Earthquake

I called my parents and asked both of them if they saw Earthquake in theaters. As my parents were only 12 years old when it was released, neither of them remember much of the movie. My mom doesn't even remember if she saw the movie in theaters or not. My dad did say that he saw the movie when it was released in theaters. I asked him his reactions toward the movie when he first saw it, but he said he doesn't really remember the movie itself. Although, he did say that all he remembered were the big Dolby speakers that were installed in the theatre when the movie was released. So even if the movie did not have a strong influence on my Dad, the speakers did, which I guess is the most important part to take out of the movie seeing as it was the brand new technology. I'm sure that many audiences that did not live on or near a fault line were extremely startled by the movie seeing as they had never experienced an earthquake before, and this was one of the closest experiences they have had to a real earthquake. Although my parents were not of much help, I do remember that in Universal Studios there is a stimulation ride that is based off of the movie, Earthquake. It is a behind the scenes look at the technology used in the movie, not so much the technology of the sound though.

A Clockwork Orange

Walter Carlos, born as Wendy Carlos, did the majority of the electronically soundtrack for the movie, A Clockwork Orange. Her electronic music is perfect for the movie, especially the opening scene of the movie as the electronic music gives the movie the perfect blend of calm and chaos, which perfectly describes the characters of the movie. Although the electronic music in the scene is very slow and calm, there is a vivid sense and foreshadowing of eery chaos that is about to happen. The music of Carlos brings the dark shadows out of the characters and out of the mood of the scene, although everything in the opening scene seems to be white, which of course displays innocence.

I have never seen the full movie of A Clockwork Orange, so I did have to do some research regarding the significance of Singin' In the Rain in the movie. On simplest terms of analysis, many people claim that the song was only used because it was the only song that the actor who played Alex knew all of the words to. Through research I also learned that Singin in the Rain was not originally supposed to be in the movie. The song was added last minute so that the writer could later identify Alex as the killer of his wife when he sang it again in a bathtub. Based upon my own analysis I believe that Singin in the Rain was used as the perfect juxtaposition to what was happening at the moment. Alex and his friends are clearly deranged individuals and find no issue in breaking into a strangers house and brutally raping the woman that lives there. Therefore, the make light of the situation and sing a happy song. The director and writer's way to show how truly messed up in the head these boys actually are.

I also believe that it has quite a parallel to what happens to Alex later in the movie via the torture. Just as the woman hears a perfectly good and happy song as she is being raped, Alex listens to Beethoven as he is being tortured, making him feel sick to his stomach whenever he hears the music of Beethoven, which he loves. Similar to Alex, whenever this woman, if she survived, or her husband, hear the beautiful words of Singin in the Rain, they too would feel sick to their stomach as they will only connect it with the night Alex and his droogs broke into their house. Assosciation, as it is called in psychology.

Technicolor

Technicolor rocketed off in the 1930's with the making of The Wizard of Oz. Technicolor was a huge step forward in the movie-making world considering its' enhancement of the viewing of movies. With technicolor people could now see the world in movies as it actually is in their eyes. Technicolor brings life and vivacity to the movies and to the audience. I do find it funny how now-a-days, since the up and coming generation is so used to technicolor and advanced technology in movies, I feel as if we have somewhat reverted to the old forms of  production. For example, having pictures printed in black and white is extremely popular now, if not more preferred than printing in color or shooting in technicolor. Not to bring up instagram, but to bring up instagram, some filters allow you to enhance the look of the picture, although most filters more commonly used cause the picture to have an old, scratched, and vintage look to the picture.

Les Miserables

As we were talking about sound in class, and we were on the topic of lip-syncing, I could not help but keep thinking about a behind the scenes clip that I had watched just the night earlier. The famous Broadway musical, Les Miserables, is being made into a modern movie by director Thomas Hooper. The movie will be released on Christmas. The most amazing and captivating thing about this movie, besides its' large scale, will be that each scene is sung live. Every single shot of the actors singing the songs was actually sung live rather than lip-syncing. As opposed to what we were saying in class about how lip-syncing enhances the artistry of the movie because directors could now worry about acting without worrying about singing, and vice versa, the actors in Les Miserables have differing opinions. All of the actors, as stated in the video believe that being able to sing live during shooting allowed them to really put their own emotions into the song at the exact point and time. They did not have to worry about matching their actions to how they sang and recorded the songs months earlier. The clip is extremely captivating, and as Les Miserables is my favorite stage production, I am more than excited to see this movie rendition.

Citizen Kane

In the ant agonizingly long, but insightful, movie Citizen Kane, he utters a single word, "rosebud", before he dies. The entire movie is based on his Kane's elaborate life, and underlyingly hints to what rosebud actually means to him. We do not find out until the very end of the movie, after Kane has died and people are searching through his enormous amount of junk at his home, what rosebud actually means. The word rosebud is written on a sleigh that Kane has had from his childhood. Kane was taken away from his home at a very young age, and forced to live a slightly adult-lead lifestyle rather than a care-free childish life. Rosebud signifies the childhood that Kane never had. Besides the hidden message, to touch on what we've been talking about in class, Citizen Kane is also a big movie in the forefront of camera angles and lighting. The camera angles are very modern in Citizen Kane because not only are they from far away or in the corner, but they help to shape the story. For example, a lot of the camera views of Kane with other people are facing downwards on the other people as to signify that Kane is above the others and more important than them. The lighting is really modern because Citizen Kane makes use of dark and light sharp contrasting shadows which were very hard to do in the time period without hours worth of perfecting the lamps.

Napoleon

Although I did not get to see the whole movie, I did look up clips of Napoleon by Abel Gance in order to find the significance and the uniqueness of the movie during its' time period. The first thing that I noticed while watching clips of the film was the scale of the scenes. I may be underestimating the abilities of filmmakers in the early 1900's, but I always seem to be amazed at the large scale that they are able to shoot their scenes. For example, the huge snow ball fight,war scenes, and scenes in the government buildings, in Napoleon, I would have never thought that a scene with the large of a background and set would be able to shot that early in the 1920's. The other thing that surprised me was the use of the camera. How it was used as a moving camera, as the eye of the beholder, rather than a still camera shot. It's a very modern way to shoot movies, slightly ill to the eye and stomach, but very cool to watch nonetheless. It is also unique to the time period to do such quick shots and such fast moving movements. I feel as if many movies during this time period had extremely drawn out scenes with slower transitions. Last but not least, the most unique part of Napoleon for the time period was the use of the three screens. The three same shots all playing next to each other, but in different colors is very powerful and extremely symbolic, as the colors are the colors of the French flag. Not only does Gance use the same shots, but he also played around with different shots sandwiching another shot in order to compare and contrast the two different scenes.

The Great Train Robbery

As soon as the movie started I was in shock at how the movie was shot. I was very confused as to if they were actually inside a room, or if the room was a set and the train moving outside the window was placed there using technology, or if the train was actually moving outside. I am still slightly confused. Although not uncommon for the time, the actors gestures were extremely exaggerated and dramatized. I was extremely surprised when the shot began to show that the camera was on top of a moving train! That was astounding to me, not only to have the technology to just shoot the movie, and to color in the flames frame by frame, which I loved, but also to keep a camera steady on a moving train. I do think that the background music to the movie could have been a bit more suspenseful considering the murders and the burglary that is going on during the movie. The background music seems a bit more serene and tranquil than what actually is going on in the scenes. Overall, I feel as if The Great Train Robbery, was an extremely large scale production for its' time. Not only the use of an entire train, and horses, but also the use of shooting a scene on the moving train, was a huge deal compared to movies that were just being shot of people doing everyday things, like feeding their babies, or watering the flowers. Also, the amount of people used in the film, for example, all of the people that got off of the train during the robbery, it took a lot of man power to shoot this early silent film. The very end is very surprising because of the breaking down of the 4th wall. The actor does not only look directly at the audience, but he ends up firing the gun at the audience. If people were scared that the train was going to hit them in the other early films, then they must have been terrified at this movie.

Skeleton Dance

The Skeleton Dance, by Disney, is a very popular short musical clip known for its' creativity and incredible use of the combination of animation and music. Clips from The Skeleton Dance have been used at the end of most of Disney's Halloween movies or t.v. episodes. It is not directly used in Tim Burton's fabulous feature film, The Corpse Bride, but it is referred to in the musical scene, "Remains of the Day". In this musical break, the skeleton is the master of ceremonies of sorts and sings a song with three other backup skeletons. Throughout the clip, there are clear moments of inspiration pulled from The Skeleton Dance. For example, at 2:12 in the clip, the skeleton is using the other skeleton's spine as an xylophone, which was taken directly from The Skeleton Dance. There are other new and creative uses of bones as instruments in Tim Burton's version. The difference lies in the rhythm of the scene. All of the movements in The Skeleton Dance seem to create the music, whereas in The Corpse Bride, the skeleton's dancing accompanies the music.

Wicked

I loved watching Behind the Emerald Curtain not only because I have seen Wicked, but also because I really enjoy seeing how the parts of a whole are put together and what goes into making something so large as a Broadway play. The most interesting clip to me was the clip explaining how they created the Oz head. I really appreciate the small creative things that went into creating this entire production, but specifically the parts made to operate the Oz head. I was amazed when the mechanics explained that the eyebrows were moved by a drum pedal.

I also really loved watching all of the clips about the costuming. I wish that I could sew, but I have not a clue in the world how to. I was very surprised to hear that each costume is handmade rather than mass produced, considering how large of a production that Wicked is. I was also very surprised to hear the amount of work that goes into up keeping the sets of costumes, and how much excruciating detail they have to use to look at all of the different parts of the costume to make sure that not a single bead is missing from the 400+ costumes worn during the play.

A Trip to the Moon

As I was watching A Trip to the Moon, I had a lot of the same reactions as to when we watched the clips of the first films in class. I did not think the technology was clear enough to present a picture with that much detail way back when. I also could not imagine that the sets that were created to shoot these movies, like A Trip to the Moon, were as grandiose as they were.
Not that it annoyed me, but I think the biggest advancement in film, rather than film itself, is being able to add sound to film. It really makes a world of difference being able to hear the people talk rather than listening to a narrator. I'm not sure if the narrator was a choice for the film rather than to hear the actors speak, but I didn't enjoy the narration very much. It dragged out the motions of the actors. For example, the narrator would say, "and then we walked into the shell", and for another 30 seconds after, the actors were still transitioning into the shell, but there was no narration to listen to until the next motion was made.
Aside from the actual technology of the video, I was amazed at the content and idea of the movie. As a very early science fiction film, I'm sure that the actors thought the idea of taking a trip to the movie was so extremely far-fetched, considering the first trip to the moon did not happen until 57 years later by the Soviet Union. This film could be compared to today's modern day science fiction film about finding aliens or landing men on Mars. It made me think that if people were making movies about things they did not think could be humanly possible in the future, what will be the advancements in technology and what will happen in our future? Are the movies of today predicting the world of tomorrow?

Broadway Cont.

6. Although an off-Broadway show, I have seen STOMP several times, and it gets better and better every time I see it. This is one of my favorite scenes because I think it is amazing the way that they swing around on the billboard and still play music. There is also another part of the show where they use kitchen tools to play music, so they use the technology to enhance their musical abilities, rather than perform an illusion.

7. The last is from my favorite show of all-time, Les Miserables. During "Javert's Suicide", he is on a bridge, but then on the floor, but acts as if he is falling from the bridge, while the bridge is being lifted up. If you are really into the show, then it proves to be a very cool illusion that he is falling, and not that the bridge is being lifted.

Broadway

I found it slightly more difficult than I had imagined to find different types of technology used in Broadway shows. With limited space to work with on a stage and limited amount of technological ability to work with, I imagine it takes extremely creative minds to come up with ways to capture the audiences attention with technology on the stage.

1. The first musical that came to my mind, regarding the use of technology, was Wicked. I saw Wicked in London and was in absolute awe of not only the dancing and music, but also the different aspects of technology that they used. From the steel dragon in the play, to the bubble contraption that Glinda rides, all of the different uses of technology were very cool. My favorite use was when they made Elphaba appear to be flying in the air, as seen in the video above. 

2. I have never seen the Broadway rendition of Spider-Man, nor do I actually intend to see it, but the clip montage of the musical during the Tony Awards, which is the clip added, actually showed really cool uses of technology. When the building rises from the floor, making an optical illusion as if Spider-man was jumping from on top of the building, was very creative. 

3. I have seen Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and the scene that really amazed me was "Music of the Night". As a 13 year old, I was amazed at how the boat was moving so fluently through the stage and around the fog. 

4. I have also never seen Shrek the Musical, although I do intend to go see it, because I've heard it's very funny. I have watched videos, and this scene called "What's up Duloc?" never ceases to amaze me. Although not extremely technology advanced, per say, the use of creative minds allowed for a full-sized man to appear to be a midget, like Lord Farquaad in the movie. With the use of some sort of technologically made contraption, the actor can move on his knees, which makes him look much shorter. 

5. I have seen Hairspray on Broadway, and although not extremely technologically advanced, the set design of the opening scene, "Good Morning Baltimore", was very creative and seemed to defy gravity. 

The Great Depression: Part Deux

As I am a child of the 90's, I have course have not lived through any other financial crisis than the one that we are in now. Although, I do believe that since our generation has not lived through, and remembered, another financial crisis as serious as the present, we do not think much of the current financial crisis. I don't think we can truly grasp the state that the country is in right now because of the entertainment and escapism that is happening around us. When the financial crisis really hit the country hard, reality tv shows, like Jersey Shore and Keeping up with the Kardashians, were created. Reality t.v. shows like Jersey Shore were created in order to glorify partying and glorify drinking. As a direct effect, the public scene of partying has increased, allowing our generation to escape the financial crisis exactly like the youth that escaped to speakeasies during the great depression and prohibition. Other reality t.v. shows, like the Kardashians, were created in order to give a look into the life of the rich and glamorous to take the spotlight off of how financially awful the 99% is doing. So in short, our generation is, with lack of better words, blinded by the light, of the television and the glorification of pop culture, rather than focusing on the financial crisis that we are presently in. To reflect what was stated in class about the skirt theory, mini-skirts from the 90's are not really worn much anymore, rather the maxi skirts and ankle length flowing chiffon skirts are worn by today's fashion-goers. Whether the economic situation will improve with the election of the new President come November, we'll have to just wait by the remote and see.

The Jazz Age

In 10th grade during my American studies class we had a day dedicated to the Jazz Age where we all dressed up as flappers and did the Charleston in class. This was the closest I ever came to really experiencing the 1920's, clearly, as I was born in 1992. I do not remember much of the jazz age history from 10th grade, so I did have to do a little research on the Internet before writing this blog. It is accepted that the birth of jazz came about by the African American culture, but became widely accepted by everyone during the Great Depression when jazz was played in speakeasies, where all classes came together to escape. Jazz grew rapidly due to its' free and wild style and its opposition to earlier music that was very composed and strict. The youth of the 20's used jazz as a way to rebel against the older generations. They used jazz as a form of escapism during the time of the Great Depression and prohibition. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an incredible book that tells a story of a wealthy man and his struggles and successes during the 1920's. The incredible Baz Luhrmann is coming out with a new movie rendition of The Great Gatsby, which is sure to be nothing short of amazing. The trailer is at the top, although I request reading the book before seeing the movie.

5th Element

I was very excited to find out that our assignment would be to review the Diva Dance scene from 5th Element. This movie, and specifically this scene, has been one of my favorites ever since I was little and my Dad had showed me this movie. I love this scene because of the wide voice range that Pravalaguna sings in. This is an incredible scene because Pravalaguna has the ability to sing what she feels is going on at the moment. She sings what is in her intuition. Her song parallels the fight between Leelo and the disgusting bad creatures. Every punch, stance, and kick has a specific note sequence that goes along with the actions, making the scene incredibly entertaining on two different levels. The first level is the fight scene going on, and the second scene is listening and watching Pravalaguna sing. It is amazing how the two levels interconnect. It is also important to note the chemistry and connection between Pravalaguna and Bruce Willis during the performance. It is the same tension that Leelo and Bruce Willis's character have. It is almost as if Pravalaguna has felt the soul of Leelo and is singing what Leelo is feeling at the moment.

Madama Butterfly

While I was watching this video I found myself focusing more on the inter workings of the video rather than the actual story. From the very beginning I was in awe of how the characters were made. I was fascinated by the different types of little toys the director put together in order to create the characters and the surroundings. My favorite director is Tim Burton, so the claymation and the use of different miniature items to create a person was the most interesting part of the entire video. The story was very sad. I thought the most moving part was at the very end when she is literally ripping herself apart and unscrewing herself because the captain's actions figuratively ripped her apart piece by piece. The music from the opera in the background was perfect. It was not too overwhelming where it took away from the focus of the plot line or the beauty of the artwork, but it was loud enough and engaging enough that it did not go unnoticed. Needless to say, I really enjoyed this aria of Madama Butterfly.

About me

Hello, my name is Chelsey Keenan. I'm a sophomore at UT, and I'm 19 years old, but will be 20 on November 18th. I'm from the suburbs outside of Philadelphia called Huntingdon Valley, it's very small and not diverse at all. I came to UT to have a more diverse college experience, but I still wanted to maintain the small classroom and small school lifestyle, which is why UT was a perfect fit for me. I'm an Advertising and Public Relations major, but more on the Advertising side. I have a passion for creativity and having a wide and vivid imagination. I love art, but after taking figure drawing my first semester here at UT, I've discovered that I am not really into figure drawing and the more fine art side, which is why I switched my major from Graphic Design. I want to be a part of the creative department in the advertising world rather than the art department. When I was in class the first day I was really excited after I left. The art that will be shown and focused on is the type of art that I really enjoy. I enjoy looking at art from the early eras, but I am fascinated by modern art, and I really hope and know that we will explore that further. When you had mentioned the Tate Modern Museum in London, I instantly knew that I was going to enjoy this class because that is my all-time favorite museum that I have ever been to. I am planning to study abroad in London, and also planning to visit the Tate many times. Out of the rest of the class I also expect to gain an enormous amount of knowledge about art throughout the ages and, of course, how technology has influenced it. I do not think I will be shocked by much of the art that will be shown, as I have suffered through a semester of figure drawing already, and not much is shocking to me anymore.