Response to "This American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/superpowers

If I could have any super power, I would FOR SURE have the power to be a speedster ( the ability to be fast as fu… well you know). I would be able to run anywhere I want, as fast as I want, be able to go through slow traffic, retrieve things I leave somewhere really fast, be amazing at any sport basicly that requires speed, probably be able to walk on water if I’m going fast enough, not need a car in order to get places, be able to run from police to avoid arrest, anything I do could be faster, easier, and more convenient. I think it has more options than powers like being able to teleport or even fly, because I could run somewhere almost just as fast as a teleporter, or probably fly a little if I run fast enough. And as far as heroes with this ability, I would pick to be Dash from the Incredibles. I am drawn to him, because ever since the movie came out, he’s been my dude. If you told him to do the things I listed before, no doubt he would be able to pull it off easily. Also, like me, he’s got an older sister with superpowers. His family, in a combined effort of all their powers, was able to defeat the villain of the movie; one more reason I am drawn to him. I don’t think things like invisibilty, being able to bend and stretch in any way, being able to turn green and big and destroy things, are things that are as versatile as being a speedster. Plus, for me, going faster is just more fun. Speeding in cars, rollercoasters, riding bikes down hills to go really fast, flying in planes; I’ve dug them all since I was a kid. Maybe someday I’ll have the power to be a speedster.

joke videos

joke 2
In our second joke video, there was no dialogue, it was in black and white, and ragtime music was playing in the background. These qualities of the movie go along with the qualities of movies made in the nostalgic silent movie era. But even though its nostalgic, these qualities attributed to the rhythm of the movie. Like in old silent films, shots are slightly sped up, which keeps the audience's attention. Music also contributed to the rhythm; also the key and mood of the music matched up with the emotions and what's happening in the movie. For the element of space, we manipulated parts of the mac lab to represent different rooms in the house. A kitchen was drawn up on the dry erase board, even though its hard to see; the outside of the maclab was the boy's bedroom, and the floor that's just inside the entrance to the lab was the living room floor.

joke1

In our first video, everything was filmed in the gridlab, so we had to use what was available to us in the grid lab to do our set design, which was a film noir according to the script. As for the audio, we filmed the movie first, then recorded the dialogue afterward, and ironically we had Lena act as the father but record her voice for the son, and me as the son but doing the father's voice. In the beginning of the film, after the boy starts using his dirty mouth, you see the father's face of disgust, creating subtext, telling the audience how the father is confused and how the audience should feel. Also, when the son is put in time out, you know how he is angry and pouting by his facial expression and his movements while crossing his arms. And while the son is in the corner, virtual lines from the door and the walls form a box around the son. Movement is established in this movie based on where the son is playing with his train. At first, he is metaphorically on his father's "bad" side when he uses words a young child shouldn't know. He comes back from timeout on his father's "good" side, and uses proper language...until the end when he offends his father.


The two movies had affinity because of their similar story lines, and that they both were supposed to appear nostalgic, even though were filmed with modern equipment. In contrast one is in color and dubbed over, while the other is in black and white and is silent with written dialogue. The silent film has the audience actively thinking when they see the exaggerated movements of the mother and child, and the characters faces, while the noir film is didactic in that the dialogue is spoken and you are told what's going on.

Fallout 3 Scene Analysis

Color

-Hue--> some parts, mainly indoors as well as buildings, rubble around the city, the subway, looks based between the colors of blue and green.. When it cuts to clips where light is exposed there is a yellow/burnt orange hue. This is what you can imagine hues of your surroundings would be like during a nuclear fallout.

-Brightness--> none of the rubble/city/buildings are bright. The sky however, always is much brighter than the ground below it, which contrasts much with the city.

-Saturation--> Ithink the saturation in all colors has had very little white in it. It's what makes these colors dull and ugly and creepy. The dark green/blue hue and the yellow burnt orange both are deprived of white. Again, this makes the player experience what you can imagine it would look like after nuclear fallout.

Manipulation of color

-Burnt yellow tint of surroundings and the faded clothing of the 3 runaways indicates to viewer of the era--> great depression

-People in robes come into scene in bright white clothing--> viewer knows they must have something to do with angels/god

Movement

- The robed people walking through the forest walk slowly, which can be seen as angelic or God-like.

- 3 men become surrounded by the robed people, so you know they will most likely be whisked away to be saved

- All the church-goers are moving in the same direction, so viewer knows the 3 runaways will most likely follow them in the direction they were going.

Shape

- Everett (George Clooney) has square features indicating his intelligence/ skeeming personality

- Pete is long and slender looking with a round head, so you know he's the thinker of the group

- Delmar has pointy features, he's short, and the look of his head/face is pointy, so you know he's the dumb one, easily swayed or talked into things.

Reimagining Visual Framing

Salvador Dali's image is reframed on the left. I cropped, or zoomed in, on what I thought Dali did an awesome job of making the piece of art three-dimensional. If you look past the fact that its Jesus being crucified on the cross, he makes you look twice at the image because it looks like as if the cross has another bar going through the middle that Jesus is on.

In the original image, the dark shading contrasts with the bright gold of the cross. In my image, I kept the focus on the bright part of the picture with the gold of the cross and Jesus’ bright white skin. Dali also makes the viewer think actively trying to make out the dimensions and shapes of the picture, which I focused in on, but the other parts of the picture like the people pointing to the cross is didactic, basically pointing the eye to where to look.

Dali uses line and shape where parts of the picture are shaded differently. All the lines that make up the cross create dimensions that look different from certain perspectives. The arms of Jesus on the cross are exactly parallel with the line and shape of the cross. Same with the shadow of Jesus’ arms. When looking at the picture, you could say it confuses the eye, kind of like M.C. Escher’s “Crazy Stairs.” He also puts small yellow cubes in specific areas to make it appear that there’s a bigger cube juxtaposing from the cross, but then it’s confusing because Jesus looks like he is above the cube on the cross in some areas, then below it. Here he is establishing depth cues. Also in the original image, the people looking up at the cross from below look a lot smaller than Jesus and the cross, and the water and cliffs in the background are very small and shaded darkly, which makes the cross appear huge and close up. Same with the yellow of the cross; it draws attention in the image to the confusing figure.

All these lines and contrasting shades and colors add to the visual intensity of Jesus on the cross, rather than a simple image of Jesus on the cross. Great piece of artwork.

How to be Creative

"How to be Creative"

13. "Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside."

One of my favorite quotes in this article that's featured in this rule is "The first rule of business is never sell something you love. Otherwise, you may as well be selling your children." The man McLeod speaks of loved collecting antiques, but didn't want to sell the one's he cherished, which led him to subconsciously overprice antiques so they wouldn't leave the shop. I can relate to the same thing, with guitars and guitar effects pedals, which can also be seen as antiques. Older guitars and pedals are not made the same way they used to be, and because of this they are very valuable. I've collected and acquired many guitar pedals, and I couldn't imagine giving them up even a little bit. Now I know I could never run a music shop that buys and sells old guitars, amplifiers, and pedals because I'd probably subconsciously overprice the items too.

15. "The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that seperates what you are willing to do, and what you are not."

I'm sure it confuses people when they hear Chris Ware, one of the top 2 or 3 cartoonists in the world, describes his profession as unrewarding. There have been football players who refuse to play for enjoyment after their careers are over, because their love for the game was ruined after being payed for doing it and being critiqued all the time. Even though Joaquin Phoenix tricked people into thinking he gave up his acting career to become a hip hop artist, he makes an example of how an artist can find his work unrewarding. I believe people have their vocations, and avocations. Your avocations could become the reward for your work, and could make hobbies more enjoyable. McLeod makes a good point that it's easier for him to hear someone say "change that ad" rather than "change that cartoon," since he's less passionate about creating ads.

24. "Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually."

McLeod is correct in saying inspiration/ideas never hit at a convenient time, nor do they last long. If you've ever seen The Social Network about how facebook began, Mark Zuckerberg is inspired by normal, everyday ideas and as soon as he gets them he runs to a computer as fast as he can before the idea escapes him. Things like relationship statuses and birthday reminders were just things he noticed people try to keep up on, and he took that and made it easier for people to keep updated with. In a business class in high school, we made a company that sold special blends of coffee, but we didn't want to set up a typical bake sale stand for people to walk by and ignore. So we went to the consumer and bugged the crap out of them, because we realized people were more likely to buy our product then. And we had multiple people do this. We were the most lucrative business in our high school to date.