Quiz2

       I would like to explore on the latest reading we did about making short animated films. I believe the core heart of animation is its message. Techniques and skills matter but if the story is not at that level, it`s worthless. Animations we watched in our classes had thought provoking messages and beautiful imageries.

      From the deep struggles of Russians to the simple metaphor of inflatable world, animation can create metaphors of our world. It can do the things movie can`t do. I honestly think Pixar not only  values perfection of techniques but also the core value of animation. My point is that man hours don`t necessarily correlate to the theme of masterpiece. At the end of the day, all it matter is your heart and where it`s at.

Quiz 2

             So far, one of my favorite short films that we've watched in class has been "For the Birds."  I think the main reason why I liked it so much was because it highlighted how people tend to dislike things or people that are different than they are, even if those things are genuinely good. I see this a lot in today's society and I think a film like this can really help with the issue.

            I also liked this short film because at no point did the larger bird, who had been made fun of almost the entire length of the film, did not decide to hate the little birds who were so mean to him. Instead, he continued trying to be kind and friendly to them and I think that's a really good lesson for people to learn as well. In the end, the little birds were forced to deal with the consequences of their unkindness without the larger bird seeking revenge. I think we as humans tend to seek revenge against the things that do wrong to us, forgetting that it isn't up to us at all to make sure that people face their consequences. I'm not sure if this was Pixar's intention, but this became one of the film's main themes to me and I thought they did an excellent job of delivering it.

Quiz #2

Geri's Game but me back into the middle of nostalgia world with many other early Pixar movies like Toy Story and Bug's Life.  There's something special about this short film, but it's not obvious at first.  It's a funny story, sure. The old man competes against himself in a game of chess and fakes his own heart attack in order to flip the board and win.  That's a clever storyboard, but the story in itself is only part of the picture.  The execution of the story is crucial, . In the case of this particular film, Pixar had to pay close attention to the amount of detail they applied to the CG.  Too much detail and the character loses it's charm and takes on more of a creep factor as it enters the uncanny valley.  Too little detail and the character does not have the means to express a wide enough array of emotions to accomplish the story.  I'm sure Pixar had to experiment around with the CG and remember the lessons learned from past films when producing this film.  I believe the final product was a well-managed use of realism in the CG to be effective in the story-telling.

Quiz #2

My favorite film that we watched in class was Geri’s Game. It tells a fun, simple, and humorous story that always entertains me. It’s a good example of how Pixar’s success comes not just from story but storytelling. A short film about an old man playing chess with himself could have been boring or weird if told wrong, but Pixar makes the short story quite interesting and humorous with good shots, editing, animation style, and the portrayal of the old man, Geri. They gave him a fun personality which made him enjoyable to watch. The cg animation also had the perfect mix of realistic and nonrealistic. Had it been too realistic, some of the sense of fun would have been lost, but had it been to unrealistic, the overall look of the film would not have been nearly as impressive. On a side note, I also love how Pixar decided to have Geri appear to fix up Woody in Toy Story 2, saying one of my favorite lines from the film, "You can't rush art!"

Quiz 2

Pixar is loved by most everyone. The reading that I looked at to relate to some of the films we have watched was The Secret of Pixar Storytelling, by Greg Singer. He says the secret to their success is story and I for one totally agree with that. Pixar can tell a story within five minutes with or without talking and by the end you feel happy.
 
I find it crazy how many man hours these animators put in. In the article he said that it took 36 months to write and hone Toy Story, now that is some dedication. I read into some of the facts they say about being successful and some of them surprised me but once I thought about it, it made sense. One thing that I have noticed that I find cool is that Pixar and Disney for that matter all try and incorporate different films into the main film. An example that I saw in one of the earlier blog posts was these cute little birds in a scene of Cars.

Another example would be this cute little old man who makes an appearance in Toy Story 2 when he comes in to fix Woody. Animation does wonders and I admire those who do it.

Quiz #2

The short film I enjoyed in class was probably the old man playing chess. I connected it with the reading by Greg Singer on Pixar's success. It is not so much the story itself but the way in which it is told that captures audiences attention. To me that is important because I myself orchestrate stories and have been since high school, but it doesn't matter what kind of stories I am implementing but more of how I am doing them. The film of the old man playing himself in chess is a simple enough story with a small chuckle, but the way in which the storytellers devised the story is much more entertaining, engaging, and humorous. It definitely seems to be the secret behind Pixar's success.

Quiz #2

I think one of my favorite shorts we watched (or at least one of the ones I watched freshman year) was The Incredibles teaser. I remember seeing the teaser and going to the theater with my parents, right around the time that I had started to really get into superheroes. Looking back on this small clip, it does an amazing job setting up the whole film's story without giving too much away.

The teaser reminds me a lot of the DC comic story Kingdom Come, a story about the Justice League heroes growing old and coming out of retirement because the world needs them again. Mr. Incredible dons what  (at the time we think is) his old costume but struggles to fit into it due to the weight he's accrued over time. Honestly, though, my favorite part about the teaser is the stylized, golden-age comic references and themes we see in his office. His special phone that's a direct line for emergencies, the posters and propaganda that you could compare to numerous posters and book-covers from older issues; the office even feels like a low-budget secret sanctum! But it's just a home office, somewhere he's redecorated to remind him of the glory days. Pixar did a lot of thinking before they went ahead with this film, let alone this teaser. I can definitely still appreciate this teaser still, and will continue to for years to come.

Pffirate (Quix #2)

I really liked the short film Pfffirate the most, because it was quite charming and very well done. It took full advantage of the fact that the computer/program wanted to make everything shiny and plastic looking by making every thing made out of shiny plastic-y material. It also had very good storytelling because you didn't need a lot of explanation throughout the film to convey the major plot point for people to get it. I think this film goes really well with avoiding the trap of trying to make a pixar level film with a smaller amount of man hours, people and budget. This is what is most significant about Pfffirate to me.