HATS...

Discussing the ideas of film form and genre today really helped to put the texts I read into perspective and listen to others ideas. I found it interesting to see the various ways people catagorize films into genres of types, and to talk about how animations can be subcatagorized into types, forms, possibly even their own genre.

I find this area of history and theory interesting, however I think it could become quite complex, especially when discussing genres changing, and if nowadays you can give a film just one genre, and even how films are popular because they help to resolve personal or real life problems (or even just give us high expectations)...there are so many issues and discussions that could come from topics of form and genre and I think this could be an area that could be studied in great depth as there are so many questions branching from it.

I enjoying learning about the history of animation, finding out where ideas came from, hows it's developed...it seems so strange seeing the first animations, particularly when comparing them to some of the incredibly realistic CGI and feature films you get now!Though I have to admit I prefer some of the older work to the more developed animations, simply because you can see the changes, sketchey work, movement through drawing and art.

Watching 'Peter and the Wolf' however really caught my attention. I'd love to be able to create an animation in that style. The darkness within it along with the movement, music and realistic setting really gives it emotion without the use of speech. The characters themselves have clear personalities simply by the way they are built and move..and you just can't get past those deep staring eyes that most of the characters possess!