#ciu110

Addictions, desires and bad habits. We all have them, some of us may even have multiple. They come in all forms, from tangible things such as alcohol or drugs to someone you love that you must let go but just cannot seem to. These things we as humans crave endlessly can often make us feel weak and hopeless, we feel we cannot open up to others about these weaknesses because we have too much pride and feel ashamed so we keep it all inside and hope the feelings will subside, but they never do. I believe that this is why art and more specifically music can be unbelievably therapeutic. I’m not saying if you listen to the right song it will immediately rid you of all addictions and/or bad habits, but what music can do is be something you can identify with. Something to remind you that you aren’t alone at the end of each day, which is far more powerful than you may think to an individual who genuinely feels as though they have nobody.

Popular American rap artist Logic is no stranger to shining light upon the commonly looked past topic of mental illness and addiction. In August of 2017, Logic released a music video for his single 1-800-273-8255 which speaks heavily on the topic of suicide and depression. This particular video has reached a whopping 250 million views since it’s release and was performed by logic himself at the 60th annual Grammy Awards as a tribute to Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell who both tragically passed as a result of suicide.

However, logics choice to incorporate themes of depression, addiction and suicide within his music did not start last year with the release of 1-800, in fact a song that I believe was written with far greater poetic skill called “Nikki” was released as a part of his album “under pressure”. I’m not going to lie, the first time I heard the song I was absolutely lost for words. I’ve never been the hugest Logic fan but I will always give credit where credit is due and Nikki definitely caught me off guard. In the beginning of the song, logic seems to be rapping about a girl he had recently broken up with through lyrics like “Nikki baby, I love you but now I’ve got to go, cause’ in the end what happens you already know”. However, as the song progresses, he begins to use clever metaphors to intertextually speak about two things at once, however, we don’t know what this other thing is until he says, “cause’ lately I’ve been feeling like a slave to the nicotine”. It is in this moment that you realize that what you thought was a breakup song, was actually a song about Logic’s long running addiction to cigarettes.

The way in which intertextuality was utilized by Logic in this song Nikki made listening to it for the first time like a roller coaster of emotions. The way in which he intricately turned the word nicotine into the abbreviated song name Nikki, gave Logic the power to passionately talk about cigarettes while making listeners believe he is talking about a girl he is in the process of breaking up with. Logic used intertextuality in Nikki to not only create a lyrical masterpiece but also create a song that almost anyone can identify with. As said by the man himself in a 2014 genius interview, “if it sounds like I’m talking about a woman, then any man or woman can listen to that song when feeling depressed or a little down and relate t to their relationship personally”, he also goes on to explain that he wanted people struggling with other substance addictions to identify with the song regardless of the fact its about nicotine.

The way logic used intertextuality in this song inspired me to the point where I’ve been staying up late at night with music playing, pondering ideas for how I can create a piece of film that creatively links two ideas together to enhance the emotion and impact my work has on viewers and audiences off all types.

References

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXHu-ZlV70w

When I hear the word narrative, the first thing that pops into my head is story. As said by the man David Bordwell himself, “A narrative is a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space”. Narrative or, story, is used everywhere everyday, from small a conversation with a mutual friend you just bumped into, to the script of a blockbuster film, you just can’t escape it. I mean, why would you want to escape it? It’s such a beautiful thing. As you may already know, I am a film student so, I’m going to speak about narrative in film and give you my general knowledge on the topic. Okay, so, when it comes to story telling, you can either make up a fake story derived from imagination with whatever you want in it (this is called fiction), or you can base your story accurately off of real life events that have taken place (this is called non-fiction). Narrative films however, are essentially fictional. Additionally, when making a narrative film or a fictional film (same thing right?), there are some other options you can take. For example, linear and non-linear narratives. Non-linear narratives are stories that don’t follow a structure of any type and therefore pulls in and out of different scenarios randomly. A good example of a non-linear narrative is Pulp Fiction. On the other hand, Linear narratives are essentially stories that follow an ordered series of events that follow the logic of cause and effect. The concept of cause and effect is basically run from the characters in a narrative, as their unique attitudes, skills, habits, tastes, psychological drives, etc. help shape the story and push the narrative in its intended direction. Furthermore, cause and effect is the act of something happening that causes a story to begin as a result of one initial action. For example, if I chose not to set an alarm this morning I wouldn’t have woken up for work and therefore would’ve most likely lost my job. It is that action of me choosing not to set my alarm (cause) that sets up the effect (me potentially loosing my job). When it comes to linear narrative, the most common structure used is the ‘beginning, middle and end’ structure. This is basically a story that builds its way up to a climax (which is the peak of the plot) via rising action and as we all know, what goes up must come down so, following the climax, the falling action takes over which then leads to the denouement, or the finale. A film that can be used as an example for linear film that follows the ‘beginning, middle and end’ structure is “requiem for a dream” (2000). This is one of my all time favorite films as it shows the physical and psychological decay of multiple characters over the period of a couple of years as a result of their own individual drug addictions. In the beginning of the film, both main characters Harry and Tyrone both appear to be drug fiends of some description after Harry steals his own mother’s TV with the help of Tyrone, to sell it and use the money to buy drugs. However, as the story progresses and the pair make more decisions (causes) which each time bring them to worse outcomes (effects) their lives become more and more destroyed by what they desire until everything falls apart. The film then ends with a very depressing sequence of scenes depicting everything their lives could have been if they didn’t let their desires consume them.

Genre - Indie films

Genre. It’s a word familiar to most people, and if you’re a film fan like myself, you’d most likely have your personal genre preferences. However, regardless of how common this five letter word is, the question is, do we all really know the definition of this word, and more specifically, its importance. Well, it all pretty much started with the birth of the silent film era, where films with similar characteristics such as, setting, characterisation, clichés, narrative, film techniques and audio all began falling into categories due to their similarities and patterns. Famous philosopher, Steve Neale (1981:6) defines genre as “systems of orientations, expectations, and conventions that circulate between industry, text and subject”. Although I’m very aware of the significance of genre within the film industry and the important role it plays, I believe pushing the boundaries and creating content that is not only unique but also aesthetic in an authentic way is what ultimately shapes a great artist.

As said by Jackie Earl Hayley, “When you're talking about Tim Burton, you're talking about a guy that has such a visual sense, an aesthetic, a storytelling style. It's like he's got his own genre.” And I completely agree, I believe one of the reasons Tim Burton is such a great director is not because he follows the conventional structures that come with each individual genre, but he has developed this raw and easily recognizable style that is now famously known and loved.

So, what’s my favorite film genre you may be wondering? Well that’s an easy one, it’s the “independent” genre. Depending on how passionate you are about film, you may or may not have already heard of this genre. It’s not overly popular and there are reasons for this. Firstly, independent films are well, independent, meaning they are produced outside of major film studio systems, in turn meaning their budgets are usually a lot smaller that your average action packet blockbuster.

An Indie/drama film that I absolutely love is “Palo Alto”. This film basically follows the lives of two high school students, Teddy and April. Being the class virgin, April feels quite out of place and lost for the majority of the film. She also faces that annoying dilemma I’m sure you can all identify with where you can’t decide between hooking up with your soccer coach or Teddy, your introverted high school stoner. Anyway, enough with the spoilers. I love this film because it’s real. As much as I sarcastically joke about April hooking up with James Franco the soccer coach, this film is a piece of art I can genuinely relate to, especially when it comes to the character of Teddy and the series of events he faces while on a journey to discover who he really is.      

Okay, so now you’re probably thinking I’m just being a typical hipster film critic, but no, believe it or not I can justify my love for this lesser known genre. To begin with, I believe the world has become overtaken by money and every film that is released is released with some intent to rake in big bucks at the box office. To do this, films obviously have to appeal to a much broader audience, so genres such as comedy and action are popular for a reason. What I love about Indie films is the fact they are produced with pure artistic intent as opposed to monetary motives. Furthermore, I truly believe that a real tradesman never blames his tools, and a great film can be made using the cheapest of equipment. Above all else, I see filmmaking as an art form just like oil painting on canvas, films that are raw and created by people who aren’t industry gods are in my opinion sometimes the best.

References

- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2479800/

The skeleton war has been trending for a few years now, but it usually get big around October because of Halloween. If we think about the skeleton war as a metaphor for WW3 we can start to deconstruct the similarities.   Theories have been lurking around for years on how it is going to start (and it gets big every now). It's considered conspiracy when people talk about it; who will start it, and how it's going to happen, and why it's going to outbreak in a certain area. Most closed minded people think it's going to be Islamic state that starts WW3 but the people that are most likely to start it are people who are running the superpower country (the U.S) or other suspected superpowers like Russia  (Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump - if elected. ect.) Just like the Skeleton War there are memes made about it all the time. People laugh and don't think much about it without taking much consideration about that war actually happening. The rise and fall in popularity with both wars is due to what's being publicized in the media; with politicians and spooky stuff. In a way the Skeleton war is a way to make fun of a very serious issue - in a satirical way. The joke continuing with the big politics trying to gain control, their mistakes are spotlighted with the media age we live in; everything they have done has/is being put on the internet and can be researched and with this things they've wanted to stay hidden get unearthed like skeletons rising for the Skeleton war; all of the bad that they have done no matter how tiny - court cases, emails, tweets, ect). With war as like a trend in history we are due for a major one in the coming future some time that it may (or has already) started.

with the middle east - since bush the middle east has been under attack by the U.S's military forces. Since then it hasn't had a break and seems to be getting worse over time with the people who live there growing increasingly fed up with the American terrorist; who claim to be there as peace keepers but stated all the madness in the first place with false allegations of weapons of mass destruction just so they could claim another counties natural resource - oil.

In class, we’re currently asking “What is Media?”.

To me, media is a form of expression shared though a technological medium, creative and not. It’s a way of expressing a thought, or sharing information. It’s a form of socialisation and story telling as well as surprisingly, a medium of control.

To me, media is boundless and there are so many things that we can do with it.

We can influence thoughts, we can manipulate emotions; we can inspire, or we can depress. We can use it to brainwash, and sent thousands of people into a flurry or panic; or it can be used to bring people together. People with similar interests and thoughts who just want to share who they are and do good things.

‘Rocket Dog’, Created by Mel Roach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9WYRTCoOsA

‘Rocket Dog’ is a short animated cartoon film created, directed and produced by the animator Mel Roach, a young Australian animator located in Melbourne city. The animated film was published with ‘Cartoon Hangover’ which is a major support of additional small animated series and shorts such as ‘Bee and Puppy’ cat and ‘Bravest Warriors’.

The animated film is presented in a rough 2D illustrative style, with a lot of the main figure lines over lapping and having a hand drawn aesthetic. There is no form of major shading or rendering throughout the entire film, emphasising the key visual qualities of 2D animation and maintaining a solid colour scheme. The short film captures a crude, childish sense of comedy with subtle adult themes to capture the attention of an older audience through pure immaturity. But, in my personal opinion, I adore it. It’s visual simplicity successfully conveys the personalities of each character, with the Australian voice acting complimenting their design and enhancing the enthusiasm of each scene.

(http://rocketdog.cartoonhangover.com/post/49474440685/cartoonhangover-the-gif-history-of-rocket)

The film follows the spontaneous adventures of Rocket Dog and his owner Bob, a man equally confused and cornered about his bizarre k-nine companion and who is troubled by his own romantic circumstances. This short animated feature illustrates a completely new ‘man’s best friend’ perspective, bringing to life the hilarious relationship between a relatively simple man and his “psycho” pet dog.