Imagery Galore

I feel like there aren’t any words to describe Tree of Life, and I think that that’s fine since the movie itself doesn’t rely on words to get the message across. And I think for the most part that’s fine but then again just like it’s kind of annoying that I can’t find words to describe it, its also annoying that it doesn’t use any words to describe itself.

I feel like that’s Tree of  Life’s biggest downfall.  Tree of Life is practically a collage of pretty pictures strewn across the screen with no linear plot per say.  This definitely limits the attention span of most audiences just like sitting in front of a painting will limit the attention span of most.  That’s not to say I didn’t like it, and obviously other people liked it too, but I feel like it’s a film that scares off a lot of people because of what it did.  

Religion of the World

Life of Pi generated the discussion during class whether or not God can be found in other Religions besides Christianity.  My initial reaction on this subject was, that’s absurd, of course God can’t be found anywhere else.  But then when I started to think about it a little harder, I realized that it is possible that someone could be brought close to the presence of God without ‘Christian” understanding.  A tribe member in Africa could look at the beauty of the Earth and realize that there is a God and go searching for Him, An interested teenager who hasn’t experienced religion yet can go into a mosque and realize there could be something greater out there.  But I when it comes down to it, the realization that there is a God doesn’t mean that they are saved.  They still have to find the true religion out of all of the religions out there, Christianity.  I believe that since all the religions do have a similar basis of God and heaven, one could actually gain an understanding of the real God while not actually believing in Him.  Because there is one obvious difference between Christianity and all the other religions in the world, and that is Jesus and what He did on the Cross.  And without realizing this and accepting it, no one can be saved. 

So, even when you’re not in holding all the Christian beliefs I believe you could still experience to some extent God, or at least realize that He exists, but if you don’t realize that God also sent His son down to earth to die for the sins of the world, your experience with God will be worthless   

What makes TV shows so enticing

So many TV shows  come out every year, and yet only a fraction of the shows make it to the second season.      I feel like it is easy to make a show that people will watch but its hard to make a show that people will keep on watching for several seasons or more. 

Over the span of my life I have invested in many different shows, spanning from spongebob and adventure time, to NCIS and 24, to Lost and Walking Dead, and to Monk and Pysch.  Each of these Shows are good in their own way.  Spongebob and adventure time is just pure childish fun, Monk and Pysch are hilarious, and all the other movies have great story lines and an intense background.  I feel like what made me keep on coming back to the fun shows was the endearing characters.  While the other more story driven series kept me guessing on what was happening next and kept on making me want to come back the with twists at the end of the episode. 

I think one thing that shows have over movies is the amount time they can invest developing the characters and the plot.  And i believe that these are the things that shows need to accomplish to be successful.  

Rowan Atkinson

Over Thanksgiving break i watched some good old Mr. Bean with my family.  As I watched it, I began to really appreciate the type of script-less comedy that he so perfectly pulls off.  Then i realized that this type of comedy is no longer really used in movies today.  Comedy today usually consists of one-liners and crude humor that cant even compare to the smart, cleverly developed skits of Mr. Bean.  Some how the stupidity of one man is enough to make me satisfied.

I feel like this is mostly because we enjoy watching people being stupid and making fools of themselves, probably to make ourselves feel better. There is just something about His ugly face and hilariously scrawny body that makes me love and laugh at him at the same time.  His clueless behavior and strange vocal noises only make him more funny.

I feel like Rowan's constant role of being a retarded person in Mr. Bean has lead me to perceive the actor himself as a retarded person, which of course obviously isnt true, but I feel like the same goes with any actor in that if he constantly plays the role of characters with the same characteristic, the audience generally begins to believe that the actor himself is actually like that.  Some times this might actually be true(Johnny Deep) but at least for Rowan it is not.  

The Golden Age of Media?

When I picture media today, I think of Youtube, Spotify, Itunes, and so forth.  The power of the internet; free access create music, videos, and games, and free to listen watch and play whatever you like.  So with all these new ways of expressing ones self through for a relatively cheap price is this where media should be heading, or is free actually limiting media in quality.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of quality is Youtube.  Granted there are a lot of good youtube channels out there, but the majority of videos on youtube are just trash.  So is Youtube really helping the video medium out by letting people who don’t know one thing about making a video, have free access to share whatever they want? I believe that the answer is yes and no.  Youtube I believe helps people realize whether they have talent in that specific medium or not.  Many people have gotten careers for making videos on youtube(case and point, Justin Bieber).  And also, you tube does a great job promoting artists music videos.  But there is also a downside to this, letting people listen to music on youtube eliminates the need to go out and buy a the product; you no longer need to go and buy an album because with technology nowadays you could always load up youtube and listen to the song for free. Also, the good youtubers that actually try and make good videos consistently have to spend countless hours and recourses to keep the viewer coming back, with a relatively low pay.

Spotify is another place where you can listen to music for free.  They say that every time you listen to a song on spotify you are giving money to the artist; but really, how much money are you actually giving them.  From what I found, every time you listen to a song on spotify for free, you give the artist an approximate $0.009.  For indie artists out there, putting your song on spotify wont do you much good.  Only the pop stars and popular music will actually make a little money off of spotify.  So rather than people going out and buying indie albums they just listen to it on spotify, barely giving them any money.

 I think what we see here is that with this free plan of entertainment, there is also a limitation and that the limitation seems to fall on the artists themselves.  But only time can tell if this plan will work for media or not. 

parenting

one thing I got out of class today was that children need to decide for themselves what they believe in, instead of being force fed the truth at a young age.  This will help them develop their beliefs earlier, like in high school, rather than later, like sometime in college.

I feel like though some parents would allow their children to decide for themselves, the majority of parents wouldn’t take that chance.  I feel like Christian parents especially are under the pressure of raising their children up in the Christian way. This involves explaining their beliefs early on, and making sure that their children do not stray from Christianity.  And I feel like this is the way a child should be raised: under the Christian roof of the family, following the beliefs of the family.  Whether or not you let them decide for themselves, the outcome of the child will ultimately be the same; either the child will reject or accept Christianity as a teenager or as a more mature college student.  Either way of raising the child, you run the risk that he will at some point reject the Christian view.  So I feel like as long as the child is in the family’s house, parents are instructed by God to lead the children towards Christ; then, when the kid becomes of age and leaves his family, its up to him to decide the direction he wants to go with it.  I feel like personally, if I was a father, I would rather my kid fall away from faith because he couldn’t accept the belief I was giving him , than having him fall away from faith because of the lack instruction and stability that I had in his life. 

Just like parents punish their kids for doing something they think is wrong and in doing so form the child’s perception of good and bad, they should also nurture and instruct the child in their believes to make sure that what they believe is true and sound

A child's view

It’s a very peculiar thing, watching a video that I know is going against my beliefs and views and not caring if the video is right or wrong, but just enjoying it.  When else would this be possible.  When life departs for me is a rare moment when we lay aside our beliefs to try and accept the ways of a kid and what he has come to believe.  Would I really question someone at such a small age who has such an innocent mind?  ‘When life departs’ makes me step back and just enjoy something special, kids trying to grasp the concept of death.  And I love the cartoon style of it to make it even more of this kid type thing were it would seem like the kids themselves are drawing these pictures of what death is in their heads.

But then again just because a child has an idea doesn’t mean that that idea isnt just as true as an adults idea of what death could be like.  I feel like when watching this movie I knew that I couldn’t change the way these kids viewed death, but if I could, I guess I would try to steer them in the right direction.  Of course its not an easy thing, but children eventually do need to be told the truth just like eventually they need to be told that Santa is not really.  

I enjoyed watching this film for what it was, a film trying to get in the unaltered minds of kids.  Though I must say I felt the need to help correct.

World of Glory

 This is a short that sticks with you for a long time.  I feel like this movie is a series of images because that’s how I remember it.  Even though there were short scenes not pictures each scene left a jarring imprint on my mind.  The Bus driving around, the man standing next to the grave, then in a room, then in his bedroom , then next to his car, and at work when he tries to introduce his brother,then trying to drink the communion glass more than they would let him.  These all leave impressions on me.  The music also, though subtle, was very jarring and moody. 

Just the whole movie seemed so hopeless, and the black and white like footage made it even more morbid.  His voice is so solemn that you can definitely that he himself is lost.  This morbid world just goes to show the ugly nature of some secretly hidden which although kept secret, makes itself known through actions and facial expressions and how people act. And there is no exception in this film

The Man Who Planted Trees

There is just something about the man who planted trees that intrigues so very much.  That even now on my quiz essay, that film is the one that comes to mind first.  I would think that looking back at the film it would be the least memorable film just because it’s very quiet and truthfully not much happens for a video that spans 30 minutes long.  I feel like at the same time however, that that peace is what makes to movie and really contributes to the story as a whole which is an alone man who spends most of his life planting trees which isn’t really all that impressive by itself.  But through that peacefulness there is so much beauty to be had. 

First of all the art style is catchy and could alone hold my attention for 30 minutes.  But beyond the aesthetic is a story that is truly inspiring.  Of how one man can change so much by just planting trees! I find this really encouraging that a man doing what he loves changes the world without him really even knowing it.  Plus he is carefree of the world around him, even when wars and such are going on around him, he doesn’t notice and keeps on working.  A also find the narrator’s voice very soothing and I feel like they couldn’t of picked a better narrator, his voice is soft and he talks at just the right speed. 

Anyways, The man who planted trees is a beautiful film which inspires me along with intriguing me. 

The Future of Movies

After watching the development of CG in class with the pixar shorts, I look back and see how far we have come.

  CG is now something every movie uses to further their film. Sometimes they even have CGI characters completely relieving the need for there to be an actor(with the exception of the voice actor).  In the lord of the Rings we are introduced to Gollum, a believable CGI character, that really set the bar for best CGI created character.  Then in the new tron, they use a CGI character to impersonate the characters younger self.  That got me thinking, will there come a time in the future were all characters will be CGI? Now obviously that seems very unappealing since naturally actors are some of the most famous people in the world.  But they are very expensive too.  Why not, in the future, create a character that looks exactly the way you want him too, no limitations.  Imagine not having to pay for actors anymore, only for voice actors who won’t need to be paid nearly as much.  Does that really seem impossible?

As technology gets better and better and also cheaper and cheaper to make, I feel like this could become a viable option for different movies.  But I do believe that actors will never completely become obsolete in films, there will always be an old school way of making films, like 2D vs 3D, and im sure the majority of people would rather see a  physical man on screen than something made up, if it’s more of a normal movie.  But I would except sci-fi movies and such to be the first to change to total CGI characters because it fits the world.  

Sexuality

After watching those few animations on Thursday about women’s experiences with rape and sex, no doubt worries grew about whether we should be watching something that’s such a personal topic.  Although I agree that sex and rape isn’t something we should talk about regularly, I feel like there are certain environments that it is beneficial to us when that topic comes up. 

Sexuality is something very prevalent in the world and is something that is, for the most part, kept in the dark and isnt spoken of. This is especially true in Christian communities.  And I feel like since this is something that happens often, then there has to a time and place for us to talk about it and share our views on it.  I feel like Intro to DMA is one of times and places where talking about this kind of stuff is good, and watching movies about rape can actually be insightful.  I feel that with Prof. Leeper we have a special opportunity to ask questions and develop our standing on such topics that normally we would never develop on our own because we don’t want to think about it.  In this way, watching those movies on Thursday about women being raped or in a sexual relationship helps us get a better understanding on that subject, yes, it’s hard to watch but I think we need to watch it.  I think it’s good to open our minds to what’s happening in the world around us.  And like Prof Leeper said, it is possible that even people in the class could experience such things, and looking back at those movies that we were once ashamed to watch could become of great comfort, and could help through a rough time like that in our lives.  

There still is pain

First of all, I really liked how Leaf used sand in her movies.  But watching that along with the film of the war and how the women waited while their men became injured in battle reminded me of an act in Ukraine’s Got Talent show.  A woman used sand to depict a tale right in front of the audiences eyes, but more importantly she depicted the women whose lovers where sent away to fight the war.  There is even a part that shows a woman holding a letter and crying because she knew he was either dead or injured.  Later in her act, the camera shows people in the audience, especially the elderly people who would have experienced themselves, crying because the pain of the war and its bi-products are still very much prevalent in the Ukraine and also in Russia. And there really is something to be said about those countries that had so much death and struggles in the war.  I feel like the losses are still felt throughout those countries, and although it happened years ago, it is still a soft spot for those societies.

Ps. I just now realized someone posted pretty much the exact same thing below, but I guess that’s fine

Russian Cartoons

After watching all these Russian cartoons in class today I felt a bit nostalgic towards the cartoons I had seen growing up in Russia.  And when I look back to the cartoons almost all of them have a twin cartoon in America; let me show some examples.

The first example is the Soviet’s version of Winnie Pooh.  Made off the original stories, there were three short films made by Sovuzmultfilm, which translates into, Union Animated Film.  The three films followed the chapters 1, 2, 4 and 6 of the book.  Interestingly enough the Russian Adaption of Winnie the Pooh varied from the Disney films, staying closer to the actual text of Milne’s work. 

The next example is a cartoon series called Nu, pogodi, which translates to “Well, Just You Wait”. It is about a wolf trying to eat a rabbit.  This cartoon can be closely related to the Tom and Jerry series we know and love, as the wolf always tries to eat the rabbit but never quite can.  These cartoons where made by the same company as before, Union Animated Film, and was created in 1969

A third example is called Buratino, Russia’s Pinocchio, and was first made into a novel by Aleksey Nikolayevich, in 1883. The story goes that Aleksey had read the story of Pinocchio as a child, but lost the book later on and just decided to retell it into a story of his own.  This story is beloved by all Russians. 

Even in more resent animated films, it is evident that there is influence from the American animated films.  For example an animated film Alyosha Papovich which seems to take some hints from Shrek, with an annoying talking horse in the movie and a big man as the main characters.  Although it is also very steeped in the old Russian tradition.

I feel like even though Russian may take from some of the American’s ideas, they make it fresh and steep it in their own tradition which helps distinguish itself from the American counterpart.

Stop Motion

For some reason the idea of stop motion kind of intrigues me.  It seems like such a tedious technique and just the thought of having to take 24 frames  before you have a second of footage just blows my mind.  The amount of patience you would need is amazing.  24 frames a second for a feature length film which would be about an hour is around 84,000 pictures and that’s not even counting the ones they didn’t use or just threw away.  Of course, I always used to do stop motion when I was a kid.  I set up Legos and made them do little battles.  But I wasn’t done in 24 frames a second; more like 5. 

The first ever stop motion sequence was made in 1897 by Albert Smith and Stuart Blackton, in the film The Humpty Dumpty Circus.  But, probably the best known stop motion of the early days was The Lost World and King Kong by Willis O’Brien.  Similar to stop motion, something called Go Motion came about around and was used by the early Star Wars movies and others like Robocob.  Go Motion was essentially like stop motion except it was the computer that moved parts of the models on each of the 24 frames to make the model actually look like it was moving.

Even though CGI is becoming more prevalent nowadays, I feel like there will always be a place for stop motion.  Because it feels more authentic and more imaginary like we are going back in time to our older days when we wanted our Legos to come alive and fight with each other.  I feel like there will always be this fascination with the tangible which CGI can’t accomplish

Shame, Sparrow

Although there were a lot of similarities seen between central Asian people and American people, in the Song of the Sparrow, there was one thing that I noticed as odd or just different from an American stand point.  That one thing is shame. 

As an American when I think of shame, I think of someone embarrassing themselves like missing a final shot in basketball, or not knowing an obvious answer on the test.  Shame to me isn't letting a son make some money.  We see this in the movie, a father whipping his son because of the shame it brought him because that meant he couldn’t care for the family.  He was shamed because he thought he was supposed to be the sole provider of the family.  I feel like this mentality is completely different than an American one.  A father, in America, would look to his son in pride as he would work for himself and help earn money. I feel like there would not be as much shame for the American.

Another place in the movie where the main character felt shamed was when his friend told him he could help get him an x-ray of his leg, and get a doctor to look at it.  What he said in response was something along the lines of, why do you shame me so!  In a central Asian man, there is this idea of independence and self- sufficiency and that you should always be able to supply for yourself and your family. 

I feel like countries always have their own variants of what shame actually is.  In Korea, shame would be not getting into the most pristine of schools, or not being perfect in a musical performance.  In Russia, shame would be trying to run away from being drafted into the Russian army, or having a defect.   I feel like Song of the Sparrows gives us some of the reasons why men are shamed when their kids help them work or when someone tries to help them out. 

"Wolf Scene" in Fantastic Mr. Fox

Just yesterday I re-watched Fantastic Mr. Fox.  I know that movie is usually a hit or miss for most people, but I loved it.  Pretty much the whole movie is so awesome and filled with great lines but there is one scene, in my mind, that stands out. A scene, for seemingly unexplainable reasons, which is emotional and chilling.  I just call it “the wolf scene”.  What happens is Mr. Fox, his son, nephew, and Kylie the possum are riding back on a motorcycle just after escaping the clutches of humans, and all of a sudden Mr. Fox stops the Motorcycle and the camera changes  to show a black wolf in a snowy backdrop. The following conversation ensues:

 Whenever I ask people if they like Fantastic Mr. Fox or not, and they answer yes, I usually follow up with the question, “what was your favorite scene”. 99% of the answers are “the wolf scene.” But when I ask them why they liked it so much they could never give an answer.  So shortly, I’m going to try and pry at what makes this scene so great.

First off, there seems to be some really strong connection going on between the wolf and the Fox.  What the connection is im not quite sure but it is possible that the wolf represents a personal fear. Throughout the movie, and in this scene, Mr. Fox expresses his fear of wolfs and I feel like this scene is possibly about him overcoming his fears and turning it into something beautiful instead.  This explanation kind of makes sense because after he bro fists with the wolf he says, “what a beautiful creature”. Possibly signifying that what he feared wasn’t anything scary at all but actually something beautiful.

Wolf representing fear is one possibility, but maybe we could even go further and say that it is his fear of the wild.  This movie portrays the animals like human beings, so maybe it’s saying that human being are fearful of the wild, but we must conquer our fears and once we do, we will see how truly beautiful nature is.

Well, those are just speculations and if anyone else has another possible explanation as to why this scene is so awesome that would be great. 

Cartoons and Animations still influenced by Christianity

Today in class we talked about how the Brothers Grimm fairy tales were steeped in Christianity and how they had a fear of God that translated into their tales.  We also said that cartoons and animations now a days have strayed from that path and have become even pagan.  Although this statement might be true for a majority of films, I believe that many animations and cartoons are still steeped in our Christian past.  So in this blog I just want to go over a few films that I thought were greatly influence by Christianity or the Bible.  The animations that I will be looking at are solely Pixar but I’m sure this applies to other companies as well.

The first animation that came to my mind was Wall-e.  For me, Wall-e is pretty much Pixar’s rendition of the flood in the Bible.  The planet has become corrupt and uninhabitable (due to the large quantity of garbage). So the people must leave the earth and wait for it to be cleansed of its corruption.  Then, to check to see if the planet is again inhabitable they send a “dove” back into the world to check for any sign of life.  This dove is Eva whose attributes and appearance is strikingly close to that of a dove.  She retrieves a plant and heads back to the ship to tell the great news of the earth’s cleansing.  They return to earth and inhabit it once again.  They start completely new and begin all over again to start the new earth. Now, of course tons of other things happen in the movie but im just narrowing it down to a where the allusions of the bible are clearly seen.

Finding Nemo is another one.  How Nemo’s sin of disobeying his father’s instruction and touching the “butt”(boat) leads him to exile and is forced away from his father.  But regardless, his Father has such strong love for him that he risks his life so that he and his son can be back together again. This may be a little more of a stretch but I feel like this alludes to God’s love for us and how even though we are sinners he still wants us to be with him. There is also another part in the movie which I find rather interesting, when Marlin (nemo’s dad) is trapped inside a whale.  What he learns inside the whale is faith to let go and in doing so no longer relying on his effort. And when he does his he is freed by the whale.

These where just two films that I looked at which showed biblical allusions and themes.  There are still great animations and things out there that are still steeped and influenced by Christianity.  If anyone has any more movies that they thought had allusions or themes I would love to know.

Post-Modernism in ALL Media

      Today in class we talked about how in this age we are testing out different ways of conveying art through media.  He gave the example of the movie “Tree of Life” which is practically a series of movie sequences that don’t seem to match up right away.  Of course, that movie is just one example, another would be the short film of the prince and princess and its different take on the princess kissing the to frog to turn it into a prince.  It seems like today’s audience is more willing and open to watch and experience different types of movie experiments.  And sense I also know a little bit about today’s gaming industry I also know that it is moving in that same direction.

      Over the past few years, games have been coming out that for last generation's standards would not be considered a game.  Games are coming out now that redefine what games can be.  This is mostly because today’s audience is strongly supporting indie games, they want something new and different just like it how the movie audience wants to experience something different when the go to the movies.  Now not all games are about the gameplay, more and more games are focusing on art and emotions. For an example, a game just came out where you’re a traveler trudging through a desert and the goal is to reach the distant mountain; there is no fighting, no health bar, just beautiful scenery, and an enthralling soundtrack.  Now game companies want to develop believable characters so the player can become emotionally bonded to the character, making for a completely different experience. 

      I guess what I just wanted to say in this blog is that ALL media is going through the Post-Modern era right now.  Movies are not the only medium people are experimenting with. This is the age where media is experimented with.  

The art of the Stunt

               

                After watching Keaton perform all of his stunts without a stunt double, I had a whole new respect for the actors that risk their lives for entertainment.  Back in the day, graphical effects couldn’t cover up some of the more dangerous stunts.  So when people saw something dangerous happening back then, they were terrified because someone actually had to do that.  Now, when someone does something dangerous in a film it is just done graphically so no harm can come to the actor.  But I believe this eliminates some of the thrill.  I think what’s so thrilling about Keaton’s work is that we know he is doing this himself and because of that the scenes have a greater effect.   

                I looked online for the top actors who performed their own stunts and the three that came up first was Tom Cruise, Buster Keaton, and Jackie Chan.  Tom Cruise surprised me when his name popped up but it said he did all of his stunts in all the Mission Impossible’s as well as his other movies.  But, of course, I wasn’t surprised at all to see Jackie Chan on the list as number one. Jackie Chan is probably the best stunt person I have ever seen and knowing most of the stunts I see him doing on screen are things he actually did just make it even cooler. 

I hope that as time goes on and graphics get better and better and stunts become more CGI filed, there will still be people willing to risk themselves for a stunt.  Cause let’s face it, we would all be much more entertained to see raw unaltered fight scenes and stuff than see a CGI fight scene.

What's so funny?

                If we were to categorize all Youtube videos, I think the vast majority of those videos would be entitled along the lines of, ”epic fails,” or “fail compilations.” It seems that there is something about watching other people’s misfortunes or failures that make people entertained and laugh.  But why do we laugh when someone falls off a bike and hurts themselves, why do we laugh when someone trips and falls flat on their face.  We are laughing at other people’s suffering and embarrassment. Is that a good thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biz_tniY9x0

                We watched a Keeton film today in class and we laughed at his misfortune.  We laughed as he helplessly twirled around in circles on the boat.  But also we learned in class today that there must be a downfall to have a laugh.  Something has to go wrong in order for it to be funny.  So I guess that’s why we laugh at the Youtube videos of other people failing.  That’s why it was funny to see Keeton twirling around in circles; because they were messing up, they had their own little downfall.  The bicyclist thought he could make the jump, but he couldn’t, the car driver thought he could run a red light, but not safely.  In each fail, the person thought he could do something and that was his downfall. That’s what makes it so funny.