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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