Week 1/21

In discussing perpective, the first idea that comes into my head has to do with the different perspectives of film (subjective, objective, and bird's eye view). Filmmakers use different angles and point of views for different effects. A landscape or bird's-eye-view shot may be used as an establishing shot in a film to display the general location (city, train or cars, farm or city, etc.). An objective view makes the viewer feel like they are a part of the film with the actor speaking to them. A subjective view may be used at different angles (looking down upon or up to) with the characters in the film. Doing so can either give or take power away from the character and present them in an perspective the director wants you to see him/her as. This is very similar to the way an artist paints a picture in a desired perspective.
We have been discussing the realism of documentary films. It is impossible to completely portray history because a camera lense can only show so much. Modern technology can never fully reproduce a moment in time for a specific individual. For example, a documentary about the life of a tribe in Ecuador will only show parts of their life at a time as the director or cameraman see it. We will not have the ability to turn around to see what is behind the camera. We can try to back away and focus the lense on one family or part of the group, but the camera can not catch the total surroundings or feelings of the atmosphere there. A documentary can also be edited to fit the beliefs of the filmmaker; the film can only be so authentic.

Week of Jan. 28th

I was unable to see the film Paris Je T'aime, but I have seen it before in theaters. It was definitely different from what I expected, but it was a very unique way to represent different point of views of one city. There was a complete mixture of editing and filming techniques which made the film both aesthetically pleasing as well as disturbing depending on the parts of the movie. The abrupt change in types of film, like the change to the vampire clip, bothered me a little because it was quite different from the story before and after it. It would be like having a photography or painting exhibit with one piece from each artist placed next to each other in one enclosed room. We compare and contrast the pieces starting with color and size because that sticks out the most. With film, we compare the different film shorts by color and sound because that is what is more apparent with film.
Each film portrays different perspectives of Paris. We see the lives of people who live in Paris, people visiting Paris, and a mythological couple (vampires) in Paris. The combination of these varying stories represents the different types of cultural point of views of love, specifically in Paris.

Week of Feb. 4th

Andy Warhol is the name which I thought about as we discussed postmodernism and pop culture because his art was a combination of the two. His images of Marilyn Monroe take an already existing popular image of a star and give it new perspective. He did the same with store products. Advertising is a form of business which uses art as medium to sell a product or company name. Warhol takes the Campbell’s Soup can and uses different colors to display it. By taking an already existing image and putting a new look on it, we have different ways to look at an old image in a new way.
Even though collages are different, I believe they can have a similar effect. By taking images that exist in magazines or other photographs and combining them with each other, they create a new meaning. I have made collages before with teen magazines, and the final piece looks like images which or culture pushes us to look and act like. This is why the media is criticized for the ideal body appearance. The images of the ‘beautiful woman or man’ are pushed in our faces through advertising and other products which “will make us perfect.” The presentation of old images in a new form is a self-reflexive form of art which makes the viewer question what is beauty and art.