Art In Animation: Modern Times

Modern Times by Chris Coleman is art innovating the conceptual medium of animation. It is also transforming the conceptual experience of this art form. Through the manipulation of space and ambiance of jarring themes his animations evoke a trance like reaction in a viewer. The animations use familiar images such as the car on the road we see in the beginning. An arrow is projected from the vehicle, tracing a path into a starry sky encased in a rectangular space, toying with the concept of space.

There are “pull backs” out of scenes while the almost camera crane like perspective zooms in on another subject, changing the idea intended for the viewer’s experience. Coleman intentionally uses the well known images of people from safety instructions, the dramatized “in the event of an emergency” posters we see in restaurants, the pamphlets we see in airplanes with the awkwardly calm people crashing to their doom.

Colman’s characters, probably copied from actual safety illustrations, convey the contrived mechanistic behaviors humans are expected to behave in, capturing it in a dark yet slightly comical light. We continue to shift out of a scene and rotate to another all within what seems like a specific area in a vast whiteness. The concept of “boundaries” are intentionally jabbed at here as the viewers perspective seems to soar freely around ongoing yet separate actions.

Coleman displays faceless families before cookie cutter homes nauseatingly generated repeatedly. Then faceless brown families are repeatedly generated in a line until they are halted by an interjecting concrete and barbed wire wall followed by homes catching fire. Coleman is clearly illustrating the bias based constructions in society intended to create barriers between people. These concepts interwoven in Coleman’s stylistic animations come together creating a compelling viewer experience. I am including the general audience here, which I am a part of; and I believe this is the general reaction, one only recently evoked by a Flash animation.

My First Baby: Sueño Rojo

I am fairly pleased with the outcome of my first film. Something miraculous, as shooting it was kind of a mess, the planning was vague and I only knew the basics of editing. It seems like every time I watch the finished version I find something that I want to change, however, I do keep watching it. I must have done something right. Overall it was fun and through this experience I found out that I actually like creating films; the haphazard process taught me a lot.

As is the style of FILMP/MEDP we were rushed through the learning and production process of the project. It’s understandable, but being the artists transplanting pieces of themselves into their work it’s easy to get frustrated within the constraints. Knowing how “real” we like to keep in MEDP I expected to be running through the halls of Hunter shooting a couple of takes of our shots and then running on. This would make a solid story bored extremely valuable.

My partner and I met outside of Hunter one night to draw it out, imagining the locations in Hunter we would utilize. Here I think we got a little overzealous and overestimated the amount of time we would have to shoot and did not anticipate the (unlikely) complications to come. Instead of fantasizing about all the cool shots we could do it would have been better to stick to a comprehensive storyline prioritizing continuity. Putting in this extra effort would have illustrated specific goals for filming and essentially made for a more elegantly constructed piece. I can say though, that the visualizing and drawing that we did do shows is the final product.

Despite the somewhat weak storyboard and my tardiness on filming day, the production went well. I think my forethought on having my girlfriend as an actor and the attractive wardrobe made the film more visually appealing. Her red dress stood out in Hunter’s bleak hallways and in juxtaposition with my grey attire. Our “wing-it” approach to filming actually paid off in some ways in that it allowed for spontaneous creativity and linear development as we basically shot the scenes in the order of the story. Realizing that we were running low on time and that we still needed to shoot more, I got the idea to take the story into the nearby piano practice rooms instead of wandering the school looking for the “perfect” locations. One problem we did run into was that we quickly filled up our memory card and had to fumble for a new one. Another (potentially disastrous) problem was the camera person getting the “record” and “standby” setting mixed up. We probably should have had a better recap of camera use. This resulted in great shots of the floor, auxiliary audio of us frantically planning shots and cuts at the time shots should have began. We only lost a few scenes. This made me even more proud of the editing of the final product.

I enjoyed editing the most out of the whole process. I feel this is the time that allowed the most creativity—it also satisfied my somewhat obsessive attention to detail and order. I would have liked to learn about more visual effects I could have utilized, making the film darker and more experimental, instead the film was kind of “ordinary”. With all that remains after my likes, dislikes and wishes, the film still makes me proud. In the context of its constraints it’s definitely impressive but I also think it plays out well on its own. If you don’t think so then you should have seen the production process.

Linear Editing Delivers Hilariocity

Linear editing has helped create one of the funniest few minutes in the history of television: “The Lesson on Fire” scene from The Office. The strength of the comedy, often dry, is the realism in how it is delivered in the faux reality style show.

This scene opens with Dwight preparing the office for the “simulation emergency” with his explicatory narrative. We see him open his desk, revealing his “fire safety kit”: a blowtorch and kerosene. It then cuts to him sealing off the exits by breaking keys in the locks, jamming the doors closed, and heating the doorknobs. After he lights a fire in the closet and the other employees see the smoke and panic, the camera does fast motion sweeping shots and there are quick cuts in the editing. People run toward the camera as they look for exits, going so far as knocking the cameraman over. This creates a sense of frantic fear while making their actions funnier as we watch these salesmen, accountants, and secretaries freak out.

Thematically, scenes appear to be cut when an idea is fully expressed; for example we see them go to a door and discover its locked—cut—we see Oscar stand on a desk and open an air duct to climb into—cut. As shots seamlessly progress with constant motion and with the employees attempting to escape we see them trying to ram a door with a printer—cut—throwing a projector through a window—cut. Finally when all attempts to escape have been exhausted, Dwight blows an air horn and announces, “This has been a test of our emergency preparedness.”

The linear progression conveys this scene in a clear and real way that makes the humor of the actors shine. The panic and fear magnified by the editing makes the scene even more hilarious. It ends with Stanly collapsing on the floor and Michael, the boss, fights through employees holding him back as he tries to give CPR to the still conscious man.

Interactive Design: Playing with Satellites

When considering user centered design and interactive websites I would have to say that while it may not be the most exciting site out there, google maps is my favorite website. I use it to find out the location to a new destination, what’s in any given area, plotting directions, the general geographic layout of a place and even to see “street view” photos of an area. If I want to find out about a new raw vegan café for example I can just do a vague search of the name of the café and the city that its in and a bunch of options will come up, its usually one of the top three. Then when you click on the desired place a window will pop up on the location with the business information: phone number, address and link to the website. There is even an option to get directions to and from there.

My favorite part is the interactive map that, unlike mapquest, can be easily manipulated to zoom in or out and pan in any two-dimensional direction. I also appreciate its utilitarian design that clearly offers the tools for the user to use without potentially confusing or frivolous “flare” to get in the way. The layout it very simple, an intention that I think google’s creators hold to allow any person young or old, tech savvy or not to utilize these tools, literally bringing global geographic awareness to every user. You got your search bar at the top then your results column below it on the left and the large interactive map to the right. The map gives as much information it can. All streets, parks and major attractions are named, when you zoom in enough you can even see grey blocks that accurately indicate buildings. I often use google maps to figure out the closets subway stops to take from a point. You can click on the blue “M” indicating a stop and a window will pop up depicting the trains that stop there. If you want to scope out a new business, get directions, or just learn a new place, get on the google maps and sync up with the knowledge of the satellites.

The sidewalk talks in Bushwick

The intersection of Broadway and Myrtle has always got action. As a Bushwick neighborhood this is to be expected however this intersection spread out under the J M Z tracks is always lively, I see it night and day and at asinine hours of morning as I sometimes head to work at 3:00am. Right now it is 12:37 on a Monday.

A train passes overhead. The mammoth beast rumbles violently into the station directly above me. It comes to a mind piercing screeching halt and then releases its locomotive energy with a sudden exhaustive burst of air. Metal tongs clank away at the empanada stand next to me and its two stout operators converse in Spanish. Their pitched voices racing with excitement.

A steady stream of people descend and ascend the stairs up to the train and their footsteps sound like hundreds of heavy rain drops slapping the sidewalk. The chatter of the street crowd (numbering at least three or four dozen people) blend together in a tornado of broken discourse: “Yeah…Hahah….I told you… Sheeeeit… Oh hey!... Byeee…” There is a radio playing Parliament Funkadelics, “P- Funk” at a vendor on the corner selling hats, sunglasses, t-shirts, more hats, umbrellas…etc.

From inside the 24 hour deli on the corner I can hear the sizzle of something on a grill whenever it gets quiet enough. Babies cry from strollers passing by and their shrill is drowned out by the recurring, always irritating shriek of a train grinding along tracks. The train stops, exhales, and says, “This is Myrtle avenue,” in its halted voice trying to mimic an actual human being, “The next stop is Central avenue”. This is followed by the onrush of footsteps and countless voices creating a euphonious mosaic of personas sounding along the sidewalk.

Festive Design for Freaks

Navigating the web and gathering information to make important decisions can be ridiculously stressful at times. Graphic designers sometimes forget functionality and focus on some abstract art that gets glanced over as a web-surfer quickly abandons the page.

For the past two summers I have gone to Bonnaroo, a four day music and arts festival. Last year Bonnaroo attracted 80,000 guests, and hosted over 150 performers. To handle this kind of volume, organization and functionality is essential. I found out everything I needed to know about bonnaroo from their website; every musician, attraction, and application that awaited me and easily purchased my ticket via their website.

And being an Art festival the website must remain pretty and enticing while accessible. So the opening page of this year’s Bonnaroo displays the colorful action-packed banner that remains informative and useful. It instantly reveals what “Bonnaroo” is with a patched together image of a huge crowd infont of a large stage and artistic carnival attractions. All the well known aspects of the festival are placed in the banner: stage, large tent, ferris wheel, fountain, and large “Bonnaroo” arc that stands at the entrance to the festival grounds. I know first hand the lunacy, the outlandish celebrations and the mind bending hysterics that take place at this festival and the banner triggers these reveries and gets me excited.

The page layout is also well done. Drop down tabs under the banner direct users to all aspects of the festival in eight specific categories. On the right there are rotating photos drawing attention to the artists and keeping the user watching to see what comes up next. To the left of that is the “news”. A large “JUNE 11-14 MANCHESTER, TN” makes it very clear when to quit your current job and buy plane tickets. Below that is all recent announcements about the festival. All the text is a clear and legible helvetica. Another aid in advertisement is the consistent color theme throughout the website. Now whenever I see this color turquoise with orange, green, yellow and red I will think, Bonnaroo.

Most importantly, with a single click on a miniature poster on the bottom right you can see the entire artist line up for the festival, headliners first. Maybe the organizers are just trying to make it simple for all the burnt-out veteran freaks who need to order their tickets online but for the attention deficit user with little spare time, like myself this website design gave me all the info I need to get my ticket and sparked my forgotten lust for a romping summer celebration. Quit your job and check it out.

Baraka

Better late than never, and for me it was worth the wait. I rented Baraka, a nonverbal film by Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson. Baraka, a sufi word meaning blessing or a spiritual power believed to be possessed by certain persons or objects has no plot or story line and is comprised of stunning cinematic scenes brilliantly strung together. It opens with a scene in the Himalayan mountains; a snow colored monkey is sitting in a hot spring looking pensive, wise and slightly melancholy. Deeply thought provoking scenes are woven together juxtaposing variations of life on earth such as Buddhist monks lighting hundreds candles in a temple to scenes of war and flamethrowers to traffic in China. The film was shot in the very expensive, extremely high definition TODD-AO 70mm format. This made the scenes sharp and stunning and conveyed the overwhelming beauty and horror of development on this planet. A computer-controlled camera was developed by these filmmakers to capture the time-lapse shots, such as clouds passing over white mountains, a solar eclipse and Park Avenue rush hour traffic.

The film has a deeply spiritual aspect as almost every type of religion is documented, from Muslim pilgrimages to tribal African dances, which gave me a profound understanding of the fundamentally divine aspect of human beings. And yet the pendulum swings both ways and we see the destructive powers of our species and our tragic nature. The film left me contemplating evolution and what modern man had been reduced to and successfully achieved. I saw that innate spiritual nature of human beings combined with fast food, war, and pollution; indeed the reoccurring scene of the solar eclipse throughout the film was a nice metaphor of this pretty tragedy. I have been telling everyone to go see this film. If anything its aesthetic beauty and moving music by composer Michael Stearns is enough attraction, but the kaleidoscopic view of life on earth is so essential for anyone who wants to gain a bird’s eye view of life on earth and our part in it. Its great to see with a few friends and then talk about the various thoughts it left each with, and there will be many