Project # 4

Clown Video Final

Blog #4 Guest Speaker

The main thing that I took away from Masushiro Soda’s presentation was primarily from the “Ten Commandments.” He set these policies for himself in order to get the best out of the filming process and in the end it lets him get as creative as he can without his vision being throttled by a metaphorical block which can cause the shooting to halt for some time. His ten rules have a general theme of improvising and taking a simple approach which, I completely agree with. He avoids scripts, does no research, no meetings with subjects of the film just to have a fresh take on the situation around him. Ge also believes in using long takes which means that if he needs to edit something, he would have enough footage to not worry about not having a specific shot. With these commandments, he no longer has to explain everything to the viewers with narrations, instead the explanation comes straight from the footage that they are watching and enjoying.

Final: Story Board

The story board for the final project

Blog #3 Scene Analysis

Pulp Fiction: Royale with Cheese

“Do you know what they call a quarter pounder in Paris?” A famous line from an amazing movie Pulp Fiction. The scene is between two, what we assume, friends Jules and Vincent as they talk about Vincent’s recent trip to Europe and about all the small differences there while driving along the road. We start out with a closeup shot on Vincent as he starts the dialogue and we see that Jules is there in the driver seat with him. The shot mostly focuses on Vincent as he is giving a speach about the legality of marijuana but quickly turns to a big close up shot when Vincent mentione “all the little differences” like how you can order beer in a glass while seeing a movie or going to a McDonalds. Before this Jules would mostly have a single word response when in the close up shot but, as soon as it becomes a big close up, Jules becomes more talkative as he shares his surprise in what they call a quarter pounder overseas. This conversation occurs between matched action cuts between the two with the camera pointing to the one that is speaking. They share laughs over it and the audience is intrigued by the conversation and the chemistry between the two so much that we forget they are driving somewhere. The shot turns into a regular close up once more with a focus on Vincent as Jules asks awhat the Whopper is called to which Vincent replies he hasnt visited Burger King there. The tone switches to a more serious one at that point as a jump cut transitions them into a shot of them looking into a trunk of the car with the focus on both of them. They note thatthey should have shotguns for situation like this and we quickly understand there is more to this friendshipthan meets the eye. 

Project 2 Interview FINAL

https://soundcloud.com/daniil-miller-810096200/project-2-interview-final/s-gtLK8

Project 2 - Draft - Interview

https://soundcloud.com/daniil-miller-810096200/project-2-interview-rough-draft/s-Swm1K

Assignment 2: Sound Walk

            For the sound walk project I decided to head up to Central Park. However, instead of going into it, I chose Columbus Circle for my spot of observation. I originally planned to observe the usually highly busy are but was treated to a pleasant surprise when I discovered a marathon as taking place at the same exact time. The streets which usually were bustling with cars have now fallen almost silent, with only the pitter patter of feet stomping across the concrete being heard along the much louder cheering and clapping of the on looking audience.

            Upon finally settling in Columbus Circle, the first thing I noticed is there was no lack of sound from any direction. Columbus Circle was made to be the finish line for the marathon so the main noise that could be heard was the talking, the cheering or the panting from the participants as they were out of breath. Right behind that was the sound of cars passing by; an unavoidable sound sadly as this is partly where city is that never sleeps gets its nickname from. Finally there was a background noise to this entire situation, a DJ situated nearby playing pop music. Compared to everything else, it felt as though the songs were merely a backdrop for the actual scene.

            On the way back to the Q train, the sound of music and chatter slowly died down, as the sound of cars grew louder. The chatter of random strangers turned into the background noise while the sound of cars became the main prominent sound with an occasional sound of an underground rumble from the trains. The walk to train was never silent, truly show that the city will always be busy and full of life,

Assignment 1: Define a Place

https://vimeo.com/322900428

Privet Comrade! It is I, Daniil Miller

       Look, up in balcony! It's a bird! It's a plane! No it's just me, spray painting foam armor at two in the morning while wearing a dinosaur pajama onesie and a protective face mask. At this point you are wondering "Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing?" My name is Daniil Miller, and I am a simple nerd living in the concrete jungle called New York. As to what I'm doing, the most simple answer I can provide is I'm embracing my passion. And while you would call me a lunatic for spray painting in the early hours of the morning in a onesie, id call you a mean person for calling me names. I have a passion for creating costumes and wearing them like a superhero would, but instead of fighting crime, I go to conventions and pretend to be someone else. 

    My passion started at a young age when I wore my first costume for a kindergarten play and grew at an alarming rate. Sadly there wasn't much I could do since I was very limited with resources and opportunity in Russia and my passion slowly died down. However it quickly relit itself when I moved to America and discovered conventions around my first year of high school. The fire started to burn once more in my heart and have been dawning my alter egos ever since. I hope to use my passion to show others the wonders of what if feels like to have Halloween be all year round instead of one day a year. One of my current goals is to create a documentary on the cosplayers and their daily lives or create a television show in the style of Survivor Island but themed around cosplay.