Final Reflection

Final Reflection on Writing

I always saw myself as an artist. My purpose on earth is to create art,that both identifies and embodies my own individuality. However, that will to self-expression can just as well be resonated through the craft of writing. The EN 151 writing course that I took as part to my BFA in computer animation, taught me to embrace this ideal for any writing project in the near future. Writing this reflection alone would have been torturous for me, if I were myself a couple of months ago. Thus, from my understandings I gained from the course, they have inspired me to become more appreciative and expressive with both my own writing and all writers alike
My favorite draft had to be the process paper. Since I chose the paper's subject matter to be about the process of animation, which relates back to storytelling and art, it really helped me to become an attentive writer with something that I am euphorically passionate about. It also gave me the opportunity to explore more of the underlying writing methods, like structure and organization. Structurally-wise, I written the paper into two halves, where one examined the technical aspects of animation, and the latter to examine the theoretical-artistic side of that. The paper was also helpful in showing me how to utilize the writing principles of ethos, pathos, and logos. Moreover, I now always look back towards those concepts of writing, whenever articulating any thought-evoking formal draft.
The research paper was a bit challenging, given that the thesis was to examine the legacy of an individual, mine being film director, Stanley Kubrick. For me at least, a legacy of anyone can be conceptually abstract, since people have their own views on the merits of any individual. Furthermore, the paper forced me to create my own presumption of Kubrick, based on the research I attained from books and articles from the internet.. I also learned a lot on taking feedback from other people. The writing conferences, where both my peers and writing instructor would meet together, and they would always bring up valuable considerations on ways to strengthen my paper's flow.
Truthfully, the Blink review was rather annoying. This is because the draft was one big compilation of all my short reviews of the book's previous chapters. I didn't really had enough room to explore any other concept, other than just tying together the central tone of book. Also, I didn't exactly enjoy the overall book itself, considering that the book reused previously mentioned concepts that I really had no care for. So writing the critical review was a bit counter repetitive, with both restating previous writings as well as the actual book itself being tonally repetitive.
From the very beginning, I really didn't know what to expect in the class. In years past, I have taken the standard English Literature courses in high school, where we were given regular writing assignments. On that regard, I felt as though I did attained some experience in writing, prior to taking the EN 151 course. But as I began to progressively write for the course, I learned that there were some weaknesses that I had not met yet. In particular, was the timed in-class writing. Before, I was often too preoccupied with planning out my ideas and structuring them in such an ego-perfectionistic way. I was very reluctant on writing right off the bat, cosidering that I'm not the biggest converser in the world. My reluctance took away too much of my own time, both what was being done in and out of class. While I was reluctant, I was yet open to change. I recalled reading the Shitty Notes in the beginning of the semester, and I have to say, that was one inspirational read. Never would I imagined that some of the best writers normally started out with very elementary writing. That aspect is even akin to artists, like myself, where we started from scratch before advancing our drawing skills. In the end, I really feel the in-class writings really forced me to become more loose within both my writing and thinking, which was something that I've never had the privilege in any of my English classes. So whenever I did any classwork like that, the methods I learned from course-load always come back to me, and from there on I just write away by whatever comes to me.
Some of my favorite in class writings were acctually the creative writings. As a storyteller, I always take the thrill out of unleashing my imagination onto the page. Even if the premise itself is outlandish, like an Oreo truck crashing in a highway, I still will be willing to tell a story with my upmost level of creativity. In fact, I was considering on taking Creative Writing as my overload for next semester. As with the homework assignments, those often forced me to analyze the reading, which were usually not of personal interest. However, through my analyses and completion of those homework assignments, I felt I gained a better appreciation for writers as a whole, whom, like myself, want to express some well-held beliefs to the world. In the case of the reading response over approaching the process paper, it was significant to me in the sense that I was able to explore other writing methods by different people. The readings like “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” and “Between Art and Architecture” really expanded on my comprehension on tone of a formal paper Thus, in all both cases of in-class and homework assignments, it allowed me to structure my own conceptual apprhension under a creative and self-expressionistic light.
As far as looking back at the guidelines and seeing whether I have progressed as a writer, I felt the assignments and procedures that were given to the class provided that self-growth. For instance, the books I found from the school library, for my Kubrick paper, helped me with my handling towards collecting sources. This procedure will probably helped me towards my professional future, where I am in the likelihood to write a report for a project. And because most of the writing assignments offered the free choice over topic, I learned to plan out the paper's structure beforehand, given that the topic choice was not pre-standardized by the course's curriculum. The revisions that I got from my wring instructor on my 2nd draft papers also benefited me in understanding MLA formatting, which is an aspect that should never be ignored when writing any formal paper. Moreover, my writings from the course have revisited those ideals, as firmly stated in the course goals and objectives.
All in all, I grown so much as both a writer and a student from the course. The methods I attained from the in-class writings, as well as the formal draft writings, really helped to expand my comprehension of things. If I were to give any advice to any new coming freshman on what to expect, I would highly suggest them to stick closely to the curriculum. And they should always be open to new approaches and concepts on writing, even if they think otherwise. That what helped me through this rigorous semester, and I have learned so much because of that.

In-Class Writing

1. He was a nonfiction writer whose books included, Think, The Tipping Point, and of course Blink. Outside of Blink, I don't a whole lot about the author.

2. The one book I have read was the required reading, Blink. I felt the book was interesting in the sense that it explored the idea of seeing the clear picture of a rather complex a subject of any kind.

3. What I expect from Blink based on the title is learning the ability of taking in information of an entity any kind in mere seconds, which is akin to idea of, “in a blink of an eye”.

4. In the context of Blink, I am expecting to find new ways to take in information, or thin-slice, from other day to day issue that most of us go through.

I felt the book brought up some interesting ideas on rapid cognition processing, and applying them to real life situations. I was especially struck by the marriage-divorce experiment, where examiners were studying facial gestures and verbal cues in order to find a correlation to whether the marriage will last or not. That to me shows that we as people instinctively acknowledge that our emotional responses are not something that can be fixed through rational thinking. I wished I could of learned more about the appliance of thin slicing on my regular day-to-day basis. I feel that this is a skill that can revolutionize how we perceive the world in a global sense.

Homework Reading Response

Chris Powell

My Reading Responses to Approaching the Process Essay

After reading Maya Lin's “Between Art and Architecture”, I found her writing approach to be very personal and emotionally reflective. Much of her style is akin to that of a memoir, which disassociates itself from most formal writings. For the most part, formality tends to neglect the subjective undertones that creates some depth to the draft. Lin avoided that flaw by getting to the heart of the issue, rather than simply to descriptively describe what the subject matter is. If I were to write a process paper, I first have to understand what mood I am trying to explore. In Lin's case, where it involved some levels of grief and loss, it is especially important to create some emotional understanding with the people who were directly affected by that given event. She was also very selfless in the sense that she only cared for the sentiments of her audience, not her own. I feel this also applies to writing, where if we don't engage some kind of tonality or some pathos to the reader, we can completely lose touch with what we are trying to express. Ultimately, Lin's deviation by the use of subjectivity was what allowed her to stick out from hundreds who competed in drafting the memorial.

When reading Paul McHenry Roberts' article, “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words”, I felt it was really trying to assert the importance of expressive writing over descriptive writing. For some writers, it can be hard to escape the generality, for reason that it is what sounds the most sense to us. So few of us can rely on abstraction, for its unconventional nature in structure. In the same time, however, what may sound too unconventional, can also entail the paper's worth on the originality spectrum. Much of what I learned from this essay was the sense of value for the use of illustrations. At times, I can be too concrete with my content. This in effect prohibits me from exploring any form of creativity into my writing. So through the use of this aspect, I can atheistically connect my experiences with the reader. I also admired Robert's critical assessment on the role of word choices. With some writings, there can be words where we tend to draw some compelling associations with what we have personally felt in the past. This is especially important when one is trying convey some level of subjective depth into the writing. For me, I take elation in finding interpretations in any piece of reading. Thus, I feel associative wording can benefit the tonality for the writer.

I feel that the most definitive way when writing the process draft is to be tonally informative about the given subject matter. For me at least, I want to get my message directly across, without any hinderance structurally wise. In Caroline Rego's, “The Fine Art of Complaining”, she has done just that, by listing out the do's and not to do's when articulating a formal complaint. Much of the emphasis is the formation of reader engagement, through the use of direct comments and approaches. Thus, Rego expressed a very straightforward writing style, that doesn't create any ambiguity. While ambiguity can offer creative thinking for the draft, it still has the potential to obscure the writer's underlying viewpoint. There will be cases where I get lost in the midst of reading, because the writing was contextually abstract. While I know that the writer was trying get some point across, the draft's clarity didn't flow in the way where I can access any clear judgements on. I also admired the way Rego utilized the developmental stages of writing an effective complaint. This aspect offered a direct, step-by-step method that made the draft plausibly sound. This kind of organizational style can easily be the model for any piece of writing, where the flow of progression is concerned.

Research Paper

Chris Powell
Terra Williams
Writing Studio
October 9 2009

The Final Draft: A Look on Stanley Kubrick's Legacy in Film

For years, artists and writers alike have come to question the many obscurities that surround our distraught society. People like Salvador Dali and James Joyce have all approached those facets through the genius of their creativity. Given that cinema is a relatively unprecedented and fragmented art form, where it is divided between story and film , it is difficult to find one particular individual in film that could have accomplished as much as the great artists and writers of our time. However, there is one man whose traits have distinguished him from any other 20th century film director. Born in 1928 to a Jewish immigrant family in New York's Bronx, Stanley Kubrick would soon emerge as an auteur of American cinema (Nelson 2). While he was considered eccentric for being meticulous with his work, it was his perfectionistic nature which led to many innovations to the filmmaking process. Through understanding his directorial methods, as well as his inner beliefs, one can recognize the full extent of Stanley Kubrick's legacy.

Before going into detail of his accomplishments, one must first acknowledge that Kubrick was yet susceptible to flaw. One case was that Kubrick never had the luxury of going to a film school. Nor did he had any experience in the theater. He performed horribly in high school, notably for failing English and having a 68 average(Kagan 1). Not surprisedly, no college would have dared to accept the young artist. Instead, Kubrick turned to photography to compensate for his shortcoming. For some people, including other film directors, photography is perceived to be incongruent to the craft of film. This perception is often attributed to photography's singular role in composition and lighting, whereas film covers so much more like story development and production. While this can be true to a certain extent, what should be highlighted is that photography was Kubrick's gateway to his own artistic expression. On the day of Frederick Roosevelt's death, Kubrick took a camera shot of a street vendor grieving over the late US president. It was that very camera shot that helped Kubrick to earn a photography job by the renowned magazine firm of the time, Look. Writer, Norman Kagan, said that it was Kubrick's professional photography experience that granted his “aesthetic sensibility”, which Kubrick distilled into his filmmaking career (Nelson 12). Some of Kubrick's own photography even influenced the way he directed his films. For example, in Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's last film before his death, actress Nicole Kidman was asked to cockily pose her hips for the opening scene. Interestedly enough, that particular gesture mirrors a photograph that Kubrick shot of a nude woman, in 1949. (Naremore 7)

Beyond that, Kubrick's photography experience also influenced his method of composing scenes. One of his visual trademarks was the way he staged his camera, in which its placement was set to where its subject was the vanishing point. In A Clockwork Orange, the film opens up with a zoom out of the protagonist, Alex, sitting on a couch, with him being place dead centered within the shot. As the camera zooms out, the audience see more of the interior space of the room through a compositional, linear, one-point perspective: where both sides of the a walls are seen horizontally across from each other. This one-point perspective method is used again in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the protagonist walks through a confined, visually symmetrical, space shuttle. In this regard, Kubrick's compositional understanding that he gained from photography made his films visually distinctive.

On many levels, Kubrick's lack of any formal directorial training was what made him cunningly inventive as a film director. He was always open to the artistic opportunities that could potentially enhance the visual scope of his films. In particular, his science-fiction epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was regarded by many as the most technologically innovative film in the history of cinema (Kagan 134). Just by itself, the film pioneered such visual effects like front projection and slit-scan photography. In the opening of the film, where the apes first learn to use tools, front projection technique involved the integration of a real foreground stage with a filmed backdrop, to achieve the authenticity of the scene. As with the slit scan photography technique, being focally integral in the visually rich Star Gate sequence, it was achieved through a movable slide of painted images which was inserted between a camera. In both cases, those achievements in the cinematography were used to evoke a visual resonance to the audience, that was never witnessed before in history. Thus, this set a standard for the application of special effects in film, as seen in the forthcoming works of George Lucas(Star Wars) and Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) (Day). Taking back a step from the technologically futuristic themed 2001, Kubrick was only just as visually inventive with his 18th century period film, Barry Lyndon. During filming, Kubrick wanted to create a film that captured the aesthetic realism of the time period. Therefore, his goal was to shoot his film's interiors on location, without the help of in-studio set designs. To achieve this authenticity, Kubrick obtained a special kind of camera lens developed by NASA, which was used for lunar photography at the time (Naremore 172). This yielded Kubrick the ability to capture the natural lighting of his interior scenes, which were only lit by candle-light. Never was this accomplished in any preceding period film, which were all shot within the confinement of a propped, Hollywood film studio.

Like every artist, or at least the great ones, Kubrick was widely acclaimed as a perfectionist. Practically all of his works have idealized some facet of filmmaking: cinematography, acting, writing, editing. Since his major directorial debut of Spartacus, virtually all of his films have been recognized by the Academy Awards for those thematics (The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut being the exceptions). His eye for perfectionism has also garnered him the reputation of being performance-sensitive, to the brink of asking his actors to execute an innumerable amount of retakes. When Rolling Stone's editor, Tim Cahill, asked Kubrick about his dauntingly meticulous attribute, he responded, “It happens when actors are unprepared. You cannot act without knowing dialogue. If actors have to think on words, they cannot work on the emotion...” (qtd. in Falsetto 7). This axiom by Kubrick reveals that his perfectionism is quite often the result of his actors' own failings of really immersing into their specified roles. So from Kubrick's viewpoint, it is only through repetition can one achieved his ideal conception of true emotional portrayal.
Although his perfectionism yielded outstanding onset performances, like Dr. Stangelove's George C. Scott and A Clockwork Orange's Malcolm McDowell, it yet proved damaging in Kubrick's working relationships with his actors. In the making of the Shining for example, Kubrick placed heavy demand and stress upon actress, Shelly Duvall. This director-actor conflict is well anecdoted in the case where Kubrick insisted Shelley to perform 127 takes, of the haunting baseball-bat scene (which broke a world-record for the most retakes of a single movie scene with spoken dialogue). From that flaw, Kubrick can sometimes be seen as cold and overbearing to his fellow crewman and actors. Even the Academy-award winning actor, Jack Nicholson, had once expressed that while he cooperated well with Kubrick, he was a “different director” to the young actress (Harlan).

While many of his films were adaptations from novels, Kubrick never completely went by the source material. For example, Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove was based on the book Red Alert, which deals with the nuclear threat between the US and the Soviets. The book itself was a suspense thriller, as were many Cold War-era themed publications (Nelson 84). Kubrick's film adaptation, however, was just the polar opposite. It was a black satire, which quite possibly reflected Kubrick's viewpoint of the outright absurdity, of the fear created between the two superpowers. Many films at the time were also heavily reverent to the script treatment of the novel, but Kubrick was one the few directors to change each novel's tonal structure, to what he thought best fit for his own work. In particular, both audiences and critics alike felt as though there was a hint of pessimism that Kubrick subjectively adds to the story. This was seen A Clockwork Orange, a film based from Anthony Burgess' own classic novel. Both the film and the book shared the same dystopian story about a young gang leader, Alex, where he and his “droogs” carry out violent and perversive atrocities. They both also examined human free will, in which Alex undergoes an aversion therapy that turns hims into a good member of society. However, what changed between the works of Kubrick and Burgess was their ending, where Burgess's Alex willfully learns from his wrong doings, and in contrast, Kubrick's Alex does not learn anything, hinting that he will continue his immoral ways. This view of pessimism on society was also displayed in some of Kubrick's' later works: Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket. This could suggest that Kubrick might of had some nihilistic intentions he wanted to express to the world, both in the thematic and the contemporary sense.

Kubrick's narrative style was also highly distinguishable from any of his predecessors. In the case of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film was set within an almost indefinite time frame, while films prior to 2001 were much more conventionally, as they were set in a time framework of days or years (Naremore 143). Kubrick also relied on the use of symbols as a way to create indirect interpretations to the viewers. Again, this can be seen in 2001, a film that was 141 minutes long, with only about 40 minutes of actual spoken dialogue. The film itself told the story of humanity's evolutionary rise from primitive apes to technologically advanced space explorers that come across an enigmatic black monolith of some unexplained power or origin. Within that context of space exploration, the film also examines man's pitfall towards their reliance on technology for their own right towards existence. It is only when the appearance of the film's iconic black monolith, does man truly evolve, as it was seen when man's descendants discover the use of tools. This symbol is seen again with the film's protagonist, Bowman, who disconnects the space station's supercomputer, HAL 9000, after coming into contact with the monolith. Again, HAL 9000 is displayed as the antagonistic figural representation of technology. This further comes back to the idea that while technology has enabled mankind to prosper, it also has led man to lose their independence by their own manifestation. Symbolically-speaking, the monolith represents the evolutionary progression of man, as it was suggested in the final scene where Bowman evolves into a God-like omniscient, technologically aloof, embryonic being that gazes down on Earth. Under that context, the film was far more abstract and subjectively complex, so that many critics at the time missed the film's message. According to the film theory book, On Kubrick, “The film's cosmic perspective, rigorous attention to technological design and rejection of conventional dramatic values blinded most of the New York critical establishment to its special achievement... The youth audience and any viewer who attended for the sake of spirit were probably in a better position than the literary-minded critics to appreciate the unusual qualities of what she or he was seeing.” (143). Thus, because Kubrick broke the literary functions that were seen in previous works, Kubrick in a sense had instigated a new way of symbolic storytelling.

In addition, Kubrick was heavily influenced by Russian film director, Vsevolod Pudovkin. In many of his renowned film theory books, Pudkvin emphasized on the importance of editing (Nelson 5). From his method, Kubrick skillfully applied this to empower the subjectivity of his stories, like music. In particular, Kubrick distinctively utilized music to compliment or even contradict his narratives' undertones. This was the case for the ending of Dr. Strangelove. In it, there was a montage of atomic blasts, whose highlighted the Cold War era theme of nuclear warfare. Instead of playing music that reflected the gloominess of his nuclear war premise, Kubrick made use of the pleasant song of “We'll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn. For the ambitious filmmaker, this reflected the film's satiric message of creating the juxtaposition between devastation and optimism.

Moreover, when transcribing a novel for view by the masses, Kubrick always took into meticulous consideration the content of his given subject matter. For months, he would collaborate with skilled writers in articulating a detailed and well-rounded researched script. Kubrick once said, “a writer's obsession with his subject, with a theme and concept and a view of life and an understanding of character. Style is what an artist uses to fascinate the beholder in order to convey to him his feelings and emotions and thoughts.” (Nelson 7). Thus, when directing adaptations, Kubrick favored exploring the conceptual understanding of his subject, over finding some identifiable style to create appeal. So because he did not rely on style, he allowed the audience to make their interpretation of what each film was about, rather than imposing his own bias of the subject matter on the audience. In his Vietnam War epic, Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick maintained a very ambivalent, almost subliminal, portrayal of human warfare. In an analysis conducted by Kagan, he writes, “...unlike those films [prior Vietnam War films: Platoon, Apocalypse Now, etc.], Kubrick's journey into darkness moves through conceptual and emotional that lack those moral or ideological rest areas that provide an audience the opportunity to reconnoiter and to fit the film into a familiar parabolic design.” (259). Thus, this shows that Kubrick's goal in Full Metal Jacket as a story was to depict war for what it is, and not to display any kind of one-sided moral, that would otherwise not permit the viewer any self-assessed interpretations.

In brief, Kubrick's transcendence of film directing and narrative paved the way for this creative ingenuity to become instilled into a commercialized art. His films like Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange, all evaluated humanity in its truest, bleakest form, that both entranced and disturbed audiences. The technological and visual innovations that came with his works, also set in a new standard for motion pictures. As with the greats like Salvador Dali and James Joyce, Stanley Kubrick had succeeded in depicting his understandings on life through the creation of his chosen medium. Whether it be what is painted on a canvas, or what is written down for a novel, the interpretations that signify some great importance with society is what manifests a true artist.

Bibliography: Kubrick Research Paper

Chris Powell

Terra Williams

Works Cited


2001: A Space Odssey, Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1968

2001: A Space Odssey. 1968. Dec 5 2009. http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/

2008/03/19/2001_460.jpg

A Clockwork Orange, Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Warner Bros., 1971

Barry Lyndon, Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Warner Bros., 1975

Barry Lyndon. 1975. Dec 5 2009.

http://johngushue.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/22/stanley_kubrick_with_camera.jpg

Eyes Wide Shut, Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Warner Bros.,1999

Day, Dwayne. “The Cultural Impact of 2001: A Space Odyssey ”

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Social/2001/SH8.htm

Dr. Stangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worring and Love the Bomb, Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Columbia Pictures, 1963

Falsetto, Mario. Stanley Kubrick: A Narrative and Stylistic Analysis. New York: Prajer Paperback, 2001

Full Metal Jacket, Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Warner Bros., 1987

Full Metal Jacket. 1987. 5 Dec. 2009 http://generationfilm.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/full-metal-

jacket-ps02.jpg

Kagan, Norman. The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick. New York: The Continuum Publishing Group, 2003

Lynn, Vera. We'll Meet Again. Rex Records,1939

Naremore, James. On Kubrick. United Kingdom: British Film Institute, 2007\

Nelson, Thomas Allan. Kubrick: Inside a Film's Artist Maze. Indiana: Indiana Press University, 2000

The Shining Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Warrner Bros., 1980

Spartacus, Dir. Stanley Kubrick, Universal Pictures, 1960

Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Dir. Jan Harlan, New Market Films, 2001

Stanley Kubrick. Dec 5 2009. http://johngushue.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/22/stanley_kubrick_with_camera.jpg

Blink Critical Review

Chris Powell
Terra Williams
Writing Studio 101
October 20 2009

The Critical Review of Blink

Who would of ever imagined there could have been a book over the subject, that can only be summarized as, the power of thinking without thinking. Indeed, this paradox of rapid cognition is what writer, Malcolm Gladwell, has examined with both good in-depth analysis and storytelling. That aspect in Gladwell's writing is almost a contradiction to the book's theme. This is because what rapid cognition is, or thin-slicing, is that, we as people rely too heavily on systematic intuition to our general understanding of things. Instead, all we need is a short moment of experience, or a snap judgment, to comprehend an entity's full summation. I suppose with every innovative idea like rapid cognition, we as attentive readers require that level of clarity, that we are accustomed to by our own environment built on standardized thinking as the book suggests. While this book does tie together universal conceptions to one thesis idea, there are yet some pitfalls to the book's overall structure that hinders its full potential.
As the book opens with the art curators trying make out whether the kouros was a fake, this is where Gladwell begins to take reader from one anecdote to another. This played a key role in granting the authors voice a sense of omniscience, for which much of his stories are drawn out from an eclectic spectrum of sources. In one chapter, for example, he correlated with the way people tend to deter from new concepts at first glance, to the anecdotes of the Pepsi Challenge, Aerion chairs, and even the rock musician, Kenna. By being so diversified, the book can be embraced by a whole variety of people, both socially and culturally. And while he goes from anecdote to anecdote, Gladwell also reflects back on one previously mentioned idea that ties together with that given chapter's premise. This could be seen chapter 3, The Warren Harding Error, where while discussing how the first impression of the charismatic but inexperienced Warren Harding led people astray, Gladwell brought back the Susan and Bill case study where they were first perceived as a loving couple, only to be later divorced. Thus, what this reflection creates is the sense of unity and cohesion with the key concepts of the content.
The book was also enjoyable for how it played out very much as a psychologically driven assessment, and how our subconscious thinking intertwines with our full awareness of the world. This was evident in the Locked Door chapter, where Gladwell details how we are subjectively influenced by our environment, and how that resonates into our behavioral actions. To that, Gladwell inquisitively quotes, “much of the time we simply operating on auto pilot...how well we think and act on spur of the moment -are a lot more susceptible to outside influences than we realize” (58). In a case study, for example, a group of participants were asked to complete a quiz that used subjective, interrelated wording. The outcome was that the subjects were mentally trained, or primed, to outwardly behave what the wording suggested to them (old age, cooperation, etc.). When asked whether they noticed anything different about the way they felt after the quiz, the participants said they felt emotionally unchanged. This to me was an extremely compelling observation, since it puts to question whether we have any power over our free will. Under that regard, the book succeeded in bringing insight into an elusive idea, that has yet to be explored.
Not only does he theoretically spell out what those concepts are, Gladwell also infuses some interactive psychodynamic assessments that offer an direct engagement with the reader to the text. One of which was the notorious IAT test, which was made to assess our attitudes toward minorities through the use of love/hate associative wording. The reader may get some surprising results upon completing this exercise. When taking the test himself, Gladwell (being half-African black) wrote down “On the Race IAT, I was rated as having a “moderate automatic preferences for whites.” (page 84). Most importantly, by having the reader interact with this form of experimentation, this elicits a more direct understanding, than what can be drawn out from an objective explanation of an obscure theory as the subconscious mindset.
While the use of anecdotes have brought depth and some validity to the subject matter, this was also a noted weakness to the book. Gladwell relied too heavily on these snapshots of disjointed events when articulating his analysis. It was as though he was trying to chunk up the book's content, as a way to make his thesis more comprehensible than it needed to be. There were even some points that I felt were inconsistent to the book's flow. One example of this, was the discussion of the Pepsi Challenge, where blind studies between Pepsi and Coke shown that the majority of taste testers preferred Pepsi over the latter. What really threw off this objectification was when Gladwell tried to justify the reason behind this preference outcome; to which was because the tasters were only given sips and not whole drinks. For much of the reading, he used this disputable claim as a way to make some informal clarification, that only distracts the reader from the chapter's key issue: that no one ever drinks Coke blind. Moreover, it would have been more feasible if Gladwell correlated the Coke Company's inconsideration of their soft drink's appeal strength with their customers to some other example that reflects that same thoughtlessness.
In addition, there were some examples that could have easily worked just as fine or even better if arranged in a different manner. In one case, Gladwell discussed how the subjective affluence of music can be compared to that of John Bargh's subconscious priming experiment. This gave me the impression that music was just as ambiguous as the equally abstract psychodynamic theory. I feel his comparison would have been more stronger if he had use the speed dating example from chapter two, The Locked Door, in replacement of the priming experiment. This would have made the inference that because we as people emotionally shift over time, our preferences with both dating partners and music would also change in accordance to that shift.
Also, the tonality of the book's theme and structure seem to repeat themselves. This in way made me feel as though I was reading in circles, rather than to progressively move on from one perspective onto the next. In particular, this was seen when Glad touched on the Diallo shooting incident, where New York policemen killed an innocent pedestrian at gun-point, for reason of suspicion. In my mind, I thought Gladwell was referring back to the Warren Harding chapter, where he discussed how thin-slicing could be misused to stereotype things. That wasn't the case, however, according to the quote on quote, Blink-esque jargon, which introduces the new concept of mind-reading: that we can instinctively recognize emotional attributes of an individual. To me, it was as though he just rephrased the term, thin-slicing, as a way to not sound like he was repeating himself (which evidently he did).
Another instance of how the book's structure repeats itself, was the way some of the chapters have ended. In the Kenna's Dilemma chapter, for example, it concluded that Kenna did in fact earned some later success within the music industry (despite having been scrutinized by the poor public reception). This was the similar case for the conclusion of the Paul Van Ripper's Big Victory chapter, where it reveals that when the US reevaluated their war strategies, it entailed the winning of their Blue Team over the once victorious Van Ripper's Red Team. In both cases, Gladwell hindered the severity of his chapters' tone, by concluding them with a contrasting resolution. It would have been best if he had left them out from the text, as a way to support the arguments that were being made.
Overall, the book's use of anecdotes helped widen the spectrum of what thin-slicing can encompass in. By the same token, because Gladwell overused this singular aspect of formulating an analysis, it also what made the reading come across as being both redundant and self-indulgent. The book could have been a more stronger piece, if it was written in the same manner of the Locked Door chapter, where it was more insightful and bold in response to its complex theme of the human subconscious. In the end, while the book's structure and tonality was somewhat off-putting, the book can still be an enjoyable read for those who wishes to reflect their own perception on reality.

Process Analysis

Chris Powell

Terra Williams

Writing Studio 101

12 October 2009

The Art of Animation

What compels us to go to the cinema? Is it just for our amusement, simply because we have nothing else to do? Or does it go deeper than that, where we want to seek some aesthetic enlightenment by the articulation of both the visual art form and story? This is the question that needs to be asked by those who wants to succeed in the realm of animation. As an animation student myself, I try to find answers through studying both the technical and creative aspects of some of the great animated works of our time; both the old (Snow White, The Secret of NIMH) and the more contemporary (Iron Giant, Toy Story). Some of the aspects of animation are the same principles that have revolutionized the way we see animated motion pictures today. Furthermore, these ideals are what should entail a compelling piece of animation that ecompasses both visual clarity and story.
One of the most fundamental techniques of animation is squash and stretch. As the name speaks for itself, this is accomplished by stretching and squashing a figure's shape within the framework. This is normally seen when a character or object undertakes some complex form of action. It is also important to note that, while the shape is being altered, the volume itself does not change at all. As seen in Figure 1., while the sphere is being dropped from the
Figure 1.












left, it stretches out before it is squashed on the groundline. Another approach to this aspect is to compare it to a half-filled beanbag. If it were dropped from a building, the beanbag's shape, not the space, will alter in accordance to its taken action. In addition, the degree of the squash and stretch depends on what the animator is trying to express. For instance, if the animation was intended to be a Chuck Jones slapstick short, its level of squash and stretch would be much more exaggerated. However, in an animation where realism is concerned (in Golden Age Era Disney films, such as Snow White and Bambi), this same technique will only be subtly conveyed. The underlying significance of squash and stretch is that it is what gives objects or figures a sense of realism and dimension. Thus, if this technique was never applied, the animation would look static and unconvincing to the viewers.
In addition, for the animation to have dimension and believability, the principle of anticipation must be used to make the animation visually coherent to to the viewer. What this entails is that each primary action must be prepared by a preceding movement or an exaggerated gesture. For instance, when we see a golfer in a backswing position, we all know that he is about hit the golfball. This is much like how Bugs Bunny would draw back his leg, in the preparation to make a sprint. Thus, if this principle was absent, this could potentially make the audience feel anxious for not knowing what to expect. This would also make the animation look too staccato, which can cause some important details to be incomprehensible or even misinterpreted. The last thing we want is for the audience to get confused, wondering what in world they are seeing.
In the process of traditional animation, there are two different approaches when drawing the framework of the animation. The first approach, known as Straight Ahead action, which means that the animator draws each frame from start to finish. Because there is little planning to how an action is needed to be done, this approach offers a lot of spontaneity. Thus, it makes the character's movements look more fluid and dynamic, that strengthens the animation. However, because there is little structure, this may also entail problems with the proportions or even the choice of perspective. The Pose-to-Pose approach, on the other hand, is where the animator draws each key frame of the animation, leaving the intervals to be done on a later time. This delivers more structure, which can limit any unforeseen visual mistakes. In spite of having the luxury of organizing the scene, the flow of the animation may turn out more choppy by comparison to the Straight Ahead technique. While there is a foreseeable plan that can do great for a complex action, the animation may become a bit unnatural. In most cases, the best way to balance out these advantages and disadvantages is to simply combine the two methods together. This can be done simply by utilizing the Pose-to-Pose method for the pre-planning stage, when the key frames are drawn as guides. So instead of directly drawing the intervals, the animator would have to use the Straight Ahead technique on top of those guides (the key frames). Thus, this offers the equilibrium between organizing and improvising for an animation.
Probably by now it is a tad bit overwhelming understanding these technical methods and applying them to what is meant to be a spontaneous art form. Well, the good news is that animations is a spontaneous craft. But isn't it true that the reason we enjoy animation is because we believe that the characters are alive? Even if the animation is not intended to convey realism, it still needs to resonate some believability. Furthermore, without the acknowledgment of these technicalities, the animation can never be comprehensibly attainable to the viewers.
Now that we have gone through the analytical side, we can examine how to craft the artistic side of animation, that goes for both character and story. By definition, animation is the illusion the life. And with every life, there are stories. Thus, the experiences that one has gone through can be the stroke of brilliance for an animated film. That can range from the people we meet, the places we lived in, or even our own individual personality. These encounters are what inspire artists to make solid, interesting characters. In my own experience, the characters I've developed are usually inspired by the same quirkiness of some of the “characters” I've met in real life. My conceptions may not be directly based on that particular individual, but as long as I drawn some of his or her personality elements, that enables me to build off strong, meaningful characterizations.
Besides finding our inspiration, what builds a strong character can come from the struggles of its situational conflict, either being external or internal. An external conflict would be, for example, Disney's Beauty trying to rescue her father from the Beast. An internal conflict, on the other hand, would be Buzz Lightyear's emotional pitfall from acknowledging that fact he is just a toy. Once the conflict is set up, it is the job for the storyteller to convey how the characters will overcome that obstacle.
In addition, it can also be necessary to add in a few character flaws that not only intensifies the conflict, but also make the character itself more interesting to the viewers. For instance, Woody from the film, Toy Story, is a flawed character since he allowed his jealousy of Buzz to get both him and the equally ostentatious space ranger into a dire situation. But as we progressively see his character develop, we begin to sympathize with Woody because we understand his uncertainty to whether he will remain beloved by his owner. There can also never be a story where the conflict can be solved with ease. Again, this was seen in Toy Story, where Buzz and Woody underwent multiple obstacles (escaping Sid's house, chasing a moving van, trying to lite their rocket, etc.), before ultimately reaching to their owner. If the conflict is not well resonated or even defined, then the story will suffer by that default. Furthermore, it is absolutely crucial for the animator to have this basic understanding of formal story structure.
After the story and conflict are outlined, the world within the animation must be just as effective as its tonality. That is why it is important for the animator to effectively plan out the setting. Otherwise, he or she may fail to the capture the counter balance between the pathos of the story and visual

Figure 2. Figure 3.





entanglement of the composition. One aspect of this element is the film's color palette. This is what conveys the symbolic meanings that add depth and an emotional resonance to the animation. The tone of the story should also be taken into account. This will affect the handling of the given setting, if say the tone was meant to be serious, zany, or melancholiness. Take the case of the office meeting scene from the film, The Incredibles, as seen in Figure 2. The setting was illustrated in a neutral, grayish color palette which reflected the blandness of the contemporary work life of a once great superhero(Bob Parr). By comparison, if the color palette was more vibrant, as seen with the happy-go-lucky Remy from Ratatouille (in Fig. 3), the setting would not have capture the emotionality of Bob Parr. Beyond the subjective level of the story, the scene must also be composited in the way that can best display a character's actions. This is where choosing perspective becomes absolutely crucial. For instance, if a camera shot is too long, or perhaps too close, the scene can potentially fail to capture the movements being undertaken by the character. Therefore, it is ideal for the artist to take into consideration both color and perspective when planning out a setting
Lastly, for the audience to maintain some level of interest, there must be the essence of appeal with the animation. Appeal can be drawn from the aspects of a character: outward appearance, personality, backstory. In addition, this does not apply restrictedly to the protagonist or anyone that conveys heroic qualities. Antagonists, for example, can also have appeal. All this means is that there is something about that character that attracts the viewer's interest. It could be the way the character dresses, acts, or any other eccentricities that express some inner value. This could be seen in the antagonist, Kent Mansley, from the film, The Iron Giant. While he is perceived as an indirect form of the villain archetype, this didn't hinder his sense of appeal. Throughout the film's course, Kent is shown with weaknesses that creates a human resonance with the audience: his paranoia, his impulsive attributes, and his underdog job position in a big government fishbowl. By carrying these imperfections, this creates more sense of humanity, and therefore more appeal, than an all-around, ultimate villain with some cliched evil scheme.
It also should be noted, that the audience doesn't want to see a character that is bland or poorly designed. By the same token, it is important not to make the character appear too complicated in design scale. Otherwise, this might distract the viewers from fully appreciating the expressed character dynamic. For example, as seen from Fig. 4 of the film, The Secret of NIMH, there is a visual contrast
Figure 4
between the simple, rounded design of Mrs. Brisby, to the more detailed but atheistically challenging Nicodemus. In particular, this is the only scene where Nicodemus is prolifically displayed while talking. Much of his role in the film is only displayed through voice over, not acting. This only infers the incongruence between Nicodemus's personality arc and his actual appearance. While the technical achievement to create the glow effect in the eyes is indeed noteworthy, that and the complex handling of the facial hair and drapery only provides eye candy that distracts the audience from what is important.
In addition to creating appeal, the one aspect that goes for both characterization and storytelling is, by far, originality. This is what separates from what comes out from mass media, to what comes from the pure ingenuity and innocence of the artist. To find originality means that the animation must be visually honest with its story and character elements. What should entail out from originality is for the animation to be bold enough that it makes itself distinctly rich among other animated films. This was case for Toy Story, which was the highest grossing film of 19951. What made the film bold was the way it broke some unstated standards of preceding animated films. The one obvious case was its undertaking of being the first computer animated film. This offered an aesthetically new experience for audiences, where many have already seen many traditional animate features. Besides its technological innovation, the film presented the story and characters with a high degree sophistication and structure. Story wise, it was much more mature and modern, whereas in most animate films, their story elements were drawn from children fantasies and folklore. This reflected the commonly held belief that animation is a genre for children, and not adults. Also, unlike other animated films, Toy Story was not a musical. This meant that the film's appeal had to solely come out from its story dynamic, without the use of that cliché. In this sense, this provided its characters to be congruently honest to the storyline, and not faking it by breaking into some catchy music number. While it is important to draw influences from the other styles of art and storytelling, one must be willing to express something that is uniquely their own work.
In brief, while this is an art form that should be given the free reign of the artist, what matters the most is to visually transcend the audience's feelings that support the artist's own vision. This is the kind of assessment that should bring depth to the animation, not to standardize it. As previously said about the act of going to the cinema, we always have to think about how visual storytelling separates itself from any other means of self-expression. Walt Disney once said that, “Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.”(para. 15)2. That to me, reiterates the universal impact of animation, both on an artistic and an emotional level. In the end, one must be willing to acknowledge both the technical and creative aspects, in order to fulfill the believability of life.