Blog #2

WHAT I HEAR

By Brian Alexander

Hunter College - Media 160-Lab 02 - Fall 2015

My 2^nd Blog Assignment for my Media 160 class that was to observe and write about the sounds we hear. I thought that this would be good to do in a public space where there are lots of people moving about and heading towards their destination.  I choose to go to Grand Central Terminal for this assignment as it has 750,000 visitors every day.1

As you know Grand Central Terminal is located in Midtown Manhattan (42^nd Street and Park Avenue). It is a railroad terminal that connects the Metro-North Railroad to Duchess, Putnam and Westchester counties in the State of New York as well as Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut.   In the lower level of Grand Central Terminal is the NYC subway.  The Lexington Avenue subway lines (#4, #5 and #6) travel from three boroughs, the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn (expect for the #6 trains which travels from the Bronx to Manhattan) all stop at Grand Central Terminal.  The #7 trains which come from the Flushing area of Queens also stops at Grand Central Terminal.  The S trains (also known as the Shuttle train) travels from the West side of 42^nd Street & Times Square to the East side of 42^nd Street & Grand Central Terminal.

Anyway, with people traveling from the suburbs of NY State and Connecticut and from four of the five boroughs in New York City I thought it was be an interesting mixture of people that I would be able to observe and listen to as they travel through this major terminal.  

I made this observation on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 between 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm, which is the time a lot of people take lunch. 

The first sound I hear was, “May I help you?”  It was a cashier at a bakery talking to customers who were looking at the various items posted on the menu board at the bakery.  I hear two women laughing as they posed for a selfie picture they took of themselves with their camera phone.  I hear a baby crying somewhere in the terminal but I didn’t actually see the baby.  I noticed the sounds of the footsteps as people walked up and down the stairs.  I walked upstairs to the Apple store, which located inside Grand Central Station.  I hear the sound of music playing from a pair of speakers that were connected to one of the many Macintosh computers the Apple store had on display. 

I hear the sounds of various semi-professional photographers as they focused on and shot multiple pictures.  As I walked around the terminal I started to hear chatter as numerous people that were nearby talked to their friends, colleagues and relatives at the same time.  I heard people carrying on conversations with other people on their cell phones. I noticed the squeaky sound of sneakers as people walked by.  I heard the sounds of heels clicking against the floor as women walked by. I hear foreigners speaking in their native language.   

On my way to the restroom, which is in the lower level, I passed by several people waiting in line to place an order for their lunch.  I observed people sitting down in the restaurants as they ate their meals.  I hear the sounds of the utensils as they hit the plates.  I hear people being polite as they said, “excuse me” as they tried to pass by a crowd of people in their direction.

It was a pleasant day.  There was no rain.  The weather was nice.  People were kind to one other.  I didn’t hear any rudeness.  I didn’t hear any arguments.  These are the sounds I observed at Grand Central Terminal.

1.  Http://www.thedailybeast.com. N.p., 1 Feb. 13. Web. <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/01/grand-central-terminal-100-years-100-facts.html>.

Blog #3

BLOG POST #3: Relationships Between Shots

The Godfather

The Baptism Scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbYp9oaIT8

The movie The Godfather is often considered to be one of the best movies of all time.  The movie is about Don Vito Corleone who was the head of the Corleone crime family, and the transfer of power to his youngest son Don Michael Corleone.

The scene from this movie that I will write about is the 5-minute Baptism scene. This scene focuses on Michael Corleone attending the baptism of his sister Connie’s infant son, Michael’s nephew/godson and at the same time of the baptism Michael has ordered the executions of the leaders of the five mafia families, before they have a chance to kill him.  

Vito died of natural causes and Michael becomes the new Don of the Corleone family.  Michael was asked to meet with remaining mafia leaders and he knew they were planning to kill him so Michael scheduled the meeting after the baptism. Michael ordered the murder of these leaders while he would be attending the baptism.  The baptism also serves as an alibi for Michael.

What is the relationship of the sounds to the images? 

The relationship of the sounds to the images is mostly that of a church organ playing in the background during the baptism.   During the first minute of this scene the audience views long shots of the church then medium shots of the priests and Kay (Michael’s wife) with the baby and Michael by her side walking up to be near the priest.   The priest talks in Latin and the film cuts to a medium close up of Michael, looking very serious. 

The scene eventually cuts to Rocco, one of the Conteone hit men,  as he preparing his machine gun for the planned executions.  The priest continues talking in Latin as the church organ plays.   The film cuts to Clemenza, one of the Conteone hit men, as he walks to his car carrying a large box.  The film cuts back to the church and various locations in New York.   We still hear the priest and the organ.  These cuts go back and forth for three and a half minutes, as the audience watches the Conteone hit men prepare themselves for to murder the leaders of the five families. 

Of the images to one another? 

The images are complete opposites from one another.  One image is religious and holy.  The other image is unholy and of numerous premeditated murders which were ordered to happen at the same time as the baptisms.   In English the priest asks, “Michael Francis Rizzi – do you renounce Satan?”  The church organ continues playing and the scene cuts to a hotel elevator that opens up.  Strachi, who is a Don of a rival family steps out and standing on the outside of the elevator is Clemenza who is still holding the large box under his left arm but his right arm is holding a shot gun.  He kicks Strachi back into the elevator and shoots him two times.  

The film cuts to Michael who responses to the priest question of “Do you renounce Satan?” with “I do renounce him.” This parallel editing sequence continues between the church and the murders until all the enemies are killed while Michael denounces all things evil in the church. 

How are the shots organized in terms of their content, composition, color, movement, etc.? 

The shots are organized so that the audience understands that as the baptism is taking place at the same time as the murders of the enemies of the Conteone family.

What determines how long the shots are and what order they are placed in? 

The screenwriter determines the sequence of the shots and the editor and the director determines the order they are placed in.

It there a “right” place to cut or not to cut? 

The right place to cut is at the end of a sentence or question.  The audience needs to hear the complete thought of the person speaking.

Are the cuts seamless or obvious? Why? 

The cuts are seamless because with the church music playing the audience is still mentally inside the church.  They are suddenly transported to another location where they witness in this movie the planning and finally the execution of the leaders of the five-mafia families. 

Blog #1

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #1 ARTIST STATEMENT

FILM/MEDIA 160, LAB 02, WEDNESDAY
FALL 2015
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015
BRIAN ALEXANDER



I always viewed myself as a creative person even before I knew what that meant. In elementary school my friends and I created our own comic books. In junior high school my friends and I stopped making comic books and we became graffiti artists. In high school I wrote poetry, to the girls that were attractive to me. After high school I become a DJ and a songwriter. I've worked in the music industry and later the media industry where I did marketing for several business 2 business publishing companies. I also did some design work at these publishing companies.


I find myself subconsciously recognizing errors when I view advertisements in printed magazines as well as commercials on the television. I make mental notes on what I thought was wrong and what could be done to make the advertisements better.


I am a Media major and my plan is to work in either television or radio as either an editor or a producer. My background as a DJ and as songwriter as well as my marketing experience will help me if I were to work on creating or assisting with the creation of a commercial for television, movie theaters or the internet mediums.


My curiosities lie in finding a creative and/or humorous way in marketing a product to an audience that may not realize why they need this product. My curiosities also lie in helping to educate others about their overall health and wellness. It may something as simple as letting my friends in the social media websites that I am a member of know that this week is the National Suicide Prevention Week and briefly informing them of signs to look out for when someone is considering committing suicide and how they can help.

My influences are in the arts which includes music, poetry and acting. I am interested in this because I like creating something from nothing. I like taking a blank piece of paper, or a blank Word document, and I like writing something that didn’t exist before and hopefully what I create might make someone smile or say something like, 'Wow. I never thought of that before.’ I’m interesting in truth and I’m interested in humor and entertainment.

Blog #4

Sunday, December 6, 2015

FILMP/MEDP 160 Field Trip / Museum of the Moving Image Fall 2015 – Nov. 25

I really enjoyed visiting the Museum of the Moving Image and I plan to go back to visit the museum soon.  What I discovered about a specific aspect of media production is the role of a Sound Editor.  My tour guide provided three examples from a popular syndicated television show and two block buster Hollywood movies.  They were The Simpsons, The Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and the Titanic (1997).  My tour guide explained that it is the Sound Editor's job to view the visual shots and provide four possible sounds that can be synced to the visual shots.  The Sound Editor presents four examples for each shot to the Director and the Director will inform the Sound Editor which sound from the four examples should be used for the shots that were taped/filmed.  

The examples presented in The Simpsons was a scene in which Lisa Simpson was about to take an exam in school.  She was nervous.  The tour guide played the group four examples of sounds that can be used to sync as the sound of the hand of a clock moving, the sound of an eraser being used on a paper, the sound of a pencil being used to circle in an answer and the sound of Lisa's classmate Milhouse as his eyebrows move as he looks at Lisa taking the exam.  The group was asked to select a sound for each shot.  Once the sounds were selected we watched the sequence of shots and listened to the sounds we selected.  As The Simpsons are an animated cartoon when we watched that scene the sounds we heard sounded funny to the group.  Some sounded realistic and some didn't.  

My tour guide did similar experiments with my group for Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the Titanic.  We watched the chase scene from the Terminator 2 where the T-1000 was driving a truck to kill ten-year-old John Connor as he tries to escape on his scooter.  As the truck gets closer to the scooter The Terminator rides on a motorcycle, passes by the truck, then he picks John up from the scooter and has John ride on the motorcycle with him.  My group had to pick from four different sounds the sound of the truck, the sound of the tire screeching sound as it breaks, the sound of the motorcycle and the sound of the truck as it explodes after it crashes into a wall.   

We did the same thing for the Titanic.  We saw the clip with sound and without sound.  Then the group selected Foley sound effects to use for when actress Kate Winslet jumps down to the deck.  We also selected the sound to use for when the ropes snapped and went into the ocean, the sound for when the part of the ship fell into the ocean.