Short film made for uni, get the result on Friday, but I got a 2:1 for my pitch. Which is pretty alright.

Paranormal Activity 2 (and scientific eksplanayshunz)

So back way back in November last, I wrote a post about a spooky experience I went through in the dead of night, featuring an out of body experience and some sort of ghostly poltergeist: http://isabeloola.blogspot.com/2010/11/paranormal-activity.html

Last night I think I got to the bottom of it.

Once again, as I was about to go to sleep I had that feeling of someone else being in the room. Someone see through and ectoplasmy. What can I say? I have an overactive imagination, and I gave it little thought before drifting relatively easily into sleep. That night I had a peculiar dream, which, at first, mostly made me feel sad; families (that I didn't know) were writing messages on their computers to children and babies that had died in their families. Weird, and depressing too: Like a forum to the afterlife.

After I had strolled through multiple living rooms and homes that these families resided in, I reached the last. I read the tragic little note (cannot remember what it said at all) and turned around to see the dead son standing before me with his ominous face and yellow tshirt. Creepy ghost children are absolutely not what I want in a dream. Almost immediately my brain kicked in: "No. Abort. ABORT." And up I woke. Except I was still in the dream. Stupid REM cycle. What a rem.

So. A brief shot of lucid dreaming followed by sleep paralysis. Yum.

I don't know how long passed but I woke properly (sort of) at some point (obviously). Of course, I couldn't move -_- And when I finally could it was like I had pins and needles all over my body. Unpleasant.

When I finally plucked up the courage to turn my head and switch on the light I saw that it was a little after 2am.

I read Simon Pegg's Nerd Do Well until I couldn't fight the demon sleep anymore and passed out. No dreams followed. Restful bliss!

(When I woke up one of my necklaces was lying on the lower tier of my table. I am going to pretend I know for sure that it had been on the higher tier and was just knocked down)

soooooooo slooooooooowww

Watch in full screen. You won't regret it.

Firefly

I recently started watching the TV series Firefly, and I completely fell in love with it. So much so that two days later I've finished the box set and the film sequel, Serenity. It's a series that manages to blend comedy, action and drama with both believable and likeable characters. The worlds created on screen are fascinating and engaging, and it's a tragedy that only one series was ever made: It really had the potential for something that could have gone on for years. That being said, it would have run the chance of going on too long and becoming rubbish, and the idea of so many box sets really wouldn't have helped my bank balance.

That being said, the fact that it was so short in no way hindered the series. There were no real loose ends to be pondered over - though certain mysteries of the Shepherd could have been answered - as the film rounded up the characters' stories fairly well. It ended with the possibility for more but managed not to leave the viewer in anguish and confusion at the end, which is always a plus point.

I couldn't find a trailer for the series but here's one for the movie (which can be seen as a stand alone, but really needs the back story of the series for you to get involved with the characters and plot).

Night of the Living Trekkies

The idea of a trailer for a book is a novel idea (no pun intended) and I must admit that it was watching this trailer that led me to purchase this book. The only sad thing is that it's not actually being made into a full movie. Perhaps this will be a good thing, and will encourage people to read the book. This is good as it means that the writers will be more likely to earn the money that they deserve, as books are a lot harder to pirate than films (though with the increasing popularity of ereaders and kindles, books are getting easier to download).

I'm not a trekkie, or trekker, but even I can comprehend the awesome that is this book. I only hope the ending's as good as the rest.

Life as a Cat

In August, a group of 25 cats were chosen to document "a day in the life of a cat". The footage was also analyzed by an animal behaviourist and used cats from all different kinds of households.



More info on the film and cats:
http://www.friskies.com/repurrters/default.aspx

Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival

Today I attended the Kotatsu Animation Festival at Chapter Arts Centre. It was a three day festival, but due to weather and nanowrimo I was only able to get there today (the last day).

On the previous two days there were a couple of workshops and screenings of the Studio Ghibli film, Ponyo, but today was the day that interested me most.

In the afternoon there was a showing of several short Japanese animations, not just in the popular anime style but also handcrafted and artistic films. We were also shown an episode of the anime Samurai Champloo and saw guest speakers Midoriko Hayashi (organiser of independent animation screenings in Japan) and Tetsuji Kurashige (university lecturer and independent film maker).

One of the first selection of films we saw (the "anime style" selection) was She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai.

I really enjoyed the short as it was a simple "slice of life" film, yet had so much power to it. The storyline is simple yet sweet and the music adds to the piece without being overpowering of feeling out of place. The concept of the film being from the cat's perspective is clever and allows you to see the story of a seemingly quiet and overlooked woman: You aren't told the whole story, but you understand what is happening.

The next type of film was the "Handcrafted" short films. Unfortunately, none of these were available online, but they were all very clever and interesting. The first was a short that started with a small origami caterpillar which ate and grew, using bigger pieces of paper until it turned into a chrysallis and then a butterfly. This was short and effective and reminded me of the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Of the other two handcrafted films, one was aimed more at children and was knitted, and looked very sweet, and the other was quite a scary tale of a demon, with jerky yet stylized stop frame animation.

The final type of short film was "artistic". The first was an amusing and cute tale called The Mechanism of Spring and showed how everything links together in spring time and builds each other. It features heavily on connections and was very well recieved. The second film was hand drawn with graphite pencil. It was done entirely on one piece of paper and the characters were rubbed out and redrawn as they moved across the page. This was very effective and gave the impression of showing the marks that people leave in the world, even on everyday occasions such as a lunch break. Although I was not impressed particularly with the art style used, and the storyline was a little non-existent it was still really interesting and a clever technique.

The final film in the art style was very peculiar and nobody knew what was going on, even with subtitles. It was most odd.

The organiser of the event, Eiko Ishii Meredith, also showed us a trailer of her own short film which is the making. I look forward to seeing the full version.

In the evening, there was a showing of Summer Wars, a 2009 film which had been highly aclaimed and submitted for Oscar Nomination. It looked very interesting, but due to the weather I had to leave, as if I saw it I may not have been able to get home. It was a shame, but I hope to see the film sometime in the near future when it's released.

http://www.kotatsufestival.com/

http://www.chapter.org/