netflix, netflix, get away from me.

What have I done today? What did I try to do? What did I actually do?

I watched the Producers, The Jerk, and Burton's Batman.
I did my laundry, showed, ate meals.
I started my drawing homework but ran out of paper.
I broke my plaster mold.
I wrote a blog.
I went to the library and looked through a guide to FinalCutPro.
I painted my nails and went grocery shopping.
I drew 8+ pages of story work for a film project, which I am now debating on throwing out for a simpler, more surreal dream-sequence of a film, rather than a real story. But, why can't it be a real story.
It's because the ending. The monster roars and moans, and it's my soul that it sees.

I still have the drawing homework. I still have a rough draft of a paper due tomorrow. I don't have a thesis for it yet.
I still want to see Eyes Wide Shut, but I'm having trouble finding 2 1/2 hours of free time.
But I consider movies like my studying.
But I have schoolwork.

happy valentine's day

The manifesto didn't get sent in.
Valentine's Day is coming.
And it can also be used. as a hat.
I made a film with animation in it, as in, a movement every 6 or 8 frames that come together to make a whole. I filmed it through a window and in a mirror, with the drawings out of dry-erase marker. It came out well enough for the action to be conveyed, but I don't think it's anything close to smooth. Also, I realized halfway through drawing a walk cycle that I wasn't placing the body correctly: they were too close together. So I redid it, as shown in the Richard Williams book. All 15-20 secs of animation took about 3 hours. The editing of the video took about the same time. I've gotten much better with final cut.

Metropolis.

I'm a little obsessed with Metropolis. We watched it in stac last year, and I finally got to see it again: Huntington Cultural Arts Center showing of the reedited 152 minute long final film. With a live organist. An organist. It's not easy for me to sit through anything, but there's something about Metropolis (and maybe all silent films, I don't know) that allows me to think. I need to figure out the plot, because text-cards are not common. I like a movie that gives me time to think, and gives me a lot to think about.


This is the evil scientist Rotwang in his evil science laboratory. Next, he's showing the machine-man (robot) to Joh Fredersen, the Brain and father of Freder, the passionate protagonist (and the Heart). Freder is seen below, holding a fallen worker (11811 Georgy is his name). He takes the worker's place. Workers are the Hands. I want to be a mad scientist too, someday.

How to Train Your Dragon.

How to Train Your Dragon.


    Just a children's movie by Dreamworks? I was surprised. Last year, with Up, Coraline, and Fox, there were problems with target audiences for animated movies. This one was definitely for kids. And even though the first 10 minutes was made of exposition, it was interesting, fast-paced, and spoon-fed again later. It is definitely possible to make a kids movie without explaining the plot. But that didn't bring things down.
    The previews scared me. Besides Despicable Me* and Toy Story 3, I hid my face. Marmaduke? A remake of Karate Kid? More dancing animals making crude jokes from popular culture? No, thank you.
    Animation was pretty damn amazing. I loved the subtleties of Hiccup's movements. And the landscapes were a lot nicer than I expected. I'd see it again for the animation.
    Dragon is about a protagonist who doesn't fit in his society, forms a bond with his society's enemy/opposite, and together they make everything better for both species/races.
    Haven't I seen this movie before? All we need is one movie to come along and change everything up. One non-Pixar movie, because I don't think they've followed a formula (cept for maybe Cars and Ratatouille, see above plot outline).
    For all the formula, there were a lot of really hard plot questions. Hard, because there are so many possibilities. How do you show a dragon's gratitude, and how can that be brought back? How do you show Hiccup learning about dragons? How  does the love interest finally find out The Secret? (That was answered with a version of A Whole New World).
    Really really cool dragon designs. They didn't have to be color-coded, and each type of dragon was visually very different. The people were different, too. Even if I didn't know their names, I knew the difference between them.
    Overall, not worth 98% on RottenTomatoes, didn't break any new boundaries. But worth the $6.


*I'm really really hoping this movie is good. Like, how Planet 51 was supposed to be amazing. I'm just scared for the plot.

Putting a paper online. - . . - . . - (interesting verbal cadence.)

I added my Character Study of Woody from Toy Story 2 (there is a difference in character development between the movies) as a page of A1-bqx. I think it's pretty good. It has a ton of large ideas, theories, and a considerable lack of scientific evidence. But there are always things I could do better, but that's not important.

http://a1-bqx.blogspot.com/p/sheriff-woody-character-study.html

documentary about animation at disney

Animation. Waking Sleeping Beauty. A documentary.





The first time I watched this trailer, I got goosebumps. And the second time. And the third. It's a bit self-congratulatory, but I would like to see it.

Starlight express

This was originally written Saturday night.A Movie. Family. Old Ways.

I've been working on Carousel, which takes up a lot of my brain. Last night I watched Jet Li's Hero, and today I was color-coding sets from the play. They are color-coded, a little.
Hero is about a man, Nameless, who approaches the Emperor of the Qin empire with the weapons of three assassins that have plotted against the monarch. It's also about the story of how they were defeated by Nameless, in epically beautiful martial arts battles. We should make a martial arts movie in Stac.

Today is a family get-together, and I'm going to be interrogated about colleges. I've only heard back from one. My cousin has heard back from many more. She's uncomfortable with non-white people, I do art, she's a star basketball player, I write blogs. We are from different worlds all together. But she's still my cousin. I wish her the best.

I've gone back to my old ways. I've been listening to a collection of Essential Andrew Lloyd Webber. The music sounds the same. Sometimes bad musicals touch you in just a certain way. Starlight Express: a musical about trains. Longest running show in Germany. Some beautiful songs, but not 'up there'.

Movies, in unconnected thought

Yesterday I saw The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
I fell in love with the characters, and sat through the whole movie. I really like Westerns, sometimes. It's like going to a baseball game or eating a burger- you feel so American. I'm also decently convinced that Clint Eastwood's character (the Good) from that movie might be almost as badass as Chuck Norris. And then there was the Civil War element to the movie. The drunken captain who dreams of the day a bridge would blow up, and save the lives of thousands of men. The war camps. The dust and mountains and deserts.
The movie reminded me a bit of The Seven Samurai. The movies are both so desperate. Warriors; water. Safety; gold. Also, no one in the western is entirely good.


Today, we saw Pandora's Box.
It reminded me that I should watch M again. There was a point, a closeup, when you could see the makeup on the faces of the people. I loved the characters, and I loved the time of the movie. I like waiting, seeing a movie in real time. You have time to breathe and think. I didn't like fast-forwarding through any part of it. And I loved the stage scene, because that's the true hell of being backstage.

design prattle

So, I like the yellow. It isn't oppressive, and the reds and browns are nice. I'll keep it a while.
I'm sending in my Pratt portfolio tonight. And the Purchase portfolio (same exact thing, but due next month).


I've finished Treasure Island, and I'm convinced pirates beat ninjas any day of the week. I need to see Treasure Planet and the muppet version and other movie versions.
The first song of Rocky Horror is made of scifi movie references, and I want to see all of them.

AVATAR.
Well. Epic adventure, athropologist's dream, mythic story, scifi. Plus a god-beautiful planet.
I couldn't keep track of the character's names, so I called them 'Pocahontas' and 'Kocoum' and 'Priestess'.
I loved the culture of the movie. The blue cat-people, the Na'vi, worship the great tree and goddess Eywa. The army people 'worship' the Major, the father. And Protagonist is in between. I honestly wished the PG-13 rating wouldn't filter out normal things that would have happened: the women don't all have conveniently-placed beads, guns shoot people.


I do feel a bit bad that I saw a scifi epic before a disney princess movie.


Colleges have all been applied to. PiG paper is done. Portfolio is almost done. I'll have a driver's license in the next couple of months. I'll have my grandpa's old car, too. All I need to do is pass Health.

Howjufeelin? HOT HOT HOT! Howjufeelin? HOT HOT HOT!
Spent the morning shoveling and running after the giant dog (snow is a food group, with sticks and plastic)
I was a little sad that I couldn't hear every sound my feet made on the snow.


I was reminded of an old idea. In X-Men, all the characters have cool powers. Shooting laser beams, telepathy, telekinesis, weather goddess, prehensile tail. What about all the mutants out there with crappy powers. The best crappy power I can come up with: being able to digest plastics. On a Bio level, an enzyme mutation that can digest them. He'd have a desk job and a family and be scared. That's more of the reality of mutations, they don't have to be cool.


Avatar rant will be edited in later.

shades of grey, star trek

Today is a writing day.


I found news that a Disney hand-animated production of Snow Queen is in production. The Snow Queen is an Hans Christian Anderson fairytale, in different parts. The story is pretty complex, in seven parts, and centers around the struggles of Kai (the little boy stolen away) and Gerta (heroine), who looks for him. She talks to flowers, crows, a prince and princess, is taken prisoner by a robber girl, and rides a reindeer to the Queen's snow palace. She frees him with the power of religion.
I get lost at TV tropes.


Working on a large landscape. Today, I went over everything with different shades of pink. White near the horizon, redder when it's closer. Next layer is green, and the pink will still stand out a little (only using palette knife), and the landscape wont just be different shades of green.

all I want is to have some peace of mind.

Listening to Peace of Mind, Boston, over and over again. The whole house has been singing it since this morning.  We even did Axel Rose covers. Best voice to imitate.


For the last two nights, I watched Alice on SciFi (screw the name change). It reminded me how much I needed to read the original Wonderland stories. Last year, SciFi did a similar change to Wizard of Oz, called Tin Man. Both stories were changed with central plots around technology, running a nation, and family relationships. It's like having two movies made by the same crew. Everything is so similar.
I don't know who designed Tin Man and Alice, but I like it. Something is a little too modern, a little too budget-tight. It was do-able. Except for a forest, general setting, lighting, facial hair, and a considerable amount of basic sewing. And I totally disagree with a lot of the plot and characters, but I like it. Some things explained too much, some things never are mentioned again, and sometimes, badassery ensues.


Self-portrait, used a mirror, I need to do something in art class before I implode. It took up a whole page, and I didn't crop it here.


I think my next project will definitely involve the Queen of Hearts. Not Alice, just the Queen and her minions.

Vampires Kill From Above, 2.

I realized I never actually did the Let the Right One In questions, because I lost them. So I found them on other blogs. This feels like a character-relationship rant.

1. Backstory. We understood backstory through the relationships between the characters. Oskar and Conny have a background together. We're never told it, but we can guess, especially by the progression of their relationship. Eli and Hakan have some backstory, but we learn when they are together or doing something for the other. Backstory is between the characters interacting with the other characters. We don't know anything, but we can guess.

2. Camera Movement. Hakan -> Eli. Father -> Oskar and back. Father -> bottle. Directional relationships. Other than that, there really isn't any movement. I wonder if there's any movement between Conny and Oskar.

3. I felt like the Camera was used almost as part of a character. Too close, too far away, too involved, too detached. Like extreme emotions.

4. Character development through action. Decisions defines you. Or, contrarywise, the decision you could have made defines you. Ginia decided to die. She could have decided not to die. Eli decides not to give in to temptation with Oskar's blood.

5. Sound. I need to pay more attention to sound. There's music and there's quiet, but quiet means that the sounds are amplified so that you can hear the quiet things, like snow condensing when you walk on it. Most of all the sounds, the condensed snow sound stuck with me.

6. Hakan and Eli. I thought he was a father figure until he was yelled at, sitting, and he apologized. Then I thought, well, he's just her servant. He takes care of things.

7. I thought the puzzles represented experience and time. Eli has a lot of time, she's had more experience, she figures things out fast. Oskar doesn't have lifetimes to figure things out. He's still little, he's still confused.

8. First plot point. Friendship accepted with gift of a Rubix cube.

9. Second plot point. I thought it was when Eli said 'Be me', giving him that strength, but he didn't do anything with them.

10. Happy Ending? I don't think so. It's unrealistic for kids to be travelling around. And I don't think the tall bully deserved what he got.

Economics drawing. I can't remember where I've seen these kinds of trees before. Not Ents, just... walking trees....

I like how the tree's legs are uneven. And the cat. And the cat lady. And a torch. I wish there was more paper.

it's a jungle out there, and randy newman connections

Monk ended yesterday, and I finally got to see the finale, and I'm glad shows can go on without people watching them. I don't really want a sequel. Sequels, even for good movies, can end up bad. Except, sometimes, if themes are strong enough, or if there's another theme that needs to be solved. Toy Story is about Woody potentially losing his spot. Toy Story 2 is about Woody being needed in that spot, even if it isn't permanent. And, many many times, sequels are made when there should be closure.


I am legitimately sick. I carry around my own tissues. Watching the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, because I haven't yet.


Toy Story 3 trailer. This is like Brave Little Toaster and the clip with Andy in the tent is like straight out of Iron Giant. Andy only owns blue. But I can't wait to see closure. I hope.

Vampires Kill From Above.

Let the Right One In.
I'm still thinking about the movie. I want to see it again. Rewind and watch again. Go to the parts I've forgotten and the parts I really won't forget. whoa cliche. I love after Oskar cuts his hand and offers it with the stupidest smile. I was almost crying when the blonde bully starts crying because he can't handle it. I don't think the other bully (not Conny) deserved it. I felt bad for Hakal when he couldn't please Eli, he couldn't do right, and he could never receive affection from her. That relationship was so one-sided.


I don't really like horror movies, but it isn't horror. I'm okay with the violence. The worst parts are before when someone gets eaten.


I'm not reading all the other blogs yet. I saw most of this movie off youtube, because I had to leave on wednesday. And then i had to sleep, to I saw the last 20 minutes half-asleep wed. night. I need sleep now.


Overall, for the movie, I was cringing in anticipated terror most of the time. I need to see it again. And I love non-sexual nudity, especially in movies. American culture is so scared of nudity, but I'm drawing nude people every weekend.


The Questions are momentarily lost. I don't think I brought them home.

almost done with apps

1/2 hour: Act 1. Life is established.
Then, First Plot Point: Life is changed.
1 hour more: Act 2. Rumble Rumble of plot.
Second Plot Point/Climax: Point of no return
1/2 hour after: Act 3. Story ends where a Life is established.


I still have to read the first chapter of Reave's story.


This is a college essay I wrote. The question was 'in 500 words or less, describe why you would like to be a visual artist', or to that effect. It's exactly 495 words.


I want to do art so that I can help people deal with their own problems, like art helped me deal with mine. In middle school, I was extremely confused about the world. I could observe and I could observe, but I didn't understand the people around me. And then, I started doing art. Only drawing a little, at first, but it grew into a preferred pastime.
The drawing became a way to express what I could never have verbalized. I feel like that is the point of art. Words and labels limit the expression of emotion in a way art is seldom limited. The artist creates something that, in some way, discusses feelings that cannot be spoken about. And through this art, the artist can express his or her feelings. And through this art, the observer of it has the opportunity to understand these unspoken ideas. And perhaps, an understanding can be found. There is a new outlook on life. The observer has a conflict resolved. And so does the artist.
I am part of an integrated arts program called STAC, Student Television Arts Company, and although we do not work with television, we are truly a young arts company. There are 30 teens from all grades, and we come together every day for two and a half hours of integrated arts.
One of the most important aspects of our artistic journeys is the understanding of myth and storytelling. Last year, we read A Short History of Myth, and spent time recognizing Paleolithic myth with the Hunter, and Neolithic myth with the Mother Goddess. This year, we went further with the topic, understanding our own holidays as extensions of older celebrations.
Recently, we had our own Rebirth festival. Fall is technically the season of death, but since we are on a school schedule, it feels more like a beginning than an end. We toasted to 'better fortunes'. As a community of artists, STAC 'sacrificed' pop-tarts to be 'reborn' (according to custom in religions across the world). And we wrote on a giant paper, thirty feet long and six feet wide what we don't like about ourselves, and what we will do to be better. One giant piece of art, with feelings, designs, leaves, paint, and all the feelings we can't find words for.
It helped us understand that we weren't the only ones feeling certain ways. It helped us put out what we were trying to work out for ourselves, our own conflicts and ideas about life. And most of all, we each pledged to do better.
A rebirth into the second quarter of our schoolyear.
That is why I would like to be an artist. We could have just had a party. We could have just pledged to be better people. But, we put ourselves out there and learned from other people's expression. I want to be an artist so that I can help other people understand themselves. And maybe, I'll understand myself.

Soppy ending. I think I've written it for at least two essays.


Also, War of the Worlds, 1953, is amazing.

Scary things don't say boo.

The world is in chaos. A tropic storm is running through long island, and it's taking power with it. I was coming home from orchestra (North Shore Symphonic Orchestra, 2nd bassoon, dress rehersal) around 11, and all the lights were out on the block. So I get my flashlight, and get ready for bed. But I'm hyper from sitting in one place for hours playing music (ADHD?), so I'm thinking. And I'm trying not to think about zombies.
    I don't watch horror media simply because, if they are plausible, I start believing in them. Not that zombies are plausible. But there's Left4Dead, 1st person zombie shootup, BioShock, which is basically a horror-scifi game, and Shaun of the Dead, which had its moments. There are the Nazgul, the dark horsemen. And horrifying things from Lovecraft.
    And then I'm thinking, shit, I'm not five. But yeah, zombies are the worst that can happen. 
After all, It's only a storm.


I gave blood today for the first time. I have no problems with blood or needles. Actually, I've found it fascinating since I was little. The experience wasn't pleasant, and it wasn't unpleasant. And at the end, I was just left with no energy. 'Drained'. I still don't know what type I am.


You can be scared of your blood. I'll be scared of my zombies.

fall endings.

Animated Views had an article on The Secret of the Kells, an Irish animated film with some amazing style. Another movie bending 2D and 3D. Unfortunately, it's only playing in the US for a weekend in LA, so it can qualify for an oscar nomination.


D&D. My character is mostly finished, I just have to go over everything once again. Morel Twenney, the half-elf Ranger, level 1. I carry a dagger and longbow, and I will definitely make a large slingshot later in the game, when I have my bear animal companion. I can't wait. So much of D&D is story-telling, and after a few levels, I'll start my dungeon master training, and then I'll be able to learn storytelling from direct experience.


I want to finish my sketchbook by the end of the month. By Thanksgiving. And then, the next sketchbook will be the one sent to CalArts, finished or unfinished.
Some pictures from smugmug: our fall ritual.

the beast is awakened.

Luke asked us what we would do if we knew we would be good at it. Not hard for me, because I don't think about if I wasn't good at animation. Then we spoke about making sure that you take your time, and that you use all your gifts, and that you make sure you're happy in life.

I can do so many things.

"Why don't you just make movie." And why the hell not?

At that point, I just sat and stared. That point before you have the pain in your throat from trying to hold back tears. I can do that.

A one-minute animated film, by stac night. perfectly manageable.

Then, this giant green monster called college portfolio stomps around my head. Next week, though, I'll learn where I am with that. National Portfolio Day- real college people looking at work, and asking if you can have a bit more of this or that. It's not 'oh I'm not good enough'. It's 'I don't know what they want, and I don't want to lose because of something stupid'.