Blog Four Editing Analysis

For this assignment I chose to analyze the Joker party crashing scene from "Batman: The Dark Knight". I think that the filming techniques used here, along with Heath Ledger's brilliant acting, made this a great, very memorable scene from the movie. The first thing I noticed about this scene is that the shots don't move very smoothly, almost a little shaky while following the Joker through the party. The shakiness, I'm going to guess, is supposed to mirror what's going on in the Joker's head. He's clearly not a very mellow guy so the shots that move around a lot are reflecting the chaos in his mind. This technique increases the Joker's quirky and frightening disposition, and makes the scene more dramatic. By following the Joker through the party we are able to see the party-goers through his POV and therefore can see the confusion on their faces from his unique standpoint. The jump cuts to the man in the suit, along with the dramatic orchestra music, adds to the suspense of the scene. The way in which the cuts are situated puts us on the edge of our seats because we know that something is about to happen. I liked how when it cut to those scenes with the guy in the suit, the music got really fast and nerve-wracking, but when it cut back to the Joker, the music stopped. It gives us the  sense that something is about to happen with the Joker, although he isn't aware of it. Additionally, in the part where the Joker is speaking to Rachel, the way the camera never stops moving, going a full 360 degrees around the conversation, is an awesome technique to build up the suspense of what's about to happen. This unique way of filming lets us see every part of the atmosphere and makes us feel like the room is spinning, which is probably how Rachel felt right there with a knife to her throat. Lastly, the ominous music that's playing in the background right at the end when the Joker is talking to Rachel helps lead us to what's about to happen at the end of the scene when Batman creeps up.

Project 3 - Chase

Codes & Modes conference

I went to Panel A: Refiguring the Urban Imaginary: Documentary and Gentrification on Sunday afternoon. The panel included three speakers, the first being Kelly Anderson, who showed some clips from her film My Brooklyn. The film was about the Fulton Mall in downtown Brooklyn, focusing on how the mall is  viewed by members of the community. She interviewed friends and strangers, white and black. The response was clear that the white members of the community viewed Fulton Mall as dirty and an eyesore, while black members of the community thought of it as a place of history in their neighborhood. A lot of the white people interviewed had nothing nice to say about the mall and even expressed that it should go away. The black people said that while it could use some improvement, it's part of their community and they wouldn't want to see it go. Anderson said afterwards that she didn't just choose the worst responses from white people--that that was really the common reaction about the Fulton Mall. You could tell in watching her film that she aimed to get all different kinds of view points to feature, which I think is really important in creating a balanced film.

The second speaker was Sue Friedrich, who showed clips from her film Gut Renovation. She said that the film, which was completed in 2012, was a 10+ year project. She documented the transformation of her very own neighborhood, Williamsburg, as gentrification ripped it apart. Beginning in the early 2000s, Friedrich documented store owners in the area who had had shops there for 25 years, who were being kicked out by developers. These developers were coming in to Williamsburg, tearing down old buildings, and building huge high rise apartment buildings to accommodate the increasing demand for living space in Williamsburg. I found it interesting to see what the community was like in Williamsburg before gentrification. Knowing Williamsburg now, pretty much all you see is yuppies transplanted in New York from somewhere else in the world. Now, having seen the Williamsburg community before gentrification happened, it's going to make me kind of sad going there. All these young people moving in to be hip and cool, meanwhile driving out old shops and businesses. It's like a modern day Christopher Columbus in the New World scenario.

The last speaker was an East Harlem native who was speaking through Skype because he was in Puerto Rico, I'm forgetting his name. They showed clips of his film that documented the gentrification in the neighborhood he grew up in, which is historically Hispanic. He was saying how when we was growing up, all the white people got off the train before it got up to the 100s. But as time went on, this changed, and more yuppies started moving to the area. He documented a widowed woman who had lived in her apartment with her husband for 25 years, and her landlord was trying to tempt her to move out. She was justly upset, because she had all these memories in her apartment, and to be asked to leave after her husband died was ridiculous. These are the unfortunate consequences of gentrification. I guess it's kind of hard to avoid because there are always going to be young artists coming to NYC to follow their dreams, and they have to live somewhere. It's unfortunate that they move here at the cost of ruining entire communities, but I think if people can be conscious of it and be respectful of old communities and not buy into these huge high rise apartments, there can maybe be a better relationship between natives and newcomers.

My MOMI Visit

This past Friday after work I took the R train out to Steinway, it was my first trip to Astoria. After making a few wrong turns I made it to the nearly unmarked building that is the Museum of the Moving Image. The bright entry led me to the first small exhibit that covered the history of the Astoria studio. I'd never really heard of the Astoria studio before, so seeing all the photographs of shows that were taped there, and seeing how important the studio was to New York film making was really eye opening.

I was then led to the Behind the Screen exhibition, which was really interesting. They had tons of facial molds and and memorabilia from old TV shows and movies. There were two pieces from this part of the exhibit that really stuck out to me: Eddie Murphy's Gumby costume for Saturday Night Live (I love SNL so it was really cool seeing such an old piece from the show) and Cher's curly wig (because Cher). Another part of the exhibit showed all these old pop magazines that profiled popular actors, was really interesting to read about as a journalism student. It talked about how readers became so transfixed reading about these actors luxurious lives, and how this really pioneered modern day pop culture magazines.

After that I went to an exhibit that pretty much covered the history of film making. It was a kind of chronological display of these ancient cameras that shot the first movies ever. The exhibit also showed different models of televisions throughout the years. To think that my parents used to watch TV on those things! So bizarre. Lastly I visited the Chuck Jones exhibit, which was really cool. When I was little I was obsessed with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, so to see his sketches and inspirations was awesome. I thought it was amazing that he drew inspiration for Wile E. Coyote's tail from The Great Wave of Kanagawa print.

All in all the visit was really informative and upped my knowledge on the history of film. Definitely worth the trip to Queens.

Audio Interview

I decided that the best way to lead into Larissa's story would be to begin with her life before 2012, so listeners could get a sense of the kind of person she was. The interview then went pretty chronologically from the time she found out she was pregnant to the anxiety she had during her pregnancy to when her daughter was born. One of the clips I kept was when she was describing her day-to-day life, because I think this gives listeners a real sense of how her life has changed since her daughter was born. This clip really shows listeners the 180 her life has made, from being a party girl to being a single mother. I ended with how she feels about the difference her daughter has made in her life and how she feels her daughter is a blessing. I added in a little bit of dramatic music before she leads into her daughter's story, to kind of set a tone. I made sure not to overdo it with the music, so as to keep the audio clear and to the point.
https://soundcloud.com/anna-366/project-2-audio-interview

What I Hear

My soundwalk took place shortly after sunset on a very cold, windy, and damp night. Much of the excitement in Bensonhurst has ended by now, as most of the residents are young families or elderly. I most enjoy the neighborhood at this hour, so I decided this would be the best time to take a walk. The first sound I notice after going outside is the sound of a store closing. It's a familiar sound, the noise of the doors on the corner fish shop shutting for the day. As I round the corner I hear the distant keynote sound of the subway train rolling to a stop.

A few sound signals I picked up on during my walk included banter among Chinese chefs on their smoke break. Although I was unable to understand them, the aggressiveness of their voices certainly caught my attention. Another sound signal I found was the high pitched barking of two Shi-Tzus, which, dare I say, sounded similar to noises I hear when I watch reality TV. As I got closer to the train station, the sound of the train went from being a keynote sound to a soundmark. Walking under the above ground tracks, I could hear the voice announcing the next stop and the "ding" of the doors closing. I think the sound of the overhead train is pretty unique to Bensonhurst, as I was unfamiliar with this nearly deafening noise before I lived here.

Continuing up the street I picked up on something I normally don't when wearing my headphones (which I'm guilty of doing almost 24/7), which is language. Bensonhurst is an extremely diverse place--take a walk in the neighborhood on any given day and you'll feel as though you've just walked through five different countries. In the span of my walk I hear parents speaking to their toddler in Russian, I hear Spanish being spoken outside of a bodega, I hear Mandarin, I hear Hebrew, and finally upon returning home I hear my landlord bickering with a neighbor in Italian. This diversity in language I would say is the number one sound clue to this specific neighborhood. But then again, we're in New York, so maybe all neighborhoods are this way and I'm just blindly unaware. I think that's also just the beauty of the city, being able to experience this audial melting pot. I'm happy I took the walk because it gave me an appreciation for the sounds of my neighborhood, something that I don't get to experience when I'm plugged in.

Define a space

The feeling of space in the video changes rapidly. At the beginning of the video, in the building, the area is cramped and dark so I made fast cuts to create a feeling of anxiousness. I also slowed down the clips that showed drawings on the walls, to make them more meaningful. As the shots shift outdoors, the video becomes much more calm and slow. This is how I conveyed the sense of openness and lightness outside. We created a sense of depth in shooting with the staircase shots, as the movement went from the foreground to background. We used zoom outside to emphasize the importance of the shot. Additionally, we made sure to include several points of view, high angle shots as well as low angle shots. The last scene on the staircase also creates a tilted angle, which I think adds a nice element to the video.

Define a Space project