Foundations Soundscapes Project

“The Big Idea”

My soundscape is the audio and foley for a mock scene in which a man enters his room, tries to draw out an idea, fails multiple times, and finally achieves his goal. In his many failed attempts, the man gets frustrated. Eventually, he pulls through and creates the art he wanted to create.

 

Description:  In the beginning, the man enters his room, takes off his back pack and retrieves a notebook from it. He then opens it, takes writing utensils from his desk, and starts drawing. Upset with his first several drawings, he rips them out, crumples them, and throws them away. After many attempts, he finally succeeds in drawing out his “big idea” and is thoroughly satisfied.

Evaluation: I would evaluated this scene as one in which the man’s anger is overpowered by his drive to accomplish his goal. After so many failures he could have given up and walked away, but he stayed committed and followed through. I think his perseverance is more powerful than his urge to quit.

Interpretation: I interpreted this scene as one in which the man becomes angry. The “montage” of the paper getting ripped out and crumpled shows his true anger. I think that with the last paper being ripped out but not crumpled shows that he finally accomplished his goal.

Relation: This scene reminds me of a scene from Wallace and Gromit A Grand Day Out. In the scene, Wallace goes into his basement to draw out plans for a spacecraft to go to the moon. He too, after several frustrating failures, finally comes up with a usable design.

Theorization: According to Freud psychoanalytic theory, if someone is hungry, they will picture food in their mind. I believe, while this man was trouble and almost quit, he pictured his final piece in his head. This driving force is powerful enough to accomplish goals. Freud also believed that much of human behavior was motivated by the life instincts and death instincts. For example, the man in this scene is driven to accomplish his goal by the want to achieve success for the pleasure of it and the fear of failure.

Foundations Montage Project

 

My project is my own take on the opening sequence for the british car show Top Gear. My friends and I were a bit ambitious last summer and tried to make an entire one hour episode with our own suburban twist. Unfortunately, all we ended up doing was shooting a lot of cool shots of cars driving and never finishing anything. So, once I learned that for this project you could use old footage, I had the idea of turning the old shots, plus the Top Gear theme song, into what would have been the opening sequence for our version of Top Gear. Side note: I included a side by side comparison at the end of my video of the two opening sequences just for comparison if you have not seen the original. I feel my project is self contained, but the extra knowledge could be add to the experience, I suppose.

I am going to try to critique myself without sounding pompous.

Description: This video stylistically combines original shots of cars driving with footage from an episode of Top Gear to recreate Top Gear’s opening sequence. It contains the song Jessica by The Allman Brothers Band and graphics of gears spinning from Top Gear. Multiple shots of cars driving quickly, turning hard, and following the camera car are shown on the screen at once in a geometric fashion. The aspect ratio of some shots are not the standard 16:9 but more squarish or even wider rectangles. The shots cut to the beat of the fast paced rock song.

Evaluation: As far as replicating the original opening sequence, I strayed a little from it. For most of the times when there are multiple shots on screen, I changed the geometric placement of my shots; however, the cuts for all of the shots are on the same beats in the music as they are in the original. Obviously, I shot all of the car shots, but I used the graphics of the gears spinning, the footage and voiceover of the description of the episode, the opening shot in the studio, and the song from the original sequence.

Interpretation: I interpreted this opening sequence as that being for a fast paced, down to earth, manly car show. The fast cuts imply the need for speed, and the grittiness of the shots (shakycam or fast camera movements) implies the realism of fast racing. The manly rock song is a beckoning to the good old day of hard rock and fast, loud muscle cars.

Relation: The relation of my video is clearly to the original Top Gear opening sequence. I tried to copy the style of showing multiple shots on the screen at once, but at the same time give it my own twist by switching the geometric placement of the multi-shot sequences.

Theorization: If I were to see this video for the first time without having made it, judging by the title I would guess that it was made for a show that had a great deal to do with cars. The name “Top Gear” even implies top speed because you need to be in your highest gear to go top speed. The show I would assume have something to do with driving quickly, aggressively, and loudly. However, the opening sequence does not give you the best idea of what the show is about completely, however I think this is true for most every show. There are too few seconds to explain too many minute facts.

Foundations Sequence, Time, & Space Project

My film is about a freshman’s struggle to start college. Going in with high hopes and a good spirit, he his quickly overwhelmed with work, and his inability to conquer the new tasks shows. Eventually, he finds new friends who help him back on his feet. With some studying, hard work, and laughs, he fights back and is able to live on his own at school effectively.

I employed several different techniques to tell the story. For the hall shots, the amount of light dictates the mood the student is in. Bright, well lit hallways make for a fun, energetic student. Conversely, pockets of darkness cause signs of weakness for the student. Another trick I used was to really focus on the facial expressions of the student. Ear to ear smiles fill the screen in moments of triumph while wider shots and turned faces are used in shots to convey doubt in the student. Finally, the color scheme of the film changes over the course of the students journey. At first, bright, inviting yellow toned images bring a sense of security and happiness to the student. But, when he starts to slip, low key, pale blue lighting is used to convey sadness and loss of drive.

Music: Dead Island Theme composed by Giles Lamb