The Disney Studio At War

This text was about how Disney Studios had to adapt their work to be able to stay afloat during the events of World War 2. IT talked about how Disney Studios was overtaken and used as an ammunition storehouse during the events of Pearl Harbor. It went over how they all had to be Identified to be able to work there. They explained how both Pinocchio and Fantasia bombed in the box office in 1940 because of everyone's focus on the war.
Disney barely even survived during the war, they went into a tremendous amount of debt because they did a lot of their animations and things related to the wartime for a lot less than usual. They weren't able to hold a profit because of it, and they ended up going into a deficit of 3.4 million dollars.
They also made a large amount of insignias and logos for the war effort. These logos cost their studio about 25 dollars a piece, but they were all given away for free, because Walt Disney felt he owed something to the people serving in the war because of their war propaganda animations.
Even though their studio was in a deficit, they ended up turning out more than 5 times their usual work output. These people worked to the bone for their country and ended up going into debt because of it. They made animations that were in the 5-30 minute range, but a few specific animations went on for an hour or longer. Disney studios managed to put out as many as 19 cartoons a year.
One specific animation called Victory through Air Power was an idea that was being kicked around in the pentagon for a while until a man named Seversky described it to Walt. Walt thought it was an amazing idea and he ran with it. It was a 65 minute film about the history and conception of the airplane. It ended with America being pictured as a eagle defeating an octopus, which stood for the japanese empire. However the film was a bust, losing almost 500,000 dollars in the box office. They almost made a story about Gremlins, which were mythical creatures that caused problems in the engines of airplanes, but Walt Disney Dropped the idea, not after producing extensive storyboards that cost about 50,000 dollars.
Disney studios has had a lot of hardships, but the most notable one is during the wartime. It shows the amount of work that his studios did just to be able to stay afloat and survive until now. Disney was one of the few studios that was able to adapt itself to work alongside the war effort, and because of that they now have a huge history relating to propaganda and wartime efforts.

Animation in the Commercial Realm

This lecture went over how animation is executed within the commercial realm with things like commercials, education, film title sequences, and music videos. We went over the difference between Autership and the Avant Garde vs. the commercial Realm of Animation. Again he showed us the Animation Matches:An Appeal and explained how it was the first commercial use of animation and the first use of actual animation. He showed us a piece called Potcha which was an animation advertising the post office in Uzbekistan. After this he showed us an animation for Lloyds Bank which had nothing to do with actual banking. I found it interesting that even this type of persuasion in advertising can be used in animation. After this he showed us various christmas ads and explained how holidays are commercialized. He also explained how games like Animal Crossing can introduce commercialism to the very young. This lecture was really interesting, because it showed various types of persuasion that can be used in tandem with animation.  Since this is the last lecture i'll be going to I hope that I'll be able to identify commercialism being used in the real world in the future.

Gender in Animation

This lecture was about Gender and Gender Stereotype in animation and art in general. He began this lecture by showing us various paintings and portraits that were made throughout history relating to women and explained each as we went through them. Then he showed us some Performance Art and photography pieces like Interior Scroll, which depicts a woman pulling a scroll out of what seems to be her pelvis. He also showed us a piece that was a tent and on the inside it showed names of everyone the artist has slept with, giving no context to the situation of those people in relation to her. He then showed us a contest called the miss digital world contest, in which 3-d modeler sent in 3-d modeled women as a beauty pageant. He also showed us an animation about women objectifying men and how a reverse roles situation changes some peoples viewpoints. This lecture went into great detail about gender in relation to art, but not a lot of it was relating to animation, save the few pieces he showed us. Nevertheless, it was an interesting lecture to experience.

Animation in Politics and Propaganda

This lecture was about how Animation had been affected by politics and how it was used as propaganda in history. We were shown various animations relating to this subject. The first one we were shown was one of the first animated pieces. It was a commercial for matches, called Matches: An Appeal. Its a stop motion animation of a stick figure made out of matchsticks writing on a chalkboard to advertise matches. I found it interesting that animation was originally a gimmick for an advertisement, and how it's evolved into the art form we see today. The next animation we were shown was a visual representation of the sinking of the Lusitania. Since there wasn't actually any footage of this event someone hired a group of animators to make some that gave a description of how it happened. The film itself lasted about 8 minutes, which i thought drew it out a bit too long, seeing as how a lot of the footage is repeated throughout the film. After this he showed us various Disney animations that were made during wartime to fuel the war effort, in both the eastern and western theaters. This Lecture was really interesting to me, moreso than any other that I've been to. Hopefully more of my lectures will be this engaging in the future.

COP Breifing

For the first Lecture, we were shown various things that were in and out of context. First we were shown a cover of TIME magazine that covered September 11th, 2001. The Instructor asked us to recall what we were doing when we heard about this even in history. I talked about how i was in kindergarten taking a nap when my teacher turned on the television and they were covering it live. after he showed us this picture, he then showed us a picture of a album cover depicting the two towers blowing up with people posing in the foreground. We were asked to respond to this, and after we all did he told us that this cover was made before 9/11 actually happened.
After all this, he went onto show us how the context around the Volkswagen Beetle had changed since its original conception. Originally it was a car made and funded by the nazi warmachine, for its citizens. During the 60s it changed into a symbol of hippie culture, and nowadays people just think of it as a car.
This lecture was interesting because it showed us that things can change out view according to the context in which it is presented.