Music Video Review

For the music video review I chose to look at Ok Go’s Here It Goes Again. This video was brilliantly choreographed by the band’s lead singer’s sister using six treadmills and a borrowed video camera. Probably the best thing about the video is that the camera is still the entire time but the video is still interesting and funny. The music video won a Grammy for Best Short-Form Music Video in 2007 and also a YouTube award in 2006. Within the first six days that it was uploaded onto YouTube it received over one million views.

Ok Go is well known for having very simple, non-elaborate music videos. They keep their music videos interesting with the amateur-like dances and homemade feeling cinematography. The videos give the feeling that anyone can do them in their backyard. The most important component however is the dance routines that they also do in their live shows. I chose this particular video from them because I felt this song was their best known and I really like how they incorporated treadmills into their dance routine. This music video style is just as much a trademark for Ok Go as it is a tribute to their unconventional quirkiness.

Self-portrait

For my self-portrait I did a black, white and gray themed ‘see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil’. For the ‘see no evil’ I decided to use the artistic filter neon glow. I changed the color to gray so the glow would stay with the color scheme. I then changed the background color to black and used the shadows/highlights setting to darken highlights and lighten shadows to get the desired effect. For ‘hear no evil I did a remove color and then changed the colors to gray again so that when I used the filters they results would stay in the grayscale scheme. I then decided on the cutout filter and played with the levels, simplicity and fidelity until I was happy with the detail of the picture. For the last picture, speak no evil, I first converted the picture to black and white. I then used the shadows/highlights setting to darken highlights. I put a gray background and then used the artistic filter film grain and adjusted it for detail and contrast again.

Movie Review: White Heat

Trailer

The movie I chose to watch was White Heat directed by Raoul Walsh (1949). This is the fourth James Cagney film I’ve seen, and am still a fan of his tough-guy, mobster roles. There are several reasons why this movie made it to the top 10 Gangster films on AFI’s list. First of all, it’s very well written. The plot is filled with double-crossing characters and plot twists. There was also great characterization particularly with Virginia Mayo who plays Verna Jarret. She begins as an innocent gangster’s moll but quickly turns into a scheming, conniving, love-to-hate female lead. Another reason relating to the writing is the famous line that comes from the movie- ‘top of the world’. It’s repeated many times throughout the film, but its most famously used at the very end when Cagney yells “Made it Ma, top of the world!” which is now one of film’s most well-known lines. One other main reason is Cagney’s excellent performance as Arthur ‘Cody’ Jarret. While this type of role is not new for Cagney, this particular character presents new challenges. For one thing, he suffers a severe Oedipus complex to the point that viewers know that Jarret can’t go anywhere but downhill after the death of Ma Jarret. Beside the psychotic freak-outs, Jarret also suffers from some type of temporary severe headaches that usually end with him on the floor, hitting things and crying out in pain, in the epitome of weakness for his head-of-the-mob character. Despite his very flawed character, Cagney still brings his gangster mannerisms and voice that make these gangster films so enjoyable. Also very Cagney-like that I noticed was the incidents of abuse towards his molls in these movies. The most famous being from Public Enemy when he threw a grapefruit into Mae Clarke’s face. In White Heat, Cagney kicks Mayo off a chair in a quick, slightly funny but still shocking action. While the film follows the unofficial guidelines of a classic gangster film, it manages to stand out. It’s uniqueness lands it in AFI’s top 10 Gangster films.

Title Sequence Review: Hard Candy

I chose to look at the title sequence for Hard Candy, directed by David Slade with Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page. These opening credits are particularly interesting because without knowing what the movie is about, a viewer would never be able to decipher it from this sequence. Unlike Catch Me if You Can, Hard Candy’s title sequence gives away absolutely nothing of the movie. However, after someone has seen the movie they might make the connection of the main character, Haley, who wears a red sweatshirt, as the red square who is searching for something, hence the red square discovering cast and crew names within and behind other things. Otherwise, the sequence is perfect for the film because of how simple it is. I first watched the film without knowing anything about the plot and made my friends do the same because I realized that, taking lead from the sequence, the best way to watch this movie is to be oblivious to its plot. The movie is a psychological thriller, which can definitely be understood from the gentle but creepy music. About the sequence, designer Nic Benns said, “It’s a really peaceful sequence, which is good, because an hour later there are people fainting and walking out of the cinema due to the intense psychological terror.”