Easter Holiday?

It has been an Easter Holiday full of not so much holidaying. I am trying to get all of my coursework done, but have come up against hindrances. I look silly with braces on my wrists because I started getting painful arms due to all the time I was spending on the computer, something I really can’t help at the moment. My one excursion has been to see Pirates, the new Aardman film. Hey, it’s only 90 minutes and my arms needed a rest. Also, being an animation student is a constant reason to pass off movies as a degree related pastime.

I have finished The Hunger Games trilogy, and hope to see the first film tomorrow (this can be passed off as work because I do a VFX module). I lost momentum a bit whilst reading the second book, but it is worth it because the third one is excellent, and was even really funny at times. I had one of those wonderful times when you completely lose yourself in the end of a book and resurface wondering what just happened. The previous day I used it to inspire productive coursework creation by having to do 30 minutes hard work between chapters.

Perhaps in a couple of months I will have to do another more in depth review, because I really did enjoy the books, I am just frightened of spoiling people! At least it is obvious that my next blog will mention the movie. Now, I have to get back to my coursework, final project is due in less than two weeks!

I had lots of fun a little while ago trying out some new things and designing some owl logos for the Q&A blog. You can take a look here http://gre-asktheowl.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Fiction Helps Me With My Perspective...

I have not been to the cinema recently and probably won’t again for a little while. I have so much coursework to do; I am looking forward to the Easter holidays when I can really get down to getting it all done. So instead I will share what I am looking forward to when it’s all done.

I have recently tried to stop my habit of watching TV whilst trying to do my work, for obvious reasons. I have also rinsed my Harry Potter audio books and have to be in the right mood to be able to bear the silliness of Twilight (my other audio book collection). Original taste I know. So I bought myself ‘The Hunger Games’, my first audio book purchase in a while. It is a very good book, although the dystopian nature of the world can at times be disturbing. But if you have twenty four teenagers fighting to the death, it’s never going to be a bundle of laughs. I am dying to see the film which is said to be very faithful to the book and I can see how it would translate well on screen.  It is out today but unfortunately I will have to wait until I have the time. At least I will not be in fear of spoilers!

When all my coursework is over I am excited about getting down to reading my ‘art of’ books that I collected over Christmas and my birthday. I also hope to waste some time playing the Sims 3 Pets. I will also have to sort out all my stuff because I will presumably be on the move, back to my parents and then who knows where. But I need to have fewer things because my parents miss me, but not my stuff.

Water and Work

I am having a crazy few weeks at the moment. A lot of work to do with my modules, two going okay, one I am just not very good at and my project is erring on disaster. Help. On top of that I work two days a week for the university (this is not a moan). I chose to do the work and I enjoy it, I am simply feeling the pressure at the moment. I have told most of my friends and family that they should basically pretend I don’t exist until the 11^th of May! I am due to go on the Harry Potter Studio Tour on Saturday 12^th, the day after my last deadline. I imagine a shiny and amazing day full of relaxation and enjoyment, but obviously I will only be able to enjoy it if I am proud of the work I have done!

I find that in times of increased work pressure I tend to develop an extraordinary interest in something I have never previously cared about. At the end of December when I had four deadlines in one week it was Investments and Trading. I took up a suggestion from the book ‘The Naked Trader’ and started paper trading (i.e. pretending). But I am pleased to say that I am currently up a fictional 24.2% since I started it two and a half months ago. Not bad, but most likely a case of beginners luck (and of course not real). In any case – a bad procrastination habit (even if I may make better use of my ISA allowance in the future).

My drama of the week was that my bath tap broke so the water in the flat had to be turned off until a new tap was installed as otherwise it would just keep on running. Not incredibly fun, however it will be a while before I take running water and toilet flushing for granted again!

Trip to the Movies

I have had a great week of cinema experiences! I saw The Muppets, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and Chronicle (in that order). If we were going in order of enjoyment I would say The Muppets, Chronicle.....................................and Ghost Rider.

The Muppets is really smart, funny and happy. If you like the characters already and you like Jason Segel and Amy Adams you will have a great time. It’s highly enjoyable with only perhaps the song ‘I’m having a me party’ and to an extent the ending leaving you less than engaged. Don’t forget due to John Lasseter’s Disney Short initiative, you also get the Toy Story short ‘Small Fry’ before the movie even begins. Sadly the projector was broken at the Cineworld O2, so it kept freezing and three quarters of the way through the film they had to stop it for ten minutes to reboot the projector. However we did get complementary ticket vouchers for our troubles.

Ghost Rider wasn’t good, and it was a shame because there were promising things about it. The effects are much better than the first film and some of the camera work and visual style is interesting e.g. having black backgrounds randomly during live action scenes. Nicholas Cage’s crazy acting is good but the rest of the time it’s strange in a bad way.  The story is quite generic and lags quite a few times leaving you bored. You may be thinking ‘but isn’t Idris Elba in that?’ (Who stole his scenes in Thor), but his lines are just as terrible as his French accent.

Chronicle is a low budget sci-fi movie about three teenage boys in Seattle who get superpowers from a hole in a ground at a party. It’s a really good watch and you don’t really miss big budget effects, and it is a good reminder that there are things more important, definitely a recommended watch. Although as an animation and vfx student I shouldn’t be saying that, I mean they must be great as lots of money is spent on them!

Busy Fun Times

It is a busy term with lots of course work and working for the university as well.  We have just had our February open day, which was pretty cold but despite the weather still busy. Taking people on tour of the accommodation luckily meant I got to go inside a few times. I feel a bit jealous of all the prospective students getting excited about coming to university with their degree’s ahead of them, it is a great time and coming out of the other end can be scary.

I was lucky enough to get tickets to Shrek the Musical for my birthday which I have now seen. I was in the centre of the fifth row and I have never had such a good view at a musical, I was very excited. The show is really enjoyable. If you are hoping for it to be exactly like the film and have all the same music you may be disappointed. The songs are written for the show and they make a few interesting additions for the story, as well as those necessary to make it work on stage. However if you are open to having fun, Nigel Harman as Lord Farquad is hilarious. Also, if you are a musical fan you can spot the references to other shows like Wicked and Lion King (this one is hard to miss).

I haven’t been to the cinema recently but do have two impending trips. One to see Chronicle, the director is apparently tipped to reboot the Fantastic Four series on the basis of this film’s success alone. And also The Muppets, which is going to be my Valentine’s Day viewing, I am looking forward to it (I am not evil; my boyfriend wants to see it even more than I do!).

Animation is Awesome

So my last term at university is under-way. I have to make sure I don’t get distracted from work by my birthday. I don’t really have plans though, apart from looking forward to my grandparents visiting and going to see Shrek the Musical.

My flavour of the week is sculpting. By that I mean characters for animation rather than works of art. I was inspired by a show reel I saw in class. The Flynn brothers are twins who went to Glamorgan University and took the animation course together. They have a very impressive stop motion show reel showing elements of the production for their graduation film ‘Opening Night’. It is like a miniature Laika (Coraline and Paranorman) production and just shows you what you can do with talent and hard work (and a double?).  You can see this at www.sculpt-double.co.uk.

I was amused the other day because I have been voting for the NBA All-Stars. If you don’t know what I mean, in Basketball each season they have a game with two teams, made up of the best person that plays each position as voted by the fans. So the fans choose the best two forwards, two guards and centre from the east and west. My amusement was because of an article that said the voting is inaccurate because novices only vote for people they have heard from and girls vote for the players that are smiling, the latter of which I am guilty of.

I like it when DreamWorks release an extra story for fans of their films. I liked Shrek the Halls and Scared Shrekless, this Christmas I got the Kung Fu Panda addition ‘Legends of the Masters’ and one for How to Train your Dragon (HTTYD). The HTTYD one was really good a proper separate story about the Viking Christmas and the dragons having babies, which are adorable, a definite must see if you like the film. The Kung Fu Panda one was not in full blown 3D, and the story was not quite as good as HTTYD but if you like Master Oogway it’s a must. If that makes no sense I am sorry!

New Year

Happy New Year! This is going to be a scary year for me, I am on the very last part of my degree, doing the major work that will secure my classification and I have no idea what will happen after that. I have been stressing out about whether everything will turn out well enough, but realistically although it will be hard work, this should be an enjoyable time. It is possible that making animated films and 3D content may never again be my main occupation (although of course I would like it to be).

I enjoyed a relaxing holiday because all my deadlines were prior to it. Christmas day was quiet and Boxing Day was spent with friends, children and dogs. Yes, the dogs get presents too, but not too expensive as they will mostly just get destroyed. Although saying that, my boyfriend bought one of the dogs a purple toy cow a few years ago and she goes and gets it and shows him it every time she sees him.

I finally got to see Puss in Boots on New Year’s Eve. It’s good, it’s not Shrek, but it’s good. I very much enjoyed it and it stood alone as its own film, it had a good thought through story with some very humorous moments. The effects when the magic beans are planted are spectacular. Zach Galifinakis’ character Humpty Dumpty didn’t seem to be as vocally funny as he was physically.

I got some super Christmas presents. I got three ‘Art of’ books, the most impressive of which was ‘The Art of Finding Nemo’ which has got quite expensive as it went out of print. So I very much look forward to reading that, also Bolt and Shrek Forever After and another animation book ‘Setting the Scene’ about animation layout by Fraser Maclean (a guest lecturer at our university). Now I just have to tidy my room so I can put them all in pride of place.