I'm pretty sure I haven't posted about this series on the blog yet. This horrifying collection of animations forms the entity known as Salad Fingers. Salad Fingers, which was a bit of an internet sensation in 2005, was created by animator David Firth in 2004. The dark/psychological comedy focuses on the life of a creepy green man(?) in what looks to be a post apocalyptic setting. Like Joe Zombie, I first watched this series years ago and I was horrified and--to be honest--it's still a little hard to watch!
What's really interesting about this animation is how dark and abstract it gets. There's been a lot of speculation done by fans of the show in regards to Salad Finger's identity and his relationship to the world around him.
I'm that weird kid who's always down to watch a scary movie. You suggest it, and I will always be down. When I'm not watching horror movies, I'm looking up creepy short films, and stories that may cause me to lose some sleep. In my studies, I happened to stumble across this super short animation, which actually disturbed me a bit. It may look simple, but I found that the simple design made it all the more effective. It also helped that it was hand-drawn, which I'm also always a sucker for.
Created by a student at the Vancouver film school.
Disclaimer: If you're not a fan of psychological horror, then I don't suggest watching this.
After watching the title sequence of Se7en in class, I was very interested to learn more about the movie and what happens so I looked it up. As I was looking it up, I came across some articles mentioning that the 20th anniversary of the film is coming up. As I was reading one of the articles, there was a YouTube video explaining the pre-production of the film, how it all came about, and then how it was filmed. The YouTuber spends most of the video focusing on the last scene in the film, the "Box Scene" explaining how the editing, sound, and the cinematography all create this fantastic mood which helps with the revealing shot, aka what's in the box. If you want to find out more about the film and how the end scene was created, watch the video! I promise it's worth watching the whole 14 minutes of it. But there are a lot of spoilers in the video so if you haven't seen it yet, or don't want to know what's in the box, then don't watch it!
This short film appeared on my vimeo newsfeed and in it's short 20 minutes it has both captivated my attention and FREAKED me out. I think everyone should take the time to watch this, it is overall extremely well crafted.
First off, I'd just like to point out how incredible of a show the Walking Dead is... if you haven't started watching it, you're doing yourself a disservice. It is an incredible story of survival from the viewpoints of many diverse characters. Nearly every episode someone is faced with an incredibly difficult situation or mind crippling decision. It causes you to think about life and humanity, and what those high-concepts truly mean. I just finished season 2 and the finale was nothing short of a masterpiece. It begins with everyone's life in jeopardy as a horde of Walkers (the shows pet name for zombies) breaks through the defenses of the farm which the survivors have taken refuge in. From that point; the onslaught begins. The survivors desperately hold down their position, using cars as their cavalry and the farm as their castle. During these gruesome scenes it is easy to see that After Effects was used to simulate the gunshots and the bloody display of projectile brains. Beyond the makeup and acting ability, it seemed relatively simple to replicate using the tools we've learned (i.e. motion tracking, masking, and utilizing layers). The effects were incredibly realistic and made for some really brutal and horrific shots. During the course of the episode, many beloved characters are lost, either to the zombies or separated from the group, and the feeling of desperation skyrockets for the viewer. To add to the drama, some of the characters begin to change their dispositions; from friendly, heroic and righteous to borderline evil. The show definitely makes use of filters through After Effects. In several scenes they use fire to destroy zombies, and in another they sit around a campfire and and discuss their plans. In both scenes you can tell that the actors are not actually in front of fires, but rather they are using filters in After Effects to give the viewer the impression that it is night, and they use special lighting and glow effects to enhance the illusion. In reality, fires would cause too much brightness and would ruin the shot due to the intensity of the light. The closing shot of the episode reveals a fortress in the distance, foreshadowing the plot of the next season. It too appears to have been created using After Effects by superimposing it onto the final frames of the shot; leaving us viewers with a wild cliffhanger. I am incredibly excited to begin the next season, and follow it each week. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, the first two seasons are on Netflix and I highly recommend them to anyone who claims to be an avid fan of sci-fi, drama, action, or horror.
