hey, you want a toothpick?

‘Drive’ is a 2011 movie directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, starring Ryan Gosling, a part-time Hollywood stuntman and car garage worker, who by night becomes a getaway driver for criminals. Initially showing an icy exterior, he quickly warms up to his neighbour, Irene, and her son. It is a low-budget action movie, but for a film that would be described as having lots of violence and gore, it is very quiet. Though there are many silences and parts where nothing “dramatic” is happening, you never feel one second is boring or waste. The calm scenes in the beginning builds the intensity because of the audience’s prior knowledge of it being a violent film. As Dan says, it was like a “slow burning fireball”.

6874025-drive-movie The film is realistic in the way that not the whole film is loud and chaotic, because nobody’s lives are constantly action-packed, only in certain intensified moments. These moments contrast from the otherwise “quiet” movie and adds much more affect as it shocks viewers who have slowly become comfortable with the serene atmosphere.

Drive_Movie_04Subjectivity is the idea that what is said or created is based on, or influenced by personal feelings, tastes or opinions. Film can definitely have subjectivity, but the subjective medium affects viewers in different ways – depending on prior life experiences, knowledge and biases. A person’s own subjectivity merges in with the film’s subjectivity. For example, if you have been the victim of domestic violence, you will empathise with a character who is being abused in the same way, rather than someone who has never experienced such abuse, will simply sympathise with the character because they have been following the story in the movie and feel sorry for them. The fact that one film can impact so many people in so many different ways, solely because each viewer is so unique, is what brings up debate, conversation and discussion. This is how you know the writer and director of the film have done a successful job.
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“forgive your enemies, but never forget their names”

TELEVISION CULTURES:
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A CONCEPT OR ISSUE (LIVENESS)

On November 22nd, 1963, in Texas, USA, the president of the United States was shot dead by an assassin. 50 years on, the media world continue to reenact the exact moment it happened, the immediate aftermath it caused and how it affected one of the world’s most powerful countries.

jfks7 The Grown Ups 1

TV show ‘Mad Men’ (a series about the high-pressure world of advertising in 1960’s New York) and the 2013 movie ‘Parkland’, both showed head-on what the day of the Kennedy assassination would have felt like. Each one emphasised on the concept of ‘liveness’, showing both havoc, chaos and emotion in the characters, and seeping that emotion into viewers watching in the 21st century, who may or may not have even been born during that time!

The sense of extremity and urgency happening in both the series episode and the ‘Parkland’ movie was used to evoke fear and shock in an audience who already knew of this event, yet would feel like they were experiencing it for the first time. I first watched ‘The Grown-Ups’ episode of Mad Men a couple of years ago, yet the strong emotions I had towards the storyline and the characters during that very moment are still imprinted in my mind to this day. (Let’s not get into too much dramatic detail…)

jfk-8The JFK assassination was what transformed media coverage and allowed the notion of broadcasting non-stop breaking news live from the scene to be of reality. Similar to the 2014 Sydney Lindt cafe hostage crisis, where commercials were suspended and there were wall-to-wall reportage of the unfolding events, the 1963 matter also made all major television networks follow the concept of “letting images do the talking” and having the anchors talk off-screen. The reason for this is because it was a clear disruption of the everyday routine that many news shows abide by, which made viewers tuning in become immediately captivated because of how “strange” the usual TV conventions have become. This is evident in the statistics given by the Daily Mail, where 45.4 percent of U.S homes with a television set had it turned on when the White House confirmed Kennedy’s death, and the numbers doubled to 81 percent as his coffin arrived at Arlington National Cemetery three days later. This sense of frightening liveness would go unmatched until the morning of September 11, 2001.

When live footage is captured and replayed, an emotional moment that happened months or years ago, becomes an emotional moment in the current day, because film has the ability to create this illusion. When you are watching a film, you are stepping out of your own perception and plugging yourself into the director’s/character’s perspectives. This is the reason why it continues to resonate in people’s minds now, because the mystery was never completely solved, and there are still theories going around it today.

The difference between how ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Parkland’ treated the event was the fact that ‘Parkland’ dove into the lives of the doctor who tried to save John. F Kennedy, the family of Lee Harvey Oswald and the detective who may or may not have let Oswald go months before the murder, whereas ‘Mad Men’ showed the reaction of people who were not personally related, but were still exposed to deep personal grief.

The concept of live television reveals moments of patriotism and nation-building, due to the shared experience viewers were having – especially because it was such a tragic event, and we all know that misery loves company.

Reference:
Daily Mail. 2013. How the JFK assassination transformed media coverage: The idea of broadcasting live breaking news was born. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2511916/How-JFK-assassination-transformed-media-coverage-Broadcasting-live-breaking-news-born.html. [Accessed 13 August 15].

brainwashed viewers, flesh-eating producers and big brother

TELEVISION CULTURES
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COURSE SCREENING/GENRE

‘Dead Set’ is a British television show inspired by the horror film ‘Dawn of the Dead’, where contestants of a U.K ‘Big Brother’ and its production crew are suddenly under attack by zombies.

dead-set

The genre can be defined as black comedy, with crude humour mixed with blood and gore. Black comedies are texts that make fun of themes that are usually serious or restricted to society, such as death, violence or torture. The reason this show was made with aspects of dark comedy was to show viewers that there is most definitely a dark side to something so amusing and light-hearted such as reality television.

The main idea of the series is to create a metaphor for both reality television and British society itself.

The director and producers of the reality TV show are presented as selfish, greedy and unsympathetic, just like the savage zombies attacking people. Though most are exaggerated, it is done to give viewers an idea of how these shows are made and how important ratings are (more important than violent riots happening across the country). ‘Dead Set’ gives the impression that both the producers and the zombies are rather similar, with each one “feasting” on people’s lives, making them miserable, for their own malicious intentions (the producers, money, and the zombies, blood and flesh). Not only are the zombies a representation of the television producers, but they become metaphors for both the ‘Big Brother’ contestants and the audience who are all simultaneously glued to the screen. Us, as viewers of ‘Dead Set’ are then inclined to think of our own lives and how we view the media. Are we as addicted as the people shown? Or are we more in control?

The show tells viewers about how, although in different ways, each person is brainwashed. Media’s Hypodermic Needle Theory, coined in the 1940’s and 50’s to imply mass media had a direct, immediate and mighty influence on its audience, can also be interpreted into the show and it’s aim; saying to viewers that many people in British society are so engrossed in what reality TV shows present to them, that they are unable to see the real world and what is happening in their own surroundings (such as the scene in the first episode where a zombie stumbles amongst the crowd, going completely unnoticed).

It is easy to connect this to everyday life. When you are commuting on the train, looking around, many people have their head down, scrolling through their phones, purposely unaware of what is happening outside of their virtual world. This is proven very real in the 2013 news story, where an alleged killer, goes unnoticed as he pulls out a gun in plain sight on a San Francisco train, as everybody on the carriage were too concerned with their tech devices. A sense of reality and fear is evoked in ‘Dead Set’ viewers as they connect it with their own experiences, and hopefully take it as a lesson to be more wise and plugged into their environment.

The Hypodermic Needle Theory also suggests that everyone is the same and respond to media in the same, passive way. This again brings us back to the idea of brainwashed zombies unable to control their own thoughts. The similarity between these two ideas is that, just like a vicious zombie bite, the Hypodermic Needle theory gives people the idea that information is injected into the mindless audience with no barriers.

Reference:
Huffington Post. 2013. San Francisco Train Passengers Too Distracted By Phones To Notice Shooter’s Gun In Plain Sight. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/san-francisco-train-shooting_n_4066930.html. [Accessed 13 August 15].

If there’s an extra ticket… would you go with me?

I love the sixties.

I love Shanghai and postmodern Hong Kong culture.

I love the colour red.

I love bitter-sweet movies with melancholic tones.

Add all this together, and Wong Kar-Wai’s film, ‘In The Mood For Love’ was the perfect way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.

Su and Chow, both married, begin an unforgettable bond as each of their spouses are suspected of having extramarital affairs.

Screen Shot 2015-07-21 at 9.45.06 pmThe camera work throughout the film is extraordinary as there is constant movement from beginning to end. Composed like a romantic Waltz, the camera is hardly ever completely still, showing mesmerising motion and hypnotic rhythm between the two characters and the world around them. Even their conversation, though basic and friendly, go back-and-forth like two partners would in a dance.

26 I was able to naturally find many symbolism in the film from set, to colour, to camera angles. Many of the pans and tilts the camera does are purposely done to emphasise the shape of the woman’s body. Each time Chow lights a cigarette, the camera focuses solely on the smoke and the way it flirtatiously swirls around the air. This gave me the impression that the wavy smoke, playfully dancing in the air in slow motion represented the curvy lines of Su’s body moving in slow motion. Did this mean every time Chow smoked, he was thinking of Su?

33 There are many bright and eccentric colours in the film. There is never a dull frame. One of the main colours shown throughout is red. Red can have many connotations; love, lust, passion, temptation, tension, wrong-doing, sin. The blossoming colours and floral prints can also be interpreted as the “blossoming” of Su and Chow’s new relationship.

in_the_mood_for_love31 In most of the opening scenes, frames are never clearly shown – always with walls, doors or shadows covering either a quarter or even half of the frames. The theme of shadow and darkness plays consistently throughout the movie, acting as a metaphor for what the two main characters are doing would be deemed undesirable to society, so they have to come and go in darkness and in shadows. A sense of entrapment can also be analysed. Trapped within a pointless marriage and trapped within the morals in which restrict them from being together.

maggie-and-tony Slow motion is a manipulation of time, and this technique, together with the repetition of romantic violin music, made it seem like most of the film was in a single, unbroken take. Everything is emphasised when it is slowed down. The main idea that was highlighted was the sense of time, longing, and waiting. Waiting for their partners to come home. Waiting for each other. Waiting for the other person to make a move. It is once again like a dance. A dance around their spouses. A dance around the people near them. And a dance around each other.

and here i dreamt i was an architect

Week 2’s class allowed me to learn about ‘Plato’s Cave’. An allegory presented by Greek philosopher, Plato, in his work of ‘The Republic’, in which a group of people are chained inside a cave, forced to face a blank wall for their entire lives. These people are made to watch shadows projected on the wall of things passing in front of a fire behind them, and with this, they begin to appoint names to each shadow. This is then described to readers as a false sense of reality that many people believe in, yet the shadows are just mere representations of what is real.

PlatosCave We were then asked to go out and take fifty frames of anything we liked and with whatever theme we had in mind. The first idea that popped into my head were to take photos of buildings and architecture, because of my love for these things. I knew I wanted to showcase all the amazing buildings, designs and mostly, all the Victorian style architecture that Melbourne had to offer, yet most of the time go unnoticed by the busy, daily traveller.

IMG_2790 I decided to go take my photos in the afternoon when the weather was overcast; the best time to take photographs because the sun isn’t glaring and ruining the image. I needed good lighting and not too much sun because I did not want anything creating a distraction from my main photographic aims: to focus on the design, the lines and the architecture.

IMG_2837What I decided to capture and what I decided to leave out of the frame can be brought back to the idea from ‘Plato’s Cave’, where the “maker” has the power in what the viewer gets to see or not see.

IMG_2841 I tried not to capture buildings that would be categorised as “popular” or “tourist attractions” like Flinders Street Station or Federation Square. I was going for the more… “unconventional” looks of Melbourne.

I also aimed to use the rule of thirds in many of the frames, making certain lines of buildings align and straight to make the photos easier to look at.

IMG_2842

semester 2, on the frame and gallery wanders

A trip to the National Gallery of Victoria during our week 1 class of my new studio, ‘On The Frame’ allowed us to look at different artwork (mainly focusing on paintings) and find how different elements create different meaning in each piece.

The five elements that I chose to focus on was that of colour, character, lighting, movement and mise-en-scene. Many of the paintings that caught my attention and made me want to write about were that of people (whether it be self-portraits, portraits or candid ones).

The first piece of painting that drew my attention within the first couple of minutes entering the gallery was Andy Warhol’s large and vibrant ‘Self-Portrait No.9’ from 1986. The main element that came to mind whilst looking at this painting was ‘colour‘. The flamboyant splashes of pink, yellow, blue and orange all screamed to the audience Warhol’s eccentric style and personality, showing that he successfully conveyed his identity in this self-portrait. These ideas also bring in the element of ‘character‘. The highly-eccentric colours would represent a lively and energetic mood at first look, but analysing the image further, Warhol’s death-like stare gave us the contrary, and an eerie feel haunted the artwork. Not to mention this was created months before his death! Was this some sort of foreseeable future for Warhol?

IMG_2658The second artwork was the mysterious painting done by David Hockney in 1963, titled ‘The Second Marriage’. This piece stood out the most to me because although marriage is supposed to be correlated with joy, excitement and new opportunities, the first reaction you get from Hockney’s painting is a sense of dread, gloom and boredom. The element of ‘character‘ is shown through the faces of the bride and groom. The colours on their faces are grey, pale and deathlike, conveying a dull and ghostlike mood with their emotionless expressions. The colourful mise-en-scene (couch, curtains, carpet, etc) contrasts heavily with the characters in the painting. This can be seen symbolically; the bride and groom trying to trick the outside world with bright and happy “props” and “features” in their house, hiding the reality of their unhappy marriage. Another factor that emphasises this idea of it being “all for show” is how the painting is framed. The box-like cut of the painting looks like a television set; giving a sense of entrapment and being forced to do what they are doing (forced marriage?). There is a constant feel of uncomfortableness between both characters and in the entire painting itself.

IMG_2660The third piece was by Weaver Hawkins titled ‘Jitterbugs’, made at the end of World War II in 1945. It shows two girls and two soldiers dancing, emphasising on the element of ‘movement‘. This style of surrealist painting can be used to convey how crazy and messy war is; how there was no real meaning and point for so much death, violence and trauma. The denotations of the painting itself expresses a sense of joy and exitement; celebrating the end of war, with bright colours such as red, green, light blue and purple. The different lines and cuts within the picture make the audience feel the type of hazy, fast-paced atmosphere the dancers would be feeling.

91.1976##S(We should definitely do this every week)