Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Blog #2 - Soundwalk


Sound Walk
For my blog I spent some time in the neighborhood that I work, Park Slope. I work on Fifth Ave not too far from the new Barclay Center. I walked around the neighborhood at 2pm when I got off work. It was this past weekend so in some cases certain establishments were still recovering from Sandy. There were a lot of sounds of delivery trucks loading and unloading, a lot of honking and men yelling indistinguishable words to their counterparts. The neighborhood is very bike heavy and ringing of bike bells are frequent.
It seemed to be that the neighborhood was trying to get themselves ready for work since they have pretty much been off for the week due to Sandy. The sounds I heard were mostly quick and fast. The texture seemed to be rough and abrupt. I felt like I was in everyone’s way when really I was nowhere close to anyone.
The sounds of the neighborhood were reflecting on the time of day, on a weekend people wake up late and tend to do their business quicker in order to plan for their night on the town. The bike sounds were startling to me since I ride my bike to work and never realized how many people used their bell, or voice to warn those they are around. While I make all the same sounds, I only concentrate on what I am doing, not how it sounds when we all come together to make our own form of “traffic” if you will.
The background sound seemed to be the chatter of folks, the more dominate would be the traffic sounds and the most prevalent foreground sounds were those delivery trucks who were working a long day and had to be loud on the sidewalk to get their job done. I think this all would have been completely different if Sandy hadn’t had happened. 

Audio Assignment


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Tighten Your Belts, Bite the Bullet. Extra Credit Assignment


Tighten Your Belts, Bite the Bullet.
Martin Lucas

This movie examined the financial situation of two different cities in the late 1970's. the two cities that Lucas concentrated on was Cleveland and New York. Tighten Your Belts, Bite the Bullet.
Martin Lucas

This movie examined the financial situation of two different cities in the late 1970's. the two cities that Lucas concentrated on was Cleveland and New York. At the beginning of the movie there was a lot of information to grab onto but as the movie panned out I started to understand more about the financial and political structure of the two cities. 
I like how the filmed used characters to drive the story, in New York it was the citizens in Greenpoint and the fire houses, in Cleveland it was the historic mayor who refused to sign the city of Cleveland over to the banks. The pop up facts and text narration between the shots and stories really helped me understand the dire state that these cities are in. The most emotional part of the film was when they went into the
I was really interested in the editing process because it was a 16'' reel and I have only edited on digital footage. The question and answer session afterwards with Prof. Lucas was 
At the beginning of the movie there was a lot of information to grab onto but as the movie panned out I started to understand more about the financial and political structure of the two cities. 
I like how the filmed used characters to drive the story, in New York it was the citizens in Greenpoint and the fire houses, in Cleveland it was the historic mayor who refused to sign the city of Cleveland over to the banks. The pop up facts and text narration between the shots and stories really helped me understand the dire state that these cities are in. The most emotional part of the film was when they went into the hospitals and daycares that are in the process of closing down, or are closed down. it was very interesting to see how those are the first things to go when a city looses money. As well as the CUNY system not being free anymore. 
I was really interested in the editing process because it was a 16'' reel and I have only edited on digital footage. The question and answer session afterwards with Prof. Lucas connected a lot of dots when he was talking. How the editing process was, how he pieced the composer, the narrator, his crew etc. Over all it was alerting that this movie related so much to the financial and political status that the city is in today. 

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Media 160 Lecture #5 Assignment

Blog Assignment #2

I chose a clip from the movie Breathless, a 1960’s French film. This clip  is the end of the movie so the shots display the last emotions of the characters. The gangsters at the beginning of this scene are looking to kill, the shots are long shots of them in the car and of them shooting Antonio, the main character. The movie thus far has been light but also full of emotion and dramatic scenes between characters, I feel like this shot lets us look and take everything in at once to end the story.

Long shots are used to show  Antonio running away after he is shot. They never show his front while he is running away nor do they zoom in. the camera position is shaky, just like his running. When the camera cuts to Patricia, they use close-ups as well as medium shots, in order to show her emotion. Since both characters have been emotionally involved the whole movie, these distinctive shots are used to separate them.

The music in the background is used to amplify his running after he is shot. The worse he gets the more intense the movie gets. The music softens at the end after he dies.
There is no color and the lighting is natural. Interesting, since many times in movies deaths are set in the dark. Overall thsi scene isn't set in a way that traditional movies are shot for a dramatic ending, which is why I like it, it has minimal close-ups and the camera cuts lightly, not over dramaticly.

Breathless Scene

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Media 160 Artist Statement

Art is meant to be seen without filters, touch-ups or air brushing. Art is raw and it has to be the truth to what it is meant to shows. Art can be used to inform us about what we don’t want to see, such as a photograph that makes us uncomfortable or a sculpture of an imperfect body. I’m interested in what makes people feel like they shouldn’t be looking at what they see, what makes people question the information in front of them. Live theater gives art a place to breath but at the same time be as structured as another medium theater allows people to go to another lace in a more real setting then a movie, since it is live and unfiltered. 
My art is to inform and to question the information we are given. 
My art might not always tell the truth but it is up to you to decide what you would like to believe. My art relates to theater in the way in which what you see is what you get. There is no hiding behind the glory of editing. My art isn’t always defined by what medium it is categorized in, but what it means behind the material. It isn’t always user friendly but it never tries to be something it is not. My art might be something that one has seen before but just like a performance, it might have been done before, no scene is the same twice, no matter who is behind it.
KC.B

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Media 210 Journalism & Society - 9/5 Tabloids

 Media 210 Journalism & Society - 9/5 Tabloids

Similarity:
One similarity of the Daily news and the metro/AM NY is that they both are interested in getting the attention of the readers. making sure the most significant part of the story is easily viewed and said in the first part of the story.

All publications try and get the most shocking story on the front page, not necessarily the most important to humanity, but what readers want to see. 

Differences:
The differences between the metro/AM and daily/Post is that the AM/Metro are much shorter and cant give as much detail. they give the main gist of the story and move on. the Daily/Post are able to go in more deeply to the meat of the story.

Even though the AM and Metro are both short to the point tabloids, the metro seems to take on more international stories, while the am does stories that lean more towards gossip. the am also has much more advertisement, the daily/post also have a great amount of advertisements but with that much more page space to give.

Th Metro seems to also quote or use other publications in stories, such as TimeOut and the Times to get details or to feed off of

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Museum of the Moving Image


 Museum of the Moving Image

What I found really interesting at the beginning of the museum tour was the ideas people had  before cinema. Since I work in theater, i always take to heart when people recognize that theater was movies way before movies became anything. The idea to capture images were done with portraits and then camera, from pictures can flip books and then the actual capturing of moving images. and how the usage of capturing moving images were first used for science. which is how a lot of entertainment starts because science is where the money is. 
i really like the Charlie Chaplain flip book movie projector, i remember when I first learned about how these devises would be places all over a room and people would come see it, just like your own personal movie theater. 
I enjoyed the personal interactive  computers that showed all the jobs that come with a movie/television production. I feel like everyone wants to be an actor or a director. Students a lot of time don't know how many niches there are when it comes to production Ive been working as a stage manager for years and its really hard to explain when I do for a living. The stage manager for a set is similar to that in theater but a stage manager for a movie/television production is more technical based then theater. 
 What I also found that was interesting was the section where the evolution of cameras were displayed. i heard a lot about the VistaVision camera and how it was the main camera that was used int he 1950's. i noticed that starting in the 50s there were a lot more wide shots and scenery scenes. this was based on the evolution of the wide framed camera. It was neat to see this camera hands on since it was used for when Hollywood was at its peek and so many stars were made.
(VistaVision not seen in this picture.)



Below is the still frame movie I made with the interactive exhibit.... enjoy.
Still Movie: Done at the museum

A Website I Like: Santa Fe Opera

           The website i decided to do was the Santa Fe Opera website. I decided to apply for jobs in various Opera houses for this summer and this is one of the programs I wanted to work for. Over all the website looks very appealing, the pages have great stage shots of many of the past performances. The description of what the program is displayed on each page and is easily assessable.
the front page is nice and interactive, if you want a general idea of what the opera company entails, then it is pretty self explanatory.
          I really like the color scheme the website chooses. The deep red represents the rich culture involved in the company and it also represents the deep red dust that can be found in New Mexico, there the opera house is located. i like how a lot of the pictures are links to further information, making it nice and interactive visually. the pictures, when clicked give you more information about what is going on in the picture and even more information about other events that you might be interested in.  
          The one thing that was frustrating was it isn't too clear about how to get to the specific information needed to become employed with the opera company. to apply you have to find and print out the application, there is no other way to apply. the link to link navigation that is needed to get the application isn't seen without going through a few pages of mass text that doesn't really have to do with employment. It could be more clear on where to get there forms, it would be best if they were all int he same section instead of having to go through the different departments websites for each application and form. the employment form is in a completely different set of pages then the reference form, but you need both in order to apply for the company.

http://www.santafeopera.org

Monday, March 19, 2012

What I See Blog #2


This is an advertisement for a viewing at NYU. I thought t his poster was visually appealing because for the different elements it brings together in one poster. The information is put a long the side, which is different, then most posters you see that advertise art or showings. This makes to reader turn their head and pay more attention to the poster. Next to that is a Polaroid of a man. In advertisements the people that are shown usually attractive or appealing in which way. This man makes the viewer wonder why this poster chooses the picture that it does.
On the right of the poster there are symbols and examples of the art being shown.  This is about a man who is self taught in world many new Yorkers don’t see much of. The drawing on the right is those of this man that is being represented in this exhibit. I like the lines and patterns that the different drawing make in the grid they are arranged in. since there is limited amount of information about the drawings, it makes the viewer intrigued.
One thing I do not like about this poster is the large amount of small font that is shown under the Polaroid. It gives a lot of great information about the man that is being represented but at the same time not many people walking y are going to stop and read all of it. The information in this txt is very interesting and gives a small background about this mans life. If the designer of this poster cut up the information and edited it so it displayed more noticeably on this poster, people would be able to retain more of the information provided.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Blog #2: Surroundings

I work and live in places full of discarded creativity, there are props, collectibles and projects that creates art in my surroundings, whether it was meant for it or not. 

   HOME
This is on the outside of our front door. I pass by this guy everyday but every once and while ill see him and his message inspired me to keep it old school for a day. He reminds me not to rely on my electronics to think for me, take out my headphones and listen to my surrounds for once. He is hung in a small entry way outside so there is never any light on him, so I used flash on a close up, I was afraid of washing him out but it turned out pretty clear.


  WORK

I took this on my way to the prop studio I do work for, someone painted it on the side of scaffolding that seems to be a part of a construction sight that was abandoned and is not going to restart anytime soon. It is on 3rd street going east to Prospect Park; the street itself is what’s left of the industrial area of the neighborhood, an atmosphere slowly disintegrating in this neighborhood. It gives energy to a blank canvas of a street. I like this photo because of the shadows of the tree branches next to it. it makes the piece of art feel more that it is meant to be in the space it is in, in comparison to a piece of art that is just using a space for its canvas. It is about 10 feet above my head, which makes this shot a medium shot, I feel like a long shot would have lost the images impact and a close up wouldn't have done the picture its proper special justification. 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

2/20 in class: Empty


Photo Blog Post

I picked this photograph that i took of the last major show I stage managed. It sits with me because it was the last show that made a huge impact on me and made me grow professionally and personally. situations happened during this show that required me to overcome fears I know now I will never have again.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Artist Statement

Art is meant to be seen without filters, touch-ups or air brushing. Art is raw and it has to be the truth to what it is meant to shows. Art can be used to inform us about what we don’t want to see, such as a photograph that makes us uncomfortable or a sculpture of an imperfect body. I’m interested in what makes people feel like they shouldn’t be looking at what they see, what makes people question the information in front of them. Live theater gives art a place to breath but at the same time be as structured as another medium theater allows people to go to another lace in a more real setting then a movie, since it is live and unfiltered.
My art is to inform and to question the information we are given.
My art might not always tell the truth but it is up to you to decide what you would like to believe. My art relates to theater in the way in which what you see is what you get. There is no hiding behind the glory of editing. My art isn’t always defined by what medium it is categorized in, but what it means behind the material. It isn’t always user friendly but it never tries to be something it is not. My art might be something that one has seen before but just like a performance, it might have been done before, no scene is the same twice, no matter who is behind it.
KC.B