April 15, 2007

1984

One of my favorite years for movie releases because it had many classic and memorable films, including:


Ghostbusters
A sci-fi comedy about three eccentric New York City parapsychologists. After they are fired from a university, they start their own business investigating and capturing ghosts. One of my all time favs. By far the film I've seen the most often, as a kid I recorded it once the movie was broadcast on television and played that VHS tape till there was nothing left of it.



Gremlins
Of course this scared me as a kid, but
loved it too, you can't beat that mohawk! This horror-comedy film was directed by Joe Dante. It is about a young man who receives a strange creature named Gizmo as a pet, which then spawns other creatures who transform into small, destructive monsters.



The Karate Kid
Who doesn't remember this one? It became a trilogy, but the first ones
are usually the best, this is no exception. It fulfills every kids bully-vanquishing fantasies. he film's awesome tagline was: He taught him the secret to karate lies in the mind and heart. Not in the hands.



Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom

I preferred 1 & 3 of the series, but this one is pretty good too. This film is darker in tone than its predecessor, it was always intended to be a horror movie as well as a remake of elements of Gunga Din (1939). The original title was "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death." Like the first, it starred Harrison Ford as Jones, was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on an original story by George Lucas.


The Terminator

Featuring former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger in what would become his best-known role, and also starred Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. Directed by James Cameron, who was only 27 years old at the time. An android has been transported back in time from 2029 to May 12, 1984 to assassinate a woman named Sarah Connor. My favorite one of the trilogy.



Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Everyone prefers The Wrath of Khan, as do I, but this one is a close second for me,
it picks up where Star Trek 2 left off, I thought Christopher Lloyd did a great Klingon. Interesting Nerd Trivia: The destruction of the Enterprise had to be done twice, since the initial destruction sequence - which ended in a warp core breach rather than the saucer exploding and the remainder burning up in the Genesis planet's atmosphere - was deemed to have too little emotional impact, and also appeared to be too similar to the ending of Return of the Jedi.


Firestarter
Drew Barrymore's first gig. It's one of those movies I remember being better as a kid,
but it still holds up pretty good. Charlie McGee, a young girl with pyrokinesis — the ability to create fire with the power of her mind, along with other psychic powers. She was born with her pyrokinetic talent due to her parents' involvement in an experimental drug trial in college. The drug left Charlie's father, Andy, with a mind-control power which he calls "the push", and her mother, Vicki, with limited telekinetic and mild telepathic abilities. However, their powers are weak in comparison to their daughter's talent. There's nothing like experimental drugs in the 60s to turn your new born daughter into a mutant I say.



This is Spinal Tap
Rob Reiner's mockumentary.

This is an old classic, I only learned to appreciate it a few years ago when I saw it again. It has been called one of the funniest movies ever made by many people over the years, I tend to agree. The film was accompanied by an album of the same name. In the years since the film was made the actors who portrayed the band members have played concerts and released music, blurring the line between fact and fiction.


A Nightmare On Elm Street

One of Johnny Depp's first gigs in film, scared the crap out of me, Freddy that is, not Johnny. By 1984, the slasher genre was wearing thin. Halloween bombed out with number 3, and Friday the 13th was falling into the dreadful mix of completely cliché horror. Without A Nightmare on Elm Street, that could have been it for the slasher film. With it, however, the genre was brought off the respirator for another 10 years when Craven did it again with Scream, but I digress. Wes Craven delivers a very original, creative, and well played out horror film that has the perfect level of plot, fright, gore, and imagination.


1984
Based on George Orwell's fantastic 1948 novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four". This is
probably one of the most, if not THE most, masterful transitions from book to movie I have ever seen. filmed, appropriately enough, not only during the actual YEAR of 1984, but also during the exact same short span of months that the story took place in. Easily, its most impressive aspect was its phenomenal attention to detail.


Honorable mention: Two other favorites of mine, Goonies and Back To The Future came out soon later in '85.

Saturn Coolness

Saturn From Below
Swooping below Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft spied several strange wonders. Visible in the distance are some of the many complex rings that orbit the Solar System's second largest planet. In the foreground looms the gigantic world itself, covered with white dots that are clouds high in Saturn's thick atmosphere. Saturn's atmosphere is so thick that only clouds are visible. At the very South Pole of Saturn lies a huge vortex that is a hurricane-like storm showing no sign of dissipating. The robotic Cassini spacecraft took the above image in January from about one million kilometers out, resolving details about 50 kilometers across..
The hi-res image can be seen here.

Everest

What would it be like to stand atop the tallest mountain on Earth and see a full panoramic vista from there? Click on image to see:

April 14, 2007

Two Great Artist Blogs

Mike Mattesi:

Peter Han:

Letterpress

A nice and sad little clip about the dying art of beautiful letterpress typography:

ApeLad’s Hobo #600



In this video Adam Koford draws his 600th hobo, using a brush pen for the oft-linked e-hobo project that has sprung from John Hodgman’s book The Areas of My Expertise. We love the marriage of YouTube and illustrators.

April 13, 2007

Executives

I dug up all these sticky notes from the back of my desk the other day, then typed them all out, thought I'd share them with you all. These are quotes I've collected over the years, I've either heard them personally or from someone else in the design and animation field.

"I want it to look sexy, and androgynous, you know, nice sharp angles with sexy curves. I want to see something new and fresh, something original, know what I mean?"
(Producer, talking to animators hired to design and develop new animation series pitch ideas).

"I want you to surprise me with something I've never seen before - I want you to invent the wheel, just visually".
(Producer, talking to animators hired to design and develop new animation series pitch ideas).

"If I give you approval, what can I still change?"
(Client, talking with Animation Director)

"Can we hear it before you record it?"
(Client, e-mailing the Voice Director)

- "The model sheets are great except for the designs and colors."
- "But we duplicated the design and color style from the models you sent us."
- "Yes, we don't like those."
(Producer, in reference to viewing the first batch of models for a series beginning its 2nd season of production)

A Producer, after viewing the first 30 seconds of a 7 minute animatic:
- "Ok, stop, stop, stop, hold on...um.... is it possible to change the angle of the entire episode, to make everything a lower shot, to make it more spooky looking?"
- "Um, no.... that would require us to re-draw all 200 pages of this storyboard, that would cost a lot of time."
- "Yes, I see, but this IS the Halloween episode, so could you maybe just do an effect here in the computer software to change the angle slightly?"
-"Um.... no, you see... all these panels were 'drawn' this way, all the angles the story artist drew on these pages would have to be re-drawn to reflect this change, it would put us back 2 weeks.
-"I just don't understand what the problem is, could you please just change the angle ever so slightly for all 300 scenes in this animatic so that it can be a spookier looking? I don't think I'm asking for too much here."

On a similar note, if you work in animation, puppetry, or any aspect of film or television you'll relate to John K's rant on the subject of executives:
Crackpot Executive Beliefs

April 11, 2007

Screen Novelties

These guys in L.A. have been doing stop-motion for ever.
Check out their amazing show reel:

Movie Trivia

Filmmakers Dan Brown, Mike Mitchell, and Kent Osborne created these 2002 SXSW film festival trailers, starring a couple Burger Hut employees,
one of them happens to be a puppet:

What Do You Mean, "Flash Gordon Approaching"?

SCI FI WIRE: Flash Blasts Off Again

SCI FI Channel has green-lighted production on Flash Gordon, a series based on the popular comic-strip franchise, the channel announced Jan. 12 at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif.

Production on the 22 one-hour episodes begins in Canada early this year. The series, produced by Reunion Pictures, is slated to debut on SCI FI in July, with a broadcast syndication window to follow.

The series will be produced under an agreement between King Features Syndicate, which owns the rights to Flash Gordon, and Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr. (The Legend of Earthsea).

The characters of Ming, Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov will be brought back for a contemporary retelling of the comic-strip story created in 1934 by Alex Raymond. The strip is still distributed internationally by King Features Syndicate.

The Monster's Three Wishes (1973)

More Oldies But Goodies

Eric Larson and Ham Luske's notes on animation principles. Includes theories on acting, anticipation, rhythm, timing, posing, angles and lines of action:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7

More useful booklets for any animator and layout artist:
How to Draw 4 legged animals
Glen Keane notes on Animaiton
Spumco Layout Theories
H&B's Layout Notes

More regarding composition, very nice stuff:
Attracting the Eye by Mark Kennedy
Twins & Tilts by Mark Kennedy
Appeal & Flow by Mark Kennedy
Layout & Lighting by Rowland Wilson
Basic Composition Theory
Distribution of Space