Track

I am making up my post for my photo essay because my first idea was not a good one. For this project, I wanted to show the different aspects of running a race. I wanted to portray the different views from a runners aspect. I showed what they looked at as they were beginning the race along with what they had to actually run. I then took a few pictures from the audiences perspective, showing most of the track in these photos. By taking the pictures from different angles, I tried to show different perspectives of running on a track. I also took the pictures in the morning, because that is when most track races take place. One of the pictures is a picture of the straight away, and I like this picture because it gives a good perception of debt and how long the track actually is.

Blowup

Blowup is a 1966 British-Italian film about a fashion photographer Thomas. He starts to get bored at his photo shoot and walks off, leaving the models to themselves. As he leaves the studio, two aspiring models ask to speak with him, but he does not show any interest in them. He then begins to wander around a park, where he takes pictures of a mysterious couple. He is then caught by the woman that he is watching and taking picture of. She demands him to give her the photos because they reveal something that she does not want anyone to know; she is having an affair with another man. She eventually goes to his house where he hands her a blank roll instead, so he can further analyze the pictures he has taken. He finds that he has caught a man being murdered in his picture and is amazed. The two girls return to his studio to be with Thomas for a while. Thomas cannot stop thinking about the earlier events of the day, so he sends them away and goes back to the park. Once he gets back, all of his photos are taken and destroyed. He goes to a party and finds the lady that he filmed in the park and his agent, who he wants to show the body he found to. He goes back to the park alone to find that the body is no longer there.

Before watching the film, I did not really know what to expect. I had read some articles on what it was about and was not very interested. After watching the film, I found something that really interests me was that there is very little dialogue through the whole movie; the story is told through pictures. The movie ends with Thomas watching mime artists play tennis. This entire film shows how pictures are worth a thousand words. There is so little dialogue, yet you still know exactly what is going on in the story. I also like how the pictures that he take are in black and white. This dark grey color makes the pictures seem more mysterious and like they are hiding something. It goes along with the fact that they are hiding the evidence of a murder scene. One thing that I did not like about the movie was the sexual scene between the two girls and Thomas. I did not really understand completely what was going on between then because at first, the girls seemed very distant. After they were extremely loud and rough when they were flirting with him; it seemed very unnatural to me and their loud screams were irritating.

Game Point

For this project, we decided to film one minute of American University’s Volleyball team. During our different shots, we rotated the camera to catch the game from different angles. We tried to show the beginning when they first start off, the middle where they are playing back and forth, and an ending with a point and a celebration. We did move the camera a little to follow the ball, even though Lumiere kept the camera still in his filming. We chose this video out of the rest of them because it best demonstrates a beginning, middle and end. In some of our other videos we tried flashing back and forth too much, and it disturbed the flow of the scene.

You belong with me

For my music video I did “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift. I was listening to some of her music today, and I realized I have never seen one of her music videos before. The music video starts out with a popular guy yelling on the phone with his popular girlfriend. Once he hangs up the phone and looking at Taylor Swift, who plays a band geek, he has a smile on his face. At the same time, the music is saying “she’ll never know your story like I do”, inferring that he can tell her anything. Taylor then continues to put on different outfits of girls who would not be in the popular group like goth and nerd. He see’s her dancing in her room, and again smiles. The music then says “can’t you see that i’m the one who understands you, been here all along”, which tells the audience that even though Taylor is not a pretty or popular as his girlfriend, she has been there all along waiting for him to realize that they belong together.

Then when him and Taylor are talking on the bench together, the scene is very bright. There are tans, whites, blondes, and yellows that stand out in the picture, making it seem very happy and relaxed. Once his girlfriend drives up in her red convertible, she has dark hair and stands out against the neighborhood. She is much more aggressive in the relationship with him, and he is clearly not as happy as he was with Taylor. It then flashes to a typical scene at a high school football game; he is on the football team, and his girlfriend is a cheerleader while Taylor is in the stands in the band. He then see’s his girlfriend with another guy on the team, after he scored the winning touchdown, and they end things. This whole scene reminds me of something that would typically happen in high school.

Finally at he is going to the dance and asks if she is going, and she responds “homework”. She then shows up anyways in  a long white gown, and everyone looks at her as if they never saw her before. Her white gown against the others darker dresses makes her stand out. Then the video ends like a fairy tale, and they embrace each other. He chooses the nice girl who makes him happy, and his ex-girlfriend is very upset. They then show each other the signs that say “I love you” on them and the video ends. This video bothers me a little because it does not seem like an actual music video, but almost like a movie. It tells an entire story, so the viewer does not have to think as much when watching it.

The Lion King

The Lion King takes place in Pride Rock on the African plain. In Pride Rock, there is a clear heiarchy in the jungle, with the king of the jungle being the lion Mufasa. When Mufasa’s son Simba is born, Mufasa’s brother Scar comes up with an idea on how to kill his brother so that he can be king of Pride Rock. He comes up with a plan to put Simba in danger of a wild heard of wildebeests. His plan works and Mufasa comes to his son’s rescue, but it leaves him in danger. As he is trying to climb up a mountain to get to safety, Scar throws him back into the heard to his death. He blames Simba for the entire thing, and tells him to leave and never come back.

When the king is gone, Scar and the hyenas are in full power, leaving everyone miserable in pride rock. In the meantime Simba makes new friends, Pumbaa and Timon, who live a carefree lifestyle. Simba joins them until his old friend and lover Nala comes to find him. She tells him that pride rock is in no condition to be living in. They are out of food and Scar is doing a terrible job leading the kingdom. Simba knows that he is the heir to the thrown, and needs to go back to fight Scar to take his rightful place as king. He eventually does this, and explains to everyone who ever though he killed his father that it was really Scar. Once he takes his place as king, everything comes back to life; the plants are green and there is color and life in the kingdom again.

I chose this movie because I remember watching it a lot when I was younger and I have not seen it in awhile. I thought it would be interesting to watch a movie that I enjoyed as a child and see how my impressions of the same film changed as a grew up. After watching the movie I remember liking it just as much as I did today when I watched it. The Lion King is a movie that I will never be too old to watch and even though it is a Disney movie, there are some important themes  throughout the movie such as status in society, betrayal, and the thirst for power and control over something bigger than one person. It shows that some people would do anything, even kill their brother, to be in charge. It also shows that there is good and evil in everything. Scar is shown as the evil villian while Simba and the lions are shown as the good in the kingdom.

ice tea commercial

For my blog post this week, I chose to write about a Lipton Ice Tea commercial. From the beginning of the commercial when you first dive into the glass, until the end, it is full of life and energy. You first dive into the class of ice tea, and then entire commercial shows you what your life could be like if you drank their product. It then goes on to a bunch of friends getting together and having a good time relaxing. They act as if they are on the beach in their bathing suits, drinking ice tea, instead of something you would usually drink on a resort like a margarita. this is portraying the product as being higher class and more fancy than it actually is. They also put ice tea in wine classes with lemon slices on the outside, further supporting this idea of making it seem more classy to drink their product.

The music they play throughout the clip is very lively and has a good beat. The song reminds me of being on vacation and being on a beach, which matches with the overall theme of the commercial. The clips of the commercial also change to the beat of the song. They change fast, but not too fast so the viewer can still see and comprehend what is going on in the commercial. The colors throughout the commercial are very bright and vibrant, also supporting this beach theme. The basket of lemons that one of the people bring stand out, which is good because it is lemon ice team they are promoting. It is also good that you see “Lipton Ice Tea” multiple times in the commercial, and not for just a brief second. In some commercials the product that is being sold does not stand out, which is not the case in this one.

Pictures

Pictures

For the first picture, I took a picture of my eye. I went under artistic and went to film grain. I moved the grain level to 2 and the highlighted area to 8. I then changed the brightness and contrast to a red color, using vivid light. For my second picture, I used a picture of my face, with the camera being held above me. I used posterize under a hard light mode. I then used Brush stroke with Sumi-e. My strokes were at a width of 9, my pressure was 1, and the contrast was 16. Finally I used saturation under the multiply mode. My third picture is a picture of my head leaning on my hand. I inverted the picture under normal mode. I then went to black and white, under the hard color mode. Finally I distorted the image to look like an ocean ripple. The ripple size was 11 and the ripple magnitude was 8.

Casino Royale

For this assignment, I chose the title sequence from the James Bond movie, Casino Royale. I remember watching this movie in theaters and thinking how it had a interesting title sequence, and when we got the project, I immediately knew that I wanted to do this one. It starts out as every other James Bond movie does, with him shooting a bullet at the screen, and then making the screen turn red, like the person is dying. The rest of the title sequence however, is more specific to the movie. Since the title of the movie is Casino Royale, everything that is being focused on in this video is red and black, like the colors of cards. The figure in the title sequence, or James Bond, is always in a dark color, like black or grey. He is also shown to have a shadow covering a majority of his body, giving the viewer a sense of mystery. You also can never see his face, except for in the beginning and the end, because the rest of the time he is a silhouette. At the very end of the title sequence you see his face for a second, but then it again, turns to black. If you have ever watched a James Bond movie, you will know that he is always working under cover, and usually a lot of important things happen at night or in the dark, making him a mysterious and unpredictable character.

There is also a lot of repetition in this title sequence. Along with the red and black colors, the shapes of the cards are everywhere (diamond, spade, club, and heart). In the beginning there are simple patterns in circles of the shapes and colors. Then as the video goes on, the different patterns of lines which are seen on cards come into play. He is sitting on what looks to be the edges of the cars and shooting out of his gun spades. The following sequence shows multiple guns, again repetition, shooting at each other different shapes. James bond, who is now a silhouette in black, then fights another silhouette in red, on the surface of the back of a card. The repetition continues, when he kills each person; they split up into the different shapes of the cards.

Another interesting aspect of this commercial is the repetition of the focus on the gun. As is goes across the “queen” of a card, you see the face of an actual woman who is in the movie. The gun focuses then turn into gambling tables, keeping the theme of a casino throughout the title sequence. I especially like towards the end, when the gun shoots two holes through the seven of hearts, making the sign 007, which is his name. Overall, I really liked this title sequence, it was a little bit long to watch right before the movie, but it was very interesting to analyze.