Evening Wishes - An H&M Production

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sQkuM_Lq1u0o

Blog # 4 Choose A Clip "Silver Linings Playbook"

One of my favorite films, the camera follows Jennifer Lawrence as she goes to throw out a few books, then cuts to her hand throwing it out the door in a low perspective shot from outside and we see the items flying at the camera. The brightness outside and inside levels do not seem so different, exposure-wise.  It cuts back to her walking back in the room from where she was just walking out and the camera tracks her in a medium-close-up shot as she walks toward the male actor(Bradley Cooper) because the frame size of the actress does not change.  The camera does not exactly shake, but it is never exactly still because it moves up and down or right and left about 1mm/second.  I believe that this technique is used so that when the camera follows the actor to keep them in the center f the frame it is not so much of a contrast, however this creates tension as well. I feel that I have a personal relationship with each of the actors because most of the shots capture the actors from the waist up.  When Bradley Cooper's friend leads him away from his partner, the camera follows Bradley Cooper as he is initially isolated from his partner to create the mood of loneliness from Bradley's perspective as opposed to capturing the fulfillment in his friend who finds a dance partner.  The camera has a lot of shots which close up on individuals and in a sense it we are given permission to see what the actor is seeing.  The difference between actors socializing is the camera angles which capture feet, hips and head shots whereas the shots in which the actors simply speak only contain an image from the chest up essentially.  Although there are many quick cuts, I would say the majority of this scene uses various individual shots that span up to 3 seconds each which I believe is relatively long enough to experience the film as a person would rather than an audience member. The shots are really enjoyable to watch because they convey a close interaction with the actors that normally one may not have on a day-to-day basis.

Codes and Modes with Brian Winston

Codes and Modes: A conference about contemporary documentary exposed me to a genre, obscure, rewarding and informative.  Discussing on the ideals of documentary, guest speakers unlocked a new understanding in the art of documentary.  Guest speaker Brian Winston, a native of Britain shared his words on various pieces of footage whereby he addressed the art of documentary as a whole.  Starting with “Cannibal Tours,” a film about Stone Age men in New Guinea in the present era, Winston analyzes the director’s intentions, despite his empathy with his protagonists, the director reveals the stereotype in which we objectify and dehumanize people from an unknown culture. His documentary demands that we see the humanity in his subjects whom he develops a relationship with in the unraveling of his production.  Winston’s remarks address how a camera has the power to manipulate and reinforce an image we perceive in everyday life although it is not necessarily a good thing.  Reiterating his concern for documentary success, he says, “it’s a curious business we’re all in.” Going down the chart of top documentary productions in the world, going down the list, by time you get to 150, the productions are not making their production value money.  There are various documentary production techniques, such as reenactment stories and representative works which Winston calls a “jaded audience assumption,” triggering an audience despite the story’s realism to gain desire by viewers while the content has lost its quality.  The manipulation of images enforced by digital technologies create and duplicate images, while adding to the quality, at the same time it steals the stand-alone evidence of its believability  as a true image as opposed to an edit.  Documentary production is a challenge in this day, however it is so extravagant that there may be an area for you that has yet to be covered. Documentarys' strive for realism and persuasion result in a complex moving image digitalizing data which otherwise does not exist.  It gives us the opportunity to perceive another’s work, and shape our individual interpretations. 

Sound interview with Kristina

My peer, Kristina Beverly was just another student in my class before I had the privilege to interview her.  She opened up to me about her  youth, growing up, switching to multiple schools which led to her encounter with her present day best friend.  I did not expect this interview to go as well as it did and found our conversation inspiring.

https://soundcloud.com/user8889256/interview-assignment

Sound cycle

As I cycled down Park ave. I closed my eyes for a second and all I could heard were the sounds of cars whistling by.  In a city where there is traffic all hours of the clock it seems that all you hear are the sound of cars. I took my bike downtown and listened for the keynotes of cars starting up and slowing down.  You could hear the engine starting up louder then, than it did if the car was going at a consistent pace.  As I head in the direction of traffic, the sound of cars passing in my direction sounded in the wind and it was a much smoother sound than the cars passing in the other direction.  At one point, when there were multiple cars driving at the same pace it sounded beautiful, like the sound of rain in the city with traffic outside.  I could hear sound marks from larger trucks in the distant area that were audible from a block away, some were louder than others. And in the insides of trucks I could hear the sounds of objects banging as the vehicles, usually trucks, moved along the road.  As I changed neighborhoods onto a more vibrant street, the sounds grew louder with traffic as I witnessed an unusually large cluster of traffic for 9 pm. As I passed people walking along the sidewalks, I could hear sounds of people laughing, a baby crying, and the usual sounds of people talking to one another but they were not loud enough to understand.  I came to the corner of the street where a bar stood and I could hear the loud sound of people socializing and networking.  The keynote sounds were some beat that nobody was acknowledged absentmindedly.  I heard a few cars honking at each other.  As I waited for the light to change, I heard a man walking by with headphones and an iphone tap his leg loud enough for me to notice.  I heard people yelling at one another in a street until they were close enough to whisper.  I could even hear the sounds of conversations among people inside their cars.  And footsteps, many footsteps.  I heard a man scuffing his shoes as he carried plastic bags of groceries which made sounds as they brushed against his leg while walking with them.  As I had expected the obvious sounds were easily identifiable, but the wind and distant sounds were not so keen on my hearing unless I focused to them and was able to clock out the close sound signals.

my participation in the editing exhibit @ the museum of moving image of queens, ny

My experience in the editing exhibit was more elaborate than just looking at the cuts from shot to shot.  We looked at the sound edits of sound produced by Foley artists, musicians, and actors in the scene.  The background sound implemented to a shot has an effect whether it adds or takes away from a shot, can change the way an image is perceived.  We noticed how once music was added to the shot's audio that there was a clear reaction of distress in the scene by the actors and we, the viewers felt more involved in the scene.  Then we looked at the audio alone and it had a different effect on our perception of the scene.  Now when we looked at the scene, the scene was a background image without sound, the music was now the sole subject of our experience.

The technology used for sound enhancement has enhanced vastly.  Now we have Foley artists creating sound effects for actors and for objects that would normally make these sounds in an environment depicted in that given scene.  By making these fabricated sounds whether by breaking a celery stick to depict the sound of human bones breaking, or dropping a chair with potatoes tied to it to make the sound of a girl with heels jumping a couple feet, these effects trick our ears into thinking we are hearing what we are seeing and this gives us viewers a much higher quality experience in enjoying a particular production.  Sound pieces can be edited individually on the same platform visually.  The experience of film is more engaging than ever now that the qualities of color, sound and size definition have all been implemented and enhanced.  Although virtually unnoticed,  the moving image displays many hidden effects in the exhibition of its work that all but make the experience more desirable.

a still of our educator demonstrating the visual impacts of sound editing in a film. Here we are watching "the titanic" with the addition of various sound pieces and without them

Voice Interview of Dean Semler

https://vimeo.com/65631422

The world renowned Dean Semler discusses his career from its beginning.  He is a man of great magnitude and this interview captures his voice and only his, giving the listener a personal experience as he opens up and shares with us his most humble roles as a worker in the industry.