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03.28.09 * Watch
'In the Fall of Gravity' and Vote ..... Yes,
for the very first time, Ron S. Cole
has posted online (limited time) the entire
11 minute
short. Astounding Stop Mo  tion
with
much character and spirit/soul that holds your attention (Laika Studio or
Travis
Knight reading this?) and especially the storyline, touching on the
'mysterious meaning of life'. You need to sign-up as member of BigStar.tv (it's
free to join) to
vote for Ron's creative animated work. I do not want to hear your
whining that it is inconvenient for you to sign-up. Look .... you are
watching it for FREE and you should give
back.
If you do watch Ron's animation but do not vote, I shall 'will it' that
you be
CURSED  . You cannot
just take and take.
Watch 'In
the Fall of Gravity'. For registering to the
'BigStar' site
so that you can
vote, read this messageboard
topic. * 'Mary and Max' making some noise out there ..... I heard about this in the past but not much publicity about it for awhile. This is a Stop Motion feature from Australia by  director Adam Elliot who
is known for his 'Academy Award' winning short 'Harvie Krumpet'.
M & M has been making festival rounds but I am not sure what
the current status of it is or whether or not they have any
distributor. I am guessing that 'Mary & Max' does not
fit the 'Suits' myopic formulaic & homogenized standards
of "Animation for Kiddies". M & M seems to delve into
mature-serious subject matter. Interview
with Adam Elliot - 'Mary
and Max' Trailer clips - Official
M & M Site Check out 'Ain't it Cool
News'
for an M & M review and release dates. EDIT:
03.30.09* The 'Bubble' of CGI: 'Monsters vs. Aliens'? ..... This is related to my previous S  MW
News commentary on
3-19-09 about the 'Bubble Syndrome' (scroll down page,
'Rough Time for Visual
Effects...'). Is the mainstream
'CGI Bubble' going to soon burst?
You know, plethora
of the same ol', same ol', homogenized and formulaic. Apparently,
reaction by movie reviewers of 'Monsters
vs. Aliens' has been lukewarm
& so-so.
See RottenTomatoes
& MetaCritic.
To those of you hiding in your closets and lurking out there,
who silently Judge
me; perhaps my past commentaries and tirades has some
validity and is maybe starting to be confirmed? Why don't you
come out here
and
'engage and confront', and make your case that my observations are
'completely' wrong or that I am just crazy!?  'Monsters
vs. Aliens' knocked out by the Critics - Critics
on 'Monsters vs. Aliens' 3D: Thumbs down - Roger
Ebert  Addendum: "Moral of Story Rant".... CGI and in this case, the additional drawing power of '3D', IS NOT an 'Automatic Formula' for a GOOD MOVIE. When will the 'Tinsel Town Suits' ever get that through their thick dense skulls???  EDIT:
03.29.09* Mainstream
CGI Animated Movie steals from Independent Stop Motion? .....
Apparently, the Disney blockbuster, WALL-E
seems to have some similar story points to a Stop Motion
30 minute short, 'Spare
Parts' which claims to have been produced in 2003-04. Take a look
at the
character concept of the  robot
'locomotion on wheels', prominent eyes, short front arms, etc. A
coincidence or what?
WALL-E was released in 2008.
The Stop Motion short 'Spare Parts', was imagined & created by
filmmaker and animator Paul
Whittington aka 'Carrot
Kid', a member of the Stop Motion
messageboard. I can probably understand Paul's reaction when he saw the Disney movie. I
have not seen WALL-E yet and I amnot
taking any sides. Watch Paul's
'Spare Parts' and judge for yourself. Local
filmmaker claims Disney copied work - Filmmaker
eyes court action against Disney Disclaimer:
I am not accusing anyone of anything! Only a court of law makes that
legal determination. I am just commenting & reporting.
Do not
'kill the messenger'! 
EDIT:
03.20.09* Rough Times for Visual Effects: But is it the Recession? ..... That is the title of an article written by a veteran in the field. His name is Jenny Fulle. There are a plethora of people in the special effects biz and likely, most from Digital / CGI, therefore, I have no idea who he is. In my view, take his pronouncements and soothsaying as being bias and one sided. Essentially, my interpretation is that Mr. Jenny is indirectly trashing traditional special effects work. He mentions the old optical printers and in same sentence says Stop Motion. So he equates Stop Motion with the antiquated & 
archaic optical
printers. Mr. Fulle describes his visions of a wondrous new business model of
Special Effects in the tougher &
downsized economic times and into the future. His sole solution
& answer
is 'Technology'
and more, more, more of it, as the NIRVANA answer to all of humankind's woes. To
me, a myopic perspective and he looks at it as black &
white. It is so obvious there can be hybrid
methods
of Special Effects
that combines
the classic
methods with the
new.Just remember, Mr. Jenny comes from the mega-mega million dollar arena of mainstream wannbie blockbuster movies which is mostly the same CGI mind numbing eye candy visual 'high' and many times with minimal storyline plot. Mr. Fulle only focused on the mainstream theatrical side of it. I already tiraded in past, the other markets or venues for the independent filmmakers. I say, why the hell do these mainstream flicks costs up to 100 MILLION DOLLARS and more?? That has always seemed obscene to me. 'Tinsel Town' is almost the kissing cousin to 'Big Government' .... Inefficient & Waste! Where does all the money go? I see a pattern in society which I call the Bubble Syndrome: the dot.com bubble, the real estate bubble, the stock market bubble, the government bureacracy bubble, etc.; all of which will eventually BURST. So now we got the CGI visual effects bubble? What a dry, sterile and cold society if human's put all their faith in technology. I am too pissed off  and I do not
have
the 'eloquent writing skills' to do a slickified rebuttal. There were a
few
recent messageboard topics, that is kind of related to my tirade Current
movies inspiring young minds? 'Coraline'
and 3D Printers. Nothing personal against Mr. Jenny
Fulle. I do not know him. I am just giving you other side and bigger picture. READ
Rough
Times for
Visual Effects: But is it the Recession?____________________ 03.14.09 * 'Land of th  e Lost' 2009 .....
Here we go again, Remake-O-Mania from Hollywood. This feature
starring Will Ferrell is loaded with CGI creature animation and
effects, and of course, when you compare it to the original
1974-76 'Land
of the Lost' TV series done with ol' school (no computer
frame
grabber) Stop Motion, the
original is going to look kind of primitive and dated. The
new 2009 'Land of the Lost' flick will
have the usual Jurassic Park-style Dinos and some other digitally
created creatures will be in glorious CGI that the public has been
endlessly fed and they are accustomed to. Yes, CGI can do some things
very 'slickified' and in homogenized quantities, but I am not concerned
(read the next news item below)
'Lost'
trailer promo - Original
TV Land of
Lost* International Stop Motion Consortium ..... I have been privy to the ongoing inprogress work from the loosely knit members of ISMC. This is a prototype production studio experimental workflow model. Separate artists geographically located all over the world and each working in their own studio contributing their skills & talents to a specific 
project. I cannot reveal anymore
other than, we have the beginnings of Turbo-charged
Ray Harryhausen©
about to be resurrected! I
get sick and tired pissed off  by the
general
bloggers,
little news snippets, or posts at messageboards, when they typecast
or
pigeonhole Stop Motion as only
for the all puppet,
cute, warm &
fuzzy
animation style. They say, Stop Motion is ol' style archaic
for 'Creature Animation'.
Well, I say,
those critics can take their
'mouse clickers' and shove
it
up their 'hard drives'  .
No question about it,
as I have preached in the past, Stop
Motion in the 'Creature
& Fantasy' genre used in certain
surrealistic visual
aesthetics & stories, especially combined with 'live action',
can still
be very powerful
and grab the attention of, and entertain the New Millenium
MySpacey CGI Over-dosed Generation  . * Panasonic LUMIX FZ50 Digital Cam for Stop Mo MegA-PixelHolics ..... I am not dissing high resolution, so do not accuse me of that. I already tiraded in past about my position. There is a time for high resolution Stop Mo and a time for doing fun Stop Mo  practicing
& exercising or for YouTube
entertainment. Last year,a former Video-resolutionist©
went
over to the 'Dark' High Resolution side; his name is Mike Brent;
not
a professional in Stop Motion but a devotee, tinkerer, deep
thinker and study-er of this animation art. Mike went into an almost
orgasmic high , announcing
his purchase of the Lumix
FZ50. Fortunately, Mike is not zip-lipped
secretive (like some of the lurking Stop Moes out there) and
shared the
news
to everyone. He researched the FZ50 cam and it appears
to maybe be the best
mid-range
Digital SLR-like cams for those into hoarding frame
by frame Mega-pixelized
Stop Mo images  .
Mike says, the biggest pluses are: This Lumix model does NOT Flicker & does NOT Overheat. The higher end Canons and Nikons seem to develop unpredictable Flickering and many complaints from the professional Stop Moes about it and PAIN in the BUTT extra work required in post production to digitally remove flicker. For the anal retentives types .... yes the Lumix has a FIXED non-changeable lens. So what?? With a bucket load of creativity, one can artistically pre-visulize and compose almost any kind of scenes with just basic lens. The general audience does not care what kind of lens you use! Lumix has 12x zoom lens, which is like having a variety of fixed prime lens (all in one lens). So, the zoom feature helps in composing different sized (focal lengths) shots. One more thing, Ron S. Cole (aka Mysterious Ron aka Isomer) also purchased the FZ50. I just asked him for a recent update comment. A simple question to confirm again if he has any Flickering issues? So far .... NO FLICKER and he is still very satisfied with the camera. Okay enough of this. My 'carpal tunnel syndrome' is acting up  .
For all you info-holics, go
pig-out ....
10
pages of messageboard posts about FZ50 ____________________ * SMW Random Cinema:
Patrick
Boivin-O-Rama ..... Why am I promoting him? Geez, I should
have
my own works here! 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
03.03.09 * 'Gerald's Last Day': Vote, vote & vote! ..... A Stop Motion short by Justin Rasch which was completed not too long ago and entered in various film festivals nationwide and has been successful and receiving some awards. Here is Justin's announcement at messageboard. 'Gerald' was selected from thousands of submissions and entered in Delta's Airlines Fly-in Movie Competition. 'Gerald' along with 4 other shorts are currently being viewed by Delta flight passengers who are also voting. The pa  ssenger's
and your votes
will
determine the winner to be entered in the Ultimate
Tribeca Film
Festival for
the Best Animation category. Okay, follow my
instructions: At Delta's
site you will see similar to image
here. You first click on the arrow in
photo of Gerald the dog, to watch the 12 minute short. After you view
it, close
the player. You now give it a 5
Star
Rating by clicking on the 5th
star. All the stars will turn orange. You then click submit. If you have
more than one
one browser (Firefox and Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.) use each browser to
vote. If you
have computer at work, vote from that one too.
Show your 'enhanced voting
support' for the Stop
Motion cause! 'Gerald's Last Day' will be temporarily
online
from March 1 to April 12. So, DO NOT forget to VOTE. EDIT:
03.04.09* Ann P. Smith's Robot Sculptures ..... This is kind of interesting. She is not really into 'stop motion animation' but more of a 'sculptor artist'. She creates & assembles poseable robotic-like figurines from broken electronics and machine parts. I would take a guess they are one-offs and so, maybe difficult to duplicate multiple copies. Hmmm ..... I do have  reservations
and undecided about the newest buzz thing
in Stop Motion, called 3-D
Printing but I can see where that might be advantageous in
making
duplicate parts to create & assemble multiple posable robot
sculptures. Last month's SMW News, I also briefly commented
on these printers and posted more thoughts at
messageboard. To me, 3-D printing is another step that is
reliant
on computers & more software crap to learn. Then you got the
radically high costs of
the printers
that is beyond the reach of most of us, and is somewhat opposite to the
creative cost-effective 'resourcefulness spirit' of the Stop Motion Art
& Craft. Oh, I am going off topic  . Back to
Ann.
If you browse her website, you will see that she has done some limited
animation examples of her robotic sculptures. Very cool and potential
for some kind of unique specific projects sort of Steampunk,
Jules Verne-like theme? Ann
P. Smith website* 'Her Morning Elegance' Music Video: The hidden secrets? ..... In January '09 SMW News posted the Morning Elegance music video at our Random Cinema©. The Elegance vid was already starting to go 'viral' on the internet. 'Pixillation' is a stop motion variation where real  people
are single frame photographed. There is much pixillation online and
sometimes it can get somewhat repetitive or dry, however, 'Her
Morning Elegance' created something fresh & unique. The
romantic
rainy day style song/music of course, contributed to its success. A few
things not publicized much about it. Some have said that the 'pixillation on a bed'
concept was maybe lifted
or copied from
another short film. Take a look at this, Mitchell Rose's Case
Studies,
a 6-1/2 minute film short made back in '02.
There are some
scenes where a male
&
female couple are
stop mo pixillated on a bed.
Coincidence or
what? The other not so publicized fact at the music video's MySpace
page: The frame by frame movements were pre-visualized
animated in a computer, then they used that pre-animation
as a
reference to pose the real people 'frame by frame'. I am not saying
these mentioned items are negative, but just doing some 'under the bed
sheets' observations  .
EDIT:
03.04.09* March SMW Random Cinema©: > Give
me
the
Ol'
better times: The
soothing
vocals of Jennifer
Warnes 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
credits > Patrick Boivin-O-Rama .... Why am I promoting him? 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 
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