Cartoons these days...

With the ever abundance of technological advances, there are several pros and cons to each facet of the structure. Cartoons in specific were at one point shoddy creations that seemed to be valued more for their message than their design, but today, the message is lost in translation thanks to technology. Years ago, it took a good amount of time for each episode of a cartoon to come out, so the writers had to make sure that their stories were top notch and they weren't specifically set in one time and could be viewed continuously and appreciated the same, if not more. Today, EVERYTHING is done on computers, so it takes absolutely no time at all for an episode to see the light of day, so the common practice for shows, especially cartoons, is to respond to societal ills of the moment, which will be seen months, if not weeks later, with disgust and a lack of interest. This is extremely common for cartoons such as South Park and The Simpsons. By doing this, the characters lose what the audience first loved about them and they lose their timeless quality and get shuffled into the mix of sentiments of the moment. I hope this is only a phase and cartoons will go back to what their genius lies in, even though I know such a dream is pointless...

Twilight Zone

I've been in a reminiscent mood lately, so I've been watching a lot of programming that I grew up on, including several episodes of The Twilight Zone. For its time, this show was a groundbreaking series, with its science fiction themes sewn throughout each of its premises. Still, for some reason, The Twilight Zone never received high accolades amongst the television viewers, but instead fell among the group of cult classics.
Some of the noticeable aspects that I liked about the show was the specific detail to lighting the crew took. Though I'm sure to some degree that lighting was especially important to black and white pictures, so as to be sure the image is correctly seen, but I'm sure there is more to it than that. Rod Serling was very particular to details and I'm sure lighting was so exception. The illumination was cast at several different angles, some to cause several shadows behind the subject, some to cause shadows on parts of the face to create definition and even some shadow across the face to allow the viewer to imagine the situation of the scene is real. To further that final point, shadowing is a common theme in film noir with shadows such as light streaming through shades onto the subjects face.
On the other hand, the show was not without its imperfections, including a few stale storylines that lacked creativity, but more importantly, in a couple of scenes, even if only for a split second, a microphone could be seen dipping into the scene from up above. Even the most interesting story or adventure could be dashed by an unintentional breaking of the "fourth wall", even if it comes from a different direction.

Sorry it took so long...

I bought a big-screen a couple months back, so my latest venture had me perusing the DVD section at Record Archive to pick movies with the best graphics. I bought 300 of course because of the sheer brilliance of the piece. I really love the dominance of computer animation fused with a slow motion touch that built up the tension of the film. Of course, the movie hailed based on real life events, but as the common person knows, to build up a legend, one needs to exaggerate here and there. After all, if true life was always told without a build-up, then it would never be as exciting as fantasy can offer.

Next, I purchased Transformers which is a movie that may have amazing graphics, but the storyline is mediocre at best. That Disney channel kid, Shia LaBeouf, seems to be making his escape from his status of middle-class child actor with each progressive coming of age film, and this is no exception. The graphics on the machines is amazing and the plot could be even duller, but I would remain excited to see what else a computer can make a car do... :)