In this weeks lecture we learnt about the history of film, which is something I found really interesting. We looked at a timeline of the development of film and technology, I had no idea 3D films existed in the 50's!!
Movies originated in France, however the first full length motion picture was made in Australia in 1906 and called 'The Kelly Gang'. Not much of the film is still surviving, so I can't really compare it to 2003's titled 'Ned Kelly'. The titles do highlight a difference in historical films however: In 1906, the whole gang seemed important and likely to draw cinema-goers, however in 2003 the film focused more on Ned Kelly himself, as in today's society we love a hero and his sidekicks. Also when The Kelly Gang was made, there wasn't much hype about the celebrities performing in films (Mary Pickford is one exception), however in Ned Kelly featured Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Rachel Griffiths and of course Heath Ledger (as the title character). This age of celebrity changes the whole dynamic of a film, and I wonder if 2003's version would have been as successful with unknown actors?
In 1927, films began to have dialogue and became known as the 'talkies'. In 1929 the first Academy Awards were held. 1939 was a massive year for cinema, with TV's appearing and some famous classics were made ('Wizard of Oz'!!).
In 1955, the first films were shown on TV. Now, movies are a pretty much daily fixture on TV (I think I've seen 'Dead Man Walking' on TV a million times in the last six months!). In 1972 pornography was first developed and now they are making historical films on porn stars (Inferno, starring Lindsay Lohan).
These days we can view films on TV, on the internet, at the cinemas, on our phones, and on our iPod's. Although films have only been around for a bit over 100 years, the technology has developed so so much. This technology has helped with the development and distribution of films, and made the viewing of films much more realistic and exciting.
That's pretty much everything I was thinking about in this weeks lecture. Now for the Tute*Spark!
This weeks Tute*Spark was to find three short films designed for internet distribution only.
The first short film I looked at was one I had already seen before: Salad Fingers - Spoons.
I like Salad Fingers because I have a weird sense of humor and I love sad, weird, creepy little things like Salad Fingers. This short film introduces us to Salad Fingers and his passion for spoons. Especially rusty ones. The Salad Fingers series became popular worldwide, this video has over 6,000,000 views! I think it's so popular because it's so different, no one had seen anything like it before. You pay attention to it because it is so random. At the same time as being strangely funny, it's scary and sad as well. It reminds me of other cartoons like Family Guy because it starts off relatively normal but then gets weirder and weirder until it reaches the nth degree.
The second one I'm including is another youtube sensation, and another animated short: Charlie The Unicorn.
This video is even more popular than Salad Fingers, with over 50,000,000 views. Like Salad Fingers, it starts off pretty normal (you know, unicorns just chilling) and then it gets weirder and weirder. I think this video is successful because it has one straight talker (Charlie) and two weirdo's. This makes the way the weird unicorns speak and behave more ridiculous when it's compared to the rational Charlie. We see these kind of characters in other places (like The Big Bang Theory, where Penny is the normal one). Like Salad Fingers, it has random things thrown in (like a liopleurodon).
I had never heard of it before the lecture but it's hilarious. I've seen the new Star Wars movies so I had seen those guys in white before, and of course Tatooine. One of my dads favorite shows is Cops so I've seen quite a bit of it. I found it hilarious how he was talking about the small town feel, and asking "Is this your cousin? Oh okay he's your friend?'' because things like that happen on Cops all the time. I think it's popular because both Star Wars and Cops are fixtures in pop culture, and pretty much everyone I know has either seen them or knows of them. I think to enjoy the video you need to have seen Cops, because the behaviors of the Troops and suspects are exactly how people behave on Cops. The Star Wars aspect just makes it a little bit sillier, and helps highlight how ridiculous Cops can be.
Those are three of the funniest and most enjoyable short films I've seen on the internet, and I hope you like them too!
Emily
Emily
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