iForgot

iForgot from Frankmedia160 on Vimeo.

MOMI

The inner architecture of the Museum of Moving Images is not what I expected upon entering the large plain, white building. I overheard one of the tour guides explain that the inspiration for the design inside the museum was inspired by the film, "2001 A Space Odyssey". Our tour of the museum started off by examining portraits of famous celebrities. We discussed about elements in the portraits that affect our perception of the actors and actresses. Those elements included how the light was directed on the celebrity, the pose he or she made and the angle the photo was taken at. After discussing about the portraits we looked at miniature models of structures. Our tour guide explained that models are used to pre plan elements such as lighting, set designing and directing in a set where a crew will film. Next, our tour guide showed us several costumes used in famous films. She explained that choosing the right costumes for a film is important because it is part of the process of disconnecting the audience from the real world to the film. I observed that some of the costumes are much more exaggerated than they would be in the real world. Exaggerating costumes in a film may be for entertainment purposes or to explicitly state that a character is poor, rich, rebellious etc. My favorite part of the tour was when we looked at Gregory Barsamian's Feral Fount. Our tour guide explained to us that Barsamian's was inspired to do the spinning animated sculpture because he wanted to combine elements of analog animation technology such as the zoetrope and the thaumatrope, and put them into one piece.

Sound Design (David Barker and Pacho Velez)

The lecture on contemporary sound design in documentary cinema, discussed about  foley, ambience, score and a fourth category David Barker and Pacho Velez explored, in documentaries. Barker and Velez began the lecture by showing a scene from a film. The setting of the scene takes place in a lab where persons are examining lobsters and stuffing them into boxes. The sound in the scene is mostly coming from the people doing this odd process. However, sound of tape being pulled and stripped is heard but no where to be found in the frame. Barker and Velez wanted to talk about this particular phenomenon. They mentioned that scores have been used for a long time to amplify emotion or convey abstract notions in fiction and nonfiction films. Now, sound designers and filmmakers are using sounds and sonic textures to get the same effects scores delivered in the past. Furthermore, Barker and Velez also talked about foley and ambiance and how they draw or pull attention away from the frame. They defined foley as natural sounds that occur in the scene, like footsteps or opening a door. Natural sounds that occur in the scene draw attention to what’s going on. On the contrary, ambient sounds pulls attention to what’s outside of the frame. 

I found the lecture interesting although I would have liked it if they explained the contrasting nature of foley and ambient sounds such as how one directs attentions to the frame and the other pulls away from the center of the frame. Before Barker and Velez discussed about the fourth category of sound in films and, showed us the scene where people were packing lobsters in to boxes, I thought the sound of tape being teared off was added to further establish the environment in the scene. I never thought of sound as an element that can be used to convey a theme or amplify emotions.

Whiskey Water Trick

      The Whiskey Water Trick is a short movie done by filmmaker Casey Neistat. In the video, Neistat fills up one shot glass with whiskey and the other glass with water. Neistat then films himself shuffling through a stack of pinup girl playing cards and picks a card out of the deck and places it on top of the shot glass filled with water. Carefully he flips the shot glass upside down while holding the card so the water doesn't spill and places it on top of the shot glass filled with whiskey. He aligns the rims of both shot glasses and slightly slides the card out, creating a small gap and allowing the liquid to travel between the glasses. Gradually, the denser liquid, water travels downward and the whiskey travels upward.
     While the whiskey water experiment is already awesome to watch as it is, the editing significantly makes the video more entertaining. The video starts out by playing Rye Whiskey, a song by folk singer Pete Seeger. Rye Whiskey complements the intrepid and rustic feel illustrated in the video. The duration of each shot are equally timed and reflects the tempo of Rye Whiskey. The duration of the shots only slow down when Neistat wants the viewer to focus on the details of the pinup girl playing cards as he is shuffling through the deck and, when the water and whiskey are trading places in the glasses. As Neistat proceeds with the experiment, different angles are used like an extreme close up shot of him opening a bottle of whiskey and a bird's eyed view of him pouring the whiskey and water into the shot glasses. The cuts in the video appear seamless because even if the video switches between multiple angles, the entire motion of an action is recorded. This technique allows Neistat to show the procedure in multiple perspectives without detracting from the seamless quality of the video. The fixed set of colors and the slight sepia hue used throughout the video also reinforces the connection between each shot.

Interview

Sounds

The first thing I noticed when I walked around my neighborhood was the sound of leaves swishing. There was a crisp sound as leaves were brushed by the wind. It was a cold and windy morning and besides the sound of the clink metal noise coming from my dogs tags hitting his collar, the next obvious sound I heard was the wind whistling and cars that were passing by me.

There is a medium to low traffic density in my neighborhood so while I can sometimes enjoy the sounds of nature, there are brief intervals of sound signals that I listen to reminding me I am still in the urban jungle. Some of the noises I'm accustomed to hearing are the sounds of construction going on, car exhaust and truck engines stalling.    

While I live in a neighborhood that is pretty distant from subways, stores, highways and roads with a lot of traffic, I still hear noises that are common in a city. I occasionally hear noises such as helicopters, ambulances and police sirens which are soundmarks of an urban area. In contrast, in a suburban neighborhood you wouldn't hear such noises but instead you might hear the sounds of lawn mowers, sprinklers and as for traffic noises, they would probably be nonexistent. You can expect to hear the sounds of cars and trucks passing by as early as 6 am in the city whereas in a suburban neighborhood you probably would not hear any of those noises. By the afternoon, soundmarks of the city are at a dangerously high decibel levels and it can remain like that until the evening.

I appreciate the sounds of nature because it gives me a break from the soundmarks of the city. The occasional keynotes of nature I sometimes get to listen to in my neighborhood contribute to a calm and tranquil ambiance as opposed to the loud and cluttered noises you commonly hear in a city that furnish feelings of annoyance and anxiety.

Define A Space

Define A Space (NYC) from Frankmedia160 on Vimeo.