Prison In Twelve Landscapes

The film Prison in Twelve Landscapes was very interesting to me. I felt that it was a good documentary as it informed the audience on a subject they may know vary little about. I was definitely surprised by how little I know about United States incarceration. I believe that the audience's reaction is very important to a film, maybe the most important. The people in the audience definitely reacted to the kew knowledge they were getting from the film. I for one was shocked and amazed, for a lack of a better word, at how the prison system was displayed. The film displayed a new reality but new is not really the right word perhaps a hidden reality is a better fit. I really enjoyed the script of the film, it was awkwardly beautiful. I do not believe that it fit very well but it was very thought out. It also left me confused at times because the words did not feel as they belonged for that scene. I really enjoyed the film more than the white sun because I had a better frame of reference but  I learned more from the film White Sun than I did in this film.  

White Sun Screening

The Film White Sun directed by Deepak Raunivar was really incredible. It was a window to another world. Shedding light on a culture people know little about, the audience is taken on an adventure looking through the traditions of the small village Nepaltra. It was unorthodox that the documentary type film had the audience learn so much about the personal lives of the characters. For a documentary there was a lot of drama, including its own love triangle. I was deeply invested in finding out as much as I could about the culture, how they approached death was fascinating to see. However, I was worried that the director made their traditions into a spectacle for people to see but I am glad it did not feel that way. For a land so foreign and different form the one I lived, it was interesting to notice the similarities between our societies. Woman were treated as subordinates and old people feared dying alone. There is definitely a relativity to these similarities. Woman there were treated very badly, I felt so bad for the ex wife of the protagonist, she was not allowed to touch the body because she would "taint" it. That seems so fucked up to me, I cannot understand how woman are treated that way even if the societies are different and were built on different morals and philosophies that was just so fucked up to me. Honestly I hated the old men through the whole movie, I kind of wished it was their funeral as well; they treated everyone else badly and they were useless by themselves. I know theres respect for the elderly but they were down right awful. The one moment that I felt they were humanized was when they were afraid their children would never return and that they had to die alone.            

Final Piece: The Hunter

00015 from kenny perez on Vimeo.

Relationships Between Shots

The video I chose to analyze was the trailer to a new edition of one of my favorite video game franchise, Fire Emblem. A trailer’s main goal is to pump the hype on the game or movie it wants people to play/watch which I believe this video does very well. It starts off very vague and gives people little insight about the actual game by linking footage of the game with ominous “what if “ questions. The use of color for the font when speaking to the view is very importan it; the colors used are black and white. Black and white are the colors of the two conflicting kingdoms in the game so there's a sense of continuity there but the colors help emphasize the overall dilemma of the game. The game poses a moral standpoint of what the player considered the definition of family and that the definition in not as black and white as people may think it is. The scenes right after the tension breaks and the singer is shocked while looking at the viewer are very key. They show the war and battlefield. They way that they were shot was interesting because they zoomed out from the person of interest in the shot so it made him look small almost as if they were trying to show how terrifying a battlefield can be. I also think that these shots are excellent exposition for two characters that are obviously important due to their close up but also how they juxtapose each other. Another really important scene in the trailer is when the two families confront the viewer and the player must make his choice of who his really family is. The two strong figures from earlier stare into the view and then is joined by shots of the rest of the family. This is the first look at the dilemma and is interesting because in that moment the player is not certain who is in the wrong. It is a war zone, someone has to be the bad guy but you cannot tell if your family by blood or the ones who raised you are in the wrong, which again brings up of the non-duality of good and evil. The world is not as black and white as people are lead to believe and the trailer highlights that really well.          

MOMA Visit

I went to see the exhibit of Making Faces: Images of Exploration and Empowerment in Cinema at the MOMA. The exhibit was really interesting in seeing how Hollywood used to depict minorities such as black people, queer or women. The change to the common housewife to a powerful woman was really interesting to see. It happened in both white and black women. You could see the theme of this in the movies in how they wore pants in the film which, at the time, women were not suppose to wear. Blaxploitation is also a very interesting concept, they were playing the othello movie which had someone using black face make up. I could not believe that no one thought how offensive that could be, or that they did not even care about it. I would like to believe that times have changed, and they have, but not as much as I would have liked to believe. Whitewashing is still very apparent in today's films , a very recent example of this is Scarlett Johansson playing the protagonist in Ghost in a Shell. She was cast as the main character in a movie that takes place in Japan, as is the comic book. It received a lot of criticism because it did not make much sense, a caucasian woman play an asian woman. I know that the world of film and media has changed drastically with the world around it, media tends to illustrate the truths of the world around it but that also means that today's media reveals a lot about how where people stand on the topics  about minorities and diversity.

Project 2

https://soundcloud.com/user-329462707/project-2

Soundwalk

Doing the soundwalk was a very interesting experience; normally, when I walk, I would be immersed in my earphones. I did not realize how much of an effect that had on my surroundings, it caused me to separate myself from the world around me. While I was in the walk i noticed what it meant to have my ears “closed” and I noticed what it was like to have them “open” for the first time. You ignore a lot of the nuances in the background. It definitely changes the perspective someone would have trying to actively hear out all the noises in the city.

My soundwalk was my travel to school, I normally take the bus and train but I got off earlier and walked farther to school. Manhattan has so many keynotes: cars, stores, people in conversations. They all blend together and it sounds like acoustic static. It is hard to understand what is going unless you take the time to slowly process each individual sound. I noticed how much longer my walk felt, I thought that would happen. It makes sense that when people listen to music time moves faster kind of. Walking felt like it took longer and the streets themselves felt like they were longer. It was weird after the exercise my ears were actually a bit tired. I guess it is similar to when someone exercises a muscle and then it gets fatigued. I walked from school and to school partially and the time difference differently changes the soundmarks.  

Assignment 1

Ordinary World from Julia Agostino on Vimeo.

Netherlands meets New York

           Netherlands meets New York show cased many interesting pieces of work from students from both countries. The videos ranged from documentaries to personal novels. All of the videos had stunning shots and turned out, over all, very well. There were many that I found interesting such as, one of the students combined footage she had taken with animation she had made. It was innovative and made me realize that I would like take a similar approach in one of my videos one day. What I liked the most of this event was the wide shift of genera, every video was radically different than the last. A documentary from one of the students from the Netherlands was about a convent in her home town, it was an interesting glimpse into a world I knew next to nothing. It was interesting to see because of how isolated the nuns live; it was mentioned in the video that the last person to go into the convent was over 40 years ago. There was one film that really stood out to me; it was the personal story of how the filmmaker dealt with the death of her mother. It was interesting because, like a documentary it told us about a situation many might know little about but it was also a narrative into the filmmakers mind. The script she had wrote for the film was very engrossing, the images of her house were strong but overall what had captured her audience was they narration. It was also very intimate, I probably know her better than any of the other filmmakers; it created a lasting impression that is very haunting. The event, like expected, really combined the culture of two different parts of the world.    

excersie one

lab 1 from kenny perez on Vimeo.

Artist Statement

The ability to create is an amazing thing, from the far reaches of one's mind an entire world can blossom. As a kid, I fell in love with the way these worlds worked but especially the stories they told. I realized that I wanted to experience that, I wanted to create a world with a story and characters that would capture an audience just like the stories captured me when I was young. These worlds had magic and power and each world was unique and full of wonder. The sense of adventure and potential is what I felt when I saw worlds like these, Miyazaki's Spirited Away is an excellent example. Not only was it an engrossing tale but the art, the scenery, the creatures were all truly beautifully.

I am now a studio art major at Hunter College, and would one day like to work as a storyboard or character design artist. The things I watch inspire me to make art for them, so television shows like Steven Universe or Pokemon are a big inspiration to me but also video games like Undertale. Although my career is not considered “fine art” I hope to use the skills I learn here and apply them to my future work. I also hope to, one day, change the mindset that illustration is not a fine art.   


  -that's me