Advertising Narratives (from 2.4)

Much like the programs we enjoy on TV, the unappreciated commercial advertisement can provide a narrative structure much like the shows they interrupt. An ad I remember seeing recently is a rather humorous Planet Fitness commercial. In more conventional advertising, the gym itself would be the focus of the video, however it is a comical anecdote which occurs within the gym that we witness for the ad's duration. A Planet Fitness employee is welcoming their newest member, a large imposing man that would put Charles Atlas to shame. The employee attempts to be social with the man and asks him what he's interested in to which the meathead responds (in heavy Germanic accent) "I like to lift things up and put them down." The employee decides to ask a different question but receives the exact same response. Realizing the futility of a coherent answer, the employee points out various equipment the gym has available to others (this is a moment that in traditional advertising would be expanded. Sort of like, "we got you on the hook with a quick joke..now let's get to the nitty gritty of what we are about). The athletic man interrupts him to reiterate his previous statement. The employee tries to show him around a bit more but he is unable to even speak before the classic line is uttered.

Finally we see the employee opening a side door commenting on the gym's stretching area, however from the bright rays of light beyond the door we are fully aware that this is the fire exit to the outside. The athletic man utters his repeated dialogue "I like to lift things up..." before the door is shut behind him affectively disrupting the comical but irritating dialogue. A quick text with the title Planet Fitness and it's mission statement below "a judgement free zone" appear before the ad comes to an end. This is the perfect example of traditional storytelling except on a microscopic level. We have a protagonist (gym employee) who must overcome some obstacle, and we see the staff member choose a creative approach to solve the problem. We are given a situation based on a realistic problem, in this case a group member who clearly does not fit the mission statement, yet it is humorous because while it is realistic, it is exaggerated and features a character who does not adhere to what we perceive to be a normal human.

The commercial succeeds in proving their point while at the same time offering a bit of entertainment instead of simply projecting their product or establishment and highlighting it's benefits. This kind of advertising is very creative because the commercial speaks for itself. Because we are given a narrative based on a realistic situation and we see a problem solved we can piece together the rest. By witnessing the characters interactions we know that the gym is a place for any ordinary person not just an athlete who is obsessive, and that the staff are there to ensure that such an environment is nurtured and protected. That's in a way what story-telling is at it's most basic level, providing valuable information in an entertaining way.

Animation Manipulation (based on 2.6)

One of the benefits of animated series and films as opposed to live-action is what Matt Groening calls the "rubber-band reality." This refers to the fact that animated stories can alter people, places, or things within a show that you simply cannot do in live-action. For example, if the episode calls for Homer and Marge to be awaken from their slumber because they hear something in the closet directly adjacent to their bed, the animators simply draw a closet in their bedroom in a spot where in other episodes there was just a blank wall. Typically in live-action films and tv series, once something is established, it must remain consistent throughout. The exaggerated universe that exists in animated shows allows for more flexibility in the way events unfold even though the material covered within the narrative is usually based in reality.

The same is true for the South Park television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. For the most part, much of the show focuses on everyday issues (in particular contemporary politics) but because of the nature of it's unrealistic animation style, the show will veer off into fantastical situations such as interactions with a morally ambiguous Satan, etc. There is an episode in which the four main characters find martial arts weapons and decide to take on ninja personas. The idea itself, (young boys pretending to be warriors) is based in reality, however because the series is animated, the Parker and Stone can get away with having their characters injure their friend Butters to the point where a jagged metal shuriken is lodged in the young boys eye. This is certainly not something that can be portrayed on a live-action show with the same level of casualness that the animators implement (the boy clearly suffers and yet all the characters around him attempt to hide his serious injury, but because we are aware of the fact that this is animation, we find this incredibly funny). What is also interesting about the episode is that much of the humor derives from the transformation in animation style once the boys don their warrior personas (references to Japanese anime), humor that can only exist within the realm of an animated show.

This seems to not be the case with animated films such as The Incredibles. Because much of the film's publicity rests on the star power voicing the characters, the zaniness is toned down a bit. We are aware that behind the characters are our favorite actors, people based in reality, so we are not completely removed from our real world. The animated characters may still find themselves in fantastical situations, however it generally seems that such animated movies cannot abuse their characters to the extremities often displayed in South Park (sure these are fictional characters far removed from reality...but Brad Pitt voiced him! We can't hurt Brad Pitt). This is my reasoning as to why animated series have a certain level of ease when it comes to shifting from reality to surreality and finally to the absurd.

Second Animation assignment

The second assignment for my animation class involves a drawing in illustrator of some kind of environment whether it be realistic or other-worldly. I chose to make my environment drawing of a red rock desert at sunset. The scene was inspired by the famous Monument Valley (http://elmarto.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/monument_valley_mittens_sunset.jpg) located on the border between Utah and Arizona . The main reason I chose this as my environment is because of my love of western films. Monument Valley was used in countless Hollywood westerns, in particular those of the film maker John Ford who depicted the area in classics such as The Searchers, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Cheyenne Autumn. I recall the professor saying that we may use our environment drawings for future projects. Perhaps I will consider some kind of western animation, as I have already worked on a western period live-action short (shameless self-promotion: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1974394/) and could use it's story and/or characters.

Intro to Animation

This semester I have chosen to take the Intro to Animation course as my elective class. I decided to take Animation as I once dreamed of being a cartoonist and drew several comic books while in middle school. Before my interest in film sparked a change of career choice, I had wanted to work for either Nickelodeon or Adult Swim. The class will prove to be interesting and above all challenging as I am not familiar with the Illustrator and Flash programs, however I do learn fast with computer programs. Our first assignment was a small flipbook that we would create in order to get an idea of the most basic principle of animation (motion imagery comprises of a collection of still images that when shown in rapid succession creates the illusion of motion). The point is that we will take this premise and apply it to vector-based drawings to create a new type of animation the likes of which pioneers like Walt Disney could not have foreseen.

Editing Analysis

The opening sequence of my favorite film "Once Upon a Time in the West" is truly one of cinema's most memorable scenes..despite the fact that very little happens. It's the raw simplicity which makes it so compelling, for here we have three heavily armed men at a train station in the middle of the desert..and all they do is wait. One plays with a fly, one collects water dripping from the tower on his hat brim, and the other cracks his knuckles; all to simply pass time. We go through this for about eight minutes before the shriek of a train whistle is heard and the men spring into action. When the train arrives, it is obvious they are out to get someone, but who? In fact, no one descends from the train. After waiting with nervous anticipation, they turn around to leave as the train continues down the line. That's when the wail of a harmonica is heard behind them. They turn and on the other side of the tracks is our hero. After a few harsh words, silence again, and then in the blink of an eye gunshots erupt and all four characters hit the ground. All are mortally wounded save for the protagonist.
A typical Hollywood director would trim the scene down to three minutes, perhaps opening directly with the arrival of the train. However, in Leone's cinema, the style of the film keeps our eyes glued to the screen, despite the slow pace. The editing, done by celebrated Italian editor Nino Baragli, is one of many crucial elements of the film's style. There is no quick cutting or visual montages. The only fast cuts occur during the moments which a normal editor would flesh out: the gunfight. The editor was familiar with Leone's abrupt transitions from his trademark extreme close-ups to his long shots. The editing keeps us wondering what will happen next. In one moment, we have a shot lingering on a gunman with the fly successfully captured in the gun barrel. When the train whistle is heard we abruptly cut to a shot from a low angle, track-level shot with the speeding train accelerating over the camera. The editor knew how to constantly keep a level of surprise within the film that the director, Sergio Leone, always sought to capture.

Filming The Milgram Experiment

We were recently asked in my Media Production course to write, plan, and shoot a three minute short of our own choosing. My partner, Constantin Polseski, came up with the idea of making a film about the infamous Stanley Milgram experiment. This analysis, conducted in the 1960's at Yale University, was intended to portray the effects on people who are forced to do something by an authority figure even though they personally know what they are doing is morally unjustifiable. The experiment involved a professor who would be introduced by the scientists to a "learner" who was in reality a paid actor but the professors had no knowledge of this. The two would go into separate rooms and not have any direct contact with one another. The leaner would answer a series of questions by the teacher and when the answer was wrong, which would be all the time, the professor was pressured by the scientists into pressing a switch to electrically shock the learner with a higher voltage each time. The paid actor would simulate the sound of screaming in pain, so the professors actually believed that they were shocking this man. The scientist would demand the teacher to continue on, against their own consciences, and over 60% of the time, they continued on to what would actually be a fatal voltage. The hypothesis of the experiment was used to explain why so many people followed Hitler during WWII.
Our film is a heavily dramatized version of the event. We shot the film in a small room with a single construction light beaming down on the actor portraying a professor. The actor playing the scientist was off in a corner of the room just over the professor's shoulder. The scientist was off in the shadows of the room to add a sinister feel to the character, which is what we were going for in the original script. Most of the lines uttered by the scientist were actual lines used by the scientists such as "it is absolutely essential that you continue" except they were read in a much more fierce, commanding way than the actual scientist said. The movie came out excellently, exactly as I anticipated. If we had the opportunity to do it over again, I would not change much, except the pace of the dialogue. The original cut ran 6 minutes long and that gave me quite a headache when it came time to edit. Cramming all that information into the span of three minutes was quite the challenge, and much of it was due to the pace I had directed the actors to perform.

The World I Hear

As a student of New York's Hunter College, I'm quite familiar with the hustle and bustle sounds of the city. The endless cavalcade of cars, trucks, and buses creates a harmony of noise that resonates throughout the avenues of the sprawling metropolis. Whether one defines the report as thrilling is entirely personal choice. There are those who enjoy the sights and sounds of Manhattan, and those who simply do not. I fall in the latter category, much to the surprise of those in Hunter who first meet me, not to the surprise of those who truly know me. The obnoxious, blaring, incessant racket which pounds away at my ear fills me with tension, an uneasy state where the smallest obstacle to my frantic journey home can set me over the edge.
Now despite my most humble opinion, all sounds within our daily lives can be defined as musical, even those which we wish to ignore. In the most modern sense of the word, music can be found in any rhythmic sound which follows a distinctive pattern. In this case, the many noises heard in New York surely create a grandiose philharmonic orchestration with its taxi french horns and its tire-meets-sewer cap drum beats. Each individual sound adds to the sonata of the city, a furiously notated piece conducted by some unseen maestro. Whether or not we find the piece pleasing to the ear is, once again, and I can't stress this enough, a matter of personal choice.