Sunday, October 23, 2011

Art event 5

"Coraline" October 23, 2011 The story is about a little girl that moves in with her mom and dad to a place she hates. There is a little door that allows her to go to another world where things go her way thanks to her new mother who has button eyes. She finds out that the world is not as nice as she thought because her mom seeks her to have buttons too. There is a talking cat in that world that tries to warn her. There are cool graphics like when she tries to leave the world by walking away, things start to turn white and she somehow ends up where she started. Objects fuse into other things like a cute rat that was sounding the alarm turned into a nasty big rat when the cat killed it. The mother in the scary world gets angry and ends up turning into this tall and skinny monster looking mom. The lighting I though was very surreal and gave it a very realistic feeling. It surprised me that the two large, older women were showed almost naked as they performed. They then however, unzipped themselves into thin like trapasists. There were crazy special effects for instance the evil mom placed her through a wall that glowed and trapped her so she could behave. They did a good job to have the wall turn solid again, it was very surrealistic. It was also cool to see things glow, the girl's sweater with stars would glow, it's as if there were neon lights around (it gave it that spooky feel). There were three children ghosts that glowed and were transparent with buttons on their eyes that appeared. The objects in the evil world seem to be like a doll. The mouse that died for instance had grain inside. When Toby her friend found her, he had his mouth sown so he had a forced smile that mother created. The story progressed by having the ghosts ask Coraline to find their eyes that mother took out of them so they can be set free. This movie kind of did freak me out, because I thought would have an innocent look but it gets scary because it does make you appreciate what simple things you have at home, because they are genuine and accept you how you are without taking advantage of you. In the story the "mother" wanted to have her as a rag doll and eat her. It kind of puts it out there that if things are too good to be true they probably are.

Art event 4

October 23, 2011 Futurama "A flight to Remember" The cartoon is a tribute to the movie "The Titanic" only that this it takes place in the future and it's a spaceship that is helming by guy named Zapp Brannigan who pursues Leela, the girl with one eye. As a result she tries to act as if she's engaged to Fry the guy from the past. The asian girl also uses Fry once she bumps into her parents who want her married with a white guy already by saying he's her boyfriend. The cartoon is funny because they make fun of certain differences in class, like the levels where people live. They head down the elevator to see where they will sleep and they are below the rich, the middle class who are typical vactioners, the workers keeping the ship running and even a level for laundry. Bender is the robot who acts like a bomb in the cartoon, who often steals. He ends up falling in love with a high class robot and he tries to impress her by acting rich. They act as if they are "Rose" and "Jack" in "The Titanic". He tries to lift her on the edge and his arms fall off because she's too heavy. He then draws her naked, and it's covered by his pad, but once they reveal his drawing her body is a curcuit. They show how they are making love in a a car by only showing sparks in the car. The cartoon is very humorous because the ocebergs are represented by comets, and then they get in trouble once they are heading to a black whole, since they're in space they can't necessarily sink unless it's through a black hole. I found these things very clever.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Art event 3

October 22, 2011 Jimmy Neutron: " Journey to the Center of Carl; Aaughh!! Wilderness" Jimmy makes up a chip that enables him to have mild symptoms of being sick so he can miss school. I think it's cool how his body looks the same but his color in certain parts of his face are changed so he looks pale, with dark eyes and a pink nose. I find it clever that every transition is filled with rock music and a electrons revolving around a neutron in a cool way to represent that something interesting is about to happen. There are different transitions where the neutron shifts and gets smaller, acts as if its moving. In one scene the three boys are on the phone, they each are split into a column as they talk to each other when Jimmy's dad comes in all their eyes turn right and stop moving. When Jimmy finds something confusing or irritating he looks at the camera so we can empathize with him. Like when his dad decides to home school him he looked at the camera because he is in disbelief that his dad is trying to ruin his break from school. I find the lighting and shadowing of great significance since it gives the animation a 3D feel. It also allows you to easily understand the shift from one perspective to the other, like for instance Carl was placed in the plastic bubble, but first our perspective was from the inside so we didn't even know he was in the bubble until our perspective magically was transported to the outside by passing through the bubble. Carl and his friend shrunk to try find the cure to their disease since the chip he gave out was absorbed by their skin. It was funny when they went inside only to find Carl's brain is quite small, it proves how he's not very intelligence. the liquid "acidic" substance seemed some what real by the bubbles that came from it and it showed how jelly like it was when they landed on it. It was funny to see his friend get stuck in a bubble and when Jimmy tried to extract the Mitochondria from the virus, the thing freaked out and so more came to attack them.

Art event 2

October 22, 2011 Simpsons "The Regina Monologues" In the story Bart comes in possession of a $1,000 bill, open a museum where he triples his money and with his gains takes his family to travel to England. The family comes to this round about in England and keeps going around until Homer decides to get out of it and jams through the rail and hits the Queen's golden chariot. I find it amusing that in the Simpson's they wear the same clothes but when they go on vacation they switch to the "vacation" clothes. At the end it was funny to see Homer find his long lost sister, she looks exactly like homer but has woman's clothes, a wig and lipstick. In the cartoon I think was clever when they had magazines representing different funny circumstances that they put themselves into in England, it gave it a comedic feel. It reminded me how in class it can be hard to make something funny, but because they related it to how magazines can tend to be ridiculous and exaggerate or can be stereotypical. With out any moving image, you can find it funny by what they display and what they have written down. Before I had wondered how they made them look as if they are behind the table and able to put their shoulder on the table and after I experimented with the frame-by-frame, that when they place an empty frame, they only add a layer to the object that is on top of the table and places the table on their body. I also though how easy the part where Homer is driving could be, by having a layer behind the car and having it keep moving.

Art event 1

October 12, 2011 “Ritmo Loco” Gunnar Biggs (bass), Mike Holguin (percussion), Danny Green (piano), and Dan Reagan (trombone). There was a piano, trumpet, bongos, drums and acoustic bass. The music makes you feel happy and desire to dance. There was no singing but just pure salsa music with bit of Afro-Cuban influences. They demonstrated different aspects of Latin Jazz and played a mongo “Santa Maria” that had a cha-cha feel. They mentioned how N.Y. applied to Jazz that they played and how it was actually influenced mostly by Americans. The Mambo they played had a funky feel and I felt as if the trumpet was almost speaking. I liked how at the end the music got louder and it intensified the feeling of movement. I noticed that when they play they are not having much interaction with the audience. They seem very into their instruments. The acoustic bass guy, Biggs tends to move his mouth as he plays. Reagan slaps his hip , then he and Biggs signal each other in certain parts. They mentioned how they started at an early age; 5, 10, 13 and 16 years old. It made me think that the students in my class might be musicians that can inspire others. They employ a high degree of improve of melodies through solos. They taught us a few lessons of Latin music; 3 side and 2 side to it (1 pop defines it with a “pop”). They are all supposed to match “the clave”. They used the audience to clap so we could be their “clave”. I enjoyed being able to interact with them at the end.