Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Final Paper Rashomon
I'm planning on doing my final paper on the 1950 film Rashomon, directed by Akira Kurosawa and written by Shinobu Hashimoto along with Kurosawa. The film takes place in 12-century Japan and follows three different accounts of the murder of a Samurai, as told to a trial judge. Each account, - the first from the killer, the next from the slain samurai, and the last from a third party - are each completely different from each other. Yet, as Kurosawa presents each story with equal credence, he challenges the viewer to decipher which is true, if any of them are. I'm planning to relate this to Sobchack's idea concerning memory.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Mark Hansen - Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography
1. In Mark Hansen’s article, Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography, he starts by discussing a particular scene in Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner. In this particular scene, Rick Deckard places a photograph into a machine and using this machine, is able to explore the space three-dimensionally within this two-dimensional picture. Hansen believes that the digitization of photographs creates a crisis. In one way, digital manipulation of photographs poses a “threat…to traditional indexical notions of photographic realism” (54). This isn’t the first time that this problem is brought up in the movie. At a different point in the film, a replicant named Rachael confronts Rick Deckard after Deckard accuses her of being a replicant. She shows him a picture of herself with her mother. Yet, the audience realizes that the photograph is a fake. In this world of advanced technology, a photograph, something that usually can be counted on to be authentic, can no longer be trusted to be authentic.
2. Another crisis created by the digitization of photographs that Hansen discusses is the “radically new understanding of the photographic image as a three-dimensional “virtual” space” (54). As Deckard uses the machine to move around within the two-dimensional picture, he transforms this two-dimensional space into a three-dimensional space. This machine transforms a photograph from “a physical inscription of light on sensitive paper” into a “data set that can be rendered in various ways and thus viewed from various perspectives” (54). In a sense, this machine that is able to move around inside of a two-dimensional photograph has gained a human-like quality. With commands from a user, the machine is able to move around the photograph, focusing in on particular areas of interest. This is the same as if a human being was suddenly transported to the scene of the original photograph, able to move around and explore as he pleased. This machine is taking the place of human vision, allowing a person to explore the area in a picture without having to actually be there.
3. This visual technology is “relocating vision to a plane severed from a human observer” (58). Suddenly, a person does not need to be present to observe a scene, all he needs is a photograph of the place and the right technology. This technology is taking the place of the human eye. However, this shift from the human eye to technology changes what an image represents. With the use of technology, images suddenly represent “millions of bits of electronic mathematical data” (58).
Philip Schmidt
2. Another crisis created by the digitization of photographs that Hansen discusses is the “radically new understanding of the photographic image as a three-dimensional “virtual” space” (54). As Deckard uses the machine to move around within the two-dimensional picture, he transforms this two-dimensional space into a three-dimensional space. This machine transforms a photograph from “a physical inscription of light on sensitive paper” into a “data set that can be rendered in various ways and thus viewed from various perspectives” (54). In a sense, this machine that is able to move around inside of a two-dimensional photograph has gained a human-like quality. With commands from a user, the machine is able to move around the photograph, focusing in on particular areas of interest. This is the same as if a human being was suddenly transported to the scene of the original photograph, able to move around and explore as he pleased. This machine is taking the place of human vision, allowing a person to explore the area in a picture without having to actually be there.
3. This visual technology is “relocating vision to a plane severed from a human observer” (58). Suddenly, a person does not need to be present to observe a scene, all he needs is a photograph of the place and the right technology. This technology is taking the place of the human eye. However, this shift from the human eye to technology changes what an image represents. With the use of technology, images suddenly represent “millions of bits of electronic mathematical data” (58).
Philip Schmidt
Kenneth Anger Films
Tonight’s films from Kenneth Anger were confusing in the sense that they had no plot, and Scorpio Rising was especially difficult to view because of the rapid assembling of different scenes flashing before you. It reminded me of a slideshow rather than my traditional idea of a film.
Fireworks had somewhat of a plot and possibly represented a dream. A sailor was holding a man while lightning flashed, then the scene cut to the man sleeping on his bed. I assume that when he “woke up” he was dreaming, and his dream was about a group of sailors beating him up. Although the movie ends with a scene of him sleeping, confirming my idea that it was a dream, there are parts that lead you to believe it wasn’t. For example, the fireplace is now on fire, presumably from the flaming Christmas tree in the dream, and the hand on his desk is now fixed, when it was broken in the “dream”. On another note, something in the film reminded me of the film we saw in class where the dancer danced into different rooms. At one point in Fireworks, the man was talking to a sailor at what looked like a bar, then in his home next to the fireplace. Unlike the film we saw in class, this was much more abrupt and it was difficult to tell if it was meant to be connected to the previous scene.
Rabbit’s Moon wasn’t much easier to understand, but an interesting idea the lecturer brought up was the debate he had when restoring the film: flip the image or don’t flip the image? Apparently the film was accidentally flipped when Anger transferred it, which caused Lipman to wonder whether or not to flip it back. There were two sides to it: 1) the big dipper would appear correctly if it was flipped or 2) not flipping it may keep what was intended. He decided making two versions, one flipped and one not, which I think was a fair decision.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Hansen - Seeing the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography
1. In Mark Hansen’s article, he starts off with the scene from Bladerunner in which Deckard manipulates a photograph in order to discover evidence leading to the whereabouts of the replicants. In his investigation, he operates a computer and reveals the invisible by walking through the image as if it is a 3d world rather than a flat image. However, this manipulation of photographs and the digital technology comes into question as he brings up William Mitchell. Mitchell grows wary of the present day digital manipulation of images and questions “the status and interpretation of the visual signifier” (57). Hansen proposes Mitchell’s guidelines limits the scope of digital photography and imaging. Instead of digitizing a hardcopy image, one can construct a 3d environment within the computer and take a picture within this environment. Game developers often such virtual worlds and take screenshots of these virtual environments. This may supposedly break Mitchell’s limits, however images within computers still relay the images back to in a 2d format. While Mitchell may worry about the implications of digital, digital photography acts as a quicker, perhaps more efficient tool in traditional photography, bypassing many steps of development.
2. Hansen later raises the question of the human perception versus the machine vision. Several theorists before the digital age criticized the human mind in operating in a camera-like fashion, taking snapshots of reality and missing out on true motion. As the technology evolved to present day digital media, Hansen brings up Florian Rotzer’s belief of “functional isomorphism.” “A person does not see the world out there,” rather “see[ing] the model created by the brain and projected outwards” (65). Hansen suggests that if the computer vision “abandons perspective entirely in favor of a completely realized modelization,” then it is possible to modify what our perspective. This poses the problem that human construction becomes as malleable and controlled like a photographic image. However, Hansen rebuts that the computer vision can only be an instrument or aid of human perspective.
3. The digital technology acts as an extension of our bodies or rather “embodied prosthesis.” Hansen then quotes architect Lars Spuybroek, suggesting that all thoughts and movements belong to the mind and within our body. These thoughts come to fruition when we will our body to move and operate in the “haptic” world. Hansen then interprets the computer to be an extension of our bodies, able to extend as a prosthetic into the virtual world. Suddenly our “body, in short has become crucial mediator between information and form: the supplemental sensorimotor intervention it operates coincidences with the process through which the image is created” (78). Our body acts as an intermediate between the mind and the virtual world full of data.
-Benjamin Louie
2. Hansen later raises the question of the human perception versus the machine vision. Several theorists before the digital age criticized the human mind in operating in a camera-like fashion, taking snapshots of reality and missing out on true motion. As the technology evolved to present day digital media, Hansen brings up Florian Rotzer’s belief of “functional isomorphism.” “A person does not see the world out there,” rather “see[ing] the model created by the brain and projected outwards” (65). Hansen suggests that if the computer vision “abandons perspective entirely in favor of a completely realized modelization,” then it is possible to modify what our perspective. This poses the problem that human construction becomes as malleable and controlled like a photographic image. However, Hansen rebuts that the computer vision can only be an instrument or aid of human perspective.
3. The digital technology acts as an extension of our bodies or rather “embodied prosthesis.” Hansen then quotes architect Lars Spuybroek, suggesting that all thoughts and movements belong to the mind and within our body. These thoughts come to fruition when we will our body to move and operate in the “haptic” world. Hansen then interprets the computer to be an extension of our bodies, able to extend as a prosthetic into the virtual world. Suddenly our “body, in short has become crucial mediator between information and form: the supplemental sensorimotor intervention it operates coincidences with the process through which the image is created” (78). Our body acts as an intermediate between the mind and the virtual world full of data.
-Benjamin Louie
PFA: "The Passenger" by Michelangelo Antonioni
Frustrated about his life and his failure to effectively inquire/report about rebels in Africa, David Locke takes the identity of a dead man (Mr. Robinson) in the hotel room adjacent to his by switching rooms and passports. Locke soon realizes that his new persona is a gun dealer for the African rebels that he was attempting to report about. He finds this new lifestyle intriguing and tries to make all of the schedule appointments in Mr. Robinson’s schedule. However, nobody seems to show up at most these appointments but in the process he meets a mysterious lady, known as “The Girl.” Throughout the entire film, he is being pursued by both his wife and a hit squad that was trying to kill Mr. Robinson for supplying the rebels with money. The movie ends in a tragic scene in Africa, where Locke is murdered by the hit squad and his wife sees his dead body.
In one scene of the movie, Locke listens to a tape of a conversation that he and Robinson had in the past. What is particularly interesting about this scene is that the conversation is being acted out on the screen at the same time we see Locke listening to the tape in the future in the same room—merging the two times into one image. So in effect, this scene allows the viewer to experience two moments in time simultaneously. In another scene, Locke’s wife and friend watch video tapes of Locke reporting the news. This allows the wife and audience to look at Locke in a previous time and persona—giving us the ability to juxtapose Locke’s new and old personas.
-Christopher Melgaard.
In one scene of the movie, Locke listens to a tape of a conversation that he and Robinson had in the past. What is particularly interesting about this scene is that the conversation is being acted out on the screen at the same time we see Locke listening to the tape in the future in the same room—merging the two times into one image. So in effect, this scene allows the viewer to experience two moments in time simultaneously. In another scene, Locke’s wife and friend watch video tapes of Locke reporting the news. This allows the wife and audience to look at Locke in a previous time and persona—giving us the ability to juxtapose Locke’s new and old personas.
-Christopher Melgaard.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Final Paper - Donnie Darko
For my final paper, I am writing on Donnie Darko. This movie was directed by Richard Kelly in 2001. It’s about a suburban teenager who comes face-to-face with his destiny. I chose this movie in particular because of the element of time travel involved. Donnie is able to take look into his future and use the future to make a decision about the present. By doing this, he collapses time, taking an interval of time and turning it into an instant. In particular, I am going to focus in on the use of opsigns and sonsigns in the film. My biggest concern so far has been finding an academic outside source that isn’t a film review.
Philip Schmidt
Philip Schmidt
Saturday, April 14, 2007
The Passenger-Mara
Michaelangelo Antonioni's "The Passanger" is a film that follows David Locke, a reporter, who takes on the life of David Robertson when he unexpectidly dies. They met in Africa when staying in the same hotel and formed a of friendship. After assuming this new identity Locke walks in the footsteps of this other man without knowing what he is getting himself into, Robertson was a gunrunner for African rebels. Along the way he meets "girl" who is a wanderer herself.
The most striking thing to me about this movie was that it was as if the camera was an observer itself, following this man through his life. The movie begins slowly, with few lines, and the audience is just watching. The camera would shift views and look off into the desert, or watch a camel walking, or a wire on the wall, and then go back to watching Locke. The focus was never entirely on the main character or what he was doing. Something would be happening, and then as if the camera's attention got caught by something on the side it would change views, then "remember" what was going on main stage and go back to the main story line
As opposed to distracting me from the film, I actually felt that it enhanced it. Because of the slower pace of the movie, it had the potential to get boring, as many films of these kinds do. I was more intuned to the film because of these changes in direction of the camera. It made me feel more "there" in the movie because I was seeing these tiny details, these random images that are always present in movies but always bypassed. They gave more visual texture to the film that I really liked.
Another thing that I feel that the director did well was the way he did the memory sequences. After Robertson dies, Locke remembers moments with him, listens to recordings of their conversations, as he begins his transformation into Robertson. The change from present time to memory time is subtle and flows. In one part of the room it will be a memory, and then the camera will pan across the building and look in through a window and it's the present.
Over all I enjoyed the film and was suprised that Jack Nicholson was in it, it seemed a different kind of movie than his others.
The most striking thing to me about this movie was that it was as if the camera was an observer itself, following this man through his life. The movie begins slowly, with few lines, and the audience is just watching. The camera would shift views and look off into the desert, or watch a camel walking, or a wire on the wall, and then go back to watching Locke. The focus was never entirely on the main character or what he was doing. Something would be happening, and then as if the camera's attention got caught by something on the side it would change views, then "remember" what was going on main stage and go back to the main story line
As opposed to distracting me from the film, I actually felt that it enhanced it. Because of the slower pace of the movie, it had the potential to get boring, as many films of these kinds do. I was more intuned to the film because of these changes in direction of the camera. It made me feel more "there" in the movie because I was seeing these tiny details, these random images that are always present in movies but always bypassed. They gave more visual texture to the film that I really liked.
Another thing that I feel that the director did well was the way he did the memory sequences. After Robertson dies, Locke remembers moments with him, listens to recordings of their conversations, as he begins his transformation into Robertson. The change from present time to memory time is subtle and flows. In one part of the room it will be a memory, and then the camera will pan across the building and look in through a window and it's the present.
Over all I enjoyed the film and was suprised that Jack Nicholson was in it, it seemed a different kind of movie than his others.
PFA Michelangelo Antonioni – The Passenger
Michelangelo Antonioni – The Passenger
Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger,” stars as David Locke, a British journalist covering the civil war in instable parts of Africa. When an acquaintance, David Robertson, suddenly dies of a questionable heart attack, Locke spontaneously swaps identities, perhaps to leave his lost burnt out life. While assuming the mysterious Robertson’s life, Locke follows Robertson’s appointment book only to discover his new identity is a gunrunner for the African rebels. Locke makes one last visit to his previous life before he escapes and embarks on Robertson’s life. Upon his travels, he meets a young mysterious woman who seems like a wanderer with no direction. She accompanies him on his journey, urging him to continue Robertson’s fight with the rebels against tyrannical rule. However, unsure of his actions, Locke continually runs from both his past life, as his cheating wife and producer search for him, and pursuing African agents, unbeknownst to Locke. As the pursuers catch up to Locke, he also meets his untimely fate.
“The Passenger” starts out with almost no dialogue and often times eerily silences filled with little background sounds. I have never seen a film in which the director continually zooms or pans out from the characters to focus on the surrounding setting or landscape. In many scenes, Antonioni pulls out to situate the viewer in the desolate African deserts, the winding turns and hills of Spain, the bustling cityscape, or focusing on settings outside windows and impending events unknown to Locke. In addition, Antonioni portrays past events in an interesting manner. Rather than cutting or using a flashback blur, he leaves the present characters in the same scene as the past events. In an earlier part of the film, Locke recalls a conversation he had with Robertson occurring as he is sitting at his desk. The camera then pans left toward a balcony in which both Locke and Robertson were conversing with each other. As the camera pans back to Locke at his desk, we discover the conversation occurring was from a recorder. In another scene, Antonioni shows Locke’s wife looking out a window, witnessing Locke crazily burning a pile of branches. As the camera cuts to down to Locke’s level of perception, his wife remains in the upstairs window and another woman worryingly runs out screaming at Locke. We later realize that the worried woman was Locke’s wife and the events occurring took place in the past. His wife in the window is in the present realm reminiscing about the fiasco.
I enjoyed the film’s long drawn out scenic shots. However, sometimes I found the movie too slow and not very stimulating. At times, I felt as if I was wandering along with the characters, confused about which direction to be heading in their journey. Overall, I still enjoyed the film.
-Benjamin Louie
Jack Nicholson in Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger,” stars as David Locke, a British journalist covering the civil war in instable parts of Africa. When an acquaintance, David Robertson, suddenly dies of a questionable heart attack, Locke spontaneously swaps identities, perhaps to leave his lost burnt out life. While assuming the mysterious Robertson’s life, Locke follows Robertson’s appointment book only to discover his new identity is a gunrunner for the African rebels. Locke makes one last visit to his previous life before he escapes and embarks on Robertson’s life. Upon his travels, he meets a young mysterious woman who seems like a wanderer with no direction. She accompanies him on his journey, urging him to continue Robertson’s fight with the rebels against tyrannical rule. However, unsure of his actions, Locke continually runs from both his past life, as his cheating wife and producer search for him, and pursuing African agents, unbeknownst to Locke. As the pursuers catch up to Locke, he also meets his untimely fate.
“The Passenger” starts out with almost no dialogue and often times eerily silences filled with little background sounds. I have never seen a film in which the director continually zooms or pans out from the characters to focus on the surrounding setting or landscape. In many scenes, Antonioni pulls out to situate the viewer in the desolate African deserts, the winding turns and hills of Spain, the bustling cityscape, or focusing on settings outside windows and impending events unknown to Locke. In addition, Antonioni portrays past events in an interesting manner. Rather than cutting or using a flashback blur, he leaves the present characters in the same scene as the past events. In an earlier part of the film, Locke recalls a conversation he had with Robertson occurring as he is sitting at his desk. The camera then pans left toward a balcony in which both Locke and Robertson were conversing with each other. As the camera pans back to Locke at his desk, we discover the conversation occurring was from a recorder. In another scene, Antonioni shows Locke’s wife looking out a window, witnessing Locke crazily burning a pile of branches. As the camera cuts to down to Locke’s level of perception, his wife remains in the upstairs window and another woman worryingly runs out screaming at Locke. We later realize that the worried woman was Locke’s wife and the events occurring took place in the past. His wife in the window is in the present realm reminiscing about the fiasco.
I enjoyed the film’s long drawn out scenic shots. However, sometimes I found the movie too slow and not very stimulating. At times, I felt as if I was wandering along with the characters, confused about which direction to be heading in their journey. Overall, I still enjoyed the film.
-Benjamin Louie
Friday, April 13, 2007
Week of April 16 and 18
For Monday read the following chapters from the second reader:
From Writing Analytically: Writing the Researched Paper AND Finding and Citing Sources
From A Short Guide to Writing About Film: Researching the Movies
Monday we'll talk mostly about writing the final paper.
Monday night there will be a screening.
Wednesday we'll talk about the screening and the following article.
***You have to find it yourself as part of the assignment***(hint- it's indexed on JSTOR):
"Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography" by Mark Hansen, (originally published in Diacritics in 2001)
Your paper topics look great!
A little help for people going into things we have not read much about...
For people writing on games or online words these two books are helpful:
The Video Game Theory Reader by Mark J. P. Wolf
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
For the person writing on Camille Utterback here is a chapter on her from a recent book: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10720&mode=toc
From Writing Analytically: Writing the Researched Paper AND Finding and Citing Sources
From A Short Guide to Writing About Film: Researching the Movies
Monday we'll talk mostly about writing the final paper.
Monday night there will be a screening.
Wednesday we'll talk about the screening and the following article.
***You have to find it yourself as part of the assignment***(hint- it's indexed on JSTOR):
"Seeing With the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography" by Mark Hansen, (originally published in Diacritics in 2001)
Your paper topics look great!
A little help for people going into things we have not read much about...
For people writing on games or online words these two books are helpful:
The Video Game Theory Reader by Mark J. P. Wolf
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
For the person writing on Camille Utterback here is a chapter on her from a recent book: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10720&mode=toc
Butterfly Effect
Butterfly Effect by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber released in 2004. I'm really intrigued by the way this movie represents this theory of chaos. Butterfly effect is the theory that a small occurrence turns into a huge effect. The main character has holes in his memory that are filled in by what he does in the present. At first he uses his journals to access his past. But in the end when his journals are gone he uses a home video. It's interesting that for the course of the film he traveled back through his own thought process, but the video was an outside objective point of view but provided the same result. I'd like to tie this in with Virilio's Open Sky with the "ghostly double" as Ashton Kutcher travels back basically into a memory and directs his memory-self to do something. I'd like to consider more also the way Kutcher's character experiences pain and nose-bleed as he rushes back to the present, as if this is the toll on his weighted body to speed through the journey of time to the present, yet he always maintains the same consciousness throughout the film.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Final Paper - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
For my final paper, I would like to analyze the last installment of the Star Wars saga, released in 2005 and directed by George Lucas. I am a fan of the series and find the concept of space travel and “the force” intriguing. I would narrow the focus on the technologies of the holographic images and the ability for space crafts to travel at the speed of light. I may choose to go into specifics of “the force” such as foreseeing the future. The main relation to the course will be through the technology that is possibly dissolving space and time.
STARGATE
My final paper will be about the movie Stargate by Roland Emmerich, released in 1994. I want to write about Stargate because I am a fan of the movie and find it very interesting and I dont find it hard to relate Virilio's open sky and Optics on a grand scale. In the movie there is one specific scene where they are trying to place 7runes in a correct order to open a time portal with no control over how far they are traveling when they open it and go through they are in a dark pyramid. (more to it but will become relevant in the essay) This can be applied to teleconfrencing due to the hole in space and a hole in time. A concern I have is how many times im going to have to watch it to understand it enough to relate it to virilio.
Final Film Paper- Mara
For my final paper I am going to analyze the film "Enigma" (2001) directed by Michael Apted, screenplay by Tom Stoppard. This film is about breaking the Nazi Shark Enigma code in WWII that led to one of the greatest breakthroughs in the war. This movie relates to the changing of technology through time and how humans adapted and integrated it into their lives. New forms of communication, ways of conducting war and espionage caused a shift in thinking. Technology made everything close and became a battle between man and machine. I will use Virilio's "optics on a grand scale" which discusses the loss of journey and the ever present now. I will also incorporate Sobchack's ideas on expressive technology that "Chan[ge] not only our expression of the world and ourselves, these perceptive technologies also change our sense of ourselves in radical ways that have now become naturalized and transparent". Jericho is the main character who lives codes and has a close relationship with the new technology that is a part of him because of his ability to be on par with the machine. The machine becomes the eyes of the Allies in the war. Also, time becomes irrelevant as space becomes smaller.
There is also an aspect of memory that can be gleened from the film as well. Throughout the film Jericho experiences poignant memories by physically being in places that evoke memories. With the growing of instant communication, there will be less need to have a physical presence and when that happens, what will create our memories if we do not experience people in the flesh.
There is also an aspect of memory that can be gleened from the film as well. Throughout the film Jericho experiences poignant memories by physically being in places that evoke memories. With the growing of instant communication, there will be less need to have a physical presence and when that happens, what will create our memories if we do not experience people in the flesh.
Final Paper-Memento
In my final paper I will examine a film produced in 2001, titled Memento, which was written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Nolan separates this video into a number of sequences, and jumbles each of these sequences around to create a unique effect of temporality within the film. The film is about a young man who is no longer capable of producing short-term memories. In order to keep his life organized he uses Polaroid pictures to identify different people and places as well as their characteristics. In Vivian Sobchack’s article, she refers to family albums as a, “memory bank” saying that photographs has an increasing value, which “materializes and authenticates experience, others, and oneself as empirically real” (Sobchack 143). This completely pertains to Leonard, the main character of the film, and his use of photographs for memory. I will examine other sources, possibly Mary Ann Doane’s book, The Emergence of Cinematic Time, as well as articles from the Cinema Journal and Film Quarterly to aid in my analysis of the photography within the film.
Camille Utterback
I plan on writing my final paper on Camille Utterback's External Measures (2003) and Untitled 5 (2004) series of interactive art. I heard about this style of art, which uses the viewer's movements in molding the art work itself, last semester. I am very interested in using this style of digital artwork because it incorporates many of the authors we have discussed in class. I plan on relating Utterback’s work to Virilio’s analysis of the digital as well as Bragaglia’s section on the ability of art to give sensation through movement. Because this type of digital art depends on the viewer, I am narrowing my focus to how interactive art transforms the viewer into both a piece of are as well as the artist.
Final Paper Topic
For my final paper I will focus on Virilio’s Open Sky, and the film, “Click” starring Adam Sandler and directed by Frank Coraci.
Specifically from Open Sky I will consider Virilio’s ideas on “dromospheric pollution”, the loss of the journey, and the consequence of telecommunications and live-coverage.
From the film “Click”, I will compare the remote that Adam Sandler uses to control his life to “dromospheric pollution” and telecommunications. At the end of the movie Adam Sandler has great regret that he has missed experiencing the journey.
“Click” seems like a representation of Virilio’s grim forecasts coming true and the horrible consequences “dromospheric pollution” will have on the journey of life.
Leesha
Specifically from Open Sky I will consider Virilio’s ideas on “dromospheric pollution”, the loss of the journey, and the consequence of telecommunications and live-coverage.
From the film “Click”, I will compare the remote that Adam Sandler uses to control his life to “dromospheric pollution” and telecommunications. At the end of the movie Adam Sandler has great regret that he has missed experiencing the journey.
“Click” seems like a representation of Virilio’s grim forecasts coming true and the horrible consequences “dromospheric pollution” will have on the journey of life.
Leesha
Final Paper Proposal ~ Kirsten Nicholls
Run Lola Run, directed by Tom Tykwer, 1998
I will be writing about this film, Run Lola Run, because I have known about this film since high school and have been a big fan since first viewing it some six or seven years prior. I will relate this film to our studies in this course by looking at the concept of real time as discussed by Virilio in his article “Perspective of Real Time, Optics on a Grand Scale” and also by Deleuze. I will narrow my scope by focusing on the use of opsign and sonsign throughout the movie. For outside sources, so far I have found the following: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance by Marek Haltof and Vertigo: The making of a Hitchcok Classic by Dan Auiler. This movie is very complex in the amount of cinematic techniques that are used. I would like to discuss these different techniques, but I am concerned that they will either detract from the paper itself. I am also concerned about how I should write in these cinematic techniques and still have a small, stream-line paper in the end.
I will be writing about this film, Run Lola Run, because I have known about this film since high school and have been a big fan since first viewing it some six or seven years prior. I will relate this film to our studies in this course by looking at the concept of real time as discussed by Virilio in his article “Perspective of Real Time, Optics on a Grand Scale” and also by Deleuze. I will narrow my scope by focusing on the use of opsign and sonsign throughout the movie. For outside sources, so far I have found the following: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance by Marek Haltof and Vertigo: The making of a Hitchcok Classic by Dan Auiler. This movie is very complex in the amount of cinematic techniques that are used. I would like to discuss these different techniques, but I am concerned that they will either detract from the paper itself. I am also concerned about how I should write in these cinematic techniques and still have a small, stream-line paper in the end.
Doom, 2005, id Software (game) Andrzej Bartkowiak (film director)
I am going to be analyzing and comparing the video game Doom 3 with the film, Doom. I will be referencing some ideas from Deluze to show how the video game Doom is an action image and how the movie failed to do so in some aspects. This will tie in to some of Sobchack's ideas about our moral ethics. Although she may think that video games fail at creating personal responsibility but films succeed, Doom is quite the opposite. The movie was horrible and a complete disgrace to the video game series, which is a "landmark title" in first person shooters (FPS). Interacting with a video game incorporates mental and some minor physical interaction that can make the event more "real" than a film. I will focus the paper on the scene in the movie which switches from third person to first person.
In addition to using Deluze and Sobchack, I'm going to look into two recommended books: "First Person" and "Rules of the Game". I'm also going to reference some academic reviews. My only concerns are that I cannot focus this topic enough and that perhaps I will have a hard time finding real "academic" sources.
In addition to using Deluze and Sobchack, I'm going to look into two recommended books: "First Person" and "Rules of the Game". I'm also going to reference some academic reviews. My only concerns are that I cannot focus this topic enough and that perhaps I will have a hard time finding real "academic" sources.
Love Actually
I am analyzing the movie “Love Actually” for my final project. This movie was written and directed by Richard Curtis. It was released in the USA in 2003. It has a “running time” of 135 minutes.
This movie consists of multiple spaces or locations. The story goes back and forth between characters and areas. This builds anticipation about how the scenes will be connected and why they are all being shown. The scene in which all of these spaces and characters assemble, or the meeting point, is the scene about which I will write. This convergence or juxtaposition occurs at the little kids holiday play.
Each individual spaces or location has its own plot and characters. The thing they all have in common (throughout) is the time during which the actions are taking place (i.e. some of the scenes are not flashbacks for others; it is “present day” in each, and this present day is the same date for each).
Each space had to be shot/ filmed in different locations at different times; but this particular scene (at the little kids play) is where they all come together. It shows the viewer how they all “fit” into the main story line.
I will also try to incorporate the idea of love being considered “timeless.”
This movie consists of multiple spaces or locations. The story goes back and forth between characters and areas. This builds anticipation about how the scenes will be connected and why they are all being shown. The scene in which all of these spaces and characters assemble, or the meeting point, is the scene about which I will write. This convergence or juxtaposition occurs at the little kids holiday play.
Each individual spaces or location has its own plot and characters. The thing they all have in common (throughout) is the time during which the actions are taking place (i.e. some of the scenes are not flashbacks for others; it is “present day” in each, and this present day is the same date for each).
Each space had to be shot/ filmed in different locations at different times; but this particular scene (at the little kids play) is where they all come together. It shows the viewer how they all “fit” into the main story line.
I will also try to incorporate the idea of love being considered “timeless.”
Jean Vigo - Zero for Conduct
The PFA combined a showing of Jean Vigo’s shorts “Taris” and “Zero for Conduct” with an accompaniment of live music played. This live music accompaniment was an experiment in which the UC Ambassadorial Jazz Ensemble improvised music and sound effects to the short film about the French champion swimmer Jean Taris in “Taris.” In this short film, Vigo films Taris as he swims and demonstrates the basic forms and movements of each swimming style. As he swims, Vigo utilizes slow motion and close-ups of Taris as he swims, while the Jazz band accompanied with lyrical and comical sound effects. Vigo also manipulates time and motion as he repeatedly shows Taris diving into the pool and in reverse, leaving the water feat first. The flutist highlights this repeated action by playing the same arpeggio forward and backwards. Vigo then ends the film by showing Taris diving in reverse and a quick obstruction or cut shows Taris in clothes, followed by walking on water as he exits into darkness.
The second film, “Zero for Conduct” began just as the student DJ initiated a countdown on his track. Drawing from events of his own life, Vigo honors his anarchist father in this short film in which boarding school children rebel and take over the school. The film follows the comical events of three children opposing the school master and cronies, culminating in the triumphal and memorable pillow fight scene. In this scene, Vigo utilizes an oblique angle shot to create a sense impending chaos and anarchy. Preceding the pillow fight, the children gather in the center of the sleeping hall, raise their skull and cross-bone flag and proceed to march. When told to return to their beds, they disperse and begin the pillow fight, causing mass chaos. The most notable scene shows the children lifting one of the leaders of the rebellion and march down the hall. Vigo utilizes an angled slow motion shot to capture the parading children as feathers fall like confetti in a victory march. His use of slow motion adds to the triumphal march.
Throughout the film, each DJ brought his own unique style and sound. A few DJs provided tracks in sync with the action and sequences of the film, while others provided more background music. DJs transitioned seamlessly in sync with the changing scenes of the film. The live music added an interesting element to the film. The electronic music seemed like it would be an inappropriate accompaniment, but I thought it worked quite well.
-Benjamin Louie
The second film, “Zero for Conduct” began just as the student DJ initiated a countdown on his track. Drawing from events of his own life, Vigo honors his anarchist father in this short film in which boarding school children rebel and take over the school. The film follows the comical events of three children opposing the school master and cronies, culminating in the triumphal and memorable pillow fight scene. In this scene, Vigo utilizes an oblique angle shot to create a sense impending chaos and anarchy. Preceding the pillow fight, the children gather in the center of the sleeping hall, raise their skull and cross-bone flag and proceed to march. When told to return to their beds, they disperse and begin the pillow fight, causing mass chaos. The most notable scene shows the children lifting one of the leaders of the rebellion and march down the hall. Vigo utilizes an angled slow motion shot to capture the parading children as feathers fall like confetti in a victory march. His use of slow motion adds to the triumphal march.
Throughout the film, each DJ brought his own unique style and sound. A few DJs provided tracks in sync with the action and sequences of the film, while others provided more background music. DJs transitioned seamlessly in sync with the changing scenes of the film. The live music added an interesting element to the film. The electronic music seemed like it would be an inappropriate accompaniment, but I thought it worked quite well.
-Benjamin Louie
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