Final Project

Being a  part of this group was an interesting experience and should be a well celebrated one a that. This is a group that I have had the opportunity to work with twice before on smaller projects, and it seems that we become more cohesive as a group every time we work together. For me, this project was a little daunting. There was a lot of planning that needed to get done and there was a lot of work that we needed to get done and quickly. Once we realized the direction we wanted to go with, the ball started tumbling faster and faster to the finish line. At first, I had a lot of issues conceptualizing what we wanted to see as our final project. But with the help of Natalia and Lucas, all of the pieces began to fall into place. When one of us was unsure of the path, the other two sprung into action to keep the momentum of production. We had an advantage because we had already worked together on two projects at this point in the semester,and therefore we knew where our weak points were and then we were able to use our strengths to seamlessly smooth over the rough edges. With a project that had an extreme amount of work to get done, we managed to make it a really fun and positive experience. I found that this was a project that we were all very invested in and we all collectively decided that we wanted to make a piece that we would all be proud of. We put in lots of late nights in order to keep this a team effort so that we could work together through all of the different parts of production. While shooting the footage, the three of us were constantly involved to try and get the right shots with the right angles and to make sure everything was how we wanted it. In post production, we made it a point to edit together to ensure that we all had a say with what ended up being the finished product. We wanted this project to be something that we were all proud of and therefore wanted to be involved with every part of the creation process. Working with this group this semester was such a great pleasure and I hope to have similar, if not better, experiences in the field in the future. 

Extra Credit Assignment

The image of the screening room with the child looking at film is from a movie called, "Cinema Paradiso", made in 1988; it's original title is "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso" directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

The color image of the two women dramatically looking facing the camera is an image from a movie called, "Talk to Her" by Pedro Almodovare which was originally filmed in Spanish. 

The picture of the filmmaker is of Luis Buñuel. He was a Spanish filmmaker who worked internationally in Mexico, Spain, and France. He was born on February 22nd, 1900 and lived to be 83 and passed away in Mexico City. His work was influenced by Federico Garcia Lorca, Andre Breton, and Jean Epstein. He is identified as working in the Surrealist Movement and is known for his diversity in working across two different continents and in three different languages. He has also worked within almost every film genre. 

THE BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE TALKING TO A SOLDIER IS FROM A MOVIE CALLED "THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS", MADE IN 1966. THE ORIGINAL TITLE WAS "LA BATTAGLIA DI ALGERI". IT WAS WRITTEN BY GILLO PONTECORVO AND FRANCO SOLINAS AND IT WAS DIRECTED BY GILLO PONTECORVO; STARRING BRAHIM HADJADI, JEAN MARTIN, AND YACEF SAADI. THE MOVIE IS KNOWN FOR THE DIRECTING CHOICES OF GILLO PONTECORVO. HE CHOSE TO CAST ALMOST ALL NON-PROFESSIONAL ACTORS WHO WERE CHOSEN SOLELY ON THE FACT THAT THEY LOOKED LIKED THE CHARACTERS THAT THEY WERE PORTRAYING INSTEAD OF THEIR ACTING SKILLS. GILLO PONTECORVO STILL GOT THE PERFORMANCE HE NEEDED TO MAKING HIS FILM BY USING HIS SKILLFUL ACTING AND ACCOMPANIED IT WITH VERY SPECIFIC LIGHTING CHOICES AND PLACING THE ACTORS WITHIN THE SCENE TO EVOKE EMOTION FROM MORE THAN JUST FROM THE ACTORS PERFORMANCES.

Museum Visit

At the Museum of the Moving Image, our class had the opportunity of getting to see props face to face as well as some interactive demos that helped us get hands on experience with different aspects of media production. Two parts of this museum that really stuck out for me were the examples of prosthetic and makeup pieces used on the set of film productions that I have grown up watching as well as the stop-motion animation section where we created our own flip book. Being an Emerging Media Studies Major, I am taking classes specifically for 2D animation where I have done stop-motion animation as well as created flip books, this particular setup showed me a new way of going through the process. This process has progressed over the years as technology has progressed which makes simple tasks of getting a 30 second clip that normally would take hours to produce and cut that time in half. This alone helps the fluidity of creativity and also allows artists to express themselves in a more productive amount of time. The other part of the exhibit that caught my attention was the makeup and prosthetic pieces. Along with Emerging Media, I also study theater specifically Costume Design and Stage Makeup. I have learned how to create latex prosthetics as well as costume pieces that change the shape of the normal everyday body figure. The prosthetic faces were really fascinating to see because they showed them in the steps needed to create the final product. I was surprised by the technology that they had when the movie “Mrs. Doubtfire” was produced. Technology has even come a long way since then as well as the materials that are available. This changes the way that characters and images are designed and allows the imagination to truly come to life. These technological developments open the door for theater, movies, and photography.

Blog Post #3: Relationships Between Shots

I picked to write about a scene from the movie called Being John Malkovich where John Malkovich discovers this hole in a wall that leads to a portal that drops directly into the brain of John Malkovich that has become a source of income for two friends who discovered it. The clip starts with a point of view from behind John Malkovich as he travels through the tunnel to the portal into his brain. The point of view jumps back and forth between what John Malkovich is seeing and his reaction to the tunnel itself. The sound creates an existential atmosphere that lets the audience know that an important event is about to pick up its pace. When the door slams shut and the sound of wind pushes the character to the final stage of the tunnel; we are propelled into a new reality where the audience is John Malkovich, looking through the point of view of John Malkovich. The atmosphere shifts to an upscale restaurant with the sound of chatter in the room, it is made clear that the audience is now peering through the eyes of John Malkovich with the illusion of goggle vision by creating a tight border of black in an oval shape. The camera begins at a slow movement pattern to create a steady starting pace to give the illusion of a calm and “normal” projection of space. As the nightmarish hallucinations continue to become more absurd, Malkovich realizes everyone and everything is him, he becomes more frantic and exasperated by the situation. This is shown through the progression of layers of audio, new layers of conversation can be heard that get layered over the previous conversations. The camera becomes less stable and more shaky as the pace of movement rapidly speeds up. The tone of voice also changes and the volume slowly gets higher even though the only word spoken is Malkovich. The images become more crowded and cramped with the amount of people and objects within the frame until Malkovich is thrown back out into reality where he literally hits the ground on the side of the highway.

 

Project 2- Audio Interview

The concept behind this interview was that in a room full of random people from every walk of life, each person has a story to tell from a different perspective. We had the opportunity to interview our classmates and use the tools of editing to create an audio story of them. I used the tools I had to create a window into the life of my classmate, Natalia.
MEDP 160 Project 2-Audio Interview from Eva Senatore on Vimeo.

What I Hear

On my soundwalk, I had the opportunity to listen to an enclosed environment from the evening as it shifted late into the night. At first there were a lot of sound signals with lots of chatter and excitement as ideas were discussed, keys were being typed at a keyboard, and printers were spitting out paperwork. At this point in the hour, the keynotes of the atmosphere can be heard from the rowdy-hectic outsiders running around. As time goes by, the energy within the room started to calm down as the typing at the keyboard began to slow down along with the slowing of the printers. The discussing of ideas slowly turn into a different type of chatter that leads to laughter filling the room. Music and videos spark even louder laughter as that begins to shift to be the signal sounds and the background noises ironically turn into the quieting in the hallways beyond our enclosed environment. This was my favorite time to listen to because I could hear all of the happiness and energy bursting through all of the noises being created. Nothing was forced or fake in those moments and there was nothing but positive noises filling the room. These sounds simmered down into a calm silence which matched the quieting that had happened long before outside of the space. I surprisingly enjoyed this time as well; normally I prefer to be in places that have a lot of keynotes going on as well as multiple sources of sound signals because it gives me comfort. This experience taught me to appreciate all types of atmospheres and to be open to new and unfamiliar experiences.

Defining a Space Project

Hunter College Theater Department: Defining a Space Project from Eva Senatore on Vimeo.

This is a project for my Media Production 160 class where we were given a limited amount of time to take footage and edit a short piece to define a place that we like to be in. As a theater minor, I love to hang out in the theater department and be around my fellow classmates and look at all of the fun work that my friends are designing and working on. This is a little taste of a place to which I have found made a home.

Artist Statment

As an artist and a media maker, I am fascinated by the different mediums that can be used for expression. Being able to create art and precious moments while having the tools to document and share them is a powerful element in being a positive influence to the world that we live in. The progression of technology has given our society a new spin on the way our generation can create and share their works while constantly absorbing art and media that we are continuously scanning. I want to be a part of shaping the new platforms that our society depends on that so deeply influence the world we live in. My curiosities lie within the realm of theater and media; ranging from acting, singing, lighting design and costume design to web design, game design and animation. I want to be able to use these tools to create works that excite and inspire people in order to generate a spark to shape our society to make our world a better place. Being a performer has given me the appreciation for seeing every situation in a new light. My goal is to use my expressions to help people understand that every moment has meaning and that it is extremely important to appreciate how precious life is. We live in a world where stress and work pile on top of the life that we would rather be living; we tend to overlook what really matters to us because we get so swept up. I don’t want to create media that makes people zone out, I want to create works that engage and inspire people to be better versions of them. I have yet to figure out what medium I want to do this with. For the time being, I am exploring and learning new forms of expression to expand my knowledge in order to create pathways for new opportunities.