The theme of The Shawshank Redemption, as blatantly mentioned in the scene above, is hope. Andy Dufresne is a wrongly accused convict who was sent to a prison where most people would lose all hope. Andy didn't and knew he had to keep his feeling of self-worth to make it in Shawshank. He was one of the only ones who thought hope could be a helpful thing, and in the end he turned out being right.

This theme is mostly reinforced in the scene by use of line, space and rhythm. There isn't much character movement, but there is a moment when the audience can almost share what Red and Andy are feeling towards each other because of their eye contact. When Andy says "Like Brooks did?" the use of virtual lines between he and Red's eyes gives us that sense of feeling between them. The space used is flat and quite limited. All that you are able to see is the characters at the lunch table and some inmates behind them. It's limited to the space of the inside of the cafeteria. The scene shows all of the friends chatting at the table, but once Andy starts getting deep about himself feeling music inside of him the camera uses both zoom and panning (complex shot) to focus in on Andy. This creates a great tension which is released by Red saying how he used to play the harmonica. Tension is felt again in the end of the scene between Andy and Red when Andy proved his point about Brooks losing his hope. There is contrast and affinity seen in the use of lines. The virtual lines between Red and Andy are very intense and deep feeling, while the lines used when Andy is talking to everybody at the table in general feel much more loose and relaxed (though Andy is still talking very thoughtfully.)

Blog #6: Storyboard Imitation

This scene was shot very well. The director did indeed follow the rule of thirds, 180 degree rule and both of the 30 rules. When Jules walks into the room, it's very easy to tell right away that the director wanted him to be the point of interest. This is because the rule of thirds - Jules walks directly to the top left of the screen and that is where we tend to first focus our eyes. This is used in just about every shot of Jules during this scene and eventually (once he starts reciting bible passages) gives him a great feeling of power and superiority. The director followed the 180 degree rule at all times excluding exceptions such as another character entering the room, if the camera cuts away to another object, or if the characters on screen are moving. Although they takes advantage of these exceptions, the rule is never broken and therefore they avoid jump cuts. They also payed attention to the rules of 30 because you can tell just by the first five scenes that many different shots are used. The first one is an over the shoulder shot which cuts to a long shot from the complete opposite side of the room, meaning the angle changed by more than 30 degrees. The shot after this one is a close up of the guy on the couch, meaning the image size increased by at least 30 percent. Every single shot differs either in angle or image size by 30 degrees or 30 percent. Although the director broke the 180 degree rule on occasion, he did so with exceptions to avoid a jump cut so no harm was done. He also portrayed great use of angles to show who was the more powerful character. Shots of Jules and Vincent are low angles to make it feel like the other characters have to look up to them, while shots of Brett look down on him and make him look cowardly. This is great use of angles because it really gives Jules a sense of power and authority which is important to the overall feeling of this scene.

Blog #7: Animation Deconstruction

These two styles of animation are very different from one another. Tom & Jerry began in 1939 while Superjail is relatively new and first aired in 2007. Tom & Jerry animators incorporate the use of hue and saturation to differentiate between objects. Background objects are all light in value and saturation and have relatively dull hues. The characters are more saturated so they stand out in front of the background objects, and objects like the hammer and wedge of cheese are even brighter in hue and saturation so they stand out even more. The movements of both Tom & Jerry are smooth and have human-like qualities with some animated effects. Camera movement is also used to allow the audience to follow the characters and give them an idea of what is going to happen next. Shadows are used to add a sense of mood to the cartoon, but the lighting is similar for most episodes. Superjail on the other hand is very different. A lot of bright colors are used to give the animation a kind of trippy feel. The rainbow hues coming from the warden's eyes stand out the most in this picture because of the bright value and saturation (also the rule of thirds). The animators pay great attention to facial detail in all of the inmates, but the warden is more cartoonish and fake. I think this is to give a rugged "bad-guy" feel to all of the inmates while the warden is a very animated and almost cheerful character in the way he acts. Movement in Superjail is much less life like. The characters movement is very fast, exaggerated, and often times extremely violent. I feel like Tom & Jerry was very ahead of its time in terms of its animation qualities, but these examples show how different animation genres can become over a long period of time.

Blog #5: Song Deconstruction

The Octopus Project as a band has a very unique style. They bring aspects of both classic acoustic music and mix it with new age electronica to create the perfect blend of old and new. They're widely known for there very uncommon use of the theremin (which can be heard starting at 3:10 in the second link above). The first song, Fuguefat, demonstrates excellent use of irregular timing (7/4 time signature). This song has a very loud intensity, while Upmann has a much softer and mellow feel to it. Although these songs have a very different feeling to them, they are quite similar in emotional architecture and organization. Both songs tend to build up in the intro and lead into a simple pattern that is heard throughout the song while other instruments layer and variate over it. The melody of Fuguefat is held together by the pattern played on the piano, while in Upmann it's a basic chord progression played on a guitar thats heard throughout. The overall groove of the songs is different. The first one has a very solid driving groove with upbeat drums. The second one has a looser feel with use of triplet rhythms and a mellow groove that flows through the song. The timbre of Fuguefat is more complex and hectic while Upmann's is smooth and simple. Both songs are very deep in layers of instruments, however the quality of the layers is different. The first one is more chaotic and the layers tend to drown themselves out so you can't tell all of them apart as well. The second song layers the instruments so that the lead is always heard above the rest, but the others are still clear and in their own space. Neither songs have lyrics, so instead they use instruments to play lead melodies and harmonies over other instruments or variate which instruments are prominently heard. The band also uses electronic aspects of music to create a very technical and quantized feel to the songs. In Fuguefat an electronic percussion pattern is heard in the intro with the piano arpeggio. This adds to setting the tempo of the whole song and giving a feeling of structure to the piano melody. I don't have a favorite of the two songs because they both appeal to me depending on the mood I'm in or what type of groove I want to listen to.