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Photograph © Copyright by Reiner Pfisterer. Courtesy of fmx/08.
That’s me (center) attending the screening of Robert Zemeckis’ “Beowulf” (2007) on the third day of this year’s fmx/08. (I already wrote about this screening in an earlier post.) After about ten minutes or so, I moved to a now vacant seat, only to realize that the 3D effect was much more impressive there. Robert Zemeckis was present himself and gave a short introduction right before the screening.
In his article “CG on a Budget: A Zen Art “, J. Paul Peszko wrote
“Unlike feature animation, where major studios spend money hand over fist trying to outdo one another [ … ]”
— Quote © Copyright 2007 by J. Paul Peszko/Animation World Network. —
and this is imho exactly the state of affairs Jean Detheux complained about in “Notes from the Underground”. Although I do not agree 100% with what he wrote (I just can’t help but finding certain fx cool), and although it is imho not the point to abandon the superficial altogether, I also perceive a gradual demise of the “substance” in much (not all) of today’s visual fx/animation, if not in our culture in general. What I particularly find so annoying about this tendency are a) fx for the sake of fx, and b) the “loud” approach we encounter so often (especially in advertising; this is what I personally call the “smiling banana effect”).
Is subtlety out of style? Not necessarily, but it would require courageous (and preferably independent) directors who know about the possibilities of state-of-the-art visual fx/animation and how to use them properly. We really have had enough of superficial fx by now. This is not a contradiction to what I wrote farther above; my point is simply, not to abandon depth altogether and to venture into new, yet unexplored territory instead—and not just technically. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock made it clear that it is indeed possible to combine avantgarde art (“Spellbound”; “Psycho”; “The Birds”) and financial success.
Yesterday, when surfing the web site of Animation World Network, I stumbled upon a series of articles written by Jean Detheux, entitled “Notes from the Underground”. What’s interesting about this: The author is a painter from Belgium, who started working with digital media because he became allergic to paint. Besides, the title of the series is a reference to the book of the same title by Dostoevsky, which in turn was one of the influences on screenwriter/director, Paul Schrader, when writing his script for Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” (1976).
This is also interesting because I have been preoccupied with this very topic myself for some time, and the reason for this is basically that, although technically-wise, computer graphics have advanced amazingly in the course of the last say, ten years, what I personally am desparately missing is the artistic depth in digital art.
Maybe this is sort of a viscious circle: Artists working with traditional media perceive digital art as superficial and therefore hesitate using it; on the other hand, (often younger) digital artists don’t have the background of the former; thus, their work often lacks the depth we admire so much in traditional art forms such as painting.
Be it as it may, here’s the link to the very first article of the series, entitled “Notes from the Underground Part One — Animation: Prozac or Kyosaku?”.
Related: “Animation as an art form”
After seeing “Iron Man” (2008) today, I’m completely enthusiastic about this movie, which was a big surprise for me! After having read some of the reviews, I was basically prepared for everything. Taking this into account, the first thing that took me in for this movie was the well-written dialogue, and this confirms my hope that quality-conscious actors such as Jeff Bridges and especially Gwyneth Paltrow, whose performance in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999) I found so sympathetic, would guarantee for some quality. (I have to admit that I didn’t know Robert Downey Jr. before, who imho really is the perfect cast for Tony Stark/Iron Man.) Right now, I simply cannot follow critics who were writing about “inconsistencies” in the script of “Iron Man”. (It seems that two separate teams of writers worked on this script, but it surely doesn’t show!) I am regarding myself as very critical and quality-conscious, but this was one movie I could have seen again right away!
Summary: Paramount hit it really big time with this one!
Now, that this year’s fmx is over, and while I am waiting for the responses to various inquiries of mine about posting stills/images here, I suddenly find myself more and more preoccupied with “film”.
One particularly interesting site I stumbled upon today is Great Directors - a critical database, located at sense of cinema. This site covers (in alphabetical order) basically any important director from Peggy Ahwesh to Fred Zinnemann.
Another site I personally find interesting (this is basically about movies which are currently running), is FirstShowing.net.
Finally (to get back to visual fx), after reading some of the reviews about Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” (this was via Rotten Tomatoes) I’m determined to go and see it (the English version) and share my impressions here afterwards.
Related: “Must-See!”
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Logo Courtesy of Timothy Leborgne.
While at a press conference at fmx/08 in Stuttgart, Germany, I learned about a new initiative funded by the MEDIA Programme of the EU and named „Animation Sans Frontières, the Animation Production Workshop“ (ASF in short; web site will be available soon), whose goal will be to provide students with the necessary knowledge about the business side of animation, multimedia, visual fx, and related fields.
On the next day, I had the chance to speak with Eric Riewer and Timothy Leborgne at the Speaker’s Lounge of fmx. Eric Riewer is a member of the board of fmx. In addition, he is responsible for International Relations at Gobelins, L’Ecole De L’Image, a school located in Paris. Timothy Leborgne is Director of Professional Training at The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark, and he is the coordinator of the consortium of four schools involved with this program. (The remaining two schools are the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg – Institute of Animation, Germany, and the Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), Hungary.)
This initiative will, in the course of one year, make students from the four schools familiar with issues such as project development, etc.. Another important goal of ASF will be to help build a European wide network of animation talent. The students who want to apply for ASF have to pitch one project to be developed during the course. Finally, four students from each of the four schools will be selected. While participating to ASF, they will visit each of the schools for a total of 2 weeks in each.
Quote:
„A group of 16 students, 4 from each school, will travel to every school to follow 4 separate parts of an overview of the entire animation film production process, from concept development through financing to actual production management. Television and feature films, games and interactive media, traditional and cross platform production processes will all be covered at various stages along the way. Each [of the] modules will run over 14 days“.
The first ASF Master Class will start in October, 2008.
Here are once again the links to the web sites of the four participating schools:
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Photograph © Copyright by William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
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Related: “The prospects of 3D cinema”
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I am a web designer, graphics artist, writer, and occasional photographer located in the southwest of Germany.
Besides being interested in (and blogging about) visual fx, computer graphics, etc., I play jazz guitar (I am heavily influenced by the late Django Reinhardt).
Here are some photographs I did.
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