Thursday, February 24, 2011
Class Reflection 2/24/11
I thought class was incredibly informative today. It wasn't nearly as exciting as some of our other classes but Doc Chris did an awesome job of teaching everybody some new vocabulary about lighting for cameras. We also got an awesome custom made chapter summary from the book that looks like it'll work a lot better than reading every single one of those dull pages in the textbook. In the end I think class went well today despite the fact that it wasn't quite as exciting as Doc's usual, but I feel like I learned a ton about lighting and about why the book sucks. So, it was another successful class with the Doc today.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Class Reflection 2/17/2011
The class period was short today, coming in at only an hour worth of discussion. The class still learned a few things though. The biggest thing we did today was build on our SSM skills as we watched the performances at the grammy's and talked about what we heard and saw. The next thing we did was listen to people's sound clips they did for homework. This activity didn't seem to work out very well because not everyone had done it and lots of the clips already said what the sound was (ruling out the purpose of making a sound everyone can recognize). I'm kind of bummed we weren't able to play the "Name that Sound!" game, but maybe we'll have more opportunities in the future. Overall I would say class was pretty successful and Doc Chris did a good job, all the faults in the lesson plan for the day were faults that the students were responsible for, not Doc Chris.
Arcade Fire at the Grammys?
I know not many people are familiar with the Canadian, indie band, Arcade Fire, as a matter of fact I'm only familiar with the name because my friends at home have said it a few times. When I saw that they won a Grammy for Album of the Year, and had beaten Emminem, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry to get it, I was pretty much dumbfounded. The first time I had listened to their music was the night of the Grammys, and I've gotta say, they aren't too shabby, even though at times their performance seemed less than coordinated and looked like a whole lot of smoke, and screaming. So for the sake of figuring out if there performance was in fact any good, I'm gonna give it the old SSM treatment. I also figured nobody else would talk about the rogue band, so I might as well be the one.
Sight:
The performance begins, and all you can see are several blue glowing lights floating in the air. Then, out of nowhere, everything pops off and there are white lights pointing everywhere and pivoting in random courses of direction. The lights even hit the camera and blind that quite a few times. The camera goes from person to person and smoke begins to slowly rise from the stage. The visibility of the band and audience is pretty terrible because of the smoke and lights combination. The camera goes from one performer to another and then the audience and so on, eventually showing a few shots of all the people on stage (there's a lot). Two people ride up on stage with bicycles, do a few tricks and then begin circling around the stage. The rest of the show is basically just chaos, camera wise, as the camera chases around the bikers, swoops in from the sky to get close ups, and changes its shot every 3 seconds or so.
Sound:
The sound in the performance is pretty much just as hectic as the visuals are. The performance starts off quiet, you hear someone say "1, 2, 3, 4!" and then you let the ruckus commence. The song is filled with loud drums, literal screaming, guitars and a vocalist (who does more than just scream). The strange thing is that somehow, all these loud noises actually don't sound half bad. It's almost freeing to listen to this, versus all the autotune dependent music that you hear on the radio today. The music reminds me of something out of the 70's like a sort of modernize version of Led Zeppelin. For this reason I give Arcade Fire credit for breaking the norms of the music business today.
Motion:
The motion, just like the rest of the performance, was chaotic. The lights were the most noticeable source of motion, as they never stopped moving. The next big motion was that of the guy playing the drums, he took huge drastic arm motions to hit the drums and play them. Also memorable was the more subtle (in comparison to everything else) motion of the "cyclists" riding around the stage.
In conclusion, I'm still kinda unsure what I think about Arcade Fire, but I like that they're breaking the norm and that they're being recognized for it. I also like the concept of a somewhat modernized Led Zeppelin band (although I think Led Zeppelin was probably more tame than Arcade Fire). The proper analogy would be that Arcade Fire sounds like what I can only imagine Led Zeppelin would sound like if they were playing with a loud and eccentric Ozzy Osbourne.
Sight:
The performance begins, and all you can see are several blue glowing lights floating in the air. Then, out of nowhere, everything pops off and there are white lights pointing everywhere and pivoting in random courses of direction. The lights even hit the camera and blind that quite a few times. The camera goes from person to person and smoke begins to slowly rise from the stage. The visibility of the band and audience is pretty terrible because of the smoke and lights combination. The camera goes from one performer to another and then the audience and so on, eventually showing a few shots of all the people on stage (there's a lot). Two people ride up on stage with bicycles, do a few tricks and then begin circling around the stage. The rest of the show is basically just chaos, camera wise, as the camera chases around the bikers, swoops in from the sky to get close ups, and changes its shot every 3 seconds or so.
Sound:
The sound in the performance is pretty much just as hectic as the visuals are. The performance starts off quiet, you hear someone say "1, 2, 3, 4!" and then you let the ruckus commence. The song is filled with loud drums, literal screaming, guitars and a vocalist (who does more than just scream). The strange thing is that somehow, all these loud noises actually don't sound half bad. It's almost freeing to listen to this, versus all the autotune dependent music that you hear on the radio today. The music reminds me of something out of the 70's like a sort of modernize version of Led Zeppelin. For this reason I give Arcade Fire credit for breaking the norms of the music business today.
Motion:
The motion, just like the rest of the performance, was chaotic. The lights were the most noticeable source of motion, as they never stopped moving. The next big motion was that of the guy playing the drums, he took huge drastic arm motions to hit the drums and play them. Also memorable was the more subtle (in comparison to everything else) motion of the "cyclists" riding around the stage.
In conclusion, I'm still kinda unsure what I think about Arcade Fire, but I like that they're breaking the norm and that they're being recognized for it. I also like the concept of a somewhat modernized Led Zeppelin band (although I think Led Zeppelin was probably more tame than Arcade Fire). The proper analogy would be that Arcade Fire sounds like what I can only imagine Led Zeppelin would sound like if they were playing with a loud and eccentric Ozzy Osbourne.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Class Review 2/10/11
Class was interesting today just like any other class with Doc Chris. Unfortunately we didn't get to send anyone to court because our judge was feeling a little bit under the weather, but we were still able to do plenty of other things. At the beginning of class we reviewed everyone's homework assignments and were able to see examples of how a true Vulcan analyzes Superbowl commercials and other videos. Class with filled with plenty of great tunes yet again, and we played our music analyzing game yet again to really finely tune our listening skills. Doc Chris did a great job and the only way you could possibly tell he was sick was the lack of him singing every 3 minutes (it was missed). Overall I think all the students can agree they learned at least one thing in class today and that despite the fact that we had less time we were still able to get plenty of things done.
Super Bowl Audi Commercial
I want to start this post by simply stating: I love Audis. Actually, I love just about any high end German produced car, but Audi takes the cake in my book. The cars take an awesome shape, are luxurious and have the coolest headlight and taillights of any mass produced cars on the market. The only thing I don't like about Audi is the basic car ads they create every time they're trying to sell a car. It's always a stereotypical car ad, showing images of a shiny silver or black car, driving on the road while some voice throws random car facts at you that make an Audi better it's competitor's cars. Plain and simple, the ads are boring, and more so, they're predictable. I'm glad to say though that Audi got it's stuff together with this Superbowl ad and changed their marketing scheme from dull to funny. I didn't know what I was watching an ad for until the very end, and as soon as I saw that Audi A8 a big grin came across my face. For this reason I decided Audi's latest commercial was worthy of my SSM breakdown for next class. So lets begin.
Sight:
The ad starts off showing a shot of a very well dressed man in long plaid jacket with fancy insignias, the man is surrounded by miniature boats with large sails that are in bottles, it then shows his friend in similar attire who appears to be sleeping. It looks like these men are living a luxurious life style. Then the camera pans out behind golden colored bars and zooms over to an adjacent room also behind bars. In these room there are two men (both in the same attire as the other two men). On man has his arms reached through the bars fiddling with some sort of lock type set up, while another man is eating what appear to be crackers. The barred door to their room all of the sudden opens, you immediately see the two men sprinting down a lavishly decorated hallway. The other men in barred rooms then stand up and seem to freak out. The camera then goes into a room with a man in a very fancy looking gray suit with black cuffs, white gloves and a nice looking gray hat. In this same room the camera also shows a mean looking man in a white shirt with buttons and a gold colored tie, this man also has a telephone in his hand. The man in the gray suit is sitting in front of some sort of screens with images displayed on them of the two men who got out of their barred room, the man in the suit looks at these images and then seems to inform the mean looking man of what he is seeing. The camera then cuts to a wall which is lifting up and revealing several very nice looking and well groomed dogs. The two men who appear to be escaping from their barred room then begin running from the nice looking dogs, and slide under a dropping barred door which is closing, the first man then crashes through a highly place window feet first and his friend follows...head first. The second slightly larger man to go through the window comes crashing down on a table...head first. It looks like a mess. The camera then cuts back to the mean man and suited guy, and then it goes back to the people in still in barred rooms, they appear to be getting soothed from something. Then the escapees come back on screen, the larger escapee appears to be getting soothed also, but then the more agile, serious escapee grabs him and snaps him back to reality. The duo then slides down a rope that appears to be made of sheets going from the window to the building entrance. In front of them is a out of focus, white car, the insignia on the front of this car is a circle with three lines breaking out from the center of the circle, where each line is equally separated apart from the other lines. The clumsy, larger escapee then wraps a presumably warm towel around his neck and enters the white car. The remaining escapee then runs to a black car, there is a series of quick camera shots, one of him running to the car, one of him entering it, and then one of him inside the car. Then, the camera shows a head on view of the car, it's insignia on the front is four adjacent circles which are parallel to the ground, each circle is slightly overlapping the other circles. The camera then shows a shot with both cars shot from a large height, the white car goes towards the building while the black car goes away from the building. The camera then only shows the white car, which is being locked behind bars. To the right of the entrance where the white car goes are golden letters which read "prisoner reception". The camera shows the successful escapee driving, then a black screen with white letters which read "escape the confines of old luxury". The camera then shows the black car driving on a scenic road. The black screen comes back and reads "The new Audi A8 is here, Luxury has progressed". It then shows another black screen with the 4 circle insignia, to the right of that are red letters reading "Audi" and below that are white letters reading "Truth in engineering". The commercial ends with a shot of the failed escapee back behind bars dancing around while another person plays a black, long stick like instrument.
Sound:
The ad starts, you hear classical music, snores, and the clanking of metal. Then you a hear a voice. "We're breaking out, lets go." Says the voice in a deep, straight to business manner. You hear a crunch sound, the sound of chains sliding, and the once classical music becomes upbeat fast paced music. It sounds like all hell has suddenly broken loose, voices are screaming, you can hear the tinging of glass and then a slightly dumbfounded voice addresses someone by "warden" stating "two boys are going for a stroll." An alarm sounds and a new deeper, more intimidating voice then says "release the hounds." Immediately after the presumed man says this, what sounds like dogs panting starts (it seems odd that these dogs aren't barking?). All of the sudden you can hear a crashing, shattering sound followed by a thump, another shatter and a man moaning "my spleen!". The dumbfounded voice then says "no way it didn't work" in a ridiculous accent. The deep voice heard earlier then says "hit em' with the Kenny G". The music then changes to more sophisticated, equally catchy music. The voice that previously moaned in pain about his spleen then mentions in a more sophisticated slightly feminine voice "ohhh I love this song!". The deep, straight to business voice then briefly states "Focus!" and the music changes back to it's upbeat fast type. You hear two thuds and then the business voice says "Lancaster no! It's a trap!" the sophisticated voice (now known as Lancaster) then urges his friend that it's not a trap and that the idea of that is "nonsense" because his father "owned one". The music begins reaching a climactic part, you hear foot steps and the thud of a door, you then hear the growl of an engine. The next thing you hear is Lancaster stating "Great goodness, I've been" the last word is hard to hear, but I'm assuming it is hoaxed or something along those lines. The music changes to a sort of "success" beat and then changes again to a clarinet playing the previously mentioned "Kenny G" as Lancaster hums to it.
Motion:
This ad is PACKED with motion. The very beginning of the ad lacks motion, and appears almost dead. But as soon as that barred door slowly slides open, the motion doesn't stop. Right after the door swings open the two escapee run for it, and begin sprinting down the hallway. As the two escapees are running down the hallway you can see the remaining captives inside their barred rooms striking their tall, narrow glasses with silverware and yelling. You then see an elevated perspective of the prisoners running and the earlier mention gray suited man turns around in his seat in the direction of the mean looking man addressed as warden. Then an ordinary looking wall begins to lift up like a garage door and reveals the dogs, sprinting out of the newly appeared door. The dogs begin chasing the escapees down a hallway as a red barred door begins dropping from the ceiling. The successful escapee slides a stuffed bird under the door, stopping it's motion. Then the two escapees slide under the door, narrowly escaping the dogs. The successful escapee then leaps into the air and bursts through a glass window positioned over a door, his buddy then does something along those lines...except head first. The buddy eats it as he goes through the window hole and lands on his face on top of a table on the other side. The next significant piece of motion takes place after the warden and his assistant have another short conversation. The camera shows the remaining captives, they are hitting their glasses and then stop all of the sudden and take in deep, soothing breaths, they are now completely calm. The larger escapee then begins to do something similar until he is interrupted by his escape partner who grasps his arm and yanks him away towards the window. The escapees then begin to repel down the sheet rope from the window, the large escapee falls at the bottom of the rope, while the successful escapee gracefully jumps the rest of the distance to the ground. The next major motion is the dramatic sliding down of the gates behind the white car as the larger escapee is recaptured. The last motion in the advertisement is the larger escapee dancing is a goofy way to the man with the instrument.
Sight:
The ad starts off showing a shot of a very well dressed man in long plaid jacket with fancy insignias, the man is surrounded by miniature boats with large sails that are in bottles, it then shows his friend in similar attire who appears to be sleeping. It looks like these men are living a luxurious life style. Then the camera pans out behind golden colored bars and zooms over to an adjacent room also behind bars. In these room there are two men (both in the same attire as the other two men). On man has his arms reached through the bars fiddling with some sort of lock type set up, while another man is eating what appear to be crackers. The barred door to their room all of the sudden opens, you immediately see the two men sprinting down a lavishly decorated hallway. The other men in barred rooms then stand up and seem to freak out. The camera then goes into a room with a man in a very fancy looking gray suit with black cuffs, white gloves and a nice looking gray hat. In this same room the camera also shows a mean looking man in a white shirt with buttons and a gold colored tie, this man also has a telephone in his hand. The man in the gray suit is sitting in front of some sort of screens with images displayed on them of the two men who got out of their barred room, the man in the suit looks at these images and then seems to inform the mean looking man of what he is seeing. The camera then cuts to a wall which is lifting up and revealing several very nice looking and well groomed dogs. The two men who appear to be escaping from their barred room then begin running from the nice looking dogs, and slide under a dropping barred door which is closing, the first man then crashes through a highly place window feet first and his friend follows...head first. The second slightly larger man to go through the window comes crashing down on a table...head first. It looks like a mess. The camera then cuts back to the mean man and suited guy, and then it goes back to the people in still in barred rooms, they appear to be getting soothed from something. Then the escapees come back on screen, the larger escapee appears to be getting soothed also, but then the more agile, serious escapee grabs him and snaps him back to reality. The duo then slides down a rope that appears to be made of sheets going from the window to the building entrance. In front of them is a out of focus, white car, the insignia on the front of this car is a circle with three lines breaking out from the center of the circle, where each line is equally separated apart from the other lines. The clumsy, larger escapee then wraps a presumably warm towel around his neck and enters the white car. The remaining escapee then runs to a black car, there is a series of quick camera shots, one of him running to the car, one of him entering it, and then one of him inside the car. Then, the camera shows a head on view of the car, it's insignia on the front is four adjacent circles which are parallel to the ground, each circle is slightly overlapping the other circles. The camera then shows a shot with both cars shot from a large height, the white car goes towards the building while the black car goes away from the building. The camera then only shows the white car, which is being locked behind bars. To the right of the entrance where the white car goes are golden letters which read "prisoner reception". The camera shows the successful escapee driving, then a black screen with white letters which read "escape the confines of old luxury". The camera then shows the black car driving on a scenic road. The black screen comes back and reads "The new Audi A8 is here, Luxury has progressed". It then shows another black screen with the 4 circle insignia, to the right of that are red letters reading "Audi" and below that are white letters reading "Truth in engineering". The commercial ends with a shot of the failed escapee back behind bars dancing around while another person plays a black, long stick like instrument.
Sound:
The ad starts, you hear classical music, snores, and the clanking of metal. Then you a hear a voice. "We're breaking out, lets go." Says the voice in a deep, straight to business manner. You hear a crunch sound, the sound of chains sliding, and the once classical music becomes upbeat fast paced music. It sounds like all hell has suddenly broken loose, voices are screaming, you can hear the tinging of glass and then a slightly dumbfounded voice addresses someone by "warden" stating "two boys are going for a stroll." An alarm sounds and a new deeper, more intimidating voice then says "release the hounds." Immediately after the presumed man says this, what sounds like dogs panting starts (it seems odd that these dogs aren't barking?). All of the sudden you can hear a crashing, shattering sound followed by a thump, another shatter and a man moaning "my spleen!". The dumbfounded voice then says "no way it didn't work" in a ridiculous accent. The deep voice heard earlier then says "hit em' with the Kenny G". The music then changes to more sophisticated, equally catchy music. The voice that previously moaned in pain about his spleen then mentions in a more sophisticated slightly feminine voice "ohhh I love this song!". The deep, straight to business voice then briefly states "Focus!" and the music changes back to it's upbeat fast type. You hear two thuds and then the business voice says "Lancaster no! It's a trap!" the sophisticated voice (now known as Lancaster) then urges his friend that it's not a trap and that the idea of that is "nonsense" because his father "owned one". The music begins reaching a climactic part, you hear foot steps and the thud of a door, you then hear the growl of an engine. The next thing you hear is Lancaster stating "Great goodness, I've been" the last word is hard to hear, but I'm assuming it is hoaxed or something along those lines. The music changes to a sort of "success" beat and then changes again to a clarinet playing the previously mentioned "Kenny G" as Lancaster hums to it.
Motion:
This ad is PACKED with motion. The very beginning of the ad lacks motion, and appears almost dead. But as soon as that barred door slowly slides open, the motion doesn't stop. Right after the door swings open the two escapee run for it, and begin sprinting down the hallway. As the two escapees are running down the hallway you can see the remaining captives inside their barred rooms striking their tall, narrow glasses with silverware and yelling. You then see an elevated perspective of the prisoners running and the earlier mention gray suited man turns around in his seat in the direction of the mean looking man addressed as warden. Then an ordinary looking wall begins to lift up like a garage door and reveals the dogs, sprinting out of the newly appeared door. The dogs begin chasing the escapees down a hallway as a red barred door begins dropping from the ceiling. The successful escapee slides a stuffed bird under the door, stopping it's motion. Then the two escapees slide under the door, narrowly escaping the dogs. The successful escapee then leaps into the air and bursts through a glass window positioned over a door, his buddy then does something along those lines...except head first. The buddy eats it as he goes through the window hole and lands on his face on top of a table on the other side. The next significant piece of motion takes place after the warden and his assistant have another short conversation. The camera shows the remaining captives, they are hitting their glasses and then stop all of the sudden and take in deep, soothing breaths, they are now completely calm. The larger escapee then begins to do something similar until he is interrupted by his escape partner who grasps his arm and yanks him away towards the window. The escapees then begin to repel down the sheet rope from the window, the large escapee falls at the bottom of the rope, while the successful escapee gracefully jumps the rest of the distance to the ground. The next major motion is the dramatic sliding down of the gates behind the white car as the larger escapee is recaptured. The last motion in the advertisement is the larger escapee dancing is a goofy way to the man with the instrument.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Class reflection 02/03/2011
I thought class today went very smoothly and thought the edutainment aspect of class was definitely present. The law and order intro to class was fun (if you weren't on trial) and it was good motivation to be at class and do your assignment. The youtube videos were effective for practicing analyzing sight, sound and motion. On top of this it was nice to have a little bit of music playing during class time. It was interesting to listen to the older music and think about all the changes that music has encountered in the past decades (I personally favor older music and am honored to be nicknamed Mick in class, after one of the greatest singers of all time). Looking for the beer commercials in class was also entertaining and analyzing the commercial was a bit difficult and I'm not sure if I did it right. Overall I thought class went very well and surprisingly fast and I look forward to next week.
Bud Light Stranded Commercial
The above commercial was first used during the 2010 superbowl. Using my new found skills in sight, sound & motion I will analyze this commercial and break it down into its basic form by simply describing the sights, sounds & motions I observed while watching the video.
Sight:
The commercial starts by showing a large group of dirty, depressed looking people standing on sand with a pile of metal pieces next to them and tall tress with large green leaves on the top in the background. The video then shows multiple people belonging to the large group individually, each person portrayed is depressed, filthy and stationary. One man is swearing stylish (but dirty) clothing with a fancy jacket while another man is wearing a white shirt with buttons down the front center and a fancy looking blue hat with a black shiny brim. The video then shows a dirty and enthusiastic and serious faced woman approaching the group from the water carrying a metal looking box device (you now know the people are on a tropical beach.) As the group spots this woman they then approach her, they begin talking to her until a man gets their attention from the other direction. This man is carrying glass bottles with a blue band/label around them that state "bud light". The people become incredibly excited at this sight and then begin to essentially party. The commercial closes with the woman who had the box playing with some sort of dials and then a man comes, stops her and turns the dials another way.
Sound:
As the commercial starts you hear depressing beats of music and the crackling sound of burning wood in a fire. A woman's voice calls for attention, and delivers a message to the people concerning a radio and she says she can get everyone off the island. Another voice comes out of nowhere also calling for attention, this voice belongs to a male. He tells everyone he found a cart with "bud light" in it. There is a silent pause in which you can only hear the breeze, then a sudden uproar of excitement comes out, and the music becomes upbeat and exciting as people scream in joy. A narrative voice then states "bud light is the sure sign of a good time". You then hear the upbeat music become quiet and an authoritative fuzzy voice which seems like it'd come from the radio mentioning some sort of emergency or search, the voices then vanishes and upbeat music comes back along with the sound of a party.
Motion:
At the beginning of the commercial there is hardly any motion and the people are stationary until the woman approaches them and they move towards her, the crowd is then motionless and they rush towards the man holding the glass bottles almost instantly. There is then an excess of motion as people are dancing and sliding down the planes emergency exit. The people are clearly having a good time. The last motion is as the radio dial is turned away from the emergency broadcast channel and is turned to the music channel and people burst out dancing all over the beach.
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