For those struggling with fiction

The Spanish site, > BLOGS&DOCS < is good port of call for centering your search for contemporary short documentary production, and what is going on in that scene. this page is their > LINKS <. SO it is Spanish, Good.
also Spanish, > Punto y raya < deals with more esoteric and abstract dealings, translated means point and line. they have a submission open until the 11 July... < submissions > "

Punto y Raya Festival explores the ultimate synthesis of the form·movement duality in different spheres of human endeavour. Due to the simplicity of its criteria, it seeks to reveal the limitations and achievements of our representation systems using abstraction's prime matter.

This entry call is addressed to audiovisual pieces built up entirely from dots and lines. No representation whatsoever, just dots and lines as ends in themselves!"

Grid Systems in Graphic Design Josef Muller-Brockmann

Grid Systems in Graphic Design/Raster Systeme Fur Die Visuele Gestaltung. Josef Muller-Brockmann "In 1958 he became a founding editor of New Graphic Design along with R.P. Lohse, C. Vivarelli, and H. Neuburg. In 1966 he was appointed European design consultant to IBM. Müller-Brockman was author of the 1961 publications The Graphic Artist and his Design Problems, Grid Systems in Graphic Design where he advocates use of the grid for page structure, and the 1971 publications History of the Poster and A History of Visual Communication."
some reviews of the book.
Brockmann have introduced the systematic use of grids in design, his work is very concise and it should be read and took seriously by any designer. But reading just Brockmann is not enough today, there are other fundamental authors that contributed for the development of the grid system and the adaptation to the new printing methods, even the display in digital media. A good theory can't stop in time. I do recommend the Authors: Veruschka Götz, Kimberly Elam and Timothy Samara. They all are representative designers that are helping to bring Brockmann System to a reality closer to us.
Josef Müller-Brockmann was a master of grids, and presents his insightful information in a very concise, efficient manner. Second, this book is full of lots of examples, and covers a wide variety of areas relating to grids, such as how to construct a grid, using a grid in corporate identity work, using grids in the third dimension, and the use of grid-like proportions in classic paintings and architecture. He even touches on secondary issues related to grids, such as typefaces, margins, and leading. (however) - the book is very outdated. The examples mostly look like they are from the 1970s. Also, Müller-Brockmann several times talks about photo typesetting, a technology that is long forgotten in graphic design today. Although this is an important book in the development of grid systems in graphic design, there have been many developments in the last thirty years in design - this book is in both English and German, which means that there is only about half as much content as you might expect after quickly glancing through the pages of this book. However, this is a small complaint, since Müller-Brockmann is very good at giving lots of information in very little words.

ALARM

I was alarmed today when I overheard two friends talking, they were not my friends, friends with each other, one said (about skiing) "when was it we first went?"
"Oh, '95 I think."
"'95! that was 16 years ago."
"did you ever have an all in one suit?"
"Nah, 16 years ago. wow."

I was left with the wow. Wow where did they go. What happened there...

Here is a site that has collected some Iconic news pictures for memory jog, terrible name, totallycoolpix.com good site.
frightening really it is like a triple strong dose of coffee and watching CNN. the world is a puffball, a mature one that is about to explode.

RCUK

Some information for developing your heart stories... can anyone spell Resuscitation?

Terroir, earth or soil?

|I found the quote below in response to a definition to the word terroir, French use in describing the soil or earth in which vines are cultivated for the purpose of wine making. this response was I feel better that the writers original proposition, and I thought it was good that he included it on the page.
TERROIR (Fr "soil") - The ecology of a wine. The total, inter-related environment wherein a grapevine is cultivated for the purpose of making wine. Key factors include, but are not limited to, cultivar type, soil, climate, vineyard location, planting density, training system, pruning philosophy & the cultural and social milieu wherein the whole enterprise takes place.

As you can see, since I claim that "terroir" is the ecology of a wine, it follows logically that all wines will have a certain terroir.

However, certain wines reflect their ecology more than others (just like certain people reflect their "neighborhood", etc. more than others), and the terroir of these wines is therefore more clear, influential and definable than the terroir of a wine which does not clearly reflect its ecology.

In the world of wine appreciation, we say that these wines which highly reflect their ecology have a "goût de terroir". Again, to use a human cultural analogy, such wines are not unlike individuals which clearly reflect their geographic background (by virtue of their habits, dress, accent, etc.).

If I were to apply terroir to animation schools, the ground is recultivated, but is there an essence, or flavour of the terroir of a particular school? What are the defining characteristics of Bristol vs Bournemouth vs Kingston vs Brighton vs Maidstone, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds?

Not only do you need good Earth, you need good conditions to produce good fruit for a good vintage. dry and wet, sunshine. What are the conditions here that make it possible to produce consistent palatable animation? what is missing?

I asked last week for you to define an obstacle, I enjoyed the results. I am asking now for you to define the Terroir of your particular interests, and dig around to find the bones and past of why this is good earth. it is your roots, it is where you are coming from and what you are joining into that I would like you to explore.

John Truby is a writer

John Truby. Writing for film. Plot. lean, economic structures... one could do worse than checking what John truby has to say about story and plot. I do not often picth a book, but this is a good one.



"The Anatomy of Story is concrete and practical without resorting to simplistic 'Three Act Structure' screenwriting clichés. It will be an indispensable guide to writing your first great script, a perfect survival manual to help you negotiate the often confusing, contradictory and cutthroat world of professional screenwriting."

-Larry Wilson,
co-writer /co-producer of Beetlejuice and co-writer of The Addams Family

this time last year

this time last year we were launching this Developing and Exploring module for the first time. There was, for me, a great sense of adventure. There was a sense of an unknown destination. We started with a premise; and that was to traverse laterally across contemporary animation practices, and also drill down historically once arrived at a rich place that attracted the individuals interest.
the areas of animation interest do not stop at single screen projections, nor big studios and their output.

I kept a blog, the same as everyone else on the module. (and I was astonished at the depth of information available with just a bit of time, and a few synaptic leaps, and a few coincidences.

You are being given space this term. Space in which you can get to grips with your practice. it was felt that the programme did not have any space in it, and I am very happy to say that now you can get busy with developing your own practice.

up until now you have been working on exercises, group films, professional development... you have never had nothing to do.

this term. I (we the university) do not want you to do anything for me. instead I want you to do everything for yourself, (and if that remains to be nothing, so be it).
All I want you to do is log the time, and history/ route of your development and explorations.

A blog is a live object, and posts are dated. I want you to check out last years Level 2 blogs. this will be an example of the king of investigations they were on.

You are detective.

their sample blogs can be found here. the blogs, you will probably discover are mixed, engagement and depth. however they are evidencing inquiry, and all directions are self found, so they are really honest.

Um, It looks likely that the launch may have to be online.

it is looking likely that Thursdays module launch is going to be affected by local industrial action at UWE. read the article in the Western Eye here.
the Western Eye is the Student Union Paper of UWE. USU are the Union of lecturers. Unison is not having industrial action and administration affairs will not be affected.
I am preparing material tomorrow Tuesday, to distribute through blackboard on Wednesday.

UWE day of industrial action 10 Feb 2011

Academics at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol have announced they will strike over plans to restructure.
"Had they been prepared to pause their plans and allow time for both sides to sit down together and make sure the process was fair and transparent a deal may well have been reached by now.

"Unless the university gets its act together the branch will take local strike action for the first time in its history."

More NEWS here