The End

So this is my last blog for Intro. To Digital Media, and I have to say I’m a little sad that it’s ending. Overall this was an amazing class.

(Who would think a class where we spend half the time watching short films isn’t amazing?)

I did learn quite a lot in the class and I very much enjoyed the discussions we had in class, (even if I didn’t always understand Professor Leeper. J).  Professor Leeper is the kind of teacher that is so entertaining, but knows so much about what he is teaching. Throughout this class, I learned a lot about the art of filmmaking, and saw so many non-mainstream videos that I would never normally watch, and loved most of them. I also loved that we watched some independent films in this class, that I might have never taken time to watch in my free time.

The last couple of months as a freshman in college have been amazing, and absolutely life-changing. There has been some stressful moments here and there this past semester but I’m still loving every minute here at Huntington.

Well I hope everyone has a great rest of the semester and I wish everyone good luck on their finals!!

 

 

 

Star Wars vs Star Trek

 

That ago old question; Star Wars or Star Trek, which is better.

Ok, maybe it’s not that old of a question, however it seems to be quite a popular one and I find it quite fascinating how many people really get into.

 

So I’m not a huge fan girl of either of these franchises, but I have watched all six episodes of Star Wars and watched some episodes and the two new movies of Star Trek that recently came out, and I think they both have their Ups and downs.

However, to me it seems kind of odd why there is even a debate, I mean Star Wars and Star Trek are both completely fictional universes whose technology and scientific foundations are both pretty flawed, and at best an afterthought to add on to the setting and/or plot line. To me this entire debate is as meaningfully as debate about which mythical beast is better, a Unicorn or a Dragon.

 

But of course, people are going to argue about it anyways, so I’ll be the first to ask;

Which is better?? Star Wars or Star Trek??

I would like to hear what others think on the topic and if anyone thinks one is better than the other, could you give me a reason why?

The Drop Box

I just finished watching the documentary “The Drop Box”, and wow, was it a heart-wrenching film.
(I’m pretty sure that most of you know what the documentary, “The Drop Box” is about, but for those who don’t know, it is a documentary that tells the story of Pastor Lee’s heroic efforts to embrace and protect the most vulnerable members of society, the children. )

Today, you don't have to search long to find tales of heartbreak. By just turning on the TV, going to an Internet news site or fold open the newspaper, and you can find endless stories with so much pain and little hope, that it's enough to make your heart go numb sometimes.

The Drop Box is not one of those stories.

This documentary about a humble, hardworking pastor and his wife in South Korea offers a narrative antidote to all that bad news, without pretending it doesn't exist.

The film makers of this documentary definitely knew what they were doing, because they created such an incredible movie experience about one amazing man and his amazing mission to rescue abandoned babies. It is so heart-wrenching seeing the physical, emotional and financial toll that is associated with providing refuge to those the surrounding culture has deemed undesirable and unlovable.

 

 

Music Parody

I wanted to start this post by saying, I loved the music video in class by OK Go, the one with the long, complicated machine. It was amazing to watch, and just think how much time was put into that one music video.

 

So over the last two class we have talked about many different types of music videos; animated music videos, audience participation music videos, emotional music videos, and so on.

Now there is one type of music videos I haven’t heard mentioned in class or read on the blogs ( I might have missed it if someone did blog about it), Music Video Parodies.

I actually love watch Music Videos Parodies, to me these types of music videos are almost always entertaining to watch.

There is one YouTube channel that I think make the best Music Video Parodies, The Hillywood Show.

For anyone who has never seen or heard about the Hillywood Show, it is basically these two sister that take popular songs, rewrite them a little and put them to popular movies or TV shows.

I especially like the Supernatural Parody Music Video and Doctor Who Parody Music Video.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WBqHdI5Bdw

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCZy8cAgBlM

I would recommend that you watch these music video, they are amazing.

 

MTV vs. YouTube

The one article (written in what I think was 2005) talked about when MTV was only for viewing music videos and was the only place you could watch music videos. Today, with the internet, people have more options on where they get to view music video, and because of that MTV isn’t as popular as it once was, I don't even remember ever really watching MTV within my life. I have just always remembered YouTube if I wanted to look up to see a certain music video. YouTube has become what MTV once was, it is what instantly comes to most people’s mind when they hear "music videos".

Personally, I don’t watch all that many music videos, and I usually don’t spend much time looking up music videos on YouTube either. However, just because I don’t usually watch music videos doesn’t mean I don’t like them. Over the past couple of years, the quality of music videos has started to increased, mostly due to them become so popular with people and because it has become increasingly less expensive and easier to make music videos. Music videos have grown so popular that they have started to become a different type of short films.

 

Passing Hearts

Films that leave different clues and hint that the audience has to follow throughout the film, and usually are leading to some big reveal at the end of the film are my favorite to watch. I really enjoy watching these types of films because, even though you really didn't fully understand what was going and sometime you don’t sure know for sure until the revealing moment in the film what’s going on, they are still enjoyable to watch. I really appreciate films that require the audience to be thinking throughout the whole film and don’t need huge explosions and fight scenes to keep the audience interested in the story.

That’s probably why I really liked the short film, Passing Hearts, we watched in class the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break. I enjoyed this short film mostly because it keeps your brain engaged in throughout the whole film. This film had me guessing what was exactly going on for the moment I saw the boy having breathing problems after running after the soccer ball, and I think I didn’t figure out what was wrong with him until a few seconds before we actually saw the scar on the boys’ chest.

 

 

 

Hope Everyone had a Great Thanksgiving break!!!!

Documentaries: More creative, Less informing??

When I was younger, I use to find documentaries really, really boring, however as I got older, I started to notice how documentaries began to get more creative in their looks and they seemed to give more emotions to certain social issues. I began to appreciate them more, and now I enjoy watching documentaries. I really like how documentaries we saw in class were not only about the message they had to share, but they also become about how they presented their message. The documentaries we watched in class last Tuesday, left me with a new perspective on the world of documentaries and even changed my perspective on documentaries all together. I never imagined that you could create a documentary in animation.

With the rise of people watching documentaries, they are becoming one of the most efficient ways to help change and effect the world. However, as filmmakers, I think it is important that we keep in mind that documentaries are to help get conversations and light to certain social issues. If you are watching a documentary, it is supposed to have that shocking and emotional side to it. Documentaries are not here to just keep us entertained, they are created to help inform us. I think as time goes on, we might begin to see more and more documentaries start getting away from that, and they will become more like an entertaining film then a documentary.

Anyone have any thoughts on this??
I would love to hear what other people think about this.

VIDEO GAMES!!!!!

Personally I don’t play video games very often, (I might play for like an hour or two a week) but I really loved how the film we saw in class showed how many people truly care about games, and how many recognize that it is a medium of art and how it can reach people just like movies, t.v shows, books, etc.

This film also shows the hardships that independent video game makers have to face, and how they face many of the same obstacles that independent film makers have to face in the entertainment industry. It showed just how much work goes into games making just one video game for some large companies, it can take up to 3-5 years for most video games to be made.

Large companies have hundreds of artists and employees working their butts off to make a game that in the end will not have any mean, and is made only to make money. That’s why I think it’s amazing how the small independent companies, with very few people working for them, are still able to make money and keep their creativity side instead becoming just like a large, close minded company that only cares about the bottom line.



Extra Credit Essay - Quiz 2

 

The short films Pfffirate and After You were two of my favorite short film we have watched in class so far, and because I already blogged about Pfffirate I’m going to do my extra credit blog on the short film After You. Going off what Keith Longo said in his blog The Fool’s Errand: "don’t make your film to impress industry types, make it to entertain audiences or at the very least make it to entertain yourself", it’s great to see both Pfffirate and After You created by people that didn’t have millions of dollars like Pixar or Disney and still have their audience be entertained as they watched the film. In After You, I was amazed to see how a short film could be just as entertaining as a Pixar or Disney short film by just including two characters and a door frame. Sure, After You might not have been a quality film like Pixar or Disney, but it was still a well done animated film. After You helps remind me that I might not be able to make the next greatest movie of all time, because I don’t have the amount of people or equipment that other movies from Hollywood have but I can still make a well done movie that is simple but entertaining for my audience and for me.

A Metal Bird in a World of Ballon objects

So, a metal bird in a world of balloon objects?

There’s your conflict, but what is the meaning? What kind of thinking does it provoke?

The short film Pfffirate we saw in class didn’t really provoke any profound thinking. In reality, Pfffirate is the type of short film that really doesn’t make people think much when they are watching the film. This short film’s purpose wasn’t trying to tell us the meaning of life or trying to show us a powerful meaning of something, all it was doing was telling a story of a balloon pirate and a mental bird. This short film is in a way, a lot like the many feature films we see in the theaters today, brainless but entertaining.

Don’t get me wrong, of course I like watching those types of film too, mostly because they are so entertaining. However, I think it’s still good to watch other films like Un Jour or Two Sisters once and awhile, to provoke thinking and to get discussions about the topics they are showing in their films started. You shouldn’t just watch films because they are brainless and entertaining, but on the flip side of that, your reason for not watching the brainless films shouldn’t be because they provoke no thinking. Remember, brainless but entertaining films might have great technical skills and unique style that the thought provoking films might not have. And the same thing said about thought provoking films.

 

Best work of art

So I just wanted to talk a little about the Dove commercial we say in class today, the one that starts with the little girl looking into the camera. When the film starts flashing into advertisements of women in bikinis, bras, underwear, and other very reviling cloths items, along with commercials for all type of weight loss pills and tricks is when I believe it becomes very eye opening.  This video is showing people how in today’s magazines, commercials, films and televisions shows, all they tell girls are what makes an 'ideal' women and how to fix our bodies to make sure we are a perfect women.

No one should feel like they need to buy this item, wear this or that or have to try this new wright loss pill just so society will accept them. It's depressing that when society thinks of women, most people right away jump to how women should look like, how they should act and what they should buy to achieve that.  What’s even sadder is that even with the high standers we set for women, advertisement companies still usually Photoshop their actress to make them look even more perfect, to make them more like the ‘ideal’ women. We have put the stander so high for women, that no one will ever be able to become the ‘ideal’ women.

Sometimes I think women need to remember that not only are we God's best work of art, God create also created us in his image and he created us so that we would all be beautiful in our own way.

“The human body is the best work of art.”

― Jess C. Scott

 

Two Sisters

Professor Leeper mentioned in class today that if some people saw this film first on YouTube, they would never watch the whole thing or would have skipped over it to find another film to watch. I have to say that I probably would have been one of those people. I most likely have watched like the first few seconds and then tried to find something else to watch, never finishing the whole film.

When say this film for the first time, it reminded me too much of a horror movie, and I never really liked watching horror movies. . Over all I thought the film was a very creative short film, something I would not watch on my during my free time, but you can't help but see the skills and talent Caroline has.

You can see the creativity in Caroline Leaf’s work starting with the first scene of the film where you see the gentle color of the outside world, but you also hear the music that is recurring in the background with leads to the dark and closed off world of Marie and Viola Ge. Caroline’s vision conveys how most people go by how people look like and not by what is inside the person.

Animated short films

So during the fall break I finally got to watch the Walt Disney animated short films collection, and I thought that some of those short films to be extraordinary.

I love all the films in the Walt Disney animated short films collection and I definitely loved seeing all the different types of animation used for in these short animated films as well.

Of course, out of the 12 of the short films in the collection there where three that I really enjoyed, not to say the other ones weren’t good of course.

The first short films I really like was Lorenzo, a 2004 animated short film about a cat, Lorenzo, who is discovers that his tail has developed a personality of its own after a black cat without a tail puts a hex on Lorenzo’s tail after the black cat passes by, and Lorenzo can't help but flaunt his own luxurious tail.

The second one was Paperman, a 2012 black-and-white 3D romantic comedy short film. In this short film a young man meets a young women at the train station, only to see her later from his office building window, however the girl of his dreams is in the building across the street.
The last short film is The Little Matchgirl is a 2006 animated short film based off on an original story by Hans Christian Andersen entitled The Little Girl with the Matches (or The Little Match Girl). This short film is basically about a poor little girl who sells matches, and on Christmas Eve the girl finds visions of happiness in the flames of the matches she lights to keep warm. (This one is a sad one)

If anyone else has had the chance to watch the Walt Disney animated short films collection, what were some of your favorite short films?

 

 

 

The Mighty Animator, Extra Credit

The Mighty Animator, Extra Credit

Hello everyone, before I start blogging, I just wanted to start by saying that if you haven’t read the extra credit reading, The Mighty Animator, Frédéric Back, I would definitely recommend reading it.

So there was something that Frédéric Back said to William Moritz that really go to me in the reading, “The problem today is that there are no more artists and thinkers at the head of organizations, only bureaucrats who make notes and count numbers.”

If you really think about it, it’s kind of a depressing thought. How much art goes unseen in the world today, even though we have so much technology to make so much art? How much art will go unmade because business men don’t want to spend the money? How many people will never get to see beautiful results of an artist’s work because it would be too risky?

So it also brings up the question we talked about in class, would you make your art (films) if no-one ever saw them? What would be the point in making anything? Sure, some people will make art at home that they might not show people but nobody would work for years on a project that in the end no-one would ever see.

I know in class that some people said that they would still make art even if no one would see it, but how much time and money would you really spend for a movie that in the end no-one (or not many people) would see?? How good would you really make your art if no-one was going to see it any ways?

 

To be eaten or not to be eaten: that is the question!

To be eaten or not to be eaten: that is the question!

So I have been thinking a lot about the short film, Circuit Marine, (the one about the pirate captain's pets) and my first thought was it seemed a bit too tragic and sad to really be a children's film, I mean the parrot, fish, and cat all die and get eat by the crew!!

So I got to thinking, is that what parents really want to show their kids? Is that sort of film something we really think children should be seeing?

But then I asked myself the question; what happens to the child that has no idea what tragedy is? What happens once they grow up?

Everyone dies in this world and Life keeps going on, no matter what happens.

So why do we try to pretend that it doesn’t?

So why try to shelter children from that truth?

When child first see a tragic film, painting, or story, they might not quite understand the reasoning for the suffering, loss or pain they see, but I can guarantee that someday they’re going to find out about tragedy.

Cause no one can protect them from tragedy forever.

So why do we always try so hard not help children understand tragedy?

Instead we see artist making children movies and books that are boring and not full of knowledge, because they are either trying hard protect kids from the world or trying to make a quick million.

What I'm trying to say is that the short film we saw could be watched by children, and yes they might not understand all what’s going on, but one day they will understand the tragedy of it all.

Just think: We were children once, and all of us understood the tragedy in the short film.

 

 

Beauty of God

So to me, Tuesday’s class’s readings and discussions was the best we have had so far in class. (not that I didn’t enjoy the other readings and discussions either)

As Christians I think we sometimes tend to reject readings, artwork, films and music that don’t immediately show God, regardless if the artistes, writer or director had created his/her work with the intentions of portraying God in it. (And to the Christians that say that they would never do or have never reject any type of art in their life, I have to stop and say that I think that at some point in everyone life they have reject something because they don’t like what the artist is trying to show us.)

As Christian, we know that no one piece of art could show the full beauty of God, how can it?

Of course, no piece of art made by man could ever capture the full glory of God, but I don’t think God ever want us to capture his full glory an beauty. I mean, if someone could capture the true beauty of God, wouldn’t that take away some of the mystery surrounding God? Look at the artists who paint with intentions of portraying God in their work, their work is all different. But by these artists representing God through the limitless mediums of art they created, they gives us the sense of how limitless and mysteries God truly is.

Isaiah 40:28 - “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, He will not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom.”

Connections

I think that Geoffrey Hill made some good connections between It's a Wonderful Life and the Bible, like the names of George and Mary and the temptations George had to go through in the movie. But I also think that he was looking for connections to the movie and the Bible way too hard to try to find some type of religious view.

I mean if you really look hard, yeah I guess you can find what you are looking for, but that’s doesn’t mean it’s going to be good.

Look at the connections Hill made when George fell through the floor into the pool at the school dance. I don’t’ really see how George Bailey falling in to the pool is anything like Moses leading his people to the Promise Land. I can’t even see how the floor opening to the pool has any connection with the dividing of the Red Sea. I guess, I could, maybe see a connection with George never making it to his own promised land (seeing the world) as his divine calling to deliver the residents of a potential Pottersville into a “promised land”. Though it’s still a stretch for me.

Did anyone else find some of the connections Hill made to be a stretch?   

People who want alternative information have to try so hard to find it.

~Edwidge Danticat

 

WWJVF- Who Would Jesus Vote For?

 

One of the many things we talked about, was "Who would Jesus Vote for".
I know that we didn't talk a  lot about it, but I really got me about how the Political parties are using that to their advantage.
A huge portion of the American population claim to be Christians (another topic that could be interesting to talk about), so they most likely are going to be look for the politician who best fits the person Jesus would vote for.

Of course, today's politicians keep changing their ideas, what they stand for and what they would do if they became President, so its not all that easy. And once they get elected, politicians tend to change their ideas and what they stand for, again.

You have to look at the politicians whole life, not just what they are saying right know, cause chances are they are probably lying about something (shocking, I know).

 

You also have to remember that Jesus, was about as far away as a politician as one could get in his age. Sure a lot of people listened to him preaching, and sure a lot of people seemed to like what he was saying, but you also have to remember that he refused to play power politics, he challenged the government and religious belief systems of his day, and he refused to compromise on his principles that he was preaching, even if other, more powerful people didn't agree.

 

In the end it doesn't really matter "Who Would Jesus Vote For", because Jesus doesn't vote, you vote.
Sure he can tell us what he thinks is important, (he has made his wishes known to us in scripture pretty clear), but he still isn't the one voting, you are. So instead of asking "Who would Jesus Vote for", try looking at people's past, what have they been doing and saying in the past years, judging them not on their outward appearances, but on their true character as a leader, and what they have been doing as a politician for the last couple of years.
I can tell you that might be surprise on what they find.

 

Emotionless

Why do we tend to portray Jesus as emotionless??

When this question was asked in class, I didn’t really have an answer.

I mean as Humans, I now that we tend to do some weird things when we’re sad, or angry or even when we are happy. So why is it so hard to believe that Jesus, who was Human when he walked this earth, didn’t have emotions just like us?

Sometimes it’s hard for me to think Jesus would have emotion and pain, cause I tend to put Jesus in this box which has a limit to how much emotions and pain he has. But because of that I find it even harder to picture Jesus, God’s only son, having any type of emotion or pain in his life.

But we have to ask ourselves, wasn’t Jesus a child at some point in his life, just like us? Could he not feel pain just like us? Was he never allowed to cry for anything or anyone?

Of course the bible seems to tell use that he once was a child just like us, it tells us that he could feel pain when he was on the cross and it even says that he was in anguish because knew he had to die for our sins.

So maybe we just don’t like asking hard questions like why do we tend to portray Jesus as emotionless? Maybe we don’t like seeing the strong, emotionless image we have built around Jesus being teared up. Or maybe we are just ignoring we don’t understand?

 

 

Tradgedy - Small Hands

So the films we watched in class today were all pretty tragic in some way or another, but out of the three short films Professor Leeper showed us today, I thought “Small Hands” was the saddest one.

Of course the other three films had some great ways to impact the people watching them, but when you first start watching “Small Hands”, it doesn’t seem all that sad, just a bunch of cute little animal couples doing things together. But if you really listen to the music in the background, you can kind of figure out where the video is going to end up, a tragedy.

Then as the film gets to about half way, one animal from each couple is taken from the other. And if that wasn’t sad enough, we get to see the frog by itself, floating alone on the lily pad, the owl sitting in the tree alone on the branch, and the little rabbit alone in the burrow, shivering. I almost started crying, it was just so heart breaking.

The whole film focus around loss and mourning and how we might never get an answer to way love ones die and leave us all alone in the world.

And this got me thinking.

As Christians we almost take loss for granted. I don't mean we never cry or never wonder why someone died, what I mean is that we will always mourning for someone that was close to us that passes away, but usually they are Christian too, so we just assume that we will get to see them again haven when we die.

But I think that sometimes we tend to forget that everyone else in the world faces with loss and not everyone is a Christian and they might not believe that they will ever see their loved ones again. They just don’t have that hope we have that they will see their love ones again in haven. They might believe that once people die, their just gone forever, never to be seen again. I think if you looked at the film without a Christian view, it makes the film ten times sadder. Just imagine if you lost someone with no hope of ever seeing them again, what would your reaction be? Would it be the same as it is if you lost someone now, or would it be even more heart breaking?

Anyways, these were my thoughts on the short film “Small Hands”.

~Sara Mark