The Oscars, who won what? ( And whats the big fuss about the Artists?)

The Oscars took place last night, and from the sounds of reports and various gossip sites the bit winners of the night were Hugo and The Artist, here is a list of all the Oscar Winners.

Best cinematography

Robert Richardson, Hugo

Best art direction

Hugo

Best costume design

The Artist

Best make up

The Iron Lady

Best foreign language film

A Separation

Best actress in a supporting role

Octavia Spencer, The Help

Best film editing

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Best sound editing

Hugo

Best sound mixing

Hugo

Best documentary feature

Undefeated

Best animated film

Rango

Best visual effects

Hugo

Best actor in a supporting role

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best original score

Ludovic Bource, The Artist

Best song

Man or Muppet, The Muppets

Best adapted screenplay

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash, The Descendants

Best original screenplay

Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

Best live action short

The Shore

Best documentary short

Saving Face

Best animated short

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore

Best director

Michel Hazavanicius, The Artist

Best actor in a leading role

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Best actress in a leading role

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Best picture

The Artist

Clearly the largest winners of the night were Hugo and The Artist, two filsm I havent seen yet but with too.
And the two films that stood out the most, The Artist is a modern silent film ( apart from the music and occasional dialogue) shown in black and white and based in the era of silent films.
Hugo is set in an abstact very stylized world, in which time and clock seem to be the focus of the film.
As shown, Hugo won awards for Sounds Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual effects, Art direction and Cinematography. All are based on the film, not around the actors.
The Artist however, won, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Original Score and Best Costume design. Three of which are heavilg based on the actors and their abilities.
Did the much more simple plot and setting allow more focus to be placed on the actors rather than background?
Perhaps.

The Artist has been massive this year, not just award wise but also with the masses. But what is the reason for this? Is it because we are taken into the past, both through the storyline and setting of the film, and the fact that it is set out like an old-fashioned silent movie, something we are not used to and therefore hold more interest in viewing? Along with this the film also contains much less well known actors, the lead actress is, I believe the directors wife, does the fact that this is almost brand new to us? we are used to see famous actors in an array of films, you can hardly find a poopular film without A-Listers in them.
I think it is a mix of thses things, the unorthodox style of the film is instantly attractive, people may want to view what film " used to be like" and not having the film " shoved down our throats" as you often get when they are filled with A-listers, e.g - The Descendant, although popular and it did win an Oscar did not reach the heights of the Artist, and I definately saw this advertised a lot more, a lot of this aimed around George Clooney being in the film.
Will The Artist start a trend of unusual films, or will other films even copy its format and use older styles again?
We shall have to see

The problems with Live television ( focusing on the controversy of the Brits)

A really controversal subject in the last week or so has been the cutting off of Adeles speech at the Brits.
After recieving the MasterCard album of the year award, one which, even presenter James Corden stated was the most important on the event, Adele came on stage and began to tearfully thank her fans.
However,shortly into her speech James Corden came back on stage, saying how he " could believe he was doing this" AKA- cutting Adele off. She swore at the camera's in what she now says was in no way aimed at her fans or the audience, but was just to express her irritation at that time.

Adele was cut off due to timing issues, other speeches had run over and so the time slot for Blurs end of the night performance overlapped with Adeles acceptance speech.
There has been many opinions stated over this, from celebrities such as Lily Allen who claimed it was a show of how the televison industries were still male based. Other celebrities such as Professor Green also expressed that he did not feel it was the right thing to do.

However, some people do not see the issue, they state that they would rather have watched Blur perform than another over long speech. Or that simply it is a common issue and not to make a big deal of it.

Over-running is a risk with all live television programs, especially award shows where, as shown, speeches can run overlong or mistakes can happen ( such as with Eastenders live program) with lines, camera operators missing their signal etc... There is little room for mistake and as shown with the Brits it can cause outrage and multiple news headlines.

Is Vlogging the new blogging?

Vlogging is basically, doing a blog through the meduim of video rather than text.
Text or writing has always been a popular way of people getting their opinions across, and combined with the power of the internet blogging was created.
- At last actual count by Technorati there were over 112.8 million blogs being tracked, not including those not in the English language.
Over the last decade blogging has become massive, and can range from people exploring important topics, to using it as a diary of sorts. You can blog about anything.

However,

On January 2, 2000, Adam Kontras posted a video alongside a blog entry aimed at informing his friends and family of his cross-country move to Los Angeles in pursuit of show business, marking the first post on what would later become the longest-running video blog in history.
Since this initial use of a video blog ( or Vlog) it has taken off, especially after video hosting websites such as Youtube became popular;
FOr example, quite a few people currently on my Media Production course Vlog regularly.

But why choose to Vlog rather than just blog?

Is it simply that people can talk more freely? They can change their opinion as they talk and arent restricted by having to type their feelings.
Is it quicker, choosing a topic and expressing your feelings outright rather than having to write/type them in a coherent way?

Perhaps it is due to this, but is this taking a step forward with technology, or are people simply becoming lazy and would rather just "wing" it rather than plan ahead?
As friend of mine do "vlog" i find myself following various links on youtube until i see a strangers face looking at me.
But thats another issue with Vlogs, you cant tell if theyre going to be of interst or not, with blogs you can skim read ahead, opening paragraphs will help you decide if you think it is a worthy read.
But with Vlogs until you watch it you have no idea what you are going to see, and the lack of planning can lead to boring rambles which i imagine are of little interest to anyone.

Whilst blogging still may be a hugely popular aspect of modern society, Vlogs are quickly catching up.

I just hope they dont take over. I personally would rather have more choice in what i experience, and have my own say in what i take from it.

Take a look at this!

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2012/0222/How-Heinrich-Rudolf-Hertz-revealed-the-invisible-world

Interesting stuff :) Will help people understand todays Google "scribble" logo

How did they animate Gollum?

^^^ Andy Serkis performing Gollum split personality scene.

In a lecture the other day we touched on motion capture for animation in films. And as a Lord of the Rings Fan ( i just finished the first film before writing this) I thought looking into the history and "how it works" of motion capturing was appropriate.

"  The use of motion capture for computer character animation is relatively new, having begun in the late 1970's, and only becoming widespread over the last decade.

Motion capture is the recording of human body movement (or other movement) for immediate or delayed analysis and playback. The information captured can be as general as the simple position of the body in space or as complex as the deformations of the face and muscle masses. Motion capture for computer character animation involves the mapping of human motion onto the motion of a computer character."

 This isnt a new idea however, for years animators ( 2d) have had people act out their scenes so they can draw their characters to the utmost believability making movements more realistic.

Gollum was created in various steps -

1- Designing and creating the characters look ( including making models etc..)

2 - Building the character on the computer

3-  Adding levels to the character- bones, muscles- all elements that can be controlled

4-  Creating the controls, especially facially every little move can add to emotions etc..

5- Animating the model after Andy had acted out the scenes wearing the motion sensing equipment ("For some of Gollum's scenes, an  Andy Serkis (who provided Gollum's voice throughout the trilogy) put on a motion-capture suit and played the part. Andy's motion drove the movement of Gollum's body in the movie. In other scenes, the animators used key-frame animation to control Gollum's body. In all of the scenes, they used key-frame animation to move Gollum's face")

I think we can all agree that Gollum is a very successful "character" in both terms of how Serkis characterized him and how well animated he is, there are so many subtle movements that give the character realistic emotions and the scene above ( his split personality talk) is captivating. It creates a sense of a real ( although "bad" character) and so in this way has completely achieved the aim of the animators. The character brings emotions out of the audience, even though they know he is clearly not real.

http://www.awn.com/articles/technology/two-towers-face-face-gollum

^^^ And a bit more insight into the process.

 - A Brief History of Motion Capture for Computer Character Animation. 2012. A Brief History of Motion Capture for Computer Character Animation. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation/motion_capture/history1.htm. [Accessed 15 February 2012].

- Generating Gollum: Anatomy of a CG Creature. 2012. Generating Gollum: Anatomy of a CG Creature. [ONLINE] Available at: http://express.howstuffworks.com/gollum1.htm. [Accessed 15 February 2012].

I love looking through Photo albums at home.



And I'm so happy my mum continues to fill them. Rather than just keep our photographs digitially.

They seem to mean a lot more when you can actually touch them.

Photography

Photography is something ive always wished i had a natural talent for.
Luckily, a friend of mine, who is VERY talented has leant me her old Canon 400D which allowed me to play around more with ideas and places of my photomontage project.


However, since then, it had just lay idle on  my shelf... and i definately want to start using it more to capture moments. And isnt that what photography is all about? capturing a moment that will never happen again.
I saw a quote i like - "People change, Photographs don't"

I dont always like photgraphs of people however, theyre too planned- forced. I prefer natural photogrpahy, of animals, landscapes,spontaneous moments etc...


and i LOVE photographs in either black or white or with a heigheneted contrast to really make sections pop.

And i would have to add, if anyone does read this you should most definately check out - http://www.facebook.com/ephajroe
He's a friend of mine, and whilst most of his pictures are of himself in various "characters" both he and his work is completely stunning!

I currently has this photograph he took and edited as the background on my laptop <3 ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/epharoe/6808251973/)


A photograph tells a story, but its YOUR story. You can interpret the image in any way you want and take your own meaning from it. Which is a concept i adore.