My Favourite Stop Motion

Auguste and Louis Lumiere

Auguste and Louis Lumiere were French brothers who became recognized as some of the first filmmakers.

The two brothers were born in the city Besancon in France in 1862 (Auguste) and 1864 (Louis.) Growing up the brothers’ father Antoine Lumiere ran a manufacturing business, which sold photographic equipment. Their father opened this business after being a portrait painter for so long, but then realized a photography business would hold many more financial rewards. Louis was the first of the two brothers to begin experimenting with photography along side his father. When Louis was 19 he developed a process to develop film known as the “Etiquette Bleue” process. This process brought a great amount of business to their father’s shop. Their inventions first began when the brothers father Antoine returned home from a demonstration of Edison’s Peephole Kinetoscope and he showed Louis a piece of the Kinetoscope film. Then Auguste started to make the first experiments, where the two wanted to fix the problems they saw in Edison’s invention. The first problem was to reduce the size and weight of the camera because the brothers found it to be far too bulky for use. The second problem was to fix the “nature” of the Kinetoscope, only one person could view the films at a time, the brothers wanted multiple person to see them.

After a year of experimenting, the brothers had created an invention called the Cinematographe, which combing a camera with a printer, and a projector. The Cinematographe fixed all the problems the brothers found with Edison’s camera.

One of the most well known short films (at the time regular length films) is Le Squelette Joyeux or The Skeleton of Joy. This stop motion film depicts a “joyful” skeleton leap and dancing around while loosing and re-attaching his limbs. The minute long film shows a creature that is often mis-interpreted as a dark and ominous character, but the Lumiere brothers create a happy and joyful character. 

meow

Photographs That Changed The World

This image is entitled “Dead on the Beach” and was taken on a beach in Papua New Guinea. This picture presents three bodies of soldiers washed up on the shore of a beach, along with what appears to be an abandoned ship in the background. While viewing this photograph I truly notice how disturbing war is. We all know war ends in death for many people, but seeing an image of the deaths allows the viewer to understand what is happening. This photo impacts me greatly because of how disturbing the affects of war can be. The image is so raw to the viewer, which, is why I believe makes such a great impact. 

This picture taken by Kevin Carter in 1994 shows a child in Sudan lying on the ground, dying of starvation, and behind the child there is a vulture preying on him. While viewing this image, I noticed how no color changes were made to the picture itself. Perhaps this is because the photographer wanted the viewer to see to truth behind the famine in Sudan. For the viewer to understand exactly what happens. I am speechless looking at this image because I don’t understand how I never knew things like this were going on in the world. I had no idea children were starving to this point in, no only Sudan but many other third-world countries. This photo makes an impact on me because I know realize just how much of a struggle it is to survive in third-world countries.  

This final image was taken place during the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989, photographed by Jeff Widener. The picture is a shot (taken from some distance) of a man standing in front of four tanks in the middle of a street. The story behind the image is how the government sent in tanks to Tiananmen Square to kill many people during the protest occurring. A man stepped in front of the tanks (perhaps to show he was not afraid of what was about to occur) and held his position before Widener was able to capture the shot. When I view this picture, I think about how brave this person was to stand their ground in front of the law, and how they were so unafraid of what was truly horrifying to many. I believe this image is not so much what the photographer was trying to convey, but instead what the person standing in front of the tanks was trying to say. I believe the person was trying to tell the people in Tiananmen Square to not be afraid of the government. The picture itself had no color adjustments, or different positioning; this was most likely to show the true feelings, which were conveyed by the man in front of the tanks. This image has a very still quality to it, and I believe this is because this picture made the world stop for a brief moment. 

Sharkwater Questions

1. Before watching the film “Sharkwater” directed by Rob Stewart, I assumed sharks to be one of the most dangerous animals in the world.  After watching this film I realized; sharks are not the ones to be feared in the world, but instead the humans. The people who are de-fining the sharks don’t realize how their actions truly affect the world. It affects the world because it allows the viewer to see just how cruel these people’s actions are. This film not only responds to the unfairness of the sharks, but also to the unfairness of other animals that are endangered throughout the world.

2.  The director Rob Stewart made this film so impactful by using many different techniques to capture the audience. One of the main techniques he used was providing statistics of death rates created by sharks, as well as other animals. This technique allowed the viewer to understand just how unharmful sharks can be compared to other animals. Another technique, which was used, was providing the audience with actual footage of what really happens to the sharks once they are being de-finned. Watching the footage made me realize how cruel people are to the sharks, and how little regard they have for the sharks. The footage made me realize just how unethical shark fining is.

  3. As mentioned before, the use of footage where the sharks are being de-finned allows me to make my decisions of how the people are treating the sharks. 

  4.  As much as I enjoy viewing documentaries, I personally would not choose to make them as a career. Rob Stewart uses many sources of technology throughout the making of this film such as different camera techniques (undercover camera, underwater camera etc.), images, text, and voice-overs. 

App Review

Vine, allows the user to take clips of videos and put them together creating a six second film. As you record, the meter that measures your available six seconds of fame will begin to fill. Let go of the meter and the recording will stop. The concise nature of a six second video has a similar feel to Instagram, but instead of pictures, the user creates the product with videos. Vine is another great social media app.
The app was first created on January 24th, 2013, and since then has begun to receive similar reputation as Instagram. 
This app receives 4/5 stars and a thumbs up.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

This documentary directed by street artist Banksy, follows the French film maker Thierry Guetta as he begins documenting the process of street artists in Los Angeles.