Lecture 5

This was a small little lecture. Although I think that's just because my business subjects have lectures that go for like 2 hours. Where as this one is merely 50minutes. I'll just mention it briefly, I only just realised that you(teacher/tutor/marker of this blog) must be reading heaps of summaries of the same lecture, so it must get rather boring, may as well not bore you too much then.

Dot com crash, women was worth 18 mil at one point, then down heappps like like 5mil, then back up all in one years span. rather interesting. Then there was all the Bill Gates Google talk with AOL now fallen, as has yahoo, it's been with Bill Gates and their trying to take on Google.

Meh.... I've gotten to the point where I'm so over summarising lectures.... I mean, you must be reading heaps and heaps of these. I just want to try and be interesting, why can't they just be a class/subject/course, where assignments are graded on humour value. Now that would be something I would want to do.

I'm also sick of doing labels in posts..... I think i'm mostly gonna stop that now.

Short Films

First up, I picked this one. 'Fuckphonic' for the interesting idea, cool animation, and well, great sound to the whole film.

I just think it is so cool, plus I can't help but wonder what I would do all day, if things I touched played sounds like in the film. Well.... I can... I would be touching things all day and making some sweet beats. I'd be a full awesome DJ... I'd call myself Beat-Hoven.
Ahahaha, Yup. That's me. So mainly I just picked that film for the originality, and sheer awesomeness of it.

This second one is Art of the Saber.

This film has great, and amazing fan saber work. And although some of the rotoscoping lacks in some parts, the martial arts is amazing. Plus the story is interesting. The monologue at the start is taken from a real letter sent home by a soldier. Worked a little to make it fit into the movie, but not much, and vastly improves this cool film.

Third up. I was going to do The Story of Bubble Boy, but I noticed someone else posted that. I really love that film, original, with a great message and just overall beauty. However. I'll do this short little one anyway. I really love animation, and to me, this short films shows not only the beauty in animation, but just how amazing animation truly is. It also has a good strong character, and no dialogue, which is just awesome. The sound effects are also great!

It's short so i'll put in another.

You can't say that they aren't great little internet-delivered short films. They have the whole equilibrium, disturbance and all the other things generally needed for a story. So yeah :)


Lastly, I've added the first episode from my web series. A short comedic web series.


Hope you liked it!

HiStory of Me. - Lecture 4

So I'm going to be clever.
Instead of rephrasing years, and years of film and rehashing the timeline.
I'll just link you.
Click Here.(down the bottom right of the box - should work....)
Now that was mildly difficult to do - I used a file upload program to do it.
But here are the main points:
1895: Birth of Cinema
1897: First permanent movie theaters.
1903: First Narrative Film
1905: First Nickelodeons
1906: First Full Length Feature.
1912: First Serial, birth of the Cliffhanger
1913: Birth of 'Studio System'
1914: First Movie Star: Charlie Chaplin
1921: Dream Street: Considered first feature film to use sound.
1923: Animation first feature, Hollywood Sign built
1927: The Jazz Singer: Birth of 'the talkies'
1929: First 100% natural colour film, and first Academy Awards.
1937: Snow White: First full-length colour animation film.
1939: TV!
Lets skip some years here, to 1951:
1951: 3D!!!!
and again
1960: Phsyco!
and again - gotta keep things interesting :) animation is a go-go!
1986: Luxio Jr. - First Fully Computer generated film. (short)
1988: First mix of animation and live action
1995: First feature length computer generated film.

now I'm going to separate myself from the timeline. Because I think this is funny. In 1997, on the timeline we have the introduction of DVD's, and the film TROOPS. However, not on this timeline, is Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time, worldwide and domestically. Yet not on the list? Humorous.

2006: YouTube.

or the short version:
1895: Birth of Cinema
1997: Titanic
2006: YouTube
2009: :)

I'm not a pirate - Tute 4

10 Things to find for today's tute.

1. World's largest pumpkin.
1878 pound pumpkin, starting growing from a seed 5 months ago.
Source. (Click source to see)

2. Best way to contact Lilly Allen.
Twitter. http://twitter.com/lilyroseallen
That would defiantly be the fastest way to contact her. Or call her mobile, but hey... you would need her number....

3. Average giraffes tongue?
Longest: 53cm
Average: is about 46cm-50cm

Source 1
Source 2

4. Glycomics and Seagull Manager
Glycomics, is part of glycobiology and is a biological study of glycomes. Source.
A seagull manager is a manager who:
"flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves"
Source.

5. David Cronenber first feature film? And which one with Blondie?
David Cronenber's first film was transfer, BUT that was only 7 minutes long, and thus, not a feature film.
His film 'Stereo', in which he directed and wrote (among other things) was 65 minutes long, and thus can be considered a short feature film. Therefore, Stereo was his first feature film, released in 23rd June 1969.
Source 1.
Source 2.
Blondie, aka Debbie Harry was in Cronenber's 1983 Videodrome.

6. Original 'Hacker's Manefesto' written when?
January 8, 1986
Source.

7.
Simple reason:
555 on the telephone keyboard has JKL, you can't make any words/part words with any combination of those letters (area code was used as first 3 numbers, spelt out).

Because no letters could be formed, it was used in hollywood so if viewers rang up a number seen in a film, it wouldn't ring to a real persons house, and thus innocent people would avoid constant harrasment.
However.... they used a real number for God in Bruce Almighty.......... chaos ensued.

See HERE for a more in depth reason (source).

8. Cheapest form of transport from Gold Coast to Sydney?
Logical answer: Walking. Walking costs no money, it thus is the cheapest form of transport - along with running, jogging, etc.
However.... I assume you want like cheapest using some sort of vehicle. You can hire a car out for a day for like $50, but this site offers cars from as low at $31/day. Pity this is such a vague question, hence, I just like the walking option.

9. Top Australian Charts this week 1965
Another slightly vague question.
I ended up with
Help! / I'm Down
by The Beatles
From wikipedia.
Source.
Is that a good enough answer? Or can I just say 'Help!' ?

10. Last one! Stephen Stockwell... what band?
Is it wierd that when I Yahoo searched to find the answer, it came up with some blogs from people in my course? Awesome. Means I also don't have to do any more rummaging.
Band: The Black Assasins.
Source 1.

All done! Thank you!

Nick and Norah Analysis - Week 3

This post is about my Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, analysing the film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist starring Micheal Cera and Kat Dennings.
I have captured, and uploaded images from the movie, to illustrate. I go through it point by point, and then summarise it all at the end.

The first shot is an Extreme Long Shot/Very Long Shot/Wide Shot of a house, pictured below.

This shot answers numerous questions as it establishes the scene. Where? A house, it is obviously not in the city, thus we know it's a house in the suburbs. When? the sky shows that it is Daytime, although cloudy.

The next 3 shots answer more questions. Shots 2 and 3 are shown below.

A Close-Up of record spinning illustrates where the music in the scene is coming from, while the background of the shot, and then the next shot comprising of posters on the wall, the corner of a bed, and a bed side lamp further clarifies the Where? by narrowing it down to a bedroom in the house. The posters also suggest a teenager's room (who?). Shot 4 elaborates on this. As Micheal Cera's character walks onscreen, talking on a phone.

In this Mid Shot he is talking on a phone (What? - What is he doing... communicating to someone) (communicating How? - showing how he is communicating to someone by use of the phone). He also swaps the hands he is holding the phone in, further emphasising this how.
Who? male, played by Micheal Cera (above). On the phone he says its about three in the afternoon (When?) as well as saying "Hey Tris, It's Nick" stating he is currently talking/communicating with Tris, and that his name is Nick (Who?). He goes on to state that he stayed home from school today and that she probably still is at school, thus he is a male (visual obviousness) school student, called Nick.

Why? (Why is Nick on the phone to Tris? Why didn't he go to school?)
Dialogue states that he took a 'personal day' and that Tris "Broke up with me, on my b-day." While on the phone he is apologising and wants to talk. He walks across the room and looks at some photos on the wall (pictured below). He looks at them while talking about breaking up, and the photos are of Nick and a girl together, suggesting that the girl is Tris (another Who?). The fact that he went out with a girl, states that he is most likely straight but more importantly, not gay.

In the first 10 shots (5 of which I have shown) all the questions have been answered, they are summarised below.
Where? House, Nick's bedroom, suburbs
When? Daytime, afternoon, about 3pm.
Who? Nick, male school student, not gay, heartbroken, lives in house.
Who? Tris, female school student, not gay, went out with Nick, dumped him.
What? Nick is communicating with Tris.
How? By use of the mobile phone.
Why? Because he is heartbroken after their 'break-up', and wants to talk about it.

And this ends my 6 question analysis of the film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. It is one of my favorite films and I recommend you watch this great, comedic 2008 film.

Film School - Lecture 3

Today in the lecture we discussed film stuff. Not new stuff for me, but still some goodens.
We talked - and by 'we' I mean Josh - about the different shots, as mentioned in the last post, but we also talked about some other stuff.
Such as certain purposes shots can do. Answering the questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

Afterwards, certain foundations of film-making were touched upon.
The necessity for head room and talking room was talked about, and then the 180 degree rule and the rule of thirds.

In the slides not touched upon in the lecture, Inserts & cutaways where mused on, as well as the philosophy that every shot needs to drive the narrative forward.

Much Love,
Zie.

Revisiting an Old Friend - Tute 3

This week we had to find out what certain abbreviations meant, however, I am into film, and even studied film at High School, and thus didn't really have to research into it, as I know what they mean.

VLS/WS - Very Long Shot/Wide Shot.
LS - Long Shot
MLS - Medium Long Shot
MS - Medium Shot (Mid Shot)
MCU - Medium Close-Up
CU - Close-Up
BCU- Big Close-Up (I've never heard of this before, but thanks to this site for informing me)
ECU - Extreme Close-Up

Now I got taught a slightly different way, and while in effect it doesn't matter, the way I use is much rounder, flows better, and avoids the horrible sounding 'Big Close Up'.

Extreme Long Shot
Long Shot
Medium Long Shot
Medium Shot
Medium Close-Up
Close-Up
Extreme Close-Up

This flows better, and uses common terms, There is one less shot, but doesn't really matter, You could always just say 'Head Shot' which works, and what I got taught.

and then there's
POV - Point of View
OTS - Over the Shoulder (or OSS- Over Shoulder Shot)
TS - Two Shot (and thus Three Shot, Four Shot, etc.)

Man I am a film nerrrrrd. However, these are merely irrelevant differences.
So I shall give you some examples.
Extreme Close Up:
ECU's, and CU for that matter, show great detail and are frequently underused in films. A common ECU/CU shot would be a shot that shows the mouth of a person talking on a telephone. This shot can be effectively used to disguise the person on the phone. Another commonly used ECU shot is that of the eye, especially after waking up, an example of an elephant is shown to the left.
Source.


Mid Shot
The mid shot, properly called a Medium Shot, generally shows the subject from the hips up, this shot captures general facial expressions, as well as hand gestures. This shot is very common, and say, a person texting, is most likely to be represented in a mid shot. An example of this shot is pictured right. Hmmm.... Gossip Girl.....

Source.

Wide Shot/...
Wide Shots/Long Shots/Full Shot is generally a shot that shows the whole body, to which fills up most the screen. They can be used to show the surroundings of the character/s. An example of a Long Shot is left, it is my photo that I have uploaded. However, it should be noted that this shot is slightly further out than a true long shot.

Computers - Week 2 Lecture

Computing began with "Charles Babbage's 19th century Difference Engine which was designed to calculate and print mathematical tables." Since that fateful machine, computers can now do heaps of different things, from StarCraft, to YouTube, and wireless internet.
Yada yada yada.
Computers were first comercially produced by IBM in 1950's. They were large and expensive machines, for military, government and businesses.

1970's saw the creation of useful things like the mouse by Xerox PARC.

Things grew, fast.
Moore's Law: "Capacity of micro-chips double every 2 years."

Apple soon came along, with the idea for more general use, Apple II sold heaps, and it wasn't long before the creators such as Steve Jobs were worth millions.

yada yada yada, microsoft yada yada........
and bam, we're here today using macs and owning.

Convergance Expansion - Tute 2

Expanding on the Convergence stuff from my last post.
I thought I'd define convergence.

Definition:
The act, condition, quality, or fact of converging.

I thought putting it in bold was quite a bold move.....
sorry couldn't help myself.
I got that definition from www.dictionary.com by the way. Oh how did people find out the meaning of words before dictionaries?

On the topic of dictionaries, I'll share Demetri Martin joke on the subject with you:
"I bought a dictionary, and looked up the word 'dictionary', it said: 'You're an asshole.' "

And another.

"I was in a store and I saw a pocket dictionary and that made me laugh because it's such... a specific item.
I don't know that many words... and I'm going out... and I have pants. Perfect!"

One more.
"I was going to read the Dictionary, but then I read the last page, ruined the whole story for me.... and anyway... I hear it's a bit of an anti-climax."

Okay.. that last one, is just my own lame joke that I snuck in with the idea you would think it's funnier if it's someone elses joke.
http://www.demetrimartin.org

Hello... Convergance - Tute 2

Morning upper east siders, Mildy Witty Blog Blog Writer man here.... Not quite as catchy as Gossip Girl... But still. Four cool technolgies for you.
1. A clock radio. So you know what a clock is, and you know what a radio is. So now both are in one! wow... if only it was an alarm clock too. What? it is. Man I'm an idiot.

(Source:http://gizmodo.com/253351/sony-clock-radio-has-integrated-spy-cam)
Sorry about that....
I'll have a cooler one next I promise...
2: iPhone













I don't think I should really have to explain this one... its an i... with a phone....

Then theres....
3. Black Berry. (Technological Device, not fruit thingy)











Just like a super phone like the iPhone. So you know how you have normal people like you, and then theres superheroes like Spider-man, Captain America, Hawkeye, me. Well my phone is more like the normal crap one, and the iPhone and Blackberry are more like the me-esque superhereo ones. Also. I'm not going to link to other pages because you should know about these by now, plus I'm all intruiged for the next one.

4. Flying Alarm Clock

So what I gather from this, is that once your alarm sounds, the top separates from the clock part, and to stop the annoying noise that the alarm, and the whizzing of the helicopteresque alarm bit is making, is to catch the flying thingy. Or, you can just sleep with your shotgun, and when your 7am alarm goes off on a Thursday morning due to the annoyingly timed lecture you need to go to, you can just shoot it down.

Oh and by 'sleep with your shotgun' I mean sleep with it next to you... nothing sexual or anything.
Also: by 'you can just shoot it down', I mean shoot it with the shotgun, not 'shoot it down' by tormenting, 'You're fat.' 'Nobody likes you' etc.

You can read more about it here or click here to view a photo of a cat.


Video! New Apple Laptop!!!!


Video! New Sony Piece of Crap That Doesn't Work: