Author: tianrichards (Page 1 of 2)

Today in Seminar we discussed basic terms with regard to analyzing film.  Prior to this however, Dr. Kahan reminded us of the importance of using the correct accent marks in our writing (such as for the spelling of Radamès). This led into our discussion of film because there is an accent mark in the new word we learned. Dr. Kahan introduced the class to the French phrase, mise-en-scène. Mise-en-scène  refers to the physical visual component of a director’s vision. It includes the aesthetic idea of what piece is supposed to portray.  For example, there are different ways a director can portray a big group of people. A crowd could be shown as amorphous, one big mass, or could include more profile and be more individualistic.  Some directors, such as Alfred Hitchcock, have a very distinctive visual stamp.  The way in which Hitchcock introduces characters, for example,  carries a style all his own.  Introducing characters can be done in what is called an establishing scene.  This type of scene works to give the audience an idea of factors such as the setting, time, characters, and economic situation.   After this brief lecture on analyzing film, we began to watch On the Waterfront. 

On the Waterfront is a black and white movie that covers the corruption of unions in Hoboken, New Jersey. Within the first few minutes, the opening scene included someone falling off the roof of an apartment complex.  The camera in this scene moved upward, across the entire height of the building to reach the top, before showing the man falling to the ground.  Later there was a chasing scene that included a build up of intense and fast paced music.  A tracking shot followed the runners as they clambered down the fire escape. During this scene the camera cut back ad forth between the couple running and the people chasing them, creating a tense atmosphere.  Terry Malloy and Edie have a private conversation by the waterfront. At first the camera displayed Edie with her back to the gates and NYC beyond it (one can see the Empire State building). The gates could convey the director’s intent to portray her as trapped in her situation. The camera in this scene was very attentive to their faces and upper body language. Both of the characters reactions to one another and their chemistry were clearly visible. Later, when Terry tries to convince her to go with him to see the pigeons, she is placed on higher ground than he is, conveying the sense of who is in control.  She does go with him, however, indicating her trust in him, as he did not specify what he wanted to show her.

Besides camera angles, the director also paid very special attention to the characters themselves. All of the characters are wearing normal, every-day clothing fitting of their working class station.  Colloquial slang is used, such as “potato-eater” , meaning of Irish descent. The character’s also have distinct accents, such as the way the word “cargo” is said.  To add realism to the movie, the director did not film the movie on a set but instead used a real shipyard, as is evidenced by the realness of the environment and equipment (and fact-checked online).   The director chose to use a front-facing visual to capture the car ride between Terry and Charley so that the audience can study their facial expressions. As the car is moving the lighting changed a little; it was mostly bright on their faces with some periods of shadow. Throughout this shot dramatic music played int he background.

In the scene where Terry goes to Edie, the camera did not follow the shot as Terry kissed her so the scene itself was very ambiguous because one did not immediately  get to see Edie’s reaction.  The scene looked very violent and reminiscent of a rape scene in context, especially because Edie was just hitting him with what appeared to be a spatula. That the camera did not follow them right away when Terry began kissing her allows for a small surprise for the audience upon the revelation that Edie seemed to have forgiven Terry for his involvement in her brother’s murder so quickly.  In the final scene, the camera follows a bloodied Terry as he walks away from the dock. In this scene the camera is at a lower angle focusing on Terry’s face, highlighting his wounds. The fact that Terry strides away works in contrast with his face to emphasize his determination and inner strength despite the fact that he was physically beaten.  These were only some examples of how the director applies his own outlook to the film’s portrayal of the storyline.

Today in Seminar we learned what to look for when analyzing a film. We were taught to wonder how much imagery is in the frame,  to look for the ratio of the object to the size of the frame, to ask how long ourselves how long the shot is and how the camera approaches the shot.  If an object is far back in the shot, it is known as a long shot. However if the object is middle-sized in the frame then it is a medium shot and if the object occupies most of the frame it is known as a close-up.  Longer shots, Dr. Kahan noted, often provide more of a sense of calm and peace. Shots of long duration generally focus on a person’s face with very little movement in the background, while the character recites dialogue or uses their face to express their emotions.  Dr. Kahan told us that the length of the shot is important because it can add to the emotional climate of the movie.

On the other hand, some shots are simply meant to show off the “technical prowess” of the cameraman; an example of such a shot is known as a tracking shot. In a tracking shot the camera moves continuously to follow an object or objects. Directors often want to keep a tracking shot going for as long as possible.  Dr. Kahan googled a tracking shot on Youtube to show us what she meant. The video we watched followed a well-dressed couple as they walked down a flight of stairs and into a restaurant kitchen and finally into the dining room.  Dr. Kahan analyzed the use of this tracking shot with the suggestion that the sense of continuous motion was “thrilling and a little disgusting at the same time”.  The movie was trying to convey both a sense of glamour and underhandedness  at the same time (hence they’re descent into a basement).  Two other examples of tracking shots can be found in the  movie Touch of Evil and The Shining.  In Touch of Evil a bomb is being set up. Dr. Kahan pointed out the angularity of the shot, the camera provides both aerial and ground level shots.  The scene we watched from The Shining followed a young boy named Danny in a hotel in a little toy car.  The contrast in the noises as the boy moved around, from the loud rough sound of the wheels on the wood to the almost silence of the wheels on the carpet added an unnerving affect that was later enhanced by the addition of chilling music.

We also covered the meaning of the word zeitgeist: “spirit of the times”.  Dr. Kahan mentioned briefly that a movie such as Apocalypse Now would be considered a zeitgeist movie.   We also watched clips from the movie The Graduate.  The clips portrayed a young man who was very smart and productive in college at a family party in his childhood home.  We discussed the fact that there was nothing attractive about the color in this film, nothing visual to rest one’s eyes on. Furthermore, setting played an important role. In the woman’s house, the man’s discomfort was highlighted and emphasized by his placement on a chair much lower than that of the woman. Her higher seating made her look down on him and revealed who was truly in charge and in control. This class lecture is meant to help us with regard to writing our paper on Inside Man.

The Metropolitan Museum is an impressive gallery of diverse art.  Currently, the exhibitions featured include Madame Cézanne, Cubism, and El Greco. I stopped by after curating for the Macaulay Snapshot Gallery at the New  York Historical Society.  My friends, Jia Chen and Caitlin Fontana, and I looked at the Cubism, Madame Cezanne, El Greco and Modern & Contemporary Art exhibition.  The Cubism exhibit was my favorite of the four exhibitions simply because it allowed for so much viewer interpretation. For some reason, I was fond of the the piece called Composition (The Typographer) by Fernand Léger. When I looked at this image I saw two red flower pots and a grey watering can on the left.  I also liked the different colors found in the piece (red, blue, orange, green, yellow).  The El Greco exhibit consisted mostly of paintings of old men, but I did like the painting titled View of Toledo. The description stated that this work is an “emblematic, rather than a topographical, cityscape”. I enjoyed this work because of the darkness in the painting’s sky contrasted with the bright green patches of grass.

The people working at the Metropolitan Museum are entrusted with protecting the art, which I suppose is why we were watched like hawks and told to step away from the paintings when we got too close. They made it clear that flash photography was not prohibited, and frankly I was a little too frightened to take any pictures at all. For the project my group  will most likely utilize the online pictures at the Metropolitan Museum website.  All in all, however, I did enjoy my trip to the Met and  I was glad I had the chance to be able to take in the new exhibitions.

Today Dr. Kahan had us rearrange our chairs so that we were sitting in a circle to read our Catcher in the Rye papers.  I enjoyed this assignment because it allowed room for creativity while also providing nice guidelines.  As we went around the circle, a common error became apparent: many students simply rewrote the dialogues rather than putting a modern flair on the entire chapter.  However this may have been due to a misunderstanding when the directions were given out. Nonetheless, I felt that the dialogues were very well done and were very amusing.

While Jeremy’s lacked some consistency in diction, the overall dialogue was very true to modern 2014 slang, as was Suriah’s.  I also  liked Ben’s dialogue concerning Holden’s opinion on Romeo & Juliet. Ben’s reading especially of his work elevated the quality even further; he raised his voice to a question at the end of almost every sentence and purposefully said ‘like’ many more times than was necessary to imitate a whiny teenager.

Monica’s was also very good.  Dr. Kahan pointed out why it was so good, commenting that she became Holden through her consistent voice, including diction and the tone of her reading. Because I had to leave early, I read out of turn.  I still need to work on slowing down my speech when I read out loud because it is difficult for people to understand me.

Today in Seminar we started off class by discussing what we learned from the midterm poem reading assignment. TJ shared that from the assignment he was able to recognize that a poem can have many different meanings, while Gab acknowledged the importance of researching the meaning of what is being read in order to add more meaning.

After covering the poems, we moved on to talk about our reactions to On the Town. Ziha commented on the fact that the choreographer was the same as that for Fall for Dance, and so some of the dance moves were the same, while Jia shared his appreciation for how the play broke the 4th wall in some instances. A common critique, Dr. Kahan remarked, was that the play was dragged out. Many people wrote in their blog posts that they felt that there was not as much plot development in the last act. Sam revealed that she would have preferred a plot twist or a little more drama because she felt the play was too predictable, a view shared by many of my classmates. In response, Dr. Kahan pointed out the fact that light comedies are not really mean to have plot twists.  From here the conversation segued into a discussion about archetypes.

An archetypical character, I learned, is a character type that is pervasive, or found everywhere. The character’s traits transcends cultures because the character is a symbol of something very deeply imbedded in the human character and relates back to the idea of the collective unconscious. Example of archetypical heroes included Odysseus, Luke Skywalker, Jesus, Harry Potter, and Superman. Other archetypes include the outcast, the ‘village idiot’, and the villain.

Dr. Kahan explained to us the formula for 30 minute comedies, describing a scenario in which three plots are presented.  It was pointed out to us the fact that in short comedies such as TV sitcoms, the main character never dies despite being placed in hairy situations. A phenomenon known as “willing suspension of disbelief” enables us to enjoy these comedies.

The class eventually moved away from this digression and returned back to the topic at hand: the broadway show.  As many of us discussed in our blog posts, danced played a major role in this play because it worked as an expression of emotion rather than plot or character development.

After talking over the show and our experience with it, we moved on to dancing in plays and musicals in general. Dr. Kahan showed us a video called ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’, which featured men with top hats, suits with coattails, and canes.  Dance, we learned, is what Dr. Kahan phrased, “an idealization of emotion”.  Music makes us feel something; this idea connected back to what we talked about that very first day: music and break up songs in particular.

After this point in class I had to leave in order to attend a meeting for Macaulay Snapshot, but I learned from my friends that the class discussed Catcher in the Rye and societal norms, which brought up a discussion about “twerking” that I am sorry to have missed!

Today in seminar class the students that had not yet read their poems did so along with the students that had to re-read their poems.  The improvement amongst the students who re-read their poems was astonishing and revealed the effort they put in to make themselves better.

Benjamin, re-read his Blues poem with such a marked improvement that I was blown away. He told the class that in order to read the poem successfully he listened to a lot of blues and jazz music, especially that of Langston Hughes. Throughout his reading of the poem, Ben kept a beat in his head, using a sort of silent snapping motion to guide him. I found this an amazing feat, especially considering that I cannot even keep clap my hands to the beat, much less read something out loud at the same time.

Elina read her poem for the first time with such courage and confidence that the entire class was impressed. She had no fear of being judged and seized the poem with both hands. She wasn’t afraid to raise her voice and shout when the poem called for it, such as when she yelled, “Look!”. She managed to read at varying speeds and degrees of loudness in a way that kept the audience engaged.

Towards the end of class, Dr. Kahan discussed with us the renowned Leonard Bernstein. Dr. Kahan pointed out to us the fact that Bernstein was one of the first conductors to become known worldwide born and raised in the United States. Bernstein was an accomplished composer, author, music lecturer, pianist, and conductor and achieved many of his impressive feats before the age of 30!

To showcase Bernstein’s charisma, Dr. Kahan showed us some videos of his teaching and pointed out the ease with which he addressed the audience.  The lecture on Bernstein worked as a prelude for our field trip to see Broadway’s On the Town, as Bernstein was behind the show’s music.

Today in Seminar Dr. Kahan provided the class with her feedback on our video sculptures.  From this critique, the class learned as a whole the importance of speaking slowly, matching the footage to what is being analyzed, and the necessity of each member’s contribution to the project as a whole. We were also given advice about avoiding ‘fillers’, meaning just music and facts that are not necessarily relevant to the topic at hand.  Despite these critiques, the overall result of the sculpture video project leaned towards the positive side, with no grade lower than a B.

After we were done talking about our sculpture video projects, the class moved on to our poetry readings.  Jeremy was the first to read his poem aloud, setting the stage for everyone else’s presentation. While I felt that as a whole the readings were done well, two really stuck out to me: Rob and Irteza’s readings.  Rob acknowledged to the class that his poem really resonated with him. He read his poem in such a way that demonstrated this emotional connection and managed to enunciate each word to create a coherent, clear reading.  Irteza took on the personality of his poem, revealing to the class the fact that he understood what the poem meant to convey and it’s attitude as a whole.

I particularly liked Elizabeth’s poem, concerning 9/11, because of the dark imagery, such as that of “black toast” in comparison to the devastating results of the atomic bomb that struck Hiroshima. I found the context of Samantha’s poem particularly interesting; the idea of expanding the character of a writer that has passed away seems very daunting and must have involved extensive and intensive research.

With regard to my poems, I will be given the chance to try again next week. I tend to have the problem of reading too fast, which makes it difficult for the audience to follow what I am saying. I will use my time this week to practice slowing my speech so that I can be understood as this is a valuable skill to have, especially as I plan to major in communications.