Comics and Animation
Last week we read the chapter on animation and watched The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, which incorporated animated comics into the film. This week you are attending at least one panel of the UF comics conference.
I am going to leave this post fairly open. Comment on any of the general topics mentioned above: the conference, comics, animation, Dangerous Lives.
I am going to leave this post fairly open. Comment on any of the general topics mentioned above: the conference, comics, animation, Dangerous Lives.
posted by cmartin at 2/22/2006 01:31:00 PM
32 Comments:
On Friday I went to Matt Thorne’s panel on the development of manga from the 1920’s to the present. I thought his discussion was interesting, but I didn’t know any of the illustrators or works he was talking about, so a lot of it went right over my head. The visuals were pretty cool though (Alana, I saw you there… what did you think?)… In concern to comics in films, I like how Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys incorporated the animated segments to mirror what was going on in the characters’ lives. Another example that uses animation like this is Kill Bill vol. 1. There is a segment that is presented in anime to narrate O-Ren Ishii’s life. I think there are two main reasons why Tarantino does this: 1) In class we discussed how animation can create visuals that couldn’t (or shouldn’t) be filmed in live-action. As this segment of Kill Bill portrays violence and sexual content involving a child, it would be ethically questionable to make a child actor perform such acts. 2) The anime style reinforces the Asian culture that the film draws heavily upon. On a final note, my favorite comic series is “X-men” hands down.
I enjoyed Molly Bang's speech on Thursday, and I was pleasantly surprised to attend her workshop in the Reitz on Saturday. I thought I was going to here a speaker but instead took part in a comic/picture making workshop. Molly explained, as she did on Thursday, some of the techniques to create different moods within a comic or book. With just construction paper, glue, and scissors Molly had us create a scary picture, and then a comforting picture. She then went over the pictures and pointed out good and bad things about each one. Scary pictures have diagonals, points, and bold colors, and comforting pictures have rounder and more horizontal images. Even though it was on a very elementary level, I learned a few of the important rules of comic/pictures.
I enjoyed Molly Bang's speech on Thursday, and I was pleasantly surprised to attend her workshop in the Reitz on Saturday. I thought I was going to here a speaker but instead took part in a comic/picture making workshop. Molly explained, as she did on Thursday, some of the techniques to create different moods within a comic or book. With just construction paper, glue, and scissors Molly had us create a scary picture, and then a comforting picture. She then went over the pictures and pointed out good and bad things about each one. Scary pictures have diagonals, points, and bold colors, and comforting pictures have rounder and more horizontal images. Even though it was on a very elementary level, I learned a few of the important rules of comic/pictures.
ray- I also thought that Kill Bill was another good real life/comic/anime mixture.
I actually went to the first panel Friday morning at 8:45. I was I must say a little on the bored side during most of it but I'm sure that has a lot to do with the fact it was early in the morning and I wanted to go back to sleep. Altar Boys wasn't bad, we've watched better movies in class this semester but still it wasn't half bad. Molly Bang's speech Thursday night I actually found somewhat amusing mostly cause of the jokes she was making about her own work. Enough with comics, can we get back to movies now?
Ray- the way it was done in Kill Bill was rather cool.
I enjoyed Molly Bang’s speech about comics and her books on Thursday night. It was interesting to learn about the different types of comic techniques with frames, action and etc. I also thought it was kind of cool to hear her be so open and critical about her work, saying what she didn’t like and what she wishes she would have done differently in her book. I also went to one of the panel discussions on Saturday afternoon. I saw one of the most enthusiastic presentations I have ever seen in my whole life with the Calvin and Hobbes speech. I never would have thought that a comic strip could be analyzed so deeply, so it was pretty interesting. He chose a lot of good comics for his power point presentation, so it was fun to read through them while he was presenting.
I went to the Dr. Seuss/Peanuts conference on friday morning. Seeing the different interpretations of the Cat in the Hat, such as biographical, historical, social, political, and what not. And he was right, it is strange that the mother was absent the whole book, just leaving the fish in charge of her two children. (and that absence of authority has fueled many great children's novels in the past). The Peanuts was interesting, but he showed too few comic strips to prove his point. I'm sure he's studied the topic profusely, but he seemed to more interested in impressing the audience with his language than saying something significant. Except for the fact that Peanuts uses characters that silmultaneously act as children and adult, a dual voice. The naive and the cynical in one person.
I've seen Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys before, wasn't a big fan then and I'm still not. The intermingling of comic and reality produces a nice effect, tho.
Anyone seen One Crazy Summer from the 80s with John Cusack? In it he is an amateur cartoonist, and sometimes his cartoons come to life. During the comic sequences, the animated parallels the reality, displaying ideas and feelings in the characters head that otherwise would not be known. I think the same thing happened in 'Better Off Dead', also starring John Cusack. Is that right?
Dan, that's really neat that Molly Bang taught you about drawing comics, I wish I would've known about that workshop.
Dan, the workshop you went to sounds like it was pretty cool...I wish I could have went to that one!
Jon S, I agree with you about some of the panel presentations. One of the presentations I saw had no power point or visuals so it was very hard to follow along with it. For people who don't know much about comics, the visuals can really help the audience understand.
jon s - One Crazy Summer sounds like a fun movie... That John Cusack is funny guy...
I enjoyed parts of Bang's presentation, particularly when she showed examples of how the framing can be worked into the actual plot. The differences and the creativity in the framings were fascinating. I hadn’t, however, ever seen anybody draw comics about an actual issue like she did with the woman from Texas. It seemed like an interesting idea, but I didn’t particularly care for it. The written aspect of the comic seemed to greatly outweigh the graphical aspect. It may have just been the way that she presented it, but it seemed that way to me. As far as Altar Boys, I liked the animated parts of the movie, but I didn’t really care for the rest (mostly because I don’t really like to watch movies about preadolescents, they just don’t interest me… except for the Sandlot, but that’s a league of its own).
john s- one crazy summer is a really cool movie. I actually just saw it for the first time like a month ago.
I really enjoyed Molly Bang's presentation on Thursday. I have never seen comics quite like that before. I was amazed how Molly, and many of the other author's she showed, used techniques very different from the traditional comic books you think of. I liked one of Molly's comics about a women named Dianne, who was a shrimp boat captain and fought a major plastic company about polluting the shores of Texas. I found this particular comic to be her best that we saw. Not only was this educational and factual, but it was extremely artistic. I liked the fact that Molly, even after publishing her work, was still very critical of her work. I thought that Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys was alright. I didnt really like the whole death by cougar twist though. I also thought that the comic scenes could have been a bit better. I thought that they were a little childish for the very adult situations that they were dealing with. Do 8th graders still read comics?
After attending the Molly Bang workshop on Thursday, I've gained a better knowledge on the uses of lines and angles in art. For example, I never knew that verticle lines stood for Scaryand frightening scenes and that horizontal lines symbolized calm settings. I love art and I love to sketch. I feel that I've learned new techniques on how I can make my artwork more effective. I really enjoyed the film, "Dangerous Lives of the Alter Boys". I thought the film was very adventurous and getting to know how the characters felt through animation. It was a great film. I truly enjoyed Friday's presentation with Molly Bang when we crafted ideas for a scary scene and a calm scene using construction paper. I thought this activity was a creative way in helping students to understand how effective lines can be in comics or art as well. After the workshop, I had a better idea on the styles and works of comics.
ray- the comics in Kill Bill are great. I love how Tarantino incorporates his fascination with many different genres such as kung-fu, japanese anime, and westerns into this film.
I found this movie out this weekend if anyone cares. Its a Russian film with subtitles and it opens in theaters March 3rd. Its called Night Watch, first of a three part trilogy. Great special effects, graphics(extremely similar to the Matrix with cutting edge effects). Its about the forces of light and evil keeping each other in check and it is said that the Great Other will rise and side with the Dark.(By the way Mrs. Martin, vampires are in it and I know you like vampire movies) It was really good I thought and I might do my scene analysis on this movie. Let me know if you want to watch it b/c I have it on my computer and can give anyone the files if they want.
Jason
I totally agree with you on the animation in the film. I also thought the animation was too imature for the adult situations that took place in the film. As a result, the animation was annoying.
i had seen dangerous lives of altar boys previously but i had missed the first few minutes. seeing it for the second time and already knowing the ending, i looked out for signs of foreshadowing, cinematographical symbolism, and subtle character traits. i really enjoyed this movie the first time but i liked it even more the second time around after noticing all the little details. on another tangent, i thought about it and all my favorite movies include either stop motion or animation at one point or another (not ALL of them but most...) who framed roger rabbit, disney movies, beetlejuice (stop motion), nightmare before christmas, kill bill, etc. i dont know why this is but i guess i like seeing exactly what filmmakers are envisioning since you can do whatever you want with animation. as a filmmaker, i would prefer to delve into animation because as challenging as it is, there are no boundaries. unfortunately i wasnt able to make it to the panels bc i work pretty much always when im not in class or during the weekend and the panel i was planning to go to was on friday 2-3. but it sounds like it was very interesting and informative.
jason- although im pretty sure most 8th graders nowadays dont read comics, the movie was set in the 70s where there wasnt xbox or tivo or instant messaging. the fact that the comics were childish shows the innocence of the time and how naive they all really were despite the fact that they all carried on as if they were ready for adult situations.
I obviously haven't been around to hear the discussions about animation and I'm a little disappointed. I always found it interesting the youth tone that is always tagged on animation. Then when a show like South Park or Family Guy comes along, it really breaks the norm and conventional thinking towards animation. Animation really allows you to show things that would be impossible to convey in real life. I've never actually watched any myself but I'm amazed at the popularity of Japanese animation and some of the messages and story lines it uses.
I'm sorry I missed Molly Bang's speech. From the sounds of things, everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
Jason - I heard about Night Watch a while ago. It seemed very interesting. I may be interested in watching it.
Animation has dramatically changed the movie business as we know it today. The ability to digitally create people or things and add them into a film changes the abilities of things directors can do in movies. The animated characters in movies like the Matrix are made to look like real people. But other movies like Space Jam add animated charaters that are unrealistic. Computers can make characters do things that real actors cannot do. I love the comic book movies because you get to see your favorite animated characters as live people.
Though I missed most of Molly Bangs speach, for the first half an hour I was there, I had to try my hardest to stay awake. I found her speach to boring for me...
I thought the conference on comics was really interesting and I had no idea there were so many artistic and creative aspects involving comics that paralleled literature. The ways in which every cartoon was drawn out and even their actions were symbolic of something and seemed to have so much thought put into them. I liked how Molly Bang used comics to show a real life situation (the shrimping story) and the severity of it all using cartoons. It provides a surreal perspective in a simple way.
Jonathan, yea I'd never seen Altar Boys either before, I didn't find it bad and I didn't find it good either. I also thought Molly's criticism about her work was pretty funny. I thought the way she portreyed things like the woman who was about to kill herself pretty peculiar considering it was a comic. It made me realize comics can be serious and not just fun for kids.
I went to hear two speeches, one on Dr. Seuss and the other on Charles Schulz. I thought they were both intersting but very dry. They both did a great job working with visuals through powerpoint presentations to illustarte their points. I thought it was really cool that you could look so deeply into authors who I had originally just thought to be silly and creative. Who knew there were so many political and social undertones? I guess my ignorance comes from stopping reading Dr. Seuss after age 8. I thought a lot of what was said was academic jargin (understandable at an academic conference), and I had trouble with some of it. It certainly was not what I expected.
John G, I pretty much agree exactly to your feelings on "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys." I didn't really like or dislike it, I just thought it was crazy watching the culkin kid get his neck thrashed by a frigging mountain lion. Who does that?!
On Friday i attended the Dr. Seuss and Peanuts workshop and i thought it was very interesting to look at childhood classics in a different light. The first speaker talked about Dr. Seuss (who never offically became a doctor but was rather given doctorite status after his success) and how certain things can be inferred through some of his stories (The threat of communism spreading like the pink snow in "The Cat and the Hat Comes Back"). Although as a child i was thinking the pink snow meant something more like strawberry icees rather than the imposing russian government...it was still fun to look back at the book and speculate.
John G-
i too thought that the comics conference was interesting because i had never seen comics in that way before. the intricacy of the stories and scenes blew my mind, and how combinations of them can completely change the story was very interesting
I went to the very first panel on Friday morning. I was a little skeptical, but ended up enjoying the lecture on Dr.Seuss. I never realized that someone could make it their lifes work to study him. I also saw alot of different sides of Seuss I never noticed before. I especially liked out the lecturer pointed out that the mom leaving the two kids home alone and the little girl not having a major speaking role was a real social commentary. I would also just like to say that The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys was my favorite movie that we have watched so far. I thought it had the best plot and story line.
Debbie,
I had the same thought you did about the comics in Dangerous Lives being a little much. It broke up the story to much for me, and I didn't quite understand it. I would just like to add that I watched a rented movie the other night (the weatherman, it sucked) and I couldn't stop analyzing the camera shots. So i guess this class must be getting to me!
Thanks for the feedback on the conference. I appreciate your honest impressions.
And Jason, thanks for the heads up about Night Watch. Looks like I know what movie that I am going to see this weekend.
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