tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8297624899303040462024-02-18T18:09:36.189-08:00Reinventing The WheelMaz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-9467255692272544192012-12-10T07:11:00.000-08:002012-12-10T07:11:03.263-08:00The Bookmarks Bar : Day ThreeSorry that I didn't post this weekend. I got distracted with homework and <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/mazamataz" target="_blank">this horrible, horrible website</a>. Although despite the fact that it's horrible, it's gotten me thinking about doing storyboarding dissections with video and/or streaming animation and pulling apart some of the acting/timing, but we'll see what happens. I'm fairly certain that Twitch doesn't allow you to stream anything other than games, but it's definitely gotten me thinking about how I can use that kind of format to my advantage. Apparently there's an audience for people watching other people mindlessly playing video games (...hey, sorry, but it's true!), but it'll be a hard sell to get people to discuss story and composition and animation. We can only try and find out.<br />
<br />
Anyway, let's make this installment of my bookmarks bar short and sweet.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Hark! A Vagrant!</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOMUcWnCOA2fvjysFAAJ8ZGHLkqsgW62Kuc9EEJVT_wQ59kf23O9ndt7s-K32ZYIW8dDO5y8W9YQw2ExVMbalOXt6vjGH2P5_Aszr3C8AD520B4vO_9aH_XjkeaeA2Bv-3SVFi6uN-KfDZ/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-06+at+12.28.42+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOMUcWnCOA2fvjysFAAJ8ZGHLkqsgW62Kuc9EEJVT_wQ59kf23O9ndt7s-K32ZYIW8dDO5y8W9YQw2ExVMbalOXt6vjGH2P5_Aszr3C8AD520B4vO_9aH_XjkeaeA2Bv-3SVFi6uN-KfDZ/s320/Screen+shot+2012-12-06+at+12.28.42+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
No doubt that if you've been on the internet for a while, you've come across some of <a href="http://harkavagrant.com/" target="_blank">Kate Beaton's historical comics</a>. There's really not much to say about it otherwise except that she's a fantastic illustrator with a sharp sense of humor.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Veer</u></b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; color: #0000ee;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEBxB8pjA3ghl1hr4Rlvp1efeREm8QlOyGNqWWK2nMjBVk8xQ_WrlPZaWY-ViBgfsBeneW1UCOesuuWsJkfA3HZA6SSvI8eBOhuyLRM7-h-l7zrr7CLn7axc5FyWE9Qw3kVWkH_QnrV5QJ/s320/Screen+shot+2012-12-06+at+12.28.59+PM.png" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></span></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.veer.com/" target="_blank">I keep forgetting that I want to submit stuff to Veer.</a> It's been tough to juggle doing graphic design and illustration (I'm doing more graphic design even though animation and illustration is what I studied and what I'd rather be doing, oy), but I think I'm going to go ahead and submit some stuff later for their site. You can get all sorts of illustrations for projects on this website, and it serves as a great source of artistic inspiration as well.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Digg</u></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4OqrGQfuhyphenhyphenMsd3oG3qIS5b8FH68F3sVgCxh_gLklujCh-ssQzKhx8ddk8NHCYTHfIjQpqccDEqeqRNfy3v59BRRWVfLjiJHOu64qAzJeXz0gw5lFgohsQNQ5Ym3MdihQcJqoMuAloJbxY/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-06+at+12.31.26+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4OqrGQfuhyphenhyphenMsd3oG3qIS5b8FH68F3sVgCxh_gLklujCh-ssQzKhx8ddk8NHCYTHfIjQpqccDEqeqRNfy3v59BRRWVfLjiJHOu64qAzJeXz0gw5lFgohsQNQ5Ym3MdihQcJqoMuAloJbxY/s320/Screen+shot+2012-12-06+at+12.31.26+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I clearly haven't been on <a href="http://digg.com/" target="_blank">Digg</a> in the longest time, because I had to double check that I was on the right website when I clicked the link in my bar. Their layout's changed drastically, but they're still a great source for finding what's popular on the internet.<br />
<br />
Well, that's three links for now! Three more are on the way for tomorrow. Still have to do the Cinema Paradiso stuff, actually. I'll probably be uploading that later tonight if I'm not distracted by games and/or sleep and/or animation. Speaking of which, my second AM class ends this week, so I'll be posting my progress reel very, very soon to <a href="http://awesomituvity.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">my other blog</a>.<br />
<br />
Also! If you're one of the two people who read this blog (or if you're on Facebook and see this link and read this) why not tell more people about <i>Reinventing The Wheel</i>? At least, please spread the word if you've enjoyed this or let me know what you'd like to see in terms of discussing animation or narrative.Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-84529460739302312912012-12-06T10:53:00.000-08:002012-12-11T07:52:35.579-08:00The Art Game Master ListThere'll definitely be some discrepancy between what is an art game and what isn't. I've chosen games that have had interesting and different game mechanics, stories, and that haven't necessarily been created by a large game developer (some have, though). You <i>could, </i>in theory, say that almost all games could be elevated to the status of art. However, these are mostly games that urge a player to think cognitively, and that don't necessarily require the strength of excellent hand-eye coordination to complete (in summary, mostly narrative based or experimental in gaming mechanics).<br />
<br />
If you have suggestions of games to add, please list them in the comments. Thanks, and happy art gaming!<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/" target="_blank">Portal</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.emuparadise.me/Sony_Playstation_ISOs/LSD_-_Dream_Emulator_(Japan)/53550" target="_blank">LSD Dream Emulator</a></li>
<li><a href="http://armorgames.com/play/4309/this-is-the-only-level" target="_blank">This Is The Only Level</a></li>
<li><a href="http://braid-game.com/" target="_blank">Braid</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/Mazapan/you-have-to-burn-the-rope" target="_blank">You Have To Burn The Rope</a></li>
<li><a href="http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/" target="_blank">Passage</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/GregoryWeir/the-majesty-of-colors" target="_blank">The Majesty of Colors</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everydaythesamedream.html" target="_blank">Every Day The Same Dream</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/2DArray/the-company-of-myself" target="_blank">The Company of Myself</a></li>
<li><a href="http://greatgatsbygame.com/" target="_blank">The Great Gatsby The Game</a></li>
<li><a href="http://dai5ychain.net/breath/" target="_blank">I Can Hold My Breath Forever</a></li>
<li><a href="http://armorgames.com/play/5355/immortall" target="_blank">ImmorTall</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.indiegames.com/2008/04/freeware_game_pick_yume_nikki.html" target="_blank">Yume Nikki</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/intuition/gray" target="_blank">Gray</a></li>
<li><a href="http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/gravitation/" target="_blank">Gravitation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scoutshonour.com/digital/" target="_blank">Digital: A Love Story</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thatgamecompany.com/games/journey/" target="_blank">Journey</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/austinbreed/covetous" target="_blank">Covetous</a> (<i>slightly </i>nightmare fuel-y, play with caution)</li>
<li><a href="http://Thatgamecompany.com/games/flower/" target="_blank">Flower</a></li>
<li><a href="http://interactive.usc.edu/projects/cloud/flowing/" target="_blank">flOw</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sonicteam.com/rez/" target="_blank">Rez</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ihavenomouth/imustscream.htm" target="_blank">I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b></b></span></div>
Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-51645979916546699532012-12-05T13:22:00.011-08:002012-12-05T13:22:47.529-08:00The Bookmarks Bar : Day TwoLet's see... today there are a <i>lot</i> of unnecessary links that I don't use anymore. My laundry webpage, CTA trip planner (so I could figure out which buses I needed to take), the take-out service I used to get food from when I was working long nights in the studio, Pandora for when I needed new music to listen to while in the studio, American Airlines so I could schedule plans to fly home (maybe while I was in the studio)... and, of course:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<b><u>CG Textures</u></b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXn6iGC69O5AdJ4zSHqRiuurR6C9woNVY7spJY40tVLfbVUxfil_XlMj3lwhNAdHv2B2oMsn_uJhYqgP1_WtveoYHTv54J_a608taqMnGmm7pgPkY93_l_Jyu9Qvy3wtYCpYi9XuSsV6Tj/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-05+at+4.18.27+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXn6iGC69O5AdJ4zSHqRiuurR6C9woNVY7spJY40tVLfbVUxfil_XlMj3lwhNAdHv2B2oMsn_uJhYqgP1_WtveoYHTv54J_a608taqMnGmm7pgPkY93_l_Jyu9Qvy3wtYCpYi9XuSsV6Tj/s320/Screen+shot+2012-12-05+at+4.18.27+PM.png" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Everyone pretty much knows <a href="http://cgtextures.com/">about this website</a>. I think it's one of the first things that pops up when you actually google for textures to use on projects. It's not so bad, though, although nowadays I have a huge depository of textures from billions of other websites at my disposal. Nevertheless, it's a good starting point.<br />
<br />
<b><u>SymbolAssist</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCfODfZCr72JhePy1NuQI6s1dlIsb-zO5yzL8aBTmBlby5yeSymH_gB7jVSQKf4vtlWKmorYW9x5kUFAGtwBhACSTibEEglF0K1bi_l0BKkrTRVRGwSTHgG7OvlW_Bngr0AFnIlVOdgbU2/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-05+at+4.18.10+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCfODfZCr72JhePy1NuQI6s1dlIsb-zO5yzL8aBTmBlby5yeSymH_gB7jVSQKf4vtlWKmorYW9x5kUFAGtwBhACSTibEEglF0K1bi_l0BKkrTRVRGwSTHgG7OvlW_Bngr0AFnIlVOdgbU2/s320/Screen+shot+2012-12-05+at+4.18.10+PM.png" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I think this is <a href="http://blog.plasticmind.com/design/twitter-symbols/">just a post</a> talking about SymbolAssist, <i>but </i>it's a bookmark that I still use when I want to use a cute little symbol in my writing. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #29353c; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">❀</span><br />
<br />
<b><u>MouseBits</u></b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdGXthSmwFP1beh7QhUaqXgZkv3cuTD4OudHmNoJEs8sZbk3m5ytkOcCXTqBHNG6mTBYr2bkhhpgG904QNi1lmfr-YwDq6-id5M4QNJqpUMG5e9hGl4wDJBlfZSsJ0_DL7OCxeUCcXub7L/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-05+at+4.06.40+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdGXthSmwFP1beh7QhUaqXgZkv3cuTD4OudHmNoJEs8sZbk3m5ytkOcCXTqBHNG6mTBYr2bkhhpgG904QNi1lmfr-YwDq6-id5M4QNJqpUMG5e9hGl4wDJBlfZSsJ0_DL7OCxeUCcXub7L/s320/Screen+shot+2012-12-05+at+4.06.40+PM.png" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Following up from posting about <a href="http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/wyw.htm">Widen Your World</a> yesterday, <a href="http://www.mousebits.com/">here's MouseBits</a>. While I said I like Disney World park history, there are hundreds of other people out there who really <i>love</i> Disney World/Land park history, and this whole website collects torrents of things from the park. Songs, videos, photos, 3D mock-ups of rides, narrations, you name it. Whatever you want, you can download here. I'm sure some of it shouldn't actually <i>be</i> downloaded, but there are a lot of nifty documentaries people have created about old attractions, plus lots of other rare Disney things that you could never find anywhere else.<br />
<br />
Tomorrow: day three of my bookmarks bar. Plus! More storyboarding/framing dissections! This time I'm gonna be using <i>Cinema Paradiso</i> and talking about the themes in the movie. After that, I may take the time to post my work from Animation Mentor and do a little bit of studying on that as well.Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-52247746060103570832012-12-04T09:51:00.002-08:002012-12-04T09:51:38.604-08:00The Bookmarks Bar : Day OneSo I'm been lazy. And complacent. And I haven't been writing about anything that has to do with animation or design or anything. Woe is me. Lackadaisical am I. It's been a mixture of a lack of sleep and a full plate of school projects and work things that have kept me from writing on a regular basis... something that I desperately have to do. I really do have to do it. I have to. Argh.<br />
<br />
I figured something that might be interesting for me to do in the meantime to kind of get me off to a running start with writing more often would be to take the time to write about the things that seem important to me. In terms of what I do on the Internet, most of the things that are important to me are stowed away in a special, dare I say revered and holy place, on the bookmarks bar of my browser. ...at least I THINK they're important to me. A quick look to see whether or not they are is probably going to help me figure out just what it is I should focus on, and in the process probably enable the three people who actually ever read this stuff to find some cool new things to bookmark for themselves.<br />
<br />
Let's start off at the bottom of my list today.<br />
<br />
The first five or so bookmarks are for this blog, LJ, and DA, along with my old school e-mails, which... actually, shouldn't be there anymore. I used to write every single day on LJ, and DA I actually barely ever use, so I think those are going to get deleted once I finish writing this. My old school e-mail login page? Seriously? Why do I even have that on there? I had the link memorized. I haven't used it for years. This just goes to show how many things I actually have on the bar, and at least at ONE time, they were important enough to have on there. Anyway, I digress. Gotta find three things I can actually share.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Widen Your World</u></b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGk9_paiZHCQ2Uqjf8hUkIAAC_qN2888oEaXAnwzgRSd5sYUbQT802GwvsYzob1W_IsQNjs02OdDXmw_UZHmJw3hmsXiEBYJdaxpe6_5V3APhtASdyrLYpYejxCUcowSvdLZewhDaRw5IH/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-04+at+10.46.59+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGk9_paiZHCQ2Uqjf8hUkIAAC_qN2888oEaXAnwzgRSd5sYUbQT802GwvsYzob1W_IsQNjs02OdDXmw_UZHmJw3hmsXiEBYJdaxpe6_5V3APhtASdyrLYpYejxCUcowSvdLZewhDaRw5IH/s320/Screen+shot+2012-12-04+at+10.46.59+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/wyw.htm">This website is great.</a> I don't know about the people who read my stuff, but I for one am a huge fan of Disney World history. This is a great website about the old attractions that used to be at Disney World. I've written about how I like futurism before, and some of these old rides had good examples of the style, especially stuff like Horizons. Look at me, using this technical jargon. "Stuff." I'm incredible.<br />
<br />
<b><u>ACM SIGGRAPH</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoFDNQR5IqqrwHzzgN3rEgCRyw8WEF452IgpwQxktJnC6RMdCTqHi_QbFUs-5gXo8SZ_K0PLr1Ja5IPDQPdkYf_jqBqIDmaEcyM9_Q7-baxrJOzSqfLKxsV4C07u6pCj2MzeIx3CxbNWfG/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-04+at+10.46.48+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoFDNQR5IqqrwHzzgN3rEgCRyw8WEF452IgpwQxktJnC6RMdCTqHi_QbFUs-5gXo8SZ_K0PLr1Ja5IPDQPdkYf_jqBqIDmaEcyM9_Q7-baxrJOzSqfLKxsV4C07u6pCj2MzeIx3CxbNWfG/s320/Screen+shot+2012-12-04+at+10.46.48+AM.png" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.siggraph.org/">I'm gonna cry.</a> The only reason I had this up here was because I wanted to go to a conference, and look where I am now: cold, alone, and SIGGRAPHless. We'll have to change this, clearly because this was obviously a very important thing that I wanted to do.<br />
<br />
<b><u>PIXLR</u></b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYnsRzPgDmXw-w0njA-27sObzIPQaO_nYnzj5DWawrqQI5H6da7lg4LrHercqlx0UPp593crboZO0Ji8eHsM4mqmnPBpcZoE5oztO0ZgFLyFPLoy8POH1vlN3_YcqabmOSllcrL8Xgv4y9/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-12-04+at+10.48.12+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYnsRzPgDmXw-w0njA-27sObzIPQaO_nYnzj5DWawrqQI5H6da7lg4LrHercqlx0UPp593crboZO0Ji8eHsM4mqmnPBpcZoE5oztO0ZgFLyFPLoy8POH1vlN3_YcqabmOSllcrL8Xgv4y9/s320/Screen+shot+2012-12-04+at+10.48.12+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://pixlr.com/">I actually use Pixlr at work</a> for getting screencaps (since I don't want to keep hitting Print Screen all of the time). It used to just be Photoshop for your browser, but now they've changed it up and added some new features and things (along with a lot of terrible Instagram-y photo filters).<br />
<br />
That's three for today. If I'm good, you'll be seeing at least three more links tomorrow. If I'm not, see you in 2015!Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-23197535992418275722012-06-08T11:00:00.000-07:002012-12-04T07:07:44.313-08:00"I'm gonna wreck it!" More video games as art talk.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4A1YYYJJEb9B65hZZyX1IkPDiiXPj8E_HizRKwNSnjXgNwjS3e2zawf3IqmAh7MxU4fYznXWg-WUwdOOJp_OecuSebUF1HJNIh2n-tvTzRVuApVs07b2Bo-fHIU62CK8hjgzLFU43c30T/s1600/Wreck-it-Ralph-iwatchmike.com_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4A1YYYJJEb9B65hZZyX1IkPDiiXPj8E_HizRKwNSnjXgNwjS3e2zawf3IqmAh7MxU4fYznXWg-WUwdOOJp_OecuSebUF1HJNIh2n-tvTzRVuApVs07b2Bo-fHIU62CK8hjgzLFU43c30T/s320/Wreck-it-Ralph-iwatchmike.com_.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
...can I just say how incredibly excited I am for this movie?<br />
<br />
I just saw the trailer for it about two days ago and suddenly I've been launched into <i>Wreck-It Ralph</i> frenzy. What's really exciting for me is not only the nostalgia factor (seeing Chun-Li and Bowser in a Disney movie of all places was slightly mystifying) but also the animation. One of these days I would LOVE to see a whole movie done in an 8-bit style. I know that all of <i>Wreck-It Ralph</i> won't be that way, and I love how the other video game characters are rendered in 3D, but oh man. The animation looks like it's going to be fantastic all throughout. And the other great thing about this is the fact that perhaps Roger Ebert will rescind his comment on how video games aren't art after this is released. I know that it's not a video game in of itself: this is very clearly a movie <i>about </i>video games, but video games are already based on story and plot and structure, as simple as they sometimes are (in the case of old arcade games). They just have an added level of interactivity. And look at how gorgeous the film looks! The designs are basically lifted from popular video games (Hero's Duty looks almost exactly like Mass Effect or Halo, and Sugar Rush is just Mario Kart with a dessert dumped on top of it) so you can't deny that video games themselves have the same high level of visual mastery and magnificence as a feature film, which is already considered art.<br />
<br />
And I know it's not a completely novel story idea. The "what happens in the world of ______" trope has been rehashed to death. But I don't care. Not in the case of <i>Wreck-It Ralph. </i>Anything that combines my two favorite things in the entire world is enough to get me excited.Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-73543774563252244632012-06-08T06:22:00.001-07:002016-01-06T12:56:46.407-08:00Problems With Portal 2<i>This is something I wrote a couple of months ago but never got around to posting. Admittedly it's not the most structured thing in the world, but I figure I'll go ahead and post it anyway since it does have a couple of interesting things in it.</i><br />
<br />
I was thinking about it last night, and I realized what it was that was bothering me about Portal 2.<br />
<br />
Like I've said before, Portal is my all time favorite video game. I can go back to it and it still feels just as fresh to me as it did the first time I played. It's got an interesting plot, it's got an incredible soundtrack (some people say it's forgettable, but since it reminds me of <a href="http://youtu.be/azxQYf9KT94">things</a> <a href="http://youtu.be/jMjuyFrfnc8">like</a> <a href="http://youtu.be/0V2TZKcWnXE">this</a>, I love it: it adds to the creepy ambiance of the game), and it's got one unforgettable character in GLaDOS, not to mention an interesting choice of a woman as the player's avatar. And that's what I realized about what separates it from Portal 2.<br />
<br />
There are no new female characters.<br />
<br />
You could make the argument that (spoiler alert!) Caroline, Cave Johnson's assistant, is a new character. But she was created only to replace Cave's male assistant (if you listen to the commentary track inside of the game/play the brand new Testing Initiative DLC), is never actively seen (save for one static image), and is essentially GLaDOS. I started thinking about how awesome it would have been if, instead of Nolan North, Valve had hired a female voice actor to voice the various personality cores and defunct turrets.<br />
<br />
Then again, maybe what you could take from it, as this person noted, is the oppression of a female in video games. I know I'm being pretentious and trying to conceptualize it, but when I played Portal, I felt like it was creepy. I felt an overwhelming feeling of being in an environment I was clearly not allowed to be in. And I loved that the lead of the game was a strong woman that I could sympathize (even though she was always trying to kill me). I didn't sympathize at all with anyone (except maybe Cave Johnson, at the end of his lemons speech- his persistence even in the face of failure and Black Mesa for science tugged at my heartstrings). And maybe it's just my GLaDOS-like nature, but I especially did not sympathize with Wheatley. The moment he got crushed in the beginning of the game, I immediately thought, "Oh, thank GOD, I don't have to listen to him anymore." And as funny as they were, in retrospect I didn't like the fat jokes. I didn't like anything that called Chell ugly. In the first game, GLaDOS called the player ugly and stupid not because it would bruise her ego as a woman, but just as a general human being. The game didn't call to attention Chell's femininity, which is what I <span style="font-style: italic;">loved</span> about the first game. The fact that GLaDOS and Chell could fight each other, be passive aggressive without having to mention "you're fat, oh wow, fashion designers call you ugly" was great, and was what made the game even more enjoyable for me, not having to hear the same kinds of taunts that, as a girl, I already have to deal with.<br />
<br />
I love that Portal 2 is a different story entirely, but Portal will always come out on top because it didn't rely on <i>spoken</i> narrative to push it along. In the first game, you relied on instinct. You didn't have your Navi-esque Wheatley following you around going, "You have to shut down the neurotoxin generators! You have to think of a way to get past the turret defenses! Ooh! Also! Don't forget to wash your hands! Also, breath in and out, you'll stay alive longer that way! Hi! Hello? Are you listening to me?"<br />
<br />
Valve is the one studio that's always creative about the way that it goes about it's games. But from the DOTA 2 previews, the lack of any new female characters in Portal 2 (not to mention Chell getting that glossy photo finish makeover), and now hearing that there's going to be a Portal 3... my stomach is kind of in knots.Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-82707662550151630522011-09-01T23:00:00.000-07:002011-09-01T20:45:16.225-07:00The Power of the Silhouette<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv6onQAe_LQIb0AAbXU5uPmESZ9PpSRAKhARZW2VCtYgzT_P1psz8xS24HgEkWG-hIf_hPcxyoWAXc1QT1jcs5VwRRbbh6aiABh5pQXnc604lDdOET5O4jSKwgXWn88YSmL3XZy0dXPfV1/s1600/image005.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 135px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv6onQAe_LQIb0AAbXU5uPmESZ9PpSRAKhARZW2VCtYgzT_P1psz8xS24HgEkWG-hIf_hPcxyoWAXc1QT1jcs5VwRRbbh6aiABh5pQXnc604lDdOET5O4jSKwgXWn88YSmL3XZy0dXPfV1/s320/image005.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632226454492465394" /></a></div>They say that any great character has an easily recognizable silhouette. I remember seeing the picture above a while back on the internet, and it got me thinking about just how important character design is, and how, especially in a game, it's incredibly important to model your characters so that a player can easily identify them in a fast paced gaming setting (which is even more important if you're playing a multi-player game).<div>
<br /></div><div>Now I saw this picture of the Team Fortress 2 classes lined up in silhouette, and I don't know if I feel that they're strikingly different (I mean, they're mostly all middle aged men and very close in height to each other), but you can easily read what role they would probably be. There's the wrench hanging off of the Engineer's belt, Pyro's fuel on the back of his suit, the size of the Heavy compared to the Scout, the ammo and grenades strapped to Soldier... you can clearly tell who the characters are supposed to be (on a side note, I'm trying to figure out if the silhouette on the right is the Demoman or not... he has a collar that covers half of his face, but this lineup might be from an early version of the TF2 characters; the box on his belt tips me off because it could probably be a detonator). </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Here's another example of silhouette, but this time from more of a design perspective (and an animation perspective... but of course this could and should be related to gaming as well).</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTyWKeBtgCAq1Qb-8hOJuMCSckXG3LXZDvHC3cm6ARUSfS6obkMIySczt9_TaOHXh_gaheHhGoX-lQB7X1FFbidnffxFBm7BwLyirwZIpGIWjk87LBJaxnv-X_b_Qmr7Ocfi3ZOtbnjJ6/s320/aladdin_char_style.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5647602007749228514" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; " /></span></div><div>
<br /></span></div><div> A lot of people have used this example, but it's only because it's a really good example of character design. I'm not too partial to the movie, but each character in Aladdin was created using a certain geometric shape to differentiate them from the other characters. Simple shapes that compose the characters evoke certain qualities about that character. If you gave this sheet to someone and erased the names of the characters from the shapes on the bottom (with the knowledge that these are characters from Aladdin) anyone could guess who they were right away. The simplicity and variety of these shapes makes for a memorable cast of characters.</div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-9975508366515228922011-08-03T14:03:00.000-07:002011-08-03T14:09:08.411-07:00Konzortium Kollective<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://konzortium.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/KomradeKittyMineKraft.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 528px; height: 297px;" src="http://konzortium.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/KomradeKittyMineKraft.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />After the success of the <a href="http://valvearg.com/wiki/Valve_ARG_Wiki">Potato Fool's Day ARG</a> for Portal 2, one of the players decided that he would start his own alternate reality game. I had subscribed to his mailing list for further updates on his progress, and today I <span style="font-style:italic;">finally</span> got a chance to go on the wiki. Starting today, I'm going to start following <a href="http://konzortium.com/aai/Main_Page">ARG Across the Internet</a>, and I think anyone else who reads my blog should do it, too. It's always good to get into an ARG right at or near the start. Seems like it could be a whole lot of fun.Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-13766298586725790442011-07-21T18:58:00.000-07:002011-08-03T13:56:07.348-07:00Portal: A Look Into Gaming As Art<div style="text-align: left;">Wow, it's been a while since my last post! I've been very busy with graduation, animating, and job hunting that I haven't really had time to write anything that would be worthwhile (at least, worthwhile to <span style="font-style:italic;">me</span>). Here're some fun new things to celebrate my coming back to this blog. 1) My blog posts should now get linked to my Tumblr. This still is kind of a personal blog for me in the sense that I'm still just really accruing/dissecting interesting things for my own benefit, but people who read or stumble upon my Tumblr might find these sorts of things interesting. So I'll be friendly and share. Ha ha. 2) I'll try to post more often. I've got a lot of things that I should be sharing here. Seriously. A lot. No exaggeration. You should see my desktop— actually, wait, you shouldn't. Anyone who looks at it is amazed at all of the things that I accrue on there. But it's all just things I collect to inspire my art and just to inspire <i>me</i> in general. And I'd like to write more posts explaining why I enjoy what I snag off the internet.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;">Alright. Let's end this long period of silence with something that I really should have been talking about four years ago (and something that I've been blabbing about more than usual on Tumblr since March): gaming, narrative, and character— specifically in my favorite video game, <i>Portal</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><object width="560" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TluRVBhmf8w?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TluRVBhmf8w?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><div><br /></div><div>I've never really thought of myself as a gamer. I mean, I've played video games for my entire life, but I was playing games like Berserk on my dad's Atari 2600. I was trying to catch Carmen Sandiego on our Tandy. I'd trade Pokémon with the kids in my fifth grade class during recess on my Game Boy. I never thought of myself as someone who could ever get really invested in video games, or see them as anything that could ever provoke deep meaning.</div><div><br /></div><div>I knew about Portal through a friend who had gotten the newly released Orange Box and had watched her play it, but it was such a short playthrough that we didn't have any time to view anything other than a part of a puzzle she was still working on. It wasn't until I stumbled upon <a href="http://youtu.be/j0PDGp1hL4w">this video</a> that I really became intrigued. The quips were hilarious, but I wanted to know: who the hell <i>was</i> this character? Cue me getting an XBox after watching a full playthrough of the game for the sole purpose of playing through it for myself.</div><div><br /></div><div>It got me thinking about other games that I hadn't played. I wasn't going to let my XBox go to waste, so I started buying other titles: Fallout 3, Halo Reach, Mirror's Edge, the list goes on And, honestly, all of these first person shooters and other puzzle games don't hold a candle to the overall feeling of Portal. Boiled down to it's essence, a video game is a series of puzzles you are rewarded later on for. For example, in FPS games, you have to figure out how to strategize and find your opponents, then take them down with whatever weapon you think will get the job done so you can rack up points and win the game. Same thing with platformers and RPGs (and the whole idea of item collecting and achievement hoarding). In the beginning of Portal, it's clearly established that you will be going through a series of tests and will be rewarded at completion of the course. The fact that this is a game is not hidden, but it's still disconcerting. At least in other games, you know that there're going to be villains you have to fight along the way. In Portal, the only character you know through the entire game is an AI voice guiding you through a tutorial on how to use a Portal gun. There are no other human characters other than the player. And yet, as you continue through these seemingly pointless tests, the turrets that try to kill you and the Weighted Companion Cube that you are forced to carry around with you feel more human and alive than some other video game NPCs.</div><div><br /></div><div>And then comes the surprising plot twist to the game (note: SPOILERS for anyone who still hasn't played this game): the realization that, all along, this AI that has been guiding you through the tests isn't just spouting off pre-recorded messages. After almost getting killed, you have to use everything you've been taught in the previous test chambers to escape from being roasted in a fire. That's the amazing thing about Portal: clearly, the first half of the game is a tutorial, but it doesn't feel like it at all. Once you've flung yourself into the inner workings of Aperture Science, you really feel as though you're violating someone's privacy, going into a part of the game that neither your omniscient tester nor the game developer wanted you to go into. The best part is the feeling of satisfaction when you've realized how you can use portals to traverse through such clandestine areas. There's a particular room that, when I first played, took me about an hour to figure out how to get out of. I was kicking myself when I figured out that the solution was extremely easy (two portals, no complicated flinging involved: color me embarrassed).</div><div><br /></div><div>Rarely is a pathway obvious to the player (except, of course, the directions you get from the Rat Man, but that's all a consequence of the story) as there are multiple solutions to avoid each obstacle. I don't want to talk about Portal 2 too much (I'll leave it for a future post), but I think the main difference between the sequel and the original was that, in the second game, the player's hand was held way too much. There was usually just one way to solve a particular puzzle, and while it helped with the pacing of the story, it felt artificial at times. Places to put portals were clearly marked with lined boundaries (it was one step behind placing large, neon "PUT PORTAL HERE" signs everywhere). In the first Portal, I think there was only a few times where places to put portals were marked with multicolored tiles, but that was it. And with that lack of information of where to go, a player felt a lot more rebellious while running away from the disembodied voice of their captor.</div><div><br /></div><div>And speaking of that mysterious woman, let's talk a bit about GLaDOS.</div><div><br /></div><div>To me, GLaDOS is like a mixture of Josef Mengele and Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development. She's sort of a sultry robotic scientist who has really no regard for human life and only for her own (and the life of science, at least). While on one hand I like how her history was revealed in the sequel, from a story standpoint it really wasn't necessary. More of a welcomed bonus. The allure of GLaDOS is exactly that you don't know who she is. You don't understand why you are where you are, or why you're being tested. You don't get why she's so murderous, if it's just a result of faulty Aperture programming or if AI in the future not only can become sentient, but passive aggressive as well. But in the end, there are no loose ends. There's really no resolution to the story. And, if you ignore the events of Portal 2, it seems that GLaDOS lives on to continue science for mysterious purposes.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>I always say that a movie is successful if you can have an in-depth conversation about it once you've finished watching it. Portal is the art house movie about two women trapped in a mad house of science that was made in video game form. It's the first video game that ever blew my mind, and the only video game that I still go back to time and time again to appreciate for its story along with its fantastic gameplay.</div><div><br /></div><div>As an extra bonus, here are some links that I've gathered over the past year about why Portal is such an amazing game and general info about females and female characters in gaming. Most of these can describe why I think Portal is great a lot better and more in depth, and why it was a call to video game artists to focus on story and character (and the role of the female in games).</div><div><br /></div><div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="text-decoration: underline"><b>ARTICLES ON FEMINISM AND VIDEO GAMES</b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><ul><li><span style="text-decoration: underline"><a href="http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=1816">http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=1816</a></span></li><li><a href="http://www.infinitelives.net/2010/01/16/video-game-feminist-of-the-decade-or-when-you-is-a-girl/">http://www.infinitelives.net/2010/01/16/video-game-feminist-of-the-decade-or-when-you-is-a-girl/</a></li><li><a href="http://www.acidforblood.net/2009/02/comparing-female-protagonists-portal-and-mirrors-edge.html">http://www.acidforblood.net/2009/02/comparing-female-protagonists-portal-and-mirrors-edge.html</a> (which is about Portal and Mirror's Edge)</li><li><a href="http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Gaming">http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Gaming</a></li><li><a href="http://www.alternet.org/sex/145843/enlightened_sexism:_%22women's_success%22_means_it's_fine_to_resurrect_--_even_celebrate_--_sexist_stereotypes">http://www.alternet.org/sex/145843/enlightened_sexism:_%22women's_success%22_means_it's_fine_to_resurrect_--_even_celebrate_--_sexist_stereotypes</a></li><li><a href="http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/06/12/5056/">http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/06/12/5056/</a></li><li><a href="http://www.justinecassell.com/publications/gg_introduction.pdf">http://www.justinecassell.com/publications/gg_introduction.pdf</a></li><li><a href="http://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/">http://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/</a> (Just… this entire blog is an amazing resource as to how women are portrayed in the industry. Progress is happening but things still need to be changed.)</li></ul><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="text-decoration: underline"><b>THINGS ABOUT PORTAL</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"></p><ul><li><a href="http://bakka111.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/some-thoughts-portal-2/">http://bakka111.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/some-thoughts-portal-2/</a></li><li><a href="http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/f/portal-is-the-most-subversive-game-ever/a-20071207115329881080/g-2006071916221774024">http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/f/portal-is-the-most-subversive-game-ever/a-20071207115329881080/g-2006071916221774024</a></li><li><a href="http://www.gamesradar.com/f/portal-is-the-most-subversive-game-ever/a-20071207115329881080">http://www.gamesradar.com/f/portal-is-the-most-subversive-game-ever/a-20071207115329881080</a></li></ul><p></p> </div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-26759633145213852282010-11-08T19:36:00.000-08:002011-08-03T13:57:11.995-07:00ARGs and Me: An Awfully Written Intro<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.skitch.com/20081126-ryxi2wabwd6yc4hd9c9rj9ijyk.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 438px; height: 375px;" src="http://img.skitch.com/20081126-ryxi2wabwd6yc4hd9c9rj9ijyk.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I've realized that, if I were to ever get into the gaming industry, that story would be the thing I would most be interested in crafting rather than the actual mechanics. This is why I've recently been researching ARGs: alternate reality games, where one of the most important factors of the game is to make it seem as realistic as possible... mostly without the aid of a console or a computer. This means MUCH less time spent on mechanics and a whole lot more time spent on creating an interesting narrative.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm sure if you're a regular user of the Internet, you've stumbled upon one of these before. I've been somewhat involved in two past games (for <a href="http://cloverfield.wikia.com/wiki/Cloverfield_ARG_(alternate_reality_game)">Cloverfield</a> and <a href="http://portalwiki.net/">Portal 2</a>) and have come across remnants of others, my favorites so far being the <a href="http://aperturescience.com/">Aperture Science website</a> for Portal (seriously, the employee application is one of the funniest things I've read, and if you want to read it as well, go to the website and type in "login", username: cjohnson, password: tier3, then enter "ls", then "apply") and the seven deadly sins packages/websites for Dante's Inferno (which were less narrative based but definitely raised some general questions about morality). Most recently, I've signed up to finish the end of the Tron Legacy ARG, <i>Flynn Lives,</i> and have started participating in some of the more recent events.</div><div><br /></div><div>And so far, from what I've seen, ARGs have been closely tied with advertisements for products. Off the top of my head, lonelygirl15 is a sort-of ARG— not a game because this was only comprised of videos —that was able to successfully trick an audience into thinking it was real while at the same time being incredibly engaging. What I really want to do is see how an ARG that isn't based off of some pre-existing product/story could be engaging, fun, and most importantly successful. I don't know if there are already some out there, but I bet that if there aren't, it could be done somehow.</div><div><br /></div><div>All of that said, <a href="http://www.argn.com/2010/10/how_to_build_legends_out_of_stories/">here's the first stepping stone</a> in my quest to either search for or make an original ARG from ARGN.com. </div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-82003910796673327912010-11-08T04:38:00.001-08:002010-11-08T17:16:53.377-08:00Three Movies and Many Caps<div style="text-align: left;">I didn't really want to make a huge post about all of these films, so here're a couple of screencaps I've taken from some recent films I've watched with some interesting compositional stuff that's probably not actually super interesting but hey I think they're interesting and look at that I'm making a run-on sentence so without further ado, I'll just get my creepy nerdiness out of the way and start with these:</div><div><br /></div><div>Pokémon is one of those shows that… well, you either hate it because you feel that it's all a huge marketing ploy or you love it immensely because of the escapist story of being able to go off into the world to capture crazy animals and have amazing adventures. I've fallen into the trap of loving them for the animation and the stories, specifically for the third Pokémon movie, <b>Kesshou Tou no Teiou Entei</b>, which I think translates into something like "The Badass Lion Pokémon Entei and his Magic Adventures". The movies are honestly a lot better than the TV show just for overall quality (except the best thing about the whole series, Team Rocket, hardly ever makes an appearance in the films, but that's something to discuss another day). Anyway, in the movie, this little girl Molly loses her parents, finds a whole bunch of magical Pokémon called the Unown, and uses them to create her own scary dream world and conjures up her "Papa", the legendary Pokémon Entei. Through a series of events that would take a while to explain, Entei kidnaps Ash's mother because Molly wants to pretend that she's <i>her</i> real mother... so Ash and friends must go and infiltrate the girl's dream world to get his mom back. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga8bMA2-h-SRfClZ9DhEis32nvqBDCTUvNjALDeQoiUGbPtU8ACOjNWJK9JC-e1fLFwQ7zB0PVd8rt_19foTyVRAWwcPeU-HPIzgRGVZKNgaWwq92s0o5RoPWxEfDhp7cHyqicAkuNzpX5/s320/Screen+shot+2010-11-03+at+6.32.39+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537158682376172930" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px; " /></span></div><div>Every time I watch Pokémon nowadays I always think of the three kids as the band of wandering, adventurous detectives. I think it stems from Harry Potter being enhanced for me by Brad Neely's <i>Wizard People, Dear Reader </i>where he kept calling the trio of friends "junior Sherlock Holmes'." So yeah. Here are the four detectives, Misty, Brock, the rat, and Ash. And this is just a really nice cap of all four of them together in a lovely meadow before Brock has to kick the crap out of Molly in a Pokémon battle. </div><div><br /></div><div>...I guess I won't explain every scene cap, but this next one makes more sense with at least a sentence of explanation below it...</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZOLFqPN5KUa6N75hBRjgpLIW1yLX1DUzgTKwEW7cBkoaBlF60XA4btx9lvZcfOuX6Moi5CaH8UG4mnl6EcgWY-9Qs8az92-uHsN7pS1BKBpXUBTouuhtJhFFDC9mrNhn6mpV-OusCltgE/s320/Screen+shot+2010-11-03+at+4.46.50+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537158713516350258" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 179px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Here Molly finds out that her dad has just disappeared while on an expedition. Small Molly, spaced far away from everyone else, meaning Molly feels small, and she feels like she's so far away from anyone's help. Very obvious composition, yes, but I don't know. I liked it for some reason.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2a7f9GeKXZohFq4nbDW0uZnUDU19MeabxsZxjYK8BEx2YR2I592K7uerDjcarbBB7MYFaW1Z7pLfTkVy6if3LFigPSwzh8MOZw0k-7DlUFIKJ4v5lE11RimpOxLoZS9J0IbDaH5fyxHEW/s320/Screen+shot+2010-11-03+at+4.53.22+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537158700832529970" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 179px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">This one is just so awkward and hilarious, and Ash looks like a big dork as always. "YEAH TOTODILE LET'S DO OUR VICTORY JUMP." I want to know how someone can jump that high. I don't want to try it for myself, though. It looks too dangerous. I'll leave that kind of move to the real Pokémon trainers.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQII0D11c93KD97Lg5yRfG-ccLPOsiiPJOCqpd-hNbecFMEqnU1MorLclCQN-STYN8a1aRKV-buOLhBy70sm3JpooWmqmqXK06b_8-1y69oOE_VxiIJiN6XgBo4q2B9YRyF2FvdVhoxVre/s320/Screen+shot+2010-11-03+at+4.47.20+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537158752656531666" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">I didn't really take too many good screencaps, because when I was watching this movie the other day I only got through half of it. The second half is a whole lot cooler and has so many better opportunities for caps (note to self: do a scene study of this movie!), but... I took this one because it was just so awkward. I don't know if it's just because things are chopped off in this version of the movie (is this not as wide as the original?) but Molly's just placed strangely in the frame. Maybe it's just me. Either way, sometimes you just gotta look at the frames you hate, too.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWWggaW3k4EKFE3S9WKi6fjh4C70IvUFONRmQ4eqLbNqvvUHx9R7UMxiuG5qZF9IcB-QS3VkWiIRSfLcJskVC_b4LofMexnsXroDAgQVzKEmUxYQMVbcybrdAhlPU1JPClWGUFTqwkyoga/s320/Screen+shot+2010-11-03+at+4.42.05+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537158735440857538" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">PIKACHU. WEARING A HAT. I AM LAUGHING LIKE A LUNATIC. The framing here is obvious and excellent. Also, that cake in the back looks delicious. I really want some.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBWi98yUS1xnZlaBH7zhWhvh9fAA5CDNDHGBDfHX2EBBJhethZmOdN9v6MJ4Gkmd2AI5ac0tDryWj7D71phxpQeygNTC5IRhunIahEtVO6JFUzy-XYVUmo3wd2GD-CBl662fK61OOyhc9f/s320/Screen+shot+2010-11-05+at+2.35.45+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537164698943759682" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Anyway, next movie. <b>Wristcutters</b>. It's a good film with Gogol Bordello music about where you go when you commit suicide. Again, not many caps (just this one), but I did watch through the whole movie, and what I really liked about it wasn't the compositions (which <i>were</i> good) but the color. Everything is so washed out and depressing, because... well, Suicide World is a depressing place where you can't smile and bad things happen to you <i>all</i> of the time. But it was gorgeous and never distracting.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUYNDFNCN8uRAG-ovzfYSHuZIPVdo7XY-QNQfxKEK4iA9Ml1eUIlQTCNqIkcV-gmriDYeIvi5JuKvmpTRBfZM-XVZ-ZnBA83pTVd33sg7SCfVb77TU-fN20jHTD6lYv0DwPbATLpS12qOf/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-11-05+at+1.19.25+AM.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6atlQJrWkcnmhJVVToyC2U5WyDwUhG89wSXh1a-rc65Ii5uBoMzYTaiiu-6QNHBsXg8ajX8-XfEN2f41fsibFD_72VlnZFRAxCJtQI77qdXGsci3mbcQxH0frg7afYTqt3_JIwAinabEe/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-11-05+at+1.03.24+AM.png"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZSUnrfmZzJqH5Zzh7wd3-vKcPxDEJba-PnbuqQyfNhnimA8dO0M0lwxJ7wHi9KCmexFiXqhO5hTxBDQNVnpJPrwb1AF_h_dOy3aaKnx9W4m6Bu5FnMyaSvXCK3osX3drs2Wq2RzO3_Tln/s320/Screen+shot+2010-11-05+at+1.00.04+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537350343818238530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>Now <b>Kabei: Our Mother</b>. Also a really good film that almost made me cry. And I say almost because I thought the ending was so incredibly corny. Otherwise, yes, it was a really nice film, and interesting to see both WWII from a Japanese perspective and see the universality of family and loss. And to see Tadanobu Asano. Oh yes. That man is amazing.<div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6atlQJrWkcnmhJVVToyC2U5WyDwUhG89wSXh1a-rc65Ii5uBoMzYTaiiu-6QNHBsXg8ajX8-XfEN2f41fsibFD_72VlnZFRAxCJtQI77qdXGsci3mbcQxH0frg7afYTqt3_JIwAinabEe/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-11-05+at+1.03.24+AM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6atlQJrWkcnmhJVVToyC2U5WyDwUhG89wSXh1a-rc65Ii5uBoMzYTaiiu-6QNHBsXg8ajX8-XfEN2f41fsibFD_72VlnZFRAxCJtQI77qdXGsci3mbcQxH0frg7afYTqt3_JIwAinabEe/s320/Screen+shot+2010-11-05+at+1.03.24+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537350356879647410" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></div><div>But I really liked all of the scenes that happened inside of houses, which was more or less half of the movie. On one hand is was voyeuristic, and on the other... it made you feel like you were also a part of the family. Which made each loss and gain within the household a lot more emotional.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUYNDFNCN8uRAG-ovzfYSHuZIPVdo7XY-QNQfxKEK4iA9Ml1eUIlQTCNqIkcV-gmriDYeIvi5JuKvmpTRBfZM-XVZ-ZnBA83pTVd33sg7SCfVb77TU-fN20jHTD6lYv0DwPbATLpS12qOf/s320/Screen+shot+2010-11-05+at+1.19.25+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537350378623709362" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">This is obviously the truest cap in the entire film. And the last one from this set.</span></div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-82681380955420964642010-10-27T00:13:00.000-07:002010-10-28T01:22:50.160-07:00Great Scott! Babbling About BTTF<div style="text-align: left;">For some reason I feel as if I've been writing these blog posts as if they've been assignments for school. A few of them seem really dry and stale to me, and I'm sure that I could explain myself better if I just kind of... well, relax. I shouldn't be focusing on whether or not the writing's good. I mean, this blog is supposed to be for myself (but then again I'm my own worst critic).</div><div><br /></div><div>That said, I just found out that Telltale is making a new <i>Back To The Future </i>video game, and I must let out my emotions in my own special way:</div><div><br /></div><div>OH MY GOD ARE YOU FOR REALS YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS THIS IS GOING TO BE SO SUPER KILLER AWESOME AND CHRISTOPHER LLOYD IS IN IT AND SOME OTHER DUDE IS IN IT PRETENDING TO BE MARTY AND HE ACTUALLY SOUNDS LIKE MARTY AND OH GOD WE'RE GOING TO GO BACK IN TIME AND BACK TO THE FUTURE SIX MONTHS AFTER THE THIRD MOVIE I MEAN I JUST I HOPE THAT CLARA IS NOT IN IT SHE ANNOYS ME TO NO END BUT ANYWAY BACK TO THE FUTURE GAME ARRRRRRGH THIS IS GREAT I AM ECSTATIC!!! </div><div><br /></div><div>Ahem.</div><div><br /></div><div>As if you couldn't tell, <i>Back To The Future </i>is one of my all-time favorite movies. It completely encapsulates the feelings I get when I think about my childhood, particularly the scene in the first movie where Marty and Doc first test out the time travel DeLorean at Twin Pines/Lone Pine Mall (minus the whole Doc getting chased and gunned down by terrorists bit). Although, and I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks this way, out of all three of the <i>BTTF</i> movies, my favorite is the second. I love seeing how the future and the past are changed throughout the first film (and how, every time I see the movie, I find a tiny detail about these changes that I missed the first time around) but the second one is just filled with so many more. And I'm kicking myself now because I completely forgot to bring the movie with me to Chicago (but I have the first and third ones, what's up with that?!) and I wanted to make some screencaps and list some of the things that I absolutely love about the film.</div><div><br /></div><div>Luckily, this is the Internet. And on the Internet, <span style="color:#FF0000;">y</span><span style="color:#FF4D00;">o</span><span style="color:#FF9A00;">u</span><span style="color:#FFE700;"> </span><span style="color:#FFff00;">c</span><span style="color:#B2ff00;">a</span><span style="color:#65ff00;">n</span><span style="color:#18ff00;"> </span><span style="color:#00ff00;">g</span><span style="color:#00ff4D;">e</span><span style="color:#00ff9A;">t</span><span style="color:#00ffE7;"> </span><span style="color:#00ffff;">a</span><span style="color:#00E7ff;">n</span><span style="color:#009Aff;">y</span><span style="color:#004Dff;">t</span><span style="color:#0000ff;">h</span><span style="color:#1800ff;">i</span><span style="color:#6500ff;">n</span><span style="color:#B200ff;">g.</span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#B200FF;"><br /></span></div><div>Well, the first thing that I can say is that... oh<i> Lord, </i>I actually used to hate this movie with a passion. I hated it just as much as I did the third movie. But the thing was, I had never seen it in it's entirety: I had just seen the first half hour or so when Doc, Marty, and Jennifer go into the future. After seeing the film entirely, the segment is still pretty corny what with all of it's wild assumptions about what 2015 will be like (example: I cried pained tears when the 3D Jaws tried to eat Marty and he flipped out... how could that look real to anyone with working vision?) and Michael J. Fox playing fifty billion copies of himself (one in drag, even, pahahaha) but it has to be there because 1) it was already set up at the end of the first movie, and 2) it sets up the rest of the awesome, awesome plot...</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdrTE2PErea-zLrUAi2YfdzbRi7rYoBtwkZzx4WIrgqHL3vcJEVypf_1R6rsT8rSUWYKAFkEhFjAaGlIqa9kD9PBE_DT3pEQDGok9Y1QnpJror41YicQ4-bcmzucoi5vYyeyh2QTbPdVJS/s1600/b2tfii2117.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdrTE2PErea-zLrUAi2YfdzbRi7rYoBtwkZzx4WIrgqHL3vcJEVypf_1R6rsT8rSUWYKAFkEhFjAaGlIqa9kD9PBE_DT3pEQDGok9Y1QnpJror41YicQ4-bcmzucoi5vYyeyh2QTbPdVJS/s320/b2tfii2117.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532997221538326898" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlr7ssPvmdp-yIKXdPN8kHolmXJpYg0acDjvLg0EyOCGTfRZ8Wsz5vwrqlUG6ZjOXZT6W3-pfGKusLW_KO4qkf45Ky0Li5DD0fRl8hWh-YiaL7HHHBmUyZa3TzY24nxbSLelv4ijiD-nMl/s1600/b2tfii2107.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlr7ssPvmdp-yIKXdPN8kHolmXJpYg0acDjvLg0EyOCGTfRZ8Wsz5vwrqlUG6ZjOXZT6W3-pfGKusLW_KO4qkf45Ky0Li5DD0fRl8hWh-YiaL7HHHBmUyZa3TzY24nxbSLelv4ijiD-nMl/s320/b2tfii2107.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532997220728617474" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>MARTY'S HORRIFYING ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1wGnRiC6Q-exwpq0qVShrT6HNp-FMY07m92MAosqWcQJpwV-qAskGnouBwqQsnLKcbtJqgv5CtIYPPnkSqUntlFnuDQwTOVnXVOgpOfdJJbT174nudrEOpZmFM6ONyh81O0lbBcEyQe0H/s320/b2tfii1973.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532997201052485938" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Bikers everywhere, Strickland has a gun, <b>and</b> I don't have a room anymore?! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"</span></i></div><div><br /></div><div>Personally, I would think that ruining the possibility of my existence would be less scary than actually having to exist in a horrifying world where my mother is married to <i>Biff Tannen</i>. Even worse would be finding out that Biff murdered my dad <i>and</i> that my best friend was committed to a mental institution <i>and </i>that I had just left my sleeping girlfriend on some stranger's porch in a dangerous neighborhood (but I always find it hilarious that this is actually one of the least of Marty's worries... oh that McFly). When Marty gets hit with the realization that his future is all screwed up (not knowing how it could have happened), it's the darkest part of the entire trilogy <i>and </i>leads up to one of my favorite scenes. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0WloF7eMbGua-FkRQ-H1pZT5bfuZFoKBfEPSblEKGXdK5aISO8-SiEEW2T9d3M2mTKncWmjZD0FssBLW00HG84cuxR_lh3zhJmKOyqNzAYyeOeETzGChAgTzIgJWOmF3s71c0jPzSNed4/s320/b2tfii2491.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532988955040718930" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMrOmv1QFZ4K1V-XO7WCj36QmmW59148UHaBGNw5XIx8V70fOUt5ng-eMSwtFPFxOgILzwhNt645EpEKHrkg_ttGKrWMr-KfAJjV0omdDHiwOhYaZtSuaeFBqFrqPBFwSm9_ZlcUsdffNS/s1600/b2tfii2498.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMrOmv1QFZ4K1V-XO7WCj36QmmW59148UHaBGNw5XIx8V70fOUt5ng-eMSwtFPFxOgILzwhNt645EpEKHrkg_ttGKrWMr-KfAJjV0omdDHiwOhYaZtSuaeFBqFrqPBFwSm9_ZlcUsdffNS/s320/b2tfii2498.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532989837754362210" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></a></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwETpCsuYrDwhmD47yNImqNJxZYR7h5Fh1P_ynLPkqZxiI5PdWHV1TK8nbA2c_JJTiLskJr8YyNtVTnfYajtcAsO0WL1sfsS3NXdrlJiY4Cj1JxhdF99Q95FCsVufYf2oqtlLmRtsIIgm/s320/b2tfii2527.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532989837356939826" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Everything's bleak, everything's dreary... from what I remember, it's raining outside, and Doc and Marty (and Einstein if he can even comprehend what's going on) are the only two people in this specific timeline— the entire world —to realize that things are <i>not</i> going as they should be. The worst part is that they don't even know why it's happening. Well, Marty doesn't understand why, at least. It's a hopeless situation where your throat just plummets into your stomach and any way to resolve what has happened is just thrown out the window. This isn't a matter of getting your parents back together by having them kiss at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance... this is a matter of having to go back through the entire fabric of time and figure out just what the hell happened.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">But luckily, Doc is not only a scientist, but a master detective, and is gonna learn ol' Marty a thing or two.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUZe8fLjY-It3qWrzsbEBVdUX1akHL7k2355wARSxYjVu4EVjMz9FQC67MXQsulfe74hT6qnnJDeLUrpXcaAQTnU3RVGczcK7YPXvmZW5N1Ynk1FGUflnzQTA2vMKXhQpuLvcRr-7TxG06/s320/b2tfii2538.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532989841734977026" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlXejc_NVwVgO66aa3SKiQNzgmiUAfqzLH1vqTV57R_d0gpRwecrv8-TfFCY5mL3jhEoAZMlMDfvoC9eJNwFcGDKy_8MQdorsFO2HcAqIEb_xraIRJW8lo_Q3UxZpsJve7TelNOlOsXIw/s320/b2tfii2557.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532989855503855362" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGl3rztIOt_C1QVYIkpejDiGZB7t2EJbpbejAL4Mf-CBdsxzo46lc3j4mYyBx9zNTiK35H7VjD7DRpSj0V9r2vN-eAiP2acQWPqAdHBRoAE0g0ALALqaKriLV2WWDY0mwtRemZJewCf0L/s1600/b2tfii2574.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGl3rztIOt_C1QVYIkpejDiGZB7t2EJbpbejAL4Mf-CBdsxzo46lc3j4mYyBx9zNTiK35H7VjD7DRpSj0V9r2vN-eAiP2acQWPqAdHBRoAE0g0ALALqaKriLV2WWDY0mwtRemZJewCf0L/s320/b2tfii2574.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532989857119952018" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglbHZotz58lDu6_UT7q5d2RfTpapkwvvtf4kn9b_aW-KCHOamxP5P_WnkajI_faDYGxSBKW2lcyF0Raht9OQHFe40zETGzaD176lpmzh6ou0ogrK3Z_g64sNj-f7VoPrci37XkRiIgPtwV/s320/b2tfii2593.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532992283149919554" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXjCZJzWLMCp7pJe2C7lm0pzDSwtOj7QAh-JKnBwEjZRhDfOaurOQ0Dvz9yueBnaHH1QhDRb_DMpajiV-SOi8AxJhkbgOEdyrJQo8jmyED-agHAhXIR-UYq1J4B8DZznpR0QMM0M_xHHQm/s1600/b2tfii2640.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXjCZJzWLMCp7pJe2C7lm0pzDSwtOj7QAh-JKnBwEjZRhDfOaurOQ0Dvz9yueBnaHH1QhDRb_DMpajiV-SOi8AxJhkbgOEdyrJQo8jmyED-agHAhXIR-UYq1J4B8DZznpR0QMM0M_xHHQm/s320/b2tfii2640.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532992287340413074" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a>Doc explains everything that's going on to Marty... summarized, Marty messed everything up and has to fix it. Future Biff took Marty's sports almanac, stole the DeLorean, gave it to his younger self in the past, and used it to win millions, which led to everyone Marty loves in 1985 suddenly leading terrible existences and/or being dead. Marty's got to go have a showdown with Biff and find out if he still has it so he and Doc can go back AGAIN in time and stop Biff from giving Biff's almanac to Biff.<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MaL6hPiVEK81tsKNxkw1kJbMxYYOOkmtKpaWY4wjsdtJzR9q7UfyjWJLbLs35dWkfTeyH34Q35pxKkdcnDAvAEDK2SBYvqzh-KhnSpYoLgtYS9zZsoZc85b9OrG4BGgp1_7OjZoCq9GC/s320/b2tfii2662.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532992290709840818" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">It makes total sense.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz_l-2ckwI3cr6R1vpv6IqPzrlfQg6Qnz7slFuxdFgRaGZRc4q5x2BLr-JuoBUl97X7Xy14uk-tjer7KbsMrRJ5ZTbXQMVZDDJuYpNZ3VEpWCQvk2802SS-e4YEl9a0VMYUTATR6-38Nwo/s1600/b2tfii2702.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz_l-2ckwI3cr6R1vpv6IqPzrlfQg6Qnz7slFuxdFgRaGZRc4q5x2BLr-JuoBUl97X7Xy14uk-tjer7KbsMrRJ5ZTbXQMVZDDJuYpNZ3VEpWCQvk2802SS-e4YEl9a0VMYUTATR6-38Nwo/s320/b2tfii2702.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532992300864246258" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a>So our hero confronts the villain cowboy-style (both a symbol of his perceived advantage over Biff and foreshadowing to what will happen in BTTF III <s>see this is why this trilogy is great so much foreshadowing and clues hey I'm starting to nerd out here ehehehehehe</s>) . Marty is obviously pretty cocky on arrival, but of course, once he's alone with Biff in his office...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MaL6hPiVEK81tsKNxkw1kJbMxYYOOkmtKpaWY4wjsdtJzR9q7UfyjWJLbLs35dWkfTeyH34Q35pxKkdcnDAvAEDK2SBYvqzh-KhnSpYoLgtYS9zZsoZc85b9OrG4BGgp1_7OjZoCq9GC/s1600/b2tfii2662.jpg"></a></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO65NX5x6AkybhpcQusjzYiKH7cl7iyOpnfnw_GrrvA5DQaeDUagr9oRkOISpPoWSwCc35NTTJknL2BqUYrPwZhal60uaYOGqeW2GcIpM74rzj-wSpeBoERFBb3ZQlxlShnoslGkKTt_K-/s320/b2tfii2740.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532992287063254882" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Meep.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Oh, how the tables have turned! Marty's bigger-than-the-entire-frame stance is now substituted for a now tiny, tiny presence. McFly obviously does not know how he's going to get out of this one.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1qtS1uthrcty0c-8C3Im8Wy_DrMLk3Vi6vGh1JD5fCZWVbiX_rFzAKWIEBQibRjO6j0htWMshi8z1pp5uP0-CdftC-zr3gmIlXc1LZG9wz3ZkEx-P0b46GIDgM70vJf2daOIyjKHTrN7i/s1600/b2tfii2895.jpg"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTogHZDahkelv2XuKd-wBWebzZx-6PM8qKMX5WILPTfPL6SJNc4zmySWM2FpTmJ4tE7kZarLAj0Ab3SIQmWu6wsLafU_pd1ZGviPVlbXwCKb33PzzFYO0JDA0DgXCxUyf9uJ72jxC8bRg/s1600/b2tfii2888.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrWPbuq18Pd9Sd-Zt6cg913vM0VetPWx8OLKRH0-AYZqjHdwc0KnVmkyzG2zNTr5nzpwT9MAxucuHeh_pY5N3pycuoldjr6dky4xTlHvMTa2lsIKV1qQi97liJzyarhW7UwCZfCazcckQg/s1600/b2tfii2881.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrWPbuq18Pd9Sd-Zt6cg913vM0VetPWx8OLKRH0-AYZqjHdwc0KnVmkyzG2zNTr5nzpwT9MAxucuHeh_pY5N3pycuoldjr6dky4xTlHvMTa2lsIKV1qQi97liJzyarhW7UwCZfCazcckQg/s320/b2tfii2881.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532995024663135490" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTogHZDahkelv2XuKd-wBWebzZx-6PM8qKMX5WILPTfPL6SJNc4zmySWM2FpTmJ4tE7kZarLAj0Ab3SIQmWu6wsLafU_pd1ZGviPVlbXwCKb33PzzFYO0JDA0DgXCxUyf9uJ72jxC8bRg/s320/b2tfii2888.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532995024665037074" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1qtS1uthrcty0c-8C3Im8Wy_DrMLk3Vi6vGh1JD5fCZWVbiX_rFzAKWIEBQibRjO6j0htWMshi8z1pp5uP0-CdftC-zr3gmIlXc1LZG9wz3ZkEx-P0b46GIDgM70vJf2daOIyjKHTrN7i/s320/b2tfii2895.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532995027790438642" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></span></span></div><div>Eventually Biff flips out, having revealed the secret of his riches, and tries to kill Marty the same way he killed Crispi— I mean, George. There's a short chase up to the rooftop where they finally have a short altercation before Marty fakes Biff out and jumps off of his stepdad's casino... </div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0kqCKptzVr5lcodX1on492RKThn18cMJVU3gXm4JRMT86uc4xAC7Oy4_9qFoZwdnPWsaJCSZRrJ0wB_u0ROS18A-DVOXpz_509AWZsPnUdaVgrHTcIRBGfteA0aXbjNIZxz3ImYS4rwHS/s1600/b2tfii2932.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0kqCKptzVr5lcodX1on492RKThn18cMJVU3gXm4JRMT86uc4xAC7Oy4_9qFoZwdnPWsaJCSZRrJ0wB_u0ROS18A-DVOXpz_509AWZsPnUdaVgrHTcIRBGfteA0aXbjNIZxz3ImYS4rwHS/s320/b2tfii2932.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532995055042235522" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgteVFSVlqOGzry-2Gsi-0czqz8FsavvjdATTC55HaW1ImQfYo6v_0w59xjnqTNVJ4pYN15ra7OR8VmG1RRXXpZ_YKNScj3vvTw85ZEAgT5Xw8OORavdWaXgKZyDqmd7LBRxvH6KSu6RE7H/s1600/b2tfii2935.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgteVFSVlqOGzry-2Gsi-0czqz8FsavvjdATTC55HaW1ImQfYo6v_0w59xjnqTNVJ4pYN15ra7OR8VmG1RRXXpZ_YKNScj3vvTw85ZEAgT5Xw8OORavdWaXgKZyDqmd7LBRxvH6KSu6RE7H/s320/b2tfii2935.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532995053250043346" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px; " /></a><div style="text-align: left;">...only to appear a short time later on the DeLorean, once again looming triumphant above Biff. He smashes Biff's face in with the DeLorean door for good measure, and proceeds to zip off with Doc to 1955. </div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">After that, it's fun and laughs in the 50s, revisiting the dance and snagging the almanac back from Biff. But, honestly, it should have ended right then and there. What's so good about the second movie is that, instead of constructing an entirely new setting/time period for Doc and Marty to travel to, as an audience we get to relive our favorite parts from the first movie and revisit all of the characters. In the third movie, we have all sorts of new characters thrown at us and, while they <i>are</i> descendants of Marty and Biff... honestly, why should we as an audience care about them? There's already a pre-constructed universe that our heroes live in, and if you've already spent the second movie building upon the first, why would you just ditch that and go into a completely alien world with people that the audience doesn't relate to (example: Doc was never described/hinted to being lonely or wanting to fall in love, nor do I think anyone cared to explore that, so what in the world was the purpose of Clara?)? I'm not completely knocking the film, because there are some really good parts (a time-traveling train isn't nearly as cool as a DeLorean, but it still works out fine) but <i>BTTF II, </i>as a sequel, worked a whole lot better.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And after typing ALL of that out and nerding out to the point where now I'm kind of embarrassed to post this, I can say that... this is exactly why I'm so excited about the video game. Hopefully it isn't exactly like the third movie where new worlds are completely created that we can't become familiar with. If the entire plot is expertly wound together where everything can be linked together in a way where a player can actually feel the character's fear/excitement/despair/whatever... it should definitely be successful. And I'll be so super stoked.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://www.gifbin.com/bin/sw5520725sw.gif" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 155px; height: 82px; " /></span></div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-47627490295950314752010-10-24T16:51:00.000-07:002010-10-24T23:43:22.110-07:00Staging and Poses - A Real World Example<div style="text-align: left;">I was doing a couple of animations this weekend, and one became a great example of how not to do staging/poses and how to do them right. In this one scene that I'm working on, I have my baby raptor, Roscoe Jr., running away and trying to hide from his ultimate enemy. Of course, he runs towards a ridiculous hiding spot: a huge, looming tree. In the beginning of the scene he slides in, does an anticipation, and then... GASP! Roscoe sees the tree in his path and is simultaneously in awe and panic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijI6FtGsPEEitDzQsotyhJ6BW32Th8CqpCJzI7TO0pZcDITR98vLTaGO5O7aBGhB4Y9t2Cx-2s6-Gzyaxahky8RDGdkE5FQrUVAxLycUBF7WdKXUIcMEbyhft_Q1i_hWsH191RyJtGm1TW/s320/THIS+IS+HOW+YOU+DO+IT+WROOOONG.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531867648621901842" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 232px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">First offense: he's off-model. Of course you don't know what the model sheets are, but I do, and Roscoe looks emaciated and... well, just plain ugly. Legs are spread too far apart, his tail is a bit too wide, crazy arm and eyebrow things going on: he looks like a mess. Second: both the tree and Roscoe are leaning in the same direction. It's a little more harmonic than I would have liked in a scene that's supposed to be really stressful. Roscoe should be staring up at the tree, not cowering before it. Here he looks like he'd be apologizing to the tree, not realizing that the tree is something that is pretty dang tall AND something that is not good to be faced with in his particular situation.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA3DmKAPgfJBRVdVHwBtnotYb_xdbuzk9ewO2_3zNXpRiIFswH1PLMiKjI2gm2CHkf5mWxAjE_t7PTfCtiWgS_KWh7o3TnJFf2rlkXgOy_kP3PEa9AMFzKqQ_1yhvAjdR7XPm0TD09NRGY/s320/THIS+IS+HOW+YOU+DO+IT+RIIIIIIGHT.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531869033009372098" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 229px; " /></span></span></div><div>MUCH better! Roscoe's cute little body is on-model, and he's now looking up at the tree. Before this, Roscoe skids to a stop in front of the tree, and this pose is more like what would result from him bending forward and then bouncing back to a stop. His head is bent further up, creating a clear line from the top of his head up to the top of the tree. Beautiful! Glorious! This pose is a keeper. Applause all around!</div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-27547246881205136842010-10-15T20:44:00.000-07:002010-10-15T20:56:55.810-07:00Clerks: The Animated Series - Design and StyleI really wish that <i>Clerks: The Animated Series</i> had run a lot longer. Seriously, it had so much awesome potential, and I would have loved to see the expanded universe of Leonardo, New Jersey. Plus, well... <i>Clerks</i> is an amazing movie to begin with that had relatable and interesting characters. And I would have loved to have watched more Randal snarkiness. Heh.<div><br /></div><div>But wait, this post isn't supposed to be about me pining for more episodes of a great TV show. I found two really great videos about character design and style that are pretty interesting on their own. I think it's so interesting that they had the hardest time trying to design Jay's character. It seems that a character that's so culturally recognizable and ready to be caricatured alongside his "hetero life mate" would have been easy to design, but apparently that wasn't the case according to these videos. </div><div><br /></div><div><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-m_jGyX0O6Y?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-m_jGyX0O6Y?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div><br /></div><div><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SWQpXxCAV0I?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SWQpXxCAV0I?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-88002551566314464672010-10-11T08:31:00.000-07:002010-10-11T09:01:19.744-07:00Mary and Max (2009)<div style="text-align: left;">Adam Elliot is one of my favorite animators, and I think every semester I've taken a class in animation I've had to watch his short film, <i>Brother. </i>I love how, even with very limited animation, he can create a sense of character and have an audience be able to empathize with them within minutes. And the same is true for <i>Mary and Max</i>. Even though it's a much longer film than <i>Brother </i>and there's a whole lot more puppet animated movement, the emotions that you feel for the characters are automatically felt through their character descriptions. There isn't too much plot in the story: if you strung together all of the actual storytelling parts it'd be an extremely short movie. But the fun of it comes from how interesting Mary and Max's lives and idiosyncrasies are.</div><div><br /></div><div>And the look of the film is superb! There isn't much color used at all, mostly monochromatic colors and the occasional red when Elliot wants to make a point out of something rather important and/or sentimental (such as the pom pom that Mary makes for Max that he wears on his yarmulke and the portrait that she draws for him). </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLqjwmL6XBOzLqT5wcp7v-PehL8UnzL0qS1bqMitujLd2Qq-IiV3KAOpi-WoClOssdIiW10PsY1BCqBKSiKfTCNGFPtAiPngFsnTdy_x-XrLrkRq6lKJB4YfpR2iWQayd-PJLcVeaAoAfK/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.56.58+AM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLqjwmL6XBOzLqT5wcp7v-PehL8UnzL0qS1bqMitujLd2Qq-IiV3KAOpi-WoClOssdIiW10PsY1BCqBKSiKfTCNGFPtAiPngFsnTdy_x-XrLrkRq6lKJB4YfpR2iWQayd-PJLcVeaAoAfK/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.56.58+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526814611418177730" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw4BhgZaC3Mt_-hQ1fHRMHOtMIv2Cs2twjRH930RU1pKZvvQXKLMbO6_ceskk6QeXrOqhjfFeLfjR9QQwQ5I4tO_ejcnJ0aQaiQ3WLqtG-cwr66VjWYcP-jBE7SaXigxeGLdnNf0S4E8e-/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.54.50+AM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw4BhgZaC3Mt_-hQ1fHRMHOtMIv2Cs2twjRH930RU1pKZvvQXKLMbO6_ceskk6QeXrOqhjfFeLfjR9QQwQ5I4tO_ejcnJ0aQaiQ3WLqtG-cwr66VjWYcP-jBE7SaXigxeGLdnNf0S4E8e-/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.54.50+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526814590170160322" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivJhWKSgy41JoTF4qGnPsx8e6FvCDrTg9dd4HcMBAbrKJ1H8TwTU2g4RWqMlvG1-kZ4415DmLQmLR1oFH6qBukku2QfUVHgkNNZh_iA60PCDx3WyfBp-4NQwraJeCLw-8Z7dK7iujNHWiB/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.44.25+AM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivJhWKSgy41JoTF4qGnPsx8e6FvCDrTg9dd4HcMBAbrKJ1H8TwTU2g4RWqMlvG1-kZ4415DmLQmLR1oFH6qBukku2QfUVHgkNNZh_iA60PCDx3WyfBp-4NQwraJeCLw-8Z7dK7iujNHWiB/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.44.25+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526814578077415154" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1qNmeoFsfnkXFi94AukIqFPXIGX1PPjUL4Yn-hBc_rYaeyjYrw50gRhprblve9SMX-_lKpeJCqQYFa-xpPdyiVrSGRZLdJpepUJyY0QciHbWEYcSCHO2KgMTQTl8ndOLFSnCDys8rU9N/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.51.03+AM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1qNmeoFsfnkXFi94AukIqFPXIGX1PPjUL4Yn-hBc_rYaeyjYrw50gRhprblve9SMX-_lKpeJCqQYFa-xpPdyiVrSGRZLdJpepUJyY0QciHbWEYcSCHO2KgMTQTl8ndOLFSnCDys8rU9N/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.51.03+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526814563348653282" style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtUbPmfcQrJq7cGpH3Xi_NrDw-BIHNDNe3Tyt7SYGBBID0o1iKZ5bJpty3prPGkCfNzuU34URHrqjw6x46zB-kcelMveR2y4wvGkcDkIUExWOT8wgcj4v1HjQ6QL57aj02TB8LU6hyV4sJ/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.43.31+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526814548760369634" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtUbPmfcQrJq7cGpH3Xi_NrDw-BIHNDNe3Tyt7SYGBBID0o1iKZ5bJpty3prPGkCfNzuU34URHrqjw6x46zB-kcelMveR2y4wvGkcDkIUExWOT8wgcj4v1HjQ6QL57aj02TB8LU6hyV4sJ/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.43.31+AM.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtUbPmfcQrJq7cGpH3Xi_NrDw-BIHNDNe3Tyt7SYGBBID0o1iKZ5bJpty3prPGkCfNzuU34URHrqjw6x46zB-kcelMveR2y4wvGkcDkIUExWOT8wgcj4v1HjQ6QL57aj02TB8LU6hyV4sJ/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.43.31+AM.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtUbPmfcQrJq7cGpH3Xi_NrDw-BIHNDNe3Tyt7SYGBBID0o1iKZ5bJpty3prPGkCfNzuU34URHrqjw6x46zB-kcelMveR2y4wvGkcDkIUExWOT8wgcj4v1HjQ6QL57aj02TB8LU6hyV4sJ/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.43.31+AM.png"></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjogKCpxEG8Dgqk4ShoxvyYuyZetCODOQcL3Ak6o8qEV3Grwk1ulzJdABqhYcPxYj2ul0MUvRDSkuhEqs3Ok4ofXNY_nQthXH81bvaF1wHQHMtkr_EQyyvSGDohNQHyycHmEQloPWGvGV0v/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.54.48+AM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjogKCpxEG8Dgqk4ShoxvyYuyZetCODOQcL3Ak6o8qEV3Grwk1ulzJdABqhYcPxYj2ul0MUvRDSkuhEqs3Ok4ofXNY_nQthXH81bvaF1wHQHMtkr_EQyyvSGDohNQHyycHmEQloPWGvGV0v/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+8.54.48+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526816570153287490" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOS7qvZMUN5BqD7J8zlk9soIk6xKNLZ7kXBK7f3n8AXAHHPV0L2DIF6U7eP9H8EqMmZnPPwuaz17gwQijWc4yf9xOM4Yl-e2EVld34kBOqDOLujgM9J-M0-eWTJMjNLe_2gopl4ZhvnUtn/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+9.42.15+AM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOS7qvZMUN5BqD7J8zlk9soIk6xKNLZ7kXBK7f3n8AXAHHPV0L2DIF6U7eP9H8EqMmZnPPwuaz17gwQijWc4yf9xOM4Yl-e2EVld34kBOqDOLujgM9J-M0-eWTJMjNLe_2gopl4ZhvnUtn/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+9.42.15+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526816547363285538" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRl4m19dd9Vkd-Bj81BGYv1AebL2p3wmQqNcLluTvT5OBw2kXUGvYDNLhUurOPd__4uYfcPbJtB06VDa0lmofkSHkQVHfggrboPnkTuHDPsw89OmV_TrO-ymm27eVev90Nq_9M6NZa1RAP/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+9.52.02+AM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRl4m19dd9Vkd-Bj81BGYv1AebL2p3wmQqNcLluTvT5OBw2kXUGvYDNLhUurOPd__4uYfcPbJtB06VDa0lmofkSHkQVHfggrboPnkTuHDPsw89OmV_TrO-ymm27eVev90Nq_9M6NZa1RAP/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+9.52.02+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526816513616920754" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCVaBB4MinVwOqjecuPUAH0Mfm7xs5VeBaEbGhntVsUdQHCRLmmK0MXOA99Y03R0GI1I5v8jMzPYiRyzaNoBlcWCEiyLtRJTfEZvoMQp10sig1uK8mtq6eIy_AeYShV0o-EqbG31neezMy/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+9.19.58+AM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCVaBB4MinVwOqjecuPUAH0Mfm7xs5VeBaEbGhntVsUdQHCRLmmK0MXOA99Y03R0GI1I5v8jMzPYiRyzaNoBlcWCEiyLtRJTfEZvoMQp10sig1uK8mtq6eIy_AeYShV0o-EqbG31neezMy/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+9.19.58+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526816499178337650" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; text-align: center; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcYYVS790xiZd_SXAvr8aG-IuO7x-V6Lv-zyYsLb4tn6aa8tT7LSDx4mMRd0TMxfAzYTVj4iyNXmWuB2sylBYB8ZnVjmPPR9_hmH8qnZ15P63HWuprVHpZwyRyOD0klwo6v8cP03w7q59D/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-11+at+9.13.29+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526816463023396082" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></span></div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-46212115770664330702010-10-09T22:03:00.001-07:002010-10-09T22:36:09.429-07:00Harvey (1950)<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.shockya.com/news/wp-content/uploads/harvey_poster.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">See, there are <i>so</i> many great films that I'm just starting to get my hands on and watch (thank you, Netflix, you are grand and wonderful) and for some reason that I just can't fathom, I had never seen <i>Harvey </i>until very recently. I had seen the ending, but I think that that was it. But it's a hilarious film. I mean, duh, of <i>course</i> it is, it's only a classic movie and all. But throughout the film I was trying to envision it in the context of the 50s. There was all sorts of talk about psychiatry and alcoholism and sex: all of these topics that I would have thought to have been too taboo for the time, no matter how briefly they were mentioned. That said, during this time period psychology and psychologists had been pushed into the forefront of public attention. Freud's development of psychoanalysis has only been around for at least 100 years and having a story surrounding a (perceived) mentally insane person being committed into (what may have been a public perception of) a sanitarium was probably a pretty fresh spin on a comedy of errors tale. And what's even more interesting is that the insane person, the person that everyone thinks is absolutely off his rocker and the most likely candidate for Freud himself to study, is perhaps the most sane character in the entire story.</div><blockquote>"Years ago, my mother used to say to me, she'd say: 'In this world, Elwood,' she always used to call me Elwood. 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. And you can quote me."</blockquote>What also kind of stuck out in the film was when Elwood talks in private with Dr. Chumley about how his friend Harvey can stop time and transport people to any place that they wish to be for as long as they want. I was looking up the genre categories for the film on a couple of websites and only saw that it had been categorized as a comedy, drama, and fantasy. Which is pretty interesting, because this film had all of the makings and possibilities of becoming a pretty great science-fiction dramatic comedy. And... well, in a sense, I guess it already is, even if it isn't "officially" so.<div><br /></div><div>I grabbed a couple of frames that I thought were pretty good examples of framing and composition. Anything that stuck out to me, I snapped a quick shot of for reference.<br /><div><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftmtNjUGgfPb4cc770h4Hl253DWgi6_pkGTZNwA6W0MykzPFPUE5WlFeBKSYFMUe4tSzdKmGwXUTojSmC16C_oNc0F6I8K4NLpN06umD8mDdqfgGnWTD0dgGsrGeKT1CgCkNI7UUhLnHd/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+9.50.31+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526284359785076178" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOBUNNlxG55FoXDJ0UirJYfgquNjGxeJmmOGHEmHyC9MF7dtZZ5AxkBAXq6yqaZGg6RifhRyQ2lYasI8-GMFQAzAuQSaAui7M8h-gQPhW2jcIAOgFppBT5gfdY_nDB9SGASrTTQewCq8n/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+10.30.30+PM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOBUNNlxG55FoXDJ0UirJYfgquNjGxeJmmOGHEmHyC9MF7dtZZ5AxkBAXq6yqaZGg6RifhRyQ2lYasI8-GMFQAzAuQSaAui7M8h-gQPhW2jcIAOgFppBT5gfdY_nDB9SGASrTTQewCq8n/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+10.30.30+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526284411218469634" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyg0oc7-iMLQ36NkKPbGZgt43r4t0BdBJtGe9FDjryh2s00p0AtmcYTuzdHR6-bHTGTE9sC5uZ7JZVKEV1DBDjOGjGevps1r7DjwTXfNmacrXzVloteH8EbEHZNfUqKf3-QnJNy5dO7y4k/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+10.15.01+PM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyg0oc7-iMLQ36NkKPbGZgt43r4t0BdBJtGe9FDjryh2s00p0AtmcYTuzdHR6-bHTGTE9sC5uZ7JZVKEV1DBDjOGjGevps1r7DjwTXfNmacrXzVloteH8EbEHZNfUqKf3-QnJNy5dO7y4k/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+10.15.01+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526284396381068706" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tVWqS061L6cOklQfZqSwvPFIEyqhTMBIpZHGvLHMJWtdVF8d42DmzRA945weSkECrTvRX4oWpcwTuXoggzDWzC63TK8gRHsFWSv3Rx42Ft96NHgmEoRKu6NZz2ce6DV1WbtdugQmWQ5o/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+9.57.12+PM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tVWqS061L6cOklQfZqSwvPFIEyqhTMBIpZHGvLHMJWtdVF8d42DmzRA945weSkECrTvRX4oWpcwTuXoggzDWzC63TK8gRHsFWSv3Rx42Ft96NHgmEoRKu6NZz2ce6DV1WbtdugQmWQ5o/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+9.57.12+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526284389165045410" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggl4YUFdcDYPq_hyfvp3WBFC4kPr8NkrjPex58-ketVEhZSo9PZqJ7LMXAQcnz_4lpqldBAF6BCHhOYCiGUqZGdf_ALAuvwY9-l88AY1zSchcWjETqf5qEAKC2ICqLNJFwg5P63jxlfvff/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+9.54.52+PM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggl4YUFdcDYPq_hyfvp3WBFC4kPr8NkrjPex58-ketVEhZSo9PZqJ7LMXAQcnz_4lpqldBAF6BCHhOYCiGUqZGdf_ALAuvwY9-l88AY1zSchcWjETqf5qEAKC2ICqLNJFwg5P63jxlfvff/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+9.54.52+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526284376014396290" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQJOQp9Q_FXFm6zKXIC1m_DdsQ3_Zj4fj5YI6-twhmAMJenxnl3dps1-kpDvlaxYzUcOwVrlyVxImIYExFyPtWpsPNMrra7KcxWabsG8RcGGcOsTMnOtZNPpQ0WyhJPj3Te_eQkBVl-56/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+10.46.55+PM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQJOQp9Q_FXFm6zKXIC1m_DdsQ3_Zj4fj5YI6-twhmAMJenxnl3dps1-kpDvlaxYzUcOwVrlyVxImIYExFyPtWpsPNMrra7KcxWabsG8RcGGcOsTMnOtZNPpQ0WyhJPj3Te_eQkBVl-56/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+10.46.55+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526285195846231410" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5vz3m-C8zx1RBoE-GOWdNRe8MlZjyBgaDopxy8ectV8zOTQbGeVVaJ8iqqj7lkrBH1c1oSd3pO2bqEr5BUIQ4j_Q-28RtJ3vh_qD2nsIASu_Z_7LIdhcJawO4IFlQY8pDn9GH1x9QWth/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+11.15.04+PM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5vz3m-C8zx1RBoE-GOWdNRe8MlZjyBgaDopxy8ectV8zOTQbGeVVaJ8iqqj7lkrBH1c1oSd3pO2bqEr5BUIQ4j_Q-28RtJ3vh_qD2nsIASu_Z_7LIdhcJawO4IFlQY8pDn9GH1x9QWth/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+11.15.04+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526285188641054290" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAea8lvPbc0qlZTGW52ySYbD2wVVEZr60vvVvb5GJ2rZks7lO7OpU14ML-n_n_otXuLV6VYu_wEZc0iWOyFilWe8dNUm5JerkdENc7uACAtacJp6h1Lof9eGQNadyTXy5bAq3bh_OvaKm/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+11.28.10+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526285176406536530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAea8lvPbc0qlZTGW52ySYbD2wVVEZr60vvVvb5GJ2rZks7lO7OpU14ML-n_n_otXuLV6VYu_wEZc0iWOyFilWe8dNUm5JerkdENc7uACAtacJp6h1Lof9eGQNadyTXy5bAq3bh_OvaKm/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+11.28.10+PM.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAea8lvPbc0qlZTGW52ySYbD2wVVEZr60vvVvb5GJ2rZks7lO7OpU14ML-n_n_otXuLV6VYu_wEZc0iWOyFilWe8dNUm5JerkdENc7uACAtacJp6h1Lof9eGQNadyTXy5bAq3bh_OvaKm/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+11.28.10+PM.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAea8lvPbc0qlZTGW52ySYbD2wVVEZr60vvVvb5GJ2rZks7lO7OpU14ML-n_n_otXuLV6VYu_wEZc0iWOyFilWe8dNUm5JerkdENc7uACAtacJp6h1Lof9eGQNadyTXy5bAq3bh_OvaKm/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+11.28.10+PM.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftmtNjUGgfPb4cc770h4Hl253DWgi6_pkGTZNwA6W0MykzPFPUE5WlFeBKSYFMUe4tSzdKmGwXUTojSmC16C_oNc0F6I8K4NLpN06umD8mDdqfgGnWTD0dgGsrGeKT1CgCkNI7UUhLnHd/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+9.50.31+PM.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftmtNjUGgfPb4cc770h4Hl253DWgi6_pkGTZNwA6W0MykzPFPUE5WlFeBKSYFMUe4tSzdKmGwXUTojSmC16C_oNc0F6I8K4NLpN06umD8mDdqfgGnWTD0dgGsrGeKT1CgCkNI7UUhLnHd/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+9.50.31+PM.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftmtNjUGgfPb4cc770h4Hl253DWgi6_pkGTZNwA6W0MykzPFPUE5WlFeBKSYFMUe4tSzdKmGwXUTojSmC16C_oNc0F6I8K4NLpN06umD8mDdqfgGnWTD0dgGsrGeKT1CgCkNI7UUhLnHd/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-09+at+9.50.31+PM.png"></a></div></div></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-29549955372256638102010-10-08T12:41:00.000-07:002010-10-09T09:57:43.356-07:00Futurism and Modern Architecture<div>You know, I had a whole post planned just to talk about these types of architectural forms, but I think for now I'll just leave this here as eye candy and write something about them later. Futurist buildings are awesome and should be looked at as often as possible.</div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.uptake.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/aqua-building-chicago2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 330px; height: 448px;" src="http://www.uptake.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/aqua-building-chicago2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.arondaparks.com/images/SpaceShipEarth-20308-rev.jpg"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/4923254065_96b133c2fd.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 334px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/4923254065_96b133c2fd.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh51qzwD3A1m_LhYPDtz3AfZNpbgSpoqwzepGNyuNmtPtd93PtRtoSkNpVQXDV9EXbhMvombO8qpztSGIM_k7PSeNXQ3TsXWxycij9zi4j926ARafxV7us1rmHoSegHzquJdUw5Jvo6CzV4/s1600/565461231621330.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh51qzwD3A1m_LhYPDtz3AfZNpbgSpoqwzepGNyuNmtPtd93PtRtoSkNpVQXDV9EXbhMvombO8qpztSGIM_k7PSeNXQ3TsXWxycij9zi4j926ARafxV7us1rmHoSegHzquJdUw5Jvo6CzV4/s320/565461231621330.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525762712323404354" /></a>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-67398311495208419442010-10-06T18:38:00.000-07:002010-10-08T08:50:27.693-07:00The Great Piggy Bank Robbery<div style="text-align: left;">Lately I've been thinking a lot about Warner Brothers cartoons… specifically me trying to pick out what exactly I like about the cartoons that inspire me. I've seen a bunch of other writings and blogs on the internet with people talking about their favorite cartoons of all time, and well, I guess I should put my two cents into it as well.</div><br />First off, let's get this out of the way. I hate Chuck Jones' Warner Brothers cartoons. Hate. <i>HATE.</i> With a passion.<br /><br />Okay, yeah, once you've been revived with smelling salts after fainting from that statement, let me elucidate. I know the majority of animation people love and worship this man, and most fo the blogs and articles I've seen concerning this topic ALWAYS have to mention him and praise his name, but I just... I don't agree with any of them. And I guess hate is a very strong word. It kind of comes off as if, when I see a Chuck Jones cartoon, I'd rather slather my eyeballs with hot oil rather than continue watching it. Seriously, though. That's not necessarily the case. It really isn't. His way of designing the Warner Brothers characters is by now iconic, not to mention the fact that he was able to pioneer a lot of terrific devices in animation. But, seriously? Even if he is the guy who made <i>What's Opera, Doc</i>? and introduced Wile E. Coyote on his never-ending futile quest to catch the Roadrunner? He's no Bob Clampett. <div><br /></div><div>Bob Clampett is my hero forever and always.</div><div><br /><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://pulpnivoria.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/13-bob-clampett.jpg?w=600&h=773" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 386px; " /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">This is the portrait of a hero who created some of the greatest animated cartoons ever. You can not escape the charm of his gorgeous smile.</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/64/64_images/64averyjonesclampettand1935.jpg" /></div><small><div style="text-align: center;">To make a point about who is the best in more superficial terms, who are the two hottest animation directors in this picture? One is on the left, but first prize goes to the handsome stud in the front.</div></small><br /></div><div>I never met the guy, I can't say if he was a big jerk who took credit for things he didn't do (like some people claimed, coughcoughChuckJonescough) or if he truly was a sweet, awesome badass who made painfully amazing cartoons, but I love him. I love his stuff. Put me in front of a TV playing Beany and Cecil episodes and old 30s and 40s WB cartoons and I will drool with happiness all day.<br /><br />And the characters he brought to life, man. They were so fun! I love Bob Clampett's Bugs Bunny. God, Bugs is <i>such</i> a jerk in his cartoons. He doesn't always have to be a wise ass or the Hero of the Day. And Daffy! Daffy is always filled to the brim with hysteria and craziness and such lovable puerility. I get so jumpy when I watch a Clampett cartoon and I feel like I'm going to start bouncing off of the walls myself (it's like when I watch a Tex Avery cartoon and I feel like running around on the walls or something). But Bob is so much more crazy than Tex and Chuck. He's got surrealism down to a tee.<br /><br />I don't have a favorite Bugs cartoon because I really don't like Bugs as a character that much (I mean, I <i>like</i> him, but it's not like I have a huge affinity towards the guy). Daffy's my favorite. Daffy is amazing. Even in Chuck Jones' version of the character, he's so vindictive and spiteful and mean and just a huge pain in the neck for everyone to deal with. I always have a soft spot for villainous characters and he fits the bill (no pun intended). He's jealous and greedy and flawed… but not as daffy as he should be. That's why I love Clampett's Daffy. He can be a total jerk, too, but he's a lot more fun-loving about it, the kind of guy who would blow you up with dynamite but french you afterwards. He's so much more like a kid, too. He's got a sense of wonderment around him and a crazy energy of immaturity that makes me love him so much.<br /><br />So of course, the source of most of my cartoon inspiration has been The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, which you can watch in all of it's glory <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5350079117147530925#">here</a>.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/The_Great_Piggy_Bank_Robbery_Lobby_Card.PNG" /></div><br /></div><div>Why do I even need to explain why this is so great? It's such a super fun amalgamation of childlike imagination and said childlike imagination gone horribly, incredibly wrong. I had to write a paper a long while ago for an animation history class about Bob and touched upon the short as one of his greatest.</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote>"<i>The Great Piggy Bank Robbery</i>, made in 1946, may be Clampett’s most defining short, and is an outstanding example of both his signature brand of dark humor and fast-paced chaos and the characterization of Daffy Duck in his cartoons. Unlike his earlier short, <i>Porky in Wackyland</i> (1937), the tone of this piece is much darker and the action more aggressive than silly. In the cartoon, Daffy Duck, after receiving his latest Dick Tracy comic, giddily fantasizes that he is Duck Twacy, a famous detective who must catch an elusive piggy bank thief. Near the end of the short, Duck Twacy encounters some of his greatest foes: deformed, dark, looming thugs with names like Hammer Head, Neon Noodle, and Jukebox Jaw. From then on his so far silly yet innocent fantasy escalades into an apocalyptic nightmare, as his enemies begin to attack and chase him through their hideout, which has subtly morphed into a large, warped, abstract landscape. Things being to become increasingly abstract as the chase continues, and at one point, Daffy’s body actually breaks apart, and the separate body parts slither back into his full form. Daffy then proceeds to whip out a machine gun from thin air and begins showering bullets onto his enemies as they fall from a doorway one by one. This change in tone may be what makes the end of the short so unsettling, and in a way relatable, to the viewer, since it is almost as if Clampett has reached into the mind of the audience and made them relive one of their own nightmares. Through watching Daffy’s imaginary ordeal, the audience is able to relate to their own emotional fantasies, however idealistic or chaotic they made be."</blockquote><div>Seriously, I don't know how anyone <i>couldn't</i> like this cartoon. It's everything, at least in my opinion, that a great cartoony animation should be: fast-paced, exciting, engaging, surreal, and just plain fun. Clampett always makes full use of the medium of animation, something you honestly don't get to see nowadays.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Also, for more Clampett fun and dissection, <a href="http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/Clampett">check these John K. posts</a> out and <a href="http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?m=200802">this post</a> by Kristin Thompson.</div></div></div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-41511654028201951702010-10-04T15:34:00.000-07:002010-10-04T19:55:00.778-07:00Hannibal Dinner Scene Part 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpYB55zQ6eYRkm5U6hcgYCG60nn6C5uCUq75sIzrFGIAZKy5aWnHRJn5T1I-BY0mwhRkf5q-76pG39NhCgW1Yqsg0Z0vXlLgJkJGlFv5HMlj7LO9LWw3tluafqXcuUX2DqYUQ8ePZATmZv/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.56.37+PM.png"></a><div style="text-align: left;">Hannibal Lecter is one of my all-time favorite movie/book characters, so naturally <i>Hannibal</i> is one of my favorite films. Of course, there are small bits here and there that I dislike (namely Clarice <i>not</i> being Jodie Foster and that the ending of the film got dramatically changed) but that's alright. It's still a pretty great film. And one of the greatest scenes in said film is the penultimate dinner party between Hannibal, Paul Krendler, and Agent Starling.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Oh, also, obvious spoilers ahead in this simple scene composition dissection (haha, you see what I did there?). And if you have a very weak stomach... proceed with caution. It gets a little gory.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8tqG-CF66gtTs_s-T7TZj-0pYb7xl7iFSPvWileRZ5sA8IbLuHoOwlmVEFEf4dPF9Tjg11YAM2JcD46wiP-8ytMeNcj5K9To0ozUBfvUywVuwYfL4Bxmygy5hN0IYJZoPUbsGTweP74hp/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.29.28+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524323910347014802" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Oh, hello, Clarice. I was just making some delicious snacks with my good buddy, Paul! Come and nosh with us, dear!"</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw5Oa3j3xSajcAlyuFcEW2aNqDCPpsB2E-d7Bjtx1CjR49J7BcvNE8WLu5SrHoyx8rYxWd-x_fa84WZWzrc7P1NKz29wty1KeSWiiT3vH7Tf3SUB2h7AWwzNi1enfl9TyCyIGUkCufcD4F/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.29.33+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524325668233644306" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">During the beginning of the scene there're a lot of jittery, swoopy camera moves following Clarice (no doubt because she's just been knocked out with a generous dosage of morphine and is just starting to get out of her drug-induced stupor). We, along with Clarice, don't exactly know what's going on with Paul and Hannibal eating dinner together, so as the camera gets less loopy, we start getting a little bit more grounded, trying to regain a clear sense of thought as we begin to scrutinize the scene displayed before us.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBy_pggwvszi0oSCmGywhDGzz_phL-z3z6VYqN-orB_3DWwwJRF7-07nifBIFfyuF7BXm2qW6A8QC5wb-4wkg7CKYFL_ZKdlbbeNFmLBLzAkxqqSFSl2QJuW-wuIduCHwA1DBz6DIVWRvf/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.29.48+PM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBy_pggwvszi0oSCmGywhDGzz_phL-z3z6VYqN-orB_3DWwwJRF7-07nifBIFfyuF7BXm2qW6A8QC5wb-4wkg7CKYFL_ZKdlbbeNFmLBLzAkxqqSFSl2QJuW-wuIduCHwA1DBz6DIVWRvf/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.29.48+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524325678655759330" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Hannibal is on the far left, towering over Paul who is in the far right bottom corner. What does this communicate to us? Hannibal's obviously got the upper hand here and is lording his power over Paul, now childlike and helpless in his extremely drugged-up state.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlNQ9f5LlvkGSkDfkKz5R6QIAXhojOosxO6sVIYpivHFpphKSEmL16z6atSE_8LDuV4rLZo39-qo8kbY8rCnL2VL_KekyHQugj5K0TJT3QSm72bzL-P6meo4t74-718IiIH0JCfvHRIiQL/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.29.57+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524328604086310226" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCXsRDwySJZ1-JC5WSrqoOkbDGJDOKbS81Pczd2qAvv5G3jhOS6Fh_0e2ebOXJhf5xHtZZsyh3LQfoZ6DZ0HikS_KbDdX0Vx6sKRsVCf2YlXBytbXUXHONuOGSoDViOS0nC03hgK8xf0H_/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.38.19+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524326820632266626" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></div><div>Framing! Clarice and Paul are equally set up in each of these cuts through the use of candles, the lamp (in Paul's case) and the edge of the doorway (in Clarice's case). It's a lot easier to focus on the two of them during the scene with a sort of imaginary box surrounding their bodies. Plus, with each cut, and if we laid the two pictures over each other, they're facing each other as in a conversation: Paul on the left, Clarice on the right.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG151hsZcQTkFkZ3wild61Kh3fi3bquFw-mXahRnJwHUmTxUIql6-iT_EPgxueU8FE7o8__3J2_4a6vEvF0C83KAIGs_7kqj0VsQURtThXNhwFUDnqaulVZJumb-5xkO-jJQAfLWlmG9zG/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.38.51+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524328614679686210" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">There's a diamond pattern going on here in this scene, between Paul and Clarice who are both pretty much helpless against Hannibal at the moment, whose head is at the top of the diamond, and right now he's the one who is in charge of this scene. At the bottom point of the diamond is the snowglobe, Clarice's weapon of choice when she first tried to defend herself against Hannibal. Of course, that didn't work out as planned, so this is, in a sense, visually telling us that weapons aren't going to be much use at the moment. Clarice is stuck for now, and we're trapped as well, about to witness what horrible, unimaginable thing Hannibal has done now.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj34QS1PKdcfwr7ldPHnFIoAni8sMa5okhpIdBD3TYodZVnT33deJKyedNxVdSoUNQr_VOVk2Lmyhguviqf2vGiayLMUK9bkanfEaGO2UXep0uv-nIBGElE8MrX_w8Vrv1YujVBLuoRQIcM/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.39.53+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524328624200056146" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">...hahaha, I just love Paul's face here.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_07ZWnny0sJG8lHkQlYKfz3cpVAh7cs-gKaKCUiAIFe1SRB8AI7GNu1fkIDaptmHXoGV4tRDZWYDuAkqdfwjNp9HFSMrzoSXDf6nggsFJhyicbOPaUFUiaMawrT6qNhRFRCxrc0tbXn0V/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.49.40+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524328635753938690" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">More of Hannibal asserting himself as the dominant villain here...</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0j6U97eY0bL9ikYosPhn-rzG73Zoeo7ZSVnchRhHlZ93mCrVEtH8cm3H0ys0nUIoAI67oPlgp7zc7Z04e9woAfQV_npksP-4QzuNyEfJDgWfb-oQGWZOIFTLejHWOe0Na7xu2QjutL3pm/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.50.05+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524328647877212466" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">...and ta da! The moment of truth! I can only imagine what's going on in Clarice's mind at that moment, and of course... well, this whole time we've been projecting ourselves onto Clarice. We don't need to completely see what's going on on her face to realize that she's horrified. I mean, <i>we're</i> horrified! As Hannibal frames Clarice's/our face as he lifts off the top portion of Paul's skull...</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ2SpdIsJnspL5VeDfjN0I1HYEyQ4bo1RAOdfgULtiMcsICVzcWtMB6dKg3geb92z0Cfx7LNgYZGSvUgJ-Do9y9fgFAVnMxmn1p_MMGxO7lG_8mJ33b3zpzS3dIGCzg5LhVQ8n5zYuT6mC/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.50.21+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524330772626492450" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">...things get dark. VERY dark. Our entire attention is focused on that delicious looking brain of Krendler's. Hannibal is still towering over him, his face light and illuminated (albeit somewhat shadowy under his brow), but look at Paul: his face is pretty dark and the light is just being reflected on where the top of his brain is and makes it the center of attention even more so. </span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpYB55zQ6eYRkm5U6hcgYCG60nn6C5uCUq75sIzrFGIAZKy5aWnHRJn5T1I-BY0mwhRkf5q-76pG39NhCgW1Yqsg0Z0vXlLgJkJGlFv5HMlj7LO9LWw3tluafqXcuUX2DqYUQ8ePZATmZv/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.56.37+PM.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpYB55zQ6eYRkm5U6hcgYCG60nn6C5uCUq75sIzrFGIAZKy5aWnHRJn5T1I-BY0mwhRkf5q-76pG39NhCgW1Yqsg0Z0vXlLgJkJGlFv5HMlj7LO9LWw3tluafqXcuUX2DqYUQ8ePZATmZv/s320/Screen+shot+2010-10-04+at+5.56.37+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524330784826927586" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px; " /></a></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">And finally, we get to see Clarice's reaction. Her skin is SUPER pale now, shadowy and low lit, nothing behind her. Empty. And of course, I'm sure she feels completely empty inside, too. No matter how much of a jerk Paul was, she doesn't believe for a moment he deserves it (and depending on your feelings, you may feel the same exact way towards his character). But, again, the shot reinforces the emotion.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div>I'll stop here for now, and hopefully I can get through the rest of the scene later. I'll leave you pining for some scrumptious Paul-brains until next time.</div>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-829762489930304046.post-92091326376096070622010-10-02T00:28:00.000-07:002010-10-04T16:17:44.781-07:00Alien and Aliens Composition<center><div style="text-align: left;width: 480px; "><embed width="480" height="360" src="http://static.pbsrc.com/flash/rss_slideshow.swf" flashvars="rssFeed=http%3A%2F%2Ffeed12.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fa233%2FMazAMaTaz%2FScreenshots%2Ffeed.rss" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">Compositions from various still frames taken from <i>Alien</i> and <i>Aliens</i>. I have an extremely crappy version of <i>Alien</i>, but I (and I guess you, if you're interested) can still get a sense of placement and color from the film regardless of quality.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;width: 480px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;width: 480px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">I really don't have that much to say about each one, but they're all equally interesting. The color in these is just awesome, which actually kind of makes me want to do a color study of the entire movie. If I get a chance in the future, I might pick a scene and just go over the entire thing (and of course there are a couple that just </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia;"><i>scream</i> to be studied and nitpicked over)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">.</span></div></center>Maz Zolphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02213866087350923836noreply@blogger.com0