There are many people, places, and things that inspire me and motivate me to become more creative. Sometimes I have waves of creativity when all I want to do is originate something new. During these times I think my creativity comes from my environment at the time or the things I've recently seen or heard. I'm a fan of plenty of different kinds of media, but I'm not sure what the cause of my creativity is specifically. I'd like to think that my creativity comes from a collage of different artists and mediums. When I view media that I think is fascinating, I want to learn how to create it. I don't like to limit my interests, because my interests are always changing. I like to pay attention to new artists, film, and television. Here are a few examples of why I like certain media content using 3 of the 6 binary terms we learned in Media 203 lecture.
1) The movie American Psycho is a really interesting to movie to me. My eyes were glued to the entire movie the first time I watched it, not because I loved it, but because of how bold and ridiculous it was. I thought the characterization was done very well and the approach was done very differently than most of the movies that I had seen at that time. I saw this movie a few years ago, although it was released in 1991. This movie was probably the first time I dealt with unreliable narration, a way to achieve subtext. Patrick Bateman, the narrator and protagonist of American Psycho, tells us a very elaborate account of his serial killer lifestyle. Of course, towards the end of the movie it becomes clear to the audience that his point of view is not to be trusted. Although Bateman shows some signs of mental instability earlier on, it's hard to tell that he is unreliable. I love that the audience is active in this movie, and they get to analyze Bateman's character themselves, rather than the creators. Sorry if you have never seen this movie- SPOILER ALERT! I'm going to show you one of my favorite scenes. In this closing scene, Bateman approaches his lawyer after confessing all of his murders on an answering machine. It is in this scene where I realized that Bateman was definitely an unreliable narrator :
2) An example of a another kind of media that uses some of the binary terms we used in lecture is the song "Again and Again" By The Bird and The Bee. In the beginning of this song I feel like the music is in a very minor key and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I like listening to this song when I'm drawing or writing, and I think it's great background music. The reason it's so great to me is because this band uses Tension & Release in a really unique fashion. The tension is brought up throughout the song within the verses and creates a constant pull between it and the release. The sound of the notes are mainly what creates the tension, rather than the rhythm or rests. The lyrics also help transition between the tension and the release. Although during the verses the singer says "it's a shame, it's a shame, it's a perfect shame, creep under my door and we do it again." During the chorus she says otherwise, and sounds like she doesn't think it's a shame at all.
3) My third and last example of media that inspires me to be creative is the ENTIRE series of The Chronicles of Narnia. I think this series, both the books and the movies, are extremely entertaining and well done. I like the Metaphors & Symbolism that are scattered throughout the stories and I like how the author, C.S. Lewis, incorporates his religious beliefs and overall theology into a seemingly unrelated narrative. There is Symbolism behind every character, and most importantly, the character Aslan represents Jesus Christ. Not only do all the people, objects and events in the story seem to have symbolic meanings, but the plot seems to portray the history, fall, and unfolding of the world as well. In my opinion, we all start out in an innocent world oblivious to the real picture of what is going on, unless we take a step of faith into "the wardrobe" that is Jesus Christ, revealing the kingdom of God.
I write these comments for bonus blog assignments. I hope you don't mind :) I like the song "Again and Again". I think the melody, temple, lyrics are all simple but the organization and tension&release still so obviously. The artist uses complex timbre to build tension and make timbre back to simple to release.
ReplyDeleteCool choice with American Psycho. The portrayal of Bateman by Christian Bale is pretty spot on throughout that film, and he really does transform over the course of the film from really contained to almost comically psychotic by the end. The novel really delves into his mind more than what could be done in the film, and gets very, very intense and creepy.
ReplyDeleteThe song I enjoyed in the beginning, but seemed to get a bit too poppy for my tastes. I'm guessing that's what you liked about it too, so to each his/her own.
For the Narnia series, I read the Lion the Witch and Wardrobe at a really young age, and seem to remember it being quite a dark and gloomy tale, and I never really picked up on much of symbolism then. It wasn't until I saw the movie much later, presented as a bright and colorful PG Lord of the Rings that I really caught onto all the archetypes.