-27.4-

Today I saw Only Lovers Left Alive directed by Jim Jarmusch (I had been anticipating it since two actors I really like are the main characters!)

I liked the movie, but it isn't one many people would like since it's very slow paced (about the speed of The Stationmaster), and had only one semi-fast action scene. There was a lot to analyze, and many allusions made, but the movie gave a very thoughtful look into the concept of eternal life. I'm not a fan of the current vampire genre, but this movie definitely didn't have sparkles. The vampires seemed more like erudite drug addicts than anything else.

The differences between the two main characters was my favorite part of the movie. The man, Adam, took eternal life as boredom and focused on the past (he stayed shut inside and used old technology). He saw people as "zombies" and wasters of the future. Alternatively the woman, Eve, viewed eternal life more positively. She had an iPhone, and seemed a bit more social with others (There was a nice scene where she chides Adam saying something along the lines of, "you could spend all this time helping others than thinking about yourself.")

Other aspects that stood out to me were the first scene, the darkness, and the humor. In the first scene of the movie, there was a cross dissolve between Adam, Eve, and a record playing. As the record went around and around, the actual sound in the theatre moved in a circular motion (Another decision to think about when directing!)

Other scenes that amazed me were scenes of the night sky (since the characters were vampires, the whole thing took place during the nighttime). I kept wondering how they shot those scenes, or if those scenes were CGI.

Even though all of the scenes were shot at night, and the movie had a serious tone, I was pleasantly surprised that there were quite a few humorous scenes. They balanced out the metaphorical bleakness in the lives of the characters and reminded the audience that the movie was fictional.

I'd definitely see the movie again, but I'd need to be in the mood to see it since it is in a slower style.

-0.4-

Ah! A new year of STAC. And the final one.

Before I start off with our assignment/introduction, I'd like to reflect a bit on my summer (I didn't have a tremendous time to catch up with others, or reflect on the past few months, so I feel the best way to accomplish these two is to post on here.)

This summer was very busy. To start things off, my friends and I went into the city and attended the 2013 Gay Pride Parade! It was my first time going, and I gathered a lot of good material to share with the GSA here. I had to say, I wasn't as shocked as I was expected to be (what has the media done to me?!)

Since I am a senior, the summer was filled with college-related business. I took a physics class in Flushing in order to make room for Wind Ensemble, so now I know how to ride public buses. I also visited colleges in Ohio (Weslyn and Denison), New York (City College, Hunter, and Purchase), and Maryland (McDaniels). At the colleges in Ohio I sat down for interviews, which was scary, but I think I handled myself in a calm manner. I also studied a lot this summer for the ACT.

I'm trying to narrow down my college search, and finding a small, liberal arts program with a good bio program and low tuition/scholarships is ideal for me. Although I plan to major in Biology, continuing with band and the arts is a must, so the college must also have art programs and music programs available for non-majors! I feel that the Macaulay honors program at Hunter is promising. I also plan to visit Queens college and the University of Puget Sound this semester.

Besides school, I worked at the Women's Fund of Long Island, where I edited videos for them and wrote scripts for a possible PSA project (which I hope to continue this fall, if I have the time). I also attended a week-long leadership school geared towards creating worships for Unitarian Universalist congregations (hopefully I can use some of the more general skills to get projects done this year)!

I was so busy I felt a little stressed, but I had some time to wind down by drawing, mixing music, taking pictures of interesting outfits, watching a lot of art/science documentaries with my parents, and going to the bookstore. I also managed to hang out with friends by going ice skating and swimming three times...the only regret was that I never got to swim in the water (today I got to put my feet in when I visited my old town in the Rockaways, but I found an interesting way to photograph the beach via. the new telescopes they put up!)

I also attended "International Cosplay Day" with my friends, and we sang for a contest (we didn't win, but it was still exciting to perform)!

Not from the actual day, but this is what we wore

When my cousins from Texas came up to visit. We went into NYC and went to the Natural History museum (a special whale exhibit was on display, but we didn't get to go! I hope to go back soon...) Even so, I was fascinated by the hall of biodiversity...I had forgotten how expansive their collection was.

Overall, the summer was a lot of work, but I feel that I worked hard and played hard. I'm a little nervous about being a top dog, but I'm looking forward to carrying some of my summer experiences into STAC, and having a productive senior year (especially after all-things-college-related are done)!

...I'm pretty sure that I wrote down all that happened, but I feel like I'm forgetting something...

-55.3-

A short posting of my initial reaction to Hugo (I watched it about a month ago):

Hugo vs. The Artist
Hugo:
-made it fun for both kids and adults. Modern and ppl who knew old films
-focused on filmmaker and the joys of filmmaking/directing. Showed how old films inspired others, too
-also showed how great old films faded into obscurity
-but now are beig brought back and appreciated
Didn't try to be a silent film
Artist:
Was authentic in looks
Effectively conveyed a story through silent film techniques
Some creative points, such as the dream sequence (the main character dreams about sound ruining his silent film career)
Tried to be a silent film (both good and bad things about it)


Overall: I feel that Hugo paid the better tribute to silent films.

-53.3-

It's been a while since I posted here! (School became really busy, so it was hard to write, even when I downloaded the blogger app...)

This quarter I worked on two minor projects, a major project, saw a lot of documentaries about artists, and discovered some creative fictional pieces. I continued along paths that I enjoy traveling, tried some new ones (such as starring in a film, and putting on makeup), learned about paths other artists took, and learned about different ways of working with creativity.

Minor projects:
Paper crafting:
I discovered the joys papercraft during Shoshtigigi, where we had to make a voodoo doll of the person's name we drew. I had heard of papercraft before, and decided to give it a try. I discovered that it was a challenge to make a papercraft, so I took a template of a girl papercraft I found online and edited it so it looked like Caitlin, the person whose name I drew. It was fun working with my hands, so I started making more papercrafts during winter break. I stopped for a little, because of school, but in the 4th quarter I started making papercrafts of a few of my characters. It was challenging making different pieces of clothing. Proportions had to be measured, and the only way to truly check if the model worked was to make it; it was a trial-and-error process, but it was gratifying to see my characters become 3D.

My papercraft exhibition at STAC night

Figure drawing:

I wanted to work on figure drawing this quarter. First I drew some figures in my usual technique. 

These two examples weren't the ones I showed to Luke. (I couldn't find those.)

Then I showed them to Luke, and he suggested that I use the coiling technique. He sent me out for an hour to draw people in school using this technique. He also made me use pen, so I couldn't erase any mistakes (the point was to draw quickly).

Luke then suggested that I draw figures by symbolizing different parts of the body with boxes. He said I'm used to drawing flat figures, and the boxes would help with making them look 3D.

I think this helped a lot. I'll need to practice more with this technique (it's difficult to draw a face within the box), but I hope to continue with my drawing. I'd like to work on foreshortening in the future!

Some sketches using the 3D technique

This quarter, my main project was a group film with Kaitlyn Fox.

The plot of the film followed the adventure of a fairy and a girl as they both struggle to fix the girl's problems. The fairy hates her job, but when everything is solved, she finds that she's bored, and thus gives the girl a new problem that the fairy can solve.

The project evolved drastically. At first, I was working on a film that would explore me though other people. There would be a certain time in the day where everyone would change personalities, and the main character would have to find out why this was happening. I didn't flesh out my idea fast enough, and didn't have enough confidence behind it, so was put in a group project with Kaitlyn, who wanted to work with dance.
I'm not used to working with others, and I didn't know a lot about choreography, and how it would fit into my idea, so I was hesitant at first. The element of comedy was new for me, too, and I was curious about how this would turn out. Kaitlyn was a good partner to work with. We stayed on task, and she was very cooperative. We both ditched ideas we had before, and started working on a new plot (that had to have me as the main character, because we were assigned to it.) At first, the story started off with a more serious tone, with the girl's problems. A doppelganger, the manifestation of the girl's inner self, would help the girl solve the problems through her dreams. We felt as if the story needed a kick to it to give it more depth- to pull the audience in- and Luke helped us when we brought our predicament to him. He suggested approaching the story from the fairy's point of view, in order give the story a fresh take. He also put out an idea that the fairy should be bored of doing her job; this would add another layer to the movie.
We spent most of the time plotting out the story. We agreed that the story should have a format to it, in order to emphasize how the girl's problems were slowly being solved. It would also help establish when dream sequences would appear. Kaitlyn choreographed simple dances so non-Dancers like me could even do them.
I didn't like the fact that the story was turning into a female myth, myths where the main character has their problems solved for them (I like male myths better, where the main character solves their own problems.) But the story itself was interesting, so I stuck with it.

Some papers from our brainstorming process

Filming was tough. I should have brought my tripod in so we could film it by ourselves better. We also should have planned out the shots more precisely. Additionally, extras kept on forgetting to bring their clothes (which were needed for continuity) and that delayed filming by a few days. But that doesn't mean that filming was boring. It was exciting working with other people and trying to learn the dance steps. Acting in front of the camera wasn't too bad, either. Most of the roles required me to act in everyday settings, so I tried to keep it natural.
We also created a symbiotic relationship with Anika's project. We had a part where I get a makeover, which Anika did, and in turn, she used our footage covering the transformation for her makeup film. I had never gotten my makeup done, and it was a very different experience... I hardly recognized myself when it came time to look in the mirror! (But I'm not going to put on eye makeup anytime soon. It felt like there was constantly something in my eye.)
In retrospect, we should have spent more time editing, also. Originally, we planned that Kaitlyn would edit a first draft, and I would go over it, since I had to edit another video for another class. It turned out that we ran out of time, so we only had the rough draft to show at STAC live. If I could do that over, I'd put together the first draft, even if I could only edit for a couple hours.

Luke pointed out that the plot of this film was similar to my animation last year. The stress of school, and the feelings of being restricted that come with it, have a big influence on my life, especially this year, and it seems that these feelings have translated into this project, too.

New influences:

Persona 4: 

Persona 4 is a video game that explores humanity in a unique way. I absolutely loved how they addressed personal issues: the characters would grapple with their dark sides in a land inside of the TV. Loneliness, denying the truth, sexuality, the nature of friendship, and the facades "used to overcome life's hardships" were some issues explored in the game. I liked how the game was more about the characters looking inward, and dealing with their inner troubles, rather than simply fighting a demon to save the princess. I found it to be extremely creative and inspiring. (The game's music is great, too.) 

Midnight in Paris: 

Midnight in Paris is another very creative piece of media that I discovered this year. I love the concept of time travel, and the fact that the main character travels back to my favorite time, the 1920's, made me love it even more. Although the message was presented more explicitly than i would have liked it to be, I liked how Woody Allen combined fantasy elements with modern settings in order to convey that the grass is always greener elsewhere.

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?:
link
This beautiful documentary visited my love of modern architecture. Every shot was clear and presented each building as livable sculptures. Mr. Foster is a very thoughtful, very quiet, man and it's admirable how he makes buildings functional, yet beautiful, such as the Hearst tower in NYC, which utilizes its unusually shaped design to capture water that can be reused for the building's AC. I'm not planning to become an architect, but this documentary introduced a thoughtful mind of an artist at work, and that was very inspiring.

Beauty is Embarrassing:
link
This documentary introduced an artist that dabbled in many mediums, and has only recently become well-known in the art world. In his life, Wayne White has painted, voice acted, illustrated, animated, created puppets, and designed sets. He is very honest about himself, and isn't afraid to assert his independence (for example, when people compared some of his word paintings to another man, he created a painting called "Hoozy Thinky Iz?"). I liked how he wasn't afraid of combining mediums, or transferring ideas from medium to medium, at one point he says that he would like to turn a painting into a set, or a set into a painting. He knows how hard its been in the art world (he started to get depressed at a time), and because of that he's begun to live life as he wants to, which I find very admirable. He's very confident and lives life doing what he likes. The tone of the movie was very light-hearted, and it was great to see an artist having a satisfying life.

-42.3-

This weekend I watched three documentaries: "Happy" "Babies" and "Waiting for Superman."

The first two that I watched were very good.For "Happy" they had the right mix of narrative, personal stories, and diagrams to convey different ways people can be happy. "Babies," on the other hand, was effective with a "hands off" approach (no narration, and leaving the families, seemingly, by themselves) in order to create an authentic document of the four different cultures portrayed throughout the film. Although the environments the four babies were growing up in seemed extremely different, all babies were loved, and all had the same milestones. (The establishing shots were beautiful, too. I loved the vibrant colors and clarity of the film.) For "babies" it was an interesting director's choice to not feature the whole family unit. Often the babies were seen by themselves, or they were zoomed in on during scenes with interactions with a parent.
"Waiting for Superman," so far, seemed a bit dry. The diagrams shown were effective in conveying messages, such as the view that "tenure" is causing problems regarding teachers who can't teach (my favorite diagram being the lemon dance), however when they put in personal bits, they seemed a little too long, so the whole picture was difficult to keep up with. I also thought more narrative would have helped tie everything together (but I haven't seen the whole movie yet...I had to go to bed in the middle of watching.)

-41.3-

Yesterday we watched "The Big Lebowski." What a crazy movie!
It was great fun to watch (partly because it seemed like everyone was having fun with their acting). But I noticed that the Coen brothers did a great job at setting up characterization (for example, when they introduced The Dude with The Dude drinking out of a bottle at a supermarket.)

The plot was so ridiculous that nothing could be taken too seriously, and yet it was a surprising to find out what actually was going on (it was funny that there were random characters in the plot such as Jesus at the bowling alley and the Nihilists pretending to kidnap Bunny). The next day, when we were talking about the movie, it was interesting to find out how the movie was a big mesh-up of sorts, with real-life people going on an adventure, and the concept around finding a kid's homework in a stolen car. Somehow the movie seemed to work.

Misc. point:
Luke mentioned mentioned how it may have seemed funny to people who've seen this movie to see Jeff Bridges in "True Grit" as a completely different character, but it was the opposite for me. I saw him in "Ironman" and "True Grit" before seeing him in this movie, and this may have made the movie even funnier (a gritty cowboy/businessman in a completely different role as a carpet-loving bum!) However, The Dude did seem to be quite serious at times, which sort-of seemed to fit in with the other roles I've seen Bridges in (In Ironman he contrasted Tony Stark's flippant character and in True Grit he contrasted the other guy, LeBouef's, relaxed personality.)

-29.3-

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...

-25.3-

My brief commentary on two movies seen this year. (I would have included Kontroll, but I already reviewed it.)

-Rear window (seen in STAC): Great story, nice acting, and many beautiful shots. However, the plot moved slowly at times (we were discussing this in class, and this may be because of the style of the time...but I got a bit antsy while watching the beginning, which is odd because I'm used to slow movies.)

-Lincoln(seen outside of STAC): A good period piece, they really captured how dim things were eithout electricity, but the language was hard to understand at points... They did a good job at making a movie centered aroundthe passing of a bill be not as dull as it sounds.
(Also, it was odd to see Lincoln as a person...it shows how much you've learned about history when you didn't even know that Mr. Lincoln had children!)

-20.3-

Kontroll.
A Hungarian movie we saw in class on Tuesday.

Initially, I liked the movie...except for the fact that it had a feeling of claustrophobia. Since it all took place underground, towards the end, I kept on looking out the window to get some mental fresh air.

The acting was great - it all felt natural - and some shots were beautiful (I specifically remember one of the light hitting two enormous fans underground; the way the fans cut the light and dark of the scene appealed to my aesthetics.)

Most of all, I liked the characters. I liked the sense of camaraderie among the main team of Kontroll. Although they split up in the different trains, they always managed to get back together by the time the train got to the next stop. I also liked seeing different tropes among the group. For example the Professor and Tibi (I think? The young guy...) fit into the old cop young cop trope. (Mugi also fits nicely into PluckyComicRelief)

The end scene of the movie seemed pretty symbolic of death. Bulcsu goes with the train conductor's daughter, who's waiting for him in an angel's costume, up the escalator and into the light. Why Bulcsu had to suffer as a Kontroll poses the subject of atonement. If he did push the passengers off the platform, he may have had to suffer before he went to "heaven". Another way of looking at this is that Bulcsu is part of the "untouchable" class in the hierarchy of the subway, and must suffer in order to have a better next life (When he leaves the subway station, it's implied that he can go back to a successful life/job, with a girlfriend.)

---
Another point I'd like to bring up is that there is, basically, an all-male cast. I didn't notice this fact before Luke pointed it out, which brings up some issues to think about.

I don't think I noticed the lack of girls, because I've grown up in an all-male world. My Mom and Dad told me stories about male heros...the Greeks, Norse mythology, Peter Pan, Robin Hood...I grew up liking adventure and doing things by myself. When playing with my friends in elementary school, we used to pretend to be superheroes and we'd have our own myth-like adventures. In middle school, I was introduced to anime, and most of the ones I read had a very strong male myth structure to it. I think I'm so used to the male myth that female leads have become...on the back burner for me. I'd really like to see a strong female lead, but the shows/stories that do this are few and far between (off the top of my head I can't remember specific titles...maybe the show Madoka Magica?). I feel like boys get to have the adventures while girls stay at home. But I want to do things, too.

But does one have to be a man/act manly to have an adventure? How can girls stay as girls but still provide a strong point? I think this may be a better way of looking at things: link.

Gender roles is an extremely interesting subject, but it's so hard to overcome the partitioning ingrained for thousands of years in society. You've got to be carefully untaught, eh?
---
Misc. point: When the soundtrack to the chase sequence first came on (the one used in "The Laramie Project" commercial) I started grinning, because I recognized it, but didn't know it was from this movie.
---
Unrelated note: When we were talking about STAC live and all of the instruments required for the songs, I thought about my goal for trying to play a different instrument(s) bass, trumpet etc. I will delve further into this subject another time.

Another unrelated note: I like the main theme in the Thor soundtrack.

=====Edit=====
Perhaps Bulcsu fits into the MustMakeAmends trope, since he could leave at any time, but it was the trap of his mind that kept him underground until the very end.