Django Zane Somera is a 14 year-old 9th grader in LASA, who wrote the story about live theater productions, specifically the stage and how it affects the experience of those watching, for the Ezine. His favorite hobby is rock climbing as “it’s fun and scary”. Django also constructed the infographic titled “The Top 9 Highest Grossing Broadway productions.” which (as it is aptly named) shows the highest grossing broadway productions ever.
Aviva is 15 years old that studies at LASA high school. She wrote her feature story about “The complex world of cartoons” which is about creating cartoons/animation in general and the entire process of it in general. She doesn’t have any specific plans after high school but she does want to go to college. She also created the ASF titled “Captivating Cartoons”, which is a survey about Lasa highschooler’s favorite cartoons.
In Liberal Arts and Science Academy Giovanni is a freshman. Gio has always been an inside person who loved watching films and has always been interested in how the people were leading these actors into making the movie so amazing. Giovanni has created the pages that involve film directors which are pages 10 through 15. Giovanni also created the “Films and Film directors… Oh my” infographic that talks about some of the most hated films.
Cruz is a freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy. Cruz has always loved being outside and inside watching movies and loves the science behind them. Cruz wrote the pages about “The Exploding part of the Movie Industry: Special and Visual effects in the visual business of cinema”. He also did the infographic Movie madness. In the future Cruz is thinking about getting some type of engineering degree so he can become an engineer.
We have worked hard on this Digital magazine and we hope that you enjoy it but before you read it there are some things that we need to say first. There were lots of people that were involved in this magazine with interviews and it would be amazing if you went and researched some of them because they are some amazing people.
Anyways our magazine consists of lots of information with different parts of the film and acting industry, when we were trying to put the magazine together there was lots of effort put into creating the transcripts and finding important things that our interviewees have said. In addition there was lots of effort put into our infographics(the images that were created with the digital programs that we used). “We worked our A***S off to make this magazine,” Giovanni Alejo-Aguilar, one of the editors of this magazine.
We all hope that you enjoy reading this and we hope that you can learn something from reading this as well.
Photo by Django Somera
Photo by Jack Warden
By Cruz Crowley
a
ce Ventura the pet detective sits in a rhinoceros waiting for his time to strike watching his prey, he does anything to keep animals safe. He comes stretching and pulling to get his head out of a mechanical rhino, and then he finally gets the rest of his body out. Wonderful scenes like this in movies would not be possible without the help of special and visual effects experts.
The visual and special effects industry is always
changing and it sparks in interest in those who pursue it.. Special and visual effects have a multitude of roles in the movie industry and in everyday advertisements such as exploding cars and changing the sky’s colors.There is a difference between visual and special effects though.
Jon Merrifield, a visual effects supervisor in the Austin area, worked on many different projects from commercials to music videos; and believes that both special and visual effects are important but play very different roles.
“But it’s not the actual post production visual effects that you would think of, you know, when you see all the CG work and such,” Merrifield said.
He explained the difference between visual effects and special effects is that visual effects, like computer generated images (CG), happen mostly in the post production stage with footage that has already been taken. Special effects on the other hand is really making things for the set and making explosions on set while the actors are acting.
With visual effects there are certain things that need to happen in post production, explained Eran Dinur, a special effects supervisor who has worked on movies like Transformers and the Wolf of Wall street.
“There’s a lot of challenges,” Dinur said. “The most challenging part of visual effects I think is the magic. Because like any good magic, you don’t want the tree to be seen.”
This explains a little more about what visual effects actually is because it is a challenging profession and also visual effects aren’t really supposed to be seen if they’re good because they are just changing lighting and other effects that we would expect to already be there.
Special effects are different
This picture was taken by
The truck was on a movable stand for a commercial displaying how you can buy cars easier now.
effects supervisorfrom this because it is on the set and the actors most of the time need to interact with the effect. In an
interview from Bob Trevino, a special effects supervisor in the central area of Texas incharge of his own special
“I tell people that we get paid to do what made our parents mad when we were kids, you know, we get to play in the mud in the rain with fire and we make fire, we make huge messes. We do stuff that if we were five, we would be put in timeout for.”
Bob Trevino, special
effects company.
“You get this actor’s reaction this way. Like sometimes they would even go so far as to not do blanks and a gun and these sort of physical interactions that the actors can act from, or the crew or they could see how it interacts physically with the world around it.”
He explained the actors try to make their acting better with every stunt that they do.
Also in the special effects industry there are a lot of things that the job requires from making imploding metals to making prosthetics for a fake rhinoceros and the job can be super hilarious. Special effects have been used in many different scenarios, Bob Travino had done many with the movie Ace Ventura When Nature Calls, a Jim Carrey film.
“Every take there was like a plate that was bolted on the rhino’s butt, but it was made just like latex rubber so you can go squeezing out,” Trevino said. “It was hard. I was in the summer of 95. It was super hot. And so I go in after each take inside the mechanical Rhino, and change out that plate to a new rubber plate, and then he would, you know, crawl out and do his thing.”
Special effects are used regularly in the film industry and that isn’t changing anytime soon even with all the advancements that are being made to improve the visual effects industry and other things that you think might be starting to replace it.
Slogans are used alot in the movie business and Travino said that this was the best way to describe his industry.
“I tell people that we get paid to do what made our parents mad when we were kids, we get to play in the mud, in the rain with fire, you know, we make huge messes. We do stuff that if we were five, we put in timeout for. So it’s definitely a fun job.”
Even though he said this he also said that there are also some downsides with
This picture was taken by Jon Merrifield. For a different commercial what was displaying the visual effects for preperations that people think that they need to do.
Photo taken by Bob Trevino. This is a motercycle that he created for the movie Alita Battle Angles.this industry.“It is not a bad career,” Trevino said. “But it’s inconsistent, you have no idea where your next job is coming from. It’s a challenge that way. So it’s, I don’t want to call it unstable, but it is kind of unstable, unpredictable.”
While he was talking he said that he studied electrical engineering so he was able to have a backup plan when he didn’t have a project to work on. He also said that some of his co-workers that he had done projects with are plumbers and have other jobs so they can fall back on a more stable job.
The film industry is always growing and improving so that means that there will be more cooler and more amazing special effects and visual effects. Their jobs in the industry are a huge part of what keeps some people entertained. Visual effects are used in almost every created thing that is a video because it is mainly the process where the stuff in the film gets changed by someone going back and changing a feature that can’t really be changed in the moment. With this information there are many things that are similar but they each play important roles in the cinematic industry.
When it comes to the visual and special effects industry and the jobs that it provides, Trevino explained there is
This is a Divise that makes it look like the actor is throwing up though the tube that connects to the container and that stores the vomit like substance.
This was a higly intense scene that used a motrecycle to make the scene more realistic and more fast pased. Photo taken
no better place to be.
“I mean, in other departments it is very necessary to keep up with changing technology and they do have a lot of fun,”
Trevino said. “My job is more fun because we get to do everything a kid would want to do. It’s a hard department to beat. It really is. I really enjoy it.”
by Bob Trevino. Photos taken by Bob Trevino
By Django Somera
ou’ve bought tickets to the new play and start driving down excitement buzzing in your head. The 15 minutes go by faster and faster as you approach the theatre. You show your tickets to the usher and as you step into the theatre you are greeted by the stage with all its lights and mountains. You see a tower in the back
right and you wonder how it may be used in the coming show. You take your seat and are even more exhilarating than before. The room darkens and the play begins.
There is a lot that needs to be taken into consideration when
constructing a set. Sets need to keep the illusion of the show and to somewhat act as a fourth wall. Even though it holds so much importance it is often overlooked.
Natalie George, a set designer, elaborates on its importance.
“There are still some theaters that incorporate a curtain that sort of shields or hides the set,” George said, “or the audience is seated. But most of the time, that’s not true, you actually walk in and see the set first thing, so I think it’s really important to give the feeling of a journey.”
George explained first impressions are important for the show. Not only is that their first introduction to the show and will alter how they continue to perceive the show, Alex Rockey, a student of set design at
UT, said it also gives that layer of excitement and wonder how they’ll use the set.
“We had a set piece that was this giant topiary,” Rockey said, “that was looking at prom balloons.
And we all loved it. But it’s one of the things where it’s like we didn’t need to tell the story. All we needed was a door in that scene and there was this realization that some set pieces, and props weren’t needed.”
“I think of a set as context for, the action and the intent of the playwright , for the drama, for the emotional tenor, for what’s going on.” Elaine Jacobs, set designer.
He explained the importance of set design and how it’s important in some regards but also how some shows don’t need it.
“I think of a set as context for, the action and the intent of the playwright f, for the drama, for the emotional tenor, for what’s going on.” Said Elaine Jacobs, a set designer based in Austin. She continues and talks about the play she was working on
(Shining City) dealt with feelings of grief and sadness and she used the set to exemplify these themes.
“There’s a lot in the dialogue, it tells that all these people are guilt ridden. Guilt is a big thing, from my reading throughout the script. They all have different things that they’re feeling guilt ridden about. But it’s also set in Dublin, Ireland, a lot of Catholics there, the church as a whole. … So there’s all these overtones. There’s a directive in the script that talks about that, often the distance behind
the windows, we can see spires for church. There’s these crosses back there looming, and sort of being part of this guilt ridden thing.”
“It’s important to hide those places where the actors come from.” says George.
Set design is an effective tool to keep the 4th wall, the separation of reality and the show, to keep that thin veil that it’s only a production. Set design works beautifully with this by not only making people look away from the points that ruin the illusion but also can hide where the actors come from and things similar.
“I think to a certain extent, a set really, if it’s working well, it’s not really being noticed.” Says Jacobs. “It’s not attracting so much attention that you lose sight of the action and the words and what the playwright is trying to get across.”
George shared this sentiment saying “You just don’t want it to, overtake the costumes and take people’s focus away. My college mentor always told me that the best review was to never get mentioned, because that meant that you served the play in the right way.”
A set is important to draw attention to the actors and the story,
not itself. George said how tricky of a line it is to toe and how there isn’t much outside praise when you found that perfect mix of unnoticeable and drawing the attention to the show.
“I think it starts with the story that’s being told, and what needs to be conveyed to support that story.” Says George.
Set design isn’t really its own entity; it’s just an extension of the story being told. That could really extend to the entire play. The lights, the actors, everything, and everyone are just showing the audience the story in a different way; just like how set design supports the story.
The room darkens once again as the actors take their bow and the audience jumps out of their seats in applause. The lights come on and the stage is blank without the questions it once had. You leave after a very eventful night looking back at the tower feeling a smug satisfaction of knowing how it was used.
Inside knowledge on what film directos do
or a movie not to be a financial failure or for the movie not to be bad quality because.
A movie’s biggest fear is to be criticized by just the smallest details such as if the CGI is generally bad on one scene or if it had insufficient editing on some clips of the movie. But this page is not here to criticize the films, it is here to talk about
the people behind the films, the people that make the films as good as they can be. I bet you know this by now film directors so be prepared.
Well maybe you are an impatient person and don’t want to sit through this and I know you modern people can’t sit for as long as just a minute ever since that Tik Tok app made your brain more impatient to stay focused on one task for very long. Okay, enough of that let’s start with the more important stuff.
Why are film directors important for the film industry? Well, let’s get some inside knowledge about why they matter. Film directors have been around since the early 1900s so they have been around for a plenty of time so they must be important. Of course film
directors have a really busy schedule. It starts with them trying to get an idea from something like a painting or anything random and then it takes months or even years to start the draft of his plot to make the film.
An example of this is one film director I interviewed that was from the UK and his name was Tom Geens that directed the film “A couple in a hole” released in 2015. And the way he got the idea of making the “couple in a hole” is by looking at this singular painting. That one painting inspired him to make a film that won an award in the UK. It’s amazing what we are capable of doing when we look at something that inspires us.
Also when making a film maybe you want a specific aesthetic for the film. For example, maybe you’re working on a horror film and you want the setting to be dark and gloomy. That is why in this world we also have directors in photography.
I know this part isn’t about
film directors specifically but I felt this was important to add because, directors in photography are the people that work on giving off that aesthetic to the film kinda like the “side men or side women of the film director” quote from John Dyer, a director in photography.
Well now that you know a little of what film directors are all about, maybe you would like to become one, but you are not sure if your journey is gonna turn out good or bad but it’s really for you to discover because it’s your journey. But Some tips I can provide is from this interview and this person name is Tom Geens and he tells us that, when starting your journey you will have some obstacles in your way like maybe you want to make a big blockbuster film that will amaze everyone or you want to start small with a really low budget movie.
“I guess it’s mainly yourself because everybody can call themselves a film director” quote from Tom Geens, A film director. What does this
quote mean well since we’re in an era where technology is at its prime anybody can call themselves a film director by grabbing their phone and start recording anything. Wow you have made I didn’t know you could be capable of this.
Ok, let’s proceed now that this page gave you some starting tips and inside knowledge on the film directing industry, let’s say that you made your first film and you feel worried it’s not gonna be a great success but one important thing to know is that. It only matters when you feel that you have accomplished something big.
A quote that may have a good use to expand your knowledge on this topic is from this film director. His name is Tom Geens“Sometimes people might say your project is maybe not going to make a lot of money or it’s not going to get a lot of success or blah, blah, blah. Or It’s not going to be in the cinema or so. Yeah, it’s tricky, but I like the trickiness. I like the challenge of making things that everybody says it’s impossible to do, and then still going ahead and then proving them all wrong” director. So now with the knowledge that got provided to you . Use it you never know when the film directing industry is gonna save you when you’re trying to earn some bucks.
If you want to become a film director it’s not gonna be easy there’s gonna be obstacles and you’re probably gonna be doubting yourself in some situations. But through time the film directing industry is gonna be growing even more and
“ What obstacles? I guess it’s mainly yourself because you can everybody can call themselves a film director”
Tom Geens, film director
there will be more modern technology to help out. Since the early times of film directing they used large cameras and custom made props to make the film look good. But since that time things have evolved and now we have technology like CGI and high tech cameras that make cinematic masterpieces like Transformers or Avengers endgame “as good as it can be.”
Picture made by John Dyer
Picture made by John Dyer
steven speilger is an american film maker that has made some very famous movies like a jaws and ET
Russo Brothers are american film director that directed some famous movies like avengers endgame and ininity war
Peter Jackson is an zealand film director and has directed some famous films like lord of the rings and king kong
Michael bay is a american film director and has directed many famous movies like transformers 1-5
Utraman defends humanity in the new Netflix series. John Aoshima joins the production team working on the Japanese franchise. Photo courtesy of Netflix
The family from DuckTales goes on an adventure. John Aoshima was an animator on the popular Disney series. Photo courtesy of Disney
Kubo prepares to fight the Moon King. The team included John Aoshima as an animator. Photo courtesy of Laika
nimators spend years practicing their craft and learning from others. Not only is it a tough industry to break into, it is also a difficult industry to be part of.
Animation is a highly competitive industry even for animators and writers, explained John Aoshima, an animation director who has worked on Futurama, DuckTales, Avatar the Last Airbender, Gravity Falls, and more. When trying to create a show everything becomes so much harder but you always have to begin with the pitch.
“They’re having these pitches all the time, and so they can’t spend that much time on one pitch,” Aoshima said. “You have to basically develop something that’s
going to really stand out.”
Sometimes standing out is not enough, because others will still have to judge it, explained Paul Anand, a 3D animator who works for Nickelodeon. Anand has worked on the Prince of Egypt, Southpark, Pirates of the Caribbean, and more.
The process of making these changes can cause conflict, according to Marshall Wright, the vice president of marketing for Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region for an anime streaming company called CrunchyRoll.
John Aoshima, animator“But if they like your pitch then they’ll take it and leverage it into a test, something that an audience can see,” Anand said. “So then you may end up going back to the drawing board and changing stuff as the executives see it, and as the audience sees it.”
“Creators are the visionaries, and they have the creative vision of what they want the anime series to be like,” Wright said. “With a lot of artistic things the creator has a different vision than the producers or the distributors have because they’re looking at it from oftentimes fiscal or monetary perspective.”
Conflict is part of the creative process.
“Anytime you get a bunch of artists in a room together, there will be disagreements, artistic disagreement, stylistic disagreements,” Anand said.
By the time teams start
“The best part is to get to have a job doing what I love.”
working together, the design has been decided on.
“Typically by the time I start working, that’s already been done,” Anand said, “We’re all working together to achieve the vision, it’s a lot easier to get along because it’s not your personal work.”
Even if an animator doesn’t make all of the work personal, it does not mean there are not still problems like figuring out how to draw in the chosen style.
“The toughest part is drawing to someone else’s style, drawing or animating to someone else’s sensibility,” Aoshima said.
Even if a drawing style has been
settled technical issues can still occur.
“Sometimes with the technical software that you have to work with, you may have to find workarounds or hacks to make it appear like something’s happening on the image when it’s not really happening,” Anand said.
After progress is finally made, it can still be slow, according to Anand.
“The average animation produced by an animator is usually around four seconds per day for quality animation,” Anand said, “Every single project I
worked on with the team, it’s very difficult to produce the type of content at the level that it’s ready for broadcast or any of these types of major platforms. If you don’t have teams.”
There are different ways to track progress, including software.
“The software will track everything so you can easily see what stage you’re at and figure where you are in relation to where you think you need to be in terms of completion,” Anand said, “You can search it up and can see all the versions and go back in history, and see where we started out with blocking, then move towards rough animation, then move towards final
animation, and finally move towards finishing off the shot in terms of all the other aspects like lighting and the color.”
On top of the workload for one show the industry is competitive.
“It didn’t matter if it was a famous show creator,” Aoshima said, “Futurama was canceled at the beginning.”
With the sudden loss of his job he had to find a new one.
For me it was like, I have to keep my job or find a way to make some income because I had my school loans to pay off, and my rent to pay,”
Aoshima said. “I have to hustle a bit, I have to compete against my colleagues for another job and take what I can.”
Even though there are many challenges, the career is still worth it for many. The first time Aoshima saw his work on television he felt amazing.
“It was just sort of a goal and dream that I’ve been chasing for so long,” Aoshima said. “And so when you know, when it finally aired, and that was an episode of Futurama, I was you know, I
was ecstatic. I was totally excited. And finally had sort of, you know, credit at the end of the episode and see my name. And that’s when I really just felt like I made it. I’m a professional artist now.”
After completing his goal, he began thinking about what to do next.
“I started to explore how I can navigate towards not just having the dream job but to to find another goal within the dream job,” Aoshima said. “The best part is to get to have a job doing what I love.”
The results a survey of 155 people, all in highschool or above, about which of four shows was there favorite showed the most popular was Gravity Falls. The runner up was Teen Titans Go! with only three less votes. However, the remaining two shows votes combinded is 25 less votes than Teen Titans Go! Showing the huge gap in popularty between the shows.