Social media is a lie. Media is a lie. As students going into media, we need to be aware of this. We can sit here and say that we can make media better but we all know that's not true. But one famous Instagramer is trying to make a difference. Some of you may be aware that Australian Instagramer, Essena O'Neill recently quit all social media because it's not real life. She changed her account name to "Social Media Is Not Real Life" and changed several of the captions to what really happened when she was taking the photos. Some examples of them are below:
As you can see, she's just 16 and was trying to be something that she wasn't just to get attention and love. Nothing about the photos she post was real. Social media is not always real. We need to stop being so ignorant and start educating ourselves on what we read and see. It's not just with self esteem through images but with everything else as well. We just think if we saw it on the Internet it must be true. No, research it before you talk about it. Form your own opinions on the subject matter. If we are the future of the media. Though like I said earlier we probably won't do anything about it or change it, there's still that possibility. If people just stopped being someone else through the computer screen, maybe we can start to spark a change.
I realized after watching a video in my Field Production class how few movies nowadays are truly just film. I never knew how much of the movies were a product of post-production. From a technological standpoint, I think that's amazing. But from a "the times they are a changin' " viewpoint, it's scary!
So much nowadays is made in post-production, from color correction to entire CGI scenes. This all developed over such a short period of time, too. In maybe ten years, with the ever-accelerating advanced-ness of special effects, I can see entire movies being made entirely in CGI, without the use of actors. Even now, when humans are made in CGI to look real they look a bit creepy. But in ten years, that probably won't be the case. Humans will be created in CGI flawlessly. Sooner or later, Hollywood won't need actors anymore. There will be a huge shift in the film and television industry. IT will greatly benefit the industry itself but anyone with the dream of making it big in acting will be shit out of luck.
Then the robots will take over the world. But that's another story.
"We have amazing tools, but they do not create anything; it is really what the filmmakers do with it."
So says John Lassester, the man who's had a hand in almost every single Disney or Pixar animated film since he first directed Toy Story almost 20 years ago. His credits include executive producer of two of 2013's best animated features (Monster's University and Frozen), director of Cars and a Bug's Life, and - my personal favorite - the writer of 2010's emotionally charged, I-swear-I'm-not-crying-right-now film Toy Story 3. The guy knows a thing or two about telling a great story for a visual medium.
This quote, spoken at a panel back in 2012, gives me hope, and quite frankly I'm really glad that I share the opinion of someone in the film industry that I respect so highly. As a culture, so much of our focus seems to be on what's new or what's next. What does the future of cinema look like? How will technology change in the next five years? What will animation look like?
I tend to take a different approach. Don't get me wrong, this new Mac I'm using is perfect for writing and accessing everything I need for school and life in general; I'd be pretty helpless without it. But at a certain point, new technology has to take a backseat to the things that really matter. Toy Story 3 is a beautiful movie. I saw it in 3d and was absolutely blown away by how gorgeous it looked. However, I didn't leave the theatre thinking about the animation or the CGI - I was too focused on the incredible range of emotions that a bunch of toys had managed to stir up within me. Hell, I can't even type out this blog post without getting choked up at the thought of Andy driving away from Bonnie's house, watching as the little girl waves Woody's arm in farewell. And then that pan up, showing that the clouds in the sky are the same as the wallpaper in Andy's room from a movie made 15 YEARS EARLIER? It's perfect. Words can't even describe.
So no matter how much pressure I may feel to buy the newest editing/special effects software (sorry Arturo, I'm not paying hundreds of dollars for a tablet that I'll only use in this class) it's really comforting to know that story still comes first. When I googled "the future of animation" in hopes of coming up with something intelligent to blog about, I had no idea what to expect. Technology is only going to keep getting better, and I'm sure the industry will continue to evolve alongside it. But no matter what changes, story will remain crucial to the process of making any kind of visual medium - animated or otherwise. Precise animation and advanced technology are what made Andy look emotional as he was giving away his childhood toys; but it was what the filmmakers did with that technology that continues to effect me to this day.
As an avid Syfy fan, it is not surprising that the new show Opposite Worlds intrigued me. Even though I don't normally watch reality shows, I loved this concept. As I watched the first episode after class on Wednesday, I was very pleased with the filming and the unique style of the show. Afterwards, I was curious about the trailer that first piped up my interest. I watched it, and was taken aback by the effects and style it emulated. Here is that trailer (produced at Hold Fast; creative director: Rich Scurry):
Something that seems so simple, yet after what we heard in class, I'm sure has many layers of complexity. What I love about this trailer is the 3D feel they give to the video. As a viewer, I feel as if I have physically been pulled into the environment and can see in a 360 degree sphere the details and almost feel the atmosphere change from a sophisticated future to a barbaric past. That move around the spaces, as well as the little details, like the fire and the large touch screen monitor displayed only added to the drama and helped to create a story that I wanted to learn more about. I think this trailer is successful in creating the ultimate question: What will happen next?
This may not all have been animation or done in After Effects, but I'm excited to learn how to use these programs to add those important details in film that give atmosphere, feeling and story to a video. Whether that is opening credits or trailers, television or film, these details help intrigue audiences, and create more realistic environments.
This incredible little device is a Leap. It’s a very
exciting new piece of technology that allows you to interface with your
computer in real 3D space. One of the reasons I’m so eager to start getting
into this class is because I want to come up with ways to use this new
technology. When we watched some of the examples of interactive media in class
I immediately thought of how I could use the Leap. I would really like to
create some sort of interactive art, animation, or maybe even a very simple
game using it. I think this could be the future of human-computer interactions
and I’d love to explore different ways of utilizing it for motion graphics.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
iWatch
This video I very cool actually. To start, the concept of a holographic watch is a wicked cool concept. Secondly, the execution of making this concept into a video was done very professionally. We can see that the author(s) is (are) of college age and are very knowledgable and skilled with video making and animation. The best part of this whole thing though, is that they used mocha to do this. Not only do they show you what they are doing, but they also allow you to follow along. For not being a tutorial, I feel that there was a good balance of showing you what they did and how they did it. I would love to be able to apply this kind of stuff in my work.
