Wall-E and 9

So I watched Wall-E and it's extra's because according to Calumn it's a must see for the sound they do in the animation. And then I forgot to write about it! I can't remember all of the bits I wanted to write either.
For people who don't know a good 70% of the film has no speach in it and indeed the first ten minutes has none at all, all it is, is the sound of Wall-E and his environment. - From tha statement alone I'm sure you can tell how important the sound in a film like that would be. Then you learn about things like Wall-E, just the charcater has hundreds of sounds alone and you start to get the picture! Just from talking to Calumn I knew how important sound was in animation but after watching Wall-E and it's extras I was blown away by it. It's also fascinating to see how the different sounds are created. Not just now but also in the early days of Disney. Disney's sound technicains used to build props to create the sound. Such as cranks and thunderboards. They then used to try and match the sounds to the film.

Now onto 9. I watched 9 ages ago when it was released on dvd (the benefits of working at blockbuster) but at the time I wasn't that interested in animation so i didn't really look much into so the other day I rerented it and watched the extras. For those who haven't seen 9 here's the synopsis:

The film is set in the near future where the worlds machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest - decimating the human population. But as the world collapses, a mission begins to slavage the legacy of civilization, and a group of "stitchpunk" creations are given the spark of life by a scientist - and they successfully survive the apolcalypse.

Then the small group os "stitchpunks" use their individual strengths to fight against the still functioning machines.

...I would carry on but I don't want to give too much away.

What really excited me when I watched the extras of this film was that it was originally a silent ten mintute short by the director Shane Acker made while he was still in uni. The short was nominated for Best Animated short in the Oscars and although it didn't win he was offered the chance to turn it into a full length feature. So with a team of people he added characters, changed them to talk and added some storyline which then became the full length feature. Also despite never having directed before - because it as his creation and his vision - he directed the film.

Watching the dvd extras from Wall-E impressed upon me the importance of sound where as watching the dvd exras from 9 showed me the importance of teamwork and patience and accepting that some things need to be changed or built on. And that taking advice from others is important to creating a well rounded product. These extras also showed me how important it is to have a some sort of a history to your creation because without it, your story can be somewhat two dimensional and lacking in depth.
The importance of mood also comes across very sharply for this film as because the mood is a lot more creepy and dark then other animations, the colours are also dark etc etc etc.

There is so much you can learn that you don't expect to just form watching the film extras. Such as: although you might have heard about animators acting out scenes to figure out the body movements of characters you don't really realise how much they do it and how many times to get the movement just perfect for the animations. They also sit with mirrors at their desks so that they can watch their facial espressions to see how their mouths are shaped when they talk so that can be converted onscreen also. They also work with weighted make-shift props when they are acting the scenes out so they can see how the weight of the object would afffect the characters movement. Ofcourse all of it is filmed so that it can e played back in order to see the movements and in a sense copy them.

It's cazy fascinating stuff but I feel I am rambling a little so I'm gona stop there :)