"FlatLife"

A Short Film By Jonas Geirnaert

This animation reminded me of “Tango” by Zbigniew Rybczynski (shown below). Jonas Geirnaert wrote, animated, directed and edited this film, and for it won a ‘Prix de Jury’ at the Cannes Film Festival 2004. “Flatlife” is a cartoon, based on four characters in four separate rooms in a house. It is a sweet film, with a series of small story lines, like broken washing machines, noisy neighbours and a game of chess. Unfortunately this film lacks the ingenuity of “Tango”, for each of the characters were directly interacting with each other in “Flatlife”, whereas “Tango” has been so beautifully choreographed, so that although the characters were in the same room, they were completely oblivious to each other. Also, with Tango the characters were three dimensional, whereas I think the cartoons used in “Flatlife” give the impression of a more amateur production. However said that, the film is still lovely to watch, for the challenge of the viewer is to keep an eye on what each of the characters are doing, for they are constantly changing and moving with the storyline unlike “Tango” where each of the characters are repeating the same sequence.

To Watch "FlatLife" visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1eRgDGmXJE

"Tango"

A Short Film By Zbigniew Rybczynski
Original Format: 35mm Colour

I originally looked at the short film “Tango” by Rybczynski when researching our Family Portrait Brief. The film was made in 1980 and is comprised of a static shot of a single room. Over a period of 8min 10secs, 36 different characters from different time periods all enter the room, performing separate actions. What is astounding about this film is that each character, or pair are completely in their own worlds, yet never acknowledge the existence of the other 35 inhabitants for that moment in time.

“I had to draw and paint about 16.000 cell-mattes, and make several hundred thousand exposures on an optical printer. It took a full seven months, sixteen hours per day, to make the piece. The miracle is that the negative got through the process with only minor damage, and I made less than one hundred mathematical mistakes out of several hundred thousand possibilities”
Zbig Rybczynski –Looking to the Future - Imagining the Truth,” in FranÐois Penz, Maureen Thomas, Cinema& Architecture. Mþliús, Mallet-Stevens, Multimedia, BFI, London, 1997

Although the quality of the film is of the highest standard, the grainy nature only adds to the more sensitive and organic feel of the film.To watch the film go to:
http://video.libero.it/app/play/index.html?id=d93a43d249e5df44770f480fc174675c

"A Girl Like Me"

A Short Film By Kiri Davis

"For my high-school literature class I was constructing an anthology with a wide range of different stories that I believed reflected the black girl’s experience. For the different chapters, I conducted interviews with a variety of black girls in my high school, and a number of issues surfaced concerning the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls and how this affects their self-image."

This is a really interesting and thought provoking short film. It shows teenage African American girls talking about how they feel they are represented in today’s society. In the interviews, issues such as stereotyping in the media as well as cultural ideals, such as what is seen as beautiful are discussed. What is particularly prevalent, is that although when look at media today, it would seem that those of African origin are quite well represented (at least when compared to other ethnic minorities such as South Asians (Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan etc) and Oriental Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc), it would seem that this is still not enough in terms of creating a positive image for youth today.

Within her report, Davis also conducted the “doll test”, initially done by Dr. Kenneth Clark, where children were given a series of questions based on their perceptions of a black doll and a white doll. Questions such as “Which is the bad doll” and “Which doll would you most like to play with” were posed to the children, producing some astoundingly bad results about the perception that black children had of themselves and those of the same colour.

Here is one example of the answers given by a young black girl;

Davis: "Can you show me the doll that looks bad"
Girl: [Picks up black doll]
Davis: "And why does that look bad?"
Girl: "Because he's black"
Davis: "And why do you think this [white doll] is the nice doll" (answer established from earlier question)
Girl: "Because she's white"
Davis: "Can you give me the doll that looks like you?"
Girl: [She hesitates, and passes the black doll]

By recreating this experiment, Davis managed to show that actually very little has changed since the original test done in 1947, whilst highlighting the effect society and the media have on the self perception and opinion of what’s ‘right and wrong’ for black children today.

This film was very interesting to see, due to the up and coming dissertation project. With my dissertation focusing on the lack of Asian models used within advertising and marketing today, it would be interesting to see whether this has had an adverse affect on Asian children in the UK like the children Kiri Davis interviewed in the US. To watch 'A Girl Like Me' follow this link - http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/a_girl_like_me/index.php?fs=about

Noah Kalina; Everyday

Noah Kalina, a Photographer in New York posted his video ‘everyday’ on youtube on 27th August 2006, where he shot to internet stardom. The video consists of a sequence of thousands of photographs of him, that he had taken every single day of his life since January 11th 2000. Keeping the same facial expression throughout, you can’t help but be amused by this video – over 5 minutes long. This is quite a comic piece with a changes in location, clothes and especially haircuts – giving the viewer a small understanding as to where changes in his life have occurred by the small details we are given in a single frame. Beyond anything else, this photographic montage clearly demonstrates above all the fact that we all age – for Kalina started this project aged 19 and as time goes on it is more than evident that his youth is slipping.
This is really worth a watch at least once on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B26asyGKDo, or you can see all the images on his website http://www.everyday.noahkalina.com/index.php

Army Jobs

There are currently several adverts promoting the Territorial Army. The advert consists of a video that’s been filmed by workers on duty talking about their jobs, when ‘something’ shocking happens in the environment, for example bullets are fired, or a screaming woman comes in carrying her hurt child. Immediately the video stops and you are directed to go to the website to see what happens. This is a very clever promotional advert, for people even just slightly interested in joining the TA or even just curious to see the end of the video are likely to log on and naturally find out more about how to join. The advert promotes intrigue and curiosity and has the ability to make people to take the next step and log onto their website which is the ultimate goal.

Maroon 5; Wake up Call

This is the video for the new Maroon 5 single “Wake Up Call”. Typography has been used throughout the video to highlight certain lyrics and words of relevance like “betray me” or “shoot dead”, which helps strengthen the videos concept. This gives the feeling that you are watching a film, rather than a music video, as the text runs through it like credits. The words have also been individually illustrated, each having its own effect, and emphasising its meaning (examples shown above). Although including the typography was quite an interesting concept, it can’t help ‘lighten’ the tone of the song, which in itself is quite dark, thus maybe not complimenting it as it should, this is especially apparent with the use of the illustrated text, as it seems more humorous and out of place than serious.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I actually hate the harry potter books - I 've always found it difficult to get past the first chapter! However, I am always partial to watching the films - and yesterday I saw The Order of the Phoenix. I was warned by everyone that a lot of the film was left out, but I did in fact "get it"(!), although with the previous film, I had no idea what was going on. For someone going to see the films without reading the books, I was quite happily entertained for 2 hours, however even I could tell many things seemed to be left unspoken for - for example I thought only Harry and Luna could see the dinosaur creatures (sorry i don't know their name!) yet when they needed to fly to London the others were happily clambering on their backs for the ride, and also Jo seemed to disappear after half way through the film! However, even because of these minor discrepencies, a non-Harry Potter fan could still appreciate the visual effects and general storyline of the film, which is certainly an improvement from previous films in this series.

The Evolution of Beauty

I thought this was quite an interesting viral video called "Evolution of Beauty" produced by Dove in aid of their self esteem fund. It has been around for quite a long time, as works as a wonderfully made short film to show to young, impressionable teenagers that everything they see in magazines and in the media is not always quite what it seems...

Justin Timberlake; Lovestoned/I think she knows (Interlude)

Director: Robert Hales

When I found out Justin Timberlake filmed his new video just outside Bolton, I couldn’t wait to see the results! But it seem Bolton has some of the finest green screens around. However disappointed I am that Yorkshires not going to be put on the global map, just yet, I have to say this video is absolutely brilliant, and you can’t help but watch it over and over again. The director was Robert Hales, who also produced videos for Gnarles Berkley and Jet.

This particular song has two very distinct parts to it, the beginning Justins signature RnB beat with an ‘electronic’ feel to it, into a more chilled out vibe. With this being the case, there are also two distinct sections to the video. With the first half, the concept focuses on the idea of there are a multitude of sounds that’s are being transmitted through sound waves, which create images of Justin. The video is fast paced, futuristic and will certainly keep your attention, all aspects that Justin Timberlake would pride his music on. Transforming from the black, sound wave movements, to what looks like a large white padded space with Justin standing in the middle it would seem the video takes a turn for the worst. The bizarre environment, in which Justin stands, does not seem to flow with the rest of the video, losing his cool factor almost immediately. The second half of the video is really disappointing, and minus the appeal as the first half unfortunately means you lose interest rapidly.