Use of Well Known Songs

I was walking back to the top of campus alone from the TV studio. I was scanning the campus in an almost paranoid fashion. It was cold, there was no one outside, and I could almost merge into the quiet, it was surreal.

The Simon and Garfunkel song "Sound of Silence" came into my head. But like I often find myself doing I was free styling it after the first two lines and the song transformed. It became darker, more creepy, and could fit into a trailer for a horror story. I see how the song would be mixed in my head and it would be awesome.

Anyways I started thinking about this and how movies have done this before and how effective it can be. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo directed by David Fincher used a creepy remix of "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin in the movie trailer and set a mood prior to even watching the movie. Horror movies often use nursery rhymes or innocent sounding or popular songs to creep out the audience.

I found this to be really cool because it's such a simple concept. I also found it to be rather funny because I am using this idea in the "Happy Birthday" short with the song Happy Birthday.

Film Racing Grand Prix

As we mentioned in class one day there are racing to get films done in 24 hours given props, prompts, themes, etcetera. A year ago I was watching short films on YouTube and came across one that I really liked. This one was done in 100 hours though.

"Gone Goodbye" by Keith Rivers Films, LLC is a really clever and powerful piece. If I had been told that from start to finish this was done in 100 hours I would not believe it, despite knowing that Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin was written in an absurdly short amount of time as well.

Considering the prop was a balloon and the theme was privacy, the story was just about the best possible. It was out of the box, deep and intelligently written. From the point of view of a balloon narrating a message tied to it, there are numerous metaphors that make you want to BURST out laughing.

The aerial cinematography was stunning, full of gorgeous images. One of the other main strengths was the location. Location, location, location. It fit the privacy theme and it was on a beautiful lake which I've seen other shorts done, there's something magic about that location.

I would go as far as saying it's a masterpiece. This is one of the things I hope everyone would check out because you can learn a lot from it, no matter how much experience you have.