Assignment #3

This clip is from the movie Amelie.


I couldn't post the screenplay for some reason, so I uploaded it.
click here to download

I love this movie. Every time I watch this scene I cant help but feel happy. This is the point in the movie where Amelie decides to do good deeds and help others. She sees the Blind Man and decided to give him something he can never have, sight. She walks around the street describing anything and everything to him as his face lights up with joy. I feel that this scene puts space to good use. When the Blind Man is tapping his cane on the street we can hear it very sharply at first then it starts to sound like it is in an empty room, very hollow and void. This is playing with our perception of where we are. We are looking at a busy city street but it sounds like an empty room. Almost like how the blind man must feel. This clip also uses time well. The music’s speed in the background goes perfectly with the tempo they are walking. It makes us feel like it could be playing on the street. The clip also uses recognition with everything she is describing there is a sound the goes along with it. This is to give us two cues, visual and audible. Movement is uses with the camera angle. It is following Amelie and the man and tells us how fast they are walking and the mood of the scene. Its almost like we are feeling how the man she is helping must feel. Overwhelmed and filled with pure excitement.

This is DESIGN at its best.

Mine sweeper from robertanderson on Vimeo.

From Massoud Hassani & DesignGuide.tv, a wind-blown, wooden, bamboo-spiked ball, based on homemade childhood toys, that decommissions land mines by blowing them up, and maps its path along the way. 


The ball loses a spike or two with each detonation. On-board GPS, reporting to a web site, is used to chart a safe course. As a child in Afghanistan, where there are literally millions of landmines, Hassani made similar toys that did at times wind up in minefields, inspiring this Mine Sweeper.

Assignment #1

Villan or Antagonist: The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz.


COLOR:

The color green relates to the Wicked Witch, obviously because of her skin color but also because her character has a green smoke/ fog around her when she appears or vanishes from a scene. This makes me think of Disney and how most of their evil characters have some sort of green smoke or fog that relates to them or shows their presence. The green makes you think putrid, evil, and toxic. So the green is to signify evil but we can also say that it is to signify the envy that the Wicked Witch has towards Dorothy. Not only for her shoes but also for her beauty and youth. 

LIGHT:

The witch is cast in a shadow. She wears a wide brimmed hat that shadows her face even when she is in the day. Even though she is mostly in her dark, damp, castle. She is wearing a black cloak, which further accentuates the darkness, and shadow she is cast in. The Wicked Witch is the darkness in sharp comparison to the light that is the Good Witch Glinda of the North. This dichotomy is what makes it apparent that she is evil in the story. Whenever the witch appears in the movie she is accompanied by darkness. Either the sky becomes grey or it seems that a storm is close by. The black cloak and darkness also distract us from other features of the witch and make us focus only on her face. This is important because it is the easiest way to convey an evil mood. 

SHAPE:

A repeated shape is used in the Wicked Witch character. She has a pointed triangle shaped hat, her nose is pointed and triangular, she rides a broom, which is triangular in shape. Her nails are also pointed and look sharp. These repeated points and sharp edges that are used around the witch give an evil feeling, just like the color green and the shadow that she is cast in. I think that the triangle is used repeatedly because sharp edges give a sense of danger, almost animalistic. Curved edges are more kind and human like. This even further gives the Wicked Witch of the West an evil demeanor.

 Hero or Protagonist: Dorothy


COLOR:

In comparison to the Wicked Witch, Dorothy is wearing white with blue-checkered overalls. This is analogous to the witches green hue. With the red slippers that are one of the main elements the film they all three create a split complimentary color scheme. This strengthens the use of color in the whole film by having these three main factors in the movie connected. The light blue and the white she is wearing make for a more interesting character to look at. We are not only focused on her face like the witch, but we see her as a whole unit, including the ruby slippers. We can say that the reason that a checkered plaid pattern is used because it gives us a sense of comfort, a tablecloth at a picnic for instance, the blue pattern is familiar.

LIGHT:

The light that is surrounding Dorothy always seems to be more luminescent than what is around her. She has a kind of glow about her. Even when they are in the dark forest she seems to have a sort of diffused spotlight on her. This light she emits seems to carry to the characters around her, symbolizing that her goodness is being spread out to the others.  Not anything direct or focused just a general lightness. I think that this is symbolic because she is a young fair woman and fighting against the dark evil witch so anywhere that you can contrast that it strengthens that relationship. So by having her have a paler complexion and a light about her, it helps depict her as the protagonist and the general do-gooder character. I choose the picture of the glass bottles because they seemed to have a glow about them, that is diffused. 

SHAPE:

Again in contrast to the Wicked Witch Dorothy has a more circular and curved appearance. I chose this picture because I felt that it displayed the different kinds of curves that are represented. Her face is more rounded with rounded features. She is carrying a basket with her. Her hair is wavy and curly. Also her dress is flowing and has a more organic look. This I feel again is to symbolize the kindness and humanity that Dorothy’s character has. The curved shape is easy on the eyes and gives a sense of continuation, which is comforting and focuses attention because your eye continues to follow the same line. Unlike with the witch, when we look at her hat for instance, it has a vanishing point and it sharp to the eyes. 

Assignment #2

Click HERE to read Howl.

This is the story of Mumon a rare red wolf that was raised in captivity and then released into the wild as an experiment to see if he and other wolves like him could survive in the wild. The wolves soon find out that they have forgotten how to howl and that without this howl there is no one leader to unite them and they live in fear. Mumon decides to go on a journey to find his howl. Guided by nothing more than instinct and the forest around him he follows an unseen path. In Mumon's search for his howl he himself becomes the howl and restored freedom to his pack.  

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.” 

                                                                     --Jim Jarmusch

I remember hearing this quote in high school and not really understanding what it meant. I thought that if I took ideas that had already been conceived and combined them into a Franken-idea that it would be original and good.  While I now know that this is not completely true I feel that the root of this quote resonates with me more as a creative person now that I am older.

First he says to steal everything, devour old media, new media, and things in everyday life, nature, and dreams. In this I feel that he is saying to absorb everything and anything that you can. In doing so I have increased not only my worldview but also my understanding of what has been done in the past. I have found that by ‘devouring’ anything and everything also has helped me find what really speaks to me as a creative person, what he calls, speaking directly to your soul. I think this is the most important sentence in this quote. I feel that it is very true that only in stealing things that only resonate in your soul can you truly create something that is authentic.

As humans I also feel that we all strive to express ourselves and that we all strive for a creative outlet. This quote is especially pertinent in today’s mediated world where everything is more available and the creative process is changing. It is more about building on what has come before than stealing direct ideas, I think that that is what Jarmusch is saying. This is being thrown into question of what is truly authentic in todays society with all of the copyright lawsuits and problems with taking people ideas; the idea of ‘Intellectual property.’

It all comes down to authenticity and I feel that Jarmusch is backing up his thought with the quote by Jean-Luc Godard saying, “It’s not where you take things from- it’s where you take them to.” It is important to not to take whole ideas and change minor things. For example Shakespeare was far from original in the plots to his plays; but in the text and ideas that he created evolved a completely new form of genius that the world would be without if not for his willingness and boldness to steal from past ideas. The same is true for the artist Girl Talk. He is taking once innovative songs and turning them into something even more new and innovative. 

It also makes me think of Albert Einstein when he said, “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” I add this to back up what I was saying about how it is important to not steal directly but to borrow ideas. If we are all doing the same things then we are getting nowhere fast. If we choose to take ideas and elevate them combine them and make something new an innovative, then we are thinking on a different level that they were originally created. This is imperative to a successful idea. 

So is it true that in reality nothing is original? At the core of any authentic, new, and great idea there is a root to something in the past that has already been done. I take this with a grain of salt and always try to understand that it is okay to build off others past ideas but not to literally steal ideas directly. That is the only way to make something new and authentic.