Stop-Motion International 2

Okay, so I'm back from a long hiatus, but I made it through the semester and now and taking advantage of all the free time that I have now(that is until I have to get a second job for the summer). I want to follow up on the stop motion that I have been digging on for a while. Ivo Caprino the next fellow on my list of fascinating creators. Born in Oslo, Norway to a very creative family. He was the son of furniture builder Mario Caprino, and artist Ingeborg Gude. His mother would design puppets for a puppet theater which Ivo would assist her in making. This ended up becoming a great influence on his work in the future. He and his mother would collaborate on making puppet films from around the late 40s' up until her death in the mid sixties. Caprino received much praise and accolades for his films. He originally used an animatronic mechanism to give the puppets movements in real-time as it is shown here in the film, Karius og Baktus.



This film is based off of a story by Thorbjørn Egner about two little trolls who the title is named after. They represent Caries and Bacterium, and live the mouth of a little boy named Jens hammering away at his teeth. They just look too damn happy tearing up that poor kids mouth.

He would then later on use traditional stop-motion techniques in his later films, like in this short about lute fish.



Mmm... piping hot lute fish. I also like the bit of live-action added into the film when the food is being presented. I almost feel it was some sort of advertisement or public announcement that Caprino did. The stop motion puppets remind a bit of those that were featured by Rankin-Bass, who produced The Year Without A Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Christmas specials(Which were animated in Japan, though they are an American production company).

The movie that first grabbed my fascination with Caprino was a preview for a film called: Flåklypa Grand Prix or Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, which was based of a series of books by Kjell Aukrust. The reason why the trailer is in Japanese is because I originally was looking at the puppet animations of Kihachiro Kawamoto, and there was a link sitting right next to it. Also this is the only trailer that I've been able to find of the movie.



When I was researching the story in the film, I was interested in the main character Reodor Felgen's hobby of making Rube Goldberg type inventions. Plus he has two anthropomorphic assistants, A peppy duck named Solan, and a pessimistic hedgehog named Ludvig. I haven't looked into it heavily yet, but I noticed these two things remind me of Wallace and Grommit. One wonders if this movie had any influence on Nick Park at all. I save that thought for another post.

-Seph

Stop-motion international

I found some of these videos by accident when I was on youtube and it turned out to be one of the most amazing revelations that I came upon. These are stop motion animation clips from Japan by the director Kihachiro Kawamoto. I didn't know anything about him before, but after reading up on his history I find his work to be even more defining to the world of stop-motion animation.

His works are tight! Not only was a pioneer in Japan's stop-motion animation movement, but he also learned under the great Czech puppet master Jiri Trnka. Trnka convinced Kawamoto to return to Japan and incorperate influences from his traditional culture in with his work. Which is why you can see the use of Noh, Kabuki, and Bunraku puppetry in his craft. I totally dig on his work. This here is a trailer for "Book of the Dead" or "Shisha no Sho".




This one here is "The Demon"

Boomerang retrospect

Currently I'm in Purgatory sitting things out and washing away my sins, and the foolishness that I have had over my head for awhile. I have had nothing, but personal anguish that has dominated my soul for the past few years. I have been eaten away day by day and have had every bit of eloquence, articulation, and wit driven out of my spirit. I guess that maybe it's the issue with my surroundings creating the null and void enviroment that saps my strength and ambition that I had before (gotta work on that proposal). If you are not embraced with the right amount of affection, why do you wittle your mind away with cheap diversions until even the slightest amount of resonance from them is erased out yourself (whatever one of those are). Everyone wants to be with someone whether it is at a max or min state.

I should have seen it before, and understood long time ago. But instead so mired in my own cerebral muck, I didn't pay much attention to the transformation or domesticated complacency that is created from a union of comfort. I have been there before, and how sweet every moment in that bubble of emotional warmth. It is an Aegis to the worlds bullshit. How amazing is that? And in doing so it gives you a feeling of perhaps there is more to this than you were getting before from this world. And maybe everything that you used know, was a waste. However after awhile you want to evade the enveloped warmth. It leaves you muggy and breathless for a while.

It used to be fun and progressive. However my fire inside has been retarded to only a puny flame. Redundancy has become my Emperor, and apathy the empire. It's kind of sad how everything has become. I spit at the digression, but my tongue is dry. I wasted saliva on things that have no point, only due to the fear of drowning in it. Like a dinghy that has popped a hole, the water must be constantly poured out, or I will sink. My diversions used to be tools for me. What happened? the Leviathan of mundanity swallowed me with itself. Now I am only a cliched tragedy, and I am not pleased with it. Build yrself.

Peace.

Catharsis Exercise I

I am not the type of person that I would use this as a place to express my feelings. However I have a lot of things that I need to let out, and I spend more time online than I do putting words in my notebooks. Of course I will not be using this as a testimony of all of my problems, and will express only things that I deem necessary to be put out in the public. Everything will also be discussed in a vague manner.

I don't put these things out here as cry for help, but just to make myself feel good about the problems that I'm going through. So for these early blogs, I apologize to anyone if they were looking for something great, and not the inner rantings born of someones own emotional suppressions. And when this blog grows, perhaps there will be no use to keep this on here.

I don't look for pity I am just trying to figure things out for myself, and one method is to let out what is going inside of me. This also works out as practice for me to get back into writing.

Peace

¡Bienvenidos, muchachos!

Welcome to "The Incredible Junction"! Forgive for all that metaphysical rambling that was the first entry, but I just needed to hype myself with some words of confidence. You know how it is, though. You just just get caught up in the moment. Anyways this is the place for ideas, art, news, politics, music, food, random amusement, and as I eloquently put it "personal shit". I'm not afraid to ramble my feelings on things, it's because it what I do best. If you have comment, disagreements, challenges, or just anything that you would like for me to be introduced to... Please by all means, do it! Your attention is my attention. -Peace!

I am persistant in my existence, therefore I am existent in my persistance.

I am just making way for my brand new posting. This is not the first blog, nor is this the last. I have come to create and build myself in best way possible. I'm here to have fun and hopefully inspire others as they do for me. I dunno what else to say, except I am estatic about this new formation of self. Anyways, I know I am being a bit too existential for my own good, so I will stop myself while I'm ahead. In the meantime enjoy what is to become of this blog. Peace!!!!!!!!!!!!