Scores

Jordan Brown Leave a comment

Some of the most famous songs across the world are not pop songs, or classics from the 80’s, but the film scores to some of the most popular movies around the world.  Film scores help to create a feeling for the movie and they add another level of emotion for the audience. One of the most successful film scorist is John Williams. Some of William’s most famous work is the scoring for Superman, ET, Jurassic Park, Jaws, and Star Wars.  These tunes are things that most people can recognize and hum along to after hearing just 3 or 4 seconds from the songs.

John Williams has been writing film scores for many years and in many different genres.  He knows how to evoke audience emotion with only music. Most, if not all, of his scores do not have words.  An example of the emotion that the audience can gather about a character from the scores is the Imperial March from Star Wars.  The Imperial March is what plays every time Darth Vader steps on to the screen, or is about to appear on screen. This composition is very deep, letting the audience know that the character that they are about to see is intimidating and powerful.  It also gives the audience a clue that he is a villain because the music is very dark.

Scores of movies are not only used to add another dimension to a character, but to address the overall feeling of the movie.  The scores for fun and action packed movies like to Star Wars, Superman, or Jurassic Park were designed to make the audience have fun.  The opening composition in Star Wars is an upbeat and exciting song that make the audience giddy to watch the movie and see what is in store.

John Williams also worked on the scores for very serious films like the Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and the Book Thief.  These movies the goal of the music was to show the seriousness and intensity of the film. In the Schindler’s List, and the Book Thief, the goal is also to show the fear of the people who went through the experiences shown in the movies.  These movies were not to have a fun and light atmosphere to gear audiences for a fun couple of hours.

Lastly, the scores of movies can be used to emphasize a situation that the characters are in.  Even in a fun movie, a specific composition can be lower and darker if the situation that the characters face is intimidating.  On the other side, if the situation is fun, then the composition is bright and exciting. An example of this is the action scenes in the Indiana Jones movies.  These scenes are a little intense, but are more so fun for the audience to watch, and the composition reflects that with exciting music playing in the background to tell the audience not to worry too much about the character.

Scores of movies help to tell the story and the feeling of the movie itself.  They help the audience to know what to feel and can help to enhance their original feelings toward the movie, character, or scene.  One of the most famous and successful score writer is John Williams. Williams has done all of these things throughout his long and diverse career with films like Harry Potter, Home Alone, the BFG, and Catch Me if You Can.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival

vle Leave a comment

Last night, I went to the Out Night screening of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and it was such a unique experience. It was also endearing to see members of the Ann Arbor community come together to watch and participate in the film festival. I had never gone to the AAFF before, nor had I known that it is the oldest avant garde and experimental film festival in North America. This year marks its 56th anniversary.

Out Night featured a collection of experimental short films with LGBTQ themes. For instance, the first film used stop motion and data collected from floppy disks to assemble a dizzying piece of AOL chat exchanges and homoerotic nude photos, presenting the online persona of a man named “jim.” Another film was shot as a music video and had two elderly women escape together from their boring “sitcersize” class. Overall, the films each had truly indescribable qualities, from using hand-drawn animation, to old footage from the 80’s, to a documentary approach, in order to create an individual piece of art. At the conclusion of the screening, audience members could vote on their favorites (or least favorites).

I walked away a little confused, but inspired. As an art student, I appreciated the hours of hard work that went into each film and the creativity it took to conceptualize that creative work. I realized that there were dozens of people involved in the making of the films, and countless people who helped put together the entire festival. If you haven’t been to the AAFF before, I strongly suggest you check out what’s happening and bring a friend! There are also afterparties and other events this week. Let yourself be inspired! https://www.aafilmfest.org/

Reasons to Love Black Panther

mceste Leave a comment

Recently, I had the opportunity to watch the movie Black Panther. I am an avid fan of all superhero movies, so I was especially excited to watch this one. I had already heard great reviews from my family and friends, and it truly did not disappoint. Here’s why:

1.) There’s a believable villain: in many superhero movies, the bad guy’s character is simply that: bad. There’s so backstory, no reason, he (or she) is just a bad person. However, in Black Panther, the antagonist gets a backstory that is fleshed out, believable, and humanizing. It was refreshing to see a villain portrayed as a human.

2.) The women. T’Challa might be king, but the women that surround him are equally as strong and powerful. From his sister and mom to his all-female squad of warriors, the women in Black Panther are not afraid to be confident. They are unapologetically excellent at what they do, and while they do fall in love and have lives, they are individual beings all on their own.

3.) The diversity. Seeing a movie with a cast made up of primarily people of color was so needed and so amazing. It’s said over and over again that it’s important to see more diversity on the silver screen, and its true. To see a superhero and his team as a group of people of color was very empowering.

Books to Movies

Jordan Brown Leave a comment

In the past ten years a trend in Hollywood has taken over blockbuster movies.  Studios love to make movie adaptations from popular books or comic books. The bigest and most popular has been superhero movies, both Marvel and DC, with adapting comic books into record breaking movies.  The audience for people who are going to see these movie adaptations are broken into two groups: people who have read the book/comic and people who haven’t.

The people who have previously read the book come into the theater with high expectations.  They have already pictured every aspect of the story and its world in their heads and are anxious to see how the big screen adapts it.  These people are more likely to be let down than the other group because unless you personally made the movie, it won’t be 100% like what you pictured in your head.  If fans of the book don’t like the movie than it could impact its sales as the movies reputation spreads by word of mouth. But no matter if the fans of the book like to movie or not, the movie is almost guaranteed to have a big opening weekend if the book has a big fan base.  People haven’t seen it yet to form their opinion, and generally people try to go into the movie with an open mind because they know that the movie won’t look exactly like what they are picturing in their head.

People who go to the movie but haven’t read the book are often less critical because they have nothing to compare it to.  The movie could generate positive word of mouth reviews from these fans if the movie was good but maybe didn’t follow along well to the book.  The problem that these viewers face is if they can fully follow the plot through the entire movie. Some movies assume that the audience at least has a small understanding of the plot or characters before walking into the theater leaving people who didn’t previously read the book with questions.

An example of movie adaptations that did well in the theaters with fans that read and didn’t read the books are the Marvel movies.  Now the movies have a three types of viewers: fans who have read the comics and seen all of the movies, fans who have not read the comics but have seen all the movies, and fans who only sporadically watch some of the movies.  An example of an adapted movie series that went poorly was the Divergent series. The fan base that read the books were disappointed in the movies portrayals, and it didn’t gain any new fans that did not read the books. The movies did so poorly that the third movie had only a tv release.

Movies that are adapted from books are almost guaranteed to have a big opening weekend and then the feeling that the first couple audiences have will determine the success of the movies.  The popularity of the movie also depends on how much it relies on its audience knowing the plot of the book beforehand, the more the audience needs to know about the movie before it starts, generally the worse the movie will do.

The Humanity of AI

Monica Sloan Leave a comment

Recently I read the book The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel Wilson, which follows a girl named June, a post-grad specialist of ancient machinery, and Peter, the automaton who sweeps her up in his quest to stop another automaton who is bent on consuming all the anima, the spirit that keeps the automatons alive.

Though the book was mediocre, it had some very interesting thematic content, pondering over how we discover our purposes in life and what our life is worth if we don’t know how to pursue that purpose. However, there was a much subtler theme which I found more interesting: are robots who think and act exactly like humans, just as good as humans–and if so, are they better?

If automatons, robots, artificial intelligence, whatever name we give them, gain the same footing as humans in terms of perception, cognition, and whatever else that would make them more “human,”  would that make our two species interchangeable? If they can’t feel physical pain, does that make them better than us? What about emotional responses–if they can feel love and loss, does that make them our equals? If they can’t, are they our inferiors or superiors? Even some humans are incapable of feeling physical pain or experiencing emotions, so are these categories absolutely necessary when comparing humans and artificial intelligence? How do we place a value on things that make us human?

How do we decide what makes us human? When we can artificially craft those characteristics, does that make crafted being a human? If we can make working robotic ears, limbs, brains, where is the distinction between those and fully organic bodies? Can a being be 50% human, 50% robot? 25-75%? 1-99%? Is the 1-99% being still deserving of the dignity and respect we should give to all humans? Or is it a robot about which we need not feel remorse when we throw it out because its iOS is outdated? 

With our rapidly improving technology, we are racing closer toward perfecting AI each day. As our robots become more like us and we them, I wish I could say I had these answers. I wish I could say The Clockwork Dynasty helped me come up with a better solution. All I can do now is ask you these questions, spark discussion, and hope that we become more conscious of our humanity and how we value it as it comes time to be challenged.

James Jean: Making Movie Posters an Art Form

Maggie Abell Leave a comment

For the past few years, one of my favorite artists has been James Jean.  I discovered him on Instagram (as I do with a lot of creators), and was immediately mesmerized.  I am often attracted to painters that leave me wondering how on earth they have created their work, and Jean definitely left me in that state.  His work often consists of surreal, fantastical beings, landscapes, and creatures that are meticulously detailed and unlike anything I’ve seen before.

This past year Jean has done a lot of movie “posters”.  These are no average movie posters though. Each poster looks like it could stand alone as a piece of fine art.  He created art for Blade Runner: 2020, Mother!, and even best picture winner The Shape of Water.  I enjoyed all three of these movies from a visual standpoint, so it was amazing to see Jean’s take on them.  He incorporates his own style into these works in a way that does not take away from the feel of the movie and still lets his own vision shine through.  I absolutely love his posters for the movie Mother! (even more than the movie, actually).  While I didn’t particularly enjoy the movie itself, theres no denying it had a beautiful look to it, and Jean does a great job of encapsulating that.  They are both extremely interesting in the way they juxtapose beauty and eeriness that ties with the movie so well: Jennifer Lawerence looking angelic but holding her own heart in her hand, and Javier Bardem sitting calmly in a chair while being engulfed by flames.  My favorite of the poster pieces is the Blade Runner one.  With the movie alone being visually stunning, one would wonder how Jean could do anything more.  But, with his piece he does.  I love the way he takes a distinct scene from the movie that one could very easily recognize but does it with a bit of a different set up and color scheme, as a way to make it more “fine art” like.

Jean’s movie posters are extraordinary and something I wish we saw in more advertising material for films.  Posters these days are often trite and cliche. James Jean adds new depth and character to the mundane artwork of movie posters of today.

(Image from vanityfair.com)