Blog Eight

            The theme of Casablanca is seen in the closing clip with one of Hollywood’s most famous quotes, “Here’s looking at you, kid.” This final scene represents the theme that if you love someone against all odds, you let them go. At this point in the film Rick sends Ilsa on her way to safety to the man that he believes that she belongs with and will be the safest with even though he still loves her.

            The slow rhythm of the scene helps to build tension because Rick’s slow speech but dominating demeanor makes the audience hope that he will stay in Casablanca and send Ilsa on her way to safety. His dominating demeanor though represents that he will stick to his word and make sure that she leaves. Ilsa’s quick and desperate responses to what Rick is saying though shows her desperation to stay with him because of her love for him while Rick’s method of withholding his feelings through a slow rhythm also shows that he is letting her go because he loves her as well.  The space that Rick and Ilsa fill has very little in the background to distract the audience away from them. This sets Rick and Ilsa to be the point of interest in the scene and therefore the most important. This interaction of cuts between both of them helps to build a connection between the two characters so that the audience can further see the love between Rick and Ilsa. All of this helps to make the theme more active in that the writers do not clearly point out that Rick and Ilsa are in love still but that the audience can see it through the space and rhythm of the scene. When Rick says “Here’s to looking at you, kid” there is also a subtext to that line so it is not that he is looking at Ilsa at that moment and finds her to be a beautiful woman that he is in love with but he is also talking about his love for her and the good memories that they had together. That subtext can also be heard when he says “Always remember Paris.”  

            Casablanca is a beautiful piece of cinematography that shows the theme of if you love someone then you let them go better than any other film out there.

Blog Seven

            Beauty and Beast, a film noted for its beautiful art design and for being revolutionary in the world of animation, contrasted its scenes from the beginning of the film to the end by changing the color, harshness of lines, shadows, and more to show the growth Belle and Beast go through. As seen by picture number one there is not much contrast in the hues between Belle and Beast. Except for Belle’s blue dress, the room, Belle’s hair, Beast’s hair, and his clothing are all varying shades of red and brown. The scene had low saturation as well as low brightness to represent the darkness of the castle that is caused by the Beast because of his anger and darkness. The shadows in the room, specifically the one above Beast’s right shoulder also adds to the darkness caused by Beast. The dark tones and shadows are symbolic for Beast’s lack of hope of falling in love and his mean personality. This makes the mood of this scene dark and gloomy while the little bit of light on Belle’s back provides a little sense of hope because light in the dark can represent the good and hope in the world.  The parallel lines on the wall follow the direction that Beast’s body and his eyes are pointed which are down towards Belle.

            In the second image of Belle and Beast dancing, the hues dramatically contrast each other and have become richer colors of Blues and Golds to represent the grandness of royalty that Beast and Belle are beginning to feel as life begins to come back to the gloomy castle as well as them falling in love. The colors become more saturated to bring out the brightness of the room without losing the grand feel of it. Only simple shadows remain in this scene, the most noticeable being the one from the background in the left portion of the shot. The disappearance of the harsh, looming shadows brings light to room and represents the disappearance of darkness from Beast’s life and his relationship with Belle. This makes the mood of the scene lighter and shows Belle and Beast falling in love. The grand colors that replaced the once dark and easily blended colors of the previous scene represent the grandness that would come if Belle were to admit her love for Beast.

            Both scenes are beautifully crafted and are a part of what I can consider to be one of the best pieces of animation of all time.

Blog Six

Gore Verbinski, director of Pirates of the Caribbean followed the 180 Degree Rule, the Rule of Thirds, and the 30s Rules in his film. His 180 degree line went through Johnny Depp if seen overhead and the camera moved in front of him and behind him on that line with any other angle coming from the right side of the arch. He also used the Rule of Thirds in the opening shots of the scene. One of the best uses of the Rule of Thirds in this scene was when Verbinski went from an over the shoulder shot of Johnny Depp to a medium shot of him from a long angle where he fell on the left third line with the horizon and part of the ship in the right half. This framing makes him appear dominating and in control of the situation when really he is not in control because his boat is sinking. Verbinski also used the 30s rule to do smooth cuts between all of the scenes to show the action happening. He opens with a close up over the shoulder with Depp’s head on the left third line then cuts to a medium shot of Depp staring into the horizon. He then moves the camera 30 degrees to the right and downward looking up to cut to Depp looking down and realizing the boat is flooding so he prepares to jump down. Verbinski cuts to a cutaway of Depp’s feet splashing in the water as Depp is jumping down from the mast and as he bends down to pour water out of the boat Verbinski then cuts back out to a wide shot of the boat at sea.

            Verbinski well utilized all three rules to create a beautiful scene that can arguably be filled with some of the best cinematography seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Blog Five

            While John Mayer has a similar style in all of his songs, “Wheel” and “Shadow Days” have very different qualities to them as well. “Wheel is a more slow paced song with a jazzy, relaxed, and melodic rhythm while “Shadow Days” has a medium tempo with an upbeat and somewhat funky rhythm. The drums are a source of rhythm for both songs.

            In “Wheel” the instrumentation that drives the song are the guitar and drums while in “Shadow Days” it is the drums and vocals. So while the drums are key in both songs to drive it forward they both incorporate other sources of instrumentation to help push the song along. “Shadow Days” follows the traditional method of song structure, verse 1, chorus, verse 2, chorus, refrain, with the chorus repeating in the end. Mayer does incorporate a guitar solo in between the second round of the chorus and the refrain, which is signature in John Mayer’s music to have a guitar solo. In comparison, “Wheel” does not follow the traditional story structure and varies with the mood that Mayer is trying to convey with his lyrics, this helps to build an emotional architecture in the pattern of a circle, similar to a wheel. “Shadow Days” once again follows what would be considered the traditional emotional architecture in music, a build up to the turning point of the lyrics and a drop at the turning point, followed by a rebuilding of tension to the conclusion.

            The heights of both songs are similar in that the guitar provided the high frequencies while the bass percussion provided the low frequencies. While “Wheel” was deep in it’s meaning, it did not have much depth which added to the simplistic soulfulness of the song while “Shadow Days” had more depth provided by the wide instrumentation.

            The song that I enjoy more is “Wheel” because of its deep message, soulful lyrics, and pure feel to it. It was not beefed up by more instrumentation to make it more appealing as a popular song. It is a soulful piece that touches me because of its message of departure and finding your way back to those you love. It is a beautiful song filled with great musical qualities.

Blog 4

This scene is masterfully crafted as to it’s soundscape. The space caused by the soundscape through the element of movement in the scene flows smoothly with the orchestral music in the background as if in response the music in the background. A great example of this in the clip is when the orchestral music becomes dark and gristmill in response the skeletons hanging and Jack pays his respects to them.  This also brings a subjective and emotional by causing tension through the minor chords played and the emotional pull that the idea of death causes. The time also plays a large factor in soundscape of this scene. The loudness of the scene escalates in the opening to create an epic opening for what is the protagonist of the film. Then the volume decreases as we see the dreary skeletons but then soon escalates as we come across the chaotic scene of the merchants and sailors on the docks working. The soundscape of this scene was a great intro for the protagonist and through it’s elements was also a great opening for an epic. Not only was the orchestral music beautifully placed with the scene but the little sounds such as waves crashing and jingling coins made a difference between what could have been overlooked by the music and what it is now, a great soundscape masterpiece.

Blog Three

Change This

            Three of the Seven Layers that spoke to me were Be Generous, Make Art, and Acknowledging the Lizard. Be Generous stood out to me because it talked about the importance of sharing ideas and how those who are creative respect the creativity of others with the spreading of creative ideas. Make Art also stood out to me because it was discussed that art has the potential to be anything. It doesn’t have to be to set standards and that anything interactive and creative can be considered art. Acknowledging the Lizard was interesting as well because of the concept that we need to acknowledge the resistance it creates in order to ignore it and be able to create art.

            While these exercises are interesting and the purpose is understandable, they limit the creative abilities of students. With having to stick with specific criteria students feel pressured to produce a project rather than create one that fits within their creative ideas and allows them to express those ideas. The deadlines as well make students feel pressured to produce their creative work in a quick manner due to the stress of all the work piled onto students in college today. This limits their ability to create creative pieces because they would rather create work that meets the guidelines so they can work on other pieces of class work rather than the creative pieces that they are asked to produce. By doing this students aren’t reaching down into their deepest potential for creating their creative masterpieces. In class it may be more beneficial to reduce some of these guidelines so that students have room to express their creative abilities more. Having more creative blog ideas rather than discussing articles and stories would achieve this. By allowing students to analysis different videos, songs, video games, and write about them would be one way to achieve this. By being able to analysis other’s work, that can make another’s creative work better because they understand the creative process behind other’s work. It would also be interesting to have the opportunity to blog about creative pieces in media that students discover that are not mainstream, such as youtube videos, indie artists, independent films, and small game developers. This would allow students to share creative work that inspires them as well as promote creative work that they enjoy. While I do not find these exercises in class pointless and a waste of time, I do feel that alternatives to assignments would help for students to explore their creativity by having a chance to enjoy what they are writing about. When projects are more enjoyable students will be more likely to explore their creativity more in depth and potentially could find ideas that will inspire them in the future. By loosening the guidelines I feel that students will produce better products and gain more knowledge about their creative processes rather then be dragged down by constricting guidelines. This will help to make their creative process develop as well as have gained more from the class.

Blog Two

Change This

Flaum's story is about a wolf pack that after leaving captivity did not know who to survive because they had forgotten their ability to howl. Then Mumon decides that he will step up and try to find his howl in order to lead his pack and by overcoming certain challenges he was able to find his howl again which led others in his pack to find theirs. The main point of the story was even after people may try to constrain you, you could always find your creativity and share and spread it with others. 

            A creative piece that speaks to me is the song “Even if it Breaks Your Heart” by Eli Young Band. It talks about never letting the rough roads in life keep you from pursuing your dreams and being creative. A particular lyric in it that speaks to me is “Some dreams stay with you forever, drag you around but bring you back to where you were. Some dreams keep on gettin better, gotta keep believin if you wanna know for sure.” This part in particular speaks to me because in the media field you can have these dreams and creative ideas that can take you in many different directions. But it also means to me that you don’t know let your dreams be manipulated by the outside world. Keep your dreams and creative ideas your own. Don’t let people make them into something they aren’t and steal your creativity away from you. It also means to me that you don’t limit your creativity because when you limit your creativity you don’t know the potential that one idea has to grow into something better. You just need to believe that your dream has potential and allow it to continue to grow so you can know for sure if that creative idea and dream could be achieved. If you hold yourself back and never charge after what your dreams are then where will you go in life? And if you allow others to conform your ideas into something mainstream in order to conform to societal standards of the norm, you are denying your creative process as well because in order to be creative you must be unique. Without that your creative process will continue to suffer through life.