John K: Gotta Love Him

So we had to choose an inspirational “image-maker” and make our own image based off of this person’s art style. And I know that the assignment mainly called for people like photographers, designers, painters, or just 2-D still-image artists in general.

I, however, chose John Kricfalusi. Yes, he’s an animator (hence, not-still 2-D image-maker) but whatever. I fuckin’ love him.

Here are the images of his that I used as reference to make images of my own:

And these are the 2 images I made afterwards. They’re based on the Robyn song “Konichiwa Bitches” (I chose it because I dunno why)

"You wanna rumble in space? I'll set my lazer on stun"

"And on the North Pole, I'll ice ya son"

I think my attempt to emulate John K’s style was kind of a failure. His lines are all so curvaceous and gloriously smooth, and I have yet to ever be able to do that. My own personal style, also, is so sketchy, that trying to do John K art was admittedly setting myself up for failure. But at least these images, in of themselves, are cute. Mr. Kricfalusi, I hope you aren’t angered by my crappiness. I tried, I really did. 😦

More Visual Inspirations: A Quick Run-Through

Chad VanGaalen is far from being my only visual/directorial/animatorly inspiration. To be as cheesy as I can be, I’d say that almost everything I see is an inspiration in some form.

 

But to be as realistic I can be, there are still a lot of directors and animators that I suspect are great inspirations to my visual style, artistic vision, and general approach to the moving image. So let’s run through a bunch that I came up with a few nights ago!

 

1. John Kricfalusi — Creator of Ren and Stimpy, this guy is at the top of the list for a reason. I grew up with that show, and his butt-and-breasts sense of humor mixed with his savage treatment of the human condition and canned orchestra music (for emotional effect) have stuck with me ever since I was a little kid. 
2. Whoever made the You! Me! Dancing! music video by Los Campesinos — This is one of the greatest music videos of all time, in my opinion, and I love it mostly for its story and visual aesthetic. The way those flatly-applied colors seem to glow so brilliantly will always amaze me.
3. Jonas Akerlund — The works of Jonas that I love most are the film Spun, and the music video for Telephone with Lady Gaga and Beyonce. His editing style in both of those works is so artfully done, yet perfect for the ever-decreasing attention span of the viewing public of today. Jonas has his finger on the pulse of what people want to see in film. His sense of visual composition is impeccable as well.
4. Melina Matsoukas — The only work of hers that I have seen, admittedly, is the music video for Rude Boy by Rihanna. I love this video, however, for its fearless treatment of color and visual composition, and I’ve emulated the pasted-together aesthetic that Melina employs in my own video work ever since I’ve seen/become obsessed with this music video.
5. Brian De Palma — He directed the original 1976 Carrie, which is one of my favorite movies of all time, and so I will always love him for this. His treatment of the story of Carrie White is amazing — it straddles the line between innocence, ultra-violence, and occasional goofiness.
6. Nicolas Winding Refn — Danish director, I love him best for the movie Bronson, which is also one of my favorite films of all time. I also love it for its treatment of the story of Michael Peterson/Charles Bronson, because he is portrayed as not just an over-violent buffoon, but also as a man with goals, with feelings. Bronson is the violent prisoner with a heart of gold, he’s a diva, a performer, and a complete sociopath. I love him, and I love Nicolas Refn for making me love him.
7. Magnus Carlsson — Magnus is the animator of the “Robin” series, and more importantly (to me) the creator of the Paranoid Android music video for the band Radiohead. This is quite possibly my favorite music video of all time, as its treatment of the human condition in relation to success, sex, and most importantly, innocence (a topic that I plan on tackling in the story of my Senior Thesis film) is brilliantly played out, and wonderfully heartfelt in a way that I’ve never seen in any other piece of film before. His film is so frank and realistic, yet at the same time totally unrelated to the real world. The Paranoid Android music video is that dream you once had that you never totally understood, but always knew was something important.
8. Andreas Nilsson — Nilsson has directed many music videos for bands such as Jose Gonzalez, MGMT, The Knife, and Fever Ray. His visual and narrative style also falls into the dream-realm, leaving my eyes glistening with the widely variant and unpredictable worlds he creates. Such videos of his that I particularly adore are Teardrop, Like A Pen, Heartbeats, Flash Delirium, and most incredibly so, the visuals for The Knife’s Silent Shout tour in 2006.
9. Greedy Hen Studio — Greedy Hen has its own fantastic art style that mixed collage with brilliant color compositions that instill a sense of “old gold” in the human heart. Like that box of jewelry that your grandmother hides better than anything else she’s ever hidden, and holds closer to her own heart than anything else she’s ever held. I know about Greedy Hen Studio through their music video for the song “Blood” by The Middle East, btw.
10. Michel Gondry — I admittedly never used to be a big fan of Michel’s work, since most of it came off as just him trying to seem cool for doings lots of awesome effects “without using any computer” (even though that may or may not be true). But all of this changed when I saw his music video for “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters, “Bachelorette” by Bjork, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. These 3 works are the best examples, in my opinion, of his intricately threaded-together portrayal of the world, weaving stories withing stories, realities on top and underneath other realities. Michel both loses the viewers in his world while also enrapturing them via sheer fascination. A life in the world of Michel Gondry’s directed works would be a confusing life, for sure, but at least it’s beautiful when seen from a 3rd-person perspective.
11. Kate Bush — Kate is predominantly a singer, but she also has done directorial work as well. It’s true that she is faaaar from ever being considered a brilliant director by any means. However, her personal style and vision still comes through in her works, whether or not the actual filmic outcome is impressive or not. Works that she has directed that I particularly love are her music videos for Hounds Of Love and Army Dreamers, as well as her short film, The Line, The Cross, And The Curve. TLTCATC was a failure, but it certainly had some interesting visuals in it that I found innovative in their own right. Also, I worship this woman, so pretty much anything she does is something I’m going to love. Don’t question my motives. 
12. Joel Trussell — Joel has a great visual style, reminiscent of Esurance commerical animations. However, his most impressive work (The music video for “Float (My Electric Stargirl)” by Atomic Swindlers) sticks out for its ability to creates a totally unique and standalone-universe with very little time spent on exposition in the beginning of the video. Holy shit. Now that is inspirational. 
13. Mike Scott — This is the last one (for now), but Mike Scott, to me, is admirable for two things: His drawing style, which is very simple and photoshop-brush-tastic, (yet entirely effective and fucking amazing), and his sense of humor, which embodies an almost sociopathic sense of joyousness. The characters in the worlds that Mike Scott creates are completely fucking manic, and their undying happiness is absolutely infectious. My favorite work of his, also, is his music video for “Get Busy Living” by the band Goldfish. All of this works (whether moving or still) are fantastic in their energetic quality, and I love to see still such innocence in artistic work being made today. 

Inspiration #1 – Chad VanGaalen

Here’s my first official assignment for this class (aside from making this blog in the first place), which is to discuss a film-maker or animator, and talk about why that person inspires me.

 

I chose Chad VanGaalen.

 

Chad VanGaalen is an interesting person to analyze as a film-maker and animator, since film isn’t what he’s mainly known for. Chad is primarily a musician and a “notorious homebody” from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, making very eclectic, grungy, unpolished music that hipsters around the world are probably in love with.

But to me, he is a very inspirational film maker. He trained as a lithographer and silk screen painter, which is extremely apparent in his drawing style. However, it’s his “morphological” approach to his films that is the most fascinating to me, since through his own music videos (which he animates himself), he creates fantastical, colorful, and brilliant new worlds that look like Dr. Seuss illustrations, if Dr. Seuss used much thicker lines and took a lot of LSD. His goopy, somewhat unstructured worlds, with the way they twist and turn and play not on reality but on the human mind, also inspire me in relation to the kind of film I want to create for my Senior Thesis project. I love the unstructured nature of the human mind, dream-worlds, fears, and the omnipresent romance that is around all of us. Chad taps on all of this with his art, I believe, and this mix of such various elements of the Human Condition, I feel, is best exemplified in his self-made music video for “Molten Light,” in which a dead woman takes revenge on her murderers.

Another reason Chad is inspiring to me, is also the fact that he is such a Renaissance Man. He tackles music, art, and animation with such confidence, and I find this quality both admirable and comparable to the way I like to approach to self-expression – Over the course of my experience at USC, I have expressed myself not only through Animation, but also fine arts, journalism, songwriting, singing, and most bizarrely of all, drag performance. Chad is fearless, and I aspire to his level of artistic confidence.

 

Molten Light music video by Chad VanGaalen

Story Time

I know we’re supposed to come up with THREE different ideas for our senior thesis film, but for years now, I’ve had a single concept that I’ve wanted to pursue for this very project, and I figure I might as well tell the tale of how this story came to be:

Once upon a time, way back during the Winter Break of my Freshman Year at USC, I was sitting at home, listening to Kate Bush music for the first time in my life. Little did I know that she was soon going to become my #1 favorite musical artist, and to this day I’m still obsessed with her.

Also? In that very same fateful music-listening sesh, a story-seedling was planted in my head, and it has grown and grown ever since, becoming what is most certainly the greatest story I’ve ever come up with in my life.

It’s the story of a brother and sister. Early in their lives, they experience separate traumatic experiences, but at the same time as each other. After these moments-of-pain, the siblings both decide they must redeem themselves by seeking out innocence — basically, they wish to undo the stains that are now on their hearts.

But what does this kind of mission entail? Is it even possible to fully undo something that happened in the past? Is there even a point? Or is this just part of growing up?

Sadly, this story is way too long to be animated in its entirety for my Senior Thesis project. I do, however, wish to visualize — with animation — an excerpt from it. It would be a standalone piece when watched by itself, but in the long run it can be used as a link in the chain that is the journey of the brother and sister.

 

But I won’t give away too much about this concept. After all, maybe I’ll think of a better one before the semester ends.

WAZZUP

I’m excited. I’m verrrry excited.

 

LET’S DO THIS.