Week 2: Norman McLaren - Dots

I really enjoyed how simple this short animation was. It consisted of a red background with various green dots moving throughout the screen. It took me a little while to appreciate it because I had to look back and realize that this was made in 1940. The cute and quirky sound effects fit the movement of the dots well, and I liked how as the dots got more complicated, so did the sound effects. I viewed this as some sort of retro poster art come to life. There wasn't really any story, more just an entertaining combination of shapes and sounds.

Week 1: Winsor McCay, Gertie the Dinosaur, 1914

If I had been alive in 1914. I am sure that I would have absolutely loved Gertie the Dinosaur. My favorite film of all time is Jurassic Park, which was the first film to extensively use CGI to produce realistic, computer animated dinosaurs. I suppose that Gertie was as much of a breakthrough in 1914 as Jurassic Park was in 1994. The animation is simple, but you definitely get a sense of personality from the simply illustrated dino. I wonder how long it took for McCay to master his timing to give the illusion that Gertie was really responding to him. Its incredible that people were so thrilled to have this as a form of special entertainment - I doubt any child now would want to watch something like this when they have so much to choose from on TV/Internet.

Week 9: The Media Students Book: Chapter 2 Assignment

Do Activity 2.4 and 2.6 as a written document of a total 1-2 pages.

2.4: Look at a few ads from television. Ask yourself each:
1. Is this a narrative? Does it begin rather than just start, and end rather than just stop?
2. How do I know? Are the people in it constructed as characters? 
3. Or is it simply a list of claims or prices, or an image of a situation in which the product seems attractive?

When I turned on my television, the first ad to come on was an ad for a ShamWow. For anyone unfamiliar with this product, its some kind of microfiber cloth that has an exceptional ability to absorb liquids. I think that this commercial (and any similar commercial) is what #3 is describing. TV Ads that lure a buyer in by introducing a product and then giving a number of situations in which that product would be useful. There aren't any real characters in it, and the "narrator" is just a person attempting to sell you a gimmicky product. All the "As Seen on TV" products follow a similar commercial structure in which there is no attempt at a story.




2.6: What difference does this "speed" and clarity or capacity for exaggeration make to the kinds of narratives which can be told in animation? Do you think South Park and the Simpsons tell different kinds of stories partly because of their different styles of animation? How would you apply this to films such as The Incredibles which are heavily marketed on off-screen star voices?

I don't feel that the type of animation completely decides what kind of story is being told. Sure, less serious story lines may tend to have a simpler animation (for example, cartoons), but a simple animation can still have a deep meaning. I have seen very important issues in South Park, and I don't think that the simple cut-out appearance makes me take it less seriously. A more extensive method of animation is just more visually appealing, as we can see in many Disney/Pixar films. The Incredibles has a much more elaborate and complex animation structure than The Lion King, but both the stories have strong characters and interesting storylines.

Website Assignment

For the hyper haiku assignment, I decided to go back to my childhood and feature Pikachu on the site. I found a haiku about Pikachu online, and made the background a picture of it. For the banner, I found a custom Pokemon font online, made it the classic yellow and blue color, and inserted a japanese style "aik" to play with the words (pikac"haik"u...). I centered everything and made it clean and simple.

file:///Volumes/kitsonc/Sites/index2%20pikachu.html

Just in case that file path doesnt work (I'm not sure how to post the link, but everything is under my Sites folder under the name "kitsonc" on the edam server), here is a screenshot of the page and the html text as well.

Reflection on the Video Process

The process of making a video proved to be very difficult, but in the end I’m glad how my video turned out. If I had the chance to redo this assignment, I would have put a little more work into planning every aspect of the video beforehand (in other words, making a better storyboard). I only had a rough idea of what I wanted to do when I interviewed Steve, and I wish I had filmed the interview as opposed to just getting the audio. It would have been nice to have an actual clip of Steve talking in the final project. Since I didn’t have any good visuals, I decided to make a few short animations to use as footage. This was a lot more time consuming than I expected it to be; for a 10 second animation I had to work for at least a half hour. I think they turned out well, so no regrets there. I really liked the footage of Steve walking up the escalator along with his opinion on how hard it is to move up in both the culinary world and the military. I didn’t take too much footage of him around Hunter, but the few shots I did take fit nicely with what he said.

I can’t imagine all the work that goes into making a feature length film, but after this project, I definitely think making a storyboard is key. Just like when writing an essay, making an outline can be immensely helpful. It keeps you on track and makes sure that your idea doesn’t stray from the main point. It’s also important to film more than you intend to use. At times, I was struggling with what I was going to use as video clips, and ended up taking some off YouTube so that I had enough footage. You can always edit footage and make clips shorter, but its vital that there’s enough material to mess around with.

            Overall, I really enjoyed this project but I know that the video making process is extremely time consuming and requires a ton of effort. If I were to make another video project, I think I’d be a little more comfortable with it and know how to better plan out my project.

Animation Assignment

Animation Assignment

Interview with Steve Knudsen