Project No. 3

Alison Koybayashi: Say Something Bunny

Alison Kobayashi's work was definitely kind of confusing when i first heard about it. Initially i thought were were just going to listen to voice recordings for the entire lecture because I heard it was a sound based project. However upon looking at her Sofia Coppola-like films, I sensed that i was in for something quirky. And "quirky" is the best way to summarize Kobayashi's work, from the way that she explained how the recorded the sound, to how she discovered the history of her project, all to how it all came together!

She did go into how she pulled the project together, but I have much respect for Kobayashi as pulled "Say Something Bunny" from the bare minimum! She was very resourceful as she thrifted all or most of the clothing for the sketches that she did. Also, it must have been extremely tiring (and frankly annoying and maddening) to listen to audio again and again to individualize each one of her characters. Although the end product just looks like a small performance art sketch it is her process and determination that really elevates her work.

Speaking of process and determination, I don't really think its the editing or how she recorded the sound-what really stands out about "Say Something Bunny" is how she dedicated herself to uncovering history that one would find completely inane and boring. This dedication is marked by the seemingly crazy connections that she seems too pull out of the blue. For example, the grandfather in her story sang yankee doodle dandy towards the beginning of her story, and then she makes the connection to how he is the son of two immigrants actually making him a yankee doodle dandy! 

Overally, "Say Something Bunny" was just ok to me, but obviously has others that appreciate it more.

Blog Post Three: Editing Breakdown

Blog Post No.3
Black Swan (2010)- Attack it! vid

In this scene, Natalie Portman plays Nina who constantly strives to achieve perfection as not only the pure white swan, but the more dark and seductive black swan. The audience is first clued into the imbalance as the camera dizzily spins and twirls around her (in a medium close up shot that reveals Nina's battle to keep her grace) stating that the imbalance is not only unlike that of a professional ballerina, but also Nina's unstable mental state. The close up shot also reveals that she is tightly controlling her movements.  At 0:16, the camera cuts to the hawkeyed dance instructor who quickly makes note of how controlled Nina is with another medium close up shot. In this closed frame, the audience knows that he is in charge because the depth of field states that he is in the foreground and Nina is in the background. The dance instructor also follows Nina with with eyes and by bobbing his head slightly off time, as if he fails to see Nina's potential as the white swan, who he believed Nina was personality-wise. The camera is also very sturdy when he watches Nina, meaning that the audience can infer that he can see clearly and Nina cannot. The cut between Nina dancing and the dance instructor watching ultimately clues that audience into the power dynamics between that instructor and Nina as well. At 0:31 the camera cuts back to Nina in another mcu, looks down at the end of her performance which hints that she is not confident in herself, nor her as the white swan. And then from that shot, the camera quickly pans to the dance instructor again quickly walking into Nina's frame. There's no cut here, meaning that in this scene, the lack of lead room given to Nina originally in the frame means that the scene is framed openly, leading the instructor to barge in to her space, and as audiences seeing this, we can feel violated and almost fearful of what's to come. At 0:34, the camera cuts to Nina with a frightened look on her face which also means that we as the audience are supposed to match Nina's pov. As we cut back to the instructor using the 180 rule (ironic because the characters are framed along the line of action, but the power inequality is apparent) he literally almost dominates the entire frame in a close up shot. He takes up 2/3 of the frame (using the rule of thirds) and nina takes up one third.

Audio Project

https://soundcloud.com/user-886812544/audio-files

Blog Post #2: What I Hear

Extra Credit

Texture in sound refers to the temp melodic and harmonic materials are combined in a composition. When I walked in around in New York City, there were many keynotes that made up the background textures where i was. There was soft wind rustling through the trees, and the city bus tires crackling against the gravel.I feel that this was the most integral sound to New York City because it's the city that never sleeps. New York City is a city that always running, so hearing bus tires against the gravel would be odd not to hear. Oddly enough I can also hear a plane in the distance passing by. I didnt really hear any cars either, probably because the neighborhood i was walking around in has a lot of bus stops in the area. Luckily, I was walking past a bus stop, and subtlety over the hum of the engine you can hear the doors creak open, and some footsteps too. This was only when it was really quiet, and quiet never happens in NYC. To my specific neighborhood, you will always hear screaming children because my neighbors in my apartment building have a lot of really, really young children. But it's always heard through walls, so it's just muffled laughter or crying, or sometimes both. I feel that these are sound signal and foreground sounds to my neighbors because the sounds have been occuring ever since I moved in to the apartment.

To Singapore, with Love Extra Credit

Firstly, I want to give my condolences to the filmmaker Tan Pin Pin for having her work banned. ( I also think the mentioned that she had her work banned once before.) You can tell that she poured her heart and soul into making this, because it takes much dedication and planning to even find the subjects that she is going to interview. Although you don't hear her much in the film, she has put so much care into the questions in order to fully humanize her subjects.  For example, one of the subjects, one of the subjects that stuck out to me was a former doctor who was exiled to London. It must have been blood sweat and tears to become a female doctor, and it meant absolutely nothing to the Singaporean government. And on top of that her husband dies, and her husband dies, and all she's left with is his ashes. And on top of all of that, there's a whole painful history tucked into that short clip, and she doesn't even cry!  Then, I thought about the title. I think what Tan Pin Pin wanted to ultimately demonstrate that what happened to these subjects is a lesson to the current Singapore-that history doesn't have to repeat itself. 

Define A Space

DefineASpaceFINAL from Monet Hicks on Vimeo.