Good day for Lemon Tea

Two good news

2009-02-10T18:42:00.002-07:00

Ok so, i'm still in the middle of being caught up in a whirlpool of deadlines, HOWEVER, thankfully, due to my INCREDIBLE procrastination skills and VERY short attention span i was able to start up a vlog on youtube ^ ^. The video is below:

Something else more important:

I decided to make another movie as soon as i have the opportunity. Currently I am in process of finding actors and anyone who is willing to help with the filming ^ ^. Here is the synopsis of the upcoming 30min film: (in weird hurried grammar)

One of the main characters of the film is a bisexual guy with memory loss and narcolepsy. He is not bothered with loss of memories and detachment from the world, and lives the moments of his life of which he is aware with confidence and quite indifference. However the film will not actually explain this until the very end of the film, and the viewer will think that the episodic nature of the film is the technique used, and not what’s actually happening from the protagonist’s eyes, since he will not show any signs of surprise or dislike towards the discontinuous nature of his life. He works as a freelance graphic artist and does random odd jobs, kinda. Not actually employed, in every episode he finds himself doing something different. Due to memory loss doesn’t really remember his childhood and past.

Another main character is a troubled girl who often falls into depression. She does her best to go through life with indifference and complete normality, with the aim to not let anything extremely horrible or extremely great to happen, and live a plain but content life. She is honest with people and doesn’t hesitate to show her often anti-social nature.

Naturally the two meet and befriend each other, albeit after a long time. At first, the girl is unwilling to break out of her goal for extraordinary normality and fall for a guy, while the guy tries to keep his indifference to such affairs because he won’t remember any of it anyway and will not bear attachment. But as they find something special in each other, special because they both have nothing special, the guy tries and remembers her and find himself for the first time attached to something, and the girl for the first time dreams and wants something more than monotone contentment.

But before this happens they both go through affairs with other partners (the guy with another guy, and the girl with some random boring guy looking for easy sex), and go on with their lives as they always would, until by chance the two meet again. Albeit their encounters don’t last long at all, they ignite their curiosity. They will keep drifting toward and away from each other until eventually there is a happy ending and the film ends at their last encounter which seems like it will not end.

Been busy lately - Yonkomas 5,6 and 7

2009-01-19T11:32:00.002-07:00

Due to midterms and a whole bunch of deadlines to meet I haven't had much time to post, much less draw daily. But here are 3 yonkomas which i posted on dannychoo.com before but had not posted here. As soon as the exams are over and i complete all my papers i will go back to blogging regularly ^ ^. And i have also made a new film which i will be posting later as well.
Love this one due to its randomness. The ending comment is the perfect description. I think up this sorta things all the time, but because there are so many i forget all of them. And randomness and nonsense are my favorite type of humor ^ ^. The influence of Cromartie High is obvious in the last panel ^ ^
Ok so this one is about your standars in a way too, but for ladies, and with lots of satire.
This one is probably my favorite so far ^ ^. Absolute 132% best-quality nonsense, its like o-toro of tuna. Dont remember how otoro is written so screw it lol. This yonkoma teaches people to look at things differently. Life will surely be more enjoyable that way ^ ^.

Anyway i'm done for now here. I have one more yonkoma ready but wont be posting that now ^ ^. Hopefully i will get done with schoolwork as soon as possible..

Yonkoma 4 - Dreams. Comes with thoughts on life...

2009-01-03T01:40:00.003-07:00

So here is the fourth 4koma. This one is about being picky in relationships. I certainly can say that i am. The few times when i described by expectations for a girlfriend i was told every time that they are a bit high, if not nearly impossible to reach. Well its possible, its just that the chances are small of me finding someone like that and then being liked in return. But then again, one could follow the philosophy of "all or nothing"... Maybe thats why i am single lol

Anyway, about the production of this 4koma. This one took a whole big chunk of my time, which it shouldnt have. The reason is my love of details and perfection. Which i might amply say i did not even get close to achieving. This was worsened by the fact that i drew this directly on the computer, without drawing it on paper first. That sorta method makes it easier to get carried away with unnecessary detail (mostly via Ctrl+Z). But i am pretty happy about how it looks, except for panel 4. Panel 3 i should change i think. That balerina pose is beautiful, but it doesnt quite carry out the message it originally intended to [the panel].

I am getting more and more into owarai. I want to understand comedy better. I like making people laugh, and i often do so with my friends. But i cant make myself cheer up and be a fun person when i am not in a good mood (which is often). If i am down, or tired, all i come up with are cynical and mean jokes which only i can enjoy, which i do hardly. So im thinking maybe i should be a more cheerful person? This dillema is quite depressing. Orz

Yonkoma 3 - Friendship

2008-12-31T14:56:00.004-07:00

So here is the 3rd 4koma. Very nice i think, better than the second one. This one took a while to to edit actually. Maybe i have better eye now, after doing the previous ones, after a very very long break from any sort of work with images. Moreover i am using Fireworks MX because i dont own Photoshop Orz. PS would make this so much easier and nicer. Well i am saving up and soon i will buy CS3 or maybe CS4. Anyone tried both and have seen a great difference? The latest version I worked on was CS2. I dont want to switch to CS in Flash tho. Learning action script 3 will be a pain in the ass. AS2 should be enough. Plus there are tons of veteran designer using AS1 right?

Back to talking about the 4koma. The idea for this one came to me at work while i was talking to one of my co-workers. It was gonna be red ranger and turtle ranger at first, but when i was coloring it in, i decided i wanted to keep it B&W, so i made him grey ranger. Just thinking about it makes me crack up lol.

Yonkoma 2 - Discovery

2008-12-30T22:26:00.003-07:00

So here is the second 4koma, called Discovery. It's kinda about that activity that many young little fellas indulge in lol. I don't think this is nearly as interesting or funny as the first one, but it still makes me chuckle, especially the closing line. It's even better when that line in isolated. Imaging changing in a fitting room in some store, and then hearin "It's sticky afterall, huh?" from the next room? Makes your imagination tickle, ne?

For this one i used a 0.05 Prismacolor Fine Line Marker (in bold, for irony). Thus the line are way clearer and more accurate compared to the first one. I can even make it look like it was inked, if i try really hard, but since this is a gag 4koma i didn't really want to. I want to get an actual ink-pen some day.
I really prefer drawing on paper rather than on the computer. However i do all the tones and text bubbles on the computer. Right now i don't have photoshop, so i have to use Fireworks, which obviously makes it way way more time-taking. I am saving up for a better video-camera at the moment, and the next purchase after that will be photoshop. WOOHOO!

Yonkoma 1 - Dreams

2008-12-29T19:43:00.004-07:00

Here is another 4koma ^ ^. I drew this one at home and had plenty of time (as opposed to when i try to draw in 15 minutes for my classmates in school), and resources (ruler, paper). I had the idea of saying "I want to become a giant robot" when i grow up for a long time, although my original idea was slightly different (i want to become a high-class prostitute lol). The guy who tells him to give up is a combination of Sexy commando, Vegeta and of course Freddie Mercury. I didn't mean to do that, but it somehow just sprang from my mind ^ ^. Anyway, thats it for now.

Don't give up kids!

I don't know

2008-12-29T13:51:00.003-07:00

I bought this thing yesterday. I don't know why...

Gag manga

2008-12-28T13:15:00.008-07:00

Here is another little piece of manga i made. This is also somewhat bizzare. Actually this definitely plays up to the gyagu manga genre doesn't it? All my manga strips and etc. are like that, and a lot of my conversations end up in that stream, if i am in a good mood that is. I really enjoy this kinda humor. Now for some interesting facts.

Kyosuke Usuta

The gyagu manga genre, or ギャグマンガ, is in existence primarily due to the existence of Kyosuke Usuta (うすた京介). Most famous of his works would be:

- "Sexy Commando Gaiden Sugoiyo! Masaru-san" (セクシーコマンドー外伝すごいよ!!マサルさん)
A totally bizzare and hilarious manga. The story is about Masaru, a student who has perfected the Sexy Commando technique, and his friends who form a Sexy commando club. I find the story hard to explain because it's so crazy and because i haven't read the whole thing yet (^ ^);>. It was serialized in Shounen Jump Weekly (週刊少年ジャンプ) from 1995 to 1997. You can read some here.

- ピューと吹く！ジャがー (Pyuu to Fuku! Jaguar)
This one is about Kiyohiko, who is a pretty cool young man dreaming to be a great guitarist. However when he meets Jaguar his whole world kinda goes astray. Jaguar is a crazy character, and the manga features a lot of nonsense type of jokes. It is still being serialized in Jump, and started off in year 2000. I like this one better that Sexy Commando, but then again i haven't read it to the end so my judgement is invalid. Check it out at this link.

-武士沢レシーブ (Bushizawa Recieve)
I was not able to find this one on the net in english, and didn't even try to in japanese because i know i wouldn't be able to read it. BUT, i can say that it was serialized in Jump Comics in 1999. Since there is none on the net i am guessing this was not good enough to reach english audiences. But its uber amazing nonetheless probably. Plot summary will be coming soon and i will also try to get my hands on this one somehow.

Now that you have some understanding of what gag manga is (not understanding might be more appropriate though (^ ^) ), i present you a two page sketch, GOOD DAY FOR MARRIAGE DAY (read from top right to bottom left):

Ясау

2008-12-27T23:27:00.004-07:00

Ясау is a short film i made a little while ago. Ясау (pronounced as YA-SAW) means making in Tatar - my native language. This is the second short i've made, and its the better out of the two. I'm working on another one right now so that will be coming up in less than two weeks.

This film didn't exactly work out how i planned. There are some mistakes in the editing, and the last scene was not shot the way i intended it to be at all. But the cameraperson was cold and was wearing a mitten, so thats probably the cause.

CREDITS:

Bulat Nugmanov (aka buratto, or hachi, myself) - Director, writer, cinematographer, and stars as the silent film narrator (the guy with accent), and the "bastard" in the stills sequence.

Marco Visconti - an extra, the guy with shorter brown hair, stars as silent film narrator's friend.

Amy Wincott - the cameraperson, stars as the girl in the stills sequence.

Eugene Chau - stars as the guy in the stills sequence

The only music used in the film is a soung called "Al Bada el Manboub" and is by Kalthoum, Oum.

Manga recommendations

2008-12-26T22:50:00.004-07:00

So i decided to review and recommend my favorite manga titles. My preferences are usually something seinen and slice of life-ish. But good old shounen and romance mangas like DragonBall and Ichigo 100% sometimes tickle my fancy too.

So this week's manga is called Saint Young Men, or 聖☆おにいさん in Japanese (sei oniisan), and is by Hikaru Nakamura. Oh btw isn't it better to use the last name (in this case Nakamura) first rather than the first name, is it? I live in Canada now but where i come from originally the family name always comes first, as it does in Japan. And i dunno what the kanji is for the name but its most likely 中村光.

Anyway, the manga is about Buddha and Jesus who come back to earth to live human lives. And of course they come back as cool and slack young men, just as lost in the big city as a regular not so holy young person. The manga describes their lives and has a very sense of humour and is very light-hearted overall. It reinvents old characters of Buddha and Jesus and gives them a modern face that everyone can sympathize with. Needless to say religious fanatics might not enjoy it. However its important to overcome that kind of virtual boundaries and narrow-mindedness, and to be able to see old things in new ways. Since it's set in Japan it also tries to strengthen the cultural bridge between Japan and the West. I am not a member of any religion, although i am sort of spiritual and often question myself, and thus might be agnostic. So my view is different from someone who has been going to a church every sunday and reading the bible regularly or going to a monastery and praying to buddhist gods since their childhood, or whenever. I am going into dangerous grounds now i feel, and might have said that will upset some, so sorry.

Give this manga a whirl, and i am sure you will enjoy it! Only 4 chapters are available in english on the net tho which sucks. A good place to read it would be One manga which has a lot of titles for free online.

Let's go honey-hunting

2008-12-25T23:24:00.005-07:00

A little manga strip i once drew in english class ^ ^. Enjoy (you have to click the image below to see the whole thing):

Intro

2008-12-25T23:09:00.002-07:00

Hi everyone!

My name is Bulat and i will be starting a blog here and now. RIGHT NOW.
I have attempted blogging before, but i always used to get bored of it. Now that i have more interests and more things happening in my life i hope to have something to write regularly.

I am a 17 year old high-school student in my last year, a very easy-going and lazy and slack introverted guy with his head in the clouds.

Speaking of interests, i am really into music of all kinds. I play guitar and some piano and do some composing on trackers. Some of my posts will feature some songs i make or things relating to music.
Another big interest of mine is art. I paint and do digital arts and mixed media. So ofcourse i will post some of my creations and link to cool things and sites.
When i am bored, which is a lot of the time, sometimes i draw little manga strips. So i will feature those too.
I also love film, and especially Asian film. I make shorts so i will post on that topic too.
I love many things that relate to Asia besides film, such as manga, japanese language. I am a huge japanophile actually. And i plan to go into East Asian studies in university.

So thats what this blog will be about besides anything else that might pop into my mind ^ ^.