Remastered

Recently in the gaming industry, there's been a trend towards remastering video games. Remastering a video game is the process of updating an old video game's graphics to get it closer to modern standards. Some examples of this are the trio of Playstation 2 games that were released on the Playstation 3: Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper. The most recent example of this happening, though, is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

For those that don't know, Skyrim was a popular game released on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2011. The game was beautiful when it was released, blowing its predecessor out of the waters in terms of visual quality. Now, though, five years later, we have a new version of the game with updated graphics, all of the downloadable content, and a new feature: mods. I picked up the game over the weekend, and it got me thinking on whether this is a good thing or not.

Personally, I love these remastered versions of games. The aforementioned game Sly Cooper was one of my favorite games growing up. I don't play the Playstation 2 any more, though, and on top of that, I sold my copy of the game a long time ago. Luckily, they remastered the game for Playstation 3 some years ago, allowing me to keep playing one of my favorite games. This, I believe, is a huge benefit of remastering.

But there's still a problem with remastering. Some argue that remastering old games is a lazy gimmick performed by game creators to make a cheap buck. Yes, they polish up the graphics, but most of the game is already complete, allowing developers to get away with selling again a game they already sold once. One of my friends told me that he wouldn't buy the new version of Skyrim since the old one worked just fine, and honestly, I would've agreed with him if it weren't for the added bonus of all the downloadable content being in the new version.

All in all, I think that remastering is a fine line to walk. Some companies will, of course, abuse the process for the sake of making a cheap buck. But I think it can be a good process for those of us who love older video games. In fact, a new version of Final Fantasy VII is coming out next year. The original game is for the original Playstation, and the graphics are not just outdated, but distractingly bad. Many are hoping that this new game will fix that problem. We'll see.

An Unusual Style

WARNING: I am going to mention some stuff in this article that could be considered offensive such as ninjas, sex, and parties. This is all for the sake of discussing music videos, though.

As we were talking about music videos today, one band popped into my head, and it's not one that many people might think of. I thought of the band Ninja Sex Party, otherwise known as NSP. NSP is a comedy band that has made quite the living for itself on the internet. They didn't start off with a lot or renown or money, so when they decided to make their first music video (I Just Wanna Dance), they had to use low-budget tactics to pull off a funny video. They succeeded, and since then, they have kept up this tendency for low-budget effects for the sake of comedic effect.

These low-budget videos have helped the goal of NSP. The running joke of the band is that Danny Sexbang (the lead singer) thinks he's a stud while no one else does. The purposely crappy effects add to this, and you get the sense that Danny is as doofy as the effects. The hand-made effects, crappy green screens, and silly props help the band's purpose, which is to get laughs.

I just wanted to point this out because we see so many bands that have high-budget videos like the second OK GO video we watched today. But sometimes, videos like the first OK GO video are more enjoyable. I think NSP manages to latch onto this feeling of authenticity because we know they're being silly and fake. They're clear about what is fake and what is reals. This allows the audience to feel like it's authentic, like we have some kind of insider information.

If you're okay with swearing, sex jokes, and various other inappropriate gags, I recommend that you check them out on Youtube. If you don't like those things, you might not want to check them out. Regardless, I think NSP makes some very interesting videos that manage to hit a chord with its audience.

Mistakes and Pixar

"Be wrong as fast as you can." I love Andrew Stanton's motto, and I love even more that we can see Pixar playing this out. Honestly, I was absolutely terrified by the baby in the short "Tin Toy." But because of that short, we see the beginnings of Toy Story. In addition, we can see how "Geri's Game" helped Toy Story 2 have better looking humans. But we talked about all that in class. Another one I thought of was how Pixar made a short called "Mike's New Car" in 2002. This short used the main characters from Monsters Inc., Mike and Sully, to showcase a silly situation where Mike gets a new car. I wonder if they were thinking about the movie Cars, which ended up being released in 2006, while they made this short. They could have been in the early process of making Cars. Maybe they wanted to play around with animation models for cars while the future movie was still in its infancy. I could be completely wrong, but I think it's interesting to think about. Regardless, I think it's interesting that they are using these shorts, which certainly have a shorter development cycle than a full length movie, to help figure out aspects of future movies.

Women in Animation: Rebecca Sugar

Before we finish with our discussion on women in animation, I would like to highlight Rebecca Sugar. As I've mentioned on this blog before, I love the show Steven Universe. This show is inspirational, beautiful, and wonderfully made. None of that would be possible, though, without the tireless work of Rebecca Sugar.

For those who don't know, Rebecca Sugar is the creator of Steven Universe. When the show first went on the air in 2012, Rebecca became the first ever female to create a show for Cartoon Network. Before her, no woman had made a show by herself for the network. For an industry that was incredibly male dominated, this was a huge breakthrough.

Besides simply creating a show, she has brought up many important issues in both Steven Universe and Adventure Time, a show that she worked on as a writer for some years. Through both of these shows, she has discussed hard topics such as abandonment, lesbianism, and self-deprecation. Because of her work in bringing up these controversial issues, children's television has skewed away from being lighthearted and silly. Instead, many cartoons now work to be funny yet deep in some way. Personally, I think this is a great change.

So, let's give it up to Rebecca Sugar. She has paved a way for females to have a much bigger hand in mainstream animation than ever before. I wouldn't be surprised if more shows with female creators started popping up in the near future.

Challenging Stories Pt. 2

Continuing on, Steven Universe also deals with abandonment. Early on in the show, there isn't much talk of Steven's mom beyond a couple of passing mentions, and everyone acts happy. As the show develops, though, we see that everything is not as peachy as it seems. As the story goes, Rose Quartz (Steven's Mom) gave up her physical form so that Steven could be made. Because of this, Steven is half-Gem and half-human. At first, everyone seems to just be happy that Steven is there, but the cracks start to show as each episode rolls by. The Crystal Gems clearly have no leader in their group. Garnet seems to be the leader at first, but it is revealed that she isn't as cool and collected as her even-keel demeanor suggests. On top of that, Steven clearly shows that he has some emotional issues that haven't been resolved when it comes to his mother. There's a humorous scene in the episode "Steven Floats" where Steven is trying to think of something that makes him happy. An image of his mom pops up, and he pushes it off the screen, declaring that those feelings are too complicated. Finally, the impact is seen most in the character of Pearl. It's revealed that Pearl loved Rose beyond the simple respect and admiration of the others. Pearl wanted nothing more in life than to please Rose. So with Rose gone, Pearl is shown to be broken and even occasionally emotionally unstable. Steven Universe takes us through the struggles that each character has with missing Rose, and it's kinda incredible.

Lastly, I would like to look at the self-worth aspect of the show. One of my favorite characters in the show is Steven's best friend Connie. When she is first introduced, Connie is portrayed as a loner. Steven, though, sees her at a parade one day, watching as she drops her glowing bracelet. A year later, Steven returns the bracelet to her, and they become friends. Very quickly, it is revealed that Connie has no other friends besides Steven. Her parents are very demanding of her, and she clearly has a lot of self-worth issues. The episode "Sworn to the Sword" shows Connie learning sword fighting so that she can be of some use to Steven. That's the whole reason she learns sword fighting, and it's heartbreaking. She starts distancing herself from Steven, trying to be a tool for him. The episode wraps up with Steven and Connie fighting side-by-side as Steven tells Connie that they need to work together as equals. Connie's struggles don't conclude at the end of this episode, though. She still deals with these issues as the show moves along. But we can see them getting better. I think this is huge because self-worth issues don't resolve themselves over night. They take time.

In the end, I love Steven Universe because it deals with these hard issues. I feel every ounce of pain that Steven and the Crystal Gems deal with. There is an emotional connection that you can feel because you are watching real problems that we all deal with. There are very few people who haven't dealt with some combination of loss, negative self-worth, abandonment, or sexual identity. And those aren't the only issues that the show deals with; those are just the ones I'm pointing out here. I believe that other shows should take note of what Steven Universe does with its characters. I agree with Professor Leeper; we need more animation that deal with tough issues.

Challenging Stories Pt. 1

As many know, I adore the show Steven Universe. This is one of my two favorite shows of all time, the other being Adventure Time. When Leeper was talking today about stories that should be challenging, well, the first thing that came to mind for me was Steven Universe. Throughout the show, the creators deal with tough social, personal, and emotional issues.

The first issue that the show deals with, which is the most obvious, is the aspect of lesbianism. Although in the show's cannon the Crystal Gems (Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl) are genderless, they still have the appearance and social cues often associated with women. In fact, all of the Gems that exist, that we know of, have a feminine form. So, when two gems are romantic with each other, as is seen in the show, it is often portrayed like a lesbian relationship. This caused a lot of controversy when the show first came out, but I actually like that the show portrays lesbianism in a safe environment where there is no right or wrong association. The show never really comments on whether lesbianism is right or wrong. It just lets you decide, and I think that it is good to expose kids (with their parents watching as well) to facts of life that the children will come into contact with. The kids and parents should then work out together what they think is right or wrong.

Another issue that the show deals with is the concept of doing too much for others. This is a strange one that society is starting to be more concerned with. In the episode "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service" (a direct homage to Miyazaki's film), Steven loses sleep every night from helping his friend Kiki deal with her problems. This ends up in the Steven's life getting progressively worse. As the episode wraps up, Steven helps Kiki to work through her own problems without using Steven to fix everything for her. This episode is really incredible because we don't often talk about self-care in today's media. Yet, Steven Universe discusses how you can't truly help others unless you're taking care of yourself. 

To be continued...

Sound in Media

As I mentioned in class today, I love the sound effect that Co Hoedeman used for the ladybug's walking in "Tchou Tchou." The sound of rhythmic cymbals as the ladybug moved made me happy, but why? Probably, I was naturally attuned to the sound because I love music. In addition, I played in Jazz band in middle school, so the somewhat jazzy cymbal beat likely brought up good memories there. But I think there might have been another reason.

Maybe this is just me, but I felt like the cymbal beat was appropriate for the ladybug. In nature, we don't hear cymbals whenever a ladybug walks by. I think we all know that. Still, the cymbals sounded chaotic yet controlled, similar to how the ladybug's legs were moving. It was a beautiful example of music hitting a (excuse the pun) chord with the actions that we were seeing.

I think that music is really important for animation like this. When sound effects stand out (for a good reason), they can enhance the experience ten-fold. If the only sound that came from the scurrying ladybug was a slight shuffle, I might not have even noticed. But because the ladybug's movements were given life by the jazzy cymbals, I enjoyed myself even more. More often than not, these little sound effects are overlooked, but I hope that we can at least appreciated Co Hodeman for his excellent use of sound in this short animation.

Children's Media

Why is children's media often better than adult media? I understand that the previous statement is a loaded, biased question, but for many people, it is very accurate. Take a trip through Youtube for a while, and you will find an entire genre of people showing off their obscure toys, obscure children's animated shows, and even obscure video games. Youtube makes a killing off of adults looking at children's media. Many of these adults make fun of children's media, but many more praise it, looking at shining examples of the past.

One group I would like to point out is animation. I'm going to talk about mainstream animation since I don't know much of the animation that we watch in class. Sorry, Professor Leeper. Now, back to my point, we can see that there is a strong animation business among the three main networks Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney channel. Shows such as Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, and a very recent show Loud House are all enjoyable cartoons designed for kids that appeal to adults. 

What do we see from adult animation, though? We see a couple of shows that have had long runs such as South Park, Family Guy, and the Simpsons. These shows are more geared towards teenagers and adults. These shows have been running a long time, and I believe that their long runs belies the ability of these shows to connect with people on some level. But all of those shows are rather old now. Of the list of cartoons I made above, the earliest one was 2010. The youngest show in that list of adult shows is Family guy, which started in 1999. Since then, there have been a couple of good adult animated shows that have come and gone, but I don't see a lot of adult shows that are keeping their audiences when it comes to animation.

Why is this? I think it has to do with the fact that we can relate to a lot of these children's shows, even when they are in ridiculous settings. Many of us experienced trouble growing up with siblings (Gravity Falls), romantic feelings (Adventure Time), and living up to other's expectations (Steven Universe). We can relate to those things. But most of these adult shows, when it comes to animation, seem to be about humor or shock value. Shock value and humor can get you a large audience, but the shocking nature of a show goes away once it's established. When South Park makes fun of anything, we write it off as just South Park being South Park. South Park has managed to be progressively more shocking in their humor, but other shows haven't managed as well.

So, I guess this is more of a personal opinion than a stated fact, but I think that cartoons for kids end up being better for adults than adult cartoons. Many children's cartoons explore deep emotional issues in ways that few adult cartoons attempt. Now, I am talking from an American animation standpoint since I know that there is a larger audience for adult cartoons in Japan. Anime often explores these issues in more adult settings, but for the sake of this post, I think that American animation tends to have better children's media than adult media. What do you think?

Beauty

I never realized how many kinds of animation there are. I had some notion of the different types of animation with such things as stop motion and hand drawn. But I was amazed watching both sand animation and optical film printing. These types of animation were fascinating. Norman McLaren and Caroline Leaf had something I've never seen before. Seeing these animation styles I had never seen before now have me thinking.

There are so many types of animation, and they all can speak to us on a deep level. As I mentioned in the Q&A time, I was nearly brought to tears by "Father and Daughter." I don't know the person who made these films, I don't know the backgrounds of the characters, and I don't know why this film gets to me. But it does. I feel for the daughter who is waiting on her father's return. And I wouldn't feel the same about this story if I saw it in live action.

I like Dr. Leeper's response to my question about why this happens. He said that we feel emotionally closer due in some part to a distance that we get from watching something we know isn't real. Animation isn't real life. Sorry for breaking the illusion, but animation simply isn't real. We know this. Yet we feel something of a kinship with this illusion. I think it's because we see a shadow of what's real. In watching "Father and Daughter," I realize that I've never been a young girl who lost her father. But I have felt loss, and seeing that in an unfamiliar way sparks something in me.

And I think this is key. We don't hear what is said to us on a daily basis. Daily events don't often affect us since we build a tolerance to them. But when we see something that is new and unnatural, we tend to pay more attention. We notice things that are shocking and different. Animation is just such an unnatural occurrence. Maybe that's why shows like Steven Universe and Adventure Time have such a big impact on us.

Bunnies, Death, and Subtlety

So, I've been thinking about the short film that we watched on Tuesday. If anybody wasn't there, we watched the short film "Bunny" by Blue Sky studios. If you haven't seen it, you should really try and find it. For those who were there on Tuesday, though, I wanted to talk about the titular character's life by herself.

It was heartbreaking. I'm going to admit this right here and now: I nearly shed tears watching the short films on Tuesday. I have always been very emotional, and all of the short films tugged at my heart strings. But seeing the momentary glimpse of the bunny looking at the picture of herself and her husband got to me. It was really short, even if the moth flying into the picture did emphasize the scene. But in that brief second, I could see so much heartbreak and sadness.

But then we see something beautiful at the end. I loved seeing the picture change after the bunny flew off into the great beyond. Again, the scene was short, but being able to see the deceased husband hold the newly deceased main character touched me. In these scenes, nothing was said. Nothing was said in the entire short. But we understood what was happening. This is how you should handle media. I don't believe that every form of media should be silent, but what I do think is that we need to learn how to say more with less. These two scenes I mentioned were very short, small snippets of the larger film. But I remember them clearly days later. So, if anyone is in this class hoping to make some form of media, think about how this short kept its message short, yet impactful.

Fairy Tales and Fairy Tail

For those who don't know, Fairy Tail is an anime that follows a guild of magic users who try to get work doing odd jobs for those who need help. Here's a picture of the guild's symbol, a fairy with a tail: 

Why do I bring this up, beyond the similar names? Well, I just thought it would be interesting to talk about how the show Fairy Tail owns up to the concept of a fairy tale. To begin, the show starts with Lucy Heartfilia, one of the show's protagonists, looking to join the guild. She starts off by telling Natsu, a character that she runs into, that she doesn't necessarily know how to join the guild, though. A series of events occur in the first episode that result in Lucy helping Natsu to fight a man impersonating a famous Fairy Tail member. At the end of the episode, the imposter is revealed to have been impersonating Natsu, who is actually a Fairy Tail member. Lucy is then invited to join the guild, ending the first episode.

For the sake of this post, I would like to look at two aspects of a fairy tale: the looking in the dark and the transformative nature. In this first episode, Lucy is clearly in the dark. She has no idea that the person that she's interacting with is exactly the sort of person that can help her achieve her goals. Throughout the show after this first episode, there is a similar feeling of being lost in the dark. The formula for the show is that some great evil arises that threatens life, the members of Fairy Tail seem to be defeated, and then at the last second, there is some sort of reversal of fortunes. In almost every arc of the show, there is some form of looking around in the dark, some form of uncertainty, similar to many fairy tales.

In addition to the above point, I think there is a transformative nature in Fairy Tail. When I watch the show, I get a real sense that the Fairy Tail guild is a large family. Natsu and Lucy continually look out for each, and that's not even mentioning the plethora of other characters the show introduces. Everyone acts as a family, and for someone who has always struggled with feeling alone, it shows that there can be a unity among like-minded individuals.

In the end, I think that Fairy Tail could be considered a sort of modern day fairy tale. But there are also other points to be considered. Although there is a striving in the dark, you also get the sense that the Fairy Tail guild often understands what it has to do to succeed. I think there's a point that could be argued that Fairy Tail isn't actually a Fairy Tail. What do you think?

Colors in a Grey World

Today, we continued discussing tragedy. During our discussion, we talked about the movie Pleasantville. In that movie, from what I can tell (I haven't seen it), everything is in black and white. But really, though, the movie is in grey. Color seemed to be of utmost importance, but it also seemed to be something to hide from others. Bud's mom hid her color from everyone around her, trying to herself from seeming strange.

Sadly, that's where our class time ended. I don't know what happened after that, but I hope that Bud's mom ended up showing her color. So many of us try to hide who we truly are from the rest of the world. I think that's a true tragedy. Everyone was created by God with something unique, something interesting, something exciting. Our differences are not divisions. I believe that life is like a big puzzle. The wholes in my life can be filled by someone else, and the wholes in someone else's life can be filled by me. In a world that tries to get us to look grey, we should show what makes us different proudly.

Now, on a quick side note, I understand that society has this big kick on everyone being themselves right now. That's pretty standard in media, but the media wants us to be different in the same ways more often than not. It's interesting to look at people who have "unique" hairstyles that look very similar to famous celebrities or internet personalities. That's just a quick thought, though.

How We Fight Sadness

Loss is hard. When you lose something or someone that means a lot to you, most people don't know what to do. In my own case, I've never understood what it meant to face your failures. Despite this, Dr. Leeper said today that we can't ignore our failures and hardships. I agree. We shouldn't avoid our problems, but that leaves me with a problem. I don't know what it looks liked to fight through sadness.

This brings me to the point I brought up in class today. I mentioned that I don't want others to feel the pain that I feel. This is because talking about it often doesn't help. I feel better usually, but that doesn't often last long. Really, when I talk about my personal pains and sorrows, I don't want others to really know what hurts me. I've seen how hurt my friends have been when I've discussed my fears and failures. It's not a welcome sight.

Yet the problem remains that I do talk about my pain. I do share what hurts me in my daily life. In fact, I often look out for new people who I can trust. But why do I do this? I'm not really sure. We often say that humans are social creatures, and we use that as the reason for why we discuss our problems. I don't entirely know if I buy that. I think there might be something more to it. So, not just for the sake of the class but for my own sake as well, what does the class think? Why do we want to tell others our pains and troubles?

"Captain" Nick Berry

So, I do not actually have a picture of myself wearing a captain's hat, so I will have to live with my eternal shame. Instead, I would like to post this picture of myself holding a Torchic from Pokemon:

Needless to say, I am what one might call a nerd or a geek, whichever you prefer. That's enough about that, though (for now). I am from the far away land that is locally known by the name "Fort Wayne, Indiana." I grew up there and have lived there every year of my life. Currently, I'm a Junior, so that adds up to 20 years living in "Fort Fun."

After graduating high school, I decided to become an English Writing major because I'm that weird kid who likes grammar. Luckily, I also love shows like this one:

 

and this one:

 

So I'm happy to learn a bit more about DMA.

Hopefully, I'll be an editor one day. Like I mentioned, I love grammar, but I also really love stories. Stories are my passion, and I want to see more good ones brought to the public eye. Maybe I'll be able to edit a famous novel. Who knows? I've also thought a bit about looking into trying to write for an animated series, but that's somewhat of a recent thought/pipe dream. Either way, I'm excited to have this opportunity to learn more about the Digital Media Arts. 

For your viewing pleasure, here's me with a bunch of plushies: