Blogging Assignment #8

Am I Bluffing? - Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

The overall theme of this movie seems to be of an imperfect duo of investigators trying to find the whereabouts of a missing girl. While they have the means to solve it, their lack of computability continuously gets them into trouble and delays their findings. I believe that the movie itself is very didactic with explaining this to the audience.

The lines of this piece are mostly virtual between the three characters shown in this particular scene. Following their eyes and where the gun is placed and pointed, the audience knows exactly where to look even though another character may be speaking. The lines themselves are also very straight rather than curvilinear, though there are a few that show up in the background of the car that slope and still draw more attention to the straight lines the characters are creating. The space varies within the scene whether on the captured man or on the two men in charge, but it continuously puts the audience from a higher angle to weaken the captured “bad guy” and empower the two protagonists.  The movement in the scene is very limited to the confined space they are in, most of the movement being made by the camera as it moves back and forth and the characters shuffle around. The rhythm of the scene is steady and continuous until is speeds up and becomes faster and more intense in the end after the captured man in shot.

Blogging Assignment #7

Transformers

(Bumblebee)

VS.

Iron Man

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Relatively, the Transformers trilogy and the two Iron Man movies are of similar genres, but in the way they were created and animated are extremely different, though while housing a few similarities. Both of these movies highlight the use of live action, but the majority of these films implement the use of high definition animation and visual effects. For their explosions and visual effects, both follow the same realism. The major differences come from the creation of their characters. The characters in Transformers and the suit created in Iron Man are of the same metal look, but their design is completely different.

 The Transformers suits and armor far more intricate in design and complicated, showing moving and working parts of their bodies while the Iron Man suit is merely flat and smoothed over metal. The Transformers also stand out far more than the Iron Man suit, the colors that highlight their faces much brighter with a higher saturation, especially with my example of Bumblebee above compared the darker and less saturated suit of Iron Man.  The color scheme for Iron Man is much simpler and duller than that of Bumblebee, while Tony Stark’s suit is very sleek and neatly painted, Bumblebee looks far more realistic and worn with his intricate contrasting colors.

The lighting is also very different between the two here. The shadows are much darker and more concealing of Bumblebee, hiding some of the intricate workings of his face and other parts of his body, which also draws the viewer to his bright blue eyes that emit light. Iron Man’s suit is brightly lighted with little to no shadow, even light emits from his chest piece. The symbolism I think this could really pose is that the transformers have to hide because of being of alien origins, so Bumblebee is going to be more hidden in shadows out of the publics view while Iron Man, aka Playboy billionaire Tony Stark craves the attention of the public and openly presents himself out in the open. 

Blogging Assignment #5

Listening Framework

"Brother" by Murder By Death

Listening Phase 1 (Rhythm)

Tempo Fast

Source Drum kit

Groove Very upbeat and continuous with little to no ritardando until the ending of the song. It is very articulate and accented throughout the song with loud hits and and obvious crescendo at the peak of the song and a decrescendo back to the original state afterward.

Listening Phase 2 (Arrangement)

Instrumentation Drum kit, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Cello

Structure/Organization Starts at a fast pace and continues to get faster and crescendo toward the peak of the song, where it decrescendos and slows down to the original pace and upbeat feeling till at the end it has a ritardando and stops slow. 

Emotional Architecture It is very fast as it builds up to the peak til the point it reaches that climaxes where it is very articulate and impactful, then returns to the upbeat until the end where it leaves the listener with a slow and last insightful thoughts of the song.

Listening Phase 3 (Sound Quality)

Balance

-       Height Both high and low frequency.

-       Width Little to no panning, stays pretty situated in the middle.

-       Depth Several instruments that complete a very deep and complex sound that is sometiems hard to realize with the loudness of more important instruments layered above the ones that have less impact.

Blogging Assignment #4

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a very engaging, hilarious dramedy that I’ve always found very entertaining and extremely well done despite its lack of blockbuster status. This particular scene has a few different listening modes, as in the beginning of the scene the audience is just in the car with the two main characters as they are talking. There is no hidden meaning behind the sound of their speech or even as the car crashes down from the cliff into the water below. It is all very casual and remains as such throughout the scene as they go sloshing through the water to find the girl in the back of the trunk.

In this scene the movie was also very good about space and how it used it to portray the scene properly. When the sound of the car appears off screen it is obvious by how low the pitch is that it is far away but as it gets closer to driving over the edge the sound of the engine grows louder until finally it makes the point in the scene where it crashes into the lake below. Also as the car begins to sink and the camera pans out to see the entirety of the lake, it gives the audience a good idea on how big the lake is compared to the car, which evokes a certain frightened emotion for when the characters courageously go diving into the water to investigate. 

Blogging Assignment #3

Brainwashed

Godin gives us seven levers that can help to rebuild and reinvent ourselves outside of the normal lines of common society, a set of guidelines that could essentially set one out of the rest and make one unique instead of bland and boring. Out of the seven that Godin listed, three stuck out to me to be the most important of those he he listed: Acknowledge the Lizard, Make Art, and Be Generous. They all are connected fairly well in a way that I believe that they all play off one another. Acknowledging the lizard, or in simpler terms, coming to terms with the fear of being criticized or laughed at. Overcoming this will open many doors to us, most specifically, Making Art. Without the fear of being laughed at, we are open more to be creative and inspired and can make art that is wonderful and can even help others to overcome that instilled fear. Not being bogged down with that fear and openly pursuing your artistic abilities you can then Be Generous. Be generous to other artists who are still trying to overcome their own fear of being critiqued and show them support and help so you can spread the knowledge and greatness of unhindered art and beauty.

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These three levers, Acknowledging the Lizard, Make Art, and Be Generous are very well connected to this blog in some very obvious ways.  Acknowledging the Lizard the most prominent of these three is a prominent theme throughout the many blog posts that I write. That primal sense and fear of being critiqued criticized and laughed at would make it incredibly and cripplingly difficult to write a blog about my opinions and views on these specific works and even sharing my own works. If I did not feel comfortable with myself and sharing my opinions this blog wouldn’t exist at all. But embracing that fear and pushing it aside I am able to share my work on the blog for other students to see, to let them comprehend how I see a specific work of literature or how I interpreted this week’s assignment. Without this fundamental foundation then the other two wouldn’t even be possible. Next, Make Art, is once again fairly obvious because this blog’s sole purpose is to make Art, maybe not in the sense of painting or drawing, but my writing, my opinions and my characters are all forms of art. My art shown on here can go on to also inspire other artists and writers and help to bring about a safe form of encouragement that would to Being Generous. Feeling so at ease sharing my work and opinions with little thought to being brazenly critiqued and laughed at I can help others who may not be so open to slowly transition into the same mindset.

But having these characteristics do not make me the better artist, or person in any way. It simply how I am able to view myself and my art but that does not make my work any better compared to someone who isn’t as open and at ease sharing as me. The fact that I embrace these facts only makes it easier for me to be an artist, makes it easier for me to get my work out in the open for others to see and praise or critique to better myself quicker, but by no means does it mean that the quiet artist who doesn’t share their artwork openly or as often has any less talent, but they are hindering themselves of being better artists than what they are already. I’m not better being open, but they could better themselves if they take the time and gain the courage to do all of the things explained in the first paragraph.