response to two colour-related articles

Color is often used by filmmakers like Pixar to create strong emotions in the audience during an important scene. Red is usually used in intense moments, blue is used in depressing moments,etc. A colorist will add value to your work. It's important to match the color with the scene. Color will make everything look more interesting and feel real. It can make a day time shot look like a dark night, it can add a blue sky to a happy moment, and it can create a contrast with the background. In short, color can be considered as important as proper lighting or audio for a film. This doesn't mean you should go crazy and paint every scene in loud colours, just when it will match in pivotal scenes. You can use color in a variety of ways, but make sure you do use it.

   Having discussed the color theory in class...twice... I can say that I know a lot of this already. Color really does invoke strong emotions in people. Those pixar examples were perfect and helpful as well. The video with the man showing off different techniques with color was also very interesting and gives me a new outlook on color. That being said, his narrative skills were a bit...lacking. But for the most part, I'm glad that I saw that. And I like that the first article brought up the use of the color red in the movie The Sixth Sense because I've heard of this before, and I've seen the movie a dozen times, and I still have not noticed it except maybe in one case.

response to the stop motion in the 21st century article

    Travis Knight is the CEO and president of his animation studio, Laika. His studio is credited with making Coraline and ParaNorman which show off their skill with merging stop motion and computer generated effects to make a film. The studio's most recent film using these two techniques is The Boxtrolls. Knight states that while working on each film, he and his cast learn new techniques and technologies to help them along the way, and what they learned from one film, they then applied to the next. Trying to reshoot something is incredibly difficult to do, so it's important to get the right animators for the job ahead of time. When prompted to choose between making something on a computer or as a full scale puppet, Knight preferred to have the puppet because he believes that the "stuff we can capture in-camera helps create a unified perspective of the world we're building".

    Well, I feel bad for not having watched ParaNorman or Coraline now. It's interesting to hear from a stop motion animator for once, and hearing about the blend of stop motion with computers. I was one of the people who felt that these films were all pretty similar in the fact that they were scary, kid movies and looked similar. However this new film seems cute, funny, and unique, so I'd like to see it. One really must admire stop motion just because it is so time consuming and you need to make every shot count. Reshooting is almost not even an option.

weekly comments #3

1. I learned about image resizing in Photoshop, and that doing blogs on a tablet is hard.

2. I'd like to learn to film good looking videos and films.

3. I wasn't frustrated by anything other than my urban evolution... It went wrong fast. The first thing I did was the armadillo football, and I really liked it and got a bit of praise on it while working on it. But then I realized that it wasn't technically "urban" so I had to scrap it and come up with a new idea, with even less time to work on it, and every idea I had was already done by someone else. So I tried the giraffe streetlight which started off really good but ended really bad.

4. Like I said, I liked working on my armadillo. I also liked how easy the image resizing was, which now makes me think that I did it wrong.

Okay, attempt number 3. This time it's a different video with a different link. It shows how Photoshop can really make one image become greatly changed and no-one would know it, in this case it's a lady's face before and after.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=514ksRk5VRE

If I actually get this to work, I'll do the old video later.

response to the saving 2d animation with Hullabaloo article

  So a team of Disney animators have been working together to keep 2d animation alive with a little 2d animated film they're working on called Hullabaloo. Traditionally animated movies have a nostalgic feeling that we all love. And of course we know that 2d animation still exists on television cartoons, but it must certainly has faded from the big screen. This film could be the start of the revival of 2d animated movies. The team's funding for this project has been from donations,on indiegogo.com, and donating will give you special benefits. Their target goal was $80,000 and their campaign ends on October 1st. The team also has stretch goals including making extra shorts, full orchestra recordings for the soundtrack, and a possible web/tv series and feature length film.

  My Lord, they were only trying to get $80,000 and they raised $317,000+. Well this should be good. Now I'm not ready yet for another extremely hyped up Disney movie to come out, (and I will seriously go crazy if one one more person asks me to build a snowman) and I'm also not really a big steampunk fan, but seeing how it's a 2d film I'm actually excited. And I don't believe Disney has made a movie like this with two female protagonists, so that is pretty cool. (Don't you dare say Frozen) It's true that, as of late, the animated movies that have been pumping out have mainly been 3d, though there's nothing wrong with 3d and clearly people will pay to see it, but going back to our 2d roots is awesome and I fully support it.

13 point manifesto for documentary filmmaking article response

  In the article Michael Moore shares his 13 key ideas for making a documentary. One thing to think about is to tell the audience something that the majority of them wouldn't already know about, so don't make the documentary about how smoking is bad, or that you shouldn't run with scissors. Name the enemy, if you are trying to say that a certain company is bad, don't try to work your way around saying their name, call them out on it. Your documentary should be personal, so be in it, or at least narrate it. Entertain the audience, try to make them laugh, people love to laugh. When you are filming a scene, pay attention to your emotions, chances are your audience will feel the same thing. Less is more, so cut and edit things, your audience doesn't want a lecture. In your documentary sound is as important, if not more than, visuals.

  Well, for the most part, these tips sound pretty good. However, I just have to think that maybe naming the company that you're essentially talking bad about is not a good idea. They will most likely sue you, and their lawyers are probably better than yours. That being said, I like the other points made. I agree that people don't want to be lectured, I like to be entertained. And I wouldn't want to be told something I already knew, because where's the point in telling me in the first place? Personalizing your documentary also sounds like a good idea, then it actually means more to your audience that it meant something to you.

weekly comments #2

1. I learned a bit more with Photoshop, like masks. And, we went over the color theory stuff, so I re-learned those.

2. There's nothing new that I'd think I'd like to learn, except more shortcuts because shortcuts are awesome and everyone loves them.

3. I was frustrated that I had to hand some things in late, and that I lost points on last week's blog.

4. I still like actually doing work and having time to experiment with Photoshop, it's a lot different since my old class in ninth grade.

Alright, so the problem with last week's link was that I'm on a mobile device because I currently have no home computer due to virus issues. The link worked fine for me. So here's the same video except it should actually work for you people, if it doesn't then I give up.
http://youtube.com/?#/watch?v=9j656_RiO0k

weekly comments #1

1. I learned many cool things in Photoshop, including the heal tools, which I swear are some kind of black magic.

2. I'd like to learn to Photoshop like a professional, which basically means how to do more complex things quickly. I also want to know how people can Photoshop a picture of pizza and make it look like a female model, like seriously?

3. Nothing in our class really frustrated me, except for whoever decided they didn't need their drink and just left it lying around. That got me a little annoyed.

4. I liked actually getting to work in Photoshop, it's fun to change something into something else, even though I'm sure it will be less fun later.

Here's that pizza thing I just said, yeah it's a real thing, I'm sorry about this.
http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=9j656_RiO0k

Hollywood cinematographer's new job article response

A video game developer named Ready at Dawn has been working on a video game that uses "movie-like techniques"to make the game look and feel like a film. Film has been around much longer than video games have and had more time to develop as a form of art. Lately, video games have been coming out that use motion capture and GGI that look good visually, however Ready at Dawn's new game: The Order 1886 is utilizing simple cinematography to create their masterpiece. This includes copying the attributes of a physical lens used in movies. This way they can change the depth of field we see and change the focus of the camera while also adding the little things that people tend to overlook like lens dirt, etc.

Alright, well this has my attention, and as a gamer I am really looking forward to seeing this beautiful masterpiece of cinematography and gameplay. I've played many a game where there is a really nice looking cut-scene and cool camera angles, maybe a lens flare, but then the gameplay kicks back in and everything looks dull again. So if this game actually does what it says it does, then I'm sold. I know that games have been recently trying to look more like actual movies and have done rather well in that sense, but it's usually at the cost of good, fun, gameplay. Many reviews of Beyond: Two Souls stated that most of the game, although visually appealing, felt like a cut-scene with little actual playing in it, and that it lead to some disappointment in the gaming community. So hopefully this game will be as good as it sounds.

6 tips from recruiters article response

Recruiters are busy people and don't have time to waste. That being said, it's very important that you don't waste their time when it comes to your demo reel, otherwise your chances of being hired drop severely. You only have about 30 seconds to leave a good impression on them so don't make a long, flashy intro with your name on it. That wastes everyone's time, and as I previously stated wasting time is bad. Just throw your contact info on the the title card, quickly proceed to show off your best work, give your info again at the end and you're done. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point. Only put your best stuff in the demo reel, it should be short and great, not a boring ordeal. This goes without saying, but make sure your links work. Honestly you don't want to make stupid mistakes that could end up making you lose the job. Be original, don't be a cliche. Just because every movie that became famous over the last couple years involved death or monsters doesn't mean you should be doing it too. And lastly, cater your reel toward the studio you are trying to work at, obviously pixar doesn't make horror movies so your reel shouldn't have animations about zombies or hockey mask wearing serial killers.

This all makes sense to me. Obviously things like checking your links to make sure they work, is something that we should already know to do... And ok even I screw that up sometimes. But, a lot of the information here is useful. One should definitely try to tailor their demos to the studio that they are trying to work at. And showing off your best work only is a given. I would have never known about the "you have 30 seconds to make an impression" rule. In fact, I'd probably be one of the people who mess that up, so I learned a thing today!

test post lolz

this is cool lol\
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60rBrYQAvQ