Nebraska is a 2013 comedy-drama, starring Saturday Night Live
alum, Will Forte, alongside Bruce Dern and June Squibb. The film originates in
Billings Montana, where Woody Grant (Dern) lives with his wife, Kate (Squibb). Woody, a 70+ year-old
man, is a well-intentioned and gullible character who, in the beginning of the
film has just embarked on a journey to Nebraska by foot, and only gets about a
mile before he is picked up by his son, David (Forte).
Woody, who is frazzled by this roadblock in his progress, insists that
he must continue on to Nebraska to collect a $1 million sweepstakes prize that
he has won. David, knowing that this is a scam, tries to explain this to no
avail. After much deliberation, David finally agrees to let Woody go on with
his journey, as long as they go together. The remainder of the movie consists
of their travels to Nebraska, as well as some roadblocks along the way, and
ultimately an unfortunate yet predictable ending, one that is laden with
disappointment.
One aspect of this film that made it so unique was that it was
entirely in black and white. This was an interesting choice, due to the fact
that it lent a sort of grim, deadening feeling to the story. The colors black
and white tend to be thought of as very ordinary, dull and even depressing. Perhaps
the use of black and white in the film was working to foreshadow the fact that
David and Woody’s journey would ultimately be a waste. Since the audience could
infer the outcome (that the contest would be a scam) even before David and Woody
traveled to Nebraska, the dull coloring acted in a way that caused us to take
pity on Woody and the gullibility he has in his old age. It definitely foreshadows
the huge disappointment that he is bound to come to terms with once he reaches Nebraska
with his son.
Before you say anything about the content of this video, you should probably watch it first. Watch it with the sound off if you hate techno that much...or turn it the f*** up if you want to jam out by yourself. This is the official Ultra 2013 after movie which only exists to remind you to buy tickets for next year or remind you of how much fun you had that you possibly don't remember. I've never been to Ultra but from what I can tell by this video they have a large camera crew going around talking to concert goers and capturing the big DJs performing on stage. Whether you enjoy techno music or not making a 17 minute music video out of raw footage from a music festival is no easy task. The shots are absolutely beautiful and it seems like the cameramen were looking in the right place at just the right time to catch the drop in the song or this super hot girl dancing in a crowd. But lets say Ultra is too much to handle for you right now. Posted below are two videos, one from Electric Forrest and one from Bisco. Both are official videos I assume produced by the company running the concerts.
As you can probably tell by now, all three use similar techniques and camera movements if you watch them closely. Slow motion is also a very popular technique usually used in both these videos. The effect is a closer look at the grand picture of the whole event, which is tough to capture at a large festival event like Ultra. What both of these videos do well is capture the excitement and energy of the event while syncing the frames you see on screen with the music you hear in the after movie. Obviously a techno music festival will play the same music in the after movie video because it matches up to what's going on onscreen. Another element that shouldn't be ignored is the overall narrative of the video. It is a three day event and it takes you from the beginning when "you" arrive at the gates of the festival grounds to the end when girls are crying their faces off over Swedish House Mafia's last performance ever. I feel like this is important not only for the casual viewer to see what it's like but also for the hardcore Ultra fans to say "Wow, that's exactly how it went down." In the end, these videos and the many more that exist of this nature, are a nostalgia-based recap of what ticket holders' experiences SHOULD have been in addition to their own supplementary memories. After-movies...replacing memories with better ones one year at a time.
A lot of people look down on country music. It doesn't fit their taste. They don't care for the Southern twang or the whining and that's fine. It happens however, to be my favorite genre of music. When I first came across the video "Why Country Music was Awful in 2013" I was curious about it. I watched it and while the video does a decent job at showing the similarities between different male sung country songs from 2013, it does not do a good job at explaining why these things make country music "awful"
Country singers have always sung about alcohol, trucks, and pretty girls, and I'm sure that isn't going to change anytime soon. But why is that a bad thing? How is that any different than when rap and hip hop artists sing about girls in the club getting drunk on shots of vodka shaking their "asses"? Why is saying "You got your hands up You’re rocking in my truck You got the radio on You’re singing every song I’m set on cruise control I’m slowly losing hold Of everything I got You’re looking so damn hot" any different than "The way she move her body she might see the Maserati?"
Another thing I don't particularly agree with in this video is the fact that they only mention songs by male country artists. There are so many popular country songs sung by female artists from 2013 that this video doesn't even mention. You can't say that all of the music in a genre from a given year was crap when you're only looking at a portion of the genre.
Last week, I wrote a post about the trailer for the upcoming Captain America sequel. I decided that I really enjoy dissecting trailers and everything they hold, so this week, I'm doing it again with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This time, though, I won't be focusing on the dialogue. That's because, well, there really isn't any.
The Dialogue
There's a million different ways a person can edit together a trailer. One of the biggest decisions the editor has to make is which dialogue they are going to feature in the preview to their film. Many editors choose to use very many of the most climactic, the funniest, or the most inspirational quotes to draw in movie-goers. The editor(s) for this trailer, however, decided to take the completely opposite route.
He/she/they chose to use absolutely zero lines of dialogue throughout the entire trailer; that is, until the last five seconds when Ben Stiller asks a man if there are any car available to rent and the man replies "Yeah. We have a blue one and a red one." These five seconds could either serve to emphasize the fact that the film is indeed comical at times, or could serve to represent some sort of change in Stiller's character (the majority of the film appears to be bluish, so choosing the red car could mean that Stiller eventually goes for change or wishes to stand out--it's a long shot, I know).
Either way, the lack of dialogue in the trailer leaves a lot to viewers' interpretation. Yes, this is a remake of a 1947 film, but who knows how closely the writers will stick to the original? Any character or voiceover telling me what's happening, I'm sitting there wondering why the pictures on the walls are moving. I'm wondering who the girl is who Stiller keeps looking at. I can make whatever assumptions I want, but the fact that I'm so intrigued to find the answers to my questions that I'll go see the movie in theaters means the editors did their job.
The Coloring
Wow. How about that coloring?! Everything's blue! I honestly don't know what to say about it besides the fact that it is simply stunning.
I mean, seriously! Hot damn!
Since IMDb is telling me that the film is an Adventure/Comedy/Drama, I'm not quite sure what kind of response the coloring is supposed to draw from viewers. With a drama, it would make a whole lot of sense. The blue adds a bit of bleakness and sadness to the overall emotion of any film. How the blue is intended to interact with the adventure and comedy of the film is beyond me. Maybe I'm looking too far into it? It's possible, but I'd like an answer, nonetheless.
The Storyline
Here's another thing about this trailer I know very little about, but intrigues me, nonetheless: the storyline. It doesn't give anything away! I have personally never seen the original Walter Mitty, so I have absolutely no foundation of understanding when watching this trailer. I've tried my absolute best to avoid asking others about it, too. Since this trailer has intrigued me so much, I want to go into the theater with nothing but my own expectations. Here's what I've deduced from the trailer: man is bored with life, man is bored with job, man likes girl at job, man imagines going on adventures, man eventually goes on adventures. I could be wrong, and I hope that I am. I'd really like to be surprised with some kind of surreal, unexpected plot that just shocks everyone.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty has an incredibly enticing trailer. Its cinematic beauty manages to give away very little with the extreme lack of dialogue, and I can't wait to see what I've been waiting for when it comes out this Christmas.
One thing that I enjoy and wish wasn't just stuck to "Intro to Field" are music videos. I love taking music and interpreting it into a visual story. I also really enjoy watching music videos.
I've heard Rhianna's new song "Stay" ft. Mikky Ekko on the radio a few times. It's a very beautiful song, but a very sad song. I had heard from people, mostly my fellow Tumblr users "you need to see the music video", "it's so depressing", "it's so well done".
Well. I wouldn't say I "had to see it". I wouldn't say it was "so well done". But it definitely was depressing.
It enters in on Rhianna, bare and in a bathtub full of water with a hue. It was a very powerful entrance. But that's where Rhianna was seen for the entirety of the music video. The DP nailed every shot, but I would have liked to see her in more than one place. However, Rhianna's performance in the music video was definitely spot on. I definitely felt sad after watching her.
I have the same critiques for Mikky Ekko's portion of the music video. Great shots, great performance, but not a lot of variety. One thing that jumped out at me was the beautiful lighting job. Look at it, it's gorgeous....
The contrast from the white of his shirt definitely creates a focal point, and as the light falls off it creates a beautiful dark background.
Overall, there were really nice parts of this video, but it was just too boring and depressing for my tastes.
One aspect of this film that made it so unique was that it was
entirely in black and white. This was an interesting choice, due to the fact
that it lent a sort of grim, deadening feeling to the story. The colors black
and white tend to be thought of as very ordinary, dull and even depressing. Perhaps
the use of black and white in the film was working to foreshadow the fact that
David and Woody’s journey would ultimately be a waste. Since the audience could
infer the outcome (that the contest would be a scam) even before David and Woody
traveled to Nebraska, the dull coloring acted in a way that caused us to take
pity on Woody and the gullibility he has in his old age. It definitely foreshadows
the huge disappointment that he is bound to come to terms with once he reaches Nebraska
with his son. 
