposite. When those kids jump, it’s not because they are “living in the moment” but its because they know that there is more out there. That is what is worth jump.

That’s what’s worth a leap of faith

Sigur Ross - Hoppipolla

 I absolutely loved this music video that we watched in class.  There is something so simple and beautiful about childhood, and this video completely captures it.

Most people in our culture associate age with wisdom and rationality. The older you are, the more brains and reason you have. Also, the older you are, the less physical activities you are able to perform, limiting the amount of running and playing you can do. Another factor Is that society has put elders in and elderly category, as well as kids in a kid category, which limits what is considered socially acceptable for each category of people to do.  Kids are often times more associated with having fun and enjoying the moment. Adults are more associated with long-term things.

There is something about the essence of childhood that is enjoyable to be seen in every age category of people. I feel like childhood is the only thing that has this quality though. For instance it is not considered beautiful when a child acts like an adult, or a teen acts like an elder.

Childhood is always beautiful.

Being child-like is a quality that I think everyone should try to achieve. Its an act of leaving your burdens behind and enjoying life for what it is; not what it has been or will be.

Word Without Meaning

Words are such a complicated phenomenon. They are simply just the same twenty-six  characters rearranged into different patterns and different ways, different lengths and different styles. When they become arranged, they immediately spark meaning, they create a picture in your mind, they remind you of something.

I mean, a person’s name is just a word, but when that word is said, you are instantly overcome with how you know that person. You see their face, you feel your feelings that you have towards them, you remember some experience you had with them. But a name is just a word.

Everything I’ve written us just a variation of the same twenty-six letters, and it’s crazy to me that this somehow represents my thoughts. Then I think about everything that I read: assignments, blogs, the Bible, literature, ect. All of it made up of the same elements, the same basic, twenty-six letters, but have all made up the way I think, and each word provokes or changes a particular though of mine.

Words are so simple, but they can have so much power and meaning.
I like for  the words that I say  to be honest and to have meaning or some sort of value or to them, rather that just be ramblings or failed attempts at sounding profound
Unfortunately, I have a feeling that my next few blogs may not contain as much meaning as I would like, Fortunately with the mass amount of blogs being posted, I doubt anyone will be reading them.

Cameraman Pride

I was recently cam op for a music video. I love being cam op because that is what I'm best at. I know camera settings like the back of my hand. I find myself being proud at composing a shot to keep my iso at only 400 for example. When the director says he wants two characters in focus I can do that. I know to change my aperture from say 1.4 to 2.8 so I can have more subjects in focus. One of my favorite shots in the music video was shot was of two characters singing. Devin Dale was one of the characters. He wanted me to mention this. I was shooting on the 7D. The lens I was using was the Zeiss 85 prime. I was stopped all the way down to 1.4 or 1.8 I believe. The shot looked beautiful. I had some really nice rack focuses. I know they were nice because when you watch it, you can't really tell it's a rack focus, the focus just directs your eyes from one subject to the other. That's the way focusing is supposed to be used, to direct your eye to a subject. Just another moment of my cameraman pride.