DTC 355 Stewart: pg. 287-311

In this section of reading, the part that interested me was the examination of film and editing.
It was the little bit on tempo that I found interesting, though it felt a little redundant to say that editing clips can lead to slower or faster scenes.

Rapid cuts would create a rush to the scene, especially when complimented with fast movement of the characters.

I liked the example of Star Wars, not because I felt it was an especially great example, but because the scene described is very much in the "middle". It isn't a fast or slow scene. To be honest, when I see that scene, it doesn't feel much like a fight scene.

Now given when it was directed, maybe I'm just overly saturated to movies with brutal fighting and constant fight music. But I can still look at it without that lens and see the tempo as it is.

(This was written a while ago but when I hit publish it went to drafts).

-Thomas Holland

Making a New Art Form

I came across this article the other day, and I thought it was pretty interesting.
I haven't had the chance to read the full thing, just the first two sections.

But I liked the first section about trying to create a new art form, and how anything that is made can't really be "new" or "original" because everything is invariably based off of something else.

We discussed this same issue of "originality" in art a few weeks ago, but I thought it was interesting to see it pop-up elsewhere.

 I mean, it's a true statement, we can't separate ourselves from our backgrounds and knowledge. If you sit down to make art, you can't just "make" something original (and if you think you do, it's extremely unlikely that it hasn't been done before).

But it is interesting to see it elsewhere because you don't hear people talking about this kind of thing often.
Anyways, here's the article, take a look.



http://home.earthlink.net/~hsbecker/articles/lisbon.html

-Thomas Holland

DTC 356 POL 337-343

In this section, I read about the built environment, and what meanings can be derived from the changing styles of buildings.

For me, this section really bound together art and the rest of the world. Art infiltrates each and every aspect of life, even in places you wouldn't expect.

From branding to furniture, buildings to maps, the world is articulated visually by the arts.
While art is often seen as an exclusionary area of interest, its the creative ones in society who create representations of values and the current view of the world.

The AT&T building in New York on page 341 is even a social statement.

I feel like too often are artists undervalued, pushed below others in the social ladder.

-Thomas Holland

DTC 355 Stewart pg. 311-331

When I got to the end of this section and read about causality, I knew what I would blog on.
Causality is a story's progression from A to B to C through one event causing the next to happen.

So naturally, my first thought was Quentin Tarantino. Specifically, Pulp Fiction.
That movie jumps around, proceeding in a non-linear manner. But the real beauty of the movie lays in how the events all interact.

While the viewer may not know by the end of their first time watching the movie, over time you realize each of the events snugly fit together. In a way, he is a master of causality. Each event chains to the next, explaining why each person is in the scene and how they got there.

I thought it was interesting to see this connection to Causality.


-Thomas Holland