I just saw Le Miserables.
It was very moving.
I admit, I got teary during "I Dreamed a Dream" and when *spoiler alert*Jean Valjean died. This was because Hugh Jackman's acting and singing were so excellent...*sigh*
It was interesting to see how the director adapted a play to film. I think he pulled it off well. Close-ups helped to underscore when a single actor/actress soloed, and large cast scenes helped make the mood in establishing shots, that certainly would have been hard to do on stage. Also, the use of cgi was effective in expanding the "set" of different scenes. It was interesting that the movie kept stage-like lighting at times (was this intentional?)
I loved the quality of the sound in the movie, too. It took a bit of getting used to hearing all of the dialouge being sung, but once you did, you could hear every word of the songs, which is a big difference from live performance. This way, I appreciated the poetry in the song lyrics!
Seeing it in film makes me curious about seeing it live, but I'm a little worried that I won't be as drawn to the performances of the actors as I was for the movie...
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
-28.3-
Slings and Arrows
So, over winter break I started -and finished- this wonderful show "Slings and Arrows."
The show covers a Canadian, Shakespearian, theatre company and the troubles it faces from the beginning of production to premiere. The main character and artistic director, Geoffery Tennant, is haunted by a ghost with an ego who takes it upon himself to be involved in /helping/ Geoffery's production process (I can't say of who, since that's a spoiler.)
Being a theatre company, many of the problemsthat arise relate to either funding or deep-seated artistic issues. Funnily enough, the main theme of the show addresses what we constantly are reminded of in STAC: You must make a decision.
I love this show. Sadly, it's only 3 seasons, but they made my winter vacation!
Here's what I like about it
-Humor: The dialouge is biting, but used effectively so people are actually being funny, not clever.
-Complex characters/great acting: The characters are exaggerated, yet believable. For example, old actor hated Jeffery, and made this very clear, but he sided with Jeffery against this other actor who was being thick headed because the older actor cared so much about the production. Also, it seems like everyone has a lot of fun while in the show.
-Great storylines: The first episode is a bit slow, but after the ball gets rolling, I couldn't stop watching it! They gradually build up suspense, so it's really hard to stop at the episode before the season finale. Another interesting thing is,
*SPOILER ALERT* they let the first season end in success, then after that they manage to keep the show going by having the characters react to success and all the things that come with it. They explore artistic issues, such as topping previous successes, and real-life issues, such as getting funding for productions. Everything about this show is well-done. While writing about it, I'm remembering the episodes and I want to watch it again!
-27.3-
Song workshop 2
During this workshop, we got to work right away and presented our songs. Peter went first, and he showed us a recording of his song (I immediately knew that this is what I should have done.) I really liked the cleanliness of his recording, and how he used multiple instruments/instrument tracks. I went next, but my song came out very rough - I have to work on singing in front of people, besides my songwriting! I was a little embarrassed that my work wasn't as clean as my peers...Scott's song had nice chord progressions, and I liked John captured an the icy tone in his song about an arctic adventure.
Our songs were about homework. We had to find a news article title as inspiration and start the song with a question, some of the techniques we discussed in the first workshop. Here are the lyrics to my song:
Before (or after) we presented the song we wrote, we had to discuss a bit about our process.
I had an assignment for AP English that also involved the news, specifically op. ed. pieces, so when I went online to look at the op. ed. for The Times, a headline caught my eye "Why do Stars think it's O.K. to Sell Soda?"
Taking this title, I wanted to play around with space imagery, but also talk about a bigger issue: how everything is becoming commercialized now days, and how this isn't necessarily a good thing (the message of the article, and also a popular theme in my English class). I decided to ask my question "How much will it cost?" since it both refers to the immediate result of a purchase, one's pocket book getting a bit lighter, and the long-term result, the environment becoming more/less polluted. When thinking about the universe, I thought of what could go wrong, and it came to me as I was writing to made the "cost" something drastic: the product becomes so popular that it attracts some unwanted attention, a black hole which ends up eating everything.
I also tried to play around with foreshadowing this impending outcome both lyrically (the soda is light, which is "taken straight from the source," as in the light of space) and musically (I intentionally put an accidental on specific words such as "star.")
Once the lyrics were done, I had to start on the music. I tried to make the song sound space-like, and during this process I played around with fitting bits and pieces of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" into the melody. When the melody was done, I tried playing around with the chords to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to make more space references (and because I had no other idea on how to approach chords). It sounded like it needed some work, but I wrote the chords right before school so I had no time to fix anything. If I had a do-over, I would have recorded the song instead of playing it live.
Before playing the song, I addressed my time constraint with coming up with the chords, and after I finished a verse and a chorus, Brien suggested that I don't play the melody with my right hand, and just play the chords. My singing came out a little better, but it was still shaky. He asked if I took into account the chords suited for the key I was in, and I didn't approach it that way, so I said no (I didn't know how to approach chords at all!) He said that maybe I should take that into account and try re-writing the chords again.
I plan to record the song with the original chords, to see how it sounds as a somewhat-polished version, then play around and work with the chords in the scale I used and record that. I hope I have the time, since midterms, pitt, and SAT is coming up!
During this workshop, we got to work right away and presented our songs. Peter went first, and he showed us a recording of his song (I immediately knew that this is what I should have done.) I really liked the cleanliness of his recording, and how he used multiple instruments/instrument tracks. I went next, but my song came out very rough - I have to work on singing in front of people, besides my songwriting! I was a little embarrassed that my work wasn't as clean as my peers...Scott's song had nice chord progressions, and I liked John captured an the icy tone in his song about an arctic adventure.
Our songs were about homework. We had to find a news article title as inspiration and start the song with a question, some of the techniques we discussed in the first workshop. Here are the lyrics to my song:
Why Do Stars Think It’s O.K. To Sell Soda?
How much will it cost?
Come here, young moon, old sun
Let me pass this among us stars
A fizzy drink of the milky way
It’s pure bottled light- very sweet
It’s free – take a sample
Sell out like a burst of
flame
You might as well enjoy the
best
Of it
Time of your life
Before becoming rebranded
Again and again with these
universal barcodes
We think it’s great
How is it, young moon, old
sun?
Yes yes we agree
It’s taken straight from the
source
Perhaps we’ll send it along
to
Jupiter and its moons
Sell out like a burst of
flame
You might as well enjoy the
best
Of it
Time of your life
Before becoming rebranded
Again and again with these
universal barcodes
‘Turns out it’s quite the
success
All of the galaxy is parched
Even the black hole loves it
I think he’ll buy out
The whole stock
Of your space
Sell out like a burst of
flame
You might as well enjoy the
best
Of it
Time of your life
Before becoming rebranded
Again and again with these
universal barcodes
It doesn’t matter to us
We are only stars
We’re not in your solar
system
Before (or after) we presented the song we wrote, we had to discuss a bit about our process.
I had an assignment for AP English that also involved the news, specifically op. ed. pieces, so when I went online to look at the op. ed. for The Times, a headline caught my eye "Why do Stars think it's O.K. to Sell Soda?"
Taking this title, I wanted to play around with space imagery, but also talk about a bigger issue: how everything is becoming commercialized now days, and how this isn't necessarily a good thing (the message of the article, and also a popular theme in my English class). I decided to ask my question "How much will it cost?" since it both refers to the immediate result of a purchase, one's pocket book getting a bit lighter, and the long-term result, the environment becoming more/less polluted. When thinking about the universe, I thought of what could go wrong, and it came to me as I was writing to made the "cost" something drastic: the product becomes so popular that it attracts some unwanted attention, a black hole which ends up eating everything.
I also tried to play around with foreshadowing this impending outcome both lyrically (the soda is light, which is "taken straight from the source," as in the light of space) and musically (I intentionally put an accidental on specific words such as "star.")
Once the lyrics were done, I had to start on the music. I tried to make the song sound space-like, and during this process I played around with fitting bits and pieces of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" into the melody. When the melody was done, I tried playing around with the chords to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to make more space references (and because I had no other idea on how to approach chords). It sounded like it needed some work, but I wrote the chords right before school so I had no time to fix anything. If I had a do-over, I would have recorded the song instead of playing it live.
Before playing the song, I addressed my time constraint with coming up with the chords, and after I finished a verse and a chorus, Brien suggested that I don't play the melody with my right hand, and just play the chords. My singing came out a little better, but it was still shaky. He asked if I took into account the chords suited for the key I was in, and I didn't approach it that way, so I said no (I didn't know how to approach chords at all!) He said that maybe I should take that into account and try re-writing the chords again.
I plan to record the song with the original chords, to see how it sounds as a somewhat-polished version, then play around and work with the chords in the scale I used and record that. I hope I have the time, since midterms, pitt, and SAT is coming up!
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