Scene Deconstruction:Titanic

Titanic Ship Sinking


The theme of the movie Titanic is that there is no greater power in life then love. Love can conquer all whether that be through two rival families, two different countries, or in the Titanic’s case through two different class distinctions. This scene portrays that very morbidly. Even though the ship is sinking Jack is still trying to help Rose because he loves her. The theme is active because near the end of the movie Rose says that she will ‘never let go’ as if we didn’t already know that she loved him.



This scene is very important in the film. The theme is a very simple one, so they needed a chaotic scene to contrast the simple theme. Lines are used in the scene to help create that chaos. When the outside of the ship is shown most of the actual lines are pointing to the top of the ship, which is where everyone is running. When life boats are shown the lines on the boat form an arrow away from the ship. The linear straight lines from the outside of the ship contrast the curved lines from the inside. There are circular windows and various light fixtures that are circles. A clock is also shown. Movement is utilized in a similar way. The movement from the outside of the ship is all up to the top of the ship beside some people falling off. The movement used in the inside is much more complex. Inside there are many objects and people moving in various different directions almost the whole time. The outside is contrasting this by having most people moving one direction. Inside there is much more object movement and on the outside of the ship they used a lot more camera movement. There is also a lot of subtext in the scene. The main one is that the ship, a huge penis shaped object, sinks and Jack dies but Rose does not. A lot of the windows they show breaking and other objects that break are also penis shaped. Only a few boob shaped objects are destroyed which adds to the fact that women and children got off the ship and survived, but most men did not.

Animation Deconstruction:Dragon Ball Z vs. Family Guy

     

        

The two still images that I chose are from two different genres. One is from an anime called Dragon Ball Z and the other is from Family Guy. Both animations use lighting and movement to portray a story. The Dragon Ball Z picture uses shadow to add depth and definition to the image. Without the shadow the two fighting would seem flat and it would be harder to see the shapes of their body. They also use shadow to highlight the characters by making the entire background completely dark. Family Guy uses no shadow because the scene does not require depth or definition. Symbolism is used in Dragon Ball Z with the brightness of the character on the left compared to the right, showing that the one on the left is the ‘good guy.’ I can see no concept of symbolism in Family Guys lighting because the entire screen is lighted the same. The mood in Dragon Ball Z is morbid and deep because of the use of dark lighting in the background and shadows. Family Guy chose to use lighting that created a very happy feeling showing contrast to the actions on the screen. Both pictures do a good job portraying movement. Overlapping Movement is when various motions are happening at the same time. In the Dragon Ball Z shot the character on the left is punching the character on the right up. The character on the rights mid section goes up first followed by its arms and legs. In the Family Guy shot the character on the left is getting punched back. His mid section goes first and his eyes close followed by his arms and legs. The body parts are all moving at different times showing an example of Overlapping Movement. Weight is an important concept in animation. When animating you need to be able to create ‘weight’ to the character. In the Dragon Ball Z shot the Character on the left is punching a seemingly larger opponent with ease. The ‘weight’ of the character is showing the strength of the left character. In Family Guy the chicken seems to be punching the character with a lot of force judging by the look on his face but because the character on the left only seems to be moving a little bit means the animators were using weight. Family Guy sucks.

Storyboard Imitation: The Rules from Fight Club

    The scene I chose for Blog 3 and this was the ‘rules’ scene from Fight Club. This is my favorite scene from the movie. The director utilizes the 180 degree rule, the rule of thirds, and the 30 rule during this scene. The 180 degree rule states that all camera positions must stay within a 180 degree arc. The baseline of the arc is determined by the central “line of action.” This scene creates a central line of action by showing a large group facing Brad Pitts character. the baseline of the arc is straight through Brad and splitting the crowd. The camera stays on the right of Brad the entire scene. The rule of thirds states that important elements of the image should fall on the intersections of horizontal and vertical thirds. The director utilizes this not by using it but by not using it. Most of the important actions and images were not placed on any of the thirds but in the middle of the shots. What did lie on the thirds were lights and other things in the background to give the sense that everyone in the room is anxious, nervous, and all over the place. The 30 rule states that in order to avoid a jump cut the camera has to be moved at least 30 degrees or the shot needs to change 30%. Each time the camera switches between Brad and the crowd it is moved at least 30 degrees and the 30% rule was even followed during some shots of the mens actions while Brad is talking. The director has obvious knowledge of these three rules and applies them when necessary. The 180 degree rule is followed so the viewers can keep track of where everyone is and the 30 rules are followed to avoid jump cuts. The director broke the rule of thirds to keep your point of interest moving around the room.

Song Deconstruction: Sound of Silence

The song I decided to choose was Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. The cover is by Shaw Blades. The Shaw Blades version of this song is one of my favorite songs. The two versions of the song are very similar in most ways but there are some subtle differences that make the cover interesting. The lyrics are the same and the so is the melody unless you include the addition of a higher third harmony  as melody. The rhythm of the songs are a little different but both are regular rhythms. The intensity is changed because the cover gets louder than the original. The beginning of both versions starts off very quiet as more instruments are put in until the last verse which is the loudest part of the song. Then, right before it ends, all of the instruments drop out and the song finishes softly with just voice and guitar The cover has drums in it where the original does not. Both songs have higher and lower pitches but the key of the cover is a semitone down which changed the overall feel and groove of the song. The vocal parts are rather high for the lead part and the second part is lower for voice. The cover has a third harmony that is higher then the lead vocal part. Both songs use bass guitar creating lower notes. The timbre of both songs are very simple. They are both easy to listen to. Both versions use smooth sounding instruments and both vocalists have very clear voices. The speed of the songs are both slow but the Shaw Blades version is slightly faster. Both songs are organized into five versus that all end in the word ‘silence.’  I prefer to listen to the Shaw Blades version of the song. The semitone difference between the two is enough to make the cover seem very eerie and mysterious as opposed to the original which sounds sad and whiney. I am a little bias of course seeing how Tommy Shaw is the lead singer of Styx, my favorite band. 

In Class Movie

Animation!!!!

Reflections on Sound Design

This is one of my favorite scenes from the movie FIGHT CLUB. The scene is the explanation of what exactly they are about, so the sound is very important. They make good use of the Gestalt Principle.  They use figure and ground to create an interesting picture by making the scene fairly dark around most of the people, but Tyler is more clearly lit. They also used illusion to make it seem like there was a bunch of noise in the background even though there were just a bunch of little sounds happening one after another. This scene also uses listening modes to convey the intense meaning. Casual and Semantic listening are used throughout the entire scene. The scene opens up with semantic listening as an off screen Edward Norton is talking about what fight club is. Then it is used as Brad Pitt starts to explain all of the rules. If the audience didn’t understand any of this the rest of the movie would be completely pointless. It also makes use of casual sounds while he is giving the rules. throughout the entire monologue there are various small noises that are extremely loud. One man is shown and heard taking his belt off, some shoes are kicked around, and another man is shown popping bubblegum. This shows that the guys either know the rules already and are anxious to start or the newbies don’t want to waste time.

Brainwashed. Washing my brain of the bull I didn't need.

You must acknowledge the lizard, or the voice in your head telling you to stop because you might fail. If your ignore it than it will control you. Listen to it and then tell it to F off. After you do that you must accept the fact you will fail. Failing is difficult because we have been brainwashed to believe that failure is the worst thing in the entire world. The reality of it is that we need failure to make sure that we are taking risks. If we aren’t taking risks then we are listening to the lizard. The most important is that we must learn. If you don’t learn than you cannot succeed. You must throw away everything you knew and only learn what you need to learn.

Acknowledging the lizard, Failing, and Learning are three of the layers that I believe are the most important. This blog is something that I do not want to do because I cannot stand writing. I have always been bad at writing because I had the worst english teachers at the most important stages of english. I also know that the lizard is the one telling me all of that. This blog is a perfect way for me to write about things in a creative manner and not just how some teacher told me to write. I am the one making the connection from this blog to the article I just read. This blog is a tool for me to listen to the lizard, and tell him that I can do this. People do not want to take risks because they are afraid to, but the people who are afraid aren’t the ones getting jobs right now. The risk takers and the ones who look the lizard in the face and say “I know what you are saying and I don’t care” are the ones getting jobs. I know that acknowledging the lizard is important to doing well but that does not mean that I will never fail. Failing is part of life. You fail, learn from it, and keep going. If you try your whole life to never fail then you are not taking risks. If you are not taking risks then you can’t be creative. You need to learn that creating art is important. Art that might be laughed at or scoffed over. Art that fails. You need to challenge yourself to things that others are to scared to do. In order to do either of those things you need to learn. I can write this blog like I would solve a math problem but that would be boring and pointless. I need to use the topics of the blog assignments to realize what I need to learn versus what I am being forced to learn. Some parts of school are just school. You learn it because you have to for the test and then you never see it again. You need to look beyond that to figure out what is important to learn. I have learned more in my media classes that I did all throughout high school because they are teaching me what I need for the changing economic climate. Not just making me some stupid drone for societies needs. I’m going to be who I want to be creatively, and not some clockwork orange.

Deconstructing Characters- Spiderman vs Green Goblin

Red and Blue are complimentary to each other from the standpoint of a color wheel, but their meanings are complete opposites. Red is a warm color that stands for strong emotions such as anger, but blue is a cool color that stands for weak emotions such as sadness.  This fits the character of Spiderman. Spiderman has to deal with the conflicts of battling villains, and many emotional conflicts. Soon after he gets his powers his father figure Uncle Ben is killed causing incredible sadness. When he finds out who did it he cannot control his anger and stops the burglar.

I chose a picture of faces covered in half by shadow. The light shows that Spiderman is good and a hero, but he must wear a mask to hide his identity and protect those close to him. He is originally viewed as a villain by the press which causes him to have to stay hidden even more. Though he is a hero he has many dark emotions and struggles that keep him “in the shadows.” His uncles death, his strange relationship with Mary Jane, and the death of his girlfriend Gwen Stacy are only a few of his personal struggles.

Spiderman is rarely shown standing straight up and he always has a triangular shape. The triangle is very fitting for Spiderman because it has many meanings. Some view the triangle as a symbol of God because of the Trinity. This shows Spiderman as someone who is above normal people. It is also viewed as a shape of strength and stability. Pyramids need to have a strong base to stay up and need to stay strong all the way to the top.  Spiderman is a strong hero both physically, wide base, and emotionally, strong all the way up to the top.

The color scheme for the Green Goblin is very clever. Spiderman is red and blue which are 2 of the 3 primary colors. Green is created by mixing blue and yellow, and purple is created by mixing both of Spiderman’s colors red and blue. They have meanings that are very different than Spiderman. Red and blue have negative emotions, but green and purple have positive ones. That is very interesting with Goblin being the villain. Green is the color of nature, fertility, and life and purple is the color of good judgement and peace of mind, and he’s the maniac?

The light of Green Goblin is simple. He is an insane and dark villain. He seems to terrorize spiderman just for fun, and for that he is a dark shadow. Light seems to be almost non-existent unless its the blast and fire from him blowing something up with his pumpkin bombs. There is no good in side of the Goblin. It also fits because of his dark past. His wife died soon after their son is born which causes him to neglect his son and focus on taking more control of OSCORP eventually finding the serum that makes him gain super strength and enhances other attributes. It also causes him to go insane.

The Green Goblin is normally shown as a squared off character to show his dominance over the small and triangular Spiderman. The Green Goblin developed enhanced physical and mental attributes after being splashed by the serum he was working on. It made him physically bigger and stronger unlike Spiderman who stayed relatively small in size. The Green Goblin being older and more mature than Spiderman often gained the upper hand for many of their fights. Spiderman would just barely survive, only to fight him again in the future. The Green Goblin ended up being his own downfall by killing himself on accident with his glider.

FIND YOUR HOWL

Flaum references a story from his fifth grade class. His teacher was a huge jerk and a strict grader. He hated her. There was a project she made them do where they had to write a five page short story. Only one kid got 5 pages. His story was about a tiger who kept trying to escape from a zoo but every night he jumped out of the cage only to show up in a new one. The point was that no matter how many times you jump out of a situation, it will follow you.


"Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness. I'm a lonely soldier off to war. Sent away to die, never quite knowing why. Sometimes it makes no sense at all." Man in the Wilderness by Styx.

This quote speaks to me because it makes me know that there are other people feeling the same way I am. In a creative field such as audio production there are many people using their own creative talents everyday. It is difficult for me, as a college student, to know if my creative talents are good enough to use in my future field. The economy is not doing well and finding a job is very difficult, so I need to figure out a plan for after graduation. The quote uses the analogy of a soldier going to war and does not really know why he is doing so. I see this as a direct comparison to the way I am feeling about being in such a creative field where I don’t exactly have my place yet. There are many of my peers who have been practicing and learning about Media Arts related subjects before they were even in college. I came into it almost completely dry and feel I have a huge disadvantage. I know that I am not alone though which helps. I enjoy being at college and I enjoy Media Arts and Studies, but there is also a part of me that really doesn’t know if college was a good choice. Audio Production is a tricky area because while I am spending a huge amount of money at college learning about it, there are tons of people out there doing it. Spending four years and a lot of money only to find out there are no jobs seems very stupid. I hope the four years spent here will give me a huge upper hand on many of the other people in the Audio Production field. I trust that this program will prepare me for not only Audio Production, but other areas as well.  That way when I graduate I will have many options for a career besides sitting in a studio recording and mixing for bands, or sitting in a bar mixing for crappy local bands. This quote helps me realize that even my favorite musician Tommy Shaw, who gets paid quite a large sum of money just to be creative, felt like I do at one point in his life. This is a strange time of my life and I know that I need to work extremely hard now, so that in the future I can have it easy. Maybe not easy as in simple, but easy as in fun. If I can get a job doing something I love than feeling scared now and working hard is totally worth it. That is easier said than done though. I, being the creative musician I am, would rather sit down and play guitar then write a blog post. Thankfully I was creative enough to use a lyrics from one of my favorite songs, so it would be a little easier to sit down and write. I feel like a man in the wilderness of Ohio University. A creative soldier preparing for the battle of life, and I am scared as hell.