1.
Private company limited by shares
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A private company limited by shares is a class of private limited company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales, Scotland, certain Commonwealth countries or the Republic of Ireland. It has shareholders with limited liability and its shares may not be offered to the general public, a shareholders personal assets are thus protected in the event of the companys insolvency, but any money invested in the company may be lost. A limited company may be private or public, a private limited companys disclosure requirements are lighter, but its shares may not be offered to the general public and therefore cannot be traded on a public stock exchange. This is the difference between a private limited company and a public limited company. Most companies, particularly small companies, are private, private companies limited by shares are usually required to have the suffix Limited or Incorporated as part of their name, though the latter cannot be used in the UK or the Republic of Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland Teoranta may be used instead, largely by Gaeltacht companies, cyfyngedig may be used by Welsh companies in a similar fashion. In the United Kingdom, every company must have formally appointed company officers, by statute, a private company must have at least one director and until April 2008 also had to have a secretary. The companys articles of association may require more than one director, at least one director must be an individual, not another company. Anybody can be a director, subject to certain exceptions, a person who is yet to be discharged from bankruptcy or who has been banned from being a company director by the court will be prohibited, except in certain cases. In addition, a person may not be a director of a company if he or she is unable to consent to their appointment. As of October 2008, the age required to give this consent is 16 years of age. This change was applied retroactively, with any directors under the age of 16 being removed from the register upon the implementation of the and this was already the case in Scotland, under the Age of Legal Capacity Act 1991. No formal qualifications are required to be a director or secretary. When a limited company is formed it must issue one or more subscriber shares to its initial members and it may increase capitalisation by issue of further shares. The issued share capital of the company is the number of shares existing in the company multiplied by the nominal value of each share. A company incorporated in England and Wales can be created with any number of shares of any nominal value, for example, there may be 10,000 shares with a nominal value of 1p, or 100 shares of £1 each. In each case the capital would be £100. Unissued shares can be issued at any time by the using a Form SH01 - Return of Allotment of Shares subject to prior authorisation by the shareholders
2.
Animation
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Animation is the process of making the illusion of motion and the illusion of change by means of the rapid display of a sequence of images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon, animators are artists who specialize in the creation of animation. Animation can be recorded with either analogue media, a book, motion picture film, video tape, digital media, including formats with animated GIF, Flash animation. To display animation, a camera, computer, or projector are used along with new technologies that are produced. Animation creation methods include the traditional animation creation method and those involving stop motion animation of two and three-dimensional objects, paper cutouts, puppets and clay figures, Images are displayed in a rapid succession, usually 24,25,30, or 60 frames per second. Computer animation processes generating animated images with the general term computer-generated imagery, 3D animation uses computer graphics, while 2D animation is used for stylistic, low bandwidth and faster real-time renderings. An earthen goblet discovered at the site of the 5, 200-year-old Shahr-e Sūkhté in southeastern Iran, the artifact bears five sequential images depicting a Persian Desert Ibex jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree. They may, of course, refer to Chinese shadow puppets, in the 19th century, the phenakistoscope, zoetrope and praxinoscope were introduced. A thaumatrope is a toy with a small disk with different pictures on each side. The phenakistoscope was invented simultaneously by Belgian Joseph Plateau and Austrian Simon von Stampfer in 1831, the phenakistoscope consists of a disk with a series of images, drawn on radi evenly space around the center of the disk. John Barnes Linnett patented the first flip book in 1868 as the kineograph, the first animated projection was created in France, by Charles-Émile Reynaud, who was a French science teacher. Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in 1877 and the Théâtre Optique in December 1888, on 28 October 1892, he projected the first animation in public, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Musée Grévin in Paris. This film is notable as the first known instance of film perforations being used. His films were not photographed, they were drawn directly onto the transparent strip, in 1900, more than 500,000 people had attended these screenings. Stuart Blackton, who, because of that, is considered the father of American animation, in Europe, the French artist, Émile Cohl, created the first animated film using what came to be known as traditional animation creation methods - the 1908 Fantasmagorie. The film largely consisted of a figure moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects. There were also sections of live action in which the hands would enter the scene. The film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, the author of the first puppet-animated film was the Russian-born director Wladyslaw Starewicz, known as Ladislas Starevich
3.
Peter Lord
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For the art historian see Peter Lord. Which was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards, Lord is the executive producer of every Aardman work, including Shaun the Sheep Movie and Arthur Christmas. Lord was born in Bristol, England, in co-operation with David Sproxton, a friend of his youth, he realised his dream of making and taking an animated movie. He graduated in English from the University of York in 1976 and he and Sproxton founded Aardman as a low-budget backyard studio, producing shorts and trailers for publicity. Their work was first shown as part of the BBC TV series Vision On, in 1977 they created Morph, a stop-motion animated character made of Plasticine, who was usually a comic foil to the TV presenter Tony Hart. With his alter-ego Chas, he appeared in a series of childrens art programmes including Take Hart, Hartbeat, from 1980-1981, Morph appeared in his own TV series The Amazing Adventures of Morph. Experiments with animated clay characters synchronised with live recorded soundtracks led to a series of films in the style of animated documentary, the first two were part of the BBC TV series Animated Conversations and were called Down and Out and Confessions of a Foyer Girl. These were followed in 1983 by Conversation Pieces, a series of long films produced for Channel 4. They were called On Probation, Sales Pitch, Palmy Days, Late Edition, in 1985 Nick Park joined the group. Lord, Park and Sproxton developed and finalised their style of detailed, in 1991 Lord animated Adam, a 6-minute clay animation that was nominated for an Academy Award. Park created the odd-couple Wallace and Gromit-shorts in co-operation with Lord, all three together worked as producers, editors and directors. Other awarded productions by Peter Lord are Chicken Run, the first feature film from Aardman, in 2006, Lord, Sproxton and Park were all given the Freedom of the City of Bristol. In that same year, Lord visited the Aardman Exhibit at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, Miyazaki has long been a fan of the Aardman Animation works. In 2013 Lord was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards for Pirates, Lord was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 17 June 2006. On 9 July 2015, Lord received a Gold Blue Peter badge
4.
Bristol
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Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 449,300 in 2016. The district has the 10th largest population in England, while the Bristol metropolitan area is the 12th largest in the United Kingdom, the city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. Iron Age hill forts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon, Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373, when it became a county of itself. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities after London in tax receipts, Bristol was surpassed by the rapid rise of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham in the Industrial Revolution. Bristol was a place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, in 1499 William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, the Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock. Bristols modern economy is built on the media, electronics and aerospace industries. The city has the largest circulating community currency in the U. K. - the Bristol pound, which is pegged to the Pound sterling. It is connected to London and other major UK cities by road, rail, sea and air by the M5 and M4, Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations, and Bristol Airport. The Sunday Times named it as the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017, the most ancient recorded name for Bristol is the archaic Welsh Caer Odor, which is consistent with modern understanding that early Bristol developed between the River Frome and Avon Gorge. It is most commonly stated that the Saxon name Bricstow was a calque of the existing Celtic name, with Bric a literal translation of Odor. Alternative etymologies are supported with the numerous variations in Medieval documents with Samuel Seyer enumerating 47 alternative forms. The Old English form Brycgstow is commonly used to derive the meaning place at the bridge, utilizing another form, Brastuile, Rev. Dr. Shaw derived the name from the Celtic words bras, or braos and tuile. The poet Thomas Chatterton popularised a derivation from Brictricstow linking the town to Brictric and it appears that the form Bricstow prevailed until 1204, and the Bristolian L is what eventually changed the name to Bristol. Iron Age hill forts near the city are at Leigh Woods and Clifton Down, on the side of the Avon Gorge, a Roman settlement, Abona, existed at what is now Sea Mills, another was at the present-day Inns Court. Isolated Roman villas and small forts and settlements were scattered throughout the area. Bristol was founded by 1000, by about 1020, it was a centre with a mint producing silver pennies bearing its name
5.
Nick Park
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Nicholas Wulstan Nick Park, CBE is an English director, writer, and animator best known as the creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of six times, and won four with Creature Comforts, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, and Wallace & Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. He has also received five BAFTA Awards, including the BAFTA for Best Short Animation for A Matter of Loaf and Death and his 2000 film Chicken Run is the highest-grossing stop motion animated film. For his work in animation, in 2012, Park was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life, Park was born in Brookfield Park in Preston, Lancashire in the north-west of England to Mary Cecilia Ashton, a seamstress, and Roger Wulstan Park, an architectural photographer. The middle child of five siblings, Park grew up on Greenlands Estate, the later moved to Walmer Bridge. His sister Janet lives in Longton and he attended Cuthbert Mayne High School. He grew up with a keen interest in drawing cartoons, and as a 13-year-old made films with the help of his mother and her movie camera. He also took after his father, an inventor. He studied Communication Arts at Sheffield City Polytechnic and then went to the National Film and Television School, in 1985, he joined the staff of Aardman Animations in Bristol, where he worked as an animator on commercial products. He also had a part in animating the Pee-wees Playhouse which featured Paul Reubens, along with all this, he had finally completed A Grand Day Out, and with that in post-production, he made Creature Comforts as his contribution to a series of shorts called Lip Synch. Creature Comforts matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about their homes, the two films were nominated for a host of awards. A Grand Day Out beat Creature Comforts for the BAFTA award, in 1990 Park worked alongside advertising agency GGK to develop a series of highly acclaimed television advertisements for the Heat Electric campaign. The Creature Comforts advertisements are now regarded as among the best advertisements ever shown on British television, as voted by viewers of the UKs main commercial channels ITV, two more Wallace and Gromit shorts, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, followed, both winning Oscars. He then made his first feature-length film, Chicken Run, co-directed with Aardman founder Peter Lord and he also supervised a new series of Creature Comforts films for British television in 2003. On 10 October 2005, a fire gutted Aardman Animations archive warehouse, the fire resulted in the loss of most of Parks creations, including the models and sets used in the movie Chicken Run. Some of the original Wallace & Gromit models and sets, as well as the prints of the finished films, were elsewhere. Parks most recent work includes a US version of Creature Comforts, in the series, Americans were interviewed about a range of subjects
6.
Stop motion
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Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object so that it appears to move on its own. The object is moved in increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a fast sequence. Dolls with movable joints or clay figures are used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using plasticine is called clay animation or clay-mation, not all stop motion requires figures or models, many stop motion films can involve using humans, household appliances and other things for comedic effect. Stop motion using objects is sometimes referred to as object animation, the term stop motion, related to the animation technique, is often spelled with a hyphen, stop-motion. Stop motion is often confused with the time lapse technique, where photographs of a live surrounding are taken at regular intervals. Time lapse is a technique whereby the frequency at which frames are captured is much lower than that used to view the sequence. When played at speed, time appears to be moving faster. Stop motion animation has a history in film. It was often used to show objects moving as if by magic, in 1902, the film Fun in a Bakery Shop used the stop trick technique in the lightning sculpting sequence. In 1907, The Haunted Hotel is a new stop motion film by J. Stuart Blackton, segundo de Chomón, from Spain, released El Hotel Eléctrico later that same year, and used similar techniques as the Blackton film. In 1908, A Sculptors Welsh Rarebit Nightmare was released, as was The Sculptors Nightmare, italian animator Roméo Bossetti impressed audiences with his object animation tour-de-force, The Automatic Moving Company in 1912. The great European stop motion pioneer was Wladyslaw Starewicz, who animated The Beautiful Lukanida, The Battle of the Stag Beetles, The Ant, one of the earliest clay animation films was Modelling Extraordinary, which impressed audiences in 1912. December 1916 brought the first of Willie Hopkins 54 episodes of Miracles in Mud to the big screen, also in December 1916, the first woman animator, Helena Smith Dayton, began experimenting with clay stop motion. She would release her first film in 1917, an adaptation of William Shakespeares Romeo, in the turn of the century, there was another well known animator known as Willis O Brien. His work on The Lost World is well known, but he is most admired for his work on King Kong, oBriens protege and eventual successor in Hollywood was Ray Harryhausen. After learning under OBrien on the film Mighty Joe Young, Harryhausen would go on to create the effects for a string of successful and memorable films over the next three decades. These included The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Came from Beneath the Sea, Jason, in a 1940 promotional film, Autolite, an automotive parts supplier, featured stop motion animation of its products marching past Autolite factories to the tune of Franz Schuberts Military March
7.
Clay animation
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Clay animation or claymation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is deformable—made of a malleable substance and these and other moving images, from zoetrope to films to video games, create the illusion of motion by playing back at over ten to twelve frames per second. The techniques involved in creating computer-generated imagery are generally removed from a frame-by-frame process. Upon playback, the mind of the viewer perceives the series of slightly changing, a consistent shooting environment is needed to maintain the illusion of continuity, objects must be consistently placed and lit, and work must proceed in a calm environment. Producing a stop-motion animation using clay is extremely laborious, normal film runs at 24 frames per second. With the standard practice of doubles or twos 12 changes are made for one second of film movement. The object must not be altered by accident, slight smudges, dirt, hair, feature-length productions have generally switched from clay to rubber silicone and resin cast components, Will Vinton has dubbed one foam-rubber process Foamation. Nevertheless, clay remains a viable animation material where a particular aesthetic is desired, Clay can also take the form of character clay animation, where the clay maintains a recognizable character throughout a shot, as in Art Clokeys and Will Vintons films. A sub variation clay animation can be informally called clay melting, any kind of heat source can be applied on or near clay to cause it to melt while an animation camera on a time-lapse setting slowly films the process. For example, consider Vintons early short clay-animated film Closed Mondays at the end of the computer sequence, a similar technique was used in the climax scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark to melt the faces of the antagonists. The term hot set is used amongst animators during production and it refers to a set where an animator is filming. The clay characters are set in a position where they can continue shooting where they left off. If an animator calls his set a hot set, then no one is allowed to touch the set or else the shoot would be ruined, certain scenes must be shot rather quickly. If a scene is left unfinished and the weather is humid, then the set. The clay puppets may be deformed from the humidity or the air pressure could have caused the set to shift slightly and these small differences can create an obvious flaw to the scene. To avoid these disasters, scenes normally have to be shot in one day or less, clay-animated films were produced in the United States as early as 1908, when Edison Manufacturing released a trick film entitled The Sculptors Welsh Rarebit Dream. Hopkins in particular was quite prolific, producing over fifty clay-animated segments for the weekly Universal Screen Magazine, by the 1920s, cartoon animation using either cels or the slash system was firmly established as the dominant mode of animation production. Increasingly, three-dimensional forms such as clay were driven into relative obscurity as the cel method became the method for the studio cartoon
8.
Plasticine
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Plasticine, a brand of modelling clay, is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. The name is a trademark of Flair Leisure Products plc. Plasticine is used extensively for childrens play, but also as a medium for more formal or permanent structures. Because of its property, it is a popular choice of material for stop-motion animation. The brand-name clay is mentioned in music, such as the porters in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. William Harbutt, an art teacher in Bath, England, formulated Plasticine in 1897, Harbutt wanted a non-drying clay for his sculpture students. He created a non-toxic, sterile, soft and malleable clay that did not dry on exposure to air, Harbutt received a patent in 1899 and commercial production started at a factory in Bathampton in 1900. Four colours were produced for sale to the public. Plasticine was popular with children, was used in schools for teaching art. Plasticine is approximately 65% bulking agent, 10% petroleum jelly, 5% lime and 10% lanolin and it cannot be hardened by firing, melts when exposed to heat, and is flammable at higher temperatures. Harbutt patented a different formulation in 1915, which added wool fibres to give plasticine a stronger composition intended for ear plugs, and as a sterile dressing for wounds and burns. The Harbutt company marketed Plasticine as a toy by producing modelling kits based on characters from childrens stories, such as Noddy. The original Plasticine factory was destroyed by fire in 1963 and replaced by a modern building, the Harbutt company produced Plasticine in Bathampton until 1983, when production was moved to Thailand. The Colorforms company was the major American licensee of Plasticine from 1979 until at least 1984, apparently, the use of a different chalk compound caused a product inconsistency, and the US version was considered inferior to the original mix. Bluebird Toys plc acquired Plasticine through its purchase of Peter Pan, in 1998, Mattel bought Bluebird and the brand was sold to Humbrol Ltd, famous for its model paints and owner of the Airfix model kit brand. Flair Leisure licensed the brand from Humbrol in 2005 and relaunched Plasticine and it acquired the brand outright, when Humbrol went into administration a year later. A similar product, Kunst-Modellierthon, was invented by Franz Kolb of Munich and this product is still available, known as Münchner Künstler Plastilin. In Italy, the product Pongo is also marketed as plastilina, Play-Doh, which is based on flour, salt and water, dries on exposure to air
9.
Wallace and Gromit
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Wallace and Gromit is a British clay animation comedy series created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four films and a feature-length film. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving inventor, along with his companion Gromit, Wallace was originally voiced by veteran actor Peter Sallis, but as of 2011, this role has been passed on to Ben Whitehead. Gromit remains silent, communicating only through means of facial expressions, because of their widespread popularity, the characters have been described as positive international icons of both modern British culture and British people in general. BBC News called them some of the best-known and best-loved stars to come out of the UK, icons has said they have done more to improve the image of the English world-wide than any officially appointed ambassadors. The feature film is also the second highest-grossing stop motion animated film ever, only behind Chicken Run, another Nick Park creation. The first short film, A Grand Day Out, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1990, the short films The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave followed. The full-length feature The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was released in 2005, the latter three each earned Academy Awards. In January 2007, a five film deal with DreamWorks and Aardman fell through only three films, due to creative differences, as well as the box office failure of Flushed Away. Park said later that DreamWorks executives wanted to Americanise the very British Wallace and Gromit after test screenings, a Matter of Loaf and Death was Nick Parks first production since the end of the DreamWorks deal. It was the most watched programme in the UK in 2008. A Matter of Loaf and Death won the 2008 BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2010, voiced by Peter Sallis, and Ben Whitehead in Wallace & Gromits Grand Adventures and Wallace & Gromits Musical Marvels, commercials and apps. Wallace can usually be found wearing a shirt, brown wool trousers, a green knitted pullover. He is best known for his love of cheese, especially Wensleydale, the thought of Lancashire hotpot keeps him going in a crisis. He enjoys tea, and on occasions a little Bordeaux red. He reads the Morning, Afternoon and Evening Post, and lives at 62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan and his last name is never given. Wallace is an inventor, creating elaborate contraptions that often do not work as intended. He is a genius, evident from his exclamation when he discovers Hutchs borrowed skill
10.
Computer animation
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Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images. The more general term computer-generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation refers to the moving images. Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics, although 2D computer graphics are used for stylistic, low bandwidth. Sometimes, the target of the animation is the computer itself, Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to the stop motion techniques used in traditional animation with 3D models and frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations. It can also allow a single graphic artist to such content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces. To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the monitor and repeatedly replaced by a new image that is similar to it. This technique is identical to how the illusion of movement is achieved with television and motion pictures, for 3D animations, objects are built on the computer monitor and 3D figures are rigged with a virtual skeleton. For 2D figure animations, separate objects and separate transparent layers are used with or without that virtual skeleton, then the limbs, eyes, mouth, clothes, etc. of the figure are moved by the animator on key frames. The differences in appearance between key frames are calculated by the computer in a process known as tweening or morphing. For 3D animations, all frames must be rendered after the modeling is complete, for 2D vector animations, the rendering process is the key frame illustration process, while tweened frames are rendered as needed. For pre-recorded presentations, the frames are transferred to a different format or medium. The frames may also be rendered in real time as they are presented to the end-user audience, low bandwidth animations transmitted via the internet often use software on the end-users computer to render in real time as an alternative to streaming or pre-loaded high bandwidth animations. To trick the eye and the brain into thinking they are seeing a moving object. With rates above 75-120 frames per second, no improvement in realism or smoothness is perceivable due to the way the eye, at rates below 12 frames per second, most people can detect jerkiness associated with the drawing of new images that detracts from the illusion of realistic movement. Conventional hand-drawn cartoon animation often uses 15 frames per second in order to save on the number of drawings needed, to produce more realistic imagery, computer animation demands higher frame rates. Films seen in theaters in the United States run at 24 frames per second, for high resolution, adapters are used. Early digital computer animation was developed at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1960s by Edward E. Zajac, Frank W. Sinden, other digital animation was also practiced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. An early step in the history of animation was the sequel to the 1973 film Westworld
11.
Flushed Away
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The film stars the voice talents of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Andy Serkis, Bill Nighy, Ian McKellen, Shane Richie and Jean Reno. Despite receiving positive reviews critics, Flushed Away underpreformed at the box-office. Roddy St. James is a upper class pet rat who makes his home in a posh Kensington flat. While his owners are away on holiday, Roddy plays around the house, a common sewer rat named Sid comes spewing out of the sink and decides to stay, especially as England are playing against Germany in the World Cup final. Roddy schemes to get rid of Sid by luring him into the jacuzzi, Sid isnt fooled at all and instead pushes Roddy in and flushes him away into the sewer. There, Roddy discovers a city resembling London made out of bits of junk, and meets Rita Malone, an enterprising scavenger rat who works the drains in her faithful boat. The Toad loathes all rodents to the point of hateful obsession and he plans to have them frozen with liquid nitrogen inside an icemaker. The pair escape, and Rita takes a unique electrical cable that, unknown to everyone, Roddy finds that the ruby is a fake and breaks it in front of Rita, enraging her, for she cannot now get the money she needs for her large family. Roddy offers her a real ruby if she takes him back to Kensington, accepting the offer, the pair first stop to visit her family before setting off. During Roddys stay, he overhears a conversation that causes him to think that Rita had double-crossed him, when Rita catches up to him, she is able to clear up the misunderstanding. The pair evade Spike and Whitey pursuing in a toy boat, with Thimblenose Ted. During this scene, Roddy and Rita share a quick love moment, incensed at his minions’ repeated failures, The Toad sends for his French cousin, an infamous, if somewhat laid back, mercenary known as Le Frog. During this scene, it is revealed that The Toad was once Prince Charles pet, but was replaced by a pet rat, back home, Roddy pays Rita the promised ruby and an emerald, then proceeds to show her around his house. She at first believes he has family in the home, but noticing his cage, Roddy tries to pass Sid off as his brother, but Sid and Rita know each other. Rita tries to persuade Roddy to come with her, but he is too proud to admit that he is lonely, by now, they have fallen in love but have not told each other their feelings. She departs, both of them broken-hearted, but is captured by The Toad. He can then use the city as a home for his own tadpole offspring. He gives Sid his cushy position and has him flush him back to the sewers to find Rita, together, they defeat The Toad and freeze the wave of sewage generated by the flushing of countless toilets during half-time with liquid nitrogen before it drowns the entire rat population
12.
Chicken Run
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Chicken Run is a 2000 stop-motion comedy-drama film produced by the British studio Aardman Animations. As the studios first feature-length film, it was directed by Peter Lord and it was co-financed by DreamWorks Pictures and Pathé, with the former distributing the film worldwide except for Europe, where it was handled by Pathé. The film features the voices of Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Timothy Spall, Phil Daniels, Tony Haygarth, Chicken Run received positive reviews from critics, and grossed over $224 million, becoming the highest-grossing stop motion animated film ever. Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy run a chicken farm in Yorkshire, the chickens are caged in the style of a prison camp with a high fence and barbed wire. Chickens that fail to produce eggs are slaughtered for food. Frustrated at the minuscule profits generated by the farm, Mrs. Tweedy comes up with the idea of converting their farm into the production of chicken pot pies. However, she is caught and put into solitary confinement. While thinking of a new plan, Ginger witnesses a Rhode Island Red cockerel fly over the fence and crash into one of the coops, Ginger and the other chickens help to hide him from the Tweedys and care for his wing, learning that his name is Rocky. Ginger is particularly interested in Rockys ability to fly and begs him to train her. Rocky is coy, but proceeds to try to train the chickens. Meanwhile, Mr. Tweedy begins assembling their pie-making production line, amid the training, Rocky holds a large party to help relieve the stress, it is revealed his wing is healed, and Ginger insists he show them how to fly the next day. However, Mr. Tweedy completes the line and immediately grabs Ginger for a test run. Rocky is able to save Ginger and helps to damage the machine, giving the chickens only a short time to plan to escape while Mr. Tweedy repairs it. When morning arrives, Ginger finds Rocky has fled, leaving behind a part of a poster that shows him to be a stunt cockerel, shot out of a cannon from a nearby circus, Ginger and the other chickens are depressed. All the chickens, with help from the rats, secretly assemble the parts for the plane from their coops while racing against Mr. Tweedys repairs. While travelling the countryside, Rocky sees a billboard for Mrs. Tweedys Chicken Pies and is inspired to go back to help, with the machine now fixed, Mrs. Tweedy insists that Mr. Tweedy gather all the chickens, but the chickens are ready to escape. They knock Mr. Tweedy out and tie him up enough to complete assembly of their plane. Just before they take off, Rocky returns and joins them, whilst taking off, Mrs. Tweedy chases them down and catches onto a Christmas light strand snagged in the wheels
13.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
14.
Vision On
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Vision On was a British childrens television programme, shown on BBC1 from 1964 to 1976 and designed specifically for children with hearing impairment. There was initial disagreement as to whether lip-reading or British sign language would be more appropriate, the title Vision On referred to the illuminated sign in studios indicating that cameras were live. Normally another sign Sound On would follow, but the titles for Vision On deliberately omitted this, the programmes logo is made up from the words of the title and its reflection. The aim of the programme was to entertain but also to encourage imagination, with a flow of contrasting ideas. Often the artwork shown on a specific show coincided with the theme of the show. At the end of segment, Keysell would thank everyone for sending in their pictures and apologize for being unable to return them. However, it remains unknown as to exactly the prize was. The Burbles – A couple of people living inside a grandfather clock who converse in speech bubbles. Occasionally they are speaking the lines as if they are underwater. The Prof – A man in a lab coat who is usually outdoors doing various humorous things. Humphrey the Tortoise – Much like the Burbles, Humphrey talks of something specific either to himself or someone else and his speech, as well as the other persons if there is one, is shown on screen with no audio. The Digger – A cut-out cartoon man designed and animated by Bill Mather, each week on a construction site he digs into the dirt with a shovel until something interesting is dug up. The Animated Clock – An animated cuckoo clock that is showing signs of trouble or whose parts come to life like a human being. Despite its intended hearing-impaired audience, the show made use of music for the benefit of hearing viewers watching the show. Notable themes included, The opening theme was Accroche-Toi, Caroline by Caravelli, the closing theme was Java in the versions recorded by Al Hirt and Bert Kaempfert The Gallery – Left Bank Two by Wayne Hill is best remembered for this sequence. When Take Hart started, Left Bank Two became the theme tune. The Burbles theme Goofy by Cliff Johns, Humphrey the tortoise theme Merry Ocarina by Pierre Arvay. Animated Clock scene used Gurney Slade by Max Harris The Digger music was Elephant Dance by Harry Pitch, Vision On was co-produced in France with ORTF, in Canada with Radio-Canada under the title Déclic and in Sweden as Ögon Blik
15.
Morph (animation)
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Morph is a series of clay stop-motion comedy animations, named after the main character. This character was initially seen interacting with Tony Hart, beginning in 1977, on several of his UK TV programmes, notably Take Hart, Morph was produced for the BBC by Aardman Animations, later famous for the Sledgehammer music video and Wallace and Gromit. Morph appeared mainly in one-minute shorts interspersed throughout the show and these were connected to the main show by having Hart deliver a line or two to Morph who would reply in gobbledygook but with meaningful gestures. Later on, Morph was joined by cream-coloured Chas, who was much more badly behaved, Morph can change shape, he would become spheres in order to move around, or extrude into cylinders to pass to different levels. He can also mimic other objects, or creatures, Morph lived in a wooden microscope box on an artists desk, and he and Chas both loved to eat cake, as seen in many of the shorts. Some of the early models of Morph were destroyed in a fire at the warehouse where they were being stored. Morph and Chas appeared in shorts on the British childrens TV programme SMart from 1994 onwards, Morphs 30th birthday was celebrated in 2007 by creator Peter Lord and celebrity fan and comedian Phill Jupitus at events for the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol. In March 2009, shortly after Harts death, a flashmob of Morph characters was organised in London outside the Tate Modern art gallery, in 2009, the BBC drama Ashes to Ashes featured Morph in a guest appearance as a representation of a present-day medic. On 29 October 2013, Peter Lord created a fund raising project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, the campaign set a target of £75,000 to be used to fund 12 new one minute episodes. In January 2014, Peter Lord and Aardman started production on 15 brand new episodes of Morph, the new series premiered on Morphs official YouTube channel from 4 July 2014 to 30 January 2015. In 2015, a Morph experience will open at Lands End, the Land’s End signpost will be rebranded Lamb’s End with original sets, models and characters from a range of Aardman productions. Visitors can also star in a real Shaun the Sheep scene, using green screen technology, from 20 March to 2 October 2015 The Amazing Adventures of Morph have been restored in HD on YouTube. In the summer of 2015, Morph returned to TV on CBBC with the new episodes, from 6 November 2015 to 7 January 2016, The Lost Tapes from 2001 are revealed and they have been redubbed and remastered on YouTube. In March 2016, it was announced that Sky plc had made a deal with Aardman Animations to produce new Morph material to be directed at its child audience, means that its been restored on YouTube. Means that its made for YouTube, the First Season of Morph was aired on 4 November 2013 and Ended on 26 June 2014. A third season will air on the Sky Kids app and YouTube in 2016, Morph – The curious and creative main character with tuscan red skin. He is a figure who can transform into many things. Chas – Morphs mischievous white-skinned best friend, nailbrush – Morphs canine companion, a barking nailbrush
16.
Peter Gabriel
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After leaving Genesis in 1975, Gabriel launched a solo career with Solsbury Hill as his first single. His 1986 album, So, is his release and is certified triple platinum in the UK. The albums most successful single, Sledgehammer, won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, Gabriel has been a champion of world music for much of his career. He co-founded the WOMAD festival in 1982 and he has continued to focus on producing and promoting world music through his Real World Records label. He has also pioneered digital distribution methods for music, co-founding OD2, Gabriel has also been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts. In 1980, he released the anti-apartheid single Biko and he has participated in several human rights benefit concerts, including Amnesty Internationals Human Rights Now. Tour in 1988, and co-founded the Witness human rights organisation in 1992, Gabriel developed The Elders with Richard Branson, which was launched by Nelson Mandela in 2007. He was made a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his influence on generations of music makers, AllMusic has described Gabriel as one of rocks most ambitious, innovative musicians, as well as one of its most political. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010, in March 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of South Australia in recognition of his achievements in music. Peter Brian Gabriel was born in Chobham, Surrey and his father, Ralph Parton Gabriel, was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Edith Irene, who was from a musical family, taught him to play the piano at an early age. His great-great-great-uncle, Sir Thomas Gabriel, 1st Baronet, served as Lord Mayor of London from 1866 to 1877, Gabriel attended Cable House, a private primary school in Woking, St. Andrews Prep School in Horsell, and Charterhouse School in Godalming from 1963. He played drums in his first rock bands, and Mike Rutherford commented in 1985 that Pete was—and still is, Gabriel founded Genesis in 1967 with fellow Charterhouse School pupils Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford, and drummer Chris Stewart. The name of the band was suggested by fellow Charterhouse alumnus, the pop music impresario Jonathan King, Gabriel has said to be influenced by many different sources in his way of singing, such as Family lead singer Roger Chapman. In 1970, he played the flute on Cat Stevenss album, the concerts made extensive use of black light with the normal stage lighting subdued or off. Early Genesis concerts were hampered by a bad public address system made it difficult for audiences to understand what Gabriel was singing. According to Mike Rutherford, this drove Gabriel to find ways to impress his personality on the audience. In an episode of the 2007 British documentary series Seven Ages of Rock and it was the dress-wearing, fox-headed entity immortalised on the cover of Foxtrot. Hackett and the rest of the band had no inkling that Gabriel was going to do this and it was a success, encouraging Gabriel to continue wearing stage clothes while singing
17.
Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel song)
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Sledgehammer is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, which appeared on his 1986 album So, and was produced by Gabriel and Daniel Lanois. It was his biggest hit in North America and ties with Games Without Frontiers as his biggest hit in the United Kingdom, the songs music video won a record nine MTV Video Music Award at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards and Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards. Gabriel was also nominated for three Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Record of the Year and Song of the Year, as of 2011, Sledgehammer was the most played music video in the history of MTV. The song was influenced by 1960s soul music, in particular that made by Memphis label Stax, the distinctive horn track was provided by a horn section led by Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns, Staxs house musicians. Its probably about three years old… I was playing at that time with the idea of doing a full of soul songs – mainly other peoples. Im still tempted, although probably that would be construed as an even greater sell-out, but, as a teenager, soul music was one of the things that made me want to be a musician. It was really passionate and exciting… Wayne Jackson, who plays on track, was also with Otis Redding and was touring with him when I saw them in London. So that was a thrill for me, just to get a lot of fan stories. But I think the song was influenced by many of those Stax. – Peter Gabriel, July 1986 The song also features a synthesised shakuhachi flute generated with an E-mu Emulator II sampler, the backing vocals were by P. P. Arnold, Coral Chyna Whyne Gordon, and Dee Lewis, who also did the backing for Big Time. Sledgehammer is Gabriels only US No.1 and it replaced Invisible Touch by his former band Genesis, coincidentally, that groups only US No.1. Sledgehammer also achieved success on other Billboard charts in 1986, spanning the Album Rock Tracks, the single release included the previously unreleased Dont Break This Rhythm and an 85 Remix of 1982s I Have the Touch. US versions of the single contained a dance remix of Sledgehammer. Sledgehammer had a video commissioned by Tessa Watts at Virgin Records, directed by Stephen R. Johnson, Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay provided claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. It took a lot of work, Gabriel recalled. I was thinking at the time, If anyone wants to try and copy this video, the video ended with a large group of extras jerkily rotating around Gabriel, among them his daughters Anna and Melanie, the animators themselves and director Stephen Johnsons girlfriend. Also included were six women who posed as the singers of the song. Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while filming the video one frame at a time, two oven-ready chickens, headless and featherless, were animated using stop-motion and shown dancing along to the synthesised flute solo in the middle of the song
18.
My Baby Just Cares for Me
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My Baby Just Cares for Me is a jazz standard written by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn. Written for the version of the musical comedy Whoopee. The song became a tune for Eddie Cantor who sang it in the movie. A stylized version of the song by Nina Simone, recorded in 1958, was a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom after it was used in a 1987 perfume commercial and resulted in a renaissance for Simone. The track remained relatively obscure until 1987, when it was used in a UK television commercial for Chanel No.5 perfume and this single also made the top 10 in several European single charts and peaked at number one in the Dutch Top 40. The Simone version of the song was featured on the soundtrack for the 1994 film Shallow Grave, in 1987 a claymation music video was produced by Aardman Animations and directed by Peter Lord. The video prominently features live action footage showing details of a piano, brushes on a drum. The two focal characters are represented by a cat in a club, and the cat who is in love with her. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics George Stewart - My Lady Just Cares For Me on YouTube
19.
Nina Simone
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Nina Simone was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and activist in the Civil Rights Movement. Simone employed a range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel. Born in North Carolina, the child of a preacher. With the help of the few supporters in her hometown of Tryon, North Carolina, Waymon then applied for a scholarship to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was denied despite a well-received audition. Waymon became fully convinced this rejection had been due to her race. Years later, two days before her death, the Curtis Institute of Music bestowed on her an honorary degree, to make a living, Eunice Waymon changed her name to Nina Simone. The change related to her need to disguise herself from family members and she was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, and this effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist. Simone recorded more than forty albums, mostly between 1958, when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue, and 1974, and had a hit in the United States in 1958 with I Loves You, Porgy. Simones musical style fused gospel and pop with music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach. Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in North Carolina and raised in Tryon, the sixth of eight children in a poor family, she began playing piano at age three, the first song she learned was God Be With You, Till We Meet Again. Demonstrating a talent with the instrument, she performed at her local church, but her concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was 12. Simone later said that during this performance, her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people. She said that she refused to play until her parents were moved back to the front, Simones mother, Mary Kate Waymon, was a Methodist minister and a housemaid. Simones father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman who at one time owned a dry cleaning business, Simones music teacher helped establish a special fund to pay for her education. Subsequently, a fund was set up to assist her continued education. With the help of this scholarship money she was able to attend Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina. After her graduation, Simone spent the summer of 1950 at the Juilliard School, as a student of Carl Friedberg, discouraged, she took private piano lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff, a professor at Curtis, but never re-applied to the institution. She took a job as an assistant, but also found work as an accompanist at Arlene Smiths vocal studio
20.
Channel 4
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Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster that began transmission on 2 November 1982. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital on 31 March 2010, before Channel 4 and S4C, Britain had three terrestrial television services, BBC1, BBC2, and ITV. The Broadcasting Act 1980 began the process of adding a fourth, after some months of test broadcasts, it began scheduled transmissions on 2 November 1982. Indeed, television sets throughout the 1970s and early 1980s had a spare channel called ITV/IBA2. It was most likely politics which had the biggest impact in leading to a delay of almost three decades before the commercial channel became a reality. The campaign was taken so seriously by Gwynfor Evans, former president of Plaid Cymru, the result was that Channel 4 as seen by the rest of the United Kingdom would be replaced in Wales by Sianel Pedwar Cymru. Operated by a specially created authority, S4C would air programmes in Welsh made by HTV, since then, carriage on digital cable, satellite and digital terrestrial has introduced Channel 4 to Welsh homes where it is now universally available. The first programme to air on the channel was the game show Countdown. The first person to be seen on Channel 4 was Richard Whiteley with Ted Moult being the second, the first woman on the channel, contrary to popular belief, was not Carol Vorderman and was a lexicographer only ever identified as Mary. Whiteley opened the show with the words, On its first day, Channel 4 also broadcast controversial soap opera Brookside, which ran until 2003. On its launch, Channel 4 committed itself to providing an alternative to the existing channels, Channel 4 co-commissioned Robert Ashleys ground-breaking television opera Perfect Lives, which it premiered over several episodes in 1984. The channel often did not receive mass audiences for much of period, however. Channel 4 for many years had a poorer quality signal compared to other channels, Channel 4 also began the funding of independent films, such as the Merchant-Ivory docudrama The Courtesans of Bombay, during this time. In 1992, Channel 4 also faced its first libel case by Jani Allan, a South African journalist, who objected to her representation in the documentary The Leader, His Driver and the Drivers Wife. After control of the station passed from the Channel Four Television Company to the Channel Four Television Corporation in 1993, instead of aiming for the fringes of society, it began to focus on the edges of the mainstream, and the centre of the mass market itself. It began to show many US programmes in peak viewing time and it gave such shows as Friends and ER their UK premières. In the early 2000s, Channel 4 began broadcasting reality formats such as Big Brother and obtained the rights to broadcast mass appeal sporting events like cricket and this new direction increased ratings and revenues. In addition, the corporation launched a number of new channels through its new 4Ventures offshoot, including Film4, At the Races, E4
21.
Richard Starzak
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Richard Starzak, previously known as Richard Golly Goleszowski, is an English animator. Starzak was born in Suffolk in 1959 and grew up in Ipswich and his commercial work includes Domestos Big Dom, Grolsch, Cadbury’s Creme Eggs, Weetos and Maltesers and several European commercials. He then directed Robbie the Reindeer in 1999 for BBC Animation Unit, Robbie went on to win 19 international awards including a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award. Following the success of Robbie, Starzak worked for two years on a project for Aardman’s feature film department as well as directing and writing the series of Rex the Runt. In 2002, Starzak was honoured with the Award for Best TV Special for Robbie the Reindeer, Hooves of Fire at the 3rd International Festival of Animated Feature Films and TV Specials. From 2003, he directed two series of Creature Comforts – 2x13 episodes for ITV based on the Academy Award winning Nick Park short film, the first series went on to win 17 awards, and both series were nominated for a BAFTA. The second series includes a half-hour Christmas special, in between these two series, he devised Shaun the Sheep, writing and directing the pilot. In July 2005, Starzak rejoined Aardman as creative director of the Broadcast and Development department, writing scripts, Aardman’s first childrens TV series, Shaun the Sheep, was directed by Goleszowski who also wrote several episodes. Shaun has sold to over 150 territories, in 2015, he co-wrote and co-directed Shaun the Sheep Movie with Mark Burton. His next directorial venture will be Shaun the Sheep Movie 2, Richard Starzak at the Internet Movie Database
22.
Creature Comforts
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Creature Comforts is a stop motion clay animation comedy mockumentary franchise originating in a 1989 British humorous animated short film of the same name. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about their homes and it was created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations. The film later became the basis of a series of advertisements for the UK electricity boards. An American version of the series was also made and it was produced as part of a series called Lip Synch for Channel 4. The film won Nick Park the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1990, the film shows various animals in a zoo being interviewed about their living conditions. These include a gorilla, a Brazilian puma and a young hippopotamus who complain about the cold weather, the poor quality of their enclosures. The voices of each character were performed by residents of both a housing estate and an old peoples home, stop-motion animation was then used to animate each character, and the answers given in the interviews were put in the context of zoo animals. The polar bears were voiced by a family who owned a shop, while the mountain lion was voiced by a Brazilian student who was living in the UK. In 1990, Nick Park worked with Phil Rylance and Paul Cardwell to develop a series of British television advertisements for the electricity boards Heat Electric campaign, the creative team of advertising agency GGK had seen the original Creature Comforts film and were hugely impressed by it. The initial result of their collaboration was three 30-second Creature Comforts advertisements, made in the style as the original film. The series featured a variety of endearing plasticine animals, including a tortoise, a cat, a family of penguins, the characters were seen in their own domestic settings, chatting to an unseen interviewer behind a large microphone. The selected interviewees spoke in a range of regional accents. The adverts warm and cosy tone reflected the warmth and homeliness of central heating, the animations had an unusual expressiveness, with the wit often coming from tiny nuances - such as a dog scratching his ear at a particular moment. The characterisation was strengthened by having each voice carefully matched to an animal in a combination that would produce a memorable impact. These features were rounded off by a gentle closing voice-over spoken by Johnny Morris, Morris appealed especially to older audiences, who would remember him and his animal conversations on the television programme Animal Magic. The campaign was a success and its run was extended over three years. In fact Creature Comforts was subsequently voted by media professionals as one of the top television advertisements of the last 50 years, as well as attaining a very high level of viewer recall, the advertisements were much loved – particularly the ones involving Frank, Carol and Pablo. The many popular awards won by the Creature Comforts advertisements included being voted fourth in the alltime 100 Greatest TV Ads by readers of The Sunday Times and viewers of Channel 4 in 2000
23.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
24.
A Grand Day Out
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A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit, later marketed as A Grand Day Out, is a 1989 British stop motion animated short film directed and animated by Nick Park at Aardman Animations in Bristol. In the film, Wallace and Gromit spend a holiday by building a homemade rocket to the Moon to sample cheese. The short premiered on 4 November 1989, at the Bristol Animation Festival at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol and it was first broadcast on 24 December 1990, Christmas Eve, on Channel 4. A Grand Day Out is followed by 1993s The Wrong Trousers, 1995s A Close Shave, 2005s The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and 2008s A Matter of Loaf and Death. As Wallace and Gromit relax at home, trying to decide where to spend their upcoming holiday, Wallace decides to fix a snack of tea with cheese. Finding no cheese in the kitchen, he decides that the pair should go to a known for its cheese. After browsing several possible locations, a glance out the window at the sky gives them the idea to travel to the moon, since, according to Wallace. They build a rocket in the basement and pack for the trip, hurrying to the kitchen, he grabs multiple boxes and returns to the rocket just in time for lift-off. When they arrive on the moon, they discover that the landscape is in fact made of cheese. They set up a picnic and sample some, but are unable to match its taste to any cheese they know, looking for a different spot, they encounter The Cooker, a wheeled, mechanised, coin-operated device that resembles an oven and storage cabinet. Wallace inserts a ten pence coin, but nothing happens immediately, only after he and Gromit have left does the Cooker spring to life, popping jointed arms out of its side panels. When it finds the site, it becomes agitated and gathers up the dirty dishes, finding a skiing magazine nearby, it develops a desire to travel to Earth. The Cooker glues a discarded spike of cheese back onto the spot from which Wallace cut it, issues a parking ticket for the rocket, and becomes annoyed by an oil leak from the craft. The Cooker spots Wallace and Gromit in the distance, Wallace having cut another spike of cheese, however, before it can hit Wallace over the head, the money Wallace inserted runs out and it freezes in place. Wallace takes the nightstick as a souvenir, inserting another ten pence in exchange, returning to life, the Cooker realises that the rocket can take it to Earth and excitedly chases after them. Wallace panics, thinking that the Cooker is angry over the cheese he is taking, unable to climb up the rockets ladder, the Cooker cuts its way into the fuselage with a can opener, but accidentally spills and ignites some fuel. The resulting explosion blows it backward and allows Wallace and Gromit to lift off and it waves goodbye to Wallace and Gromit as they return home. Peter Sallis as Wallace Nick Park started creating the film in 1982, as a project for the National Film
25.
The Wrong Trousers
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The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 stop-motion animated short film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It was his second half-hour short featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace and his silent but intelligent dog Gromit, following 1989s A Grand Day Out, and preceding 1995s A Close Shave. As in A Grand Day Out, the film uses sight gags and exaggerated physical comedy and quiet moments. The film premièred in the United States on 17 December 1993, and it won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It was highly successful, and inspired a charity fundraising day, known as Wrong Trousers Day, one of several events organised by the charity Wallace, Wrong Trousers Day falls on the last Friday in June every year. During the day, participants wear the trousers to work or school etc. and donate a pound to help sick children in hospitals. The film begins at 62 West Wallaby Street on Gromits birthday at breakfast, after being tipped out of bed and dressed using several mechanical contraptions, Wallace is greeted with a large pile of overdue bills. Wallace remembers Gromits birthday and presents Gromit with a pair of “ex NASA” robotic Techno Trousers, while Gromit is out on a walk, Wallace realises they are in financial difficulty and decides to let the spare bedroom out. He is answered by a penguin named Feathers McGraw. The penguin comes to stay at the house, pushing Gromit out of his bedroom, into the spare bedroom and keeping him awake at night with loud organ music. On the other hand, Wallace takes a liking to him, Feathers also takes an interest in the Techno Trousers after seeing Gromit use their suction feet to walk on the ceiling while decorating the spare bedroom. Distressed that Feathers has barged in on his relationship with his master, Gromit packs up his belongings, after watching Gromit leave, Feathers secretly modifies the Techno Trousers for his own use. He removes the controls on the trousers and adapts them into a remote control, the next morning, Gromit hunts for suitable lodgings. He notices a poster offering a reward for the capture of a chicken – actually a criminal penguin who disguises himself by wearing a rubber glove on his head. Meanwhile, Wallaces normal morning routine is interrupted when his trousers are replaced with the modified Techno Trousers. Trapped inside the trousers, Wallace is marched out of the house and sent running around town on an extended test run. Gromit witnesses this spectacle and later spies on Feathers as he measures up the exterior of the city museum and he returns home and uncovers Feathers plans to steal a large diamond from the museum. However, Feathers returns and Gromit is forced to hide and he watches as Feathers arrives dressed in the chicken disguise
26.
A Close Shave
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A Close Shave is a 1995 stop motion animated short film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations in Bristol, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It was his third half-hour short featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace and his quiet but intelligent dog Gromit, following 1989s A Grand Day Out, to celebrate the films premiere on Christmas Eve 1995, BBC Twos Christmas presentation that year featured Wallace and Gromit. The main ident featured the two eating Christmas dinner, with a large blue 2 situated in the middle of the table, several Christmas themed stings also involving Wallace, Gromit, and the 2 were shown between programmes. The animation of these idents appeared slightly different from other Wallace, following in the footsteps of its predecessor The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in March 1996. In the middle of the night, a small sheep escapes from a lorry and enters the house of Wallace and Gromit. The next morning, Wallace and Gromit fail to notice the sheep chewing at their food and furniture, as well as their new Porridge Gun, while they clean the windows of a wool shop, Wallace meets and falls in love with Wendolene Ramsbottom, the shopkeeper. Wendolene mentions that she inherited the shop from her father who was also an inventor and owns a dog named Preston. After returning from work, they discover the little lost sheep. Wallace puts the sheep into one of his inventions, the Knit-o-Matic, Gromit programs the machine to give a wash, but a fault causes the sheep to be sucked into the rest of the machine and sheared. When the sheep emerges, Wallace names him Shaun and dresses him in the jumper it knitted, Preston spies on the scene while hiding in a flood drain and after they leave, he sneaks in and steals the design blueprints for the Knit-o-Matic. The next day, Wallace pays Wendolene another visit, Gromit attempts to investigate and find out what Preston is doing, but ends up getting captured by Preston and framed for the sheep rustling. Gromit is arrested and sentenced to life in prison while Wallace finds his house overrun with sheep, Wallace, Shaun and the other sheep rescue Gromit from prison and they hide out in the fields. Wendolene and Preston arrive in the lorry and round up the sheep, Wendolene turns against Preston and demands that he should put an end to the rustling, revealing that Preston intends to use the sheep to make “dog meat”. Preston locks Wendolene in the lorry with the sheep and drives away. Wallace and Gromit, who have been spying on the scene, the sidecar Gromit rides in separates, rushes down another road and off the edge of a 2000 foot cliff. Gromit saves himself by activating the sidecars ability to turn into an aeroplane, and flies after Wallaces motorbike and their attempts to catch Preston fail, and Wallace instead gets himself trapped in the lorry. The captives are transported to Prestons factory, where Preston has used the blueprints to build a giant replica of the Knit-o-Matic machine. The captives are loaded into the basin, with Shaun escaping
27.
DreamWorks
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DreamWorks Pictures is an American film production label of Amblin Partners. It was formerly distributing its own and third-party films by itself and it has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each. As of October 2016, DreamWorks films are marketed and distributed by Universal Pictures, DreamWorks began in 1994 as an attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to create a new Hollywood studio of which they owned 72%. Currently, DreamWorks operates out of offices at Universal Studios, in December 2005, the founders agreed to sell the studio to Viacom, parent of Paramount Pictures. The sale was completed in February 2006, in 2008, DreamWorks announced its intention to end its partnership with Paramount and signed a $1.5 billion deal to produce films with Indias Reliance ADA Group. Reliance provided $325M of equity to fund recreating DreamWorks SKG into DreamWorks Studios, after the formation of Amblin Partners in 2015, the studio entered into a distribution agreement with Universal Pictures. DreamWorks animation arm was spun off in 2004 into DreamWorks Animation SKG, which owns the DreamWorks trademarks. Spielbergs company continues to use the DreamWorks trademarks under license from Universal Studios, the original company was founded following Katzenbergs resignation from The Walt Disney Company in 1994. Katzenberg approached Spielberg and Geffen about forming a live-action and animation film studio, which had not been done in decades due to the risk and expense. They agreed on three conditions, They would make fewer than nine movies a year, they would be free to work for other studios if they chose, and they would go home in time for dinner. They officially founded DreamWorks SKG in October 1994, with backing of $33 million from each of the three partners and $500 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Their new studio was based at offices in the Universal Studios lot, despite access to sound stages and sets, DreamWorks preferred to film motion pictures on location. Usually, the company would film in a soundstage or set in a major studio, as of 2016, DreamWorks is still based in Universal. In 1995, traditional animation artists from Amblimation joined the new studio, which led to DreamWorks buying part of Pacific Data Images, both were software divisions, and would merge later on. For then, DreamWorks had the traditional animators working for their animation department. These films were distributed by DreamWorks Pictures, the same year, PDI/DreamWorks produced its first full-length animated features, Antz and The Prince of Egypt, which were also distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. DreamWorks SKG continued to distribute PDI/DreamWorks productions through their name until 2004. In 2000, DreamWorks was planning in building a studio backlot after buying 1,087 acres of land in the Playa Vista area in Los Angeles and it was to be complete with 18 sound stages, with many office buildings and a lake
28.
DreamWorks Animation
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DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. is an American animation studio that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. It is based in Glendale, California and produces animated feature films, television programs, DreamWorks Animation currently maintains its Glendale campus, as well as satellite studios in India and China. On August 22,2016, NBCUniversal acquired DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion, as of January 2017, its feature films have grossed $13.83 billion worldwide, with a $419.2 million average gross per film. Shrek 2 is among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, although the studio also made traditionally animated films in the past, as well as stop-motion co-production with Aardman Animations, all of their films now use computer animation. The studio has received three Academy Awards, as well as 22 Emmy and numerous Annie Awards, and multiple Golden Globe & BAFTA nominations, in recent years, the animation studio has acquired and created new divisions in an effort to diversify beyond the high-risk movie business. To build the talent base, Spielberg brought over artists from his London-based studio, Amblimation, some of Amblimations artists came to DreamWorks in 1995, when the studios last feature was completed, with the rest doing so following the studios closure in 1997. In 1995, DreamWorks signed a deal with Pacific Data Images to form subsidiary PDI. This new unit would produce computer-generated feature films, beginning with Antz in 1998, in the same year DreamWorks SKG produced The Prince of Egypt, which used both CGI technology and traditional animation techniques. In 1997, DreamWorks partnered with Aardman Animations, a British stop-motion animation studio, to co-produce and distribute Chicken Run, two years later they extended the deal for an additional four films. With Aardman doing stop-motion, they covered all three styles, besides traditional and computer animation. This partnership had DreamWorks participating in the production of films in Bristol. Three years later, DreamWorks SKG created DreamWorks Animation, a new division that would regularly produce both types of animated feature films. The same year DW acquired majority interest in PDI, and reformed it into PDI/DreamWorks, in 2001, Shrek was released and went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Due to the success of CGI animated films, DWA decided the year to exit hand-drawn animation business after the next two of total four hand-drawn films. Beginning with Shrek 2, all released films, other than some co-produced with Aardman, were expected to be produced with CGI, the releases of Shrek 2 and Shark Tale also made DWA the first studio to produce two CGI animated features in a single year. The animation division was spun off into a publicly traded company named DreamWorks Animation SKG, Katzenberg headed the new division, while Spielberg and Geffen remained on board as investors and consultants. DWA also inherited interests in PDI/DreamWorks and they made an agreement with their former parent to distribute all of their films until they deliver twelve new films, or December 12,2010, whichever came last. On January 31,2006, DWA entered into an agreement with Paramount Pictures
29.
The Tortoise and the Hare
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The Tortoise and the Hare is one of Aesops Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index. The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations and it is itself a variant of a common folktale theme in which ingenuity and trickery are employed to overcome a stronger opponent. The story concerns a Hare who ridicules a slow-moving Tortoise, tired of the Hares boastful behaviour, the Tortoise challenges him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, when the Hare awakes however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him. The later version of the story in La Fontaines Fables, while more long-winded, as in several other fables by Aesop, the lesson it is teaching appears ambiguous. In Classical times it was not the Tortoise’s plucky conduct in taking on a bully that was emphasised, an old Greek source comments that many people have good natural abilities which are ruined by idleness, on the other hand, sobriety, zeal and perseverance can prevail over indolence. When the fable entered the European emblem tradition, the precept to ‘hasten slowly’ was recommended to lovers by Otto van Veen in his Emblemata Amorum, using a relation of the story. There the infant figure of Eros is shown passing through a landscape and pointing to the tortoise as it overtakes the sleeping hare under the motto “perseverance winneth. ”Later interpreters too have asserted that the moral is the proverbial the more haste. In the 19th century and after the fable was given satirical interpretations, in the social commentary of Charles H. Bennetts The Fables of Aesop translated into Human Nature, the hare is changed to a thoughtful craftsman prostrate under the foot of a capitalist entrepreneur. Lord Dunsany brings out another view in his The True History of the Tortoise, there the hare realises the stupidity of the challenge and refuses to proceed any further. The obstinate tortoise continues to the line and is proclaimed the swiftest by his backers. But, continues Dunsany, the reason that this version of the race is not widely known is that few of those that witnessed it survived the great forest-fire that happened shortly after. It came up over the weald by night with a great wind, in Classical times the story was annexed to a philosophical problem by Zeno of Elea in one of many demonstrations that movement is impossible to define satisfactorily. The second of Zenos paradoxes is that of Achilles and the Tortoise, hence Achilles can never catch the Tortoise, no matter how fast he runs, since the Tortoise will always be moving ahead. The only satisfactory refutation has been mathematical and since then the name of the fable has been applied to the function described in Zenos paradox, in mathematics and computer science, the tortoise and the hare algorithm is an alternative name for Floyds cycle-finding algorithm. There is a Greek version of the fable but no early Latin version, for this reason it did not begin to appear in printed editions of Aesops fables until the 16th century, one of the earliest being Bernard Salomons Les Fables dEsope Phrygien, mises en Ryme Francoise. Versions followed from the Netherlands and Flanders but none in English before Francis Barlows edition of 1667, among the many illustrations of the fable, that by the French caricaturist Jean Grandville is novel in portraying the tortoise as running upright. This is also how he is shown in the Walt Disney cartoon version of The Tortoise, another departure from the ordinary in Grandvilles etching is the choice of a mole rather than, as usual, a fox as the judge at the finishing line
30.
Aesop
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Aesop was a Greek fabulist and story teller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesops Fables. Many of the tales are characterized by animals and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems, scattered details of Aesops life can be found in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope, depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last 2500 years have included many works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs. The name of Aesop is as known as any that has come down from Graeco-Roman antiquity it is far from certain whether a historical Aesop ever existed. In the latter part of the fifth century something like a coherent Aesop legend appears, the earliest Greek sources, including Aristotle, indicate that Aesop was born around 620 BCE in Thrace at a site on the Black Sea coast which would later become the city Mesembria. A number of writers from the Roman imperial period say that he was born in Phrygia. The 3rd-century poet Callimachus called him Aesop of Sardis, and the later writer Maximus of Tyre called him the sage of Lydia. Before this fatal episode, Aesop met with Periander of Corinth, where Plutarch has him dining with the Seven Sages of Greece, sitting beside his friend Solon, whom he had met in Sardis. Like The Alexander Romance, The Aesop Romance became a folkbook, a work that belonged to no one, multiple, sometimes contradictory, versions of this work exist. Scholars long dismissed any historical or biographical validity in The Aesop Romance, in The Aesop Romance, Aesop is a slave of Phrygian origin on the island of Samos, and extremely ugly. After interpreting a portent for the people of Samos, Aesop is given his freedom, later he travels to the courts of Lycurgus of Babylon and Nectanabo of Egypt – both imaginary rulers – in a section that appears to borrow heavily from the romance of Ahiqar. The story ends with Aesops journey to Delphi, where he angers the citizens by telling insulting fables, is sentenced to death and, Aesop may not have written his fables. Scholars speculate that there existed in the fifth century a written book containing various fables of Aesop. Sophocles in a poem addressed to Euripides made reference to Aesops fable of the North Wind, Socrates while in prison turned some of the fables into verse, of which Diogenes Laertius records a small fragment. The early Roman playwright and poet Ennius also rendered at least one of Aesops fables in Latin verse, the body of work identified as Aesops Fables was transmitted by a series of authors writing in both Greek and Latin. Demetrius of Phalerum made a collection in ten books, probably in prose for the use of orators, next appeared an edition in elegiac verse, cited by the Suda, but the authors name is unknown. Phaedrus, a freedman of Augustus, rendered the fables into Latin in the 1st century CE, at about the same time Babrius turned the fables into Greek choliambics. A 3rd-century author, Titianus, is said to have rendered the fables into prose in a now lost
31.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
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Wallace & Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British stop-motion animated comedy drama film, produced by Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is based on the Wallace and Gromit short film series, the film introduces a number of new characters, and features a voice cast including Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes. It is also the only film to win the award. Tottington Halls annual Giant Vegetable Competition is approaching, the winner of the competition will win the coveted Golden Carrot Award. As the event draws close, Wallace finds themselves running out of space to cage the rabbits and he is inspired to create the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic machine to brainwash the rabbits and remove their appetite for vegetables. On his first attempt, a rabbit is stuck to Wallaces head as he uses the machines headpieces, the machine appears to have worked as the rabbit shows no interest in vegetables though appears to have gained some intelligence. They name the rabbit Hutch while Wallace begins rebuilding the device, over the night, several townsfolk report a giant Were-rabbit tried to eat their vegetables. Wallace suspects that Hutch may be the Were-rabbit and keeps him caged up, Lady Tottington holds an emergency town meeting, in which the hunter Lord Victor Quartermaine offers to shoot the Were-rabbit. However, Lady Tottington persuades the rest of the town to continue with Anti-Pestos services, Victor, who really seeks to woo Lady Tottington, becomes jealous of Wallace, and later corners him in the forest. But to Victor and his dog Philips shock, Wallace transforms into the Were-rabbit under the light of the full moon, Gromit, who also witnessed the transformation, lures Wallace back home to protect him. Victor obtains three 24-carrot gold bullets from the reverend to use against Wallace the next evening. The celebration begins the next day, Gromit convinces Wallace that he is the Were-rabbit, and Wallace hides himself away. Lady Tottington, who has come to like Wallace, comes to visit, but when the moon rises, Wallace, beginning to change into a Were-rabbit, shoos Lady Tottington away to avoid seeing him. As she leaves, Victor arrives and attempts to fire on Wallace with the golden bullets, Gromit creates a distraction to allow Wallace, as the Were-rabbit, to escape, the hunter gives chase to Wallace as he heads for the competition. Gromit, with the help of Hutch, plans to sacrifice the giant marrow he had been growing as bait to lure Wallace back to safety, Wallace, as the Were-rabbit, creates chaos at the fair, and Victor eventually runs out of bullets. Desperate, he grabs the Golden Carrot trophy to use as ammo for his blunderbuss, Wallace grabs Lady Tottington and climbs onto one of the towers of Tottington Hall, where she discovers Wallaces connection to the Were-rabbit. Victor gives chase, revealing that he wants to impress Lady Tottington for her money. When Gromit arrives, Philip attempts to prevent him from interfering, leading to the two into a dogfight using aeroplanes taken from a fairground attraction
32.
Computer-generated imagery
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The term CGI animation refers to dynamic CGI rendered as a movie. The term virtual world refers to agent-based, interactive environments, Computer graphics software is used to make computer-generated imagery for films, etc. Availability of CGI software and increased computer speeds have allowed artists and small companies to produce professional-grade films, games. This has brought about an Internet subculture with its own set of global celebrities, clichés, the evolution of CGI led to the emergence of virtual cinematography in the 1990s where runs of the simulated camera are not constrained by the laws of physics. Not only do animated images form part of computer-generated imagery, natural looking landscapes are generated via computer algorithms. A simple way to generate fractal surfaces is to use an extension of the triangular mesh method, relying on the construction of special case of a de Rham curve. The creation of a Brownian surface may be achieved not only by adding noise as new nodes are created, thus a topographical map with varying levels of height can be created using relatively straightforward fractal algorithms. Some typical, easy-to-program fractals used in CGI are the plasma fractal, modern architects use services from computer graphic firms to create 3-dimensional models for both customers and builders. These computer generated models can be accurate than traditional drawings. Architectural animation can also be used to see the relationship a building will have in relation to the environment. The rendering of architectural spaces without the use of paper and pencil tools is now an accepted practice with a number of computer-assisted architectural design systems. Architectural modeling tools allow an architect to visualize a space and perform walk-throughs in an interactive manner, Architectural modeling tools have now become increasingly internet-based. However, the quality of internet-based systems still lags behind those of sophisticated in-house modeling systems, in some applications, computer-generated images are used to reverse engineer historical buildings. Computer generated models used in animation are not always anatomically correct. However, organizations such as the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute have developed anatomically correct computer-based models, Computer generated anatomical models can be used both for instructional and operational purposes. To date, a body of artist produced medical images continue to be used by medical students, such as images by Frank H. Netter. However, a number of anatomical models are becoming available. A single patient X-ray is not a computer generated image, even if digitized, however, in applications which involve CT scans a three-dimensional model is automatically produced from a large number of single slice x-rays, producing computer generated image
33.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
34.
The Croods
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The Croods is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It stars the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, the Croods was written and directed by Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders, and produced by Kristine Belson and Jane Hartwell. The film premiered at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 15,2013, as part of the distribution deal, this is the first film from DreamWorks Animation to be distributed by 20th Century Fox, since the end of their distribution deal with Paramount Pictures. The Croods received generally positive reviews, and proved to be a box office success, the film launched a new franchise, with a television series, Dawn of the Croods, which debuted on December 24,2015, on Netflix. A sequel was announced for a 2018 release, but was later cancelled, a cave family called the Croods survives due to the overprotective nature of their stubborn, stern patriarch, father, Grug. The only one who questions the familys sheltered life is his teenaged daughter Eep who frequently disobeys her fathers orders out of curiosity, which he finds dangerous. Grug and Eep, along with her mother and his wife Ugga, her grandmother Gran, Eep sneaks out when she sees what she discovers to be a torch of fire and she encounters an inventive modern human boy named Guy and his pet sloth Belt. He warns her of an apocalypse and offers to take her with him. Reuniting with her father, she tries to tell her family what Guy told her. A massive earthquake then destroys their home, and to avoid the earlier carnivore, encountering a Macawnivore a brightly colored feline that Gran dubs Chunky the Death Cat, the family flees him until he is deterred by swarms of piranhakeets that devoured a ground whale. Using another horn, Eep calls to Guy who rescues them from the birds with his fire, after a great deal of confusion regarding their first contact with fire, Grug imprisons Guy in a log until he can guide them somewhere safe. Guy also tells stories of Tomorrow a haven of safety where he is headed. At his treetop home, Grug sees the impression Guy is leaving on his family and he becomes jealous, attempting to invent things like Guy, Grug only further embarrasses himself and drives his family further away from him. After the family is split up in a labyrinth of tunnels, all but Grug manages to escape by coming up with ideas of overcoming obstacles in their paths. Reaching the mountain, Grug tries to force his family to hide out in a cave, but they resist, telling him that they cant live in caves anymore, that they dont want to survive but to live. This enrages Grug, who attacks Guy and the both of them end up in a tar flow where Grug learns that Guys family had perished in one. Realizing that Guys method of survival is better for his family, Grug works with him, the family reunites, then flees a massive cataclysm as the land begins to violently rip apart. The family is cut off from their destination by a continental split and he shares an invention he calls a hug with Eep, briefly before sending her across as well
35.
John Cleese
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John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, voice actor, screenwriter, producer, and comedian. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the mid-1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, with Cleese receiving the 1980 BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance. Later, he co-starred with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and he also starred in Clockwise and has appeared in many other films, including two James Bond films as R and Q, two Harry Potter films, and the last three Shrek films. With Yes Minister writer Antony Jay, he co-founded Video Arts, in 1976, Cleese co-founded The Secret Policemans Ball benefit shows to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, the child of Reginald Francis Cleese, an insurance salesman. His familys surname was originally Cheese, but his father had thought it was embarrassing, as a child, Cleese supported Bristol City FC and Somerset County Cricket Club. Cleese was educated at St Peters Preparatory School, where he received a prize for English and did well at cricket, when he was 13, he was awarded an exhibition at Clifton College, an English public school in Bristol. He was already more than 6 feet tall by then, Cleese allegedly defaced the school grounds, as a prank, by painting footprints to suggest that the statue of Field Marshal Earl Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the toilet. Cleese played cricket in the First XI and did well academically, passing 8 O-Levels and 3 A-Levels in mathematics, physics, I believe that this moment changed my perspective on the world. He then took up a place he had won at Downing College, Cambridge and he also joined the Cambridge Footlights. He recalled that he went to the Cambridge Guildhall, where each university society had a stall and he replied no as he was not allowed to sing at his school because he was so bad, and if there was anything worse than his singing, it was his dancing. He was then asked Well, what do you do, to which he replied, I make people laugh. At the Footlights theatrical club, he spent a lot of time with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie, Cleese wrote extra material for the 1961 Footlights Revue I Thought I Saw It Move, and was Registrar for the Footlights Club during 1962. He was also in the cast of the 1962 Footlights Revue Double Take, Cleese graduated from Cambridge in 1963 with a 2,1. Despite his successes on The Frost Report, his father would send him cuttings from The Daily Telegraph offering management jobs in places like Marks, Cleese was a scriptwriter, as well as a cast member, for the 1963 Footlights Revue A Clump of Plinths. After Cambridge Circus, Cleese briefly stayed in America, performing on, while performing in the musical Half a Sixpence, Cleese met future Python Terry Gilliam, as well as American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on 20 February 1968. At their wedding at a Unitarian Church in Manhattan, the couple attempted to ensure an absence of any theistic language
36.
Theatrical property
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A prop, formally known as property, is an object used on stage or on screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct from the actors, scenery, costumes, consumable food items appearing in the production are also considered props. The earliest known use of the properties in English to refer to stage accessories is in the 1425 CE Morality play. The Oxford English Dictionary finds the first usage of props in 1841, during the Renaissance in Europe, small acting troupes functioned as cooperatives, pooling resources and dividing any income. Many performers provided their own costumes, but special items—stage weapons, furniture or other hand-held devices—were considered company property, some experts however seem to think that the term comes from the idea that stage or screen objects belong to whoever uses them on stage. There is no difference between props in different media, such as theatre, film, or television, bland Wade, a properties director, says, A coffee cup onstage is a coffee cup on television, is a coffee cup on the big screen. He adds, There are definitely different responsibilities and different vocabulary, the term theatrical property originated to describe an object used in a stage play and similar entertainments to further the action. Technically, a prop is any object that gives the scenery, actors, or performance space specific period, place, props in a production originate from off stage unless they have been preset on the stage before the production begins. Props are stored on a prop table backstage near the entrance during production then generally locked in a storage area between performances. The term has readily transferred to television, motion picture and video game production, in recent years, the increasing popularity of movie memorabilia has added new meaning to the term prop, broadening its existence to include a valuable after-life as a prized collectors item. Typically not available until after a premiere, movie props appearing on-screen are called screen-used. However, a prop must read well from the house or on-screen, in some cases, a prop is designed to behave differently from how the real object would, often for the sake of safety. A mop, representing a string mop, but built out of a shape covered with fabric. A prop weapon that reads well but lacks the intentional harmfulness of the real weapon. In the theater, prop weapons are almost always either non-operable replicas, guns fire caps or noisy blanks, swords are dulled, and knives are often made of plastic or rubber. In film production, fully functional weapons are used. Real cartridges with bullets removed are still dangerously charged which has caused several instances when used on stage or film. The safety and proper handling of weapons used as movie props is the premiere responsibility of the prop master
37.
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
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The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred at 00,58,53 UTC on 26 December with the epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The shock had a moment magnitude of 9. 1–9.3 and it was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia was the country, followed by Sri Lanka, India. It is the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and had the longest duration of faulting ever observed and it caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 centimetre and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska. Its epicentre was between Simeulue and mainland Indonesia, the plight of the affected people and countries prompted a worldwide humanitarian response. In all, the community donated more than US$14 billion in humanitarian aid. The event is known by the community as the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake. The resulting tsunami was given names, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, South Asian tsunami, Indonesian tsunami, the Christmas tsunami. The tsunami was initially documented as moment magnitude 8.8, in February 2005 scientists revised the estimate of the magnitude to 9.0. Although the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has accepted these new numbers, the most recent studies in 2006 have obtained a magnitude of Mw 9. 1–9.3. Dr. Hiroo Kanamori of the California Institute of Technology believes that Mw 9.2 is a representative value for the size of this great earthquake. The hypocentre of the earthquake was approximately 160 km off the western coast of northern Sumatra. The northern section of the Sunda megathrust ruptured over a length of 1,300 km, the earthquake was felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and the Maldives. Splay faults, or secondary pop up faults, caused long and this quickly elevated the height and increased the speed of waves, causing the complete destruction of the nearby Indonesian town of Lhoknga. Of all the seismic moment released by earthquakes in the 100 years from 1906 through 2005 and this quake, together with the Good Friday earthquake and the Great Chilean earthquake, account for almost half of the total moment. The much smaller but still catastrophic 1906 San Francisco earthquake is included in the diagram for perspective, Mw denotes the magnitude of an earthquake on the moment magnitude scale. Since 1900 the only recorded with a greater magnitude were the 1960 Great Chilean earthquake. The only other recorded earthquakes of magnitude 9.0 or greater were off Kamchatka, Russia, on 4 November 1952 and Tōhoku, each of these megathrust earthquakes also spawned tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean
38.
Ghibli Museum
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The Ghibli Museum is a museum showcasing the work of the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli. It is located in Inokashira Park in Mitaka, a city of Tokyo. The museum combines features of a museum, technology museum, and a fine arts museum. Some features include a replica of the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro, a café, bookstore, rooftop garden, planning for the museum began in 1998. Construction started in March 2000, and the museum opened October 1,2001, Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki designed the museum himself, using storyboards similar to the ones he creates for his films. The design was influenced by European architecture such as the village of Calcata in Italy. The museum features internal and external spiral staircases built from iron, interior bridges and these stairways lead to exhibits, dead ends, and across bridges. These characteristics are meant to reflect Miyazakis building designs displayed in his film work, the museum is described as a portal to a storybook world. Hayao Miyazakis goal was also for people to experience the museum with their own eyes, lets get lost together is the museums slogan, derived from Hayao Miyazakis vision for visitors to immerse themselves in his imagination and film work. On the bottom floor is a room showing the history and science of animation, including a three-dimensional zoetrope named Bouncing Totoro. On the first floor is a mock-up of an animation studio, called Where a Film is Born, the five-room exhibit is meant to showcase the creative process of an animation filmmaker such as illustration techniques. Packed with books and toys, the room also displays drawings, another exhibit demonstrates the process of creating an animated film, with sketches, storyboarding, keyframing, cleanup, coloring and background painting. In addition to Ghibli-oriented exhibitions, the hosts a area showcasing work from other studios. The Ghibli Museum shows several short films exclusive to the Ghibli museum, located in the basement of the museum is The Saturn Theater. The theater has windows where automated shades lower and open before and this is because Hayao Miyazaki designed the theater with small children in mind, who could possibly be scared of the closed in theater. Dough and the Egg Princess Treasure Hunting Boro the Caterpillar Each guest to the museum is permitted to watch the short film once during a single visit. Tri Hawks is a room and bookstore in the Ghibli Museum. Opened on February 6,2002, it is filled with books recommended by Hayao Miyazaki, mi-taka, the city where the Ghibli Museum is located, means three hawks
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Mitaka, Tokyo
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Mitaka is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, in the central Kantō region of Japan. As of 1 February 2016, the city had an population of 189,168. Its total area was 16.42 square kilometres, Mitaka is located on the Kantō Plain, just outside the 23 special wards of metropolitan Tokyo, which are on its eastern borders. The Tamagawa Josui Canal, which runs alongside Mitaka station, has an important place in history and it is also the place where novelist Osamu Dazai committed suicide in 1948. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is located in Mitaka, of all municipalities in Japan, Mitaka had the highest proportion of Chinese returnees. The area of present-day Mitaka was part of ancient Musashi Province, in the post-Meiji Restoration cadastral reform of July 22,1878, the area became part of Kitatama District in Kanagawa Prefecture. The village of Mitaka was created on April 1,1889 with the establishment of municipalities law, Kitatama District was transferred to the administrative control of Tokyo Metropolis on April 1,1893. Mitaka was raised to town status in 1940, Mitaka City was officially founded on November 3,1950. A motion to merge with neighboring Musashino City failed in 1955 by only a vote in the Mitaka city assembly. Mitaka is primarily a community for Tokyo. A number of studios, including Studio Pierrot and Telecom Animation Film have their corporate headquarters in Mitaka. A short-lived video game manufacturer TAD Corporation was founded and headquartered in the same location, subaru Tecnica International has its headquarters in Mitaka. There is also one elementary school and three private middle schools. Mitaka High School is operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education, there are also four private high schools
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Hayao Miyazaki
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Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, author, and manga artist. Born in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Miyazaki began his career in 1963 when he joined Toei Animation. From there, Miyazaki worked as an in-between artist for Gullivers Travels Beyond the Moon, Hayao Miyazaki was also associated with Tokyo Movie Shinsha. He co-directed Lupin III with Isao Takahata, provided the screenplay and he continued to work in various roles in the animation industry with various studios until he directed his first feature film, The Castle of Cagliostro, a Lupin the Third story, released in 1979. After the success of his film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, he co-founded Studio Ghibli. While Miyazakis films have enjoyed both commercial and critical success in Japan, he remained largely unknown to the West until Miramax Films released Princess Mononoke in 1997. Miyazakis next film, Spirited Away, won Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards, Miyazakis films often contain recurrent themes, like humanitys relationship with nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic. His films protagonists are often strong girls or young women, Miyazakis newest film The Wind Rises was released on July 20,2013 and screened internationally in February 2014. The film would go on to him his third American Academy Award nomination. Miyazaki announced on September 1,2013 that The Wind Rises would be his final feature-length movie, in November 2014, Miyazaki was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for his impact on animation and cinema. He is the second Japanese filmmaker to win this award, after Akira Kurosawa in 1990, in 2002, American film critic Roger Ebert suggested that Miyazaki may be the best animation filmmaker in history, praising the depth and artistry of his films. Miyazaki was born in the town of Akebono-cho in Bunkyō, Tokyo and his father was director of Miyazaki Airplane, which made rudders for A6M Zero fighter planes during World War II. During the war, when Miyazaki was only three old, the family evacuated to Utsunomiya and later to Kanuma in Tochigi Prefecture where the Miyazaki Airplane factory was located. For fifth grade, he went to the new Eifuku Elementary School, Miyazaki graduated from Eifuku and attended Omiya Junior High. During this time, Miyazakis mother suffered from tuberculosis and was bedridden from 1947 until 1955. She spent the first few years mostly in the hospital, but was able to be nursed from home. Miyazaki aspired to become an author from an early age. He read the stories in boys magazines and acknowledges the influences of creative artists of the medium, such as Tetsuji Fukushima, Soji Yamakawa
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Sony Pictures
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Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American entertainment company that produces, acquires and distributes filmed entertainment through multiple platforms. It operates as a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc. which is the parent company for both the music and motion picture businesses of Sony Corporation, based in Culver City, California, it encompasses Sonys motion picture, television production and distribution units. Its group sales in the fiscal year 2015 has been reported to be of $8.3 billion, Sony Pictures film franchises include Spider-Man, Men in Black, Underworld, Resident Evil, and Robert Langdon. Sony Pictures is one of Hollywoods major film studios and a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, on September 1,1987, The Coca-Cola Company announced plans to spin-off its assets of Columbia Pictures, which it had owned since 1982. Under this arrangement, Coca-Cola would sell its entertainment assets to TriStar Pictures, Tri-Star would be renamed to Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. with Coca-Cola owning 49%, its shareholders owning 31%, and Tri-Stars shareholders owning 20%. A new company was formed in early 1988 with the Tri-Star name to take over the studios operations, on September 28,1989, Sony obtained an option to purchase all of The Coca-Cola Companys stock in CPE for $27 per share. This was all led by Norio Ohga, who was the president, the hiring of Guber and Peters by Sony to run Columbia was conflicted by a previous contract the producers had signed at Warner Bros. Time Warners chairman, Steve Ross, threatened Sony with a lawsuit for breach of contract, the lawsuit would be subsequently dropped when Sony sold half-interest in Columbia House and cable distribution rights to Columbias feature films, TV movies, and miniseries to Warner Bros. Said agreement also saw Columbia sell its 35% interest in the Burbank Studios, on November 8,1989, Sony completed the acquisition by a short-form merger of its wholly owned subsidiary Sony Columbia Acquisition Corporation into CPE under Delaware law. Sony also completed a tender offer for shares of stock of the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company on November 6,1989. The acquisition cost Sony $4.9 billion and was backed by five major Japanese banks Mitsui, Tokyo, Fuji, Mitsubishi, the company was renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment on August 7,1991. On June 4,2008, SPEs wholly owned group 2JS Productions B. V. acquired Dutch production company 2waytraffic N. V. famous for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. and You Are What You Eat for £114.3 million. In 2011, the Sony Pictures computer network was breached and approximately one million user accounts associated with the SonyPictures. com website were leaked. On November 21,2013, SPE and Sony Entertainments CEO Michael Lynton announced that SPE will shift emphasis from movies to television by cutting its 2014 film slate, on January 22,2014, SPE folded its technology unit into its various cores of its businesses. On February 6,2014, Sony Pictures Entertainment, through their legal name Columbia TriStar Warner Filmes de Portugal Ltda. announced that they close their offices in Portugal on March 31. On November 20,2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they will release Ultra HD Blu-ray releases, the first set will be in early 2016 and will include film and television content. In November 2014, the Sony Pictures computer network was compromised by a group of hackers named Guardians of Peace, disabling many computers. Later the same week, five of Sony Pictures movies were leaked, including some not yet released, as well as confidential data about 47,000 current and former Sony employees
