R.G Smithson Stuff: been a while...

Hello,

yes it has been 2 months since i posted anything, :/

But in the mean time that means i got plenty of tales to tell, including finishing my semester at university.

Been right great up 'ere in Stoke, met some great people, had some drunken nights out and tried some rock climbing :), never thought I would ever do that.

Anyway, i have also finished my main project of work, the 'Flour sack' animation. This was really a good exercise in bringing an inanimate object to life, geddit cos its animation :P.

so there it is, 3 weeks of work. I do have issues with it, like i would reanimate the tag, but I am pleased with the end result. Hopefully I'll get a good grade for it.

And so Christmas came around, great to be back at home with family and friends. The strange thing is that nobody changes, it's like you have never left. But yer it was a good xmas day, got loads of socks and pants, some Superdry swag and Silent Running on blu-ray.

This is a film that is purely sci-fi, it's in space, set in the future, has robots and deals with an issue of humanity. Its a bit like 2001, except a bit more preachy, especially about nature and earth. But nonetheless, it is a worthy sci-fi classic. It was directed Douglas Trumbull, a major vfx god that worked on blade runner and close encounters. Interestingly his latest stuff can be seen on 'Tree of Life', where the majority of the scenes in space were done practically using paint in water. It's cleaned up in Nuke, but the effect works well and is a very inventive idea.

Another film I saw over xmas was The Artist, a truly magnificent film that is totally silent, well there is sound at the end, but the charm of the film is that it is a modern silent film. It recalls all the magic of 20's cinema, Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle and Lloyd. The story is very much about the demise of a silent cinema, with the main character losing his fame and fortune to sound. The film has so much genius moments, most of which are occupied by a jack russell terrier whose real life name is Uggie. He practically steals the motion picture.