Yo Gabba Gabba

So, until about three minutes ago, I had never seen Yo Gabba Gabba and only knew about it from you guys talking about it (so I guess everyone else has seen it, right?) From what I just looked at it is obviously really excellent, and there's some things they did that I think we could learn from. (You who know more about it could probably add to this list)

-Seamless incorporation of live video and animation (and several different kinds of animation at that)

-Simple but fun/colorful sets (looks just like what I was picturing when I commented on Ha's color post - our style could (should?) be simple, bright shapes made more interesting by adding texture, in our case via stamps.) http://yogabbagabba.com/#/come-out-and-play

-Having an online presence - okay so our whole thing is that we're gonna post these one youtube/vimeo, but we should make Imaginauts accounts on all those sites (facebook? vimeo? myspace? classmates.com?) if not an actual website (errrr too hard?) and design an Imaginauts logo / title that pops up at the beginning of the show (you know what I mean.)

-Maybe this is beyond our means, but should we have songs IN the show? maybe one song (besides opening/closing themes) per show about whatever that show's theme is? I think a lot of kids shows have that...

Pilot

Matt Notes:

Ok, so think of the first episode as your "pilot." It can be longer than the other episodes (think: "The LOST 2-Hour Season Premier Event" so it fits better into the Short-Film Category and feels less like TV. 20 minutes would be great.

I'm curious about the timing of the Film Festival. When do you submit the film? When do you find out if its accepted? I'm assuming its not a guarantee. There's a jury? Do you know what percentage of submitted films get screened? And when is the actual event?

I'd suggest trying to talk to faculty in KI and Cinema about the permissions question at the very beginning of next semester. I spoke last night about it with my contact who knows a little about this issue, but she was unsure. You should have a list of which artists/works you would want use, and how you want to use them. Try to figure this out between now and when we meet next.

Here's a link to my friend's project that you might find interesting:
http://www.vibrantfuturesmovie.com/ The website component itself is worth considering.

Also, look at the early works of Tony Oursler.
You can get these from the VCU Library:
Cabell Media and Reserves DVDs PN1995.9.E96 O853 2007 DVD Loan
Cabell Media and Reserves DVDs PN1995.9.E96 O855 2007 DVD Loan
plus any books on him.

And here is a fun animation link that Liz King just sent me:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_rifkin_on_the_empathic_civilization.html

Also, look at old episodes of:
Land of the Lost
Captain Kangaroo
Pee-Wee's Playhouse

Love These Styles

Mary and Max

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Brazil

I think it would be great to have a combination of these styles for the puppet sets! For "Mary and Max" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox," I'm mainly talking about how the backgrounds look (not necessarily the characters), and in "Brazil," I really like how all the technology looks. Having some sort of weirdo computer like that would be pretty amazing :)

Investigate!

Chalk Zone

and

The Magic School Bus!