Blog Nine: Freak Factor

Freak Factor, by David Rendall

David Rendall’s, Freak Factor, makes the point that everybody has weaknesses that are a part of them and how they present themselves.  He then mentions that we should take our weaknesses and use them as clues to our strengths.  By doing this, we can find ways to be successful through using our weaknesses to match them to the perfect situations.  Everybody has a weakness, which causes them to be different making them a freak.  Being a freak is a natural and good thing according to Rendall.

Rendall mentions that everyone is ‘Flawless’ and provides a chart that lists strengths and their corresponding weaknesses.  The first one mentioned is that if your strength is being creative, then your weakness is being organized.  I agree with the idea that yes, I am a creative person and happen to be disorganized.  However, I disagree with the fact that being disorganized is a weakness I should embrace.  I feel as though more creativity does come from a more disorganized place at first, but eventually this creativity requires order.  It immediately makes me think of being on set with a crew of people depending on the director of photography for a great image.  As the DP, you are required to know what you want to shoot.  Knowing what you want to shoot requires at first a disorganized mess, but then you have to take that mess and make it organized.  This happens through storyboarding, creating overheads, making shotlists, having an idea of exactly how you would light it and so much more.  You cannot take a thirty-page script and shoot it without taking any of these steps.  You need to know every single shot you want to shoot and what lens will work best to capture the perfect image for a single shot.  There are several steps a DP must take in order to create that great image everyone expects of them.  Organization is key to someone as creative as a DP.  Without organization, they would find themselves in a mess of problems.

Rendall mentions that people should ‘Forget it’ and not fix their weaknesses.  I disagree with that point.  It is very negative.  It’s true that weaknesses are hard to overcome and it is a slow and tough road to recovery, but how could he say to forget everything about your problems and just make them beneficial to your life.  A weakness of mine that is pretty apparent to me is my way of doubting things.  It has been an issue for a while now and is hard to try and overcome, but that is not the goal.  I would like to recognize the issue and make it less a part of me.  My doubt holds me back in life and does not benefit me.  I would never want to use this weakness and make it a strength of mine by having a job that consists of using doubt as an advantage.  It has benefitted me when it comes to being told chugging alcohol is the best way to make it so no one else waits on me so we can go out.  I doubt the fact that chugging alcohol is wise.  That is a benefit to being doubtful, but often times I do not see this weakness of mine strengthening anything in my life.  If someone has a weakness that it pretty small, then yeah, forget it.  However, if you have a weakness that overcomes you and affects how you interact with people and situations, then you should do your best to rid of it.

Later, it discusses, ‘Putting your quirks to work’.  I found myself agreeing with most points in this section.  The first one addresses moving into situations that maximize your strength and make it so it seems as though less energy is being used.  This is a valid point.  I would much rather be in the major I am, than in Psychology.  I am interested in psychology, but there are so many steps that you have to take that would make it hard for me to maintain an interest.  With video production, I am able to keep on trucking because I am constantly working with crews on projects, which makes me feel as though I am working toward something I love doing.  Yes, I am using a lot of energy, but it is energy I don’t mind using.  I found myself disagreeing with the idea of ‘permanent procrastination’.  No matter how hard anyone tries to avoid doing things they don’t want to do, they will always have times where they have to suck it up and face the task at hand.  It’s as if I were to stop being in the Video Production major just because I didn’t like my MDIA 100 class.  You cannot fail any classes in this major, so I would be kicked out of the major if I chose to not do what is presented to me.  Rendall makes a valid point in saying that people should find others who compliment their weaknesses.  It is smart to have people around with strengths in things you might be weak with.  They can help someone work on that weakness subconsciously, or even consciously.

As far as my own creative process goes, I have plenty of weaknesses.  I am creative, but my weakness is being disorganized.  I can be responsible, but face being boring.  I am definitely realistic, but my weakness is being negative as a result.  I am not always assertive, but in some situations I very clearly am, which can cause others to feel intimidated.  I can also be stubborn, however I do not feel it is caused by my dedication necessarily.  There are plenty of things that I could consider weaknesses.  Most are just qualities in my opinion.  They are not all what I would consider to be bad things.  The one that gets the best of be is being realistic.  There have been countless times where I would consider what I am saying to be a realistic factor, yet the people around me inform me that I am being negative and bringing a bad feel to everything.  That is not what I intend to do.  I feel as though I am making a valid point that is pretty important, but sometimes people just do not see it in the light that I do.  It is a weakness of mine that has caused problems with my creative process.  While working on a short feature, A Campaign That Failed, the director of photography, Matt Mantyla who is one of my best friends, enjoyed referring to me as the ‘broken record’ of the crew.  That is not what I want to ever be seen as to people or known as.  It is not a good impression and could easily affect my goals in regard to being successful.  My strongest quality is probably being creative or being responsible.  Being responsible has hindered me at times in regard to having a ton of fun, but at the same time it has kept me out of a lot of trouble and allowed me to have quite a level head, which benefits me quite a bit.

Blog Eight: Brainwashed

Brainwashed, by Seth Godin

Acknowledging the Lizard is facing your fears and dismissing them.  There is something inside humans, that tells us to remain compliant and stick to the protocol (the resistance), but this is what holds us back from letting the creative genius inside us out.

Art is as simple as interacting with others because you may create something new.  Art is a creation made by one or many and takes the risk of being criticized, or having no connection to others.  Risk can lead to success.

One must fail in life in order to make any progress or succeed.  Godin says that present day, we really must acknowledge the lizard and ignore it, and continue to face failure.  No matter it be a large company or just a person presenting a project to their class, failure is likely to occur at some point.  You must be willing to fail publicly in order to grow.

Every single one of these Layers presented by Godin relate to my life along with this blog.  Throughout this quarter, I have honestly had some trouble with the concept of ‘Acknowledging the Lizard’ when it came to presenting the art that I have created along with another partner.  So, acknowledging the lizard, art and failure have played a roll consistently for me.  I know I am not the only one in this world to call myself out on it, but I fear failure more than I would like to admit.  I let my fears hold me back, which suppresses my creativity.  I have always been told that I am wonderful at expressing myself in ways such as this and that I am very creative, but lately, I have felt pretty bland when it comes to what I try to do.  When we had to take a scene and write it out as the script or when we had to draw storyboards, I was even nervous to do that.  I was worried that because I am inexperienced in script writing or if I didn’t make my drawings good enough, that I would face a failing grade for the blog.  Outside of the blog, I have been presented with opportunities to shoot things this quarter, and have found myself handing out excuses to avoid doing it because of my fear of failure.  I honestly do not feel like I know enough, but at the same time you learn through going out and doing it.  This leads me to the fact that I need to change starting now.  Art is one of the best things this world has left.  I would like to confidently say that I contribute to the art that flows throughout this world.  Art has a different meaning to nearly everyone.  It is amazing how much you can find in a simple five-minute clip, or a painting of a woman cooking in a kitchen (long lasting expectations of women), or a man working in an office (long lasting expectations of men).  Art faces fear straight in the face and takes a risk.  It acknowledges the lizard and faces failure head on.  There is no single person in this world that hasn’t failed at some points in life.  Failure helps you grow.  I need to continue to remind myself of this so I go out and create the art that is inside me waiting to be revealed.  These layers are true of how life plays out for people, and I have found that sometimes they hold me back, but it helps me understand to go out and face the fear.  Slowly but surely, I am becoming a better person, artist and student because of these factors.  Every day I am reminded that I cannot let the fear of failure hold me back.  Now is the time to take risks, not later.

Blog Seven: Scene Deconstruction

I chose a scene from, The Big Lebowski.  It is toward the beginning, but plays a large role in providing the entire movie's theme to the audience.  The movie is didactic in the sense that this scene makes it clear that two men with the same name, Mr. Lebowski, have been mixed up and 'The Dude' wants to be compensated for his rug that was peed on by the men looking for the actual Mr. Lebowski.  The part that makes it active is why people are searching to take money from Mr. Lebowski.  There are multiple options that people assume as to why money is on the line.

Focusing on movement, I noticed that one of the types of movement, point of interest, was used nearly the entire scene.  They kept the subject(s) in the middle of the screen the entire time once they sat down to talk.  Both of the Lebowski's were sitting in chairs having a discussion, and through point of interest, i noticed that my eyes  just barely moved between each cut.  The only difference was a matter of height.  Mr. Lebowski was placed a slight bit higher, while The Dude was lower because he was slouched over in the chair.  I believe they did this to show that Mr. Lebowski is more proper and rich, so his better posture and higher stance shows that he has dominance over The Dude.

Paying attention to shape in the scene above, I noticed that Mr. Lebowski has a rectangular shaped face.  I believe this represents the fact that he is a man with a harsh personality.  Mr. Lebowski is a rich and powerful man, yet faces being in a wheel chair due to the loss of his legs in a war.  In this scene, he makes it clear that, "I didn't blame anyone for the loss of my legs, some Chinamen took them from me in Korea, but I went out and achieved anyway!"  I feel this captures his personality pretty quickly within one statement.  As for The Dude, his facial shape is is semi circular and I think his hair helps add to his facial shape.  I feel his flowing hair and circular face represent that he is a loose and cool-headed kind of guy.

Blog Six: Animation Deconstruction

Image One

Image Two

For this assignment, I chose two still images from the animated movie, Despicable Me.  The two topics I focused on within these images were color and lighting.

Within image one, the colors are completely split, giving it two different focuses.  As for image two, the colors are more evenly distributed, even though there are many.  Image one has dark, gloomy colors on the left, while on the right everything is bright and stands out.  The hue within image one is darker shades of gray and purple along with the yellow shade of grass, along with less saturation.  These colors are complimentary to one another.  On the other side of the yard, the hue is a split analogous color scheme.  This is because the yellow, red and green all manage to blend very well.  Also, the saturation is very high.  While looking at image two in regard to hue, saturation and value…there is a lot more to look at with a more even distribution.  Purple is prominent throughout the image.  Some of the purple stands out and some is dark and gloomy like normal, representing the villain.  The yellow wall compliments the purple distributed throughout the picture.  There are other complimentary colors like red and blue on one of the woman as well.  Between image one and image two, I noticed complimentary colors like purple and yellow were used in both.  Purple is also a very common hue used.  The value of the purple is used in a similar way with the darker shades in both images.  Both images have use of high saturation in some areas.

As for lighting within these images, the largest difference would be the natural lighting in image one versus the fluorescent lighting in image two.  You’ll notice harsher shadows in image one contrasting with image two where the shadows are more subtle.  In regard to the direction of the light, that is also different between these images.  The sun in image one creates a vertical direction of light, while the lights in the second image are going in a horizontal direction.  Both images have a nice, even diffusion of light for the most part.  Even though in image one, the shadows are harsher, the light is still quite even because of the sun.  Each image tries to create a happy emotion mixed with a gloomy emotion through use of darker colors and brighter colors.

Overall, I noticed that Despicable Me did a nice job of sticking to a certain color palette and using it affectively.  It is an enjoyable animation that I would suggest to watch.

Blog Five: Storyboard Imitation

This scene from, The Big Lebowski, is very intense with a decent amount of movement at the beginning.  It is a chaotic moment in the movie that establishes the beginning of its story.  After watching the scene carefully, I paid attention to the 180-degree rule, the rule of thirds and the rule of thirty. 

Focusing on the 180-degree rule first, I could not find any shots that transitioned into the next that broke the 180-degree rule.  Directors, Ethan and Joel Coen, along with the Director of Photography, Roger Deakins, played it safe.  They made some transitioning shots that were close to being 180 degrees, but nothing broke this rule.

Every shot that was broken down from this scene stuck to the rule of thirds.  There were a couple shots that purposely messed with the rule of thirds a bit to provide more symbolism within the shot.   The second shot kept the focus on the two characters in the middle of the frame.  This is within the borders of the rule of thirds, but makes it so your eyes go against your nature of usually looking to the left.  You focus on what is in the middle instead.  The last shot did the same exact thing with a separate character.  Its purpose was to show the dominance of this character.  The audience should feel a bit of a threat when watching this shot.  Again, the Coen Brothers chose to play it safe.

Lastly, comes the rule of thirty.  As each shot transitions from one to the next, none of them broke this rule.  Every shot was changed by well over thirty degrees.

The Big Lebowski provides the audience with an affective scene.  Ethan and Joel Coen, along with Roger Deakins, chose to stick to the rules that have been used by many professionals for years.

Blog Four: Song Deconstruction

Bon Iver-Skinny Love

LISTENING FRAMEWORK

                                              SONG: Skinny Love by Bon Iver

LISTENING PHASE 1 (Rhythm)

Source— The guitar and later the bass drum along with stomping and clapping.

Time/Tempo— Somewhere between Adante and Moderato

Groove— Light, flow

LISTENING PHASE 2 (Arrangement)

Instrumentation— Guitar, bass drum, stomping, clapping

Structure/Organization— Intro/Verse/Verse/Chorus/Verse/Repeat Chorus/Verse/Finale

Emotional Architecture— Builds overtime by adding something other than guitar and his voice by adding in bass drum, clapping and stomping.  Adds more than just a simple guitar riff and becomes louder on the chorus along with stronger singing.

LISTENING PHASE 3 (Sound Quality)

Balance

 -        Height— Low chords mixed with higher chords to create nice balance. Has a higher singing voice.

 -        Width— Longer bass tone of chord on guitar and most prominent in left ear (panned left). Quite balanced overall.

 -        Depth— Makes guitar loudest at points to keep bass in background and sometimes reverses.

Childish Gambino- I Got This Money

LISTENING FRAMEWORK

SONG: I Got This Money by Childish Gambino

LISTENING PHASE 1 (Rhythm)

Source— Bass drum, bass guitar, synth

Time/Tempo— Allegro

Groove— Pulse, behind the beat (the synths  are mixing behind the bass in the beginning and throughout piece)

LISTENING PHASE 2 (Arrangement)

Instrumentation— Bass drum and general drums, bass guitar, synths, guitar, chimes

Structure/Organization— Intro/Chorus/Verse 1/Bridge/Chorus/Verse 2/Bridge/Chorus/Finale

Emotional Architecture— Builds up to verse two and then afterwards goes back to a less climactic song, but then builds back up after the last chorus in the finale.

LISTENING PHASE 3 (Sound Quality)

Balance

-     Height— Chimes high, voice is high and some synths are high while the bass drum and guitar are very low, along with some of the synths.

-     Width— The guitar part on the bridge is a bit more panned to the right. Overall, the song has a natural panning sound due to the synths, but it is actually quite balanced between the right and left.

-     Depth— The bass drum is most powerful at the beginning and then the pulses of the synth become louder. Later on the Synths layer over the chimes. Also, the guitar is most prominent in the chorus and then the drums layer over the guitar. There are some vibes on the last chorus that are strongest and suddenly the synth and drumset take over. A lot of depth was given naturally through the synths as well.

“Skinny Love” by Bon Iver and “I Got This Money” by Childish Gambino are extremely different from one another.  There are a couple comparisons that can be made between the two.  They relate to each other when it comes to melody.

Each melody sounds different overall, but when you break them down into components, there are similarities.  Both songs are very catchy.  I have found myself walking around singing them more times than I can count.  Along with being catchy, they are simple to sing.  The melody is something you can hum along to or sing to if you know the words.  These songs are very simple in regard to the melody alone.  They have higher range melodies for the most part.  “Skinny Love” is a bit lower, but they are not at a low range. 

In every other regard, I find the songs to contrast a lot.  The lyrics in “Skinny Love” are meaningful with a strong message behind them.  Bon Iver requires the listener to give it some thought, while Childish Gambino sings about the fact that he has money and wants to spend it on a woman.  “I Got This Money” is repetitive whereas “Skinny Love” is more complex.

Both songs have almost opposite musical quality.  “Skinny Love” is a slower-paced song with regular and simple rhythm.  The intensity is soft during the verses, and loud during the chorus.  The pitch of the song is pretty moderate.  It has moments where it is higher, but is something I would consider to stick within the middle range.  The timbre of the song is very simple and balanced.  It has normal pitches and not much panning.  “I Got This Money” is opposite of these qualities.  The speed of the song is fast, allegro.  The rhythm of the song compliments itself.  The bass in the song is regular, while the synth sounds are irregular.  It is very loud for the most part.  The pitch of the song is high overall, but the bass drives the song forward for the most part.  Its timbre is complex.  The synths allow for a natural panning between right and left and the pitches of the song are high and low.  As for the organization, it is pretty sporadic, but can be followed lyrically.

“Skinny Love” and “I Got This Money” are on two sides of the spectrum.  Not to mention they are different types of music.

Blog Three: Reflections on Sound Design

Where's the money, Lebowski?

This scene from, The Big Lebowski, has a way of building suspicion and making the audience feel as if they were invaded upon very quickly.  When listening to the audio of this scene, it uses causal sounds as well as referential sounds.  It goes from silence to pure chaos within a split second.  The audience hears sounds they would expect when they see the Dude’s satchel slams into the wall, destroying it as he flies past.  When the Dude is practically being drowned in the toilet, the water bubbles and when he is lifted, the water splashes everywhere and he gasps for air just like anyone would expect.  A referential use of sound that stood out to me was right away when the man that attacked the Dude began screaming like a maniac.  This was done to make the audience feel panic and a possible adrenaline rush.

            We are given the illusion in the start of this scene that there is more sound than there really is.  The only sounds you hear are the attacker yelling, the Dude yelling, running and slamming.  Yet, when you hear it you feel as though it is an invasion with more than two people causing all of that sound.  The intensity of the start of the scene has little to no sound, just white noise and then jumps to using very high volume once the Dude is attacked.  When the Dude is told he is married, the pitch of his voice becomes higher due his disbelief that the attackers can’t see he is clearly single.  The Big Lebowski uses realistic sound that the audience can relate to.