The War of the Worlds

My initial reaction to the 1938 broadcasting of The War of the Worlds: a mixture of appreciation for its creativity, and a god chuckle.  The chuckle, of course because of the reaction of audiences everywhere that weren't aware of the fact that it was fiction, and the appreciation because of the imagination and the many layers.  In class we often talk about the layers of a production, and this broadcast seems to be a great example of the way they come together.  It could have been a simple broadcast of a man reading from a script, but the broadcast went the extra mile with great acting and incredible description.  It didn't end there either.  The many background noises, such as realistic screams and explosions, added an extra layer to the narration, and therefore to the overall impact of the broadcast.  The narration in general was remarkable, as I'm sure most radio narrations were, because of its detailed description.  The first example of this that stood out was when the reporter first describes the image of the alien, with its black eyes and saliva dripping mouth.  I also really enjoyed the fact that the story was read as a real broadcast.  Although this caused chaos, I think that it was a really creative way to go about presenting the tale, and it was so nicely done.  I loved little details added in such as the voice of the reporter being cut off to imply that the alien invasion had gotten serious and cut the line of communication.  However, I chuckled once again at every piano interlude.  The soothing, classical music's contrast with the terrifying reports of an alien attack was pretty amusing.  Yet, it worked quite nicely with the more calm, defeated ending of the story, of which my favorite part involved the reporter sharing an emotional connection with a squirrel.  As silly or dated as The War of the Worlds broadcast may seem to us today,  radio requires a level of imagination and creativity that can hardly be matched, and The War of the Worlds will always be number one in both areas.

Who's Philip K. Dick?

Who is Philip K. Dick?  Before reading this article, I honestly would not have known.  Maybe I've been living under a rock, but it seems to me that for a man that has contributed so much to the world of art and technology, he has not nearly got enough recognition.  This is the first I am ever hearing of Philip K. Dick, but I can remember hearing references to the films Blade Runner and Minority Report since I was young.  Although I have never read his novels and still don't know much about him, this article gave me a great sense of all that Dick brought to the world of science fiction.  He was bold.  He was odd.  He was unconventional.  At the time, these were the qualities that made even his colleagues question and judge him.  However, we now see what a pioneer and creative genius Dick actually was.  He saw his genre in a different way than other authors and filmmakers did.  He saw that science fiction did not need to be so "cookie-cutter;" involving the same themes and settings and general ideas in each story.  He broke boundaries and showed audiences a new take on sic-fi that was shocking, yet ultimately appreciated for its originality.  Philip K. Dick was like no other, and, sadly, as the article says, "...we will not see his like again."

"Rape, Ultra-Violence, and Beethoven:" Fun with Droogs

Anthony Burgess: genius or oddball?  Probably both.  In fact, it was probably the oddball side of him that fed his genius.   How else would someone come up with Nadsat?  This confusing language of the teenage crowd in the futuristic society that Burgess created was formed with the input of many other languages and dialects.  According to most sources, it is a combination of Russian and English words that are slightly altered, along with words the author created himself with the influence of Russian and English slang.  Some words go from being as obvious as eggiweg (egg) to as ridiculous as mounch (snack).  The language, although sometimes a burden when reading the book or watching the film, is honestly fascinating.  It shows an extra mile that Burgess went to in order to truly create a futuristic society that was foreign to his readers.  It adds such a mysterious and almost fun element to the story, and keeps things much more interesting.

Flip-book Flower

Unfortunately the video wouldn't load, but when I figure it out I'll get it up! Here are some pictures from random points in the animation for now. 

Ten Thousand Examples of Talent

While scrolling down videoartes.com, the first thing that caught my eye was obviously the frozen image of an overly dramatic girl with ridiculously exaggerated tears of mascara scribbled down her cheeks.  So of course I had to click on it, and, just like almost everything else we are assigned to watch in this class, of course it blew my mind.  I cannot even fathom the technological and artistic talent it took to not only come up with a story line, but to take the pictures and piece them together to create such an awesome animation.  To me, this seems like something not everyone could do.  I feel that the artist had a vision in mind; a clear idea of what she wanted it to look like, and all she had to do was put her ideas into action.  I feel that this sort of a project isn't just something you can create on a whim, which is how I usually do anything and everything.  I am a HUGE fan of stop motion, and I truly respect artists that do it so well because I am aware of how tedious and time consuming it is. This art needed planning, and the end result was honestly incredible.  

Ten Thousand Pictures of You

Cinemagraph Quickie!

I loved that we quickly touched on cinemagraphs in class the other day; they fascinate me!  I had to quickly share two of my favorite blogs that have had their own fun making cinemagraphs.  Enjoy!

Ann Street Studio Cinemagraphs

The Glamourai

Final Shot

         "The Great Train Robbery," so similar and yet so different to Melies' "A Trip to the Moon."  Different in the genre of movie and the lesser use of such theatrical methods, yet similar in the way that it broke barriers in the world of motion pictures and paved the way for new, innovative ideas.  For example, this Edwin S. Porter film was one of the first to shoot on location, as opposed to those before him that used backdrops and props to create a setting.  Porter was also one of the first to employ techniques such as parallel editing, which is basically the alternating of two or more scenes.  In our fast-paced world of technology, the idea of this being something new and fascinating is almost comical, but Porter was paving the way for filmmakers and editors everywhere.  In "The Great Train Robbery," the costumes, suspenseful music, and overall storyline set the precedent for future westerns, and the film will forever be one of the first great narratives.

The final shot of the film, a literal shot directly at the camera that startled audiences everywhere