It was done in illustrator completely with the blob brush and opacity masks. What could he be saying?

Heroes has not come back from its amazing 1st season, and has turned into something that resembles some sort of soup opera. Characters that were evil are becoming family, and family characters are looking to become evil. Trouble is, they solved the shows problem at the end of the first season, and had no real issue in the second season. The show now seems to be trying to get back to that issue but the characters have changed and things are different.

Heroes is not the only show to suffer from this. Shows that have survived this issue have had problems or enemies that are so big they seem like they are unattainable or unsolvable. Shows like Lost intentionally hide things from the viewer, so they are frustrated. But successful shows (successful as in they became popular) have those seeming unsolvable problems, and each episode, they take a little piece of that wall down. Shows like X-Files and Pushing Daisies have or had an issue that didn’t keep the main characters from their everyday activities, but seem to be watching those activities “intently.”

The success of shows like Lost that have used the intentional hiding method have spread and are showing signs of falling because their popularity relies so much on that story line. Fan base is a strange monster and they are still watching the shows that slipped and showed too much.

The procudural shows are a different thing as well. They have been popular since the creation of episodic story telling, not just in television. The popular ones are the ones with interesting characters with interesting motives.

As far as movies and other entertainment venues there has been nothing amazing that has driven me to write here. Not many new movies that have peaked my interest. Just lots of watching of old movies while building levels in valve’s hammer for my portfolio.

More later.

One thing I have been wanting to do is really dissect everything entertaining that I have been experiencing recently. It started when I sat down to watch Babel, because I know so many other people liked the movie. I thought it was just okay. Most of the characters were well played, but the story lacked a through line that so many of my teachers drilled me on having. The general pacing of the editing made me feel like something bad was always about to happen, so I felt anxious the whole time. Not the good kind of suspense you want in a movie, but the kind that made you want to stop watching it because it made me uncomfortable. Maybe if I talked with the makers, they could explain it better, but I was also taught that a piece has to stand on it’s own, without explanation.

I am also making an effort to get back into programming. I was once very good at it, so much so that I would write programs for fun to learn different languages. I know how the syntax works, but I just need to pick a language and get back into it. So I have chosen actionscript 3. I am testing an online video tutorial site called lynda.com. It is pretty basic so far, things I already figured out myself making the prototype for the ETC bridge, but some is relevant and useful. I’m thinking I need to sketch some interface for something, and build a working flash prototype of it.

Hopefully something will come from each post. Maybe in the form of some revelation for me, but it may turn out to be just a small little rant of my opinions of something I just read, watched, played, experienced, enjoyed, hated, etc…