Continuity Project from Ashley van der Grinten on Vimeo.

This is the continuity project Ashley van der Grinten and I did as our final project for Media 160

Almost Famous: Shot Analysis

The film I’m choosing to analysis is almost famous, and the scene in question in about a quarter through the film. The two main characters, William and Penny Lane are going to a party at a fancy hotel where the bands (like Led Zeppelin and Stillwater) are playing. The walk into the hotel and the energy is incredibly high- the lobby is filled with people buzzing about who’s there and who’s performing. A Robert Plant song plays in the background and sets the perfect mood for the shot. As the two walk in, the camera quickly cuts through several quick shots of people all gathered and talking and saying hello. It’s almost dizzying, but wit good intention. In doing so, Cameron Crowe, the director, is able to really put the viewer in the shoes of his two main characters. As they walk down the hall of the hotel, Crowe uses a medium close up tracking shot, which allows the viewer to become more familiar with the two characters. While Penny Lane, who has been to many events like this before, walks casually and is not distracted by all of the chaos and energy going on around her, William is in a daze, turning this way and that, trying to soak it all in. At one point, he walks past a hotel room with the door open and two musicians sitting in chairs planning an acoustic song. The music seamlessly transitions from Plant’s high-energy rock n’ roll song, to this quite acoustic song. It’s a moment of peace for William, and also for the viewer- while he takes a moment to let everything settle in, so does the viewer. Then, in a second, the camera goes back to the high energy tracking shot of Penny walking down the hallway and follows her into a hotel room where all of the other characters of the film are gathered hanging out. The camera pulls back to show the entire room and everyone in it. It spins, and then pulls back to Penny Lane, closing in on her as she begins to give a speech about how “it’s all happening!”

Overall, the five minutes scenes of the two main characters entering into a new world is accurately depicted through Crowe's ability to marry music, scene cuts, and angels to put the viewer right in the chaos and high energy of the rock n' roll life style. 

Coninuity Shot List

This is the shot list for my and Ashley Van Der Grinten's project:

Shot 1: Elongated still shot of an empty hallway

Camera in same spot (els) and a student walks around the corner, camera walks down hallway with student, keeping their full body in the frame

Shot 2: Long shot of the student entering a classroom. Camera is still.

Shot 3 Medium shot of student sitting at desk from a high angle. The student sits down and puts their  books and phone on table. Phone rings.

Shot 4: close up of phone with a text message

Shot 5: medium eye level shot of the student shuffling through their papers, looking at text message

Shot 6: Close up of feet under desk. The camera is on the floor and we see the student push back chair. Still at floor level, the camera pans and follows the feet of the student as they walk across the room

Shot 7: Long profile shot of student walking to white board. Student looks at paper and picks up a marker.

Shot 8: Close up over the shoulder of the student at a problem sheet

Shot 9: Medium close up of student from behind looking at white board. The student begins to write on the white board.

Shot 10: Close up of hand writing problems on the white board. Camera follows student’s hand as they write

Shot 11: Medium profile shot of student who pauses, steps back with marker in hand, and stops suddenly.

Shot 12: Close up of students hand from the perspective of the student. Student is writing quickly but the viewer can’t tell what he’s writing.

Shot 13: Close up shot from side of writing- viewer still can’t make out what student is writing.

Shot 14: close up of writing

Shot 15: close of up writing

Shot 16: close up of hand circling the answer

Shot 17: medium close up of person circling the answer, turning around and walking away

Shot 18: Long shot of profile of student and white board- student walks back to the table but turns around and looks at the white board

Shot 19: Long shot of just white board. Wait a couple of seconds and someone enters door.

Shot 20: Teacher greets student and puts their bag down by the table and gestures towards the board. The teacher then walks off the screen.

Shot 21: Medium shot of teacher walking to the board, checks the student’s work and reaches for a marker.

Shot 22: close up of teacher reaching for the marker from point of view of teacher

Shot 23:Medium close up over the shoulder of the teacher checking the answer

Shot 24: Medium shot of teacher turning around to see the students with an excited gesture

Shot 25: medium close of student clapping excitedly

Shot 26: Elongated long shot of teacher and student looking at books to start another problem

MOMI Reaction

The trip to the Museum of Moving Images was a really great change of pace from weeks of lecture. I’ve never been to the museum, and I was pleasantly surprised by how the museum married artifacts, interactive experiences, and history to create an incredibly informative, but enjoyable experience.

I think the highlight of the trip was the interactive exhibit demonstrated the importance of music/score in a film. The exhibit allowed participants to pick from an array of films. Your chosen film was then played with the music removed from the scene. It then gave viewers four choices of music/score to add to the scene. My group decided to choose the film Hitchcock for the exercise. Of the four options they gave us, only one of the music choices made sense to convey the appropriate feeling/mood (suspenseful and revelatory). The other musical choices were clearly unfit to portray these emotions, and when they were played with the clip, it made the scene feel corny or forced.

All in all, with the help of the exhibitions like the one I just mentioned and my informative tour guide, MOMI really helped me to understand a lot of the concepts we’ve talked about in both lecture and class. A lot of the things we talk about in lecture are difficult to fully grasp when you’re not given/shown examples, but MOMI really allowed us to experiment and interact with the theories we’ve been exploring in class. 

What I Hear

New York City has energy. It has an energy that pulsates through all matters of life. You walk through the bustling streets and you can feel that energy- those vibrations- those noises- absorb into your skin. You’re surrounded by sounds that spill into your ears and submerge themselves into your entire being. From chatter, to footsteps, to the wind or the rain, to cars and trunks honking, a ceaseless orchestra of noises pulsates through the air. Someone screaming about God in the distances, someone whispering about their lover next to you as you wait to cross the street. Layers of noise, one of top of the other, responding to each other, and you responding to them. They tell you where to move, to avoid the oncoming ambulance, to step to the side when someone asks, “excuse me” as the try to get off the subway. The clocks tolls two and you know it’s time to go back to work, the man in the distance yelling about fruit remind you that you need to go to the grocery store before you go home, the band playing a cover of “Wonderwall” on the street makes you think of an old friend. And it never ends. In a City like this, silence is an abstraction. There is no such thing as silence here. The energy we’ve created always hums, like a heavy, drawn out sigh, even in the quietest of hours.  

This is the end result of my "Define A Space" project.

So for our final video project, me, Raymond Chen and Michael Mancuso made the video entitled "Look Closer". When we first got into the group, we had no idea what we were going to make a video about, bu as we talked it out, and threw ideas on the table, we thought it would be fun to make a thriller of sorts, maybe with a twist at the end. Going into actually filming the video, we had a basic idea of the story line, but didn't have much of an idea about what shots we wanted. As we walked through Hunter, though, we found cool places that we thought would make for some nice shots. A lot of it was in the moment improvission; if we felt we could get a nice shot, we tried it out. It's better to have more matterial and not use half of it than o get back to edit the final product and find you are missing shots, making the video choppy. After a couple of days of filming and reviewing shots, we got into the computer lab to edit the film. Neither or us had ever used Final Cut Pro before, so we were kind of feeling around in the dark. Eventually, we got the hang of it, though, and we found the editing to be both fun and challanging. We went about it as if it were a puzzle- we had to find just the right pieces so that they would all fit together smoothly. After several hours of editing, we came up with the final project. You can watch it here, and I hope you enjoy it!

Bellow is an advertisement for tattoo cover up. In my opinion, this commercial is one of the most engaging and creative ads I’ve ever come across. It begins with mid-length shot of a man sitting in a chair behind a black backdrop. After looking straight into the camera, the young man removes his shirt; the completely black background acts as a strong contrast to the subjects white skin. After staring into the camera, and leaving the audience curious as to what will happen next, he reaches for a scrubbing pad, holds it up for emphasis, and then begins to scrub his chest to reveal some dark substance on his chest. Unable to tell what it is, the audience wants to continue to watch to figure out what is being advertised, seeing as it has yet to be revealed. Next, the young man takes a cloth and starts to rub his face, and after a couple of seconds, he pulls away the towel to reveal his face that is fully tattooed that makes him look like a skeleton.

            As the commercial continues, and the ad shows a reverse clip in fast motion of make-up artists covering their subject, a man who is famous for having almost 100% of his body covered in tattoos, it becomes clear that the man had this tattoo removal cover-up all over his body. The product is so proficient that it can take someone completely covered in tattoos, and make them look like someone with normal, untouched skin.

            Through use of suspense, a emphasis on the actor, situated in the middle of the screen, and contrast of colors, this advertisement leaves the audience interested, curious, and has a shock factor as the subject reveals a face covered in tattoos. 

http://vimeo.com/30036902

THE KING

Often times, stamps' subject matters include famous people, so for this stamp, I decided to use the iconic figure, Elvis Presley. I thought it would be both aesthetically interesting and thematically fitting to have the background of the stamp be a collage of pictures of female fans screaming in joy, seeing as this was a common occurrence when Elvis was out in public. Seeing as all of those images where in black and white, I wanted to picture of Elvis, that would be the top layer, to be in color to contrast the muted background. The picture of him I placed in the left corner, so in order to balance out the image, I put the text of "The King," allowing viewers to know who the stamp was about, and the official price of the stamp on the right hand corners of the stamp.

POTATO WIZARD

A Commuter's School

The population of CUNY Hunter is made up of mostly those who commute to get to school. Because of this, Hunter doesn't have a campus; the college is made up of three vertical buildings located in the middle of Manhattan. Because of the lack of campus, students have to get creative for places to sit in the downtime between classes.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Sometimes I run out of things that inspire me.

But that is what art is for.

Art is for long, uninspiring days.

Art is there to push you, to make you think, to allow you to ask questions, to force you to create answers.

To reinforce your passions.

Art should be passionate.

When I create, whether it be anything from line drawings, to poetry, to portraits, I strive to take things hidden away from everyone else, things trapped inside my own mind, and express them in wayys that people might understand. I want to allow the viewer a chance to take my passions and my thoughts and my influences and my biases and turn them into something that they can relate to, something that makes them feel.

Because what is art if it doesn't make you feel?