Film Thursday: Stop-Motion Animation

Hey Guys,

This is Film Thursday.

Here’s the part of the week where I will either review a film or talk about how film can affect us in certain ways. Each week I will ask you what you feel should review next or what area of film I should look into.

This week we are going to look into the amazing world of Stop-Motion Animation, a very time consuming but extremely detailed form of animation.

For those of you unsure of what Stop-Motion Animation is, then think back to Wallace and Gromit (1989 – Present) by Nick Park, Aardman Animations.

Basically the way they create these animations is they place the clay models into the potion they need. Then take a few shots. They then stop the camera, move the models by the slightest amount for the next shot.

These stop-motion animations take up a lot of time, as one scene may take the animators a couple of days. So a whole film may take a year or maybe more.

Such Films as: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton, and Buton’s other creation: Corpse Bride (2005) are both stop-motion films and both have a high level of detail and had plenty of time spent making and creating these films.

The reason I am mentioning stop-motion is down to something that I am highly excited about. It is one film I truly cannot wait to go and see, I will be front of line as soon as it is out.

This film will be the work of Director, Producer, and Writer Guillermo del Toro (GDT/ Del Toro).  Del Toro is the creator of such films as: Hellboy (2004), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and The Orphanage (2007). He has created some very extraordinary creatures and monsters and knows how to play with ‘The Dark Side’ of film.

So when I heard that GDT was rumoured to make a ‘dark’ version of Pinocchio, I was extremely excited at how the creatures would look and what tales he would bring through.

The idea of this film is based around a book that Gris Grimly wrote. Del Toro is working alongside The Jim Henson Company, and there are the first artistic impressions of the film.

If you haven’t guessed already, this will be a stop-motion animation. Which means it will not be released until around 2014, but it is just exciting to have seen some of the pictures from this talented director.

So here, from GDT’s own website, are some of the artist interpretations:

The first two pictures are artist interpretations, and the last one is one of the models they may be using in the movie.

So as you can see, it is a very exciting concept, the blue fairy is rumoured to be the soul of a dead girl and there are meant to be plenty of dark creatures. 

There are also rumours of Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Waits and Luing Andrews voicing some of the many characters.

If you want to find out more about Del Toro then here is his website:

http://deltorofilms.com/wp/

And this is all the information on his version of Pinocchio:

http://deltorofilms.com/wp/category/other-projects/pinocchio

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1488589/

I can’t wait to see more info as it comes in, and can’t wait to see this film in 2014.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Mull-over Monday: The Use of 3D in Film

Hey Guys,

Welcome to Mull Over Monday, This is the day where I pick something that people discuss and have different opinions about. These things will normally be to do with film or writing or something that obviously affects my life directly.

So this week we are going to discuss the use of 3D in films. Is there any difference between a normal 2D film and its 3D version?

Well I still remember the first thing I ever saw in 3D, it was not a big blockbuster film or anything you would watch at a regular cinema. Instead it was a documentary on at an art/theatre gallery.

This 3D documentary was about fish, and the depth of the oceans. It informed of creatures far in the undiscovered parts.

Now this documentary was probably one of the most realistic, most Three Dimensional film I have ever seen. The creatures and fish seemed to swim, float and glide out of the screen towards the audience.

In places this film even shocked and scared the audience when certain fish and creatures’ jaws splashed out of the screen.

Ever since seeing this realistic 3D documentary/film I have struggled to find 3D entertaining or realistic. Either Directors don’t use enough of it, or they only use it in certain places.

I find that some ‘3D’ films just do not reach the expectation. Certain films say that they are 3D, but instead they have a few minor scenes with depth of perception and not much else going for them.

Think about it this way, why pay around £8, plus your expensive cinema food, for a 3D film which has one pathetic 3D moment in it? That is quite a lot of money for something that doesn’t come out of the screen.

When 3D is done right though, it can be amazing. A lot of people and reviews enjoyed the 3D spectacular Avatar (2009) by James Cameron. Now my own view: The story line; not the best, The Idea: Great, The imagery: Amazing.

Another film where I thought the 3D was great was The Final Destination (2009) by David R. Ellis. Even though once again the story was the same as the rest, just in a different location and with different characters, the objects that killed the characters did actually seem like they flew out of the screen in certain scenes.

So 3D is not always a waste of time and money. Some films are great and spectacular, but I don’t think we are all the way there yet. We need to focus on impressing the audience and making the feel as if everything is flying towards you, Instead of just having the depth of perception.

If you have any opinions of 3D films that were great or others that were not worth the ticket price then please comment below and discuss your views on the growing trend of Three Dimension Films.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Film Thursday: Mysery - Short Film (2010)

Hey Guys,

This week for Film Thursday I have posted a short film.

This short film was created for my A level, Film Studies, piece. It is one of my first ideas for the Character Mysery. In this film she is a young girl who is upset about where her life is and wants to escape. She manages to finds happiness in her dreams, but knows that dreams can't last forever.

Song: Antony and the Johnsons - Another World (2008)
Mysery: Rebecca Hughes: https://www.facebook.com/Huuughes

MattThomFilm:
Blog: http://mattthomfilm.blogspot.co.uk/
Page: https://www.facebook.com/MattThomFilm
Twitter: @no1mattthom

A Few Film Ideas

Hey Guys,

Wanting to become a film director I have had a few ideas in the past as to what type of films I would like to create; some ideas are based on books, myths and ideas and others based loosely on moments that happened in my life and that I have worked with and edited.

These are some of my small ideas that I have had in the past and an example of my style:


The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

The book is narrated by Death, whom tells the story of a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany around The Second World War. Death tells the story of his involvement in this war and also tells the story of a young girl who is growing up and getting used to living with her foster parents and her neighbours after her mother leaves her. The young girl gets a habit of stealing books from those who deserve it and the story tells of what happens to her and those around her as the war becomes more serious.

I believe that this book should become a film due to the fact that that the book itself has some beautiful imagery and how it is narrated by Death whom explains vividly how his job works and the views he sees around him. I believed that it had an essence of a fantasy, or even fairy-tale style to it whilst it was still realistic and emotional enough to affect people from all ages.

Mysery - Own Story

This story is based on a young girl named Matilda Mysery Downes, Mysery for short, who lives in the 1920's. She is sat in an abandoned field of corn when something mysterious happens and she ends up in a mysterious time and place. She has no idea how she got here or what will happen but decides to explore and discover, she bumps into a friendly gentlemen who shows her around. He gets her use to the area so that she does not want to go back. The story tells of her becoming use to this new world and everything involved with her travels.

In the writing I have made it so that the future world is in colour and Mysery stays in grey-scale, giving it a great effect about her change of location and the fact that nobody will accept her for who she is. I wanted this to be the same in the film. I saw this story progress from a story of discovery in herself and her world and move towards more of a love story. It has hints of fantasy in it with the mystery behind how she got to this world

Back To Black - A story of Amy Winehouse's life

Somebody else will probably end up releasing this story before I even get to where I want to be, but I would love to release this myself.

My idea for her story was to mix both real clips and acted scenes together to create a realistic as possible film as possible. The idea was to have most of the action in a dark black or grey-scale and then having one or two items/objects in the scene in colour, the items of importance would then look highlighted. I wanted to show how Amy's based her music on life and how her music therefore effected and changed her life as she would try to better herself with creating new problems to overcome.

This story would show Amy as a hero in the end as her music and life had affected so many others and had changed peoples' lives.

Transformation - Own Story

This story is still under construction but the basis is that a middle aged, married man becomes addicted to cross dressing; he therefore ends up leading two separate lives. His two lives start to spiral out of control and he doesn't know which way to turn. This story is about how he accepts himself and how others view him in his two separate lives.


There are a few small ideas I've had for this on film but at the moment they have not been narrowed down and refined.

Bitter Shandy - Own Story

This story has not been completely thought out yet, but I have had a few visions and ideas.

Basically this story about an actor who gets in a relationship with an actress, Shandy, that he has been working with, they go away together. The story follows how their relationship falls apart and how the guys actions effect Shandy and what it causes her to do to save her life and how everything that happens is a chain reaction towards something else.

This film would break my normal style and be a mixture between fantasy and reality; it is a story of how their work seems to crash into the couples lives. The stories that they act out seem to happen to them in real life and cause things to get worse.

I have had other ideas for this, but they are being refined.

There are also other stories and films I would love to make, using such authors such as Roald Dahl books and Darren Shan, but at this moment I am focusing on writing these stories and perfecting them whilst also working on short films also.

I am also focusing on my studies and making sure I complete my masters in Directing for film.

Stay safe,

Matt