Come see Pez the 480, the thesis film that I directed!!! It will be screening Monday December 14th in Norris Theater at USC at 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM.
Two very different people fight over the possession of a Pez Dispenser for two very different reasons.
Pez is a dark comedy that takes place in an alternate suburbia where bright colors and out-of-this-world hair and makeup are the norm. Be ready for a fun and entertaining visual feast!
Synopsis: In a colorful suburban land, goth outcast Alicia DeWhitley happens upon a rare Eiffel Tower Pez dispenser while shopping with her perfectionist-to-the-T mother, May. Instantly growing attached, Alicia wears the dispenser as a necklace, carrying it on her body day and night. Meanwhile, Barry, landscaper extraordinaire and slob, witnesses Alicia's purchase only to realize that the Eiffel Tower Pez dispenser is the last one he needs to complete his epic Pez dispenser collection, thereby confirming his entry into the Guinness Book of World Records.
A cat and mouse game ensues as Barry does everything in his power to retrieve the precious Eiffel Tower Pez dispenser from Alicia's grasp, who holds onto it as if it were her last link to a fading memory...
This short film is the most advanced and well-funded project put on by the prestigious USC School of Cinematic Arts.
This project has been shot on state-of-the-art Sony digital HD, edited on Avid, recorded in the Spielberg Sound Stage, mixed in ProTools, scored by a professional composer and live orchestral arrangement.
I am pulled from my warm dark room into the cold light, forced to breathe, gasping for air from my restricted lungs. Something wraps around my neck, choking me, scaring me. Screams and shouts of panic fill the room as men and women in white surround me. “Cut it off, she can’t breathe,” yells one man. A shaky female voice screams in pain, confusion, and terror. In the heat and the yelling I slowly crack open the crust that seals my eyelids and see an eye staring back at me, my first blurred image. Close to death, still not breathing, I curiously look at the eye watching me. It is my very own eye reflecting back at me through the lens of a gigantic family video camera. That moment is my first, documented and preserved on the film of a dusty VHS tape buried in my families’ garage bookshelf.
Back in December of 1987, my Uncle, a photographer, asked my eight-month-pregnant hormonal mother, Stacey, if he could film my birth. Thinking it was quite an invasion of privacy and not something anyone should have the opportunity to watch and relive, my mother refused. But lying in her hospital bed at three in the morning, she soon changed her mind and decided she would let her brother film her first birth. Eventually she also changed her mind about having a natural birth. My mother, a yoga teacher, has always believed that anyone can control pain through breathing. She insisted that my dad take a special mother/ father “yoga breathing” class so that he would be her breathing coach. At four in the morning after hours of labor and my father’s lack of motivational breathing assistance, my mom got the epidural, a great moment for eventual viewers of the birthing tape.
Growing up I knew this birth tape existed but it was completely off limits to me. More off limits than the rated R movies lying next to it! I would beg to watch it, not really because I wanted to see a close up of my mother in birthing action, but because I was not allowed to see it “until you are fourteen.” I could only imagine what “mature” content was emulsified into the film. Certainly I, a mature twelve year-old, was mature enough to handle whatever graphic image the treasure-of-a-tape held!
January 13, 2002 I finally turned fourteen. It was my first day back from my wonderful three-week winter break. I had spent a good portion of my break thinking about the moment the tape would enter our VCR. In history class I watched the clock slowly tick down the minutes until the grand viewing that was surely to come after school. But after school, after presents and after cake I mentioned the tape and my parents said, “Lindsey, you are not allowed to watch it till you are fifteen, remember?” “I am ready!!! I am mature enough,” I angrily yelled. I lost that fight for the next two years.
Eventually my parents broke down and we all watched my birth tape together when I was sixteen. As soon as the tape started rolling I wondered why in the world I had ever had an interest in watching it! Thankfully the tape was muted for the most part but the whole experience was incredibly awkward. I witnessed the heated argument that ensued when my father whispered to my mother, “maybe you should try and be more quiet” and my mother’s angry response eventually leading the epidural. It was very disturbing watching my bloody umbilical chord tightly wrap around my neck nearly kill me... until at a few seconds old when I stare right into the camera and smile. We all rewound that image several times in awe.
If a video camera was the first image I ever saw, a bottle of cranberry juice must have been the second. Perhaps a bottle sat by my mother’s hospital bed and I happen to lay eyes on it. Growing up, while most of my classmates wanted to be ballerinas, ice skaters and professional basketball players, I wanted to be a cranberry picker, inspired by the sleek images of men standing in bogs on the Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail bottle.
I wrote a letter to the Ocean Spray Company and they sent me three Ocean Spray towels and a VHS tape on how cranberry juice is made, a documentary of sorts.
While some of my classmate’s parents discouraged them from being anything but doctors and lawyers, my parents encouraged me to be whatever I wanted, and that included being a professional cranberry picker. Because of my parents, I grew up truly believing that I could accomplish anything if I set my mind to it. It was great being raised by two hippies (my mom had meet at age 39 and my sister at age 42) because their goals as parents were to raise my sister and I in a place where we could be and do whatever we desired. My grandfather wanted my dad to be an insurance seller and my father’s decision to pursue his passion in the arts was not supported by his close-minded parents, and my mom faced a similar struggle when she decided to be a yoga teacher. My parents know what it feels like to grow up in suburbia under parents who want their kids to follow a straight, pre-determined path, and so my parents raised my sister and I in Los Angeles, a city they believed we would be exposed to amazing opportunities and life a variety of viewpoints. I grew up eating falafels, Ethiopian food, and hamburgers, believing that I could be a cranberry picker or a famous actress if I wanted to. I went to a Sikh daycare center where I insisted on wearing a turban, and I attended a Jewish pre-school, making my parents light Shabbat candles on Friday nights. My parents took me to museums before I could talk, and I believe that being introduced to so many diverse cultures and experiences at such a young age has shaped me into the open and artistic person that I am. I played AYSO soccer in the Beverly Hills League with girls who had designer cleats, even though I have never lived in Beverly Hills or owned a pair of expensive shoes. When money was tight, my family moved in with my grandmother. When my dad’s designs sold, we took a trip to Hawaii. But I would not trade my house located a block away from Little Ethiopia and half a mile from an Ashram and a Greek Coptic Church, even though I did not feel safe going outside at night.
Despite my early desire to go into the cranberry industry, my occupational goal changed to filmmaking when I was nine, the Ocean Spray VHS quickly retiring to the bookshelf nearby my birthing tape. Like most children, I watched my fair share of Sesame Street and sitting next to that off-limits birthing tape were tons of Disney movies and Winnie the Pooh tapes. But I enjoyed making movies so much more than simply watching them; I found sitting on a couch for hours in front of a television screen boring. Making films on the other hand, is never boring. I first got hooked because I could make my entire fourth grade class, including the teachers, laugh and smile with my films. I also found that my films appeal to a wide audience because I depict a variety of viewpoints, probably due to my diverse Los Angeles upbringing. I made my first film at nine years old, a comedic report on global warming. My classmates laughed at my lead character, a gorilla puppet, and even my teachers chuckled over my homemade cardboard model of an electric car. The fulfillment I received from seeing my classmates have fun watching my work inspired me to keep going.
From there the videos never stopped. Though my two best friends, Molly and Marie, are at Ivy League colleges studying medicine today, before college, film was our game. During the week Molly, Marie and I would write scripts, storyboard and be ready to film the following weekend. Our other friends would go to the mall and to movie theaters on Saturday nights, but we were “on location” in my backyard, filming with a camera in a plastic bag so that we could run through the sprinklers to insinuate a thunderstorm. From commercials to music videos and even our own monthly version of Saturday Night Live called Tuesday Midmorning Afternoon Live, making music videos and comedies truly made me happy.
Here are some very silly music videos that I have made through the years with my sister Jane. I swear that the videos I make today are a lot better! They really make me miss my long hair!
A ridiculous one
Here is a more recent music video that I did with Jane (but by recent I still mean a long time ago, I swear)!
In sixth grade we made a drama thriller for the talent show where I played a girl who got lost in a forest where a serial killer who escaped from prison was on the lose. In seventh grade we made The Mitosis Ballet for biology class where Molly was the nucleus, a few of us were chromosomes and we re-enacted in dance form a narrated version of mitosis from interphase through cytokenisis. In eighth grade we reenacted the civil war and I discovered iMovie, a simple Apple editing software that really brought my films to the next level. I would sit in front of my computer editing for hours, and not much has changed today, except now I work on a professional Avid system and edit for NBC at my internship.
Here is a recent music video that I edited.
That dusty old bookshelf in my garage reflects my life well. My parents love making art so on one shelf is their art, on another is the art my sister and I have made throughout the years. But the rest of the bookshelf has been taken over by my films. As it turns out I have my two most life changing moments on tape. The first, the survival of my complicated birth, the second, a short film of me submitting my USC film school application.
I worried that I would not be able to afford tuition at USC, but as teachers and artists, my parents were struggling with their finances and this actually ended up giving me a great financial aid package. USC even paid for me to live on campus despite the fact that my house is six miles away. But did I belong at USC where the film school is composed of largely white upper class students? It felt awkward knowing that I was the first Jewish person my suitemate from Kentucky met. As I began to immerse myself into student life at USC, I began to realize how important my unique upbringing was to me because I differed greatly from a lot of the students around me. Today I realize that because I grew up exposed to such diversity of wealth, race and religions, I have a unique voice and all of my experiences allow me to make better films.
Now a senior at USC, I still don’t own a car and I can’t put personal funds into my films like most of my classmates can to have elaborate stunts or shoot in exotic locations. But I believe that my understanding of the world from differing perspectives has made me into a more insightful filmmaker and will continue to help me portray different perspectives. I am not rich or poor but I understand what it means to be a part of both worlds. I think this gives me an advantage from the boy who sits next to me in my film theories class; he went to a predominantly white private school in upstate New York and he has had limited interaction with people who are different from him racially, politically and financially.
I still live near the USC campus and even though I don’t relate well to the many sorority girls and rich film hipsters, I have done very well as a filmmaker at USC. Every time I visit home I have another DVD to add to that dusty bookshelf. Today VHS tapes of my early short films and now DVDs of my college films follow the birthing tape and the Ocean Spray tape. A few dusty open spots remain open on the shelf… spots reserved for what is coming next.
My younger sister Jane goes to the Hamilton High School Music Academy. The high school is public music magnet and so the programs in music, dance and theater are very strong. I must admit it is rare for me to go see a high school play and actually enjoy it, but this play is seriously the most professional thing I have seen in a long time. I see most of the USC School of Theater plays and Cabaret at Hamilton was better than most plays I see at USC.
Though the musical is being put on at a high school, this is not the PG version of the musical... in fact it is apparently the raunchiest version filled with abortion, nazis, sex and of course, cabarets in the 1930s in Berlin. Yes it is high schoolers coming out on stage in very revealing outfits and sensually dancing, but I swear you forget that when you are watching the show.
I have seen Cabaret before and I forgot how intense the story is. The musical really hit home for me because it deals with the beginning of the nazi takeover in Berlin and my family came from Berlin and Vienna, though many members of my family did not make it to the states. Of course the hallaucost has especially intense meaning for me as a Jewish descendent of family members who did not make it, but everyone watching the show was moved.
The two most intense moments for me is when the very flamboyant Master of Ceremonies, Emcee, does a dance with an actor in a gorilla costume. This is the first scene after intermission and the entire audience laughs as Emcee comically dances with the gorilla singing the song If You Could See Her
Here are the lyrics.
I know what you're thinking: You wondered why I chose her Out of all the ladies in the world. That's just a first impression, What good's a first impression? If you knew her like I do It would change you're point of view.
If you could see her through my eyes You wouldn't wonder at all. If you could see her through my eyes I guarantee you would fall (like I did). When we're in public togtheer I hear society moan. But if they could see her through my eyes Maybe they'd leave us alone.
Why can't they leave us alone.
I understand your objection I grant you the problem's not small But if you could see her through my eyes She wouldn't look Jewish at all.
Read that last line of the song. While the audience laughs because dancing with a gorillas is funny, the song suddenly takes a dark turn as the audience realizes that the gorilla is a metaphor for how Jews were seen. This scene is very poignant and really struck a harsh chord with me.
Here is the scene I am talking about from Cabaret the film.
The other scene of the film that also deeply impacted me the very last scene of the musical when Emcee reveals that he is actually Jewish. He slowly and dramatically drops his robe to reveal that he is wearing the concentration camp uniform and the big yellow Jewish star.
Cabaret is a poignant and deeply impacting musical and I recommend the Hamilton performance of the play! I will probably be going to see it again!
When one places an object on a pedestal or encloses it within a glass box, one physically ascribes certain significance to the object. The context in which one places this elevated object assigns further implications to it and influences the perceptions of the audience of the object. In a particular context, the object can be characterized as art; in another the same object can be transformed into an anthropological item used to explain a particular culture or the significance a group of people designates to the object. Specifically, this paper discusses the characterization of African art objects displayed before a Western audience. Are they treated as objects with aesthetic value or as supplements to explanations of culture and religion? To what extent should museums offer interpretations or otherwise shape audience understanding of the meaning and or value of the art they present? These questions on the balance of an object’s aesthetic value and cultural significance are particularly pertinent when displaying African art to a Western audience. Selecting to emphasize appearance or to favor an educational understanding of an object in a particular exhibit becomes especially blurred in an African art exhibit because the objects were not created with the intent of being placed in a museum. Because of this both geographic and cultural distance, how the audience perceives the object is heavily dependent on how the object is displayed. Should the art world transform an object created for everyday use into a valued piece of artwork or should the object be an educational visual aid, and are both options mutually exclusive? Though there is no right or wrong answer, I believe that an object can be displayed as an art piece and be simultaneously educational.
A central theme in the discourse on the display of African art is how to anticipate and address the audience for the artwork. It is not simply enough to display a particular piece, one must decide in what manner one wants to exhibit the object. In a gallery specific to African art, there are no labels on the artwork. The gallery-goers and potential art purchasers are expected to be able to recognize the artwork and know at least some of its history and value. In a public museum, curators make the assumption that the observer knows little about the African art world, and adjust their exhibits to account for this dearth of information in the public sphere (Lecture 4 February 2009).
It is placed on a low, white pedestal with a spotlight beaming down at it from above in contrast to the dim lighting prevalent throughout the exhibit. This display invites the perception of an aura around the piece, elevating it to the status of art just as the statue is raised to eye-level. The curator showcases the object as a work of art, highlighting its aesthetic aspects and almost declaring that this piece is art. Accompanying the statue is a label that not only explains the artist, date and medium, but also its function and use within the Congo society. The label reveals that the figure is a fertility object, represented by the figure’s pronounced genitals (Observation 9 November 2009). Viewing the figure is no longer a purely aesthetic experience, but it is now an educational activity as well. I believe LACMA is effectively displaying this figure for its value as an art object while simultaneously being educational. By including this explanatory label, the museum is neither adding to the experience of the museumgoer nor detracting from the value of the object as art.
The American Museum of Natural History has a clear educational purpose, and the displays there serve as graphic tools and learning materials to further this goal.
Its exhibits focus on anthropology and attempt to help the museumgoer understand the culture of various peoples in other parts of the world. The set-up of the museum is such that the displays support the text of an exhibit and serve as visual aids helping to illustrate a particular facet of a culture. For example, the African section contains a small display towards the back of the exhibit entitled “Beauty.” A lengthy text at eye-level describes how cattle are seen as particularly beautiful in a certain African culture and how this value is translated into a children’s game. The children collect small white stones and name them, treating the stones in the same manner as their parents treat their cattle. If one looks down to waist level, there is a glass display case containing several of these white stones (Observation 10 August 2009). The set-up is such that the objects themselves are not the focal point of the display. Rather, the description provided in the text about the game, and by extension the concept of beauty in cattle, becomes the main purpose of the display, with the objects serving to give the viewer a visual contextualization of the cultural aspect. The objects are displayed as clearly functional pieces, as supports for a text, rather than for their appearance. Though the rocks are the embodiment of beauty within this particular African culture, they are not displayed as beautiful objects in the anthropology exhibit, but serve to augment the text, emphasizing the scholarly nature of the installation. The perception of the stones changes because of the display; the Western audience does not view them the same way that one might view a diamond or precious stone because of the way in which the stones are displayed, though the culture where they originated did hold the stones in the same regard as valuable jewels. I believe that the Natural History Museum could have easily displayed the stones as art reminiscent of valuable jewels and still have included an explanatory label if the stones were in a glass case with a spotlight.
The Louvre in Paris is a museum that consistently includes only the artist and the date on the labels next to each work (Lecture 25 March 2009).
Figure 1 below depicts an African object from Guinea displayed in the Louvre without any labels that would help to illuminate or elucidate the meaning or function of the artwork.
Figure 1
Instead, the text (not depicted in Figure 1) nominally supports the object. The relationship between the text and the artwork is minimal, constructing the central role of appearance that an art museum display traditionally stresses. But would a label explaining the functionality of the piece on the right wall detract from the piece as art? I think it would simply provide more background to the piece.
Thought the act of displaying an object carries much significance with it and assigns the object different meanings and interpretations, art can be displayed both for appreciation of form and visual aesthetics and displayed in a scholarly manner to evoke understanding and meaning. Because most African art pieces were originally household objects, the art world is free to assign new meaning to an object; it can be transformed from an object created for everyday use into a valued piece of artwork or into an educational visual aid, or both. As Susan Vogel states, African art does not have the legacy of being displayed in art museums and there is not a general public consciousness of African objects belonging in an art museum, resulting in an open discourse on the appropriate, rapidly changing ideas for design of these exhibits. Though there is no right or wrong answer on how African objects should be displayed in museums, I would hope that museums serve as a place where anthropology and art combine so that museumgoers can both appreciate and understand art.
I have found that my personal happiness depends on the happiness of Those around me. If my friends and family are happy, I am generally happy. And when things are not going well for the people around me, I take on their stress and foul mood. Luckily, I seem to have the fortunate ability to make the people around me smile. I somehow manage to put a smile on most people’s face when recounting an awkward story or sharing a funny moment. I found at nine years old that the easiest and most effective way of sharing my sense of humor is through making films.
Movies and television shows are the ultimate escape for the viewer; they can make the audience laugh and cry, and movies can even provoke change on a mass scale. Because my goal throughout my life has been to make others happy, I am attracted to film since there is no better medium to communicate an emotion to a mass audience countless times. Through film I have the potential to make millions of people laugh and smile. I can change the mood of someone in New York in the year 2009 and in Tokyo, Japan in 2050.
I make situational comedies, that is, comedies that are character driven and are humorous because of an awkward moment, not from a physical action. For example, a physical comedy would be a man falling on the ground because he slipped on a banana peel. To make this scene a situational comedy, the man falls to the ground after slipping on a banana peel, all in front of his ex-girlfriend. Awkward.
I like developing characters that are easily relatable. This means featuring characters in my films that have universal problems and who are sympathetic in understandable ways. We all know what it feels like to have feelings for someone that are not reciprocated. We have all had a zit on our face at an inopportune time. Humans learn social norms by watching film and television shows so having easily relatable characters in my films allows the audience to leave the theater with a feeling of acceptance and happiness.
I have always been interested in film editing. I believe that I have good comedic timing and I also have great rhythmic timing so I love editing music videos. I believe that editors are the true storytellers since the film is sculpted and molded in the editing room. As an editor I have the control to turn a bad acting performance into a compelling performance and I can create stories that did not previously exist. A film is truly made in the editing room.
I also enjoy directing. This semester I was one of four students chosen to direct an undergraduate thesis, the most advanced and prestigious film funded by USC. I believe that coming from an editing background makes me a stronger director because I have a good idea of how the material will cut together so I really know my story and characters.
I love all aspects of the filmmaking process. Really every role on a film crew is important and I have been fortunate enough to attend the USC School of Cinematic Arts where I have had the opportunity to try my hand at every position. I have already made nine films and a music video within school and am looking forward to creating more films that generate happiness in the future.
I worked with Renata Popenhagen, a Fine Arts major, Christopher Goodpasture, a Piano major and Alex Wright, a theater major. The obvious project that the four of us could have done together with me being a Film Production major would have been to make a film where Renata did production design, Alex acted, I edited and Chris composed and performed a score. We all realized, however, that we wanted to chose a project where none of us would have to compromise our true preferred art form so we could each retain our roles. Therefore we decided to do a project that reversed the creative process by focusing on the actual process, rather then on the end result. Our project was an experiment of sorts where we were not concerned with making a singular unified piece, but separate pieces of the same theme.
I retained my role as an editor/ director, acting as the facilitator of the project. First, I looked through Renata's portfolio and found a piece that she had done in acrylic on canvas that I felt had many universal themes, but was still opened to interpretation. Here is he painting below:
To me this painting looked like rays of light stabbing a black blob. Without having Renata tell me any background on the piece, I created my own meaning and came up with the words "tragedy," "orange," "dark," "betrayal," and "hope" to describe the painting.
I then met with Alex and only told her the words I came up with to describe the piece. She brought to the table different monologues from plays that she thought fit with the emotions I conveyed through these words. After looking through Hamlet, Macbeth and Cesar, I felt that Portia's scene in Caesar most represented the painting. I then directed Alex to perform the piece in a more dramatic way than she had previously performed the piece. The character of Portia has this singular monologue in the entire play before she commits suicide so Alex and I discussed that performing the monologue in a more angry and intense manner still made sense in the context of the play.
After meeting with Alex I met with Chris to help him chose a piece that went along with the words I used to describe Renata's painting. Chris immediately knew the piece he wanted to use; a Czech piece that was written at the turn of the century that sounded to Chris like tragedy and death. The piece has lots of long pauses and Chris emphasized those moments of silence to represent tragedy, betrayal and hope while he performed the piece.
Being the sort of middle man in my group was a really cool experience for me. Previously I have been told exactly what to do as an editor and I always resented the director for giving me such strict orders as I felt like I was merely a button pusher and could not put in any of my own personal creative input. I have also been a director and I always felt like a tyrant when I am the one to take away that creative control from my crew. Directing/ editing this project was a lot of fun for me because I was able to give the three artists in my group some guidance and rules in their picking of pieces and choosing how to perform their pieces, however, each artist was still able to maintain their own creative control and make decisions for themselves.
The presentation, or the grand reveal of our experiment, was a lot of fun for me because I got to see the reactions of Chris and Alex to seeing the original piece of artwork that had inspired my words that in turn inspired their projects. It was also interesting to see Renata's reaction on how I had interpreted her painting and how she felt towards the monologue performed and the piano piece performed.
Though the painting, the piano piece and the monologue are separate pieces, it was great to see the the three art forms come together to express the same theme in different ways. There was no success or failure to our project and I believe that is what made it really fun and collaborative. I really enjoyed the whole process and seeing all three aspects to our presentation in class together was a great conclusion to our efforts!
I am finally getting around to seeing all of the movies that I wanted to see last winter but did not have the time too. Burn After Reading is a Coen Brother film (written by Joel Coen and directed by Ethan Coen) that got very mixed reviews. I have talked to people who both hated it and loved it so I figured I would see it for myself since everyone seems to have something to say about it.
The film is very well done and includes such high profile actors as George Clooney, John Malcovich and Brad Pitt, and though the acting in the film is very strong, I did not enjoy the film's plot for the most part. I went into the film thinking that it is a comedy and I think that is why I found the film to be disappointing. I did, however, LOVE the ending. The pay off of the entire film comes in the last minutes of the movie. Though the payoff is fabulous and hilarious, I am not sure if it justifies the rest of the movie which I did not enjoy much. It is frustrating to sit through an entire movie not enjoying yourself only to enjoy the last few minutes. I don't want to give too much away to readers who have not seen the film, but the pay off basically makes fun of the entire film and it made me feel almost silly for sitting through the entire hour and a half.
The quality of the picture was great; I enjoyed all of the dolly shots, handheld shots and the color palette, but I most enjoyed the characters in Burn After Reading. Every character is quirky and put into weird and awkward situations. No character is very relatable except for the gym owner who *spoiler alert* gets shot in the end. The Coen Brothers are known for their strong character portrayals and in this film they nailed their characters.
Brad Pitt plays a gym trainer who is one of those guys obsessed with exercising and nothing else.
John Malcovich is quite a character, playing an angry man who is fired from his low job at the CIA.
George Clooney plays a ridiculous guy who thinks that he is very clever, but in reality, he is a man who gets caught sleeping around and does everything but outsmart the women who he is with.
Tilda Swinton plays John Malcovich's cheating wife who is out to get his money in a divorce settlement.
All in all, if you are looking for a movie that is pointless until the end (and even then the film is pointless- you will know what I mean if you watch the film), Burn After Reading is a film you will enjoy.
The Greek tragedy Medea put on by the USC School of Theater in the Bing Theater was a performance that I thoroughly enjoyed. Though the story of Medea is incredibly dark and it can be hard for audience members to relate to the character of Medea because of her violent actions, the play was so well acted that I actually rooted for Medea, believing that she is just in seeking revenge on her husband, even in such a controversial way. The acting, movement, visual design and sound design of the play were all so well done that I was completely immersed in the story, not even noticing the lack of an intermission. However, the costumes and poor quality of the sound system in the theater, as well as never seeing Medea’s sons made the play seem less professional.
Medea is the story of a woman who kills her children in order to seek revenge upon her husband, a very dark tragedy and a story that may not seem enjoyable to watch. This was not the case in this performance due to the fantastic performance of the actress who played Medea. The beginning of the play seemed long and I got a little lost in the language, but once the story picked up and Medea devised her plan and became proactive instead of wailing in self-pity, I did not blink once because I was so mesmerized by Medea. The lead actress brought so much emotion and self-righteousness to the character that I completely believed her performance. She would stomp around the stage in rage, hair wild and uncombed, flying out behind her. She would scream and cry at the top of her lungs, making her performance exhilarating to watch. I did not notice the rest of the actors because the lead took over the stage.
The Chorus, made up of about thirty girls in white dresses, was also fabulous. Though the Chorus took up half the theater because they would stand on either side of the main seating area, the lack of seating available was well worth this positioning. Every audience member became surrounded by angry, and all at the same time, sympathetic women in white, each singing in different keys to make for an eerie off-pitch performance of the songs. The Chorus would move around the theater, climbing on theater chairs, moving rhythmically and loudly sighing, hypnotizing the audience in their wails.
I absolutely loved the visual design of the play. The stage was covered in large boulders and rocks that Medea would angrily climb over, strongly adding to her feeling of isolation, yet reflecting her power and determination. Steps lead to Medea’s house and she would dramatically disappear and reappear behind a glass door lit by a chandelier. My favorite part of the set design was the skinny life size trees on the stage. At times the detail of the leaves in the trees were visual through lighting, and sometimes the skinny silhouettes of the trees were all one could make out on the stage. They created a very dynamic feeling on stage and simultaneously made me feel like I was in ancient Greece.
The play also had a very strong sound design done by Molly McGraw. The play had atmospheric sounds throughout and the music for the chorus was merely a bass line with a metronome, adding incredibly to the eerie feeling of the play. Unfortunately, it seemed as though the sound system in the theater was weak and did not do the recorded sounds justice, particularly during the scene when Medea kills her sons. For some reason, Medea kills her sons off stage and I believe that this was a poor decision because the entire affair sounded fake due to the high amount of reverberation of the sounds. I am not a huge fan of the costume design for the play because it was predictable. Medea wore a very gothic looking costume, all black with a large cloak and leather pants. I would have liked to see something more original for Medea. Even though she is a dark character, she is still a woman and a mother so I would have liked to see Medea in a dress. The Chorus’ costumes were also predictable; simple white dresses.
Though the play was not perfect and had limitations such as the poor sound system and lack of male actors to play Medea’s sons, I highly enjoyed the intensely female driven narrative and would recommend this performance of the play to anyone looking to be entertained by an angry self-righteous woman.
I like watching movies and television shows that make me laugh.I personally don’t like sitting down to watch a film about a kidnapping or rape.Its, true sometimes thrillers and mysteries can be exciting, and a tearjerker can be a fantastic film, but when it comes down it, all I personally ever want to watch are comedies, specifically situational comedies.
A lot of people don’t realize that there are different types of comedies.Mainly there are physical comedies and situational comedies.A physical comedy would be a scene where a man slips on a banana peel and falls to the ground.What I believe to be much funnier would be that same scene but in a situational comedy; a man slips on a banana peel, falls to the ground, and then he looks up to see his ex girlfriend standing there, having seen the whole accident…. Awkward!!!
I find situational comedies to be funnier and more relatable than physical comedies because we have all been in an awkward situation and though at the time it seems like the worst situation in the world, in retrospect, most people will find that situation to be hilarious.Awkward things seem to happen to me all the time for some reason!For example, I always see that person I am trying to impress right when I have exited the gym and am super sweaty and definitely not looking my best… and all I can do is laugh!What else can you do?I see the world as one big situational comedy and I take these awkward moments and put them in my films and the result is hilarious.
Situational comedies are intensely character driven and audience members find comedy in seeing relatable instances on screen.A sense of community is created just in the theater because everyone finds these situations funny because they have all been there, or they at least know exactly what it would feel like to be there.This helps audience members feel human and related to strangers around them, creating a sense of communal relatedness that helps an individual even with their own personal identity.
A situational comedy like one of my favorite films, Mean Girls, is funny to an audience because most of us went to high school and we all knew those popular “plastic” girls.We all knew who was popular and who wanted to be like those popular people.
Most of us know how it feels to have a crush on someone who has no idea of your crush… some of us even know what it feels like to have a crush on your friend’s boyfriend or girlfriend, or at least we know what that would feel like.Though Mean Girls is considered to a “chick flick” and it is a female driven narrative, I have never found someone, male or female, who did not get a good laugh out of that film or find that film’s characters and plot to be relatable.The film Jackass, on the other hand, is a physical comedy.
Though there are a good number of people out there who greatly enjoyed this film, I never felt related to the characters, nor did I find the actors physically torturing themselves to be funny.When it comes down to it, I just like situational comedies better than physical comedies.
I became a filmmaker because I love making films that make people happy.There is no feeling like seeing an audience laugh at your film.Situational comedies are my niche, a genre of comedy that always makes people laugh and smile.From most of Judd Apatow’s films (my favorite is Superbad) to most Saturday Night Live skits, most people cannot deny that situational comedies are where the laughs are at!
Here is a clip from Superbadthat is funny because of the situation. It is a very character driven moment.
Here is an awkward moment from Mean Girls. I love making films full of awkward situations- the awkward moment in this clip is about 50 seconds in.
Here is a clip from Jackass, a physical comedy. I don't find it funny but that's just my personal opinion!
