Philip K. Dick

     After reading about Philip K. Dick, I had no idea how much his work has inspired the films we see today. He writes of science fiction worlds that aren't the ordinary stories you hear all the time. In a way, the world is actually very similar to ours, or at least thats what it's coming too. It seems as time goes on, Dick's wild theories are getting closer to these futuristic nightmares is what I'll call them. I am fascinated by his work and love his concepts, but they really are worlds no one would ever live in because of the danger on every corner, the governments having total control over people, it's scary. You can even see with the NSA that they monitor every conversation you have had in your life over phones, texting, computers you name it. That's recent, think about the future. If they already have that much control over us, how long is it until they will have cameras in literally every room in the entire world to make sure nothing happens without there watch. The thing about Dick's work is that it really makes you think into our world. He makes us look into our selves and the place we live. It just seems that he may have also had an idea of what this world was coming too as well.

SOURCE:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/m-philip_k_dick_and_our_predicament.html

Stop Animation

     I feel so bad for 2D animators and give them so much credit. Just doing 200 pictures was ridiculous now I can't even imagine a team doing over 1,000,000 for Snow White! But anyways this project was a lot of fun! I actually did this all in one sitting, not because of time or anything like that but I kept having random ideas as I was going along and wanted to continue off of that! This was basically all off improv which I thought is the only way to make a random animation! I did actually notice I made my character fall a lot and I think I actually made a story out of it somehow. All the times he fell he either fell in the ocean, on a giant bird, a snowboard and it just seemed like he kept getting lucky. Now the one time he actually has something that could save him from his fall like his parachute, he's out of luck as the string breaks off and he falls flat on the ground with the parachute finally coming out after the impact. I guess I can make a moral out of this story saying there is only so many times you can get lucky before it runs out but really it's the most random video I've ever made. I'm actually gonna include my 3D animation video on this because it seems like it goes with the whole animator theme so enjoy that one too!

EDIT: Okay so I'm gonna update this ones bloggers video finder wants to work. I left the links below and will get the video on the blog as soon as this thing wants to cooperate!

EDIT 2: No success on that stupid YouTube thing so now I uploaded it through Blogger. Use the YouTube Link if you need to view it on there.

Stop Motion Animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTdUMRow7KE&feature=youtu.be

3D Animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC9iH9thPj4&feature=c4-overview&list=UURS9aj-LsU7wRR7XErf3_vQ

Clockwork Orange

     Clockwork Orange is a brilliant movie that at times, is very messed up but has that creative genius and smart storyline that keeps you wanting more. A scene in particular, the rape scene used Gene Kelly's "Singing In The Rain" which adds to the demonic acts happening. Now I don't have the right answer to this but I definitely found irony in the scene. Whenever I think of this song, I don't think of that jolly ol' man running around in the rain, I think of Alex raping this woman. This song was completely used out of context and gives me a bad vibe every time I hear it just like how Alex can't listen to Beethoven anymore because the way it was used with violence, such as scenes with Hitler and murder and such. I feel as if the director wanted to use the song in it's wrong context to give the audience the same feeling Alex suffered through during his treatment. It definitely makes the scene that much more gruesome and one that will leave a mark in your brain forever.

Earthquake

     Okay... so my parents don't remember if they saw it in the theatre's so this blog isn't exactly what it should be but I did like the idea they had for the rumbling theatre with surround sound. It actually seems like an early prototype for IMAX which I'm not even sure if that's still around. Maybe if movie theatre's didn't compete with college tuition prices people would go see them but yeah. The idea to make the sound rumble the theatre and immerse the audience into the movie is a great way to make those blockbuster movies even more memorable and especially for coming out 40 years ago, it's great to see that technology was developed and advanced for the future. Not only is it seen in IMAX movies, but amusement parks have created these 4D rides which immerse the audience with smells, motion, 3D, etc. It's the closest thing to actually being in the movie and I can totally see movie theatre's soon coming out with it in years to come when it's more affordable but definitely keep your eyes out for 4D!

Animation!

     I watched a bunch of cool animation videos from the Videos Artes website and was a big fan of the time lapse videos because it's just so damn cool watching the sky like that! It never gets old! Also the Bumble Bee stop motion was great too! The dance moves were pretty impressive and it looked like a lot of work went into that. The one I didn't like was the stop motion of real life. It was too close together to make it even seem like stop motion and it just wasn't that impressive.
     Of course I am a major fan of animation because I'm going to school for Computer Animation and I definitely have some ideas for the upcoming flip book project! At first I was thinking of just really making an animation of exactly 24 frames per second but it would only be like 8 seconds long after 200 pages and it wouldn't even be that cool or long and would get super boring drawing it after a while. I do like the theme many people go for and that's the transformation throughout the viewing. I definitely have some great ideas and can't wait to share what I got!

Hollywood Beginnings

     Wow movies have come a long way! I appreciate the early beginnings of cinema and the technology they used to create some of the most groundbreaking events. I remember watching the 1933 version of King Kong and just being blown away with how they did this stuff 80 years ago. Two movies I have recently watched were around 30 years before King Kong and I can easily say they are the most cheesy things I have ever seen. The Great Train Robbery and A Trip to the Moon are some of the first motion pictures ever made and for their time and even years to come were pretty advanced, especially A Trip to the Moon. Now I gotta say this... there pretty much unwatchable. A Trip to the Moon was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I did like the painted backgrounds and stuff, but the face of the moon was scary as hell! The funniest party was the cheesy landing along with the crash into the fish tank where you see little goldfish trying to get the hell away from the disaster their throwing into the tank. The Great Train Robbery was definitely the better film, but it was so oddly put together. Now back then, their were no camera angles and stuff, they would set up the camera somewhere and just film the whole scene in one take. That's what makes it so odd, like when they are tying up the ticket guy. I felt like that scene went on a lot longer than it really needed too, and not even that, the way it's filmed seems like we were in the room just watching it happen. I felt like we should've stopped them! But I guess thats enough ranting for me!

A Whole New World

     One of the craziest things I've learned about this week is definitely Camera Obscura. Abelardo Morell has taken a ton of shots in many different rooms showing off this crazy technology! The most unbelievable thing about this is that it has been around since before 500 BCE. I found a ton of pieces from her that really intrigued my interest. It's as if it adds a whole other life into the room. The ones with bright lights are the coolest because they look as if an imagination box has opened and poured all over the room! The fact many artists have used this before cameras and learned that this would work still amazes me to this day and I look forward to stumbling upon more work like this in the future!