Kiwi (2006)- Dony Permedi (review)

This short animation was produced by a Master degree student. The Story of this animation is about a Kiwi who spends most of his life building something to fulfil his dream. The start of the animation reveal the main character, Kiwi, pulling a rope which is obviously tied to something heavy or hard because we the Kiwi struggling as it walk. It then manages to tie it and travel down the rope to a platform which is again noticeable somewhere high up as clouds are shown in the background, the Kiwi then nails something to the wall which is unclear at first but then we realise it is a tree being pin to the side of a cliff. Then there was a over shoulder view of the Kiwi looking down, and we see a lot of trees being pined to the side. The Kiwi then jumps around with happiness of seeing his work. He then puts his pilot hat on and looks and takes position to drive down the cliff. It then reveals that his aim was to pin the trees to the side of the wall so when it drives down it would seem as though he was flying. Although it was not revealed audience will assume that the Kiwi as sacrificed his life to fulfil his dream of flying.

I thought that this story was very sad but cute. The Kiwi worked so hard to fulfil his dream even if it meant losing his life, he was happy but sad. I thought that it was very smart of the director to reveal only a small part of the story at a time, giving the audience a lot of room to image what the real story was. I like the unique idea of pinning the tree to the cliff, to create the world vertically.

The Information above was partly gain from the following websites:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1051713/synopsis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs

He’s just not that into you (2009) - Ken Kwapis

“He’s just not that into you” is a complex story of many relationship problems which was adapted from the original book written by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo. Originally the book was inspired by an episode of “sex and the city.” This film has carefully blend in serious problems with comedy. It introduce each character with a different type of relationship problem and how they deal with it. The whole story revolves around the whole concept of “are you an exception? Or are you a rule” this concept is that someone around the world would have the same exact problem as you but they will be able to have an happy ending but you will not they will be the “ exception” and you will become the “rule”. This concept was discovered by an character from the movie “Gigi” a desperate young lady who wishes to find her other half believing that she will eventually meet someone who likes her but getting turn down time after time, she coincidently meets the manger of a pub who gives her dating advice, she then rely on his advice to enhance her dating skills, so that she does not waste time on guys who does not care or wish to have a serious relationship with her, towards end of the film she believed that the manager was giving her the signs that he likes her, so she throws her self at him which ends in another rejection. The film was produced so that each story would flow at the same speed, problems will occur during the similar time which then all get solved at the end.

I think that the story between ‘Beth’ and ‘Neil’ reminds me of ‘Sex and City Movie’, the story of the female wanting to get married and the male finding it not necessary, which becomes a problem and they split up thinking that’s the best way to solve it but in the end, they realise marriage isn’t the most important part of relationship and gets back together in the end. They realised that having each other is worth a lot more than a certificate is.

The Information above was partly gained from the following sites:
http://www.hesjustnotthatintoyoumovie.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He's_Just_Not_That_Into_You

Telling Lies - Simon Ellis (Review)

This clip was about phone conversation between the character ‘Philip’ and his friends and family, we are not shown images but words. Each person was represented by a different colour and the words was shown at different pace to reveal the persons attitude and personality, the size of the words also helped show the tone of the characters speech. Apart from imitating the speech in words the director also included the thoughts of the character which was shown in white text. This Idea reveals the fact that people often say one thing and mean another. This idea is amusing because usually one ‘s thoughts are the opposite of what they are really saying.

The director thought of this idea while sitting in a screening of a poorly subtitled Spanish film. He said that “ Simple spelling mistakes made serious scenes amusing.” he completed the whole idea of characters and colours just as the screening ended. He wrote the script the same evening he planned the idea. He used the Idea for 2 different commissions and was rejected by both followed by harsh comments but he made it anyways and it was one of the most successful short films he has made. He proudly says that the moral of this story is “if the funders say no, make it anyway.”

What I like about this work was that It was interested how just small details such as timing of the text and the colours can reflect a characters personality, I thought although this piece was a simple idea it is affective and it memorable, I was watching a few clips during the screening but I clearly remembered this one, because was unique.

You may watch the clip in the following Link, some information was also gain from this site.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A7079510

Tate Review

Christopher Richard Wynne - A starshell 1916

At first when I looked at this painting I thought it was a peaceful image, as it does not use too many colours which can be distracting, it uses warm light pastel colours for the star and dark contrasting colours for the rest of the image, which emphasis the star and its glowing shine. I think that the background where the image is set, isn’t very clear. At first sight I thought that the area closest to the audience was the sea but then I realised they are rocks.

The artist Christopher Richard Wynne intended this painting to represent how an explosion of a star shell can illuminate the surrounding like a bright star. We’re not certain but people believe that this piece was painted after he was too ill to continue in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

I quite like this painting because it makes me think of the North star, makes me feel that the star will guide me to a safer place, away from the dark lonely place. It also makes me feel that the are is peaceful as there is nothing disrupting in that image, and the main focus is the star.