So I decided to not do paper cut outs because frankly I don’t want to do that because prediction: I would do it on a Sunday and around 2-4 it will get extremely hot in my room but I can’t open the curtains because sunlight but then I’d probably say screw it and then open them but it would still be hot so I’d open my door for the balcony and then a strong gust of wind would come in and mess everything up and I’d cry. 

Instead, I’ll use the same Little Mermaid idea. But, I’ll draw/animate it online in After Effects? Maybe? Oh look, a nifty tutorial like post to help me in my sorrows. 

Anyways, elaboration on the film with more descriptive language. I’ve read and reread the Hans Christian Andersen, original version. There’s a lot of descriptive language involved in there, and I’ll probably pull aspects of it. I’m thinking I’ll do a voice over with the first paragraph (or something) that introduces the film, because there’s a lot of great stuff in there. And at the end I’ll do another voice over with the last paragraph(s) concerning that ‘daughters of air’ thing. And in the middle parts there will be some music because it would be boring otherwise. Even though I’m pulling all aspects from the original version, I’ll probably make characters resembling the Disney version. I’m still debating how the characters will appear in the film. I’m leaning towards making all the characters silhouettes with viberant backgrounds. It’ll become clearer to me when I actually start drafting it/storyboarding. 

All of this year I haven’t really done any stop motion stuff. Nor have I really done anything with paper - mostly because I don’t want to kill myself. My current idea is to create a stop motion paper cut out thing of the original story of The Little Mermaid. I’d like to keep some of the elements of the Disney version, but have her turn to bubbles in the end because bubbles. However that plays out, I’m not sure. I’d like the cut outs of it to be similar to this animation, I have yet to decide if I want it exactly in that style. And at some point, probably when Ariel has her legs and looks longingly It will start out with a bed and window, looking out at the moon. Sort of like the first frame of this. 

But, I also don’t want to kill myself. So there’s a possibility that I’ll just make a story about an umbrella that gets blown away and tries to get back to it’s owner. Similar to the style of this film. 

My current reaction to this film is that it was alright. It felt sort of surreal. The story is portrayed by Caroline, a seventeen-year-old girl that moves around a lot because of her father’s job. In this small town that she moves to, she decides to reinvent herself. She flirts with her teacher, and ends up being in a relationship with him. There’s a man in a white suit going around and killing people. At some points, the film focuses on a group of stoners. And at the end of the film, their group breaks up. And during the film, one of them die. And the teacher that Caroline was in a relationship shoots himself because Caroline doesn’t want to be with him? 

I don’t know. It felt like a really jumbled mess, which I guess makes sense since it’s somewhat about teenagers ‘finding’ themselves. I don’t know. That’s just my response to this movie - I don’t know. I could rewatch it and try to know it more, but I don’t want to rewatch this film. I found it kind of boring. The man in the white suit wasn’t nearly as suspenseful as it could have been. They didn’t really focus on it. I feel as if there’s little themes in this that I could point out, but I honestly don’t want it. It makes me feel as if I’m looking into something that isn’t there. I want to say oh this and this is about this deep, philisophical belief or whatever, but I think about it again and just feel as if it’s about a bored girl who had a crazy time in this new town. 

When the advertising began for this movie, I wasn’t really too interested in it. Once I did watch it, I realized it was actually funny. Being a stop-motion animation, I looked it up to see if there was anything interesting or out of the ordinary about the film. I found that it was unordinary, as it is the first stop-motion film to utilize a 3D color printer to create faces. And, it is the second stop motion film shot in 3D (I think after Coraline, which was also a pretty amazing movie). It took two years to make and was nominated/won quite a few awards. 

Wreck-It Ralph is an extremely entertaining animated film that makes me very happy whenever I watch it. One of the things that I liked about the film was all the details. Not necessarily in the actual animation, but more in all the characters that were involved. There were a bunch of cameos and references. The street fighter ones (Zangief was pretty flawless, and the cameos of Ryu and Chun-Li) especially put a smile on my face. 

Overall, the entire concept of this world was great. The unplugging of games leaving them homeless, the electrical wires thingies serving as a subway, the Anonymous Villains club (which I thought was hilarious because they all knew each other anyways). I’d watch the movie again anytime. 

Cedella Marley, Bob’s daughter, had an interview where she sat in what appeared to be a home. She wore a dark purple shirt and sat in a red chair. Behind her was a door opening, where you could see more red chairs and then greens in a window. There were a few topics that Cedella spoke about. The one that I remember the most was her saying having Bob as a father wasn’t necessarily a good thing. A lot of parents believed that he did was smoke and play music, so many of her friends had to lie to parents in order to sleep at her place. Another topic she spoke about was the fact that Bob wasn’t necessarily ‘faithful husband’. (One thing I would have done differently in the last paragraph.)

This documentary strongly supported the idea that art (specifically music, in this case) supports what happens culturally and politically. Culturally, it opened many people up to the beliefs of whoever is conducting the art. An example is that Bob had captivated so many people, especially in Jamaica. When PNP and JLP were fighting, it was a political civil war. When Bob held his performance, he joined the hands of the two rivals. It did little in terms of helping stop the war, but it was influential to the people. In the present day, art is still held as something highly influential. One of the most influential art pieces I’ve seen are those on the street. Sure, you pass by dozens of advertisements for this and that, silly graffiti of those simply tagging their name or creating something that is simply visually stunning. However, sometimes street art and advertisements on the street are the most powerful. One I’ve seen before is a poster (if memory serves correctly) that was plastered on the bottom of a building, half on the wall and half on the ground. It said that if the poster were a homeless child, you wouldn’t have even looked down at it. 

As in many documentaries, the challenge of keeping it unbiased. A 28-person class of high school art students might not be picking at the seams of everything said in the film, but someone who had strong ideas that possibly differed from whatever was being said on screen might have. It seems as if the technical things would be difficult. Finding footage, gathering images, finding people to speak to, getting the shots, displaying ideas/beliefs in a way that isn’t offensive. 

Throughout the entire film, different kinds of footages, photos, animations are used. They use archived footage of Bob: concerts, interviews, photographs. They animate photos in amazing ways, and have spinning records that adds to the footage. One of the things I noticed/wondered was their archived concert footage. The audio was so clear, I don’t think it is actually from the concert? There are times where you can hear the crowd, but it isn’t always there. At some point, there’s a woman mouthing the words but she’s off from the audio that is playing then. One thing I’d change is when the film is silent and they’re just playing footage of the audience, to add crowd noises. Several times they show a bunch of black and white concert photos, and make the light ‘dim’ or ‘brighter’. It was a really nice touch. Other cinematic tools used in the film was used in the B-Roll. They had some overhead shots of Jamaica, which were beautiful. I wasn’t really sure how it contributed to the film, but it was nice. When they speak about a place, they also sometimes had B-Roll of what was going on there present day, which was nice. The actual placement of where the interviews were was interesting. They all seemed pretty relaxed. In a house, near a window sill, near a beach, in a recording studio, audience. I thought the interviews were great. One of the things I really liked was the colouring. I’m not positive, but I think there was a vignette used, at least for some interviews. The colors in the interviews and some of the concert scenes seemed really vivid. 

I decided to watch the English subbed version of this anime just for kicks As I continued on, I found that I actually really liked it and it gave me a lot of moe. I’m not sure if I’m using that in the correct context or whatever. I’m not well versed in this anime business. 

Anyways, OHSHC was a manga before, and I’m pretty sure all the episodes were taken from it. I’m slowly making my way through the manga, and also slowly making my way through the English dubbed version of the anime. Mostly because you get a lot of different emotions from it, somethings are clearer. I find that I like the subbed version better. Even though some of the translations were slightly off. There’s only one season out there, and it was made around 8 years ago? I found the very ending to be odd. I mean, it ended extremely well, I was just confused as to how Kyouya was able to purchase his father’s very distinguished company.

Overall, I liked OHSHC. The only thing I disliked that sometimes the animation was overly slow, or it stayed on some frame for a lot longer than it should of.