MDIA 203 video

Blog Assignment 6

The Simpsons, still images

In the top picture we notice a split-complementary color scheme using yellow for the skin, red for the beer and blue for the woman’s clothing. Overall this color scheme adds a pleasing effect to our eye. On the other hand, the bottom picture consists of an analogous color scheme with pink (unsaturated red) for the walls and brown for the couch and rug. Next to that we also see an analogous scheme with the blue and purple being used. This adds four colors, all analogous to each other, which helps bring out certain images we are supposed to look at. On the bottom picture we have Homer Simpson sitting on the couch in his underwear. The brightest object in this frame is his underwear because that’s what draws our attention and makes us laugh. The somewhat dull colors around his underwear make the bright white come forward and be noticeable. The rest of the room is darkened for this effect whereas in the top picture we notice the bright colors. Almost everything is red besides the skin and eyes of homer and the girl, which is exactly what were supposed to be looking at. We notice the eyes of homer looking directly at the woman’s body because the brighter colors pop out at us.

            On bottom we can also tell that homer is wearing a superman t-shirt which symbolizes the oxymoron taking place. Obviously homer is not superman because he’s in his underwear, he overweight, and he’s not doing anything heroic besides watching TV. The picture in the background also adds to this symbolism in the way that it’s offset. The overall lighting of this room (bottom picture) is very dark as well which gives a feel that homer is in an unclean, unsafe place. The lighting affects the mood drastically. In the bottom picture the mood is more dark, lonely and dirty. The above picture displays a lighter and happier tone. The only shadowing we see in these is under the girl, which acts as a way of showing that she’s outside and the sun is right overhead. 

Blog Assignment 5

Ben Stiller, the director of Tropic Thunder, did a great job making this movie by the book. Within the first ten seconds we notice the 180-degree rule being used perfectly. We always see the character that goes by the name Osiris on the right side of the screen looking to the left at Four Leaf. Four Leaf has a straight on shot which is just on the line of the 180 degree rule but the camera never passes it leaving us with a perfect understanding of where everyone is and what’s happening. Osiris always moves from right to left as Four Leaf always looks from left to right. This is mainly because Four Leaf is trying to get away from the people shooting at him and can only desire to go one direction

The rule of thirds plays an interesting role in this as the middle third pulls our attention to the bottom lip of Four Leaf as he over-acts his role in the pretend movie. This is supposed to be seen as satirical toward Hollywood. This rule also pulls our attention to the side when Osiris isn’t doing much but Stiller wants us to see that the other characters are providing cover fire for him. Another way this rule makes the scene flow is because there isn’t ever more than two main objects in the shot at one time. The two objects allow us enough room to see both those and a little scenery in the background.

Throughout the entire scene we see the rule of 30 used well for the most part. Sometimes it seemed as though the helicopter was a little too far in the back from where we saw it last but it flowed nicely. I didn’t notice any jump cuts in this scene that stuck out at me. When we see a medium shot in on Four Leaf, the camera switched to Osiris before it showed a wide show of Four Leaf. This eased the transition from being zoomed in to zoomed out.