Assighnment # 6

The director clearly fallows all the rules for framing in the first 5 scenes of “For the Birds”. The first scene stars with a pan shot from right to left; this is used to establish the location of a power line along a long and lonely road in the planes of what I assume to be western United States. The camera then stops on a small piece of power lines where our first main character fly’s in and they begin pecking at each other. I consider the entire group of birds to be one character because they act the same and do the same thing. The camera zooms out much more than 30% ending with a wider scene of all the birds fighting, and then suddenly stopping at the insertion of a strange noise. The camera jumps greater than 30* to introduce the second character in the film. The camera then goes to a 1^st person shot just inside the 180% line to show the reaction of the birds. The short fallows all the rules of camera positioning, the 180 rule, the 30* rule, and the 30% rule. And it’s easy to see why, the entire short takes place in front of a power line, meaning all the action is going to take place along that line, causing the 180 degree line to never move. The location is very open and vast, and the camera has plenty of open space to move around and establish shots, even thou there is very little to establish in the middle of nowhere. The director did not really need to break any of the rules for this short, and everything can be explained with only a handful of camera angles and shots. However if the director was to break any of the rules, it would be easy to do because of how simple the scene is set up. We would immediately know what was going on.

Assighnment # 5 Song Deconstruction

Listening Phase 1

Tempo: Both songs move very fast.       

Source: The rhythm of both songs come from the drums.

Groove: Rock, Metal

Listening Phase 2

Instrumentation: Guitar, base and drums for both songs.

Structure/Organization: Each song uses reaping rhythms, with a solo act interjected in the middle.

Emotional Architecture: The songs both build and build until the end.

Listening Phase 3

Height: Terran up the night went higher and lower, while murlock mostly stayed high, but not as high as Terran up the night got.

With: Neither song really pans from left to right a great deal.

Depth: both songs use the same 4 instruments because both songs are done by the same band.

I enjoy both of these songs, created and played by a lesser known band which call themselves lv 80, ETC. both these songs are fast and rock, and are cleaver and quite entertaining to watch. The instruments used by the band are a drum set, a guitar, and two people playing on base guitars. The first song is the older of the two, “I am Murlock, I am Death”, and is really cleaver and quite funny, thou its would only be understood by individuals which have played warcraft. The second song, “Terran up the Night”, is their newer song which was written to go along with the release of Starcraft 2.   

                “I am Murlock, I am Death” is the shorter of the two songs, and it fallows a very simple rhythm lead by the drums. However the height of this song varies much greater than “Terran up the night.” The song uses a series of verses which it repeats 3 times through out the song, in between the verses are musical verses, or other sayings created by the artist. The song begins and ends with the sound a murlock makes, which I find to be halerous.

                “Terran up the Night” however, is a little softer than “I am Murlock” but does not change its height as frequently as the other song. This song also utilizes verses and a rhythm throughout the song, switching between a repeating phrase, a rhyme, and music without any word. “Terran up the Night” is more structured than “I am Murlcok, I am Death” and that is probably because murlock was made early in their musical carrier, while “Terran Up the Night” is one of their newer songs.

                Neither song utilizes a wide range of frequency and have very similar quality’s. I would say the pitch for both songs are about the same as well, however despite this both songs have about the same intensity of very intense. They are both very lovely songs but I have to say I like “Terran Up the Night” more than the other. I say that because it is more varied and more interesting than “I am Murlock, I am Death”.

Assighnment # 7 Animation

The two images I chose are from “Toy Story 3” and the first one is Woody and Buzz talking to the rest of the toys in a box, which I well from hence forth call image 1. The second image is at the end of the movie, with the toys new owners standing in front of her house with all the toys, and we’ll be called image II.

                In Both images color is used very effectively to draw the eye, in particular, brightness of color. In image 1 the color of the box and our figures are much brighter and saturated then the dark background of the car, leading our eye to look at the characters and ignore the background of the car. Woody is also framed in the window, helping us to draw our attention to him. This is also used in image II of the light shining throe the tree’s on the little girl and the toys, again drawing our attention to her with bright saturated colors, while having us ignore her surroundings by using darker and more desaturated colors. The brightness created by the sun also help frame this picture by creating a box around our characters using the light, the walls and the front step of the porch.

                In image 1 the name of the locations our characters are going to is written on the side of the box, Sunny side. This is definitely a symbol for the location they are going, as it suggests someplace happy. In addition, everyone in the image is happy with the exception of woody, the only one not touching the box, further suggesting that Sunnyside is a happy place. However the black letters on the box and all the brown tones suggest that Sunnyside is not as happy of a place as we first imagined it. While in image II the girl has a more neutral face, but the background of yellow suggests that this place really well be happy because yellow is the same color of the sun, which references Sunnyside. This is also further reinforced by the plants in each corner of the image, and the sunlight shining down on our characters in the frame.

Blog #8 Sceen Deconstruction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7luMp6lb9M

The Theme of the movie “Dude Where’s my Car?” is two guys trying to do something really simple, like finding their car, however it is far more complicated than that. During the course of the movie our protagonists have to deal with bully’s, a homicidal hermaphrodite, cults, and even space aliens, all just to find this car. This scene of them ordering some breakfast is a perfect example of the entire movie over the course of 2 minutes, as they are simply trying to order a meal, but cannot overcome the drive through attendant despite what they try to do.

The scene uses Space to help reinforce the scene as our protagonists are trapped inside the back of a little car during the entire scene. Even the little dog gets to sit up front while they are stuck in the back, they have no power, and appear very weak because of their size in relationship to their space in the backseat, while the driver is in a more decent sized space, not too big or too small, making him appear to be the stronger. The voice box is the strongest in this regard because it is very open and has a strong shape, the voice box even gets its own close-ups because it is the one controlling the scene.

  The characters movement is also reinforces this and work with the space. The protagonist’s move a lot within their cramp space, while the driver moves very little, and the voice box does not move at all, yet has all the power in the scene. The protagonists, while frustrated, have no place to move to express this frustration but try anyways, further emphasizing their frustration. The driver and the dog move very little, and are just relaxed and not caring, While the voice box has all the strength in this scene by its unnecessary to move. The voice box’s strength in not moving is created by our weaker characters movement on interacting with the voice box, by this method they give strength to the voice box and thus take it away from themselves.

Assighnment 4 sound desighn

The short from Pixar called, “For the Birds” I find, to be quite funny, and uses many principles of sound. During the entire film nobody talks, it’s very representational; it’s just a bunch of birds making honking noises, and other… odd noises. The noises the birds themselves make are not at all casual, giving the film a very odd feeling; however this also plays to the big bird, making him seem all that much more normal. The film has good proximity, such as the tapping of the toes when the camera pans out, also the sound the big bird makes towards the end becomes blended with the chirping of the little birds, showing illusion, just before the tense moment of when the bird is no longer holding the weight of the wire down. Movement is effectively shown when the little birds land with a loud squeak. It is also very easy to tell what the emotion of the birds during the entire thing, weather their fighting, mocking the big bird, or panicking at the prospect of being imminently launched into the air. The little birds also have a good speed or rhythm to their chirping, especially when they are cheering on the two birds in the center pecking at the big bird’s feet. Even thou the birds don’t actually sound like birds, we can easily tell through recognition that the birds are making the noises and not passing cars.

FADE IN

Ext- day

A bird fly’s in and lands on a telephone wire. It ruffles its feathers and chirps as a second bird lands next to it. It stretches its wrings bumping into the other bird; the first bird pecks it in return. They begin to CHIRP at each other as a third bird lands, and is bumped by the first. The new bird begins to CHIRP at the other two birds as two more birds land. They also get bumped and start to CHIRP at each other. Soon there are no less than ten birds chirping and pecking each other, when the commotion is ended by a sudden and dumbly sounded “HAAAY”. The birds stop and look at the source of the new noise, a tall dopy looking bird sitting atop the telephone pole. The new bird waves and all the other birds look wide eyed at it. The big bird says “HIII”, as the little birds look at each other and begin to LAUGH, many of them poofing their feathers out, and honking, to look like the odd and dopy bird. This commotion is once again broken by the big bird making a “HAIIYIIAAA” noise. The big bird looks on cheerfully as the other little birds move away from the big bird toward the center of the telephone line. The little birds begin to CHIRP quietly to one another occasionally glancing at the big bird. The big bird then In a flurry of indistinguishable noises fly’s over to the little birds and lands right in the middle of them, pulling the telephone wire down accompanied by a long single BELL noise. All the little birds get pushed into the big bird, scrunching them all together. The little birds begin to CHIRP in protest of their no predicament. The big bird begins to CHIRP as well, thou it sounds more like a clutter of random words. One of the little birds PECKS the big bird, causing him to stretch out flailing his wings about with a long rush of odd words, and fall backwards hanging upside down on the telephone wire. The little birds slide together with a SQUEAK. The little birds then gain the idea to PECK at the big birds toes, knocking them off of the wire, and a furry of HAMMERING noises begins as the other birds begin to notice and CHIRP in unison. The big bird notices the activity and begins to SPEAK with them thou in its own odd language. Just before the last finger gives way one of the little birds gives an alarming CHIRP, the other birds make a PANIC NOISE, and the scene goes quite just before the big bird falls off of the wire. With a SPRING sound the little birds go flying into the air leaving their feathers behind. The big bird sits up and begins to blow on the various feathers that are cluttered around in the air around him. The first little bird lands with a SQUEAK, and the big bird LAUGHS at it, then the other birds land with a similar SQUEAK and the big bird begins to LAUGH hysterically. The little birds notice they do not have fathers and chirps and run finding only one hiding spot behind the big bird.

FADE OUT

THE END

Assighnment 3 Brain Wash

http://changethis.com
Seth Godin’s “Brainwash” explains basically that our education growing up was nothing more than an attempt to make us efficient tools for society and lead relatively comfortable lives. Seth has 7, levels, for people who want to be reinvented and successful. They are Connect, Be Generous, Make Art, Acknowledge the lizard, Ship, Fail, and learn. I know, acknowledging the lizard, what? It just basically means to not be afraid to fail or sickout, to ignore the little voice that says don’t, and do. All of these layers make since to me, especially being generous, I have never seen being a generous company, or person fail, it gets you a good name that people well trust and fallow. Ship however does not really make much sense to me, I think he means by ship to simply, try, or attempt even if there is a chance of failure. That’s basically his article


Out of all seven of Seth’s levels, I think the first connect would be the most important, I mean, that is why we are doing these assignments on a blog vs. just doing the simple thing and handing them in on paper. The ability to have others know, what you are doing and see your work. It matters little how spectacular of an artist you may be if nobody has ever seen your work. And with new technology’s such as the internet, and social websites, its easier than ever to show off what you do to everyone in the entire world with but a simple click away. Using technology can get you a huge fan base that can help launch your carrier whatever it may be.
The second most important thing in the list is the generosity aspect of it. I know it may not seem entirely rational to simply, give stuff away, however, things are easier to learn and acquire than ever before in history. Let’s say you want a picture of yourself, all you have to do is take out your phone and take a picture at a mirror, or flip your hand about so that the picture is taken towards you instead of away. However, a few hundred years ago, the only way to get a picture of yourself would be to hire a artist who would spend years and years training in his craft and stand still for several hours as he painstakingly painted every line and shade in a cloth portrait, it could take days, weeks or months to get a good picture of yourself. So it’s important to give your fan base a lot of cool stuff, it’s easy to do, doesn’t cost you much, and they well appreciate it all the more and well be more likely to fallow or use your works instead of somebody else’s.
And finally, acknowledge the lizard, when Seth states it your like what? He obviously thinks this is the most important thing to have to be successful, that’s why he named it the way he did. However I strongly disagree with that idea, and consider it one of the lesser important things to have. But first, the lizard basically means, be brave, in a nutshell, that’s all you need. And if your too afraid to do anything you well of course fail, however, if someone does have a passion, or at the very least a desire to do something, I doubt the lizard well keep them from doing it for very long, no matter how stupid or dumb it may seem, I mean, have you seen some of the junk they sell in infomercials? All levels of Seth’s formula are important to know and apply to anything you do, be it a money making scheme or our schools blog.

Assighnment 2, finding your howl

http://changethis.com/


In "Finding your Howl", the story is about a wolf which was raised in captivity then released into the forest. once their he and the other wolves had forgotten how to howl. So our protaganist Mumon embarks on a adventure to the north to discover what his howl is and thus, be able to lead his tribe. After talking to a few animals, Mumon finds his howl, and leads his pack happily ever after. This story is represents freedom, finding ones identity, culture, and history. The journy itself represents the hard work one must go throu to discover their ancestory.




“Harry Potter” by J.K. Rowling has got to be one of my most favorite books of all time, and I’m talking about the entire series not just one book. The “Harry Potter” books are about a young boy which discovers that he is in fact a wizard, and goes to a magical school where he learns magic, on his journey through the 7 books, he will face fearsome beasts, evil wizards, and politicians who use their power to hinder or even jail our protagonist Harry Potter as he learns more about magic, his past, and the evil wizard Voldimort which he will face in a climatic duel at the end of the books. Along the way he well gain many friends such as Ron and Hermoni who are both his age and his best friends through the series, and gain many other allies such as Dumbledore, Lupin and Dobie. It’s this vast collection of characters which help make harry potter such an amazing book.
In each book there is always a main villain which Harry must figure out what his/her plan is, overcome and defeat. In the first book it was lord Voldimort trying to steal a sorcerer stone which would give him the power to come back to life. The second has a monster which is roaming the halls turning the residents of the school to stone; it is up to Harry to figure out who is controlling this beast. The Third is about a mad man which breaks out of jail to kill Harry. The fourth book Harry is trying to figure out who is trying to kill him when somebody enters him into a dangerous and life threatening contest. The fifth book is about a sinister woman who, with her political prowess, gains control of the school and begins to use rules and laws to restrict the actions which the students can do, it is up to Harry to end this control and free the school of this political grasp. The sixth book is about a mysterious assassin who is trying to kill someone, Harry prevents several of the assassination attempts and must learn not just who is trying to be killed, but by whom. The final book is about Harry finally confronting the lord of darkness lord Voldimort.
Along the way Harrys friends are always with him. First there is Ron, who is Harrys best buddy, he is always at Harrys side and helps Harry and Hermoni figure out how the cultural aspect of the wizard world works. They also spend a great deal of time at his parents how and meet many of the important characters through Ron’s family connections. Hermoni on the other hand is the brains; she is the best witch in the entire school and regularly saves Harry and Ron from mortal danger or worse, getting expelled from the school. In addition Hermoni takes care of both Ron and Harry, aiding them with their homework and coming up with fantastic plans to make Shure they are well prepared for what is to come. There are many more people Harry considers an ally, but Ron and Hermoni are the ones that are always there for Harry, through the worst and the best of times.
There are also much philosophical undertones in the Harry Potter books, which may be my favorite reason as to why I like the books. Many of the philosophical concepts that are dealt with in Harry potter are such things as the power of love, life after death, and good vs. evil. In the very first book love is used as a metaphor for how Harry is protected from the dark wizard lord Voldimort, and is a running theme through the entire series. The idea that there is something after death is a concept which comes up often in the books, and that death is not something which is meant to be feared, only a change of one thing to another. While the good vs. evil theme is very constant, and deals with what it means to be good and to be evil, Voldimorts very form represents evil while Harrys look is that of good. The books go far greater detail into these ideas and many more, and I highly suggest you read the entire novel set if you have enjoyed the ideas and characters I have outlined hear.