I LAVA Pixar Shorts.

So you know how Pixar has those shorts to start off their films. So recently I was reintroduced to LAVA.(You know the short that started Inside Out.) You know, the one about the really cute song about the volcano that sings about how much he’d love to love someone someday! At first the animation style semi-realistic and it pans up to a very old weathered looking volcano. Each animal shown has it’s counterpart and the volcano man longs for this connection. He deserves someone to "lava" too! Anyways the story goes on and the short is very vibrant with color and just a beautiful short and I swear there won’t be a dry eye in the house!

UPDATE:
Unfortunately, and probably due to copyright issues, there is no full version of Lava That I can find online. However, I have found the full song in a lyric video that shows screen caps from the short film So feel free to take a listen.

Hitman or Inside Out; The Two Most Different Foods

For my title sequence project I had a bunch of ideas, but ultimately narrowed it down to 2 styles I think I can pull off. The first film I might make a title sequence to is Hitman, that awful movie in 2007 (or the upcoming one next year, pick your poison) which was based off the video game of the same title. The route I would take is to make it a Saul Bass homage since he is the father of title sequences as we know them today. Hitman, or at least the game, emphasizes a lot about how your character, Agent 47, is just a number to The Organization. Every assassin has a barcode tattooed on the back of their head and I thought it would be fun/interesting to style an intro around that idea in the style of Saul Bass.

My second idea involved a Pixar movie, of course. Inside Out came to mind first since it is the newest film from the California-based animation studio. I would want to also, in a way, replicate Saul Bass' style, while also making it my own. SPOILER ALERT: There's a scene in the movie where 3 of the main characters enter Abstract Thought, a land where thoughts and ideas are broken down into four stages, I won't go into detail. Anyway, the style that the characters are created in this area of Riley's brain holds so much potential in motion graphics.

Let me know in the comments which one I should give a go. I can't decide for the life of me. Thanks!

The Voices in Our Head

So next week we talked about putting audio and visuals together in animation and I thought this article relates to what we are going to talk about next week. Over the summer I saw the newest Pixar film, Inside Out. The movie is about the different voices in your head and I noticed that Riley, the girl in the film, not all her voices were of the female gender. Both anger and fear were male voices. But then in one scene, the dinner scene, we go into Riley's parents head and they are all of one gender. So the mom's voices were all female and the dad's voices were all male. Here is that scene:

The author of the article interviewed the Pixar Founder and his theory is that as your get older your voices become more mature therefore they become all one gender. I don't agree with his theory. I think they gave mad and fear male voices because they are both strong emotions. The rest were female voices (joy, disgust, and sad). I think Pixar was gender stereotyping when assigning the actors to the certain emotions. I know that's a bold statement to say but think about it; a male voice for a sassy (aka disgust) emotion doesn't "sound" right. Or an over positive (aka joy) male voice. Or a depressing (aka sad) male voice. It even works on the flip side. A female voice for an angry or fearful emotion wouldn't "sound" as good. It's terrible that Pixar is stereotyping emotions for male and female and you guys can disagree with me, but this is just what I believe and what I got out of the film.

Inside Out

With the release date of Pixar's Inside Out fast approaching, the advertising campaign has begun full swing. TechCrunch recently wrote a fascinating article on the challenges of the film, highlighting on the technical achievements made throughout production.

From having to design two distinctive worlds and a character who acts as a light source, it is interesting to read about the technology that went into creating these characters. As the article points out, the goal is that the audience doesn't notice all of these components. While I've had my questions about the concept behind the film itself, I'm still excited to see it come June.

Inside Out

I'm a big fan of Pixar animations, so I got very excited when I found out that there was going to be a new movie coming out Spring of 2015. The movie is called "Inside Out" and it tells the tale of an 11 year old girl and her emotions. Of course there is much more to it because the emotions are the focus of the movie. It goes inside the mind of the girl into her emotion headquarters and each emotion is a character in the movie. It features the voices of a bunch of my favorite actors including Amy Poehler, who voices the emotion joy, Mindy Kaling, who is disgust, and Bill Hader, who voices fear.

 I find this concept to be incredibly creative because Pixar, in my opinion, has mastered the art of manipulating emotions. I can't remember a time that one of their movies hasn't made me tear up or feel sympathetic to a character, even if the character was just a fish or a bug. I can't wait to see this film, but in the meantime I think I can get by with the trailer (which just released today!!!).