Final Blog post Kherington Payne - Black & Gold (Fame)

Final Blog-"Fame" black and gold dance scene

For my final blog, I chose a dance scene from the movie “Fame”. It starts off by a shot of the fan pans its way through to view a picture frame of the dance choreographer and a famous dancer. Then it cuts to a scene of the dance choreographer putting a folder to the side and looking at a promising student. There is no dialogue but a smile from both the dance choreographer and the student. It later cuts to a close up shot of a stereo machine and someone turning on the music. A next sequence is shown of the choreographer telling the student about the recommendation he asked for her to write for him.  Then after the student’s answer, background music of Sam Sparro’s “Black and Gold” plays out. Once the cello starts playing, the choreographer gives the student a blunt answer stating that she can’t write him a recommendation. The next sequence features a dancer and a close up of her hands wrapping around a bar. There is depth of field where the posture of the dancer is focused on. There is a parallel editing technique where we see the dancers preparing a dance routine as the dance choreographer’s voice over narration is playing. The voice over narration goes on about accepting some students where they have what it takes to be a dancer and some who doesn’t improve within time. As it is crosscutting to the scene at her office and the dance studio, we encounter another dancer who is dedicated in her dance routine. This shows the opposite from the guy in the office from the girl dancing at the dance studio. The dance choreographer does a voice-over narration as the girl dancer is practicing her routine in the dance studio. As the audience, compared to the guy in the office, this dancer in the studio is known to be a promising studio who will get far with her dancing career unlike the guy from the office. Some of the shots from the dance routine do a lot of close-up shots to emphasize the feel of the dance and the emotion brought within. Also there are manly facial and body close-up to show the rhythmic of the beat of the music. Towards the end, once the dance choreographer tells the boy he would never be a professional dancer but make a wonderful teacher, we see a close up of the boy’s face as his eyes look up with disbelief at his dance choreographer.

Extra Credit- Nam June Paik exhibition

Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot exhibition at the Asia Society museum was very eye opening and interesting.  The robot that Paik constructed and tested out in Park ave was unique. There was a video of the robot moving around in the city and then a car crashed into it. The robot, Robot K-456 was the beginning of the involvement of technology. There was also the bra video camera for the cellist to make sex culture more acceptable. I feel as if Nam June Paik’s art work of the video bra and the use of TV robots show that in the future, robots and technology would be powerful enough to control the world. When Paik was born, he was born into a generation of no television or technology. However, what he created of the bra camera and the Robot K-456 and the family robots is a work of art where the use of all these household inventions would now be applied in the future.

What caught my eye was when I was reading the timeline of inventions made; Paik came up with a similar invention similar to the Google glass. I remember it was a movie glass or some glasses with visual playing. Also before Sony offered Paik a portable video/audio recording device, he had an invention where the device did record image and audio at the same time. I find it interesting how Paik thought of an idea that is now invented in today’s world just recently. Also the portapak of the video and audio recorder is a reminder that Paik was aware of all the inventions and with these he was able to come up with more ideas of the bra camera and the TV robot family. 

My final project

Museum of moving Image-response

The Museum of Moving Images was very entertaining. What I liked most in the museum was the different costumes, makeups, and props that were featured in the movies I saw. There were different masks and props that were displayed, like the mask from the film called The Mask with Jim Carrey. Another display I found interesting was the makeup figure Robin Williams had on for Mrs. Doubtfire. I also enjoyed all the cartoons that were shown in the museum ranging from bugs bunny to the road runner. It was interesting to see how a drawing was created into an animation. I was also excited about the various records on display. They had most of the iconic records from the movie Grease and Fame. It was fascinating to see how the technology they used back then has now involved into developing digitally. Another cool part of the museum was making the flipbook. My friend and I would pose for shots and then once we took those shots, we saw how our shots became moving images. I also got to try the Foley to give the movie Terminator different sound effects for a scene in the film. I was also lucky enough to catch some parts of the screening of the Korean horror film, Epitaph. It was about a young doctor falling in love with a corpse. It was disturbing because of the suspenseful scenes. Overall, I had a great time at the museum; I’ve been to the museum several times in my life but I was surprised to see how newly developed it looked. It had many more elements ranging from the different historical time periods of cinematography and film.

Bermuda and Birthdays

What I Hear- Lafayette Street, Williston Park, NY

I did a sound walk in my neighborhood because I didn’t want to do a cliché location in the city with the taxicabs honking and the cars honking. Instead, I chose a location near my house because I knew that it was quiet neighborhood, thus making me really focus and listen to the sounds near me.  

            At first, I thought to myself that it’ll be a challenge to do a sound walk in my neighborhood because long island is fairly quiet. But as I began to walk around my neighborhood, I felt a rhythm of sounds. First, I would hear the birds chirping, the leaves crawling, and then a car smoothly driving down the street. Then the same sounds will repeat and it sounded almost poetic. I also can hear the wind singing in a way and the scraping noise of the leaves crawling. I would also hear the sound of a person walking her dog. Her footsteps and the sound of the dog’s chain will intertwine, making a clicking sound, almost like the sound of seashells clacking onto one another. Those keynotes also tied in with the sound of my boots kissing the ground and the sniffling of my nose. It would happen musically; the background sound will be the leaves and the birds, and the car. It creates a rhythm, somewhat like a tune creating some kind of melody of the wind singing the chorus, and the sounds of branches waving.

Overall, I felt that the sound walk calmed me down. It was very therapeutic and soothing. Listening to the sound of nature instead of heavy music gives me a clear mind to think and rejuvenate.