Reflections on the Class

I thoroughly enjoyed this class. I have felt that it is a pretty basic introduction to film and media production techniques. There is only so much that a class can offer in such a short amount of time. Seeing that my class only met twice a week, it was an adequate amount of time to offer insights into many basic aspects of the media world. Techniques and tutorials for certain programs such as Photoshop really peaked my curiosity. I had never worked with Photoshop because I felt it might be too daunting of a program to learn. It has many intricacies and functions. However, when you take your time and really try to learn at a slow pace, it ends up not being so hard. When computers are worked with in a class, you expect to learn nothing but how they can cater to your special needs. However, I feel as if when dealing with computers, we should no longer have to learn about the ideas that have brought us to our day and age. We should only be looking forward. Although it is interesting and awe inspiring about how the internet was created, old ideas are now null and void. Since college is a training ground for job placement in the future, and we are now in the technologically most advanced time period, it is safe to assume that everyone knows how to use a computer and the internet by now. In my opinion there should be less time spent on learning stagnant principles that were left behind when new and more readily usable technology is the only type to be concerned with. On the contrary, I think that the slow steady pace that this class took in explaining things in Layman’s Terms put me at ease. I was able to grasp things more clearly instead of being anxious about due dates and absorbing knowledge in a rushed manner. My T.A. was also very helpful in assisting me when at times I felt overwhelmed with new processes I was not familiar with. This class was a great learning experience and I appreciate its accessible and simple structure.

Design I Like

A particular design that I have always been compelled by and drawn to is the album cover art of a hard rock band that I listen to constantly, Every Time I Die. The cover art for which I will discuss upon is from their release, Gutter Phenomenon. I was actually perusing the surprisingly diverse selection of albums at my local Best Buy, when the covert art of this band caught my eye. I instantly had to stop and pick it up because it was so intriguing. It had a very radical and absurdly dangerous look to it. There was everything I would ever want to have on an album cover; snakes, bears, a hawk, and a guitar. That easily draws me in for a victory. I probably would have even bought this album for the cover art alone even if the music was a letdown. The design of the cover represented everything that the music tried to convey, pure and utter chaos. As the art displays, there are snakes and animals intertwining with the gutter, going every which way. This composition is not limited to a normal flat plane constraint. The band name is sprawled on an angle and the animals thrown about. This band’s music has many changes in time signatures and you can easily relate that to the movements of a snake or serpent. Snake’s bodies are never bound by a straight line; they writhe and contort. This album was waiting in the aisles and once I made eye contact, it totally pounced on my expectations; its functionality made it ready to strike. The affordance of this design was really hard to put my finger on at first. The graphic nature of its composition would most likely turn most people off. It doesn’t have exactly the most user friendly aura to invite a listener; the band’s name has a very harsh ring to it and the album art isn’t exactly warm and motionless. On the contrary, its inharmonious conception is what drew me my suspicion and curiosity. In design, a conceptual labyrinth is important in order to keep our cognitive motions guessing. There is nothing like the thrill of the hunt.

What I Saw

An interesting silent documentary that used an immense variety of film techniques was “Man With A Movie Camera”, directed by Dziga Vertov. The most intriguing aspect of this movie, was the fact that it was a documentary that was made in 1929, yet it had so many groundbreaking film techniques that can be seen anywhere in television or movies today. These were all real events that were taking place right before the director. He captured humanity in its true essence; in motion. This made me realize that we pay homage to actors even though all they are really doing is portraying real live events that happen every day. It shows people in many sequences of motions. The music is very weird and sets a very mundane or even sad tone. The filming was sometimes very shaky camera and things appeared in dull lighting. This was probably due to film stocks of the time and likely nothing was lit other than natural light. The Russian population, wildlife, weather, was captured using a lot of depth of perception.

I believe this film helps to see life in plain light which can be emulated through the black and white aura of the film. Sometimes it captures normality such as people working, lying around, or cleaning themselves; nothing spectacular. This film is very experimental, but it kept my attention the entire time because the settings and the film techniques kept changing. It used a lot of different camera speeds, dissolves, split-screens , and prismatic lenses. This film had very reflexive filmmaking; part of its story was about the making of the film. The director was very hands on in climbing up smoke stacks and bridges to get certain camera angles. That was very commendable because I feel like directors now are very pampered and feel like they should get recognition for filming techniques that were already around during this time. It would be a rare director today who could make this film, no matter what techniques they used.

I thought it was very interesting when he showed machinery and cogs moving constantly. I thought that this is what the film felt like, machinery, a very fixed mechanism that could present different results; that is life. The man is shown walking around with a tripod by himself and even cleaning himself at the beach wearing a swimsuit after filming. Two film techniques that are used in this film are fast and slow motion. I did not know that slow motion had been invented so early. What amazes me even more is the sped up version of regular filming. I always thought that was just a method used in all silent and black and white films because they were so primitive in filming. These are really amazing in the sports clips that he shows. These techniques are still used today and I was in awe of how precise these images were even though they were probably just invented. The scenes that showed trolleys moving in a split screen mirror image helped to show a lot of conflicting paths of motion. He uses many jump cuts like cutting from blinds shutting to a woman or an even more intense sequence of the camera shutter to an eye, which made it seem as if the eye is in the shutter. These were very strange and it was very exciting to see that someone could have such a brilliant imagination at such an early time era.

The director shows footage of a woman cutting and editing film. This helps to show the behind the scenes aspect of filmmaking. There are freeze frames that show people like children. Then, the frame is animated into motion as if the film was edited and finalized directly in front of my eyes. He works very differently with camera angles. One angle that caught my eye was a view looking up the side of a building but it looked like it was a flat surface, like a pathway going into the horizon. A familiar method that I saw was the use of tracking shots. In one scene, he is in what looks like a moving car filming a woman in a car that is driving adjacent to his. He is also filming while standing up which seemed kind of dangerous now that I think about it. There is also a tracking shot of him filming firemen in their truck moving while they seem unaware. This proves that this director was on the cutting edge of filming and these methods were truly amazing to see. I did not really mind that they were cut so randomly. I enjoyed seeing life take place right in front of me instead of a staged and carefully edited film for once. It was very refreshing. Its editing techniques and constructions are complex, very well designed, and often put right on screen for us to see. The mark of good editing is how seamless and invisible it is - once you feel you are watching an edited film, you lose something. That never happens in this film, even though we are constantly reminded of her editing techniques.

Just Waiting to Converge

Today’s form of media is a chameleon of technological advancement. Every day that I wake up, a new application or device has been released onto the unsuspecting public. However, these forms of technology seem to be very exclusive and costly. Cellular devices and smart phones alike, never have the middle or lower class in mind. Companies are regurgitating the same mobile device, but their “competitive pricing” is neither affordable nor that much deviant from their rivals. At first glance, a few hundred dollars for the newest cellular device is outrageous and not worth the upgrade and contract extension. However, the features are endless and the phone would probably even cook dinner for you if it had the correct application installed. In my opinion, convergence is merely a matter of excess. The fine line between necessity and staying relevant has been crossed. Advertisements try to portray a new technological device as being the new trend. Does my phone really need satellite navigation or a built in mp3 player? This is definitely subject to debate. In theory, an extra camera on a phone or a webcam on a laptop is definitely less cumbersome than using separate apparatuses. Additional accessories are what contribute to the overall worth of a product. Service providers are often overlooked if more features are offered for a product. Cellular phones market exceptional pixel resolutions now, instead of luring in customers with the promise of a substantial battery life. I have a feeling that Smart phones will soon replace laptops all together. It will eventually become too much of a “hassle” to use a laptop. Laptops are inconvenient though, aren’t they? Who in the world would actually want to carry around a computer that weighs about fice pounds and sit near the nearest outlet? Today’s consumer does not have the strength or the patience to lug around laptops anymore. They are too occupied with researching the latest mp3 player on their web browser, using their Smart phones. Let’s face it; it is just too exhausting to type on a full length keyboard at home nowadays.