It's been a while! PLUS Desperate Chicken Fireworks!!

So it's been almost a year since I last posted here! I have been busy in that time, getting moved to a new city, trying to find a job out of college in a discouraging economy. I've managed to survive with the help of my friends and loved ones, and I've decided to start writing on this blog again, if only to provide some sort of record of the time I spend watching and analyzing visual storytelling. I am freelancing now, so I have to hone my writing and speed with a vengeance! That's what this blog is for. I promise I will work hard to leave some sort of material worth reading.

I've been watching all kinds of animation, especially anime lately. I tend to binge on anime when I'm stressed because even the silliest ones tend to be catchy. Their serialization is part of the reason I can binge so easily. Just one more twenty-minute episode, sure! Then I realize it's 3am and I have to wake up in 4 hours.

Just yesterday I discovered this stunning Chinese animation. It's from a group within the Beijing Film Academy, called "The Bowl of Rice group" or LEAVER 5 Studio. I'm not really sure which, or if it's both of them in collaboration. Google translate provides a fairly good explanation of the Chinese video description. The Name of this short film is translated as "Desperate Chicken Fireworks," which is admittedly what drew me to the film in the first place. Just what the heck does it mean?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ni0z5X-mYY

This film is beautiful and ugly in equal proportions. I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed the dark humor inherent throughout and I found myself asking "What does it mean?" again at the end of the thing.

The deprecation of human life in particular was striking. The people in the film live carelessly, getting fat from eating fat chickens, until they are plucked up and dumped into what seems to be a monster's kitchen. The two principle humans get a chance to escape, only to discover that they have fled into a monster carnival, where it seems human sauce is a favorite dish. The despair of the protagonists at this realization is visceral, even with (or perhaps because of) their simplified expressions. The world is definitely a scary place, and there are monsters out there that can swallow you whole.

Solar Burns : Art in Time

So this artist Charles Ross has been making art with magnified sunlight since the 70s at least. http://charlesrossstudio.com/solarburnworks/magicsquares.html

 Solar Burn In the Time It Takes Sunlight to Reach the Earth. Jan 30, 1977

For the work pictured below, Ross burned wooden planks with a fixed lense every day of the year. This project lasted from March 20, 1992 to March 20, 1993.

This installation is of interest to me because of the patterns the burns make arranged on the floor - a double spiral. Not unlike the labyrinths of Greece, which charted a wandering path meant to represent life's journeys. It resembles the ying yang symbols of Taoism. This double spiral pattern is also considered sacred by druids, for marking the passage of the sun through the year. 

The use of such a powerful force and symbol as the sun to create this work gives it a unique power.

A Year of Solar Burns : 366 Days

An awesome concept, beautifully realized.

Gobelins Flash Animation

This is a funny short that I really enjoyed. I'm pretty sure it's made with Flash, could be wrong though.

Photoshop and Flash = Dragons?

Here is an example of Photoshop use in Animation that I really enjoyed. Reminded me of films I liked as a child like The Last Unicorn.

Subaru Commercial Animation

So for today we were asked to watch an animated commercial for a Subaru sportscar, and find another example of animation in a commercial that was frame by frame.
I had to travel all the way back to 1970 for this one, but it's a winner. I like anatomy drawings, the human body is very expressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26780aO8tsc

Rotoscoping

So I found an example of rotoscoping that was pretty simple, but striking nonetheless.

I especially liked when Julian described what it was like to be a tree.

Caroline Leaf's Two Sisters

So on this day we looked at Caroline Leaf's animation Two Sisters,  which was a pretty and strange story about the eponymous characters who seem to live alone on an island. However, their peaceful day is interrupted by the sudden arrival of a stranger, and that interruption enriches both their lives.

 The use of light and dark in this animation were fantastic, adding a dreamlike quality to the work when perspectives shifted (which happened often). The use of color was minimal, serving mainly as an accent to the shifting shadows that composed the figures and setting. Since the entire animation was scratched into IMAX film, it was probably a practical choice on the artist's part to use the existing darkness of the film. The moods she can create with this technique are intense.

 Although Viola Gé is disfigured, she seems to be less afraid of the world than her sister Marie. Marie tries very hard to prevent Viola from going out into the sun and seems obsessed with locking the doors, keeping her keys close at hand.

 The story ends happily, with Viola convincing Marie to keep the door open. Yet Marie remains vigilant, sitting in front of the open door with her keys in hand.