Le Bar & What's Your Number W/ Comparison and Contrast

Alright, so we had to do a joke video based on the same joke. Our group chose this joke:

"A very shy guy goes into a bar and sees a beautiful woman sitting at the bar. After an hour of gathering up his courage, he finally goes over to her and asks, tentatively, 'Um, would you mind if I chatted with you for a while?' She responds by yelling, at the top of her lungs, 'NO! I won't sleep with you tonight!' 

Everyone in the bar is now staring at them. 

Naturally, the guy is hopelessly and completely embarrassed and he slinks back to his table.

After a few minutes, the woman walks over to him and apologizes. She smiles at him and says, "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. You see, I'm a graduate student in psychology, and I'm studying how people respond to embarrassing situations."

To which he responds, at the top of his lungs, 'What do you mean $200?!'"

So each of us wrote a script based off this joke, and Erin's and my script were chosen to be filmed. In regards to affinity between the two videos, we both used character movement in our videos, mostly because we were not allowed to move the camera around with the person. We had to use this to keep the audience's interest and show reality. We both used the same type of space by using limited space to show the context of the situation and to keep true to the joke. Thirdly, we both also used tension and release by showing him being rejected in an awful way, but then being able to get back at her at the end, ending with a good release of the tension.

As for the contrast we both had different genres. Mine was more slapstick comedy, as for Erin's her's was film noir. We used the same joke as a basis, but we both took spins off of it with mine adding in different jokes added to the jokes, and her's was more on a serious note besides the actual joke. Erin did use more shapes because of the hats and the subtle differences on how she showed the characters.

In the end we made the decision we all liked Erin's video better, due to it stayed truer to the original joke, and was put together well. It was one of the funnest projects and probably the most time I spent on one of the projects with a group that large.

Video Game Imagery

How to Be Creative

How to Be Creative! Please Click!

Oh, Inception.

Inception Hallway Fight Scene
  

Reimagining Visual Framing (cont'd)

I'm back with another continue due to for some odd reason blogger is not allowing me to write below the pictures or videos I post unless it screws up the alignment of them. But anyways, I will continue to the reason behind this post.

The previous image by Sally Mann I was originally drawn to because it's an image I have seen before. Also, the image itself is quite interesting because of a little girl smoking a cigarette with other children near, including one on stilts. It was such a random object in the background.

But to tell you why I framed the image the way I did, was to focus more on the girl. I changed the shot type from a medium shot to a more of a medium close up to take away the background of the child on stilts, because I honestly don't need it. I also kept in mind the rule of thirds when re-framing it, to put more focus on her face. Her face tells a story and automatically you are drawn to her face. Also, because of depth cues, the little girl who is smoking in the image "pops" out in the picture, because darker tones recede, while lighter tones advance.

In contrast, the two pictures show almost two different subjects, because of the way it was framed. The child on stilts hits part of the rule of thirds area, and the subject of my re-frame is in it completely. The affinity of this is the fact that it is the same exact picture, just zoomed in to focus more on the girl smoking. There are the same colors, same people, same everything, just zoomed in, in the re-framed image. 

There seems to be some text and subtext in the image. For instance, the picture's text shows mainly how a little girl is smoking a cigarette with a girl standing next to her, and a person in the back on stilts. In the subtext, it can mean many different things. Two things mainly pop out to me, is the feeling the girls and the person on stilts is part of a circus, or for some reason, it almost feels like it's war time, such as World War II, I think due to the fact that it's in black and white and a little girl is smoking a cigarette.

Whatever your opinion is on this picture, it can be correct, it's just up to you on whether or not you believe yourself. The way a picture is taken, is creating differences in the story it tells, so think about that next time you take a picture at a party or at a family gathering.

Reimagining Visual Framing

Original

Re-Framed

Audio Commentary of Music

Artists I Reviewed:

Meng, Li's Song

Andrew's Song

Brainwashed!

Brainwashed! Download it! It is not a virus I promise! Have I failed you before?


Alright so, I was actually quite interested in this manifesto right from the beginning of reading it. There were quite a few points that were more influential points in what he calls the seven layers. Two of them, Acknowledging the Lizard and Make Art. Both of them almost spoke to me.

The author, Seth Godin, made good points in these layers. For Acknowledging the Lizard, the main point is to realize that you have a voice in the back of your head telling you to take it safe, and to not put yourself out there. But you have to resist it. In Make Art he explains how art is creating the uncreated. Anything that you create that hasn't been created is art, and that is an extreme risk to a lot of people.

Both of these layers Godin tells us about really applies to me in my creative journey. I am always worried about money, and how the future will look. I have to take risks, acknowledge I have a lizard that's telling me to run, run, run, but not listen to it. Because when all is said in done, this is what I want to do, and the risk is worth it.

Making art is just so simple that it should be common knowledge, but so many of us forget about it. We are always taught to think logically, and that is my fallibility, not everything makes sense in life. This blog has almost become my voice, my creative voice, though not necessarily the best way to do it, everything we have to blog about have so many guidelines, it almost feels like we don't have a creative process. We can't just talk about our favorite band and explain how our band is the best using audio terms, or why we think our favorite movie deserves and Oscar, but I think this is one of the best ways to be at least a little creative, especially when logic is still in our education system.  These blogs have made me think and become a better artists, and hopefully, this is the beginning of a new life with art, creativity, and life in general.