Saturday, April 30, 2011

Movies

I watched last week.

One Froggy Evening (1955)


Directed by Chuck Jones
Writer: Michael Maltese

What's Opera, Doc? (1957)


Directed by Chuck Jones
Writer: Michael Maltese

The Departed (2006)


Directed by Martin Scorcese
Screenplay by William Monahan
Film Editing by Thelma Schoonmaker

Rio (2011)


Directed by Carlos Saldanha
Screenplay by check imdb
Film Editing by Harry Hitner

The Ballad of Nessie (2011)


Directed by Stevie Wermers
Screenplay by Stevie Wermers, Regina Conroy & Kevin Deters

Winnie the Pooh (2011)


Directed by Stephen J. Anderson & Don Hall
Written by A.A. Milne
Film Editing by Lisa Linder

The Road to El Dorado (2000)


Directed by Bibo Bergeron, Will Finn, Don Paul, David Silverman & Jeffrey Katzenberg
Screenplay by Terry Rossio & Ted Elliott
Film Editing by John Carnochan, Vicki Hiatt, Dan Molina & Lynne Southerland

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)


Directed and writing credits by check imdb

Mary Poppins (1964)


Directed by Robert Stevenson
Written by Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi & P.L. Travers
Film Editing by Cotton Warburton

Inspiration



I visited the NLGD Festival of Games in Utrecht the last two days. The showguide presented an impressive timetable which listed about 40 speakers, 16 one hour talks and 24 half hour talks, from the gaming and entertainment industry who were present to share their thoughts.

I did not hear all the speakers, I choose to hear and see the one hour talks, but of those I did see, two of these talks were really inspiring to me. Here is some thoughts of what I think the talks were about.

The first was a talk by Nicholas Francois from Unity.

Unity is a 3d game development tool company. I expected a technical talk but instead his talk he presented some of his ideas on production and I found they were really inspiring. Here's my interpretation of some things he talked about:

If you would like to improve your work and improve your productivity, try for a period of the day to unplug, for instance your internet connection or your headphones. With other words, Unplug, something Richard Williams also mentions in his book, the animators survival kit.
We are so easily distracted these days by all the tools available on your computer and iPhones, sounds familiar?, that being selective in them and unplug some for a period of time during the day will increase your focus and productivity. Create momentum.
Try it yourself, it’s amazing!

Another subject in his talk was about strategies. When you want to make something you talk about it and you create a strategy on how to get there, and you have meetings about it, who is going to do this, and what should he be doing etc... but you can also just do it. This is more the approach or philosophy of “ Fail early, fail often and learn from your mistakes”. Something Ed Catmull from pixar has said. Off course the learning part is the really important part.
True art is in the doing of it not having meetings about it.

The second talk I found really inspiring was Dan Winters’ from Activision/Blizzard.

His talk was about how to be succesfull in pitching your idea. He shared some of his own experiences, and gave tips on what to do and what not to do, like never quit, don’t stop until the whistle is blown, and the time is up in persuing your dreams. You will get a No, maybe many times, but that should never stop you from reaching your dreams. You believe in them, they are your dreams, so if someone gives you a No, that doesn't mean you should say No too.

Come prepared, be yourself and leave with a Bang! So they’ll remember you.

Read! Great advice I think. I think that Not reading is the same as not being able to read. Learn from what has been written.

Also one of the stories he shared was how he was present at the pitches of A Bug’s Life, pitched by John Lasseter, crawling on the floor to present his idea of how the audience should experience the story from the perspective of bugs and Finding Nemo, which was an hour and a half pitch by Andrew Stanton, pitching the whole story accompanied by sketches and color keys.

To me those are the kind of stories that make my braincels go excited and inspire me to focus more on the things I personally am persueing.

The journey is also the most interesting part. Have a dream, set a goal, create focus and momentum and work towards it, fail early, fail often , but never quit and learn from your mistakes. I’m sure that with time you will become succesfull in reaching that goal, and when you do, a new one will present it self for sure, and the whole proces can start again.

That about sums up my thoughts on looking back at two days of intensive listening at the festival of games 2011.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Inspiration



Source: On Animation

Movies

I watched last week.

Inki and the Minah Bird (1943)


Director Chuck Jones

Unforgiven (1992)


Director Clint Eastwood
Written by David Webb Peoples
Film Editing by Joel Cox

Alexander (2004)


Director Oliver Stone
Written by Oliver Stone, Cristopher Kyle & Laeta Kalogridis
Film Editing by Yann Herve, Gladys Joujou, Alex Marquez & Thomas J. Nordberg

Saludos Amigos (1942)


Directed and Written by check imdb

Magnolia (1999)


Director Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Film Editing by Dylan Tichenor

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Movies

I watched last week.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)


Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr & Gustav Hasford.
Film Editing by Martin Hunter

The Reluctant Dragon (1941)


Directed, Writing credits & Film Editing by check imdb

Se7en (1995)


Directed by David Fincher
Screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker
Film Editing by Richard Francis-Bruce

Jurassic Park (1993)


Directed by Steven Spielberg
Writing credits by Michaela Crichton (novel & screenplay), David Koepp (screenplay)
Film Editing by Michael Kahn

Fargo (1996)


Directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Screenplay by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Film Editing by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (as Roderick Jaynes)

Hook (1991)


Directed by Steven Spielberg
Screenplay by James V. Hart, Malia Scotch Marmo
Film Editing by Michael Kahn

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Illustration

I found some old cat drawings I did a few years ago, in a folder on my computer.
Made me smile, so thought I could post them.
First one is a caricature I did of the 4 cats that live at my parents house.
They are and have, like most cats, a distinct character and personality.



One solo cat portrait. I think I did this one as a colortest to try out colouring with ecoline for the illu above ...



... and some random cat drawings from a period I mostly drew only with black drawing ink and a crown pen.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Movies

I watched last week.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)


Directed by John Lounsberry, Wolfgang Reitherman
Books by A.A. Milne
Editing by Tom Acosta, James Melton

Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' (2008)


Directed by Nick Park
Books by Nick Park, Bob Baker
Editorial department by Angharad Owen, Andrew Ward

Cold Mountain (2003)


Directed by Anthony Minghella
Book by Charles Frazier, screenplay by Anthony Minghella
Editing by Walter Murch

Gladiator (2000)


Directed by Ridley Scott
Screenplay by David Franzoni, John Logan, William Nicholson
Editing by Pietro Scalia

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring (2003)


Directed by Ki-duk Kim
Writing credits by Ki-duk Kim
Editing by Ki-duk Kim

Stoned (2005)


Directed by Stephen Woolley
Writing credits by Geoffrey Giuliano, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade
Editing by Sam Sneade

Monday, April 4, 2011

Illustration

I did an illustration for the NJK (National Youth Championships) Bouldering. An event held in the most awesome bouldergym in the world: Monk bouldergym.



... and the illustrations I did for the two previous editions of the same event.
2010

2009

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Inspiration

April Goals

The goal for March has been achieved, well, ... sort of... instead of 3 I have chosen 4 story concepts to work with in April.

This month I'm going to work with each concept for a week. Explore, develop and rewriting it. At the end of the month I am going to make a choice. One of these 4 developed story concepts is going to be the final one. I feel I have to set this deadline or else it will become an endless journey, and I will probably never finsih it.

Besides the writing part of this project, I have also started to do animation exercises in the weekends. For now these exercises are about learning the basic animation princples.

So my goals for April are:

1. Story.

Develop, explore and rewrite the 4 story concepts. Goal is to spend a week on each of the 4 concepts and write for about an hour every day. I have experienced the previous months that this is a very realistic an achievable goal for me.
Besides the actual writing I also read books on the subject of story during the weekdays. At the moment I'm reading The Writer's Journey by Cristopher Vogler. Next in line is Joseph Campbells' The Power of Myth.

2. Animation.

Doing animation exercises in the weekends. For now it's mainly walking exersices, following the advice of Ken Harris: "A walk is the first thing to learn, learn walks of all kinds. 'Cause walks are about the hardest thing to do right."
Besides trying to draw animation I also read books on the subject of animation during the weekends. Richard Williams' The Animator's Survival Kit is my main source of information. Another book that I find very useful is Eric Goldbergs' Character Animation Crash Course.

April, here I come!

Movies

I watched last week.

Oldeuboi (2003)



Directed by Chan-Woon Park
Screenplay by Jo-yun Hwang, Chun-hyeong Lim & Chan-wook Park.
Edited by Sang-gyeong Jo

Un Prophete (2009)


Directed by Jacques Audiard
Screenplay by Thomas Bidegain, Jacques Audiard, Abdel Raouf Dafri & Nicolas Peufaillit
Edited by Julliette Welfling

The Bourne Identity (2002)


Directed by Doug Liman
Screenplay by Tony Gilroy & William Blake Herron, novel by Robert Ludlum
Edited by Saar Klein

The Bourne Supremacy (2004)


Directed by Paul Greengrass
Screenplay by Tony Gilroy & Robert Ludlum
Edited by Richard Pearson & Cristopher Rouse

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)


Directed by Paul Greengrass
Screenplay by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns & George Nolfi, Novel by Robert Ludlum
Edited by Cristopher Rouse

Kakushi-toride no san-akunin (1958)


Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Written by Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto & Akira Kurosawa.
Edited by Akira Kurosawa