movie experience
on saturday i watched the movie Perfume.
besides having absolutely beautiful cinematography, and a wickedly warped story, i was really really impressed with the way it was presented.
in the beginning of the movie there is a narrator that explains the situation and circumstance of the main character. i didn’t notice exactly when, but at some point in time the action picks up and the narrator disappears. but then, near the end of the movie, he coems back in. what i really liked about that was how it gave such a fairy-tale feel to it.
anyways, twisted but beautiful. i recommend it.
media project
i’ve been puttering along with the project. it seems like i’m going to be doing a series of smaller comics rather than one longer one. i went to the library last week and picked up some reading, it’s been pretty interesting so far. i’m taking notes and will sit down and type some of them through here in the next few days. there has been some inspiration for ideas from the reading. i’ve been thinking on how to present the project. i’ve done websites before, and i know i can do them well. i rather wouldn’t focus on that aspect, but i’m not sure exactly how else i can present the comics. maybe i could just do a very basic site? i’ll have to see about that. i’ve also been thinking of ways to encorporate different mediums into it. i will be trying out mspaint today (no photoshop on the desktop).
media experiences
on the 19th tickets for a show in victoria went on sale through the save-on-foods memorial centre site. it’s tool, which is a pretty big show, so they usually sell through ticketmaster. i was delighted not to have to deal with that devil (although the memorial centre still tacks a 10 dollar surcharge on), and eagerly waited until noon to buy my tickets.
i hit refresh right as it hit noon, and the page instantly went blank. it took an hour before it stopped giving me the page that said it had timed out and was now a bad gateway. luckily i had a friend online who managed to get the seats for me. at this point i’m sitting across the stadium at the furthest seat possible. we figured out that what happened was the tickets went on sale for the victoria and kelowna show at the same time, on a server that obviously wasn’t ready to deal with some 30,000 fans all desperately trying to get the best tickets possible. needless to say, it was a frustrating afternoon.
what made it really frustrating was the fact that if there had been some sort of a store that was selling the tickets, i happily would have camped out for hours before to get my seats. not an option these days, it seems.
and now my internet speed has dropped dramatically, making it really difficult to navigate the web without constantly cussing at how slowly the pages are ‘turning’. i’ve noticed that when i have a hard time with things like this, i tend to ignore the computer all together. a technician is coming to check our connection on friday. hopefully that will help.
they’re called books
on wednesday i bought a copy of stephen colbert’s i am america (and so can you!). i’ve been a fan of colbert since he was reporting on the daily show, and i was tickled pink when his show picked up steam and became the giant force that it is today.
this book, besides being stupid funny, is written in a really interesting way (warning. i am a creative writing major in the publishing field, so no one may find this interesting but me). he uses footnotes and margin notes, but not to expand on ideas or to add additional suggested readings. he actually uses them to add to his point. it’s like if he was speaking to you, the margin or footnote would be where he leans forward and points his finger to emphasize. there’s also two pages of stickers in it.
i was driving around yesterday and suddenly had a realization. last year in the media theory class i took, we discussed the role of the ‘trickster’ in society nowdays. (here is the article marshall soules wrote about it which sort of explains the idea http://www.media-studies.ca/articles/trickster.htm) and i was thinking about colbert’s speech to the white house, as well as his announcement for his bid for presidency (which i’m pretty sure is just a publicity ploy for the new book) when suddenly i realized colbert IS a trickster.
it was a great moment.
media experiences
today i went to the library at the school to check some books out. when i got to the counter, i noticed that the self check-out machine was gone. i’ve used that thing consistently since they brought it in, and i was surprised to find myself a little bit panicky about having to talk to the librarian at the counter. it wasn’t a big deal, she was very nice and we had a laugh over the machine taking itself out. but it got me thinking about how much technology has affected my real-life interactions. has anyone else noticed this about themselves?
anyways, i found this article that’s sort of about the same thing.
http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html
term media project
here’s another one.
it seems like these are scanning pretty big. i don’t know exactly how to work this scanner thing. i think i may eventually need to just split the comics up into strips. this will make the presentation pretty interesting. or.. i guess i could just draw them smaller?
term media project
this weekend was spent tinkering around with drawings, ideas, a couple of comics drawn out, one re-discovered and re-sketched. i think these comics will be a series of shorter ones, rather than a longer one. sometimes i have a problem with sustaining ideas for too long (something numerous creative writing courses has taught me), so maybe a grand scheme idea, but smaller scenes around it. i am still going to have the character go to school, and i think the ideas he picks up will help shape his interactions with the people around him.
i have attached a scan of one of the comics i did this weekend. i’m not sure if it will work. the scan.
ideas:
marshall mcluhan’s media maelstrom: the movie. is the medium the message? this could be epic.
stumble on
http://www.funforever.net/archives/2007/10/09/ (watch at the video at the bottom of the page)
http://wohba.com/pages/womenart0707.html
http://www.oddee.com/item_89451.aspx (the bubble project page has templates for the bubbles)
http://www.woostercollective.com/graffiti/ (some of the art on this page is incredible. it’s worth scrolling all the way down.)
http://www.suitcaseexhibit.org/indexhasflash.html#
http://interact10ways.com/usa/information_interactive.htm (this is super cool)
i am absolutely amazed at what there is out there. this is a small small sampling of what i’ve found in the past week or so since i’ve signed on to stumble upon.
fantastic.
fantastic stop motion clip
i was stumbling around and found this clip
http://www.noob.us/entertainment/awesome-yet-creepy-stop-motion-wall-animation/
it’s a stop motion film that uses chalk on walls. i thought it was absolutely fantastic. the chalk makes the whole thing seem so fluid, and what a great way to do it. even just the rubbing out of the previous image to do the new one on leaves such a weird trail. and some of the details are great.
anyways, just thought i’d share.
