Just finished compiling a DVD screener and press kit for my submission to the Bradford Animation Festival, they have a 'Short, Shorts' category for pieces under 3 minutes in length so I thought i'd submit my infographic. It's free to submit so I thought i'd just try my chances.....you can't win a race if you're not in it afterall.
I suppose one thing that may help my cause is that the museum where it is held (Bradford Media Museum) has got a retro video games exhbition on until the end of the year, and most of the games that are referenced in my animation will actually be playable in the foyer.
If anything, doing this has at least helped me to better under the submission process....and getting stuff played on a cinema screen. My class will probably be going to the festival later on this year when we start back so it'd be pretty amazing if we got to see my piece in a cinema, i'm not holding my breath though....gotta be realistic.
Tested it in my DVD player....it works fine! ....it's now in the post.
There was a remix contest going a while ago for the 'Scroobius Pip vs Dan Le Sac' track Great Britain, never one to shy away from having a go I started one....but because of the things I had going on then and the amount of time I had to russle up a remix I didn't manage to meet the deadline.
I was only really doing this for fun because I found it quite amusing at the time, but my interest in completing the track has since fizzled out. Creative Commons used to do some great remix contests a few years ago and I still have the tracks I did for those, but they don't seem to put many on thesedays....which is a shame as I really enjoyed it.
Anyhoos, I just recorded the chorus part of where i'd got to with my remix for the sake of having at this something of this to put in my music archives.
There's nothing that I hate more than a remix or cover of a song that sounds exactly the same as the original, that's why whenever I do these contests I just download the samples and start from scratch without having even heard the original song. I don't think that many people would like most of the remixes i've done in the past, because they're not great. But they ARE different.
I decided to polish up some of the issues with my infographic piece from earlier on in the year, these were as follows:
Gaping hole between road and pavement following the transition from previous scene.
Mario curtain ('video games can be healthy') entering too earlier - causing confusion.
Asteroids too static, explosions too subtle.
Pong SFX timed with animation clashes with music tempo.
I've sorted all these things out as well as adjusted the volume of some of the SFX which I felt were perhaps a little too overpowering. The one issue that remains unchanged is the animated polevault, i'm happy to leave it as it is but in the future I will definately take a different approach to doing things in this way as it didn't feel right at the time either.....at the time it was a case of producing something that worked.
Let me know what you think. Also I now have a profile on Behance where there are some ideas gen scribbles for this on there, take a look!
So last night I checked out this Chat Roulette thing which everyone was talking about a while ago, first and foremost I wouldn't advise anyone trying it out in a public place....it most definately is NOT 'safe for work'! In case you don't know what it is, it's basically a website that automatically pairs you (and your webcam) with another person in the world, but it seems that most people using it appear to be looking for quick (adult) thrills as I found that about 6 out of every 10 channel changes were of males doing various dirty things with certain parts of their body, and I in fact only came across one person who was actually looking to chat to someone.
But the reason I went on was because of the random humour aspect which made it popular, I quite like this one:
So anyhoos....after just having a look for a bit, I just drew a face on a piece of paper and held that up in front of my webcam....and surprisingly I got quite a number of people amused as they tried to imitate the face.
So I started taking some snaps! ....it was actually quite fun.
I've always believed that there is something more to dreams than we understand, i've often considered possible options such as previous life experiences or visions that link us to seperate/alternative dimensions including the posibility of life after death. I also believe that there is more to deja vu than we know as i've experienced a number of events in recent years which I am positive of having happened previously. I'm interested to see what ideas this film has to bring to the table....
But most of all it is the initial trailer that first caught my attention a few months back, there is a scene in which the landscape bends up and over upons itself....this is very similar imagery to a recurring dream that I have been having since I was younger in which a cataclismic earthquake shifts the tectonic plates causing the earth to collapse. This may seem silly to you, but that's my mind, and i'm going to see this movie. Whose with me?!
Last night I went to see 'Bodyguards and Assassins' at the Cornerhouse in Manchester, it was a one of screening hosted by the 'Chinese Film Forum' who try to promote Hong Kong movies here which would otherwise go unnoticed. The film is a a multi-award winning feature from 2009 which swept the board at the Hong Kong Film Awards including Best Film and Best Director.
The main premise of the film is centered around the factual event of Dr Sun Yat-Sen paying a visit to Hong Kong to discuss plans for a revolution against the corrupt Manchu reign in the early part of the 20th century, the Manchus try to prevent this from happening by attempting to assassinate Dr Sun whilst those loyal to the uprising try to protect him in his pursuit. The result is an incredible build up of suspense throughout the film leading up to the day of the doctor's arrival, followed by an explosive clash between the two opposing forces.
I remember thinking at the time that it reminded me of 'In the Line of Fire' in the way that the film plays out. Although Clint Eastwood did not appear in the movie i'm afraid to say.
Whilst it is a serious film with a history lesson at it's core, it is not without it's moments of comedy. One character, named 'The Green Giant', was very tall and me and my friend Jim were wondering if he was a basketball player....any doubts that I had about this were well and truely quashed when later on in the film he began to slam-dunk watermelons onto the bad guys heads. It was also good to see John Shum back on the screen in a more serious role, albeit with slightly less hair than during his Pom-Pom days.
Another surprise was seeing Simon Yam play another role that did not fit his usual typecast characters, it seems that as he gets older the desire to branch out is upon him. And this is also clearly reinforced by his win of the Best Actor award this year for a seperate movie in which he played a distressed shoe-maker. As ever Donnie Yen pulled off a great performance in both action and drama plus it took me a while to spot an ageing Leon Lai who donned a powerful iron fan, a weapon that i've always been fond of. I doubt that Eric Tsang's voice will ever break though, playing the chief of police his high-pitched voice came across as more humerous than authoritive....which I suppose does suit him perfectly!
One of the best performances in the movie for me was the character played by the newcomer Li YuChun, who unfortunately missed out on the award for Best Supporting Actress, throughout the film I was totally convinced by the character's passion.
The music was one of the stars of the show I felt, as at certain points throughout the film I kept thinking to myself 'this is great'. It was also slightly different in it's approach than other films similar to this, and of course it picked up the Best Score award for this. It goes without saying that the fight choreography was good, although not outstanding I felt, but when you consider that Stephen Tung won the Hong Kong film award for this and then look at the other nominees (Corey Yuen Kwai and Chin Kar-Lok) you know that it must've been good.
Overall I thought that this movie was great and it's suspense was the winning formula, I loved the way that they executed the elements of action, drama and comedy and equal parts whilst also putting across an important history lesson. I got some fight scenes, had a few laughs, and also learned something in the process.....a film deserving of it's outstanding achievement.
