Inspirational Commercial

http://youtu.be/Um9KsrH377A
This is such a great commercial! It has such a great story, you don't even know its about shampoo. The video was giving me trouble though.

Upstairs, Downstairs

I have started watching Upstairs, Downstairs. I had watched
an episode of Downtown Abbey, and my mother likes the show. I was looking at
the DVD collection to give to my mother for Christmas, and one of the reviews
compared it to Upstairs, Downstairs. I found it on Netflix and I started watching
it. I quite like it. It’s so quirky and underhanded. It’s very interesting the separate
worlds of the people living upstairs and the people living downstairs. I have
visited some old houses that have servant’s quarters and things downstairs and
now I’m wondering what kind of stories happened down there and how they were
treated by the household.

Passing Hearts

I can tell you that I wasn't thinking about the title being that literal when I saw it. As I got absorbed into this story I completely forgot what the title was. I was too preoccupied with trying to figure out what it all meant. I loved how it played out and set your mind to work out the missing information. My mind kept guessing what the reasons were behind everything. I had no idea why he was looking for so long in the mirror. I guess when I start watching a movie the first thoughts I have aren't "Why is he doing that?" or "What is behind that action?". Which I guess means I have a general lack of curiosity. At first I thought that a friend had died and he didn’t play soccer, because it didn’t seem right to play without him. It didn’t even occur to me that he had health problems. When he was attempting to make the phone call I thought hefelt obligated to talk to the family but just didn’t know how to so he hung up. I knew later on that it ws probably a complicated matter and had nothing to do with a friend because he skipped school to go to their house and didn’t tell his mother. I only knew it was a person who had donated him something when he went up to the boy’s to, not look at his stuff and remember the boy, but to find out more about who he was. It was a sweet story, and the kid did the right thing by going to the house to see the mom and dad even though it could have been bad because he didn’t know what he was walking into.

A Feathers Tale

The storywas kind of personal to me, because a close friend went through something similar. I feel that this is a story only a woman could tell that had been usedin her life at some point. When the woman is in bed crying and she talks to a man on the phone, he makes her feel better. I don’t think that the man on the phone is the reason she is crying. I think that there was another man who hurt her and the man on the phone was there for her. I think her was waiting for her to get hurt so he could pick her up again and get close to her to use her just like the other man. Later on he starts to use her, but she recognizes it and goes along with it anyway, because that is
the way she was treated the last time. Maybe that was her first real relationship so that is her only experience of relationships; she didn’t have any idea of what a good relationship was like. So she put up with it and ended up being metaphorically plucked like a chicken. Each time this happens to her she loses a part of herself like having her emotions plucked from her like feathers. Later on she could have not faith in love at all and have all the hope plucked from her heart so she is left dry and hollow.

The Owl and the Raven

I love, love, loved this video! I think Creation myths are
awesome. Well I love any myth in general. There is a certain timelessness and
child-like wonder to even some of the darkest tales. I don’t remember a time
when I wasn’t fascinated with mythology. I especially love Norse, Egyptian, and
Native American Mythologies. They run in the same category as fairy tales and
legends for me. Did the Owl and Raven really get into a fight while painting
each other? No but for a couple minutes we can let ourselves think “So that’s why
the Raven is Black!” Even if we know it didn’t happen that way and we go back
to being our computer loving, know-it-all aged generation selves, for most of
us, these soft spoken puppets on the screen put a sparkle in the eyes of our,
not quite so distant, inner child’s eyes.

Everyone Needs a Giant Man Made of Sand in Their Life

If you couldn't tell I didn't find a picture from the film so I used a random SandCastle. It's still all sand right?

The Sand Castle is one of the films that got me interested
in different kinds of animation. I had no Idea coming here that there were so
many things to do with animation. Though thinking back on it I should have just
known that animation isn’t just what you see in the mainstream like clay,
traditional 2D (you know like Disney), or 3D. It’s possible to animate just
about anything if you have the motivation to do so. The videos I saw in this
class during the animation portion got me really excited about what I could do
here. The Sand Castle was amazing. I’ve never made a real sand castle, I’ve
played in the sand but I don’t think that counts, I mean like a legit sand
castle or sand people for that matter. The first sand man was a god character
making all the creatures after him. I felt he was making them so he wouldn’t have
to be alone. He worked together with his creations to create a castle. That’s how
I kind of picture us down here trying to work with God, except for the part him
actually being down here with us as a giant man made of sand. We are trying to
get along well with god and make the best of what we have down here even if it
is all just sand compared to what we’ll have when we get to heaven, and we have
to find our way amongst the snakes that cause us trouble. Although they
sometimes help us along the way we have to be wary of them, be careful not to
let them corrupt you, but help them see the greater purpose, so that one day
when your sand castle gets blown away you have a gaint man made of sand to help
pick you back up again.

Winter Bone

So I didn’t go to Signs and wonders when this was playing
but I wanted to blog on it because I finally got to watch it. I thought it was
refreshingly real. It reminded me of the book series called crank, and it’s
about, you guessed it, crank. Both show the brutal reality of what this
substance can do to a life. The things that both of these characters go through
are so terrible that you want to look away, but the way the story is told is
just amazing. It is so grounded in reality that you get sucked right up into
it. I found myself flinching, and feeling more emotionally tied to the main
character than I have been involved in a while in a film. Also I really liked
the feel of the film. The locations and clothes were very down to earth and
real that I felt I was watching real events. These people dressed like the
people that live in the area where I came from. It was a wild ride of mostly
confusion and rage at the hardships the family was going though, but I would
gladly watch it again.

The Man Who Planted Trees

Montréal
(Province of Québec, Canada)
The Man Who Planted Trees
The 1987 film "The Man Who
Planted Trees", by Montréal filmmaker Fréderic Back, celebrates the
single-handed efforts of one man, Elzéard Bouffier, who toils to improve his
environment.
Out of a desolate territory, the
dedicated efforts of this generous shepherd make bloom a vibrant forest.
The desert is depicted by the rock
in which Elzéard Bouffier plants his maple trees, whose canopy grow to form a
rainbow symbolizing hope and rebirth. The rainbow and the maple do not just
lend themselves well to the special effect of mosaiculture, but they are also
emblems of Québec, where the forests don flamboyant colours every autumn.
Furthermore, the horses that gallop through the flowering prairie represent
liberty and a return to life.

This was an amazing story it was one of my favorites this
semester. I loved the underlying message about creation. This one man who
seemingly had so little in life but his sheep ended up having more than, in my
opinion, most people. He had the inspiration and power of self to go about the
task of planting all those acorns. It truly was a miracle. He even gave up the
sheep that he loved and had taken care of for years because they damaged the
land his trees were on. The fact that he loved taking care of those trees so
much made the growth of that forest possible. The fact of people not knowing
that whole forest came from one man instead just popping up one day, made me
kind of sad at first but I realized that I think the man wanted it that way. He
just wanted people to enjoy it, but I think that the local people’s insisting
that it just popped up out of nowhere was still pretty nieve. It reminds me of
creation, scientists say that there was this great big bang and everything was
just there, like creation is any less improbable than that. At least there is
more evidence leading to creation.

Toy Movies

I know everybody just loves Toy Story. I don't have a clue why. It scared me to death when I watched it the first time, now it just makes me uncomfortable. My parents thought it would be awesome of them to bring home the newly released on VHS Toy Story, but sadly no. This girl, when she was 3, already had a deeply rooted fear that her toys were going to come alive when she was sleeping. This movie confirmed my worst fears that this could indeed happen. For the next week, before I went to bed, I would turn around all my stuffed animals so that they couldn't see me asleep. I thought I was a genius too, because not once did I get murdered by one of my stuffed animals. Not only did the toys come alive when no one was watching (What did they have to hide?), but they also ate people and stole their voices. How else could Buzz Lightyear sound like Tim "the Toolman" Taylor? though like any other Disney-lover I did watch all of the Toy Story movies, and other the years have still been creeped out that toys have their own secret agendas. I have to say though that the story for Toy Story 3 was very good, if not a little too personal to be comfortable with.

Even with my deep rooted fears which soon became a loathing for Toy Story,I always loved Winnie the Pooh. I never thought it was weird that they were talking toys, but of course they actually talked to Christopher Robbin. In the movie it also showed that they were in a book as well. The toys came alive in Christopher Robbin's imagination and his dad brought them to life in the book to show his son that is toys wondered where he was when he wasn't playing with them. I love the old movie. I love the look of it, scratchy, like an ink drawing out of a book. I appreciated what they tried to do in the remake of Winnie the Pooh this year, it just wasn't enough. It was too neat and tidy, and emphasized too much that they were in a book. So I think it just pushed viewers farther away, even though yes Pooh and Piglet are cute, we all still feel sorry for Eeyore even though he brings it on himself, but Rabbit needs to sound a little less like Spongebob Squarepants.

Whats in a name?

So what do a bunch of hardy girls do when the weather's bad? Sit in the hallway so no one can get through, and look up what our full names mean on babynames.com. Appearently I'm a loving victory of woodsman people. My roommate is a waggonmaking flower warrior,and our RA is a fairy queen. We have also found out that our proffeser is a basket maker. So I decided to look up the animation majors names, if I forgot you sorry. Abi Freeland has the joy of the Father and her family never paid taxes. Andrew Anguiano means manly. Bridget Muntzing means exalted or lofty. Amanda Daunhauer means fairy worthy of love. Kelsey McCoy means from the island of Ceol and from Coy. Kyle Lindsey means narrow. Leah Zink means weary, bitter rock.

I need constant intertainment. Or I get bored. AKA Stream of conscience

But first, look at the awesome stuff I drew while learning how to edit photos on Photoshop! Yah!
Rainbow Dash is the most badass My Little Pony of all time. OF ALL TIME. And Fluttershy is adorable. Also the name of my unicoron Pillowpet (TM) Yup. Actually, I'm still busy "playing" around with Photoshop. Can't you tell? Obviously. .....I'll get back to it after this lil break.



So, sometimes I feel like I need to be amused constantly. Or I'll get bored, and then I'll start to think I'm hilarious, but I won't be. It's not pretty. For anyone. Most of all me. And I really want a Taco right now..... And I'm thirsty. But everything is so far away! Pity the me..... is sad. And Paul is playing All Time Low!! Yay! I like Paul. He's a good person. Sometimes David drums on the table during class... That was non sequiter. Mea Culpa. yah. So, who else thought that the frog puppet video was horrifyingly disturbing, besides me and Charity? Cause it was. Oh, it was. Now, that might have to do with how manniquins freak me out, and then dead bodies are worse. Ugg. Nasty. And then they were making him a puppet! There's probably some really deep metaphor some where there... But forgive me if I don't dwell on it. yuk.

So I should probably get back to logging my hours in, dangit. I don't wanna! I'll just spend sometime researching stuff! Yah! Bro-fist for le internet! .....or not. That might be awkward.

So when are we going to go out and discuss the demise of snappy repartee?
Puppies are as cute as the speed of light is fast, but you're cuteness threshold approaches that limit.
I like what you laugh at.

You don't get it. Should I care?

This is the interview my group did. I slipped a story in there while editing. I'm surprised how many people don't get it. It doesn't even seem those who worked on it got it. Here's the thing, I'm not sure if I should care. I mean, if you pay attention to what's being said, what you see when it's being said, and what you hear and when you hear it...then you might just put it all together and walk away with the feeling that was intended. There's also that "aha!" moment that I like, but the problem with that is you've got to be able to put that together. Ask yourself, why am I being shown this right now within the context of the whole.

When making a film is it alright to slow the bus down to let more people on? Stanley Kubrick didn't when 2001 bombed at the box office. In fact, he pretty well kept his mouth shut about what he was going for on that on all the way up to the day he died.

I'm happy with it. In fact, the only regret is that, in order to get it done on time, I had to plow through it, which took some of the experience away from the others. That's my fault for not trying to put it together sooner. I've tagged them all in this post. It doesn't have to count as blog credit, but if it does everyone deserves it. Anyway, check out the awesome lighting and location by Megan Carpenter.

Note: After writing this I went back and tried really hard to make it more obvious what I was going for. It didn't really work. It seemed forced. It is what it is.

Hi!

My name is Charity Musselman. I am an Animation Major. I love, love, love movies. I watch movies to death. I will put in a good movie and play it over and over again throughout the day while I do different things, and I like to watch for continuity mistakes. My obsession is Harry Potter, I won't get on that subject because I find it hard to stop once I start. I love anything Jim Henson, but I can't bring myself to watch the Dark Crystal, the people creep me out. I have a weakness for Classic Disney Movies and 80s movies with bad monsters (guys in monster suits, for example The Princess Bride or Labyrinth). I love specail effects. I love in old movies where the special effects are done on set with the actors. I like to watch the special features before the movie to see how they do things then watch for them. I love old black and white movies like the Thin Man movies, Harvey, Roman Holiday, and On the Double. My favorite actor is Danny Kaye. I love TV shows like Chuck, Smallville, Icarly, Doctor Who, and Avatar.