concept revisited

Ok time to catch back up. After reading various text on depression and happyness i felt that i should become more specific with my concept than just dealing with antidepressants. (for this class at least) I'm attempting still to get through Prozac Nation and i can't decide whether i want to stop listening or feel bad for her. The book nearly made me feel depressed while listening to her hopeless views on life. This inspired me to be a little more lighthearted. I also want to comment on other possible remedies people use for even temporary happiness. What makes us happy? I have often found that it's the small things that keep me going as i always try to find enough to fuel my spirit.

Research and Concept

"It seemed that we were still operating with the same ol rules: Once you feel desperate enough to be institutionalized, there is help available, and insurance to cover the cost; until then, you're on your own kid" p131, Prozac Nation

This line seemed like a good starting point for me. This book made me question the idea of needing help from a professional when it came to psychology. Understanding one another as well as ourselves seems to be a complete necessity of being alive. Understand ourselves so we aren't detrimental to another and understand others so they do not hurt ourselves. Not that therapists are unnecassary, but their image as being the only ones able to help a mentally ill individual through their problems is unfounded. The best help i've recieved in life has always come through new individuals who have challenged the way i think and caused me to realize potentials that i never thought possible. Anyone may inspire you to push through this difficult ride we call life.

What gets worse is our countries current infatuation with drug remedies. Just take this little pill and all your sad thoughts will go away without you having to struggle and achieve a sense of self-worth at all. POOF! you will be the perfect human being. I have researched - and will continue to read through - a number of books dealing with topics from dissassociative disorders and antidepressants to bioenergetics and the science behind moods. The sociology experiments from youtube.com were researched to understand why certain trends in our culture prevail and how fear constricts and warps our own perspective without us knowing. All of which could aid pharmaceutical support for such a seemingly obvious failure. We certainly do not understand the human mind enough to be fooling around with the chemical make-up. Giving a suicidal-depressed person energy had an adverse affect on some, allowing them the motivation needed to go through with a suicide attempt. Even if suicide does not happen, from what i've heard from talking to friends that are on various antidepressants, one feels happier, yet the happiness is still known to be a false reality. The increased serotonin gave energy to move and complete tasks yet they felt nearly robotic in that they did not care whether something would hurt others or even sometimes themselves. So does prozac turn off our inner voice i can't say for sure although i have had urges to experiment myelf. I did at one time go through therapy and found that all the help i needed came from the fact that i had an opinion of someone who was completely rational and told me his honest opinion of myself and my situation. It helped having someone support me to say, you are actually doing the right thing even though nothing seems to be working out because of it.

I wish to use 1950's art deco style to hint at the high societal demands of the time, as well as the "robotic" thinking that can be affiliated with antidepressants. I want to do an animation that seems to be a short t.v. segment from a fictional dystopia of our own 1950's. A small t.v. segment will be ended by a t.v. commercial for a made-up chip that's the most recent update needed to be the most productive robot.

Books i have checked out
Prozac Nation, The Science of Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Mood, Bioengergetics, Mad Travelers: Reflections on the Reality of
Transient Mental Ilnesses, The Myth of Sanity: Divided consciousness and the Promis of Awareness,
and my curiosity's favorite Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Technique of Milton H Erickson, M.D.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmwSC5fS40w&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sstoa406Oa0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh0iOd3KEAY&feature=related (i know it's o'reilly. This episode makes me dislike the man even more.. the doctor makes some good remarks tho.)

ken burned

ok, so i watched civil war and national parks clips from ken burns and kept looking to see when i would find his effect. It wasn't until i finished watching national parks that i realized that his effect was the use of zooming in on an image and panning across it... really? THAT'S his revolutionary style that got his own name for? Needless to say, in comparison to The Kid Stays in the Picture i was let down tremendously. Why would someone get his own name for something that only seems logical. Anyways National Parks was a much better job of it. It actually had a nice instance where you didn't know what was coming until you were on top of it then zoomed out to a nice shot of a cowboy silhouetted against a grand landscape. If anything the way that an image is revealed by the pan is nice but it really isn't much of a feat. I guess someone had to do it first.

The Kids Picture Realms to Stay in the Unreal, or (Creative Antisocials and Determined Charismatics)

The first film, In the Realms of the Unreal, a quiet janitor who stayed in his own room and talked to himself using various voices ended up died and had his giant fantasy book discovered in his room. Not only was he writing but he was illustrating detailed battle scenes between pretentious army men and little blond girls who were enslaved by the adults. The film would take his elaborate illustrations and cut out characters to animate them fighting or flying around. It was an interesting technique however i was not much impressed. Flags and smoke was attempted to look as though they were moving. however it was painfully obvious it was just a cutout stiffly waning back and forth. Might as well have left it out or used composite footage or particle animations. This was successfully done in the better of the two, The Kid Stays in the Picture. Text and cutouts were well layered over another to create a great feel. At times it was obvious they had a full access to paparazzi shots for Robert would move 5 seconds ahead at a time while the background would do the same at a separate pace. Composite footage of smoke was also used to great effect at times while newspaper clippings of Evans would slide past each other on the screen. I found Robert Evans story strangely uplifting and inspiring for myself. He pushed through so many obstacles and people who told him he couldn't do it. There was always a way and in the end he was helped up by those he had helped in the past. This movie gave me hope to push through whatever comes my way.

Three Ideas

Before i get too ahead of myself in the actual animation i want, i should think of a good foundation to build off of. What do I care about to make an animation about? I like the idea of using various mythologies to support a more universal spiritual identity that i believe. Another idea i could run with is my disagreement with how offended people become because of stereotyping. Everyone is stereotyped based on how they dress combined with their overall attitude. It's called a first impression and most of the time if you see a dark colored man with a size xxl shirt and two pairs of boxers (both showing) is it "racial profiling" for him to be stopped and searched or is it just an overall first impression that he could possibly be a vagrant? I guarantee the same man in a suit (even if he didn't have the money to keep it well kempt) would be less likely to be assumed as up to no good. We all show ourselves the way we want to be seen so there is no reason to hold it against someone else for their first impressions. The third idea deals a little more politically. After seeing war movies it hit me that when America enters into a country we go in like we own the place. Military expects to be alpha male, pointing guns at whoever has them and expects for them to disarm. Just as two dogs getting into a fight and the other is expected to roll over and be submissive. The flaw in this is that we our demeanor commands that whoever it is either bends over to our will or die.. There is no cooperation or mutual agreement in this. Everyone else is america's bitch until someone kicks our own ass. And it will happen, just as the bully in our playground grew up and became a loser that knew nothing of love. (unless he changed of course.)