Thursday, April 14, 2011

Other Documentaries

Some other documentaries that i like and think is good.

Redford Center, Art of Activism - Victor Diaz
by Kontent Films



Fifty People, One Question: Brooklyn
by Fifty People, One Question



rapa das bestas / 2
by les films anonymes



DARK SIDE OF THE LENS
by Astray Films



N.Y. Adorned “Tradition”
by Evan Owen Dennis



NYC - Mindrelic Timelapse
by Mindrelic



Deidox | Lindsay
by Deidox

Saturday, April 2, 2011

TEST SHOTS

Went to the city on different times of the day and different days for research.


DOCUMENTARY

I plan to make a documentary short film about Melbourne. I want to create a sort of "tourism advertisement" that doesnt follow the typical rules of a tourism advertisement. By trying to get the true grit and flavor of this multicultural city that advertisers would not normally show. I plan to show this city's true nature, good and bad, and what Melbourne has to offer in terms of not only as a "place" but mostly making the people relevant in terms of a tourism experience of its own. I plan on not doing the typical question and answer that most documentaries are about.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Other Short Films

Phuket Breathing // Thailand by artisland





I really like the colours, and effectiveness of the soundtrack. I kind of reminds me of home.


Through the Middle by Clouded Vision



A really emotional film i reckon, the use no soundtracks or little of it, gives off a really personal effect. Giving the film a really good insight on what the place is about and how it was then and now.

The Well: Covering Capitol Hill by Chris Gregory



A documentary about how Photographers in Capitol Hill, Washington. Pretty insightful, it gets the point across about how much political photography has changed and how has technology and viewership have changed the media.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

More Documentaries about Places

Watching more documentaries about cities is getting me really excited to start shooting. I reckon i would need to head to the city more and check out places worth shooting in different times of the day and different days as well.

Here another couple of documentaries that i really i like.

Grand Central Terminal NYC by Mike Kobal



I really like this one, because instead of just the city he chose just the train station. You tend to feel how it is to be in that place, the music used is excellent, really groovy and gave the whole film a different kind of flavour.

Unhinged: Surviving Joburg - Promo
by Loveland Plant Hire



This on the other-hand is a completely different style, but i like it. I think it has a gritty feel to it. I think i could this kind of technique and expand it with the others to make a more complete kind of documentary.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

CONCEPT FOR 2nd ASSIGNMENT

IVE BEEN THINKING IF NEW YORK CAN HAVE A MILLION DOCUMENTARIES, WHY CANT MELBOURNE?

Ive looking at a lot of just "mood collections" of different environments and New York usually pops up.. So i was planning to make one about Melbourne. Why not? right? Melbourne being a very colourful city is a perfect place for different sort of flavours!

Some Documentaries ive been looking at, more about the sights and sounds than usual Q&A bit of a documentary.

Reflection New York
by Mood Collection


I really like this one, it gives you a really good idea about what New york's vibe. The different things that makes New York special, in terms of weird quirky little things that go unnoticed or really noticeable things. I like how they made the whole thing into a film.

THE BEAT OF NEW YORK by Tim Hahne



This one is more about how they used the guy drumming in the subway and used his music and created their own in the drummers beat. Creating a sort of "New York BEAT" which is a really cool idea. Its more about the music and people up close and personal shots. Still really cool.

Why cant i create something like this about Melbourne? I think Melbourne would be a great city to do this kind of thing. Better wait and see though. Hoping to get my new camera by middle of APRIL and then I'll be defintly doing stuff like these.

Monday, March 21, 2011

2nd assignment

Im thinking about doing a short film for my 2nd assignment. Ive been checking out short films on vimeo.


Love is like Life but Longer by Poppy De Villenueve




I really like the story and really nice enviroment audio. Seems very minimalist in script but i really like the concept, colours and acting.

Winters of my Life by Jonathan Burhop



I think this documentary was pretty good. Simple yet very emotional in tone. The colours and the minimal sound effects really expresses the story of his life.

Alone in Tokyo by Philip Bloom



What can i say, Philip Bloom is a pretty magnificent storyteller and Videographer. He has really good films known for his use of D-SLR camera's for film. This video really expresses life in Tokyo for me. The magnificence and yet you still have the homeless and the dirty. Classic Philip Bloom Time Lapse here as well. Awesome colours, awesome use of camera techniques.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

3d crazy and going abstract

These videos i really liked, the composition and the 3d elements, are amazing. Hopefully someday i will be able to make something as awesome as this.

The Third & The Seventh by Alex Roman

What is there to say, stunning and breathtaking 3d graphics. I havent seen any of this kind when it comes to detail and colours. Extraordinary if i were to describe it.



F L U X by Candas Sisman

an abstract red ball transforming into different forms.. Great use of lights composition and animation..

Monday, March 7, 2011

Short films that i like

There have been a few short films that have really struck me, in terms of quirkiness or just the sheer awesomeness of the script and cinematography. Here are some.

A Thousand Words
by Ted Chung

I envy people with such great simple ideas, this is one of them. A really simple idea and made into i think a really goodo short film. A silent film at that.




Nuit Blanche by Spy Films

First time i saw this film my jaw dropped. Literally! Amazing 3d animation.. Just amazing.. I showed everyone in class and everyone agreed we will never be this good.

Some more live action video + Animation

Hershey's - 'Happiness Is...'

Pretty cool integration of video and illustration animation... the animation and video really goes well with the music.




Box Animation by Jordan Clarke

for a while now i have been a fan of Jordan Clarke's work. I like his Style when it comes to his films and short video's. This one is a little bit different with the integration of live video and 3d Animation. He creates these boxes that go with the music. Really fun video.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

The Posthuman

I've been researching about what it is to be Post-human and the relationship between man and machine. I've read a few scholarly journals and chose a few good quotes from what i have read.

Wolf, Tom, “Mcluhan’s New World.” The Wilson Quarterly 28, No. 2 (2004) : 18-25.

Evolution used to be measured in units of at least100,000 years. But computer scientist DannyHillis wrote in Wired magazine that thanks to "telephony, computers,and CD-ROMs," today "evolution takes place in microseconds."


God was directing, in this very moment, the 20th century, the evolution of man into a noosphere – that was teilhard de Charding’s coinage, a noosphere – a unification of all nervous systems, all human souls through technology.


Teilhard de Charding died in 1955, when television had only recently come into widespread use and the microchip had not even been invented. Computers were huge machines, big as a suburban living room, that were not yet in assembly-line production. But he was already writing about “the extraordinary network of radio and television communication which already links us all in a sort of ‘etherised’ human consciousness and of “those astonishing electronic computers which enhance the ‘speed of thought’ and pave the way for a revolution in the spere of research.” This technology was creating a “nervous system for humanity,” he wrote, “a single, organized, unbroken membrane over the earth,” a “stupendous thinking machin.” “the age of civilization has ended, and that of one civilization” – he underlined “one civilization” – “is beginning.”


Hughes, James, Nick Bostrum, Jonathan Moreno, “Human vs Posthuman.” The Hastings Center Report 37, no. 5 (2007) : 4-7.

Having the opportunity to be come posthuman canbe good for us in much the same way that
it is good for an infant to have the op- portunityto matureinto an adult.


Hayles, Katherine N. “Refiguring the Posthuman.” Comparative Literature Studies 41, No. 3 (2004) : 311-316.

MarkPoster's"TheInformativeEmpire,"delivered as a keynote addressat the 2003 conference of the American Comparative Literature Association,coins the neologism"humachinet" to mark" an intimate mixing of human and machine that constitutes an interface outside the subject/Objectbinary.


Poster's and Satos arguments converge in implying that information technologies are powerfully affecting contemporary subject formations, moving them away from autonomous individuals and toward posthuman collectivities of humans and intelligent machines.

It is too soon to say where these en- gagements will end. Perhaps the only clear conclusions are that the future of humans will increasingly be entangled with intelligent machines, and that embodiments will still matter in some sense, however virtual or cyborgian they become.

Posthumans are likely to be as complex and diverse, as historically and culturally specific as humans have been. What- ever the future, we can be sure that it will not be simple.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Initial idea for Storyboard

My first idea for my animation video is using a real person rather than a illustration. Using a voice over of a second person describing the person in the frame.




























With the use of text animation on top of the video creating a 3d space within the frame.



Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Other inspirations

TODOR & PETRU

A video i found Vimeo, with the use of live action video and Animated Illustration.

I really like this one, pretty time consuming when illustration is concerned.



Macro Kingdom

Another Live action video + text animation.



Made by the same person as the last one, Live action video + text animation.




The Crisis of Credit
Visualized by Jonathan Jarvis

This video is more text + image animation, no live action footage, but i really like how he got the information across. With the use of simple text and images he was able to get the message across really easily.

Initial idea for the 1 minute Animation video

Brief 1:

You are to create a short animation (1 minute duration) in response to the POST- HUMAN or your own theme. Your response may be personal, humorous, abstract, analytical, political but it must take a position on the theme – and be backed up with solid research.

My idea came from the opening sequence of the movie Stranger than Fiction done by MK12.



By the use of animated text and images combined with live action video. I intend to use similar techniques on my first assignment.

MMD3307

From now on this blog will be used for MMD3307

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

DEALS DIRECT - ONLINE SHOPPING SITE



http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/

DealsDirect is an online shopping site based in Australia.

Online shops have a lot of content and usually its hard for the user to find exactly find what he/she's looking for.

- The design is pretty clean.
- A lot of information just in the Home page.
- The use of images in the front page is good, makes it a lot easier for the user.




- The use of drop down menus in the side and top navigation is good.
- It hides a lot of content from the user unless he/she is looking for it.

- Im not sure about having a lot more navigation links in the bottom.
- User might not see the links in the footer area.

The use of a simple background makes it easy for the user to see the content.

Overall i think this is a good online store. The design is simple, making it easy for the user to use. Its easy even for a first time user.

Design: 8/10
Usability: 9/10

PULP MAGAZINE - MAGAZINE SITE


http://www.pulpmagazinelive.com

PULP Magazine is a music magazine based in Manila, Philippines. Their site promotes local and international artists that come to the Philippines.

- The design of the site is pretty clean.
- Its design looks more like a blog than a magazine site.
- The hierarchy of the content is that of a blog.


- The header looks clean and is easy to understand.
- Good use of text.

- The position of the HOME button doesn't make sense and that the logo is also a Home button.
- If the logo is also a Home button, they should have just discarded the Home button on top.


- Content wise, the Events and Featured pages have the same content, doesn't make sense to make the user go to both pages with almost the same content.



















PHOTO PAGE -
- Too much content to scroll down.
- should have separated the content into links.

OVERALL the site is alright. Content is too all over the place, might be hard to find what you're looking for. The design needs fixing, especially the Home button being on top of the logo. The Facebook on the right side and having a live twitter feed works well in the site.

Design: 5/10
Usability: 6/10

DIGITAL DOMAIN - MEDIA DESIGN PRODUCTION

www.digitaldomain.com

Digital Domain is a big time post production company. They have done big time films including Transformers1, Transformers2, Star Trek, 2012 and GI JOE to name a few.

- Home menu is pretty simple and straight forward.
- Its easy to understand and quick to use.

- The use of text is simple and big. Easy to read.
- The use of a black background and just text makes the site look very business looking and sleek.

- The use of icons when watching their work might need a little bit of work.
- some of icons are hard to decipher their meaning.


- When in the looking at the Feature film > The work, The use of images and rollover animations is very successful.
- The layout is simple yet effective.

- When clicking any of the films, the next window is still pretty simple.
- The content is straight to the point.
- No non-sense information.

All in all the design is pretty simple yet very sleek. A lot of content yet easily accessible.

Design: 7/10
Usability: 8/10

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

ROCKNROLLA - FILM PROMOTIONAL SITE


http://rocknrolla.warnerbros.com/

The Rocknrolla site has a splash page. One of the things i dont really like.

The main page has a really cool opening animation.

- The navigation of the home page is fairly easy to understand.
- The rollover buttons for every character is a good way to have interaction in the site.
- Clicking on one of the buttons brings you the another page but the navigation buttons are still present.
- The overall design of the site is excellent.
- Its easy to use and easy to understand.




Over-all i think the design of this site is excellent. Really good use of text, colors, images and interactivity. The interactivity gives the user a direct experience to the film. Usability wise, unlike most sites, it has rollover buttons for each character at the home page which helps alot. Navigation is fairly simple to get around.


Design: 9/10
Usability: 7/10