The Artist (film)

The Artist is a 2011 French comedy-drama film in the style of a black-and-white silent film or part-talkie. The film was written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius, produced by Thomas Langmann and stars Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. The story takes place in Hollywood, between 1927 and 1932, and focuses on the relationship between a rising young actress and an older silent film star as silent cinema falls out of fashion and is replaced by the "talkies".
"The Artist" received widespread critical acclaim and won many accolades. Dujardin won Best Actor at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered. The film was nominated for six Golden Globes, the most of any 2011 film, and won three: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Original Score, and Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Dujardin. In January 2012, the film was nominated for twelve BAFTAs, the most of any film from 2011, and won seven, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor for Dujardin, and Best Original Screenplay for Hazanavicius.
It was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture, Best Director for Hazanavicius, and Best Actor for Dujardin, making him the first French actor ever to win in this category. It was also the first French-produced film to win Best Picture, and the first mainly silent film to win since 1927's "Wings" won at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929. It was also the first film presented in the 4:3 aspect ratio to win since 1953's "From Here to Eternity". Additionally, it was the first black-and-white film to win since 1993's "Schindler's List", though the latter contained limited colour sequences; it was the first 100% black-and-white film to win since 1960's "The Apartment".
In France it was nominated for ten César Awards, winning six, including Best Film, Best Director for Hazanavicius and Best Actress for Bejo. "The Artist" has received more awards than any other French film.
Plot.
In 1927, silent film star George Valentin is posing for pictures outside the premiere of his latest hit film when a young woman, Peppy Miller, accidentally bumps into him. Valentin reacts with humor to the accident and shows off with Peppy for the cameras. The next day, Peppy finds herself on the front page of "Variety" with the headline "Who's That Girl?" Later, Peppy capitalizes on the headline by auditioning as a dancer and is spotted by Valentin, who insists that she have a part in Kinograph Studios' next production, despite objections from the studio boss, Al Zimmer. While performing a scene in which they dance together, Valentin and Peppy show great chemistry, despite her being merely an extra. With a little guidance from Valentin (he draws a beauty spot on her, which will eventually be her trademark, after finding her in his dressing room), Peppy slowly rises through the industry, earning more prominent starring roles.
Two years later, Zimmer announces the end of production of silent films at Kinograph Studios, but Valentin is dismissive, insisting that sound is just a fad. In a dream, Valentin begins hearing sounds from his environment (as does the audience), but cannot speak himself, then wakes up in a sweat. He decides to produce and direct his own silent film, "Tears of Love", financing it himself. The film opens on the same day as Peppy's new sound film "Beauty Spot", as well as the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Valentin's only chance of avoiding bankruptcy is for his film to be a hit. Unfortunately audiences flock to Peppy's film instead, while only a few people (including Peppy herself) attend Valentin's. With Valentin ruined, his wife, Doris, kicks him out, and he moves into an apartment with his valet/chauffeur, Clifton, and his dog. Peppy goes on to become a major Hollywood star.
Later, the bankrupt Valentin is forced to auction off all of his personal effects, and after realizing he has not paid loyal Clifton in over a year, gives him the car and fires him, telling him to get another job. Depressed and drunk, Valentin angrily sets a match to his private collection of his earlier films. As the nitrate film quickly blazes out of control he is overwhelmed by the smoke and passes out inside the burning house, still clutching a single film canister. However, Valentin's dog attracts the help of a nearby policeman, and after being rescued Valentin is hospitalized for injuries suffered in the fire. Peppy visits the hospital and discovers that the film he rescued is the one with them dancing together. She asks for him to be moved to her house to recuperate. Valentin awakens in a bed at her house, to find that Clifton is now working for Peppy. Valentin seems to remain dismissive of Peppy having taken him in, prompting Clifton to sternly remind Valentin of his changing luck.
Peppy insists to Zimmer that Valentin co-star in her next film, threatening to quit Kinograph if Zimmer does not agree to her terms. After Valentin learns to his dismay that it had been Peppy who had purchased all his auctioned effects, he returns in despair to his burnt-out apartment. Peppy arrives, panicked, and finds that Valentin is about to attempt suicide with a handgun. Peppy tells him she only wanted to help him. They embrace and Valentin tells her it's no use; no one wants to hear him speak. Remembering Valentin's superb dancing ability, Peppy persuades Zimmer to let them make a musical together.
Now the audience hears sound for the second time, as the film starts rolling for a dance scene with Peppy and Valentin and their tap-dancing can be heard. Once the choreography is complete, the two dancers are heard panting. The director of the musical calls out audibly, "Cut!" to which Zimmer adds: "Perfect. Beautiful. Could you give me just one more?" Valentin, in his only audible line, replies "With pleasure," revealing a French accent. The camera then pulls back to the sounds of the film crew as they prepare to shoot another take.
Production.
Director Michel Hazanavicius had been fantasizing about making a silent film for many years, both because many filmmakers he admires emerged in the silent era, and because of the image-driven nature of the form. According to Hazanavicius, his wish to make a silent film was at first not taken seriously, but after the financial success of his spy-film pastiches ' and ', producers started to express interest. The forming of the film's narrative started with Hazanavicius' desire to work again with actors Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, who had both starred in "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies". Hazanavicius chose the form of a melodrama, mostly because he thought many of the films from the silent era that have aged best are of that genre. He did extensive research about 1920s Hollywood, and studied silent films to find the right techniques to make the story comprehensible without having to use too many intertitles. The screenplay took four months to write and was principally inspired by the 1928 silent comedy, "Show People".
Chief among the influences shaping the screenplay's protagonist was Douglas Fairbanks. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ recent book "Douglas Fairbanks", by Jeffrey Vance, as well as the Academy's Douglas Fairbanks exhibition and screening events both in Los Angeles and New York City, afforded Hollywood's first swashbuckling hero and the Academy's first president some significant media attention.
Principal photography on "The Artist" began in November 2010, taking place over the course of thirty-five days, made in the 1.33:1 screen ratio commonly used in the silent film era. Though presented in black-and-white, it was shot in color by cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman. All the technical details, including lenses, lighting and camera moves, were calibrated to aesthetically match silent films of the period. To recreate the slightly sped-up look of 1920s silent films, the film was shot at a slightly lower frame rate of 22 fps as opposed to the standard 24 fps. Most of the film is silent, except for two brief scenes with sound as well as the non-diegetic soundtrack. Throughout the shoot, Hazanavicius played music from classic Hollywood films while the actors performed.
The film was produced by La Petite Reine and ARP Sélection for 13.47 million euro, including co-production support from Studio 37 and France 3 Cinéma, and pre-sales investment from Canal+ and CinéCinéma. The cast and the crew included both French and American members. All the scenes were shot in Los Angeles, primarily in Hollywood, but also in downtown theaters, restaurants and houses, including the one in which Mary Pickford lived. Soundstage work was done at Red Studios, and the studio lot itself doubled for part of the fictional Kinograph Studios lot, with Red's Lillian Way entrance doubling as the Kinograph entrance in several sequences. The iconic Bradbury Building in downtown L.A. provided the location for the film's distinctive staircase sequence. The dance sequence that closes the film took seventeen takes, and required Dujardin and Bejo to spend five months studying tap dancing, with Dujardin claiming that "in the first week it's fun, the fifth week it's a little boring, at the end it's thrilling".
American costume designer Mark Bridges created the wardrobe for the film's cast.
Music.
The film's music was largely composed by Ludovic Bource, but includes works by other composers such as Alberto Ginastera's "Estancia". The soundtrack was recorded in Belgium by the Brussels Philharmonic and was conducted by Ernst Van Tiel; the Brussels Jazz Orchestra also cooperated. The recording took place during six days in April 2011 at Flagey's Studio 4 in Brussels.
The film's climactic scene is set to Bernard Herrmann's "Scène d'amour" from his score to Alfred Hitchcock's film "Vertigo". In "Vertigo", that composition similarly accompanies an extended scene without dialogue. Only one song (sung, with lyrics) is used in the soundtrack, "Pennies from Heaven", sung by Rose "Chi-Chi" Murphy (uncredited). This song was written in 1936 although the film is set between 1927 and 1932.
The soundtrack was released on 21 October 2011 through Sony Classical Records.
Release.
The film premiered on 15 May 2011 in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. It was initially announced as an out of competition entry, but was moved to the competition a week before the festival opened. The French regular release was on 12 October 2011 through Warner Bros. France. The Weinstein Company bought the distribution rights for the United States and Australia and Entertainment Film Distributors bought the UK distribution. The film was initially given a limited release in the United States on 23 November 2011.
Following its wins at the 69th Golden Globe Awards, it was announced Warner Bros. would re-release the film in France in 362 theaters on 25 January 2012. It was also re-released in Belgium on 22 February 2012.
Box office.
"The Artist" grossed $44,671,682 in North America, along with $88,761,174 in other territories for a worldwide total of $133,432,856. After its success at the Academy Awards, the film saw a moderate boost the following week on the box office in North America. It appeared on the week's top 10 chart and got an increase of 34% while expanding its release from 966 theaters to 1,756.
Critical response.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 319 reviews, with an average rating of 8.80/10. The website's critical consensus states, "A crowd-pleasing tribute to the magic of silent cinema, "The Artist" is a clever, joyous film with delightful performances and visual style to spare." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating to reviews, the film received an average score of 89 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Mark Adams of "Screen Daily" called the film "a real pleasure"; "propelled elegantly forward by delightful performances from Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo it is the most unlikely of feel-good movies." He added however: "The film does feel a little sluggish towards the end of the first third as the music is a little repetitive and the intertitles are infrequent, but Hazanavicius manages to give the film a real sense of charm and warmth, and film fans will be competing to spot visual and musical references." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" described how the film "had me on my feet cheering throughout the final credits" and stated "I can't wait to see it again".
Geoffrey McNab at "The Independent" called the film "both a surefire crowdpleaser and a magnificent piece of film-making" in his 5 star review from the Cannes Film Festival. Rick Groen of "The Globe and Mail" assessed "The Artist" highly, noting the film "uses old technology to dazzling effect to illustrate the insistent conquest of a new technology." Sukanya Verma for Rediff.com feels "The Artist" is an extremely well-researched film and is an instant classic. David Thomson of "The New Republic" called "The Artist" an "accomplished and witty entertainment" and went on to write, "Whether Hazanavicius can do more things as elegant and touching, without the gimmick of silence, remains to be seen (and heard). Meanwhile, he is to be congratulated on the grounds of pleasure alone. He may be due for much more in the way of rewards." "Chicago Sun-Times" film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, praising the performances, and calling the film "one of the most entertaining films in many a moon, a film that charms because of its story, its performances and because of the sly way it plays with being silent and black and white."
Writing for "Slant Magazine", Jaime N. Christley gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, explaining Michel Hazanavicius ignores "everything that's fascinating and memorable about the era, focusing instead on a patchwork of general knowledge, so eroded of inconvenient facts that it doesn't even qualify as a "roman à clef"." "America" argued that while Jean Dujardin carried the film, Bejo's performance was disappointing.
Kim Novak controversy.
On 9 January 2012, actress Kim Novak stated that "rape" had been metaphorically committed in the film's licensed use of a portion of Bernard Herrmann's score from Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film "Vertigo" (in which Novak starred). The final portion of "The Artist" is accompanied not by original music, but by a 1992 recording of the Herrmann composition "Scene d'Amour", conducted by Elmer Bernstein. In the article published, by "Variety", she stated that "I feel as if my body—or at least my body of work—has been violated by the movie." "This film should've been able to stand on its own without depending on Bernard Herrmann's score from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' to provide more drama" and that "It is morally wrong for the artistry of our industry to use and abuse famous pieces of work to gain attention and applause for other than what they were intended", ending her comments with "Shame on them!"
In response, director Hazanavicius released a statement:"The Artist" was made as a love letter to cinema, and grew out of my (and all of my cast and crew’s) admiration and respect for movies throughout history. It was inspired by the work of Hitchcock, Lang, Ford, Lubitsch, Murnau and Wilder. I love Bernard Herrmann and his music has been used in many different films and I’m very pleased to have it in mine. I respect Kim Novak greatly and I’m sorry to hear she disagrees. Hazanavicius also told CNN "I used music from another movie, but it’s not illegal. We paid for that, we asked for that and we had the permission to do it. For me there is no real controversy... I feel sorry for her, but there’s a lot of movies with music from other movies, directors do that all the time and I’m not sure it’s a big deal."
In May 2011, when the film was first shown at the Cannes Festival, Todd McCarthy from "The Hollywood Reporter" mentioned the use of Herrmann's music, "Hazanavicius and Bource daringly choose to explicitly employ Bernard Herrmann’s love theme from "Vertigo", which is dramatically effective in its own right but is so well known that it yanks you out of one film and places you in the mind-set of another. Surely some sort of reworked equivalent would have been a better idea."
Top ten lists.
The film has appeared on the following critics' top ten lists for the best films of 2011:
Accolades.
At the 65th British Academy Film Awards, the film won seven awards, including Best Film, Best Actor for Dujardin, Best Original Screenplay for Hazanavicius, Cinematography for Schiffman, Costume Design for Bridges and Original Score for Ludovic Bource. At the 69th Golden Globe Awards, the film was nominated for six Golden Globes to win three of them; Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Dujardin and Best Musical Score for Bource.
At the 84th Academy Awards, "The Artist" received ten nominations, winning five awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Hazanavicius, Best Actor in a Leading Role for Jean Dujardin, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score.
Home media.
"The Artist" was released on region 1 DVD and Blu-ray on 26 June 2012. It was released in the UK by Entertainment in Video on 28 May 2012.


They Are Billions

They Are Billions is a post-apocalyptic steampunk real-time strategy survival video game developed and published by Numantian Games. Available on Microsoft Windows, it was released onto Steam's Early Access program with a survival mode in December 2017. The game was released with a campaign titled "New Empire" on June 18, 2019. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were published by BlitWorks on July 1, 2019.
Gameplay.
"They Are Billions" pits the player in a randomly generated steampunk themed, zombie-infested world. The player's goal is to build a base to protect themselves, by planning the layout and defenses, exploring the map, collecting resources and expanding while fighting the local zombie population at the same time. Infected villages, called Villages of Doom, can be pillaged for resources, although a backlash of zombie swarms can result. There are eight resources that the player must manage: gold, food, workers, wood, stone, iron, oil, and energy. Structures and units, many of different variations and following a tech-tree, will require different materials to be made. Though zombies will attack at erratic, but slow times, at certain intervals throughout the game, large hordes of zombies will attack, focusing on one side of the base until a final wave coming from all directions (and in massive numbers). The player must keep zombies from breaching base defenses and infecting non-defensive structures, especially in tight or overdeveloped areas where a domino effect outbreak can occur. Much like the player has access to different unit types, zombie types are also varied, ranging between slow, decrepit ones, extremely fast zombies called "Harpies", highly-resistant ones known as "Butchers" and others, including a massive "infected giant" that has high health, speed, and damage that is also highlighted on a minimap, requiring the player to not only have a strong defensive perimeter (with walls, turrets, towers and traps), but also adapt tactics accordingly. While it is a real-time strategy game, players can pause at any time in order to plan future actions and give simultaneous orders.
Plot.
They Are Billions is set in North America, in the late 22nd century, following a world-wide rabies-like pandemic caused by a mutated strain of rabies called Rabies Z, which has triggered a zombie apocalypse, especially in the world's megacities. While initially the survivors attempted to establish villages and even fortresses to stave off the zombie hordes, eventually these fall with their technology failing them. However, a few thousand humans survive, united under the leadership of General-turned-Emperor Quintus Crane, and build and shelter themselves in Empire City, built within a crater that the zombies cannot reach. The apocalypse, on the other hand, has caused a severe technological regression, so technology is now at a 19th century level.
The campaign begins 13 years after Quintus announces his intent to expand beyond the crater and create a new human empire. Here, the player is a colony administrator and military commander under Quintus, who aspires to conquer new territory and build well-managed fortified colonies, all connected by a railway network. Across the campaign, which extends from the northern Western Seaboard to the fallen megacity of Mega York (former New York City), the player builds a personal army composed of mercenaries, renegades, and even convicted criminals to handle the zombie swarms.
Meanwhile, with the aid of one of two special operatives, Caelus and Calliope, the player recovers lost technology to restore the technological advancement back to the pre-apocalypse time and gradually learns about the origins of the infection, eventually discovered to be the byproduct of an attempt by the world's leading scientists in using recycled meat from deceased people in an attempt to stave off an ever-increasing feeding crisis brought by overpopulation, but the resulting infection - which also provoked mutations such as neverending adrenal surges and overgrowth - and irresponsible worldwide distribution provokes a pandemic that the world's governments attempt to control too late. Any attempts to cure the disease only making things worse as the experimental vaccine called V9 results in the creation of the special zombie type called Harpies. Abandoning any attempt to find the cure, scientists turned to create bio-engineered soldiers called Mutants armed with ultra-sharped claws to fight off the zombie hordes. The campaign ends in Mega York with the player conquering the collapsed Statue of Liberty - now named the Goddess of Destiny - earning Quintus' respect and securing the Empire's dominance across North America. Quintus then reminds the Player that there will be more conquests in the future.
Development.
"They Are Billions" was announced by Numantian Games on May 30, 2017. It was released on December 13, 2017 on Steam's Early Access program with survival mode. The game quickly rose to the top selling charts on both Steam and the Humble Bundle storefront.
Reception.
Sales.
The PlayStation 4 version of "They Are Billions" was the twentieth bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 3,046 copies being sold.
Awards.
The game was nominated for "Best Spanish Development" at the 2019 Titanium Awards.


The Mammals

The Mammals are a contemporary folk rock band based in the Hudson Valley area of New York, in the United States.
The band tours internationally and consists of founding members and principal songwriters Mike Merenda (guitar, banjo) and Ruth Ungar (fiddle, guitar) plus Konrad Meissner (drums) and a rotating cast of players on bass, organ, and pedal steel.
The Mammals sing and play in a style heavily influenced by traditional folk, soul, old-time, blues, Cajun, Celtic and rock and roll. Their lyrics sometimes address political and environmental concerns; topics such as war, social justice, and sustainability. Ungar is the daughter of fiddler/composer Jay Ungar who is best known for his composition "Ashokan Farewell" which the band also performs.
Band history.
Merenda, Ungar and Tao Rodríguez-Seeger formed The Mammals in 2001. Initially a quartet with Alicia Jo Rabins on the fiddle[2] they quickly shifted to a trio with Ungar as the sole fiddler. In 2004, they became a quintet adding drummer Ken Maiuri and bassist Pierce Woodward. Chris Merenda, brother to Mike, joined the band in 2004 replacing Maiuri on the drums. Woodward left in 2005, replaced by Dango Rose and subsequently Jacob Silver on bass.
In 2002 and 2005, they performed as part of Arlo Guthrie's annual holiday concert at Carnegie Hall. In 2005, a performance of their song "The Bush Boys" caused The Mammals to be censored at a Lafayette, LA festival venue.
Between 2001 and 2007, The Mammals collaborated on stage with their peers Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, Crooked Still, Foghorn Stringband, Uncle Earl, Nickel Creek, and The Duhks; and with their mentors Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger, Odetta, and Utah Phillips.
In 2008, The Mammals took a hiatus to pursue other musical endeavors.
In 2017, the band re-emerged with the release of the video "On My Way Home" (Feb 2017) and the single "Culture War" (March 2017.)
In October 2017, The Mammals began soliciting support from their fans on the crowdfunding platform Patreon.
In April 2018, they released the full album "Sunshiner" recorded at the band's home studio Humble Abode Music with co-producer Adam Armstrong. The title track, a nod to alternative energy, was one of The Americana Music Association's "Top 100 Albums and Songs for 2018" and was nominated by the International Folk Music Awards for “2018 Song of the Year.” The album also featured the environmentally themed a capella ballad "My Baby Drinks Water".
In December 2018, they announced the release of five new singles, donating 100% of download proceeds to specific causes relating to each song.
Performances.
The Mammals have performed nationally across the USA, and internationally in Canada, Australia, Denmark, and the UK.
In 2007 they appeared at the National Folk Festival in Canberra, Australia and the Tønder Festival in Tønder, Denmark. In 2017-18 they performed at Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Green River Festival, Clearwater Festival, Wintergrass Festival in Bellvue, WA, and the FreshGrass Festival at Mass MOCA. In 2019 they are scheduled to perform at the Suwannee Spring Reunion in Live Oak, FL and the Four Corners Folk Festival in Pagosa Springs, CO. They have performed multiple times at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY and regularly perform at the Winter Hoot and Summer Hoot folk music festivals, which have been produced by Merenda and Ungar bi-annually at the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge, NY since 2013.
Side projects.
In 2006, Rodríguez-Seeger recorded the album "Que Vaya Bien" with Roy Brown, Puerto Rican folk singer; and Tito Auger, lead singer for Puerto Rican rock group Fiel A La Vega. In collaboration with Jacob Silver, Laura Cortese and Robin McMillan, Rodríguez-Seeger released an EP as The Anarchist Orchestra in 2007 and the full length album "Rise and Bloom" as Tao Seeger Band in 2010. The group performed that summer at the Newport Folk Festival.
In 2008, Merenda and Ungar began touring as Mike + Ruthy to support their duo recordings.
Ungar also recorded and performed in the bands Sometymes Why (2005-2009) and the Wayfaring Strangers (2001-2009).)
Merenda occasionally performs solo under his own name or the moniker Ruthless Mike.
Discography.
They have released five albums, two EPs, and are featured on the Wheatland Music Festival compilation, ...At This Stage.:


Advent Rising

Advent Rising is an action-adventure third-person shooter video game developed by GlyphX Games and published by Majesco Entertainment. The game was released on May 31, 2005 for Xbox and on August 9, 2005 for Microsoft Windows. Its story was created by Donald and Geremy Mustard and featured a script written by science fiction writers Orson Scott Card and Cameron Dayton; the full orchestral soundtrack was done by Tommy Tallarico and Emmanuel Fratianni. As of September 14, 2006, Steam began offering "Advent Rising" for download.
Much-hyped "Advent Rising" was the first in a planned trilogy which also saw the development of a game that would take place alongside "Advent Rising", called "Advent Shadow" for the PSP. Despite a large advertising campaign including promotion in cinemas, the game's retail performance fell far short of expectations. By the end of 2005, Majesco had completely revised its business plan to focus towards handheld games and canceled plans for future "Advent Rising" games.
A five-issue spin-off comic book series was produced and ran from October 2005 to November 2006. Plans for novel tie-ins by Orson Scott Card never came to fruition. In June 2006, Donald Mustard posted a statement on the website of his new venture, Chair Entertainment, stating that he "would be happy to finish the "Advent" series if the opportunity presented itself", but confirmed he does not currently hold the rights to do so.
Plot.
Story.
The game begins with Gideon Wyeth; the protagonist, escorting a group of human ambassadors from a space station to a meeting with an alien race called the Aurelians. At the meeting, the Aurelians tell the humans that they view them as gods and then warn them of another race of aliens called the Seekers who intend to destroy all humanity. Shortly thereafter, the space station is attacked by the Seekers. Gideon manages to board an escape pod and lands on the planet Edumea below.
On the planet, Gideon aids the Marines in their battle against the Seekers, but soon learns that the planet will shortly be destroyed by a meteor shower. The planet is evacuated, and Gideon accepts an invitation from the Aurelians to board their ship. After learning that humans have untapped mystical powers, he begins training with the Aurelians.
As Gideon is training, the ship is attacked by the Seekers. Gideon and some of the Aurelians evacuate to the Seeker vessel, though it is on a crash course with the Aurelian homeworld. Gideon and the remaining Aurelians find the planet overrun by Seekers. After liberating the planet, they travel to the Galactic Council to seek their help in combating the Seeker assault on humanity.
When the Council calls the Seekers to explain themselves, a being materializes in the Council chambers claiming to be a “true” human and a god. The being, a Koroem, takes full responsibility for the human genocide and claims that it ordered the Seekers to exterminate humanity because they were physically imitating the Koroem.
A battle ensues after the Koroem wounds one of the Aurelians, but it is ultimately killed when Gideon uses a previously unknown mystical ability. This opens a portal that Gideon is dragged into. He finds himself on an ice planet, where a horned creature dubbed "The Stranger" appears and says, "Come with me, human. There is much to be done." It then beckons Gideon to follow.
Soundtrack.
The "Advent Rising Soundtrack" of the game was released on June 28, 2005, under record label Sumthing Else Music Works. The music was composed by Emmanuel Fratianni and Michael Richard Plowman, whilst the additional music and orchestrations were performed by Laurie Robinson and Tommy Tallarico.
Development.
The game's overall story was created by Donald and Geremy Mustard. The dialog and screenplay, however, was written by Orson Scott Card and Cameron Dayton. Card's influences are noticeable in the terminology which has been carried over from "Ender's Game". The terms "vids", "Buggers", and "ansible" are all references from his critically acclaimed novels (though the term "ansible" was coined by Ursula K. Le Guin, and was not actually added to the script by Card himself, but by Donald Mustard).
In 2008, Novint announced they are adding Novint Falcon support to this game and will sell it as "Ascension Reborn" for the Novint Falcon only.
Reception.
Following its Xbox release, "Advent Rising" received mixed reviews from critics whose scores ranged from a high of 4.5 out of 5 ("GamePro") to a low of 5 out of 10 ("EGM"). Reviewer scores averaged at a 68 on both GameRankings and Metacritic, while user scores averaged at 7.5. The most common complaints were the large number of bugs which caused a range of problems including freezing. Another common complaint regarded the difficulty in using the flick targeting system.
"Advent Rising"s visual design choice was noted by several reviewers, pointing out that the characters all appear fairly elongated, although it has been said that this was a deliberate stylistic choice.
Upon the release of the PC version of the game a month after the Xbox counterpart, "Advent Rising" was slightly better received, earning a 72 on GameRankings, a 70 on Metacritic, and an 81 on Venting Gamer with user scores averaging at 82. Many reviewers felt that the month long delay had been put to good use as many of the glitches in the Xbox version had been fixed. Framerate was also improved, with slowdowns becoming rarer. A free copy of the PC version was included on the DVD release of the 2007 Uwe Boll film "Seed".
A million dollars was offered in a contest via Xbox Live for the first player to find a set of hidden symbols spread throughout the levels of the game. On August 15, 2005, the contest was cancelled, due to concerns that there was "no technically feasible solution that would allow the contest to continue in a fair and secure manner". Majesco offered, as compensation to those players, the choice of two free games (BloodRayne 2, Guilty Gear X2, Psychonauts, Raze's Hell, and/or Phantom Dust) and an apology on its home page.
Comics.
An avid comics fan, game creator Donald Mustard originally realized the story of "Advent Rising" in hand-drawn comic books. He revealed in a 2005 interview: "With "Advent", from day one, we conceived it initially as a comic book itself. Back when I was getting out of high school, we were laying the foundation for "Advent". I drew the first several hours of what would ultimately become the game as a comic book." The release of the "Advent Rising" game was supported by a promotional one-shot comic book produced by DC Comics. The comic was written by Lee Hammock and drawn by Billy Dallas Patton as a direct tie-in to the action of the game. It was inserted free of charge within a handful of comic books published by DC.
Another comic book, this time a series, grew out of the partnership between Majesco Entertainment and 360ep, a young entertainment properties management concern founded by former Marvel Comics CEO Bill Jemas. The new comic series, "Advent Rising: Rock the Planet", was written by Rob Worley, with layouts by Arthur Dela Cruz, pencils by Cliff Richards, inks by Dennis Crisostomo, colors by Cris Delara, and letters by Simon Bowland. The comic was produced with oversight by Mustard and Jemas. This new series begins the franchise some ten years before the events of the game. It follows the adventures of Gideon, Ethan, and Olivia in their formative, teenage years. The first issue was published on October 26, 2005. The fifth and final issue was released on November 22, 2006.
"Advent Shadow".
"Advent Shadow" was a planned action-adventure game originally planned for the PlayStation Portable handheld as a side story of "Advent Rising" which ended up cancelled in January 2006.
It followed the story of Marin Steel, a mercenary pilot thrust into a saga of intergalactic proportions. In the midst of extracting herself from a hostile negotiation, Marin is interrupted by a planetary invasion led by monstrous aliens bent on human genocide. In her efforts to escape the dying world, she encounters young Gideon Wyeth, the protagonist of "Advent Rising", and together they find themselves swept up in a massive struggle against dire forces bent on the destruction of humanity.
Majesco Entertainment suffered some financial difficulties, and due to the poor sale of "Advent Shadow"'s console predecessor, "Advent Rising", the game had been quietly cancelled in January 2006.


Kanae Yamamoto (artist)

Kanae Yamamoto (, , 24 October 1882 – 8 October 1946) was a Japanese artist, known primarily for his prints and ' Western-style paintings. He is credited with originating the ' ("creative prints") movement, which aimed at self-expressive printmaking, in contrast to the commercial studio systems of ukiyo-e and ". He initiated movements in folk arts and children's art education that continue to be influential in Japan.
Kanae trained as a wood engraver in the Western style before studying Western-style painting. While at art school he executed a two-colour print of a fisherman he had sketched on a trip to Chiba. Its publication ignited an interest in the expressive potential of prints that developed into the " movement. Kanae spent 1912 to 1916 in Europe and brought ideas back to Japan gleaned from exhibitions of peasant crafts and children's art in Russia. In the late 1910s he founded movements the promotion of creative peasant crafts and in children's art education; the latter quickly gained adherents but was suppressed under Japan's growing militarism. These ideas experienced a revival after World War II.
Though always a supporter, Kanae left behind printmaking in the 1920s and devoted his artistic output to painting until he suffered a stroke in 1942. He spent his remaining years in mountainous Nagano in the city of Ueda, where the Kanae Yamamoto Memorial Museum was erected in 1962.
Life and career.
Early life and training (1882–1907).
Kanae Yamamoto descended from the of hatamoto—samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan in Edo (modern Tokyo). His grandfather died 1868 in the Battle of Ueno, during the Boshin War which led to the fall of the Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration which returned power to the Emperor. This orphaned Kanae's father Ichirō, and thereafter he grew up in Okazaki in Aichi Prefecture; how he got there is a matter of speculation. The specialist in Chinese medicine, Ryōsai Yamamoto, from line of specialists in traditional Chinese medicine, took in Ichirō with the intention of raising him to marry his daughter Take, the eldest of the family's nine children.
Kanae was born 24 October 1882 in the 1-chōme neighbourhood of Okazaki. Ryōsai intended Ichirō to continue the family profession, but when the Meiji government announced it would grant medical licenses only to those who practised Western medicine, Ichirō moved to Tokyo to study it shortly after Kanae's birth. He lodged in the household of Mori Ōgai's father, where he performed household duties to earn his keep. To advance his studies he took part the clandestine digging up of fresh graves to find bodies for dissection.
When he was five, Kanae and his mother joined Ichirō in Tokyo and settled in a tenement house in the San'ya area. His mother did sewing work to help support the family, and with her sister Tama provided maid service to the Mori household, and thus Kanae often met his younger cousin, Murayama Kaita, who, like Kanae, was to make a career in art. The painter Harada Naojirō, whom Ōgai had befriended when the two were studying in Germany, asked Kanae's mother, whom he had seen at the Mori household, to model for the painting "Kannon Bodhisattva Riding the Dragon" of 1890. Such occurrences may have contributed to attracting Kanae to art.
Ichirō raised his son under the influence of the liberal educational principles of Nakae Chōmin. Ichirō was responsible for the welfare of five of his wife's siblings, and so at age 11, after four years of primary school, the family finances did not permit Kanae's schooling to continue. He became an apprentice wood engraver and mastered Western techniques of tonal gradation in the workshop of Sakurai Torakichi in Shiba. His training focused on book and newspaper illustration, and included letterpress printing and photoengraving. His skill developed quickly and soon won praise from those he worked with. During this time printing technology underwent rapid change, brought to the forefront by the First Sino-Japanese War, which was reported in a variety of media, from paintings and woodblock prints to photographs. Kanae completed his apprenticeship at 18, followed by an obligatory year of service with Sakurai. By 1896, Ichirō had earned his medical license and set up a practice in (now part of Ueda), a village in Nagano Prefecture.
The rapid change in printing technology led Kanae to doubt his future prospects in wood engraving. He aspired to become a painter but knew his yet-indebted father was not in a position to pay for art school. He secretly enrolled at the in 1902, where he studied "yōga" Western-style painting. His instructors there included , , and Kuroda Seiki.
To pay for school, Kanae worked odd printing jobs for employers such as the "Hochi Shimbun" newspaper, and from February 1903 lodged at the home of his friend Ishii Hakutei, the eldest son of the artist . Kanae and the other aspiring artists lodged there talked into the night about art and hired a model for life drawing once a month.
Prints and "sōsaku hanga" (1904–1911).
Kanae joined a group of friends in July 1904 on a trip to Chōshi in Chiba Prefecture, where they stayed near the mouth of the Tone River. There he made a sketch of a fisherman dressed in ceremonial clothing overlooking a harbour. When he returned, he used the sketch as the basis of a wood engraving. He engraved on both sides of a single piece of wood: the one side he printed in ochre, which filled in all the spaces except the towel on the fisherman's head; the other he printed in black, which provided outlines and details. At the time, the art establishment saw woodblock printing as a commercial venture beneath the station of an aspiring fine artist.
Hakutei noticed the print and had it published in the July issue of the literary magazine "Myōjō". In a column in the issue Ishii promoted the print as revolutionary, as it had been done as a means of painterly spontaneous self-expression, and used methods Ishii associated with ukiyo-e traditions. Soon the style Ishii dubbed ' became a popular topic within "Myōjō" circles. This was to grow into the ' ("creative prints") movement.
In summer 1905 Kanae visited his parents in Nagano, where he produced the oil painting "Mosquito Net", the earliest of his oil paintings to be made public. That September Kanae, Hakutei and Ishii Tsuzurō, and some other friends founded the short-lived magazine "Heitan" in which they published a number of their prints. It was in "Heitan" that the word ' first appeared. The word was used interchangeably with ' until the magazine came to an end in April 1906; thereafter ' fell out of use and ' went on to become the modern Japanese word for prints in general.
Kanae learned in 1906 of the financial strain his parents still faced with their continuing responsibility for his mother's siblings. He moved out of the Ishiis' home on 8 March 1906 and rented a residence in Morikawa-chō in of Tokyo determined to pursue financial independence. He graduated on 2 April 1906 from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, and in his graduation yearbook declared the French painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes his favourite artist. He took work at Rakuten Kitazawa's "Tokyo Puck", a cartoon humour magazine patterned after the American "Puck".
Kanae felt disappointed at hand-printing's gradual loss of prestige in Japan; to revive interest he wrote a four-part series of articles in 1907 for the art magazine "Mizu-e" examining a wide variety of printing media and techniques. Kanae, Hakutei, and a former art-school classmate of Kanae's, Morita Tsunetomo, founded the monthly magazine "Hōsun". whose first issue appeared 15 May 1907. It was patterned on such European magazines as "Cocorico", "Jugend", "Simplicissimus". The contents were primarily literature, criticism, and art cartoons, and its publishers paid fine attention to details of graphic design. They printed the magazine on fine paper at an unusually large size and mixed colour reproduction with black-and-white. Kanae's contributions included his own prints, haiku poetry, and the carving of printing blocks for the designs of others. Kanae's former engraving teacher Sakurai Torakichi furnished the photographic printing plates. The first issue was eight pages and included a supplementary print of Shiba Park by Kanae. The young artists distributed the issue themselves to bookstores. It sold well, and the circle of contributors grew, as did the page count, which expanded to sixteen.
Tokyo during the Meiji period (1868–1912) had a great openness to foreign—especially European—influence, and Western trends in art were quickly replacing traditional Japanese ones until word spread of the impact exported ukiyo-e had had on art in the West. Artists who had all but abandoned the culture of the Edo period began to reconsider it and mix elements of it with Western approaches. Kanae took part in meetings of the "Pan no Kai" group of writers and artists whose goal was to replicate the atmosphere of Parisian cafés such as Café Guerbois of the Impressionists. At one of these rowdy bohemian meetings, a drunken Kanae fell through a window and landed in the garden below, wrapped in a "" paper screen; he returned to the gathering as if nothing had happened. The police kept watch over these meetings whose members they suspected of having socialist sympathies and held grudges over caricatures some of the members had published. "Pan no Kai" waned and came to and end in 1911.
Kanae wanted to revive the spirit of Edo-period ukiyo-e in his prints, and to this end in 1911 he founded the Tokyo Print Club to produce and distribute such prints. He advertised for members in "Hōsun", but after the magazine's demise most of the associated artists left Tokyo and the only member he could recruit was Hanjirō Sakamoto. The pair began a series titled "Sōga-butai sugata" ("Stage Figure Sketches") of portraits of kabuki actors in the vein of the "" genre of ukiyo-e. The subjects were sketched from performances at the just-built Imperial Theatre and were captioned in French on the front and on the back in Japanese. Though Kanae had announced that prints were to come from thirty-four theatre pieces only three sets of four prints—two by each artist in each set—appeared in June, July, and September that year. The work represents a major turning point in his career as he turned away from the Western techniques that had defined his work toward a more Japanese approach such as the use of flat areas of colour. The prints failed to sell at first but began to find buyers only after he had left for France the following year. As Kanae was away the printer was not able to issue a second printing to meet the demand.
Kanae had come to neglect "Hōsun" as he devoted himself to "Sōga-butai sugata". Hakutei and Tsunetomo had left Tokyo, and that July the magazine came to an end after thirty-five issues.
Europe (1912–1916).
Kanae had wanted to marry Mitsu Ishii, but her family forbade it—especially her mother and brother Hakutei. This rejection embittered him and he broke his friendship with Hakutei, though he remained friends with Tsuruzō. Kanae wished to study painting in Paris, so his father organized the distribution and sale of his son's work to raise funds for it while he was away. He set off on the "Tango Maru" from Kobe on 6 July 1912, and fifty-three days later landed in Marseilles. While on board he made what was likely the first of the prints he father was to sell for him by subscription: titled "Wild Chickens", it depicted three Chinese prostitutes with bound feet inspired by prostitutes he saw when he passed through Shanghai. He printed it in Paris, where in his first few months he studied etching at the École des Beaux-Arts.
Upon arrival Kanae contacted the painter Sanzo Wada, who had been in Paris since 1907. Wada introduced him to Kunishirō Mitsutani, and Kanae soon moved into a studio next to Mitsutani's. He found French difficult to master and associated mostly with expatriate Japanese artists such as Ryūzaburō Umehara and Sōtarō Yasui. His closest friend there was Misei Kosugi, a contributor to "Hōsun" who arrived in March 1913 to spend a year travelling Europe.
In 1913 the writer Tōson Shimazaki visited Kanae, whom he had known from Ueda. The two shared the recent experience of having been denied a marriage. Tōson wrote of the print "On the Deck" that Kanae was finding difficult to finish: a print of a long-haired woman on the deck of the "Tango Maru" as it was in Singapore. It was made with six cherry woodblocks on mulberry "washi" paper, materials Kanae had brought from Japan. The print was sent to Japan that May. The pair went to seaside Brittany for six weeks from that July, and soon were joined by a number of other artists, all of whom were drawn there by the tales of the beauty of the region Kuroda Seiki had written in the 19th century. Kanae was particularly productive of prints while in Brittany.
Kanae felt isolated from the culture and found little art there that he appreciated. He disliked the paintings of van Gogh, Monet, and Édouard Manet. He liked the works of Renoir and Sisley, and Puvis de Chavannes, admired the paintings of Cézanne, but denied any connection between them and those of the Cubists whose works he denigrated; he wrote that only one in three thousand paintings of Matisse were good.
Kanae imagined himself a realist and was distressed at the avant-garde that was coming to dominate the European art world; he found it difficult to comprehend and reconcile it with his understanding of a realist ideal in Western art. His disappointment and confusion impacted his productivity; he produced few of the prints that were supposed to fund his stay, and the language barrier made it difficult to find buyers. A Tokyo agent of his committed suicide after appropriating money from Kanae and other clients. He could not bring himself to reveal his and his parents' financial situation, so he had another agent, Rokurō Watanabe, send money to Paris just so he could send it back to his parents, who were under pressure from a loan shark. Along with his disappointment in the Western art world, Kanae witnessed first-hand the impact Japanese art had had there. Though he kept such thoughts to himself he began to feel a sense of the superiority of Japanese art—of the same traditions he had denied himself during his years of training.
Kanae managed to acquire funds from connections and refused to return early to Japan despite the urgings of friends and associates. Troubles thickened in mid-1914 when World War I broke out and he learned that Mitsu Ishii had married. The war drove him from Paris to London where he stayed for four months, much of it sick with bronchitis. He returned to Paris on 11 January 1915, but work was scarce and the museums were closed. He resolved to return to Japan the following spring, but first moved with a group of Japanese compatriots to Lyon where he found work that brought in enough money for a trip to Italy in March 1916 to see the Renaissance masterpieces. Upon returning to Lyon he learned of the death of Sakurai and finally prepared to go back to Japan.
The least expensive route for Kanae to Japan was through Russia. He set off from Paris on 30 June 1916 via England, Norway, and Sweden. In Moscow he met the Japanese consul and the social critic Noburu Katagami; the latter introduced him to proletarian art and encouraged him to visit Yasnaya Polyana, Leo Tolstoy's home which he had made into a farmers' school. The experienced moved Kanae, who later was to write, "While I was staying in Moscow in the summer of 1916, I felt that I had two important missions. One was promotion of children's free painting and the other was establishment of farmers' art." Kanae visited the Moscow Kustar' Museum, which had exhibited peasant arts and crafts since 1885. He praised its sturdy quality and ethnic design, and lamented that industrialization had brought about a degradation in its perceived value and was threatening its survival. An exhibition of children's art impressed Kanae with its free expressiveness.
Towards the end of 1916 Kanae made the long rail trip across Siberia. Along the way he received a telegram from the poet Hakushū Kitahara. The two had been negotiating the hand of Kitahara's sister Ieko and had finally reached an agreement.
Return to Japan and later career (1916–1935).
Kanae returned to Japan in December 1916 and took over Sakurai's struggling printing company, which he renamed Seiwadō. In autumn 1917 he had seventeen "" oil paintings displayed at the Nihon Bijutsuin's Inten exhibition. The same year he married Ieko Kitahara, had an instruction book on oil painting published, and finished a number of prints whose subscriptions had been paid for.
Kanae aimed at putting together a creative prints association. In June 1918 Kanae co-founded the "Nihon Sōsaku-Hanga Kyōkai" ("Japan Creative Print Cooperative Society") with lithographer Kazuma Oda, etcher Takeo Terasaki, and woodblock artist Kogan Tobari; this last had been a member of the "Pan no Kai" and had also recently returned from several years in Europe. The group held its first exhibition at the art gallery in the Mitsukoshi building in Nihonbashi on 15–20 January 1919. It represented 277 works by 26 artists, including seventeen woodblock prints and two etchings by Kanae. The show drew twenty thousand visitors and was widely reported in the media, including a special "sōsaku-hanga" issue that March of the prominent art magazine "Mizu-e" which included an article in which Kanae outlined the principles of the artform and the goals of the "Nihon Sōsaku-Hanga Kyōkai". That May the show was repeated at the Mitsukoshi location in Osaka.
In 1919 Kanae founded the Japan Children's Free Drawing Association and held its first exhibition. The public was impressed by its democratic ideals, as the idea of democratic education was gaining momentum in Japan during the Taishō period (1912–26). Kanae propounded the importance of teaching students freedom, without which they cannot grow, and denigrated the tradition of teaching drawing through copying. He promoted this ideas in 1921 with the book "Free Drawing Education" and the monthly magazine "Education of Arts and Freedom". Kanae's methods were widely adopted, and it became common for teachers to take students outdoors to draw from nature. These ideas did not escape criticism, and the rise of militarism in Japan put an end to Kanae's movement in 1928; it was not to be revived until after World War II.
Later in 1919 Kanae moved to Ueda, the mountainous Nagano village where his parents lived. He secured funding from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, and Mitsubishi to set up a school that December to teach to the rural population arts and crafts skills they could use to augment their incomes during the long winter months as part of a peasant art movement that combined creativity and utility, inspired by the peasant crafts he had seen in Russia.
In 1921, brothers-in-law Rinzō Satake and Shōkō Sasaki consulted with Kanae to develop a pastel crayon with an oil binder; development took three years and resulted in the world's first oil pastel, marketed under the name Cray-Pas through the Sakura Color Products Corporation.
The peasant art movement had success in intellectual and government circles. A show at Mitsukoshi of works by sixteen youths was well received. In 1923 Kanae established the Japan Peasant Art Institute which expanded throughout the country with the help of increased government funding in 1925. Critics of the movement saw it as an anachronism or of stripping rural handicrafts of their original charm through commercialism; Kanae saw movement as motivated by a desire to keep creative vitality alive, and not by a sense of nostalgia or desire to preserve older ways.
The police suspected Kanae of socialist sympathies as he had brought the idea from Russia. The police so harassed him that he asked Un'ichi Hiratsuka, who was teaching frame-making there, to give up wearing his Russian-style jacket and to cut his long hair. Kanae's initial enthusiasm dwindled over the next five years—funding shrank, finding other patrons was wearying, the village mayor went bankrupt, and his attempts to find ways for the farmers to make money off their artwork found little success. After five years the venture went bankrupt.
Kanae turned his focus from printmaking to painting. He was a founding member in 1922 of the "Shunyōkai" association for painters who wished to maintain connections with Japanese traditions in the face of the Westernization of academic painting in Japan. He was editor of the association's members' magazine "Atorie". He continued to promote the work of print artists and the legitimacy of prints as art. In 1928 the magazine devoted an issue to "sōsaku hanga", and from the same year "Shunyōkai" included a prize in the print category in its annual exhibitions.
In 1924 Kanae travelled to Taiwan for a month to observe local folk craft and advise the government on how to develop the industry. The utilitarian craftwork of the aboriginal Taiwanese people impressed him beyond his expectations. Taiwanese authorities thought to promote the production of bamboo and rattan craftwork, but Kanae thought they could not compete with similar products from Japan and promoted instead the production of products both traditional and new with a distinctive local flavour using traditional designs for sale as souvenirs and exports.
After the 1919 show, Kanae passed the leadership of the "Nihon Sōsaku-Hanga Kyōkai" to Kōshirō Onchi. In 1931 it became the more comprehensive "Nihon Hanga Kyōkai" ("Japan Print Cooperative Society"). The same year the Seiwadō printing company went out of business.
Return to painting and final years (1935–1946).
In 1935 Kanae settled in Tokyo and returned to painting full-time. He produced a number of oils and watercolours that were exhibited in January 1940 at the Mitsukoshi gallery. The show was well received and attended, and in a dinner that followed Kanae proclaimed, "I shall live until May of my eighty-fifth year. Therefore, I am going to sit back now, and drink sake, and paint to my heart's content."
While at by Lake Haruna in Gunma Prefecture in 1942 Kanae suffered a cerebral hemorrhage which partially paralyzed him and hindered his ability to paint. He continued to paint as much as he could for the rest of his life, hindered by war shortages, and turned to watercolour when oil painting was too demanding under his disability. In spring 1943 he moved to Ueda in Nagano where he spent his remaining years. He died on 8 October 1946 undergoing surgery for a volvulus at the Nisshindō hospital in Ueda.
Style.
In his prints, Kanae's primary tool was a curved-blade chisel; in ukiyo-e this tool was normally for clean up and a straight chisel for the main carving. His carving followed the Western approach of carving out planes and lines to appear in white, whereas the traditional Japanese technique was to carve around the lines to be printed.
Legacy.
Kanae's European work had an immediate effect on artists of his generation. In them Kōshirō Onchi saw the potential of the woodcut medium, though his style owes more to European artists. Un'ichi Hiratsuka came to believe "a real artist ... must cut his own blocks and do his own printing" as "Dürer and Bewick worked". "Sōsaku-hanga" artists followed Kanae's lead in using a curved chisel to carve out planes rather than to define lines as in Japanese tradition.
The dating of most of Kanae's work is uncertain. It is believed that the works he signed in Roman characters were made after he returned to Japan from Europe. The number of copies of Kanae's prints is unknown; it is supposed the subscription prints he made in Europe numbered around 25 to 50. Kanae made few printings of the "Fisherman" print—perhaps only one or two—and none have survived. The Ishiis discovered the block in their house decades later, and Oliver Statler had Hashimoto Okiie made forty copies of a commemorative edition in 1960.
Modern Japanese thought on art education begins with Kanae's Free Drawing Education approach. His stature in the history of child art and art education is similar to that of Franz Cižek's in the West. Elementary schools teachers took to his ideas quickly in the wake of their dissatisfaction with the textbooks the government had mandated in 1910 that emphasized copying and neglected personal expression. Yamamoto's was the first public criticism of the textbooks, and his methods led to a sharp decline in their use in the 1920s. Yamamoto encouraged teachers to take children outdoors to sketch, a practice that continues to be common in Japanese elementary schools. Though Japanese militarism put his ideas on hold from the late 1920s educators revived and expanded them beginning in the 1950s.
The municipal Kanae Yamamoto Memorial Museum in Ueda in Nagano Prefecture dates from 1962. It houses 1,800 items, including artwork and documents by Kanae and early examples of peasant crafts and children's artwork done under his instruction.


Che Apalache

Che Apalache is an Argentinian-American string band based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their style has attracted fans such as banjoist Béla Fleck who produced their Grammy-nominated second album.
Biography.
Che Apalache was formed in Buenos Aires in 2013. After living abroad in a number of countries including Spain and Japan, Joe Troop moved to Argentina in 2010 to teach bluegrass music. Troop grew up in Winston-Salem in the Piedmont region of North Carolina and was inspired to play bluegrass after hearing a Doc Watson concert as a child. In Argentina, he helped develop the small local scene and eventually formed Che Apalache with some of his best students. Troop notes that for their first five years they played only Appalachian music, and "that seemed amazing avant-garde to have a bluegrass band in the city of Buenos Aires." However, they later began to incorporate some of the latin styles they had grown up with in Argentina and Mexico. They initially played with an upright bass but eventually settled on the lineup of Martin Bobrik and Franco Martino, from Buenos Aires, and Pau Barjau, from Mexico.
In 2017 they received assistance from the Virginia Folklife Program and PineCone, the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, to tour the United States. From February to May of that year they recorded an album in Argentina to prepare for their first US tour. That summer they won the prestigious Clifftop old-time music contest in the neo-traditional band category and also competed at the Galax Old Fiddlers' Convention.
The band's name is composed of "Che", a casual greeting ('buddy' or 'man' in Spanish) and "Apalache", the Spanish word for Appalachia.
Influences.
The band is known for the many influences they incorporate including: Uruguayan murga, candombe, flamenco, mountain gospel, Spanish Sephardic Jewish music, and classic bluegrass in the style of the Stanley Brothers. They sing in English, Spanish, and Japanese. They are also notable for their intricate percussive rhythms, often played right on their instruments, and other extended techniques not traditionally used in acoustic music. Their uncommon style caught the attention of Bela Fleck who decided to produce their second album, "Rearrange My Heart", in his home studio. "These guys are just so unique and fascinating that it was impossible for me to say no," Fleck said. "Music should be about human expression and these guys are expressing it in spades." The album was released on August 9, 2019 on Free Dirt Records.
"Rolling Stone Country" notes "the group merges cultures to smash through the boundaries often set up around many types of folk music." "NPR" "All Things Considered" called the band "a big hit." "NPR" Alt.Latino column praised the "brilliant mash up of bluegrass and various form of Latin music. They went on, "From beginning to end, Rearrange My Heart is a Must Hear."


Alan Miranda

Alan Miranda is an American computer game designer.
Career.
Alan Miranda is a previous BioWare employee, who had worked on "Dungeons & Dragons" titles like "Neverwinter Nights" and '. In 2003, he left BioWare to form his own company, Ossian Studios, with his wife Elizabeth Starr. Miranda approached BioWare joint CEO Greg Zeschuk in 2005 to discuss the possibility of Ossian developing a "premium module" for "Neverwinter Nights". Premium modules were adventures created for "Neverwinter Nights" by BioWare and other companies. BioWare had been given autonomy on the premium module process from the game's publisher, Atari, and Zeschuk approved Miranda's proposal. Miranda's initial draft of the project was a pirate-themed adventure in the Sword Coast, which happened to be the same idea that BioWare itself was creating a premium module for, '. Miranda revised the concept and chose the Western Heartlands as the setting. Ossian estimated that a module on par with other large games like "Kingmaker" would take four to five months. Pre-production on "Darkness over Daggerford" began in April 2005 and took a month and a half. Ossian went through five designers in this stage, none of whom worked out. Choosing a designer required much of the time allocated for pre-production, and to compensate Ossian developers immediately began creating the game, fleshing out details as they went. In May 2006, Atari cancelled the premium module program, with no warning to developers of the current projects. Miranda and his team decided to finish the game anyway, and in August 2006 it was released free of charge on IGN's Neverwinter Nights Vault.


Government Service Ensign

The Government Service Ensign is a defaced Blue Ensign flown by vessels owned by the British Ministry of Defence for which no other ensign is appropriate. It is most commonly seen flown by warships undergoing contractors' trials before being commissioned into the Royal Navy, and former Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service vessels now operated by Serco Denholm.
The Government Service Jack is a square flag of similar design.
History.
When the Royal Navy was re-organized in 1864, and the Red, Blue and White squadrons were abolished, a Blue Ensign defaced with a horizontal anchor was designated the ensign of all auxiliary vessels owned by the Admiralty. It was originally named the Transport Ensign, but soon became known as the Admiralty Ensign. In 1905, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) was formed, and, in 1922, was directed to fly this flag. (Up to that time, some captains had flown the Red Ensign.)
In 1968, the RFA was awarded its own ensign, similar to the Admiralty Ensign, but with a vertical anchor. In 1974, various units that provided harbour services were amalgamated into the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service (RMAS), the Admiralty Ensign was renamed the Government Service Ensign and was flown by all Ministry of Defence-owned vessels that were not part of the Royal Navy, RFAS or RMAS. In 1996, most RMAS vessels were transferred to Serco Denholm, which operated them under a commercial contract, flying the Government Service Ensign. In 2008, all remaining RMAS vessels were transferred to Serco Denholm and the RMAS was abolished.


AUJIK

AUJIK is an art concept initiated in 2001 by the award-winning (Prix Ars Electronica, Japan Media Arts Festival, Animago 2016, Screengrab) artist Stefan Larsson, who was born in Sweden and lives and works in Ōtsu, Japan.
AUJIK's multi-media works have been shown at the Prix Ars Electronica 2011, Onedotzero London at BFI Southbank 2011/2013/2016, SIGGRAPH Asia, CMoDA Beijing, Biwako Biennale 2012 & 2014, Japan Media Arts Festival 2010/2015. Nordic Outbreak by the Streaming Museum, NYC 2014, 'Death is your Body' Frankfurter Kunstverein 2014, Co-workers at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris 2016, Oberhausen Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Dokfest Kassel, Animago 2016, Screengrab Australia and events and exhibitions curated by Filmform, Onedotzero and Directors Lounge Berlin.
The group had solo exhibitions at galleries in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and at CAC (Contemporary Art Center) in Vilnius.


Lola (computing)

Lola is designed to be a simple hardware description language for describing synchronous, digital circuits. Niklaus Wirth developed the language to teach digital design on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to computer science students while a professor at ETH Zurich.
The purpose of Lola is to statically describe the structure and function of hardware components and of the connections between them. A Lola text is composed of declarations and statements. It describes digital electronics hardware on the logic gate level in the form of signal assignments. Signals are combined using operators and assigned to other signals. Signals and the respective assignments can be grouped together into data types. An instance of a type is a hardware component. Types can be composed of instances of other types, thereby supporting a hierarchical design style and they can be generic, e.g., parametrizable with the word width of a circuit.
All of the concepts mentioned above are demonstrated in the following example of a circuit for adding binary data. First, a fundamental building block () is defined, then this is used to declare a cascade of word-width 8, and finally the s are connected to each other. The defined in this example can serve as a building block on a higher level of the design hierarchy.
Wirth describes Lola from a user's perspective in his book "Digital Circuit Design". A complementary view on the details of the Lola compiler's implementation can be found in Wirth's technical report "Lola System Notes". An overview of the whole system of tools for digital design is the technical report "Tools for Digital Circuit Design using FPGAs" (containing a copy of the report on the language Lola "Lola: An Object-Oriented Logic Description Language").


SteamWorld

SteamWorld is a series of video games depicting the adventures of a race of steam-driven robots in a post-apocalyptic steampunk world. The games are developed and published by Swedish video game developer Image & Form.


Amanda Hamon Kunz

Amanda Hamon Kunz is an American game designer known for her work on the "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game" and other d20 role-playing game products.
Career.
Journalist and freelance writer.
During her time in high school, Kunz joined some friends' long-running "Dungeons & Dragons" campaign. In 2006, while Kunz was enrolled at Eastern Michigan University, she began to play some of White Wolf Press's modern-day horror roleplaying games. She decided to attend Gencon, and Kunz was impressed by how easy it was for attendees to chat with the authors and designers of the games she enjoyed playing. After graduation, Kunz became a journalist and reported on health, science, and government issues for several different newspapers and organizations.
She was still enjoying role-playing games, and in 2011, she decided she would like to become an editor in the games industry. She returned to Gencon, this time to develop contacts with games companies, one of them being Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Press. In addition to her journalism work, she began to write freelance articles for several companies, including Hammerdog Games, Kobold Press, Legendary Games, Mechanical Muse, and Paizo Publishing. Between 2012 and 2015, she wrote or contributed to 19 Paizo articles and sourcebooks.
Kobold Press.
In 2012, Wolfgang Baur hired her as an editor for Kobold Press. She worked on several projects as lead developer and editor as well as designer, including the sourcebooks "Deep Magic" and "Southlands". "Deep Magic" was subsequently awarded a Judges' Spotlight at the ENnies in 2014. "Southlands" won an ENnie in 2016 for "Best Cartography".
Paizo Publishing.
In 2015 she was hired by Paizo as an assistant developer, and moved to Seattle and then Redmond, Washington. In 2016, Kunz appeared at Gencon as an Industry Insider Featured Presenter. By 2017, Kunz was a Development Coordinator for various "Pathfinder" projects and the new "Starfinder" game. "Starfinder" would subsequently win the 2018 Origins Award for Fan Favorite Role-Playing Game.
Wizards of the Coast.
In December 2020, Hamon announced on her Twitter profile that she had been hired by Wizards of the Coast as a Senior Designer on "Dungeons & Dragons". She is one of the authors of the upcoming sourcebook "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft" (2021).


Baby Life

Baby Life is a simulation for the Nintendo DS by French studio Pasta Games. The gameplay of the game is somewhat similar with the Tamagotchi games but more complex.
Development.
The game was published by Deep Silver, the games label of digital entertainment company Koch Media, and French publisher Game Life. Game Life had previously released the title "Horse Life" which had demonstrated the concept. The game was a Nintendo DS exclusive that was released at the end of 2008. Koch Media owned the publishing rights for all PAL regions. The game was previewed at the Games Convention 2008 alongside "Horse Life 2".
Gameplay.
In the game, players take control of their personal babies. from age 9 to 15 months. They teach the baby speech, movement, and behaviour. Over 100 clothing items can be accessed, either to use or to trade over Wi-Fi. The game utilises NDS features such as the speech system and the stylus. Emmanuel Drouin, managing director of Game Life, said that the game allows players to interact with the "most lovely hero you can have in a videogame: a baby".
Critical reception.
Softpedia described the gameplay as "clearly more complex and probably even more fun" than a Tamagotchi. Pocket Gamer jokingly argued that the game is an alternative to those who want a baby but who are unwilling or unable to attract a member of the opposite sex.


Speed Demons (video game)

Speed Demons is a racing video game released in 1999. The game was developed and published by Microïds.
The game has 6 vehicles with possible localised damage, with three possible points of view. The game can be played as single player, 2 player split-screen, or by up to 6 players on a network. There are 10 circuits in varying locations, such as American motorways, on the sides of a volcano during its eruption and snow-covered ski slopes.


Shane Vieau

Shane Vieau is a Canadian set decorator best known for his work on the 2017 film, "The Shape of Water", for which he won an Academy Award for Best Production Design, with production designer, Paul Denham Austerberry and set decorator Jeff Melvin.


Harikumar Madhavan Nair

Harikumar Madhavan Nair is an Indian film audiographer and sound designer. He works in Hindi and Malayalam cinema. He has worked on numerous documentary films and has won 3 National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film Audiography.
Style.
Hair prefers to use a distant microphone vs a lapel microphone. He claims it offers a correct perspective relative to the visual image.


Carl Hewitt

Carl Eddie Hewitt () is an American computer scientist who designed the Planner programming language for automated planning and the actor model of concurrent computation, which have been influential in the development of logic, functional and object-oriented programming. Planner was the first programming language based on procedural plans invoked using pattern-directed invocation from assertions and goals. The actor model influenced the development of the Scheme programming language, the π-calculus, and served as an inspiration for several other programming languages.
Education and career.
Hewitt obtained his PhD in mathematics at MIT in 1971, under the supervision of Seymour Papert, Marvin Minsky, and Mike Paterson. He began his employment at MIT that year, and retired from the faculty of the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science during the 1999–2000 school year. He became emeritus in the department in 2000. Among the doctoral students that Hewitt supervised during his time at MIT are Gul Agha, Henry Baker, William Clinger, Irene Greif, and Akinori Yonezawa.
From September 1989 to August 1990, Hewitt was the IBM Chair Visiting Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Keio University in Japan. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Stanford University.
Research.
Hewitt is best known for his work on the actor model of computation. For the last decade, his work has been in "inconsistency robustness", which aims to provide practical rigorous foundations for systems dealing with pervasively inconsistent information. This work grew out of his doctoral dissertation focused on the procedural (as opposed to logical) embedding of knowledge, which was embodied in the Planner programming language.
His publications also include contributions in the areas of open information systems, organizational and multi-agent systems, logic programming, concurrent programming, paraconsistent logic and cloud computing.
Planner.
The Planner language was developed during the late 1960s as part of Hewitt's doctoral research in MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Hewitt's work on Planner introduced the notion of the "procedural embedding of knowledge", which was an alternative to the logical approach to knowledge encoding for artificial intelligence pioneered by John McCarthy. Planner has been described as "extremely ambitious". A subset of Planner called Micro-Planner was implemented at MIT by Gerry Sussman, Drew McDermott, Eugene Charniak and Terry Winograd and was used in Winograd's SHRDLU program, Charniak's natural language story understanding work, and L. Thorne McCarty's work on legal reasoning. Planner was almost completely implemented in Popler by Julian Davies at Edinburgh. Planner also influenced the later development of other AI research languages such as Muddle and Conniver, as well as the Smalltalk object-oriented programming language.
Hewitt's own work on Planner continued with Muddle (later called MDL), which was developed in the early 1970s by Sussman, Hewitt, Chris Reeve, and David Cressey as a stepping-stone towards a full implementation of Planner. Muddle was implemented as an extended version of Lisp, and introduced several features that were later adopted by Conniver, Lisp Machine Lisp, and Common Lisp. However, in late 1972 Hewitt abruptly halted his development of the Planner design in his thesis, when he and his graduate students invented the actor model of computation.
Actor model.
Hewitt's work on the actor model of computation has spanned over 30 years, beginning with the introduction of the model in a 1973 paper authored by Hewitt, Peter Bishop, and Richard Steiger, and including new results on actor model semantics published as recently as 2006. Much of this work was carried out in collaboration with students in Hewitt's Message Passing Semantics Group at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Sussman and Steele developed the Scheme programming language in an effort to gain a better understanding of the actor model. However, their Scheme interpreter was not capable of fully implementing the actor model because actor customers cannot be implemented as lambda calculus continuations and actors can change their local state in a way that is impossible in the lambda calculus A number of programming languages were developed to specifically implement the actor model, such as ACT-1, SALSA, Caltrop, E and ActorScript. The actor model also influenced the development of the π-calculus. (See actor model and process calculi history.)


Tetsuya Miyamoto

 is a Japanese mathematics teacher who invented the numerical logic puzzle KenKen. (It is called "Kashikoku-Naru-Puzzle" in Japanese, which literally means "a puzzle that makes you smarter." It is also known as "Keisan Block".)
Miyamoto developed KenKen in 2003 to help his students improve their calculation skills, logical thinking and patience. His puzzle series has sold over 1.5 million copies in Japan. It was introduced to the rest of the world at the 2007 Bologna Book Fair as KenKen and has been translated into Korean, Thai, German, French, Czech, Mandarin Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Slovene, Spanish, Portuguese, and Icelandic. KenKen made its debut in "The Times" (London) in March 2008, and the "New York Times" in February 2009. The first U.S. KenKen tournament was held in March 2009 in Brooklyn, with Miyamoto in attendance.
Miyamoto graduated from Waseda University in Tokyo. He worked as an instructor at a "juku" (university preparatory cramming school) in Yokohama. In 1993 he founded his own school named "Miyamoto Sansuu Kyoushitsu" (Miyamoto Math Classroom) in Yokohama, and established his unique "non-teaching classroom" methodology called "The Art of Teaching Without Teaching". He moved his classroom to Tokyo (near Tokyo station) in 2009, and moved his classroom to Manhattan in 2015. His Manhattan class is named "Miyamoto Mathematics Inc". He currently spends 8 months in New York and 4 months in Japan. He teaches KenKen to children on weekends.
He wrote over 180 books in Japanese, including his teaching methodology book called ""Kyouikuron" that has been sold over 100,000 copies and the "Kashikoku-Naru-Sansuu"" series that is consist of 96 math problem books that scaffold gradually.


Redmond A. Simonsen

Redmond Aksel Simonsen (June 18, 1942 – March 9, 2005) was an American graphic artist and game designer best known for his work at the board wargame company Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in the 1970s and early 1980s. Simonsen was considered an innovator in game information graphics, and is credited with creating the term "game designer".
As art director at SPI Simonsen supervised the release of over 400 game titles, and had game design or development credit for over twenty games. In addition, he variously held positions of executive art editor and co-editor or executive editor for the SPI magazines "Strategy & Tactics", "MOVES" and "Ares". Simonsen was the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame inductee for 1977. He was honored as a "famous game designer" by being featured as the king of clubs in Flying Buffalo's 2008 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck.
Early life.
Simonsen was born and raised in Inwood, Manhattan, the second son of Astri Nordlie Simonsen and August Emil Simonsen, an immigrant from Norway. His father was a high ironworker who died in a fall from a building; his mother then worked as a domestic and raised her three children August, Lois, and Redmond. Simonsen attended the Stuyvesant High School from 1956-1960. He served two tours in the United States Air Force, and was accepted for enrollment at Cooper Union, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1964. Subsequent work as a graphic artist included designing the book jacket for "Is Paris Burning?" (1965), album covers for London Records, and KOOL cigarette advertisements. He also worked as a photographer, and sold pictures to "TIME", "Newsweek" and "The New York Times".
Strategy & Tactics and SPI.
"Main articles: Strategy & Tactics and Simulation Publications, Inc."
Redmond Simonsen was the graphic designer on the wargaming hobby fanzine "Strategy & Tactics". In 1969, the 'zine was sold by its founder/publisher Chris Wagner to James F. Dunnigan for $1. Although circulation was only around 1,000 copies, Dunnigan planned on using the magazine to promote new games he was designing. Later he wrote in "The Complete Wargames Handbook":
The format of "Strategy & Tactics" (S&T) was ambitiously changed to a bi-monthly magazine with a complete game inside every issue, along with an accompanying historical article. Dunigan created Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1969, with Simonsen as his co-founder. Dunnigan and Simonsen's newly incorporated SPI began publish non-magazine games as well. At that time the main wargame publisher, Avalon Hill, released only one or two new games a year. The response was overwhelming. Simonsen wrote: "Via a program of advertising, S&Ts circulation began to build and sales of SPI games to its readers began to take on serious proportions." Combined with other factors such as a sophisticated computerized customer feedback system the company experienced exponential growth. By the mid-'70s SPI's revenues exceeded $2 million annually, with up to forty employees. Circulation of "Strategy and Tactics" steadily grew, eventually peaking at over 36,000 by 1980.
Simonsen acted as founding editor for SPI's Ares Magazine, a fantasy/science fiction game magazine following the same approach as Strategy & Tactics, until replaced during the TSR takeover.
Simonsen also wrote fictional backgrounds for various SPI games, notably for "" and "Battlefleet Mars", often with humorous elements hidden in the text.
Physical systems design.
It was at SPI that Simonsen coined the term "physical systems design" to describe the application of graphic design concepts to board games. He defined it as follows:
In 1969 however, Simonsen's ability to implement such graphic engineering was limited by SPI's starting capital, which was only "a hundred dollars" borrowed from writer Al Nofi. Accordingly, production standards for their first series of games were comparatively low. While competitor Avalon Hill was owned by the printers Monarch Press, and thus was able to use professional production equipment, SPI was essentially producing game "kits". Designer Greg Costikyan wrote:
Increased revenue and experience led to progressive improvements in production quality, and Simonsen continuously refined the standards for game components. The playing boards ("maps") went from black-and-white to two-color and then full-color. Playing pieces ("counters") became professionally mounted and die-cut, eventually being printed on both sides in full-color. Simonsen now had the means to implement his physical system design concepts. Game designer John Prados recalled that "Redmond prided himself on making at least one graphical innovation each game."
After SPI.
Marketing lapses as well as financial mismanagement led to declining real income for SPI, culminating in Dunnigan's ouster as company manager (replaced by original S&T founder Chris Wagner). However, with the economy in the midst of a recession, SPI was not able to make a recovery. In 1982 the company's assets were sold to TSR, Inc. Simonsen was fired from TSR on April 30, 1982.
Along with former SPI designer Brad Hessel, he founded Ares Development Corporation to produce computer games. Simonsen had already successfully "ported" the board game "The Wreck of the B.S.M. Pandora" to the Apple II, creating one of the first real-time strategy games. A multi-game contract with Texas Instruments fell through when they pulled out of the home computing business in 1984.
Simonsen then moved to Richardson, Texas where, with Jerry Robinson, he co-founded Microbotics, manufacturers of peripherals for the Amiga platform of home computers. Around 1992 Microbotics closed and he retired from active work, becoming a gaming network moderator for BIX and other places. In 1993 Simonsen contributed to "Master of Orion: The Official Strategy Guide" (Prima Publishing, 1993), devising a naming-convention for ships. By 1998 he had retired completely and spent his time drawing, writing computer programs and science fiction short stories.
Simonsen suffered a heart attack in 2004 and two more in early 2005 which led to his hospitalization and death in Garland, Texas, on March 9, 2005, at the age of 62.


Resul Pookutty

Resul Pookutty (born 30 May 1971) is an Indian film sound designer, sound editor and audio mixer. He won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing, along with Richard Pryke and Ian Tapp, for "Slumdog Millionaire". Pookutty has worked in Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam languages in addition to British films.
Early life.
Born into a family in Vilakkupara, near Anchal about 40 km from Kollam, Kerala, India. He was the youngest of ten children. His father was a private bus ticket checker. Pookutty had to walk 6 km to the nearest school and study in the light of a kerosene lamp as his village had no electricity.
He did his bachelor's degree in physics from Milad-E-Sherief Memorial College, Kayamkulam during 1987–1990. He joined Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram for studying Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree, however, he was unable to complete it. In 1995, he graduated from Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. In 2014, he wrote the remaining LLB exam papers. Pookutty said that it was his father's desire to make him an advocate.
Career.
Pookutty moved to Mumbai after his graduation. He termed it as "a natural immigration as a graduate of the institute." He pointed out that "Ninety-five per cent of the technicians of the Mumbai film industry are alumni of FTII, Pune." Pookutty made his debut in sound design with the 1997 film "Private Detective: Two Plus Two Plus One", directed by Rajat Kapoor. He got his big break with the critically acclaimed 2005 film Black, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He subsequently engineered sound for major productions like Musafir (2004), Zinda (2006), Traffic Signal (2007), Gandhi, My Father (2007), Saawariya (2007), Dus Kahaniyaan, Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja (2009) and Enthiran (2010).
Personal life.
Pookutty is married to Shadia. They have a son Rayaan and a daughter, Salna.


Peter Chung

Peter Chung (born April 19, 1961) is a Korean American animator. He is best known for his unique style of animation, as the creator and director of "Æon Flux" and "".
Early life and career.
Peter Chung was born on April 19, 1961. Since his father was in the foreign service of the Republic of Korea, he has lived in Seoul, London, Nairobi, Washington, D.C., New York and Tunis. His parents then immigrated to the United States; he lived in McLean, Virginia. Chung studied animation at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) from 1979 to 1981, one year at the Character Animation program, and another year in the program in Experimental Animation.
Chung started his animation career at a small animation studio in Maryland at age 18, working for animator and illustrator Salvador Bru. From there at age 19 he was designing characters for Hanna-Barbera. About this time he also started working on the layout and animation on Ralph Bakshi's "Fire and Ice" before being hired by Disney for feature development.
Directing credits.
In addition to "Æon Flux" (3 seasons: 1991, 1992, 1995), Chung's directing credits include the "Matriculated" segment from "The Animatrix", and '. Chung served as lead character designer for the animated series, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1987), "C.O.P.S." (1988) "Phantom 2040" (1994–1996) and "Reign: The Conqueror" (1999). The designs feature lean angular characters inspired by the art of Egon Schiele, a look which has become Chung's trademark character design. He also, along with Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo, co-designed the characters in the Nickelodeon series "Rugrats", and co-directed its pilot, "Tommy Pickles and The Great White Thing" and the opening sequence. In addition, in 2007 he directed the opening three-part episode for GameTaps' ', entitled "Keys to the Kingdom".
He has also directed some television advertisements – available at Peter Chung at Acme Filmworks – including a Diet Pepsi advertisement featuring Cindy Crawford and Malcolm McDowell.
, among other unannounced projects, he was working on a full-length animated feature entitled "Luvula". He is also director of the television adaption of "Firebreather" for Cartoon Network. Mr. Chung has also expressed interest in creating a new direct-to-video animated feature of "Æon Flux".
Animation style and influences.
Chung names Japanese animation, German expressionism and European comics as his influence, in particular the illustrative quality of the art that depends on expressive drawings instead of many surface details. He names in his influences expressionist Egon Schiele and comic artist Moebius. As narrative influence he names Kazuo Umezu, Sanpei Shirato, Osamu Tezuka, Jack Kirby, Moebius, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Schuiten and Peeters, Silvio Cadelo, Tatsuya Egawa, Geof Darrow and Frank Miller. He also names as influences, in no special order: David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alain Resnais, Jean Cocteau, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Seijun Suzuki, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Yoshinori Kanada, Horst Janssen, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Chung's animation, particularly "Æon Flux" and "Matriculated", tends toward the artistically and thematically experimental.
In the animation field, he admires Yoshinori Kanada, Koji Morimoto, and Igor Kovalyov.
Ralph Bakshi, one of the first to hire Chung, has stated that one of Chung's favorite artists is Toulouse-Lautrec.
Chung was one of the artists working on the "Underground" roleplaying game (1993) from Mayfair Games; "Aeon Flux" was also an influence on the game.
In an April 2019 interview with Diego Molano, creator of "Victor & Valentino", he said that he was fascinated with Chung's Aeon Flux and how he uses movement to tell a story even without dialogue. He even paused the show and put tracing paper over Chung's drawings, and then sold them at school, showing how Chung's style influenced him. Later, Chung would become the animation director on "Victor & Valentino", which Molano was "greatly thankful for."
Personal life.
Chung has also been a participant in online forums, where users have asked him about his work and creative process. Two of the more prominent forums are ILX and Monican Spies.
Chung currently teaches a Master Class at the Division of Animation and Digital Arts at the USC School of Cinematic Arts since Spring 2013.


Contenance angloise

The Contenance angloise, or English manner, is a distinctive style of polyphony developed in fifteenth-century England which uses full, rich harmonies based on the third and sixth. It was highly influential in the fashionable Burgundian court of Philip the Good, and on European music of the era. Its leading proponent was John Dunstaple, followed by Walter Frye and John Hothby.
Origins of the term.
The phrase "Contenance Angloise" was coined by Martin le Franc in 1441–42, in a poem dedicated to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (1396–1467) to describe the era's distinctive musical style. Le Franc mentioned English composer John Dunstaple (c. 1390–1453) as the key figure and a major influence on the Burgundian composers Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois.
Characteristics.
It is not clear exactly what Martin le Franc saw as the elements of the Contenance Angloise. Musicologists have noted the style as a distinctive form of melodic polyphony using full, rich harmonies based on the third and sixth, which may have made lyrics easier to articulate.
Major composers.
Although nearly all of Dunstaple's manuscript music in England was lost during the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–40), some of his works have been reconstructed from copies found in continental Europe (particularly Italy), the existence of which indicates his widespread fame in Europe. He may have been the first composer to provide liturgical music with an instrumental accompaniment.
This tradition was continued by figures such as:
Decline.
The influence of English composers on the continent seems to have declined towards the end of the fifteenth century when, having lost their major possessions in France, and entering the Wars of the Roses, they may have been preoccupied with domestic matters. Franco-Flemish music then became the dominant force in European music.


Cam Banks

Cam Banks is a game designer known for his work on the Cortex System line of roleplaying games as lead designer for "Marvel Heroic Roleplaying", and the "Big Damn Heroes Handbook" supplement to the "Serenity Role Playing Game", among other titles. He is the Cortex Creative Director for Fandom Tabletop, the publishers of "Cortex Prime".
Career.
Cam Banks and Christopher Coyle wrote a new Dragonlance campaign saga produced by Sovereign Press in three parts: "Key of Destiny" (2004), "Spectre of Sorrows" (2005) and "Price of Courage" (2006). The series totalled 730 pages and detailed major events in the Age of Mortals. His first novel was published in 2007. He wrote the 2008 Dragonlance novel "The Sellsword". Banks was later the Cortex System line editor for Margaret Weis Productions, and in 2010 the system was renovated into the Cortex Plus system. Banks was the line developer for the "Smallville Roleplaying Game" (2010), which he co-designed with indie publisher Josh Roby. Banks co-designed "" (2011) with Evil Hat Productions' Rob Donoghue, Clark Valentine, and others.
A native of New Zealand, Banks lives in St Paul, Minnesota, where he has been working as a brand manager and production specialist for Atlas Games since February 2013. Before this he was a line developer at Margaret Weis Productions, where he led the development of the "Smallville Roleplaying Game", "", and "Marvel Heroic Roleplaying" in addition to continuing with Margaret Weis' historical properties, leading the development of the "Big Damn Heroes" supplement for the "Serenity Role Playing Game", and working on the Dragonlance setting.
On November 1, 2016, Margaret Weis Productions released a statement announcing that Cam Banks and his new design studio Magic Vacuum had licensed the original Cortex System and Cortex Plus system and would be "taking over the design, development, and publishing of games based on these rules... for 2017 and beyond," coinciding with "Margaret’s retirement from RPG development to focus on her current novel and film projects."
In September 2019, Fandom Tabletop acquired the rights to Cortex from MWP and hired Banks as their new Cortex Creative Director.
Bibliography.
Roleplaying Games and Supplements.
Cam Banks has been a freelance writer and designer for Sovereign Press, and a designer and line developer for Margaret Weis Productions where he first produced supplements for the Cortex System games designed by Jamie Chambers. Then he led the design of the Cortex Plus games. He is the current Cortex Creative Director with Fandom Tabletop.
Critical reception.
As a lead designer on pre-existing products, Cam Banks was responsible for Margaret Weis Productions second ever Origins Award with "Big Damn Heroes". His "Supernatural: Guide to the Hunted" was applauded for the design and detail work although criticized slightly for the adherence to Supernatural's canon. After becoming line developer he ceased to use the Cortex System, instead working with members of Evil Hat Productions to produce all the new games he created using the Cortex Plus.
Reception for the Cortex Plus games has been generally positive. Both io9 and RPGamer reviewed the "Smallville Roleplaying Game", Banks's first game as lead designer. They praised the way the game "had the heart of an independent role playing game and focused on conflict rather than powers." was nominated for an Origins Award, and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying won two Origins Awards and an ENnie and was praised by SF Signal for how "authentic and true to the characters the representations felt."