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.)