My movie would be about....

If I were a film maker I would either like to make a serious film that is attempting to bring a topic to light and give people more information on it or some sort of a comedy.
I realize these are two very different things, but I feel these are the two topics I work best with.

Flash Animation Project Artist Statement

Alex Murphy & Michael Pierce

ART 335

Flash Animation Project

Artist Statement

3/29/16

     

For this project, we wanted to convey the seriousness of the topic of underage drinking, while still appealing to the targeted audience. We felt that, too often, teens see public service announcements and facts about drinking and brush it off. Which is why we attempted to incorporate a bit of humor with the facts and statistics. We did our best to be sure the humor was tasteful, appropriate, and got the point across.

We chose to stick to a simpler animation style, again, to better relate to our intended audience. While we were discussing the different approaches to the topic at hand, we discovered that whenever someone had attempted to warn us about the dangers of underage drinking we were always shown one of two videos. Either a “super serious” one with facts popping up on the screen intermittently with pictures of kids being peer pressured into drinking or an overly cheesy cartoon. Either way, it always had us rolling our eyes and just waiting until the program was over. We felt that our simple, hand drawn, animation paired with the light, casual nature of the video may actually draw in the viewer(s) and encourage them to hear the message we were trying to convey.

And finally, our choice in music. During our animation, you will hear the soundtrack from “The Last of the Mohicans” playing. During the beginning of our feature, the ominous music almost adds to the humor of the whole thing. You have a talking bottle of alcohol tempting young children with glasses of liquor that appear out of no where with this dark, orchestra music making the whole thing seem “dangerous”. But once we begin talking about the effects alcohol has on kids ages 12-20, the music allows the reality of how dark underage drinking can actually be.

Group 6 Ethics Question

In my experience, I believe that ethics and morals can definitely be shaped by the environment in which we are raised. Whether it is politics, school, or just everyday life, the morals that we grew up around tend to rub off on us.
However, I also know that this is not always the case. For example, my best friend's parent are devout Christians and very conservative, while my best friend is far more liberal minded, despite having been home schooled for the first 13 years of his life, and then being transferred into a Christian school for two years after that.

Spider Demo

Presentation Activity

Responses to Presentation Questions

1. I do believe my creativity has been enhanced after taking this class. It has allowed me to think outside the box, but also to work with the creativity I already had that I didn't know how to utilize.

2. I would have to say that I am personally creative. I use my experiences from the things around me to guide my creativity and how I view things that are conceptually "creative".

Cat Soup Q&A

1.    What is it about? Themes?

I felt that a lot of this movie had to do with the concept of life and death. Several times through out the movie we watched a character die and come back to life, or in the case of the sister, someone who got sick and was brought back to health.  Overall, the movie was about the brother’s quest to find a way to get his sister to be healthy again.

2.    Name three creative strategies from the film.

-The artist’s use of color in this film really helped the movie along. The use of vibrant colors versus when the movie was in black and white or had very dull colors helps to further the viewers understanding of when a scene is supposed to be positive, negative, or important.

-       Another creative strategy was the artist’s use of cats as the main characters, but still having humans in the film as characters as well. It gives the audience a different view of the world around us and how animals can also have thoughts and feelings.

-       Finally, I felt the creators made very good use of the concept of time.  Several times during the animation, the cats were travelling through time (weather or not it was all in their heads is a different story). But this interesting concept  allows for the viewer to really consider the fabric of time and maybe even to wonder how we can lose track of time so quickly.

3.    General reaction.

Personally, I wasn’t a big fan of this film. I’m more of a straightforward; need to understand what’s going on in a movie, kind of a person. And I felt this film was a rollercoaster from start to finish. To be honest, I felt that I didn’t understand what was going on 90% of the time. While I felt that the art was cool and interesting, this would not be my film of choice.