Turner
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZTyfrg06Xc]
A couple of weeks ago I saw the above video on YouTube (redirected from a story on Digg.com at the time). Something struck me in watching and listening to Jon Turner’s testimony of his first confirmed kill in Iraq. It’s a chilling video to watch. I felt a chilling mixture of emotions in it.
In any case, the idea stuck with me the following Sunday as we played music and at one point I started coming up with a kind of picture of perhaps how Turner, or another soldier like him, might feel in any wartime situation. Perhaps I had it all wrong, as I’ve never been in combat and couldn’t hope to fully understand what one would feel in this kind of situation, but these words just sort of came out as we were jamming.
I love the tone of the music Neil and Jeremy set here. Neil has some crushingly oppressive and militant drums pounding and Jeremy’s keys feel ghostly reminiscent of some of Ray Manzarek’s darker moods with the Doors.
“Blizzard” from Akira Kurosawa’s – Dreams
This animation was inspired by one of Akira Kurosawa’s films called Dreams. I rented this from netflix and thought I would’nt watch it, and actually put it back in the mail box to be sent back. I assumed it was like every other foreign film with hard to follow subtitles. I was wrong!
Luckily, Amber pulled it out the next morning and watched it. She said that I would like it because of the photography work and that there were different short films that were all unique.  She was right, I loved it! The style was amazing.  I liked the effects the scenes had, they were like animated pictures, but without digital graphics. I had been looking for a flash project, and thought this film would be fun to edit and play around with.Â
This particular scene is called “Blizzard”. You’ll have to watch the film to get the meaning behind the scene, but I thought this particular part of the scene was fascinating. The animation was taken from a camera video recording a small T.V. I was using.  After I recorded it, I imported the video into flash and edited different frames to add more color and animation. Â
Akira Kurosawa has influenced many film directors in America. Clint Eastwood’s “A Fistful of Dollars”, is a remake of Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo”. The only real difference is that Eastwood carries pistols and Toshiro Mifune carries a sword. “The Magnificent Seven” which was another Western, is a remake of “Seven Samurai”…which coincidentally The Clash wrote a song about on their album Sandinista.  Joe loves that song. Â
Here’s a little more history behind Akira Kurosawa.
Kurosawa’s work changed significantly over time. His earlier work, during the 1950s and early 60s, was focused on the samurai archetype as saviors for people in small villages. At the time, Japan was still recovering from WWII and it was a way to give the war torn nation hope in rebuilding their country as well as some pride in their culture. These films went on to influence the American and Italian Westerns so when you watch them, you have to go in expecting a Western-type film.
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