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1. Home slide show module here to download : here
2. Html Module Tripack, you can use this for post script html any where you want.: here
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5. Sosial Network Module : here
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Minggu, 29 Mei 2011
Creating Some Income For You
As a youngster you may have heard your parents warn you about the threat of guilt by association. Like me, you might even be able to close your eyes and remember them pointing a finger or shaking a head and saying "being in the wrong place at the wrong time could be your downfall". In the internet age of today, these general life statements are not entirely the applicable advice they once were. Developing potential online is about being at the right place at the right time. Building markets and creating profitable niches on the web is often facilitated by the ability to forge relationships.
Affiliate marketing and training encourages success by association. Affiliate training for beginners revolves around the distinction between two types of affiliate asset classes which are products/services and content. Once you learn how to distinguish between the two genres of affiliation it will become much easier for you to decide on how you want to construct your own affiliate networks and campaigns. How you affiliate yourself says a lot about who you are as a person or business.
Creating income streams
One way to create income streams, make connections and design organizational centers of commerce is through selling other peoples products and services. What this means for you is that you will be focusing more on marketing and promotion rather than production or distribution. Affiliate training for beginners is about coming to the realization that you do not need to reinvent the wheel. It is recognizing the fact that many others have toiled tirelessly to produce dynamic and innovative product presences and they need your help to introduce their services to others.
Your role in the business process is to give clients access and to get leads excited and converted. It cannot be stressed enough that your initial forays into Affiliate training, brand developing, marketing and advertising should be done with upstanding and ethical organizations. Reputable affiliate product and service suppliers like Amazon Associates, ClickBank, Commission Junction and Click2Sell are all great places for beginners to visit when first attempting to get a feel for affiliate training topics. Finding products that interest you and that you support and believe in can be a huge step in the right direction while trying to quench your original affiliate thirsts. Molding your mind around the concepts of affiliate product and service marketing is only half the battle.
Which To Choose Products/Services or Content Affiliation?
Affiliate training for beginners breaks down into two core concepts which are products/services and content. Some of you reading this might be particular to selling hard assets or personable provisions. You are equipped to market others wares and you have talents that lie in the promotion of other artisans. If these are your preferences then product and service affiliations are certainly worthwhile exploring. If you enjoy designing and developing your own web real estate and online presences then content affiliation may be a good route to take. Those that can do both are some of the most successful affiliate marketers in the industry today. In affiliate training for beginners it is wise to also never underestimate the tools at your disposal.
Tactics and techniques such as video, writing, social media, consulting, outsourcing, networking, blogging and search engine optimization (SEO) all tie nicely into affiliate training and are parallel studies to consider. Many times in life you are only as strong as your weakest link and this is probably what a lot of our parents understood as they advised us on fair-weather friends. Affiliate training demands an acute attention to detail when selecting a group of partners. You do not want to be hampered or hindered by poor association choices. If you meet the right individuals, make strong connections and understand your choices you will soon be making huge strides in your affiliate wherewithal.
Affiliate marketing and training encourages success by association. Affiliate training for beginners revolves around the distinction between two types of affiliate asset classes which are products/services and content. Once you learn how to distinguish between the two genres of affiliation it will become much easier for you to decide on how you want to construct your own affiliate networks and campaigns. How you affiliate yourself says a lot about who you are as a person or business.
Creating income streams
One way to create income streams, make connections and design organizational centers of commerce is through selling other peoples products and services. What this means for you is that you will be focusing more on marketing and promotion rather than production or distribution. Affiliate training for beginners is about coming to the realization that you do not need to reinvent the wheel. It is recognizing the fact that many others have toiled tirelessly to produce dynamic and innovative product presences and they need your help to introduce their services to others.
Your role in the business process is to give clients access and to get leads excited and converted. It cannot be stressed enough that your initial forays into Affiliate training, brand developing, marketing and advertising should be done with upstanding and ethical organizations. Reputable affiliate product and service suppliers like Amazon Associates, ClickBank, Commission Junction and Click2Sell are all great places for beginners to visit when first attempting to get a feel for affiliate training topics. Finding products that interest you and that you support and believe in can be a huge step in the right direction while trying to quench your original affiliate thirsts. Molding your mind around the concepts of affiliate product and service marketing is only half the battle.
Which To Choose Products/Services or Content Affiliation?
Affiliate training for beginners breaks down into two core concepts which are products/services and content. Some of you reading this might be particular to selling hard assets or personable provisions. You are equipped to market others wares and you have talents that lie in the promotion of other artisans. If these are your preferences then product and service affiliations are certainly worthwhile exploring. If you enjoy designing and developing your own web real estate and online presences then content affiliation may be a good route to take. Those that can do both are some of the most successful affiliate marketers in the industry today. In affiliate training for beginners it is wise to also never underestimate the tools at your disposal.
Tactics and techniques such as video, writing, social media, consulting, outsourcing, networking, blogging and search engine optimization (SEO) all tie nicely into affiliate training and are parallel studies to consider. Many times in life you are only as strong as your weakest link and this is probably what a lot of our parents understood as they advised us on fair-weather friends. Affiliate training demands an acute attention to detail when selecting a group of partners. You do not want to be hampered or hindered by poor association choices. If you meet the right individuals, make strong connections and understand your choices you will soon be making huge strides in your affiliate wherewithal.
Five Tips You Need To Understand
With the advent of internet marketing it's only natural that there will be lots of affiliate marketing scams going around. So many people get caught up in these scams because they have not had any affiliate training so don't really know what to look for in a business. By the end of this article you will have an understanding of exactly what to look for in any affiliate business that will tell you if it is a scam or not. Affiliate marketing is truly a great way to make money online, and it can provide long term financial security for you and your family. The items in this affiliate marketing guide will tell you the things that will have alarm bells ringing in your ears. If you spot any of them in the list below, you should look at another program and avoid more affiliate marketing scams.
Find out what the product or service the affiliate company are offering. If you are told there is nothing to sell, no recruiting, contacting people, prospecting or product then how are you supposed to be making any money?
You maybe asked to pay to join the company; now most affiliate programs are free to join. There are some that you pay a monthly subscription and these are normally for lead generation programs. Most of these should be repeatable companies be do your homework and just make sure. If you are asked to pay and you are told what is in the point above, then walk away.
Make sure you have some way of getting in contact with the company, there should be a toll free number or support system in place at the very least.
Check with the person who introduced you to the affiliate program what training they give. You will get a lot of answers by simply asking that question. Why would a scam even bother to put training in place if they are only after your money? I have caught so many people out by ask that question its unbelievable.
Check the track record of the company and the owners, you can do all of this on Google and it should be your first port of call.
A reputable affiliate company will have a product to sell and you will have to speak to customers and actually do some work! A genuine company will have a support network in place and an affiliate marketing tutorial video training series. A good affiliate program may charge you a small monthly fee, which is Okay as long as you are getting a product, support and help with your business. They will also have an awesome track record which you will be able to find out very easily. Most affiliate marketing scams are found out very quickly but it's no joy for you if you have ever been caught up in one. By following the tips above you will be able to find a reputable affiliate company and enjoy the financial success you deserve.
Find out what the product or service the affiliate company are offering. If you are told there is nothing to sell, no recruiting, contacting people, prospecting or product then how are you supposed to be making any money?
You maybe asked to pay to join the company; now most affiliate programs are free to join. There are some that you pay a monthly subscription and these are normally for lead generation programs. Most of these should be repeatable companies be do your homework and just make sure. If you are asked to pay and you are told what is in the point above, then walk away.
Make sure you have some way of getting in contact with the company, there should be a toll free number or support system in place at the very least.
Check with the person who introduced you to the affiliate program what training they give. You will get a lot of answers by simply asking that question. Why would a scam even bother to put training in place if they are only after your money? I have caught so many people out by ask that question its unbelievable.
Check the track record of the company and the owners, you can do all of this on Google and it should be your first port of call.
A reputable affiliate company will have a product to sell and you will have to speak to customers and actually do some work! A genuine company will have a support network in place and an affiliate marketing tutorial video training series. A good affiliate program may charge you a small monthly fee, which is Okay as long as you are getting a product, support and help with your business. They will also have an awesome track record which you will be able to find out very easily. Most affiliate marketing scams are found out very quickly but it's no joy for you if you have ever been caught up in one. By following the tips above you will be able to find a reputable affiliate company and enjoy the financial success you deserve.
Affiliate Income - Simple Daily Strategies To Explode Your Business
After 20 years of marketing I can honestly say that the affiliate income you seek is probably a lot easier to accomplish then you might think.
Affiliate income though is completely dependent on certain factors including the daily strategies you are performing. Before I go into very proven strategies that you can implement to start seeing results, I need to warn you of the biggest mistake people are making within affiliate marketing.
If you have looked at any number of affiliate programs online, you already know they will offer you all the tools you need to succeed with their product. This simply put is the exact reason 97% of affiliate never reach their goals.
Most affiliate companies will offer you sales pages, capture pages, autoresponders and a host of other tools that they say will help you to build your business. The only business you are growing is theirs.
The capture pages, sales pages and all the opt in forms that prospects will complete for more information will lead to the companies list and database, not yours. Sure you will make a few dollars selling their products but this is a formula that has disaster written all over it.
If you are going to join me within the elite 3% of affiliates online you need certain tools in place to build your own list. From there you can promote many products while building your list and creating multiple streams of income.
This formula works and yes you need to have your own blog. In reality even for those who know nothing about blogs will be able to follow simple training to set their complete business up within a matter of a few days.
Here is what you need to lay the proper foundation for your affiliate business and earn the affiliate income you are deserving of:
A blog that is search engine optimized
A complete marketing funnel that includes:
A free gift to offer to your prospects that will build your list and your income
Autoresponders that will convert your prospects to your customers
Capture pages that you will guide your prospect to for their free gift
Opt in form on your sidebar within your blog
A pop up that you can create very easily within your autoresponder service. The proper pop up will increase the amount of people opting into your list by over 300%
A list of the exact daily strategies you need to implement to get your blog out to thousands of people and other websites
Affiliate marketing is all about offering free content through articles or videos that will then encourage your reader to opt in for a free gift or additional information. This is actually fairly simple to create but it is they syndication that will bring in massive leads.
Once you create a blog post there are very specific daily strategies that you can implement that I assure you will result in more leads and customers then you can imagine.
Some of these strategies include:
Create a free account with onlywire and establish all 30 plus free accounts. Be sure to drag their bookmarklet onto your toolbar so you can simply click a button to get your blog post out to 40 of the strongest social media sites on the planet. This will give you massive backlinks and traffic and is extremely effective
Head over to facebook and join 30 groups within your niche. If you are in the home based business niche simply type that into the Facebook search bar and you will find many groups to join. Once you do that, simply take the exact URL of your blog post and click link within your Facebook group.
Now just copy and past the blog post URL into the box and the title, an image and the description of your blog post will fill in. This is so simple and you can get so much traffic by taking your different blog post and placing them into 30 groups each day. This is about a 20 minute task each day.
Affiliate income though is completely dependent on certain factors including the daily strategies you are performing. Before I go into very proven strategies that you can implement to start seeing results, I need to warn you of the biggest mistake people are making within affiliate marketing.
If you have looked at any number of affiliate programs online, you already know they will offer you all the tools you need to succeed with their product. This simply put is the exact reason 97% of affiliate never reach their goals.
Most affiliate companies will offer you sales pages, capture pages, autoresponders and a host of other tools that they say will help you to build your business. The only business you are growing is theirs.
The capture pages, sales pages and all the opt in forms that prospects will complete for more information will lead to the companies list and database, not yours. Sure you will make a few dollars selling their products but this is a formula that has disaster written all over it.
If you are going to join me within the elite 3% of affiliates online you need certain tools in place to build your own list. From there you can promote many products while building your list and creating multiple streams of income.
This formula works and yes you need to have your own blog. In reality even for those who know nothing about blogs will be able to follow simple training to set their complete business up within a matter of a few days.
Here is what you need to lay the proper foundation for your affiliate business and earn the affiliate income you are deserving of:
A blog that is search engine optimized
A complete marketing funnel that includes:
A free gift to offer to your prospects that will build your list and your income
Autoresponders that will convert your prospects to your customers
Capture pages that you will guide your prospect to for their free gift
Opt in form on your sidebar within your blog
A pop up that you can create very easily within your autoresponder service. The proper pop up will increase the amount of people opting into your list by over 300%
A list of the exact daily strategies you need to implement to get your blog out to thousands of people and other websites
Affiliate marketing is all about offering free content through articles or videos that will then encourage your reader to opt in for a free gift or additional information. This is actually fairly simple to create but it is they syndication that will bring in massive leads.
Once you create a blog post there are very specific daily strategies that you can implement that I assure you will result in more leads and customers then you can imagine.
Some of these strategies include:
Create a free account with onlywire and establish all 30 plus free accounts. Be sure to drag their bookmarklet onto your toolbar so you can simply click a button to get your blog post out to 40 of the strongest social media sites on the planet. This will give you massive backlinks and traffic and is extremely effective
Head over to facebook and join 30 groups within your niche. If you are in the home based business niche simply type that into the Facebook search bar and you will find many groups to join. Once you do that, simply take the exact URL of your blog post and click link within your Facebook group.
Now just copy and past the blog post URL into the box and the title, an image and the description of your blog post will fill in. This is so simple and you can get so much traffic by taking your different blog post and placing them into 30 groups each day. This is about a 20 minute task each day.
Tips on Stretching Piercings and Gauging Earlobes
The following tips on stretching piercings are specifically aimed at gauging earlobes, where earlobe piercings can be enlarged to very large sizes to incorporate many different types of ear jewelry including awesome flesh tunnels.
Stretching piercings has been popular in many civilizations throughout history, taking many forms from gauging earlobes to stretching labret and septum piercings. In the very early periods of history the materials used were wood, stone, bone, horn, shells, claws and talons, shaped and carved to facilitate stretching piercings.
The oldest known incidence of humans gauging earlobes was discovered in 1991, in a glacier in the Otztal Alps between Italy and Austria, where a 5,300 year-old mummified body was found with tattoos and an earlobe piercing of between 7 mm and 11 mm diameter. Although the method used was known for definite, this may have been carried out by a method known as dead stretching, where progressively larger ear jewelry is forced through the hole that gradually increases in diameter.
Preparation
In preparation for gauging, make sure that you have a good anti-bacterial soap without perfume. Then you will need a sea salt solution - make it using three tablespoons salt in just enough water to dissolve it, and at least enough to bathe your earlobe in. Never use hydrogen or any other peroxide as antiseptic - the soap and salt solution are enough.
You will also need some warm water to bathe your ear with before each phase of ear stretching, or you could alternative have a warm shower first. This softens the ear and helps prevent tearing of the skin/scar that could lead to bleeding.
Finally, you will need some lubricant: avoid Vaseline or any other mineral oil or petroleum-based lubricant. Most tips on stretching piercings recommend emu oil and jojoba, each of which offers gentle antiseptic and skin conditioning properties while acting as a perfectly adequate lubricant.
Gauging Earlobes
When stretching piercings, the two recommended methods are the taper method and the Teflon method. The taper method involves inserting a tapered rod or pin into the piercing, the narrow end being of the same gauge as the piercing, and the broader end one gauge down. The size of the taper is that of the desired gauge of piercing. So if your piercing is 16g, the taper will be a 14g taper, ranging from 16g to 14g. These are equivalent to 1.2 mm to 1.6 mm.
Never use a taper any more than one step down. However, since piercing gauges are always even numbers, one step down is 16g to 14g or 12g to 10g. Also, as the gauge figures drop, the actual diameter increases. So while 16g is 1.2 mm, 10g is 2.4 mm.
There are a number of different types of taper, including a tapered pin on ear jewelry, so you simply insert ear jewelry tapering from your current gauge to the new one. The problem here is that a fully tapered pin will not stretch your ears evenly - the pin has to be of the same diameter all the way through, or your piercing might also be stretched with a taper.
To overcome that, you can use an insertion rod, which is a tapered rod of about 3 inches. After warming your ears with the warm water or shower, and washing them with anti-bacterial soap, apply the lubricant to the taper and slowly work it through. Once it reaches the thicker end, follow it through with ear jewelry of the new size, and you are done. Wipe off excess lubricant and clean the ear with anti-bacterial soap and then some of the salt solution.
An even safer way is to wind a layer of non-adhesive Teflon tape round the pin of your ear jewelry and push it through the lobe. If you can see any space at all when you pull on the ring, then you can safely do this. Wait until the ear has accepted it then do it again, and so on until you have reached the new size, when you can use larger ear jewelry.
If there has been any severe pain or the piercing bleeds, then you must stop immediately and allow the piercing to heal properly before trying again. If you try stretching piercings too soon, before they have fully healed, then you can tear the skin and even have a blowout, both of which will make it difficult to stretch again.
Gauging Earlobes: After-Care
After-care when gauging earlobes is fairly straightforward. It should not be so much a matter of tending after a piercing until it heals, but more keeping it clean, and turning the new sized jewelry now and again. You are waiting until the ear has accepted the new size of hole permanently so that you can perhaps change the hole diameter once more. The stretched skin has to be allowed to thicken and get harder - give about three times longer than your original piercing took to heal. If you want to use a flesh tunnel, then you can continue stretching piercings until the diameter reaches an appreciable size.
Done properly, and following the above tips, stretching piercings is safe and relatively easy to do. Many extend the diameter of their piercings this way, and gauging earlobes is likely the most popular form of pierce stretching carried out at the moment. Take your time - waiting is difficult, but if your ear is not ready for the next stretching it will likely be damaged.
Stretching piercings has been popular in many civilizations throughout history, taking many forms from gauging earlobes to stretching labret and septum piercings. In the very early periods of history the materials used were wood, stone, bone, horn, shells, claws and talons, shaped and carved to facilitate stretching piercings.
The oldest known incidence of humans gauging earlobes was discovered in 1991, in a glacier in the Otztal Alps between Italy and Austria, where a 5,300 year-old mummified body was found with tattoos and an earlobe piercing of between 7 mm and 11 mm diameter. Although the method used was known for definite, this may have been carried out by a method known as dead stretching, where progressively larger ear jewelry is forced through the hole that gradually increases in diameter.
Preparation
In preparation for gauging, make sure that you have a good anti-bacterial soap without perfume. Then you will need a sea salt solution - make it using three tablespoons salt in just enough water to dissolve it, and at least enough to bathe your earlobe in. Never use hydrogen or any other peroxide as antiseptic - the soap and salt solution are enough.
You will also need some warm water to bathe your ear with before each phase of ear stretching, or you could alternative have a warm shower first. This softens the ear and helps prevent tearing of the skin/scar that could lead to bleeding.
Finally, you will need some lubricant: avoid Vaseline or any other mineral oil or petroleum-based lubricant. Most tips on stretching piercings recommend emu oil and jojoba, each of which offers gentle antiseptic and skin conditioning properties while acting as a perfectly adequate lubricant.
Gauging Earlobes
When stretching piercings, the two recommended methods are the taper method and the Teflon method. The taper method involves inserting a tapered rod or pin into the piercing, the narrow end being of the same gauge as the piercing, and the broader end one gauge down. The size of the taper is that of the desired gauge of piercing. So if your piercing is 16g, the taper will be a 14g taper, ranging from 16g to 14g. These are equivalent to 1.2 mm to 1.6 mm.
Never use a taper any more than one step down. However, since piercing gauges are always even numbers, one step down is 16g to 14g or 12g to 10g. Also, as the gauge figures drop, the actual diameter increases. So while 16g is 1.2 mm, 10g is 2.4 mm.
There are a number of different types of taper, including a tapered pin on ear jewelry, so you simply insert ear jewelry tapering from your current gauge to the new one. The problem here is that a fully tapered pin will not stretch your ears evenly - the pin has to be of the same diameter all the way through, or your piercing might also be stretched with a taper.
To overcome that, you can use an insertion rod, which is a tapered rod of about 3 inches. After warming your ears with the warm water or shower, and washing them with anti-bacterial soap, apply the lubricant to the taper and slowly work it through. Once it reaches the thicker end, follow it through with ear jewelry of the new size, and you are done. Wipe off excess lubricant and clean the ear with anti-bacterial soap and then some of the salt solution.
An even safer way is to wind a layer of non-adhesive Teflon tape round the pin of your ear jewelry and push it through the lobe. If you can see any space at all when you pull on the ring, then you can safely do this. Wait until the ear has accepted it then do it again, and so on until you have reached the new size, when you can use larger ear jewelry.
If there has been any severe pain or the piercing bleeds, then you must stop immediately and allow the piercing to heal properly before trying again. If you try stretching piercings too soon, before they have fully healed, then you can tear the skin and even have a blowout, both of which will make it difficult to stretch again.
Gauging Earlobes: After-Care
After-care when gauging earlobes is fairly straightforward. It should not be so much a matter of tending after a piercing until it heals, but more keeping it clean, and turning the new sized jewelry now and again. You are waiting until the ear has accepted the new size of hole permanently so that you can perhaps change the hole diameter once more. The stretched skin has to be allowed to thicken and get harder - give about three times longer than your original piercing took to heal. If you want to use a flesh tunnel, then you can continue stretching piercings until the diameter reaches an appreciable size.
Done properly, and following the above tips, stretching piercings is safe and relatively easy to do. Many extend the diameter of their piercings this way, and gauging earlobes is likely the most popular form of pierce stretching carried out at the moment. Take your time - waiting is difficult, but if your ear is not ready for the next stretching it will likely be damaged.
Gauging Ears With Stretched Piercings
Stretch piercings in your ear lobes can be obtained by gauging ears to a specific piercing size, either in one go or by means of several successive earlobe stretchings. A lot depends on how large you want your piercing to be, and anything that one gauge more than the last will involve more than one stretching.
Gauging ears is carried out using 'gauge numbers' that refer to a specific diameter of hole. For example, gauge 20 is written as 20g, and that refers to a piercing of 0.8 mm in diameter. 18g refers to a piercing of 1 mm in diameter, so as the gauge numbers drop then the diameter increases. Also, gauges drop in twos, so that there are no odd gauge numbers. Thus, the sequence goes: 20g, 18g, 16g, 14g and so on to 00g. Therefore one gauge step down is from one even number to the next and from a lower piercing diameter to a higher.
When gauging ears you should stretch piercings by only one gauge step. So, if you want to change from 16g to 14 g (1.2 mm to 1.6 mm) you can do so in one step. However, if you wanted to go from a 16g to an 8g (1.2 mm to 3.2 mm) you would have to do that in four steps, involving four stretched piercings, each of one gauge level.
When you have your earlobes pierced with the intention of increasing the gauging to a fairly high diameter for some gorgeous large-diameter bars you have seen or even a cool flesh tunnel, then first consider the initial diameter - the greater the initial diameter then the fewer ear lobe stretching steps you will have to undergo to reach your preferred diameter. Do not have your ears pierced in a shopping mall with a gun because these generally pierce at 20g or 18g at the most.
Start With a Professional Piercing
Have the initial ear lobe piercing carried out by a professional using a needle. It is well worth the extra expense, and a pro will pierce your earlobes to 16g, thus saving yourself a whole step of gauging ears to your target size. Let the professional know your intention and you will be given some expert advice, and you might even agree to have the pro do the gauging for you.
It is possible for people to do their own stretched piercings themselves, and most do to be honest, but only once they are certain that the initial piercing has completely healed. If you begin too soon you might blow out the piercing or split the skin, and any attempts to gauge your ears after that might be impossible. Gauging ears is a skill that has to be learned, so follow all the advice you find if you want to be able to wear these fabulous barbells you have seen.
It is also essential to wait until each stretching has properly settled, the skin thickening and hardening properly, before going onto the next gauge. This will take about 3 times the time for the initial piercing to heal, but don't rush it.
Ear Jewelry: When Gauging Ears and After
The ear jewelry available for stretched piercings is fabulous. When choosing the jewelry to wear during the process of gauging ears you should keep potential infection and allergies in mind, and surgical stainless steel and titanium are best. However, once you have reached your target gauge and your stretched piercings have fully healed, you have a wonderful world of amazing jewelry in materials too brittle to be used in high gauge pins or barbells.
You can use bone, horn, wood, stone and even amber and glass, many of which also help the piercing to stay clean and not get clogged with oils from your skin. You can also use metal and acrylic ear jewelry in many shapes and sizes. Many are happy with large studs, while others prefer large diameter hoops, barbells and regular earrings. Others love to wear solid cylindrical plugs, either flared or held by o-rings and ear weights made of any material under the sun, though silver, bronze, brass and copper are common. The really wealthy have theirs made in solid gold.
Flesh Tunnels Are Popular
An alternative to the regular type of ear jewelry is type of hollow plug known as a flesh tunnel. These are particularly used for the larger diameter stretched piercings, and when gauging ears this is often the ultimate objective. Flesh tunnels are available in many different materials and are held in place in much the same way as the plugs: with flares, o-rings or with a screw on back piece. Some people have beaded or other forms of decorative elements threaded through their flesh tunnels, and they are frequently worn as a mark of just how far a person has managed to go with their stretched piercings.
Gauging ears with stretched piercings is therefore carried out by people both for their decorative effect and as a means of displaying their ear stretching skills. Whatever your reason is, keep in mind the gauge of your initial piercing and that everything involved in gauging ears must be sterilized and kept clean and free from germs. Make sure each stage is fully healed before starting the next, and you should have no real problems.
Gauging ears is carried out using 'gauge numbers' that refer to a specific diameter of hole. For example, gauge 20 is written as 20g, and that refers to a piercing of 0.8 mm in diameter. 18g refers to a piercing of 1 mm in diameter, so as the gauge numbers drop then the diameter increases. Also, gauges drop in twos, so that there are no odd gauge numbers. Thus, the sequence goes: 20g, 18g, 16g, 14g and so on to 00g. Therefore one gauge step down is from one even number to the next and from a lower piercing diameter to a higher.
When gauging ears you should stretch piercings by only one gauge step. So, if you want to change from 16g to 14 g (1.2 mm to 1.6 mm) you can do so in one step. However, if you wanted to go from a 16g to an 8g (1.2 mm to 3.2 mm) you would have to do that in four steps, involving four stretched piercings, each of one gauge level.
When you have your earlobes pierced with the intention of increasing the gauging to a fairly high diameter for some gorgeous large-diameter bars you have seen or even a cool flesh tunnel, then first consider the initial diameter - the greater the initial diameter then the fewer ear lobe stretching steps you will have to undergo to reach your preferred diameter. Do not have your ears pierced in a shopping mall with a gun because these generally pierce at 20g or 18g at the most.
Start With a Professional Piercing
Have the initial ear lobe piercing carried out by a professional using a needle. It is well worth the extra expense, and a pro will pierce your earlobes to 16g, thus saving yourself a whole step of gauging ears to your target size. Let the professional know your intention and you will be given some expert advice, and you might even agree to have the pro do the gauging for you.
It is possible for people to do their own stretched piercings themselves, and most do to be honest, but only once they are certain that the initial piercing has completely healed. If you begin too soon you might blow out the piercing or split the skin, and any attempts to gauge your ears after that might be impossible. Gauging ears is a skill that has to be learned, so follow all the advice you find if you want to be able to wear these fabulous barbells you have seen.
It is also essential to wait until each stretching has properly settled, the skin thickening and hardening properly, before going onto the next gauge. This will take about 3 times the time for the initial piercing to heal, but don't rush it.
Ear Jewelry: When Gauging Ears and After
The ear jewelry available for stretched piercings is fabulous. When choosing the jewelry to wear during the process of gauging ears you should keep potential infection and allergies in mind, and surgical stainless steel and titanium are best. However, once you have reached your target gauge and your stretched piercings have fully healed, you have a wonderful world of amazing jewelry in materials too brittle to be used in high gauge pins or barbells.
You can use bone, horn, wood, stone and even amber and glass, many of which also help the piercing to stay clean and not get clogged with oils from your skin. You can also use metal and acrylic ear jewelry in many shapes and sizes. Many are happy with large studs, while others prefer large diameter hoops, barbells and regular earrings. Others love to wear solid cylindrical plugs, either flared or held by o-rings and ear weights made of any material under the sun, though silver, bronze, brass and copper are common. The really wealthy have theirs made in solid gold.
Flesh Tunnels Are Popular
An alternative to the regular type of ear jewelry is type of hollow plug known as a flesh tunnel. These are particularly used for the larger diameter stretched piercings, and when gauging ears this is often the ultimate objective. Flesh tunnels are available in many different materials and are held in place in much the same way as the plugs: with flares, o-rings or with a screw on back piece. Some people have beaded or other forms of decorative elements threaded through their flesh tunnels, and they are frequently worn as a mark of just how far a person has managed to go with their stretched piercings.
Gauging ears with stretched piercings is therefore carried out by people both for their decorative effect and as a means of displaying their ear stretching skills. Whatever your reason is, keep in mind the gauge of your initial piercing and that everything involved in gauging ears must be sterilized and kept clean and free from germs. Make sure each stage is fully healed before starting the next, and you should have no real problems.
Astrological Predictions for June 2011 - Understanding Your Sun Sign in Your Life
Fasten your seat-belt for a very busy month with many social interactions, meaningful communications, and new perspectives. The New Moon with five other planets in Gemini sets the tone for an inspiring social life and new friends. With the summer solstice we celebrate midsummer with the longest day and shortest night in the Northern Hemisphere. Tune into your message from the stars:
Aries (March 21 to April 20)
There is a lot of mental energy for you to direct into the proper channels if you don't want to end up a nervous wreck. There is so much creative potential for new ideas outside the mainstream paradigm waiting for you to grab and make use of them. Trust your inspiration.
Taurus (April 21 to May 21)
For you it is time to tap into and implement the stream of ideas flowing through your brain. Think about hooking up with your community in a new way. Sign up for a social network, review your marketing strategies, and integrate the internet world into your business plans.
Gemini (May 22 to June 21)
You are a communicator with a message and vision to share. Imagine divine inspiration flowing through you for the benefit of all. You find your voice to be stronger than ever. Show up for life and be a decisive leader.
Cancer (June 22 to July 22)
Your deep inner connection with your divine source will be your inspiration and guide. Taking time for yourself to smell the roses, to be in nature, or swim in the ocean are good ways to fill you up with good feelings of abundance and gratitude.
Leo (July 23 to Aug 22)
Finding like-minded soul mates on your journey through life is a great possibility this month. Within the social busyness keep your attention on the deeper level of compatibility through similar beliefs and values. Be the friend you would like to have.
Virgo (Aug 23 to Sept 22)
If you feel challenged by public speaking join the group Toastmaster and learn how to express yourself eloquently. It is time for you to really speak your truth openly, no holding back anymore. You will find public recognition beyond anything you expected. But if you don't show up to the party nobody will have a chance to dance with you.
Libra (Sept 23 to Oct 22)
Expand your horizons, apply yourself, and study. Flexibility in your thinking, seeing the bigger picture, and enjoying the feeling of inner growth will give you joy and fun. Travel could be on your agenda. There could be sudden surprises in your relationships.
Scorpio (Oct 23 to Nov 22)
Communication from your inner truth with compassion and honesty is asked of you. Relationship issues cannot be shoved under the table anymore. If you plant the seeds of deep honesty and allow your own vulnerability you will thrive with your mate.
Sagittarius (Nov 23 to Dec 20)
You want to share your adventures and ideas with your close friends and lover to experience them more deeply. Shared joy is doubled. Include your partner in your vision if you plan to travel. Discuss your expectations and enjoy the ride.
Capricorn (Dec 21 to Jan 19)
You have taken on too many responsibilities. Something has to give. To keep your sanity and inner balance try on the metaphor of the dance of life. Be easy, flow with the challenges, allow yourself to be a bit more flighty and interested in many things. Life has a way of working out no matter what.
Aquarius (Jan 20 to Feb 18)
It is time for you to be a leader and share your gifts. You might have to sharpen your verbal skills and self-confidence. Finding the right words for a situation goes a long way. Playful relationships and meetings, especially with the opposite sex, will give you a feeling of being deeply alive and connected.
Pisces (Feb 19 to Mar 20)
Go with the flow this month. Your main task will be inner work. Issues with your family need loving attention and your presence. Stand up for yourself, express your needs and wishes. True communication comes from the heart and acknowledges our oneness.
Shakti Carola Navran has been an evolutionary astrologer, published author and now columnist for Maui Weekly. In her astrological practice she has been giving readings for people from all over the world for 33 years in person, through Skype or on the phone.
Aries (March 21 to April 20)
There is a lot of mental energy for you to direct into the proper channels if you don't want to end up a nervous wreck. There is so much creative potential for new ideas outside the mainstream paradigm waiting for you to grab and make use of them. Trust your inspiration.
Taurus (April 21 to May 21)
For you it is time to tap into and implement the stream of ideas flowing through your brain. Think about hooking up with your community in a new way. Sign up for a social network, review your marketing strategies, and integrate the internet world into your business plans.
Gemini (May 22 to June 21)
You are a communicator with a message and vision to share. Imagine divine inspiration flowing through you for the benefit of all. You find your voice to be stronger than ever. Show up for life and be a decisive leader.
Cancer (June 22 to July 22)
Your deep inner connection with your divine source will be your inspiration and guide. Taking time for yourself to smell the roses, to be in nature, or swim in the ocean are good ways to fill you up with good feelings of abundance and gratitude.
Leo (July 23 to Aug 22)
Finding like-minded soul mates on your journey through life is a great possibility this month. Within the social busyness keep your attention on the deeper level of compatibility through similar beliefs and values. Be the friend you would like to have.
Virgo (Aug 23 to Sept 22)
If you feel challenged by public speaking join the group Toastmaster and learn how to express yourself eloquently. It is time for you to really speak your truth openly, no holding back anymore. You will find public recognition beyond anything you expected. But if you don't show up to the party nobody will have a chance to dance with you.
Libra (Sept 23 to Oct 22)
Expand your horizons, apply yourself, and study. Flexibility in your thinking, seeing the bigger picture, and enjoying the feeling of inner growth will give you joy and fun. Travel could be on your agenda. There could be sudden surprises in your relationships.
Scorpio (Oct 23 to Nov 22)
Communication from your inner truth with compassion and honesty is asked of you. Relationship issues cannot be shoved under the table anymore. If you plant the seeds of deep honesty and allow your own vulnerability you will thrive with your mate.
Sagittarius (Nov 23 to Dec 20)
You want to share your adventures and ideas with your close friends and lover to experience them more deeply. Shared joy is doubled. Include your partner in your vision if you plan to travel. Discuss your expectations and enjoy the ride.
Capricorn (Dec 21 to Jan 19)
You have taken on too many responsibilities. Something has to give. To keep your sanity and inner balance try on the metaphor of the dance of life. Be easy, flow with the challenges, allow yourself to be a bit more flighty and interested in many things. Life has a way of working out no matter what.
Aquarius (Jan 20 to Feb 18)
It is time for you to be a leader and share your gifts. You might have to sharpen your verbal skills and self-confidence. Finding the right words for a situation goes a long way. Playful relationships and meetings, especially with the opposite sex, will give you a feeling of being deeply alive and connected.
Pisces (Feb 19 to Mar 20)
Go with the flow this month. Your main task will be inner work. Issues with your family need loving attention and your presence. Stand up for yourself, express your needs and wishes. True communication comes from the heart and acknowledges our oneness.
Shakti Carola Navran has been an evolutionary astrologer, published author and now columnist for Maui Weekly. In her astrological practice she has been giving readings for people from all over the world for 33 years in person, through Skype or on the phone.
New Moon Eclipse Gemini June 1st 2011
During this time you may change career direction, look for a new job entirely, start a new project, sign up onto a new course. With Saturn in Libra forming a close trine with the eclipse, it will help you to bring structure to the changes you need to make in your life. Be aware of any lies or secrets you have been withholding because once the New Moon comes into Gemini, everything could come out in the wash. Expect things to be revealed - adding an eclipse to this New Moon is like having a Gemini Moon on steroids, so everything is amplified. Watch out for gossip - become aware of what you are saying and the powerful impact of your words - for good or for ill. You'll probably feel quite restless and want to be doing something. You might find yourself travelling more than usual.
An eclipse is a guidepost to an area in your life that will be stimulated for the next six months or more. In my chart this New Moon in Gemini falls in my 11th house which could mean the beginnings of new friendships, new dreams and wishes, daring to go for what I want and trusting in the universe, new teaching opportunities - I am going to start doing online workshops and astrology retreats in the next few weeks and I am sure this will have a far reaching effect on my career and also touch people far and wide around the world. It's exciting, it's getting me thinking in a new way, communicating in new ways. As always with Gemini, there's something that needs to be learned. I'm going through a steep learning curve about web conferencing, live video streaming which is a whole new language for me - and Gemini rules languages and learning. So this is how I plan to make the best use of this partial solar eclipse in my 11th house.
Maybe this New Moon solar eclipse is falling in your third house of learning, this could mean that your attitudes, your beliefs and the way you communicate your ideas is changing. You may start a new course of study, you might develop your public speaking ability, you may develop a new marketing plan to promote yourself and your ideas. What you can be sure of is that wherever this eclipse falls in your chart, there will be swift and interesting changes in that area of your life.
This is a time of new beginnings, new plans, new projects, gathering information, brainstorming, bouncing ideas around, being clever and creative, doing something new, learning or teaching something new. Things can happen quickly and unexpectedly, be prepared for some surprises!
Good things to do during a Gemini New Moon:
Reading, writing, speaking,
Having discussions and debates,
Being adaptable and willing to change,
Questioning everything in your life
Having fun and playing around - seeing life in a lighthearted way
Going to a comedy show or watching something funny, telling a good joke
Playing games and being lighthearted
Finding new and creative ways of communicating
Starting to use telepathy - check out the power of your mind
Becoming aware of your thinking processes
Getting clear about what you want to manifest as it can happen quickly
Researching new ideas
Networking and sharing information
Being sociable and meeting up with a friend for coffee and a chat
Short term projects
Listening carefully
Making something with your hands
Developing a marketing plan
Meeting new people
Negotiating a deal
Listen to your own inner guidance and not too much to the chatter inside your head. Be aware of your thinking and don't get into a negative or critical downward spiral. Expect to be busier than ever and you will need to listen to your body and know when you need to rest.
Gemini is all about communications, writing, video, Skype, email, web-conferencing etc. We may see huge global advances in our communication technologies over the next six months.
The way you communicate in your one to one relationships will come under sharp focus. If you have someone in your life with whom you are estranged and you wish to make contact with them at this time, you may find a new way of getting through to them. It's a time to be prepared to listen carefully so that you can understand what the other person is experiencing. This could bring about great healing and renewal in your relationships. You might find yourself taking a short trip to get out of a rut or to have a change in routine.
An eclipse is a guidepost to an area in your life that will be stimulated for the next six months or more. In my chart this New Moon in Gemini falls in my 11th house which could mean the beginnings of new friendships, new dreams and wishes, daring to go for what I want and trusting in the universe, new teaching opportunities - I am going to start doing online workshops and astrology retreats in the next few weeks and I am sure this will have a far reaching effect on my career and also touch people far and wide around the world. It's exciting, it's getting me thinking in a new way, communicating in new ways. As always with Gemini, there's something that needs to be learned. I'm going through a steep learning curve about web conferencing, live video streaming which is a whole new language for me - and Gemini rules languages and learning. So this is how I plan to make the best use of this partial solar eclipse in my 11th house.
Maybe this New Moon solar eclipse is falling in your third house of learning, this could mean that your attitudes, your beliefs and the way you communicate your ideas is changing. You may start a new course of study, you might develop your public speaking ability, you may develop a new marketing plan to promote yourself and your ideas. What you can be sure of is that wherever this eclipse falls in your chart, there will be swift and interesting changes in that area of your life.
This is a time of new beginnings, new plans, new projects, gathering information, brainstorming, bouncing ideas around, being clever and creative, doing something new, learning or teaching something new. Things can happen quickly and unexpectedly, be prepared for some surprises!
Good things to do during a Gemini New Moon:
Reading, writing, speaking,
Having discussions and debates,
Being adaptable and willing to change,
Questioning everything in your life
Having fun and playing around - seeing life in a lighthearted way
Going to a comedy show or watching something funny, telling a good joke
Playing games and being lighthearted
Finding new and creative ways of communicating
Starting to use telepathy - check out the power of your mind
Becoming aware of your thinking processes
Getting clear about what you want to manifest as it can happen quickly
Researching new ideas
Networking and sharing information
Being sociable and meeting up with a friend for coffee and a chat
Short term projects
Listening carefully
Making something with your hands
Developing a marketing plan
Meeting new people
Negotiating a deal
Listen to your own inner guidance and not too much to the chatter inside your head. Be aware of your thinking and don't get into a negative or critical downward spiral. Expect to be busier than ever and you will need to listen to your body and know when you need to rest.
Gemini is all about communications, writing, video, Skype, email, web-conferencing etc. We may see huge global advances in our communication technologies over the next six months.
The way you communicate in your one to one relationships will come under sharp focus. If you have someone in your life with whom you are estranged and you wish to make contact with them at this time, you may find a new way of getting through to them. It's a time to be prepared to listen carefully so that you can understand what the other person is experiencing. This could bring about great healing and renewal in your relationships. You might find yourself taking a short trip to get out of a rut or to have a change in routine.
Auteurist Critique of Katsuhiro Otomo
To general western audiences these days Japanese animation has grown to have a rather large reputation as primarily being a children's form of entertainment. This global identity which has become familiar with most parents was most likely the result of this distinctive visual art form becoming popularised through children's television on weekend mornings. While this belief that Japanese animation is mostly aimed at children is well known amongst parenting groups in the Americas and Europe, this is, for the most part, only half-true.
Japanese animation, or simply called anime, is in fact a lot more popular amongst teenage groups due to a majority of content having more adult appeal. As Susan J. Napier wrote in her book Anime: From Akira to Princess Monoke about Japanese animation's popularity in both cultures "The "culture" to which anime belongs is at present a "popular" or "mass" culture in Japan, and in America it exists as a "sub" culture. However, as Treat's point about the mercuriality of value suggests, this situation may well change. Indeed, in Japan over the last decade, anime has been increasingly seen as an intellectually challenging art form, as the number of scholarly writings on the subject attest." (Pg. 4).
As the film making industry flourished in Japan during the years following World War II, so did its sister medium of animation and became both a "mass" culture and a "sub" culture as discussed above. And while this style of animation had entered markets foreign to Japan as early as the 1960's it wasn't until the 1980's and 1990's that it began to grow as a major cultural export. As Fred Patten wrote about Japanese animation's first experience in North America during the 1960's in his book Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 Years of Essays and Reviews "Most viewers never realised these were not American cartoons. If they did, they must have concluded that animation was not popular in Japan since there seemed to be so few programs. In fact, these programs were the early efforts of an immensely successful Japanese cartoon industry." (Pg. 219).
Although a lot of people today will still view anime to be a type of 'limited' animation aimed at children, a vast majority of its storylines and visuals involved postmodern settings and content which was seen as a welcome diversity in a country where Disney was mostly popular in the animation field. Today anime has become embedded in our culture almost as much as it has in Japan and continues to influence animators and illustrators worldwide.
With this ever growing fandom of anime it probably become easy to overlook how anime became a world-wide phenomenon in the first place. In the United States it seemed a lot of adult content had been focused primarily on live action film making, and example being the futuristic dystopian set Blade Runner (1982, USA). Although there were some film directors that have made animated films aimed at adults, a well-known example being Fritz the Cat (Ralph Bakshi, 1973), which to this day is the most financially successful independent animated film, most producers probably didn't see adult content cartooning having a wider appeal outside of its underground roots and into the mainstream market, especially with the regaining popularity of Disney animation. But while live action film making was just as popular in Japan, animation had become equally mainstream (almost half of film releases in Japan from the 1970's onwards were animated) so it seemed a lot of film makers saw their form of animation's somewhat illustrative style would be a perfect suit for adult content and mature themes.
A notable Japanese film maker who not only used animation in such a way but also helped popularise Japanese animation in foreign countries is Katsuhiro Otomo. Otomo can be seen as an excellent example of an auteur for we can see how he repeats his visual style and treatment of genre throughout his films and even how he conveys his experiences and self imagery into the hand drawn line, which has been embedded in narrative structure, visuals, symbolism and just about any other aspect of film making. He really proves how flexible a stylistic medium such as animation can be in conveying his own self and experiences onto the screen. A great way to take an auteurist approach to Otomo's film making is to compare and contrast a few of them. Akira, Cannon Fodder and Steamboy are all good films to explore.
The film that Katsuhiro Otomo is probably best known for is his animated epic Akira (1988). In any film the one thing that should become immediately obvious is the genre of the film. Otomo's treatment of genre in his stories is consistent throughout his work in the way that he'll set it in a particular time period and fantasise it in some way with a lot of postmodern elements. As Paul Wells writes in his book Animation: Genre and Authorship "At one level it is still easy to recognise a 'horror' film, a 'western', a 'musical' and so on, but such is the hybridity of generic elements in many films that there are many aspects of crossover and combination within established genres that in effect, new 'sub-genres' have been created. These intersections and adaptations means that any genre rarely operates in an exclusive way" (pg. 41).
Akira is one of the most notable examples of the 'cyberpunk' genre which derives mostly from science fiction. While many cyberpunk stories will involve computers and technology such as Ghost in the Shell (Mamuro Oshii, 1995, Japan), it is supernatural and psychic powers that play a more dominant role in this film. The film is set in Neo Tokyo forty years after World War III when an atomic explosion destroyed the old city. This atomic explosion is revealed to have been the result of the Akira experiment which becomes central to the plot.
Otomo's visual style is quiet distinct in a number of ways. Although he displays Neo Tokyo as a dystopian metropolis ruled over by corrupt politicians he focuses just as much on the culturally diverse population. The established protagonists, including Kaneda and Tetsuo, are part of a group of delinquent bikers who spent some time fighting another biker gang across Neo-Tokyo. The night scenes make a stark use of luminous colour against hard shadows in the night scenes. But what's notable about his treatment of colour is his use of red and green. His films can be easily recognized though the way he contrasts strong reds with cyan and green colours in an almost unorthodox way. Not only is this contrast abundant in the environments but he also uses complementaries when representing the different groups of people. The biker gangs are often dressed up in saturated red and grey green clothing while the authority figures are often shown dressed with blue and orange.
Backgrounds were meticulously thought out in just about every aspect to ensure depth and spatial relations were correct. The characters were also realistically proportioned rather than featuring the often exaggerated body features that Japanese animation is mostly known for commercially. The films soundtrack is also striking for its seemingly minimum use of instruments. A majority of the original score consists of bamboo drums. The vocals, however, are more dominant in the more important and dramatic scenes. There's a great amount of contrast between youth culture and the authority figures. The established youths are shown as an almost retro biker gang, which is often called a BÅsÅzoku gang in Japan. The older figures above them are either elderly men who consist mainly of the political figures in the film, or more strongly built compared to them such as the Colonel and the police officer that interviews the kids in the crowded building after Tetsuo was taken in by the army. There seems to be a subtle amount of satire towards both ends as each are shown to have major flaws of egotism and arrogance. As for gender, neither gender seems to be highly sexualized. However, there is one highly fetishised scene in which Kaori is attacked by one of the bike gangs when her shirt is torn off revealing her breasts. Since females aren't fetishised in other scenes this choice was possibly done to raise excitement in the sequence.
There may be an amount of psychological influence coming from the environments. Just about every street scene is shown to have graffiti and other vandalised and abused objects scattered across. Even the school is shown to be just as unkempt as the bar hang-out and alleyways.
What drives the post modern narrative structure of the film is its themes, which consist of power, corruption and ego. All three themes are abundant in the back story in which the Akira experiment became too much for the government to handle, hence the atomic explosion at the opening scene of the film. The same cycle seems to repeat itself only with Tetsuo being given telekinetic powers after he crashed during the turf war against the clown gang. As his newly given power grows, so does his ego as he lashes out at Kaneda before having a nervous breakdown and being taken into custody again. The government's actions to try and contain Tetsuo only prove to be futile as he becomes powerful enough to fight the oppressing army that seems to dominate the dystopian city.
Symbolism also plays a major role in the film's narrative. There is a religious cult surrounding Akira demonstrating in the streets in one scene, in a dystopian city where there is hardly a place for religion. This religious cult is much more active in the later sequence where Tetsuo, with his fully fledged powers, is leading protesters across the bridge to the Olympic stadium in a revolt against the government believing that Tetsuo is the second coming of Akira. Humorously, this religious cult is put an end to very quickly when Tetsuo destroys the bridge leading to the stadium. This part of the film is a good example of where films soundtrack is striking for its seemingly minimum use of instruments. A majority of the original score consists of bamboo drums. The vocals, however, are more dominant in the more important and dramatic scenes such as here, where the vocals are orchestrated to increase the drama, and therefore heightening the demonstrator's regard to Tetsuo as a sort of holy figure.
Symbolism is especially abundant in the dream and hallucination sequences. As Tetsuo's powers develop he has a hallucinogenic vision of three monstrous toys bleeding and spewing milk, widely considered to symbolise not only growth and fertility but the gaining of knowledge. They are later scared away by the sight of Tetsuo's blood, a symbol of adolescence. This is an important visual aspect to the film because it displays how Tetsuo's growth of power is currently effecting him and also hints at his unhappy childhood Later in a flash back it is shown how Tetsuo and Kaneda befriended one another when Kaneda stole back a toy taken from Tetsuo by bigger kids. These dreams and flashbacks show the audiences the relationship between the two friends, even as their two egos grow in conflict. As Paul Wells writes in his book Understanding Animation "Symbolism, in any aesthetic system, complicates narrative structure because a symbol may be consciously used as part of the image vocabulary to suggest specific meanings, but equally, a symbol may be unconsciously deployed and therefore may be recognised as a bearer of meaning over and beyond the artist's overt attention. In other words, an animated film may be interpreted through its symbolism, whether the symbols have been used deliberately to facilitate a meaning or not. This can, of course, radically alter the understanding of the film, arguably making it infinitely richer in its implications, or misrepresenting the project altogether" (pg. 83).
These symbols and metaphors that Otomo has included in the film are vital to the viewer's understanding of the narrative and messages in the film, especially in a script that involves a lot of dialogue. Just as Tetsuo and Kaneda's friendship is made clearer through the films symbolism, so too is the audiences understanding of the central plot, which is the character of Akira. It's revealed that Tetsuo is experiencing the same victimisation of scientists using him to 'play God' in their experiments, and just like the atomic explosion at the start of the film which destroyed Tokyo, Tetsuo causes the same effect and impact when he loses control of himself and metamorphosises into an organic creature. Akira was called on by the Espier children to put an end to it by repeating the same process and creating another explosion which wipes out Neo-Tokyo, although Kaneda and a few other characters survive. This is followed by another muted black explosion which creates another universe. Tetsuo's voice can be heard, implying that he has become a God like entity in another dimension.
Underneath the film's post modern themes of power and corruption, one could interpret the atomic explosions shown in this film more like a 'Big Bang', which was said to be the beginning of the universe. In other words, with every apocalypse comes a new beginning and a new start for any person that should survive. Tokyo was able to rebuild itself and it could presumably rebuild itself again, just as it can be presumed men will attempt to achieve the power of a God again since they hadn't learned from their mistakes the first time around and may not again.
Considering Akira proved to be a milestone in animation due to its incredible attention to detail in its art form, this makes one of Otomo's later films entitled Cannon Fodder (1995, Japan) a very interesting contrast, the third and final epidoe of his Memories film. Cannon Fodder's treatment of genre is similar to how Otomo will usually create a hybrid genre. It is primarily a steampunk story. It's set in a walled city where giant cannons are built on top of the roofs of every building. The whole population's livelihood depends on the working class citizens maintaining, loading and firing these cannons which launch missiles at the enemy city. The whole culture of the city is shown to be a working class population in a sort of socialist regime like communist Russia, so the look of the film mostly copies the iconography of European culture during wartime, including stone streets, steam locomotives in train stations and even the clothing the people wear, who all seem to dress with helmets on. The city is shown in clouds of smoke and dust from their attack on the 'enemy city', which seems to be the basis on the society's entire economy. Even posters displayed on the walls parodies the Russian alphabet.
The whole narrative follows a school boy who aspires to serve in the war and his father who works on maintaining the cannons. The narrative structure uses a technique a lot like the film Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 19, USA) in which the entire film is one continuous shot panning and dollying across to different locations. As Gilberto Perez wrote in his book The Material Ghost "Telling is indeed like counting, not in content, of course, but in form: a story is told in succession, one thing and then another and then another, as things are counted." (pg. 50).
Otomo may have seen this style of direction created by Hitchcock as appropriate to introducing the audience to the world in which the characters live in. The start of the film, for example, opens in the child's bedroom, follows him out into the kitchen with is filled with pipes and mechanics producing steam showing the type of technology they have, pans across the kitchen and back, then follows the boy exiting his home with his father and follows them through the city brings us around their daily lives. Since the shots flow into one another (at least until the end of the second act) the audience will feel included in the world and a little less alienated as their point of view is following the characters.
What is the most unusual about the film is its choice of animation. Instead of the meticulously, realistically proportioned character design like we saw in Akira, the characters are more caricatured and stylized. Not only that but they are drawn in a rough brush pen technique, including the backgrounds. I find this interesting. Since this film's single camera set-up follows through a culture where war is glorified and a child aspires to fight in future wars, this choice of style in its animation can be seen as being satirical of wartime propaganda that can be published in a children's book. Even in Nazi Germany similar propaganda techniques have been used while Hitler was in power and at the end of the third act of the film the boy has drawn a picture of himself in crayons, which turns into an animated sequence in itself showing the boys fantasies about serving his home by leading an army into war, all in his crayon inspired imagination. What's more striking about the visuals is how strong the usage of red and green is throughout, even more stark than what we've seen in Akira.
Through the films themes of war and socialism, Otomo seems to make a subtle comment on the way such a society is structured. Although the entire population is entirely accepting of their government's commands, despite the ugly dystopia they live in, such a system seems to rely on such perfect behaviour from its people so much that it could easily prove to be its downfall. Towards the end of the second act of the film it is revealed that the father has been working on loading the missiles into the cannons. However, along the way he makes a mistake resulting in the missile not being loaded in time. The firing goes ahead as planned, with the father watching on nervously. It isn't revealed whether or not the father has been punished for the blunder, but it was implied that the shot was unconfirmed to have actually hit the enemy city by the news reporter.
Strictly speaking, if one mistake is made in the governments established plan then the entire plan could fall apart simply because such plans are too perfectly idealistic. It may be seen as a representation of how a population can be programmed by its media into seeing their home as being glorious and not questioning anything about it. If none of the characters actually question anything about their society or seeing anything wrong with it then Otomo has certainly left his viewers questioning the very thing, not just in the surrealist world he created but also in our own world. Could this only be applied to a socialist government during a war or could one start questioning their own society? It is a subtle remark on war and culture but it's there.
The themes in Cannon Fodder seem to lead into Otomo's next (and to date last) animated feature Steamboy (2004, Japan). Its genre treatment is similar to Cannon Fodder, as the title implies, being another steampunk film.
Here it is set in an alternative England during the industrial revolution in 1863, and the working class culture has taken enormous developments on steampunk-themed technologies. Although Otomo has set the film in a nineteenth century Victorian setting while copying the iconography of Europe during this period, he took the liberty of mixing in steam powered locomotives and tractor devices with numerous contraptions and inventions such as clawed machines and even a type of 'monowheel', which is essentially a steam powered bicycle. These devices are a lot like the kinds of machines that Leonardo DaVinci is known to have illustrated at his time, only technological limitations prevented further development to him.
The devices become more fantasised as the story progresses showing an army of men wearing steam powered armoured suits, aviation devices and even a massive floating fortress powered by steam. The one device that's central to the plot is the steam-ball, which was created by Dr. Lloyd Steam and his son Edward to make an ultimate source of steam power. The Steam Ball's creation was established at the start of the film, which had shown the audience not only what the plot will centre around but also to introduce the type of technology that will be displayed in the film. As Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener stated in their book Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses about the establishment of a film "...a film's beginning must lure the audience, i.e. it must prompt the necessary attention and suspense, it must plant important information, but also set the tone and atmosphere that prepares the film to come." (Pg. 42).
Otomo repeats his usual representation of gender with some exceptions. Male characters are the most active throughout the film as either the protagonists and antagonist or simply the hard laboured citizens in society, and women being less active. Not only that but Otomo hasn't made either gender sexualised at all, nor is there any fetishism. One exception to this would be the most active female protagonist, Scarlett. Being from a higher class family and the granddaughter of the chairman of the O'Hara foundation she is mostly dressed to look presentable and attractive to a point. Even though there is a hint at being a love interest to Ray, no such romance seems to develop between the two characters. Scarlett is also shown to be the most arrogant and spoilt of the characters and behaves in a much more self-important way to the other male characters.
The animation techniques shown are something of a step-forward compared to Akira. It uses highly detailed and realistically proportioned characters with meticulously worked-out backgrounds in which details and spatial relations are carefully planned out to accommodate the characters movements in a realistic manner. The hand drawn animation techniques are even mixed in with several CGI cuts in the backgrounds. The colour treatment in the visuals is similar in a few ways to Akira. Otomo still uses strong contrasts between saturated reds and green, especially in interior scenes where there's furniture and pipe work. The reds and greens sometimes even act as a focal point in some shots. However, unlike Akira, which used a lot of bright and luminous neon style colours in its backgrounds, Steamboy used more desaturated browns and greys in its backgrounds and even dark blacks on machinery. This is more suiting to its nineteenth century setting and makes a strong contrast to the more futuristic appeal in Akira.
The narrative in the film can also be compared in a few ways to Akira in its themes of power. Ray meets continuous obstacles in the storyline all as a result of the conflict between both his father Edward and his grandfather Lloyd. The two men are in constant dispute over what to do with their Steam Ball invention, and Lloyd has even warned Ray not to allow the steam-ball to be acquired by Edward and the O'Hara foundation. After Ray was chased by members of the O'Hara foundation from Manchester to London, Ray comes to meet his father who has been building the Steam Tower in London, which he claims will end hard labour for men as it will produce energy to the entire world. Although Ray helps him in completing the tower initially, he meets his grandfather Lloyd again, who reveals that Edward actually wants to use the Steam Ball to create an arsenal of steam powered war machines. This is where Ray starts coming to terms with the morality and ethics of science and what its purpose should be.
Later, Ray steals back the Steam Ball from the core of the Steam Tower and flees, and the next day while international leaders are given a live demonstration of Edwards steam powered soldiers in what is explained to be 'a war on Britain', Edward is eager to demonstrate what the Steam Tower really is and uses his other two Steam Balls to launch the Steam Tower into its colossal flying fortress, dubbed the Steam Castle. Eventually, Ray confronts both his father and grandfather in the observation deck of the Steam Castle where the two dispute what their intentions as scientists should be.
Edward believes that he and the foundation are serving purpose to the entire world through their scientific experiments and weaponry should be a part of that while Lloyd believes that science should reveal universal principles and not to be used in absurd ways. A different character named Robert, who was an intended recipient of the Steam Ball, told Ray earlier that science should simply be used to 'make people happy'. On moral grounds, Otomo has presented two extreme views on science in the form of the conflict between Edward and Lloyd while also giving a grey area for the protagonist to consider. Lloyd even attempts to shoot Edward in order to stop him from developing into a complete 'monster', just as the Steam Castle is about to explode over the whole of London. Lloyd then tells Ray that he must "..save science from the wicked and preserve the future".
This can be seen as another comment on humanity and its desire for power just like with Akira, although here power is concerned with science and technology rather than the concept of 'playing God'. As steam powered technology has rapidly advanced in this alternative universe during the industrial revolution it may be possible for such technology to advance beyond man's comprehension or control. At the end of the film the pressure from the steam valves inside the Steam Castle's core becomes too high to stabilise and as a result the fortress explodes over the river Thames. It's almost like the same theme in Akira about every disaster offering a new beginning. At the end Ray says to Scarlett that "The age of science has just begun". Could there be lessons learned from Edward's mistakes and arrogance allowing scientific development to benefit mankind more, or could the same process of man becoming too confident in his developments repeat again? Otomo has left a multitude of philosophies, ideals and ethics, which were discussed throughout the story, about science and technology for the audience to think about, an equally open ended closure to Akira.
After studying three of Katsuhiro Otomo's films, it has become even easier not only to identify his repeated signature visual style but also his repeated treatment of genre. Like any other director he attempts to convey self-image into his own films and embeds it into a highly post modern form of narrative structure with a focus on symbolism, visual imagery and other aspects. As wrote in his book Robert Stam in Film Theory: An Introduction "Post modernism is a discursive - stylistic grid that has enriched film theory and analysis by calling attention to a stylistic shift toward a media conscience cinema of multiple styles and ironic recyclage. Much of the work on postmodernism in film has involved the positing of a post modern aesthetic, exemplified in such influential films as Blue Velvet (1986), Blade Runner (1982) and Pulp Fiction (1994)." (Pg. 304)
Like the mentioned films in the above quotation some of Otomo's work still continues to influence film making today. And while some would try to replicate what he has been able to do in Akira and his other films, his own visual identity will still remain his own whether it is his treatment of design, colour, lighting or even how he handles morality and symbolism in his narrative. It is no surprise that artists, animators and illustrators in both western and eastern cultures have cited Otomo as an influence as much as influences from American and European films can be seen in his work such as Blade Runner (1982). Its these western influences on Otomo's work that may have become the reason behind Akira's success outside of Japan since it still has a great amount of appeal to western audiences today.
It is known, of course, that film making in Japan started to truely develop after world war two, and even animation made in Japan prior to the war appeared to be derived from Disney style animation, and yet Japanese film makers were able to create an almost completely different culture based on another culture. And even though some Japanese television programs were shown in North America since the 1960's it is interesting how its distinctive style didn't actually begin to take hold on the rest of the world until the 1980's. To quote again from Susan J. Napier's book "...it appears that it is the "Otherness" of anime rather than its specific "Japanese-ness" that is one of its fundamental appeals to the fans. As discussed earlier, respondents consistently mentioned how different anime was from American or Western products." (Pg. 255)
A handful of other Japanese animated films released outside of Japan during the 1980's and 1990's have had just as much an impact on western culture as Akira, such as Ghost in the Shell (Mamuro Oshii, 1995, Japan) and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984, Japan) Anime seems to have grown to have a different number of meanings outside of its home country but whatever one's interpretation of this style of animation may be it has certainly offered a wealth of enrichment to artistic careers in both cultures.
-Mark Kilkelly, 2011
Japanese animation, or simply called anime, is in fact a lot more popular amongst teenage groups due to a majority of content having more adult appeal. As Susan J. Napier wrote in her book Anime: From Akira to Princess Monoke about Japanese animation's popularity in both cultures "The "culture" to which anime belongs is at present a "popular" or "mass" culture in Japan, and in America it exists as a "sub" culture. However, as Treat's point about the mercuriality of value suggests, this situation may well change. Indeed, in Japan over the last decade, anime has been increasingly seen as an intellectually challenging art form, as the number of scholarly writings on the subject attest." (Pg. 4).
As the film making industry flourished in Japan during the years following World War II, so did its sister medium of animation and became both a "mass" culture and a "sub" culture as discussed above. And while this style of animation had entered markets foreign to Japan as early as the 1960's it wasn't until the 1980's and 1990's that it began to grow as a major cultural export. As Fred Patten wrote about Japanese animation's first experience in North America during the 1960's in his book Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 Years of Essays and Reviews "Most viewers never realised these were not American cartoons. If they did, they must have concluded that animation was not popular in Japan since there seemed to be so few programs. In fact, these programs were the early efforts of an immensely successful Japanese cartoon industry." (Pg. 219).
Although a lot of people today will still view anime to be a type of 'limited' animation aimed at children, a vast majority of its storylines and visuals involved postmodern settings and content which was seen as a welcome diversity in a country where Disney was mostly popular in the animation field. Today anime has become embedded in our culture almost as much as it has in Japan and continues to influence animators and illustrators worldwide.
With this ever growing fandom of anime it probably become easy to overlook how anime became a world-wide phenomenon in the first place. In the United States it seemed a lot of adult content had been focused primarily on live action film making, and example being the futuristic dystopian set Blade Runner (1982, USA). Although there were some film directors that have made animated films aimed at adults, a well-known example being Fritz the Cat (Ralph Bakshi, 1973), which to this day is the most financially successful independent animated film, most producers probably didn't see adult content cartooning having a wider appeal outside of its underground roots and into the mainstream market, especially with the regaining popularity of Disney animation. But while live action film making was just as popular in Japan, animation had become equally mainstream (almost half of film releases in Japan from the 1970's onwards were animated) so it seemed a lot of film makers saw their form of animation's somewhat illustrative style would be a perfect suit for adult content and mature themes.
A notable Japanese film maker who not only used animation in such a way but also helped popularise Japanese animation in foreign countries is Katsuhiro Otomo. Otomo can be seen as an excellent example of an auteur for we can see how he repeats his visual style and treatment of genre throughout his films and even how he conveys his experiences and self imagery into the hand drawn line, which has been embedded in narrative structure, visuals, symbolism and just about any other aspect of film making. He really proves how flexible a stylistic medium such as animation can be in conveying his own self and experiences onto the screen. A great way to take an auteurist approach to Otomo's film making is to compare and contrast a few of them. Akira, Cannon Fodder and Steamboy are all good films to explore.
The film that Katsuhiro Otomo is probably best known for is his animated epic Akira (1988). In any film the one thing that should become immediately obvious is the genre of the film. Otomo's treatment of genre in his stories is consistent throughout his work in the way that he'll set it in a particular time period and fantasise it in some way with a lot of postmodern elements. As Paul Wells writes in his book Animation: Genre and Authorship "At one level it is still easy to recognise a 'horror' film, a 'western', a 'musical' and so on, but such is the hybridity of generic elements in many films that there are many aspects of crossover and combination within established genres that in effect, new 'sub-genres' have been created. These intersections and adaptations means that any genre rarely operates in an exclusive way" (pg. 41).
Akira is one of the most notable examples of the 'cyberpunk' genre which derives mostly from science fiction. While many cyberpunk stories will involve computers and technology such as Ghost in the Shell (Mamuro Oshii, 1995, Japan), it is supernatural and psychic powers that play a more dominant role in this film. The film is set in Neo Tokyo forty years after World War III when an atomic explosion destroyed the old city. This atomic explosion is revealed to have been the result of the Akira experiment which becomes central to the plot.
Otomo's visual style is quiet distinct in a number of ways. Although he displays Neo Tokyo as a dystopian metropolis ruled over by corrupt politicians he focuses just as much on the culturally diverse population. The established protagonists, including Kaneda and Tetsuo, are part of a group of delinquent bikers who spent some time fighting another biker gang across Neo-Tokyo. The night scenes make a stark use of luminous colour against hard shadows in the night scenes. But what's notable about his treatment of colour is his use of red and green. His films can be easily recognized though the way he contrasts strong reds with cyan and green colours in an almost unorthodox way. Not only is this contrast abundant in the environments but he also uses complementaries when representing the different groups of people. The biker gangs are often dressed up in saturated red and grey green clothing while the authority figures are often shown dressed with blue and orange.
Backgrounds were meticulously thought out in just about every aspect to ensure depth and spatial relations were correct. The characters were also realistically proportioned rather than featuring the often exaggerated body features that Japanese animation is mostly known for commercially. The films soundtrack is also striking for its seemingly minimum use of instruments. A majority of the original score consists of bamboo drums. The vocals, however, are more dominant in the more important and dramatic scenes. There's a great amount of contrast between youth culture and the authority figures. The established youths are shown as an almost retro biker gang, which is often called a BÅsÅzoku gang in Japan. The older figures above them are either elderly men who consist mainly of the political figures in the film, or more strongly built compared to them such as the Colonel and the police officer that interviews the kids in the crowded building after Tetsuo was taken in by the army. There seems to be a subtle amount of satire towards both ends as each are shown to have major flaws of egotism and arrogance. As for gender, neither gender seems to be highly sexualized. However, there is one highly fetishised scene in which Kaori is attacked by one of the bike gangs when her shirt is torn off revealing her breasts. Since females aren't fetishised in other scenes this choice was possibly done to raise excitement in the sequence.
There may be an amount of psychological influence coming from the environments. Just about every street scene is shown to have graffiti and other vandalised and abused objects scattered across. Even the school is shown to be just as unkempt as the bar hang-out and alleyways.
What drives the post modern narrative structure of the film is its themes, which consist of power, corruption and ego. All three themes are abundant in the back story in which the Akira experiment became too much for the government to handle, hence the atomic explosion at the opening scene of the film. The same cycle seems to repeat itself only with Tetsuo being given telekinetic powers after he crashed during the turf war against the clown gang. As his newly given power grows, so does his ego as he lashes out at Kaneda before having a nervous breakdown and being taken into custody again. The government's actions to try and contain Tetsuo only prove to be futile as he becomes powerful enough to fight the oppressing army that seems to dominate the dystopian city.
Symbolism also plays a major role in the film's narrative. There is a religious cult surrounding Akira demonstrating in the streets in one scene, in a dystopian city where there is hardly a place for religion. This religious cult is much more active in the later sequence where Tetsuo, with his fully fledged powers, is leading protesters across the bridge to the Olympic stadium in a revolt against the government believing that Tetsuo is the second coming of Akira. Humorously, this religious cult is put an end to very quickly when Tetsuo destroys the bridge leading to the stadium. This part of the film is a good example of where films soundtrack is striking for its seemingly minimum use of instruments. A majority of the original score consists of bamboo drums. The vocals, however, are more dominant in the more important and dramatic scenes such as here, where the vocals are orchestrated to increase the drama, and therefore heightening the demonstrator's regard to Tetsuo as a sort of holy figure.
Symbolism is especially abundant in the dream and hallucination sequences. As Tetsuo's powers develop he has a hallucinogenic vision of three monstrous toys bleeding and spewing milk, widely considered to symbolise not only growth and fertility but the gaining of knowledge. They are later scared away by the sight of Tetsuo's blood, a symbol of adolescence. This is an important visual aspect to the film because it displays how Tetsuo's growth of power is currently effecting him and also hints at his unhappy childhood Later in a flash back it is shown how Tetsuo and Kaneda befriended one another when Kaneda stole back a toy taken from Tetsuo by bigger kids. These dreams and flashbacks show the audiences the relationship between the two friends, even as their two egos grow in conflict. As Paul Wells writes in his book Understanding Animation "Symbolism, in any aesthetic system, complicates narrative structure because a symbol may be consciously used as part of the image vocabulary to suggest specific meanings, but equally, a symbol may be unconsciously deployed and therefore may be recognised as a bearer of meaning over and beyond the artist's overt attention. In other words, an animated film may be interpreted through its symbolism, whether the symbols have been used deliberately to facilitate a meaning or not. This can, of course, radically alter the understanding of the film, arguably making it infinitely richer in its implications, or misrepresenting the project altogether" (pg. 83).
These symbols and metaphors that Otomo has included in the film are vital to the viewer's understanding of the narrative and messages in the film, especially in a script that involves a lot of dialogue. Just as Tetsuo and Kaneda's friendship is made clearer through the films symbolism, so too is the audiences understanding of the central plot, which is the character of Akira. It's revealed that Tetsuo is experiencing the same victimisation of scientists using him to 'play God' in their experiments, and just like the atomic explosion at the start of the film which destroyed Tokyo, Tetsuo causes the same effect and impact when he loses control of himself and metamorphosises into an organic creature. Akira was called on by the Espier children to put an end to it by repeating the same process and creating another explosion which wipes out Neo-Tokyo, although Kaneda and a few other characters survive. This is followed by another muted black explosion which creates another universe. Tetsuo's voice can be heard, implying that he has become a God like entity in another dimension.
Underneath the film's post modern themes of power and corruption, one could interpret the atomic explosions shown in this film more like a 'Big Bang', which was said to be the beginning of the universe. In other words, with every apocalypse comes a new beginning and a new start for any person that should survive. Tokyo was able to rebuild itself and it could presumably rebuild itself again, just as it can be presumed men will attempt to achieve the power of a God again since they hadn't learned from their mistakes the first time around and may not again.
Considering Akira proved to be a milestone in animation due to its incredible attention to detail in its art form, this makes one of Otomo's later films entitled Cannon Fodder (1995, Japan) a very interesting contrast, the third and final epidoe of his Memories film. Cannon Fodder's treatment of genre is similar to how Otomo will usually create a hybrid genre. It is primarily a steampunk story. It's set in a walled city where giant cannons are built on top of the roofs of every building. The whole population's livelihood depends on the working class citizens maintaining, loading and firing these cannons which launch missiles at the enemy city. The whole culture of the city is shown to be a working class population in a sort of socialist regime like communist Russia, so the look of the film mostly copies the iconography of European culture during wartime, including stone streets, steam locomotives in train stations and even the clothing the people wear, who all seem to dress with helmets on. The city is shown in clouds of smoke and dust from their attack on the 'enemy city', which seems to be the basis on the society's entire economy. Even posters displayed on the walls parodies the Russian alphabet.
The whole narrative follows a school boy who aspires to serve in the war and his father who works on maintaining the cannons. The narrative structure uses a technique a lot like the film Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 19, USA) in which the entire film is one continuous shot panning and dollying across to different locations. As Gilberto Perez wrote in his book The Material Ghost "Telling is indeed like counting, not in content, of course, but in form: a story is told in succession, one thing and then another and then another, as things are counted." (pg. 50).
Otomo may have seen this style of direction created by Hitchcock as appropriate to introducing the audience to the world in which the characters live in. The start of the film, for example, opens in the child's bedroom, follows him out into the kitchen with is filled with pipes and mechanics producing steam showing the type of technology they have, pans across the kitchen and back, then follows the boy exiting his home with his father and follows them through the city brings us around their daily lives. Since the shots flow into one another (at least until the end of the second act) the audience will feel included in the world and a little less alienated as their point of view is following the characters.
What is the most unusual about the film is its choice of animation. Instead of the meticulously, realistically proportioned character design like we saw in Akira, the characters are more caricatured and stylized. Not only that but they are drawn in a rough brush pen technique, including the backgrounds. I find this interesting. Since this film's single camera set-up follows through a culture where war is glorified and a child aspires to fight in future wars, this choice of style in its animation can be seen as being satirical of wartime propaganda that can be published in a children's book. Even in Nazi Germany similar propaganda techniques have been used while Hitler was in power and at the end of the third act of the film the boy has drawn a picture of himself in crayons, which turns into an animated sequence in itself showing the boys fantasies about serving his home by leading an army into war, all in his crayon inspired imagination. What's more striking about the visuals is how strong the usage of red and green is throughout, even more stark than what we've seen in Akira.
Through the films themes of war and socialism, Otomo seems to make a subtle comment on the way such a society is structured. Although the entire population is entirely accepting of their government's commands, despite the ugly dystopia they live in, such a system seems to rely on such perfect behaviour from its people so much that it could easily prove to be its downfall. Towards the end of the second act of the film it is revealed that the father has been working on loading the missiles into the cannons. However, along the way he makes a mistake resulting in the missile not being loaded in time. The firing goes ahead as planned, with the father watching on nervously. It isn't revealed whether or not the father has been punished for the blunder, but it was implied that the shot was unconfirmed to have actually hit the enemy city by the news reporter.
Strictly speaking, if one mistake is made in the governments established plan then the entire plan could fall apart simply because such plans are too perfectly idealistic. It may be seen as a representation of how a population can be programmed by its media into seeing their home as being glorious and not questioning anything about it. If none of the characters actually question anything about their society or seeing anything wrong with it then Otomo has certainly left his viewers questioning the very thing, not just in the surrealist world he created but also in our own world. Could this only be applied to a socialist government during a war or could one start questioning their own society? It is a subtle remark on war and culture but it's there.
The themes in Cannon Fodder seem to lead into Otomo's next (and to date last) animated feature Steamboy (2004, Japan). Its genre treatment is similar to Cannon Fodder, as the title implies, being another steampunk film.
Here it is set in an alternative England during the industrial revolution in 1863, and the working class culture has taken enormous developments on steampunk-themed technologies. Although Otomo has set the film in a nineteenth century Victorian setting while copying the iconography of Europe during this period, he took the liberty of mixing in steam powered locomotives and tractor devices with numerous contraptions and inventions such as clawed machines and even a type of 'monowheel', which is essentially a steam powered bicycle. These devices are a lot like the kinds of machines that Leonardo DaVinci is known to have illustrated at his time, only technological limitations prevented further development to him.
The devices become more fantasised as the story progresses showing an army of men wearing steam powered armoured suits, aviation devices and even a massive floating fortress powered by steam. The one device that's central to the plot is the steam-ball, which was created by Dr. Lloyd Steam and his son Edward to make an ultimate source of steam power. The Steam Ball's creation was established at the start of the film, which had shown the audience not only what the plot will centre around but also to introduce the type of technology that will be displayed in the film. As Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener stated in their book Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses about the establishment of a film "...a film's beginning must lure the audience, i.e. it must prompt the necessary attention and suspense, it must plant important information, but also set the tone and atmosphere that prepares the film to come." (Pg. 42).
Otomo repeats his usual representation of gender with some exceptions. Male characters are the most active throughout the film as either the protagonists and antagonist or simply the hard laboured citizens in society, and women being less active. Not only that but Otomo hasn't made either gender sexualised at all, nor is there any fetishism. One exception to this would be the most active female protagonist, Scarlett. Being from a higher class family and the granddaughter of the chairman of the O'Hara foundation she is mostly dressed to look presentable and attractive to a point. Even though there is a hint at being a love interest to Ray, no such romance seems to develop between the two characters. Scarlett is also shown to be the most arrogant and spoilt of the characters and behaves in a much more self-important way to the other male characters.
The animation techniques shown are something of a step-forward compared to Akira. It uses highly detailed and realistically proportioned characters with meticulously worked-out backgrounds in which details and spatial relations are carefully planned out to accommodate the characters movements in a realistic manner. The hand drawn animation techniques are even mixed in with several CGI cuts in the backgrounds. The colour treatment in the visuals is similar in a few ways to Akira. Otomo still uses strong contrasts between saturated reds and green, especially in interior scenes where there's furniture and pipe work. The reds and greens sometimes even act as a focal point in some shots. However, unlike Akira, which used a lot of bright and luminous neon style colours in its backgrounds, Steamboy used more desaturated browns and greys in its backgrounds and even dark blacks on machinery. This is more suiting to its nineteenth century setting and makes a strong contrast to the more futuristic appeal in Akira.
The narrative in the film can also be compared in a few ways to Akira in its themes of power. Ray meets continuous obstacles in the storyline all as a result of the conflict between both his father Edward and his grandfather Lloyd. The two men are in constant dispute over what to do with their Steam Ball invention, and Lloyd has even warned Ray not to allow the steam-ball to be acquired by Edward and the O'Hara foundation. After Ray was chased by members of the O'Hara foundation from Manchester to London, Ray comes to meet his father who has been building the Steam Tower in London, which he claims will end hard labour for men as it will produce energy to the entire world. Although Ray helps him in completing the tower initially, he meets his grandfather Lloyd again, who reveals that Edward actually wants to use the Steam Ball to create an arsenal of steam powered war machines. This is where Ray starts coming to terms with the morality and ethics of science and what its purpose should be.
Later, Ray steals back the Steam Ball from the core of the Steam Tower and flees, and the next day while international leaders are given a live demonstration of Edwards steam powered soldiers in what is explained to be 'a war on Britain', Edward is eager to demonstrate what the Steam Tower really is and uses his other two Steam Balls to launch the Steam Tower into its colossal flying fortress, dubbed the Steam Castle. Eventually, Ray confronts both his father and grandfather in the observation deck of the Steam Castle where the two dispute what their intentions as scientists should be.
Edward believes that he and the foundation are serving purpose to the entire world through their scientific experiments and weaponry should be a part of that while Lloyd believes that science should reveal universal principles and not to be used in absurd ways. A different character named Robert, who was an intended recipient of the Steam Ball, told Ray earlier that science should simply be used to 'make people happy'. On moral grounds, Otomo has presented two extreme views on science in the form of the conflict between Edward and Lloyd while also giving a grey area for the protagonist to consider. Lloyd even attempts to shoot Edward in order to stop him from developing into a complete 'monster', just as the Steam Castle is about to explode over the whole of London. Lloyd then tells Ray that he must "..save science from the wicked and preserve the future".
This can be seen as another comment on humanity and its desire for power just like with Akira, although here power is concerned with science and technology rather than the concept of 'playing God'. As steam powered technology has rapidly advanced in this alternative universe during the industrial revolution it may be possible for such technology to advance beyond man's comprehension or control. At the end of the film the pressure from the steam valves inside the Steam Castle's core becomes too high to stabilise and as a result the fortress explodes over the river Thames. It's almost like the same theme in Akira about every disaster offering a new beginning. At the end Ray says to Scarlett that "The age of science has just begun". Could there be lessons learned from Edward's mistakes and arrogance allowing scientific development to benefit mankind more, or could the same process of man becoming too confident in his developments repeat again? Otomo has left a multitude of philosophies, ideals and ethics, which were discussed throughout the story, about science and technology for the audience to think about, an equally open ended closure to Akira.
After studying three of Katsuhiro Otomo's films, it has become even easier not only to identify his repeated signature visual style but also his repeated treatment of genre. Like any other director he attempts to convey self-image into his own films and embeds it into a highly post modern form of narrative structure with a focus on symbolism, visual imagery and other aspects. As wrote in his book Robert Stam in Film Theory: An Introduction "Post modernism is a discursive - stylistic grid that has enriched film theory and analysis by calling attention to a stylistic shift toward a media conscience cinema of multiple styles and ironic recyclage. Much of the work on postmodernism in film has involved the positing of a post modern aesthetic, exemplified in such influential films as Blue Velvet (1986), Blade Runner (1982) and Pulp Fiction (1994)." (Pg. 304)
Like the mentioned films in the above quotation some of Otomo's work still continues to influence film making today. And while some would try to replicate what he has been able to do in Akira and his other films, his own visual identity will still remain his own whether it is his treatment of design, colour, lighting or even how he handles morality and symbolism in his narrative. It is no surprise that artists, animators and illustrators in both western and eastern cultures have cited Otomo as an influence as much as influences from American and European films can be seen in his work such as Blade Runner (1982). Its these western influences on Otomo's work that may have become the reason behind Akira's success outside of Japan since it still has a great amount of appeal to western audiences today.
It is known, of course, that film making in Japan started to truely develop after world war two, and even animation made in Japan prior to the war appeared to be derived from Disney style animation, and yet Japanese film makers were able to create an almost completely different culture based on another culture. And even though some Japanese television programs were shown in North America since the 1960's it is interesting how its distinctive style didn't actually begin to take hold on the rest of the world until the 1980's. To quote again from Susan J. Napier's book "...it appears that it is the "Otherness" of anime rather than its specific "Japanese-ness" that is one of its fundamental appeals to the fans. As discussed earlier, respondents consistently mentioned how different anime was from American or Western products." (Pg. 255)
A handful of other Japanese animated films released outside of Japan during the 1980's and 1990's have had just as much an impact on western culture as Akira, such as Ghost in the Shell (Mamuro Oshii, 1995, Japan) and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984, Japan) Anime seems to have grown to have a different number of meanings outside of its home country but whatever one's interpretation of this style of animation may be it has certainly offered a wealth of enrichment to artistic careers in both cultures.
-Mark Kilkelly, 2011
Tips on How to Choose the Best 3D Animation Software That Will Blow Your Animations Through the Roof
Observing the present world, the computer animation industry have developed a great deal from the periods of 2-dimensional crude image processing. It is however still in a continuing level of improvement offering innovative solutions that are better for those who work interestingly with some kind of visual images. 3D animations have come into subsistence, to optimize the method of designing motion images by using certain capabilities. The industry has grown from being a dream of possibilities to the best, most ranked for images and graphics designing industry.
3D Animation Software, a popular term in animation, can be defined as the set of programs that are used to create 3D images, generated by the computer. The major advantage of using 3D animation software is the ability to improve the quality of the design, its options of animated designs offered are more complete compared to the 2 dimensional animated designs.
3D meets the discriminating requirements set up by the expert animator; this shows its progression as it has had a tremendous growth in the last few years.
In the present times, 3D popularity is increasing its diversification into different sections like the graphic world. 3D animation is also used in the entertainment industry to aid the professional's directors and enables designers to pitch their ideas more efficiently. The continuous progress of the entertainment world has really been boosted by the animation. The rate at which the revolution in the entertainment industry is having is set to grow at the rate of 30 per cent annually as the year's progress.
However, the option of choosing the appropriate 3D software is never a simple task especially when there is a possibility of multiple offers over the same set of features. Moreover, the software price is largely determined by the working functional capabilities of the software. Thus, some of the factors to take caution on before using animation software include:
Formulating an easy to use, learn and understand 3D software. The importance of this is because creating a complex subject out of 3D software at the beginning of the study is not easy.
Try obtaining the top 3D and most favorable software for your creation. It is necessary to check whether the software you picked meets the demand of your work
3 dimensional software is easy to understand but you need to have some experience if you wish to create exactly what you want. With all the different 3 dimensional software packages out there, it can be difficult to choose the perfect one to satisfy your needs.
3D Animation Software, a popular term in animation, can be defined as the set of programs that are used to create 3D images, generated by the computer. The major advantage of using 3D animation software is the ability to improve the quality of the design, its options of animated designs offered are more complete compared to the 2 dimensional animated designs.
3D meets the discriminating requirements set up by the expert animator; this shows its progression as it has had a tremendous growth in the last few years.
In the present times, 3D popularity is increasing its diversification into different sections like the graphic world. 3D animation is also used in the entertainment industry to aid the professional's directors and enables designers to pitch their ideas more efficiently. The continuous progress of the entertainment world has really been boosted by the animation. The rate at which the revolution in the entertainment industry is having is set to grow at the rate of 30 per cent annually as the year's progress.
However, the option of choosing the appropriate 3D software is never a simple task especially when there is a possibility of multiple offers over the same set of features. Moreover, the software price is largely determined by the working functional capabilities of the software. Thus, some of the factors to take caution on before using animation software include:
Formulating an easy to use, learn and understand 3D software. The importance of this is because creating a complex subject out of 3D software at the beginning of the study is not easy.
Try obtaining the top 3D and most favorable software for your creation. It is necessary to check whether the software you picked meets the demand of your work
3 dimensional software is easy to understand but you need to have some experience if you wish to create exactly what you want. With all the different 3 dimensional software packages out there, it can be difficult to choose the perfect one to satisfy your needs.
For Those Who Think They Cannot: How to Become an Artist
Bottled up within all of us is a part of our soul that needs to be expressed creatively. Have you wished you could do art? I'm here to tell you, that you are and can become an artist. It's a matter of finding something that you find fulfillment, appreciation and most importantly, something that is enjoyable. Now is the time to abandon your pity party and unleash your talent.
Below is five steps on how to free yourself from doubt and becoming the artist you've dreamt of becoming!
Taking Action:
1. Believe in Yourself.
Firstly, you must believe in yourself. You are your toughest critic, if you believe you cannot, this will manifest into just that. Plain and simple. Your confidence will translate into your art work. People are like stained glass windows, they shine when light hits them, but it is only when darkness sets in that you have to find the light within.
2.Ask yourself what do you love doing?
What feeds your soul? I once came across an artist who took pictures of toilets (he must have just really loved toilets). This can include anything; from painting, sculpting, scrap-booking to taking pictures of toilets! In essence, dance to the beat of your own drum.
3. Become a mental warrior.
I don't mean grabbing your machete and going off into battle. What I mean by this is accepting that sometimes things will come out crappy. Allowing yourself to make mistakes and learn from them. This warrior mentality (Oorah!) will enable you to be this much closer (If I could show you how close I would!) to becoming a mental warrior. Disappointment is inevitable, but only temporary.
4. Accepting Criticism.
This can be one of the hardest things to becoming an artist. Criticism will remain constant throughout your career. Sometimes it is hard to not be disappointed in yourself. However, remember that art is subjective. Harsh critics will be lurking everywhere, multiplying like gremlins in water. Criticism can be beneficial in some cases. For instance, maybe your technique could use some polishing. So take criticism with a grain of salt.
5. Patience.
Art comes easier to some more than others. On the other hand, working towards something while failing along the way will only make reaching the cake that much more delicious. Allow yourself to grow while using your mistakes as a learning tool.
Below is five steps on how to free yourself from doubt and becoming the artist you've dreamt of becoming!
Taking Action:
1. Believe in Yourself.
Firstly, you must believe in yourself. You are your toughest critic, if you believe you cannot, this will manifest into just that. Plain and simple. Your confidence will translate into your art work. People are like stained glass windows, they shine when light hits them, but it is only when darkness sets in that you have to find the light within.
2.Ask yourself what do you love doing?
What feeds your soul? I once came across an artist who took pictures of toilets (he must have just really loved toilets). This can include anything; from painting, sculpting, scrap-booking to taking pictures of toilets! In essence, dance to the beat of your own drum.
3. Become a mental warrior.
I don't mean grabbing your machete and going off into battle. What I mean by this is accepting that sometimes things will come out crappy. Allowing yourself to make mistakes and learn from them. This warrior mentality (Oorah!) will enable you to be this much closer (If I could show you how close I would!) to becoming a mental warrior. Disappointment is inevitable, but only temporary.
4. Accepting Criticism.
This can be one of the hardest things to becoming an artist. Criticism will remain constant throughout your career. Sometimes it is hard to not be disappointed in yourself. However, remember that art is subjective. Harsh critics will be lurking everywhere, multiplying like gremlins in water. Criticism can be beneficial in some cases. For instance, maybe your technique could use some polishing. So take criticism with a grain of salt.
5. Patience.
Art comes easier to some more than others. On the other hand, working towards something while failing along the way will only make reaching the cake that much more delicious. Allow yourself to grow while using your mistakes as a learning tool.
Clay Beads - Making A Bracelet
Once many people have purchased their clay beads they are unsure about what to do next. Most people want to make a piece of jewelry but they my not know how to get started. In this article I want to show you how to make a bracelet. This is one of the more simple places to start and will be a great way for you to begin your journey in this new hobby.
1. Make a plan.- The first thing you need to do is plan out the plan for what you want your bracelet to look like. You need to think about the purpose your jewelry will serve. Will it be casual, professional, or formal? You need to decide what type of material you will use for the wire. Will it be metal, plastic, or leather? You need to decide what types of clay beads you will use. This will include thinking about color and also what pattern you will put them in. You also need to decide if you are going to add charms of any kind onto your bracelet. This is a necessary yet fun part of the process as you get to dream big about what could be.
2. Work the plan.- Now that you have a plan you need to get to work. You first need to measure the wire you chose and cut it to the right lenght. Then you want to either put a clamp on one end or tie a knot of some kind. This will keep your beads from falling off. Now you can start adding your beads in the pattern that you chose. lso, do not forget to add your charms in the right place if you chose to use those.
3. Evaluate and then add the finishing touches.- Now you need to look at your bracelet and decide if you are happy with it. Did the pattern you put your clay beads in turn out as you had hoped? Did the charm work out well? Will your bracelet fit and serve the purpose that you made it for? If you are happy with all these things then you can add the clasps and you are finished. There are many kinds of clasps and knots that you can use. If you are not familiar with these then I encourage you to look online for video tutorials on how to use each of these or go to your local beading store and see if their are classes that you can take. This is process is not difficult but there are more details and options than can be mentioned here.
Now you are finished. You have taken your beads and made a work of art. I hope this article has been helpful and that you have enjoyed the process. Keep up the good work and enjoy being a part of the jewelry making world.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christi_Shobert
1. Make a plan.- The first thing you need to do is plan out the plan for what you want your bracelet to look like. You need to think about the purpose your jewelry will serve. Will it be casual, professional, or formal? You need to decide what type of material you will use for the wire. Will it be metal, plastic, or leather? You need to decide what types of clay beads you will use. This will include thinking about color and also what pattern you will put them in. You also need to decide if you are going to add charms of any kind onto your bracelet. This is a necessary yet fun part of the process as you get to dream big about what could be.
2. Work the plan.- Now that you have a plan you need to get to work. You first need to measure the wire you chose and cut it to the right lenght. Then you want to either put a clamp on one end or tie a knot of some kind. This will keep your beads from falling off. Now you can start adding your beads in the pattern that you chose. lso, do not forget to add your charms in the right place if you chose to use those.
3. Evaluate and then add the finishing touches.- Now you need to look at your bracelet and decide if you are happy with it. Did the pattern you put your clay beads in turn out as you had hoped? Did the charm work out well? Will your bracelet fit and serve the purpose that you made it for? If you are happy with all these things then you can add the clasps and you are finished. There are many kinds of clasps and knots that you can use. If you are not familiar with these then I encourage you to look online for video tutorials on how to use each of these or go to your local beading store and see if their are classes that you can take. This is process is not difficult but there are more details and options than can be mentioned here.
Now you are finished. You have taken your beads and made a work of art. I hope this article has been helpful and that you have enjoyed the process. Keep up the good work and enjoy being a part of the jewelry making world.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christi_Shobert
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