Speaking with Animation: WALL-E

When I first learned that we were going to learn about animation this semester, I was a bit apprehensive due to my limited skills in drawing and creating cartoon images. I like working with video footage, and capturing the real world on camera. Accordingly, the idea of designing a short animation film from scratch seemed like a daunting task. As we attended lecture every Tuesday and were being given instructions on how to move objects across the screen and how to draw different versions of the same character so as to give the illusion of walking, I felt even more incompetent than I had before.

This is not to say that I do not appreciate animation. I am actually very fascinated with the art of animation! Especially with how people can create an entirely new universe out of a blank stage and how they can create characters and creatures that exist and interact within that universe. I feel that animation allows creative minds to depict anything they want without any limitations; as opposed to filmmaking – which is exclusively restricted to the physical world.



A work of animation that has recently grabbed my attention is Pixar’s Wall-E. Although the film does not quite meet the criteria of “artistic” or “informational” animation, the science fiction computer-animated film encompasses everything that I look for in animation. Not only does Andrew Stanton’s film have a powerful and thought-provoking plot, but the way he and his team created the graphics and visuals for Wall-E is truly spectacular. Even though the circumstances in Wall-E exist under the realm of computer-animation, Stanton utilized lighting and cinematography techniques, such as lens flare and racking focus, to give the film a realistic feel.

Wall-E has been created using flat color animation. The color tones and effects make locations and backgrounds of some scenes look natural and lifelike. Unlike early Walt Disney Pictures classics, Wall-E is a 3D animation with a few characters that articulate mechanistically, and a few that have human voices. Through the interactions between humans and robots, I think Stanton succeeds in depicting his idea of what the Earth may become in 2805 as a result of megacorporations, mass consumerism and over-trashing.

Feels Good... to be Hood!

The night we found out about the video assignment, Adelyn and I began planning our masterpiece. We immediately came up with several ideas, most of them pertaining to the 1970’s and 1980’s and life in New York City. We had initially considered making a pseudo-documentary based in 1970’s with the setting of a delicatessen, but we later scrapped the idea due to time restraints and whether or not we would get permission to film there. After discussing a few more potential plots, I remembered that Adelyn’s brother is an up-and-coming hip-hop artist. I asked her if it would be okay for us to incorporate his music for a mock music video based in the 1980’s with the backdrop of New York City.

Our music video, tentatively titled “Feels Good… to be Hood” showcases the stardom of Mad Mookie and two of his ardent fans in the streets of the city. Inspired by several Run DMC, LL Cool J, Pete Rock and CL Smooth rap videos, we tried to capture the “tough” image of hip-hop artists and their suburban fans who attempt to replicate what it is to be inner-city teenagers. In terms of cinematography, I played around quite a bit with angles and close-ups to provide the viewers with the feel of music videos from the past. We used parallel editing to show separate events going on in different places at the same time.

In our music video, we did not want to focus solely on the music, but convey a story with the three characters and their circumstances. If Final Cut Express was a bit more cooperative in lab, maybe we would have more time to change the colors and use effects that were prevalent in the 1980’s. However, being on a tight schedule allowed us to stay on top of this project and give it our best possible shot. I am very impressed with the work we have done in that the music video does have a cheesy, mock feel to it. With the help of Adelyn’s bother and our friend Jonathan Toro, we managed to have our characters look somewhat believable. Who knows? Maybe this will be Korona’s (Mad Mookie) big break!

'Amores Perros': Editing Analysis

Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu is a renowned Mexican filmmaker known for his unique style of storytelling. In all three of his widely known works (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel), Innaritu utilized the concept of interconnectivity to bring the characters within the screenplay together in one vital scene. That particular scene is shown repeatedly throughout the film through several different angles and viewpoints, and is edited differently each time to emphasize the circumstances of the characters in the shots.

I had first seen Innaritu’s Mexican film ‘Amores Perros’ when I was studying cinema in high school. I was immediately impressed by the structure of the narrative. It was definitely unlike anything I had seen before. Though Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ also showcases parallel storylines, ‘Amores Perros’ is unique in the sense that the rawness in the content, composition and the movement in the shots makes the plot seem believable and real.

Innaritu and his editors, Luis Carballar and Fernando Perez Unda, constantly jump back and forth between scenes which interferes with the continuity of the story. However, this technique does not impede the flow of the story, but rather works in favor of carrying it forward. Since there are three main sub-stories in ‘Amores Perros,’ we see how the events within those stories unfold and eventually (and literally) “collide” into one another forming a common connection.


The opening scene of ‘Amores Perros’ begins with the camera facing out into the streets of Mexico city while a car is speeding to reach an unknown destination. A series of close-ups reveal the face of Octavio, one of the protagonists, a large dog bleeding profusely on the back seat of his car and another man who is frantically trying to save the dog. The camera then looks out through the back of the car and we see a large yellow truck chasing Octavio’s car, interweaving through traffic. There are a few other shots of wheels turning, Octavio cursing while trying to escape being shot at and the other cars on the road. We barely have time to register who these people are before we hear a sudden, loud crash, followed by some chaotic imagery in which we can barely make out another dog and a young woman in her car.

The car crash in the scene described above is the one that is shown over and over again during the course of the film and inter-locks, as we later learn, the lives of the three main characters in the three main sub-stories.

"New" Media and Me

Media today is a lot more interactive, user-oriented and immersive than it was just a few years ago. In today’s day and age, people have access to media contents online where they can comment and participate through various platforms. Whereas previously, media was centrally controlled and had high production and distribution costs, “new” media is inexpensive to produce and distribute and can be controlled by multiple users. “New” media further encompasses features of interactivity, networkability and compressibility for uploading and sharing on the web.

Some websites I visit on a daily basis are Craigslist, Filmmaker Magazine, The Daily Beast, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and The Economist. I skim through these websites almost everyday to read up on new opportunities available, independent film updates, catch up on my friends, watch videos and to gain some knowledge of what is happening around the world. The best part of “new” media, I feel, is that I get to do all this right from the comfort of my living room. I do not have to go out of my way to buy newspapers and magazines that specialize only on a few of my interests.

The kinds of media that I view regularly are films, the Internet, television and the radio (when I am in a car). If the film or its trailer is available on YouTube, I can interact with the other viewers through commenting on the clip and discussing what I liked/disliked about it. On the Internet, I interact with my friends and classmates through Facebook and Twitter. However, in the remaining types like television and the radio, viewer interact is very minimal to almost none. The only way to give feedback on those would be through their websites, blogs, Facebook pages, etc.