For this prompt I have watched, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. And I liked the class discussion we had on this segment. Mainly because we had a room full of artists and designers who all strive to be unique talking about how other artists achieved that status. Usually artists become distinguished when they produce a number of works that all have similar tones, points of view, or visual consistency. Wes Anderson in particular is a good example of a distinguished director for a lot of the same reasons.
It's easy to see similar editing techniques and shot progressions in his films. One of the most obvious and well known is his use of symmetry. He takes a design composition that is usually frowned upon by artists and makes it his own. In The Grand Budapest Hotel he uses that type of shot on Gustave to give him a sense of balance and composure. Even in prison he walks the prison symmetrically and balanced. His shots are also extremely clean for the most part. Everything feels like its in it's place. Which is impressive because in films everything in the shot is intentional, but in his shots the viewer can feel the intentionality. His environments aren't designed to be real, they're designed to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible. I've worked at a summer camp, I can guarantee you no 12 year old would pack a suitcase like Suzy packed hers in Moonrise Kingdom. But his design choices add to his distinguishability and overall tone of his films.
Aside from visuals Wes Anderson displays a similar tone and feeling in his movies. His movies make me feel nostalgia for events I've never experienced. Moonrise Kingdom in particular feels like one big nostalgia trip. His movies feel like this partly because most of them are set in reality but have certain whimsical attributes to it. For example I noticed Anderson likes to have characters that are strong leaders and bring a special talent to their universe, but go under appreciated because of the situation or world they're in. Gustave is a polite man in an un-polite world, Mr. Fox is an excellent robber in a world that doesn't give him an opportunity to use his skills, and Sam is smart young kid without guidance or a place in his world. All of his characters are unique and gifted but don't exist in a world where they can excel. This always leaves us rooting for the protagonists in his films. His protagonists always have a unique and usually insightful world view.
So overall it's easy to pick out Wes Anderson's films from the crowd because of his unique visual style and preference for special characters who don't really fit their world.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Long Form Television
For this week I chose to watch the entirety of Stranger Things, a horror mystery series on Netflix. The format of binge watching is a format that I think dampened this series. Netflix releases a whole season at once, which gives the viewer the opportunity to binge watch the entire series in a sitting or two. But despite that Stranger Things is still written to be episodic and often leaves on a cliffhanger. Episodes end with a reason for the viewer to keep watching, or if this was traditional TV, a reason to remember and come back next week. There's nothing wrong with this structure, in fact in makes for great storytelling. But Netflix gives me the ability to immediately get answers for that cliffhanger, which in regards to Stranger Things can hurt the suspense of the story. With no waiting there's less time to stop and reflect on what is happening in the story. There's less time to let the events of that episode to sink in, and less time to discuss possible storylines or outcomes with friends. The whole experience becomes more passive. This is hindering to a storyline that is rooted in suspense, horror, and drama, as answers are just after that "continue watching" button. And a counter argument is, why not just pace yourself? But it's called "binge watching" for a reason, there's no thinking that self control is involved here in the slightest. If the opportunity to get the answers are there, it becomes to tempting to do otherwise. Netflix knows that and the stories are structured like that so I do keep watching and keep my subscription.
I remember watching a suspense oriented anime with my friends called Erased. When we started watching it there were already a couple episodes released but it was still during its original runtime. So we caught up with the series by binge watching the first few. But then we caught up, and the last episode left on a ginormous cliff hanger. The murderer was revealed and this kid was at a huge crossroad. But suddenly there were no more episodes and we had to wait for it's new release the coming week. I remember being so nervous about the events in the episode and spending a large portion of time discussing and hypothesizing with my friend about it. I guarantee you if that episode was available immediately we would have watched it then and there and reflected a lot less. The anxiety I felt for the characters would have been resolved immediately and the series would have left less of in impact.
In short, I love the immediate gratification of binge watching, but I think in some cases waiting can be good and help strengthen investment in a story.
I remember watching a suspense oriented anime with my friends called Erased. When we started watching it there were already a couple episodes released but it was still during its original runtime. So we caught up with the series by binge watching the first few. But then we caught up, and the last episode left on a ginormous cliff hanger. The murderer was revealed and this kid was at a huge crossroad. But suddenly there were no more episodes and we had to wait for it's new release the coming week. I remember being so nervous about the events in the episode and spending a large portion of time discussing and hypothesizing with my friend about it. I guarantee you if that episode was available immediately we would have watched it then and there and reflected a lot less. The anxiety I felt for the characters would have been resolved immediately and the series would have left less of in impact.
In short, I love the immediate gratification of binge watching, but I think in some cases waiting can be good and help strengthen investment in a story.
Bob Dylan Reaction
1. What is your reaction to this text?
It seemed to just be about important moments in these two people lives. About their addictions, behavior, and married life. Overall there's a lot of mention of substance abuse, violence, and then briefly more romantic and sweet things. There's also mention and connection to works by Bob Dylan. Him and his works are related to the main male character in the story. I'm not sure what is the main connection to draw between him and Subterranean Homesick Blues but after watching the documentary I can see a connection between him and Dylan in general. Both seem easily agitated and to a degree pessimistic. I can see why the man in the story looks up to and aspires to be like Dylan, as both are similar personality wise. Dylan seems like a more successful version of him.
2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect.
It might be just because am particularly tired this morning but I found the article kind of hard to get through. I didn't make a lot of connections with the author or her husband. But I also feel like thats okay for this piece. There is a whole paragraph about being able to sympathize with people without actually identifying with them. It reads, "We must not suppose that we can imagine other people's sufferings at all fully, and we must not imagine that in supposing them we can identify ourselves with them. Try never to use the phrase 'identify with.'" This all goes back to our sympathy vs empathy debate we had in class one time. But overall the connections I made to the text were few and far between. Not to sound rude or heartless, but I couldn't relate and even though that's not a deal breaker for emotional investment I found myself uninterested and confused. Kind of left wondering why I should care in the first place.
3. What changes would you make to adopt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
I can see this story fitting well into a movie or some sort of screen adaptation. There's a lot of scenes that would create visual interest such as their conception spot in the mountains, the parking lot, or their idyllic wedding. Also this story would benefit from the audio cues that are implemented into movies or TV. A soundtrack composed of Bob Dylan would help strengthen the established connection between him and the man in the story. Also overall the story seemed kind of all over the place and out of order, which is fine. A story doesn't have to be completely linear all the time. But it got confusing and I had trouble keeping up with where or when each excerpt from the story was taking place. Having a visual aid makes it easier to establish a setting or time period. In short, visual and audio cues would help this story immensely.
It seemed to just be about important moments in these two people lives. About their addictions, behavior, and married life. Overall there's a lot of mention of substance abuse, violence, and then briefly more romantic and sweet things. There's also mention and connection to works by Bob Dylan. Him and his works are related to the main male character in the story. I'm not sure what is the main connection to draw between him and Subterranean Homesick Blues but after watching the documentary I can see a connection between him and Dylan in general. Both seem easily agitated and to a degree pessimistic. I can see why the man in the story looks up to and aspires to be like Dylan, as both are similar personality wise. Dylan seems like a more successful version of him.
2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect.
It might be just because am particularly tired this morning but I found the article kind of hard to get through. I didn't make a lot of connections with the author or her husband. But I also feel like thats okay for this piece. There is a whole paragraph about being able to sympathize with people without actually identifying with them. It reads, "We must not suppose that we can imagine other people's sufferings at all fully, and we must not imagine that in supposing them we can identify ourselves with them. Try never to use the phrase 'identify with.'" This all goes back to our sympathy vs empathy debate we had in class one time. But overall the connections I made to the text were few and far between. Not to sound rude or heartless, but I couldn't relate and even though that's not a deal breaker for emotional investment I found myself uninterested and confused. Kind of left wondering why I should care in the first place.
3. What changes would you make to adopt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
I can see this story fitting well into a movie or some sort of screen adaptation. There's a lot of scenes that would create visual interest such as their conception spot in the mountains, the parking lot, or their idyllic wedding. Also this story would benefit from the audio cues that are implemented into movies or TV. A soundtrack composed of Bob Dylan would help strengthen the established connection between him and the man in the story. Also overall the story seemed kind of all over the place and out of order, which is fine. A story doesn't have to be completely linear all the time. But it got confusing and I had trouble keeping up with where or when each excerpt from the story was taking place. Having a visual aid makes it easier to establish a setting or time period. In short, visual and audio cues would help this story immensely.
Games as a Medium
One of my favorite games is Earthbound. It's an old 16 bit RPG that was released on the super nintendo. It's full of bright colors, interesting characters, locations, items, and music. It's always hard to describe why someone likes what they do besides waving at the obvious good design choices and reiterating that it is indeed a fully fledged game. You push buttons and things change on the screen, and it feels nice. But this game in particular does those simple elements so well. It's an RPG and like most RPGs it follows a single story that the player travel through as they get farther and farther in the game. In Earthbound you collect verses of a lullaby that's used to soothe and defeat a big alien boss at the end. It deals with mature themes while still remaining fun and light hearted throughout. Even though the main boss is a horrible fleshy alien, a large majority of the game is spent in locations reminiscent to the real world. You explore coastal tourist towns, suburbs, desert oasis's, and remote winter towns alongside your friends. It all feels very genuine and nice. And that is what I mostly look for in a game. I use it as a medium to relax and unwind after a day of productivity. A simple game with nice music and themes of friendship is what I want.
This game in particular can be viewed as a literature very easily. Even if we look at literature in it's most basic definition, Earthbound tells a lot of its story through text. There's written text boxes all over, the game encourages the player to talk to every NPC they can and read every sign post. All of which contain pertinent information to the games world and lore. Even more on the nose are the few "coffee breaks" the player takes within the game. In these segments the player literally takes a break with one of the NPCs and it cuts to a giant star wars like scrolling block of text in which the player is recapped on the events of the story. Earthbound also uses visual and musical cues on top of this to further enhance its story.
This game in particular can be viewed as a literature very easily. Even if we look at literature in it's most basic definition, Earthbound tells a lot of its story through text. There's written text boxes all over, the game encourages the player to talk to every NPC they can and read every sign post. All of which contain pertinent information to the games world and lore. Even more on the nose are the few "coffee breaks" the player takes within the game. In these segments the player literally takes a break with one of the NPCs and it cuts to a giant star wars like scrolling block of text in which the player is recapped on the events of the story. Earthbound also uses visual and musical cues on top of this to further enhance its story.
Curate Yourself
http://www.nightvalepresents.com/aliceisntdead/
For me, podcasts are everything I want in a medium.
Podcasts are everything I like about books and TV put into one medium. Narrative sequential podcasts are a medium that I've gotten into more recently as I've been in school. It's like an audio book that gets a new chapter each week, forcing me to take my time and enjoy the story. I like how when listening to podcasts I get to fill in the information as I go. Similar to text driven media, the audience gets to imagine what everything looks like. The voice tells me the setting is a diner, and I get to fill in the rest. Suddenly the characters, characters that I also get to design, are in a diner from my hometown. And at once the story becomes more relatable and engaging.
Why is this podcast important as a whole?
What I like about Alice Isn't Dead specifically is its subject matter and pacing. A sentence synopsis's of the story is about a woman who became a trucker to travel the country in search for her wife who disappeared one day. As she travels she comes across supernatural and surreal physical and mental obstacles. The whole podcast is heard from the truckers perspective, it's recorded like she's talking into her radio. Some of it is her describing the landscape she's in, or just random anecdotes, or any other tangent. This makes the whole podcast feel genuine and makes the protagonist more relatable and realistic. Sometimes she goes off on tangents and then pulls herself back and the writing feels natural so it's easy to believe she's a bored trucker on the road.
This podcast in particular would be beneficial to the class because it's unique in that its a podcast but also unique in its subject matter and structure. It's a horror mystery podcast about a lesbian trucker trying to find her wife while piecing together clues and fighting monsters. I'm not really sure what to elaborate on at that point. If that tagline doesn't interest you than I'm not sure what else I can do to grab your attention. horror. lesbian. mystery. podcast. my whole blogpost could have been just those four words.
It's a medium that with the right voice acting and writing is a cheap alternative to telling an engaging story. There's usually not executives or board members to impress, there's more freedom to tell whatever story the creator wants to tell. That's why there tends to be much more diversity in narrative podcasts. It's a nice alternative to movies and TV which tend to be more dominated with the typical straight white male protagonist I'm getting sick of. The tendency to take risks and have more diverse characters make narrative podcasts worth looking into for the class.
For me, podcasts are everything I want in a medium.
Podcasts are everything I like about books and TV put into one medium. Narrative sequential podcasts are a medium that I've gotten into more recently as I've been in school. It's like an audio book that gets a new chapter each week, forcing me to take my time and enjoy the story. I like how when listening to podcasts I get to fill in the information as I go. Similar to text driven media, the audience gets to imagine what everything looks like. The voice tells me the setting is a diner, and I get to fill in the rest. Suddenly the characters, characters that I also get to design, are in a diner from my hometown. And at once the story becomes more relatable and engaging.
Why is this podcast important as a whole?
What I like about Alice Isn't Dead specifically is its subject matter and pacing. A sentence synopsis's of the story is about a woman who became a trucker to travel the country in search for her wife who disappeared one day. As she travels she comes across supernatural and surreal physical and mental obstacles. The whole podcast is heard from the truckers perspective, it's recorded like she's talking into her radio. Some of it is her describing the landscape she's in, or just random anecdotes, or any other tangent. This makes the whole podcast feel genuine and makes the protagonist more relatable and realistic. Sometimes she goes off on tangents and then pulls herself back and the writing feels natural so it's easy to believe she's a bored trucker on the road.
This podcast in particular would be beneficial to the class because it's unique in that its a podcast but also unique in its subject matter and structure. It's a horror mystery podcast about a lesbian trucker trying to find her wife while piecing together clues and fighting monsters. I'm not really sure what to elaborate on at that point. If that tagline doesn't interest you than I'm not sure what else I can do to grab your attention. horror. lesbian. mystery. podcast. my whole blogpost could have been just those four words.
It's a medium that with the right voice acting and writing is a cheap alternative to telling an engaging story. There's usually not executives or board members to impress, there's more freedom to tell whatever story the creator wants to tell. That's why there tends to be much more diversity in narrative podcasts. It's a nice alternative to movies and TV which tend to be more dominated with the typical straight white male protagonist I'm getting sick of. The tendency to take risks and have more diverse characters make narrative podcasts worth looking into for the class.
Goose Father Short Film Visual Cues Priorities
GOOSE FATHER SHORT FILM
VISUAL CUES PRIORITIES
taking The Goose Father by Krys Lee and picking out major points to help adapt it into film
1.
Introduction to Gilho
being lonely in his apartment
a.
Establishing shot
of apartment
b.
Camera focuses on
family photos
c.
Gilho going about
his lonely life.
d.
Advertises his
need of an assistant.
2.
Wuesong is
introduced with the goose in front of Gilho’s apartment.
a.
Cut to Wuesong
making breakfast for Gilho.
b.
Scene dedicated
to conversation between the two men
c.
Reveal Wuesong’s
past and the reason as to why he has a goose.
3.
Gilho and Wuesong
go out on a Kareoke night
a.
Show friendship
between the two men.
b.
They both get
tipsy with the alcohol intake.
c.
Gilho and Wuesong
almost kiss, but Gilho slaps him.
d.
Wuesong runs away
crying.
4.
Gilho returns to
his sad apartment and skips work because of sad events
a.
Parallel editing
between Gilho and Wuesong
b.
Gilho stares at
the sunset outside his balcony
c.
Wuesong walks
around the city with his goose with no destination in mind
d.
They both miss
each other.
5.
Gilho goes out
with friends at a Korean bar
a.
Show Gilho having fun with friends, but clearly still
has wuesong in his thoughts.
b.
Gilho returns to
the apartment with one drunk friend (Taeyeong)
6.
Gilho and
taeyeong surprisingly finds Wuesong inside the apartment cooking a meal.
a.
Taeyeong screws
with the goose until the goose bites him
b.
Wuesong panics
and patches him up.
c.
They decide to go
to sleep.
7.
Wuesong wakes up
in the middle of Daeboreum (full moon night)
a.
He finds his
mother on the balcony
b.
Intimate moment
between boy and mother.
c.
Gilho wakes up as
well and is surprised to see the goose was really his mother all along.
d.
Gilho and Wuesong
decide to kiss in this magical moment and the screen fades to black.
The Ideal Female Superhero
In class you asked us what our ideal female superhero would be like. The reason this is a hard question to answer clearly and to the point is because it's nearly impossible within this prompt. I feel like this is the exact question that gets discussed in the board room full of executive men producers when designing the next blockbuster superhero movie. Because it's always limited to one female, and if there's one female which traits do you give her to best represent woman? But that's a loaded question, one woman cannot represent all woman. A common trend to create a respectable female heroine is to strip her of all femininity and make her a "bad ass." Give her positive traits we associate being stereotypically masculine, like physical strength, brashness, and the ability to be stoic in all situations. Extra points if she scoffs at the thought of wearing a dress or makes fun of other girls for wearing makeup. But then at the same time there's is nothing wrong with that trope. A girl can be masculine if she wants and visa versa. But if I gave my ideal female superhero those traits and those traits alone I'd be sending a weird message. I'd be discouraging stereotypical female behavior while also trying to represent the same group I'm mocking. But there's this super crazy solution that most hollywood movies tend to forget. Stick with me here but it is actually possible to have, drum roll please, more than one woman! Whoa! Woman are people with complex emotions, ambition, and personal experiences, it would be impossible to have one heroine stand for all of that. To increase representation you would need a whole crew of heroines, all with different backgrounds, traits, and motives.
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