Christmas Cupid Review

 Christmas Cupid Trailer

“Sloane is beautiful, stylish, and on the fast track to success at her public relations firm. After her client Caitlin dies and becomes her own personal ghost of Christmas past, present, and future; she finds out first hand that her unethical ways needs to change and reuniting with a past jilted lover may be the answer”

“Sloane wanted to be the Vice President of her Publicity Agency, but that was not the most important part of the story. Since she was taught from a young age not to marry because of love, she only looked for men with money and power. This left her missing out on her one true love.

Sloane got to see that her actions didn't only affect her. By focusing on being with someone with power and money, she lost out on all the small moments that really meant something. Sloane spent so much time at work, with her boyfriend that she was ruining her friendship with her best friend. By only thinking about what was her next step in success, she was causing others to lose out on being with their friends and family.”

Source - http://www.suite101.com/content/christmas-cupid-movie-review-a322267

I watched this movie last night, and I was kind of disappointed.

In the trailer, your expectations lead you to think you’re going to witness Sloane’s (Christina Milian) journey using a modern version of Christmas Carol, Scrooge/ghost path to finding her true love again.
However, I found no chemistry between Sloane and Patrick (Chad Murray). They hardly did many scenes together or explored their bond, to get to this “true love.”
You are shown some clips from the past, but you see more of Sloane’s current boyfriend Andrew.

 

In storylines, you want to feel something for the character as you learn more about them. If they get hurt you get sad. If they get in a fight, you want them to win. You know there is a good connection and depth of script/characters, if the story is written in a way that makes you cry or show emotion.
It’s a lot harder to get this in a movie that lasts 1hour 30min than a drama that lasts seasons long, but written and acted well it is achievable and is what separates the good movies from the bad ones. (In my opinion)

This can relate to video games, and is why I love the story plot in them. I very rarely come across a decent one like Final Fantasy 7 when Aeris dies near the end of disc 1..
You get so sad, after you learned so much about her; after you saved her from the Turks; being her bodyguard; staying at her house; taking you through the slums; dressing you up together as a girl to get you into the mansion to save Tifa; learning about her ancient past and connecting a bond with Cloud in the Gold Saucer theatre.
Aeris was one of my favourite characters to play, as she has good healing limit breaks and magic based attacks overall, so when she died for the 1^st time.. I was crushed!

You don’t get that emotion in many games..  unless you’ve been on a journey with that character and built a friendship/understanding, without a good plot/storyline/script I don’t feel that.

This really relates to the talks from Blitz studios. The 3 Important things I wanted to put into my work: Reaction, Feeling, Emotion …

Overall..

Would I still watch Christmas Cupid if I knew what I was getting myself in to?

YES!  

Even though.. it's predictable, and been used before in “Over her dead body" with the never ending “Christmas Carol, Scrooge usage.”
I don’t know why.. but these are my kind of movies. I think I’m just a sucker for romantic happy endings^

Plus the fact  Christina Milian and Chad Michael Murray are my favourite musicians/actors.
I was surprised by Caitlin (Ashley Benson's) performance playing the dead ghost after she dies. I think she played it really well, and it was believable. You know she’s in character when she holds the vodka glass in her hand.

  

Would I recommend it to anyone?..




Probably Not



 

 

I have.. odd taste, not to everyone’s liking~

Deadliest Artist

Blitz Game Studio Talk

Daryl Clewlow and Simon Ible, compared by Jolyon Webb

Blitz games studios artists could have easily given a presentation showing what their passion and enthusiasm was via Photos and explanation.
However, making it into a rivalry gave it a competitive edge, and made the artists genuinely interested in their passion as they wanted to win your vote as well as demonstrate what drives them.

Blitz always look for the artist in any 3D modeller – their visual decision making and artist's eye is what separates you from your competition that wants the same job. It is what they are looking for. I particularly liked Simon's choice – Ryan Woodward animation
I didn’t like the background music- but he makes the girl character disappear into snow- from action to action- it flowed into a story without words.

Daryl Clews war photography inspiration made me relate to the recent assignment given about character design. The emotion, what they’ve been through, expression and subtlety portrayed in these photos is what makes an interesting character come to life.
I want to use this in my future character designs – giving my characters meaning.. what makes you feel something about them – and ask questions.
They have a story to tell.



Jolyon Webb especially gave me a better grasp of what to put into my portfolio – what kind of things I should be working on to create towards it -

3 Important words come out to me today

Reaction
Emotion
Feeling

The Atmosphere you create in your environments should make the onlooker have these 3 things in mind when viewing it, with the use of lighting, placement, and reasoning using art direction and visual decisions.

End of 1st Semester

End of 1st Semester - 

I feel I work to slow,  I notice when I concentrate on one subject “Game Production” –  My Visual Design suffers-  and Visa-versa.

I noticed with a lot of my previous Visual Design work- Its very.. technical and boring
I think I got to carried away with the ruler :/

The windows in Pilot shopping building were so cluttered, I found it hard to draw everything inside proply. I decided to wait till the shutters go down.

I took along time on this my space center final peice maybe to long !

In the Brigate Park sketchs, I didnt use a ruler and felt a more natural result come of it.
In my 2nd semester I plan avoid rulers~

Life drawings..
I never draw the face, hands or feet.. as I don’t feel confident in drawing them yet.  
Flaws I need to practice

Architectural Old Toilet Building
I wished I picked a more interesting building- even though I think the toilet has character- Its very small..  I should have gone for a bigger scale size, to test my modelling abilities.
There was extras I took photographs of like park bins + Direction arrows- trees.. I could have added to the environment to make it look more interesting and not so basic.
To anyone looking.. It just looks like a toilet.
If I added more Brigate Park extra features around it, people may recognise a link to where the buildings come from.
In my free time, I will find another building to model and texture.

I need to work harder!