Wells

i definitely did the wrong reading last week....my blog from last week is the chion so ill do the wells reading for this week.
i cant even imagine the work that went into animation before computers. i guess we got a little taste of it last week doing the cell animations but to actually do a feature like Snow White or some of those other Disney movies done long before computers must have taken forever. ive never really paid attention to continuity in cartoons but after reading about goofy, it totally makes sense. i always felt so bad for him! i just thought the purpose of him was to make people laugh but theres a whole motive behind his failures. the evolution of content section made me think of Fantasia. i used to watch that movie like 3 times a day, im not even kidding. my mom would have to rewind it for me and i just remember thinking how beautiful it was. well i guess i wasnt thinking beautiful cause i was like 4 haha but i jsut thought it was so neat and the pictures and colors were just amazing. i absolutly love Looney Tunes, and part of the reason is for the dialogue. i even qoute it still but i didnt realize that sound was that crucial to animation. looking back, i guess a regular rabbit walking around eating carrots isnt funny unless hes leaning up against something saying "whats up doc". thinking about animation always makes me think of one of my favorite movies ever....Mary Poppins. when they hop from the real world to a world of animation is one of the coolest things ive ever seen. especially since it was in the 60's.
the whole experimental animation process is very interesting to me. the manipultion of movements of color and objects instead of bodies i think would be very difficult in terms of comping up with ideas to keep audiences interested while not using a small man hunting with a little bit of a speach impediment. if done right, well ive only seen a few experimental animation films, but they are really cool and all the work that goes into the films really pays off.

Chion

saw Bergman's name....already hooked. this concept of audiovisual illusion is pretty interesting. i guess ive known what it was i just didnt know it had a proper name. the relationship between sound and image are what make the art of a film and this illusion that forms is between the most important aspects of the images and sound. ok wow i dotn know if what i just wrote makes any sense but i get it...its stressign the importance of sound on an image. it creates a new illusion....its like in a horror film, how important sound is to get viewers scared for whats to come in the next shot. the added value aspect is the stress on the sound to the image. a simple image of a gun is not as effective as an image of a gun with a loud gun shot being played over the image to empahsize the gun itself, or as the reading says, enriches the image.
as important as sound is, voices are more heard. i think its because as viewers, we are used to hearing other anyway, so when its in a film our natural instinct is to be drawn to words rather than noises. words are just as or even more effective as a sound library since its what viewers tend to pay attention to more which is why dialogue is often highlighted over natural sound.
music is one of my favorite parts of a film. some recent fims have ahd amazing soundtracks like Whip It, Zombieland and Adventureland....after realizing what amazing music these films had, i looked up some interviews with the filmmakers and it turns out each one of them had a huge play in the music choices in their films. they wanted each song to further the story rather than just serve as a scene transition. while watching the images in films, sometimes the lyrics of the music lend a hand at the emotion in the scene...the whole empathetic music concept. the anempathetic music i used to think was just used during scene transistions but after reading the article, its actually used to intensify emotion in some cases
most of this article reminds me of how sound, music and words effect horror films....probably because its valentines day and ive been watching horror films all day....but it really made me realize how much sound in general effects images.

oops, i didnt mean to post that yet! i just wanted to add that im doign the black box this monday and im bringing stuff like earrings and a fork and my guitar pick and umm i think a sea shell is in there and some bobby pins... im pumped to see what this will turn out looking like because i have never done anything remotely close to this way of making a film so im excited

so far, i think cameraless fimmaking is awesome. i did some of the magazine transfers on saturday and i think that is one of the coolest things ive ever done. the way the images stay on the tape and some even stay clear is really interesting to me. ive never done anything like this and i dont think ive ever seen any films with this done either. i cant wait to see it through a projector. the scratching on the film strips is really neat to. i tried to draw flames wiggleing on several frames so it would look like real fire for about 3 seconds but im not so sure how real it will look haha my drawing skills arent that great. i think it will be cool either way though. staying with the earth air water themes, i drew rain drops also. it starts with one drop and you watch it start at the top of the frame then it will fall to the ground and then the rain picks up. there are a few seconds of heavy drops then it clears up agian and goes into the other elements, i havent finished that yet os im not sure how to do the earth. i think my partner courtney is going to draw a flower as it starts as a seed then blossoms. our idea is to have these elements starting from the "root" and build to full potential then fade back out. i think it will all look really cool once we finish and run it through the projector. another part of our film is finger nail polish, we took earthy colors of brown and light pinks and blotted them along the frames then covered it with a clear coat to smooth out the images. im really enjoying making fims this way...a lot mroe than i thought i would actually. its opened my eyes to new ways other than just shooting something and editing it. its cool how i can manipulate the images myself instead of through a computer

Synesthesia

when i first read the definition of synesthesia in art i had no idea what in the world it was talking about. after i read some of the artists views on it i got a much better feel of the term. i love how Marcia Smilack put it...when she experiences a feeling of texture or taste even motion, she takes a picture of it. to be able to capture such a raw subject with a photograph is a beautiful thing in my opinion. its like when you feel water, how do you capture its texture by just taking a simple picture of a lake? i started thinking about that while reading her quote and then she explains that she waits utill she feels that sensation of synesthsia and then takes the photo, like if the water slightly ripples or something. its hard to put into words what synesthesia is in my opinion, its just one of those things you feel as an artist. i love music so for some of these artists to capture the sounds of a violin string in a painting is amazing. i play lots of intruments so i think in beats a lot of the time and Anne Salz's painting of shades of oragne mixed with black really stood out to me. the black makes up the beats while the song is flowing like the orange. ive never thought of capturing music that way but it really makes sense now that i see it.
neurological synesthesia (wonder ow many times ive spelled that wrong in this paragraph) is pretty interesting as well. when the page came up and the letters and numbers were all colored i was a little ocnfused but after reading why, it became kind of interesting. the sound synesthesia i really understand because after reading that, i think i fall into that catagory i just didnt know what it was called before...sometimes i put sounds im familiar with to things i see. not sure if thats the same thing haha but im using that to help me understand the term better. overall its pretty interesting to see all the different ways artists and everyday people interpret things like sounds, motion, taste....