Brent's Reviews - Don Jon

We Are Brothers

Two brothers were asked to be the best men at their older brother's wedding. Instead, they made this video. Its well shot, well planned, minimal, 80s and delightfully strange.

School of Motion

There are some good tutorials here that cover the basics and principles of animation in AE and C4D.  Check out the School of Motion to up your game.

Aspect Ratio Calculator

4x3? 16x9? 2.35:1? What the hell? Here's a handy aspect ratio calculator you can use to make sure your web videos can fit anywhere.

And here's a little bit o' history...

The Changing Shape of Cinema: The History of Aspect Ratio from FilmmakerIQ.com on Vimeo.

Mega Plush

Following Josh's post with the AT-AT, here's another 'toy' coming to life in fantastic form using a completely different approach.  The story may not be all that original, but there were some nicely composed shots in this piece, as well as some pretty well-used short camera moves/focus pulls which make all the difference in pulling the viewer into a 3-D animation.  Look out for Greyscale Gorilla's City Kit!



The Mega Plush from Matt Burniston on Vimeo.

The Lazy Phone

Let's start things off right with something about Android ;) Motorola has recently attached "a Google company" to their logo and with that comes a Google budget.

To showcase the powers of their new flagship, Motorola has come up with "The Lazy Phone" ad campaign. Being a Google lover in general, I think they are pretty great.

This is my favorite


You can find the rest on their youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/motorola?feature=watch

A New Member Of The Stew Approaches!!!

Let's give him an aromatic, chunky, slow cooking Awesome Stew welcome. Justin Tiell everyone.

Steven Spielberg grabbin a handful

PSA - BGSU Class Project

My classmate and I filmed this PSA this past weekend for my Video II class. I want to thank Dave and Micah for their critique, and Dave for his golden voice.

Coin

This is one of the best things I've seen in a while.  So much good stuff going on here from an animation standpoint.  It also prompted nostalgic feelings - making me miss old video games, and their crazy story-arcs. 

Coin from EXIT 73 studios on Vimeo.

History of Film Part III

1927 - Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, is released. This film was made in the time of German Expressionism. Lang, half Jewish, fled Germany after the German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (depicted in Tarentino's Inglorious Basterds) asks him to lead the German propaganda studio UFA. His career greatly contributed to the history of cinema by creating conventions that led to film-nior. Consequently, Metropolis was Hitler's favorite film.

German Expressionism Narrative Elements:

• žStories centered around dreams, the supernatural or the fantastic 
• Large number of plots involve selling or losing soul, giving in to darker nature (personified by doppelganger figure), or making deal with the devil
• žEmphasis on psychological horror 
• Preoccupation with loss of sanity and/or loss of self

German Expressionism Stylistic Elements:

• Highly stylized mise-en-scène used to reflect characters’ inner mental states as well as to create mood
• Use of chiaroscuro lighting; emphasis on contrast between light and shadow for expressive purposes
• Use of framing and optical effects for expressive purposes

    

AT-AT Day Afternoon

This made my Friday that much better. And this guy's got some skills.

AT-AT day afternoon from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

And the making of..

Making of AT-AT day afternoon from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

Computational Design of Mechanical Characters

How Long Can a Fake Smile Last?

Considering how many times we've tried to pull this off, this something to keep in mind for future work. It's kind of more fun to watch by skipping around...

How long can a fake smile last? from Christiano Abrahao on Vimeo.

Honest Trailers - World War Z

Seems like something Brent would post. But I found it first haha!

Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling

Another gem from Justin "Internet Navigator" Tiell. It's too good not to post. Perhaps Just should become an author on The Stew? Which rule do you think you'll find most useful?

1.You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
2.You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
3.Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
4.Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
5.Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
6.What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
7.Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
8.Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
9.When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
10.Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
11.Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
12.Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
13.Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
14.Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
15.If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
16.What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
17.No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
18.You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
19.Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
20.Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
21.You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
22.What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

How to Report the News

Don't Fear Death

Dave, Chris and I were reflecting on the cartoons of our child/teen hood. Specifically, Rocko's modern life. It was grotesque, sardonic and hysterical. I think that's why we may be able to really appreciate something this dark.

The writing is so spot on and the animation is so great, you'll beg for death...

Don't Fear Death from Dice Productions on Vimeo.

The Scarecrow

This guilt trip is brought to you by Justin Tiell.

All kidding aside, I'm really interested in creating a story that promotes or inspires change without words. You could argue that everything in this piece is symbolic. Why are the workers scarecrows when there a humans walking around and eating fast food? Why is "big business" personified by crows? Why the music choice?

HIstory of Film Part I & II

I'm learning a lot of interesting stuff in my History of Film class at BGSU. Every week I want to share a piece of film history and what would shape cinema today. Here are the first 2 weeks.

1895 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere patent the cinematrographe, which served as camera, printer and projector all in one. It was lighter and smaller than Edison's kinetograph. This allowed films to be shown for the first time to mass audiences. Here is one of the first films made, Arrival of a Train (1895) by the Lumiere brothers to showcase their camera.




1906 - 1908 - Multi-reel films or 'features' were experimented both in France and the U.S. It was thought that audiences had short attention spans, so only one film reel (10-15 minutes) was used to create movies. However, after features were shown to audiences, there was no turning back. Here is Cabiria (1914), an Italian film that is very important to the success of multi-reel films.

Spot the Helpless Animal

Article

Star Trek Into Darkness Title Design

Pretty ridiculous that they created this with AE and Element 3D. However, I'm fairly certain this would make any of our computers hemorrhage and die, so don't go asking me for some in depth planet fly through with fiery stars.

How to Choose a Board Game

What the inside of Micah's head looks like.

Youtube Series That Chris Likes

Hey all, at lunch today Josh, Dave, and I were talking about Youtube. I just wanted to share some of the better series and content that I've seen recently.

CARTOON HANGOVER
This group is from the same brian that brings you Adventure Time.  I haven't watched all of Bravest Warriors (that seems very similar to Adventure Time in terms of Style), but I have watched their 2 episodes of Bee and PuppyCat and I really like it.




THE ANGRY VIDEO GAME NERD
Admittedly, this is a series more suited for someone who likes video games. That being said, this is the most entertaining video game review show I've seen. What I like about it is The Nerd tries to tie a story into the review, so it's not just someone making observations all the time. The quality is very DIY which I can appreciate, given that he's been around since the dawn of Youtube and has made over 100 episodes. Below is a good example of one of his better episodes.

What's Happenin' Phil

I just found out Beverly Hills Cop 4 in development, yeah!. In honor, here is a clip from the first one. *Office discretion advised

Anthony Scott Burns - MANIFOLD

These two teasers are blowing my mind. The first two establishing shots that involve cars are just incredible. And I'm very quickly looking forward to filming something "meant" for black and white. The compositions are out of control; I want to shoot like this...

However, I don't see why this person would want anyone to embed his stuff. I apologize for the hyperlinks...

MANIFOLD - Teaser 1

MANIFOLD - Teaser 2

Bob Ross on Wireless Mic

BGSU Class Project

This past Wednesday our teach told my classmate and I to, "Go out and shoot a news story. Oh and it has to be uploaded to YouTube so you can send me the link...and it has to be done in 1.5 hours. GO.", We used my partner's R&B/Rap guy as our story. It sucks, but here it is.

In Spirit of the Start of College Football this Season

Cringe Comedy

Late Night Work Club presents GHOST STORIES

11 inspiring works from some very amazing animators. I can't say enough how I've been waiting all year for this. And Late Night Work Club delivered. For those that don't know Late Night Work Club is a loose, rotating collective of indie animators. Over the past year they have been working diligently between their day jobs to create short films based on the theme "Ghost Stories." It's great to see 11 very different works of art come out of this theme. At the same time it was also interesting to see how some of them incorporated the idea of technology into their stories. I'll be curious to see how that will come up more and more in horror films in the future.

Enjoy the show.

Films:
00:45 - I Will Miss You by Dave Prosser - (daveprosser.co.uk)
04:46 - The Jump by Charles Huettner - (charleshuettner.tumblr.com/)
07:22 - The American Dream by Sean Buckelew - (seanbuckelew.com/)
09:53 - Mountain Ash by Jake Armstrong & Erin Kilkenny - (jakedraws.tumblr.com/) & (erinkilkenny.com/)
14:29 - Rat Trap by Caleb Wood - (vimeo.com/calebwood)
16:23 - Loose Ends by Louise Bagnall - (elbooga.blogspot.com/)
18:47 - Phantom Limb by Alex Grigg - (alexgrigg.com/)
23:02 - Asshole by Conor Finnegan - (conorfinneganan.tumblr.com/)
25:22 - Ombilda by Ciaran Duffy - (hellociaran.com/)
29:39 - Post Personal by Eamonn O'Neill - (eamonnoneill.ie/)
32:31 - Last Lives by Scott Benson - (bombsfall.com/)

Comedy Central Roast of James Franco

Viewer discretion advised son.

Comedy Central