Group: Cindy Chan, Tiffany Chan, Lisa Huang
Freeman, Kate. “Personality of Scripts.” Mashable. N.p., 20 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://mashable.com/2012/02/20/hilarious-cats-as-fonts/>.
The Arts in New York City
Baruch Fall 2013 Macaulay Seminar 1
The music matched extremely well with your black and white scenes. I like how your group put emphasis on the calendar because as we all know, Friday the 13th is one of the unluckiest days throughout the year. On Friday the 13th, most people do become superstitious and attempt to avoid all signs of bad luck.
Of course sometimes events happen and its impossible to avoid all these signs of bad luck especially the crack on the floor. In your video, your character encounters all of the well-known signs such as the broken mirror, black cat, indoor umbrella, and cracks. Personally I never heard of the lucky penny one. Throughout the video, it seems like an ordinary day, but with sprinkles of bad luck everywhere. I wonder how her Friday the 13th day will go.
I truly love the music you used in your film! It goes really well with the black & whiteness of it and the “nostalgic” feeling I get from watching the clip. I acknowledge that Friday the 13th is associated with extremely bad luck. But whenever I look back to my Friday the 13th’s, I can’t seem to remember any particular incidents that I despise or want to forget about. Maybe it’s just my memory. Sometimes, I get excited when that time of the year comes around- I would even mark it on the calendar. Your film reminds me of superstitions that we are supposedly avoid, although the protagonist ends up doing all. Yet, she still survives! How ironic.
The black and white video adjustment went hand in hand with the music you chose. I liked your concept of superstitions. You actually surprised me with the ending because throughout the video, I was just thinking about the possible ways you would end the film. I was under the assumption that you would end with horror and that is why you chose the casual music that foreshadows something that is imminent. In fact, right after your crossed the “13” on the calendar, I thought something would come your way. That, of course, is not to say that I didn’t like the ending. By emphasizing Friday 13th in the beginning and strategically ending with the protagonist crossing Friday 13th as just another day, you beguiled the viewer and made him or her assume the end would be horrifying. That made your film unique and original. I also liked the artistic choices you made because it certainly made the experience of watching the film worthwhile!
I really liked how you guys did a silent black-and-white film with words on the screen to reflect the style used in Nosferatu. I think the music you chose fits really well with the events in the video. I also liked your idea of focusing on Friday the 13th and its superstitious association with bad luck. Although Lisa encountered many signs of bad luck, she had a typical day which challenges the superstitions many of us adhere to. I also liked how the events escalated from ignoring a lucky penny which we do on a typical day to breaking a mirror which is very rare. This escalation effect is also portrayed in most horror films including Nosferatu.
I think you did a nice job of representing your theme: superstition. The music went along really well, as did the black and white images. The day seemed to go along like any other, but there were some kinks that we seem to pay attention to more, simply because it is Friday the Thirteenth! On this day, a black cat, a broken mirror, etc. seem much worse than on a typical day. You did a nice job of representing this idea of superstition and chose a wide range of different superstitions to depict. I also like the dressed up cat playing the piano, nice job.