Wednesday, December 23, 2009

quick animation. thoughts. aspirations.

here is a little animation i have been working on for a class. i guess its more of an exercise in learning hand drawn animation, which i realize i suck at and do not have much patience for... i hope i have enough discipline to keep practicing... sigh.


its supposed to be based on the little red riding hood tale. or something my teacher said. im not really good at basing my work off of anything. i kind of just wanted to do a fun sequence. i hope you like. oh and super thanks to amelia who did the last minute "ufs" and "ughs" recordings in a bathroom on my laptop a few hours before this was due. haahah...
i worked on it the past two or three weeks, but honestly was only able to put in three of four days of good work because i've been busy with planning my move. ugh, so stressful.

next semester i think i am going to just work on one big animation project. i still want to do a ton of collaborative things with the people i love. but for myself i want to see if i can actually work on something that i can actually work on diligently for more than a month. call it a practice in controlling my creative attention span. i dont want anything too crazy and overly effected. i mostly want to concentrate on a single good story for once. also, it may or may not take place in a retail clothing store.

wellll time to go apply for loans and stuff. weeeeeeeee

Thursday, December 10, 2009

life updates and a new video from daniel and dan.

Hey dudes!

i havent posted in awhile. mostly because I have been too busy doing absolutely nothing!
i don't know what it is, but i think its cause i see the end in sight.

I've been drawing alot, and watching a lot of the office (after a 3 year haitus), and mostly... i just feel kind of sick all the time so im constantly tired.

in other news, i figured out where i will be interning for the spring semester. you are now talking to the future creative development intern at dreamworks animation. doo doo doo. im pretty psyched. they have free food too!

also, here is a video daniel scheinert and i shot with some of the kids we were "teaching" from new york film academy for fun while we were in boston. we sort of... made it up as we went. what else is new.



in a few more weeks i will be heading over to the west coast.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

its thanksgiving

how im spending my thanksgiving while my family and i are watching terrible/awesome films


little asian boy with a vulture on the moon...?

im trying to teach myself the interface of flash. bleh.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

i dont want to do home work. looking forward to thanksgiving.


this is what i did instead.
im practicing to draw in photoshop using just the default brush.

Friday, November 20, 2009

after effects in 1993

i just came across this at aetuts and i had to post it.
this is the official after effect 1.1 showreel. the best of the best motion graphics in 93. its awesome!

i hope it leaves you inspired.

Monday, November 16, 2009

things THAT I REALLY LIKED THIS WEEK! VOL 6!

I'm feeling a little too burnt out right now to do real work. here we go!

VIDEO!

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB - I CAN TALK - Directed by MEGAFORCE
this is a music video is, overall, nothing groundbreaking, no interesting story, and gets a bit tedious halfway through. but i cant help but be impressed by some of the craaararazy transitions that take place within the first 30 seconds of the film. i have always been a fan of visual tricks that can be pulled off in camera without any digital effects, and i think these are some of the coolest ive seen in awhile. i hope that final cut pro comes out with a preset exactly like these transitions one day. hah.


The Office of Eden - Directed by Terri Timely
i have been a big fan of terri timely studios ever since coming across synethesia over the summer. i think their videos are almost perfect marriage between high production commercial values and daring, subversive idiosyncrasy that you ususally dont see in higher end productions. all of their films and commercials have the look and sound of any professional commercial, only there is always a subtle undertone of wtf. this commercial is for an underwear clothing company (i guessing). and its just awesome. it looks beautiful and its kind of absurd. and its trying to sell you something. enjoy.


ANiMATION!

el empleo - by santiago Bou grasso
this animation has such a deliberate pacing, that most will probably feel is too slow, but i think the downplayed ending makes the pacing worth it, and even in some ways justifies it. its every action is so understated, leaving ridiculous images to speak for themselves between the long gaps in action. an extremely vivid and completely understood world, considering how little the animation is actually doing.


Git Gob - by Philip Enddolis
i think this animation was one of the more inspired things ive seen this week. hahaha. the characters are completely endearing and stupid. some how the animation is able to make you feel excited about one of the dumbest endings ever. whatever, i loved it.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

a new reel!

so here it is.

this is a compilation of the the stuff i've made while teaching myself photoshop, illustrator, after effects, etc since i first started this "makingg mediaaiaia" thing two and a half years ago. i feel so much has changed since then. its absurd.

when i first applied to transfer to emerson college, i didnt know the difference between film and video, i think one of my favorite movies was "that thing you do", and some of my best work at the time consisted of me and my friends recording ourselves running around topless in my basement at 3 in the morning pretending to do karate with our hair gelled straight up using the built in webcam on my laptop. i dont even know how i got into the film program. hah. i felt like it was a fluke and i was scared to death that in the end i would just fail miserably.

thats probably why i tried so dern hard.

i remember the first thing i ever did in after effects (haha what a lame thing to get sentimental about) was making a cut out purple crayon walk across the desk. a very simple maneuver, but it took me hours. when i showed the final video to my professor of my intro to media productions class he told me i should become an animator. i laughed at him.
and now i want to be an animator... sigh. not a great one yet, but i am so excited to learn.

i feel like its unfortunate that it took me until my last year to really get a grasp of what i want to do and what i want to learn, and now im graduating and going into the real world. but then i also realize that emerson college is notttt the place for an animator. i learned 90% of what i know about animation and software out of class on my own from the internet (i dont get out much) and then i look at other schools like gobelins and supinfocom and i cry.

but then i realize... i knew nothing at all about what i wanted to do before i came to this school. and even if i have a lot of issues with the administration, and the school no longer really fits my needs, it was a great ground for me to explore what was out there and meet other people i can geek out with... and i guess thats what college is for right? i guess i could always go to one of those awesome animations schools later (except they both conduct classes completely in french :[ ).

haah. im sorry, instead of just writing about my reel im getting all contemplative and junk. anyways, i dont even know if this is all i want to do. i mean i love doing this and its a ton of fun. but i also want to play music. and write childrens stories. and dabble in live-action filmmaking (that is, afterall, technically what i am majoring in plllllttllttt). but ill stop now and write more of this stuff when i actually do graduate in the spring. see you theeennnn.

by the way, thank you for anyone who actually visits this thing on a regular basis. it means a lot to me. truly.

- dan kwan

Friday, November 13, 2009

swingers!

something daniel scheinert and i did when we were bored after work during the summer.
some might consider it genius.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

where have i been?

hey friends!

sorry its been a little bit since ive posted. ive been busy trying to finish a bunch of projects for emerson channel, and class and what not. but more importantly, ive been trying to work on my reel before i begin applying for internships in LA.... exciting, ya?

for my reel I really wanted to work on a short intro that would be fun and show off my style or whatever you want to call it. honestly... i am more proud of this intro than anything else ive ever done hahhahah. so maybe this is a bad idea because itll just make the rest of my reel look lame.

but seriously, i will be posting the reel up soon, hope you like it.
for now, i will leave you with some screen grabs while i wait for this sucker to render.



Saturday, October 24, 2009

i have never had any regrets until i met you.


i had this idea for a webcomic involving a rabbit who is in love with a girl. this is sort of an intro. its tentatively titled "i have never had any regrets until i met you" hahha. hopefully i'll have time to make more.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Fantastic Mr. Fox Costume Video Up!

Hey! the videos are up on fox searchlight's website. come check it out!

dont feel obligated to watch the whole video (unless you actually want to make a fox costume of course), but click the link because youre my friend and you want to see our names on fancy websites.
thanks so much to anyone involved.

Monday, October 19, 2009

drawing assignment #4: rotating head

aka "everything/nothing" or "the beautiful encounter with everything you will never be" or "how i met your mother": a story of loss. presented to you today in 720 hd. my proudest achievement yet.


or not. the assignment was to draw a head and then rotate it. and then make it do something else.
incredibly messy. but i was incredibly busy. but thats an incredibly bad excuse. but its the only one i have. incredible. i hope it speaks to your heart, dear reader.

oh and if you can think of any better names for this movie maybe ill add it to my list. (or steal it for future endeavors).

Saturday, October 17, 2009

THINGS THAT I REALLY LIKED THIS WEEK! VOL 5!

it has been a very long time since I've posted a THINGS THAT I REALLY LIKE THIS WEEK so I decided now that I have some time I'll share some not-so-secret gems I have stumbled upon while rubbing a gentle finger over the surface of the interwebs. I'll make it quick.

VIDEOS!

Mum - "Sing Along" music video by Team G
This beautifully shot, surrealistic story of love and loss shows how things don't always have to make sense to make you feel something, as long as you create a world where it's okay for those things not to make sense. Even if it involves a dead (not dead?) singing deer. the relationship between the father and daughter is so playful and totally fits the song. enjoy!



ANIMATIONS!

Ape School - "Wail to God" By Anthony Schepperd
I usually don't like flash animations. Mostly because of the fact that I can tell when its a flash animation. While that is certainly the case for this music video, the frame by frame animation is so wonderful and fluid it doesnt really matter. What really kills about this video is that it never holds back (WARNING THIS IS NOT KIDDIE SAFE :]) It will take you from one bizarre image to the next causing you to gawk and cringe and laugh all the way to its epic end (and it is epic). If you don't enjoy strange/sexual imagery you probably shouldn't watch, but I challenge you to do so because it is very unlikely you will see something like this ever again.


Mr. Collieu - Headless Productions
I don't know how it is possible that this company has slipped by me for so long, but I just discovered them a couple of days ago while I was perusing some old animation blog entries. Though I haven't seen anything from them yet, their trailers are enough for me to love their style enough to excite me enough to put them in this post... enough. This trailer for their feature length animation (still in production) looks awesome. I love the unique concept and the illustrations and it reminds me of why I used to love watching old Disney animations when I was younger. This is true for most of their work and you should check out all of their other trailers.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

wrapping up the fox blah blah!

so sarah and I are just finishing up the fantastic mr. fox how-to video and and are sending the final cut to gen arts and fox searchlight. The video will go up on the two websites (and everywhere else) on the 19th of october so check it outtttt if you want to learn how to make a sick fox costume for halloween :]

here are some quick production stills or whatever.


and below is one of the bigger wastes of time and dumber videos you will encounter ever.


there you go. some behind the scenes footage.
now you can see how distractable we were when it got too late. :p

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

YAY



hey guys! I won first place at the etsy competition! hahah i got a $3250 check coming towards me yay.
THANK YOU SOOO MUCH to everyone who helped me out and voted. it means a lot to meee. hahah mostly because im getting paidddd.


here's a link to the website's post about the whole dealio.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

columbus day

so instead of doing actual homework on my day off (though technically I have every monday off) I decided to make a short animation for a competition for HIV awareness. I thought it was an interesting contest and I had sort of an idea, but there was only one day left before the deadline.

i literally recorded the music, drew the pictures, animated, and did sound effects all in one day. its incredibly messy, but it still has a little charm. I'm a little disappointed that I didnt have time to do it right, but it was still fun.



im sitting in my hallway right now because its the only place i can get internet. sigh.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

drawing assignments

im in a class called drawing for the time based media. basically its a beginners class on how to draw for animation so you can get the right perspective/proportions right over multiple frames. i am basically awful at doing things with my hands which why this class will be good for me. here are the first two assignments we had to do.

first assignment we had to draw a cube, then add cubes to it, then cut up those cubes, and then rearrange the pieces, and then present it in an interesting way.

second assignment we had to draw frame by frame cylinders doing things like jumping and twisting and stuff. i decided to put it all together into a little animation.

more to come. hah.
sigh. so much catching up to do now that im not sick anymore.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

i'm not dead!

but i have been deathly ill.

im recovering from swine/strep/mono/?? and have missed classes all week :(. but that does not explain why I havent posted since july. my only explanation is that I am lazy, but you should already know that.

I also got a job at new york film academy as a teaching assistant (best job ever...) and that kept me busy for the rest of the summer.

I guess I am making this post in regards to me and sarah ginsburg being picked by genart and fox searchlight to make a dumb how-to video on how to make a mr. fantastic fox costume (i'm pretty psyched!) It's going to be an instructional video wrapped in a narrative created in the most wes anderson style we can produce in no money or less (meaning maybe someone will give us money in the process :p) speaking of which. me and sarah are getting 1000 bucks! yayyyyy. and then if we get first place out of the five videos being made we will get another 500 yay! not much dough when you consider the amount of work we are doing, butttttt the fame! recognition! the babes! im going to have so many babes. haha
plus we will get a special edition copy of the fantastic mr. fox book, and if you know anything about me, you know i am in love with roald dahl so thats exciting. I also think we get to go to the premiere yay! the movie will most likely be a little disappointing (and look a little like moving dead animals with famous alive people for voices), but whatever.

here are some location scouting photos that myself, sarah, and amelia took while out and about yesterday. we are looking for brighghhghthhththhgthgt colors. obvi.






oh yeah, and for those of you who havent been aware. i got in the top ten for etsy.com so i need you to help me vote up my dumb animation. i will win money if you do. go there and vote for the first animation with all the dumb monsters. thats mine. thanks yall!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

iceberg


something me and my brother did over the fourth of july weekend. enjoy.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

mix


made this for fun.
shot it in two hours and wrote some music to go with it.

hope you like.
 
thanks to torie for being such a good sport.
special thanks to everyone who may have given us anything of sentimental value that may have made it into the short.

Monday, June 29, 2009

handmade moments

just finished a short animation for a  video commercial contest for etsy.com (a website where you can sell youre art or something). their theme for the advertisement is "a handmade moment".

here is a link to view the animation...  go and register so you can vote and stuff if you like it enough. (thanks in advanced!) i had a lot more i wanted to do, but i was getting impatient and wanted to move onto other projects :p im so a.d.d. or whatever.
here are some stills.



Sunday, June 28, 2009

barf.

whatever you do, do not watch this film.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

even if you notice that it has gary busey in it.
even if the trailer looks halfway decent.
even if the back cover description sounds like a romping, bloodbath of hilarity.


this film was awful and no one should have to sit through it. the gingerdead man is a whopping foot tall and useless and the only way it was able to kill anyone is because the characters would sit there and have the absolutely most mundane conversations you could possibly have when a serial killer-turned gingerbread man is after you after he was executed, cremated, and his ashes were snuck into a bakery by his mother to seek revenge on the girl who survived his first killing spree.

ugh and the worst part is they made a sequel. Gingerdead Man 2: the passion of the crust. blagh.

Friday, May 29, 2009

im on a train hahah

the commuter rail has wi-fi!
i bet you all already knew that, but i think its cool.

thats right, as i am posting this very post, i also happen to be riding backwards on a train! oh boy.

so as the lovely rainy central mass landscape passes me by quickly i will give you a quick update on whats been keeping me busy.

first of all me and some kids entered a contest that directv is having where you have you pitch a script and if they choose your script (1 of the 20) they will give you 5,000 dollars to make the film. when thats all done, the best film gets 15,000! here is the production packet i put together, i have never actually does this before.. but it was fun i guess. (its big so it might take a bit to load).

next, i have started doing photography again (i guess). so i took these pics of this lady with this instrument called the ghu zheng or something like that. they came out nice, but i am going to tweak them a bunch more.
36
30
1

and now since, i have decided i will not get a job this summer (i am not sure if it was really a decision as much as it has been a circumstance placed upon me, but lets say i have made a decision) i am going to do freelance stuff. photos, videos, animations, graphics! you name it! i will try my best to do it! and for cheap! tell your friends.
so i am making myself a website (as all freelancers should). i am trying to do something crazy in flash but i dont really know flash. it took me two days of research just to pull this off. it is far frm complete, but this is the general idea. its going to be a girl on a swing floating through clouds. the links will all be on clouds. i will try to throw a bunch o f easter eggs in their if i can.

and finally, i am going to be going to new orleans on tuesday to see my lovely amelia, and take a break from all of this! so we'll call it a hiatus for now. see yall in two weeks.

Friday, May 22, 2009

im hungry

... for knowledge!....?

im tired.

so these past few days of summer have felt extremely nonproductive. they go by so quickly. and by the end of the day there seems like so much left to do. 
i am also having a trouble with sleeping. i just sit down for two seconds and i wake up two hours later because some one ends up calling me. my schedule is wack!

here is a still image of an animated commercial im working on for a competition i am entering where you have to make a 30 second commercial about conserving energy or something. i have yet to do textures and more lights and i think im going to shallow up that depth of field. the winner apparently gets 10,000. but thats just absurd to think about.


seriously. if anyone knows of anyone who is looking for an employee, i am jobless and fearful of things staying that way for awhile...
in the meantime me and some buds are entering a bunch of competitions to see how those thigns go.

bye!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

THINGS THAT I REALLY LIKED THIS WEEK! VOL 4!

evvy's hell week is over!
but there i still much to be done.
here is a brief THINGS THAT I REALLY LIKED THIS WEEK... since im tired. and i am really sick. and i have to get a haircut soon.

VIDEOS!
hammock - mono no aware music video
this video only stands out to be me because it was shot by an emerson kid, and directed by an alumni and it is really pretty looking. i don't know if there is much of a story, but its mad pretty. a little long and repetitive.. but hey, its a music video for a post rock song...
this was nominated for outstanding cinematic production in the EVVY awards.


animation!
this one time...
this is an animation that was featured on vimeo and its great. the colors are awesome. the character design is super. and the animation itself is simple yet seamless. kudos for not needing to use music to make an awesome animation.


ANIMATION AND VIDEO!...?
evan sussman- escape
this film is just great. it was nominated for the best sound design evvy award, but the actual film wasn't made by an emerson kid, because if it were it would probably be nominated for a lot more than just that. it has a great integration of live action characters in a completely highly stylized animated world. plus it has a solid story. though it seems a bit repetitive at first, the pay off is excellent. enjoy.


im sorry i have not been posting anything lately of my own.. mostly i havent had time to do anything for myself lately. which is sad. but soon it will be summer and i will be without a job! yay!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

its been awhile

i have not been keeping up here. sorry, for all you loyal followers hahah. finals and now evvys production week have been killing me. ive been really tired.
i know a lot of you have seen this already, but here is the working intro to my computer animation that i want to finish during the summer... lets see how that goes.

in other news, i still don't know what im doing this summer. but i may be promoted to a manager at the digital production labs so i can work over the summer. That would be sweet. 
peace.

Monday, May 4, 2009

happy monday everybody.

swine flew.

i didn't want to work at all this week. so here is a drawing i did in illustrator. yes i know its a lame joke (shut up emiko).
click for full size.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

THINGS THAT I REALLY LIKED THIS WEEK! VOL 3!

hey pals. i cannot believe that this year is almost over. gah! so much has happen... maybe i'll have a end of the year wrap up of things that i really liked, but i'll probably be too lazy. i got big plans for this summer.. and right now none of them include internships or jobs.. thats not good. anyways. without further ado...

VIDEO!
i've decided for this week, after just coming back from the northern regional grand finale for campus movie fest, will have videos highlighting the best films of of the northern part of america that entered. and let me tell you. they are GOOD.

bridgewater state college - "scrabble: the motion picture"
there is no better way to describe this movie besides epically brain numbing entertainment. there are russians, and parties, blood, sweat, and tears. oh and a bazooka?? and in case you couldnt deduce from the title, its alll about scrabble. genius. did i mention they don't have a film program at their school? they deserved the "Best picture" award that they recieved.


Ohio State University- "Safety Rape"
the audience reaction when this film title came on was split. the half of the audience that had already seen the film was cupping their hands around their mouths and screaming, while the other half of the audience couldn't understand why anyone would be cheering for a film called "safety rape" silently braced themselves for the worst awkward moments ever.
luckily, for the latter group, this film is genius. hahah. just watch and enjoy... they also had a mad budget... can anyone say opening jib shot? this film won best comedy for the night.


Columbia University - The Tale of Timothy Robbins
the fact that this claymation movie was able to take home best drama is a testament to its awesomeness.. though i wouldn't classify this film as a dramatic piece, its got really well done claymation (done in a week???), with a cute little story. oh and DOMO makes a little cameo.
after watching this film i knew there was no way i was going to win hahah.


there were a handful of other really good films that i won't describe for the sake of saving space on this overly visually stimulating blog. so here are links to these awesome films

northeastern - breaking holden -great cast, great story (i think the actor won best actor for the night
new york university - last night in london - hilarious spoof off of jason statham's crank series.
Columbia university - surprise party - a great example of a simple film using a simple premise to great effect. this one had my mom laughing the hardest.
 

oh btw, in case you were wondering how my film did. it was the first out of the 14 films (out of 65 i think for the region) to be screened that night, which means my film will be moving onto the international grande finale in LA, which i probably won't be able to make unless they fly me their for free, and i probably won't go to anyways because there is not a chance i am getting much further than this, but this is further than i was expecting to get so tahts pretty awesome. also as an added perk, virgin america airlines chose my film to be one of the four from the night to be shown before their inflight films. so random people flying to idaho can watch my animation hahhaa. random, but cool.
also we got see rip torn, steve guttenberg, and judah friendlander, plus more! yay famous people... oh that reminds me, i have to show you one of judah friedlander's films he made when he was still in film school. hilarious. but that'll be for another post. moving on.

animation!
Charles Huettner- Mouth Ghost
this guy is an amateur animator after my own heart. he has a degree in fine arts, but has chosen to use his powers for good... this is one of my favorites by his.

Mouth Ghost from Charles Huettner on Vimeo.

google - chrome shorts

of course google would find a new and interesting way to showcase their new web browser they are launching called "google chrome" (meant to compete with safari, firefox, and the likes)

they commissioned a bunch of filmmakers and animators to make shorts that are meant to be informative (i was too distracted to really learn anything), but mostly are just pretty. here is a highlight reel.

i have no idea if the browser itself is good (of course it will be.. its made by google), but the shorts are awesome. to view the full shorts go to their website.

music!
the bird and the bee - my love

hahhaa this is sooo poppy, but sooo catchy and mad cute. mad cute. i honestly haven't been finding much new music lately because ive been busy with stuff, but i heard this on WERS in the emerson cafe and had to look it up. its probably going to fade away into another bleh song, but for now its great.
 


hope that holds you over til next week. love!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

karnival

hahaa, i was hoping to use this in my next issue of THINGS I REALLY LIKED THIS WEEK, but i couldn't wait to share it. these are amazing! okay... they really aren't that amazing, but they entertained me for a good ten minutes.

its a collection of shorts separated into ten episodes and you should just watch them. click on the image below to get to the website. see them all.

ive embedded one of my favorites here:




sorry i havent been posting in here as regularly as i used to (by regularly as i used to i mean every few hours), finals have got me busy and stuff. im hoping to be able to settle down and really work on some projects to show you once evvys are done... or maybe WHILE evvys are happening because im good at distracting myself like that.

while im here and not studying.. here are some frame grabs from the animation ive been working on for my 3d animation class... bleh. its only going to be one minute long when im done.. it was scripted to be 5. so basically its not going to have a story that makes sense and is just going to have a big TO BE CONTINUED at the end... just so i can turn it in for a grade sigh. there is never enough time. im hoping to finish it over the summer.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

house keeping, for my own reasons.

so here is an update more about my life and things that are happening than anything else. ill try and keep it short.

i found out this morning that i got nominated for three evvy awards, which is funny considering i only submitted for one category. no it is not rigged (as much as many would like to think), just some of the people i worked with in the past either submitted for me, or submitted with me. ive seen some of the things some of the other people have done and its not bad, so i dont think much will come out of the two random nominations. the only one i really care about is the outstanding animation category (big surprise). of course, being lame, i submitted balance hoping to get it seen some more. the other two things i got nominated for is outstanding visual effects in film or television (which i think is cheating because i wouldn't consider what was submitted to be a "visual effect", it was just a small animation), and outstanding graphics package (which the entire graphics team from last year submitted, haha i love those guys) we'll see what happens...

speaking of balance... the campus movie fest northern regionals is this saturday so amelia and i are going to nyc. woo! im doubtful i will get much further than this since campus movie fest isn't really a venue for animations, but ive enjoyed the ride thus far, and am content with what my week of work has given me already. i will let you know how that goes : /

speaking of balance.. again. this semester has had to have been the worst as far as me being able to balance my responsibilities. looking back, on this semester i can see that i have fallen behind in several of my projects, some projects i downright dropped, and many other projects have just lacked the concentration that they needed. though i feel like this has been a pretty productive semester and there are many things that i am proud of doing, there are a lot of things hanging over my head and it stinks. i still got a few more projects to go before the semester is over...

one of which is the evvy awards. this year will be kept in my mind for many reasons. but one of the reasons will probably be the fact that this year was plagued by my positions as the lead graphics for the 28th annual evvy awards. i wont go into too much, but it was a lot of work.
though i will admit, i learned a ton this year because of it... and i am WICKEd looking forward to hell week not even kidding. the idea of having an entire week to work on one project and one project alone (even if it is an entire show graphics package) sounds soooo good right now. plus i got good people around me. i think we might watch that documentary, helvetica. yes the movie that is entirely about a single font.

okay i think thats good for now. i was going to post about my summer plans, but i think i'll save that for another post.. mostly because its all up in the air and i dont even know what its going to look like yet. 

and i bet you thought i was going to go an entire post without a single visual element? YOURE CRAZY! this is for amelia heheh. i shot it on a crappy little digital camera that shoots videos that look like they were shot on a cell phone.



Monday, April 27, 2009

photos from last semester's class

to be completely honest, i hated my photo 1 class last semester. haha. it was miserable because i never had enough time and i never made anything i was really proud of and i hated the critiques because i knew they were all rubbish (hehe rubbish). i mean.. you guys all know how busy i was, and making a good print takes a good amount of time.

for my final project i did a series of light paintings. most of them came out messy, and really not all that interesting, but here they are. the one of bill and the swirly around his arm is probably one of the only prints i like from the semester and is actually going to be displayed in the developed images showcase gallery this wednesday april 29 from 7-9pm in the beard room of the little building, if anyone is interested in seeing it in real life (oooh!).

here are some of the pictures from the final project. pretty lame and over done in the photography world, but they have a nice effect.

as always, click to make it big!






Sunday, April 26, 2009

THINGS THAT I REALLY LIKED THIS WEEK! VOL 2!

and here it is again. some stuff to keep you distracted during the final push towards summer.
and what a mighty fine push it will be.

VIDEO!
hbo voyeur
it was hard to categorize this piece because of its innovative cross-media approach, but i had to share because it is pretty remarkably awesomely cool and fresh. basically the premise is you are able to watch the lives of 8 different rooms in a single apartment complex occurring simultaneously on the same screen. it is meant to tap into the our voyeuristic curiosity and the pleasure we get in simply watching other people without their knowledge of being watched (which is one of the main reasons films in general are so appealing). though it is at first overwhelming because we are trained to follow one single story line in any given film, but this film gives you the opportunity and the choice to follow one, two, or all at once, which is beautiful because they often interact with each other and they often cross paths, but they are all wholly complete stories.
not only is it a great premise, but it is beautifully lit and shot, and over all works as a great interactive film that probably needs to be watched at least a few times to really be appreciated it.
there are people being killed, fathers leaving their families, lonely women in their studios, families in arguments, families with parties, fire, ghosts, and everything else. so if you have the time or if youre at all curious go the website by clicking on the picture below. it is well worth the time.


ANIMATION!
these sick animated advertisements
i dont even want to give away who these commercials are for. just try and guess. I DARE YOU! they are so bizarrely trippy and fun to watch and make absolutely no sense. and then the end comes and you see an image of the product and everything falls into place. genius hahah. also two points for taking a risk because these are definitely not kid friendly. i read an article about how the economy can do that to companies... make them actually try to do something new and interesting.


books!
tales from outer suburbia - shaun tan
this alleged children's book is full of wistfully surreal stories and beautifully drawn paintings and is probably far too strange for any child really fully grasp what is occurring let alone understand what bigger thing the author might be pointing towards.
 its great. there are silent buffalos that sit silently in field pointing children in the "right direction". there are two inch tall foreign exchange students. there are monsters, and myths, and anything else you probably never thought about including in a picture book. i'll probably read these to my kids when i have some. it will either make them incredibly creative making a ton of money so they can feed me when i get old or incredibly crazy and in jail. either way, you should do the same to your children.




something completely different but still pertaining to this week...
GAZEBALL Z HAS RETURNED! THATS RIGHT!!!! THE GAME YOU GUYS ALL LONGED FOR DURING THOSE COLD WINTER NIGHTS IS BACK AND READY TO KICK YOUR POOR UNATHLETIC BUTT INTO SOME SEMBLANCE OF HEALTHY!
we played gazeball z for the first time in forever and it was awesome. we welcomed four newcomers to the game, two of which were complete strangers who just happened to be at the gazebo at the time.
for those who are not in the know gazeball z is the greatest game ever invented. maybe i will dedicate a post to some pictures and some instructions in case oyu ever want to start up your own game with the neighbors!

until next time, you little punks.

Friday, April 24, 2009

think of it as a visual snack

this is what i do instead of work. sigh. i need to really do something about my inability to concentrate.

here are some pictures i took of some classy ladies on a packy run (haha i want to kill myself) in chinatown. its all natural, found light... i made sure they made their eyes super big so that the light would hit it hahaha, torie thought i was being racist.



lit via a cvs pharmacy window.


basically i told them to stand really really close to a glowing map kiosk. :p


oooh grain!