MY FINAL BLOG POST: Wolf Children

     So I saw this movie the other day and decided to make it the subject of my last blog. Why? Well probably because it struck me as something pretty special. When you think of anime, there are probably three broad iconic images you think of first: spiky-haired action heroes, overly cutesy and/or sexualized girls, or Studio Ghibli films; this film is none of those things.
     In my opinion, anime has really started to stagnate in recent years. With each passing television season, there just seems to be more and more of the same old action or romantic comedy nonsense rolling out from anime studios, but this film is legit. It avoids all of the "tried and true" formulaic elements like the ones I mentioned above and delivers one of the most honest stories I've seen in a while, and it WASN'T made by Miyazaki. Wolf Children is the simple story of a mother raising her kids, with one small twist. They are, as the title implies, wolf children. The plot follows thirteen years of the mother's life from when she first meets her husband, who is actually a wolf spirit, to when her two children are about 11 and 10 years old. The theme in the film as you might expect is about the hardships of single-parenthood, and raising children through all the iconic stages of life. This movie does an excellent job tackling said topic in a mature way that is also fairly child appropriate (some parents may have issues with a few scenes, but I certainly wouldn't). It does not skip out on the sad moments, but neither does it dwell on them, or over-exaggerate them either. The characters all feel very real, even the side characters have their own endearing personalities and are relate-able in their own way. Also this movie does an exceptional job in making the children likeable, and not horribly annoying like so many anime tend to do.

     As far as the art style goes, it IS a big budget Japanese film. You definitely shouldn't expect any boundary-pushing art styles here, but given the subject matter, a realistic art style suites it better anyway, the quality of the art is fantastic, especially the stunning backdrops used in the film.  
     If you don't care for movies without insane car chases and wall-to-wall action, this movie is definitely not for you, but if you're looking for a story that hits a bit closer to home, look no further.

The Kurosawa Retrospect

     So now that Signs and Wonders is over for the semester, I decided to write up my final opinions on the Kurosawa films as a whole since I watched all of them. It was really cool seeing them in chronological order because you got to watch how Kurosawa took what he learned from each film, and gradually refine his process. Something I noticed while watching the first few films is how much longer they felt as opposed to the later films, but the thing is...they weren't actually longer. In some cases it was even the opposite. I would attribute this to how much

Kurosawa improved his pacing. In his first few films, Kurosawa tended to linger on certain scenes a little longer than he probably should have, and seemed to move his stories at a slower pace in general; the most extreme example of this being his film Stray Dog when he spent 15 minutes on a montage of detective Murakami walking around the city streets while nothing really happened at all. In his later films though he really managed to tighten up his pacing; one his best examples being Seven Samurai. Though this film (207 minutes) was almost an hour longer than one of his previous films, The Idiot (166 minutes), it seemed 

shorter. This may have to do with the fact that we watched Seven Samurai in two parts, but I think it would not have mattered. Every moment of Seven Samurai felt like it forwarded the plot and at no point did I ever feel bored, which is more than I could say for The Idiot. Ran is the one exception to this rule because despite it being the last film chronologically, there were parts of the film that really seemed to drag on unnecessarily.

     Another aspect that was fun to watch across all the films was the evolution of Kurosawa's most frequently recurring actor, Toshiro Mifune. Toshiro Mifune was not only present, but a main character in every single Kurosawa film except for Ran. It was cool to see how his rolls in each film changed as he got older; from the young, upstart Yakuza in Drunken Angel to the veteran warriors in both The Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo, Toshiro Mifune was excellent in each roll that he played. I feel though that he was at his best when playing wild characters like the bandit from Rashomon and Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai. Those characters were some of the most vibrant and entertaining I've ever seen in film.
     All in all, I don't regret watching a single one of these films, and would recommend any one of them to anybody as worth watching. It's no small wonder why Kurosawa's works have lasted the test of time and inspired not just new films, but entirely new genres of film.

The Final Kurosawa Review: Ran

     Ran in terms of scale was a massively lager film than any other film we've seen this semester. It was also made a good many years after any other film we saw (1985) as well and is the only Kurosawa film shown this semester that was in color. Despite all these bells and whistles, I was still a bit disappointed with this film. The plot seems to follow the tried and true trappings of a classic Greek tragedy (and is also an adaptation of King Lear). We have a very classic setup at the beginning of the film where the main character, Hidetora, sets himself up for his own demise when he passes leadership of the family to his eldest son. The youngest son tries to dissuade him of this decision as he knows what his brothers are planning, but Hidetora foolishly ignores his advice and even goes as far as to banish the only son who cares for his well being. The evil scheming of the two other brothers and their thirst for power eventually leads to the downfall of the entire family.
     The story had alot of potential, but after watching three really great films from Kurosawa in a row (Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, and Yojimbo), this one came as a bit of a letdown, especially with the pacing. The first half of the film moves very quickly and has lots of intense action, but after an epic battle half-way through, the film comes to a grinding halt and we spend the last half doing...well not much of anything. It really reminds me a lot of the book of Job. Everything goes to hell in a hand basket right off the bat and we are left for the rest of a very long story just watching the main character morn his loss. On the positive side, the battle scenes were by far the most spectacular of all the films and the sets were enormous and very well constructed. The film is also of very high quality and rich color, but these elements alone are not enough to make a great film.

A Little Taste of the "Creative Process" With Ninjas

     So as most of you are aware, I am actually a junior in the DMA, animation program. As such, one of my classes this semester is the "Junior Project." In this class, we are currently producing 5-second short films. The objective of the class is to get a feel for client-to-artist relationships in the professional world as well as learn all the necessary steps in taking a piece from its conception to finished, concrete, professional quality work. 
     The process is divided into four parts lasting one week each: story beats, animatic/color concept, layout reel, and final product. We meet with the professors, who act as our clients, once a week to bring them up to speed on our work. For the story beat segment, we are given a theme to base our project on and it is our job as artists to come up with three different ideas for it. To quickly, but effectively, get our ideas across, we use story beats. Story beats are single frames that display the key actions of our idea, we are limited to 5 beats for our projects, but sometimes are given exceptions to that rule (1 beat-per-second of film). The second stage is animatic/color concept. Here we take our 5 beats and flesh them out into a moving picture, the most important part of an animatic is getting the timing of your piece down, each event needs to happen precisely when it is supposed to in the the final work. Animation quality is not required yet, but it needs to be readable; sound is also added at this stage. For color concept, you need to be able to present still images that are accurate or almost accurate representations of your final "look" as well as present multiple different options for colors in your final look. Next is layout reel. It is at this stage of the game that you take your film to the final medium that you will use to create your piece. For example, if you are making your film 3D, then you would start building your base scene in a 3D program, and start performing animation tests so you will be ready for the final push to the finish line, which brings us to the last step, finished product. The last week is spent polishing everything to look professional and complete. It is vitally important that you don't lose steam on the project at any point in this process because that can easily lead to the project lacking quality, or never being finished at all.

     Here is an example of one of my pieces that never got finished. The theme was that the animation must begin as a square and end as a square. Myself and my partner, Thomas Edwards, came up with two ideas in the beat process that were strong enough to go into animatic, but this one was eliminated after we decided to pursue the other as the stronger animation. This piece however has a lot of potential, and we could finish it at a later date. So without further ado, I give you Ninja-in-a-Box(Working title).

My Favorite Music Videos from Class

     Out of all the various forms of media that I watch, I must confess, music videos are not really something I've seen a lot of. I generally don't like the mainstream types of music, or any type of music with lyrics as lyrics just don't resonate with me. Even if I may not have cared about the songs though, the videos shown in class I thought were mostly pretty awesome. Here is my personal top three list.

     Number 3: "Sometimes the Stars"

What I liked most about this video was its animation quality and style. The simple, kind of of cute, character designs coupled with the gloomy atmosphere created a bittersweet vibe throughout the piece, and made for a near instant connection with me. The animation was also butter smooth.

     Number 2: "Simple Math"

 The song in this film was OK, but what was really compelling to me was the way that this video visually represents the story unfolding; the way that the memory scenes were presented as fragmented and skewed by the crash unfolding, like using the deer head, the image of the liquid in the glass tilting, and the foreboding rumbling as kind of a reality check,  was great. The transitions between memory and reality were even better, but out of all the shots in this piece, I think my favorite is when the man flies out of the car and rolls along the street with the camera tumbling beside him. That was an excellent camera choice. My one critique of this video is that I don't think the lip-syncing to the song was necessary.

     Number 1: "Allaxis"

This music video kind of has the same general theme as the previous, however the way in which the theme is visually presented is completely different and equally awesome. Both shorts involve persons having flashbacks while driving cars, but this piece represents the story in a more abstract way, the memory is represented as a passenger in the car morphing into different people, but blurring the details in an onslaught of pop-culture like images. This piece also has a tragic end as opposed to the previous's redemptive end.  Probably the only thing that puts this video above the other is my personal preference for music without words, and my bias to animation.

IS LINK DEAD IN MAJORA'S MASK!!?(games as art)

     Sounds crazy right? Well the Game Theorists seem to think this is a distinct possibility. If you want to find out why, I suggest you watch the video which I posted below for your convenience, but the reason why I decided to blog on this is not really because I wanted to talk about that particular subject matter, but rather I wanted to talk about how this video is a compelling look at The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask as a work of video game art.
     Majora's Mask has always been my favorite Zelda game, but still I never noticed the shear amount of symbolism in it. This video was really eye opening for me, and, whether you agree with the theory or not, shows just how much thought goes into the production of a good story, much like the way we looked at It's a Wonderful Life earlier this year. 
     After watching this video it's hard to justify any beliefs that video games cannot be artful. The shear fact that there are multiple interpretations to this game at all make it art as far as I'm concerned because one of the great staples of good art is that different people will walk away from the same piece with different experiences. Also you can skip the first 1:20 of the video because it's just a PSA about how stupid YouTube is right now.

Hidden Fortress

So after Seven Samurai, I thought I had seen the best of Kurosawa; I was wrong. Seven Samurai is still my favorite movie of his, but this film gives it a run for it's money. An interesting fact about this film is that it was a major inspiration for the original Star Wars trilogy, and after watching the characters and their personalities, I can definitely see the resemblance.
     The two central characters, Tahei and Matashichi, are a comedy duo that get the laughs from their constant bickering, the way they fight with each other is very reminiscent of the interplay between Star War's comedy duo, C3PO and R2-D2, although the language in Star Wars is much more mild. The story of Hidden Fortress is also very evocative of the hero's journey structure, the same structure used by Star Wars (and countless other movies that have followed). The similarities even go so far that nearly the entire first Act of Episode IV shares blatant similarities with the first Act of Hidden Fortress; Hidden Fortress starts off with Tahei and Matashichi walking through a desert until finally they part ways after a dispute, only to be captured separately and wind up in the same place together again, sound familiar? The movie is complete with its own Obi-wan (Makabe Rokurōta) and Darth Vader as well.

      This movie was excellent and worthwhile experience, I mean really, if it inspired one of the most widely renown movie trilogies ever, how could it not be?

Quiz Blog: The Man who Planted Trees

     This film is probably my favorite out of all the films I've seen in DM101 so far. I feel like it is a good example of the idea that the more "national" your story is, the more "international" it becomes. This story in a literal sense is nothing more than a story about a man who spent his life planting trees until they became a forest. The plot of the story is strictly local and it makes no effort to tack on any kind of message, but the themes in this story are beautifully universal. Their is a strong contrast in this film between destruction and creation and Elzéard Bouffier's actions, as simple as they seem, in a sense redeem the entire human race in its obsession with destruction. The destructive tendencies of man are represented by the time period the piece is set in, the World  War era, as well as in the nature of the villages in the wasteland. The idea of redemption is physically manifested in how the land is renewed by the trees Bouffier planted; no longer inhabited by unruly trappers and charcoal burners, but brimming with farmers and youthful newcomers. This film also touches on some of the same themes as It's a Wonderful Life; showing how the acts of a single man can effect the lives of so many others. 
     On a scale of delight versus challenge, I would actually say this film is both. We the audience delight in the redemption of the land, but at the same time we cannot help but admire the work and dedication of this single man, and we are challenged to have lives with as much meaning. Lastly I will say the only disappointment I had with this film is that it is indeed fictional. Despite its setting alongside historical events, the events of this film did not happen.

Seven Samurai

     Seven Samurai is considered one of the most influential movies ever made, and now having seen it, I can see why. It is credited for being the first film to use the now classic story setup of gathering an elite team for the purpose of accomplishing a daring mission. It also makes use of the iconic anime-style samurai showdown, though I'm not sure if this film was the first to do that. 
     This has definitely been my favorite Kurosawa film thus far. There really isn't much of a plot, but a strong plot is not necessary to make this movie good because what it lacks in plot, it makes up for in character. I feel that in terms of characters, this film has the most interesting cast out of all the movies I've seen. Each of the seven samurai have their own unique personality and make a very valuable contribution to the color of group as a whole. We have our wise veteran in the form of Kambei Shimada, the cheerful character is Heihachi Hayashida the "wood chopper," the cold-blooded swordsman Kyūzō, the naive aspiring youth Katsushirō Okamoto, and the comical "blue-collar" samurai imposter Kikuchiyo. The other two samurai Gorōbei Katayama and Shichirōj are less memorable characters, but are still important because of their battle experience. The way these characters interact with each other in the film is what makes it makes it so great. There's not a whole lot of character development in this film, but Kikuchiyo has some decent development throughout along with Katsushirō, and one of the peasants, Rikichi.

     I also feel that so far, this film is one of Kurosawa's most technically polished films as well. In his previous films, he had a tendency to linger on certain scenes longer than necessary, but that is not an issue here. Despite the incredible length of the film, I feel that it is well paced; each part adequately contributing to the experience, there was not a moment in this film that bored me, which is more than I can say for his previous works. The battle scenes are also better implemented. In his previous works, the fight scenes seemed like they were unmitigated blurs of chaos; sometimes this aided his climax, sometimes not. This time around though, there is much more method to the madness in his fight scenes. By that though I do not mean they are intricately choreographed fights like in the Star Wars prequels; honestly I think those are worse than random flailing anyway, there's no heart in a machine like sequence of that nature if you ask me, but that's another story entirely. Anywho, Kurosawa cleans up his fights in this movie by breaking them up into short skirmishes, and having the samurai explain the methods of their attack in strategy meetings beforehand so that we can clearly see the big picture of what is going on amidst the chaos of battle.
     Considering this movie was 4 hours long, there are more things I could say about this movie, but I don't want to spoil anything, and if this blog is much longer, I'm not sure if anyone would even read it. You missed a good movie at signs and wonders if you didn't see this, and you should check it out if get the chance (and have 4 hours to kill).

The Seventh Seal

     I decided to watch Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal after Buechner mentioned it in the Gospel as Fairy Tail, and now it's probably one of my favorite films ever. The film is about a disillusioned knight, Antonius Block and his even more cynical squire, J having just returned from the Crusades only to be met by Death himself. Antonius challenges Death to a game of chess in order to stave off his inevitable demise.
     This movie tackles the tough question, "If God exists, why does he never reveal himself to us?" When Death first comes to Antonius, he asks if he is ready to come with him, Antonius replies "my body is, not myself." He later explains this, saying that all he wants is a guarantee that heaven will be there waiting for him, when he dies, he simply wants to know for sure that God is out there, because in his words "no man can live faced with death, knowing everything's nothingness."

     I have to say, I love the cold rationale with which this movie views nearly everything. Antonius's views on the witch and J's views on love and marriage are compellingly cynical and challenges you to question your beliefs. It was strikingly profound for me when Antonius wished to speak to the Devil and ask him about God because, "he must know, he if anyone." The only respite this movie gives you comes in the form of the traveling actors. Jof, Mia, and Mikael are the characters we are left with at the end to provide closure on the film, because nothing says hope like a happy family and a baby walking off towards the sun. The ending was especially interesting to me. When Death finally comes to take them all away, the scene is neither one of horror or of hope, it is simply there. Death comes, and the people go with him, and when Jof sees their procession through the rain, he describes it with a sense of bitter sweetness. This incredibly neutral ending to such a dark tale is well placed, as it leaves the viewer pondering for himself the positive or negativeness of it. On the scale of Challenging or Delighting, this movie unquestionably falls on the side of challenging, but you will be a better person for having seen it. I would recommend this movie to anyone.

Blood Brother

     In some ways, I feel that this movie is similar to The Man Who Planted Trees. It is a story told from a third person's perspective about a simple man who is greatly impacting lives while more or less going unappreciated for it, but what makes Blood Brother more impactful is that it's actually real. One thing I will say about the movie that I didn't like though was the note that it ended on. Just as they say in the movie itself, people always like stories to end happily, but that's rarely how it goes in real life; even less so in in the world that Rocky is living in, and yet they just couldn't resist ending on a happy note in this film...Don't get me wrong it's certainly not like I wished Surya had died. FAR FROM IT, these are real people we are talking about here; not just characters in a film! But the unfortunate truth is that his recovery is only a reprieve from the inevitable. HIV has no cure and it just feels unjust to me for the movie to simply gloss over this fact. That being said, I really liked how they used the story about the cat at the beginning as foreshadowing. That was also a well animated sequence, just say'n. I really don't want to go too far into an analysis of that sort for this film though. I feel like going into a discussion about artistic technique in a film with such an all-too-real message is not entirely appropriate.
     It's always humbling to watch films with subject matter like this. It makes you ashamed that you ever thought you had your own problems. To watch Rocky as he pours out his heart and soul to these kids and treats them as equals when no one else will is truly inspiring. I honestly don't think I have it me to do that kind of work, and that saddens me, but let's not forget that this story would not have been possible without the help of film-makers like us. Our job is important too, and we should not feel like lesser people for having a different calling.

The Secret of Kells

     Even after watching this movie twice this weekend, I'm not really sure if anything I can say about this movie will be deep or relevant, but does it need to be? The story is an artistic interpretation of the creation of The Book of Kells, which is a famous "illuminated manuscript" of the Gospels renown for the stunning artwork that adorns its pages. That being said, it draws a great amount from pagan Celtic mythology as well, two very important characters to the story are mythological creatures. The first is a forest spirit named Aisling, who helps the main character during the story, and the other is one of two primary antagonists, Crom Cruach. Crom is probably the most interesting of the two to me because he is an ancient Irish dark god. One of the pervading themes in this movie is the idea of turning darkness to light, and this theme is most definitely displayed in Crom's roll in the story. His eye is a crystal which is needed to complete the intricate art in the book, meaning a dark god was used to write a book of light.

Mythological and historical allusions aside though, the characters and plot are nothing unique. The main character, Brendan, is your typical naive, day-dreamy, youthful hero type, his uncle is the evil stepmother, and Aidan of Iona is Ben Kenobi...oh and Pangur Bán is the creature companion. That being said, I feel the characters don't need to be anything else in this film as I think the most important aspect was the theme of turning darkness to light, which they nailed right on the head. Despite all the obstacles placed before Brendan, all of them are worked into the greater good, even when the Vikings arrive and drive Brendan out of Kells, it only serves to set him on a journey to spread the teachings of the book to the outside world. 
     Now, no discussion of this movie can be made without mentioning the visuals, they were fantastic. The style of the film is very flat, evoking the same feeling as the art which adorns the pages of the Book of Kells itself. One of the pieces of advice Aidan gives to Brendan is that you can learn a lot from nature, I feel this is represented in the art as the shapes in Brendan's art are reflected in the shapes of the forest. The tree branches twist around one another like intricate calligraphy and the tree line evokes the feeling of a stained glass window pane or page liner. The music is also excellent, who doesn't like a good Celtic song? This movie's got plenty of those. Overall I'd say this was a great film, even if the plot doesn't grab you, the theme and images will. BUT IF THEY DIN'T! Feel free to comment about it. If you haven't seen it and want to, it's free on Hulu. Go watch it.

Pacific Rim: Training Day

     So for any of you who have seen or heard of the recent film, Pacific Rim, by Guillermo del Toro, you may be interested to know that Guillermo del Toro commissioned a short film to promote the movie prior to its release. What is really interesting about this short film though is that it was outsourced to a media company called Polaris. Polaris is a media group comprised entirely of internet personalities, ergo people who make videos for YouTube professionally. Say what you will about the acting in this short film (I know its not amazing), but it excites me to see YouTube becoming a place that the industry is starting to take seriously, other examples of this being Forward Unto Dawn. Never before has getting your work out their to be discovered been so easy. Bringing attention to your work is another matter yes, but in a world where producers are continuously restricting creativity in the name of easy sales, at least there is a place to put your work easily and let it be seen at all, and possibly even make a name for yourself off of it. The thing I find to be craziest about this whole situation is that ALL of the stars in this film are not even film actors, but rather people who do video game commentary and reviews, some of them however have had theatrical training. Anywho, the robots in the film were all done classic Power Ranger Style as men in suites, and acting aside the production quality is pretty good. I have linked the short film and one of the making-of videos here, but there are more so check them out at :
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFdg8AFOBih3Jnii3FJg3Yibi2BzcAwOi

Friday's Art Gallery

     I attended the Visual/Digital Media Arts gallery on Friday. It was fun to see what my professors were working on as well as see some of the things professors in the Visual arts side were doing as well. I think my favorite pieces were Ballinger's photographs and Leeper's Brother Thomas animatic. No, I'm not being a suck-up, they really were my favorites. I actually got to see the Brother Thomas animatic last year during story board class, and I really dug Leeper's Stained-Glass cartoon style. To be honest I was a bit disappointed to find out he doesn't plan to use said style in the final film, but rather go with making it in stop motion, but that's just my opinion. I don't really know why I liked Ballinger's photos, but I did. I just really like photos of scenery. That being said I liked the photo's of Jackson Hole as well. They remind me of all the trips my parents used to drag me on to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I took a few nice pictures out there myself. The sculptures were cool too, the animal teapots were really creative (but I question their practicality) All in all it was cool experience and I'm glad I went.

Druken Angel: Some Thoughts

 

      Drunken Angel is my first Kurosawa film and I must say I rather enjoyed it. The story revolves around a poor doctor living in post WWII Japanese slums, and one of his patients, the leader of the local Yakuza (mafia) who is suffering from TB. My first impression of this film was that it was going to focus mainly on the Yakuza, but it is actually the doctor who is the main character. I greatly appreciated how the title of this film referred to the doctor's dual nature as a savior who cannot seem to save himself. My favorite character in the film was definitely the doctor. I love how he took no lip from the Yakuza. The very reason anyone would join an organization like the Yakuza is to gain fear and respect from the general populace however the doctor is never phased in the slightest by their bravado, and given the anti-climatic showdown at the end of the movie between two supposed Yakuza big-wigs he certainly had no reason to afraid of them, which is something else I found interesting. As hilarious as it was to watch two big intimidating men flounder around holding their knives like kindergarteners the had a certain level of compelling to it as well as it portrays just how hollow the perks of being a Yakuza are. But anyhow, I also liked the doctor because he always combated his opponents with facts instead of fists. Like when Matsunaga tried to muscle a better answer out of him concerning his condition, the doctor retorts, "don't take my word for it, get an X-ray." He even stands up to the infamous Okada telling his intimidation of with the cold hard truth that "the world doesn't work the way it did when you went to prison anymore." I feel this film takes a stance that many main steam films today lack, and that is that violence is not the answer. Matsunada, the man that lived by the sword dies an inglorious death by the sword and the doctor, a man that chose not to fight fire with fire (with the exception of throwing things at people), still lives.

Stick it to the Man?

     So my thoughts on School of Rock...I came into the movie with the idea that I would be carefully observing every aspect of the film in order to break it down well in my blog, but I wound up being completely immersed in the film and forgot all about that around 20 minutes in. Needless to say I thought it was a good movie. Even though I can't say I'm a fan of any particular rock band, I am a huge fan of rock music and the electric guitar so the music was right up my alley. 
     What interested me the most about the movie though was its slogan "Stick it to the man," I find it funny how the whole quest of Dewy was to shun the ways of society and carve his own way, but in so doing he becomes a responsible adult...well a more responsible adult at any rate. Not only that but his entire class somewhat embodies this transition as well. By "Sticking it to the man," ergo not doing their proper schoolwork all while hoodwinking the school faculty and their parents alike, they become proficient at real life valuable skills such as stage management, working together as a team and presenting their ideas to the public view, a very important part of the arts industry.
     There is a very distinct dichotomy between being responsible and being rebellious and the whole idea that being responsible is part of growing up. You can see this theme echoed in the principal of the school when she says she wasn't always so up tight. The best part about their portrayal of these themes however is that they never really have that moment where the main character has to choose whether to be a rebel or a responsible person. Both halves of that coin are used to make ends meet all the way to the end of the film. I feel that so many people are too eager to "grow up" and they forget that being youthful and creative is important too. If everyone just "grew up," got "real jobs" and were "responsible" all the time, life would be less like living and more like an assembly line if you ask me. By the same token though, if all you do is dream all day and never actually work towards your dreams, then they never happen. A balance must be struck between work and play to have a full life, and I think this movie demonstrates this idea very well.
    

Extra Credits

     For all you aspiring game designers out there (like myself), I would highly recommend watching Penny Arcade's internet Series, Extra Credits. The series is created by people with actual experience within the digital media field. Daniel Floyd, the narrator, is an animator at Pixar Canada, James Portnow, the writer, is a game designer and has worked on many video games. He now runs his own game design consulting firm and holds a professorship at DigiPen Institute of Technology. The series has been on-going for some time now and they have covered all kinds of important topics for videogames ranging from what it takes to be in the industry, games as art, games in politics, and games for education. You can also catch all of their episodes on YouTube a week after they premier on Penny Arcade TV. A must watch for anyone serious about video games in my opinion.

Live-Action Adaptions of Animated Things, and Why I Hate Them...

     First off, thank you Shawn Davidson for reminding me about this issue with your post on Speed Racer, reading your blog about the original series reminded me that a live-action film adaptation of that series exists and got me thinking about this pet peeve of mine again. 
     I'm not even going to address the issue of how a lot of adaptations of anime and comic books are just awful action flicks that throw a bunch of fancy CGI stuff at you and completely miss out on capturing the actual essence of what made the original awesome (Dragon Ball Evolution anyone?). What offends me the most about these movies is the fact that people feel the need for them to exist in the first place. It's one thing to make a live action film for the sake of experimenting with what that world might be like off the page, but I can't help but notice all the time the way people talk about animated productions on places like YouTube. Shows like Cowboy Bebop and Batman Beyond, I see comments all the time like "These really need a live action adaptation," and to that I say, why? What was wrong with the original? What is it about having a movie made out of your already amazing story that makes you more legit? Maybe it's just me, but that is the vibe I get from the live action industry in North America right now, that somehow getting your story adapted to live action film is "the pinnacle of success." As if Live action film were somehow the epitome of media and other forms of story-telling were inferior.

     A similar mentality I've seen among North American audiences is this idea that you can't tackle "mature," "dark," or "gritty," subjects when it comes to animation. I feel like Disney has greatly contributed to this mentality, but if watching anime has shown me anything, it's that you most definitely can make mature stories using animation. Take the new Batman trilogy for example. People act like it was making Batman a live-action film that enabled it to take such a "mature" perspective of the character and world; gag me with a spoon please...there is nothing that live action can do that animation can't. If anything, animation can do more than live action. In live action you are limited to what is real, even when using CGI you still have to conform to the look of photo-realism, while in animation your only limit is your imagination (and maybe your time and budget, but live action has those problems too). Well this was a long, ranty, rambley piece, but I hope you get where I'm coming from at least. As always feel free to state your own opinions on the subject.

    

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

So myself and the guys on my floor watched a film the other day called Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. This not quite feature length film (42 min long) was a surprisingly good watch as it does several things you don’t see too often in film (at least I don't). First off, it's a superhero film where the main character is not the hero(Captain Hammer), but his arch-nemesis(Dr. Horrible). Second, the film is predominantly comedy, but has an interesting twist as an ending, which I won’t spoil in case you haven’t seen it. Lastly, as the title suggests it is a musical. Now I’m not a huge musical fan; when characters in a story just randomly break into song, my immersion tends to break into pieces, but that does not mean the songs were poorly written. The songs were implemented sometimes as a means to expedite the plot and other times to get a better feel for the tone of the story or characters and the lyrics are witty to boot. As far as I’m concerned, Joss Whedon and his crew get major props for taking a comedy musical about super heroes and villains and making it work well, because I certainly never would have thought of that combination. If you have 45min to kill, you should watch it sometime and feel free to tell me what you thought about it, especially the ending.

 

(SPOILERS)

 I personally like the ending a good deal as I believe it does justice to the main character’s status as an aspiring villain and is not a shameless cop-out happy ending.

      I'd also like to point out that this film was created exclusively for web distribution and received numerous awards. It is my opinion that the internet and the on-demand style of media viewing will soon render cable/satellite programming obsolete. Feel free to state your own opinions on the matter.

Kyle "KyTheGamer" Murray: An Introduction

      Hey all, my name is Kyle Murray, and I am a Junior here at Huntington University. I come from Louisville, Kentucky and I transferred into the animation major here last year as a sophomore. However, I missed the 101 class last fall, hence why I am here now. On the internet, I go by the name KyTheGamer, or just Ky for short
     When I was a kid, my first career choice was to be a marine biologist, because I love the ocean, but then I realized that biology was half of being a marine biologist, and it was time for plan B... Ever since I was a kid, people commented on how good I was at drawing, which sparked my interest in sticking with it. I didn't get serious about honing my skills until high school though, so I still have much to learn. I picked up my first video game when I was about 5 years old, and haven't put down my controller, or mouse, since. My favorite aspect of animation is character design and animation. I just love creating characters in my head and putting them on paper. My favorite mediums are traditional drawn animation and 3D.
     I have a YouTube channel where I post random videos that are usually game and/or anime related, but I haven't posted much on it in a while.

http://www.youtube.com/KyTheGamer