- Before the coming environmental city collapse, life was on the go. Some however said that warnings of collapse were on written on the wall. Before too long everyday life came to a standstill.
-
People became prisoners of their own environment. The skys turned green with acid rain. Some stayed inside in their houses, others met in places of worship. They were however trapped.
3. One band of experimenters developed exo-skeleton suits and ventured out into the atmosphere. There were minor adverse affects such as black eyes and chest hair- but these strange abnormalities far outweighed the chance for freedom.
4. The age of exploration would begin again as a small group banded together and donned their exo sceleton suits and explored the railways leading out of the city.
5. Once out of the city the explorers were able to set up a settlement near the ocean away from the toxic city.
The main characters in La Jetee' were unnamed which in my opinion added to the mystery of the short. The main protagonist survived a world war 3 scenario and lived underground were he was subject to tests by the Antagonist named only as an inventor. The protagonist's motivation was returning in memory to an earlier happier time. The antagonist's motivation was to uncover "memory travel" and "future travel" in hopes of aiding their current situation. Other characters include the mysterious woman of memory and the future people. The protagonist clearly had internal and external struggles - he was affected by the war and the experiments of the inventors. Internally he seemed to want to solve the mysteries of his memories and escape his current situation. The precipitating event leading to rising action was "meeting" the mysterious woman in the experiments and then meeting the future world and people. This led the captors to disposing of the protagonist which was then saved by whims of the future people. The leading character then "chooses" to return to the day of his childhood to solve the mystery of the woman of his memory and "dreams" he then discovers and is freed by his realization that his memory is actually the day of his death.
I felt that the use of still photography worked well to advance the plot without filling in all the blanks. It led to a mystery of cloudiness and even replicated the tortured like memory recalls that protagonist was dealing with. It was confusing in parts but I'm glad that it wasn't spelled out with on the nose dialog. The ending seemed rushed but I liked this pacing and it led to a more dramatic climax and ending.
This week we reviewed La Jetee' the inspiration behind the film 12 Monkeys. When i first saw la jetee' in class i thought that i recognized the candelabra from a graphic design promoting 12 Monkeys. As it turns out i was wrong. still an interesting visual comparison though... Check it out to the right.
I decided to alter a photo by changing a subway light from red to green. I thought I knew basic photoshop but this took a while and I'm sure there may have been a less time consuming way to do this. Also I feel this could use some expert techniques to make the altered image more convincing. I like the way the de-red light came out but I feel the green could use some work. Enjoy.
The series of subway pictures to the right represent an exercise in taking photos using elements of Composition and Lighting as described by Zettl. The photos were taken along the N and R Lines in Astoria Queens. The lines run through very diverse neighborhoods that were once predominately Greek. The influence of early Greek immigrants is evident in many of the photographs that I took during this exercise. I tried as much as possible to limit myself to taking pictures on or along the subway stations themselves rather than the neighborhoods themselves. This exercise was difficult as my schedule only allowed for only a couple of hours of shooting during daylight. Using only available light to complete each required shot was quite limiting. Luckily I had one day that was sunny, the rest of my time was spent at night along the lines.
I found that if one thought enough a tremendous amount of the required shots could be found at one stop. I still explored many of the stops to get some variety and refresh my eye. One of my favorite shots that may not be obvious is the media enhanced shot of the advertising poster - a photo of a photo. The model has not only been altered mechanically to "perfection" but also is altered through graffiti by local residents. This photo of a photo also falls in the dramatic lighting category. It causes one to think about the Media Theories of McLuhan and the experience that one has with advertising that can be physically molded and altered by society.
