had another freaky dream last night

a few more

there are a few more things i've been thinking about

1. The Giver, by Lois Lowry
one of my favorite books i read as a child.
feels like powerful poetry

2. Tekkonkinkreet (film), directed by Michael Arias

the story gets muddled in the middle, but it's a really wonderful piece of animated film. sorry to say i haven't read the manga series. 

3.  Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

ok, don't stone me, but i've never actually read the novels word for word. i mostly know pieces of it, and i love the idea of a world hidden from adults, with ridiculous but still dangerous characters. chesire cat.....one of the coolest characters. evar.

4. Treasure Planet, directed by John Musker and Ron Clements (Disney film from 2002).

i can't believe it's been 10 years. i was still in elementary school! WHAT IS GOING ON.

but i just watched this film again, recently. and i still love it ^^  a lot of fun, and doesn't forget its classic roots. wonderful CG integration with 2D animation (HOORAY GLEN KEANE), the way it should be done. i think perhaps at this moment, Disney was a bit ahead of its time, and the masses weren't prepared. really gorgeous film.

5. Any film directed by Wong Kar Wai. 

One of my favorite directors. I love his stuff.....my favorite is probably Chungking Express, but I've seen Fallen Angels, In the Mood for Love, Happy Days, and I think a couple more. 

It's in my agenda to watch "2046," which came out a few years ago.

Color, emotion. 

He's considered part of the "Second wave" of Hong Kong cinema. 

i just checked, and last year at this time, i did some pastel color studies of "In the Mood for Love" that i uploaded on my blog, haha. 

this is one of them ^^

i like his films because it doesn't feel forced into the traditional western style narrative. a lot of hollywood films feel too heavyhanded

but his films are about the emotional experience

i'm going to avoid falling back on the three-piece narrative structure because it's stifling and limiting, and does more harm than good when i feel stuck

and there's no reason why it's any better than other kinds of description....description of an experience

sometimes it's much worse!

it's just that not everyone can recognize something different as more appropriate when they haven't experienced these different things.

ana lecture, wrap!

thinking time (thoughts dump)

i figure sharing my process will help keep me motivated for my senior film, so i thought i'd post what inspires me, what i feel most connected to.
and perhaps someone can suggest a few things, too!

i think the only way i can make a successful film is by developing ideas from what i always, without fail, enjoy. there are also some things that i keep going back to that i came across relatively recently.

1. Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I read it once as a kid, once in high school for french class, and another time a couple days ago. It's still wonderful, beautiful, and reading it as an adult (I'm an adult?!), now I think it's very sad. I think I love it even more, because I'm old enough to appreciate it.

2. Ponyo and Totoro, directed by Hayao Miyazaki from Studio Ghibli.

These films just make me happy. They're not really about much...just wonderful experiences. Something joyful and something just so pure. Uninhibited artmaking.

Actually, most, if not all, Ghibli Films are just. Gah. You guys understand.

3. Classic Fairytales

Aesop....Grimm....Hans Christian Anderson.....also some lesser known ones like the one about the princess and the donkey skin?....(i forget where that one's from, haha)

I just like 'em. They're un-superficial, un-pretentious. They embrace fantastical happenings. They don't have unnecessary inserts for the sake of entertainment.

4. The Tender Game, a short film from 1958 by John and Faith Hubley

featuring the song "Tenderly" performed by Ella Fitzgerald and the Oscar Peterson Trio. Crazy, I know.

I've watched this one over and over, and I love it every time. About a lovely experience, and you can see the brush strokes! 

Joyful animated filmmaking, where the intent was not to try to impress anyone, or be super ambitious, or get attention.

                                       

5. "My Family and the Wolf" teaser trailer from the little Spanish studio, Headless Productions.

I assume they're working on the film now, but they've released a trailer for it, and I've also watched it over and over. Looks like an homage to summer childhood memories. Beautiful, fresh, and endearing.

                                       

I love the work from these guys, they're the ones that worked on Nocturna.


6. 38-39 degrees Celsius, a short by KangMin Kim.
A Vimeo link here:  https://vimeo.com/22683060
Definitely worth watching.
Not sure if the filmmaker is still in the Experimental Animation grad program at CalArts, but I think this is where the film was completed.
It just had such strong style and personality. I think the word "uninhibited" comes to mind, again.


there are so many artists/works that i love and appreciate, but sometimes this category does not overlap with work you would love to create, or artists who you somehow feel as though you've know them for a long time. sometimes i think, "how could this person make art that i wanted to make so well?"

I've been in LA area for about a month now, and I've spent enough time worrying and feeling lame, I think. Been writing and doodling in a sketchbook I bought specifically for senior film, but it's already mid-July already! so instead of thinking I have to produce something good, I think I can make an animation a day or so, no more than a few hours of work, to help establish/elaborate on some ideas I have.

Only about a month and a week til I go home!

I think this is a good plan. Sorry for the long writing, but it's my blog! Hehe.

a clip from the ParaNorman team

this makes me so happy!

someday i want to be like these people, hopefully sooner than later.

music

today i listened to frank ocean's new song "bad religion" and i thought it was wonderful

the song starts off with
"taxi driver, would you be my shrink for the hour. leave the meter running. it's rush hour, so take the streets if you wanna. just outrun the demons, could ya."

i guess it deals with his sexuality and religion.
but it might mean something different to each person.

the album is "channel orange," and it feels new and old at the same time. the good kind of old, like soul. the artist is only 24! i think he produced most of it?

so today for some reason i felt like i could paint something, hahaha.
i actually started with deep blue background

sometimes i'm disappointed in my generation, though a lot of things are out of our responsibility

but sometimes i'm really happy to be part of our generation

remedy for a bad dream

sketchdump, Le Faune Gabriel, and Xmen

first i have to say that i've been looking at this wonderful book over and over. i bought it at gallery nucleus a couple weeks ago, and i hesitated because it was a little pricey, but i just bought it.
and it was totally worth it.
you can see on the cover, but created by dimitri vey and man arenas.
man arenas did the beautiful artwork. it's watercolor. GABRIEL THE FAUN IS SO STINKIN CUTE.
i think it's only available in french and spanish for now? not sure...my copy is in french. the writing is wonderful, too.

and here are some doodles. i got upset with drawing people again, so i just kind of forced my way through, and used some ink to make myself feel better, hehe. sorry for bad quality, no scanner access.

next time i will have some doodles about senior film ideas...really wishing i had watercolors with me. but i'm not sure if i should order a nice set or not? i don't have nice ones at school, but i do have a bunch of crap-quality ones.
nerr. i suppose i can make do with the few colored pencils i bought at barnes and noble.

fun fact. i watched the 2008 Wolverine and the Xmen animated series this week. i didn't know there was a series after the 2001 series! i think it was one of Marvel's first self-produced things?
still obsessed with sci fi/fantasy shtuff.

Julia

i finally made my second semester junior film public online. what the heck, why not ^^
it was completed in 3 months.
it was probably one of the first times where i actively tried not to let fear stop me from working/pushing, and i am very proud of it.
i'm happy to say that while i know it's not a masterpiece, i learned a LOT (you learn a lot when you fall often HAHA), and hopefully the things i learned from this process will lead to something much better someday.
i received a lot of help, and i feel very lucky to have gotten help from wonderful people. 
if you happen to watch, please leave a comment! your opinion/impression/thoughts/advice. thanks :)

https://vimeo.com/42823786

the puppet making-of photos are several posts before. the backgrounds were done by my talented matte-painter friend, Rob Go.