Hunter College: A Love Story

Relationship Between Shots

The scene chosen is the very opening scene of the AMC series, “Mad Men.” This scene introduces the viewers to the show’s main character, Don Draper. After the opening, explanatory text, the 1950s song that’s playing reaches a peak and goes into lyrics. The lyrics of the song bring us to a very clearly organized pan with a beginning and ending. It begins at the bar and pans across to show Don Draper with his back to the camera. The camera then zooms into Don and ends right above his shoulder. I believe that the pan was necessary to show the hustle and the bustle of the bar. This was used to contrast Don’s determined work that he is engaged in. The scene then cuts to the side of Don where we see the main character’s face for the first time. The following close up reveals that he is, in fact, engaged in work in the middle of this loud bar. The music then lowers when the waiter gets to the table and Don begins a conversation with him. The music lowers so the viewer has an all-new focal point to draw all of their attention to. At this point, the cuts become hard to notice because the dialogue is what the viewer is supposed to be focused on and the cuts are only to show what is truly important to the scene. The cuts are focused on these focal points. The cuts highlight every piece of dialogue and every reaction thereafter. Each shot length and angle only really show what’s necessary. There is nothing extraneous included in these scenes because the camera is so focused. The cameras will show a close up of Don talking and will then show a reaction shot of Sam’s face, and vice versa. The men go on to discuss cigarettes while the 1950s song plays like a lullaby in the background, drawing the viewer in just enough to focus on the dialogue and characters but not the music. The scene ends with Don and Sam discussing “women and their magazines” and just as the conversation draws to an end, the music kicks back into full force and the camera cuts to what Don is looking at and pan’s across those at the bar.

Museum of the Moving Image

The Museum of the Moving Image is a place where video and audio history comes to life. There a video cameras that date back to early-1900s time. It was so interesting to see these things that we learn about in real life. Sometimes, with our current technology, it is unfathomable that there was a time where video and audio recording devices were very simple and sometimes flawed. Going to the museum, however, showed me more of the rich history of movie production. I even learned about how sound effects were made in movies like Titanic, something I ordinarily would not have known. All in all, the trip to the Museum of the Moving Image was an amazing learning experience that I hope to put into use in my own work.

Audio Interview

What I Hear - 96th Street between 3rd and Lexington

Cars come and go on the FDR Drive in the distance.  Cars whiz by on the streets of New York. Some cars use their horns. People walk by. Their footsteps make noise. Joggers’ footsteps make the most noise. Women going into their purses occasionally omit sound. Jackets and clothes wrinkle as people walk. Some zip or unzip their jackets.  Some chat on the phone and some chat with those walking with them. One woman talks on the phone to someone about yoga. Another man and woman are talking to each other and the one semi audible sentence has the word “vaguely” in it.  There is a fruit stand where many people go and they exchange words with the owner that I can faintly hear. Underground beneath me is the 96^th street 6 train station. The subway approaches and leaves and its doors open and close. The loud speaker announcing of the times, the arrival of trains and the leaving of said trains is loud. Dogs are walked and they bark sometimes. Some people cough and sneeze, a sign of the wintery weather.  My phone buzzes twice. A young man asks me if I have a lighter. A group of old women asks me for directions to get to a restaurant, they laugh a lot. An apartment building’s doorman greets and makes small talk with all of the occupants upon approaching the building. Taxi doors open and close loudly. Some taxi drivers and their customers have loud exchanges. Walking back to my building, a man is heralding for NY Metro.

Push to Talk

https://vimeo.com/88275088

Artist Statement

      November 23rd, 2010, will always live in infamy in my mind. That was the day of my first and last wrestling practice and it was also the day of my second lung collapse. Lastly, it was the day where I was put in the most pain I have ever experienced.

      

     One of the most fundamental ways to fix a lung collapse is to insert a chest tube in surgery while the patient is awake. Now this wasn't my first chest tube so I knew what I was getting into, but I wasn't ready for what would end up happening. Instead of inserting the tube into the chest cavity, the doctors inserted the tube through my lung wall into my lung. That isn't where it goes. First of all, obviously if you remove that tube, there will be a hole in the lung and it will collapse again. It did, four more times.

    Back to November 23rd, the doctors didn't realize their mistake and that cost me three hours of the most excruciating pain I will ever experience. In those three hours, I was fed morphine by the minute and injected with enough local anesthesia to sedate the entire emergency room. My parents were in a waiting room half a football field away and still had to hear their son's screams. I felt bad for my mom especially because just two months earlier her mother, my grandmother, died in the room right next to mine. Well, the pain eventually subsided somewhere around dawn. I knew that because I mostly just felt high.

   My life went on past that day. I'm here now and I'm writing this. I'm not in pain anymore, but I was, and I will always remember that. My family, my friends, and I, along with various others who have heard my story along the way, know what happened to me. My experiences have taught me that everyone has a unique situation and it is only the stories that tell the truth in which you get to hear it all. You wouldn't be able to know my story by looking at me. Someone who sees me on the subway won't know that I've had over fifteen surgeries so far in my life ranging from a double hernia at age five to a sinus surgery at seventeen. The scars on my side tell a totally different story to the doctor who examines them. There are certain stories that thrive off of the good without any sort of mention of struggle or pain. It is almost as if the writer is hiding the bad from the reader because the writer can't even bring herself to writing about it. I want to tell the types of stories that don't hold anything back in the way of revealing the true underlying struggle that people experience. I want my work to inform people and make things known to them that wouldn't normally be known, no matter how bad it may be. I believe that the readers of a book or viewers of a movie should be shown certain realities that may put things in context for them. If I'm a writer for any sort of storytelling medium, I want my audience to be informed of all truths. I am inspired by everything around me. I like to make stories up in my mind about people I see, other subway riders for instance. It keeps me entertained. As my life goes on, I will see many more people and experience many more things, further enhancing my story writing repertoire.