I'm off until September 16th

Posted on 07.19.08 by Hans Van Harken

Comic Con is approaching and i'm excited. I will be leaving this Tuesday to comic con and meet up with mah buddy danomano where we will stay at a hotel together during our stay. I am very sure that i'll have more than a blast, most likely a mushroom cloud...

but, not only will i be going to "the con" but the day after i come back i will be flying to Saint Andrews in Scotland where i got a job teaching a film course to some students by Saint Andrews University. I am as excited for this opportunity as well. I love films, making them, watching them, but now i get to teach of it. Just to throw it out there (in case you didn't know) i'm not mentally unprepared when it comes to film knowledge. when i was living in spain i got a degree in film.

I'll be in Scotland for 4 or 5 weeks, and after that i fly to london and meet up with more (some already seen at comic con) NGers (also pronounced 'n***as'). This will be my second time attending the NG london meet, but i believe it's the 3rd official London meet. and again, i'm as excited to go to the london meet as i am for comic con and scotland... So basically i'm going to have this constant stream of awesomeness these next two months, which i find very cool, in fact... too cool.

http://almightyhans.newgrounds.com/news/post/149280

Posted on 07.08.08 by Hans Van Harken

Hans Van Harken (3:49:02 AM): i'm news posting this
ZekeySpaceLizard(3:49:25 AM): !

peoples brains lately work like a 3 part addition problem

this+this+this=good

i also noticed it in watching "Hancock" and i see why people don't seem to mind this excessively shaky cam lately After seeing somethign like hancock i know why it's so important to hold a shot and frame a shot right, because each shot of any movie needs to tell the viewer something, and if the director isn't clearly displaying what's going on he/she is telling me that he/she doesn't have a clear idea what to tell.

Within this massive super power fight i just pick up on:

-kick
-punch
-launch
-fly punch.

i only pick up on those things but i don't see HOW he kicks him, HOW he punches him, HOW everything is happening. i literall tried just zoning out in the theatre. there were many times, even outside of action sequences where i was just giving up and loosing my breath from the exhaustion, because of keeping my eyes in focus on these mammoth shaky close ups. So i felt experimental and just let the light flow through my eyeballs and i could actually pick up on things more. even though it was just a BUNCH of colors and blurrs telling me "kick punch kick kick fly" in a way, just zoning out and not analyzing made it easier to watch.

i'm mainly talking about the action sequences of course, although the normal sequences were just about as tiresome for me. i concluded with the fact that most people don't watch movies, they see movies.

watch: look at or observe attentively.

see: perceive with eyes.

i think there is a CAMERA MAN STRIKE or something but they just wont tell us and they're highering any average joe to pick up a camera. Seriously, i mean, what's with the constant close ups, handheld close ups that aren't even framed correctly. Close ups are used for moments of intense emotion that a director wants the actor to transmit his/her feeling directly into the souls of the audience. I don't think that 99.72% of the time during "Hancock" Hancock was experiencing some kind of extreme intense emotion at that moment relating to what's going on with his surroundings that we really needed to feel ourselves.

also, i adore handheld, but i think the nickname for it "shaky cam" gave directors the inspiration to actually intentionally shake the camera to make it obvious something is handheld. the only reason one does handheld is to have the freedom to move within the actors and place the audience almost like another character in there in the movie. but that doesn't mean you should avoid keeping the camera steady and setting clear focus points and stuff.

I've heard somewhere someone pointing out that "handheld gives movies a more realistic look because the camera acts like a human eye" I've thought about that and i actually think that a handheld (like the abusively unsteady ones lately) actually makes it more obvious that the presence of a camera man is there between the actors. simply because the fact that someone is constantly focusing, and stepping around the actors, and zooming in on unimportant things to what's going on... basically looking for you, makes it more obvious that you're looking through a camera.

I think people are mislead by the "realism" factor that a handheld camera brings, it's not because it's like a human eye, it's because documentaries mainly are shot handheld because of production values or because they might be pissing someone off by filming them so they have to run. and because documentaries are about printing truth and facts onto film, when you see a fiction shot in the same way, it gives the illusion of a documentary.

in a way, the viewers are wrapping their lips around these film maker's ass while they take a dump into their mouths, and wash down the taste with popcorn and soda. maybe twislers, too.

anyways, that's my pointless rant. I mean no offenses... yada yada :D

oh and, hancock wasn't a terrible movie. i thought it touched some interesting subjects, but the way it was filmed just didn't allow me to enjoy it. and i think at this point, it's not even a matter of taste, it's just filmed very bad. and of course, in the end this is only my opinion :)

-HVH

p.s. ZekeySpaceLizard(3:44:02 AM): hancock - charlize theron = decent

Just In Case You Haven't Noticed...

Posted on 06.27.08 by Hans Van Harken

In the Imagery section on the left menu bar, my deviantart account can be found. I've been drawing a LOT lately. There is a LOT of new content there. Lots of weird stuff, and a few adult content only stuff, and a few of personal jokes you might not get (don't confuse those with the one's that are just plain weird). But within all the bizarre I can say I'm actually surprised (or should I say, hate less) material there. So go check it out and stop reading this.











why are you still reading?

PRESS & PUNCH COLLAB WINS 7TH PLACE

Posted on 05.03.08 by Hans Van Harken

The results are in and The Press & Punch Collab won 7th place in the Pico Day competion on Newgrounds. The prize includes 500$ to be split between the authors and a shirt choice from the newgrounds store.

I also found it interesting what Tom Fulp wrote about each winning submission. This is what he wrote about ours:

"We've talked around the office about doing a feature length Pico movie this way, but Hans actually delivered by pulling together this epic Pico collab! I love the varying art styles, and choose-your-adventure interactivity!"

i know it's a little late, but Happy Pico day everyone.

PICO COLLAB HAVAHA EARLY RELEASE

Posted on 04.29.08 by Hans Van Harken

Hi everyone, just posting here to say that "The Press & Punch Collab" i organized for Pico Day on newgrouds has bee released one day early on my site. Tomorrow (april 30th, Pico Day) I will be submitting it to Newgrounds. So for now, enjoy a project that was a living hell to work through these past few days. It's the latest animation in the Movies section.

NEW CONTENT!

Posted on 04.08.08 by Hans Van Harken

Alright everybody, the PHOTOS section on the left finally links to my deviant art account. the name was changed from Photos to Imagery. AND most importantly, EXTRA CRAP is a new section on the left hand menu that will have a large collection of stuff that was never finished. basically, unofficial work. i will be uploading periodically more and more stuff to the Extra crap, i got LOADS of lost flashes i want to show to the world. and they'll all end up being there eventually.