Happy Intersession, and happy Monday!!! Today’s movie at random is The Snake Pit (HU DVD 8513), a true classic from 1948 starring Olivia de Havilland. Here’s our summary: Following an emotional collapse a woman is placed in a mental institution by her husband. The severity of her depression causes her sympathetic doctor to try electric shock, … Continue reading “Movies At Random: The Snake Pit”
Happy Intersession, and happy Monday!!!
Today’s movie at random is The Snake Pit (HU DVD 8513), a true classic from 1948 starring Olivia de Havilland.
Here’s our summary:
Following an emotional collapse a woman is placed in a mental institution by her husband. The severity of her depression causes her sympathetic doctor to try electric shock, hydrotherapy, and drugs, along with psychoanalysis.
I really like the poster, so that’s what you’re getting instead of a trailer:
Enjoy it!
Today’s movie at random is the documentary Nanking (HU DVD 4367), which won a 2008 Peabody award. This well-regarded anti-war film is one of many crucial documentaries in our collection. The use of film storytelling to document, witness, and communicate plays such an important role in our history. It’s definitely worth checking out. Here’s our … Continue reading “Movies At Random: Nanking”
Today’s movie at random is the documentary Nanking (HU DVD 4367), which won a 2008 Peabody award. This well-regarded anti-war film is one of many crucial documentaries in our collection. The use of film storytelling to document, witness, and communicate plays such an important role in our history. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Here’s our summary:
Tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China in the early days of World War II and focuses on the efforts of a small group of unarmed Westerners who established a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Told through deeply moving interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and chilling testimonies of Japanese soldiers, interwoven with staged readings of the Westerners’ letters and diaries.
And the poster:
Let us know what you think.
There are a lot of sad goodbyes in the history of cinema. From Toy Story 3 (HU DVD 7770) to Casablanca (HU DVD 150), a good goodbye on screen can absolute destroy you. Through the magic of scheduling, you’ll see a few more random movie posts under my name, but I’m sad to say: this … Continue reading “Goodbye!”
There are a lot of sad goodbyes in the history of cinema. From Toy Story 3 (HU DVD 7770) to Casablanca (HU DVD 150), a good goodbye on screen can absolute destroy you.
Through the magic of scheduling, you’ll see a few more random movie posts under my name, but I’m sad to say: this is goodbye from Tara in Media Services.
I leave you with one of my favorite goodbyes in the movies, from Harold and Maude (HU DVD 1962):
It took all my strength not to put a Harriet the Spy (HU DVD 15000) clip right there. But I have some dignity. Sort of.
See you, Space Cowboy!
One of the new DVDs we’ve gotten in Media Services looks just heartbreaking: Thank You For Playing (HU DVD 15330 and streaming) is a story about using an unusual medium to document a human experience. From our summary: When Ryan Green, a video game programmer, learns that his young son Joel has cancer, he and … Continue reading “Thank You For Playing”
One of the new DVDs we’ve gotten in Media Services looks just heartbreaking:
Thank You For Playing (HU DVD 15330 and streaming) is a story about using an unusual medium to document a human experience. From our summary:
When Ryan Green, a video game programmer, learns that his young son Joel has cancer, he and his wife Amy begin documenting their emotional journey in the form of an autobiographical video game. This film follows Ryan and his family over two years through the creation of “That Dragon, Cancer” as it evolves from a cathartic exercise into a critically acclaimed work of art that memorializes and personalizes their time and interactions with Joel and sets the gaming industry abuzz.
The cancer aspects are, of course, heartbreaking. And yes, Joel dies. You can read a bit more about the game on Wired. You can watch the trailer for the game here as well:
One thing I find so interesting is that this project would have been nowhere near as compelling or challenging had it been a book. It is specific to its medium. Finding the ways in which a video game can be emotional, often using quite rule-breaking gameplay elements from what it sounds like, is a real artistic accomplishment.
Recommended viewing for any of our friends in AU’s Game Design program.
There’s a really specific look to rotoshopped movies that sits right in that uncanny valley for animation. They’re just slightly too real, and so they look really creepy. The two films best known for this, A Scanner Darkly (HU DVD 2416) and Waking Life (HU DVD 364), are just unbearably creepy. So what is rotoshopping? … Continue reading “Rotoshopping Is Creepy And Cool”
There’s a really specific look to rotoshopped movies that sits right in that uncanny valley for animation. They’re just slightly too real, and so they look really creepy. The two films best known for this, A Scanner Darkly (HU DVD 2416) and Waking Life (HU DVD 364), are just unbearably creepy.
So what is rotoshopping? It’s a specific kind of rotoscoping where an artist draws keyframes and a program decides what makes sense between them. Rotoshopping actually refers to a proprietary software used by the company Flat Black Films. It reminds me in a lot of ways of the creepiness of motion capture, probably for the same reasons. It’s too human in a thing we don’t recognize as human.
I kind of wonder if this is because a computer is making part of the decisions in rotoshopped movies. Maybe there’s more of the artist’s hand in a rotoscoped film than we really think, and that’s the difference between the styles of animation.
There is, I will mention, a little confusion about what rotoscoping itself actually is. Lots of animation uses live references. That’s not necessarily rotoscoping. That’s more like using a model for painting. Rotoscoping is when you actually trace the film frame by frame.
Oh, it’s too hard to explain. I guess to really get it, you’ll have to watch this incredible example:
You’re welcome.
