Love

While this was a beautifully done short film some really cool ideas, I feel that it had room for improvement. The effects and creativity continued to surprise as new elements were added, but once the guy was hit by the car, the movement of the film slowed down. I began to get distracted and I think I may have missed the end of the film, because at that point it seemed like it was over. I guess you could say it was like a really long jewelry commercial, but a really cool one.

Opposites Attract. The Sea Separates Us. And Bottles Bring Us Together.

So sad. I still imagine that they are together, somehow. As far as physics go, they really aren't dead. The sand is still sand, and snow girl just turned into water. They still made it to each other, and you can't make me believe otherwise.

What I want to know is exactly how long it took to shoot this five minute film.

The still photograph to the right is from a scene that took all day to shoot. The way the sun light moves through the trees tells how long it took. I aplaude the perseverance of the filmmaker, because I would have walked away from the film a long time ago.

The blinking screen shot below was probably my favorite shot in the entire film- creative and thoughtful.

The film has a sense of humor to it that is refreshing. The last two animated films the class has watched left the viewers with a sense of intensity or confusion. This one, while we are left to decide what happens to the main characters, actually leaves us on a complete and good note without being cheesy about it.

Bear Between

Sunday Night
What? That's all I really have to say at this point. I'll come back tomorrow.

Monday Night
Nope.

Wednesday Night
Okay, well I honestly still don't know what I have to say about this film. I guess I have to say that I can't help but have an appreciation for the art in the film. I really enjoy the composition of the music in the short, and as far as animation goes, I really love the simplicity. This is probably why I appreciate it. As the reviewer of the film stated, the filmmaker made a world. He didn't exactly tell us a story, but he brought us into that world. Just imagine if one day you woke up in Tokyo or Italy. I think I would feel much like I feel every time I watch this film. I don't understand what is going on. I don't understand what these people are doing, but I can say that it is beautiful here, and that's all that really matters at this point. So I am going to leave it at that. This film is beautiful.

Pivot

This was a story told with no words. As a communication studies major this short film was very interesting. People in my classes, including myself, LOVE to talk, so taking a moment to shutup, observe, and listen (all aspects of a good communicator) was refreshing. The filmmaker uses color, animated body language, and sound to create the story. Every aspect of film is telling the viewer something whether we realize it or not, just as every person on the planet is telling people something whether they are aware of it.

I love animated films that create a since of suspense and fear. It goes against the norm of what we grow up with as kids. I think that this coud go back to me falling in love with "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland". I will say that I'm not crazy about the animation in this particular film. I don't know what it is about it that makes it feel like an old cartoon, that was redone and updated to look cool.

I think my favorite part about watching this film, was actually watching it a second time. Same was true for "The Sixth Sense". When you watch it a second time, you see things from a completely different perspective than the first time. Personally, A film that makes you want to go right back and watch it again is a pretty darn good film.

Plastic Bag Composition

It is fairly ironic that our class was assigned to watch this short film right after we learned about the importance of shot composition. My favorite part of this film was that we never interacted with human subjects. There was no acting involved and the script was not overwhelming either. What made this film work was the shot composition alone. Who knew shooting a plastic bag the right way could make you have a relationship with it?
Last class we discussed and practiced shot composition. In my blog post on "Plastic Bag" I figured I would take it a step further and try to pick out things we talked about with a bag as the subject instead of a human figure. It was a little bit different, but I thought it was interesting to see that composition is consistent regardless of what you are shooting.

using objects in foreground to create depth


frame within a frame


high angle, horizontal and vertical lines


low angle


subjective


great depth of field


shallow depth of field, using diagonal lines to create depth


diagonal lines, rule of thirds


shallow depth of field


extreme wide angle


dirty single


shallow depth of field, diagonal line


close up


medium close up, 3/4


wide/long shot


extreme close up


favorite

Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello

http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2009/02/16/the-mysterious-explorations-of-jasper-morello/


This engaging short animated film revealed many aspects of visual storytelling competency. In this post I would like to specifically explore the use of color throughout the film. This is interesting because the characters that this story is about are merely black silhouettes. I felt that all background colors almost had a sepia edit to it, even the colors that were not a true sepia. This gave the setting of the story an old-timey (if that's even a word), vintage feel, but a sci-fi twist was added, which is what provoked my interest in the first place. Since our characters where black as night, cooler, more blue shades were used in the background to represent that it was dark out, and brown shades were used to represent day. I don't believe there was anything that blatantly said what time of day it was; merely by the use of color it was simple to tell. Red always seemed to have a negative connotation to it, from "the sickness", to the monster and the blood. All around when the color red showed it up, it wasn't a good thing. Green tones were used during the forest scene where the main character approached the monster. All together, this short film was a breath of fresh air for me, and I loved it.