Blog Assignment 7

          The two images I chose were from Toy Story 3 and Wall-E, I will be comparing and contrasting the color and lighting of these images. The hue and brightness in Toy Story 3 involves a lot of color, bright, vibrant colors, lots of greens, yellows, etc. and the brightness surrounds the characters. The sun is shining and it pokes through the trees and hits their faces; which are more indicative of its subject matter, which are family and togetherness as well as unity and teamwork. Then there is the hue and brightness in Wall-E which is pretty monochromatic, mostly drab, earthy tones like brown and white and grey; and as far as brightness goes the setting is pretty dark but the characters themselves stand out, specifically the white new robot; which works because it’s a movie about a desolate earth and a lone robot that is presumably completely alone in the world and his discovery of life. Then you’ve got the saturation of Toy Story three which is very heavy, the entire thing is deep colors that represent the liveliness in the movie. In Wall-E, the saturation is very low and the colors are extremely pale, representing the emptiness in this movie. Next there is the lighting in each film. In Wall-E there are a lot of shadows, mostly in the background to give the mysterious nature of the land. In Toy Story 3 the shadows are more used to highlight the characters than anything, give them a more realistic and natural look as well as drawing attention to the emotion in their face. All of this creates a mood in Toy Story that is very emotional, whether that is nostalgia, happiness, sadness or acceptance it’s all there. In Wall-E the mood leans more towards uncertainty and fear, but also hopefulness when you see the random spots of brightness on Wall-E and the other robot. This is all used to symbolize loneliness and the ever-changing landscapes of our lives and ultimately hope. In Toy Story the symbolism is more about moving forward, looking toward the future and accepting that things change. 

Blog Assignment 6

There are three basic rules when directing a scene, the 180 degree rule, the 30 degree rules, and the rule of thirds. In this scene from Step Brothers the director, Adam McKay, successfully used all of them in one way or another. The scene is of Brennan Huff and Dale Doback doing karate in their garage. McKay does well to follow the 180 degree rule by constantly changing the shot and thus moving the line. It allows him to get any shot he wants without violating the rule and maintains a consistent look across the entirety of the scene. He does this by using the 30 degree rules. His camera movements all stay within the thirty degree range and this gives us a good idea of the space and atmosphere in the setting. He does however violate the 30 percent rule by doing jump cuts. For example, when it cuts to a close-up of the boards and Dale’s fist breaking them. Then, later he does the same with a close up of Dale and a board again. These shots are good because they give the idea that the action is fast-paced and fun rather than showing them actually setting up each of their stunts. Finally there is the rule of thirds which McKay uses in a few of the shots: the shot of Brennan and the Doritos as well as the breaking multiple boards’ scene. Brennan is placed on the far left third and the Doritos on the far right, this allows us to see both images and recognize a relationship between them. Same with the boards’ scene and Dale, his fist comes in the far right third while the boards rest in the rest of the screen, implying a relationship. All in all McKay mostly follows the rules but when he broke them he did so to develop continuity and humor in the scene, which is important, as it is a comedy. 

Blog Assignment 5

Arctic Monkeys

Kate Nash

                The two songs I did were, “Fluorescent Adolescent” by Arctic Monkeys and Kate Nash’s cover of that same song.  Even though they are essentially the same song they are very different in a number of ways.  The lyrics are exactly the same, which tends to be the case in covers, however the pacing and use of the lyrics is different in each song. In the Kate Nash version the tempo of her recital is much faster in comparison to the Arctic Monkey version. That tends to be the main difference in the song just in general, but I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s start with the instrumentation. In the Arctic Monkeys version it is heavily driven by drums, bass and guitar. Similarly, in the Kate Nash version it is driven by drums but there is no bass, instead they utilize piano and guitar and Nash’s more powerful vocals to push the song. The performances are also a bit different because Nash’s version was done live where as the Arctic Monkeys version was a studio recording, this definitely gives the advantage to the Arctic Monkeys as far as quality goes. This allows there intensity and pitch to be a lot sharper, although, given the circumstances Kate Nash is really able to make due with her situation. Not to mention, the instrumentation can be tweaked for the recorded version whereas with the Nash version it all has to just be done right and thus the overlap is greater, but, in my opinion, helps the sound for this type of song because it is supposed to feel cluttered and loud and fast. That is the main difference, the speed; the Arctic Monkeys have a much slower more methodical pace and Nash just kicks the tempo up to eleven and has the voice to keep up.  The organization is very similar too, as it is a cover, but the layering is a bit different. While both songs focus hard on the drums, Nash focuses more on vocals next and I think the Arctic Monkeys focuses more on guitar secondarily. Overall, I think I like the Nash version better because the song strikes me as a more fast-paced song and I think her voice has a better ability to carry the song.

Blog Assignment 8

View the clip here.

             I think the theme of this movie is the randomness of life and how we are all interconnected through that randomness. It is exemplified in Vincent and Jules talk about God, but perhaps better shown through the accidental murder of Marvin, their passenger. His death is so abrupt and unprovoked it really gives the sense of randomness of life. It’s affect on Jules and Vincent and their boss is where the interconnectedness comes in. The theme is active as you really have to draw these conclusions yourself, it isn’t stated or spelled out for you but more hinted at through their conversation and subsequent actions.

            The two aspects I think were most used in this clip were rhythm and space.  The rhythm of the scene was relatively slow paced; it does quick cuts between Jules and Vincent as they speak back and forth. The camera stays in the same place, just a close-up of each of them as they speak. It gives the idea of simultaneity, a connection between two friends having an argument. This is also achieved through the use of contrast and affinity as the two men are dressed exactly the same and the only difference is their skin color. Then you have Marvin who is completely different. That is, until Vincent turns to ask the third passenger his opinion when his gun goes off. This violently changes the pacing and is a good example of tension and release. You didn’t even realize there was tension until the sudden release when the gun goes off; it also introduces the random aspect that I was speaking on. The rhythm is now changed to a much more fast-paced as they are just shown in a two-shot capturing them both at the same time and they go back and forth shouting. This introduces the idea of how random events can completely change our world. Then we have the space; it is a relatively small area, a car. The way they are all grouped together in the car give the idea of connectedness, but Marvin is shot in a blur, which gives the idea of distance. This all comes around to give the impression that even though there may be distance between us we are still connected in various ways.  

This link can be used to view the clip from 0:09 - 0:26 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_g0mUyH6dI8#t=10s


Screenplay

This scene does and excellent job of displaying the different types of listening modes. The first is obviously, casual, as when Brennan slices the bag of Doritos open that is the actual sound it makes, it crunches and rips. Same with when Brennan kicks the pumpkin or Dale punches it, or when they break the boards or put the Mentos in the Diet Pepsi, these are all the actual sounds that are being made. The screams and shouts they do, however, are semantic they are not actually being heard how they were originally made. The yells are echoed and exaggerated to seem louder and more forceful. This is done to give the audience a sense of the excitement and ferocity of which these men enjoy their absurd tasks.

Another well represented aspect is time. By using the upbeat, fast-paced non-diagetic music and trailing the yells and shouts of Brennan and Dale between multiple shots, they establish subjective time in which, we see a very short amount of things happening but we know that much more time has passed between each action, as is the usual with montage. They're also able to use speed and loudness through the shouts made by the men, these are loud, quick shouts and this is to insure a sense of passed time. If the cries were softer and slower, we'd be more focused on them and thus time would seem to slow down.

Blog Assignment 3 - Brainwashed

The full article can be found here http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/66.01.Brainwashed

       “Acknowledging the Lizard” is all about confronting your fears. It's about facing that voice in your head that says, “Don't do it, you could fail. Don't do it, you could get laughed at, ridiculed. Just fall in line and don't make a fuss.” This voice can't be stopped, you can't get rid of it. So the only thing to do is to acknowledge it and then ignore it.

        Fail. Failure isn't about not succeeding, it's about learning; it's about taking the experience you've gained and applying it to the next venture. You have to be ready to fail, you have to be all right with failure in order to truly succeed.

       Learn. This is the linchpin of all of these lessons. You have to learn in order to do anything. Not learn like you did in school, because that wasn't school, this is school. Life is school. So it's time to stop going on what you think you know and learning what you actually need to know.

       These blogs, are pointless. I don't mean that as an insult to the instructor or anyone involved in the creation of them, I actually find a lot of what we read to be quite interesting and even enlightening in a lot of respects. For example, without these blogs I would have never been turned on to the “Brainwashed” article and I found that article to be very interesting and maybe even inspiring. However, ironically through introducing me to these concepts via the blogs, they've made me come to realize the insignificance of these entries. What did the article say about school? That it was all a design to create compliant workers who would do mediocre work over and over again until they died, I guess I fail to see how these blog entries are any different. There is no challenging of ideas here, there is no opportunity to “Acknowledge the Lizard” we are forced into a structured lesson that requires us to do these blog assignments, or else we fail. The lizard wins. And the most opportunity these blogs seem to give us to be “creative” is what type of font we want to present it in. They are still a requirement; which is teacher for, “Do it or you're failed, jerk.” I feel as though this is the same sort of formula that I've seen my entire life, these exercises aren't inspiring us to be creative, not when you put such tight restrictions and confines on what we may do. 

       How are these blogs even graded anyway? Not on our ability to be creative but on our ability to follow directions, that is completely counter-intuitive to the point of this article. However, this is a class and we are in college, and a degree only means something if the person holding it was actually required to do something that displays skill, something that proves they deserve the degree. I mean I know I'd hate it if my doctor was just graded on his ability to “give it his best shot”. So, with that being said I think a much more valuable use of time and energy would just to be give a lot more options in the blogs. Don't make them so confined, and actually give the students more free reign. Some kids don't like writing papers (i.e. me) and they would rather express their opinions via video or song or clarinet solo or whatever the hell you might be into. So I'm not suggesting you completely leave them open for kids to do anything they want because then, how would you grade it? Based on who's most creative? That's nearly impossible to define let alone grade, but definitely more freedom would be more productive and I think would lend itself to much more interesting posts that the students actually might care about.

Blog Assignment 2 - Finding Your "Howl"

The entire article can be found here http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/51.01.YourHowl

         Flaum references the story of the red wolf, which came very close to being extinct in the 1970's, there was about fourteen left. It mainly focuses on Mumon, the bravest and most adept of the pack, as he takes a journey of trials and tribulations in order to find his howl and lead the pack, who are all frightened and lost without a leader. After a journey of many miles and various lessons, Mumon is able to howl and returns to his pack as their leader at which point the rest of the pack regains their howling ability as well. The point Flaum was trying to make with this particular story is that we all have a “howl”, or a voice rather, that we have to tap into to be truly free in the world. He says that it will be hard, and we will have to go through many trying experiences to achieve it, some of which may even feel like death itself; this is the price you pay, though, in order to truly unlock yourself from the chains of this world.  

Creativity

           There are a lot of ways to express creativity in the world, especially today with all the various mediums to share your thoughts (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.) it seems like an endless fountain of new and interesting thoughts are flooding the world, however, this is not the case. Almost all of what is put out today is either based on something else, unoriginal, or worse, plagiarized. On the bright side, though, this does not mean that creativity is lost. Josh Billings (AKA Henry Wheeler Shaw), an American humorist and lecturer during the mid to late 19^th century, once said, “About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.” This quote speaks volumes to me and lends a certain sense of comfort. Many people might read this quote on creativity and originality and think it's rather pessimistic but I feel it is quite the contrary. What Billings was trying to do, aside from be humorous, was to explain that everything is derivative of an earlier work, not that creativity is dead but just that it isn't merely limited to being original to also be considered creative. If we defined creativity on this notion then anyone who was the first to do something would be considered creative. For example, by this definition Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and the rest of the Apollo 11 crew would be creative. Not to suggest that they are not but everyone knows that's not what we mean when we talk about creativity. Creativity would be the guys who came up with the idea, “What if we traveled to space?” and just because people had certainly come up with the idea before didn't mean that they were any less creative. 

            No matter how far back you go on a certain medium there was always something before it that you could say was the true “start” of the whole idea, that's comforting to a creative person, I think. It takes a lot of pressure off of being original and puts more focus on truly honing your gifts and talents. Not to mention, I think in this freedom from trying so hard to be “original” and so much thinking and the realization that someone out there has done it before is when true originality is able to happen. Another famous quote by Ray Bradbury, that really coincides with this quote, suggests that thinking is the enemy of creativity and I couldn't agree more with that statement. When you aren't so concerned with how people will receive your work, or how original it is and you truly just let your creativity flow, that is when originality happens. It's then that you realize that it doesn't matter if someone has already done what you've done, because they probably have, but it just matters that you're doing it. Everything that has been considered great or meaningful in our history has been based on something else. 

           Regardless of where you look: film, television, music, poetry, painting, books, it's all based on something else. This has allowed me to really get out of my head and be a happier, more creative person. So maybe next time you are getting all jammed up and suffering from a serious case of writer's block or painter's block or whatever, you'll consider this and not be so hard on yourself, and just let the ideas flow.