A Journey to the Center of Procrastination : YouTube and Historical Rap Battles

      Much like  I had mentioned on my previous post, I am a busy college student. Very busy. By that, I mean that I peruse YouTube and completely ignore most if not all of my responsibilities as a student and as a functioning human being in today's fast-moving society. Anyway, what I'm getting at is Epic Rap Battles of History. Due to the fact that I'm genuinely a child, I get an incredible amount of entertainment out of these videos. Often laced with more offensive material than an internet troll could muster, ERB is usually rather educational and incredibly pleasing to the eye. Or not. There's really no in between. One of my favourites was a finale episode where they pit five monumental directors against each other in the form of, you guessed it, a rap battle. Honestly, why not. Warning: it's very NSFW with its profane lyrics. Sorry. Not really. It is a good watch, though.

    

       One of my favorite parts of these videos are the loads and loads of behind the scenes that they upload alongside the main photos. These videos usually showcase anything from the recording process, the post production, the costumes, and even just a full dance cover version. I enjoy seeing how much effort goes into the backgrounds because they tend to build them from scratch and usually use the same small things over and over but in different ways so the normal viewer wouldn't notice. Overall, I find it a very unique idea and really inspiring and I love learning their little shortcuts and reasonings when creating all of the aspects of their project.  I wouldn't wanna work on it myself (I actually really would), but it is very nice to see all of the steps that go into creating the special effects and backgrounds for these videos. 

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.

The Man with the Iron Fists

Something I have been waiting for a long time is finally going to happen next week. No not Halloween (but if you liked Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, look for me), on November 2nd, The Man with the Iron Fists comes out in theaters! This film is directed by, co-written by, co-composed by, and starring RZA who developed the soundtrack for the film, so essentially this film is his baby and will hopefully be his big breakout in film. The setting of the film is nineteenth century China where a blacksmith, simply named The Blacksmith (RZA), is forced to make elaborate weapons of death for a small village. When a traitor threatens to destroy the village, he joins both warriors and assassins to protect their community. The film also stars Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, Rick Yune, David Bautista, and Jamie Chung, is also written by Eli Roth and is presented by Quentin Tarantino.



I know what you're thinking: "Cody, how does this relate to Motion Graphics and Animation?" Well I'm glad you asked! In the past few days, a promo video for the film recently emerged featuring a very stylized motion comic with narration by RZA himself. Its essentially a prequel to the upcoming film and it was all done in....... AFTER EFFECTS! That's right! It was made in After Effects by Manabu 'Gaku' Inada and Trevor Von Klueg, with assistance by Moises Jimenez, and Eric Calderon was the Animation Director. The video is a composition of sound, art, and effects, where the use of layers and opacity are emphasized by close-ups of drawn profiles, scrolling text, and a grainy, misty presence looming in the background of most shots. This video is sure to get you psyched up for the film's release next week.