Assignment #9

Check out this manifesto.

Freak Factor

David Rendall’s article “Freak Factor” is basically challenging today’s conceptions that “flaws” need to be fixed, strengths and weaknesses need to be worked on simultaneously, and that if you don’t fit in to society you must adjust yourself to be like everyone else. One segment of his article is titled “Focus: You Can’t Do Both”. I definitely think that this suggestion makes a lot of sense and could be seen as valid. It is obvious when you think about it that it is difficult to do two things at once. In everyday situations, if you focus on one thing more than something else, you will work on that one thing while the others will be put on the backburner. While multitasking is possible, in general you will not be able to pay attention to everything all the time; you will be force to focus on one task. The same is true with weaknesses and strengths. If you work on one, the other will fall behind. I believe this is something that directly pertains to my life as a creative person. I have already thought about this subject, and I decided awhile ago that I would much rather focus on what I do well, what I want with my life, and who I inspire to be rather than focus on what those close to me think about me and what society expects. So in these respects I already have implanted this idea into my everyday life.

In another section of his article, Rendall titles his discussion “What’s my problem”. He lists things that he has been called throughout his lifetime. After labeling himself he proceeds to be somewhat cocky and state that he has achieved success even with these stereotypical “weaknesses”. He talks about how he became accustomed with his weaknesses, and instead of trying to dispel them, he molded his life and goals to build strengths from them. This is blatantly valid in my opinion; why work so hard to get rid of a weakness when you can just plan ahead to compensate for, if not exemplify, that “weakness”. Personally, I am very scatterbrained and am told so on nearly a daily basis. While many people label that as a negative trait, as it turns out it allows me to come up with ideas seemingly at random. While some people struggle in coming up with thoughts for say a project or what to write about, I typically have the exact opposite problem; I have too many ideas to sort through them all, and it becomes difficult to focus my thoughts into a slow enough stream that I can produce something coherent. I choose not to see this as a weakness, but rather as a strength that gives me an upper hand as a creative thinker and a writer. I believe that if someone is constantly being told how they are or who they are, and if they are “weak-minded” enough to believe them, they eventually mold to those expectations. If more people chose to ignore those around them and to see themselves in a light that shows off their strengths, there would be more creative minds doing amazing work.

In Rendall’s third section, “Flawless: There’s Nothing Wring With You”, he discusses addictions. Once again, I also believe his points here are valid. I have argued more than once about addictions. Typically, addictions are seen as something detrimental to people. When thinking of addictions, the mind tends to wander to images of drugs and alcohol. People tend to overlook other addictions. I have been accused of being addicted to working out; I feel weak and self-conscious when I go through a span of time without going to the gym. I have been accused of being addicted to “trying to be above everyone else; I get ridiculed for not feeling the need to get intoxicated every waking moment. I have even been accused of being addicted to people; I am in a long-term, long-distance relationship that is one of the main focuses of my life. The point is that addictions can take many forms. Like Rendall, I do not perceive addictions as a bad thing. In fact, I think if channeled correctly they can be some of the most profound influences on success. The fact that I am addicted to certain things in my life is not detrimental to my creative process. I believe that the addictions, strengths, and weaknesses I possess will eventually lead me to any level of success I desire.

While I accept and validate Rendall’s arguments, there is one thing that I dislike the wording of. I do not believe in separating strengths from weaknesses. In my opinion, by labeling them, he is still operating under society’s expectations that some things are “bad”; weaknesses, and some are “good”; strengths. If we just title them as traits or characteristics, it takes a step to eliminate the connotations that go with weaknesses. So as far as my personal characteristics go, I am adept at picking up information without really paying that much attention, I struggle sometimes working as a group because I crave control over every aspect of something that my name and reputation are going to be stamped on, and I love every aspect of writing. I am organized in some aspects, but extremely scatter-brained and chaotic in others. I am completely dedicated to tasks and projects; but only when they interest me. I am assertive for some matters, but other times I enjoy sitting back and listening to whatever is pouring out of others mouths. I am passionate about things to a point of obsession. Whether these traits are good or bad, strengths or weaknesses in regards to my creative life, is up to the reader. Personally, I believe that I cannot change who I am or the life I lead; in that respect I agree with Rendall. That being said, I also believe that achievement is based upon desire, and that, as cheesy as it sounds, if you want to gain success you can obtain it from pure passion and motivation.

Assignment #8

Check out this link.

Brainwashed

In Seth Godin’s article “Brainwashed”, he talks about Acknowledging the Lizard. When he says this he is talking about the need for us to ignore “the resistence” that keeps us from being creative and stepping outside the lines. In the section titled “Be Generous”, he basically talks about how we need to share our ideas in order to grow as artists and gain support and power because it’s free in this idea-driven economy. By being generous you will make connections that can lead you to higher places. Which leads me to the section “Connect”. Godin says that today’s digital world offers us a chance to get connected with people and artists that we would not have been capable of years ago. Now is the time to take advantage of the new world that is developing.

The blog that I have created this quarter is clearly linked to the layers I just discussed above. The idea and purpose of a blog is clearly to communicate with others. It is to publish your thoughts and feelings in a way that anyone can access them. Today’s world seems to be on a verge of something new; as the article states we formerlymanufactured items for our livings. Now it seems as if Americans are beginning to think for their careers. This blog gives an opportunity for those of us who have not been socially connected digitally to dabble in this technology. It also demonstrates the concept of being generous. I am not currently getting paid for this blog, although it is perfectly normal for bloggers to get paid for their thoughts. I have never considered myself to be a drone to the system we live in today, and for years I have voiced my opinions on how I do not agree with the education I am seemingly forced to participate in. Many of my teachers throughout high school did not agree with my ideas and therefore wrote me off and labeled me things such as “slacker” and “lazy”. Those who were capable of looking past the system they facilitated seemed to recognize my potential and realize that I was far from those labels. I thank those few. As to whether or not these exercises make me a better creative artist/person/student, I believe that they are very beneficial to what I want to do with my life. I refuse to live a mundane life and I will not settle for anything less than what I want to accomplish. These activities, whether the lectures or the lab projects, hold my interest and can be seen as practical real world experience. It’s true that we are learning the very basics of the careers we wish to pursue, and I for one believe I have more developed skills than what we’re learning in labs, but they are very important building blocks. It is plain to see that what we are doing and what Professor Williams is trying to convey is relevant to building our career and ourselves in general. Once realizing that, as the article says, we must convince ourselves that we can do better. We can push ourselves outside our comfort zones; acknowledge the lizard as Godin says. It’s one thing to sit and believe with all your being that you can achieve whatever you wish; it’s something completely different to have the ability and the motivation to set out to do it.

Assignment #7

This is one of the famous scenes from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

Amongst many separate interpretations of the meaning behind Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, I believe the theme to be one of morality. Tarantino portrays his characters as possessing an off-balance conception of right and wrong. They find fault in some aspects of their lives, such as a woman cheating on a man, but on the other hand they kill mercilessly without a second thought. This theme is obviously evident in this scene, where Jules recites a “bible verse” before he murders his victim. This is active, because the audience has to learn this for themselves; it isn’t simply stated to them.

The theme of ambiguous morality can be reinforced through Quentin Tarantino’s use of line and shape in his characters. For example, Jules is composed of vertical and horizontal lines in his facial features. His cheekbones and his chin are very perpendicular in their relationship to each other. The vertical and horizontal lines form a square shape for his head. Typically this is seen as powerful and evil; villains are typically casted with square features. Likewise, the lines surrounding him in the room contain affinity to this; they are vertical and horizontal lines of doorframes and the ceiling. On the other hand there is contrast to this with his curled hair; the curvilinear quality of his hair contrast with the linear lines of the room and his square countenance. This can be seen as representing the contrast between the character’s moral values. There is also a contrast between Jules and his victims; the young men have round or oval shaped heads, which typically represent innocence. This is also a moral theme because under the circumstances they appear to be victims, but in reality they are drug dealers as well. Throughout this scene there is a very high level of tension and release. The build up of Jules reciting the fake bible verse as the young man creeps up with a gun creates a very high amount of tension. It climaxes when the unknown gunman reveals himself and shoots at Vincent and Jules. The tension is then released when the audience sees that he somehow missed them, and he proceeds to get murdered.

iMovie In-Class

Just a title effect, color correction, and some lame transitions.

Animation

Assignment 6

Here are two still shots from the movie Finding Nemo.

These two images taken from Finding Nemo are very different. They differ very much from one another in the terms of the color and how the artists utilized this characteristic. In the first image, there are a limited number of hues; mostly very deep hues of blue, with some dark hues of orange for Marlin. In the second image, the hues are very vibrant and light, and the artists utilize hues of light blue, bright orange, yellow, green, and purple. The first image is very dark and has little brightness in its color, except on the lone egg, while the second image is completely bright and all the colors used are bright. The first image has much greater saturation in it’s colors and the dark hues are very intense. In the second image there are more des-saturated or “washed out” colors, meaning they are less intense. Both of the images also utilize different characteristics of lighting. There are many shadows in the first image. Half of Marlin’s body is in shadow, and much of the crevice he is looking down into has deep shadows. This represents the dark events that just happened and the devastating aftermath it is having on him. In the image of the fish tank, there are little to no shadows and darkness, representing the happy occasion of meeting new friends. The egg being completely visible and red in the first image symbolizes life and hope amongst the death and despair that Marlin had just suffered in the movie. Despite losing his mate and the rest of the eggs due to a baracuda attack, he has one bright sphere of hope remaining. All of the bright colors of the fish and the environment surrounding them in the second image symbolizes that Nemo is in good hands and is in a happy place, when originally he thought he was in danger when he was taken. Overall the mood of the first image is depressing and almost frightening because of the ominous dark hues and shadows. The second image provokes a much happier mood because the viewer is attracted by the bright hues and light.

Assignment 5

Here is a storyboard of the scene from Fight Club in Assignment 3.

In the first five scenes from this clip of Fight Club, the director seems to have obeyed the 180 degree rule. They do not cross the base line, or the line of action, and they stay within the 180 degree arc. If they did not follow this rule, it could have appeared to the audience that Jack and Tyler had moved positions or that it was a different scene when they were still having the same conversation. The director also followed the Rule of Thirds. When setting up their shots, they placed important elements of the image in the intersections of hypothetical horizontal and vertical thirds. In this case, the important elements in these shots were Tyler and Jack. When they are talking, their faces or bodies are always located within the intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines, which allows the director to draw an audience’s attention right to the men. Also, in the over the shoulder shots where it sequences between looking over Jack’s shoulder at Tyler, and then over Tyler’s to Jack’s, it allows the viewer to look right at their faces after each cut. This director also follows the 30 rule as well. The director avoids awkward jump shots and confusing the audience by ensuring that when the camera changes positions it moves at least 30 degrees. While they do change it more than thirty degrees, they do not utilize changing the image size by at least thirty percent. In this example, the director did not break any of the basic framing rules. Personally, I believe the director displayed many talents by focusing the attention of the audience by directing bright lights at the talent they want to look at, and by contrasting the very dark colors with a select few bright images such as Tyler Durden’s white and red shirt.