PPP presentation: Cartoon Network Studios

Recently we were asked to prepare a presentation about a studio we would like to work in. I chose Cartoon Network studios for a few reasons:

•  The direction that the new CN generation is taking with their animated series is really breath taking for me. All these creative minds like Rebecca Sugar, Pen Ward, JG Quintel working under one roof, makes me wish I could rub shoulders with such people one day. 

• CN studios allows this creative freedom which really comes through in the artists work. As a result Cartoon Network studios now manages to attract attention from a wider range of audience.

• Quite a few animated series are made on Flash and animating on Flash would be one of my strenghts now.

 
So Here is Some Research Ive done about the studio and its history:

-The studio began on October 21, 1994 at 7:00am as a division of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., which was then focused on producing Cartoons for Cartoon Network: Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel, and The Powerpuff Girls.

-In 1997, the division's productions credited them as their parent studio Hanna-Barbera.

-In 1999, Cartoon Network Studios acquired its own facility located at 300 N 3rd St in Burbank, California. The site was the location of a telephone communications equipment building.

 

This photograph is the last all-studio portrait taken at Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. Time Warner had bought Turner Broadcasting (owner of HB) and folded the studio into Warner Bros. Animation. WBA chief Jean MacCurdy made the decision to fold HB.  Cartoon Network Studios was then revived as a separate entity from Hanna-Barbera, growing out of the animation studio.

 

Cartoon Network Studios has continued to steadily grow with productions such as Samurai Jack and newer productions such as Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Uncle Grandpa. Some of Cartoon Network Studios' former programming now rerun on Cartoon Network's sister channel, Boomerang.

 

Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe is a British animation studio based in London.  It is the European equivalent to Cartoon Network Studios,

It was founded in early 2007 and is owned by Turner Broadcasting System Europe.

 

 

During the presentation I also talked abou Matt Forsythe (Lead designer for Adventure Time)  and his talk in Creative Networks, and how he talked about the producers in Cartoon Network being really hands off with the creative processes.
I also mentioned that I stalk and worship all these CN creatives on social media (people like JQ Quintel, Pen Ward, Mike Roth, Rebecca Sugar) and my tutor adviced me to try an contact them. I intend to do that in the near future!

Who am I now?

What have I learned so far
Throughout the first academic year I have learned a lot! The highlight of the year was making a show reel of my work, this allowed me to go through everything I made during the year and realize how much I have improved. I've managed to learn and achieve more than I've set out to, looking back on my first blog post in PPP. I have managed to grasp the basics of 3d modelling and animating (which I did not think I could do), I have improved my drawing skills a lot and feel even more confident with 2d animation and digital drawing. Also, in the beginning of first year I have struggled with creativity and generating ideas, however I do not have a problem with that now (which is a big win for me), along side that I have learned how important it is to research what ever you are doing, document the creative process so you can reflect on it later, these things helped me improve immensely as a practitioner. Another thing I have learned is how to do presentations and speak out. All the crit sessions and presentations we had to do made me a lot more confident in interacting with people and just speaking my mind, I don't feel that the language barrier is holding me down as much now.
What do I want to learn more about
So far I would like to learn more about 3d animation. I don't particularly enjoy it, but I know I need it as there is a growing need for 3d animators in the industry. The way I think about it is 2d and 3d animation is different in the way that 2d is drawing and 3d is sculpting, both of them demand different logic when it come to problem solving. Another thing I would love to learn more about is character design. During our recent lecture about character and short story design I realized how little I really know about it. I do not feel like we had a chance to create a character during the first year as we do now with the Character and Narrative module. Along side that I would like to learn more about storytelling and how translate a story to the screen. The recent Cop lectures got me interested in the theoretical side of animation practice as well, so I would love to learn more about how to research, reflect and evaluate as I have been way too focused on the practical side of everything so far. And the other thing I want to learn more about is how to start positioning myself within the industry, like how to get my work out there, branding myself and just start getting experience out side of the college.
What are my strengths
My strengths have not changed that much since the first year, which I think is good, because I don't like jumping from direction to another. I feel like 2d animation is still one of my strong-suits, I love analyzing movement and translating it to animation. Working with computers is another thing I enjoy and I am fairly good at. However drawing by hand is one of the things that I feel most confident about and I would like to improve it even further. I also feel like I am really good in time management and organizing my work. Throughout the first year I have managed to successfully balance between college and a part time job, I am really proud that I became so independent both financially and mentally, I might have less time to do my homework but I have learned how to do it without leaving everything to the last second which comes in really handy when meeting deadlines and working within certain time tables.
What I need to Improve
I really feel like I should take my strengths and improve them further. Draw more and quicker, more sketches, more design ideas, more animating, more working with computers and more pressure to meet deadlines, so I learn how to be more efficient with my time and work. As the lecturer said during the research and epistemology lecture- fail harder and fail quicker, so there is more time to improve. I want to get used to working under pressure and how to meet higher expectations, because I know that so far I can crack easily when it comes to those things.
Practitioners that demonstrate my interest in animation
Andrea Femerstrand also knows as Noukah, character designer, illustrator and concept artist. I love how every character she draws has so much life and personality in it. Her work is really bright and dynamic. She also does drawing tutorials and they are really benefitial-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JU6CWUnll4

 http://noukah.blogspot.co.uk/

Robertas Nevecka Lithuanian illustrator and animator. Even though he is from the same small town as I am (Klaipeda) where everyone knows everyone, I have never met him personally but it is really inspirational to me that I share a similar background to such an artist. In an ideal world I would actually love to collaborate with him. But for now here is some of his work-

http://robertasnevecka.com/

Tadas Vidmantas another Lithuanian practitioner whose work I follow. He is mainly based in London now but quite a lot of his work is still for Lithuanian television and media. Animation wise his work field is quite narrow and the animations them salves aren't anything special, but the reason I love his short films is often times they are funny in an ironic way and the characters are easy to relate.

http://tadasvidmantas.com/

Chris Sasaki, I have started following his work since his visit in uni. I like how he talked about research being 90% percent of any project, and I think I could use that more in my practice. His website provides a lot of insight into his projects, for instance his character design work for Inside Out. 

http://www.csasaki.com/film/

James Roper artist from Manchester. "My work explores a variety of subjects from the heightened realities depicted in Baroque art and modern media to the restraint and release of energy found within complex structures such as the human body. I work in various mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture and film."I love his work because it heightens your senses, it is pleasurable to look at and there is also this weir aesthetic in the chaos he creates. 

http://jroper.co.uk/film/outside/index.html

 Websites and online resources that demonstrate my interest within the industry

Behance

Tumblr

11Second Club

Animation Physics

Cartoo Brew

Motionographer

Animated Self: Final Animation

Okay so I animated everything on Flash and stayed in my comfort zone with this one. I encountered a problem while exporting the video though. As most of the motions where made as symbols, the symbols would move after exporting it, so I had to go through the animation and redo it in a way. I had to reverse back from symbols to normal frames and in order for the effects to apply, I needed convert on the actual last frame of the motion to make it blur out. It was minor problem and I sorted it out pretty quickly, but it made me reconsider the way i do animation with Flash for next time, because if it were a more complicated animation it might have caused some major problems. Otherwise I really enjoyed animating this piece. Just working out the path of a motion and where to put in more frames, and where to take some frames out. Also I made it 24fps so its more smooth.
So yeah, Im really happy with the end result, and here it is for you to check it out-

Creating a Business Plan

Well I blogged recently about the scene from the series of Silicon Valley, where the main character is asked to make a business plan for his start up company and he ends up reading what to do on Wikipedia. And basically looking like this-

 So now I know that I will not be in his shoes if that happens to me.
Recently I attended a seminar on how to make a business plan. I figured that one day I might want to open my own animation studio, so there is no harm in looking into how and where to start.
What I learned from it is basically what you should do if you want to start a business and what a business plan looks like. Basically it has to have the concept and idea of the company, where you want to go with that, a clear vision for it, what products you might make, a marketing strategy with research into the demographic of potential consumers or clients-

Also it has to have a budget plan, for instance how much money do you need to start, where are you going to get it from, how much time will it take to turn in profit. It is very normal to have another job if you are trying to start a company, because you need income from somewhere and most businesses don't turn in profit for the first 5 years. Basically you need to consider everything when you are making a business plan, if you don't, you wont get serious investors and you wont really get anywhere. But its not like you make the plan ant thats it, the plan is basically a guideline and it is really handy, but it is good to mend and adjust it once in while. for instance you set out your short term and long term goals, if you see that they are not achievable you might want to lower the bar a bit, or maybe the business pivot into something else, like Instagram.
Also I learned that when you own your own business its best to declare that you get a minimum salary and pay the rest out in dividends. The lady that was delivering the lecture stressed it that if you don't understand something, delegate it to others. Its better to just hire a good accountant, because it will save you a lot more money in the first place, where as you trying to do it yourself and ending up making expensive mistakes. So it is important to learn how to delegate work to others, because it just makes your life so much easier.
Also, do not be afraid to make mistakes. Even if your first company shuts down,  you learn something from it and you apply it to the next one.
So in general, it was a very beneficial lecture and it really made me think about my future in this profession that I have chosen.

Creative Networks And Matt Forsythe

Ever heard of Adveture Time?
If no, then watch it. If yes, the boy do I have stuff to tell you. Matt Forsythe the lead designer of Adveture Time delivered a lecture during a Creative Networks event, and I am so glad I attended it!!!
Basically, he talked about the process of creating an episode of Adveture Time and the different stages they have to go through, he also talked about his professional background, how he got where he got.

What I got from it is- keep drawing!!
Matt talked about how he never really attended any art school, but he learned to draw himself. And the point he made was, does not matter if you attend a college or not, its all about enjoying what you do and keep doing it. The best way to learn is on your own and from your own mistakes.
He also mentioned how important it is to put your work out there, how you can get recognised if you use all sorts of different networking platforms to get your work out there.
The other thing I learned was, it is important to be flexible. Learn as much as you can so you can be as versatile as possible, then more people will hire you to do stuff for them.
Then he went on talking about making Adventure Time, which was really interesting. He talked about how design is important in the episodes, to maintain a consistency throughout the episodes in order to successfully create the world of OOO mwhich the character of Adventure Time live in, and make it more convincing. They pay so much attention to details, for intense what kind of shape the drops from the sink should be, or how a feather should be tucked into a hat. Even though the narrative of the series is hard to understand, but the design of everything has to make sense, why is it the way it is.

He also mentioned that the series is storyboard driven, whereas the series like Family Guy are script driven. The story board for Adventure Time is the key  piece to every episode. Basically the story board artist makes the storyboard according to the script, then the team revises it, asks him to change or mend some parts of it, or expand on some scenes, then its handed over to the design team and for a very long time, they work out all the details in there. AND THEN---

KOREA HAPPENS

Basically when they finish a detailed story board they send it to Korea, and it is animated there.
Then Matt talked about what its like working in a Cartoon Network studio. He said that the producer weren't very hand on, so the show was basically relying on the creative team. Since the series was doing really well the studio just encouraged the team to keep doing what ever they were doing even if it brought the show to a verge of not being a kids show anymore. But I guess that is what made the series so successful , it was appealing to a wide range of audiences, from kids to adults.
He also talked about the merchandise of the series, basically when Adventure Time became popular, the first toys and stuff like that of the main characters came out, the design team decided to mend the character ever so slightly, jut to make them more adaptable for the merchandise.
SO yeah this was one of the most interesting lectures this year!!

Animated Self: Research and Storyboarding

So after endless hours of watching both contemporary and classical ballet performances (which I honestly enjoyed) especially this one

 I started looking into the human anatomy and our muscles work. And applying that knowledge to ballet movements Here are some sketches-

And then further exploring some basic ballet poses and moves-

So afterwards I used these sketches as a blueprint for the storyboard. Basically I picked out my favourite poses and decided to animate them. As I was creating a storyboard I decided to pick out a soundtrack for the animation to liven it up. I picked Black Mambo by Glass Animals because it had that creepy, mystical vibe to it, that I simply adored in Sonya Tayehs choreography.
So I built the animation around the soundtrack from then on out, which you can see in the notes of the storyboard-

And finally, all thats left is the most exciting part-animating!

Animated Self: Idea Generation

We were briefed on the final task for PPP and it was to create an animated self. It could be as abstract as you like, or it can focus on skills that you want to improve on or try and work on specific aspects of animation that you wish to specialize in.
So without giving it a lot of thought, I decided that with this project I want to mainly focus on animating and working out how to draw movement.
I tried thinking of other things I love besides drawing, and the first one that came to my mind was dancing. In one of my first blog posts i talked about how much Thoughts Of You by Ryan Woodward inspired me, how much I love Sonya Tayah dark and twisted choreography, and how I wish I could create an animation based on those things. So this is the perfect brief to do so.
I did not do a lot of idea generating, because I wanted to start animating as soon as possible, so I sped up the pre-production stages. I took the first idea that came to me and stuck with it. I wanted to focus on the dynamics of a ballet dancer, but since I am not a choreographer I decided to use the basic ballet positions and moves, and intertwining them in an abstract way, avoiding making actual choreography.

Unsupervised

Unsupervised is an American animated sitcom which ran on FX from January 19, 2012 to December 20, 2012. The show was created and, for the most part, written by David Hornsby, Scott Marder, and Rob Rosell. On March 30, 2012, Unsupervised was renewed for a second season.However, on November 17, 2012, Glenn Howerton said via Twitter that the show would not return. A later message stated that three new episodes produced for the first season would air on December 6, 13, and 20 and would serve as the end of the series.
The series follows two 15-year-old best friends, Gary and Joel, as they try to navigate through teenage life, while also trying to do the right thing without the help of any parental supervision.

Bojack Horseman

BoJack Horseman is an American animated sitcom created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. The series stars Will Arnett as the eponymous character, BoJack Horseman. The supporting cast includes Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, and Aaron Paul. The series' first season premiered on August 22, 2014, on Netflix, with a surprise Christmas special premiering on December 19. The show is designed by the cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt, who had previously worked with Bob-Waksberg on the webcomic Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out.
Despite mixed critical reviews, the show proved to be successful with viewers. Less than a week after its initial release, Netflix renewed the series for a second season set to commence production in 2015.
In a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live side by side, BoJack Horseman, the washed-up star of the 1990s sitcom Horsin' Around, plans his big return to celebrity relevance with a tell-all biography that he dictates to his ghostwriter Diane Nguyen. BoJack also has to contend with the demands of his agent and on-again-off-again girlfriend Princess Carolyn, his freeloading roommate Todd Chavez, and his frenemy Mr. Peanutbutter.

Celebrity Deathmatch

Celebrity Deathmatch is a claymation television show that depicted celebrities against each other in a wrestling ring, almost always ending in the loser's gruesome death. It was known for its various power-ups, all amounts of weapons, and excessive amounts of blood used in every match and exaggerated physical injuries (e.g., one person cuts off a participant's foot, living through decapitations, impalement, etc.).
The series was created by Eric Fogel, with the pilots airing on MTV on January 1 and 25 1998. The initial series ran from May 14, 1998 to October 20, 2002, and lasted for a 75-episode run. There was one special that did not contribute to the final episode total, entitled "Celebrity Deathmatch Hits Germany", which aired on June 21, 2001. Professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin gave voice to his animated form as the guest commentator. Early in 2003, a film based on the series was announced by MTV to be in the making, but the project was canceled by the end of that year.
In 2005, MTV2 announced the revival of the show as part of their "Sic 'Em Friday" programming block. Originally set to return in November 2005, the premiere was pushed back to June 10, 2006 as part of a new "Sic'emation" block with two other animated shows, Where My Dogs At and The Adventures of Chico and Guapo. The show's fifth season was produced by Cuppa Coffee Studios and the premiere drew over 2.5 million viewers, becoming MTV2's highest rated season premiere ever. It was canceled again in 2007.
In April 2015, MTV2 announced a reboot of the show.
Celebrity Deathmatch started on MTV's Cartoon Sushi as a short that featured convicted murderer Charles Manson and shock rocker Marilyn Manson fighting to the death. Deathmatch was brought back in 1998 for MTV's Super Bowl XXXII halftime special. Just three months later, Celebrity Deathmatch had entered MTV's main lineup. The show was popular enough for show creator Eric Fogel to be named one of the most creative people in the TV industry by Entertainment Weekly.
During the next four seasons, Celebrity Deathmatch became more popular in other countries and gained viewers from all over the world, but four seasons and 75 episodes later in 2002, MTV decided to cancel the show.
New episodes of the show, which began production in 2005, were produced by Cuppa Coffee Studio as opposed to MTV's now-defunct animation department. The show featured an all-new voice cast and a new look. Johnny, Nick, and Mills Lane returned, albeit with new voices. Mills Lane, who used to be played by himself, was played by Chris Edgerly due to the real Mills Lane's 2002 stroke. Debbie Matenopoulos was replaced by Tally Wong. Eric Fogel chose not to get very involved with the new seasons due to his involvement on his show Starveillance for the E! network. The show was directed by Jack Fletcher and Dave "Canadian" Thomas. During the 2006 season, fans were able to vote on MTV2.com for future matches by choosing one of three matches and by sending a write-in request. However, due to the second cancellation of the show, these matches would not come to fruition.

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. The show originally aired on the AMC network for five seasons, from January 20, 2008, to September 29, 2013. It tells the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, who, together with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), turns to a life of crime, producing and selling crystallized methamphetamine to secure his family's financial future before he dies. The title is from a Southern colloquialism meaning to "raise hell". Breaking Bad is set and was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Walter's family consists of his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and children, Walter, Jr. a.k.a. Flynn (RJ Mitte) and Holly (Elanor Anne Wenrich). The show also features Skyler's sister Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt), and her husband Hank (Dean Norris), a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. Walter hires lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), who connects him with private investigator and fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and in turn Mike's employer, drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). The final season introduces the characters of Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Laura Fraser).
Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time. By the time the series finale aired, the series was among the most-watched cable shows on American television. The show received numerous awards, including sixteen Primetime Emmy Awards, eight Satellite Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Peabody Awards and a People's Choice Award. For his leading performance, Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times. In 2013, Breaking Bad entered the Guinness World Records as the highest rated show of all time.
Breaking Bad has received widespread critical acclaim and has been praised by many critics as one of the greatest television shows of all time.On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the first season scored 74 out of 100,he second season scored 85 out of 100,he third season scored 89 out of 100, the fourth season scored 96 out of 100, and the fifth season scored 99 out of 100.The American Film Institute listed Breaking Bad as one of the top ten television series of 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.By its end, the series was among the most-watched cable shows on American television, with audience numbers doubling from the fourth season to the fifth.

For the first season, the series saw a mostly positive reception. New York Post critic Linda Stasi praised the series, particularly the acting of Cranston and Paul, stating "Cranston and Paul are so good, it's astounding. I'd say the two have created great chemistry, but I'm ashamed to say such a cheap thing."Robert Bianco of USA Today also praised Cranston and Paul, exclaiming "There is humor in the show, mostly in Walt's efforts to impose scholarly logic on the business and on his idiot apprentice, a role Paul plays very well. But even their scenes lean toward the suspenseful, as the duo learns that killing someone, even in self-defense, is ugly, messy work."
The second season saw critical acclaim. Entertainment Weekly critic Ken Tucker stated "Bad is a superlatively fresh metaphor for a middle-age crisis: It took cancer and lawbreaking to jolt Walt out of his suburban stupor, to experience life again—to take chances, risk danger, do things he didn't think himself capable of doing. None of this would work, of course, without Emmy winner Cranston's ferocious, funny selflessness as an actor. For all its bleakness and darkness, there's a glowing exhilaration about this series: It's a feel-good show about feeling really bad."San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman claimed "The first three episodes of Season 2 that AMC sent out continue that level of achievement with no evident missteps. In fact, it looks as if Gilligan's bold vision for Breaking Bad, now duly rewarded against all odds, has invigorated everyone involved in the project. You can sense its maturity and rising ambition in each episode."Horror novelist Stephen King lauded the series, comparing it to the likes of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet.
From left to right: Josh Sapan (AMC president and CEO), Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman), Vince Gilligan (creator), Bryan Cranston (Walter White) and Charlie Collier (President, general manager)
The third season also saw critical acclaim. Time proclaimed "It's a drama that has chosen the slow burn over the flashy explosion, and it's all the hotter for that choice." Newsday stated Breaking Bad was still TV's best series and it stayed true to itself. Tim Goodman praised the writing, acting, and cinematography, pointing out the "visual adventurousness" of the series. Goodman went on to call the show's visuals "a combination of staggering beauty – the directors make use of numerous wide-angle landscape portraits – and transfixing weirdness."After the finale aired, The A.V. Club said that season three was "one of television's finest dramatic accomplishments. And what makes it so exciting – what makes the recognition of the current golden age so pressing – is that the season has not been, as [another reviewer] put it in another context, 'television good.' The heart-in-the-throat quality of this season comes as much from the writers' exhilarating disregard for television conventions as from the events portrayed."
Season four won universal critical acclaim. The Boston Globe referred to the show as a "taut exercise in withheld disaster" and declared the show "riveting". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette labelled the series "smart and thought provoking that elevates the artistic achievements of the medium". Season four was listed by many critics as one of the best seasons of television in 2011.Time listed Walter White's "I am the one who knocks" line as one of the best television lines of 2011. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette listed it as the best series of 2011 while noting that, "Breaking Bad is that rare TV series that has never made a seriously damaging storytelling misstep." The A.V. Club's review of the finale summed it up as a "fantastically fitting end for a season that ran in slow motion, starting and continuing with so many crises begging for resolution week after week. Now the decks are cleared, but that doesn't mean anybody is home free. Nothing's ever easy on Breaking Bad." The reviewer continued to exalt the season, and proclaimed, "What a season of television – truly something none of us could ever have expected, or claimed we deserved."

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by non-linear storylines, satirical subject matter, and an aestheticization of violence, as well as features of neo-noir film and spaghetti Westerns.
Tarantino grew up an obsessed film fan and worked at Video Archives, a video rental store while training to act. His career began in the late 1980s, when he wrote and directed My Best Friend's Birthday, the screenplay of which formed the basis for True Romance. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992; regarded as a classic and cult hit, it was called the "Greatest Independent Film of All Time" by Empire. Its popularity was boosted by the release in 1994 of his second film, Pulp Fiction,

 a neo-noir crime film that became a major critical and commercial success and judged the greatest film of the past 25 years (1983-2008) by Entertainment Weekly. Paying homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, Tarantino released Jackie Brown in 1997, an adaptation of the novel Rum Punch.
Kill Bill, a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Japanese martial arts, spaghetti westerns and Italian horror, followed six years later, and was released as two films: Vol. 1 in 2003, and Vol. 2 in 2004. Tarantino directed Death Proof (2007) as part of a double feature with friend Robert Rodriguez, under the collective title Grindhouse. His long-postponed Inglourious Basterds,

which tells the fictional alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's political leadership, was released in 2009 to positive reviews. His most recent work is 2012's critically acclaimed Django Unchained,

 a western film set in the antebellum era of the Deep South. It became the highest-grossing film of his career so far, making over $425 million at the box office.
Tarantino's films have garnered both critical and commercial success. He has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and the Palme d'Or, and has been nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time in 2005,and filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him "the single most influential director of his generation".
Tarantino does not believe that violence in movies inspires acts of violence in real life. In an interview after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, he expressed "annoyance" at the suggestion that there is a link between the two, saying, "I think it's disrespectful to [the] memory of those who died to talk about movies. ... Obviously the issue [here] is gun control and mental health." When asked in 2013 by Britain's Channel 4 News reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, "Why are you so sure that there's no link between enjoying movie violence and enjoying real violence?", Tarantino responded by saying, "I have explained [my view on this] many times over the last 20 years, I just refuse to repeat myself over and over again."

Effective Presentations

We had a lecture about how to prepare for and deliver an effective presentation.
The key points to a good presentation would be, to avoid using a lot of text. The reason for this is that when you are delivering a presentation, you are supposed to guide people trough your thoughts, pitch or information. The audience will not be compelled by an overwhelming amount of text in front of them. Try using imagery instead. A visual stimulus is more effective than a chunk of text anytime. In a nutshell keep it short and to the point.
Another key point to an effective presentation would be- be prepared. Always have notes for what you will be speaking about, test the equipment and the software before hand to ensure that no unpredicted problems come up. Also try and rehears what you want to say. For some, articulating their thoughts is harder then for others, therefor some practice can only be beneficial.
A third tip would be-

• AVOID USING BULLET POINTS
• BECAUSE ITS ANNOYING
• AND DONT USE CLIP ART

Also, use appropriate tone. Pitching an idea to fellow students or peers would allow you to use a more casual tone, whereas pitching to investors or company employees will require a more serious and appropriate tone.

So these are the main things that I've learned about how to successfully give a presentation.

 

Writing An Evaluation

In our daily lives, we are continually evaluating objects, people, and ideas in our immediate environments. We pass judgments in conversation, while reading, while shopping, while eating, and while watching television or movies, often being unaware that we are doing so. Evaluation is an equally fundamental writing process, and writing assignments frequently ask us to make and defend value judgments.
Evaluation is an important step in almost any writing process, since we are constantly making value judgments as we write. When we write an "academic evaluation," however, this type of value judgment is the focus of our writing.
The criteria of an effective evaluation would be:

• Self-questioning, an ‘internal dialogue’, deliberating between different views of ones own behaviour
• Take into account the views of others and weigh these against own judgements.
• Recognise how prior experience, can interact with the development of own behaviour.
• Clear evidence of being able to stand back from the experience, in order to evaluate it.
• Evidence of learning from the experience.
• Recognition of a personal frame of reference can change with the reception of new information and the effect of time passing.
• An ability to review ideas.

The Hard Times of RJ Berger

The Hard Times of RJ Berger is an American television comedy series created by David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith for MTV. The show's central character is RJ Berger (Paul Iacono) an unpopular sophomore at the fictional Pinkerton High School in Ohio who has an exceptionally large penis. Berger's two best friends are Miles Jenner (Jareb Dauplaise), whose ambitions for popularity cause him to clash with Berger, and goth girl Lily Miran (Kara Taitz), who has been lusting after Berger for several years. Berger's love interest is Jenny Swanson (Amber Lancaster), a cheerleader who is involved with Max Owens (Jayson Blair), a popular jock and bully. The show is presented as a coming of age story and has been described by Katzenberg and Grahame-Smith as a blend of the television series The Wonder Years and the film Superbad.
The Hard Times of RJ Berger was described—by its creators and critics alike—as a cross between the teen-oriented television comedy-drama The Wonder Years (1988–1993) and the comedy film Superbad (2007). Brian Lowry of Variety wrote that beyond the crass concept, the show is otherwise "a fairly standard high school-outcast tale", adding that fortunately for MTV "the show's derivative nature will be lost on a target audience barely in diapers during the initial run of 'Wonder Years'.
Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "[a]side from a few novel details, MTV's latest is a by-the-book geek sex comedy for the Apatow Generation. In other words, a likely hit." Barry Garron of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "even with its abundance of stereotypical characters", The Hard Times of RJ Berger "is endearing and relatable to its target demo[graphic]" and drew parallels between its characters and those of the sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Willa Paskin of New York magazine thought that the show's premise was faulty, noting that an enormous penis is unlikely to have much effect on your social life in high school.
In regards to the content of the series, Grahame-Smith said that "it’s an elevated, comedic world that this kid [RJ Berger] lives in, and he’s surrounded by these absurd characters. He’s surrounded by these archetypes, and he’s the one semi-centered character in the middle of it all. I feel like, the more absurd that you are, the more you have to ground some things in reality. You have to earn that absurdity. Even though our show has one animated segment in every episode, even the live-action is like a cartoon, just with the way people carry on.

MØ

Karen Marie Ørsted (born 13 August 1988), better known by her stage name MØ (pronounced: Moe), is a Danish singer and songwriter signed to Sony Music Entertainment. Born in Odense, MØ has been compared to electropop artists such as Grimes and Twin Shadow. Besides being an acronym for her middle and last initials, the word mø means "maiden" or "virgin" in Danish. In November 2014, she won four awards at Danish Music Awards: "Breakthrough Artist of the year", "Record of the Year", "Solo Artist of the Year" and "Music Video of the Year". Her debut album, No Mythologies to Follow, was released in 2014. She made her mainstream debut in November 2014 featuring on Iggy Azalea's song "Beg for It". The song peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 at No. 27, giving MØ not only her first top-forty hit, but also her first ever entry on the chart . MØ featured on Major Lazer's internationally successful single "Lean On", which peaked at number one in Australia and in the top-ten in additional sixteen countries including New Zealand and France.
MØ's music has been described as "electro music with guts". Her work has been compared to various artists, including Siouxsie Sioux and Janet Jackson.
MØ was seven when she became interested in music thanks to the Spice Girls. As a teenager, she became interested in punk music and anti-fascist movements, listening to Black Flag, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and especially Sonic Youth, saying she looked up to Kim Gordon as a "big hero and role model".
I really love her album No Mythologies To Follow because all of the tracks set different moods, yet its consistant in this interesting mystic sound. Her music inspires me and infuses my mind with a bunch of diffrent ideas when ever I listen to it. I really hope to do animation with her music as the soundtrack some day.

Sillicon Valley

Silicon Valley is an American television sitcom created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. The series focuses on six young men who found a startup company in Silicon Valley. The series premiered on April 6, 2014, on HBO. The first season consisted of eight episodes. HBO renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on April 12, 2015. On April 13, 2015, HBO renewed Silicon Valley for a third season.

After Mike Judge graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in physics, his first job was as a programmer working on the F/A-18 fighter plane. In 1987 he moved to the Silicon Valley region of Northern California and joined Parallax, a startup company with about 40 employees. Judge disliked the company's culture and his colleagues ("The people I met were like Stepford Wives. They were true believers in something, and I don't know what it was") and quit after less than three months, but the experience gave him the background to later create a show about the region's people and companies. He recollects also how startup companies pitched to him to make a Flash-based animation in the past as material for the first episode: "It was one person after another going, 'In two years, you will not own a TV set!' I had a meeting that was like a gathering of acolytes around a cult leader. 'Has he met Bill?' 'Oh, I'm the VP and I only get to see Bill once a month.' And then another guy chimed in, 'For 10 minutes, but the 10 minutes is amazing!'"
Filming for the pilot of Silicon Valley began on March 12, 2013, in Palo Alto, California. HBO green-lit the series on May 16, 2013.
Christopher Evan Welch, who plays billionaire Peter Gregory, died in December 2013 of lung cancer, having finished his scenes for the first five episodes. The production team decided against recasting the role and reshooting his scenes; on his passing, Judge commented: "The brilliance of Chris' performance is irreplaceable, and inspired us in our writing of the series." He went on to say, "The entire ordeal was heartbreaking. But we are incredibly grateful to have worked with him in the brief time we had together. Our show and our lives are vastly richer for his having been in them." In the eighth episode, a memoriam is made in his honor at the end of the credits roll. The character of Peter Gregory was not killed off or removed until the premiere of Season 2.
The show refers to a metric in comparing the compression rates of applications called the Weissman score, which did not exist before the show's run. It was created by Stanford Professor Tsachy Weissman and graduate student Vinith Misra at the request of the show's producers.
I love this show because it is brilliantly written, you never know what is going to happen next. The characters are likable and relatable. For instance when the main character Richard is asked to make a business plan, he ends up googling "business plan" I thought that honestly, I would do the same.
The shows sense of humor is amazing, I rarely find shows that make me actually lough out loud, but this series is one of them
So if you haven't seen it, watch it!!

Rockstar games

Rockstar Games is a multinational video game developer and publisher based in New York City, owned by Take-Two Interactive following its purchase of British video game publisher BMG Interactive. The publisher is known for the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, L.A. Noire, The Warriors, Bully, Manhunt, Midnight Club and Red Dead games, as well as the use of open world, free roaming settings in their games. It comprises studios that have been acquired and renamed as well as others that have been created internally. While many of the studios Take-Two Interactive has acquired have been merged into the Rockstar brand, several other recent ones have retained their previous identities and have become part of the company's 2K Games division. The Rockstar Games label was founded in New York City in 1998 by the British video game producers Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Jamie King and Gary Foreman.
The main headquarters of Rockstar Games (commonly referred to as Rockstar NYC) is located on Broadway in the SoHo neighbourhood of New York City, part of the Take-Two Interactive offices. It is home to the marketing, public relations and product development departments.
As of February 2014, Rockstar Games titles have shipped more than 250 million copies, the largest franchise being the Grand Theft Auto series which alone has shipments of at least 157.5 million. In March 2014, Rockstar Games received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award at the British Academy Video Games Awards.
In October 2011, Rockstar creative vice-president Dan Houser told Famitsu that Rockstar was intentionally avoiding developing in the first-person shooter genre. "We're deliberately avoiding that right now", he said, according to a 1UP.com translation. "It's in our DNA to avoid doing what other companies are doing. I suppose you could say that Max Payne 3 is something close to an FPS, but there are really unique aspects to the setting and gameplay there, too, not just in the story. You have to have originality in your games; you have to have some kind of interesting message. You could say that the goalpoint of Rockstar is to have the players really feel what we're trying to do". Houser went on to say that Rockstar has "made new genres by ourselves with games like the GTA series. We didn't rely on testimonials in a business textbook to do what we've done. I think we succeeded precisely because we didn't concentrate on profit... If we make the sort of games we want to play, then we believe people are going to buy them.

Ever since 2001, the Grand Theft Auto series has been a major success, both critically and financially. It has generated perfect or near perfect reviews and scores on almost all of the games, and has sold over 150 million copies worldwide, as of September 2013. The Times Online reported that Grand Theft Auto IV recorded 609,000 copies in the UK on its first day of release. In its first week, Grand Theft Auto IV sold approximately 6 million copies worldwide and grossed over $500 million.
In 2006, Grand Theft Auto was voted one of Britain's top 10 designs among Concorde, Red Telephone Boxes, Catseyes, The Underground, Mini, Tomb Raider and the World Wide Web.
The series has broken several records, resulting in Guinness World Records awarding the series 10 world records in the Gamer's Edition 2008. These records include Most Guest Stars in a Video Game Series, Largest Voice Cast in a Video Game (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas), Largest In-Game Soundtrack (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) as well as Most Successful Entertainment Launch of All Time (Grand Theft Auto V). Guinness World Records also ranked Grand Theft Auto in third place on their list of top 50 console games of all time based on initial impact and lasting legacy. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is listed as the most successful game on the PlayStation 2 according to The Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition.
Grand Theft Auto III, San Andreas and Vice City currently lie at the 2nd, 5th and 6th highest rated PlayStation 2 games on Metacritic, respectively, while Chinatown Wars is rated the best game on the Nintendo DS and the second best on the PlayStation Portable, and Grand Theft Auto IV is currently rated the second best game ever, with a score of 98, only trailing behind The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Also, Vice City, Grand Theft Auto III, San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto IV lie at 11th, 24th, 27th and 93rd best PC games of all time, on Metacritic. Along with this, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony are currently placed 35th and 59th in the top Xbox 360 games.

Casino 1995

Casino is a 1995 American crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. The two previously collaborated on the hit film Goodfellas (1990).
The film marks the eighth collaboration between director Scorsese and Robert De Niro, following Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), Goodfellas (1990), and Cape Fear (1991).
In Casino, De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a Jewish American top gambling handicapper who is called by the Italian Mob to oversee the day-to-day operations at the fictional Tangiers casino in Las Vegas. His character is based on Frank Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit, from the 1970s until the early 1980s.[citation needed]
Joe Pesci plays Nicky Santoro, based on real-life Mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro. A made man, Nicky is sent to Vegas to make sure money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top and the mobsters in Vegas are kept in line. Sharon Stone plays Ginger McKenna, Ace's wife, based on Geri McGee, a role that earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.Of all the bravura visual effects in Martin Scorsese's dazzlingly stylish "Casino," it's a glimpse of ordinary people that delivers the greatest jolt. Strategically timed to offset three hours' worth of vintage Las Vegas glitter, it's a reminder that Mr. Scorsese has given this film's setting the surreal and breathtaking intensity of a money-mad mirage. The real world looks shockingly impoverished by comparison.
With its rivers of cash and mountains of neon, its high rollers and lowlife hoods, "Casino" luxuriantly explores the anatomy of America's gaudiest (and now most cinematically popular) playground. The place is quagmire enough for an epic morality play, but this film's tone is staunchly journalistic, as borne out by its matter-of-fact last words: "And that's that."
So "Casino," based on reportorial work by Nicholas Pileggi, comes equipped with the liabilities of investigative journalism: no conveniently sharp focus, a plot built like a centipede and characters with lives too messy to form conventional dramatic arcs. But the material unearthed by Mr. Pileggi also features truths much stranger than fiction, wildly histrionic showdowns, intricate mob trivia and people whose Faustian conniving and obsessive fury fit perfectly into the Scorsese canon. Mr. Scorsese has been here and done this already in "Goodfellas," but not with his new film's blistering bitterness or its peacock extravagance. The long, astonishing Copacabana sequence in "Goodfellas" was only a warm-up for this.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a 2015 spy action comedy film, directed by Matthew Vaughn, and based on the comic book The Secret Service, created by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar. The screenplay was written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman. The film stars Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Taron Egerton and Michael Caine. It follows the recruitment and training of a potential secret agent, Gary "Eggsy" Unwin, into a secret spy organisation. Eggsy joins a mission to tackle a global threat from Richmond Valentine, a wealthy eco-terrorist.
Vaughn’s spy spoof is a wildly energetic affair, inspired and misfiring by turns, which encompasses both scenes reminiscent of late period Roger Moore Bond films and moments that wouldn’t be out of place in some of Danny Dyer’s lesser lad movies.
The over-determined screenplay by Jane Goldman and Vaughn is based on the comic book The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. It is full of in-jokes and self-parodic references to everything from Austin Powers and Tarantino to John Le Carré. There is so much going on that whenever one scene falls flat, something livelier and more effective soon follows.
One of the film’s more confused elements is its attitude toward the British class system.  On the one hand, it celebrates the noblesse oblige of its well-spoken spy heroes in their Savile Row suits. On the other, it highlights their snobbery and secrecy. There is an irony (presumably intentional) in casting Michael Caine as the quintessential establishment figure who heads up a spy organisation comprised primarily of public school boy types. Faced with a potential new recruit, he reacts just as Margaret Thatcher might have done, asking “is he one of us.”

Persepolis

Persepolis is a 2007 French-Iranian-American animated film based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The film was written and directed by Satrapi with Vincent Paronnaud. The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The title is a reference to the historic city of Persepolis.
The film was co-winner of the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festivaland was released in France and Belgium on 27 June. In her acceptance speech, Satrapi said "Although this film is universal, I wish to dedicate the prize to all Iranians."The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Ratatouille.
The film was released in the United States on 25 December 2007 and in the United Kingdom on 24 April 2008.
The film has drawn complaints from the Iranian government. Even before its debut at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the government-connected organization Iran Farabi Foundation sent a letter to the French embassy in Tehran stating, "This year the Cannes Film Festival, in an unconventional and unsuitable act, has chosen a movie about Iran that has presented an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts" Despite such objections, the Iranian cultural authorities relented in February 2008 and allowed limited screenings of the film in Tehran, albeit with six scenes censored due to sexual content.
In June 2007 in Thailand, the film was dropped from the lineup of the Bangkok International Film Festival. Festival director Chattan Kunjara na Ayudhya stated, "I was invited by the Iranian embassy to discuss the matter and we both came to mutual agreement that it would be beneficial to both countries if the film was not shown" and "It is a good movie in artistic terms, but we have to consider other issues that might arise here."
Persepolis was initially banned in Lebanon after some clerics found it to be "offensive to Iran and Islam". The ban was later revoked after an outcry in Lebanese intellectual and political circles.ea
The reason I love this movie is that it is very nicely stylized. The lack of colors gives it a unique look which really helps in telling the story
The characters feel real and genuine, even though their lives and situations encountered are hardly relatable. But the animation and artistic solutions to al of the visual aspects in it are amazing.
It’s charming and somehow manages to feel like it’s not pulling any punches, including about the theocratic Iranian regime, while never feeling jaded. Characters and events may be comedic or tragic, but they’re always idiosyncratic.

Visiting Guest Chris Sasaki

Today we had a visiting guest Chris Sasaki, character designer from Pixar.
It was really interesting to hear the thought and work process of a character designer in professional practice. He talked us through his practice, how the studio works and what to bear in mind while we are still in college.
First of all, what l took from it is- research is very important!!!
Before you can actually start drawing a character, there is so much consideration to be taken place. When you thoroughly research the world you character will be taken place in, when you consider all the key characteristics of the character then you can start drawing. So in the design process research is vital. If we had three weeks to design the character, the whole time we should be researching, and leave drawing only for the last two or so days.
Another thing I took from it was- it is important to discover yourself. Chris said that this is the perfect time for us to take as much as we can aboard, learn to be flexible with our work but at the same time establishing our strengths and build our practice on that. For instance if I focus on character design I still need to work with other departments as well, so as too maintain consistency throughout the project. In order to establish an agreed understanding with others requires you to be flexible and being able to adapt as well as trying to communicate your ideas to others.
The other thing I learned was- crits are very important.
Basically the crit sessions we have in college will continue on in our working practice. It is important to learn how to give and receive critique. There always has to be an indication as to why the character, background or such is not working.
In general, this chat was really beneficial, because we got a glimpse into the animation industry, which personally gave me an understanding of what will be expected of me if I try and make it in the animation world.

Archer: be prepared for the DANGER ZONE

Archer is an American adult animated television series created by Adam Reed for the FX network.The inspiration for Archer came to Reed while in a cafe in Salamanca, Spain. Finding himself unable to approach a beautiful woman seated nearby, Reed conjured up the idea of a spy who "would have a perfect line".

The artistic style of the series was designed to be as realistic as possible, so the character designers used as much reference material as they could.The character drawings are based on Atlanta-area models; they coincidentally resemble some of the voice actors in the series. As Chad Hurd, the lead character designer for the series, noted, the end result resembles "a 1960s comic book come to life. Television critics have also compared the show's overall visual style to that of the drama series Mad Men, as well as noting that lead character Sterling Archer, in particular, bears a substantial resemblance to Mad Men's protagonist Don Draper. The artwork is also similar to the original Jonny Quest cartoon series penned by artist Doug Wildey in the 1960s.
Stylistically, the show is a mix of several different time periods; show creator Adam Reed described it as "intentionally ill-defined", noting that the show "cherry-pick[ed] the best and easiest from several decades". Numerous plot details arise from contemporary culture, such as affirmative action and sexual harassment complaints.

Archer is influenced by the early James Bond films, as well as OSS 117, The Man from U.N.C.L.E and The Pink Panther,and can be compared to Reed's former shows for Adult Swim, Frisky Dingo and Sealab 2021. Driven by rapid-fire dialogue and interaction-based drama, the series is "stuff[ed]...with pop-culture references"and features an anachronistic style, using fashion from the early 1960s, a mix of 1980s-era and modern technology and a political status quo in which "the Cold War never ended".

The reason I love this show is it has a very interesting visual style, reminds me of the Grand Thefts Auto posters, that are pretty realistic, yet has that artistic animation-like quality to it.

Also watching the series through the improvement in animation is very apparent- in the first series the characters were like paper cut-outs, very one dimensional, whereas in the more recent series they start having more angle to them and becoming more three dimensional. But the characters, how ever unrealistically animated, look very attractive and nice to look at. Also the sense of humor in this show is very original and fun to reference in real life.

Clarence

Clarence is an American animated television series created by Skyler Page for Cartoon Network. The series revolves around a young boy named Clarence, who is optimistic about everything, and his two best friends Jeff and Sumo. Page, a former storyboard artist for Adventure Time and revisionist for Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, developed the series at Cartoon Network Studios as part of their shorts development program in 2012.
Why I am obsessed with this series? Basically because it captivates the charm and wonders of a child-like imagination. Oftentimes when I watch it I think to myself- I used to do/think that too. Clarence taps into that childhood world no matter the dim everyday surroundings, he manages to be hyper enthusiastic about anything and everything. Even Walt Disney said "That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be twelve years old. They patronize; they treat children as inferiors". And I think you can see that in Clarence as well, his mother is completely ignorant to her sons imagination and fascination with the world. It makes you think how much more fascinated with the world we would be if we could tap into the same state of mind like a twelve-year old.
Well anyway, it's nicely animated, has great sense of humor and above all else is not empty in its content.