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. 

Blog One

The Black and Gold film background and color represents Film Man because Film Man is the caretaker and preserver of good in the film world. By wearing the colors of what he represents he is patriotic and therefore viewed as more heroic. It is similar to Captain America because he wore the colors of the United States and therefore was viewed as more patriotic and heroic to the people. It is also a counter reference because gold represents good and black as the bad in the world and by wearing the two colors it shows he is the preserver of good and riddance to the bad.

By casting Film Man it gives him a mysterious appearance which is important to his background because as an audience you don’t always know who makes the films, and that is the idea behind Film Man. It is that whoever is preserving the good of the films and protecting them from those who seek to destroy it is a mystery to the audience just as the people behind the films are. Film Man seeks not for glory but does his duty in love for the great classics and future hopefuls of the film world.

Film Man is shaped like a pencil because all great ideas start in your head but become real when the pencil is set in motion. He is tall and lanky like one because not only is he preserver of good and destroyer of evil but he is also a mastermind behind the creative work of Hollywood. Typically people who are skinny and scrawny like a pencil they are stereotyped as a nerd or creative and that is exactly who Film Man is outside of his heroic being. Even though skinny and tall like a pencil, Film Man still goes above and beyond his duties.

The Liquid Death, antagonist of Film Man, is clear because he represents water and the harsh clear chemicals that can destroy film and that have destroyed thousands of old great films over the years. By being clear as well, Liquid Man can easily move and destroy without being seen or noticed, therefore making its damage much worse before it can be saved and preserved by Film Man.

He is casted in clear lighting because light ruins film as well, which is the prime objective of the Liquid Death. Therefore by casting him in the light that he destroys with he can be seen as not only more evil but also easily mistaken as a non-threatening figure because light is referenced with being positive rather than negative. And in that we believe that light could never do anything bad.

Liquid Death is shaped like a water molecule because he spreads and destroys with no clear shape or pattern, making it more challenging for Film Man to catch him. By being almost invisible and nearly completely morph able, the Liquid Death is Film Man’s biggest enemy whom he longs to catch and with his stealthy shape and color, that task in nearly impossible for any normal person, except for Film Man.

Why Batman is totally awesome

My favorite superhero is Batman. Because he is half bat..and half man. Beyond awesome.