Question to Siri:“What’s The Wizard of Oz about?”Siri: “It’s about some Dorothy, her intelligent assistants, and her little dog too. Some are not so intelligent, I guess.” “All the world’s a stage,” wrote Shakespeare. Baroque architects arranged the urban environment as if it were a stage set. Now city inhabitants are more likely to experience…More
Category Archives: Film and media
The past is a construct of the mind
“The past is a construct of the mind. It blinds us. It fools us into believing it,” according to Matthias in the scifi film Total Recall (2012). It’s common for block busters to include a couple of lines of quotable pop philosophy — as an intellectual challenge amid the fights and chases, especially when the…More
Ambient wit
Film, music and game sales from downloads reached £1bn in 2012 according to a BBC report. Travellers waiting patiently in airport lounges and couples and groups sitting in dulled silence access online news reports. They also stream, download and play movies, tv programmes, and other information content and entertainment on their smartphones, tablets and laptops…More
Old enough to know better
Sylvain Chomet created the animated films Belleville Rendez-Vous and The Illusionist. His earlier successful short film was called The Old Lady and the Pigeons. Art and entertainment often draw on the skilful manipulation of stereotypes, and their exaggeration. Skilful animators such as Chomet make their characters sufficiently recognisable and true to type, but with a…More
Maximum graphic
Digital animators have to attend to a lot of detail. Unlike in live action film CGI detail does not come for free. Digital animators and their creative teams have to plan, model, texture, light and render every object, colour, texture and effect. Because of their limited means, independent animation producers and students inevitably have to…More
Why cartoons have animals
Why do adults and children like to see animals as characters in fictional stories and cartoons, especially when stories about animals are so confusing? Everyone knows that Micky Mouse (a mouse) lives in a house and has a pet Pluto (a dog) and a friend Goofy (a dog that talks). I recently caught up with…More