Seeming is Believing

For our project we would like to create a video where three different forms of one overarching emotion are being alternated for the duration of the video. We hope to represent apathy in vocal, unspoken, and physical forms throughout the video. For the vocal, we will have a girl singing a cappella in a church, laying in a pew or leaning against an alter. She will be staring into place, not really seeing or feeling anything. As part of the emotion she will never look directly at the camera, to further portray her disconnection from the audience. Our second selection will be of a person desperately trying to be apathetic as their parents are fighting in the background. This is our unspoken apathy and represents how hard it is sometimes to be apathetic, even in the situations when we most wish we were. Our third scene will be of a girl having a meltdown in public while people just walk by or stand around and watch a little, but turn and leave disinterested in a few seconds. This is our physical manifestation of apathy and is an exaggerated version of how bad our society has become with not caring.

The inspiration for our video comes from a part in Lord of the Rings III: Return of the King, where Pippin is sadly singing and as he sings the visual switches between him, an extreme close up of the Steward’s mouth as he eats dinner, and video of the steward’s son going into a battle that kills him. While Pippin’s emotion is sadness, feel of the Steward clips is one of unspoken brutality, focusing on him tearing apart his meal and having juices that look like blood run down his chin. The clips of the war combine the emotions of the two other segments to be presented in a physical manifestation. The brutality is clear, but the sadness is evident in how the fighters are entering a battle they have minimal chance of winning and how they end up all dying.

Also, I at least was inspired by the song we will be using for the clip, Ingrid Michaelson’s Keep Breathing. By no means do I think the song will be the only thing that sets the mood for the piece, it just fits the desired feeling so ideally. Even just reading the opening lyrics like prose reveals their relevance; “The storm is coming but I don’t mind. People are dying, I close my blinds. All that I know is I’m breathing now.” To me these words describe someone who has so much sensory overload that they are overwhelmed and just stop feeling in response to what they see or hear. This is my goal for the apathy mood of our piece.

I found it extremely difficult to find any articles about the movie I chose originally, Mary Poppins (everything that came up was about the books instead, which were quite different than the movie version). Then I tried searching for my all time favorite animated movie, Anastasia, with no luck at all. So eventually I turned to a movie that has been one of my and my family’s favorites since it came out, Finding Nemo.

Reading some reviews I found I came to a realization about Disney movies, as brought up in Laurie Frankel’s review, which is that Disney movies are extremely lacking in positive mother figures. Cinderella and Snow White have evil stepmothers, in the Little Mermaid you only hear about the King and the main female role is Ursula, and the Queen in the Lion King does nothing. That is not to say that there are not mother-like males to make up for this, for which I would like to point out Simon and Pumba in the Lion King, but no male-mothering relationship was quite like Marlin and Nemo’s in Finding Nemo. Marlin preaches for the strictesr safety measures and IS that mother that says, “Are you sure you want to go to school? You can always stay with me for another year.” Once Nemo is taken he has the extreme devotion of many single parents I personally know of being willing to do ANYTHING for their child, even if it seems to be a pointless, ocean-wide mission because without their children they no longer feel that their life is meaningful.

What makes Finding Nemo so special and enjoyable? I personally love the movie for Dory and her humor. I make my parents listen to the audio that plays before you start the movie because I think it’s really funny. One snippet of it has Dory talking about if she were ever to be in a movie and how she would act like a bossy celebrity: “Where’s my trailer? Where’s my water? Fill my trailer with water.” I think Finding Nemo is the perfect balance between adventure and humor, for kids and adults alike. In the USA Today’s article on Finding Nemo they collected some reactions from kids on what they thought made the movie so enjoyable. Some kids decided it was the way the characters looked, how funny they were, and the theme of a father loving his child so much he searches the ocean for him (all from kids age 6 to 9). My personal favorite reason why was that it had its scary moments with the sharks, but they always balanced it out with the sharks being at an AA-like meeting trying to quit eating fish. This balance of all sorts of genres makes all sorts of people capable of enjoying the movie.

Also, I like how Finding Nemo is about love but, unlike most Disney movies, puts the friendship variety in the spotlight rather than the true love variety of the princess movies. Laurie Frankel says that Finding Nemo teaches that “happily ever after lies is being and having a good friend.” Marlin would be lost and never would have found Nemo if it wasn’t for Dory and her reading skills, as well as her willingness to go to Sydney with him. The power of her friendship with Marlin even allowed her to be able to conquer her short term memory loss.
For me the movie is easily summarized by a quote from Laurie Frankel: “Home becomes friendship, people who will always be there, faith, trust, constancy.” This is very true of my own family and Finding Nemo just proves that this group of people doesn’t have to be biologically related. A family is much more meaningful than just genes.

Seiler, Andy. “’Nemo’ could float by ‘Lion King’ as top cartoon film”. USA Today, 07/08/2003

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=17&hid=9&sid=9285e831-c5b3-457c-b502-d33cefa5c0f8%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=J0E020199386103

Frankel, Laurie Finding Nemo (film). Film & History (03603695); May2004, Vol. 34 Issue 1, p75-76, 2p.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=24&hid=9&sid=9285e831-c5b3-457c-b502-d33cefa5c0f8%40sessionmgr11

I really enjoyed Alex Garcia’s presentation to our class on Monday. I thought she had a lot of useful and interesting information to give, and I think she is an amazing representative of our school.  That in such a short time since graduating from the School of Communications here at American University she has advanced to what I would consider a very successful job at a well known newspaper is very impressive to me. The reason why was clear as she spoke about her excitement for the work she does and the extra time and dedication she puts into her work.

Having never done video editing or compiling before, I felt that I learned a lot of practical information from her presentation.  My first realization came while she was talking about “The Healing Fields” and how she took fourteen hours of footage over three days when the final edit was only four and a half minutes long.  This clicked in my head that editing is a much longer and harder process than I considered it to be.  Since I tend to love the work I put a lot of time and energy into, I can only imagine all the indecision I would suffer from while trying to cut a lot of footage out, but keep select important bits. This is where the second lesson I learned comes it – don’t repeat shots or stories and that concise is always better.  Another thing she said that made me think to our Morris argument presentations was that you should go out with a general story in your head of what general points you want to convey, so that it’s easier to determine what to film.

Lastly, I really enjoyed her Scene In series from washingtonpost.com.  In the Dupont Circle video that we watched in class, I liked how she changed frames on the beat of the music playing. That itself made the video seem livelier to me.  I also liked how, while interviewing people, she would do close ups on different details of their outfit instead of just staying on their faces like in a traditional interview.

Watch the video here.

I chose the video Redefining Freedom which was shot by Jill Drew, Pierre Kattar, and Lauren Keane.  It has been edited with photo montages from the Tiananmen Square confrontation that happened 20 years ago. It also has voice-overs for a narrator figure, giving the background of the documentary.  There are text sections identifying the people being interviewed as well as subtitles translating what they are saying, since they are speaking Chinese.  The piece is about how the idea of freedom has changed since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, focusing on interviews done with Beijing residents all all ages. These range from an 11 year old boy who thinks freedom is his “parents understanding [him] and not making [him] do things [he] doesn’t want to” to a retiree who lived during Mao’s time and considers himself to be very free now.  I thought it was very interesting what the girl college student said about how she didn’t have anything against democracy, but that it wasn’t realistic for China. This made me think and I think history supports this statement. China has always been at its highest points under strong, strict, and reasonably fair dynasties (for example, the Tang).  Perhaps communism in China is working towards making itself into a modern version of that prosperous dynasty model.

The shots in the clip are mostly close ups, which I consider to be a result of the interview format of the documentary.  One thing I noticed in particular is that the close up on the oldest gentleman being interviewed, the retiree, was closer than the close up on most others. Most shots were from the chest up, but in the retiree’s shots the bottom of the frame is near his collar bones and sometimes the top of his forehead gets cut off.  I interpret this as a way to reflect the Chinese respect for elders and as a way to make him larger, and thus more important, than the others being interviewed.  The close shot was also done for the 11 year old, but rather than emphasis his status, is does more to emphasis how young he is and because he’s so small it just doesn’t have the same effect.  I also noticed that the ex-political prisoner was significantly farther away than the others. His frames sometimes showed his waist near the bottom and there was still empty space over his head.

Favorite Film – Mary Poppins (1964)

Directed by – Robert Stevenson

Cinematography by – Edward Colman

Main Actors:      Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins

                                Dick Van Dyke as Bert

                                David Tomlinson as Mr. Banks

                                Glynis Johns as Mrs. Banks

                                Karen Dotrice as Jane Banks

                                Matthew Garber as Michael Banks

Disney acquired rights to make the film in 1961, spent 2 years preparing (with the music and casting) and spent the rest of the time recording.

Released – August, 1964 in the United States, but didn’t release in Europe until almost a year later.

**Interesting Fact: It was the last film to be personally supervised by Walt Disney before he died.**

                This movie is about the English Banks family which is interviewing for a nanny since the parents don’t have time to look after the kids and the last nanny quit.  The father wants the kids to have a strict nanny but they do not, so their write their own advertisement, which their father tears up upon seeing.  When interviewing nannies the next day, the entire bunch gets blown away and only Mary Poppins remains, and produces the advertisement that Jane and Michael created.  She takes them on outings to the park, inside paintings, and to a floating tea party. Upon hearing the story, Mr. Banks decides she is not strict enough and takes the kids to work with him so they can see what the real world looks like. But a confrontation over the correct use of a tuppence (to feed the birds or go in the bank) results in the kids running away from the bank.  Their father loses his job but he feels much more free and happy. When the wind changes Mary Poppins has to leave, and the children are sad. But the father is much more involved now and takes the children kiting, so they are distracted from even saying goodbye to her when she leaves.

                Upon realizing that most of my all time favorite movies were cartoons, I turned to what was my favorite movies when I was growing up, which was Mary Poppins. For 6 years of my life I considered this THE best movie in existence.  I don’t know if I would say that the movie moved me, but it certainly amused me and made me happy to watch. I was just starting to dance when I first saw it, and the dance numbers like the chimney scene and the penguin scene always made little me get up and dance in front of the television. Also, I think Julie Andrews is the epitome of grace and class and her voice is beautiful. Dick Van Dyke’s personality is personable and humorous making him my brother’s favorite character.  In retrospect, Michael Banks reminds me a lot of how my little brother was , so that lends an affectionate feel to my viewing of the movie. Plus, the happy family, kite scene at the end always makes me happy and joyful.

Film clip:

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058331/

The mood I chose for my business card was continuity. I tried to acheive this by shooting a lot of side angles for my photographs, implying a forward motion. I mentally associate green with history, and as a history major I wanted to take advantage of that mental connection and use green in my card.  This is best seen in the plaque, which has a historic feel through the discolorment of the metal.  Not only did the color match what I desired, but the plaque had to be there a while to change to its current color, giving it a history of its own and another connection to my (potential) future profession. This was more of a subconscious connection, since it wasn’t until after I saw that my 3 favorite pictures from my entire 50+ set were from my group of pictures of that plaque that I figured out what I liked so much about them. I also chose a similar color for the words, to give the card a more united feeling. I included “With eyes to the future” because I see the job of a historian to be well versed in the past in order to help the future be better than anything that came before. Their job is to ensure the survival of data so that the future can continue to learn from it. Using a serif font for historian was important to me because it has a formal, educational feel to it that I find very relevant to such a profession. I chose to switch up my desired order for the word information because I wanted to have the words ends form a line that was parallel to the white line where the gradient faded out. (The angled gradient was important to me because it visually aids the implied movement and direction of my chosen image. I tried having it vertical, but it made it seem like my central idea, the movement of the plaque, was stuck between two white walls. This gave it a limiting feel that clashed wiht my intended expansive feel.) I originally wanted name, job, phone number, but when I saw that I was considering changing the profession just so it would be longer I decided switching the order would be the better solution. I was going to do a back of the card, but I had so much trouble trying to decide which photograph to pair with this that I eventually decided to leave it blank.

Bomber Crash (1956) by George Mattson

The similarity between this image and Defending the Barricade is their diagonal composition, although in different directions. Defending the Barricade draws the eyes towards the lower right hand corner where the confrontation between the woman and the police is occurring. In contrast, the smoke in this image draws the eyes to the lower left hand corner to see the crash and then, at least in my case, back up the smoke line, as if following it as it rose. Both images involve government forces, but in contrast to the Israeli intended conflict, Bomber Crash shows an accidental disaster when an Air Force training flight crashed into a suburban home. Because the street is so clear and the yards are so empty, it makes it easier to focus on the main part of the picture, the crash.

Yet, what made it truly relevant and effective to me personally was its connection to a part of my life.  Perhaps you remember the plane crash in New York in February this year when a passenger plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in Clarence, NY. All 49 people on the plane died as well as one resident of the house it crashed into. I remember the morning of the crash vividly because it occurred just around the corner from my friend’s house.  When they first released information they only referenced the general area of the crash, referring to a landmark that is just across the street from my friend’s house. The only thing I could think about that day in school was wondering if my friend and his family were safe, since we couldn’t reach them.  The similarity of seeing a plane crash in a residential area made my heart jump into my throat when I saw the picture and it took me a few seconds to rationally realize that this was a different occasion. I firmly believe that it is the applicable emotions of the viewer that make images so powerful and those images that you can relate to the most are the same ones that you will most strongly respond to.

The first ethics decision I chose was about forging images during the Civil War. I said I would take pictures of what was there rather than move items to make an image.  It wasn’t that difficult because it seems common sense that photography should be used to capture the event, not create an image to represent it.  This is a fairly well held opinion according to the poll, where eighty three percent of the public and eighty one percent of the journalists agreed with me.  However, the commentaries at the bottom changed my opinion and made the forging of images more acceptable in my eyes, at least for that time in history.  Photography at that time wasn’t a means to communicate news, as it is today, but was considered more as an art form.  Do I expect every picture I see in a museum to be a candid? Not at all. Scenarios are staged all the time for art purposes, whether for a painting, sculpture, or picture. Also, in defense of the Civil War photographers, it took much longer for them to take a picture, with many adjustments and balances needing to be made. Getting a candid shot wasn’t really an option.  In the current era where photographs of war are expected to be the truth such a practice wouldn’t be acceptable, and that’s why the majority voted against it. But at the time of the Civil War the expectations and ethics of photography were different and this practice was an accepted one.

The second ethics question I chose was the one involving the famine in the Sudan, over whether to take a picture of the suffering or to help. This made me hesitate in choosing my opinion more than the Civil War question did because of the internal conflict involved between doing what I’m assigned to do and doing what I emotionally feel is the right thing.  The results of the poll showed a very large division between the journalists and the public, since seventy two percent of the public would choose helping the child over taking the picture and seventy two percent of journalists would choose taking the picture over helping the child.  The commentary explains the rational of the journalists, which is that by taking the picture they can bring attention to the issue and bring much more aid to the situation than they as an individual could provide. However, I don’t think I would have the resolve not to help when viewing that kind of devastation in person.

“Defending the Barricade” by Oded Balilty, 2006

The image is strongly worked to be in the favor/sympathy of the woman on the right.  The wall divides the image into a vertical third, separating the woman from the police she is opposing. Also, the line of people on the cliff and the corresponding line of helmets create a horizontal third at the top of the image.  The implied movement of the line of policemen draws the viewer’s eyes to right and the central confrontation of the woman against the police. Numbers are important here, because one Jewish lady versus about 40 armed and protected policemen hardly seems a fair fight. This was intentional, as the video we watched in class from the Newseum sight said how Oded Balilty was looking for a situation like this (one versus many) the entire time he was photographing that day. I also think the smoke rising at the top of the image is important, as it refers to the destruction and devastation going on. Lastly, the mass of people standing on the ridge at the top of the image give a sense of helplessness and despair as there is nothing they can do but watch as the destruction occurs.

The background situation of this image is the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The specific situation of the photograph was in February 2006  in Amona, West Bank when Palestinians were demolishing the Israeli houses that crossed over the agreed settlement lines.  It was an all day event, as they would evacuate and demolish one house at a time, working their way through the total of nine offending buildings. Although that was the specific occasion, the larger issue is more important than the individual occasion.  Both groups claim historic right to the same land, which leads to conflict as both try to defend what they see as theirs. Peace keeping efforts, such as the setting up of the general territorial divisions, have been made and are semi-successful, as long as they are adhered to. The Israelis continuously expand over the agreed settlement lines, and so the Palestinians have every right to remove them and destroy the houses as they were doing in the image. Oded Balilty displays his Israeli support by seeking out a situation for a picture of the conflict were the Israelis seem to be the underdog and the one’s wronged.

This image was taken for Associated Press while Oded Balilty was on their Jerusalem photography staff.  Between the pro-Israeli message of the image and the historical support the United States has had for the Israeli state, the reaction was mostly pro-Israel, overlooking the fact that the settlements were illegal in the first place.  However, this is not a very heated issue where there is no individual group that has clear support in most of the world. Even within the US individuals are divided over who is right in their claims and what the resolution should be. So while some would support the pro-Israeli image, some would be offended at the portrayal of a justified action. There is no right opinion.