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Talk of Great Things

I figured I should touch upon some of the wonderful films I have seen while in France, during the Annecy Film Festival.

A wonderful french film was featured, entitled Tous a L'Ouest: Un Aventure de Lucky Luke. (To the West! An Lucky Luke Adventure). It was funny and engaging, with plenty of slapstick humor and a storyline both children and adults could appreciate. Set in America during the early 1900's, it revolves truly around four brothers in crime, and their attempt to swindle and overcome the lackadaisical cowboy, Lucky Luke fastest draw in all of the U.S. I wasn't so impressed with the film, although I did enjoy it. I felt there was an exceeding amount of 3-D models used for things like cars and wagons and horses. This wouldn't have been such a problem for me if they hadn't firstly stuck out like a sore thumb in the 2-d world, and if ALSO they were different colored models that perhaps weren't synchronized with each other. I mean, come on people, its not hard to mess up the timing so everything doesnt look robotic! All in all I gave the movie a C, though I know I'll get kicked for it.

I also got to see the beautiful Nocturna, which is a film I have been simply itching to see. Unfortunately, I scheduled myself , unwittingly, to see the French version of this films and it had no subtitles. I was however, able to use my rudimentary french to understand the most of it. I also believe the clear visuals helped me to understand exactly how each character felt, and the acting was wonderful. The visionary world of Nocturna is dark and wonderful, and I was in love with it, even if the story was perhaps not the deepest out there. Honestly folks, though, I can appreciate simple storylines, and why shouldn't I? I felt much more attached to this feature than any I had seen, and I give it a B+, A-.

Though I regret not seeing it, the winner of feature film at Annecy was Die Drei Rauber. I have heard wonderful things about this film, and I intend to see it. It apparently is off of the folk tale, the three robbers. This film I have been told is hysterical for all its upbeat kooky-ness, and also a touching film at that. It centers around a young girl who is "abducted" by three robbers, who end up becoming closely like family to her, and take care of her. I believe it ends up that the four of them attempt to free orphans from the awful clutches of some terrible lady at an orphanage... That's really long winded and all I know. Anyway- Three Cheers for DIE DREI RAUBER winning the feature crystal. <3>

Sleep is for the week!

Yes. Apparently.

I have not had any official work to do for about three days now, but for the past five I've been putting pencil to paper nonstop. Currently I am in the starting stages of concept art for my Senior Thesis Film. YAY ANIMATION!

Here, I will share some with you. The below is Logan Brady, a design for the main character of my film about ..well.. dead people. Haha. He's a ghost, and though the story is still sketchy, the film is about life in the afterlife. Mostly a serious piece about what he should do now that he's dead to become.. well.. he doesn't know. he thought it was the end.

I am making it sound light hearted, it's actually not. It's going to be a deep piece about humanity, be it in life or death.


As i design him I am also beginning massive research for his background and for the story.
I believe it will be set in both 1925 and modern times. He died in 1925 ( HAHA! NOW YOU KNOW WHY I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR 1920's INFO FOR SO LONG!)
and yeah. I can't decide if I want him to be a prick, selfish, or a selfish prick. But.. I believe in characters not being orange or blue (black and white is boring, lets go with Different opposing colors, okay?) so hes character development has just begun.

blah blah blah. Full of drive. I am not an excellent blogger because I still feel like I'm talking to myself, which I am.

Also, breakfast soon. mmmm breakfast.

Jamie Baker rocks.

Everything here is on the up and up.
I figure that would be the first thing to say coming back from a moderate hiatus. My piece is finished and everything seems to be going swell.

Check it out. Found James Baker's blog, and hes got lots of nice connections to other Pixar employee's blogs as well. Click the button. But after you read this. You love me more.
http://www.james-baker.com/folio/

actually it's all really just mindless drivel, but nonetheless, stay here and toss a few words around with me, yo.

France in a few weeks. Yeah. that will be nice, as long as my plane doesn't blow up. If it does, seriously, come to my funeral in the craziest, zaniest hat you can find. Only the cool kids will do it.


Unrelatedly, don't trust smiling men with lobsters on their heads. They are neither men nor lobsters, and therefore are lying cads who cannot be trusted.
DON'T DO IT.

Okay serious time folks.
I am blown away by the amazing artists in this world who never give up a day without drawing and or releasing their inhibitions onto paper or film, or what have you. I know I draw everyday, but that's nothing in comparison to the work some people are pouring out. To all of you who are living your life like this, I ADORE YOU.

also, for those nerds who would like to join me in the mass of nerd-dom that is known as anime lovers, is an interesting website that displays model sheets from various anime.
http://www.catsuka.com/gengal.php

New images will be posted soon I suppose. Need to scan some stuff.

^ quick digi-light study.

Silly me

I let myself get my hopes up just a teeensy bit.
Yesterday my Chairman for the animation department asked who was interested in internships with Pixar. I jumped on it.
He gave me a print out of information he received.... back in MARCH.
So, of course, when I went to their site, they were not accepting any residencies or interns. =/
I are sad.
However, Now I have the website =) So I'll keep checking, and maybe attempt to get one after I graduate?

Still unsure what I am to be doing... do I try for my MFA?

Random musings. Getting back to work now.

yeaaah. I need to do some work.

I've done maybe 900 frames out of the 1800 that I need to have done for the 12th.

Since when have I ever not done work when I needed to?
Yes, I am getting things done, but it's taking much more.. forcefulness on my part.
I need to stop being a slacker.

However, I have been drawing alot again. For a few weeks there my sketch book went barely touched, graced only by the scratch of a pencil for classwork. However, I now present you with an atrocious redesigning of a wonderful character that Mr. David Lloyd would probably spasm with pain if he ever saw it.


I couldn't help it. I love him. Is it because of the namesake we share? Or the crazed revolutionary anarchist that is lovably radical? Or is it the fact that he is a philosophical bookworm who quotes Macbeth and uses wonderfully verbose vernacular in the form of consonance...?

Yeaaah it's all of those.
I wish I had made him more... manly..? I guess. He looks like he has new boots and is questioning "How do I look?"
However, I tried to incorporate as many V's into his design as possibly. Also, his mask has slight alterations to make it more angular.

Uhm... Yeah.
Still searching for those damn comics, too. I can buy them on e-bay and amazon... but...not the same as getting it straight out of a comic store. Worse comes to worse, I'll get it off the internet soon. I just want a good quality copy.

Wow. I am...a nerd.
I need to devote my time to more constructive things.
Like saving the enviornment.

RECYCLE DAMN YOU!

perhaps you won't bother.

There are so many things wrong with this country. With the way things are being run, with what people are allowing to happen... Is this the Vietnam War all over again?

Then why is no one rising up and protesting LOUDLY for peace. SO many people sacrificed themselves and their reputations to put an end to needless massacre.
Am I too going to stay on the side lines?

I will honestly tell you, I did not vote the other day. Why? I had the opportunity, maybe I dont live in Philly, but that doesn't matter. I didn't try to do anything.

And, personally, on a bigger issue... what about my art? My characters, my ideas? They are selfishly naive- Just like so much of the art being produced and shipped around the states these days. All we ever do is try to escape our own fears... and maybe that isn't so bad. But...to purposefully blind ourselves, to look away from those people who need standing up for? For the war that is going on that we created from thin air? The government and those people who can lie in the face of thousands, proclaiming and disguising conquest and imperialistic capitalism in the name of Justice, Freedom, and Equality? WELL WHOSE EQUALITY? WHOSE JUSTICE? WHAT FREEDOM? We are bound by shackles and deafened to the cries of so many tortures. I mean, not just the war. What about the wastefulness of society?

I am sitting here, in a 12x10 foot room with a television on blasting family guy, the hum of my computer and the buzz of the lights above me shouting slothfulness.

I sit here in my frozen legs and do nothing but wish for the courage to do something.

I am truly pathetic.
What is the point of having a voice, if you say nothing?
Mon coeur puet suelement prendre tellement.