Ethos and Pathos

Lazy title!

Awoke at 7:45 and did the usual routine in the morning. Headed over to Maltings, and went upstairs to the Barley Room for the 10:00am lecture.

Awaited for Luko to turn up, eventually doing so. Budged up to give him a spot. Jon Weinbren asked for a show of hands from Animation and Computer Games Arts. Animation was brimming with hands, but only a few went up for the other course.

Today, Jon covered narrative, story and structure! He kicked things off by asking -  'what is a story'? As one person put it, a series or sequence of events. Palms together, Jon smirked a 'Maaaybe!'. That wasn't quite it, though he wasn't looking for the right answer. I felt inclined to suggest jack-in-the-box but that'd be a little too abstract.

One of the first essences to a story explained was typically the basic dramatic structure - beginning, middle and end. Cinderella was used a classic example, although I couldn't at all remember anything of that story. It seems that neither did a lot of students, granted it could simply of been their refusal to participate in any form of vocal feedback. Before moving onto a V.I.P, we were given a list of books to look into, such as The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

I remember hearing his name, but never quite got the full grasp of who this Aristotle man is. Ancient Greek theorist, dating back to roughly 300 BC! The powerpoint displayed various key points, like Aristotle's Elements to Drama. Along with the mandatory English terms, Mr. Maximus Profoundus deemed it necessary to include the original greek counterparts, too. Actually, I've seen them used before - words such as mythos (plot), ethos (character), opsis (spectacle) and so on.

Other terms were also thrown around, stuff like pathos, minuses and a particularly important one - catharsis. Jon went into detail with this one, and I've thought about ways I could eventually utilise a plot point to make something cathartic. It's, to put it simply, the emotional purging of a character or such. They go through a tough spot, find out something horrendous or generally contend with a heroic breakdown. Anything like that. When asking for examples on 'cathartic moments', I suggested Jacob's Ladder, or the ending of, despite having never even seen it.

Other necessary story points were explained, most being fairly elementary. Global Story Elements - theme, setting, style and so on, and Structural Elements, be it turning points, obstacles/challenges and quests. The last point there applied more to the group doing game arts, but it still holds meaning to animation as well, no doubt.

We went on a break, and me and Luko sat on the foyer unwilling to go buy a drink. (He brought one with him, anyway) Line would probably be gargantuan like last week. Luko mentioned watching an entire run of Dragon Ball Z for a hefty amount of hours straight. Not sure how he pulled it off, but I myself have once been guilty of that addicting cycle.

Back to the lecture, and Jon carried on and the next part had focused mainly on character. Such as: subtlety! Mr.Weinbren made a note that he intentionally put 'appearance' smack-dab at the bottom of the list for subtlety. What he meant was that defining traits of a character come first, be it back-story, personality, conflicts and so on. One student asked if surely it wasn't important to actually keep an appearance in mind for the character, but Jon mentioned that it was sort of what he meant initially anyway.

Then, delivering story information. Be it action, straight-up exposition (Jon considers this lazy), Flashbacks, narration and my personal favourite - foreshadowing! I love this. An example the lecturer used was that old saying "A storm is coming!" Some students quickly made a point that this is...uh? I forgot. They argued though between the words pathetic and prothetic. One student having done Media Studies insists that she was told it was 'prothetic'. Because of my love for foreshadowing, I asked Jon if he knew what viral marketing was. He did, and for some reason he chuckled at it. I hesitantly explained how I like those methods of foreshadowing are used to explain a film or game's plot. Yeah! Hrmm.

Dynamic elements was next talked about, going over character arcs, relationships, external events and geography/nature. The final - or one of - slides was an important one wrapping up what we learnt with observations; 'Plot' problems are often character problems in disguise, archetypes are more useful than stereotypes and constraints are helpful rather than harmful. I'm a firm believer in that last point, and always thought that before coming to UCA.

Right before the end, we were shown a Pixar short (They're great) called One Man Band. I'll leave you to see it for yourself, if you haven't. It pretty much, as any film would, hit all the notes on what we learnt throughout the lecture. One guy miss-assumed the setting of the film was a couple of thousand years ago, causing Jon to break into laughter. (His educated assumption was about 700 or so years in Prague)

With 5 minutes to go, it was time for some Q & A. Unfortunately, as mentioned, our culture is completely against raising any sort of word amongst the herd so Jon was left with just one. We were all itching to go, anyway. Heading out, me and Luko headed to Subway. On the way there, Su said a quick hi. Likewise, I asked her how she was doing in Japanese. This prompted the Philippines girl (need to catch her name) to ask if I knew much in that language. I gave a shot, somewhat, attempting to say that the weather was bad. Su giggled and nodded so it must of been somewhere on the mark - then the Philippines girl briskly brought up entire sentences in Japanese. I was sort of gob-smacked, although it was about damn time I met someone outside of the net who could speak an ample amount of that language. It also explains how she was helping Su out on Tuesday, and why Su opts to hang out with her.


Me and Luko made headway to Subway, and upon getting there the que was a dire length. It didn't stop us, though. Ordered the sub of the day, the Italian B.M.T. Whilst waiting in line, James from next door (who'd visit us a lot this past week) was there too. Nice place to bump into one another! As I whipped out my iPhone for scanning, 3G was failing miserably and I initially feared it didn't process the points at the time. Greedy bastard that I be, I got a donut with it as well. We weren't sure whether to get seats or not, but a I eventually managed to borrow one a table wasn't using. Lucinda popped in with her friend, too. I took forever to eat my sandwich.

After eating up, Luko took me over to a pub near to Maltings (trek right the way back, then! :< ) called the William Cobbet, I believe. Couldn't find a bin nearby for my drink so I left under a standing-chalk sign. Inside, we payed a £2 deposit for a game on pool! Luko was pushed into getting a drink regardless, but us two headed upstairs. The room itself, and the pool tables are damn impressive. About five of them, and the room has a lot of cultural history behind - mainly brands and pop. I sucked badly at pool, despite Luko's measurement that we may have been worse. With 4 or 5 white balls pocketed on the second game, though, I have a hard time believing this.

We headed on back, and Luko spotted the games shop his friends kept mentioning. Parting ways, I headed on back to my place. I felt pretty...tired, for some reason, and at 3:00 or so I dozed into a kip. At 6:00pm, I got up. Throughout the resting I heard the noises of various equipments out in the communal hall. As it turned out, Yannis was further expanding on portrait photography and in fact asked to borrow me for one of the shoots. It was fine, even if I had to be topless for it. There was an entire white screening behind me, and all sorts of lamps and stuff. The guys here must be so fortunate to be living on campus.

Headed upstairs to put some supper on. I heard Sophie being next up for Yannis's shots and she was throwing quarrels over the event here and there, unless he was teasing her. (Supposedly Sophie had also gotten into a bath of orange juice for a photography subject once, for her friend) I put on some sausages and red onions, and whilst waiting for them to cook, James showed me some videos on YouTube of Peter Serafinowicz. I haven't ever heard of this man before, but he's pretty amusing. Elephants and Trains magazine! And poisonous sockets! The kitchen is in a pretty iffy state.

Close to cooking my food, Kit came up. He was in a pretty talkative mood, and was talking away to his mother on the phone at point (because... that is relevant information). Mentioned that a friend gave him some tickets for a halloween event over the weekend. Lucky man! UCA e-mail is already getting various requests and pleads for second-hand tickets to Halloween Balls and stuff, since they had all sold out by yestarday or Tuesday. Me and Kit also talked about bouncers, and why they are pricks.

Outside during this write-up, obviously the HALLOW'D EVE fest is already well under way. People outside, making sum noiz. Spider-man was strutting about at one point and the girls squealed and screamed in delight for about an entire 2 minutes.  Sophie and others have headed out somewhere, I think Rob and Yannis are yet again progressing further with photography experimenting.

Need to get my After Effects assets done for Friday tomorrow!