Fireside Chat

It took a while for me to figure out what I wanted to do for this assignment.  The assignment description was so wide open that it was difficult to narrow my list of ideas to one that I actually wanted to do.  To me it the Fireside Chat seemed similar to the remix assignment in that we were supposed to choose something about ourselves, a physical trait, a belief, a personality trait or something like that and explore that.  However, the fireside added an aspect of performance that just didn’t exist in the remix and I think this performance added a lot to the assignment.

Since I couldn’t actually decide what what I wanted to talk about I decided to make something that I knew I could use as a media example first.  I had seen many times before the videos on Youtube of sped-up Photoshop projects and thought that it was something that I could do and had always wanted to try.  To do this, I took an old photo of myself and altered it as I had done once before to make it into a Na’vi alien from the film Avatar.  I recorded the process of this using the screen recording function of Quicktime.  I then sped it up in iMovie and added soft music to it that I thought sounded like a song that was gradually building to fit the visuals.  I now had a piece that I could use to inspire me to wit rite the words that I would speak.

After having created this Photoshop video piece, I thought of how much different I looked at the end and thought of this in the sense of life.  By that time I had read Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” which told stories about the authors childhood or earlier life.  While reading this piece, I started thinking of stories that I could talk about for this assignment.  I then began to think of myself when I was little because I used to try to change my appearance all the time with clothes and hair products and by other means; but now I don’t do things like that because I’ve learned and grown over the years to understand myself and the things about myself that I might not have been okay with before.  This was something I felt was a good experience and belief that I could share and one that I wish everyone would know.

I crafted my performance to match the video that would be playing while I talked.  I didn’t want to be extremely formal in my speaking but I didn’t want to be too colloquial either.  I tried to aim for somewhere right in the middle.  As I was telling the stories about me trying to change my appearance, the Photoshop video behind me was making big changes to my picture.  At the end when I was getting to the more gooey part of the chat, I flipped from the completely Na’vi-ed me to the actual me to represent the coming to terms with oneself that I was talking about.  It seemed to be somewhat symbolic to me and it went rather smoothly.

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Concerned Citizen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYHggsb9tJM

This project was the most frustrating so far.  Firstly, it was pretty tough to think of something that both of us wanted to do.  We both had different ideas that we thought would be worth pursuing but it was tough to reconcile these differences at the beginning.  However, once we really began to look more closely at the ideas we settled on the idea of a look at a volunteer at the Humane Society.  I felt this would be something a little different as most people think of helping in their community as helping people.  The Humane Society helps both people and animals by finding homes for orphaned animals and helping a family find a new member.

Something from the reading by Goldbard that really stuck with me was “We understand that anyone who wishes to make significant headway on a social problem or opportunity must engage with people’s feelings and attitudes about it.”  When I read this, I thought of Sarah Mchlachlan singing “Arms of the Angel” over the faces of the injured and sad-looking animals.  The ASPCA wants to make significant headway in solving a problem so they are engaging with the emotions of the people. This is one of the reasons I thought of shooting at the Humane Society.  Though this was an inspiration, I wanted to show more of the good sides of being at the Humane Society.  I wanted to tell people about the good things that can come of it instead of just the sad because that is usually all people hear.  Also, I helped organize pet food drives in my hometown and I had always thought about volunteering but could never get myself to do it.  I really wanted to hear what inspired others to do it and why they continued to do it. 

Secondly, the process for this project was rather hectic.  I first began calling different animal shelters in the area to set aside a time for me to come in with a camera and talk to someone who volunteered with the animals.  However, many shelters told me that I could not get footage of the animals or that they did not have time for me to come in.  In order to get the footage I had to drive to Murray on Sunday and just walk in a talk to someone.  Once I did that, I was golden until I realized that the mic equipment I had rented didn’t work and I only had an hour to get all my footage.  This presented a problem to get good sound on the interview and I kind of had to rush everything to get through it in time.  

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Protest Poster

Hopefully, the above picture is clear enough to communicate my position on a topic.  If not, I believe that government should not be involved in the marriages of the people.  I believe that requiring a marriage license is unconstitutional since it is a private agreement between people.  Now that you know my stance on the issue, maybe you should go look back at the poster to really get it.  

Did you look?  Good.  Or bad if you said no.  Alright.  So now that you get it, this is a perspective that is rather old but one that many people do not consider in the present day because most are too worried about the legality of gay marriage.  During the numerous gay marriage debates that have occurred I had often wondered if there was a solution that could satisfy both parties and this is the only one that I see as viable. I began to think that laws didn’t seem to fix questions of morality , it was talked of by some candidates for the republican primary like Gary Johnson and Ron Paul.  I found it to be a thought-provoking idea that I had not really thought of before so I did research on the history of marriage licenses and I have become very interested in this issue.  Ron Paul wrote about this idea of separation in his book Liberty Defined.  He talks about marriage being a religious or private institution so there should be a separation from the government.  There are news stories and articles that I’ve found on the internet that also support this.  John Fund’s article in the National Review titled “Why Not Separate Marriage and State?” talks about how this idea would end some of the social warfare having to do with marriage rights.  This is one of the main reasons I support the idea. 

I went to my old reliable Photoshop to create this project.  I actually got the idea of using a wedding topper from images I saw supporting gay marriage.  Many of them had two men or two women as the toppers and they became very iconic so I wanted to use this type universal icon in my poster.  The color scheme is obviously just the same as the color scheme of the  American flag.  This I did because in my experience people seem to accept something easier when it is seen as patriotic.  The decay I added to the poster is something that is just reminiscent of old propaganda and protest posters I’ve seen so I decided to add that in.  The wording I used was intended to be somewhat clever, hopefully it came out that way. I liked the psycho shower scene poster we saw so I wanted to use few words that would be topical but somewhat witty as well.

After posting it on Facebook I got quite a few comments with a number of them being from me as I was having a discussion with our very own Seth Owens.  I was hoping for more feedback from people who were not involved on this project in class because I wanted to know an outsider’s perspective.  Though some people did comment and say they liked it or disagreed it would have been nice to get more participation.  I think if I would’ve timed it better I could’ve gotten better results.

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Webspinna Reflection

This was probably the most challenging assignment we've had this whole semester.  It was something that we are just not used to.  Each assignment we've had before is something that we present after it is is finished.  We are able to make it look how we want and show the rest of the class a finished product.  The Webspinna was just the opposite.  We were showing people the creation of the product.  The product wasn't the important part.  It was the creation of it that was important.  I have to admit that it was a very frustrating project just because I was pretty unsure what I was going to do and I didn’t know exactly what my partner would come up with either.  

To start this assignment, Brandon and I first had to come up with personalities that we could use to inspire the sounds that we would use for the Webspinna battle.  After watching the fire and ice example in class I first thought of dark and light.  They are polar opposites that are general enough to allow for a lot of different soundbites and songs to be used in the battle.  Once we had the different identities to use, we both did separate research to find pieces to use.  It was tough to get much time to practice together and work out our sequence because we were both quite busy.  We were able to work out a few things like the sequence of our songs but we wanted to leave a little bit to simply be improvised.  This is why we left out the soundbites and quotes in our practice.  I thought that this would really be in the spirit of the assignment as it is very nearly an improvisational art form.

Inspiration for this assignment came from a lot of different places because everything I used in the project was used for inspiration.  Harry Potter was a big influence because of the use of the name the Dark Lord for the villain Voldemort.  Star Wars was also very influential because of the existence of the dark side in the series.  The reading we read by DJ Spooky was very interesting in its progression as it didn’t have a clear beginning, middle and end.  Brandon and I didn’t want to be this ambiguous with our project so we decided to start with something that would introduce both personalities and to end with a soundbite that would act as a good closer.  We also wanted some parts to be able to flow together better than other parts that cut together just to experiment with the different feel in the sequence.  I found this project to be a teaching project.  I found that I had to let go of control and be comfortable with it which is something that people wanting to be filmmakers don’t want to do.  I just wish there was more time to really get a more concrete identity to portray and to practice more in order to create a better battle.

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Webspinna of Darkness!!!

Thriller

Embrace The Darkness

My Songs Know What You Did

Darth Vader

Killswitch

Dark Lord Shall Rise

Voldemort Scroll down to Going to Kill you

Better with the Lights Off

Star Wars

Sith Lord

Excorcism Song

Grudge

Golem

Not Nearly Frightened Enough

Learn the Dark Side

No Mercy

Halloween

I Love the Dark

Saruman - Oppose Us

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Wizarding World

"What if we were all wizards?", the fact that wizardry has already been popularly covered in recent years due to the success of the Harry Potter series, we really wanted to put our own spin on it. In Harry Potter the world was divided between muggles (non-wizards) and wizards, this would become the defining difference in our world, we are "all wizards". So there is separation, magic thus would be the norm in such a world. We looked at it historically first, this is when we realized that if everyone were a wizard and had access to magic, the need for technological advancement would be null and void. Who needs a car or airplane when one can simply fly, walk through walls and in theory teleport. In reality a magical world would seem to not need to advance their architectures or anything. When thinking about this we realized that this would also likely have an effect on style, aka fashion.

So the traditionalist would probably look something like Gandalf or Arwen from the Lord of the Rings, having lived thousands of years they know what they like, (kinda like our grandparents). However the younger generation would want to have their own styles as well, to kind of set themselves apart. Though they would still opt for the traditional hat and cape, they definitely would streamline them for comfort, such as these hip tights. On top of that, similar to the smartphone wielders of our world these young wizards would opt for a sleek portable solution aka wands, as opposed to the archaic staffs carried by the aged wizards of old.

We also asked ourselves what kind of social issues would the wizards face. We discussed some of the social issues we face in our world, one that's on the tip of everyones tongue is gun control. What if the 'Ministry of Magic' were to try and restrict wands as a measure to keep people safe? Then the people would need a protector so we unanimously agreed that the "NWA" (National Wand Association) would need to be formed to protect 'the right to bear wands'.

Like any good world sports must exist, otherwise what would the wizard men do on Sunday nights? So we discussed some entertainment opportunities, and came to the conclusion that everyone loves watching bull riders get thrown. So we decided in a wizard world we would up the anty a little. Imagine if being thrown included the risk of being burnt to a crisp and eaten...yeah I bet you would watch that. Thus Professional Dragon Riding came to be.

Obviously no entertainment medium would be complete with out some ad-placement to help break up the action. You would see ads like this...

We couldn't imagine a world without Denny's so we left it in.

In the reading it talked about swapping fact and fiction. This was very helpful for us because we already know what a real world looks like, we simply swapped things that are familiar to us make this imaginary world seem like a realistic option for wizards everywhere. We were inspired by fantasy stories such as The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy, Eragon the NRA and Denny's.

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Textual Poaching

This assignment was rather confusing for me.  At first, I really didn’t know how I should identify myself.  I thought of myself as an American, a libertarian, a man,  a Californian, and a few other ideas that I just didn’t feel were very apt at describing me.  I finally got my inspiration for this project when I was drying my hair one morning.  I now had a starting point.  Even so, I wasn’t really sure what to do with this as my identity.  I have red hair.  So what?  

One night I was watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and I noticed something about one of the main characters.  Ron Weasley is always the joke.  It’s funny to see him puke up slugs and have a broken wand.  He gets into these laughable situations because of his short fuse.  More recently, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel depicts Clark Kent’s mean childhood bully as a redhead who grows up to be a dorky and rather unattractive worker at IHOP.  Both of these examples show redheads as hotheaded, quick-tempered, tools used for comic relief.  This use of redheads as jokes has been catching on a lot more in recent years but the short fuse of redheads has been a long standing stereotype. In Anne of Green Gables,  the redheaded protagonist is described as “having a temper to match her hair.” and in Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield says “People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily.”

To accomplish this project I knew I wanted to take a painting or picture of a famous redhead and alter it similar to the examples of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Queen.  One of the first people to come to mind was Van Gogh.  I thought it was pretty well known that he was a redhead but just in case I decided to take his self portrait and bump up the gingerness a little.  After I had my original image, I had to think of a way to show Van Gogh, a rather serious and melancholy person, in a more silly, comical light  Using Photoshop I was able to give Van Gogh a pair of Groucho Marx gag glasses to represent the silly joke that redheads have become in the media.  To represent the ill-tempered stereotype, I reddened the face a bit, scrunched the brows down and put a little bit of smoke coming from the ears, also working as a comic effect. 

It is interesting that media has shown redheads this way when I have never identified myself the same.  I’ve never been someone who gets mad very quickly and when I do get mad, it is often quelled pretty quickly.  I don’t see myself as the silly one to laugh at though I do tend to make people laugh a lot.  The way redheads are portrayed in the media is just not very accurate.  It seems that most have an average temper and I don’t think we like being the tail end of every joke.  Van Gogh’s self portrait is just him.  Nothing very evocative or crazy about the portrait and that is how I think of myself.  Nothing too weird or silly about me.  Just another person with red hair.

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Medium Specificity

     When you were looking at the images above, did you start thinking about where they were taken?  Did you feel uncomfortable at all or annoyed because you didn’t know where the subjects are set?
I hope you said no because I didn’t and that is exactly what I’m exploring so just say no to the question above.
If you said yes, then you’re wrong. 

      This absence of setting is something that I wanted explore in the art of photography.  My other Media Arts classes actually inspired this work.  In 114 we watched a film called Never Cry Wolf.  It is an amazing movie that embodies the storytelling style of elemental narrative that had extremely wide establishing shots that really showed when where the story was taking place.  This showed me the power that establishing shots can have in a film.  In 185 we recently edited footage for silent documentaries that our classmates had filmed. As we were editing this footage, we had to keep in mind the use of wide shots of the setting as well as close ups of the subjects in the film.  This got me thinking about what these wide shots really did and how they add to the film.  The use of establishing shots in a film sets the story in a place and time.  Without these two details, the story has less meaning and the audience is left wondering where they are.

     When creating a film, the filmmaker always has to take these establishing shots.  Without these shots, the viewers are uncomfortable or squirmy because they don’t know where the acton is taking place.  It is very unnerving to have a bunch of closeups in a film without any establishing shots when we have no way of knowing the setting.  In photography, it’s much different.  This uneasiness doesn’t exist and photographer does not have to worry about orienting the viewer in a specific time and place.  We see a picture of something close up and we just say “Wow, what a cool shot of a flower.”  We don’t sit on the edge of the seat or hop up and down on our feet waiting for the establishing shot of the whole garden of flowers or the whole field.  This is very interesting to me that we don’t have a want to know the time and place of a photo and we are able to simply appreciate what we see in frame.  It is interesting that this week we read the article by McCloud about showing and telling because I chose to focus on an aspect of a medium that really makes no excuse for not doing either.  There are no words to tell us where these pictures were taken and there are no wide shots to show us either.  They are just there and completely ignore the question of setting.  

      To create this project I simply went for a walk around my apartment complex with my camera and macro lenses. I looked for simple rather everyday things that could be interesting to see up close and captured them.  After my photo walk, I moved the photos I had taken onto my computer and did a few little editing tweaks to enhance the color.  I found it very enjoyable to be able to go out and simply take pictures of objects that I thought would be interesting.

      While working on this project I really thought much harder about the films that I make and the necessity of establishing shots.  It made me realize that without them, the audience is somewhat lost and confused.  I realized while I was exploring photography the ability the medium has to tell stories without being so explicit as film tends to be.  In the process of this work, I have grown slightly more to understand the different storytelling powers and aspects that the different media have and how better to use each to the benefit of the piece.

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Historical Script

This assignment was much different from the assignments we’ve had previously.  It was less art intensive than the others as this had a little more grounding in logistics and reality than did the Tiny Stories or the Music Mosaic which could be much more abstract.  Though different, it was something with which we are more familiar.  The collaborative aspect of this project was very helpful.  When writing the story, we all had different ideas about how to craft it and what direction the plot should follow.  This allowed for many more ideas to be passed around and a lot of decisions to consider.  Though at times it was tough to decide whose idea to go with, it was beneficial overall because of this collaboration.  

When Josh first thought of this idea, he was inspired by two different and unrelated sources.  A few years ago he watched the HBO series Band of Brothers which made him find an interest in WWII.  He began to learn more about it in school as well and he watched more war movies and documentaries simply because he found the stories incredible.  When given this assignment, straight off he knew he wanted to create a story that was somehow involved in the second World War.  However, he wanted to do something a little different that he had not seen before.  First he thought of a pilot in one of the B-25s and the perspective that pilot had during the Doolittle raid in 1942.  While this idea was formulating, a friend of Josh’s went to the theatre to watch the film Prisoners.  Just the name of the film changed his idea for the story to something about POWs and he didn’t want the perspective to be one of a prisoner but rather of the guard over them.  

Though we know relatively little about the Hell of war, we felt that the perspective of this piece is one that many don’t consider, especially from the point of view of the enemy.  Most of the time people view the enemy as evil and inhuman but this is not true.  The enemy is usually just a normal person who doesn’t want to be doing what they are doing. He is complex and so are we. This story has aspects of a psychological narrative. There isn’t a clear bad guy or good guy.  This is what we wanted to show.  We felt that it would be most interesting to look at an unwilling Japanese guard dealing with the horrible things that he’s had to witness.  We didn’t want the effect investigated in the Fort Barnwell story to be part of this story.  The script shouldn’t be romanticized and it shouldn’t be seen through a modern lens.  A story such as this should be viewed in the same light as the time.  It should be, what you see is what you get. We feel this is much more powerful than showing it in a different and manipulated way.

To acquire a better understanding of the time period and what happened during the Doolittle raid, we read basic historical accounts of the raid by third parties. This simply gave us more of an idea why it happened and what happened. In the process of researching the bombing, we found that some planes never made it to the landing fields in friendly China and eight men were captured in Japanese-occupied China with only four of them making it home. We were lead to interviews and stories told by the men who participated in the raid and also some of men who were captured. Originally, Josh thought the script would have both Americans die but the fact that half of the captured men lived gave us the idea to kill only one and let the other escape.

To write this script, we utilized the power of the internet with Google Drive.  Before writing, we got together to discuss what we thought the story should do and just to flesh it out a bit.  We then went to our respective homes and began writing on the same document on Google.  We found this to be very effective because we could all write at the same time and we could observe the others writing without having to be looking over their shoulder.  It allowed us to change things very quickly. The chat function also made it possible to discuss aspects about the story that we thought were good or possibly unnecessary.

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Process Piece

Going into this project, we felt a little overwhelmed by the sheer potential for material out there, processes being such an integral and ubiquitous part of life, and recording them a pretty simple thing to do. It was easy to get caught up in this plethora of material. It actually made picking a subject more, not less, difficult. After taking a few recordings of mundane morning and night routines, we narrowed down our options by wanting to try something different: these recordings were rather boring activities that anyone could hear on a given morning.  We didn’t want to pick something too ordinary, or we felt we’d have to remake the wheel in order to be interesting. We also wanted to do something that would engage the ear in this purely auditory piece. Music, and musical instruments, proceeded from here very naturally. The appeal of this process comes from its simplicity, while still retaining a kind of quirky and rare quality. It reveals how music itself, which is very process-like, is itself a product of prior preparation, whether it’s practicing or even a quick tuning up before you can grant the ear a song.  

Watching the clip of Jack White putting together a makeshift, one-stringed slide guitar really brought me towards this musical idea. I felt that all this preparation for a musical instrument led the ear to be more engaged in the process, because it expected an sound-focused product, despite the rather visual process. That visual component set that video apart from our project, but it reminded me of what we needed to do to make the process an interesting one for the ear to actually experience, not for the eye to imagine. The first stroke of the ukulele really surprises the ear with its discord and sets up an expectation for that chord to be resolved, as it almost always is in music. Playing with these expectations means it’s really satisfying when the strings are all tuned up and some really much nicer sounding chords are played.  The strum at the beginning and the strums at the end act as the exposition and resolution respectively in order to make the process feel whole and complete for the listener.

In Music 100 here at BYU, the post-modern era included the very eccentric musician John Cage.  He produced many unique recordings people had not thought of before.  In class, we listened to a few clips of John Cage simply tuning a piano.  It had no musical structure as it was just the tightening and loosening all the stings in the piano to sound the correct notes.  At first, I did not really understand the purpose of this song--if song it could be called.  However, having spent so much time discussing and studying processes, it has more meaning for me.  I respect the idea of processes much more than I did before.  The tuning of the piano is one of the things that really inspired Caitlin and me to record the tuning of a ukulele.  This recording that we took has more meaning to me as well since I know how to play the uke and I’ve tuned it many times before.  I am hoping that with this recording, people can really understand that the beauty of an instrument doesn’t come from just playing it, but from simply working with it and urging it to make a certain sound that the musician is looking for.

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Tiny Stories

Billy never learned to think before he spoke.

He said some silly things.

Many times he didn’t know why he said them.

Tommy never learned how to turn his bike.

He always went straight.

Running into things was the only way to change directions.

Charlie never learned how to use the potty.

He found some interesting places.

Others found an interesting boy.

Jonny never learned how to be hurt.

He couldn’t feel his owies.

Jonny really messed up.

Mary never learned how to dress.

Sometimes she put her shoes on the wrong feet.

Other times it was worse.

Brevity can have a big impact on the absorption of a story.  If a story is too long, many people in the will not be able to pay attention well enough to get the message unless it is repeated so many times it gets imprinted on their skull.  However, make it short and entertaining and the people should be able to carry the heart of the story with them wherever they go.  In the reading, the author mentioned that the images were meant to map different ways we connect to each other.  This idea was interesting to me so I tried to incorporate it into my stories.  Each character has some gap in their knowledge or some problem that leads to other problems.  This I find to be true with real life.  Everyone has a gap that widens when they experience other things.  I chose to show this in a humorous and light-hearted manner.

I thought of a little picture book for kids that would subtly teach them lessons in a humorous way.  Once I had this idea in mind, I had to then think of a source from which to draw inspiration.  This part was rather easy.  I was sitting in class and Benjamin said something about me getting mauled by a tiger from the story I told just a few short weeks ago.  When Benjamin said that I remembered all of the stories that my classmates had told.  I wrote down little notes about each story that I remembered so I could use them for reference later.  In thinking about the childhood stories I read, I remembered the Captain Underpants books that I loved.  I didn’t really model my characters after the characters in that series but rather I tried to use the idea of simple shapes and cartoon looks to draw my stories.

It was rather easy to come up with the stories to tell.  The toughest part about the writing was coming up with a problem each character had that brought about the outcome we see in the pictures.  Drawing is not one of my strong suits, as one can clearly see from the images I made, so this part of the assignment was the most difficult.  I was trying to really infuse a childish look into the pictures but I think what I actually did was create pictures that look like a child drew them.  I threw away many pictures because I just could not get what I wanted.  I’d have to say this was the most frustrating part because it’s hard to be a perfectionist with something for which you have no talent.  

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Music Mosaic

Here is the song I chose to be my inspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r45MxbG6or0

 This Music Mosaic assignment was a very interesting one.  It was admittedly a rather tough assignment at the start.  With a weird imagination and no drawing, sketching, or painting skills, I had to figure out which pictures that I could capture or alter in a more grounded setting.  Considering these limitations, I decided to use some pictures that I had taken myself and also some that I found on the internet and worked over in Photoshop.  While listening to the song I chose, I really saw no narrative playing out.  I noticed that the visuals that I had in my head on the first listen to Pigeon on the Gate changed after a few more listens. From the start, I thought of rather spooky mansion scenes or castles for some reason.  However, after I listened to the song a few more times, the song began to make me think of classic Irish landscape scenes, with rolling green hills and castles and streams, as well as modern upbeat cities.  However, none of the images I had in my head were grounded or very realistic looking, each looking as though it came from a painted storybook.

Since listening to the song got me thinking of things very old an things very new, I decided to work that idea into my images.  That is why I chose to take and alter old photos by colorizing them and trying to show some piece of modernism in older and more vintage photos.  I feel like this brings the old and new together in the same picture and really embodies the images I saw in my head.  This song has a little bit of a darker sound to it.  To show this I worked with the photos to create a little more shadow and a little less highlight by bumping up contrast or burning the images.  The pictures I chose also consider the landscape of Ireland and the typical image of Ireland in their subject matter and composition.  The original song Pigeon on the Gate was written a long time ago and the version that I chose by Celtic Grooves has a very modern dance twist to it.  The new interpretation of the song uses a very intense beat to create a harmony that then carries the classic pipe melody on top.  I decided to also make the photos also look a little less like real photos and more as though they were painted in order to exhibit the storybook idea that was stimulated by listening to this song.

It was a tough goal, to be sure, especially when I don’t consider myself a very artful person but I do think it was great to explore this area.  I would have liked a little more time to accomplish this task as I could’ve gone on more hikes to capture images that I would’ve liked to include in this Mosaic.  There is no story to these images as the song I chose did not evoke any story.  It is merely a look into and a representation of what I saw in my mind as the music played.  

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Thinking and Writing

  Summertime for moviegoers is always a wonderful time where many come to the theater with the highest of expectations to be excited out of their seats by the movies they so desperately want to see.  Often times, the biggest of blockbusters are released during the four month period of summer.  However, the summer of 2013 was a bit underwhelming with the onslaught of highly anticipated but rather disappointing movie releases.  One example of this is the movie Elysium starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster; written and directed by Neil Blomkamp.  Elysium promised to be an exciting and thought-provoking film which, when released, fell short of that promise.
The hype for this film was incredible.  It has at its helm the same director as did the well-received movie District 9 and many consumers were very excited to see Matt Damon in another action film as well as to see Jodie Foster come back to the big screen after a few years of scarcity.  Also, since District 9 was met with such great critic reviews and audience reception, many expected Elysium to be better or just as good.  However, it just didn’t live up to those expectations.  The previews gave viewers the idea that this movie was going to be a big action flick and while it does have a lot of action in it, it isn’t the fun joyride that many people went looking for.  This film tries to employ action as a way to grip the audience and get them to accept a message.  It attempts to be thought-provoking while also trying to entertain and excite.
While watching Elysium, I found myself many times wondering if the director used some of the same footage from District 9 in his sophomore film.  Both take place in the slums in some part of the world and have a message of social inequality and class warfare.  Elysium is very heavy-handed with regard to the issues it presents.  The film pits the poor against the rich in a world where only the poorest live on earth anymore and the rich and privileged live on a heavenly utopia in space called Elysium.  This can be a very difficult topic to deal with because it is a real issue in today’s world.  There are many moviegoers who love to hear about the poor man looking out for his fellows.  The modern day audience especially because of the financial crisis and the social gap that seems to be getting wider and wider.  However, though it is interesting and engaging, it is very volatile and easy to get wrong.  The wealthy people in the film were not real and there was no way of connecting with them at all.  They were very much caricatures of real life in the way that they had no regard for any life that was not at their social status and they literally ran away from the less fortunate who resided on Earth.  At one point, one of the CEOs actually becomes angry when a lesser poor person breathes in his vicinity.  This adds nothing of meaning to the issues presented by the film and just pushes the audience even further away.  It is hard to connect with something so exaggerated.  
The antagonists were made out to be too bad and the poor people were too good.  They did not seem real enough to really get the audience to care.While this film has an earnest message that it would like to put out in the spotlight, it has very little to hold it together.  In order to really grip the audience and make them truly take home a message, a film must make the viewer make an emotional investment in the film so that he feels what the protagonist feels and begins to believe what the protagonist believes.  The film focused too much on the evil of the wealthy people and too little on the good of Matt Damon’s character for the audience to really care about him and support him.
Some argue that this film is a great piece to watch solely based on that fact that it has an earnest and heartfelt message.  It is true that the film should be given credit for really wanting to make people think about the way the world is.  One can tell that the crew really does want to audience to leave having thought about the issues.  However, the flaws that exist should not be ignored just because of this one good merit.  While the effort was there and the intentions were earnest, the message reached a very small percentage of the audience because of the film’s shortcomings.  It could’ve really affected millions if it had been carried out better by the characters and the plot.  This is why Aristotle placed reasoning in the third position after plot and character.  If the first two needs are met well enough, the third will fall right into place and be very well expressed.  However, this film put reasoning at the top and did a poor job of supporting it with the other elements so it was left impotent.
Previews are meant to give a small snippet of a film that engages the audience and leaves them wanting more.  The previews for Elysium did a wonderful job of this and really excited moviegoers.  However, it failed to hold up its end of the deal.  It wasn’t the movie it promised to be and the message it was trying to espouse seemed to fall flat with nothing to support it.  There are really only a few tweaks that could have been made to this film to make into a true blockbuster and a critical success.  The idea was there, unfortunately, it was not handled correctly.  The audience was deceived and had a poorly built idea thrown at them.

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