Nine*2

I just stumbled across the Animation Reel of a Swedish Studio called Meindbender on Vimeo. They do some pretty wicked stuff.

Meindbender Showreel 2010 from Meindbender on Vimeo.

I was very interested in The Duplicators clips and made a trip over to their website and checked out all their work. I was disappointed to see discover that what I had thought was stop-motion was actually cgi (created to appear stop motion). Knowing that it was created through cgi took away the fascination about how it was done and took a little of the fun out of it. But that's a personal stand point, it remains an awesome example of their work;

The Duplicators - Cartoon Network ID shortie from Meindbender on Vimeo.

Nine*1

Nine*0

Eight*9

I have been looking forward to seeing The Time Traveller's Wife so I was pretty happy to agree to go and see it tonight when Liz messaged me and asked if I wanted to go.

I loved it! Great film, I particularly enjoyed the underplayed nature of the time traveling itself - there was no noise or attention demanding aspect to the travelling. Even the visual effect of Henry's disappearing was in no way gratuitous, it was appropriately understated because of the lack of control that he has - he just simply disappears. I expected the jumping between times to be an unnerving in relation to the storytelling experience for the audience but I did not think that it was, you were very aware of the time in which he was in based off what drew him there and the same was about the other versions of Henry that sometimes visited the 'present'.

Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams made a fantastic on-screen couple; their chemistry was undeniable. The obvious respect and admiration *professionally* that the two actors have for each other is evident throughout the film, and reiterated in interviews that they have done for publicity for the film. My uni degree has made me incredibly critical of the films that I see, but I cannot find fault in this film - both actors performances were fantastic, as was their supporting cast who carried their weight as necessary. The effects were simple and understated, the story was solid - all I have to do now is read the book and see what was understandably lost in the adaptation process.

Oscar-nomination worthy, that is for sure.

Eight*8

It's a sad commentary on our society that nothing can be done face-to-face anymore. I have been sorting out things in preparation for my departure from Wagga Wagga and through this process in the past few days I have discovered that so many things have to be dealt with over the phone. Example, I went into the Telstra shop to sort out my latest bill only to be told that I had to do it over the phone which seems ridiculous. The same happened at fixing some details up with CSU (though this process also included an required a supporting email to be sent) and apparently you cannot make a claim at Centrelink without phoning up first. Its appalling really. Removing the face-to-face contact from such menial tasks such as fixing a phone bill really de-humanises the whole process and creates something that is void of humanity. The only relief from this process is that for the most part it is a real human being that you speak to at the end of the day over the phone, once you wade your way through the murky 'Press 1 for Accounting Services, Press 2 for Human Resources' blah blah that is computer operators. As much of a technocrat that I am and as much as I long for the day when there is artificial intelligence in a large scale capacity, I do not want the human factor to be removed completely from the systems. It is so much easier to talk to someone face-to-face than on the phone, quicker as well.