image source: http://www.forcesofgeek.com/2011/08/young-terry-gilliam-explains-cut-out.html

I’m preparing to do some animation for my film project, and am determined to improve my DIY animation skills. I’ve made a few animations in my life, using objects, my own face, and an overhead projector. All have worked, but have required MANY hours of correcting images frame-by-frame because of my unsteady set-up and mediocre lighting skills. Don’t get me wrong- I’m a big fan of the homemade aesthetic. But, I’m not a big fan of sitting in front of the computer hours on end correcting mistakes that I could have avoided with a little more research.

That said, I’ve been plowing through the internet world of DIY animation tutorials, and have found some useful tips!!

1) The animation stand. I need to construct a set-up that is easy to maneuver and STAYS PUT. For cut-out animation, which I’m planning on doing for my current project, I need something that holds a camera to face straight down. A tripod isn’t gonna do that. Believe me, I’ve tried. Also, I need something that’s CHEAP and SIMPLE. Here are two of the best options I found:

Wood Clamp C-Stand:

This one’s super simple, but I question its ability to hold a heavier camera (I have a Canon 60D). I decided on the stand below, but you can find the instructions for the Wood Clamp C-Stand here: http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=19857

The DIY Downshoot Stand:

This one, according to the person who designed it, is under $20 and a sturdy little set-up. The downside of this one is that you can’t move the camera up and down, however, for me and as the designer suggests, the zoom on the camera will work fine. I’ll probably opt for somewhat different lights, which I’ll discuss in a moment. For the full instructions for this design, go here: http://www.curbly.com/users/chrisjob/posts/3907-how-to-make-a-diy-camera-stand

These and other options can be found on the SMFA Animation blog att: http://smfaanimation.blogspot.com/p/animation-workspaces.html

2) The lighting. I’m tired of having bad lighting for my animations. I’ve used clamp lights, but not had the best of luck. One problem I’ve had with them is that they move, and every time that happens the lighting in the animation changes.

Here’s a handy video tutorial on studio lighting that I found helpful:

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Ikea has a desk work lamp, the Tertial Lamp for $8.99 which I’ll probably get two of:

Apparently this same lamp has been recommended to turn into a DIY webcam mount, a mic stand AND a speaker mounts as well. Pretty handy!

3) The cut-out animation technique. There’s plenty of tutorials out there, but I found Terry Gilliam’s Do It Yourself Animation Show to be the most helpful so far. His explanations are simple, funny, and acknowledge the desire to make things as easy as possible. Plus, the animations are awesome.

Here it is:

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4) The inspiration.

Brian Islam and Brucie, by Terry Gilliam:

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Tyranozilla, with music by John Powell:

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The Fish and the Doll, by Orla Wren:

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Other things that I haven’t discussed here but are also important:

-Storyboard (I was lazy to do this at first for my film pro0ject, but I’m SO GLAD I did. It’s an incredibly useful structure or jumping off point from which you can explore and elaborate on in the moment of making).

Storyboard example 1 from my film project, "Red Blob Massacre"

Storyboard example 2 from "Red Blob Massacre"

-A stop-motion editing program (‘frame catcher’). I was lucky to get Dragon Stop Motion for a student price through my university, and am glad I did. It’s very helpful. Before, I was attempting to edit one photo at a time into Final Cut Pro, which is the editing software I work with. Not a good idea. I know there are free versions out there as well- definitely helpful.

-Video editing software. As I mentioned above, I use Final Cut Pro. Would like to give After Effects a shot someday, but for now I’ll work with what I’m used to. One new program at a time… Plus, I like the homemade look a bit better. After Effects already starts to get fancy. I’m sure I might change my mind once I figured the thing out, though.

-Sound. Any animation is good with good sound. If it doesn’t look good, add some sound to it and it just might. Sound brings things to life. It accentuates the important moments. It adds the mood. For me, editing the sound in is just as fun as editing the animation. But, editing sound is a whole other topic, and one that I will not go further into at this time.

Suggestions? Comments? Please share!

And thanks for reading .

I remember a drawing project we did in 3rd grade where we created imaginary dream houses. There were no rules, and the teacher encouraged us to think beyond the impossible. This was my favorite thing to do in the world.

I don’t remember exactly what my house looked like, but I remember it having

A flying car:

A rope swing into the abyss:

A cloud bed:

And a swimming pool with mermaids:

What I loved so much about the dream house was that it had endless possibilities. Anything I felt passionate about could be crafted visually together into one fantastic drawing that I hung up on the wall and felt proud of. The most fabulous thing about it was is that I truly believed that my imaginary dream house could come to reality.

In my dream teaching philosophy it doesn’t matter if I get the job or not, if they’ll call me in for an interview or not, if they’ll include benefits and relocation fees or not…. My dream teaching philosophy is an imaginary wonderland of fantastic learning and growth. Here are a few of the parts that are essential:

Lots of laughing:

Phenomenal artistic creation:

A few tear-jerking moments:

Collaborative thinking and group inspiration:

And a learning experience that makes everyone hungry to come back for more:

Sometimes writing the fantastical, DREAM version of serious writing requirements can help free the burden of HAVING to write something, and make it more FUN. I hope that this blog post will motivate me to have more fun with my academic writings and job applications. I hope it will motivate you, too!!!

Image Sources:

http://hackedgadgets.com/2007/07/27/moller-flying-car-enters-production/ (Hacked gadgets forum)

http://caroundtheworld.com/2010/01/17/island-windjammers-rope-swing/ (Island Windjammers: the rope ship swing)

http://everfree.ponibooru.org/post/view/50406 (Ponibooru)

http://merbooksblog.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html (Mermaid Sightings: Are They Real?)

http://workinprogresspinay.wordpress.com/tag/filipino/ (Unconditional acceptance at the Ateneo’s socio-anthro department)

http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/free-texture-tuesday-paint-splatters (Free Texture Tuesday: Paint Splatters)

http://fowlerartsbrooklyn.org/gallery.html (Year One)

http://www.skinnysushi.com/2010/08/hungry-monster/ (Hungry Monster)

http://dockjumping.wordpress.com/ (Concrete Jumping in Duluth)

Dear readers,

Hello! Forgive me for lagging on new post updates. As I’m sure you all know, this time of year is a busy one.

Christmas songs are now being played everywhere for the holidays. I’ll say it straight up that I am NOT a big fan of being subjected to constant holiday cheer, and even furthermore being forced to get cheesy Christmas songs literally stuck in my head for days on end. Just like it drove me crazy when my Grandma used to sing “It’s a Small World After All” as a joke to get it stuck in our heads (she lived around the corner from Disneyland), it drives me crazy just as much to be forced to have “Frosty the Snowman” stuck in my head because the coffee shop thought it would be dandy to get their customers into the holiday spirit for the ENTIRE MONTH OF DECEMBER.

On one particular evening recently in the grocery store, however, as I was scooping lettuce and tomatoes into my shopping cart, I caught myself singing along to “Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer” as it blasted over the store speakers, as if I was *gasp* enjoying it! Of course I immediately stopped, embarrassed, and looked around to make sure that nobody was watching me. It’s one thing to be forced to listen to the constant holiday cheese, but it’s another thing to be caught in the act of unconsciously enjoying it! I clammed up quickly, and avoided eye contact at all costs.

But once I had purchased my bags of groceries and headed out to the car, as if in an act of derangement, I let loose and sang cheesy Christmas songs as loud as I could for the entire drive home. And it was AMAZING. Really, it felt so good. And I sang them badly, and I changed the words, and I made them dirty and rude at times. It was great. Because sometimes, instead of always rejecting the cheese, you have to just give up and embrace it. Not to say that you have to run out and join the community choir today, unless that’s your inclination. But to say that anywhere, at any moment, you too could take all those songs you’re desperate to avoid and instead sing them like they’re the best dang songs that you could ever be singing in December for the holidays. Sing them over and over again, and if you wish, sing them badly. Change the words to fit your own holiday experience. Use your facial expressions. Sing them to someone you love or hate. Just sing them!!! At least once. Even if it hurts. Because sometimes embracing the pain is the best thing you can do to let go of it. And for me, on that one particular night, it felt great to let my frustration about the whole holiday mayhem out by singing “Little Drummer Boy” at the top of my lungs as badly as I could in the privacy of my very own car.

In celebration of rebelling against the cheesiness by embracing it full-force just a little, just for a moment, I’ve collected a few of my favorite cheesy Christmas song videos to share with you. Feel free to pick one of your choice and sing it in a moment of holiday frustration.

Del Rubio Triplets: “Winter Wonderland”:

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Bing Crosby: “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”:

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Alvin & the Chipmunks: “Christmas Don’t be Late”:

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John Denver: “Little Drummer Boy”:

Image Links:

http://billmadison.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html (‘Tis the Season)

http://cooklikeyourgrandmother.com/2009/02/i-remember-this-feeling/ (I Remember This Feeling)

http://stuffthatsbugginme.blogspot.com/2011/02/sreaming-kids.html (Screaming Kids!!)

Image Links

http://spoiledyogi.blogspot.com/2010/08/best-yoga-teacher-jokes.html (Spoiled Yogi)

http://www.funtoosh.com/jokes/personality/1270 (Presenting the Yoga Dogs)

http://www.salagram.net/Newsletter-Jokes237.html (Krishna Conscious)

http://www.j4jokes.com/blog/funny-pctures/funny-pictures/ (Funny Pictures)

http://fun.marinov.net/show.php?id=3624&t=The+Yoga+Cats&tt=dir (The Yoga Cats)

http://carrieowerko.com/?p=35 (Yoga Cartoon from New Yorker)

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/y/yoga_practice.asp (Yoga Practice Cartoons)

http://www.harrybliss.com/store/spiritualityyoga-c-10.html?osCsid=vdfnnzvhojy (Harry Bliss)

So, now that I’m making my first real film, I’ve been watching a lot of movies for inspiration, and reading a lot about the film directing process. One of the first things I realized, that never really stuck in my mind until I started working toward my own film project, is that there is a serious imbalance of attention paid to male and female directors. In the horror film genre, I have yet to watch one horror film while being aware that it was directed by a woman. Through my research, I now know there ARE women horror film directors out there, a few of the well-known female-directed horror films being “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “American Psycho” and “Pet Cemetery”. But most of the film history books reference male filmmakers. Seriously, before doing my research for this blog post, I have read lists and lists of classic and contemporary horror films directed by men, but NONE by women. To quote Rebecca Keegan, who wrote for the L.A. Times on February 1^st, 2010:

“A woman is more likely to hold a seat on a Fortune 500 company board (15%), serve as a member of the clergy (15%), or work as an aerospace engineer (10%) than she is to direct a Hollywood movie (7%).”

“In 2010, women were most likely to work in the romantic comedy, documentary and romantic drama genres, and least likely to work in the horror, action and comedy genres, according to (San Diego State’s ‘Celluloid Ceiling’) study.”

With a little bit of research online I learned that there’s a good amount of support for emerging female directors. A few examples include the Birds Eye View organization in the UK (http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/2/home/homepage.html), the BleedFest in L.A. (http://bleedfest.com/we-are/), and the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant online (http://sjfilmgrant.wordpress.com/about/). The more I research, the more I discover- which is exciting!! But… women horror film directors? They are out there, but as Rebecca Keegan mentioned, they’re far and in between. An excellent article in the Guardian written by Emine Saner quotes Professor Barbara Creed, author of The Monstrous-Feminine, who examined women’s roles in horror films:

“Horror reflects society. What we probably need are more thoughtful horror films that speak directly to female experiences. There are plenty of bad taste, poorly-made misogynistic horror films around – as with all genres.”

Likewise, the article also quoted Caroline Cooper Charles, who is head of creative development of Darklight, an initiative to encourage female horror directors at the low-budget film studio Warp X:

“I think women have a different take on what people find scary. I love horror films but most I don’t find scary. Some of the ideas the women have come up with are scary, perhaps rooted in their own experiences. A lot of them have female lead characters. What we’re not getting is the standard horror film, where the only appearance girls make is to run around semi-clothed before getting their heads chopped off. The female characters are much more important in the narrative than in most horror films.”

Jennifer Eiss discusses women’s involvement with and contribution to the horror genre in her article “Do Women Prefer Psychological Horror?”:

“Women have been involved in horror since the conception of the genre, back when horror stories only appeared in writing and were given labels such as ‘Gothic fiction’ and ‘ghost stories’. Mary Shelley published her seminal Frankenstein in 1818, and it has become one of the most famous and iconic monster stories of modern times. Women such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Edith Wharton, children’s book author Edith Nesbit and many, many others were heavily involved in and lauded during the modern ghost story boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”

But, you ask, WHO are these women horror filmmakers? And WHAT are they making? Well, I will reply, here are some of my favorite discoveries:

Helene Cattet: “Chambre Jaune”

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Kerry Anne Mullaney: “The Dead Outside”

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Jen & Sylvia Soska: “Dead Hooker in a Trunk”

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Jackie Kong: “Blood Diner”

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Rita Mae Brown: “The Slumber Party Massacre”

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And I can’t not include this awesome trailer for “Zombie Girl”, a documentary about the now 18-year old Emily Hagin’s making of the film “Pathogen” at the age of 12:

Check out Emily’s production website, “Cheesy Nuggets” here: http://www.cheesynuggets.com/cheesynuggets.html

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To discover more, you might start by visiting this link to ghouls on film, which featured a post titled “10 Female Horror Directors You Should Know”: http://ghoulsonfilm.net/?p=331. Also check the comments to the post, which list 10 more.

And with that in mind, I will continue to endeavor on my own horror film, “Red Blob Massacre“. Coming SOON, to a theater near you.

References

http://www.bigvisionemptywallet.com/women-in-horror-month-%E2%80%93-lovers-haters-and-boobs (Women in Horror Month: Lovers, Haters and Boobs)

http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/features/2011/03/28/do-women-prefer-psychological-horror/ (Do Women Prefer Psychological Horror?)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/apr/06/2 (Everything But the Ghoul)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12665443 (Damsels in Distress)

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/horror-show-women-horror-directors-to-watch (The Horror Show: Women Horror Directors to Watch)

http://www.afterellen.com/column/the-weekly-geek/what-if-horror-films-were-made-by-more-women (The Weekly Geek: What if More Horror Films Were Made By Women?)

http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/features/2011/03/07/warped-women-the-emergence-of-female-horror-directors-in-the-uk/ (Warped Women: The Emergence of Female Horror Directors in the UK)

http://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2011/03/horror-stories.html (Horror Stories)

You know, pomegranates have always kind-of baffled me. I could just never figure out the seeds of pomegranates. They’re so big! It’s hard to know whether to swallow them, or spit them out. 75% seed, 25% delicious fruit juice. If you’re lazy, like me, you don’t take the time to scroop them out one my one into a strainer and then remove all the bits and pieces and then rinse them and then FINALLY get around to eating them. No, I’m the type who cuts the thing in half and starts gnawing. I can hardly see my computer screen because it’s COVERED in pomegranate juice.

But, you know what? It’s worth it. Because pomegranates are GOOD. Despite the seeds, despite the awkwardness, despite the spraying juice. Pomegranates remind me what fall’s all about: eating.

Image Links:

http://www.pomegranatehealthbenefitsblog.com/health-benefits-of-pomegranate-juice-and-pomegranate-seeds/pomegranate-seed-detail-3/ (Pomegranate juice)

http://www.wecanky.com/pomegrantates.html (Pomegranates: The Fruit Kids Can’t Resist)

http://thatssuperfood.com/pomegranate-magic/ (Pomegranate Magic)

http://www.noveleats.com/how-to/open-a-pomegranate/ (Open a Pomegranate)

Please enjoy the few below that I’ve included:

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Scuba: “The Upside”

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Tied & Tickled Trio: “Chlebnikov”

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Clark: “Night Knuckles”

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I also love the sound for this video, played by the talented Frank Pahl:

(the video itself is also awesome.)

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And now, your assignment, as an active (or new) reader of my blog. PLEASE! Share at least one song that you find spooky/haunting/suspenseful/quirky/enticing in the comments section below. I appreciate your input, and as much as I love to write this blog and obsess over the site stats, I’d like to get to know you more and what your interests are. AND, it could really help me with my project!

Thanks so much for reading!

Here are a few pictures of the video aspect of the piece. More from the opening and installation to come soon…. :

Face Off

Ernesto Neto

Griya Kulo: Thousands of Pigeon Feathers

Cakeland in Oakland

Leandro Erlich: Swimming Pool

For Use/Numen: Tape Installation

Pipilotti Rist: Video Installations

Maurizio Cattelan

Louise Bourgeoise

The Creepy Hamburg Water Woman

David Cerny: Look into the Abyss

Spencer Tunick

And now, off to finish mine!!!

Image Links: (for some reason I’m having trouble connecting the link, so I’m afraid for most of these you’ll have to copy and paste until I figure it out.)

http://vectroave.com/2010/07/ernesto-neto-art-installations/ (Ernesto Netohttp://forum.xcitefun.net/cakeland-sweet-art-installation-oakland-t40631.html Art Installations)

http://www.griyakulo.com/art-installation-with-fluid-concept-features-of-thousands-pigeon-feathers/art-installation-with-fluid-concept-features-of-thousands-pigeon-feathers08/ (Art Installation with Fluid Concept)

http://forum.xcitefun.net/cakeland-sweet-art-installation-oakland-t40631.html (Cakeland- Sweet Art Installation- Oakland)

http://slicemagazine.blogspot.com/2009/04/wtf-art-installation.html (WTF? Art Installation- Swimming Pool)

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/06/17/tape-installation-by-for-usenumen-at-dmy-berlin/ (Tape Installation)

http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/20/great-art-outdoors-on-buildings-in-moscow/ (Great Art, Outdoors, on Buildings, in Moscow)

http://www.thisistomorrow.info/default.aspx?webPageId=1&catId=188&pageNumber=1 (Contemporary Art Magazine)

http://artobserved.com/artists/maurizio-cattelan/ (Maurizio Cattelan)

http://morrisonworldnews.com/?p=12735 (Sculptor & Artist, Louise Bourgeoise)

http://www.lolgallery.com/the-creepy-hamburg-water-woman-photos/ (The Creepy Hamburg Water Woman Photos)

http://diannaspostcardsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/2010/08/look-into-abyss.html (Look Into the Abyss)

http://danielleandkait.blogspot.com/2010/11/spencer-tunick_10.html (Spencer Tunick)

http://www.shanelavalette.com/journal/2010/05/30/spencer-tunick-installations/ (Spencer Tunick: Installations)

Image Links

http://www.graphixia.cssgn.org/2011/07/04/30-who-wears-the-tights-in-this-relationship-selfhood-and-identity-in-grant-morrisons-batman-and-robin/

http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2009/11/26/1171942/happy-thanksgiving-nfl-week-12

http://www.thefunnycartoon.com/funny-cartoon/funny-cartoon/bztoons—cartoon-gallery.html

http://www.funnycartoonpictures.net/postcard.img287.htm

http://www.glasbergen.com/diet-health-fitness-medical/?album=2&gallery=59

http://baloo-baloosnon-politicalcartoonblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/dieting-cartoon.html