Hippocampus

So I have no idea what they are doing in the New Briggate Gallery, but apparently two people are living in there for a week, like a people zoo. It is a bit annoying I guess.

Found this music vid on a Specialten dvd.


I like it a lot! i like that it is kind of an video of art as it is being completed, rather than animating something that is already finished. It's so simple, and as someone who likes working with actual objects to animate, I like that they use that, crumpling the paper e.t.c.

There's also some pretty nice things in Sela bar at the moment, birdcages with umbrellas in, butterfly's made from matchboxes, etc.

dear stranger

Came across this short film "Dear Stranger" on the net.
I like the mix of still photographs and film, especially the night street scenes.

The Darjeeling Limited.

Went to see the Darjeeling Limited as part of the Leeds Film Festival. I wasn't sure what to expect since Owen Wilson had no hand in writing the script (compared to Anderson's other films) but it was gooood, probably my favourite since Rushmore. The same kind of melancholic story occurs, with the same iconic look and style of a Wes Anderson film, but compared to films like The Life Aquatic it is much funnier and more varied. I love all the actors he constantly uses, and how they fit into his multiple roles for them. Awesome film!

Aurora.

Just got back from the Aurora animation festival in Norwich.
I was there from Wednesday and saw some pretty good / bad / new / old things.

One of the first screenings I went to was a collection of music videos, from well known and lesser known artists and musicians. In particular I enjoyed this one:



This video by Patrick Rebisz uses animation in a perhaps less obvious manner. I thought I would get bored after seeing about a minute and recognizing the formula, but i found it really engaging, from using a constantly moving thing (the fire) which is interesting to look at in itself, to the narrative created by the ever changing photographs. Something of the song tune is also reflected in the motion, it just seems to compliment it so well. I think that the simplicity of this video just gets so well carried through by the great idea it is based upon.



I think this would've been great for the Collection project. Really funny use of existing imagery to animate all the record covers!

One of my favorite films from the weekend was called 200,000 Phantoms, a film by Jean-Gabriel Periot. Based on Hiroshima, the film is made up of hundreds of photos collected from the internet depicting the Genbaku Dome, and the area surrounding it. The Genbaku Dome (i think) was the only building left standing after the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima in the 40s. The animation layers up the photos, but the structure of building, like in the situation, remains constant. We see the dome before, during and after the bomb, the dome top of the building enables instant recognition from it's surroundings and lets the filmmaker use photos of the area from different perspectives, with the dome retaining it's own position. A really great film, and a really unique way of animating that seems both ingenious and justified in what it is showing.


I also went to a screening of Jeff Scher films. I hadn't heard of him before, but went along based upon recommendations in the book and I'm really glad I did.
The showing consisted of several 16mm films and later some digital. His film animations were interesting to me by the way he puts them together, how he layers them, draws on the film and manipulates the aesthetic. The stills of his films really do no do the work justice. The animations are fast moving, frantic, with a pace and rhythm. The colours and patterns change constantly. Scher uses what he describes as 'ironic' accompanying music, upbeat, often vintage sounds.

Another film of his I enjoyed was called 'Trigger Happy'. This comprised of a collection of objects Scher had found walking to and from his studio in New York. The items are placed upon a lightbox and animated. A lot of the objects are recogniseable, and i really liked the aesthetics, we also learned that one of the guns was real. haha.

Another great screening was the Animate 07 previews. With screenings and a Q & A session with the artists, including work by Semiconductor:

And Thomson and Craighead's 'Flat Earth':

"A desktop expedition and documentary, woven from satellite imagery found online to make an extraordinary five-minute journey around the world, encountering the splintered voices of bloggers which interleave and overlap as if to form a single conversation."

All the information for this film was collected in one particular month, and the animation zoomed in and out on the earth (as if using Googleearth) on particular areas, where we heard 'blog' entries from different people living in these areas.

I often dislike digital animations for looking too shiny and simply digital. But animate made me question this dislike as i saw 2 films, digitally made that I really enjoyed.

i forgot..

This one! 'Breath Me' by Sia. The idea of animating using polaroids may be costly but looks great, I also like the idea of watching some of the frames develop as it is happening.

Some good music videos:

Of Montreal's "Requiem For A Dream" This video has a collage element to it, a random animation, made to look imperfect. The video plays with the idea of motion and perspective, it is shown so we feel like we're moving through the scenes and only selective elements move in each shot. I like the way the subjects move simplistically, the layering up of all the imagery, from pixel flowers, to multi coloured clouds, and photographic people. I especially like the bird made from lined paper. I think the style works perfectly with the song, which at times does sound like a computer game sound track which is mirrored in the video.



This is the music video for The Unicorns' 'Jellybones'. The video starts rather simply, but there is a visual theme with the brightened colours and all the pinks, then the scenes and aesthetics are driven by the changes in pace, from fast taking to the flashing, glow in the dark scene, to the slower scenes where our character dies from 'jellybones'. The band themselves are known for their comic, story driven songs, I like the way they even show death this way from the cartoon-esque crosses on his eyes.



This is 'said the spider to the fly' a video from The Paper Chase. I like the way they use the lighting and speed in this one. Sometimes effects like this can be overused, but i feel the combination of that with the light and the song work well. I also like the idea of people missing their heads, kind of simple but styling towards the song, the flashes of the singer create a kind of agitated feel, which is certainly driven by the piano and constant shouts in the background!

Adrian Tomine.

I love a lot of comics, mainly Daniel Clowes's Ghost World, work by Craig Thompson, Simone Lia, Tom Gauld, Jeffrey Brown and Adrian Tomine. Lucky for me there was a pretty good exhibition on in the city gallery displaying pieces by lots of these artists, but unfortunately not Adrian Tomine. Lucky for me his new book was recently released:



I like the clean style of his work and his melancholy, typically 'alienated' characters. I always want to make a comic but half decent storytelling is hard! I know my title though.

Ye olde laptop.

So this guy made this awesome laptop, that my poor acer could not hope to compete with. We don't do minimalism.

Jeep advert.

So here is a rather annoying advert for Jeep. I am not denying that it's clever, with it's meaning and placement, but really, it's not as if they don't park all over the pavements by the local private schools anyway.

GhostFleet "Preen" Video.

So during summer I started manically cutting out 1's and 0's so I could make this video with Josh.
Mainly I did the cutting of ships, numbers and was on animating duties. We built a sweet set in his basement!



Mid summer there was the SouthCentral ad: I was on costumes and filming!

Jeff Buckley painting.

Sometimes I like the smell of paint, so I did this Jeff Buckley portrait for my slightly obsessed sister: (the photo's a little shiny)

Sleepy village.

Recently I've been experimenting with photography, especially night photography, messing around with light and shutter speed & things like that:

& some more from the old mill . . .

Valerie Pirson.

Valerie Pirson is an animator and part of the Parisian 'Partizan" collective. I like the physical aspect of her work, creating films that rely on experimenting with traditional techniques, rather than working digitally. As a result her animations are quirky, occasionally similar in style to that of her previous work colleague Michel Gondry and like Gondry's work always inventive, often with a childlike aesthetic and edge.