My film screening in Portugal

My Wind-Up film was screened in Portugal while my Teacher Jeanne was teaching an animation class.

I wish I could have been there!

Thank you sooo much Jeanne!!!

48 hr film (Part I)

I have registered today! This will be my first year joining with my own team!

Last year I was a volunteer for Austin, where I was a PA on a Mockumentary film, it was more of the volunteer team so we didn't actually get to compete but we did get the film as a "bonus film" on the DVD.

Then last year I was also a PA on Drew Meyer Oaks San Antonio team. Both teams and experiences were completely different and here are a few pics from last years San Antonio film. Sadly we took none for the Austin one.

And voila! there's my name on the team list. I know it may not seem like a big deal to be doing this, but I think one reason why i'm so excited is because i've been wanting to compete for the past 3 years now but never had a team or equipment. This year my team will be the same close people who always help me out on films and I really want to focus on making a fun film.

oh, the team name is from a Shangri-La's song, I am the WORST at naming anything so when I was in a rush to name my team I originally wanted to name it ---
but i thought the dashes might be too weird. I even called my friend so he could just give me a team name but of course he didn't pick up so there, that's my team name. Thank you Mary Weiss for giving me that reference.

I am also going to do a Part II AFTER I do it and write about how that goes..

*My "film a day" has been kept up so far this week! and I am halfway done on Rosetta Stone French Level 2! Wish me luck in keeping up with these promises I keep making myself keep.

July 18 - 24 "Film a Day"

This week I started my "A Film a Day" Goal and I am proud to say I kept it! I actually watched more than a film on some days

MONDAY
Zabriskie Point - Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (1970)
I really liked this film, made me think a lot about the gov't in the 70's and now.

TUESDAY
The Seventh Seal - Directed by Ingmar Berman
Playing chess with Death! how can you not like this film! great classic. Rented this at Blockbuster which pretty soon is going to run out of foreign films for me to watch. I picked this one because it was the weirdest looking cover there was and thankfully I now know who this great director is

WEDNESDAY
Fantastic Planet - Directed by Rene Laloux (1973)
Finally watched all of it! I had seen clips before and always thought WHAT IS THIS? I NEED TO SEE THIS. This is now one of my favorite films and greatest animations I have ever seen in my life.

THURSDAY
Boyfriends and Girlfriends - Directed by Eric Rohmer (1987)
80's french films always have the best clothes!! Just saying. This film is one of those great french films that brings you into a group of people's life like no other culture can.

FRIDAY
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Directed by Julian Schnabel (2007)
Finally finished this film, really great lines and lessons to be learned from this film.

and Volver - Directed by Pedro Almodovar (2006)
I can't believe it took me so long to finally watch this film. Great director and good stories as usual. Sets and colors from this director are my favorite

SATURDAY
Wild Strawberries - Directed by Ingmar Bergman (1957)
Loved it too! Picked a 2nd one of his films unknowingly. Another great story with a beautiful script. Not to mention gorgeous cinematography

and Insidious - Directed by James Wan (2010)
I love all horror movies, so me and Chad finally went to watch this at the dollar movie. I thought it was pretty interesting and me and Chad both liked the devil's room, which had really cool puppets. Oh and a lot of scared kids in the audience

SUNDAY
The Adventures of Prince Achmed - Directed by Lotte Reiniger (1926)
Hadn't seen this is a while, but this was at the Ritz theater with a live band!

& Population 1 - Directed by Rene Daalder (1986)
Watched this in bed at Chad's and i'm not gonna lie, I drank a lot of wine this night but it didn't kick in till after the movie thankfully so I do remember everything in this film! I liked it but then again how can you not like it, Tomata Du Plenty stars in it!!

I also watched a bunch of short films. I am regretting not starting this film a day thing sooner. But anyways I must get back to Rosetta Level 2. I wish they had some animated confetting for when you finish a level.

French Animation

I feel like I could do a TON of french posts, there are so many french animations out there. One good place to see a bunch is Short of the Week has a French Playlist
I would recommend watching ALL of them, yes ALL of them.

The playlist includes:
1.Logorama - F. Alaux, H. de Crécy, L. Houplain (Won the Oscar 2010)
2.Mei Ling - Stéphanie Lansaque & François L.
3.Un Tour De Manége - Gobelins
4.Skhizein - Jérémy Clapin
5.Oktapodi - Gobelins
6.En Tuz Brazos - Goby, Landour & Jouret
7.Une Histoire Vertebrale -Jérémy Clapin
8.A Quoi Ca Sert L’amour? - Louis Clichy

My teacher Jeanne Stern showed us Peter Foldes "La Faim" in my Experimental Animation class when teaching us how to do morphs. This is now one of my favorite films





So I can't make a French post without mentioning Sylvain Chomet but instead of jumping to The Triplets of Belleville or The Illusionist my favorite is his short film "La Vieille Dame Et Les Pigeons" which all 3 parts can be seen here on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srODm62kBAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJgcHuQseLc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ku3hNxM5S4

Here is Alexandre Alexeieff "La Nariz" Part I and II





Oh and a fun fact about Alexandre Alexeieff, He invented the Pinscreen!

Emile Cohl's "Fantasmagorie" he is said to be "The Father of the Animated Cartoon"



Kihachiro Kawamoto's "Kenju giga" a Japanese animator who died last year :(
Made this French film, Which I want to say is one of my all time favorite shorts I have ever seen.



I can't make a French Animation post without mentioning Georges Méliès, he pretty much invented a bunch of film techniques and this is his most famous film "A trip to the Moon" if you haven't seen it, I would suggest seeing it because it's a fun film and is one of those "most important films ever made in history" type of film. (They made us watch this is Intro to Film)


Here are a few Full-Lengths worth renting

Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi "Persepolis" which i'm surprised at how many people who haven't heard/seen it is really amazing


Fears of the Dark ( I saw this in theaters with only one other person in the entire theater and...I was scared)


and last but not least for my post is Rene La Loux's "Fantastic Planet" one of my all time favorite films. You can watch all of it on Youtube. Here is the trailer:



After writing this post I am already thinking of who else to add for my Part II which will come out later. With the Short of the Week playlist and the Goeblins playlist I mentioned in an earlier post all these films can keep you busy!


*and in other french news
This is me doing Rosetta Stone french for about 7 hours straight, no breaks

what a mess

Egyptian Animation

Hopefully there will be a Part II to this post, I am trying to educate myself on allll animations. I had French and Czech down (Which will get their own posts) but I somehow came across this film:



and Aya Zakaria recommended these Egyptian films for me:



This one was my favorite








So I hope you enjoy all these films and I have been keeping up with my "Film a Day" thing i'm doing but then again it is only Day 3. I will be posting my weekly film update once the 7 days have passed and keep searching for int'l films. But now I must get back to Rosetta Stone Level 1 part 3 only one more part and i'm already on Level 2!!