What I Hear

Early today I took a walk through my neighborhood, Astoria. As I left my apartment and headed towards the big park by the water, I could hear people coming in and out of their houses. Various wind chimes; some wood, some metal, chimed as the doors were opened and closed. Birds chirped and cooed. Crossing the street to the park entrance I heard a low rumble, as a large truck idled along the curbside. The sounds of heavy breathe and rhythmic sneaker claps against the concrete, were heard from a passing jogger. Dogs barked and a few basketballs were bouncing in the nearby court. Noises from the birds became more frequent inside the park grounds. There was a constant lull from traffic speeding over the bridge, hundreds of feet overhead. I passed a man practicing the scales on his saxophone in the shade. Cars passed back and forth as I left the park and headed down an avenue. Bells hanging from little store front doors rang every few minutes. The N train on the tracks overhead drowned all other sounds and noises for a 45 seconds. The vents from the grocery store buzzed. The p.a. system advertised sales for meat and dairy products. Cash register keys clicked loudly and customers talked while they wheeled squeaky carts up and down the aisles. Back on the street, cars and trucks zoomed under the L. Street vendors solicited sales and yelled obscenities. An old blind man sitting on a milk crate listened to a small radio. Ambient noises receded as I get further from the busy roadway and closer to my apartment.

Design I Like

While searching the web it's common to come across information or a web page that is not in the least bit user-friendly. The site may have the right data but if it can't be accessed in an easy and timely manner it's useless. The last thing I want to do is spend time learning how to use a web page for something I need now. It's rare to find a website that is user-friendly, informative, and useful. For those of you who have not found such a place, I offer you www.netflix.com. Netflix is exactly the type of site all other sites and companies should strive to be. For anyone not familiar with Netflix, it is the largest web based movie rental service with over 100,000 DVD titles to browse from and 12,000 titles to view instantly. There are no late fee or due dates and all returns are pre-paid ,so all you need to do is slip it into the mailbox.

The Netflix website is as simple as the business model. Soon as you sign up for a membership you can begin browsing or viewing, because the website is so self explanatory you don't need to waste time figuring it out. The most used components of the site are on the top right. They are four tabs that pull out other options. You can select "Browse DVDs" (various criteria to browse is shown, such as genres, new releases, and most viewed). "Watch Instantly" is another tab that opens up a list of genres to select from, all these titles can be streamed to your computer or television. The third tab is labeled, "Your Queue." The queue allows members to order and arrange the films they would like to reserve for DVD or to watch instantly. The last tab "Movies you'll Love" is the most useful. Based on ratings you give movies you have seen, Netflix will determine films that would interest you most. There is also a search box that is on the top left that allows members to search by nearly any criteria for a film, such as by actor, director, title, year, and genre.

Below the large tabs and search box are suggestions to view by different genres. The films are arranged in a grid but can be changed to list view depending on the preference. Also displayed very visibly is a box of recent activity. Netflix encourages you to rate the movies you have seen to compute more information. Through these basic features nearly all the information about Netflix is available. The content is both visible and balanced. The site has a red border around the tabs, titles, and recent activity which are in a white box. This helps the eyes focus towards all the information in the center of the page.

www.Netflix.com proves to be a useful site based on the layout, content and balanced appearance of the information. All needs can be met using only a handful of components. The colors and design of the site are even easy on the eyes. Perhaps the most impressive part of netflix is the interaction. The more you rate movies the more suggestions Netflix can make. This website is fun, easy, and practically does the work for the member. This site has a design that I like.

DARK DAYS

I recently watched a film written and directed by documentarian Marc Singer. The documentary Dark Days, released in 2000, deals with the issues of a certain group of homeless people. Singer reveals an underground community living in an abandoned subway tunnel under Manhattan. The film is shot entirely in black and white and has a very homemade sense about it. These characteristics help illustrate the grungy and gritty conditions this homeless neighborhood lives in. The opening of the film uses a number of pan shots, as well as a very bumpy tracking shot which used the tracks from the old train. These techniques captured their complete environment. The combination of low angle and wide lenses created a deep depth of field which exposed seas of endless garbage. Long lenses shot dozens of rats crawling through these people's make shift homes. The majority of the film is shot with a handheld camera in a voyeuristic documentary style. Singer films the homeless people going about their day to day lives in the tunnel. He used medium shots to capture the person, and the activity they were doing at the time. Extremely dim lighting, shadows, and contrasts are seen throughout the film until the homeless community is forced from their homes to move above ground. Once they were settled into apartments for the homeless, Singer used strong lights to illuminate the ecstatic people and their new homes. This technique shows the people's victory after years of living in the dark tunnel.

The technical choices Singer used made a large impact of the film. With low angles, pan shots, and a list of other techniques he was able to accomplish a very raw and dirty look which reflected the homeless people's conditions. The movie makes constant use of these techniques until the end. The end of the film signifies the end of life in the tunnel. To express this feeling Singer used strong lights and medium close ups of the individuals being interviewed. This shot works well to capture the smiles and expressions of the newly happy people. The low budget amateur style techniques were great decisions made by Singer to expose this issue.

The Museum of Moving Image

A few days ago I had an obligatory opportunity to visit the Museum of Moving Image. I was pleasantly surprised with my findings, not that I thought it would be boring or anything, it was just better than I had expected. I participated in a number of hands-on demonstrations which happened to be very informative and fun. I can defiantly say that each demonstration had taught me something new, but the one I was most fond of was looping. Looping is the process undertaken during post production that enables you to improve the sound quality of dialogue. Many of the lines in films must be looped for various reasons, such as poor sound quality, dubbing in foreign languages or to make something sound more authentic. I knew of looping before but had no idea how complicated it could be. During the demonstration I was in a sound booth watching a scene on a screen and listening to the lines of a particular character (I chose Babe). After watching the scene I had to recite his lines matching the movement of his mouth. It sounds pretty simple but it's not. It was difficult to speak in-sync with the character and it took me a few tries. Granted it has to be easier for the professionals but I can only imagine how frustrating looping can potentially be for an entire movie with multiple characters. If you ever find yourself at the museum I also recommend one of the animation demonstrations. You rearrange various objects and record a picture of it. This process is repeated hundreds of times but when played back it's a clip. I made a short clip about frogs doing flips, anyway it was very exciting and I think the museum was a great experience.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I don't have much to say right now. Actually, I already had my welcome blog up that was a little more inviting but I lost it. Yeah, I lost it, so anyway I welcome you now. Feel free to read my rants, complaints and nonsense. If you can still stand me by the end of the semester I'll tip my hat to you.