Rise of the Ogre

The Gorillaz is the famous animated band created by lead singer of both Blur and the Good the bad and the queen along with his ex-flat mate and comic book artist jamie hewlette who created such comic as Tank Girl.
Now the Gorillaz have made two massive selling albums and now they have released a autobiography about the band. This is a unique autobiography as its not based on actual people. this means the writers can make surreal and exciting story in which no other bands could produces. with tales of incidents were the lead singer 2D loses his eyes and the story behind Russel's best friends ghost who haunts his body. the book also tell about real life events but makes as if the band are involved for example when they recorded in new york with the rap band D12. even their creators are in the story but in different roles as they are now. he book also includeds information on the music videos and the characters in the band showing their history ,their role in the band includng their intrests.
the book is also very visual intresting with loads of images created by Jamie Hewlette which was the reason i bought it in the first place it helps to tell the story and show the surrealism in the tales

Dorito and The Argonaunts

For my fourth brief I had to make a advertisement for Doritos Crisps . This was for a competition were the whole nation and have the chance to win £20.000 and have their advert on television. there was no guide lines just 29 second advert. for my Advert I thought of the idea of the dorito not wanting to be eaten. using the idea that the human hand was a enemy of the dorito crisp. i was inspired after looking at several television adverts especially a old tennents lager which was animated spoof of Taggart. this had characters made from pints of lager and cans. in this advert the murder is a human hand. after getting a kinda of idea what wanted to looked at when doritos are othen eaten. This is often party's , watching movies , cinema and several others. i then decided to make spoof using the dorito and the hand for movies. as the crisp are related to the cinema.

i wanted to make a stop frame animation for this adverts. as i had not tried it yet. because of this i deciced to make spoof of Jason and the Argonaunts as this one of most famous epic movies and it is also has some of the first stop frame animation used in a feature film. I wanted to use this a its very inconic film and i wanted it to get noticed in a world where cgi is mostly used in such films as Lord of the rings and Spiderman this something which iam quite bored with in todays blockbuster Movies.

to make this looks as much like the film I had to make a similar set as the film. this had to be a rocky background with a ageing tree in the centre. using paper mashie and card board to make look rough and rocky. My problems started to begin when my set was taken longer that i thought to dry. When i decided to film the advert . one of the sides crumbled apart. this left little time to re build and shoot the advert. After fixing my set and finally filming the advert i found out i never got my sound sorted out. this was something in which i could have done when waiting for my set to dry.

I never got my advert in on time to place online to enter the competion. i know putting the advert on with no sound wouldnt be picked. I was very disapointed not get the sound placed on the film footage. with all time spent on the footage.

The bbc Euro 2008 Title sequences

Now its time for the biggest month in this years football calender with the return of the Europeans football championship. with all the home nations unable to qualify for this year competition we remain in the united kingdom watch teams such as France , Holland, Spain , Germany, Italy Portugal and many other nations battle to win the European cup. The games are split up between to television networks the BBC and ITV each of them wanting the excitement of the competition in their own way. each of them have interesting title sequences.

the ITV shows montages of the competition from past and mixed with classical instruments. My Favorite one is the BBC version. this is an animated title sequences showing the nations and the players along with the locations in Switzerland and Austria in the backdrop. this sequences which was made by the famous animation studios Aardman known form making such stop frame animations such as Creature comforts and Wallace and Gromit. with this project they used a different style as what they are known for and made a sequence which is using traditional hand drawing animation and 3d animation

in the animation their is a number of cartoon caricatures on some of the big players in this year event such William Gallas , Micheal Ballack and Fernando Torres each of them passing all to each other.

after making a title sequence for days that shook the world at the end of 2007 i realized how important they need to be. with none the home nations in the competition this cause a drop in viewers and with interesting and exciting title sequences could help bring in the viewers. i enjoyed this title sequences as it was a amusing a very unique compared to others in the past.

this is England

i watched this film after seeing Dead man shoes which was directed by Shane Meadows. i really enjoyed this film it was based on a Irishmen who returns home. and revenges on the local gang who have bullied his family. when i heard that Shane Meadows was making another film based on the life of 1980's skin head i had to see it.
This is England tells the tale of a of a troubled young boy(Shaun) who is befriended by the local skin heads and their leader (Woody). based on the working class side of england in 1983 Falkland's war. the skin head gang help (shaun ) from is his current troubles until (Combo) arrives back from prison who splits the group with racist and bitter views on the world. this film is directed by Shane meadows who used his experience from being in a skin head gang at a young age.

This is england stars the young Thomas Turgoose as Shaun who really shows Shaun as a troubled teenager a another is Stephen Graham who plays as the angry psychotics Combo. This is a big change from first seeing Stephen Graham as Jason Stathan's daft harmless side kick Tommy in Guy Ritchie's Snatch in 2000. the film has variety of different characters which helps this film to be a successful. Other characters such as woody played by Joseph Gilgun who also plays as Eli Dingle in the television soap Emmerdale. this is the skin head who welcomes Shaun to their gangs.

I really enjoyed this film. I like the fact that it shows the skin heads in quite a good light unlike the view o the media at that time. with the arrival of Combo cause a tension in the group and the film. The film also looks like its been filmed in the 1980's with the fashion and and the environment even the cheap looking style of filming help show the rough working class style of northern england in the 1980's. The only bad point about this film is that i felt it never really lead up to any thing exciting and finished a bit disappointing.

how manga took over the world

How Manga took over the world at the Manchester Urbis. this exhibition would explore the world of Manga art.a style of of design , animation and comic book art from Japan. this was a subject i was interested in by such cartoons as Pokemon and dragon ball z when i was younger. I but i knew very little about. the exhibition was broken up in different section of Manga art

cute Manga this had a selection of child like designs for toys and animation with some work from studio Ghilibi
Action Manga this moved away from the child like animations to the action movies such as ghost in the shell

Fashion design in Manga this looked at the iconic manga styles in fashion a iconic style to japan and its culture

Erotic Manga this moved to the adult industry with a the manga style animation used in japan's sex industry

communication Manga looked at the community that surround the Manga industry

This exhibition had many different graphical images and design which i found interesting but lacked in information. for someone like myself wanting to find about the industry and its history and influences then it was a big disappointment. this exhibit showed many different styles companies work along with videos and interactive. and i felt each section could given a bit more information. I think this was suited more for children and young teenagers. by having a visual intresting exhibit.

Doherty Flash

This is my third brief. This time I am using Flash to make a animated website based on a artist. At first I had to brainstorm looking at designers, Musicians , Directors , Fine artists. I wanted to do a Musician has I felt you would have the most freedom. I first decided to do my flash site on the Cribs. I felt that I never knew enough information to make a decent flash site. I then decided to base it on Pete Doherty. He has been in two successful band , dated at world famous model, working on a solo album all this while fighting an addiction.

While doing my research. I looked at both The Libertines and Babyshambles. I looked thought his life and his music. While looking through Pete's Influences i discovered his interest in 1950's British Comedy such as "Hancocks half hour " and " Step toe and son' and literature.and found many of his album covers and his own diary was very rough and raw and showed a an damaged style.

For the flash site i used idea of 1950's television especially animation so i would look at cartoons like " Felix the cat " and "Popeye" as i would be using animation i got the idea of using this style to make a cartoon character of Pete Doherty. using iconic overtop expression that that theses cartoons had and use it o show the personalty of pete

I also want to made the site look organic like my past two projects. to get ideas for the the backgrounds i Look at " the Book of Albion" this is all of pete Doherty's Diary this included tales of his life , lyrics and images. All the book all have a rough raw. which help get the influences fo this organic style.

i found the flash project the most challenging brief so far and found very dificult as a result of this i was not happy with my final result. i felt i had little amount of animation which i wanted to be my main thing. i was also not pleased with the interactive side to my site with not all the buttons working.

Making this flash site i found it very difficult and wasnt able to complete in the standard i wanted to it to be like

Control

During this week off I was often bored so decied top treat myself. So i bought the new mighty boosh and Control dvds. Control was a film which i wanted to see when i first saw the trailer but never got to the cinema in time. Being a fan of Joy Divison and seeing New Order and seeing Exibit at the Urbis. Control was directed by Anton Corbijn and starring Sam Riley. The film tell the tale of Ian Curtis the lead singer from the Manchester Band Joy divison. The film shows the rise of the band and to the day that Ian hung himself in 1980. The film also show the struggle of his love life with his wife and another woman which he can't leave any of them.

What makes this film so successful is the way its filmed. Using just black and white film just like all the muisc video that they made. using bleak background shows the mood of Manchester and the rest of Britian at this time. it also relfects the mood of the bands music.

Sam Riley plays Ian Curtis very well and even looks like the singer. I felt that he showed the feeling of the character at this time amazing and the gig scene a looked increadiable.

the muisc in this film is also a factor which makes this film so good. having the muisc of the band them self and music that inspierd them a that time for example David Bowie , Iggy pop and sex pistols.

I found this intrested as i never knew much about the behind the bands muisc. and it also at the this moment in time there alot of bands at this moment which have been inspired by his work.