Blog 9

http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/45.02.FreakFactor

I think that Rendell's suggestion “Fix It” is a very valid one. There is no reason why you should fix your own weaknesses. We all can't be good at everything. It makes us human. It makes us who we are. Our weaknesses define our personality. If we were all good at everything and had no weakness where is the fun in that? Competition would be boring. People watch sporting events saying they hope to see an even matched game/match. But that isn't true. That is far from the truth. People watch sports games/matches so they can watch whichever team/person they are rooting for destroy the opposition. If a Cleveland Browns fan watches his team obliterate the Pittsburgh Steelers he/she wouldn't complain that is wasn't a very competitive and close game. No, they would we celebrating and be ecstatic to see their team put on such a performance. It is also true that nobody likes working on their weaknesses. I will try to implement this idea into my Creative Life by letting me weaknesses show and not caring at all. I will let people exploit my weaknesses and in return I will let my strengths take over. If I get put in a group for a project I will make sure I don't get put in a position that corresponds to a weakness. I will make sure to get into a position that I like and I am good at. Everybody likes to excel at something. It makes us happy and installs in us self-esteem.

I believe Rendell's suggestion “Foundation” is a very valid one as well. We should build upon our strengths. That is the only way we can get better as a professional and as an individual. If we focus too long on fixing weaknesses we seem to forget about our strengths and let the pass us by. Having strengths and being good at something makes people more pleasant in general. I know that if I had a good game in football or basketball I become more happy and pleasant throughout the week. Also we should focus on strengths because those are the only areas where we can grow and reach our true potential. I have heard very few stories of people having a glaring weakness but then working on it and making it into their best strength. Strengths let people with natural abilities and god given talents shine. They allow people to realize what they are good. If you have an overwhelming and incredible strength then nobody will care about the corresponding weakness. I am gonna try to incorporate this into my life by just focusing on nothing but my strengths. If I don't like it and I am not good at it then why should I bother. It just will make my life miserable. I am going to try to maximize my talents to get better and better. Nobody gets to be extraordinary by having mediocre abilities. You have to utilize you strengths and continue to develop them all the time.

And also I think that Rendell's suggestion of “Fit In” is a valid one too. I really liked the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer example that Rendell gave. I had always just sang the song with no meaning to it. It is a Christmas song so every holiday season I would hear it and sing the words with no true care for the actual meaning it possesses. You have to find a place to fit in. Whether it is in school, at your job, or just in society in general you have to find your own place in it. Why would you want to be around a group of people who only focus on your weaknesses and make you look bad? Why would you want to be at a job that shows how bad you are at it? Simple, you don't. If you can find the right friends and right environment then you can really become happy and begin to focus on your skill set. For me I think it is all about finding the right situation. I know my weaknesses and I know that I just have to wait for the right time to come when they become strengths. Until that time I will continue to utilize my strengths as much as possible. I wouldn't suggest looking for a situation where your weaknesses can excel. I would say look for a situation where you don't have a weakness and just a strength. That is when you will find how much of a difference you can really make.

I have found numerous strengths and weaknesses that I have in the creative process. I know for one that a weakness is that I am not the type of person who likes to be organized. I try sometimes to organize things but it just isn't who I am. I like being messy. I think a strength would have to be how I like to write. But it can't be about something boring. It has to be something that intrigues me and gives me a lot of opinions to express in my writing. I can be very creative most of the time. I really am surprised at the things I find myself coming up with. I like to incorporate things in my past into the things I write about because it makes it a lot more personal and allows the reader to understand where I am coming from as a writer. It sort of brings them to my point of view. Another weakness I would have to say I have is that I tend to procrastinate things a lot. This makes things much more harder for me. But a strength for procrastinating could be is that I tend to do my best work when my back is against the wall. This is a very good strength to have. This means that when I am put in a tough spot I almost always seem to not only find my way out but do so in record time. I excel when the going gets tough and others get going. 

Blog 8

http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/66.01.Brainwashed

“Acknowledging the Lizard” is about recognizing that voice in your head that tells you to follow the status quo and the social norm for fear of being laughed at. This is the part of you that wants you to just follow instructions. “Make Art” is about making a difference or making something new that can change everything.You don't follow instructions, you just use your creativity to create something that can connect with someone else. It isn't necessarily a song, poem, or painting but anything really that hasn't been created before. Lastly, “Fail” isn't telling you not to fail, but to embrace failing. Failing at something just makes you learn more from it. Instead of worrying about the risk just go for it and if you fail just accept it, learn and move on.

The article “Brainwashed: Seven Ways to Reinvent Yourself” by Seth Godin I got to say is a brilliant one. It makes you as a reader think in ways you don't normally think or for some people necessarily want to think. It displays ideas that not only try to “un-brainwash” you also help you too. Never have I realized how brainwashed we all are and have been for all our lives. I for one must say that this article has greatly changed the way I now am going to approach my life and I too will try and reinvent myself.

The first layer I will talk about is the one entitled “Make Art”. Godin compares art to a gift which I fully agree it is. As I have believed for years, I don't think art is necessarily a beautiful poem or an incredible painting, or a catchy and meaningful song. It can be those things but isn't limited to them. As Godin says, art is anything that makes a difference. You don't follow rules to make art. There isn't any handbook that holds the only possible known ways to make art. While creating these Blogs we have to be aware to try and make it art. Use our own words to try and make a difference to others.

Next is the layer called “Fail”. Personally this one was the most eye opening. Everyone in life has always told me never to accept failure. Now Godin is telling me to fail and fail often and in public. Which I happen to believe is awesome. You have to be able to accept and endure failing because everything you do is not going to be a success. If you can accept failing and learn from it often then you will succeed sooner or later. In our blogs we can't be afraid to fail because when we fail, we can learn from our mistakes.

And my personal favorite layer is “Acknowledge the Lizard”. The “lizard” is the voice in your head that tells you to be a follower and not do anything that could cause embarrassment, failure, or people to laugh at you. You have to recognize when the “lizard” is talking to you. You have to be fearless to create the best art. So once you recognize the “lizard” you have to ignore it. So when we make our blogs we have to do whatever we are supposed to without the thought of people laughing at the work you do. 

Blog 7

The theme of the movie Friday Night Lights is that in life you can't always win. This theme is portrayed in the scene I posted. Boobie Miles was a sensational running back for his high school football team but then got hurt and the injury ended not only his high school career but his college one before it even started. This is a didactic scene because you see the sadness in the car when Boobie and his father are crying.

This scene from Friday Night Lights uses shape and space very well to portray the overall theme of the movie which is you can't go undefeated in life because mistakes happen.

In the beginning when Boobie Miles is cleaning out his locker the camera movements are very shaky which I believe can symbolize what is going on inside Boobie. His feelings are very shaky and unstable because of his injury. You can then see actual and virtual lines when his teammates are looking at him then because of shame they look at the ground. Actual lines are shown by the lockers and the doors in the background. Even when they cut to the shot of the coaches in their office they have a mesh of vertical and horizontal lines. There is also the use of virtual lines which are the lines from Boobie's eyes to his teammates. And when his teammates look away you notice the virtual lines disappear.

After the locker room they go to the parking lot where Boobie's father is waiting in his car to pick Boobie up. When Boobie is walking out you notice the mixture of horizontal and vertical lines with the brick wall, fence, and the bleachers. That shot also creates a sense of deep space with the bleachers all the way in the background. Symbolizes that he is walking away from football and a big future and then he walks into the tiny car. Then you see Boobie crying through the crack of the window between the window and car. Then the last two shots are important. The first one is a long shot of them in the car. Then the last one is a very long shot of them in the car of an empty parking lot to show how alone him and his dad really are now.

Blog 6

Balto : Picture 1

 Picture 2

 The two pictures I chose are taken from the movie “Balto”. The movie is about an outcast half-wolf that goes on a journey to try and save his town. As a kid this was one of not only my favorite animated movies but movies in general.But now looking back at it and taking this course and learning what I have I can now figure out what the animators were trying to make the audience feel with every scene based on the colors and lighting they used.

The first picture is one of Balto trying to save the medicine from falling off a cliff. The color used in this picture is very important to the movie. They used the hues of gray, brown and even black for the colors of the dogs. This is so the dogs do not really stand out from one another. But what really makes Balto stand out from the other dogs is that his eyes are yellowish gold. This puts him in the spotlight and makes you focus your attention on him and his eyes. The background has a pinkish hue which makes the dogs stand out from the background. The box of medicine however is golden with red writing on it to symbolize its importance. The brightness of the medicine box draws your attention to it to make you realize that this is precious cargo. The side of the cliff has a slight shadow to it to maybe symbolize that if this glowing medicine falls it will go into a dark abyss. The overall mood is shocking and makes you want to know what happens next.

The second picture is of Balto and of two of his dog friends on the sled. The hues are still the same for the dogs being gray and brown. But the background is a lot darker and more mysterious and chaotic. The only thing that is bright is Balto's eyes which draw your attention to let you know that he is not exactly sure where to go. The shadow of the trees in the background just makes the picture look more dangerous for Balto. The overall mood of this picture is very dark and suspenseful.  

Blog 5

Storyboard

Overhead view

 The movie “Pulp Fiction” is one of my favorite movies of all time. One big reason is because director Quentin Tarantino does a tremendous job with the dialogue of the characters but also the way he chooses and sets up each shot throughout the movie. I think that he did a great job directing the scene I chose because he followed every rule there is. There is the 180 degree rule which means the camera should not cross this imaginary 180 degree line for continuity purposes. There is the Rule of Thirds which means the screen is broken up into thirds and characters and objects that are important are placed in the intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines.. And there is the 30 Rule which are used to avoid a jump cut in which when changing camera positions move your camera at least 30 degrees or change the size of the image in your camera by at least 30 percent.

He starts off with John Travolta's character in the center of the shot to really have him stand out. Then he moves Travolta to one of the crosshairs of the Rule of Thirds. Samuel L. Jackson's character is put in the left crosshairs and the man on the chair is in the lower right crosshairs to show Jackson is in control of the situation. Tarantino breaks the 180 degree rule but since he moves the camera and establishes a new 180 degree line so it doesn't matter. Also Tarantino didn't really need to avoid any jump cuts so the 30 Rule does not really apply.

So overall Tarantino does not break any of the rules and utilizes everything to make a great scene. Tarantino is one of the best directors in Hollywood and obviously knows how to follow the rules and to generate any emotion he wants from the audience by setting up each shot in certain ways.

Blog 4 Song Deconstruction "Hey Ya"

Original Song: Hey Ya by Outkast

Mat Weddle Covers Hey Ya by Outkast 

 I decided to listen to and compare and contrast one of my favorite songs. That is the song “Hey Ya” by the group Outkast. I am comparing it to the cover that Mat Weddle of the band Obadiah Parker made and posted on Youtube. The cover has over 8 million views on Youtube while the original song has almost 14 million views. While both are the same song and very popular they are also very different as well.

Since they are the same song that also means the lyrics are the same as well. But the way that each singer sings the lyrics is very different. Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000) from Outkast is very upbeat and fluid in the way he uses the lyrics. He uses a combination of singing, rapping, and at some parts just talking throughout the song. While Mat Weddle of Obadiah Parker really sings the lyrics throughout the whole song. The tempo of the original is a lot faster than the tempo of the cover. But the source from both songs is the same as the acoustic guitar is where the rhythm is coming from. The groove of the original song is upbeat and funky while the cover song is more chill and mellow. Instrumentation is similar too because the guitar drives each song as well even though the original also uses the drums. The structure of both songs are practically the same since they are the same song. But the emotional architecture is a little different. While both don't have much builds or drops they have different tone to them. The original is higher frequency compared to the lower frequency of the cover. Both songs also had low width with little to no panning. But the depth of the original is a lot deeper than the cover considering the cover only uses a guitar. The rhythm of the original is a lot faster and upbeat than the cover which is slow and relaxing. The original also has a higher intensity than the cover which has a very low intensity. The pitch of the original is a lot higher than the cover which has a low pitch.

The song I like better is the original because it is one of my favorite songs. Plus because it is more upbeat and fun to listen to.

Blog Assignment Scene

Pulp Fiction
SCENE FOR PROJECT LINK:
Pulp Fiction - sequence 25:17

 Overall I feel like this scene is a great representation of the film. Not to mention it is probably one of my favorite scenes from any movie of all time. It has everything in it. There is humor, action, and drama in it. Quentin Tarantino does and incredible job using sound and dialogue in this scene and in the movie itself. Of course Tarantino is known for his unbelievable ability to create interesting and endless amounts of dialogue. Also his ability to use music perfectly to get a certain feeling from each scene. Its something that I hope to understand when I work in the movie business.

As I said before Tarantino utilizes sound very well in this scene. The loudness of the gun shots and unexpectedness of them make the audience jump and get caught off guard. This is because the gun shot is a causal sound. This means it is the literal sound of a gun firing. If he tried using anything else to represent a gun firing it wouldn't have worked. Also it uses figure and ground well when showing them shooting Brett and Roger. That way the viewer gets the full effect and emotion of the action.