These two images are stills taken from the Disney Pixar movie, Monsters Inc. For the color of these two images, the hue in the first, the colors are mostly shades of browns and beiges in the buildings. There is also blue in the sky as well blue, purple, and green in the monsters. There is a small amount of oranges and yellows in the leaves on the trees, the crosswalk sign and on the right side of the image. In the second image, the hues are different. The color in this image are mostly oranges, pinks, and purples. Except for Boo’s hair which is brown. The brightness in the first image is fairly bright because it is the daytime. In the second, it is not as bright, and is pretty dim because Boo is going to sleep. The saturation of both are pretty even. Both images are pretty equally full of color.
The shadows in the first show that the sun is right above the monsters, showing that it is sometime either in the late morning or early afternoon. The shadow in the second image show that the room is dimly lit and that it is time for bed for Boo. A humorous piece of symbolism in the first picture is located in the cross walk. Instead of it reading “don’t walk” the sign reads “don’t stalk.” There is no obvious symbolism in the second image. The mood of the first image is to be bright and make the audience feel as if they are in a metropolitan area. The area is a normal, everyday place and could be located anywhere. For the second image, the mood is supposed to be neutral. Boo is simply getting ready for bed and the mood that should be portrayed is a sleepy mood.
For the project of deconstructing songs, I wanted to contrast two songs by the same band. The first song is “Vegas Skies,” and the second is “Bad,” both by the Cab.
The first song, “Vegas Skies,” is a slow, pretty love song that has good intensity in the buildup durning the choruses of the song. This song also has a slower speed than the other. The organization is extremely traditional for most pop songs. The melody is mostly being carried out in the form of a piano riff that is played throughout the song. As well as the melody of the vocals.
The second song, “Bad,” is quicker tempo wise than “Vegas Skies” is. It is much more of a dance-y song. The intensity in this song is greater than the last because it is quicker paced and there is much more going on in the song instrumentally. The instrumentation in this song is also very traditional just like the last song.
The Cab is one of my favorite bands and picking a favorite between these two songs is literally one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. The first was one of the first songs I ever heard by this band. Also, at a music camp, I recorded my own version of the song which gives me a strong connection with that song. However, the second song is newer, which means that I have not heard it as much and still enjoy it every single time without getting sick of it, yet. It also is a single from this band which means that many other people connect with this song and talk to me about it all of the time. This makes me like it a lot because of others’ good reception to the song. I suppose if I absolutely had to pick a song, if it was a matter of life or death, I would go with “Vegas Skies.” This song to me just seems to encompass many feels that I have felt and I connect with it on a stronger level than I do with “Bad.”
Vegas Skies, The Cab
Listening Framework
Listening Phase 1 (Rhythm)
Tempo[slow, medium, fast]
slow
Source[where is the rhythm coming from?]
the steady notes that the piano is playing
Groove[describe how the personality of the rhythm]
melodic
Listening Phase 2 (Arrangement)
Instrumentation[which instruments drive the song?]
piano, drums, guitar, bass, tambourine
Structure/Organization[how is the song built? Order, patterns, etc.]
The video I chose, a scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
My script, created in Celtx, of the scene.
For the first topic of “Listening Modes” the sound in the clip that is known as “casual” means that it is literal sound. An example of this would be when Dobby was hitting his head against the dresser. For “semantic,” which is representational sounds, there were not any examples of this type of sound in this clip, but later on in the scene, when Dobby snaps his fingers and disappears, the sound that is played is an example of semantic sound.
Under the second category, the figure and ground means that the audience can tell the difference between the object and its surrounding area. This is definitely true in this clip because the characters have much emphasis on them and are moving around enough to see them clearly. For the “proximity and similarity” there were not many things that were supposed to be perceived as a group. But rather there was supposed to be a large contrast between the muggle world, and Dobby.
The third topic talks of “size, distance and perception.” The creators of this film wanted Harry’s room to appear small because of how the Dursleys’ treated him. To do this, they put large pieces of furniture around the small room. This also applies to the movement, there was not much because there was not room to do so.
In the fourth section, speed and loudness, is when Dobby talks slowly to give the impression that he is sort of like a child. Also, for subjective time, Dobby took many pauses as he spoke to make time feel different than when Harry would speak.
I chose the picture of the girl on the carousel as my first photo to edit. First, I straightened the image to make it less abstract. Then, I took down the saturation, upped the exposure slightly, and took the contrast way up. I did these things to make the picture seem more soft. Thirdly, I brought up the definition, shadows, and sharpness to add more personality to the photo.
For the second picture, I chose the man standing on the cliff. The first thing I did to this photo was "enhance" it. This brightened up the image slightly. Then, I boosted the color slightly to show off what colors were really being shown in the sky. I pulled up the red tones in the picture to make it seem as if the sky were much more pink because I think that pink is one of the more beautiful sky colors.
For the picture of the couple in orange, I also "enhanced" the color. Then I added an edge blur around the edges to make it seem like more of a "lovey-dovey" photo. Thirdly, I played around with the definition, shadows, and sharpness to make the photo even more lovely.
The game tells the story of Dante. Dante is a teenager who lives in the imaginary world of Limbo City. He is a teenager who is attacked frequently by demons who catch sight of him in one of the city’s security cameras. Limbo City is set in a normal universe until the demons pull Dante into a parallel universe when they try to kill him.
DmC: Devil May Cry is an action game. Dante, the player character, has many weapons, such
as swords and guns, that he can switch out throughout the fights, to help him defeat the demons
that have attacked him. Dante stays mostly in human form, although the player does have access
to his angel and demon powers. These powers are both accessible throughout the game. the
demon powers, however, are generally used by the player to defeat tougher enemies. These
special powers can add to the gameplay and help Dante’s attacks. Something that is included in the goals and objectives for DmC: Devil May Cry, is that Limbo Town’s structure changes multiple times throughout the game. This gives the player puzzles they must solve in order to advance on.
This game is not only Dante against the demons trying to destroy him, but it is literally him against the world. This is quite literal because the player often destroys much of the environment around him to complete what they must to move on in the game. Limbo City changes and transforms throughout as you play along. Its as if the world is growing around him and reacting to his presence. For example, the street may simply crumble beneath Dante leaving a large hold for him to fall into. This will not kill him, but simply provide him with another piece of Limbo City to explore.
I think this game looks like it would be fun to play. I am not a big gamer, but I do like these exploratory type games. In DmC: Devil May Cry, it would be fun to see how the creators of the game want different parts of Limbo City to react to Dante. For me, that would be the most fun part of the game. However, it would also be quite exciting when seemingly randomly, demons come out of nowhere to try to destroy you.
In Seth Godin’s “Brainwashed, seven ways to reinvent yourself,” Godin describes seven “levers” to reinvent yourself. One that he talks of that really spoke to me is “Connect.” In this section, Godin says that you should not keep track of what goes on online or on your social media sites. Everything is now changed because we can have easy and short interactions with people that we don’t know all that well. Another way to reinvent yourself is to “Make Art.” Art is described as something that we can all do that doesn’t follow instruction. Taking risks with our artwork can connect us to others and give us rewards. The key to all of the other six pillars is to “Learn.” This is an important path that we all must take to help us advance through life. Everything is always changing and nothing ever stays the same as it often would in the past. At some point in our lives we will all accept that we must throw away what we know and learn new things that will change everything.
The main point in Seth Godin’s piece is to inform his reader that it is completely possible to reinvent yourself. Now, if you care this much about what others think of you, you are human. If not, then you are lying. I found this article to be very interesting. I liked that the first thing Godin said was that we are NOT average. That we as people must create more and be more than just average to snap out of this way that we have been brainwashed since we were all small children. This blog that we must create will most likely NOT be followed by people that I know in my real life. This means that I am, as Godin suggests, reinventing myself for my new blog followers. This makes this blog very pertinent to my new identity that I will be reinventing.
When Godin talks of his “Connect” lever of his seven steps, he is focusing on social media. This means that he is referring to something just like this blog. As Godin suggests with the example of the Obama poster, I want to use this blog as a way to connect people with the same interests. Once we were isolated, and now we can all be connected.
“Make Art” is important to this blog because that is virtually the topic in which I chose to base my blog off of. Musical art to be more specific. People who make music are creating art in their own way. Art does not have to be paint on a canvas, pencil on a paper, or even a sculpture. What I love about art is that it IS so subjective and it can literally take any form as long as there is someone there to think it up first. This blog will cause me to think hard about many forms of art because of its topic. I believe that this will make me a better person thinking about various forms of art and sharing what I think with everyone that choses to follow my blog.
In his pillar “Learn,” Godin mostly talks of of how people must adapt now even more than ever before. He says how we are always in school and always learning. This relevant to my blog because I plan to tell people about things that they do not already know. Or at least things that they can learn something from.
