Video Jokes

This was, honestly, one of my favorite projects from this class. It was so much fun to take up the roles I am so interested in making a career out of.

And I was so excited to have my script chosen to be made into one of our videos. We actually chose two extraordinarily different videos made. One, a romantic comedy, the other a western.

Our first video, entitled "La Boite" (and written by me!) was a silent film and a romantic comedy. Written to be performed without any words spoken, it follows a day in the life of a not-so-talented mime. He ends up falling in love! It's very Charlie Chaplin-esque. The joke in this video, therefore, had to be conveyed by the movements and the emotions of the characters, as opposed to any dialogue.This means that the movie was largely focused on movement and rhythm, and that this movement was largely character-drawn. There is a clear link between the movements on screen and the music used in the movie, an example of this would be when the mim character walks into frame for the first time, and his footsteps match the beat of the music almost exactly. The colors in this movie were also very important, with the red of the suspenders and his cheeks contrasting with largely green backgrounds.

Our second video, "Hey There, Harry" was a traditional western. We also made this a silent film, but instead of leaving out all dialogue, we added in slides with the words on them. This movie was rendered to be in an old-timey sepia color. In this video, we largely tried to convey the joke by using movement, as in our other movie, but also by using space. As it was a silent movie, the characters had to use bold movements, but there is also a clear use of depth when looking at the scenes.

There is both contrast and affinity between both projects. For example, one could say that the use of movement is similar in both jokes, but that there is a clear difference in rhythm and space between the two. The coloring of the projects also adds to this contrast, quite literally. One is extremely bright and colorful, while the other is more monotone, dark, and even colorless.

It's hard to say which video portrayed the joke better. I think that, when looking at the joke itself, it is more clearly defined in "Hey There Harry", where it is said almost literally, while in "La Boite" it is implied as a plot device.

Videos!

Here are the links to the two videos my group did for MDIA 203. Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rB2umBQ5O4&feature=channel_video_title

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc4TI9HvqKo

Sound for Blogs 5B and 6B

Here are the podcasts that go with the blogs below. The podcasts are named after their similar blog. Enjoy!

The Dark Knight

This blog post is meant to coincide with a podcast I made about The Dark Knight, so be on the lookout for that!

The Dark Knight is one of my favorite movies, but it is the way that Christopher Nolan has directed the shots for this movie that have helped to make this world and these characters so believable.

Here is a clip and a few screenshots from one of my favorite scenes in the movie, The Interrogation Scene:

Batman:Arkham Asylum (6B)

I decided to analyze one of my favorite video games, with one of my favorite characters: Batman:Arkham Asylum. This is seriously one of the most fun games I have ever played. It's dark, dirty, has a storyline that not only makes sense, but keeps the action moving, as well as keeps you on the edge of your seat. 

Here is a video from YouTube, which discusses the gameplay:

Here are some stills from the video game as well. 

Keep a lookout for my audio commentary to accompany this! It's sure to be riveting!

How to be Creative

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyPgCyum6es

And here is the link to the manifesto we were asked to read and analyze. VERY INTERESTING. Enjoy!

http://changethis.com/manifesto/6.HowToBeCreative/pdf/6.HowToBeCreative.pdf

Visual Framing

I have always been drawn to comic books. Ever since I was little, there has been a fascination with them that I can't explain. So it's no surprise to me that, for the purposes of this blog post, I was drawn to the selection of work by Roy Lichtenstein.

Here is one of Roy's pieces I was drawn to:

And here is this photo, resized:

This image really caught my eye. Aside from the fact that I love the artist, I was drawn to the warmer red and yellows of the piece. I decided to reframe it this way because this is where there is the most tension in the piece. And by this, I mean that this is where the action is happening, where the punch was landed.

I think that the artist chose to frame the piece in the way that he did because of a number or reasons. For one, by using the rule of thirds, our eye is drawn to the fist in the top left of the picture, as well as the text "Sweet dreams, baby!" The rule of thirds also helps to lead us across the "POW!" to the face in the bottom right corner of the picture.

The way the artist has used lines is incredibly intense as well. The lines that represent the motion of the fist not only lead out eye up and down, but in fact create a visual movement. We understand that the man's fist came up and hit the man in the bottom right. The extreme close up shot also brings the viewer into the moment, right into the middle of the action, almost umcomfortably close.

The artist also uses great contrast and affinity. The extremely warm and loud colors of the hitter's sweater, the background, and the word "POW" are all contrasted by the Man being hit. His face is considerably more in the dark, as opposed to all of the other colors, which seem to fit together.