Nosferatu

Nosferatu is something to behold.  A landmark motion picture—in addition to being one of the first horror movies to delve into the mythology of vampirism, it’s one of the first horror movies, period—”Nosferatu” still holds up surprisingly well. Taking into account that it is of the silent era, and that subsequent horror films were able to learn from this one and mold more effective ways of frightening an audience through the evolving conventions of the genre, “Nosferatu” is not so much scary anymore as it is a valuable milestone in the history of cinema. It is additionally a fascinating study of mood and carefully constructed mise en scene, using shadows, mirrors, and a gloom-induced set design to weave a weighty sense of impending doom.  Overall the film was done extremely welll; however, I can not seem to find a version of the film without a crappy misplaced soundtrack.  Other than that the film, which is a form of German expressionism reamins one of the greatest movies ever produced.

Gaming

   First off I would like to admit that I am a huge gamer (or was until I came to college and didn’t have the time any more).  I played a lot of counterstrike-source which was a FPS (first person shooter) that was massively multiplayer.  Was a lot of fun but really an addictive game as well, there was always people complaining on the game though.  That is what, to this very day turns me off from online games.  For some reason people are less mature when they know that they will never meet you in person.  That is when comments and discouraging ranting is like little kids throwing a little red ball back and forth.  Seems harmless, until one of the kids just pelts the other kid right in the face.  It’s a lot of fun to play real people instead of just computers all the time.  It makes the game feel more like a LAN party (bunch of nerds enjoying a game together).  Then you have what I like to call the no lifers, which play in leagues and take the game so seriously they have to practice to get good placing in the tournaments.  I love games and probably always will, but there better played as a fun pass time not as a serious sport.

Evil Dead=Amazing

This movie really needs no introduction. But in case it does for you, “The Evil Dead” is one of the best horror movies ever made. It blew away audiences and critics alike when it was released, and still does the job today.  It’s an absolute must-see, a knock-your-socks off movie that even today’s most hardened horror watchers will find shocking.  Bruce Campbell plays Ash, a nice guy who, with three friends, descends on an old cabin where they plan to party. Demons spoil the fun by possessing everyone. Decapitation, white puke, exploding heads and lots of bloodletting result.  No, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore, folks. Filmed on a low budget, it’s a masterpiece of independent filmmaking.  There’s also two rather kick-ass sequels (made before Sam Raimi became a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster maker by directing “Spiderman”). Unlike those two followups, however, “Evil Dead” doesn’t strive to be a comedy, focusing instead on horrifying, unnerving and at time disgusting the view. This is real horror film, and one of the earliest things released by the once groundbreaking studio New Line Cinema, which would later produce the entire “Nightmare on Elm Street” series, even giving “Evil Dead” a “cameo” of sorts in the first “Elm Street” movie.  Unfortunately, “Evil Dead” has been overplayed somewhat. It’s come out on DVD and video in so many different special editions and limited editions it’s almost impossible to keep track of all of them.  

Do I study enough for DMA?

 

    Yes, I have talked about many different anime series throughout my blogs.  As I have slowly started to understand that I might need to rethink how good of a DMA student I am.  I stopped watching tv about year and a half ago, I love movies and enjoy them very much but I didn’t really get to watch that many (until I came here and started watching movies couple times a week).  What I ended up doing was buying the cartoon series that I liked and just watching them while I worked on my computer.  I grew up watching cartoons like pink panther.  This was a corner stone’s for me on how great cartoons should be.  They were made to be simple, yes they are very short but they have such a comic relief that there hard to deny.  Tom and Jerry great example, here are two main characters that are complete opposites of each other.  One wants to eat the other, yeah but the fact that they planned the failures so well makes you enjoy it so much more.  Tom and Jerry and a lot of the other classics, I will always enjoy you kind of have to.

Zombie Movies

The Zombie movie is a perfect way to spend any afternoon.  there’s nothing like the threat of the living dead trying violently to chew on your fatty exterior, almost brings tears to my eys.  I love teh Zombie Movie, which has recently has been changed to teh Zombie Genre…….because I said so.   It’s my decision and that’s final.  Anyway, the Zombie Genre has developed into something amazing.  If one were to look back at the roots of the Zombie movie, they would stumble upon a humble little classic gem by the name of Night of the Living Dead. The film was directed by George Romero who has since become a god among men in the zombie universe.  Romero went on to create a series of films that branched off of this.  After Night came Dawn of the Dead, then Day of the Dead, followed by Land of the Dead, and rounding it off for now with Diary of teh Dead.  Let’s talkk about Diary.  The film was okay. I own it, I enjoy.  It’s really only worth watching though if you’re a fan.  Diary is a POV film that tries desperately to be like the bigger budget POV films like [REC] or Cloverfield.  There is another film that was just realised that follows almost the same story line and is ironically called Zombie Diaries.  I recently acquired it and will let you know how it is later.

Another Addicting Show

So I’m really  into watching entire seasons of shows if not the entire series in lump sums.  This week has been great for catching up with T.V. shows.  If I want to watch a show someone usually has the DVDs or I can watch them online.  My most recent find is more like a re-kindling of a not very long past series called Avatar: the Last Airbender.  I find that the action in the show is just enough to tickle my fancy but not keep me too distracted from my work, in fact I’m watching it right now, it’s great.  The show is about this boy named Ang who is the avatar, the last of a long line of people with special power to control the elements.  Ang awakes after freezing himself in ice for over a century.  Since then all that he has known is gone and it is up to him and his newly made friends to stop the fire nation from taking control of the other nations.   The power the Avatar controls is called element bending.  the avatar can bend all the elements where as most people can only bend one element if any at all.  the themes of the episodes usually include dabbling with the idea of patriotism vs. the loyalty we have for the ones that we love. It’s also a great show for kids.

Luther

Luther is a very interesting individual.  For a man that started off as a person that was being chased down by a lighting storm.  Begged God for his own life, and promised if he survived that he would become a monk.  Well he made it the next scene in the movie is of him going through his final stages of becoming a monk.  Luther was still riddled with guilt from his past actions and couldn’t help but think of himself, as to sinful to be a monk.  His mentor thought it would be better to send him off to learn.  Luther soon becomes a great scholar, actually becomes one of their prized theologians.  After making many books and post a bunch of thesis on how the church should act.  The roman pope was not too happy with him, and from this is where you see the separation of the church’s start.  I enjoyed this movie for a lot of reasons, but for some very good reasons.  For one reason, I loved how they showed Luther as a person that really didn’t give himself any credit for his ingenious work.  He was just trying to do what he thought was right.

Cool Apple Technology: iPod touch

iPods are amazing. I’m a fan of the nano, but for my birthday this year, my grandparents surprised me with the touch. Although I had previously been against it because of its large size compared to the nano, I decided to give it a try. One word: wow. Not only does this thing play music and videos and display photos, it is also an email, internet, and gaming device. The fairly new App Store has over 10,000 applications that can be purchased or downloaded for free and used on the iPod touch. Some of the free ones that I’ve downloaded have turned my iPod into a weather station, a sports reporter, a full length Bible in many translations, a piano, and much more. Using technologies such as the accelerometer which detects the degree to which the device is tilted, racing games can be played by “steering” the iPod itself. The MobileMe subscription that I have allows instantaneous syncs of my contacts, calendar events, and emails from my laptop, to my iPod, and back again. This is honestly one of the greatest technological advancements of our time. The 8gb model now sells for $229 and has external volume controls and a built-in speaker. It also has Nike+ software built in to allow recordings of work-out times and intensity. If you don’t plan on buying one, at least get out to your local Apple store or Best Buy and give it a test drive. It’ll blow your mind.

Arrested development part 2

So while I’ve been working on all of my projects in becker during the past week and I’ve simuiltaneouly watching Arrested Development, which has made the work easier but a bit more difficult to complete.  I’ve managed to finish all three seasons (about sixty episodes in about four days, roughly.  It has been quite the experience for.  I find that the show has been comletely amazing from beginning to end and that I have complete compassion for pretty much every character on the show.  It remains a mystery to me though as to why I would enjoy a sitcom.  But really if you haven’t watched the show before you need to check it out.   It’s definately worth while.  I was so entralled with the every plot and subplot that i was actually sad when i watched the last episode.  But in any case check it out some time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5nORvDvDvA  this is completely random. copy and paste link for a real treat

Cool Apple Technology: QTVR

I’m a huge fan of Apple products. What a lot of people don’t realize is exactly how incredible some of Apple’s technologies actually are. Let’s take a look at QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR). Have you ever seen one of those really cool panoramic scenes on a website where you can click and drag to see the whole thing in 3D? Confused? Sorry, it’s kind of difficult to explain. Here’s an example of the latest Apple Store opening in Munich. This is Apple’s first retail store to be opened in Germany and as you’ll see, quite a few people decided to show up. Lower your computer volume and click here to see. 

Now hopefully you know what I was trying to describe. Apple invented this technology in order to allow 2D images to be seen completely in the round. Places such as Times Square have been captured with this technology and then posted on the internet for everyone to see. Companies such as restaurants and hotels use QTVRs to show off a dining area or a certain type of room. Apple is definitely leading the pack when it comes to innovation in technology and I am excited to see what they will come up with next.

Soooo… My Last Blog…

  Yes this is my final blog.  Yes my last several blogs have been really random and kind of weird, but I made it and I kind of like the last several blogs I have made.  So when we first started the blog thing I was really excited to do it, but it took me a while to get into the swing of writing them.  I also found that I had the problem of finding time to do them.  I didn’t get very much time to read and comment on other peoples blogs which is really kind of sad.  That is one thing I wish that I could have found more time to do.  I think we had some great topics and conversations and wish I had the blogging thing in some of my other classes as well.  I think it really tought me to be a little more outgoing and to start to share some of my ideas and thoughts, while also helping me to see other people’s thoughts and opinions.  I had a great time wrighting many of my blogs even the more recent ones that were kind of strange, but even if I had more time I don’t think I would change much about them.  I really loved this class and learned so much from it.  This was by far one of the best classes I have ever taken.  I really loved going into every class and thought I learned something from each of them.  I was never bored.  I really want to thank Professor Leeper and I also want to thank the everyone in the class for really making every day fun and interesting.  Thanks Guys!!!

Bourne

So i watched the Bourne Series this weekend. It was pretty sweet. This guy wakes up in the a small fishing boat. A medic on the boat removed a couple bullets from his back. Bourne, having amnesia, tried to defend himself. Two weeks later, He finds himself on shore, knowing nothing about himself. He sleeps on a park bench, and two police tried to ask for his papers, and ended up on the ground before they finish their sentences. The story progresses when he finds a girl who is willing to drive him to his alleged house. he eventually gets his house broken into while he is still exploring his own house. Killing the man who is sent to kill him, he decides that the woman has to come with him. There is an agency following him around and you spent movie trying to figure out who hes running from and why. he eventually figures out that he failed and assassination attemp and jumped off a boat in the middle of the ocean to save himself. Eventually he beatsh the system and flees to an island where his woman friend hid. The second and third movies follow suit and he eventually shuts down the entire courperation by staying just one step ahead.

Last Blog!

Twenty-nine blogs later here I am starting my last blog. I’ve noticed that I use the word “I” a lot in my blogs. That might mean that I’m pretty ego-centrical. Who knows? I’ll try not to use that word one more time in this blog. As a class we have made great strides. Most of us enjoyed the class as a whole (who wouldn’t enjoy watching films for a class). We got to see some great examples of works from artist that really know what they were doing. Hopefully most of us manage to finish up on the blogs. We had some really great discussion over the semester and the reading was good for the most part. Leeper’s frog video is apparently a success, haven’t seen the finished product yet though. It was really cool to see all of the presentations that some you guys gave for the final project. You all did really good jobs. The lighting in the room can be a stumbling block for some of us. Most of us have probably experienced some kind of drowsiness at some point or another during the class and the darkness is very conducive to napping. The blinds that Sunshine seems to be so preoccupied with might just be the problem. Well thats all my mind can think up right now……I’m out. Crap I used “I”.

Break

  I can’t wait for christmas break it is going to be really exciting!  I think I am going to go home on Thursday and will be home for a couple weeks and then my family and I are going to go down to Florida.  This will be really fun and exciting, but I am kind of sad in a couple ways.  One reason I feel this way is because I am used to having Christmas at home and this year we will be somewhere else on christmas day.  I also feel this way because I am now at college and would like to have lots of time just hanging around my home town over break.  I will get to do these things a little, but I will be leaving for Florida soon after I start getting used to being at home agian.  I am happy as well though.  I mean it is Florida!  It’s going to be warm and nice out and the place we are staying at is going to be really awsome.  We have gone to stay at this place many times before, but we never get bored of it because it is so nice.  I am also just happy that I get to be with my family agian and it doesn’t really matter where we are for christmas as long as I still get to be with them so that is okay.  I really have a delema though because I don’t know what presents to get my family.  I am sure though that everything will turn out fine and that I will still have a great christmas break!

 

HDR Photography: Surrealism in Photos

There is a new craze out there about HDR (High-Dynamic Range) photography. Personally, I love it. Check out Matthew Sullivan’s site to see some good professional looking HDR photography. I would put one of his shots up here but why not do some shameless self-promotion and put one of my own!

HDR Photography

The one major complaint about HDR photography is that is it too surreal. To fake. This is 100% true and let me explain why. To make an HDR picture you need to have taken 3 different pictures of the same thing. One shot is overexposed, one underexposed, and one correctly exposed. To make the HDR, one must mesh these three photos together, so that you can see the highlights, midtones, and shadows all at once–that is what gives HD the R. So how does this combat the complaint of “oh! too fake!” Because that is what HDR is. You have to take it as it is. It is physically impossible to see in HDR. You are either going to see all the details in the highlights and not the shadows or visa-versa.

HDR is suppose to have an weird surreal feel to it. Granted, there is more realistic HDR and more surreal. It all depends, but when you see both you are always feel like, “wait, this is too good to be true.” Because it is.

-Lee

Misc clippings II

I thought that the short film called A Trip to the Moon from the early nineteen hundreds was amazing. It showed how innovative people were yet how naïve. I thought it was funny how they incorporated aliens on the moon into the plot line. It was filmed amazingly and the sets were beautiful. The short 3D animation “Pfffirate” was really well done. I thought it was a smart move to have the pirate in an entire world of blown up things. But the bird was rusty old metal which could puncture anything at any moment. “After You” was one of the funniest short films I’ve seen here so far. I loved the facial expressions and gestures of each of the characters. It really was minimalistic yet so great. “Clik Clak” was very strange, kind of depressing and surprising. It was good even though it left me wondering why they killed of the robots so coldly. But nevertheless it was interesting and well done. I thought it was pretty innovative of them to make the objects have distinct sounds to them. I did not necessarily like “The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside” I thought it was well done, well animated and well narrated. But I just thought it was a little pointless and predictable. I thought the ending salvaged a bit of what it could have been, but still did not do it for me.

Jan Svankmajer

 is one of the most innovative and creative people I’ve ever seen. His work is so unique it pushes the boundaries of its time. It also can be just plain weird to watch. I do not always understand the themes in his videos but I can always enjoy the utter strangeness and visual creativity involved in his various stop-motion videos. I think that his short films are much better than his feature length films. I think his short films are short enough to drive the point home a little better than any message that he tries to get across through his short films. He uses clay in many videos which I know from experience is very hard to work with. It takes a whole separate talent to sculpt and work with clay and like substances in stop motion videos than simply directing the film. Many of his videos use meat or body parts to represent things and I think that it has a really interesting effect when filmed in this manner. I think that any animation major should watch his films because they are both ground-breaking and interesting. They are informative and important. He should be respected in his specific field for the work he has accomplished. Check out his short films titled “Darkness, Light, Darkness” and “Food”. These are some of his absolute best.

How this blogging thing should of went down…

That’s right.. With double blogs and all that good stuff I should be at 30 with this last blog so I’d finally like to address why this “blog” is freakin’ retarded.
First of all.. blogs are for one particular person, not for group discussion. Yes you can post your comments, but it’s not meant for multiple authors to have discussions. Yes multiple authors can post their blogs but it creates no discussion at all.

Leeper, if you read this then I’d like to suggest the following. A simple forum. Yes I know they’re old as tar but they are really what online communities function on to this day. It’s really kind of simple, its almost like a bulletin board… Well, no not really, but that’s how I heard them discribed once. If you’re not familair with them (which I can imagine seeing as Jimmy has to do all this blog stuffs xD – sorry I had to go there!) try checking this site out; Animationforum.net It’s really simple to set up, and there’s really not that much involved to get something good lookin’ onto your webspace. People can post their initial idea and then under that people would reply, thus making a conversation. If some one doesn’t like a reply, they can quote it and then go from there. It’s really cool and a really easy way to get talking going. In the world of MMORPGs my guilds (well all guilds pretty much) use forums to keep their members updated as well as to evaluate how different guild members were acting and whether or not they should stay. We’d recruit people on the forums, we’d discuss the game we were playing and what needed to be fixed etc. FORUMS ARE GOOD FOR ANYTHING! USE THEM, NOT BLOGS!

Thanks. It’s been good….not really but yeah. (The blogs that is!)

Ninja Gaiden 2- “Rated B for Baby Jesus”-

While spending as much time as a have been here in HU, considering I live here, I have grown very fond of a game that my roomie, Jeff (the one who was mentioned in my earlier post “The dyslexic english teacher something or other”), had introduced me to the second or third day we were here: Ninja Gaiden.  I’ve grown quite interested in the idea behind the game.  The idea is as simple as this, a massive horde of demons are interested in destroying the world and one man, ninja Ryu Hyabusa, stands in the way of the infernal army of Hell.  How does he do it?  With the help of his CIA friend in which is very gifted.  In which, I’m surprised she doesn’t fall over.
The game starts out with the CIA agent, Sonia, looking for our young demon infernal army of hell destroying ninja because she has some information about the upcoming events.  Much to my surprise (please note my sarcasm), she is suddenly attacked by a group of pathetic ninjas and is taken away just as our young friend happens to appear on the scene.  The actual game play starts you off right there.  On the easy level Jeff makes it look extraordinarily easy; however, when you put the controller in my hands, it’s like watching a retarded monkey fling poo at the window you’re looking out of in the zoo.  The flurry of exploding things and slashing of retarded ninjas make you look like an idiot especially since the game is on the easiest level.
Jeff, on the other hand, is on the hardest level, “Path of a Master,” in which, makes me look even more like the retarded monkey mentioned earlier.  Within five seconds of Jeff playing, you hear the flurry of tantrums from Jeff and the throwing of his very expensive controller because he’s been trying to get passed the beginning twenty seconds of the game without dying for the past hour and a half.  I’ve grown used to the noise of him screaming and then the sound of his character, Hyabusa, screaming in pain and agony because there were more exploding bomb things that makes Hiroshima look like a child’s play toy.  Overall, I rate the game pretty well because of the dying nature it’s in.  The game is that of the ones that are meant to be hard, not easy.  Which would take time to beat, and that tickles my fancy.

However, one thing I don’t like about the game is the fact that I don’t ever think I’ve seen a man stretch as far as Hyabusa can in skin tight leather pants.  Being a guy, It doesn’t really give me an easy feeling about life.  That’s all.

Why Can’t I Be Musical?

I love music. It is one of the best things that God let us be able to make. I enjoy it very much every day. There’s just one little thing about music……I suck at it. I have proven to be quite unacceptable of learning to play an instrument and my singing voice sounds like death. Thanks mom and dad. Nobody in my family is really musical. My grandma tries to sing, but her efforts are futile. If I was a musician thats probably what I would be coming to college for.

Sometimes I just wonder why God decided not to make me good at something that I love so much. Guitar Hero is about as close as I can get to doing anything remotely musically good. That still doesn’t count though because it’s a video game that mostly rhythm and hand to eye coordination. Someday I will learn to play an instrument, it is going to take a long time, but I’ll do it. Guitar hopefully. 

This is a picture of me defying nature. Yes I am singing my heart out.