Montage

Montage is one of the most important factors in any video. It allows us to speed up or slow down time, and draw attention to certain details. Montage is supposed to stimulate our senses both visually and aurally. It can help to tell a story and it can really make a video interesting. The "Father" of this method is Sergei Eisenstein. Back in his day, a film was just one long shot with no cuts or edits. Sure, that was interesting and new and people were enthralled, but Sergei went and he made it better. He decided that a film didn't have to only be one shot, and thus, Montage was truly born. Sergei recognized that film could be so much more, that it could tell a story and give people feeling. Everything we know about movies now, and everything we see in movies now is stemming from what Sergei started. 

             I applied what I understand montage to be to something else that I love doing. Skating. 

                Montage can be used in all sorts of ways, but the way I feel like it works best is when a piece is led by audio and accompanied by visuals. So for us, music was what was leading our Montage. Music is useful in setting a mood and the visuals that go with it just add to that. The general idea was just to get the feeling of Brodom that goes along with skating. Longboarding embodies the free spirit, and through montage we tried to get people to have the feeling of freedom. The Tree in the video is the centerpiece of that symbolism.
                                             I would like to go back when the weather warms up and reshoot certain parts of the video because we excluded a lot of actual skating. This was mostly due to the fact that the temperature outside dropped to 7 degrees, and believe it or not that made it brutally uncomfortable to ride. There is more I want to do with this concept, because it was really interesting to shoot while riding or in the trunk of a car, and I'd really like to see what else we can do with that. As for the basic goal of this montage, I feel like we accomplished it. We wanted to make people feel essence of skating, and the free spiritedness and adventure that follows along with it. That tree will be adorned with boards again one day.

The Great Gatsby -a radical translation-

Before I begin, I will start with a brief rundown of "The Great Gatsby." Its a story of deceit, misconception, and vice, all during a time when that was just the norm. the roaring 20s. Alcohol prohibition. Industrialization. It was a difficult time in America. But also an extravagant one. The Great Gatsby is a highlight to the extravagance, and an exploration into the lives of the rich during the 20s. The book itself though is very challenging to comprehend and with not a lot of actual issues happening its hard to get into. Theres a many ways to radically translate Gatsby.

           The opening scenes of Radical Gatsby, would be of New York City in all of its glory. The gritty and the luxurious. The Valley of Ashes to Broadway. Instead of The original Gatsby being a side hand bootlegger dealing under the table, he is now a crime lord recognized by everyone from NYC to Massachusetts. The Great Gatsby. The most notorious crime boss of the age. Head of the coal companies mining around the city. All illegal product goes through him. Not one case of bootlegged alcohol gets into the city without his permission. All the competition fears him. Nobody dares attempt to bring him down due to his immense wealth and power. But what does he stand for? What is The Great Gatsby's purpose for all of it? The Beautiful Damsel Daisy Buchanan.  He knew her in their youth before he went off to the war. They were in love. In his absence she was swept away by another man. Tom Buchanan. She slowly moved on and forgot his name. She was disconnected from Gatsby by being engaged to Tom, and not getting out much after that. She knew him as James Gatz, and doesnt recognize the ever so popular Gatsby.
            Now we're brought to Nick Caraway, who arrives in NYC after his escapade in the war, and being frightened by the goings on in the west, he decides to transfer himself east. He finds himself in the bond business by day, and doing grunt work for the local mafia by night. Little does he know what he is getting himself into with this mafia. One day Nick goes to visit his cousin and his main connection in the city. She invited him to meet her and her husband at their house for dinner. He's very excited to see Daisy again. Nick gets swept into this new world of criminals and lies. When the Boss Gatsby finds out about Nick's relation to his secret lover Daisy, he sends for Nick. He is invited to one of the parties held at Gatsby's house. They are the center of the night life in the city. Everybody who is anybody shows up. The Boss requests that Nick invite Daisy to his home so he can surprise her. When it is revealed to her that The Great Gatsby, the menace of new york is her lover James Gatz from her youth she is overwhelmed and not sure how to even take it. She and Gatsby begin a secret affair behind Toms back. When he finds out, stuff gets real. During the showdown between the two gentleman Daisy gets torn between who to be with. The story leaves us off with a heartfelt feeling, on the edge of our seats wondering "what went wrong?" and "how can this be?" It has to have everyone wanting more, because thats just what being radical is.
               

The Tip of the Iceberg

It takes a talented mind to translate anything. Movie to film. Or vice versa. in the modern age, this is to me a common translation. Over the last decade classic works of literature have been adapted and readapted into their film versions. Some of them good. Some of them not so much.(Not "Life of Pi" or anything) All translations are unique, and one director could take an approach completely void from another. That is one of the beautiful things behind literature, film, and other works of art; everyone has a radically different perspective.

      Recently a modern film adaption to "The Great Gatsby" was released. I have been dissecting and analyzing this book in my english class since the first week of school. When reading Gatsby you have to think of it like an iceberg. F. Scott Fitzgerald relies so much on the reader being able to infer things about the characters without the passage directly informing you about them. You see whats on the surface of these characters or "the tip of the iceberg." After reading and re-reading the text, you find out much more about the characters that changes the meaning of the book altogether. I dig deep and try to see the rest of the iceberg before moving on. To give reference through examples of text, the main character Nick Carraway says 

                   "Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known." 

                     Reading this on the surface it makes Nick seem like a pretty honest guy correct? WRONG. With careful inspection of other areas throughout the book, and an examination of the text we can deduce that Nick Carraway is not actually an honest man. And that the rest of his iceberg is a compulsive liar. 

                 Now to relate this all back to film...Translating a book to movie can happen multiple ways. The translator could look only at the tip of the iceberg, and write an entire movie about people who only have the density of their first layer of skin, without really giving the characters virtues and vices, and heart and soul. The translator could instead dig as deep as possible into the literature, and they could discover that the author really did mean more by that sentence than what shows. They would then be able to take that and compose a story and build characters that have life. Characters that make you feel for their emotions. Their happiness, sadness, love, and pain. To make an amazing translation of text to film, the first step is to look beyond the tip of the iceberg.

           

"Love Creates Horror"

Of all the genres of movies, horror is my favorite. Not just like horror in general, but any amount of suspense, and tension. A classic film done in the genre is "The Shining," and if you have not seen it you probably should, it is a symbol of the genre. One of my all time favorite movies. Doctor Sleep the sequel to the original shining was just recently released in September. Steven King has this idea that "Love Creates Horror" and thats a valid statement. When I think about love and horror in their general sense, they seem very separate. And they are! love. and fear. they are very different emotions, but they are connected.
            Losing people you care about is one of the scariest things you can go through. If you are at the point when you would do anything to help them, or be with them, or whatever, then you are experiencing a type of fear like nothing else. Its like being on the very edge of the world, and you can just fall off. Thats the type of feeling that Stephen King is trying to get out of his readers. He's trying to make people care about his characters like they care about their loved ones, and to in turn be afraid for the characters and their experiences.
            Horror isnt only the gory and the gruesome. We feel it in the pit of our stomach. its in the deep dark, locked up parts of our minds. It is more than just emotion. Love is the same way. Both of them pull so much energy out of us, and cause so many different feelings throughout every part of your body. But monsters and zombies, getting their heads chopped off is still at least entertaining....

Book or Movie?

 Is the book always better than the movie? False. Seeing a story on a screen, is always a different experience than forming the images that you get from the book in your head. Some people may actually rather not have to go to the trouble of making the images themselves, and will prefer the movie. Even though the movie doesn't always get everything out of the book that the author originally had, it can still have certain elements that make it entertaining. Its hard to transfer some of the subtle nuances and meaning that parts of texts has into film.
           I feel like watching a movie and witnessing a dramatic moment or an emotional scene, is more effective than reading it. When you actually see what happens, and get to piece together the imagery and experience whats happening, its different than reading it and making up whats happening in your head. Thats what I like about reading though. You can read a book and make the scenes up in your mine, and form your own idea of what characters look like. When it comes down to reading the book or watching the movie. Do both!