Stop motion photography

For our D&AD brief we are doing the E4 monday night movies brief and have decided that our method will be stop motion photography for the ident as I have wanted to return to this medium for a while now and should have some fun with it, Hoi Kam will be working on a series of 5 second stims which will focus on the idea of character creation and film parody cartoon sequences.

We will then pool our work together for the final result, We will be aiding each other throughout the process, but should get alot more done more quickly this way.

Here is a video clip of some stop motion photography work that I really like and want to do something along these lines and most importantly, I want it to have a quality feel and a professional edge over other shaky and low quality stop motion efforts I have seen.

I would also like to incorporate some Bjork-ishness into the video as I have always felt at my most inspired when listening to her music.

D&AD

I like this Ident here for E$, I think it visually embodies all of the properties that they are looking for to inform their personal image, fun, irreverent, entertaining and not to be taken too seriously.

I really like the use of stop motion, I have seen a few E4 idents that incorporate stop motion and this is a technique I am keen to return to as alot of my earlier work was done this way,

It would work well to keep this kind of theme running for the monday night movies brief for E4.

Enterprise task 4

Enterprise Task 4.

Who else is out there and how good are they?

Based on the principles that have been introduced in lecture 4 of the enterprise lecture I have found some other practitioners in my specialist field to evaluate in accordance with the SWOT analysis method.

The first designer I came across is called Kevin Adamson, He is a freelance illustrator, animator, web designer and graphic designer.

He has his own website which shows a fairly strong showreel of work and you get a sense of who he is as a person when looking at his site as it has his own personal touch and gives key information.

This is handy for people who want a tailor made service with a more personal feel as a pose to going to a big company who may have a “mass-produced” feel to them.

His site gives clear links to the different areas of his work and a detailed bio, stating that he works in the UK, is an award-winning designer, has ten years commercial experience and a Diploma & degree in graphic arts.

He also goes on to name a few companies that he has worked for previously and a list of his clients.

Tandem films.com are the next designers that I looked at, noticing that in comparison to the previous designer their site has a much more “business-like” appeal to it, for example, the personal and individual touch is not present here and there is a showcase of work on display from a variety of in house designers, this is good as a potential client can chose from a variety of styles and designers as a pose to just one, however on the flip side this could be off-putting to some clients who would prefer a more personal touch, although each designer on this site appears to have their own individual style of working and their own method of working and skills base so a client would get a very professional, businesslike and personal service at the same time from what this company is implying through it’s visual message.

They also have many prestigious awards and high profile clients and a very strong portfolio of work.

In relation to my own practice I would want to work under another company or design studio myself, I have no desire to be a freelance designer and feel the benefits of working for a larger production company by far outweigh the prospects of my attempting to set up my own business and go freelance.

Bjork

One of my favorite artists, I've just been revisiting some of her videos, I have always felt inspired by this artist and some of my earlier work is clearly influenced by bjork, I wish I could find that creativity again, sometimes I wonder if the computer has taken it away? I used to use stop motion, photography, I drew alot more- on paper with a real pen! lol and a few times I would draw on myself and create artwork on my face, I used to create clay models etc. but since starting digital media I haven't once returned to any of these things instead opting to use the computer for everything, well this is digital media after all. But I feel most of it is about making money and creating what a client wants, it is not art for arts sake and therefore I feel I can't be as creative as I would like to be, there are limits and boundaries. I cannot wait to get all these constant briefs and work out of the way so I can just return to my "roots" and do my own thing.

Something I'm very interested in writing about for my critical studies essay

another game I've been trying to play but can't however......

Nice looking game, I just haven't worked out how to control it yet........

messed up game I was talking about in my earlier post........

Thank you Playstation! xxx

Well I just played the eyepet in college and had a look at the PS3 online games etc and that was it, I was hooked! Crittercrunch is the most awesome and addictive game I have ever played in my life! I absolutely love it, it pushed me to just go and buy a PS3! so I did! and of course the first thing I did when I got home was order crittercrunch......

I got it with little big planet and a few other games, I really like little big planet and got it for my PSP too, I think I will experiment with making my own levels with it eventually, but for now I am just getting in to it and seeing what it's all about!

Playing games like crittercrunch on the playstation and pet society on facebook has really inspired me, I want to use my writing skills and come up with something along those lines for myself and make it into an interactive game or animation. I always loved Ghibli films and cartoons, comics and anything with that general style, but I also like dark content, such as Tim Burtons the nightmare before Christmas, Coroline, Salad fingers etc so I would want to implement a dark undertone into my stories but blended with a cheerful and quirky style, like our Cannibals Video, the final version, with the animals and gore everywhere I absolutely love that kind of thing and could spend forever creating like-minded stuff!

I didn't get the Eye-pet for my PS3 although I did enjoy playing with it and felt it rather innovative and fun, I felt the few problems I had with it outweighed what I liked about it, for example, not being able to see your hand in front of the eyepet or being able to pick it up, a few glitches here and there and then replay value, how many times am I going to want to play with it? just like my hamsters I'll loose interest..... except I can't feed the eyepet to the cat when I get bored of it.

I really like the direction that 3rd gen consoles are going in, we got a Wii for christmas for the kids and I quite like how it controls, very fun and innovative but I still prefer to just sit and hold a pad as I do with the PS or the 360! Although it is worth having the Wii just for mario galaxy alone! what a superb game! I won't even go into it or this post will be an extra 300 words and I don't think anyone actually reads these posts all the way through anyway so it would be a waste of finger tapping and brain cells.......

I also absolutely LOVE loco roco and patapon for my PSP I sold my PSP last year with all the games to get a xbox and it has always been my biggest regret, but I recently got another one and it's just like having an old friend back! I didn't even realise how much I missed it! I will never put patapon and loco roco down for more than a day now and I feel very inspired and sure of what I want to do with my work and where I want to go with it, so thank you Playstation for reminding me of the good old days and bringing back my mojo! LOL

Oh I just remembered this other game I got called "noby noby boy" and all I can say is"WTF!!??" this has got to be the most bizarre and F'd up game I have ever played in my life! what the hell? were the developers on crack? I mean, I'm this worm thing called NOBy boy, (ok) and I can stretch and shrink myself, and I have to make GIRL grow bigger? girl being a large girl in space that you can see when you zoom out.... I can't even walk around as one analog controls noby boys bum and the other controls his head, and his bum is about 10 times the size of his head for some reason, and at the start of each game you fly out of a chimney, oh and people walking around in the game like to sit on you at random, I can't even go on, it's just so messed up.......

TASK THREE

Task three.

How will I promote myself?

As mentioned in “Task two” I felt that the best way to promote myself as an interactive story-teller is to have my own website that will demonstrate my technical abilities as well as being an online show-reel of my work and a way for me to be found online and contacted.

I will need to find out how to build a website or look into getting one built by someone else as I am not a web designer, I also need to find out about domain names, and how to have my website come up on internet search engines as of course it is no good having a website of no-on can find it!

I also find the idea of having my site listed under larger “umbrella” type sites would be useful and would give clients a means to finding out more about me and It would also help with gaining trust and a reputation if I am seen to be approved by various legislations and well known sites.

For example if you want to buy a pair of GHD hair straighteners you can buy them in a salon or online, however the official GHD website endorses other reputable sites where you can buy them from and it is not recommended to buy them anywhere that does not have their approval as such, so something like this would be very useful in reaching my clients, especially as children are involved, parents will want to know that the content is suitable for their children to watch.

I also plan to contact the BBC, and other networks such as the cartoon network and nickelodeon as all of these children’s channels now have websites with interactive games and stories for family entertainment and educational needs.

Looking at the marketing mix covered in creative enterprise I realise that it is important to know about place, product, promotion and price, and how effective placement of my product is essential in my goal to reach the right audience, for example children’s and parenting magazines might be a good place to start, also a television commercial would be beneficial but if I am aiming to work under a known company I guess I wouldn’t need to be looking into that side of things, only how to reach the companies I am interested in working for and I feel the first thing would be to call the companies and find out who I would need to speak to about potential work etc.

I would also need my details. Website to come up in search engines and I feel it would be advantageous to have my details listed on job sites that employers may approach for staff. Registering with agencies is another good option and sending my resume off to various networks is also a must.

TASK TWO

Task two.

Where are they?

How will they find me?

If I am thinking of being a writer I need to decide what I want to write and whom it will be for. I don’t want to pigeon hole myself here so I am not just going to say the BBC because I could be writing freelance for games developers etc so I don’t want to limit myself to just one specific type of client.

I have found a few websites that may be of use to me, one of them is the BBC writers room, here anyone can submit a script for a TV drama, kids programme or radio play etc and they will look it over, I think this is very good for me and am considering writing something to submit to them.

Another site I have been looking at is Playfish games, they make games for the social networking site known as “facebook” and they are looking for people right now to write scripts for new games, come up with ideas, design characters and help with art direction, I find this very exciting for me and would absolutely love to be involved with some of their projects, I am very familiar with their product and it is very “up my street” and in line with the kind of “stuff” that inspires me and gets added to my “thought-bubble” if that makes sense.

If I were to look at this area for the sake of doing a PEST analysis I would concentrate on young people who use social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, myspace, msn, flickster, and Friendster etc.

I would say that the reason people go on these sites is to fulfil their love and belonging needs, i.e.: socialising, fashion and trends, expressions of love, symbols of shared interested and values, peer groups etc. as identified in the Maslow Hierarchy, and also a percentage of people will use these sites for esteem needs such as demonstrating status symbols, qualifications, awards, technology, personal grooming etc.

Only 19% of the populations spending patterns go on love and belonging, with the highest percentage being physiological.

Internet gaming is bigger now that it ever has been with more and more people engaging with interactive content, also thanks to third generation games consoles such as the Nintendo Wii we have seen a demographical change in who is playing these games, it is no longer dominated by teenage boys but we now have middle aged women playing games consoles, families are engaging in them together and almost everyone who is using a social networking site is playing pet society or mafia wars, country story or similar, regardless of their age or cultural background.

Of course mobile communication also has a large role to play in these changes, with most phones having internet browsing capabilities that not only business people are using but single parents, teenagers, children and the unemployed.

People are also especially open with what information they give out about themselves on the internet in this day and age, especially younger people who don’t really know any different as they are growing up in this technological world where social networking is the everyday norm, whereas a person in their 40’s, 50’s and upwards may engage with this technology but they are much more wary about giving out certain information and using the internet.

I am also very interested in developing interactive stories such as this one:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-monster-shopping-trip-popup.htm

The British council website has an interactive section for kids full of games and stories that are interactive and educate children at the same time, I am very interested in learning more about this as a career choice and think that by building my own website with demonstrations of my work and story-telling ability would be a good start, then I could contact the BBC and other companies informing them of who I am and what I do, I could then forward them onto my website, as this is an interactive field I think a website would be very appropriate as a way of marketing my potential and skills for future clients.

TASK ONE

Task one.

Who I am.

Revisited.

I have decided to revisit this task and go back to identify who I am in more detail as I have been thinking about this a lot and have come to the conclusion that I cannot move forward until I get this part right! For how can I prepare myself for anything if I don’t know who I am and what I’m doing?

It’s fairly obvious to me now that I should be a writer/story-teller, I’m surprised I didn’t come to this sooner, well I did once or twice but I felt it wasn’t anything to do with my degree so I kept pushing the notion away, however after some thought and talks with my tutors I realise that there are lots of ways I can incorporate writing into this field, for example I can write narratives for short films, radio, TV, children’s interactive stories, animation, advertising, commercials etc.

Although I initially felt like I was not being true to my “area of study” by simply just writing, but of course that is where teamwork comes in and effective teamwork! I would like to have some part in the postproduction process, be it helping with the animation or overseeing the visual style or simply aiding with the editing process.

What skills do I have and who needs them?

I have story-telling and writing skill; I am very imaginative and like to write creatively. I also have 2D animation skills in order to bring my stories to life.

I am adept in using flash, Photoshop, illustrator, final cut pro, and have experience with action script.

I feel I could be of use to companies such as the BBC, children’s websites, online social networking sites, television networks, games developers, advertising agencies and publishing houses.

Finished Masterpiece!

New Characters

Cannibal evaluation

Entertain and Evaluate: Evaluation: Kelly Cantrell.

“Entertain and Evaluate” is the brief title, we were given a few choices from the roses awards briefs, there was the choice to make museums sexy, make the role of an undertaker seem appealing to school leavers, integrate cannibals into society, make the British holiday seem more appealing etc. I can’t remember the others, oh something about Electric waste? The only ones that seemed appealing to me from the start were the cannibal and the undertaker one, (Oh there was a lifeline one too) maybe I am just obsessed with death? But then surely the lifeline one would have appealed to me?

I think I liked the cannibal and the undertaker one because I felt more ideas coming to me for those 2 when as a group we had to make some “brainstorm” charts, I had lots of fun quirky ideas in my head for those two.

I had a look at the undertaker brief and thought about contacting funeral directors and speaking to kids in some schools to get their take on it and I planned to approach it from a serious angle, however I soon got bored of it and didn’t welcome the memory’s it brought back of my nana’s funeral a couple years back.

So sticking to my serious angle I went for the cannibal brief again, it would be too tempting to make it into a joke so I wanted it to be very serious.

I began by researching cannibalism on the web, (so not exactly first hand research but it was a start!) I found out a few things and decided to over-exaggerate them in order to attack to stigma of cannibalism, It wasn’t long before I had a whole marketing concept planned out, a company name, slogans, partnership schemes, starter packs, advertisements, campaign ideas etc etc…

But I think I spent a bit too long with this idea and should have moved on from it sooner, I didn’t quite know where to go next, I always new it would be more of a slide show giving facts and information, I didn’t want to go near live-film, (too much hassle) I didn’t want animation because I wanted to keep it serious, so I thought of having a news programme with hosts and interviews with real life cannibals.

However at the presentation of the boards, the feedback I was getting seemed to be that I needed a mascot, I needed some humor, I was told about some shows such as the “daily news” or whatever it’s called and the Starship Troopers TV spoofs. Although I found these amusing it completely through me off track as it was nothing like what I had in mind so I found myself back at square one, with about 2 weeks left till deadline….

At this point I asked Hoi Kam if she wanted to work with me, it seemed like a good solution, I could help her with the concept and she could help me with characters and animation, or acting or whatever we decided.

So we got together had a brief discussion and then decided to meet the following week to discuss how to put our work together, but of course we had both gotten the date on the brief wrong and thought we had a week longer than we did have,

Then we struggled to meet at certain times etc because of illness and work and so before we knew it we only had a few days left!

I had been working on scripts and Hoi Kam wanted to make some cartoons so I told her to make some flash cartoons, Hoi Kam really liked the resident evil intro and wanted to do something like that, she was having all these crazy funny ideas and I kept thinking, No we need to be serious! But in the end I thought oh what the hell, it can just be a crazy collaboration with my serious stuff and Hoi Kams quirky stuff! So as we only had a few days I began the painful task of making all my scripts into flash animated movies, I had to think about timing and making it look interesting while Hoi Kam made her cartoons.

I had video footage of fire and stuff so I thought it would be “cool” to use as a background, I had wanted to involve the four elements of earth, air, fire and water and felt that using clouds, countryside and fire I could achieve this, however no one “got” it and just couldn’t see the relevance.

Also no-one liked my writing, from the start I noticed people weren’t reading it and by a 3^rd of the way through people had given up trying to read it. (Cavemen! Only joking!) this taught me a valuable lesson! One that I should have learned sooner really! To think about my audience! I felt because I was prepared to read it that everyone would be but thinking about it now that’s only because it’s my own work and ideas, if it were someone else’s maybe I wouldn’t want to read it either!

So we were then left with a week to do something about it! None of us wanted to film, well I tell a lie Hoi Kam seemed happy to do some filming but I just didn’t want to, I felt it would look shabby and rushed, maybe if we had more time to think about it and plan it we could have, but I didn’t want to risk everything going wrong with just a week left, so I proposed that we just animate the whole thing!

So between us we took certain scenes each, (from the writing) and went off and made little cartoons to go with each. At this stage, we have about 10 cartoons between us that we just need to integrate into the video tomorrow and then we have to do voice-overs and work out how to make an interactive DVD! All by 4.30pm tomorrow!

If I could do this brief again I wouldn’t. Well seriously if I could change anything I would have managed my time a lot better, spent less time on the concept and got stuck in a bit sooner! I should have planned to work alone or in a team from the start and then stuck to it.

I think we work well as a team, we just needed to manage our time a bit better and there were times where I felt we were hitting our head against a wall! but then there were times where we really got alot done and bounced off each other well.

We had fun today putting all our clips together and doing the voices, in the end we decided to just make it as a whole new film, it's a shame we can't show it to anyone as it's a BIG improvement on our first effort.

We made the DVD in IDVD which was fairly straightforward, and I am just glad that we have finally finished!

I have not enjoyed this brief really if I am honest, I just want it over with, I feel very stressed, I have missed out on lots of time with my kids because of this, and am very annoyed and upset with the whole thing at this stage, I do not want to do it all again but we have to, I feel a little disheartened cause although we planned out time badly we have still worked our asses off to be fair and other people seem to have done a lot less yet we STILL have to do it again? I wish we could just submit the finished film from last week and all the extra cartoons as clips that we would have added, we don’t even know how to make the DVD, because we missed the session but this was because we were both working at my computer at home because the college computers kept crashing etc, and we also had privacy to do voice-overs.

At the end of the day I am glad it’s over, I enjoyed some aspects of the brief, like coming up with an idea, I liked making some of the animations, I enjoyed editing the first video actually, but it was more stress than it was worth in the end, I just hope that we pass and can just move onto the next thing!

finished cannibal vid!

Scripts

These are the word documents I have prepared for the video, I have just spent the last few hours sorting them out as I had written them late at night and each paragraph was it's own layer and I couldn't remember the correct order and what went where! so I have just had to make sense of it all and put it all together in separate documents, I'll then bring the layers into flash and animate them, nothing fancy, just fades and tweens, I don't have time to do it in after effects because I would need to spend alot more time with effects in there, one effect I wanted to try and create was fire around the letters, I have read a few tutorials on that but given the time misunderstanding with the brief and my being Ill for the past few weeks I will just have to make basic flash movies, I am concerned that the text may be too subtle to read over film footage so I might have to make the font bolder and bigger.

MASCOT

I thought about having a mascot for the company image, but I don't think it will be needed anymore, we have a quirky ident, quirky advertisements, etc and it is now becoming more like a visual FX video so I don't think a mascot would really add much.

I came up with this character because I have always felt a plant-like/nature theme would work well for what we are trying to say with themes of "green earth" "recyling" "feeding the future" etc. so that's why he is a cannibal-looking plant!

LOGOS

Some logo ideas for the recycle scheme aspect of the C.I.S. corporation, I will scan in my workbook sketches and storyboards etc tomorrow and put them on my blog too.

FONTS

This is just some of the script for our video on who we are, I decided to use "Hirajino kaku gothic" as the heading font, I felt as it was asking a question, that this one looked the most sincere and friendly, some felt patronizing or "corny", and for the main text I chose "miriam pro" because I felt it had an informative yet down to earth feel, I don't know that's just me and how I felt the fonts came across.

FONT

I was just looking at some different fonts to use in the video, here's some that I was thinking of, I find it interesting how each font seems to convey a different personality, some accusing, some shy, some in your face, some of them aggressive, some modern, some impartial and some make me think of artificial intelligence! they probably mean something different to everyone, but the majority of people will make the same connections and associations with them as they are used to seeing them everyday associated with different packages and branding, for example one of the fonts, (not pictured) made me think of the wild west, whys that? I thought to myself, then I remembered I'd seen that font of some sort of texan sauce in the supermarket and on tv!

So It's important to find the right tone and attitude for what we are saying in our video by selecting the right font, as we may not have any speaking in the film, we will have to depend on visuals to get our message across.

earth, air, fire and water! we're back!

In a moment of last minute panic and creativity I have decided to go back to my original idea of using earth, air, fire and water. This can be seen in my initial research, I had always wanted to go with this but a tutor put me off stating that I should have a corporate feel to it and that I didn't want it too "hippy-like" there's nothing wrong with him giving me his opinion and I appreciate the input, however I think by trying to do something else I actually "blocked" myself creatively for a while and struggled to change the visual dynamic I already had in mind.

When I went to visit my dad not long ago I made some film footage of the journey thinking it may come in handy for this brief, and I have more footage I have been collecting along the way, I didn't realize at the time where I was going with it but now it's all hit me! It all falls in nicely with my initial ideas and given the time left I am going to use it, the only thing missing is AIR and WATER, I also want to film some cars at night from the motorway near my house, I am going to film raw meat, but I don't have time to film the sky for a few hours, so I have found this footage, I wonder if there is a way I can rip some of it? I know VJ's do this all the time, so there must be a way to do it, I only need a little fragment of it so I will find out on monday if I can get this for my video.

Beautiful Clouds from michaelwu on Vimeo.

CIS Ident

IDENT

I'm working on a new ident now after loosing the other one last night by saving it in user work and then logging off the computer! (basically everything from userwork is deleted when you log off so you are supposed to move it first!) I liked the idea of having the earth surrounded by cities with CIS in the middle, like this picture:

So I had a go at making something like this myself in illustrator but as my drawing skills are not that great it turned out being a lot more simplified, and reminiscent of the "tamagotchi" world, (see pic below) which I might have a go with as the adverts for the show will be done in FLASH and will have that quirky style so maybe we should do the whole thing as a quirky cartoon? we don't really have time to think about it anymore now, I thought the deadline was the 17th which is stated on the brief, but it is in fact NOT the deadline, it is just the date to have a DVD done by? very confusing, so we actually have to have this finished by WEDNESDAY! so that gives us another 2 days to get it done. oh dear. are we in for it....

CIS logo

Here are a couple of my C.I.S logo's, I have some earlier versions in my notebook that I will scan and upload at some point.

ARK (2005) movie review

Well Lets hope that this review will make it on to the site, as my last 8 or 9 reviews have still not been published over the last 5 months so I'll have to put this review elsewhere on other sites also as Amazon cannot be relied upon, shame really, I have lost a few reviews because of them as I didn't save them anywhere else and Amazon have been completely non responsive about this. anyway here is my review for the film. I didn't expect this to have such a great storyline as well as stunning visuals after watching a few of these region 1 CGI offerings including Kaena the prophecy and Dragon Hunters, I initially thought this would be the weaker of them, but I was wrong, (I haven't watched Delgo yet so I can't compare it to that) The film feels very final fantasy like so if you enjoyed the spirits within or advent children you will like this, the visuals are just as rich as those movies, perhaps a little more game-looking, I suspect that maybe the film was made using a game building software or engine, I don't know much about that so I can't really be sure, however the colors, textures and details are very good and definitely on par with, if not a little below the final fantasy films. This was by far the superior film in contrast to Kaena the prophecy, (dragon hunters is too different to give it a fair comparison, with that being more like ice age, igor etc) having a much more solid storyline and more rounded and three dimensional characters, the voice actors were also very good and I never felt that any of them were wooden or lacking in depth aprt from a few minor issues with facial/voice matching, for example, when the queen is shouting out a speech in one scene, her face would have benefited from more expressions, as her face didn't look as passionate as her speech, but things like this only happened far and few in-between and didn't effect the overall brilliance of the film. The theme of the film is not so unfamiliar, the Korean animated feature "Sky Blue" has alot in common with this film in terms of the story as I'm sure alot of other films have, ie: separation of races, dome like city's amidst wasteland, (Ergo Proxy) fantasy elements, slavery, man rescues child from opposing race and raises as his own, (I know I've seen this done before but can't remember where?) but despite all of these similarities to other films the film still works on many levels, holds your attention and still offers some surprises along the way. The characters are well fleshed out , even the minor ones and you do feel some sort of connection to them and you are bothered about what happens to them, whether good or bad. Whilst watching this I also thought of a few live action films such as Bladerunner and the 5th element, maybe even a little minority report, just for one or two touches like the backgrounds or the feel for the environment. This is definitely a must for fans of anime, especially if you like sci-fi, fantasy, mecha, although it was not overloaded with mecha and mecha was not a main theme, just that there were a few robots around but not all the time, nor was there any signs of a cyborg entourage, but there was a little robot bird thing to add a touch of quirkiness to the fil but nothing was too OTT or overdone which is what I liked about it. Some parts would have benefited from a little more explanation but for what was covered in the time alloted I found it easy to follow and understand and no rushed, (90% of the time) A great movie definitely worth watching if you can, yes it's quite expensive to buy at the moment, especially as it is not a region 2 release, so you will need a multi region DVD player to watch. It's probably worth paying out for if you can get it for less than £20 considering that it's hard to find, and if you like this sort of thing you probably won't mind spending that to watch and own it so why not! If you are a fan of anime, particularly sci-fi/fantasy then I would definitely recommend it if you don't mind CGI, if you liked" Kaena the prophecy" then you will like this as it's a much more solid venture all round, If you like world cinema such as Pans labyrinth, Belleville sisters etc then again you might enjoy this, obviously it's not for people who don't like sci-fi or animation etc but I guess if you are looking at this page then you are already mildly interested so all you need to do now is get it and watch it! how I rate the film/brief summery Visuals 10/10 (stunning, special effects were excellent too) Vocals 9.5/10 (very good voice-overs, forgot I was watching an animated feature) Characterization 8/10 (good strong characters, especially the laeding roles) Character design 9.5/10 (everyone looked different and were not too stereotypical, besides maybe the bad guy) Story 9/10 (excellent story, only loses a mark because it's been done before, but the director has still made it unique in may ways) Concept 10/10 (I really like the idea behind the story, although simple I think it makes for a good story and it has) Execution 9/10 (this is where most ideas fail flat but I'm pleased to say this was not the case here and that it was handled very well!) So my final thought is that this was a great film, great story although done before it was executed well enough here to make this a clear winner, I would also recommend Kaena, although it wasn't executed as well and there was some technical glitches it had more innovative character designs, and a more imaginative world, it also felt much much more unique in it's story, visuals etc, although the leading protagonist in that film was not as visually pleasing as this one, the film still gets my vote, Definitely buy this, "The Ark" if you can and are interested, and if your hesitating between this and Kaena just buy them both, they are very different in their methods but similar in story, (sort of) and are both rewarding viewings, with this one rating slightly higher for me, but then again you may prefer Kaena depending on your tastes so I'd say get them both together, you won't be disappointed (beware that there are some time frame rate issues in Kaena but it's not too bad, maybe a little distracting)

Big Lurch, Antron Singleton rips open Tynisha Ysais's chest and eats part of her lung and face as a result of smoking PCP

OK so totally irrelevant to my work but this is something I found whilst researching cannibalism for my latest brief, I'm still reading about it hours later! lol it happened in 2002 but this is the first time I have heard about it and it's just shocking cause you associate this kind of psycho s*** with white males between the ages of 21 and 36 or whatever the statistic goes, in fact you rarely come across a black serial killer at all, you may get gun crime, gang crime, drug crime, theft etc with them but you never hear of a black serial killer or murderer in the context of being a psycho killer, ie: ripping people up and eating them etc, you might hear of a gang shooting or stabbing but that's as gross as it gets, the sole aim is to wipe their enemy out, only rarely do you hear of it going a bit further such as a face being smashed in etc in extreme revenge cases, and don't get me wrong I am not condoning any of these acts, I am just stating that in general you associate the sickest most lurid and grotesque crimes with white men within a certain age group, just look at FBI profiling and you'll see the pattern.

Of course I have heard of a few strange cases involving black people, such as a mother who killed her child and then tried to eat him after decapitating him and cutting his stomach open, this women was extremely poor and uneducated and also mentally insane, another case like this involves a hispanic women who did get to partially eat her son before being caught, she too had mental problems and was uneducated, authorities were aware of her health problems but failed to do anything about it.

Again when I found out about this upcoming black rapper committing such a heinous and sick crime I was doubly shocked! Ok so rappers tend to rap about killing, sex, drugs, violence etc, but cannibalism? there may be expressions such as "tear your face off" but I seriously doubt it is meant literally, the authorities are having a field day with this one claiming that rap music is some how responsible for this act, which I find preposterous! The guy had been smoking PCP for 5 days straight, (or just the night before I have read various accounts so not sure which is the accurate one) a drug I knew nothing about but have since reading about "BIG LURCH" a.k.a. Antron Singleton discovered alot more about. It is basically a very strong hallucinatory drug that people are smoking with weed more and more to increase the effect of weed/marijuana. PCP is also known as angel dust, (oh I do remember having known about it before, in the film "friday" in the scene where Chris Tucker smokes some and then thinks he is a chicken, I never understood why at the time, guess I do now! so that could bring on a whole new discussion about drug use being made 'funny' in films and on TV but I won't start that one right now.) supergrass and killer weed.

Here is some information on PCP from a government website:

PCP. The use of PCP as an approved anesthetic in humans was discontinued in 1965 because patients often became agitated, delusional, and irrational while recovering from its anesthetic effects. PCP is a “dissociative drug,” meaning that it distorts perceptions of sight and sound and produces feelings of detachment (dissociation) from the environment and self. First introduced as a street drug in the 1960s, PCP quickly gained a reputation as a drug that could cause bad reactions and was not worth the risk. However, some abusers continue to use PCP due to the feelings of strength, power, and invulnerability as well as a numbing effect on the mind that PCP can induce. Among the adverse psychological effects reported are—

• Symptoms that mimic schizophrenia, such as delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, disordered thinking, and a sensation of distance from one’s environment.
  
• Mood disturbances: Approximately 50 percent of individuals brought to emergency rooms because of PCP-induced problems—related to use within the past 48 hours—report significant elevations in anxiety symptoms.⁴
  
• People who have abused PCP for long periods of time have reported memory loss, difficulties with speech and thinking, depression, and weight loss. These symptoms can persist up to one year after stopping PCP abuse.
  
• Addiction: PCP is addictive—its repeated abuse can lead to craving and compulsive PCP-seeking behavior, despite severe adverse consequences.

Here is another excerpt from an article written by Cecil Adams for straightdope.com, this covers the affects of PCP in some other cases and also mentions the case of big lurch:

Now, Jim. It's not like cannibalism is a frequent consequence of PCP use. Only one case has turned up that I know of, involving Antron Singleton, a would-be rapper using the stage name Big Lurch. In 2002, after he was found walking around Los Angeles naked and covered with blood, his roommate Tynisha Ysais, 21, was discovered dead on the floor of their apartment with her chest slashed open and her internal organs exposed. Pieces of her right lung, which had been removed from her body, appeared chewed and torn, and there were teeth marks on her face. Singleton's lawyer claimed his client had tucked into Ysais after a five-day PCP binge had made him psychotic. An insanity plea was rejected, and Singleton was sentenced to life in prison without parole; a similar incident soon found its way into an episode ofCSI.

Huh, you say. Sounds like PCP isn't the drug of choice when you're looking to get mellow. Maybe not, but PCP, known technically as phencyclidine and on the street as angel dust, horse tranquilizer, etc, has its defenders, or at least apologists, who say tales of homicidal rage are exaggerated and recall the hysteria surrounding cocaine, LSD, and marijuana in earlier eras. A riffle through the clippings offers evidence for both sides of the argument:

• Houston, a 21-year-old rising R & B star said to have been battling PCP use and mental problems, went to his hotel room while on tour in London in late January, ostensibly to read the Bible, and gouged out one of his eyes. His publicist denied reports that he had earlier attempted to jump from a 13th-floor window. PCP isn't mentioned in later accounts of the incident and the guy definitely had other issues, so this one can't be confidently pinned on the drug.
• According to the New York Daily News, in 2002 a 30-year-old Brooklyn mother killed her 7-year-old daughter while high on PCP, stabbing her more than 35 times and also repeatedly stabbing a neighbor who tried to intervene.
• In a 1980 special issue on PCP, the Journal of Psychedelic Drugsreported that, on the one hand, (1) some stories about PCP-induced dementia were demonstrably embroidered or otherwise unreliable--for example, Baltimore college dropout Charles Innes blinded himself while in jail after swallowing a canister of drugs, but there was no proof the stuff was PCP; (2) the vast majority of PCP experiences were nonviolent; (3) you could find eye gougings, superhuman strength, and whatnot attributed to drugs ranging from LSD to ergot; (4) PCP users took gobs of other drugs too; and (5) the one recreational drug indisputably linked to crime was alcohol. On the other hand, theJournal's contributors went on to say, PCP had played a role in plenty of stunningly senseless violence: (1) a 17-year-old boy made a sexual advance on a 14-year-old girl after both had smoked "superweed" (here meaning marijuana dosed with PCP); when she resisted, he concluded he was being attacked by a wild animal and strangled her; (2) a man cut off one of his partner's testicles at the latter's request while both were high on PCP; (3) one chronic PCP user "branded himself by burning a cross on his chest"; (4) a 38-year-old man smoked superweed, cut off the head of his dog, and attacked a stranger on the street with a razor; (5) high on PCP, a man waved down a car, shot and killed a passenger, then frolicked on the freeway firing in the air before being subdued; and (6) a 29-year-old man smoked a PCP "crystal joint," entered a pregnant woman's home, stabbed her, killing the fetus, killed her two-year-old child, and when found was running down the street with a knife, naked and bloody, yelling, "Hallelujah, I'm Jesus!"

PCP was studied in the 1950s as a human anesthetic but after reports of delusions, psychosis, and other side effects was restricted to veterinary use and eventually discontinued. It surfaced briefly as a recreational drug in San Francisco in 1967, reappeared in the 70s, and during the 80s became popular in urban black neighborhoods. The drug lost favor during the 90s but some reports indicate it surged with the new century, finding a market among a segment of clubgoers and ravers. It's described as dissociative, meaning users are more or less aware but feel oddly detached. Is PCP inherently dangerous? Given the continuing litany of horror stories after 40 years of street use, it seems clear this stuff is in a different league from LSD and other drugs with which it's often compared. The argument can be made that it unleashes violent outbursts mainly in people who were unstable to start with. But let's face it, much the same can be said of a gun.

(I also read about another black man taking PCP and then slicing off his face in segments and feeding it to his dogs, he even ripped his lips off! he survived due to the drugs in his system and when police pumped the dogs stomachs they found parts of his face and his lips, there are pictures of this on the internet, it's pretty gross)

I personally feel a bit sorry for this big Lurch, I know I am a sucker cause I always feel sorry for the bad guys in the movies when they get their comeuppance in the end, but I can't help but feel this man has just been thrown in jail to rot because of the fact that he is a black rapper, what if he was a white policeman instead? but the circumstances were exactly the same? would he have been given the same fate? or would he have got the help he needed?

I am not condoning what Antron Singleton has done, and smoking PCP was wreckless and stupid, he himself claims to have had mental issues on his own website, for example he says he saw a friend get killed in front of him prior to this and never got any kind of counseling for it, he should not have been smoking PCP, especially if he knew beforehand that he had 'problems' that could affect his behavior on the stuff even more.

It seems to me that he didn't know what he was doing, and does not seem to have any recollection of what he did, his website claims that there was a pitbull in the house that could have caused the injuries, although I'm sure that forensics are not stupid and would know the difference, plus human flesh that was not his own was found in his stomach? He didn't eat alot of her from the pictures I have seen, which makes you wonder well if it was truly an act of insane cannibalism surely he would have eaten more of her flesh? why would he want to eat a lung? then he was found wondering the streets naked, clearly messed up on the drugs.

or then again I could be wrong, he could be one of these rappers who shows little respect for women, raps about them being whores etc and then felt he was so above her that he could consume her, but it still doesn't make sense. Although he does come across as a bit egotistical from an interview on his webspace, claiming that the other rappers in his group were made successful from his 'gifts' and that this is the thanks he gets.

He never once apologizes for taking Tynisha's life, whether consciously or not- he still did it, he does however leave a message for the girls mother but all it seems to say is that the media etc will try and turn her against him, and something about love and god, but no apology, which I found odd.

Nor does he make any attempt at all really to address what happened on april 10th 2002.

There is also a contradiction, he says in a blog post that his attorney made up the part about him walking around naked on the street to make it appear as though he were mad, and also that he did not have any recollection of saying that the world was ending and he had to find the devil, that his attorney had again thrown that in to make him look insane, (like he'd need help)

yet on a fox news interview with Antron from his cell, he himself states that the last thought he can remember having in his head was that of the world ending and needing to find the devil and stop him. So it may be that he did say that but had no memory of it but was told he said it and decided to stick with it, but what IS clear to me just from reading his blog posts is that there is definitely something not right with his mentality, I do feel for him but at the end of the day he did commit this crime and cannot simply be allowed to walk free, I think he should be in a mental institute undergoing therapy for as long as it takes to get him the help he needs.

Oh he also states that he is beaten by guards in prison whilst cuffed, and reportedly has suffered spinal damage and a broken rib amongst other things, and has also been drugged up so that he gets confused with his story, whether this is true or not I do not know but would not be surprised, Michael Jackson also suffered sever abuse from police officials, police, prison guards- the majority of them are scum, they probably do their jobs because they are racist/prejudist and want to enslave and or carry out their own personal justice on said criminals.

I almost forgot, the record labels "stress free entertainment" and "black market activities" released his first solo album whilst he was in prison, the album is called: "It's all bad" and was released in 2004. The sickest thing in this whole case is the fact they they chose to use a picture of Big Lurch on the cover with a silver platter in his hand with a human SKULL on it! how insensitive and sick can you get? this is advertising at it's worst! and using something negative and upsetting such as a young womens murder to sell music! They are making it funny! and yes it is to a degree because we are very far removed from the whole thing, but when you put all fun and jokes aside, (there are plenty floating about due to the rarity and unusual nature of the case, not to mention it involving a 6"6 black rapper named big LURCH) and step back from the humorous undertones you can see how F***** up it is that they could release that image for the album cover considering the circumstances, to me this is almost as bad if not worse than the crime!

Anyway I have spent too much time on this already I have work to be doing! what do you think about the Big Lurch case?

newest version of "presence"

PPD2 company research

As part of our PPD2 brief we have to contact potential employers ans establish a list of companies we would like to work for with details of the managing directors or who we need to speak to.

As I am very seriously considering moving to Buxton I decided to start there, I have found 2 studios there who deliver visual solutions for other companies.

The first are called: NCH audio visuals, they were formed in 200 and have 20years experience in the industry, they are a family run business. The guy I need to speak to is called Nick Hollis and I have information about his previous work in the U.S and his contact details.

They specialize in tourist videos, training films, events, promotional films and weddings etc.

I plan to contact them this week to arrange an interview or meeting if possible to show them a show-reel of my work, (something I haven't done yet, maybe a DVD of what I have done so far would be better as I will be doing a show-reel at the end of the year anyway which will have all my work from Digital media and access on it)

The second company are a division within the health and safety executive within the government and they are based in Buxton, this is the main site and is 550 acres in size, they also have smaller field offices spread throughout the UK.

I recently found about about the HSA and HSL on my hairdressing course, so it's funny that a few weeks later I find that I will be speaking to them directly about future career possibilities!

I will be contacting the visual presentation section who work on videos and photo's of accident sites, they also research accidents and create 3D mock up's of potential accidents for educational videos. (I wish I had paid more attention in Maya now!) they have a FAST editing suite and use silver? I will have to find out what that is exactly because I haven't used it before, oh and they also make PDF's, something we have not done, but I am interested in writing and scripting so I may be able to utilize these skills in that or other areas.

They have a roland RD7 MP3 recorder and a microdrome, these sound interesting so I will look into what they are and what they do a bit further, and they use adobe premier pro- again something I have not used but I will ask about at uni/college.

I have already spoken to a relative that works there, so my next step is to contact the head of VPS who are expecting my call and arrange a date and time to go and see them.

I am nervous and excited at the same time! I just need to pick up the phone tomorrow and sort something out, I rang today but missed him so I'll try again tomorrow.

Best geta dvd made too so they can have a copy of everything I have done!