I decided to analyze the editing structure of the diner scene in Goodfellas. Last year, in the documentary we watched on filming they talked about this particular scene. The scenes starts off with a wide shot of the restaurant and a moving camera coming into the restaurant and spotting James. While the camera is moving into the restaurant you see the customers restaurant and interior of the restaurant. The listener hears Henry speak in voice over. The viewer because he cannot see Henry and listens to the dialect instantly understands the voiceover is of course Henry's inner thoughts. When James is spot a cut happens and you see James and Henry hug. Within seconds another cut happens and you see the two of them sitting across from each other at a table in the restaurant. After, they are sitting you continue to hear Henry's thoughts through a voice over but at this point you are drawn to the actions in the shot between the two characters and the specific movement of the camera the camera is almost pulling back but zooming in dramatizing the scene a bit and adding intensity to the situation. Then it cuts to a medium shot of James and a bit of dialect from him. After being in lecture I began to notcie particular things about a shot such as eye contact match which is prevalent in this shot between both the characters as the shots cut back and forth between the two as they are talking. I further noticed the idea of not breaking the 180 degree line. I had never edited before, but after beginning to use final cut pro it is so important to the piece to make sure that all of the se factors are in fact in line and on par or the piece just doesn't look right. After the cuts back and forth the camera zooms in on Jame's hand and you watch the camera than tilt up on to his face. The camera now is a extreme close up of Jame's face. At this point my favorite part of the scene happens the camera freezes on his face and you hear the voice over of Henry. I like this part because the words are now the most important part and what this particular character has asked him to do within inside the scene. Then it cuts to Henry's hand picking up what James just passed him and then the camera tilts up to his face as he lights a cigarette and then the camera freezes on his face and you continue to hear the voice over. After the intense shots at an intense moment within inside the movie, the shot is then cut back to a wide angle shot of the two of them sitting at the table across from each other, and the camera moves back. Editing played a significant part in this scene.

Part 2 Media in the Digital Age

I am currently enrolled in the second part of Media in the Digital Age, and am really excited to pursue this course and further my knowledge in new age media. I found it quite interesting to actually study the type of user generated content that I interact with everyday. For example, the social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, I use everyday to keep in contact with my friends who I may not have talked to in years. In the case of Twitter it keeps me updated on my friends and role models such as Jay z or John Mayer. On facebook I am able to communicate with my friends from all over the globe, and keep update on whats happening in thier lives. Through Twitter I am able to follow people I admire and stay updated on events that are happening around town. Before, starting this course I didn't really think about how a site like this was made I just interacted within the site, but now I look at media on the internet in a different way.

I find it fascinating that our technology has advanced so much that we have the capability of communicating through networks all over the globe. The idea of video chatting with someone in China would never have been an imaginative thought ten years ago and now it's an everyday usage and function. Computers are sold now with built in cameras so video chatting is easily accessible. I was also really interested in the Second Life I had never heard of this site before class, and was blown away when researching more about the concept and graphics of this site. The fact that we can interact in a cyber world with other cyber creatures in this 3D dimension was fascinating and once again shows the evolution of our technology.

I really enjoy the new media because as a consumer, I can interact with the producers of these sites and upload my own media making myself a producer of work and media that another person might find interesting. Another amazing thing about new media is the knowledge you can gain from social knowledge to world news, its all accessible on a laptop if you are connected to a network, on this simple but complex machine we can access more information than any news paper film or person could possibly try to offer because we have access to anything we want. I look forward to learning how to create my own website form scrach and build a code to me that is another very interesting concept and the fact that programming is so key to the way we are able to interact fascinates me.

The knowledge

In the past couple of months I have had the opportunity to learn and work with media tools to better my knowledge on the filmmaking experience. I have really enjoyed learning about different filming techniques and everything from pre production to post production and what all that work entails. During the time I was taking these classes, I also was able to analyze films better and I better understood creative shots, and how those shots were achieved.
I recently began to analyze different Gus Van Sant films, and noticed his interesting and amazing technique.He has a real way of distinguishing a mood through different beautiful shots, and his shot, text and typography is all demonstrated through his work, in a personal and a unique style. I watched Finding Forrester, milk, Good Will Hunting and My Private Idaho, and recognized the genius of this man's style with every shot. I was able to recognize this with more maturity because of the information I gained from this classes I took on film at huter

soundwalk

I have the advantage of working in a restaurant where noise is always prevalent. I decided to analyze the sound that occurs in the restaurant because we seldom recognize it while working but the sound is everywhere. I was able to take a few moments off waitressing to analyze what sounds where going on around me that I never pay attention too. In the background I could hear a faint song, "I'm coming out" playing on the radio. I could also hear the bussers speaking to each other in spanish, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. In the background I could also make sounds of the ac and noise from the outside street. In the foreground I heard people asking waiters for ketchup, mustard etc. I also paid more attention to the demands the waiters were making to the kitchen, bar, etc and the questions asked by the waiters while serving to the cutomers. In the foreground you can also here the banging of different kitchen appliances the dropping of different types of glassware.
It was really interesting to analyze sound through this exercise because I also paid attention to the clinging of silverware, cups, the tapping of glasses, the stacking of trays. Before doing an experiment like this you tend not to allow yourself or ignore those sounds, but with hearing those sounds you understand why the restaurant is the way it is. Those types of sounds make the landmark all the more adjustible and you tend to take advantage of the situation.

design

Design is key for people to understand how objects, places,and things work. Design shows up everywhere in life, and we have become use to it and taken advantage of the design and graphic design. I am learning through my classes how graphic design came to be what it is in the present day, and it is remarkable. I also have know focused how much one can learn from a certain type of type and what that type means to the design and what the image and design are trying to portray.
My favorite design is graphic art by Keith Harring. Keith Harring is an artist but he is a graphic artist with a unique style that contributes to the design of his work. His work is simple done only by lines many of his features are colorful and his words in many of his works are done in large bubble letters. HIs work is very large as well. The design was laid out this way because many of his works were done in the subways or on different high building in New York City. He wanted a mass amount of people to see his works especially when they were in different areas were there was a mass amount of space. Many of his works were his own inner thoughts of humanity and people and you can usually always tell the meaning by his images and words.

What Do You SEE

Training Day is a suspenseful crime thriller. The story itself takes place in the city of California, but the movie takes place more or less in detective Alonzo’s black 1979 Monte Carlo. This movie is action packed, intense, and crime filled. Therefore, the picture most convey these adjectives. I have furthered my knowledge in the technical aspects of film by taking classes in film at Hunter College and have a better understanding of why shots are filmed certain ways and which shots evoke certain emotions. In the class we have been learning different elements of filming that have drastic affects on the meaning of the film and the picture all together. The amount of work that goes in to thirty seconds of a film is truly amazing. It takes many months of preproduction to figure out exactly the meaning the director wants out of the picture and the different shots that will best represent that meaning.

In Training Day the majority of the film was shot in extreme close-ups, close- ups, and medium shot close ups. The majority of shots were filmed with long lens’ to further the intensity of the shot by focusing solely on one actor or object and having the rest of the image out of focus. The reason I think the director and cinematographer decided to shoot the film in this way is because the film is intense and the story is dramatic. In shots that are extremely close up and focused solely on one thing you tend to feel the intensity of the moment due to the picture alone. Every single shot in the car was a close up and the majority of extreme close up shot were shot of Alonzo and Hoyt in the car having deep discussions that were key to understanding the different characters in the story. I decided to analyze the best I knew how Training Day. In the very first shot Hoyt was shot out of focus extremely close up and with hints of blue dark lighting. The shot continued with dark lighting and hints of blue and a continued to be shot with severally close ups. The beginning shots and several after where shot with long lenses. I knew that they were shot with long lenses because the background was extremely out of focus. A scene I found very interesting was the scene when Hoyt meets Alonzo in the restaurant. When they walked in, the scene seemed to be shot with a wide angle lens but quickly shifted back to the long lens. I found the angles at which the shots were being shot very interesting most of the shots where below eye- level except for in the restaurant. When the picture showed a shot of the two talking and not a close up of one or the other, it was shot at a high angle and with a wide angle lens. I feel the director decided to film that shot like that so you could feel the entrapment of his film by shooting down towards the actors and to give the audience a birds-eye view of the place at which they were meeting. The film was also shot at a high angle and with a wide angle lens when the car was being shown as they were driving in the city. I feel that the director decided to film the picture that way because it allowed the viewer to really get an idea of the city and it incorporated the city into the film.
Another scene I really enjoyed and found the cinematography very interesting was the scene that followed the first gun shooting. They are driving on the highway and the car is being shot driving at a high angle and shot with a wide angle lens then the shot shifts to the car scene where the shots are extreme close ups and close- ups on the actors faces. The shot shifts again to Hoyt pulling over and the composition of the shot is really nice because the car is in the left foreground part of the screen and, the background is the rest of the highway and a highway ramp that very nicely balances the picture. The shot then focuses back to the actors and is shot with a long lens at a bottom angle and as the intensity of the scenes drags on the camera slowly progresses to a normal eye level shot. The actors are again shot with extreme close up shots. Another shot I noticed was the shot in which they entered the house as they entered Alonzo’s home. He begins to kiss his wife. Then shot is shot with a wide angle lens and it shifts to a close up of her son with a long lens the background in which Hoyt is sitting is completely out of focus and then rack focus is used and shifts the focus to Hoyt. Rack focus is again used toward the end of the film when Hoyt had a gun to Alonzo the shot shows the gun and the street and everything else is out of focus and then rack focus occurs and the focus is shifted to the foreground in which a pack of KOOL cigarettes is focused on.

The film was amazing and I recommend everyone to go see the film. After reading this I hope you too will notice the little technical things I was able to pick up throughout the film as I watched it and further your knowledge on the aesthetics of filmmaking.

Mueseum of the Moving Image

The Museum of the Moving Image is located in Astoria, Queens adjacent to Kaufman Astoria Studios. The museum is a 2 story building filled with artifacts and technology that have to do with movies and the moving image dating back to the beginning idea of the motion picture. In the museum along with the different exhibits there are several hands-on demonstrations that help you to understand some different processes that take place to create a motion picture.
One demonstration that I found extremely interesting was the sound editing demonstration. It was a fun demonstration that has the experimenter enter a sound box. You are given a scene on the screen and you have to match your voice with the que's so that sound can be added to the motion picture. I found this process of motion picture editing interesting.
Many people think that when filming a movie the sound is being filmed along with the picture. This idea is false. The film aspect is strictly for the picture. In post production the actors are sent into a sound studio where the actor records their lines on audio tracks that are then synced along the film. In latter and recent films you can sometimes notice that the syncing wasn’t exactly accurate. However, video is different. In video the picture and the sound are being captured together. In the last five years the filming techniques for movies are changing and now most editors have adapted to digital editing. I highly recommend those who have the opportunity to check the Museum of the Moving Image out to check it out. It truly captures the essence of the movie making process.