THE SWEENEY

This amazing peice of moving image was by the great Will Sweeney I've been a fan for a long time but not as active as i'd like!

FUTURE FILM FESTIVAL

missed it! AMAZING TRAILER

ART ATTACK!

It's all gone a bit art attack, which I LOVE

Haha It's not the same without Buchanan.
I used to love Tony Hart too.TRACY ISLAND!

BACK TO BASICS

I have been researching elements of Mise-En-Scène in order to understand and make better choices. I do not want to create something that is too dark but then in animation B i do want an element of darkness. I have looked at this book by John Gibbs and selected parts of case studies in order to help myself with different elements of Mise-En-Scene. I've done a lot work around this in the past but it's nice just to refresh my memory so I can get clearer ideas of specifics in my head rather than just going off and picking up a camera not necessarily thinking about what i'm doing...



This is an early and famous example of a piece of film which demonstrates concepts of Mise En Scene successfully and clearly to it's audiences. It's a horror film from the 1920 directed by Robert Wiene.

The demonstration of Mise En Scene is just as important in Animation. Here's an example of an animation from a similar era, which i feel encompasses a good sense of Mise En Scene...


From around 4 minutes in there's some really nice closeups of the characters and scenes of a forest or jungle. Although it's black & white and can't project colour at all, it still uses other areas of Mise En Scene to evoke empathy with the characters and a sense of their surroundings. I particularly like around 6:20 where Betty Boop dances next to the waves with the sunset in the background. It's framed really nicely and doesn't have to have much movement in the background as she takes up most of the shot with her dancing

"Is anybody lookin'!?" Awww, amazing.

LAUGH-O-GRAMS

LUIS LUIS!

Shadow Puppets from Luis Manuel on Vimeo.

Luis Manuel's hand puppetry. Oh my gosh.

VALÉE: DEUX

Globo Logos from Julien Vallée on Vimeo.

Maaa-aaa-aaa-aaagpie!

This is amazing. My mum came through when i was listening to it with her hands up near her face sort of waving them and singing "maaaa-aaa-aaa-aaagpie!" Haha.
Not only does it use of a little fat magpie, its got a really lovely use of numbers! Maybe use some kind of interpretation of this for inspiration??? It makes me wanna cut and stick!

Rude Awakening!

Lazy Cat vs Magpie from Bartosz Barlowski on Vimeo.

haha, check out this cheeky little magpie

THE SILENT FILM POSTER

I've been scouring the library since seeing all that amazing Russian 1920's art on the Culture Show. I've come across some incredible work! Mainly by the Stenburg Brothers.







As i've been comparing American & Russian contrasts in Animation from around the time of the space race it's really interesting to contrasting film posters. These Russian exmaples are really reminiscent of Constructivism but also I feel when compared to American film posters from the same time they almost almost express the contrasts between art nouveau & art deco.



This 1920's Nikolai Prusakov poster of 'The Glass Eye' from 1929 is a really good example of what an Art Deco inspired piece may represent. Although when compared to a poster from the 1920's in America like this one... Hells Angels in 1928. The angular use of line, shape and blocks of colour are still apparent but there is still a softness reminiscent of Art Nouveau. This is just a small observation but I feel it kind of represents the constraints of Russia at the time where as America expresses the opposite approach



It's really hard to express what I mean, but the contrasts I have highlighted are ones i've seen throughout the comparisons I have made in my research. America's expression of "free thinking" through art & advertising and Russia's stricter approach is always really obvious in early representations of culture.

GOOD READS

The Film Factory:

Although 1939 is not quite as close to the 1950's as I'd have liked...It has some really in depth and useful analysis of Soviet Film history. It's quite startling the amount of information in it. It's got plenty of stills along with newspaper articles, letters and interviews (amongst other useful propaganda). I've been looking to buy it from Amazon but it's a bit pricey for me at the minute, but whilst searching I found it on Google Books. This is a different cover to the one I got from the Library but it's the whole book by the look of things... wont have to buy it after all!

I ♥ GOOGLEBOOKS

Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia & Nazi Germany:

This book explains how Soviet Russia & Nazi Germany used film as 'a weapon for mass political propaganda'.

I STILL ♥ GOOGLEBOOKS

COLD WAR

Episode 1 of the Cold War Series, covering the origins of the tensions between the capitalist west and the communist Sovjet Union. Starting with revolution of 1917 followed by the events of WW II, which outcome brought the Red Army into eastern Europe.

Sputnik

WHAT? All of a sudden loads of Laika videos have just started APPEARING on youtube. I must have been searching for the wrong thing. I've found them all through links from other ones...

Sputnik 1


Sputnik 2


This is the best of the three... Not only is it translated (hurrayyy) but it's quite emotive too. I was yet to find a really good Russian video from 1957 (Laika's Launch) but now I think I've found one. Apart from the stupid music someone has put over the top - the imagery is (if muted) quite sad. Only sad because I know what happens to Laika.

ARCHIVE.ORG

Here's another video from 1957.

"Newsreel stories reformatted for classroom use. Includes: United Nations Condemns Russia; Carrier Landings by Mirror; Arctic Ice Cap Adventure; Hummingbird Sanctuary; Low-Level Crop Dusters; Centuries of Telling Time; Old and New in Guided Missiles, showing a jet engine exploding when metal is dropped into it; and New York State's Erie Canal." - Taken from Archive.org

I find this funny how one end of the news to the other, it gets nicer. It's serious to start with... then it's talking about doves & humming birds... then clocks. It then gets a bit serious again. It's just funny transitions and it's narrated alongside an epic soundtrack like a movie! It's incredible, worth a watch.

SPUTNIK 1

Was unable to find any videos of Sputnik 2. Or relevant Laika videos... But this is really interesting. It's also hard to find Russia's version of events! Any videos of Russia in 1957 seem to just be impossible to find