Need 4 Melbourne

So over Wagga and uni, I cannot wait until I complete my course and move to somewhere with a different climate to Young as well. I need something new and different and not as regimented as Uni. I desperately want to be able to finish work and then not have to think about anything I want rather than have to worry about assessments and the expectations of lecturers etc.

Uni is not really doing anything for me at the moment, there are moments of excitement but overall I just lack the enthusiasm that I should have and I think this is due to the structure and the general nature of uni. I don’t care for some of the assessment tasks I am being given to do and that I am afraid that this is reflected in the final product. I want to do something different, but the guidelines of the subject or assessment do not allow me to do the things I want. I try anyway and am feeling as though I am missing the mark in part on some things. But I fear this is quite normal for being in 4th Year of Uni.

I need something new to inspire me. I need a new place, a new job and some new hobbies. I find myself not caring for the opinions and petty cliques of those people around me, whether it is friends or colleagues at uni. I find that a group in one degree in particular has developed a complex that they seem to deem it acceptable that they treat the people that they once respected with a rather large amount of disregard – even those that count themselves friends with these individuals. I would like to say that this is my opinion alone but I am afraid that it is not. This is unacceptable as far as I am concerned but I no longer have the patience to put up with this. This is one of my many reasons for wishing that uni was over right now so that I could get the hell out of Wagga, move to Melbourne and do something of merit and that I enjoy more than what I am currently undertaking.

Salvation?

I finally went and checked out Terminator Salvation and was quite surprised with what the film. I had read multiple reviews online and looked into the average reviews on rottentomatoes.com to see what critics had to say about the film and the general concession seemed to be that the film was quite abysmal.

The opening titles did very little for me, I appreciated the treatment of the Halycon logo etc and the use of type was effective, but the imagery in the background which was very obviously the Terminator type rotating did nothing for me at all – felt a little cheesy. There was also unnecessary repetition of the film’s title (twice). The film’s opening set the feel for the film very effectively and I instantly became interested in the character of Marcus Wright and the rather pathetic character played by Helena Bonham Carter (with an abnormally sized bald cap). From this point on the film played out quite well in regards to the treatment of Marcus Wright’s story was well paced as well as the emotional treatment. Sam Worthington’s portrayal of Marcus completely stole the film from Christian Bale, which from an Australian point of view is incredibly good to see. His performance in regards to the discovery that he was a terminator (of sorts) was admirable and when he approaches Skynet Central and steps out and is accepted in by the machines that brief moment of sorrow in recognition that he is indeed, no longer human.

Christian Bale seemed to play a minor role in the film compared to Marcus Wright, ironically the film was for once about its namesake (‘The Terminator’) rather than John Connor. Bale’s John Connor was harder than previous versions although he did seem very emotionless and detached whilst listening to tapes of instructions from his Mother. Also his interaction with his wife were brief and left a lot wanting including the fact that she was pregnant which went without mention. Bryce Dallas Howard’s performance was quite good, but she wasn’t given very much material to work with. Overall the standouts of the film were definitely the special effects, in particular Arnie’s cameo – a stunning recreation of 1980s Schwarzenegger perfectly done through the use of a body cast of Arnie from the 80s.



Sam Worthington was great as was … portrayal of a young Kyle Reese, which definitely introduced elements of the adult Kyle into his character. References to the previous films were surprisingly tactful in places with the exception of ‘Come with me if you want to live’ – the first treatment with Kyle’s execution of the line was quite well done but the multiple uses after that were terrible. I quite liked the moment when Connor met Reese and he paused for a moment and took in the sight of his father for the first time – nice attention to detail.

The shows merit and has displayed potential for the proposed T5 and T6, although I hope that if there were films to follow that they would delve into what is happening on a world scale rather than focusing on the one region – something that became so obvious at the of the film. It initially gives the impression that they had indeed beaten Skynet by destroying Skynet Central but it turns out they only dented the international efforts which was a tad confusing.

Alice

First images from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland have appeared online, there has been a very hazy image of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter circulating since last year but this is sooooo much better;

source: link (in no way do i claim these images as my own, or my property.)



The film is being created through motion capture which allows for the stretching etc of the characters which so far looks amazing.

Upcoming Projects

There are many things that I have always said that I will do, or will get around to and ever really do. Not through inaction but rather through a lack of a reason or the rise of other, more important and necessary things that push what I want(ed) to undertake. Holidays have always taken a similar path for me; I mean to do a bunch of exciting things but never actually get around to it and then once uni starts again I really wish that I had done something about it whilst I legitimately had ‘free’ time. So sitting here looking at 5 weeks of possible freedom to do whatever I wish the question arises – what will I actually do with my time and will it be productive.

With the new course structure for Graphic Design only being introduced this year (my 4th and final year) I feel that there may actually be benefits to the upheaval that the new subjects are placing on the long-standing assessment tasks that have been used year in and year out. Essentially I only have one subject left to do until I will graduate which is a portfolio subject in which i may do whatever I would like to (within reason) in regards to products that will reflect my chosen field. That is where the issue arises; I do not really wish to work in Graphic Design but I am wanting a job that allows me to put those design skills and principles into use in motion (i.e. motion graphics). There was an off-handed comment that this could be applied to the subject, I imagine that there will still be a required amount of actual ‘Graphic Design’ but am hoping that there is the opportunity to introduce some motion into the assessments.

I have a few ideas for that which will hopefully tie in with the research component of the subject but I will write up a separate post about that. Although there are a few more projects that I am beginning the pre-production/development stages of which will hopefully take off in the next couple of weeks. One is a short animation titled “Haunt” about a ghost, see the production blog for more details (www.haunt-production-focus.blogspot.com). There are a few other short pieces which are basically things that I wish I had done during uni but chose other endeavours over these as well as a couple of things that I would just like to do.

I plan on re-doing my 2nd Year animation that I undertook with a friend of mine, but reshaping the story towards something, which has more substance and an actual ending. I also plan on doing something similar to the visual interface present in Minority Report, Iron Man and also this short film that I discovered recently; World Builder (below). Basically this is just something that I have always wanted to do but have lacked the time, essentially it fills the role of something more for my showreel at the end of the day.

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

Indiana Jones and the Death of a Legend?

It has been announced/mentioned that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are in fact penning a script for Indiana Jones 5. Harrison Ford together with these 2 men in stated interviews after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released that if there was good enough script developed for another film that they would definitely do it. Sooner rather than later because they ‘aren’t getting any younger. Which is definitely true, evidence in this is George Lucas’ film’s heading majorly downhill from the 80s and Spielberg’s allowance of CGI aliens in Indy 4. I didn’t mind the storyline of aliens, it was the 1950s after all – Area 51 and alien conspiracies were common to the era. I didn’t even mind the skeleton alien, but the very unnecessary CGI alien was awful. It completely took away from the whole concept of doing everything (special effects-wise) traditionally to keep with the previous 3 films. That combined with Mutt swinging through the trees like some sort of greasy Tarzan was ridiculous and brought the film down for me. But I focused on the man himself, Harrison Ford – and his excellent reprisal of a role he hadn’t touched in cinema for 20-odd years was excellent.

So I am interested in Indy 5, but I swear to god if they even hint at Mutt taking over from Indy I will die on the inside – its called INDIANA JONES, I don’t care if Mutt is Henry Jones the 3rd and therefore has his father’s name his chosen name isn’t INDIANA and will severely cough Lucas cough hurt someone if Indy gets shoved into the sidekick role that his own father was in The Last Crusade. Although the likeliness of this happening is remote, George Lucas did propose the idea but later retracted his statement going on to state the obvious; "Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones, no Harrison means no Indy"

My name is Guybrush Threepwood and I'm a mighty pirate!

By chance I actually looked at the junk mail box of my hotmail account randomly yesterday in a desperate attempt to delay finishing the assessment that was due today I discovered a random email from LucasArts which I procrastinating heavily enough to open. After clicking ‘yes I really do want to open this potentially harmful mail’ and the following ‘yes I do want to display the images in this email’ I was pleasantly welcomed by the site of the Monkey Island logo.



After a brief moment of tingling anticipation of what this could mean I pulled myself together enough to click on the link and was welcomed by a magnificently GLORIOUS website detailing not only the soon to be released Special Edition of The Secret of Monkey Island but A WHOLE NEW SERIES!!!

Wooooooo!



I have harboured a long long looooooonnnnnnggggg love for the Monkey Island series and thoroughly enjoy all game, with the possible excepetion of the 4th which I just don’t approve of the 3D animation and interface in the game. The new episodic series ‘Tale of Monkey Island’ is 3D which I was a little disappointed about, but soon got over it when I saw that it was a vast improvement on Escape From Monkey Island and the fact that Dominic Armato was returning to voice Guybrush Threepwood.

Not only will he be providing his voice talents to the new games he is also recording all the dialogue from the original game which will be included in the re-imagined Special Ed – which has been built incredibly faithfully on top of the original game for WIDESCREEN!!!



So as you may be able to tell, I am damned excited. So now I await July 7th for the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal.

=)

Long Weekend

Went to Young for the Long Weekend for my mum’s birthday (on the Tuesday – as close as I could get). Liz and I went to Golden Glance Nursery on the Sunday so Liz could try and find these flowers she has been looking for, which was a failed mission unfortunately. I used to go to the nursery quite often as a child but can’t really remember anytime in the past 10 years that I have been there so it was interesting to see how it had changed (which wasn’t very much as it happened, but much is the case in Young).

As is tradition we had our bonfire that same night, we saw about 4 other bonfires on the way into town the previous night to pick Myles up from work but that was expected, it is the thing to do on the June Long Weekend after all. Had some issues getting it started as it had been raining but we got there in the end, Myles and I helping Dad along with slowly throwing more and more onto the fire as the wetter parts didn’t catch. Close proximity to fire and heated ground meant that I didn’t wear my All Stars as I have no wish for the soles to melt so there was very much some ‘getting my bogan on’ as I scrounged for some old clothes out my cupboards and Dad’s so that nothing that anyone cared about was burnt by falling embers etc.

Twas a interesting trip all in all, good to go home (hadn’t been there since about February).

Conviction

Being a long time Splinter Cell fan I must say that when I saw that Ubisoft had finally released more about the 5th Splinter Cell game at E3 this year I felt a bit nervous. Splinter Cell 5 is a game that was soon to be released back in 2007 and not much has been heard about the game since then, but now after seeing the E3 footage my Splinter Cell love and anticipation levels are back and kicking.





The alterations made to the way the game is played (speeding everything up) is a glorious addition especially when combined with the new interrogation technique. I must admit the old somewhat antiquated method of interrogating in Splinter Cell got old fast and was no more exciting than holding someone still a slightly chocking them to get information. BORING. But now there’s a whole environment to play with and the gameplay footage of the interrogation in the bathroom reminded me very fondly of the opening scenes of Casino Royale. Speeding the gameplay up is that little trick that will make the game vastly different, just as the addition of the knife in Splinter Cell 3 opened up a whole new way of disposing of enemies, navigating through the levels (cutting through curtains etc) and picking locks and the introduction of daytime levels in Splinter Cell 4 forced you to think more about hiding in plain sight I imagine this new ‘upgrade’ will vastly change the way the game is played.

I just watched Starship Troopers just to see Micheal Ironside and hear his glorious voice, nothing gets you in the Splinter Cell mood like that. So very excited. XD

The Future Begins

I saw the new Star Trek film the other week and must confess that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I am by no means a Trekkie in fact best a self-confessed Star Wars nut, which is perhaps why I liked this film more than its predecessors.

The main issue that I have had with Star Trek is that there is far too much talking and technical jargon that unless you are familiar with the universe there is no chance of your understanding completely what is occurring and taking much from the film. The generally agreed upon difference between Wars and Trek is that Star Wars is ‘cooler’ because it is for a wider audience and Star Trek is just too nerdy.

In my opinion the latest Star Trek film is far more a Star Wars movie than your typical Trek adventure – fast paced, a lot of action and no getting bogged down in unnecessary scenes that involve the characters talking about doing something that they should really be doing right there and then.

The story was solid, the special effects were amazing (ILM out did themselves once again) and the sound and score worked very well. The moments of silence I the space battle scenes as crew members were sucked into the vacuum of space (where there is no sound) worked perfectly as a quiet moment, allowing the audience to regather their senses from the overload of the initial fight sequence and take a quick breather before again diving headfirst into the action.

Chris Pine’s performance was reminiscent of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo or Indiana Jones as it was William Shatner’s Kirk (Pine has stated that he looked to Ford for inspiration on how to make the character his own) and Zachary Quinto finally stretched his acting talents beyond Heroes and proved that he is (as we thought) a talented actor who throws himself completely into a role (shaved his magnificent eyebrows for the role, as well as cutting his hair to Spock-styling). Oh and Eric Bana!!! I think I’ve said enough there.

Since I have not seen enough Star Trek films to perform an adequate comparison, this film is definitely better than Star Wars Epsiodes I-III but not quite to the standard of IV and definitely nowhere near V and VI.

Gigs

Alot has been happening in the 3 weeks or so that I haven’t posted so I have got a few catch up posts to do. I have been working on the website for SYMPOSIA09 which is an annual design symposium held in Wagga Wagga similar to AGIDEAS and SEMI-PERMANENT. The little edits and tweaks of the information are the most time consuming, including several alterations in regards to the pricing alone! But this is something that is inherently unavoidable in this particular industry. I have also been working on concepts for motion titles for the event which will introduce the speakers and their work, as well as brainstorming for another motion graphics project that I can’t really speak about as of yet.

These are progressing at an acceptable rate, which just happens to be a rapidly as is allowed. This combined with my final graphic design assessment for the semester (environmental design) is taking up the majority of my time, whilst trying to fit in bits and pieces of things that I enjoy.

I have been to 2 gigs at the Uni Bar in the past 3 or so weeks; Faker and Josh Pyke. Both were incredibly enjoyable, although I was surprised that Josh Pyke pulled a larger crowd than Faker. One part of Faker’s performance that I greatly appreciated was their attitude, it’s great that bands make an effort to come to the smaller centres (such as Wagga) and they obviously enjoy coming; obvious with the way that Faker interacted with the crowd, not dissimilar to Gyroscope’s efforts last year. Josh Pyke had a similar reaction to Wagga and the uni, and his performance was better than what is on his albums – which is definitely something that you look for in seeing a band live, otherwise what is the point in going to a concert?