Everything Is A Remix

Quentin Tarantino a American film maker is a screenwriter, producer, director and actor. Quentin Tarantino has made many hit movies over the years such as, Reservoir Dogs (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Death Proof  (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Kill Bill (2003), Django Unchained (2013) and countless others. Quentin Tarantino has made such hit movies by taking the movies that inspire him and using some of the same shots and cinematography from other films. For example,Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill uses shots from Game of Death (1978), Samurai Fiction (1998), Once Upon A Time In The West (1968), Death Rides A Horse (1967), Lady Snowbloody (1973), Deep Red (1975), City Of Living Dead (1980) and many more. Quentin Tarantino uses his inspirational scenes from these films to his advantages and to better his own work in the film industry.

Everything Is A Remix: KILL BILL from robgwilson.com on Vimeo.

If you aren't a film buff you probably wouldn't notice the similarities between these movies but in the video it shows how Quentin Tarantino used certain scenes from each movie. Some people might consider this stealing or even plagiarism but if you look at it that way then there would be no room for artistic interpretation. If something works why change it. I believe that Quentin Tarantino did a great job with using his inspiration and using that in Kill Bill.

Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

"Secret Life Of Walter Mitty" is a 2013 released movie. Ben Stiller plays Walter Mitty who is a day dreamer and has these amazing adventures in his head. Walter Mitty is a kind of quiet kind guy who is very passionate about his work. Walter Mitty goes on one of the most amazing journeys he will ever encounter in his life all for a photo that will be put on the last issue of Life magazine.
Since Walter Mitty is a day dream the special effects used in this movie was out of this world beautiful and action packed with explosions, car crashes and many others.

After Effects used on Iron Man

    In college we're always learning how to use new programs. I've always been interested in knowing what professionals are using these programs and how are they using them. Well I did a quick search on what movies used After Effects as part of their creative design and Iron Man 3 was one of the first movies to pop up. Was I surprised? No way, there are no limits in adobe after effects so I would be surprised if movies didn't used this program. After Effects was used to create the HUD (head up display) of Iron Man.

 Watching the video gives you a glance of the work being done and if you pay close attention you will see a ton of layers listed in the after effects program. It just goes to show you how extensive a project can be and how advanced After effects is.

   It's both exciting and challenging learning how to work with after effects. I know the if I acquire the necessary skills in after effects I can create awesome work and obtain money doing something that is pretty cool and can possibly be seen be hundreds or thousands or even millions of people.

Here's the link that shows the video, as well as other videos. Click here.

Ottawa International Animation Festival

The Ottawa International Animation Festival is considered one of the biggest animation festivals in the world and the biggest in North America. I attended the festival this weekend and watched many animated films and title sequences selected for the festival. While watching the screenings I kept noticing how many different styles and techniques were being used to create the films; Hand-drawn, oil painted, cut-out, claymation, CG animation, rotoscoping you name it. It was impossible to not admire the amount of dedication and skill to create such great work, specially when I am starting to learn the techniques they are using.

At the festival they also offered various professional development workshops with people like the director of "The Blue Umbrella"- Pixar's latest short, Regular Show's creator JG Quintel, Disney animator Eric Goldberg (Alladin, Hercules, Fantasia 2000, etc...) and a few more. They talked about developing stories, coming up with ideas, animating and working in the industry.

It's difficult to find many of the films screened since most of them can't be available online after being selected for the festival, but here's one very interesting animation and the trailer for the festival, which used a lot of simple but interesting motion graphics.



Shugo Tokumaru "Katachi" from Kijek / Adamski on Vimeo.

Balloon Animals

This video is quite funny actually.  Even the most viewers would probably be able to tell that it’s not real, thats what makes it humorous.  Despite being able to tell that this is fake, the animation is considerable good (or at least something considerable complex for my knowledge level at this point).  What they did was take real animals, make them into animations, and then ‘balloon’ them.  In a few parts, they show the animals either bouncing or floating, which I find to be quite realistic.  The water itself even looks kind of real, which I know is something hard to achieve with animation.  All in all, this is quite an interesting and funny piece of work.