Scott McCloud

This comic article was extremely enlightening and a fun read. I was able to easily follow his concepts and he made it fun to look through and read. He successfully captured my attention and my interest with the use of his examples through comics and his variety of techniques. I like how he went into great detail in his examples, explaining how the time, action, motion, sound, and box contributed to that scene in the panel. I also liked how he talked about the first example into such depth and would bring it back up to prove a point later on in the comic. From now on, I definitely want to learn everything in this comic style manner rather than just plain text in textbooks or online. There is so much more to comics than I would have ever known. I find it so interesting that time and motion are such complicated and intricate aspects in creating comics but comics can easily display it otherwise to audiences in the final product making stories flow seamlessly throughout time and space and throughout the pages.

Scott Mcloud article

After I finished this, I looked back and was actually really pleased with how much thought was provoked by a reading assignment that was comprised of more image than text. I had not really considered the fact that comics strips had been around for so long, nor had I put much thought into the idea of time and motion in comic form. I can see how comics could really lay a great foundation for things such as animations, especially the story-boarding process that leads up to it. I think that this article has definitely helped me get into the right mind frame for our stop-motion project, seeing as it is a project which is also developed on a frame-by-frame basis.

comic within a comic

This article made some really interesting points about comic strips such as how several different moments or events can occur within a single picture especially with his comic within a comic approach yet at the same time comics lack transitions between frames and are missing huge chunks of information explaining how characters get from point a to point b or how much time has elapsed but for some reason we subconsciously fill that gap. However, what seems like a complicated process of jumping from frame to frame actually isn't that difficult to understand because its based on real life experiences such as long pauses. Also, the importance of the frame was fascinating, how a single square can define time and space as well as separate the future from the past because all three (past, present, and future) are visible at the same time, which doesn't occur in other mediums such as film. Lastly, I thought the idea of separating motion from sensation was interesting for a lack of better word. How the simple movement lines were based off of futurist and dadaist artists. I never knew how much thought went into creating a comic, the space between and size of the frames, layout, types of word bubbles, etc. This makes storyboarding seem a lot cooler than it actually is.

Scott McCloud

The use of the comic strip to aid in defining the examples worked great. With many of the examples, I feel as if I would not have followed what it was saying without the visual aspect with it. I also felt that the reading helped explain how to "fix" the distortion of time from point A and point B. This will help me better convey a span of time when I need to do so.

"Cell Scope" Stop Motion

I guess scale isn't everything.

This is the most awesome advertisement ever!

This is Stop motion, time lapse and animation...translation, really F-ing cool! check check check it out! http://vimeo.com/14955089

Scott McCloud

Alright so this was waaaaayyy better than the last article! Can we make it a requirement for all reading material to be in comic book form? K thanks. On a more serious note, i love all the different ways to show motion, I think some of these effects will be easier to achieve by using that layering effect in final cut pro. Like maybe taking shots of a blurry background and then layering a still image on top of that. Also the different points of view that they started first in japan, it reminds me of mario cart or those racing games where you have the different views. This could be a strong transition from 3rd person to 1st person in the next project.

Scott McCloud

The way McCloud presented his analysis through a comic strip was both fun and helpful since it shows actual examples of what he talks about. I like how he went in depth on comic aspects that people usually don't pay attention as much like the lines and use of frame length. Pointing out how these elements are used and what effects they create opened up some new things. How the eye perceives time and how comics show time lengths was an interesting thing to read about.
I could use those techniques especially when doing story boarding or pacing any time based media project in general. Overall it was a very helpful and clear comic.

Strawberry Swing

Hey, guys!
If you haven't seen Coldplay's Strawberry Swing MV, you definitely should: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYtk1Z0UUuE
Some awesome perspectives! My favorite part is the handstand.
The behind-the-scenes interview is interesting too: http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=448

Scott McCloud

I found this article very interesting. I had no idea that comics used time nor had any idea that by doing some simple lines and spacing that time would be created in an image. I feel as though this article will help me with the spacing and time used in my stop-motion piece. Knowing about space and line in reference to time is going to be very helpful. I also like how the whole article was written as a comic, it made it much more fun to read. The way that they showed the different drawings and examples of movement with the person running was very helpful. I like to know that things can be done in more than just one way. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and learning that a comic is a time based media.

Origami stop-motion

Click me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Et7UQh1tg

The Innovators

I found Bazin's view on the cinema & photography very interesting & enlightening. Never had I thought about the cinema in such detail he had so I enjoyed viewing it in a new light as an art form to reveal life. What he "looked for was kind of spiritual disposition towards reality".
I admire the way he was so faithfully loyal to his cinema motives & beliefs while mixing it with his religion. The author even said he was viewed as a soul like a monk or saint having true widsom and faith. He was very against montage which I found be very odd & random but his reasoning was actually somewhat logical and made sense since it truly isn't realistic nor would we ever see something like that in real life with a flash of images. I like how he predicted having a films studies class in college, that has proved to be true & here we are now reading about him in a college class. I love his idea of the "mummy complex" because I use photography as a means to capture moments in my memories & to be able to reminisce on those times. Lots of realistic movies can still be seen today in our latest movies; however at the same time, many fantasy surreal movies are being made & are more popular than ever before. Cinema has come a long way & has definitely become more realistic over the years with our surround sound, HD, 3D, and special effects, but they've been so successful in creating such reality in the fantasy worlds & surreal movies that people flock to them since it they are something we would never experience otherwise & the movie successfully takes us to a whole new world. I had never heard of Andre Bazin before reading this article but he seems to be a vital part of cinema and its' progression of becoming a reality. He truly had an earnest belief in realistic vocation of film, even after people mocked him & protested against his ideas too.

The Innovators

Bazin's view of photography/motion picture versus paintings was the most interesting part of the article for me. Bazin describes photography/motion picture's relationship with reality as a special obligation . I felt that Bazin said this with an heir of arrogance that expressed film's superiority in relating to reality. In my photography class we learned about how at first photography was used to imitate painting, smearing vasoline over the lenses to make photos look painterly. I think there is value in the manipulation and composition of film that can deny reality. I think there are elements in painting that document emotional aspects of reality better than film. Also, I don't like the way Bazin classifies film first as documentation of our reality, and then as art. Its like he second handedly just decided to put it in that category. Personally i think it's possible for the art to develop as the documentation occurs through an intentionality of shooting.

Divining the Real

I really enjoyed Bazin's view on cinema and his way of seeing it as stopping time in an image. His faith in religion tied into his view as shown in his observation that there are, "Those directors who put their faith in the image and those who put their faith in reality."
His idea that cinema and photography are trying to be as close to reality as possible can be seen to this day. So many movies use high technology to produce the best realistic effects and films. But sometimes I feel they can go overboard with the effects and the result is a pretty movie with a horrible script. While Bazin's prediction that cinema's 'art of reality' would be at its "final level" in 2000 may have come true, I personally think it came true only visually. However, he also said that, "If cinema ever could succeed in becoming the exact double of reality, it would also fail." Cinema is never supposed to be perfect but through cinema's search for a perfect reality, it becomes a "mission is to reveal life."
That mission is similar to what we do as an artist and I can suddenly relate to Bazin and his ideas.

The Innovators 1950-1960: Divining the real

I found this article to be very interesting, mostly because I liked reading about the way Bazin mistrusted and questioned everything. I definitely enjoyed the way he challenged photography, claiming that "it is first of all a sensory datum and only later perhaps a work of art". I also enjoyed the idea of cinema never succeeding at becoming an exact double of reality. His criticism of montage made me almost laugh at the ridiculousness when he said it supported propagandist messages, but at the same made me stop to think that there may be some truth behind that statement, especially when you think of the way film tries to render the real. I also thought that it was interesting that Bazin predicted cinema in 2000 would be free of the artificial, since some of the most popular movies and shows on tv are done with computers, such as Transformers. Nonetheless, I can understand why his opinions were attacked by some intellectuals and revered by others. I definitely respect his faith in his own opinion, however, and I liked the way his ideas challenged my way of thinking.

The Innovators 1950-1960: Diving The Real

Bazin definitely put forth some interesting ideas about photography and cinema. I found his "mummy complex" (an innate human need to halt the ceaseless flow of time by embalming it in an image) to be such a beautiful truth, an eloquent take on the "capturing a moment" colloquialism.
I appreciate his view that the photograph is a product of mechanical reproduction, and as a result it is first and foremost a document rather than a work of art. The comparison of this to the hand-crafted work of a painting has always been a concept I've dealt with since high school, because I was always more of a hand-crafting kind of artist. It was comforting to see the idea expressed elsewhere. But rather than making the photograph have less depth in content than a painting, Bazin's idea gives the photograph another dimension - an inescapable connection with reality.
Bazin's prediction that cinema would merge with reality was deemed "wrong" by the author of the article, but in some ways he was correct. Although the film industry produces many escapist films, such as cheesy rom coms and dramas with ridiculous plotlines and unrealistic endings, the sheer technology advances over time have been able to make the experience of watching a movie incredibly realistic; with HD quality images and the sudden explosion of 3D, movies are becoming practically interactive. The advancement in CGI technology allows for mythical creatures to come alive and entire cities to deteriorate; and although from a logical standpoint those things seem impossible, when you're completely engaged in a movie.. its suddenly believable. In addition, many independent films today border on documentary style and are intensely analogous to real life, for example, "Rachel Getting Married".

Andre Brazin

The article presented some interesting thought I would like to possibly explore, such as how film/photography can preserve a person from the endless flow of time. The subject can never actually go back or relive that specific moment, they can only move forward, yet that moment can be replayed for eternity. So, essentially that person can revisit their past from an outsider perspective and witness themselves captured forever in that moment.
Also, the idea that film can never be entirely real, it must "surrender a measure of reality." How the viewer of the end product will never actually witness the real thing, the entire package, how reality is essentially lost once its lived the first time, much like the dinosaur sponges that never go back to their original size after they are used. This actually contradicts the first idea how viewing your past self will never entirely be true.
Lastly, I found it extremely interesting that Brazin predicted that by 2000, humans would have almost prefected "the art of reality", while fantasy films such as avatar, toy story 3, lord of the rings and inception are among the highest grossing films ever.

i also really enjoyed the line "life spilling over the border of the frame"

The Innovators 1950-1960: Diving The Real

I found this article very interesting. It is very interesting to think of someone using the real as an artform. It seems crazy that today cinema has gone so far from the real and from Bazin's thoughts of what cinema should be. When reading this article I could not help to think of reality t.v. and how it is supposed to be "real" but is it? This article really made me re-think some things such as what is "real"? I feel as though Bazin really had something going for him when talking about what was real and how cinema should be real-life with a little help. I thoroughly enjoyed the part in the article that spoke about the camera and film and how a photograph is organic and seems to be a part of nature rather than mechanical. I found this to be a great article that really got me thinking.

Ch.1 Activity

For the activity i rewatched the movie "Garden State" to solely focus on the camera techniques. Before watching it i recalled a scene where the main character is sitting on a couch watching everything that's going on, and the camera does an extreme close-up of his eyes following the movement around him. There are many close-ups throughout the movie, including the beginning scene of the main character lying on his bed staring at the ceiling, and various times when characters take turns speaking to each other.

There are also several scenes that incorporate dramatic angles, such as the scene that takes place when the main characters are running around trying to avoid a fiery arrow, viewed from a bird's eye view.Another memorable scene is when the main characters and a secondary character are standing at the edge of an "infinite abyss". The three of them begin to yell in unison, and the camera zooms out a great deal very quickly.

The transitions throughout the movie are consistently regular cuts. Also, during conversations the screen directions is always consistent - following the 180 degree rule. In general, it was really interesting to pay attention to the individual compositions of the various shots, and to take special notice of the thought that must have gone into each and every one.

Ch 1 Activity, Transitions

Transitions occur throughout every movie to move from one scene into another. A transition is meant to interrupt the flow of the movie as little as possible and continue the pace of what is occurring. Fades tend to allow a scene to be drawn out, where as cuts end a scene and transition into the next as quickly as possible.


Throughout much of the movie "Shaun of the Dead", director Edgar Wright creates quick transitions between scenes through a series of very short cuts of minor actions a character may do. For example, as a transition to show the characters moving from the inside of Shaun's house to the neighborhood outside, many cuts are made to Shaun brushing his teeth, putting the toothbrush down, and washing his hands. Each cut lasts only a second, but continues the pace of the movie from one scene to the next.

Chapter 1 Exercise

The movie I decided to re-watch was Inception. Even when I watched it the first time I thought it had such great cinematography with their amazing special effects, but after the second time I realized what great camera shots they had with just using the basic techniques in the movie. They used montage quite often throughout the movie (flashing back to various of the same scenes in Cobb's memory that he wanted to change; sometimes with just music & sometimes with the memory's sounds). A few examples include what looked like they used a dolly (while following the characters around Ariadne's first dream city), panning (to show the dream worlds when they arrived), and extreme close-ups (to show the character's emotionless faces while they were put on the machines during the dream & also right when they awoke from the dreams). This movie definitely has great camera work worth watching.

Chapter 1 Excercise

I decided to re watch a movie I've seen probably a million times...and a million times again with commentary. (500) Days of Summer has some great example of montages. This can be seen in the very first part of the movie when you see a side by side montage of Tom and Summer growing up. It also incorporates music from Regina Spektor (awesome soundtrack) which is typical of montage. They also use montage to show how Tom feels about Summer, when he loves everything about her, when he hates those same things. These flashback montages have great examples of various closeup styles.

Ch. 1 activity

The activity I chose to do was visit an art gallery. I actually visited two galleries today while roaming around campus taking photography, and found myself in the "Sideshow" exhibit in the University Gallery and I also visited the Architecture gallery. They were both very different types of exhibits but they both acted as springboards for ideas in my TBM projects. For example, the Sideshow exhibit had these really huge banners extending all the way to the ceiling, and the way that they took up a whole wall but were still well-lit by the gallery space made me really think about lighting and setting up shots. The architecture gallery was great at showing different angles, points-of-view, and framing techniques through the different images of buildings they showcased.

Ch1 Response, Watch for Close ups

A director can dramatize a shot by making it a close-up or extreme close-up. In extreme close-ups, the focus is entirely on the subject. This can sometimes be used in comedies when the actor produces an odd face or it can make the focused object more important than usual. Once close up, the shot becomes much more hilarious or serious than it would be in a shot that's farther away.

Sometimes shots can be very close at first. Then the same subject would be shot farther to show something in the background that compliments the mood from the first close up.

Here's an example from "Hot Fuzz" where we see character Angel's face vs. Everyone-Else.

A shot of the object or a place from afar is usually the establishing shot. In the picture, the boring symmetrical and similar looking audience makes the front characters' faces all the more obvious and humorous. This shot has not only established the setting of a theater but also dramatizes the mood.