Blog #8

Scene Deconstruction

Zombieland!

Zombieland, a comedy film which was released back in 2009 include such stars like Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus, Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee, and Emma Stone as Wichita. The theme of this movie is how a shy student is trying to journey to Ohio to find his family in a zombie invested world but instead discovers himself along the way. Movement is very important in this scene. The whole movie is pretty much based on movement. Each of the characters is always running and defending themselves from the zombies. In this scene in particular, there is a lot of movement going on when Tallahassee and Columbus are both trying to stop the zombies from eating them. Tallahassee is in a desperate need to satisfy his Twinkie craving. Him and Columbus both go into a grocery store together and discover that there more things in there then just groceries and a golden square of deliciousness. They use different instruments and tools and demonstrate a variety of unique movements, one even being with a banjo. Line is also an important to this scene as well. There are more virtual scenes, but there are also many actual lines as well. An example of actual would be the signs at the top of Tallahassee’s head in the begging and the lines from the lawn clippers before he kills the one zombie. An example of some virtual lines would be the aisles of the grocery store and the lineup of zombies in the aisle.  Overall I believe both of these features were demonstrated very well in a great movie.

Blog #7

Animation Deconstruction
Monster's Inc!

 

and Finding Nemo!

The two pictures I picked were from the movies Monster’s Inc. and Finding Nemo. I choose these two movies mainly because they were created by the same people and I wanted to see what they did different. Another reason why I decided on these movies is because they are also very unique also. In the Monsters Inc. scene, Sully discovers that Boo followed him and came out of her room.  This scene illustrates color in many ways. All the dark colors in the scene are receding like the background and Boo’s shirt and all the brighter colors are standing out, including all of Sully and the white door he’s leaning up against. The scene has a tinted blue hue overall and a lot of saturation is added. You also notice that the door is brighter than all the other elements in the scene some even brighter than the characters due to a light coming from somewhere. Moving on from Color, Lighting is also important in this scene.  In this picture a shadow is casted upon Boo which makes her look even small when compared to the much brighter and bigger Sully.   In this scene symbolism is the interaction between characters. The creator of this film switched up the symbolism and showed that even the things we are scared of our scared of us, it doesn’t matter what size we are. The mood you get from this scene is obliviously that Sully is frightened by Boo and that creates some kind of curiosity when you’re looking at the photo. In Finding Nemo, Marlin is telling a story to turtles and Dory. There’s not much symbolism in this scene but just like in Monster’s Inc. though you can tell the difference between colors by which are receding and which are advancing. In this case instead, you can tell the characters apart from the crowd. There is more saturation then Monster’s but it includes a sort of blue hue towards it also. With lighting, if you look closely you can kind of see some shadow which adds to the mood of the entire scene. Lastly, there is a lot more movement in this scene than there was in Monster’s. You can tell that the turtles are moving in sort of parallel movement that makes you aware of what direction they are traveling in.

Blog #6

Storyboard Imitation

The scene I choose was from the first Iron Man movie starring Robert Downey Jr.  In this scene Downey’s character, Tony Stark is introducing a new weapon system in the military. In the beginning of the scene the director pans over to the right that introduces Stark walking down the stairs, and then pulls out slowly to introduce the military. After that shot it then goes to a MS, going from his waist up, of Stark, and then pans to the left to show them meeting. This would be an example of the director following the 30 degree rule. The pans make it stands out the most out of all but he does something different by zooming in just a tiny bit to emphasize the greeting shot between stark and the military. After that we switch environments and go into MS of Stark on a flat background and switches from that to a MS of the military often.  When Stark is on this background this one of the many examples of the rule of the thirds. Another example I found in this scene of the rule of the thirds would be anytime the weapons were set off. Both examples draw your interest and keep you focused. During the scene where he is the main focus on the background the audience wants to know more about what he’s talking about because they are unaware of what’s going on. The last cut I drew was the over the shoulder shot on the 3 military members watching the weapons being set off. This scene is an example of the 180 degree line. The director doesn’t break the rules as from what I can tell. He does include a couple of push in’s in some of the scenes but other than that from what I can tell everything Is pretty basic and straightforward.

Blog #5

Song Deconstruction

I Won't Back Down Original- Tom Petty

I Won't Back Down Cover- John O'Callaghan

I Wont' Back Down Original- Tom Petty Listening Framework

I Won't Back Down Cover- John O'Callaghan Listening Framework

The song I choose to compare and contrast would be, I Won’t Back Down by both Tom Petty and John O’Callaghan.  The original version by Petty came out in 1989 on his solo album, Full Moon Fever. O’Callaghan’s cover of the song though came out a couple of years ago. Obliviously there is a long period of time between both songs which makes them display a very different style. Even though both have different styles, with their lyrics they both express the same thing.   In the song they are both telling themselves they won’t back down no matter what happens or where they end up.  The each show their emotion by being intense in their tone of voice. Both artists succeed in wanting you to listen to this song and learn more about what their trying to tell the listeners.  Both songs are organized the same way as well. Each starts off with a guitar and lead into the voice of both artists.  After that, instrumentation is added contributing to the grove of each song. Although there are many similarities about both of these songs there are also very different.  Petty has a very high complexity level while O’Callaghan leans towards a very simple complexity. The organization tells a lot of the timbre when it comes to these songs. The guitar is introduced in both songs leading to the voice, to the chorus, and then to a guitar solo.  Although they are set up the same way, the layers of instruments make the timbre level different. The pitch of both songs also becomes very high, especially when the guitar is added to the mix.  It also is very high when the singer raises his voice in parts of each song. Also, while the tempo in the original version of Petty’s song is fast pace, O’Callaghan slowed it down and made it his own style.  Personally I like both songs the same. They each have certain characteristics that make them unique and always keep me coming back over and over to play them one more time.