stop motion animation

I found this video really fun to watch and thought I’d write a little bit about it. It’s called stop motion animation and is used in a number of different mediums. Children shows like Gumby, and others use this technique to make inanimate objects appear to move and do things. Recently movies like Wallace and Gromit have used this same technique. The original South Park short used stop motion animation, by having paper cut out characters appear to move against a background. My first experience with this type of video making was in high school. I took a video production class that introduced us to different types and styles of film making. One project we did was a stop motion short film. I had a lot of fun with this project, and ended up with a Scooby Doo like chase sequence where the main character would go into one door and come out of another across the hallway. In the end the main character was melted with laser beams from my eyes, but that’s neither here nor there. Stop motion can create some very interesting effects when real people are the focus of the filming. It can be used to create seemingly impossible situations or incredible looking feats of agility or strength. I think it is just as fun to see inanimate objects seem to have a mind of their own. I recall a commercial recently where spare change from all over came together to form an object. If my memory serves me correctly it was for some bank that put your spare change from credit card purchases into a savings account.

Online Gaming

Most guys, at least those I know, between the ages of 10 and 25 seem to participate in a large amounting of ‘gaming’. Whether it’s on a platform system like x-box or playstation, or computers, gaming seems to be the common interest almost all guys can share. I have long been into online computer gaming and have had a few different games that I played extensively for different periods of time. The first game I really got into would have to have been Diablo II. This game went under the classification of a role-playing game, a game that puts you into a specific character which you build up with skills and experience, outfit with different types of gear, and move through a world where the difficulty increases along with that characters growth. The newest, and by far most interesting genre of games, is the mmorpg. This stands for massively multiplayer online role playing game, and in these games everyone that is playing is in the same ‘world’ online. They interact with each other, form groups to take on more challenging opponents, create guilds, and even have their own economies. There can be thousands of people online in the same game world. These online worlds can be huge, some of them taking hours to walk across in the game. These games have created some very strange debates and legal troubles. People can spend hundreds of hours searching through the game for certain items that are very rare, or they can buy them from other people on sites like ebay. People will pay actual money for the ‘owner’ of the particular item, to give them that item in the game. The legal trouble comes in over who actually owns this imaginary item. Most game developers argue that anything created or found in the game is the property of the game developers, while people selling the items argue that they are performing a service, and not actually selling the imaginary item. People even sell accounts of characters that are high levels and full of gear. Games like Diablo, Everquest, or World of Warcraft, create markets where people can make thousands of dollars selling these imaginary items.

Bud Light, smooth and refreshing

Thinking about what to write for our free write this week, I didn’t have any really good ideas, so I decided just to do another rhetorical analysis. I decided to use a commercial from the super bowl, my favorite one of this year, advertising Bud light. This is using a narrative to tell a story of how two men decide who gets the last beer. The basic premise is that they both grab for the last beer, and to decide who gets it they decide to play rock, paper, scissors. As they come to the end of their 3 count, one man throws a rock at the other man’s head and knocks him down. He then proceeds to grab the beer and leave. This is using the pathos appeal by using humor to put the viewers in a certain state of mind. I think that if viewers find the commercial quite funny it will stick in their heads longer. Also they are using ethos simply by using the Bud light name. It is a very well known beer and a very well known company. They are appealing to the audience through their good name. People know that Budweiser and Bud light are two of the generally respected and well known beers in the USA. It’s also using definition and classification and the end of the commercial when they say that Bud light is a refreshing and smooth beer. It is describing it as a smooth beer and also classifying it as a light beer. Its name also classifies it as the beer of a major beer producer. It is not from a smaller micro-brewery, or an imported beer.

Youtube video

Best DUI stop ever!!!

Scooby and his Ipod

The ad I found wasn’t on adbusters, but I think it qualifies as a spoof ad. The image of Scooby Doo wearing an ipod is a parody of many of the ipod advertisements that feature a darkened figure on a bright background using an ipod. This fake ad is using illustration by showing a commonly recognized person (in this case an animated dog) using the product. I think this add uses all three of the rhetorical appeals. I think it uses logos simply by including the ipod name on the ad. This appeals to the viewer because ipod has become synonymous with ease of use and quality. It also appeals through pathos by trying to put the viewer into a light hearted state of mind by using humor. The humor in this ad only makes sense if you have seen other ipod advertisements. This particular one is making fun of the other ipod ads by using a cartoon character as the main figure. Every other ad has used real people listening to their ipods. I think it also appeals with ethos because the ipod is associated with Apple. Depending on who you are and your own personal views this may mean different things. For most people, though, I think it would mean reliability and good technology. Apple is a well known company that is used by millions around the world. I don’t really think that this ad was really trying to discredit ipod because it doesn’t really have any irony in it or anything that would portray the ipod as negative. I think it just took the previous ads and put a new, creative twist on the idea.

Sex appeal

The sex appeal in this particular image is not hard to spot. First of all the ad consists of an attractive woman sitting on a chair in a swimsuit, which by itself can attract the eye of any male. On top of that the model is sitting with her legs spread apart, which is quite suggestive if you ask any guy. The bright color of the swimsuit draws your eye to the model and away from what little background there is. The background, chair, and table in the picture are almost the same color as the models skin, so the swimsuit is the only contrasting color in the photo. The model does look somewhat pissed off though. I think she might have been going for something else, but it just comes off as grumpy. I think this ad is focused mostly on the pathos argument. It is trying to get the viewer of the ad into a particular frame of mind, while at the same time appealing to one of the most basic human wants and needs. I think they also try to appeal to women in this ad too, because the model looks very confident. She seems like she would definitely take control of any situation thrown her way. This also uses the pathos argument, trying to say that a woman will be more confident if they are wearing Calvin Klein’s swimwear. Although I think sex appeal is overused in the advertising industry, it usually does its job. It will attract the attention of the intended audience, even if they aren’t interested or looking for that particular product.

Photo Elements: The Foley Gallery

As I said before the orange tint that this picture has, gives it the feeling of an old picture. Along with the people and clothing in the picture I think it gives the viewer a sense of time period, maybe sometime in the 1800s(see picture). You can’t really see any of the background because there are people taking up pretty much the entire picture, so I don’t really know where it is taking place. There is not a lot of contrast in the picture, everything is pretty much the same color, and there isn’t anything that really pops out at you when you first see it. The art piece is actually a collage, which I think says a lot in itself. It’s a collection of separate pictures made into one, it’s like a jumble of unrelated people and things all thrown together, and the confusion that ensues. The individual people are quite small, and it is hard to see specific features or emotions on any of their faces. I think this is arguing that the individual often becomes lost in the group. Also, I see no repetition in any of the characters, which could be an argument for the uniqueness of an individual. There are also the unexpected things in the picture, like the occasional animal or the skeleton in the center of the collage. I would have to guess the message behind this is there are always unexpected circumstances that occur.

Reflective: The Foley Gallery

I can’t really see any reason or purpose to this piece of art. Besides the coloring of the picture and the time period that the figures in it would exist, there seems to be no common thread between any of the parts of this picture. I think this is what makes it such an interesting viewing experience. Again, the thing that strikes me the most is the skeleton dressed in a suit in the center of the picture. What could he possibly be doing in the middle of all these other people? I guess that’s one thing all the rest of the characters have in common, they are all alive. There is so much to look at in the picture it’s really hard to try to understand what the purpose of the picture is. Maybe that is the point; maybe it’s supposed to be all about chaos. No one seems to be working toward any common goal. Everybody has there own agenda, and no one is helping anyone else. I think this is somewhat reflective of the world in its entirety. There are always so many different agendas and plans, wants and needs, that are constantly coming into conflict. I believe that a lot more could be accomplished if people would focus there efforts on a single goal, but we always feel that our problem should be addressed first because it is the most important. Things like the EU or NATO are doing just this kind of thing. Bringing together hundreds of different agendas and figuring out what is most important to the groups nations as a whole.

Observational: The Foley Gallery

‘Nast-y Business” By Stephan Aldrich is a very interesting piece of art. The background has an orange tint too it, close to what would be called a sephia tone. At first glance I really have no idea what is going on in the picture. There is a jumble of people and animals seemingly floating one on top of another. In the very center I notice a skeleton wearing a suit and top hat. His hollow eyes are staring up at a topless man with a large white beard. He has a sash thrown across his torso, and some kind of spear like object in his hands. I can’t tell if skeleton man is staring at spear guy or looking past him at a robed figure. I can’t even tell the sex of this character, because it is completely covered by a robe, and is standing so I can only see the right side of its body. Below the mysterious robed figure is a child, whom appears to be a girl. The dress is my only way to tell because this character is also turned away. Then again it does have very short hair, either a boy in a dress or a girl with very short hair. In front of the girl stands the first animal I’ve encountered so far. A cowering lion is in the fore front on the right hand side. His tail is stuck between his legs and his mane seems to be prickling up. There are way to many people in this picture to continue on this way.