Wes Anderson Stop Motion Acceptance Speech

Stop Motion In Progress

The Sailor

The Sea Monster

Loch Ness Facebook Page (Cut Paper)

2010 Schedule!

Afternoons off? Yes please!

Registration, Earth Day, Task Party

Things I did today:

1. Registered for classes!
I finally met Piotr Szyhalski (my advisor) and totally love the guy! After figuring out registration he offered to have me in during his office hours to review my work and see what I'm interested in, what I've done, etc. That really meant a lot to me; I really need some direction! AND he got Bernard to allow me to take Motion Graphics without all the pre-reqs, which I'll take another semester, but I'm so stoked about that!

Classes I'm enrolled in:
Virtual Environment (making video games!)
Advanced Web + Screen
Mobile Device Platform Development (making iPhone Apps!)
The Body Eclectic
Gender, Art, and Society
The Five Senses

2. Earth Day!
Shishkabobs, multiple games of four square, stilt-walkers, DJs, sunburns, typefaces, wonderful!

3. Made a morph animation.

4. Task party!
Oliver Herring hosted one of his famous Task parties in the MCAD College Center and I simply attended out of curiosity. And it was a total blast!

At said party I:
Danced wildly around the DJ
Slow motion fun
Started a revolution to play "Single Ladies"
Made a blue belt and giant biceps
Blew up
Made a 6 ft pillar out of trash
Marker war
Learned how to swing dance
Caught glitter herpes

A Town Called Panic

A hilarious French stop motion film.
Want to watch some extras in English?
Click here to watch 40 of them!

Sunny Spring, Karen's Visit, RA Awesomeness

The last few days have been so classically wonderful that I deemed them necessary to report.

FRIDAY:
Morning class, blah blah. In the afternoon Carl, Sara and I watched The Time Traveler's Wife and balled our eyes out. Afterward we met Charlotte outside to play four square. It was one of those Hey Arnold situations where all the neighborhood kids casually joined in and we just played, only the neighborhood kids were fellow MCADians. In that time I found out I received the RA position and we rejoiced with some Lychee frozen yogurt at Café Kem. Then we girls watched the boys skateboard in the parking lot until we got hungry and headed in for spaghetti. Fowler and Carl put on Aliens, so Z and I zipped out spontaneously to see Hot Tub Time Machine.

SATURDAY:
I woke up with a surprise package at our door: Karen! Thus the whole day went to Fun. We played more four square and ate paninis at Café Kem. Then we sat outside in the MCAD parking lot watching the boys skateboard. After five hours of outsideness, I caught a sunburn. Then we ordered Pizza Lucé and sat around and talked. The girls went to TML and Sara and I went to Diana's birthday party. After failing to start a dance party, we came home and zonked out immediately.

THE FUTURE:
Today I got many questions answered and have temporarily decided to go home for the summer and return for RA duties in August. It sounds as if I will then be able to visit my sister in Florida for an extended amount of time as well as get a vehicle for next year. As far as classes are concerned, it looks like I will have only one afternoon class next semester, which I am oddly excited about. Everything else will be in the mornings and at night. I predict a lot of naps. I also foresee less wasted time in studios. Perfect.

I'm really thankful for the RA position. Though I love being around people, I also love having my own personal space to recharge and wind down. I'm excited to get to know the residents and organize events. All in all, this feels way better than all the other plans I had before with Pixar and studying California. All my needs have been taken care of!

Birthday, Break, Red Wing, Major Change

Notable things in the past month:

Well for one, I turned 20. For the first birthday ever, I felt older, with an overwhelming sense of responsibility sweeping over me. I'll probably always be a big kid, but now more than ever, I feel like it's time to grow up a bit.

For this birthday I played recess games. Similarly to my 16th, we played capture the flag, but with a twist of four square. I've been addicted to four square since.

The nice thing about my birthday is that I get to spend it here in Minneapolis, but also at home for Spring Break. I didn't get anything spectacular this year. Just a much-needed flash drive, some new clothes, and a delicious cake. Mostly I was thankful to go home to get away from school and to see my parents and pets.

Being home isn't as fun as my fond memories make it out to be. Everyone is either in school or working; it's no vacation spot. But after I got over that fact, it became enjoyable, and I saw most every friend I wanted.

On my break, I visited three parks, two Targets, and one barber shop. I ate Chinese twice, BBQ once, and never had chicken at home. I saw nine friends, six parents, and two pets. I bought fourteen pairs of underwear, eight pairs of socks, four pairs of capris, and my dad bought two Trikkes. I watched four movies, three seasons of Weeds, and one movie in theaters. And lastly, I played too many games of four square to even count.

I rode back to MCAD with Audrey. We listened to a total of 4 CDs, talking took precedence. The real journey took place after we returned. Monday night, I asked Alyssa, Z, and Carl to join me for homework. Not too long after Carl showed up, we spontaneously (and surprisingly) decided to make a late night road trip to Red Wing to climb the bluff.

Long story short, Z got in a car wreck, but we still went to Red Wing. Alyssa and I were poor night time trailblazers, but we made it up one trip and huff at at a time. By the time we got up there, it was almost midnight, but we were in no hurry regardless of our morning classes. We saw a fox, too, which Alyssa mistook for a cat at first. The walk back down was flooded by cell phone lights and camera screens. Best Monday night by far. I'd like to return during the day sometime. Carl gets so excited about his hometown. This story is the basis for my 25 page assignment in my writing class. Huzzah!

The last notable thing to talk about it my change of major. Before break I had become a bit unsatisfied with the animation program here at MCAD. And more importantly, I started questioning my education in general. What am I looking to get out of my classes? What work have I been really proud of or interested in? Where would I like to be after college?

None of those answers lied in the typical animation field. I don't want to do character driven, narrative based work. I want to use animation as a tool for bigger projects. I want to work interactively, conceptually, and experimentally. I still want to learn animation techniques, but I want the ability to work in other mediums as well. Thus I have, as of today, switched to the Web & Multimedia department. Alexis and Stevie were very supportive of this move, both technically with my credits and conceptually. I'm very excited to see where this new direction takes me!

Mikey

Mikey Then:

Mikey Now:

Scott Pilgrim

CURRENTLY READING:

Natural Gas Commercial

New Website

I've worked up a new website for my Web + Screen class. I still have to fix a few bugs with the videos, but you get the idea!

Chat Roulette Piano Man Improv

Weeds

This week I became addicted to Weeds. I watched the first two seasons in 3 days and am hurting for more. Damn Netflix for only putting two seasons on Instant Play! Anyhow, here's a bit of dialogue that just made me absolutely lose it!

Isabelle: Dad, you know the Harry Potter books that we read?
Dean: Love them all, Love Harry Potter.
Isabelle: Mom is Voldemort. Don't you know that? You may have reduced her to vapor now, but she is out there. Gathering her strength, and she will be back. Don't you know that?

The Season 2 Finale was probably the biggest cliffhanger I've ever experienced. SO INTENSE. I need the third season NOW and have no means of getting it until at least 6 pm! Ridiculous. Man I've missed watching TV shows straight through. Any other suggestions? I'm quite at my leisure. :)

Full Version of Weeds Theme
"Little Boxes" by Melvina Reynolds:

Short Versions of Weeds Theme
"Little Boxes" by The Shins:

"Little Boxes" by Regina Spektor:

"Little Boxes" by The Decemberists:

Phenakistoscopes

This week in Stop Motion class we learned how to make phenakistoscopes. It's hard to explain, but we've all see them. In short, they were one of the first forms of animation. I feel like it lends to many possibilities for installations or collaborations. This video is great example:


"We Got Time" by Moray McLaren


And here's a video about the making of "We Got Time".

Ax Man, Galactic Pizza, The Ghost Writer

Another beautiful spring day in Minneapolis, and how did I spend it? With my girls of course! Alyssa, Michelle and I began our sunglassed afternoon with a stop at Ax Man to splurge on Stop Motion materials. I left with $22 worth of wooden poles, bungee rope, and magnets. I hadn't realized it was bungee rope.

Then we stopped in at Galactic Pizza for a 12" Hipster and a few tall glasses of Mountain Dew. Feta cheese won over my taste buds once again.

"He can't drown two ghost writers; you're not kittens!"

With full tummies we legally parked and briskly entered the Uptown Theater to see Polanski's new film The Ghost Writer. I knew nothing of it except the fact that it was required for my Great American Film Directors class, where we recently studied the works of Roman Polanski. To my very pleasant surprise Ewan McGregor starred as the Ghost Writer himself, and made the movie more enjoyable than otherwise! It was, in every way, a Polanski film and I would recommend it very highly.

On our way home I declared, "I'm going to go home and scratch my foot."
Michelle observed, "There's a dog in that car and he's looking at me."
Alyssa laughed an Alyssa laugh.
We're a brilliant bunch.

Begone Dull Care

Begone Dull Care by Norman McLaren in 1949 is an example of 'visual music'. It shows that the visual can have similar effects as the aural. The idea that visual art is often compared to music is of great interest to me, and is one of the biggest reason I decided to go into animation! I'd like to experiment with some of this stuff, myself, and have already researched it in length in previous classes. There are so many directions to go within the animation field, but whenever I ask myself why I decided to become an animator, it always boils down to music.

I also discovered a fancy little fact about Begone Dull Care, that it shares its title with the most recent Junior Boys album. The unusual name was surely not a coincidence, and after looking at the track names, I was convinced of their commonality.

Begone Dull Care by Junior Boys (2009)
1.Parallel Lines
2.Work
3.Bits And Pieces
4.Dull To Pause
5.Hazel
6.Sneak A Picture
7.The Animator
8.What It's For

Pixar, RA, LCAD, & Summer Plans

Thought Vomit Commence!

Today I mailed out my demo reel and application for the Pixar Technical Undergraduate Program. (It's a ten-week program for undergrad students looking to go into art/computer science, and basically you go to Pixar and learn Pixar for the summer. BOSS!) I also found out that it would fulfill my internship credit for MCAD, even though it's not an internship; Pixar is just that prestigious. Score! I'm so thankful to have all that completed.

Recently I was encouraged by several peers and staff to apply for the RA position (of which I wasn't planning to take part in because of my tentative plans to study at LCAD next year), so I picked up the packet and am looking for that opportunity to open up! If I get Pixar and the RA position, there's a solid chance I won't look towards LCAD. Pixar would offer me TONS of extra experience, and saving money with the RA position would really help out my parents.

On the other hand, if I don't get Pixar, LCAD is always a possibility, but I was also considering living with my sister, Mike, and Nate in Florida for the summer. I can never find work in Missouri, I'm not sure if I want to stay in Minneapolis over the summer, and I always wanted to live with my sister, so it doesn't seem like a bad idea! Once I realized that Missouri isn't such a necessity, things got a lot more open, to say the least.

I've noticed that housing has been a HUGE problem to figure out for most everyone here at MCAD. Almost all the pals are planning on studying abroad in the Spring, but nothing is final, so we don't know whether to live on or off campus, who to live with, etc. As of right now, I'm a-okay with living on-campus. Let's see who I can convince.

Life is busy, busy, busy.
I won't fill you in on the smaller details,
'cause I'm sure you already know if you really care to know!

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Scott Dunbar Sings "Billie Jean"

Front Row Jónsi Tickets!

Today three FRONT ROW tickets were invested for myself, Gina, and Sara to see Jónsi's live performance at the Pantages theater! Excitement doesn't even COVER it! Developed by 59 Productions, this performance is going to be like nothing ever seen before. Not only am I excited to see the show, but I've gained a new goal: to be an animation director for productions like this! There is NOTHING I would enjoy more.

The Pantages Theater where we will be sitting front row right:


Jónsi's "Go Do"


A Preview of the show by 59 Productions:


Making of the Show: Part 1


And for your personal enjoyment!
A free download of Jónsi's "Boy Lilikoi".