The Kuleshov Effect
"Technique which demonstrates the inherent power of montage as a primary tool in the manipulation of the viewer's perception. According to Kuleshov, cinema consists of fragments and it is their combination rather than their content that is essential in evoking and triggering different emotions. His original experiment consists of using the same shot of the character's face, frozen in a neutral emotion while editing it next to different objects he appears to be glancing at: a girl in a coffin, a bowl of soup, and a woman. The audience interpreted the three situations as expressions of sadness, hunger and lust."
(Laura Minca)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Virtual girl called 'Sweetie' used to stop webcam child sex tourism
"To show how unrestrained child predators can act but also to show how easy it is to track them down the Dutch child rights organisation put itself in the shoes of a 10–year–old Filipino girl. With an innovative technology the virtual character Sweetie was created to be controlled by Terre des Hommes researchers. From a remote building in Amsterdam the researchers operated in public chat rooms. In a very short period, over 20,000 predators from around the world approached the virtual 10– year–old, asking for webcam sex performances. While the adults interacted with the virtual girl, the researchers gathered information about them through social media to uncover their identities. With this evidence Terre des Hommes Netherlands is pushing all governments to adopt proactive investigation policies, with a world wide petition, starting today."
(Hans Guyt, The Hague, 4 November 2013, Terre des Hommes)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Te Wei's Feelings of Mountains and Waters
"Shan shui qing ('Feelings of Mountains and Waters') finished production in 1988. This water/ink animation was Te Wei's [特伟] fourth and final major production, and is in many ways fittingly so. 'Feelings of Mountains and Waters' is a masterpiece. The film runs slightly under twenty minutes, moving the viewer through an emotional journey cleanly articulated by deep and vivid imagery, wrought with incredible artistic purity.
The film's subject is a young girl, whom ferrying an aging man across a river, generously nurses him to better health after witnessing him collapse on the shoreline. In 'Feelings of Mountains and Waters,' Te Wei uses earthy watercolors and craggy puffs of ink to maneuver hillsides, paths, valleys, and waterfalls. He uses the high–values where the ink ends and the paper begins not as an artifact of the landscape, but as the landscape itself. The watercolor paintings move and flourish, the water and ink are the animation; and the rosy–cheeked girl, through muted conversation with the humble old man, learns to play a plucked, string instrument under the quiet and almost sentient backdrop of the mountainous milieu.
Te Wei served as general director for 'Feelings of Mountains and Waters,' and retired after its completion, at the time well into his seventies. The film deservedly earned multiple awards, including high honors from international film festivals in Montreal and Shanghai. In 1995, the global professional animation community ASIFA honored Te Wei with a Lifetime Achievement Award."
(Aaron H. Bynum, 12th February 2010, p.3, Animation Insider)
CONTRIBUTOR
Guannan (cassie) DuSHARE
NeverSeconds blogger Martha Payne school dinner photo ban lifted
"A controversial ban preventing a nine–year–old girl from photographing her school meals has been lifted following a storm of protest on the internet. Martha Payne, from Argyll, has now recorded more than three million hits on her NeverSeconds blog. Argyll and Bute Council said press coverage of the blog had led catering staff to fear for their jobs. But council leader Roddy McCuish later told the BBC he had instructed senior officials to lift the ban immediately. The schoolgirl's father, David Payne, who helped her set up the blog, welcomed the decision. Martha began publishing photographs of her Lochgilphead Primary School lunches on 30 April. Martha Payne's father, David: ''It (the ban) was disappointing''. She gave each meal a 'food–o–meter' and health rating, and counted the number of mouthfuls it took her to eat it."
(BBC News, 15 June 2012)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Greek Crisis Explained: Nomint's animated trilogy
"The Greek Crisis explained in 3 episodes. We didn't want to have our hands tied when it came to Greek Financial Crisis. It was a joint decision to set them free, and this is what they came up with; the 'Greek Crisis Explained' Trilogy. This project was basically assigned by us to ourselves and our brief was happily clear–cut: 'Present our very own version of the Greek Crisis'. And the story goes like this; Greece, a young spoiled girl gets devoured by Dept [sic], a humongous monster. EU cannot help Greece out on its own. And when all hope is lost, IMF is brought into play..."
(Nomint)
Fig.1 "Greek Crisis Explained", CONCEPT / DIRECTION / DESIGN / ANIMATION / PRODUCTION: NOMINT nomint.gr/ Creative direction: Christos Lefakis, Yannis Konstantinidis, Direction / Story: Marilena Vatseri, Manos Gerogiannis, Christos Lefakis, Yannis Konstantinidis, Animation: Marilena Vatseri, Manos Gerogiannis, Christos Lefakis, Yannis Konstantinidis, Lead design: George Xanthos (aka Weirdink), Additional design: Manolis Mavris, Sound design: Christos Lefakis, Voiceover: Ross Douglas, Production Team: Aristotelis Michailidis, Marianna Papachristodoulou
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
