11 March 2010

Alice in Wonderland Review

Alice in Wonderland is pretty much like Marmite. You'll ever really love it or really hate it. I honestly loved it but my Big Brother who watched it with me completely hated it!

The basic story is that Alice falls down the rabbit hole and a series of strange things happen and she meets a lot of weird characters.

Johnny Depp in my opinion was amazing but i'm probably being a bit biased because he makes me swoon! Anyways yeah Johnny Depp plays the Mad Hatter really well. We get small glimpses of a bit of Jack Sparrow when he's talking normally but when his easily angered split personality comes into play he transfroms into a raging Scottish lunatic.

Tim Burton's version of Wonderland gives us plenty of scenary porn that we have become accustomed to with his movies. When we first see the bright colours and shaped hedges of Wonderland we are reminded of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's Chocolate Room and the many different shaped bushes in Edward Scissorhands.

This film is cram packed with famous faces (Most of them Tim Burton regulars). We have Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen who's head has been grown about ten times the size, Anne Hathaway as her younger sister the White Queen, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, Alan Rickman as the caterpillar, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and many more that I can't remember. The girl that plays Alice (can't remember her name) did well in her debut film. I wonder if she'll become one of Tim's regulars now?

In my Big Brother's opinion, Johnny Depp has done way too many films with Tim Burton and also Tim Burton hasn't done a good film in ages. I disagree with these comments as I found Alice in Wonderland quite good indeed. But then again I think i'm being biased because I idolise Tim Burton and also love Johnny Depp with a passion! So I can't think of a valid argument!

In my opinion it's a very good film and I like it because the characters are funny, cute and just plain mad. If you have good characters in a film I think you can carry it off.

My favourite characters are:


The Mad Hatter (obviously...)

The Mad March Hare (all I have to say is Spoon. If you don't get it go and watch the movie!)

The Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry!!!)

The Dormouse (She's just awesome)

The White Rabbit (He's cute. Aww bunneh..)

Overall I think this film has a bit of a taste of Neverending Story and Chronicles of Narnia mixed together.

Anyways yeah you'll either really love it or really hate it. Go watch it asap or else i'll set the Jabberwocky on you!

Till next time!



A



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09 March 2010

studio diary

Good updates and not so good updates.

Good news I got in at Salford and was offered a 3rd year place on the Design for Digital Media course! I was a bit nervous about going on to a 3rd year to a new university and class etc but I do feel better now after talking to tutors and having visited Salford a couple of times. I felt at home when I was walking about the building and after open days and interviews I feel confident to progress onto the 3rd year.

Not so good news, just got my feedback and mark for the competition brief, and although my mark isn't terrible it has fell back from the last project considerably and I am disappointed. I've noticed in my feedback notes I've not managed to nail the aesthetic value with the use of video and hand drawn animation. This was also something I didn't execute very well on room 101 by trying to use to many different styles. This time the two styles I've used didn't marry very well. I'm really hoping with going back to stop-motion with a set and models my approach to the style of the piece is improved on for unit 10. I also seriously need to have a good narrative structure for this final piece of work to pull my mark back up. So all in all not very happy with myself this time but determined to improve and finished with a really good end piece of work that I will be happy to exhibit in the end of year show.

08 March 2010

Unit 10!

Will someone pleeeaaassseee tell me they're struggling just as much as me with this new brief from Mike Devere??!!
i have no idea where to start. . . !!
How are we supposed to know what to research?

The only ideas i've got are;
- Will technological advances see the end of print advertising?
- What will be the next major trend in advertising?
- How do you determine a brands personality?

What do you think?

Another year...

Tomorrow it will be the 9th of March. On that day I will reach the heedy age of twenty.

...

And by god, there will be cake! X3


Poor jokes aside, it surprises me how immature I feel. As far as I'm concerned I'm still the grinning moron who presented himself as 'batshit insane' on that very first day here. I guess some things never change... well... maybe.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see, although what we're waiting for is beyond me. Have a good one guys and I'll see you tomorrow.

Just to reiterate.

Because this seems to have escaped the attention of everyone but three people, I have a blog. Please visit, follow, whatever. Or at least count the posts there as posts on this place or however it's supposed to work.

the address is: http://wickerytown.blogspot.com/


Come and enjoy my rants.

05 March 2010

Studio Diary - Photographic Distractions

A.K.A THE FACES ARE IN MY WALLS!

Oh lummy. I tried to do some work on my brief today, but found myself hopelessly stuck and frustrated. I still can't decide what I'm going to do... change and restart for the sake of distinctive multimedia stylings, or stick with the clean look of Illustrator.

Regardless. I decided to spend a little time taking some photographs instead, as I have spent many a time standing outside my house for the occassional crafty fag, and have observed patterns in the bricks. I really have that much time on my hands. I thought today I'd take my camera out of retirement and just.. well.. find out just who can see what I can see.

From Photobservations

From Photobservations

From Photobservations


Really, I think my brain is sometimes a shade overactive. But hey... I'm always looking for new ways to draw and expand my skill range. Why not start with patterns?

Studio Diary

Spent today re-editing the Flash brief ready to show at my interview, after discussions with Stio I got some really good ideas, mainly about the typography which give the final piece more depth. I also added the sound track to it and its made a huge difference. Strange going back to Flash after so long, Im sure I'l be pestering Stio over the next week to hold my hand, apologies in advance...