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12.29.08 * Here we go again:
'3D Stereo to Revolutionize & Save the Movie Biz' .....
Hmmm, that's sound familiar, especially the 'revolutionize'
part. Remember the CGI/Digital special effects hype surrounding the
first 'Jurassic
Park'
(1993)? Sure, CGI & Digi Special FX has had an impact on how
movies are made. However, with regards to the end product being done
with computers, don't you sense a saturation
or glut of
it now? It
only
took 15 years for jaded-ness
to kick in. More and more similar CGI Pixar-like animation and Digital
Special Effects infused into Live Action
'genre' flicks. The 'wannabee' blockbusters are demographically
targeted for mass
appeal
which tends to dilute & homogenize the movie product. With
CGI/Digital Special Effects, audiences are onslaughted with visual
empty eye candy calories. Soon, the viewers get jaded
with just the visual imagery. There is NO solid story &
characters
(the foundation) to stimulate
the deeper areas of their cerebral minds!  Will the 3D Stereo saturation or glut happen at faster pace than CGI? The big wannabee blockbusters maybe beginning to be victims of their lame or weak stories? Most recent, 'Delgo' (& 1) and 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'. No computer mega-schmega CGI or Digital Special FX orgasims was able to save them. I do agree, Stereo 3D is very Cool and Fun but maybe reserved for very SPECIFIC kinds of presentations. The 3D thing would be more like an 'Exhibition' event (similar to theme park rides) instead of just a movie. Personally, I would NOT want to view, for example, Chick Flicks in '3D STEREO', or movies that are of dramatic, documentary, or other categories. I see NO viewing experience enhancement for those kinds of films if done as 3D. For me, even High Definition can interfere with my viewing experience appreciation. When I watch High Definition on a Large'ish LCD TV screen, at times, it becomes somewhat distracting and bothers my senses. I have to actually squint my eyes when viewing the LCD screen to soften the excess sharpness & hyper intensity of of High Def images. Your natural vision does not see the reality world in such extreme High Definition. 3D Stereo as a novelty gimmick will likely work to get some people out of their homes and into the theaters, but I think it might follow the same pattern as CGI, and might quickly lose its drawing power. My observation: Today's MySpacer generation maybe spoiled with too much of 'material' & techy-toy diversions and their attention span conditioned to reach 'Boredom' status at hyper-FAST rate (than previous generations). Just remember, when you read & hear the plethora of hype parroted in the media, they are referring to mainstream movie biz which caters to the generic mass audience. 'Hollywood' looking for ANYTHING in attempt to attract 'that type' of audience. Suits/Directors going for the eye candy and reject Less is More (& 1) principle. There is a whole world of independent filmmaking that Tinsel Town seems to ignore, however, there are niche audiences who are more selective & quality oriented and more into the story, characters, etc. that the smaller independent films provides. What does this have to do with Stop Motion? Well, indirectly, with 'Coraline' being the singular & first Stop Motion digitally shot in True 3D Stereo. Then you got the converted, to 'Psuedo' 3D Stereo, of the classic 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. In general, you should keep yourself informed and look at 'big picture' of what is going on in the MoViE BiZ. My observations based on 'Tinsel Town's' historical past habits & behaviors. Everyone has their spin on 3D Stereo Flicks. Brew yourself some fresh hot java, slip on your reading glasses and absorb some sample article-bytes 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 EDIT: 12.30.08 * No Armatures Stop Motion ..... This is to partly counter Barry Purves pessimistic view of Stop Mo's future (previous 12.25.08 SMW News). IMO, he might be restricting himself. Likely,  many
of you do too
including myself. Stop Motion has
many variations. As much as I dig Harryhausen style, I realize not
marketable to everyone. If you are looking
at
Stop Mo seriously as a
possible monetizing means, one might need to be a Stop Mo
Chameleon
and expand. You have to pay the bills & rent? Right?
Look at Jamie Caliri
and his crew, they
are establishing a niche
and
style. No complex Stop Motion armatures! They are utilizing a high
level of Cut-Out
Animation with great finesse and quality art
direction. I previously
mentioned
Jamie who was also overseer of the United
Airline Dragon Ads. Titles
by Jamie Caliri -
Madagascar
2 Titles - Lemony
Snicket Titles * More on 'Laika lays off 65' ..... Per earlier December 17 & 20 SMW News, the linked article had incomplete info regarding Laika Studio staff/crew numbers. Just got word from Jeremy Spake to help clarify the missing information from that article. At Laika's high point of production in 2008, they had about 600+ total employees which includes all the depts & divisions, and also, all the 'Coraline' production crew. So when 'Coraline' ended, about 200+ finished their work commitments (jobs ended). The news article only focused on the CGI department, of which 65 were laid off. After doing all the math, Laika is a fully operational & busy studio and currently has approximately, over 200+ employees there now. Okay, hopefully this is all done & finish! Three SMW News postings on this same topic in same month!! * Sneak teaser '9' CGI animation going for Stop Mo feel ..... I already tiraded  about this some
years ago (my
former rough
urban writing style) when this cgi animation
piece was sort of in
its 'infancy'. So, 3 years has gone by, and now, this very early teaser-trailer?
I am surprised that '9' is still not finished and has many more months
until it's released, 09.09.09 (Ahhh, the marketing gimmick!). According
to promo teaser, this is Tim Burton produced and Shane Acker
is the 'Visionary Director'. In movie trailers and online articles,
that 'highbrow' title seems to be overused? Well, I say Ron S. Cole
is also a Visionary Director! (reeeeal
Stop Mo) Any 'Visionary Suits' see possibilities of 'In
the Fall of Gravity'?! EDIT: 12.26.08
____________________ * Must Drink More
Milk ......12.20.08 
Off the wall
pro-milk
spots done for the British
Columbia Dairy Foundation
(Canada). Their Flash heavy designed website Must Drink More Milk
shows a series of short stop motion ads on their home page
which are professionally done. This one
is kind of cool. It looks like most of them produced by Bent Image Lab
in Portland, Oregon USA. The Milk people offering a contest in which
anyone can enter their videos and does not have to be animation.
There's a new winner every month and two overall winners at the end of
the year.If you click on the submissions, you can tell that they are
not as slick & finessed as Bent Image's. It appears, the
professionally made Stop Motions are not part of the contest but
commissioned to be integral to the website design in order to attract
visitors.
____________________ 12.17.08 * Harryhausen's
'Mother Goose Stories': Music Video 'Acid Trip' version ..... My
eye's bugged out when
I saw this. Ray's very early fairy tale stop motion is apparently in
the 'public domain'. It appears, an obscure fringe British band/group decided to exploit Uncle Ray's old work, chop it up, and re-work it by adding their 'violent' themed imagery via special effects and not sure if they added actual Stop Mo (or maybe cgi). In my view, their re-visualizing of the fairy tales is warped and I do not see the imagery connection to the song/music (typical of many music videos) which I cannot hear or understand the lyrics. Nothing makes any sense. In spite of all those negatives, I suppose, I have to say that the composited special fx into the old fairy tale, is reasonably okay. This studio did the effects. I wonder if these Fairy Tales were specifically selected in attempt to get some publicity mileage from the 'Harryhausen name', although I assume if Uncle Ray knew about this 'drug trip' music video version of his Fairy Tales, I am guessing that he might not endorse it. At their YouTube video link, you can check out some of the band's groupies/fans comments EDIT: 12.18.08
____________________ * $66,000. for 'SANTA
JACK' Puppet .....
I was never much into
'collecting & memorabilia' of 'things &
objects'. You cannot take 'things' to the frigg'n grave.
There is more
to 'Life' than just spending/consumering, but I know for many, material
accumilation of STUFF is their compulsions and especially, if they got
CASH to blow and waste (then they go into DEBT and the Big Brother
'take care of you' Gov't,
$-Bails-Out-$ the irres12.13.08  ponsible
A-holes!  ) I
usually have no interest with 'Auctions' in general, where
there are
supposed bargains?
(sometimes) Ebay has its purposes but I am no way, a regular user of
it. When you get into selling stupid ass crap, that supposedly has
'memorabilia' value like celebrity's underwear, panties, etc
..... well you can see how low, bottom of the garbage can,
people can sink to, with their greedy compulsive
opportunistism. Or that PBS show, 'Antiques Auction' which I only
watched a few times. Their ONLY real
interest is, "How much obscene amount of money can I get for this???"
Oh, I went Off Topic  . Yeah, someone paid a whopping $66,000. for some props/models originally used in Nightmare Before Christmas. Want to see it? Click Here. It appears, it also includes the reindeer/sleigh model, and the small Zero puppet. I am guessing that the now, kind of grungy looking Jack Skellington puppet, might be a wire armature version (not sure). Reports are, that this was given (as in freebie) to one of original Stop Mo 'Animators' who owned this since 2001. So what happened? No more heartfelt deep nostalgia about this and then, succumbed to the Dark Greedy Side? 
Also, check-out other
obscene $$$ amounts that the 'wealthy' compulsive collectors
throwing their money at, Auction
of Hollywood archive this weekend.Correction: Original news media reports/blogs stated $66,000.. Someone just notified me of the Auction Link (on frigg'n eBay?!) and it states sold for $55,000.. Also, original animator owner sold it to 'someone' in 2001 year. That later owner, just sold it again at this auction. EDIT: 12.14.08
____________________ * The Latino Wunder
King, Hellboy director gots all kinds of projects!? .....
My
Spanish 'soul brother' Guillermo
Del
Torro announced yet another, ma12.06.08  ybe
in the future, Stop
Motion feature project. Last month we
reported his tentative plans about the all Stop Motion 'Pinnochio', and
NOW, Del Torro is throwing out this other
Stop Motion
wanna-do-it .... Roald Dahl's
'The
Witches'??
You might call this, an animated remake of the 1990 live-action
version.
Brother Guillermo, where
are you going to get the Stop Motion crew specialists?? It
seems, a
number of potential upcoming
multiple Stop Motion
mainstream features
being planned and shortage of Stop Motion specialist people?? If anyone
needs Stop Motion pre-production planning help,
I would
consider offering my services
as advisor/consultant or line producer assist  .
A messageboard
topic kind of dissed Del
Torro but I might not be so hard and would only say to my
amigo, "Guillermo,
please
consider
philosophy of less
is more and focus on 'Quality Story Telling' and perhaps, restrain
yourself from too much CGI bells & whistles distracting eye
candy, dizzying barf
inducing camera moves, and excessive CGI cloning (too many crowded
scenes to merely show off CGI powers)" Del Torro talks,
everyone
buzzes 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
EDIT:
12.07.08* Hollywood Feels the Credit Crunch ..... "Like the rest of Hollywood, Guber is discovering that Los Angeles Dream Factory is not immune when the rest of the country slips into recession". Tinsel Town scenario becoming like the failed & bailed out financial institutions & other failing businesses ? Except, I do not want more of my taxes to bail out the SUITS!! Our political bureacrats might be STOOPID enough and maybe do it!?  Mainstream
wannabie blockbusters and their
obscene overpriced budgets? Only in a CRISIS, then maybe 'they' will
see
the 'light' of commonsense wisdom practice of being resourcefulness
aka
leaner & meaner? Read
EDIT:
12.07.08
* Tatia
Rosenthal '$9.99' Website now online ..... Possible Oscar? nomination
contender. Talk
about it
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