Assignment 1A.

    Being creative is something that I am extremely grateful for.  I think that everyone has the ability to be creative, but not everyone thinks in the same creative manner.  For myself,  I look at situations differently.  Sometimes I may listen to a song and think of it as composition, notes played, or the instruments used, more than the overall song its self.  Another example would be how I watch movies.  I am constantly looking at each shot, analyzing the angles, sound, timing etc.  Or how a look at scenery even, I imagine tons of scenarios as if it were through the lens of a still camera, and how I would crop things or expose them.
    I haven't always been this way however.  I wasn't a child growing up and thought of movies in this manner.  Throughout my childhood and teen years, this quality has become more prominent, and common.  I always enjoyed drawing while growing up, but never really knew why.  However there are artists and people that have influenced my creative taste.  Brandon Tost is the cinematographer for the movie "Crank" a movie that made myself interested in the film industry.  The way that he shoots, animates, and frames shots has the ability to get even the most sloth-like humans adrenaline pumping, which fits the general theme of the movie.  Not only this, but he does it in a way that holds the audiences attention, for the entire film, opposed to just a scene or two.  Brandon uses Conscious aspects of his filming such as fast moving cars, guns, defibrillators, and helicopters, all within the trailer to created a high anxiety.  Subconsciously, he is able to reach his high fueled target by adding flashes, high tension music, and quick cuts in order to drive up the heart rate of the audience that yearns for more of the film.  Click here to watch Crank Trailer

    Another Individual that influences me creatively, is Tierry Bornier.  Tierry is a photographer who has had multiple pictures selected by National Geographic for their website and magazine.  His most famous picture Terraced Rice Fields of Asia is a picture that has always left me speechless.  It is a picture that can truly speak to me.  As a hobby of mine,  I look at photography very closely, and constructively.  it is very rarely that a picture truly leaves me in awe, as well as stunned.  However this picture has made me want to work with National Geographic when I am older (as well as many other reasons). The picture uses high levels of contrast in the picture, by using deep rich colors, alongside of lighter earth tones and whites.  However, it also uses affinity, by using the spaghetti like grass walls to serpentine throughout the whole picture.  In fact, the widest designs are in the top corners, which eventually drag the audiences eye toward the main focal point of the picture. The deep red water near the middle.

  The third Influence that has influenced me creatively is Keller Williams.  Keller is a guitar player and musician that plays a wide array of instruments.  He has a technique when performing live called "looping".  What looping is, is when a track of an instrument is simultaneously recorded while being played, then looped over and over again while other instruments are able to be played and overdubbed.  I have performed in front of audiences before, and used this technique.  Instruments such as the triangle, shakers, Spanish clappers, bass, and beats, can all be overdubbed over top of a guitar, and can sound like an entire musical group if timed recorded perfectly.  A skill that takes time to achieve, but is very satisfying when done correctly. Keller does use some techniques in his work that follow a certain flow pattern.  He uses Tension and Release near the final chorus of his song.  As he stops playing the guitar, pauses all the other instruments being looped and sings "then I bust into a windmill...... then right into a backspin."  The pause and silence builds anticipation and tension for the audience as there is no clear cut way that the song will proceed. After this release is achieved by going into the ever so familiar chorus "freaker, right by the speaker." picks back up.  A very useful and effective technique.  Keller Williams Live