For our first unit of Stage Chemistry, we learned about the different elements of a theater. We learned about measuring and scaling correctly. For our first action project, we were asked to take our newfound knowledge and apply it to a space of our choice; when then turned that space into a theater. I chose to use Menomonee, specifically Fasseas for the room with the stage. To help us with ideas we examined the Goodman Theatre and its elements. We then had to chose six of our own elements to show details of our space. The elements I chose were the stage, the viewing angles, the lobby showing how to get to the bathrooms, the coat check and concessions, the box office, and ticket pricing. I also had a blueprint of the entire area, as well as a comparison between my space and Goodman Theatre's. I really enjoyed the math parts of the project and making the blueprint to scale. It was difficult to measure all the walls and draw them to scale, because some of the walls weren't at a 90 degree angles. However, I ended up finding a good estimate that worked perfectly, which I was proud of accomplishing.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
"Back to the Future": An Amazing Film from the Past
For our first unit of Ollywood, a film critique class, we learned about the main elements of film pre-production: screenwriting, set design, and costume design. We watched and analyzed many movies, and for our first action project we were to choose our own movie to watch and critique. The movie I chose to analyze is Back to the Future.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis in 1985, Back to the Future is an enjoyable, imaginative, and thought-provoking film. It does exactly what Roger Ebert, America’s most famous movie critic, says it should do -- it allows you to escape from your own box of space and time, to see the past as it was actually happening. The movie really creates a sense of nostalgia and appreciation for the past.
The movie begins by introducing the audience to the story’s protagonist, Marty McFly, instantly capturing his character; he’s a laid-back, rock-and-roll-loving, witty, typical teenager. He’s known as a “slacker” at school, apparently taking after his father. His entire family seems to have a bad life--his brother works at a fast-food place, his sister has a terrible love life, his mother is an alcoholic, and his father still gets bullied by his boss. It is very clear that they are all unhappy. We are also introduced to his loving and supporting girlfriend, Jennifer, who encourages him to believe in himself and his musical talent. Marty is then called to meet up with his mentor, an eccentric inventor who Marty calls Doc, to try out his latest experiment, a time machine, in the form of a DeLorean. But things take a turn for the worse. Terrorists shoot Doc, and Marty is forced to drive away in the car, accidentally activating the time machine, sending him back to 1955. Having arrived 30 years into the past, Marty runs into some difficulties, and while searching for Doc, encounters his own father as a teenager. Sadly, the young Mr. McFly is as much a loser in the past as he is in the future. Marty’s father was also bullied back then by the same person who bullied him in the future, Biff, his boss. While in the past, Marty accidentally takes his father’s place in what would have been the event that caused his parents to meet. He now has to find Doc immediately, and fix his mistake by setting his parents up, or else he and his siblings will cease to exist. He spends the rest of the time in the past doing just that, all the while fighting off Biff and his own, teenaged, future mother’s advances.
Marty finally succeeds at the high school dance where his parents had always told him they had their first kiss, and after nearly losing Doc for good, Marty is able to save him and escape 1955, returning to the future. When Marty gets home, it’s obvious that a lot has changed. His sister has a good love life, his brother has a good job, his parents are richer and more in love than before, and Biff now works for his father, cleaning and fixing up his car. Everything seems perfect. Marty even still has Jennifer. But then Doc reappears in the DeLorean telling Marty and Jennifer to come with him to the future, for the sake of their future kids. They then fly off in the clearly remodeled DeLorean.
My favorite scene in the movie was a fight scene between the protagonist and the antagonist, Marty and Biff. Biff enters the diner instantly bullying George Mcfly and shouting “‘Ey McFly! I thought I told you never to come in here. Well it’s gonna cost you. How much money you got on you?” As Biff nears George, ready to take his money, Marty comes to the rescue and trips the bully. When he gets back up he say “Alright punk. Now--”, interrupting him Marty points behind Biff saying “Woah, woah, Biff! What’s that?” and with the bully distracted he takes this opportunity to punch him. The reason this is my favorite scene is because it perfectly captures both of their personalities and shows what kind of characters they are-- while it's been obvious that Biff is an antagonist, Marty shines in this scene as a hero with confidence.
Setting plays a major role in this movie. The entire movie is about the change in eras and the production design showed this amazingly. The old-fashioned diner perfectly captures the 1950s with its little jukeboxes on the counter and on every table, that you would never see nowadays, or the paper hats that the workers wore. It also showed the cultural changes between the years, for example when Marty asks for a “Pepsi Free” and the worker assumes he’s trying to be funny and doesn’t want to pay for his drink. Another important location is the Hill Valley clock tower, where in the past a lot of action takes place. In the future, people are protesting to save it from being torn down because it’s broken and doesn’t look nice, but in the past it looks new and still works.
Another key feature of the movie is the costumes. Both the 1980s and 1950s costumes are amazing and so accurate. The costume designers really manage to show the drastic changes between the two periods. Clothing is an important factor and something that distinguishes a lot about a character. The males in 1855, almost all wore collared shirts with a print on them, and the females wore dresses with rounded collars or turtlenecks. Knowing that Marty’s clothing would be strange, Doc tells him to change into something inconspicuous. Cultural change is shown here too, for example, back then it was unusual to have a brand name on your underwear, so when Marty’s mom sees that his say Calvin Klein, she assumes this is his name and sticks with this belief during his entire time in the past.
The inspiration for Back to the Future came from the screenplay writer, Bob Gale, who had discovered his father's high school yearbook and wondered whether or not he would have been friends with him as a teenager (Holleran). The movie was obviously a wild success; it won many awards, and is still considered one of the best movies of all time. I highly recommend it for anyone in the mood for an imaginative, whimsical, clever movie, and a good laugh.
Works Cited:
-Back to the Future. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson. Universal Studios, 1985. Film.
-Holleran, Scott. "Brain Storm." Brain Storm. Box Office Mojo, 18 Nov. 2003. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
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| Jinho Jung- "Back to the Future 2".(2009) Internet: Flikr |
The movie begins by introducing the audience to the story’s protagonist, Marty McFly, instantly capturing his character; he’s a laid-back, rock-and-roll-loving, witty, typical teenager. He’s known as a “slacker” at school, apparently taking after his father. His entire family seems to have a bad life--his brother works at a fast-food place, his sister has a terrible love life, his mother is an alcoholic, and his father still gets bullied by his boss. It is very clear that they are all unhappy. We are also introduced to his loving and supporting girlfriend, Jennifer, who encourages him to believe in himself and his musical talent. Marty is then called to meet up with his mentor, an eccentric inventor who Marty calls Doc, to try out his latest experiment, a time machine, in the form of a DeLorean. But things take a turn for the worse. Terrorists shoot Doc, and Marty is forced to drive away in the car, accidentally activating the time machine, sending him back to 1955. Having arrived 30 years into the past, Marty runs into some difficulties, and while searching for Doc, encounters his own father as a teenager. Sadly, the young Mr. McFly is as much a loser in the past as he is in the future. Marty’s father was also bullied back then by the same person who bullied him in the future, Biff, his boss. While in the past, Marty accidentally takes his father’s place in what would have been the event that caused his parents to meet. He now has to find Doc immediately, and fix his mistake by setting his parents up, or else he and his siblings will cease to exist. He spends the rest of the time in the past doing just that, all the while fighting off Biff and his own, teenaged, future mother’s advances.
Marty finally succeeds at the high school dance where his parents had always told him they had their first kiss, and after nearly losing Doc for good, Marty is able to save him and escape 1955, returning to the future. When Marty gets home, it’s obvious that a lot has changed. His sister has a good love life, his brother has a good job, his parents are richer and more in love than before, and Biff now works for his father, cleaning and fixing up his car. Everything seems perfect. Marty even still has Jennifer. But then Doc reappears in the DeLorean telling Marty and Jennifer to come with him to the future, for the sake of their future kids. They then fly off in the clearly remodeled DeLorean.
My favorite scene in the movie was a fight scene between the protagonist and the antagonist, Marty and Biff. Biff enters the diner instantly bullying George Mcfly and shouting “‘Ey McFly! I thought I told you never to come in here. Well it’s gonna cost you. How much money you got on you?” As Biff nears George, ready to take his money, Marty comes to the rescue and trips the bully. When he gets back up he say “Alright punk. Now--”, interrupting him Marty points behind Biff saying “Woah, woah, Biff! What’s that?” and with the bully distracted he takes this opportunity to punch him. The reason this is my favorite scene is because it perfectly captures both of their personalities and shows what kind of characters they are-- while it's been obvious that Biff is an antagonist, Marty shines in this scene as a hero with confidence.
Setting plays a major role in this movie. The entire movie is about the change in eras and the production design showed this amazingly. The old-fashioned diner perfectly captures the 1950s with its little jukeboxes on the counter and on every table, that you would never see nowadays, or the paper hats that the workers wore. It also showed the cultural changes between the years, for example when Marty asks for a “Pepsi Free” and the worker assumes he’s trying to be funny and doesn’t want to pay for his drink. Another important location is the Hill Valley clock tower, where in the past a lot of action takes place. In the future, people are protesting to save it from being torn down because it’s broken and doesn’t look nice, but in the past it looks new and still works.
Another key feature of the movie is the costumes. Both the 1980s and 1950s costumes are amazing and so accurate. The costume designers really manage to show the drastic changes between the two periods. Clothing is an important factor and something that distinguishes a lot about a character. The males in 1855, almost all wore collared shirts with a print on them, and the females wore dresses with rounded collars or turtlenecks. Knowing that Marty’s clothing would be strange, Doc tells him to change into something inconspicuous. Cultural change is shown here too, for example, back then it was unusual to have a brand name on your underwear, so when Marty’s mom sees that his say Calvin Klein, she assumes this is his name and sticks with this belief during his entire time in the past.
The inspiration for Back to the Future came from the screenplay writer, Bob Gale, who had discovered his father's high school yearbook and wondered whether or not he would have been friends with him as a teenager (Holleran). The movie was obviously a wild success; it won many awards, and is still considered one of the best movies of all time. I highly recommend it for anyone in the mood for an imaginative, whimsical, clever movie, and a good laugh.
Works Cited:
-Back to the Future. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson. Universal Studios, 1985. Film.
-Holleran, Scott. "Brain Storm." Brain Storm. Box Office Mojo, 18 Nov. 2003. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
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