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Another animation test, for an off an on project.

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Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

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This is a test for an animation project I have been working on.

[andthethingsido-blog]

FIlm Review: Get Out

Get Out, the debut film by Jordan Peele, is about Chris Washington a black man who  goes to visit his white girlfriend Rose Armitage’s family for the first time. This is no Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.  While it hands out smart social commentary, it also works as great horror thriller, subverting tropes of the genre and being just downright entertaining. The films’ opening in particular is a wowser of a scene. The camera follows a black man, Andrew Hayworth walking alone down a road. The camera swings around him to reveal and hide a mysterious stalking car, ratcheting up tension in one long take, only to cut to a wide stationary shot after Andrew’s fate is sealed as the film’s title splashes on screen. The film is full of effective, taut scenes such as this. Jordan Peele has a surprising amount of visual flair and an instinct for tension considering this is his first full length film after creating numerous comedy sketches on his show Key and Peele. Another scene involving hypnotism was also especially beautiful, reminding me of some of the most dreamlike scenes in the art house film Under the skin.  I was also impressed with how little fat there is in the film and it’s brisk pace. Even its exposition heavy scenes are weaved effectively into the logic of the plot.  The performances in the film are also largely great though I was particularly impressed with Allison Williams’s portrayal of Rose Armitage. Also the film is often hilarious, especially any scene involving Chris’ TSA friend Rod portrayed by Lil Rei Howery. If I had to nitpick my only gripe is that the main character Chris Washington was a bit of a blank slate. Daniel Kaluuya did a great job portraying Chris as someone uncomfortable and out of place, with an uncertainty of what’s going on, but other than him being a photographer and a smoker the character wasn’t very distinctive,  at least personality wise. Though I am pleased to say when stuff starts getting real the character wastes no time, leading to some great crowd pleasing moments. So far this is the best film I have seen this year. Come next year I expect it to receive some Oscar love and hopefully a nomination for Best Picture, I’m definitely rooting for it.

[andthethingsido-blog]

bonne nuit.

[andthethingsido-blog]

I took some footage of the forest near where I live and made this to play around with editing and color grading. Since I applied the same color adjustment across all shots, some fared better than others. The music is from “Under the Skin” a 2013 art-house film directed by Jonathan Glazer. I regret staying up late to finish this, because...work, but I learned a lot.

bonne nuit.

[andthethingsido-blog]

Film Review: Life

I just got back from viewing the Sci-fi thriller Life, staring Jake Gyllenahll, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds and directed by Daniel Espinosa. Without giving much away the film is about an isolated group of scientists who while experimenting on an extraterrestrial life form, things go horribly wrong. The premise isn’t original, but it gives a solid framework for what take place. Things move along at a brisk pace as the characters work together to try to combat the situations they are placed in.  In fact once things get going I was constantly on the edge of my seat, with not a dull moment. The performances are solid, but support what are very thin characters. Jake Gyllenhaal’s character is really the only character that were given any real insight into who he is beyond perfunctory details, information which unsurprisingly proves important later in the film. But this is more statement of fact than criticism as none of that matters given that things get pretty crazy (in a good way) quickly and the extraterrestrial life form is captivating and initially uniquely designed. Also I found the ending pretty effective, though some would disagree. Technically this film is top notch, with taut editing, and seamless special effects and beautiful cinematography which evokes a lot of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, with some pretty nifty long takes to boot. Overall I suggest you give it a watch. It’s currently in theaters and it’s pretty great!

bonne nuit.

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Just some sketches of a character I’m trying to design for a project I have been working off and on for a year. I’m trying to keep him as simple as possible. His head is a square, his nose is an oval and his ears are triangles.

bonne nuit. 

[andthethingsido-blog]

I finally got around to doing another verminz comic strip. It’s a comic about the scum of the earth! 

I also learned how to ask for a phone number in french.

“Quel est ton numéro de téléphone ?”

bonne nuit.

[andthethingsido-blog]

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Today I finished editing a horror scene editing tutorial, with footage provided by Framelines.tv. It was fun. I really enjoyed being super anal about removing and adding frames to get the exact “flow” I desired, but scrubbing through a ton of footage to find shots I wanted to use was a bit tedious. Also I totally disregarded the sound, and just overlay-ed Steve Reich’s Three Movements-Movement 1 over the footage. If you would like to do this exercise the link is: http://framelines.tv/modules/news/article.php?storyid=167.

I also learned the french word for butter, which is... le beurre.

 Bonne nuit!