Smartphone App Photos – New York City

This week-end I was visiting friends in New York City and thought it would be a great time to take pictures using the smart phone apps.  The smart phone apps I used were Hipstamatic and Pro HDR.  Hipstamatic is an app which converts the pictures you take to seem “old school” as they put it.  The pictures are made to look as those taken by the old plastic toy cameras.  The five pictures below were taken in Queens and downtown New York City.

The pictures above were taken in Queens.  I photographed these two scenes in Queens because I felt as if the buildings complimented the style well.  The buildings and background taken in this picture are older and thus go with the theme of the app in my opinion.

This picture is a mid shot taken down in the New York Subway as the train is leaving.  I really liked the idea of the train in movement along with the USA flag stamped on the car. 

This was a random shot taken in a coffee shop in SoHo.  I took a wide shot of the espresso machines in the coffee shop with the app to give it an older look. 

This picture was taken in SoHo New York.  I took it as I was crossing the street to get a negative space shot of the buildings in the background.

For the next set of pictures I took I used the Pro HDR app.  This app converts pictures into full-resolution shots.  It is great to give your shots a high res vivid look.  Again, I used this app in New York City.

These two shots I took downtown New York and again I looked to achieve a negative space angle but this time using the Pro HDR app to enhance the images and bring out the colors displayed down the street. 

These two images I took down in the New York Harbour on the Hudson River.  The first image is of the sunset, the second image which is my favorite was taken of an older man who was walking down the pier by himself and happened to stop to observe the city.  I like this shot because it is as if it were a painting.

The last picture taken was also down at the harbor.  This picture is a close up shot of the American flag with the Freedom Tower in the background.  I chose to take a picture of the flag and leave space purposefully so that I could fit the Freedom Tower, I thought this shot was really symbolic of the United States.

Visual Review – Museum Visit

In the hall’s of the Smithsonian Museum of Art is a section of athlete portraits.  Among those portraits is an oil on canvas portrait of Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers in the history of boxing.  Painted by Henry C. Casselli Jr. in 1981 this portrait stood out among the others to me.  It could be due to the fact that I am a huge boxing fan, however I believe the painting caught my eye due to the fact that it is simple, detailed, and amazing in size.  

The painting is a portrait of Muhammad Ali stretching a pair of ropes with in some sort of training exercise.  The painting has a dark background with Ali being the only subject and contrasting the dark background.  Ali is painted wearing his traditional white trunks and with white hand wraps in place.  These two features help contrast Ali from the dark background.  Around the figure of Ali one can also notice a darker shade almost as it being a shadow or outline of his figure.  Ali’s expression in this painting is serious, focused and determined as if he is focusing on training.

Another interesting feature the artist uses in this painting is the use of a prop.  The prop in this painting are the ropes Ali is stretching out.  The ropes Ali stretches out are thin and white and almost resemble training bands or the boxing ring ropes.  The painter has Ali use the props in a way that allows the viewer to visualize how impressive Muhammad Ali’s reach was.  His long reach was known to be an incredible feature of his physique.  This pose also allows the viewer to see the size of Ali’s hands as they look massive.

Muhammad Ali will always be remembered as being a huge American Icon for his boxing abilities and his outspokenness.  Born Cassius Clay, he changed his name to Muhammad Ali after joining the Nation of Islam.  He was a strong anti Vietnam war advocate and was even arrested for being found guilty of draft evasion charges.  After being suspended from boxing, Ali brought his arrest case all the way to the Supreme Court and had it overturned.  After serving a four year ban from the sport Ali returned and regained his world heavyweight title.  Ali was famously known for his bitter rivalry with Joe Frazier and for being the first to defeat George Foreman, who at the time was thought to be unbeatable.  Shortly after his boxing career ended Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.  Many experts believe he developed this disease due to his brutal battles in the ring, specifically the trilogy he held with his bitterest rival Joe Frazier.

Quiz Photos

Unorganized Harmony

This is a photo of a painting in my apartment complex.  It represents unorganized harmony due to the fact that it is composed of all lines in different colors.  The colors are in no particular order however are all lines causing a harmony. 

Organized Harmony

I took this picture while shopping at the supermarket.  The neatness of the items stacked by brand and items stood out to me as being organized and harmonious.  I find this picture to represent organized harmony.

Chaos

This picture was taken in the SoHo district of New York.  That day it was a chaos of people as the street was filled with vendors selling all sorts of items.  I took this picture as I found it to represent a chaos of people in one street. 

Title Sequence – The Raging Bull

The Raging Bull by Martin Scorsese arguably has one of the best opening movie scenes in the history of film making. The movie was made in 1980 and is based off boxer Jake LaMotta’s memoir Raging Bull:My Story. Jake LaMotta was a self-destructive boxing legend surrounded by controversy in his personal life. The movie has gone on to be considered one of the best films ever made. Interestingly enough the movie is filmed completely in black and white.

The opening scene in the movie is approximately 2:30 minutes long. It is a wide shot in black and white of the boxing ring featuring the main character Robert De Niro shadow boxing in the corner. The sequence is accompanied by the theme Intermezzo from the Opera Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni. The theme song is significant because it fits perfectly with the scene. It is a classical song following Robert De Niro shadow boxing in slow motion.

The camera throughout the whole scene does not move and remains in a stationary position filming a wide shot of the ring. Robert De Niro throughout the scene is shadow boxing wearing his boxing hooded boxing robe with the hood over his head, covering his face adding mystery to the scene. Ultimately I get the feeling you are connecting with a boxer and not Robert De Niro specifically. The scene connects even more so with the audience by slowing down his movements and playing the classical music. Midway through the title sequence De Niro’s character approaches the close side of the ring but you are still unable to make out his face as he graciously continues pacing and shadowboxing.

The background of the scene is also faded out so that you can’t make out what is there and the focus remains on the ring and the character. The background is faded grey with the outline of figures ringside, and occasionally there are camera flashes from the crowd. Again, I believe this is done to portray the anticipation before a boxing match and to convey that once a boxer is in the ring before a fight, he is in there by himself and nobody at this point can help him. This is to say that nothing else matters but the boxer and the ring, which seems to be the case in this scene.

Ultimately this is one of my favorite movies, and by far my favorite opening scene. The music, the boxer’s slow motion movements, the black and grey filming, the smoky background, all add up to create an amazing opening to an incredible movie. I invite everybody to at least watch the first 3 minutes of this movie.

Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N4uXfnH2aA&feature=player_embedded

Movie Poster Review – SPY GAME

The movie Spy Game follows the story behind a CIA Spy named Tom Bishop and his recruiter Nathan, played by Brad Pitt and Robert Redford respectively.  Tom is Nathan’s best recruit ever, however they lose touch when Tom becomes tired of the agencies policies and Nathan interfering in his personal life.  Nathan is set to retire when he becomes aware that Tom has been caught for espionage in China.  The CIA did not have any official business in China and thus refuses to assist Tom and labels him as a rogue agent.  Nathan however feels responsible for Tom’s actions as he believes he played a role in Tom’s reason for being in China.  The movie unravels the history behind the two CIA agents and the bond they developed over the years.  The movie takes place in several different parts of the world and thus has quite an amazing amount of backdrops.

The movie poster for Spy Game features a picture of Robert Redford in the top left corner, and Brad Pitt in the bottom right corner.  These two images are the images which stand out the most in the movie poster.  They contrast the movie poster quite vividly given that their images are in color while the background is faded darker.  This was clearly done to highlight the two famous A-List actors featured in the movie.

The other striking feature on the movie poster is a red thick border which runs across it with the movie title and the name of the main actors in bold capital white letters.  Again this is clearly done so that the name of the movie stands out along with the names of the actors. The other contrasting feature is the quote “Heart Pounding!” by famous movie critic Joel Siegel of Good Morning America.

The last eye-catching features of the movie poster are the images selected for it.  In the top right hand corner a picture of a car on fire is used with Brad Pitt running away from it dressed up as a photographer.  Again here striking part is that there is an explosion in the engine bay of the vehicle pictured which is highlighted by a fire in bright orangish-red.  Brad Pitt also stands out as he is in vivid colors while the background is a smoky grey.

On the bottom left hand corner next to Brad Pitt’s face there is an image of Soldiers with their machine guns drawn and a helicopter with the blades in motion on what seems to be a military facility.  This image along with the image of Brad Pitt running away from the exploding car represent high intensity action along with military characteristics.

Overall the pictures of the two A-List actors, the action shot images, and the contrasting features along with the one movie quote from a respectable movie critic make this movie poster quite solid in my book.  It does a great job of incorporating all the important features of the film without being too much.  Luckily the movie backs up the great poster, in fact it is one of my favorite movies.

Picture Source: http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/105/MPW-52940

Video Scavenger Hunt

This is Brittany and I’s Video Scavenger Hunt Assignment. I videotaped Brittany’s ice skating training session this past week. All shots taken were staged, yet we tried to make it look believable. We chose to tape Brittany ice skating because it is an artistic sport and is visually appealing. The initial shot of Brittany skipping into the rink was fun to tape because I was simultaneously driving next to her and videotaping the scene we decided to create. For this shot angle, I dollied right and captured her moment of joy (don’t try this at home kids). Another humorous take was the tilt down shot of exhaustion. Brittany had just got done training, and we thought this would ideally depict her emotion after a tough session.

In the golf scenes, we were at the golf course with some friends. Doorie was practicing his putting, and we decided to place the camera at a low angle right behind the hole. This was able to capture Dorrie’s composure while putting the ball. While at the golf course, another friend by the name of Kyle was at the driving range practicing his long distance shots. We thought it would be cool to get a close up of the club striking the ball, highlighting the intensity of the action. To enhance the intensity of the swing, we kept the sound of the club hitting the ball.

To end the video, we set up to scenes that evoke two completely different emotions, anger then surprise. The first scene was shot from a high angle from the third floor of the SIS building starring the famous actors of Mohammed and Abdullah. Abdullah was “working” in his office on the second floor of SIS when Mohammed walked in and gave him some upsetting financial news. Abdullah then angrily reacts to the news by throwing his papers all over and kicking Mohammed out. The final shot is an extreme close up of CoCo Becker, one of the girls Brittany skates with. She made the perfect actress of a look of surprise because she has great facial expression that conveys believable emotion.

Luckily, we had some great shots, which allowed us to keep the original footage with little to no editing. We chose the song “Bittersweet Symphony” by the Verve because it fit well with our particular scenes. The lyrics also worked perfectly with emotions we were trying to convey in the different scenarios. Overall, we had a wonderful time creating this project!! We hope you enjoy watching it!

Film & Story Comparison

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rearwindowposter.jpg

“The Rear Window” By Alfred Hitchcock is based on the short story “It Had To Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich.  Thus there are quite a bit of similarities between the two.  “The Rear Window” is based on professional photographer Jeffries.  He broke his leg while doing a photo assignment and is stuck on a wheel chair in his tiny city apartment.  To pass time he views out his rear window which overlooks a courtyard surrounded by other apartment buildings.  In the story “It Had To Be Murder” the main character is named also Jeff and he too is confined to his apartment however his profession is not revealed.

The first notable difference between the two stories is the characters observed by Jeffries and the main character in “It Had To Be Murder” Jeff.   In the movie the characters observed are a young couple who has just moved in an adjacent apartment, an older lady, a lonely lady, a ballet dancer, a young professional man who enjoys playing the piano often, and a couple where the wife is ill in bed.  In the short story by Woolrich the characters are a young couple, a lonely widow lady with a baby, and a the couple with the ill wife.  In the movie, Jeffries has a female servant who nags on him for being a “peeping tom”.  In Woolrich’s story, the Jeff’s servant is a male named Sam.

When Jeffries begins observing out his window his servant accuses him of being a “peeping tom”.  At first he does not observe anything particular, just the same old daily routines.  Jeffries also has a very good looking girlfriend (Lisa) but he does not think they are compatible as they live two completely different lives.  He is a photographer accustomed to living in harsh conditions and dangerous assignments.  Lisa on the other hand is used to the high life in the city and living a life of glamour.  In the movie Lisa comes and visits him and treats him dinner and such, however he is actually bothered by this as he does not feel the relationship will last.  The servant pushes Jeffries to pay more attention to Lisa rather than his rear window.  In Woolrich’s story Jeff does not have a girlfriend.

In the movie, the story takes a turn one night while Jeffries is looking out his window.  He notices that the couple with the ill wife is acting differently.  The husband one night keeps entering and leaving his apartment into the wee hours of the night.  Jeffries remains observing the apartment until he ends up falling asleep in the early AM.  Once he awakens he realizes that he fell asleep and possibly missed something important.  He realizes the wife is no longer in the apartment.  Jeffries also notices that the husband is acting suspiciously, and is clearing his hand bag.  The hand bag contains knives and other suspicious objects.  In the movie Jeffries instantly becomes suspicious of wrong doing.

In the Woolrich story Jeff is observing out his window and he too notices unusual activity going on in the Thorwald residence.  He notices Thorwald is acting strangely, but brushes it off as him just being concerned for his ill wife.  In the story Thorwald is seen immediately packing a truck with women’s clothes.  In the movie it takes a bit to build up to that point.  In the movie Lisa also plays a large role.  At first she is concerned with Jeffries behavior and obsession with the Thorwald apartment, however after seeing for herself that odd things were occurring in the Thorwald apartment she becomes interested.

In the movie a police detective (Doyle) visits Jeffries and is asked to do some investigation by Jeffries.  In Woolrich’s story Jeff contacts him by phone and the two had not spoken in years.  In the movie the detective Doyle quickly becomes irritated by Jeffries as he believes he is wasting his time.  In the story the detective is more open to helping Jeff, but just wants more solid proof.

One Jeffries becomes more and more suspicious he sends Lisa to do investigative work at the Thorwald apartment.  In the Woolrich story Jeff sends Sam, his servant.  In both stories the characters go to the apartment and drop a note.  In both stories the main characters, Jeffries and Jeff respectively look for clues in the Thorwald’s expression.  However, this is not sufficient to get him locked up.  In the movie, Lisa enters the apartment and goes through the wife’s personal belongins.  She discovers the wedding ring is still in the apartment and keeps as proof that Thorwald murdered his wife.  The girlfriend is arrested as she is caught trespassing Thorwald’s apartment.

Thorwald in both stories discovers the main character has been spying on him all along and pays a visit.  In the movie Jeffries defends himself from Thorwald by a camera flash.  Thorwald proceeds to attack Jeffries and tries to throw him over the window.  At that same moment the police arrive and are able to subdue Thorwald, Jeffries drops to the courtyard as police try to catch him, he survives the jump.  Thorwald is arrested.  In Woolrich’s story Thorwald attempts to attack Jeff and then jumps into the courtyard to escape the police.  He is then shot dead by officer Boyne.  In “The Rear Window” Jeffries breaks his other leg and is seen rehabilitating with Lisa, who now has a found interest in Jeffrie’s work while in the Woolrich story it ends with Jeff taking his cast off.

Both stories are good, I personally enjoyed the movie more.  It had more characters, more mysteries to it, and found it to be much more interesting.  The story was a little confusing in some parts, and wasn’t very clear to me at times.  The movie was also short and always interesting, the filming was done from only one perspective, Jeffrie’s view out of the rear window.  This made you feel as if you were in the apartment observing with Jeffries.  All in all I really enjoyed the movie.

Commercial Review – Southwest Airlines

I did my commercial review on a Southwest Airlines commercial.  I chose Southwest Airlines because they always tend to have funny commercials.  The tag line they used for quite a bit was “Wanna get away?”  They would incorporate the tag line in their commercials by showing funny awkward moments where the actor would want to get away and they would follow it with their current special deals.

This commercial begins with a panoramic shot of two friends playing video games in their apartment.  The apartment looks very neat, with a flat screen TV mounted on the wall.  The set is also made to look as if it were night time.  This can be seen by the street lights coming in the window and the lamp being on.  The next scene focuses in on one of the actors.  In this scene the actor is explaining to his friend how to play this new baseball video game by using the controller as a bat.  To convey this, ball park music and a shot of the video game are showed on the TV as well as the actor swinging the controller as if it was a bat.  In this sequence the camera focuses on the TV to illustrate that the game is mimicking the character’s movements.

In the next scene the main character tells his friend to use the controller to throw him a pitch.  The friend not grasping the concept literally throws the controller at the TV.  During these sequences a panoramic shot switches from showing the characters, to showing the TV screen.     After the controller strikes and damages the TV, the camera focuses in on the characters faces as they look stunned.  The main character because he can’t believe his friend just threw the controller at the TV, and the friend because he obviously just damaged an expensive looking flat panel TV mounted on the wall.

In the next shot the camera switches its focus back on the broken TV, which detaches from the wall and then goes crashing down.  The camera tilts down to follow the TV’s crash to the floor.  The ad then switches to display the current specials from Southwest Airlines with a map in the background showing their routes across the country.  Overall I think this was a funny commercial which grabbed the viewer’s attention and was able to convey their message in a humorous manner.

Movie Review – Alien

The movie I chose to review is Alien directed by Ridley Scott.  The film stars Tom Skerrit, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto.  I chose this movie because Alien was the first of its kind in the horror sci-fi genre.  The movie is about a crew of 7 aboard a towing space craft named the Nostromo which is returning to earth with minerals aboard.  In transit the ship receives a transmission thus awakening the crew to go and assess the situation.    Upon receiving the signal, the crew is ordered that it needs to investigate the signal as it is there lawful duty to figure out whether this is a distress code.
The crew tracks the signal from a nearby planetoid.  Officer Ripley (Weaver) believes the code to be a warning signal and is reluctant in discovering the origin of the signal.  On orders from her superiors they investigate only to find an alien spacecraft with alien remains.  Executive officer Kane is attacked by an alien species which molds to his face.  Against Ripley’s orders Kane is brought on the ship without being quarantined.  The result is the spread of the Alien aboard the spacecraft causing havoc to the crew.
The crew must then fight off the Alien species off the ship.  While doing so Ripley discovers that the primary mission all along was to bring the alien species back to earth alive for research.  Science Officer Ash is more concerned about preserving the alien species then killing it and saving the crew.  Ripley also realizes that Ash is actually a robot and not a human.  Ripley along with the rest of the crew fight to kill the alien species, in the end Ripley is the only survivor left.  
The movie won an Academy Award for best visual effects.  Despite being shot in 1979, the movie has incredible visual effects.  The definition of the movie had to be ahead of its time as it still looks great today.  The majority of the movie except for the part where they visit the planetoid takes place aboard the Nostromo spaceship.  The camera tends to focus up close on the characters throughout the whole movie using a high definition shot.  
The movie is basically shot under two different lighting’s.  Aboard the ship it is usually very dark with dim lights showing the structure of a spaceship with wires and metal in the surroundings.  In the shots where they are in the control rooms, labs, or common rooms the background is white and very bright.  This is done to perceive a modern simple look.  The control room is composed of all illuminated buttons portraying a highly technological atmosphere.
When the Alien species is filmed, it is always filmed in the low light scenes such as the vents.  The Alien looks very detailed despite the low lighting, and this was probably done purposely to prevent any flaws from showing.  In the scene where engineer Parker goes looking for the cat, Jones, the camera focuses on his face to show his fearful expression as he reluctantly searches for the cat.  The movie does a good job of building up the scene by having the cat jump out of nowhere making the character jump back.  The scene is followed with Parker entering a dark room with water or rain pouring down.  The Alien ends up creeping down, and the cat’s expressions in the background let us viewers know that the Alien is in the room.  I thought the cat’s expressions in the scene were perfect.  At the conclusion of this scene Parker is killed by the Alien.
In other notable scenes, there is the camera which zooms in on Science Officer Ash after he is exposed as being a robot.  The crew attacks Ash after Ash attempted to kill Ripley.  In this scene where Ash is dismantled by Brett the crew engineer, the camera focuses in on Ash and the wires and goo which pour out of his head.  This scene again had to be the first of its kind in this era.  The camera and special effects in this scene have a decapitated Ash continue acting.  I thought it the effects looked good for even today.  
All in all although it seems that the camera angles and scenes were all shot the same, the quality and special effects used were remarkable for a movie made in 1979.  Even after 30 years the movie remains one of the best sci-fi movies ever.  This is largely due in part to the detail used in the background, special effects, and realistic like plot.  The movie does a good job of being as realistic as possible for being a sci-fi film.