Screen Arts - Week 19

17/06/2019

We looked at work of documentary filmmakers like Michael Moore, the guy behind the Up series, and a film called Waltz with Bashir (animation style similar to Linklater's films). 
Roger & Me (a Michael Moore film) looked like worth watching.

Tower looks really visually great and shows how dynamic animation can make a film stand out and make a documentary like this somewhat original. I think I saw this film being on Netflix at one point.

Life, Animated not uses both animation and live-action, but also uses diverse styles of visuals and animation.

John Grierson is a person who is familiar to me from my research project last year from studying  motion design in Christchurch. The name is familiar because he was invited to New Zealand in the 1940's to give recommendations to the government on the formation a film industry. This was done as part of the government's arts and cultural development scheme at the time, but in the end, very few of his recommendations were approved. 

In any case, Grierson's contribution influenced the formation of the National Film Unit (which later became Park Road Post Production). Grierson insisted that the film unit should be independent and not state-owned, but the government ignored that suggestion and made it state-owned.


Fiore, M., & Sharkey, E. (2016). Floyd norman: an animated life [Motion picture]. United States: Focus Features

Floyd is the first black Disney animator. Uses both 2D and 3D animation. The animated segments makes the documentary more engaging and entertaining. It's awesome that he got a birthday video message from Scarlett Johansson. Floyd is still doing what he loves even in retirement, unlike most Disney retirees who stopped doing what they loved.

He went to art school in order to get his dream job at Disney. There were some racists working at Disney. People work at Disney fought tooth and nail to get there. Women were employed there, but were paid way less than the men.

Disney's top animators were very blunt and had very high standards.

Norman was brought into Disney's story department to co-write The Jungle Book.

Walt Disney's health deteriorated very fast, but he was in good health the last time Norman saw him alive, which was in a meeting.

Norman did leave Disney after Walt Disney's death to be an independent animator with some friends. His independent animation was done on racial issues. He filmed local rioting on a Bolex 16mm film camera, which was later broadcasted on NBC. His company also did animation for corporate and military films, and Fat Albert.

His company eventually went under and returned working for Disney, but he was fired only after a couple of years. Being fired by Disney wasn't a bad thing because many animation studios paid their workers more than Disney did.

Norman went on to be a writer and layout artist for Hanna-Barbera. Working there, he worked on The Smurfs, Superfriends, Godzilla, and Scooby Doo (he hated that dog). He regularly attends Comic Con since its humble beginnings.

From 1987-1993, Norman was a comic artist for Disney Publishing and he had regular issues with Disney's legal department because he would draw things of Mickey Mouse that the studio didn't like, especially since Mickey Mouse is their corporate icon. He was again fired by Disney, but this time, he was transferred to Disney's feature animation.

Norman defended accusations of Walt Disney being a racist. He turned down employment with Pixar to work on Toy Story because of his contract obligations with Disney. However, he did get employment with Pixar years later to work on Toy Story 2.

Disney technically made Norman redundant when he got to retirement age. Out of anger, sadness, and depression, Norman created anti-Disney drawings.

This documentary is engaging and intriguing, especially when discussing about the worker conditions of being employed in Disney, as well as independent and big-name animation studios.

19/06/2019

Burke, J., Currie, B., Rogers, J.B., Vallelonga, N., Virtue, T., Wessler, C. B., & Farrelly, P. (2018). Green book [Motion picture]. United States: Participant Media

Themes - Racism, identity, and friendship.

It's a film that's so good that you immerse yourself into the story and the chemistry between thew two main protagonists. You forget about the technical aspects and it's a film at all because it comes to life. You get emotionally invested. This in fact, makes this film different form other films that I have reviewed this semester.

The film subtly goes from being a crime drama into being a social drama, as well as being a comedy. The screenplay, and the performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali were definitely what held this film together like glue.