Pan’s Labyrinth

Saw Pan's Labyrinth again on the weekend. It was a joy to watch second time around. The camera work was fantastic, much like how GM would shoot, and the design inspired too. I especially liked the 'eyes in his hands' monster (below) , that scene sent chills down my spine. Some people argue the movie's a little heavy handed on the violence. It's violent, but strangely I found the movie very calming. It's brilliant Guillermo del Toro was able to make the movie he wanted without pandering to a safe audience. Truly a breath of fresh air. I read an interview of his a while ago and he was big on Joseph Campbell too, seems like he'd have a lot to talk about to GM. Here's an interview with Guillermo which also shows some picks from his sketch book, looks like he did a lot of the design work too.

BTW, big welcome to Dave Smith, and I've invited Tom Taylor too. I think that just about includes everyone from the old story meets.

Video Interview

Guerrilla CG Training

I've finally got one of my training videos ready to watch. Keep in mind this one's aimed at people who have never touched a 3d program before. Think your mother!

There are some obvious mistakes, I'm going to redo the audio and try and get rid of the unnecessary pauses, lots of things to fix up. But feedback now would be much appreciated, and and any ideas how to improve/make slicker etc.

I've got many more that are at various stages, they'll get more complex.

The Polygon

Sorenson QT 2mins 5.6 meg

Transformers

Ok, so for years I've been hearing people rant about Michael Bay ruining cinema blah blah blah. But plenty of people love his movies, and I figure, what's the problem?

Well, I saw Transformers last week, and I think movies like this are ruining cinema.

I'm kind of pissed that I think that, cause I think it probably means I'm getting old and snobbish at the same time, but I have my reasons.

I think Transformers is going to make squillions of dollars, and sell bucketloads of Hasbro toys. So by industry standards that would make it successful as a movie. Good on it for that- that's exactly what it's designed to do. Few in Hollywood would give the slightest shit about anything else, and from their point of view that's fair enough.

I also have the greatest respect for the fact the Michael Bay has the balls and stamina and gusto and know how to get a movie this massive actually made and as shiny as it is. Its daunting just to think about the physical logistics, let alone the politics and money and vfx and whatever the hell else he had to deal with.

The problem is that the movie is a mess, and because its (probably) going to make lots of money we're probably going to be stuck with a whole lot more in the way of messy movies in the next few years. People will validate/emulate the craft side of this film because it does well at the box office.

The story is thin and full of holes, but that's to be expected. Contrary to the underlying motive of this blog, most people don't go to blockbusters for the story. The problem I had is that the very thing a big action blockbuster is supposed to do well - big action - is just all over the place.

Transformers IS big. Staggeringly big. But: The choreography is totally, utterly confused. The editing is relentless- but not in a kinetic way, in a purely cover- the- fact- that- shots- that- don't- go- together- and- do-it-so-fast-that-nobody-can-catch-their-breath way. Each shot on its own is beatiful, but there's no sense of sequence design, no sense of space, no sense of developing rhythm, no sense of shot-to-shot momentum, no sense of DIRECTION. Its incredibly loud, incredibly fast, and incredibly confused and disorienting. Its like a firehose in the face. You leave the cinema feeling battered and confused. I've worked on my fair share of music vids, I'm used to fast cutting, but this movie gave me chronic cinematic indigestion.

My fear is that it's all that's going to be served up in years to come.

But, people will say, its FUCKING COOL. The thing is, I didn't think so, but even if it was, it could have been soooo much cooler if the action was directed well across sequences and not just within the individual shots. That's a Transformers that would really kick ass.

Adults embracing animation, film-makers say

ABC news reports that Adults are embracing animation more than ever.

ABC News

Fritz Lang's "M"

Cool, great idea. I'm into it. To keep with tradition of a blog, I'm going to talk about myself. I've been writing a short for a while now on and off, and only recently have come to realise that it falls into the Noir genre. Not the cliched "light across the eyes" and strong silloughettes, but the tone and style of the film. Actually, the "Dark" from the "Noir" refers to the subject matter, not the look.

But, my background in Noir is limited to a few classics, so I thought I'd start at the beginning and work my way up. So, since Film Noir is derived from German Expressionist films ( "Nostferatu", "Metropolis" ) I went out and got a hold of a copy of Fritz Lang's "M"

Great great film. Was completly taken by surprise as to how well it held up. I guess stupid to say that about a classic, but I've seen some classics that didn't and really enjoyed every minute of this film. For those who don't know - its set in Germany in 1930, a child serial killer (pedophile? was implied, not shown), is on a spree. The city falls apart and people start accusing strangers. Scary stuff. Finally the mob get sick of all the extra police around and decide to track him down themselves. There are a million sites dedicated to deconstucting this film - I'm not going to go into it.

The camera work was amazing. I'm sure Fritz Lang defined many styles and techniques with "M". Some parts lookes hand held, but coulsn't tell if that was what he was going for or just the lack of steadycam tech back then. Either way there are these really nice shots tracking through windows into rooms, close ups of old gnarley faces. nice. He did alot of still shots where he set up the cam over a street and just let the action play out in a single shot. would look lazy in a film today I think, but worked with the style.

The best part thoough was Peter Lorre's acting. It was almost a pantomine how tourtured he was by his "sickness", but it definatly worked. Infact, everyone in the film was a cliche - the hard cop, the cold crim, and they moved in a sort of Buster Keaton style, holding exagerate poses for ages. Great reference for animation. But Peter Lorre definatly stole the show. check him out

He acts it so well that its creepy. But even so, you end up feeling sorry for him by the end. Which is more or less the point. The end of the film - without giving anything away - implies that the guilt lies not with him but his victems and their parents. The last line stays with you for a while. Infact their are many scenes that stick. Once the city starts turning on itself, people accuse random strangers which the mob turns on without a pause. Brutal. Like the car scene in "War of the Worlds".

Like all movies like this, can't believe it took me so long to watch it, and almost everyone I try to convince to see it already have. Guess I missed the boat. Either way, can definatly reccomend it. Going to work my way through many more. The next one is "Double Indemnity" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036775/ again another definative Noir film, and again, one I havn't seen.
-alex.

p.s. found a great quote on the definition of Noir - " At the heart of film noir was an attempt to subvert conventional Hollywood standards of plot (happy endings), character (morally upright heroes), and narrative structure (chronological storytelling). By rejecting those standards, the filmmakers were by extension rejecting the values of postwar urban America, portraying that society as hypocritical and hopelessly corrupt. In so doing, they created a uniquely American genre whose films are still powerful today."

Speaking of "feeling good about yourself"...

Here is my first animation for my wisdom animation idea... Feedback welcome.

http://andrewsilke.com/movies/ThePlumSorenson.mov

It's based on the poem below. But please watch the movie first.

The Plum
You should learn that you cannot be loved by all people;
You can be the finest PLUM in the world,
Ripe – Juicy - Succulent
And offer yourself to all,
But you must remember there will be lots of people who do not like plums.

You must understand that if you are the world’s finest plum
And someone you like does not like plums
You have a choice of becoming a banana,
But you must be warned that if you choose to become a banana,
You will be a second rate banana,
But you can always be the best plum.

You must realise that if you choose to be a second rate banana,
You must remember that there will always be people who do not like bananas,
Furthermore you can spend your life trying to become the best banana
(which is impossible if you are a plum)
Or: you can seek again to be the Best Plum

Wall-E trailer

Well it doesn't give away much. A couple fo obserrvations from this creaky old ludite slowly assimilating to the many varied tools of the new digital world.

1) Pixar continues to push the "we are the warm and cuddly gods at the alter of story" line. God those guys (or their marketing people) really need to take their hand off it.

2) The small snippet of wall-E looked very exciting to me. I emmediately felt empathy for that little guy. Sci-fi hardware ta-boot.

When I first heard about this concept I was emmediately reminded of Chris Ware's tinman that pops up in his comic book compendiums. Does anyone out there know who I am talking about? He is an awesome artist and story-teller. He has a character who is a robot trapped in a deserted world. He wanders around slowly getting more and more bored and asking the very human question - what am I here for? The irony (and the iron) is palpable, poignent, depressing and poetic.

If wall-E captures just a small slice of what Chris Ware pulls off in his story's I'll love it. Although I suspect the boys at Pixar will have to adhere to thir own mantra and give us a story all about feeling ok about yourself regardless of who you are, yarda yarda.

Annecy Award Winners

The winners for Annecy Animation Festival have been anounced. Here's a snippet from Peter and the Wolf, which won the grand prize and audience favorite...

Blood Diamond

Gill and I watched Blood Diamond on the weekend. Turned out to be quite a watchable movie. And I've got to say (although I don't want to) that I thought some of Leo's scenes were outstanding. The movie was a little contrived but it delt with some gritty issues in an interesting way. The scenes with the child soldiers were particularly disturbing and very believable. Worth checking out.

Links

Football vs Rabbit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BcDOuP_tEo

Pixar has released a trailer of their new film WALL-E (which is a rip-off of an idea by Christian)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/

Also Ratatouille animation progression reel. The exposition came across as a little too strong for me in this scene.
http://au.media.movies.ign.com/media/834/834652/vids_1.html

And a cool demo of some new technology and image handling.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

Idea's for Blog Name

Mutant Story Devleopment...

Bored Animation Bums...

Scene's We'd Like To See

YOU CAN'T DRAW THAT!!!

Tell me a Tall Tale...

When You Wish Apon a Bar...

Stealing Brad Bird's Brain...

Lie Cheat Steal and Write...

I Can Draw, But I Can't Spell... Please Help!

That's Cool... But Let's Try This...

Random Musings from The Motovationally Challenged.

Andrew Silke for President!