The Way Back

Ace film.

Best described as an 'Epic' film, very fun to watch. It somehow maintains a 'feel good' humour to it, even though there are people dying left right and centre, and hints of cannibalism. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and recommend it to all.
Almost had a heartbreaking end, but fluffed it (for me) due to some odd editing choices. (spoiler: not showing the actor at the end for a decent time...). Could have been stronger if it was kept a bit simpler. The act of walking home is so strong, you shouldn't need to hide the face for so bloody long.
Still...
Cracking.

Walker Space Laughs

Watched a pilot for a new comedy panel show. Will smith was the white one though. Big let down. Bit lame comedy, not as good as previous ones I've been to.

Location:Walker space - Rave

D-Neg

Went to D-Neg, on goodge st, for an event with BYOA.
Watched a presentation specifically for animation and effects in Iron man 2 and Hellboy 2.
Some really excellent playblasts and WIPs. Stripped back some of the effects plates, and showed a few custom mel scripts they'd written to make some of the animations more interesting.

Also found a nice place to get free criticism for work. But shhhh. Ooh, also free drinks. drink. :/

The Tourist

Quite a fun film. Nicely shot (though has some odd lens distortion when pulling focus).
Some really quirky dialogue. Good to listen to, but nothing to buy :)

We're Back

Watched it after a contextual studies lecture.
Nice to see Mike's name in the credits.
Have distant, fragmented memories of it. An odd story though, some strange peaks.
Not very 'classic hollywood'.

Monsters

Rubbish. Tedious.
Just don't watch it.

Skyline

I'd read on AWN that Skyline was specifically well done, considering a paltry 100million$ budget.
There were apparently 3 guys that lit all of the sequences.
Shame the movie was a bit rubbish. It might be an american thing, as the characters you're forced to follow were shallow, self loving and not empathetic with each other, or the 'end of the world'.

Effects: This was more the point of watching the film, as the story became dry and stale. They were quite epic, and detailed with some lovely special effect (smoke, heat blur etc), but i felt a few of the ambitious shots were below par. Perhaps this was because i'd seen how these shots had been put together, and that two animators quit at the prospect of these shots.
The design, however, was really fresh. Really enjoyed some of the monster and ship designs.
Especially the 'monster' at the end..no spoilers though :D

Spoiler Alert

Just finished playing Assassin's Creed (Brotherhood) and, as Shaun said during a contextual studies lesson, that stealing ideas is done all the time, there were a few that really jumped out at me.
I know it's a game, and that they always steal ideas, and play fairly safe with the plot lines, but this one had an ending akin to Michael Moorecocks' Elric of Melniboné. The hero of the plot became an anti-hero, and something he trusted (in Elric's case, his Black Sword Stormbringer) turned against him and killed his loved one.

Based on this, i might revisit some of Moorcock's novels, and see if there's anything i can draw from them to back up some nice fantasy ideas :)

The American

Watched The American today.
Interesting film, in the pacing and mood department. George isn't really getting any better, but the pacing was lovely (even ADHD people in the cinema complained it was 'too slow', but they were 'too noisy and irritable')

Was similar to In Bruges, in a vague sense of plot, though without humour. But it's pretty mean to compare the two, The American was neither funny, nor serious as there were some logical problems with decisions made.

And the ending was rubbish.

:)

Rant Review over :)

Kiddy Books

Ok, so i can lose some street-cred on this one...
Picked up a free book on regent street called 'witch and wizard' by James Patterson.
Not a wonderful writer (based solely on this book) but some interesting concepts and designs sprung to mind.
Might sketch a few of these 'lumbering bodyguards' and 'the matron'.
Some nice fantasy designs, even if the language was like talking to a young american boy...sigh..

Potter Surprise

Watched Harry Potter with a few fellow students (Rob, Ahmed, Jeremy, Derek and Juwad i think).
Not particularly a potter fan, acting was hammy at best, and the story the same flavour, but one thing i was really impressed with was the great little animation in the middle.
A section of the plot needs to tell the audience a 'folk lore' and does the age-old 'animation cut scene', very true to old animation, with faux silhouettes. It was actually 3D (which looked quite simple in form) as silhouettes with painted?  coloured backgrounds.
Worth watching, even if you have to sit through effect-enhanced drivel. :)

ooh, looky!!
A cam on youtube..who would've thought!!
HERE PLEASE

70 Something

Ok, so i got through to about 70 something in the short film list before giving up/getting busy.

Should watch the rest/repeat some to get my memory going (it's rubbish).

25 a day.

Watched 25 short films yesterday, as part of my bid to watch 100 in a week.
Felt wryly embarrassed at the contextual studies lesson, that i wasn't watching enough.
Need to start living it more, and getting out and seeing more of other people's work, other than films.

Some of the 'student' films really shone out more than the pro studio ones; like Oceansize and Clik Clak.
And there was this great take on 3D with a french animation called Sushi Express which only used 3D on body parts it wanted to exaggerate. So would film a character live, and 3D his head, match movement and lip synch.

Pigeon Impossible was also quite fun to watch, though i felt, missed the mark a little in pacing near the end. They all felt like polished student films...which is pleasing to see. Perhaps i can do better...

A Mini Review

watched 'Another Year' at the cinema.
Ace film for couples, though royally depressive.
Some really lovely shots, lingering after the action, and even after the characters left the frame.
The content was a little 'basic', though the interaction between all of the characters was fantastic, really exaggerating their odd little habits.

Definitely one to watch.

Secret Cinema

Went to Secret Cinema last night, quite a big affair, thankfully got tickets from my girlfriend, as they're like gold-dust.
The event was quite amazing. Guests were dressed up by the actors at the event, and allowed to explore the building, gathering an idea of what the film will be.
There were a few bands playing songs from the film, and the main characters would run around and re-enact scenes.
It's hard to describe, as the event isn't over yet, and we were bound to secrecy when entering. So i couldn't say what the film was, or the event looked like. But it was bloody good fun.
Will upload pics when the event has finished.

Type 2 Sub.

Went to (what looked like) a battleship that had pulled up in Canary Wharf, to take a few pics. I like to build up references of things i don't normally get to see, and to collect textures.
As i was walking up to the ship there was a queue of people waiting near the gangway. So i slipped in and got a tour along the deck. didn't know;
1. It's a Type 2 Submarine, that's meant to look like two fishing boats on a sonar, through a variety of ways (hull shape, engine size/placement/heat).
2. It has a hangar on the back, with a helicopter specially designed to 'flat-pack', so it fits in this cramp hangar.
These are just a few of the pics taken.

Imogen Heap

Got dragged to a concert (my first actually) in the Albert Hall. Wonderful place, very atmospheric, and some really funky sci fi acoustic orbs in the ceiling.

I'm mentioning this because it's similar to the 'animation and sound'  project. She started the show by orchestrating a full orchestra to short clips (apparently sent in by fans) of nature. The music matched up quite well, and the cuts from shot to shot were made noticeable. This got me thinking in two ways: 1 was the different types of music change based on the picture, some wouldn't be heavily noticeable, just slight change of tempo/instruments. 2, how informed the pictures became with the music (after watching for a while with my fingers in my ears to test - not a sight people are used to in a concert :/ ).

Definitely something to think about for the sound project.

Stuff I Should've Added Earlier..

Went to see 'Dispicable Me' a few days ago. A friend was talking it up after seeing the trailer, and it was definately worth it. Though a little childish in content, and quite difficult to empathise with the main character. He had this 'foreign' accent, which fit the 'bad-guy persona well. Though i'm not sure about it connecting with many people at the start. It's only near, or at, the end do you really understand the character. In contrast Wall-E was superb. You empathise with him in the first 10 minutes, even with no dialogue. (i'll probably compare lots of things to Wall-E..it was really that influential for me).

I'm getting wryly annoyed with the book im reading and may either try blitzing through it, or grab another. Charity shop? Would like to get back into fantasy, rather than this middle-eastern thriller romp. It's getting tiresome, and not stretching me much.

I had a quick read of the 'force' book yesterday. Reminded me quite a bit of the 'Ways of Seeing' book, i'd read a few years ago (minus the female history tangent). I'm thinking it's going to be one to read the morning, or night even, before life drawing. Just to chip away at it, and try something new for that day.
Though I'm a little upset at the prospect of not getting life drawing next year. That's something I'm going to miss..will have to make the most out of it this year!

I had a spate of reading 'thebloggess' blog recently, just to get an idea of how to construct something. Seems anything goes from that one. Almost like a running conversation. This is probably a warning to whoever is reading this then...there'll be a lot of chaff to find the good stuff :D

Missed the Aardman presentation at the apple store yesterday. Really should've gone, but needed to get that essay out of the way.

Watched RED a few days ago too. That was more of a guilty pleasure movie though. Nothing too influential to animation, other than story and pacing.

Have made a little headway into modelling and rigging, though have no animation to show for it yet. Focused on all of the things around animation, so that when i got to Rave my head was less cluttered with technical issues. Hopefully this should mean i can focus wholly (is that how you spell it?) on animation, and not worry about my modelling and rendering. --> www.shwaranimations.com

I've started sketching in my little passport booklet. though will probably start dating them and scanning/photo them at a later stage when i can stitch them together, like the life drawings.

ok, I think that's enough for now.

Here's the back button --> bAcK