NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcjRNOfvVgM
:40 to 1:55

No Country For Old Men is a violent and telling film about how badly men’s haircuts can get and what it can do to a man’s psyche. The scene I chose from the film offers a significant number of film techniques to showcase suspense. In the moments leading up to the scene the viewer sees Sheriff Bell contemplating entering the building, knowing the killer could be in there as he sees the key hole blown out, a signature of the criminal.  This contemplation is seen through a back and forth of look down and look up shots, from the key hole to Sheriff Bell’s face at a medium shot. There is then a revealing cut, showing the killer Anton Chigurh waiting in the motel room ready to kill if he is caught, the viewer barely sees the killer but knows he is there lurking. Then next cut is to the keyhole form the perspective of Anton, all he sees is the lights of the car shining through. The scene cuts to a medium close up shot of the Sheriff who has made his decision on entering and then quickly cuts to the sheriff taking out his gun from the holster, making the viewer aware that he has intentions to kill if necessary. This shot is intriguing because the viewer sees both the sheriff doing this action and his shadow performing the same act, mirror shots and multi-layer action. It then cuts to the action and shadow but from a front and side angle. This leads to the establishing shot of the scene, Sheriff Bell enters the motel room and the backlight of his car creates a silhouette, as he stands in the door, surveying the area. Sheriff Bell takes a step into the motel room, so his silhouette moves as well and the camera cuts to a medium close up of Sheriff Bell. Camera pans with Sheriff Bell as he views the room after first entering, at the same time we see the sheriff’s shadow. The camera is interestingly enough panning horizontally but at downward slope, seeing what the sheriff is seeing which is where the light is hitting.  Sheriff Bell has viewed the rom, we get a medium close up of his reaction to what he sees. The shot cuts from Sheriff Bell to see what he is staring at, the camera is cut to a look at/look down shot to a pool of blood in the carpet leading the viewer to assume someone is gravely hurt. This shot of the Sheriffs feet and the pool of blood is a low camera height and reveal. The camera then cuts to a Locked Down Shot, the camera is steadily focused on this scene but the Sheriff is walking out of the shot going into a different shot. The viewer at this point knows the Sheriff is in danger and thus frustration is built because the Sheriff is leaving the scene and the viewer cannot guarantee or even witness his safety. The camera does not cut at this point, but there is a Fill, Reveal, Frame shot in which the viewer sees Sheriff Bell moving into another door but as he does his shadow and body is obscured by the darkness. Perhaps one of the most significant attributes of this scene is the lack of sound. There is no sound to emulate suspense. The tension the viewer feels is due to lack of sound and the realism that it entails. The viewer hears the same thing that the Sheriff hears and that the criminal hears, which creates enough tension, there is no need for artificial sounds to make you feel something. The snippets of sound that are heard are of the gun leaving the holster, and the creaking of the door as the sheriff opens it, awry noises that build up the intensity. What this scene in No Country For Old Men does best is build tension, and emotionally invest the viewer. Through the dramatic cutaways, the lack of sound, the different shots, the viewer understands that the Sheriff is risking his life and until the end you do not know if he will make it out. 

IONA SENIOR SERVICE FINAL

My initial approach to the client design exercise was always a flyer because it is a simple medium that gets right to the point. The flyer is meant to display the information the client wants to advertise, while being eye catching, and something worth continuing to look at. Iona Senior Services is a non profit that has a clear goal in mind, to cater to the needs of the baby boomers, the color scheme is similar to provide simplicity. The single image serves to show the age group and emotions felt by those who have traveled through Iona’s doors. I do believe that this draft could be expanded into a Final Project, a flyer may be seen as an overdone medium or outplayed, but it does its job. The flyer fulfills Iona’s need to focus on the Take Charge Age Well Academy, and to update its market ad/flyer approach. It looks modern because of its simplicity. There is no necessity for a dark or neon color, an obnoxious background, or many graphics. I would improve the alignment because as of now it is mostly right aligned but I need to see if a fully centered alignment would work. I am unsure as to whether or not the pattern at the bottom of the flyer works to being playful or takes away from the seriousness of the program. I believe the flyer gives off a calm and relaxed feeling much like what TCAWA aims to due with senior citizens. Overall I think the flyer works to fulfill its purpose.  

HAIR FINAL

The trait that I would argue segregates people most next to skin tone. Hair in my country is what defines a woman, in the Dominican Republic everyone has big hips, but not everyone has "beautiful" hair. I have been going to the salon since what I believe to be out of the womb, once a week for two hours, I let someone terrorize my scalp. I am 18 years old, and I have gone since I was 10, that is 8 years, 2 hours a week, 52 weeks out of the year, which means I have spent 832 hours of my life in a salon. Count in how much it costs, $25 a visit, so 10,400 so far, on my hair. I would like to say that this was a forced activity on the part of my mother, who did not want to walk around with a child with a birds nest on her head, but at some point, I was the one asking to go to the salon. Why do we look at someone and expect a certain type of hair? Why do we then judge them based on their hair? If I saw someone with bright blue hair, I probably would think they are less responsible than someone with normal brown hair, this is coming from someone with purple tips. Why is it that hair is a tool for judgment, an indicator of race, indicative of someone’s professionalism? In the photos I took I aim to explore to hair, and how sometimes the hair does not match the person or the expectations we have for their hair.

Justice and Cleansing in Iran ~ 1980 Pulitzer Prize, Spot News Photography, Jahangir Razmi of Ettela'at, Iran

The photo above received the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 given to an unknown photographer, to me it depicts the stages of life. The victims are in varying positions, some are dead as they have hit the ground, some are just being shot, and some men are awaiting their death. The moment being captured is of religious persecution, an idea that continues to plague humanity.

                My favorite part of this photo, is the fighter that becomes the center of the photo and creates the line that goes through the center of the photo. He stands out being the last shooter in the line, the only one not wearing a head piece of some sort, and his gun is very clearly seen and standing out. Yet he is not the focal point of the photo, it is too strong of a message and photo for that to be true. The horizontal lines of the guns to the victim, lead your eye to the victim. There are the two most obvious lines, the line of victims and killers.

                The tone of the photograph is very balanced. The upper right of the photograph has more luminosity than other areas but it is not the brightest, and it does not automatically catch the eyes. There is a balance between dark and light areas within the photograph. There is no color in the photograph, the black does not have brown undertones, and it is gives off a muddled gray. There is not zoomed in texture in the photograph, however the sand in motion gives the viewer an idea of the action taking place, the dry area, and the texture of the sand. The most deceiving part of the photograph is the background, the mountains and terrain seem as if they can be beautiful, but in the photo they simply serve as the background to death.  The angle of view is excellent in this photo because the viewer sees both lines, yet the photo’s angle is skewed so the viewer perception is almost that of the rightmost gunmen. The row of victims and gunman serves as the repetition in the photograph, yet the stances of the gunman and stages of death that the victims are in serves as a reminder of individuality. The victim that is standing straight, has yet to be shot, but his death is pending and the gunman looks ready to delve out the punishment.

                The most important aspect of the photos is the lives being taken away within it, the photo’s purpose is to show the gruesome death of individuals at the hands of social, political, and religious injustice. The photo Firing Squad in Iran, was taken on August 27, 1979 and published anonymously for fear of punishment, in the Iranian daily newspaper Ettela’at. The photo circulated and appeared in newspapers around the world. The victims in the photo are Kurdish militants, charged with murder and inciting riots, they were sentenced to death. The photo is depicting the turbulent times Iran faced during Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution, when he imposed Shiite Muslim beliefs on the country, attempting to remove Western influence. The rejection of Khomeni’s beliefs and rule came from the country’s millions of Sunni Muslims. In turn Khomeni send his revolutionary guard to slaughter Sunni Muslims, his very of justice and trials.

                This photo is what photojournalism should be, capturing a moment that truly conveys a message. It is meant to make the viewer see, understand, and make them a little angry, this photo does just that.

                

Photo Scavenger Hunt

1 X

2 U

3L

4 H

5 Y

7 C

8 I

9 Z

10 M

11 K

12 D

13 T

14 V

15 S

16 A

17 O

18 F

19J

20 P

21 E

22 N

23 R

24 B

25 W

26 G