The Cinematic History of Fake Blood

  Fake blood has been around ever since there was a need for bloodied characters in cinema. However, the fake blood really started flowing around 1894 in le Theatre du Grand-Guignol in Paris. This theater was known for its horror-centric plays, and was the first to really utilize lots of fake blood for their horror. Their recipe for fake blood (in which the original coloring agents can be replaced with food coloring) was vegetable glycerine with red food coloring, a bit of yellow, and just a drop of blue.
  The next big recipe for fake blood was Kensington Gore, which was used by the British studio Hammer Film to make gory color movies, which was not allowed by Hollywood's production code, of which Hammer Film was not under the jurisdiction of. The recipe for this was 2 parts Golden Syrup (Light Treacle), 1 part water, the same red/yellow/blue food coloring combination, a bit of Corn Starch, and peppermint extract for flavor.
  The final major recipe came about in the 1970's, which was the Dick Smith recipe. This was/is made with 2 quartz of corn syrup, 5 oz of water, the traditional food coloring combination, non-dairy coffee creamer, liquid lecithin, and peppermint extract for taste. This recipe is still one of the major ones used as of today.

8 Habits of Those Who Have Great Ideas

While the eureka moment is a rare one, it isn't exclusive to a single type of people,anyone can have one with a little mind-set change. People who have great ideas have formed 8 habits that help them think, which would include:
 1.Looking for inspiration in unexpected places. Don't look in your own field for inspiration, look outside of it.
 2.Make slow decisions. Great ideas form when you slow down decisions, so don't rush for an answer.
 3.Find internal motivation. Studies have shown that people are most creative when they are intrinsically motivated, so you do what you love, and love what you do.
 4.Start from scratch. Instead of trying to improve a product, pretend like it doesn't exist and work from the ground up.
 5.Be willing to take risks. The difference between a successful man and a failure is often the courage to take a calculated risk.
 6.Always try new things. Try not to become set in your way, but rather trying other things.
 7.Find connections between experiences. Great ideas are often the result of connecting two seemingly unrelated items.
 8.Finally, be open to magic. Think that great ideas are out there just waiting for the right person who can bring them to life.

Disney's 2D to 3D app

  In this technology-centric world we live in, older forms of entertainment are constantly eclipsed by the new. With that in mind, you wouldn't expect a kid(or an adult for that matter) to even bat an eye at something like a coloring book, however, Disney seems to have a way to mix the old and the new, combining old fashioned coloring with a little AR.
  A new app developed by Disney Research allows 2D drawings to be displayed as 3D entities complete with colors through the use of a tablet or smartphone. While the smart-device is aimed at the 2D character, it creates the character in 3D space. As the child colors in the character on the page, the color is applied to the 3D model in real-time. The two main halves of this being the 3D animated character, and the custom-software generated 2D line-art representations of the character for the coloring book. Then the device's camera automatically detects the character that is being colored and displays the 3D version.
  This, while already a great way to get kids to color, this is just one part of Disney Research's initiative, Augmented Creativity, which focuses on using augmented reality to inspire and enhance creative play.
   

Practice Post

Great to be back(at least to BOCES).

The Art and Anxiety of Filmmaking

     Film4(whom I don't know enough about to go into an overview about) gathered up many amazing directors, such as Quentin Tarantino, David Cronenberg, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Ben Wheatley, Steve McQueen, Joe Carnahan and Lone Scherfig to talk about their starts, the art of film-making and their fears.
     Some of the things they touch on are the importance of opening-up to change when directing, how action and acting can blend to allow for a humanized element, and how important responsibility is. Some of them also talked about basic fears like making a movie adaptation of preexisting material , in which you're always thinking that you don't want to "mess it up" for those who love the book or whatever other media the source material comes from. Or how (and this is a commonly shared one) you never know if what you're making is going to work, you could produce it without a hitch, exactly the way you see it in your head, no compromise, but it can still crash-and-burn in the market if the audience doesn't like it. But even knowing that people still go on and create movies because they want to. Some see it as art, and some use movie-making to explore what it means to be human. For some of them, their passion and eventual career started with things as simple as drawing comic strips or playing with a parents' camera All-in-all, with all the fears these people have, it really is wonderful they still decide to do this for a living, because we wouldn't have good or bad movies if there weren't anyone making them at all.

Do's and Don'ts for Demos

     The first step to getting into an actual career in animation getting your abilities and work out there. What better way to do that than by putting together a demo reel. Since this is such a pivotal step in t hiring process, everyone's going to be putting one together, and someone's going to have to sit through and review all of them. Knowing this, senior animation mentor Don Kim put together a little list of ways to make your reel more professional and make more of an impression in the form of some do's and don'ts.
     What you should do includes:
           -Only include your best work in the reel
           -Start and end the reel with the most amazing shots you have available
           -Be mindful of the shots you string together, try to have some form of semblance and rhythm                to your cuts
           -Include a portfolio with your other various, non-animation work

     And, what you shouldn't do:
          -Don't have a 5-10 min reel, the people reviewing the demo reels have a lot more than just                    yours to review.
          -Don't include over the top titles, transitions, and underscore. The point of your reel is to show              off your animation, so don't wash over that fact with unnecessary edits.
   
    So, with all this information in hand, use it to make the best possible demo reel you can. Hopefully it'll outshine most of the others being reviewed.

   

6 Reasons

   If you intend to revolve your life(or at least a decent part of it) around video, then you should be shooting video often right? Well often may not even be good enough, you should be shooting some video everyday. There are more than likely many reasons to do this, but the article which discusses this opinion brings 6 specific reasons into light.

    1.Become very familiar with your equipment:
         Usually when you use equipment like a camera, the first thing you do is read the manual to familiarize or to remind yourself with it. However, if you use your equipment everyday, you're eliminating the need for that first step, as the knowledge of what each button does or how to do something specific become embedded into your memory.

    2.Practice:
          Practice can make perfect(unless you're practicing the wrong thing to do). Even if the footage you're recording isn't the best or even useable, you're still getting experience that will help you improve your work.

    3.Experiment:
          If you're recording everyday, why not mix it up?  This also ties in with practice, everyday try something different, make different kinds of videos, or try working with things such as: Camera angles, framing, shot duration, etc.

    4.Strengths and Weaknesses:
          Pretty self-explanatory, if you record everyday you'll eventually get comfortable with what you're good with. You'll also get a good understanding of what you're not so good at.

    5.Habits:
          When you do something daily enough times, it will eventually become a habit right? Once you manage to make a habit out of shooting videos, it'll become second nature so you wont have to even think about it.

    6.Inspiration:
          Finally, searching everyday for something new to to make a video of, you're sure to be inspired.
         

     

Super Bowl commercial

     During this years Super Bowl(you know, that thing that almost no one in our class watched?), one of the commercials was an animated Mercedes-Benz advertisement directed by Robert Stromberg. This commercial was a new spin on The Tortoise and the Hare featuring 3D animation and live action. When accepting this job he stated that he likes new challenges and that this a departure from his usual work. This was a well animated commercial featuring many different, characterized woodland animals such as a card-dealing weasel and a referee fox. However, I don't know why for a sports car commercial used a fable with the lesson "slow and steady wins the race," even going as far as to say that after the turtle wins driving the sports car; Apparently, calling your sports car slow is good advertising. All in all, it was an enjoyable take on the classic fable.