-15.4-

Part 2:

While staying at a family friend's house in Seattle, I watched two Shakespeare documentaries.

Henry IV/V:

I watched henry IV/V documentary in Seattle to make up for missing the airing of the actual Henry IV (pt 2), and I loved it.

The film gave great context for both plot and film techniques (the fact that Jeremy Irons narrated the film was a plus, too!). It talked about the writing behind the play, and filming behind the scenes bits of the Hollow Crown. (It amazed me to see how much background noise there was before editing.)

The film introduced some interesting creative concepts. For example, Shakespeare broke a STAC rule by having a disclaimer at the beginning of Henry V - He apologized for not being able to have many set changes, so the audience would have to use their imagination for when scenes changed to more ambitious settings!

...Conversely, Shakespeare followed a STAC rule by stealing the French Bishop's speech.

The ardour of the Shakespearian researchers and actors fascinated me. I have mixed feelings about Shakespeare, but seeing these people talk so enthusiastically about Shakespeare made me enjoy the documentary even more. I found Shakespearian acting very interesting...In a way, the actors are physical scholars - they debate the meaning of the plays academically, then put their collective interpretation on stage to the judgment of the audience. The age of the play also put into context English history with American history. The play happened hundreds of years before Shakespeare's time, and Shakespeare was hundreds of years before the Revolutionary War was even fought!

The last scene of the documentary addressed the theme of how futile war is. In Henry V, the poor fight the battles of the king, and take enormous losses; France is conquered, then in the next generation everything gained is lost. "Have we really moved on?" Mr. Irons asks, as he walks through an Arlington-like grave in France.

Although a bit off-topic from the plays, I thought this message was very powerful. It really connected Shakespeare to the world at large.

Richard II:

I went in reverse order, since Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V are a trilogy, and I slightly regret doing that, since Richard II gave even greater context to the Henry IV/V documentary.

I was fascinated before with the contrasting appearance of the three kings, especially the pure look of Richard II, and the documentary provided me with the explanation of Richard II's, which made me even more interested in this elusive character.

The documentary portrays Richard II as a king who believed he was actually from God. The director chose to have Richard behave as if he was a saint, as if he was above humanity. From the few clips I have seen from Richard II, I must say that the Mr. Whishaw pulled the character off excellently! An added bonus is that Mr. Whishaw acted in Cloud Atlas, a STAC film from last year! His character as Richard II seems to be quite a contrast with the composer character from Cloud Atlas...

I do admit, the second half of the documentary was a bit drier, but I found the introspection into the King's character most interesting. As I've said, I loved both of the documentaries, and I really must watch the Hollow Crown!

-14.4-

It's been a while, but when I went college visiting to Seattle last month, I added a lot to my library. I experienced my first overnight stay at a college, and I remembered how much I loved the climate, and the nice blend between urban and natural beauty Seattle has to offer.

I was also exposed to very interesting TED talks, and Shakespeare documentaries on the plane, and during my stay.

Part 1
TED talks:
On the ride to and from Seattle,

TED: Beyond Looks
This short talk provided an interesting look into the lives of models. The model here talked about how she thought it was so odd how girls want to have an occupation where they just need to look pretty, instead of having an occupation where they could be a "ninja cardio-thoracic surgeon poet."

TED: Fashion Lesson
This fashion designer went into the culture of fashion, and how their lax copyright laws allows for innovation and competition. I thought this was an interesting, since I'm a supporter of the protection of intellectual property. The video also goes into the positives of copying! (Something we've discussed a lot in STAC.) The most interesting part of the video was that the idea of free copying made others strive to make something so unique that no one would be able to copy it (ex. where all those crazy fashion designs come from!)

TED: Learn to read Chinese with Ease!
In this TED talk, a basic chinese lesson is taught (with radicals). I knew the concept before, but the way ShaoLan incorporates humor into an educational lesson -the part where two women characters together symbolizing the character for argument made me smirk- impressed me.

TED: Elusive Creativity
The author in this TED talk discusses a very interesting concept on genius. When she introduced the topic, she talked about how people asked her if she'd ever create another best-seller. This is how I feel about my animation (after the great piece I made in 10th grade, I haven't had any tremendous ideas, which scares me), so this talk touched me on a very personal level.
The author talks about the origins of genius. A "genius" was actually a familiar, or muse, that lived in creative people's homes and helped them with works of art. Only recently has the word "genius" been attributed towards the person themselves. The author connected this to the pressure "geniuses" face because of this re-alignment in association, and why "geniuses" often become mad and suicidal.
The concept of allowing yourself times of lethargy was very different for me, but I do agree with the author in that you still try and create work during these flatline times, until your muse decides to pitch in again.