SecondFaded Writes

3D Blog - Animation Movies in 2017

8:32 AM

This week it's all about the movies in the animation genre that will be showing this year. Animated movies are more categorized as suitable for the whole family for its' cartoonish unreal content, and it suits the whole family. For kids, they don't enjoy watching people talking but when it comes to colorful animals or object talking, they love it so much. That is why animations were made mainly for kids.

I am a kid inside me and also a soon to be an animator, so animations were used to entertain me and for me to use as a reference. Here are a few animation feature films that I am excited for.

The Lego Batman Movie

The original lego movie has shown the production team's capabilities, it sort of blends stop motion and animation filmmaking together. I am very excited to see how they could use mix and match both concepts together. Making a batman movie is hard, let alone a lego movie. The point is to make the whole fun and colorful lego movie into a dark and dangerous batman movie.

Rock Dog

The trailer for the movie looks promising, it is a rare occasion for me to see a movie made by an American and Chinese company. It is another country boy having his dreams and wanting to make it come true, and then he goes to the big city and the story goes on. I want to see what new technology they implemented and how the animation looks like when two different filmmakers from across the world would make.

Leap!

This is another movie that gets my attention when I watch the trailer, it uses a wonderful concept and the visual suits the theme. The first few seconds fooled me, I thought it would be as good as Tintin the animated movie, but I have high expectations on the storyline.

The Boss Baby

This movie by Dreamworks shows how sometimes you can be weird and mix match different stuff together. Some people love it, some people think it's cute, some people think it's annoying. I think this movie will be a good feature film because the company made a lot of movies I love to watch in my childhood.

Cars 3

After 11 years, the company finally comes out with a new sequel to continue the story, I personally like but not love the concept since Cars 2 has not too much to show, I am excited to see how the sequel would goes.

3D Blog - Image Formats and How to Use Them

3:13 AM

File formats, more specifically image formats has been widely been heard of as their short forms, whether png or jpeg. But no one actually questioned its' full form or how different forms have different uses because the internet doesn't require any people to memorize their full name, it simply works in their short form.

Here's a list of their full form names and what are they meant for.

JPEG and JPG, both Joint Photographic Experts Group, used to store images on the internet. For decades they have confused a lot of people which are which and what are the difference. Originally jpeg, but for Windows file system, files are limited to 3 file extension, so jpeg are shortened to only jpg. Jpeg or Jpg are both saved with jpeg extension to avoid confusion and both usable in the current Windows and Mac computers.

PNG, full form for Portable Network Graphics is an alternative for Gif format, it's a file format for images online and photography. Photographers often prefer editing Png compared to Jpeg because it can store more information and its lossless compression. PNG can also support optional transparency for all palette colors.

TIFF, also know as Tagged Image File Format. It's a flexible format that can save 8 or 16 bits per color (24-bit and 48-bit total), the tagged structure are easily extendible. Hence, many vendors have created their own version of tags, making it hard to handle with only one program. TIFF are also not widely supported by web browsers, but widely accepted by photography printing business because it can be saved in some digital cameras in lossless or lossy format.

GIF, originally Graphics Interchange Format are limited to 8-bit palette (256 colors) and they are most suitable for storing graphics with few colors. For example, shapes, diagrams, logos and cartoonish images. It is almost universally software supported and due to its animation capabilities, GIF is best known as animated images online. There are websites dedicated to providing Gifs for users who want to share it on their social media like Facebook and Whatsapp.

RAW, they are named raw because they are not yet processed and they are not ready to print and edit, they played the same role as negatives in film photography with much more information stored than normal image files. Raw images are normally processed and converted into positive file format like TIFF or JPEG for storing and printing. They are plenty of raw formats that different equipment used, most commonly DNG format (Digital Negative) that is used in cameras starting 2006.

Often confusing, but they all have their benefits of using, so using multiple formats can help in multiple scenarios when doing artwork.

That Film - The Incredibles

11:46 PM

The journal for this week for Film Studies is to write about feminism again. But based on a different film. An animation in 2004, The Incredibles from Pixar Animation studios has blended in the concept of feminism in the making of this film, feminism in this film uses the way of the male gaze. The male gaze is to view the world from a masculine point of view, presenting female characters as an object to bring pleasure to the male characters.

The male gaze is presented in three perspectives, first is that of a person behind the camera, the second one was characters within the representation or film itself, the last one was the view as a spectator of the film. The male gaze often brings the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man, the woman is typically displayed in two types of level, one as an erotic object for both of the characters in the movie and also the audience watching the film.

The first feminist representative is Violet, the teenage girl with the force field power is shy, obedient and lack of self-confidence. Her attitude apparently reflects her power in one way and another, given that it is not well explained to the audience. With the power of invisible or stealth, it makes her shy to the society. Her force field power on the other side explains that she is low on self-esteem. Edna Mode, the fashion designer for superheroes, she is an example of strong women. She has no superpowers, but a strong attitude, she is always very confident at the things she is doing. Edna is a very talented woman, having to design the suits for superheroes with the finest materials possible she's smart on inventing materials that helps superheroes. One of the groups of woman she belongs to is the elitist, the top of the best in this society.

Helen, also know as Elastic girl, she is an example of a good wife, being a mother of three. Just like Violet, her powers reflects her personality very much. Having elasticity makes her a flexible housewife, she do several things and handle her kid's fight. She is also strong and protective, this makes her family oriented. Helen can put her own happiness aside to investigate her husband when her husband acts suspiciously when he came back home. Most of all, she is a dominant and independent woman that knows best at strategizing things for the whole family. Kari, the babysitter for the Incredibles family has played a small part in the movie, but she demonstrated a very fine example of feminist, she is those kinds of woman that thinks she can handle everything but fails at it. She is talkative, which makes her only knows how to talk but doesn't do it. Mirage is the white hair girl that works for Syndrome, she is a kind of femme fatale, using her sexuality as an advantage to reach her goals. For example, she lures all the superheroes into the trap and helped Syndrome to wipe their existence.

At the end of the day, feminism wants the female population to make choices and be confident with it. It has produced strong messages in films that make girls stronger than they used to be, telling them they can be whoever they want as long as they believe in themselves. Overall, the movie brilliantly demonstrates the concept of feminism, and has show the world how woman should be.

That Film - Easy A

3:43 AM

This week is a different topic in film studies, in this technologically advanced society, people with access to the internet has the advantage of living an equal life as others, regardless of gender. We all know that the male population has always been the dominant gender in the past thousand years of human history, this has something to do with the human nature, where the male population was born to have a more masculine body structure, the society expects the male population to raise the family. This leaves no space fo the female population to gain power, and until this era, it has been different once and for all. The female population started to rise, hence bringing out the concept of feminism.

In feminism, it stereotyped the type of female in few types in pretty much every feminist movie. The very common type was the strong female, the archetype that is very supportive of the rising of feminism. Strong female characters in films are being criticized as representing women as unrealistically strong, far from the real world. This type of feminist often has a strong character, compared to the term used to describe strong male characters, male characters which are strong often are seen as physically strong or attractive, and also referred as a hero or villain. The second type is femme fatale, this term can be traced way back in the early days of human history, this type of female has the power to seduce men to achieve their own goals and purpose, often using beauty, charm, and sexual allure. Femme fatale are seen as evil or going against moral and always bringing that mystification feeling for men.

It does not end here, the third type of feminist is the type of good wife, this kind of feminist have realistic expectations, works in the workforce, and take cares of the family, it is what a man want their women to be. The fourth type is blondes, this type of female usually has the sassy type and super girly type of behavior. The last type of feminist stereotypes is brunettes, they were seen as the character that understands stuff and is often smart. Stereotypes are still stereotypes at the end of the day, but feminist movies like to use it to blend in with their character's attitude.

Now, let's talk about the use of feminist characteristics in the movie Easy A (2010) directed by Will Gluck. Here's a brief summary of the movie, Olive, a 17-year-old girl from a typical American high school lies to her best friend Rhiannon about losing her virgin to a college guy. Marianne, a religious girl then overheard the conversation and spread this rumor to the whole school. The next day, Olive was the talk of the school, at first she found it annoying, but after a while, the attention excites her. And she started taking it as a benefit, she would sell her reputation for money, boys who have no luck with girls would go to her to beg Olive that they have sex with her. No long later, the school started called her a slut, and no one wants to sit with her. There are many conflicts happening in this movie, at the end, she told everyone to watch her live show online, and with that, she exposed the truth and everyone that took her for granted falls apart one by one. Things started to go normally that day on for her, her reputation was once recovered.

There is an obvious usage of feminist stereotypes on characters in this movie. I here listed down five characters with five types of feminist characteristics. The first type is strong female which is Olive, the main character who is smart, independent and sympathetic. Olive is a smart girl, she knows what to do even in the toughest situations, also she uses her intelligence in handling situations where guys buy favors from her, she knows how to make money from being called a slut. Strong female often are the ones who can stand independently be alone, just like Olive, she can be alone after her best friend left her. She is also sympathetic, she pity those who can't fit into the society by helping them.

The second character is Rhiannon who is a blonde, she has all the characteristics a stereotypical blonde has. In contemporary pop culture, blonde girls are proven to be more attractive than girls with other hair colors. She is a girl that loves to gossip and wants to be attractive, but also dumb and got tricked easily. The third type of feminist stereotype is the character Olive, is also a femme fatale, she uses her sexuality to made money from the guys that beg her for favors. She is the school guidance counsellor, Mrs. Griffith is the good wife in this movie, she takes care of the family and have a very good relationship with her husband. Marianne is a strong female, she is a religious girl with a very strict attitude, she is also the leader of a religious group in school.

Overall, this is a great movie, but not the best movie, the story line can be better. But this has shows the stereotypes of feminism as assumed by the society, even if some are not true.

That Film - Bicycle Thieves

7:58 AM

This week I am writing about Italian Neorealism with this Italian film called Bicycle Thieves (1948), directed by Vittorio De Sica. This film has won a number of awards because it is very different other Italian films in that era, after the World War 2. While other countries like France are still struggling to recovery from the war, Italy surrendered early and has a faster recovery and more resource for filmmaking.

The plot of the movie is a father, Antonio together with his son, Bruno on a quest to find Antonio's bicycle. Bicycle at that age of time is a luxury to everyone, making the character
having to find it desperately. The bicycle was traded with items, and with this bicycle, Antonio can get a decent job to raise his family. Unfortunately, while he was doing the job he newly got, a thief came by and drove it away from him, his struggle begins here. The next day he started traveling around with his son to search for it, they found the thief, but there are not enough evidence. This is how I could summarize the whole movie.

Moving on, let's talk about Italian Neorealism. This type of film generally is a duplication of reality, using movies to recreate real life situations. What different from ordinary movies is that most movies are not true, a movie that is based off an event will have it's own point of view, meaning it is only using someone's interpretation that does not define reality. The idea of this type of film movement is to use mise-en-scene and shots to adapt into film storytelling. For example, having a long take can make the audience focus more than the character, a shot that has a character standing in the middle of a large scenery shot, the audience would look at the scenery after the character. This can help make the movie bring out a more immersive experience. A great example is when Antonio and his son were walking in the city, the camera took a long take to show the details of the city, having the sense of they are in a city filled with people but not themselves only.

Suggested by Cesare Zarattini, this method is a new type of approach in Italian cinema in 1942. Neorealism has got in touch with the current society instead of a movie with portrayals of perfection like a society filled with handsome, beautiful and rich characters. This has attracted a lot of other filmmakers from other countries to use this method, spreading this method to the world. What is so different from ordinary films is that this approach does not use plots because a well-planned movie is very fake, the use of real life people as actors is also another fact that this method is unique. This is because professional actors have taken training in acting, giving out a fake structure, while ordinary people will have a more realistic reactions to the situation given.

On the dark side of this film approach, it did not do so well in Italy, except for the rest of world. The other cinemas love it, and slowly the cinemas in India, Hong Kong, and Japan started using it. Italy did not do well because the society doesn't want to be reminded of the past tragedy, even the Italian government does not favor this kind of filming method. It praises contemporary social realism, which is unconditionally emphasizing the ordinaries of the current time. This movie was made in between the post-war rebuild of Italy which is in 1945 until 1949, it uses one type of filming style to make it as grainy as possible to emphasize on the sufferings of the characters. This melodrama which sent out the message of how sad people in Italy at that time is to unite the people in the end of the day.

Verdict - This movie has a very realistic storyline that brings out together with real life events in the past, the use of Italian neorealism in this movie has brilliantly enhanced the hardship of the characters and make it feel more like an event than a plotted movie. Overall, I really like the movie.

That Film - The Maltese Falcon

1:21 AM

This week I will be writing about how The Maltese Falcon could relate to Neo-Noir Film.

Neo-Noir : The Concept

Niko Frank, a film critic has called films in this category as film noir, which stands for black films in French. Film noir features a wide world of criminals, that is where the darkness and violence come in. All the character's central motives are greed, lust and ambition. There is no good person in this type of films. The main way to differentiate this type films from others in that era has 3 main components, which is visuals, characters, and narrative. On visuals, film noir is very different from usual crime films in the 20s and the 30s, generally speaking ,the main character only has characteristics what we called as a good. Also, crowded and narrow rooms tend to highlight the visuals. But in film noir, the main character is an anti-hero, we are watching his story, but he does not look like a typical main character in crime films, it can be called a protagonist.

When it comes to characters, everyone in film noir is bad people, this mirrors the real world that everyone is not completely good, there is no pure good in the world, we are always paranoid. If there is a nice person, we would be worried about what that person was hiding. The last component to look into is narrative, there is a hopeless tone going on and death in movies like these is certain. Neo-noir films have specific settings that were very different from ordinary films, the city bounds are a corrupted and criminal filled, the shadows represents that every good has its evil, the lines which create distortion and enhance the story and characters in thus the criminalistic abnormal world.

Narratives also include the way the female characters were shown in film noir, they were tearing up all the time, using this schoolgirl act to reach their goals, also using sexuality to get what they wanted. Film noir is here to punish the girls that reflect that time period in the 40s, it shows a lot of questioning of ambitious female. The old film noir is a type of film that female characters were jailed, the new type of film noir these days is a type of genre that leaves female characters getting married and leaving the city to have a simple life.

Neo-Noir and The Maltese Falcon

It is quite clear that one could call The Maltese Falcon if they watched the movie and know the characteristic of Neo-Noir films. I will state it out one by one in the below paragraphs.

First and foremost, in The Maltese Flacon, the main character detective Sam Spade has the character of a detective but also a thief, he solves crimes and mysteries with a twist, he lies to his woman and put money as his first priority. The film demonstrates a very narrow setting, all the rooms are filled with furniture and there is no visual space for the audience to breath, also the lack of space for the characters to move brings out a feeling of people are trapped in that world. The use of lights in this film is brilliant, presenting the shadows of the characters, this shows that every character has a chance of being the bad guy, for example, the character Joel Cairo who looks like a gentleman, one moment he was talking gently to Sam Spade, another moment threatening him with a gun. This shows that people in the real world cannot be trusted completely if you are not on the side of someone, they could become your enemy.

The female characters in this movie often used the schoolgirl act to take the male characters to advantage, they usually use their sexuality to achieve their goals. And at the end, the girl Ruth Wonderly was betrayed by her own boss and got into jail, even at the time she was about to get caught, he used her sexuality to avoid getting into jail.

Verdict

Personally, I am not a fan of black and white vintage films, the most I could accept is films in the 70s. The culture and the way of life are very hard to relate if the film was very old. But I really enjoy the way they film this movie and the storyline has taught me that people back in the day how they react to situations and the way they talked.

That Film - In the Mood for Love

12:58 AM

This week our lecturer want us to write about the relationship between French Impressionist cinema and a Hong Kong movie called "In the Mood of Love" (2000), it is a romance movie that wants to picture the life of both a man and a woman which are neighbors living in Hong Kong in the 1960s.

Plot

A newspaper editor Mr.Chow moves into a building with his wife the same time as Ms. Su and her husband. Despite their spouse often working out late, Chow and Su became friends and hang out together very often, this is because they went to the same noodle stall and have the common interest of martial arts. Things were going fine for them until both of their spouses were suspected having an affair. Feeling confused and questioned, they try to maintain their friendship while recreating the scenes that how their love ones cheat on them.

French Impressionism Cinema

The movie has emphasized on using French impressionist cinema techniques, there are 4 categories to differentiate this technique from others which are camerawork, mise-en-scene, editing patterns and optical devices.

As for camerawork, there are different types of categories that could explain this technique. One is the camera distance to show a synecdoche, symbol or subjective image. By using close-up, it focuses on the character’s emotions and let the audience feel their perspective in the movie. For example, when the both main characters were standing in front of their doorstep, preparing to open the door. Another example is when they both were eating inside a restaurant, the camera focuses on the faces to show their emotions. Another part of camerawork is the camera angles. They used peeping angle to show what people is thinking about them, because they did everything very secretly, raising suspicion.

The second aspect used in French Impressionism Cinema is Mise-en-scene. When talking about lighting, one could tell that the mood changes with the lighting. The scenes which are dark or only with one light source represents loneliness or hiding from the outside society. The third way to show it is the arrangement and movement of figures in space. For example, in the scene that focuses on the smoke on top of Chow, it shows that his mind is very cloudy.

The third aspect optical devices, filmmakers in French impressionism uses it for multiple reason, one of it as significant details. One of the brilliant examples is when shooting scenes involving their cheating spouses, the face of them were not revealed, this is because it is not important to the story. This has emphasized that the story only focuses on the two main characters and also to sympathize the two main characters Mr. Chow and Ms. Lu.

Another type is using optical devices as conveyors of abstract meanings, when there are shots that both the characters are buying noodles, it shows the time they spent meeting each other and getting close to each other, as an abstract meaning, they are becoming friends as time passed by.

The last aspect is when a film is using characteristic editing patterns, it could relate to French Impressionist cinema. The first way is to include temporal relations between shots to indicate flashback moments or fantasy. For example, there are some scenes where the both characters freezes, to show that they are embedding the moment as a memory.

Impressions

The movie has a number of hidden messages and has put camerawork to good use, I really enjoy watching movies like that, especially a movie that was filmed by Kar Wai Wong. Overall it is a great movie and the actors are very good in bringing out the aspects of the characters.