Notes from Week Three.

My class notes from week three, 18/03/08.

Amber's Book Cover

GROTESQUE
NATSUO KIRINO
Publisher: HARVILL
Category: CRIME FICT
TRADE PAPERBACK, $32.95, In Stock (Stock On Order) Which Shop?

Two prostitutes have been murdered in Tokyo. Yuriko had been working as a prostitute all her adult life, starting while still at school, where her stunning beauty compensated for what she lacked in intellect and commanded attention from older men. Kazue worked for a blue-chip company and had good career prospects, but was unpopular with colleagues and felt isolated. She chose to walk the streets at night where she hoped to get noticed.

Twenty years previously both women were educated at an elite school for young ladies, and both exhibited exceptional promise prior to their brutal , unnecessary deaths. How and why did this tragedy occur? With narration from Yuriko's embittered, unattractive sister and through the girls' journals and diaries Kirino allows their shocking story to unfurl. As with OUT, Grotesque gets under the skin, and Kirino's analysis of the female psyche grips the reader. The extreme need to succeed, and the vicious desire to be accepted in the bewildering environment of modern life is explored here with acute and chilling insight. Grotesque is a masterful and haunting achievement.

Research Task 2 - Exhibit unveils mythic creatures

Truth be told, myth dies hard. You may almost prefer not to know the realities behind such imaginary creatures as the powerful griffin, the one-eyed Cyclops, hybrid chimeras, Pegasus, the Sphinx, Bigfoot, Quetzalcoatl, giant roc birds and Mami Wata and her sister mermaids of all sorts from Africa to the Arctic.


Mankind has always been captivated by tales of mystery and supernatural forces, combat and heroism, power and success.

Most European legends are centred around these ideas – intriguing but predatory females (sirens and witches), strange blends of animals (dragons, unicorns), and strong men whose amazing deeds defy logical explanation (King Arthur, Robin Hood).

Other myths and legends from around the world reflect this same fascination for uncharted territory, mystical beings and outstanding achievement in the face of incredible odds.

What I find most interesting about this article is that the travelling exhibition currently in Kentucky, USA, presents us with a basis for understanding how we’ve come to ‘create’ some of these wondrous creatures from myths and legends. The article I read about it, ‘Exhibit Unveils Mythic Creatures’, from the Kentucky Courier Journal (courier-journal.com) shows how the origins of some have been linked to (misinterpretation of) ancient animal skeletal remains (Cyclops, griffins), while others have been cleverly fabricated (P.T. Barnum’s mermaid and the Puerto Rican fanged Chupacabra).

The descriptions of several of these creatures of myth and legend and their continuing intrigue, lends itself to the idea of tantalising a film audience with sightings of them.

This more or less shatters any dreams of most children or anyone who believes in ‘magic’. It’s a sad truth, but one that is interesting to point out, in such a way as a travelling exhibition.


Extra:
Several variations might be possible. One is to introduce a series of ‘mind tricks’. For instance, a lady wearing flippers might appear to be a mermaid from just getting a glimpse of her at a particular angle. Or a lion and a bird in the same shadowy line of sight could momentarily suggest a griffin. Filming techniques could be used to enhance the apparent metamorphosis while leaving the viewers not sure of the extent to which they’ve misinterpreted a genuinely ambiguous situation or been fooled by the camera.


‘Exhibit Unveils Mythic Creatures’ <-- Link

Concept Task Week 2: Representation and Character

Step 1 - Start with a person you know

• Think of a person you know
• It could be somebody you know now, or used to know, somebody close to you or not so close - but with a memorable personality
• Write a list of some of their key qualities – how would you describe their personality?
• You should list at least 3 qualities.

The Person is Tom, He is a friend of mine from Sydney.

Key Qualities

• Fun
• Helpful
• Nice
• Outgoing
• Reliable
• Funny

Step 2 - Describe a scene or situation involving this person

• Now describe a real scene or situation involving this person that you can remember that demonstrates one or more of these qualities about them. You can also be present in the scene if you wish.
• Write in present tense.
• The aim is to write so that what happens in the scene – the character’s actions – DEMONSTRATE the character’s personality, without having to explicitly describe it
• (Length: 1 paragraph to half a page)

Through out the morning we have been setting up for Christmas lunch/dinner for us and our friends, Catty has been telling me all morning to send text messages to the guy who are driving, just to see where they are and how long they shall be. Just as we are wonder where they are there is a nock on the door and when I go answer it, there they all are. I invite them in and we ask "Where have you been? You said you where going to be 20 minutes, like 40 minutes ago" then tom said "But I sent you a message when we where 10 minutes away..." we all stand there in silences... and just then my phone goes off. I pick it up and see that I have got a new message from Tom saying they are 10 minutes off getting to the house. "Its a message from you Tom..." "Oh man I should so make it into a magic trick where it seem I can send text Message without even getting my phone out". We all had a good laugh and made many jokes about it for the rest of the day.

This is one of those stories that are much funnier when it happens... and it seems to loses just how funny it was when you type it out.


Step 3: Another list – What would this person be if they were:

Weather? Morning Sun
An animal? Cat
A household object? A computer Mouse
A machine? T.V
A place? A park
Music? Rap (And there in an injoke about this too)
A colour? Green

A font (optional)?

A fictional ‘archetype’ or stereotype? (eg. the superhero, the wicked witch..) Fair God Mother


Part 4: An image

Choose 2 or more of your answers from Step 3 and create a character that combines their visual characteristics. This character no longer has to depict the person you started with.
Use any form of image-making you like – a rough sketch or diagram is ok

Random...

I believe that there needs to be more randomness in Animation these days.....
I would like randomness in my animation...

Notes from Week Two.

My class notes from week two, 11/03/08.

Richard Williams

Richard Williams is best known as the director of animation for the Warner Brothers film, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. His real goal in life was to finish his own masterpiece, an independent full-length animated film called, 'The Thief and the Cobbler', and he only worked on 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' to get money for finishing his own film. Williams worked for companies such as Disney and Warner Brothers in a number of roles - as assistant animator, animation director and just as an animator. Unfortunately, after working on ‘The Cobbler and the Thief’ for 26 years, it was never properly completed. Warner Brothers offered to fund the last stage but pulled out when Disney produced ‘Aladdin’. Eventually two disappointing versions, the Completion Bond Company’s ‘The Princess and the Cobbler’ and Disney subsidiary Miramax’s ‘Arabian Knight’ (both butchered by altering the voices and adding singing), were produced. Williams has subsequently stopped talking about ‘The Cobbler and the Thief’ in public for the past 14 years. He is now working on another feature animation, but is keeping it all hush-hush so that the content is not revealed. To all intents and purposes now, Williams is a very private person and he doesn’t have his own website. Williams said that the design of 'The Thief and the Cobbler' had come from his interest in Persian imagery and that he would draw some designs on just a scrap of paper whenever he got an idea. The element of Williams’ work that has always caught my eye is his knowledge of the principles of animation. He sought out the masters of animation to gain whatever insights he could from them, which was everything they knew about animation. Animators such as Chuck Jones (creator of Wile E. Coyote) and Ken Harris (animator of Bugs Bunny) were particularly influential. Williams can add life to a 2D character that can make anyone forget that the character is only a drawing on paper. In the closest to Williams’ original intention, the fan version of ‘The Cobbler and the Thief’ known as the ‘Recobbled’ version, the sheer beauty of the hand-drawn animations, the animated optical illusions, the stunning backgrounds and enchanting story, show Williams’ own film would have been a masterpiece.

Week One: In class assignment two.

My group: Sebastian, Daniel and myself...


Data entry 6:445:56

Surface of planet ‘Bob’ five light years from a housing estate in Brunswick.

Sensors detect traces of organic matter permeating the vicinity of terrestrial landing site. Further investigation reveals to us an object of unknown origin. The following log details our observations and deductions as to the object in question.

Taking the shape of a rectangular box, the object has a hollow centre in which we have identified numerous cylindrical capsules. These seem to be containing the carefully preserved remains of some sort of deceased life form. Mummified by use of various noxious chemicals and packed tightly and painstakingly into individual chambers, these must hold some great significance to whoever prepared them. We postulate that such a grand and hardy tomb symbolizes a great reverence to the expired life-form within. After analyzing the outer layer of the sarcophagus we found it to be a material able to withstand harsh natural environments that cover this planet. Possibly elders within planet Bob’s social hierarchy these tombs are likely designed to fulfill the symbolic voyage of a demigod’s transcendence to enlightenment. The markings on the surface of the tomb may be shamanic wards designed to curse any who dare interrupt the slumber of the dead.

Week One: In class assignment one.

One day I got a letter in the mail. It was one of the things my mum hated most, a chain letter. I have never gotten a chain letter in the mail before (unlike now where you get about one hundred chain letter in your email inbox spamming up the place), so it was a very exciting time for me. But since I was young and more or less stupid, I told my mum that I had got a chain letter in the mail. My mum was not happy about that and told me something like it was a waste of time and that I shouldn’t pass it on. I think if I remember rightly my mum really hated the chain letters that asked for money, I can’t really remember how those kind of chain letters work but I am sure my mum told me all about it when I asked her.

So I think my mum put my first chain letter in the bin, or something like that. But I do remember that I got it back from wherever it was she put it and when to the computer and typed out the letter in order to send it to some of my friends. Because I didn’t have anything wrong with chain letters, and I didn’t see what was wrong with sending it, and I am sure the writing like ‘If you do not send this to twenty of your friends within twenty days, you will have bad luck for 20 years’ scared me a little, I mean what little kid wouldn’t fined that scary?

So I typed up the chain letter, and printed off how ever many copies I needed and I added some stickers, and scratch on transfer images to the letter to make them look more prettier. I got some envelopes and I found and address book I had from a camp I had just been to, and wrote down some of my best buds addresses on the envelopes. I hid then in my room on the bottom self of my bookcase, where my mum never looked and it was somewhere I could put them until I got some stamps.

Then the next day, or it might have been the day after that, mum went into my room to help me look for something, and what did she fined instead? The chain letters all ready to be sent. She never looked where I had put them, why now? Why? It must have been some wired chain of event type thing. Anyway when she saw them she got so mad. She took them up and ripped them all up, not leaving one un-ripped. I am sure that I was yelled at and told once again why chain letter are stupid and things like that, but in the end I was really hurt because I had spent so much time making these letters look nice, and in the end no one got to see them because mum ripped them all up. But oh well I am over it now.

Notes from Week One.

My class notes from week one, 04/03/08.

The start....

Because there needs to be one I guess...