Week Twelve

Indy Film, Videogames, Animation, Anime.Features: Spirited Away, Director: Hayao Miyazake

Film Studies

Discussion about Mulholland Drive (David Lynch):

1. Postmodern Theory and Mulholland DriveCognition: Try to interpret the opaque storylines by thinking of reality as other than a construct of linear time. (Consider holistic time/fragmented story structure.)Archival Research: How might David Lynch’s television success affected this project? Reception Theory: Fan clubs? Critical variations? Is there a “wrong” way to interpret the meaning? Or2. AestheticsMusic and sound, Camera Kinetics, Performance, Production Design.

Post Modern Indy Shorts.

Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars (Evan Mather, 1998)and/orGodzilla versus Disco Lando (Evan Mather, 1998)See evanmather.com or search YouTube.

These short films follow the adventures of Star Wars action figures as they deal with life, love, and an attack by Godzilla.

“I do want to pose one question: did Tarantino himself rip off Buena Vista Fight Club with Kill Bill?” - Evan Mather

Interactive Cinema, Videogames

Everquest Halo 3

The Golden Compass

http://www.gamespot.com

Animated Films

TOPICS See Barsam pages 42 - 45

•Traditional animation

•Ways of making animated films

•Mickey Mouse and Fantasia • United Artists

•The advent of television

•Puppet, claymation. Pixilation

•CGI

• Miyazaki

Fantasia (Walt Disney Studios, 1940)

The third film in the Disney animated features canon, it is an experiment in animation and music. The soundtrack of the film consists of eight pieces of classical music recorded under the direction of Leopold Stokowski; seven of these pieces were performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The film also includes live-action segments featuring Stokowski, the orchestra, and American composer and music critic Deems Taylor, who serves as the host for the film. Besides its avant-garde qualities, Fantasia was notable for being the first major film released in stereophonic sound, using a process dubbed "Fantasound".

Rashoman (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)

Writing credits Ryunosuke Akutagawa (stories) Akira Kurosawa ...

Genre: Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller Plot Outline: A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.

cast: Toshirô Mifune .... TajômaruMachiko Kyô .... MasakoMasayuki Mori .... Takehiro

From imdb

Japanese Film Sensibilities

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Anime (ah-NEE-may) has its roots in manga (MAHN-ga), or Japanese comics.  Manga developed over hundreds of years, starting as pictures drawn on temple walls, then on wooden blocks, and finally as woodblock prints with captions collected in books.  In time, the captions became stories and the art became sequential. By the early 20th century, manga had become the main form of literature for most of Japanese society.

At the same time, animated filmmaking started in Europe and then the U.S. When it appeared in Japan, it became a huge phenomenon—so much so that after 1940, over 40% of all domestic films in Japan were animated films based on manga. 

Information from http://www.animemetro.com

Short History of Anime

Spirited Away, or Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (________ "The spiriting away of Sen and Chihiro") is a movie (2001) by Japanese anime director and manga artist Hayao Miyazaki created at Studio Ghibli. The film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film at the 75th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in 2003, making the film the first anime production to receive an Oscar.

Spirited Away was released in Japan in July 2001, drawing an audience of around 23 million and revenues of 30 billion yen (approx. $250 million US), to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history (beating Titanic); it is said that by 2002, a sixth of the Japanese population had seen it.The film was subsequently released in the United States in September 20, 2002 and made slightly over 10 million dollars by September 2003.

It was dubbed into English by Disney and was released in North America by its Buena Vista distributing arm. It was released in the United States in DVD format on April 15, 2003 where the attention brought by the Oscar win made the title a strong seller. The English-dubbed version was also released in the UK on March 29, 2004. Hayao Miyazaki, the director of My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and Princess Mononoke (1997) as well, came out of retirement to make this film after meeting the daughter of a friend, on whom the main character is based.

Information from www.wikipedia.com

Spirited Away

Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)2 hours and 5 minutes

Hayao Miyazaki (story) Hayao Miyazaki (screenplay) 

Genre: Adventure / Animation / Fantasy / Drama (more)

Tagline: Taneru no mukô wa fushigi no machi

deshita

Plot Outline: In the middle of her family's move to

the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders

into a world ruled by witches and monsters,

where humans are changed into animals. From imdb

Japanese Film -- Anime

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