#his 2000s haircut captivates me…
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White girl… save me..
#jason schwartzman#gideon graves#spvtw#spto#fanart#all of his characters are so fun to draw it’s crazy#his 2000s haircut captivates me…
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THE OA PART 2 TRAILER BREAKDOWN- VISUAL/AUDIBLE ELEMENTS
· Buckle up, because this is only part 1 of the breakdown! so this is my notes from the trailer, where I try to clarify on the shots and also put in any really really strong associations. I’m going to do a part 2 (either tonight or tomorrow depending on when i finish my homework) where I break down the important bits and their significance, what I think the storyline will be, and questions that arise. I hope the format isn’t too messed up, I don’t really want to rewrite this all. over 2000 words y’all, and we’re not done yet! please add any notes/thoughts you have, i’m only one person and I’m gonna miss stuff 100%. thanks!!!!!
Trailer starts in hospital, similar parallel to first season in which we find Prairie in the hospital
· Coherence check: fingers, year, president (OA is there but in a new dimension, where everyone, including Barack Obama, is no longer the same person in the previous dimension)
· “I Did It” (dimension jump)
· Boat scene- curious that Nina is travelling on water (water symbolism)
o Seems to be affected by an unseen force, likely OA’s consciousness travelling into her body
o Looking over Golden Gate Bridge- we see this bridge from another angle later
· Hospital scene cont’d
o We see OA check her chest, where the bullet should have been. There isn’t a would, she is perfectly fine, so it is her mind/consciousness that is travelling through to another body, not her entire self jumping
o “I jumped” OA
o Sobbing in happiness afterwards
· Port of san Francisco
o Is there another scene/shot of this location in s1? It has a different vibe to it
§ Red/white/orange colours, interesting that Nina was wearing orange upon jump
o “nothing happens the way I imagined”
· Nina’s Apartment
o Does he say “let me in, Ms. Azarova”???? butler
o Old fashioned key, very fancy, expensive Parisian apartment
o Nina Azarova is RICH- a butler/personal driver?? A personal maid??
o The key looks old fashioned but we hear beeping- indicating that it is actually technology?? Disguising the old as new
o She wears lots of white here, symbolism
o “I live here?” OA
o Furniture
§ Birdcage
§ Portrait of father
§ Painting over chair
§ Various Russian pictures? Hard to see
§ Gauzy curtains, plants
§ Furniture items in front become a gateway into house
§ Glass tables of varying heights- this is really impractical, but could it be symbolism for dimensions?
§ Very circular- white couch, candles and its white table, fireplace things, table, plant pots
§ Things in fireplace, what are they?
§ The rug almost seems to be a distortion of the floor print, it looks just like it but raised a little
§ Four pictures frames each look alike but the art within is different (at least sized), dimension symbolism
· Hap + Captives
o “we travelled into another dimension, into other versions of ourselves” -Hap
o They all had bindings on them- wrists and mouth? At least Rachel’s mouth was bound (interesting given her NDE power of singing) which connected them all together
o Pentagon shape
o Colour symbolism- renata and homer in light clothes, Rachel and Hap in grey, Scott in black
o Do the Movements in an empty field- does he take them there?
o Field pentagon goes right into building pentagon
o Building pentagon
§ Looks like a group therapy session almost, very clinical and clean
o Hap in office
§ Once again looks like Hap is a scientist
§ Lots of things on board- standouts are the human brain, something to the left of it (can’t tell what), picture of a clock(?), maybe stars?, wavelengths?
§ Two busts, one bald and white, the other brown/yellow with hair
§ Clock on desk
§ Weird hanging lamps
o Different haircuts and facial hairs-
§ Hap has a beard and longer hair
§ Homer has a beard
§ Scott has no beard and clinical fringe
§ Rachel has clinical fringe
o Hap laughs joyfully and grabs on to Homer (he doesn’t see them as experiments but as coworkers- does Homer feel this way too?) Homer appears to start grabbing Hap’s arms also
o Woman in background- nurse? Attendant? Who is she?
o Shot of eye, in which the pupil contains constellations and galaxies flickering in and out
o “do you understand what we’re on the edge of here?” -Hap
· Tunnel
o Red lighting
o Karim Washington
· Circle shot
o Looks like an eye
o Something bright in centre, with beds circled all around it in 3
o Beds appear to have children on them- can see stuffed animals
o Inner circle has 8 beds, 3 attendants(?) (though there are 4 spots), one child appears to be moving to/off their bed
o Attendants appear to be holding something- maybe a computer? A typewriter?
o 2nd circle has 12 beds- room for exits at the front and bottom of the shot, looks like every 2 beds also has an attendant
o 3rd circle can be seen on the edges of the shot
o Hap voiceover: “it’s godlike, prairie”
· Tunnel cont’d
o Karim looks down through window/vent in tunnel with confusion on his face- is he looking at the earlier circle shot?
· C and H Pure Cane Sugar
o Red/white/orange colours again, yellow
o “my name’s Karim Washington. I’m a private investigator”
· Karim
o On a street, looking into the Cane Sugar place perhaps?
o Binoculars
o We see him show his badge/certifications to OA
§ Looks like they’re in the same clinical place where the pentagon travelled to
o “I’m looking into the disappearance of a teenager staying at this house”
o Karim crouches down and looks at a hideout?
o There’s a vent or something in the wall, it either could have a red fabric stuffed into it or be a weird art piece of a rose
o Mishmash patterns of blankets, though this shot looks to be inside? Maybe in a basement?
o Very big house, dark colours, shot paints it to be very dark, ominous and looming
o “Is this the missing person?” OA asks to Karim
§ OA and Karim, they appear to be at a restaurant or coffee shop at the side of a road
§ Meeting for breakfast- OA has pancakes, untouched
§ Karim appears to be holding something up to his face- did he get punched? Is that ice? Definitely something held in a napkin
o “why, what, you look like you’ve seen a ghost” Karim replies
§ Puts down his pack of ice(?)
o “the image just… reminds me of a young man I knew in Michigan” OA
§ OA is visibly disturbed, this is one of the Crestwood 5 boys
· OA writing
o She’s writing her personal timeline
o It all leads back to the bus crash- without it she remained Nina Azarova, went to Paris, her father lived, she went to college
o The bus crash is where her identities split and become separate people
o “it’s all connected” OA
· BOAT SHOT
o We see someone walking down the causeway of a dock
o This is not OA, this person has dark hair
o There is one boat missing, and boats at various lengths away from the causeway
o Water symbolism
o “we can get to the bottom of it” OA
· Underground tunnel
o OA and Karim hurrying towards a light
o “you’re tougher than you look” Karim
o “you’re kinder than you seem” OA
o Humour within those words- almost as if its black comedy, prepping themselves for something difficult
o Karim reaches to open a metal door or vault or something
o Harsh green light- likely still under in tunnel
o OA turns around suddenly- is someone behind? Is she on the lookout?
· Homer
o This shot mirrors the last shot of season 1, except it’s inverse: the light is dark, OA looks like she’s about to crumble/is devastated, her voice ticks downwards
o “Homer” OA
· Flashback to her and homer touching hands through the glass of their cages
· Shot of Rachel and scott and OA- likely touching for the first time, Renata at the window smoking with the golden gate bridge in the background
o “Rachel, Scott, and Renata” OA
o This is the other shot of the bridge!!!
· Crestwood 5 shot-
o BBA swimming, French, Buck, Steve, Jesse, and Angie all watching her
o Does Angie replace OA as young female in group? What does she know- what have they told her?
o “BBA and the boys” OA (does she not know about Angie then?)
o Shot of all except BBA running towards beach/ocean- water symbolism
§ BBA and another blonde woman come in behind
§ Steve and Buck are looking right (viewer’s right)
§ Jesse and French looking left, with BBA and other woman
§ Angie is looking straight? Or eyes closed
· OA talking
o “I asked you to believe in impossible things”
o Flashback to Prairie in the sun when Hap lets her upstairs, OA on Steve’s bike
o Shot of a door, a window, or something- is this from s1 or s2?
o Karim looks through a small window, confused, what is he seeing?
o NO ONE SURVIVES text
o “you never once looked at me like I was crazy” OA
o OA fighting in hospital, likely trying to escape
§ This shot has a fence through the window- where is this? It almost looks like a weird private hospital or a home
o OA covers her eyes in hospital, wearing nail polish and two rings with a hospital band
o ALONE text
o Rachel and OA touch heads
· The House
o “everyone who goes inside this house comes out cracked up or doesn’t come out at all”
o Appears to be Karim and OA inside the house mentioned
o They are carrying old-fashioned fire torches?
o OA looks closely at a single picture on the wall, wearing the Red Dress
o OA has a lighter for light and touches her fingers to a hole in the wall
o Karim is in a mirror room with red candlelight- he appears panicked, as if he doesn’t know what’s happening or where to go
· Outside shots
o “you gotta open your eyes” scott
o Shot of OA in wolf top and Young Nina watching what appears to be Rachel in a floating glass/ice box- ties in with Snow White, episode title of “Mirror Mirror”
§ Rachel opens her eyes (brown) and then it suddenly turns to OA
o Forest with lightning (?) running through it
o Flashback to steve running after OA in ambulance
o “I cannot give up on you” OA??? Rachel???
o Homer appears outside, bearded, wearing normal clothing and what appears to be a ring (resembles the one in s1), looks frustrated, putting his hands to his head
o Crater shot
§ 4 people in craters- it’s hard to tell who they are
§ Pits dug all around, some look as if they were made from something launched at them, others by regular digging
§ Then the next crater shot appears to be Angie and Jessie in one hole (?) pulling Karim (?) towards them while 2 unidentifiable people try to do the same (separate holes) and another person is to the right corner, watching perhaps?
§ “this is not a time to be brave” Karim
· The House cont’d
o OA goes with her lighter, Karim with the fire torch, to the door of the house, Karim looks through the window
o The light is on inside
o “this is a time to be smart” Karim
· Tree shot
o OA and Karim appear to be putting together a puzzle which highly resembles the cut of a tree trunk- each puzzle piece is hexagonal
o The tree is huge
· Renata speaks(?)- [I can’t tell if this is Renata or not but both women have brown hair, an accent]
o “all this beauty, this energy, what holds it all together?” Renata
o Hap and Renata appear to be at a concert or some fancy event
o Shot of forest, OA looks up and closes her eyes (same location as with her and Young Nina)
o Karim and OA are underground in a (Russian?) strip club, there are dancers in only underwear hanging from the celing
§ This looks to be the same place as the underground tunnel
o Steve, Angie, and French all in swimgear running to the ocean
o Jesse looks on
o Shot of the sunset of the beach, then of the sunset of the city with a bridge in view (unclear if GG Bridge), two traincars passing each other
o OA and Nina underwater
§ Nina pounding at glass again- new shot of from s1?
o Shot of entire world
o “what keeps it all from dissolving into noise?” renata
o Hap burns something in a pit (pit looks like what we see in the craters before)
§ Can’t tell if this is a body or clothes
o Clinical building of pentagon shot- scott and Renata(? Very long hair, completely different from s1) are locked away in separate rooms
§ Highly suspect that this is an asylum or mental health facility
§ Scott is #348
· Assorted shots
o Sun rising up
o Steve shaving his head (Asheville?)
o A man underwater holding his head- maybe Steve but the body looks less fit than him, maybe Homer? Unclear
o Karim coming down steps holding a body/someone- this doesn’t look like OA in clothes and everything
o OA being thrown into the earth/hole and coming out of a massive tree trunk which appears to float in the air, likely representation of a portal
o Shot of a keyhole-shaped tunnel of neon light, as seen in the press photo being released of P2
o TEXT The left side of the A in OA appears to be distorted by the light, not straight, same with the left side of the O
§ Another OA comes behind it
· Ending
o OA in Red Dress and unknown man walk through the neon tunnel, OA turns to him, there is a single chair in front of a red curtain visible
o “cue spots in 5, 4, 3 [distorted], 2, 1, “
o Shot of a mouth- perhaps Karim’s?
o Shots of switches- labelled ENRY #1, ENTRY #2, there is a label that says “ARMED”
o OA’s hand is tied to the chair, circular marks up her arm are visible
o The neon lights in the tunnel start going off
o Karim looks upon something
o Black and white camera of OA looking very unsettled, her Red Dress now looks white and the patch is clearly visible- reminiscent of a shot wound where blood spreads
#the oa#the oa theory#the oa trailer breakdown#the oa part 2#the oa season 2#the oa trailer#the oa theories#oa spoilers#oaspoilers
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The (Actual) Final Countdown Part 2
My Top 20 Albums - Part 2
The ten following albums are sheer musical perfection, and in no order, I’m going to recommend that you check them out.
Did I say recommend?
I meant damn near demand.
It’s live. Lets go.
10 – Reggatta De Blanc – The Police – 1979
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPwMdZOlPo8
Take a bow, Stewart Copeland
The Police were, simply, a revolutionary band.
We’re not going to talk about Sting on his own, though.
Why were they revolutionary? That’s easy. They combined so many elements when making music it was as if Dr Frankenstein signed a record deal. Reggae? Check. Rock? Check. You want falsetto? Opera? yeah, it’s in there. RDB was definitely their magnum opus, the Michelangelo’s David of their remarkable discography.
There are so many remarkable tunes here. Let’s have a crash course, shall we?
Message in a Bottle is an incredible song. It’s almost transformative, as if it starts as one genre, a rock and roll record, and then becomes something else. Once Mr Copeland starts to flex his muscles on the kit it changes and becomes a Reggae-licious affair. It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever heard, and it floors me every single time. Also offered here is some truly genius lyricism. Sting remarks that it “Seems I’m not alone in being alone”. How melancholy and unique is that? It’ll make your head spin, but god is it worth it.
The other knockout tune here is Walking on The Moon. Safe to say the lyrics are simple. Giant steps are indeed what you must take when you walk on the moon. Not all the lyrics are as profound as Message in a Bottle, but for me, with this song, it’s all about the drums. I fell in love with all things Stewart Copeland when I first heard this. Stewart is in his own little bubble here, and he knocks me for six every single time, especially the fill he cheekily adds before the final chorus. That is nothing short of magical. It’s a stunning performance, much like this is a stunning album.
9 – Greatest Hits of The Cure – The Cure – 2001
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3nPiBai66M
warm fuzzy feeling
The Cure are one of those mythical groups that have very few bad songs. I know the musical puritans among you will slate me for including a compilation album rather than the original works (it’s not the SAME, WILL), but this is just a silly list, after all, it’s really not worth you getting so worked up over.
As far as the album is concerned it features most of the usual suspects, but a few songs stand out to me, even at 20 years old. My mother first showed me our first standout, Just Like Heaven when I was no older than ten. It was captivating to me that someone could pour so much happiness into three and a half minutes. Originally the song came during that transformative phase of the band’s career when they went from their gothic ‘I hate everybody’ origins to ‘Friday I’m In Love’.
Wow
Yeah
Quite a change.
But Just Like Heaven is an ode to falling in love for the first time. It’s quite a beautiful thing to behold really. Also, my mum and I still sing it together and I’m almost 21. That still makes me smile.
Boys Don’t Cry is one of those songs that you’ll find yourself singing even if you have no idea what Robert Smith is talking about.
Boys Do Cry.
Honestly it’s gorgeous. It’s honest and emotional, which is where the best songs come from. That about sums up this album actually. It has a profound sense of emotion and a lust for life. Not one to miss.
8 – The Colour And The Shape – Foo Fighters – 1997
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBG7P-K-r1Y
This one will blow your socks off
If you’ve had the pleasure of reading my piece about my recent, ahem, experiences at the 2019 Reading Festival, then you’ll know how I feel about the Foo Fighters. They are one of the greatest, if not the pinnacle rock band of the last 20 years, and if you’re hoping to get into them, this album is the perfect diving board.
Following the death of Kurt Cobain in ’94, Dave Grohl, the guy in the Foos who looks an awful lot like the drummer from Nirvana, channeling his inner mad scientist, started a new project. The result was The Foo Fighters.
So logically a mere 3 years later they dropped this seminal, uncomfortably incredible record.
Every song on the tracklist is a home run, but there is something truly transcendent about a little ditty called Everlong. It’s a four-minute voyage into unrequited love and not wanting things to ever change, wanting things to stay the same. That’s the perfect description for the track because once you’ve listened to it, you never want to un-hear it. It’s remarkably simple, just Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins and the rest of the band making love to your eardrums with hypersonic mastery.
Side note – maybe I’m babbling because of how much I freaking love this song, or maybe it’s just that good. I guess you’ll have to listen to find out.
I’m having to restrain myself from gushing about every single song on this thing. Its one of those records that will never leave your memory once you’ve listened to it a few times. The Foos are an amazing collective of awesome haircuts, amazing instrumental technicality, and genius lyrics.
If I had to choose one other song to personally recommend (and it can’t be all of them) then I’d have to go for Monkey Wrench. It’s one of the most energetic rock songs you’ll ever hear. It’s angry, but that anger is harnessed by Dave and the boys and transformed it into a ridiculously cool song and indeed album. Kick. Ass.
7 – Black Holes and Revelations – Muse – 2006
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZIk5wIq2Qw
It’s about the song people, not the film
Oh Hell Yes.
Muse, but more specifically their jack of all trades irritatingly talented frontman Matt Bellamy have always had fans. They’re a fabulous band after all, but when this album came out in the summer of 2006 Muse went from strength to strength, and it’s not hard to see why this album is held in such high esteem by die-hard Muse fans the world over.
This is Muse at their most theatrical and most powerful. The lyrics are profound, the guitars are loud and the vocals are up in the stratosphere. Its a rock opera, an odyssey of epic proportions. Also the first standout, Supermassive Black Hole gained new notoriety when it was used for that scene in Twilight where the vampires play baseball (you know the one. don’t lie).
But there are other songs here that will leave you stunned. Let’s take Map of the Problematique for example. Its a brilliant bloody song, with Dominic Howard beating the shit out of the drums to create an almost trance-like listening experience, complete with soaring harmonies from Bellamy to boot. Its so cool. Bottom line.
And before we move on there’s the tiny little tiny matter of Starlight, which is one of the best songs the band has ever written, and my personal favourite of the album. It’s soaring. A song for the ages about wanting to be with that one person that means more to you than you could ever put into words. You need to experience it, but we’ve all felt those feelings. That’s why it works.
6 – Sweet Baby James – James Taylor – 1970
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOIo4lEpsPY
‘Who’s cutting onions in here?
Way back at the start of our list I warned that Mr Taylor may be making a cheeky appearance, and look who’s rocked up. I’m a man of my word.
This album is a family favourite, and one of the first albums that Mum and I ever listened to together. She used to sing me, Sweet Baby James, before I went to sleep every night, and I still get that same warm fuzzy feeling every time I listen to it. I’d never heard such a beautiful song before but I knew what that meant after the first time I heard some of the songs on this album. Taylor was an incredible songwriter and truly one of the greatest talents of his generation.
That talent is reinforced with our next song, Fire and Rain (tears, already). The song is melancholy and painful to listen to. But its not pain in a bad way its as if its a necessary pain to go trough because you know things will get better soon. Thats what I think Taylor was going for. The song has a certain distance to it, almost. The lyrics are desperately sad, but the instrumentation and interpretation that Taylor places round them is sonorous and achingly beautiful to listen to. The song is like an old friend after you’ve listened to it a few times. It simply will never let you down. Thats the perfect description for Taylor’s 1970 magnum opus. It will always be with you.
And side note – who knows if the ever speculated relationship between James Taylor and Carole King was real, or if it ever materialised. Frankly that doesn’t matter. If it was true that they wrote this album together, then that will only make your love for the record increase. Two people came together and made a fabulous and timeless piece of artwork. Well done them I say.
5 – Escapology – Robbie Williams – 2002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHdvQmA2Ws8
Damn this is some funky shit
This was another album I couldn’t get enough of growing up.
Take That split up back in 1996, and Robbie Had been going it alone (and doing rather well for himself) for a good few years when this gem came out in 2002. The main reason Escapology is so resonant with me and still so relatable even in my 20 year old head is because of two things;
The honesty and realism of Williams’ lyrics
The unstoppable partnership between Williams and the albums super producer, Guy Chambers.
Escapology was a new direction for Williams. It was completely different from Life Thru A Lens (1997) I’ve Been Expecting You (1998) and Swing When You’re Winning (2000). Now don’t get me wrong. All three of those albums were great too, but this one would go down as being historically different.
The cream of the crop here, in my ever-humble opinion, is a tie between Something Beautiful and Feel. The former is a cheerful, life-affirming ode to happiness and prosperity, while the latter is a brutally honest and beautifully written song about wanting to find happiness. Maybe there’s a theme that connects the two, but they’re different in almost every other way, and both iconic because of it.
But that’s not where the magic ends with this album. Later on, in the stellar tracklist you’ll find Hot Fudge. This is one of the funkiest songs Robbie and Chambers ever wrote, and one listen to the thing will prove to you why. Its three minutes of killer keyboards, awesome vibes and that trademark Robbie Williams tongue-in-cheek.
Basically, this album is awesome. Get the message? Check it out.
4 – American Idiot – Green Day – 2004I don’t even have to explain this one. I wrote a piece about why this album was ahead of its time.
You can find that here. This one is special, but unbelievably it’s only in fourth. So lets press on.
https://wordpress.com/view/thefriendlycritic.org
Oh my god
OH MY GODDDDD
We’ve reached PODIUM POSITIONS PEOPLE
Look alive sunshine
I’m EXCITED!
Okay okay home stretch lets do this.
3 – Hotel California – Eagles – 1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tcXblWojdM
AIR GUITAR
I’ve always been in complete awe of The Eagles. They’re a bunch of freaking rockstars. Living legends. And boy do they know it.
This is the album that gave them that status.
Its a masterpiece. An absolute fucking masterpiece. I’ll try and explain why without squealing with glee.
The title track is the musical equivalent of willingly losing your mind. It’s a drug trip made of sound waves. It’s remarkable and will change the way you think about music. Probably forever. It almost goes beyond how the song actually sounds with this one, although HC does also happen to feature the single greatest guitar solo I’ve ever heard. Glen Fry, take a bow up there you beautiful man. We all miss you.
The lyrics warn you that you ‘can check out any time you like, but you can never leave’.
But let me ask you
If being held hostage by narcotics in blissful ignorance of your situation (somewhere in the desert) sounds this good, why the hell would you ever want to leave?
This song is that good. And its only track ONE.
This album is one of those mythical records that will surprise you more and more every time you listen to it. We continue with New Kid in Town and later Life In The Fast Lane. These are two equally beautiful, but vastly different songs. New Kid is quite melancholy when you first listen to it, but it grows on you. It makes sense really considering the song is about wanting to be accepted. Fry, Henley and the rest of the band really flex their instrumental muscles here, and the result is glorious.
Fast Lane is a different beast, though.
It’s my personal favourite on the album, and it features Glenn Fry at his most untouchable. A guitar hero if ever there was one. This song rocks, this song rolls and this song does basically everything in between. Its a song you can listen to in any mood and you’ll instantly feel better because of it. The harmonies here are phenomenal too.
Just like the rest of the album. Incredible.
2 – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles – 1967
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naoknj1ebqI
Uh, no clues for what they wrote this one about.
The silver medal goes to the fab four.
Everything these four incredible people achieved together, every album they released, every record they broke (that’s destroyed) simply added to their mythos.
The Beatles aren’t a band anymore, people, they’re practically a religion.
If you had the unenviable task of choosing a magnum opus album-wise, then Sgt Pepper makes a fabulous case for itself. It’s my personal favourite, but of course my opinion should play no part in how you choose to discover this band. They were the greatest pop group and the greatest songwriters of the modern age. You all know the stories, believe them. They’re most certainly true.
Sgt Pepper is, to be frank, the Bayeux Tapestry of 20th-century songwriting.
It touches on some incredible subject matter. Some of it is heartbreaking, some of it is exhilarating, all of it is perfection. Where do we even start with this thing? The title track and With a Little Help From My Friends sets the tone and begins to tell a story that spans the entire length of the album. Its a story of overcoming adversity and finding solace in each other, in people you care about. For that to be put so effortlessly into an album is why this one will live forever. It had never been done before, and odds are it will never be done again.
My personal favourite song here though is surprisingly easy for an album that cannot be categorised. That honour goes to A Day in The Life. Up until I discovered the album you’ll see momentarily at number one, this was the greatest song I’d ever heard. Even at 20, the song cracks my top three tunes ever. This is why.
I almost don’t consider this a song. It’s a narrative. A script, if you will. Lennon, McCartney, Starr, and Harrison guide each listener through exceptionally ordinary activities, catching the bus, oversleeping and waking up late for work, watching television.
Therein lies the genius of the piece, because what’s the best way to make a song memorable.
Easy. Make it relevant to everyone all at once.
I feel like the song gives off a profound sense of loneliness as if while you’re listening you’re just drifting, blissfully unaware. But it makes it so strikingly relevant to everything we do collectively in society today. Everyone has these feelings. Everyone knows where The Beatles are coming from.
Truly outstanding songs talk to you. You don’t listen to them as such, they speak to you, and you listen. I think A Day in The Life is the epitome of that. The song will affect each listener differently. But eventually, you’ll realise why it’s so resonant, so incredible. You’ll understand what it means to you, and you alone.
That is what Sgt Pepper as an album facilitates. Each listener will judge it how they see fit, but to me, it is truly almost perfect.
But it isn’t my greatest album of All Time.
This is.
1 – Fleetwood Mac – Rumours – 1977
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqjXn2NflqU
It’s a masterpiece, people.
What do you all know of heartbreak?
Simply, you don’t forget when your heartbreaks.
If you don’t immediately understand the significance of that then odds are you haven’t felt it yet.
Fleetwood Mac were the first band that truly changed my life. Once I understood Rumours it changed my outlook on where the future would take me.
Honestly the first time I listened to it I didn’t understand it. It took a few tries. But one fateful day I started it and everything clicked into place in my head. I was captivated, and sobbing uncontrollably by the end. I knew I wanted a career in music because of this thing.
The album was released in 1977, and it came at a turbulent time in the lives of the members of the band. The married Mick Fleetwood began a torrid and publicised affair with Stevie Nicks, who was married to Lindsey Buckingham. Meanwhile, the other members of the Band John and Christie McVeigh were also on the brink of divorce.
So basically everything was going wrong.
Rumours was the band’s response to the chaos, the eye of the hurricane and the light at the end of the tunnel.
Each song here is more like a thrilling story, and two of the most memorable are Dreams and Go Your Own Way. The incredible thing here is that these two songs are written from the perspectives of Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood respectively.
ABOUT THE SAME ARGUMENT
Dreams is brutal. Nicks’ lyrics tear into an unknown (but known) person who doesn’t want the same things as she does. It’s angry, bitter and painful stuff.
But even with the darkest subject matter, there’s an undeniable beauty to it. The lyric ‘women they will come and they will go’ will undoubtedly tear you to pieces. Its as if Nicks knows she isn’t good enough, but sings through the pain and uncertainty anyway.
The song, and album, almost reminds me of the music played by those brave musicians on the Titanic. They knew the inevitability of the ship going down but played on with courage. This song makes you feel desperately sorry for the circumstances under which it was written, but it will captivate you from start to finish.
But all stories have two sides
Go Your Own Way is the equally spiteful response to the story of Dreams. Fleetwood lays into an unknown (yet known) woman about how he’s feeling. Again the pain telegraphed here will leave you breathless, just as before.
The lyrics here are what makes the song so remarkable. Fleetwood almost begs for forgiveness but doesn’t back down. He tells the recipient that ‘packing up, shacking up’s all you want to do’. That line destroys me because again its a story of how both parties must have known what was coming.
Yet they bravely knew that the show had to go on.
Every song here is much like these two highlights. Just as heartbreaking, just as melancholy and just as stunning. The adjectives I could use to describe this seminal album just go on and on, so I’ll be blunt.
After almost 21 years Rumours is (thus far) the greatest album I’ve ever heard. I hope you find something to love within it too.
So
Deep Breath
Rest those eyes
We made it
It’s been a pleasure, and it’s been a wild ride. I sincerely hope that each person reading this was happy to dive into my head and pick my brain for a few albums.
I may be a professional musician, which means I’m probably biased, but that’s the amazing thing about music. It means different things to different people.
That means each person can react to this list however they want to.
Get listening. It’s been fun
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Reality: it’s completely overrated
There’s no such thing as a reality show, only unreality shows. The more unreal, in some cases, the better.
Back in the early 2000s all of my corporate clients went on a “reality” kick. “Don’t use any lights,” they said. “We want the look to be ‘real,’ as if our employees had shot this.” I was baffled: why hire me if you want your project to look as if it had been shot by my mom? I lost a couple of clients because I just couldn’t bring myself to make it look as bad as they wanted. (I’ve shot projects that are specifically meant to look amateurish because that suits the product or the message in some way, but it was odd to me that so many companies opted to brand themselves using badly shot video.)
Over time, many companies lost their brand identity because all of their media looked amateurish. There was no way to differentiate between them visually. It was as if every company changed its logo to Helvetica text in black-and-white.
Now I shoot for clients and companies who want very strong visual brand identities, as they understand that the look of their media reflects who they are and what they sell. Some of these want to push limits: it’s not unusual for me to shoot with anamorphic lenses, or ancient lenses that have been rehoused for modern use, or use obscure streak and diffusion filters. Now it’s about grabbing attention using cool images that immediately set a tone and create a visual brand for that client. Back in the early 2000s, one of my clients at the time (a major apparel company) conducted tests to establish what kind of media best communicated their brand identity. Video won, hands down.
In print, fonts and colors establish a brand. In motion, lighting, composition, color, sound and editing distinguish one company’s offerings from another. We do this by manipulating reality to reflect the brand’s message. We don’t show reality, we shape it.
Reality is often ugly. We generally don’t notice this because we’re surrounded by it, and we’re not focusing on any one aspect of it. We exist in an environment, and 3D space taps into different aesthetics than does a 2D image. Once we put a frame around reality, though… we’re immediately making an artistic statement, and that statement cascades and has consequences. Suddenly the lighting within the frame makes a difference. Depth of field makes a difference. Exposure makes a difference. Color makes a difference. Sound perspective makes a difference. Art direction makes a difference. Makeup and wardrobe make a difference. As soon as we draw someone’s attention to a specific aspect of the world… as soon as their view narrows… what is in that view becomes part of a story. And audiences rarely want that story to make sense.
I guess what I’m saying is: reality sucks. Human beings don’t particularly like their stories told realistically. We want to see interpretations of reality, not reality itself. What I’ve described above is shaping reality to sell a product, but traditional stories shape reality to make a point, follow a theme, show how characters change over time.
Sometimes brand and storytelling overlap. Back in the 1940s/50s each studio was known for its “look.” Some dictated bright images with perfectly-lit stars, others allowed their directors and DPs to go a bit darker and grittier. One remnant of this remains in the form of the “Warner Brothers haircut,” where closeups are tight enough that framing for the face crops out the top of the head.
Creating looks that tell stories is what we do. Often these looks are subtle, but occasionally they aren’t. It’s fun to see what filmmakers can get away with artistically when they toss subtle out the window. The farther one moves from visual reality, the more abstract and bizarre the storytelling can be.
To make my point, I want you to go take a look at something really weird. Click here and spend 15 minutes in surreal goodness. I’ll wait.
I don’t know what you thought of that, but I freakin’ love that stuff.
I first heard of Canadian director Guy Maddin when my husband took me to see The Saddest Music in the World. I assumed it was going to be deadly dull and overly romantic, but it turned out to be completely surreal and visually “over the top.” It was also hysterically funny, with a lot of the humor coming from the juxtaposition of the visual style and the subject matter.
Best of all, it looked like a 1920s hand-cranked silent film, but with sound and occasional color. The story was so “out there” that the extreme visual style made it believable in a way that reality never could.
This is an extreme example, but it shows how the visual style of a film (or any media) dramatically impacts how its subject matter is taken, and whether the subject matter works at all. It especially affects whether the subject matter is memorable.
What triggered this article in the first place is that I found a recent Guy Madden film on Netflix that I hadn’t known existed. I had no idea what to expect when I wandered into The Forbidden Room, but it was quite an experience—and a great lesson in how visual style can advance, enhance, and make us believe stories that would otherwise seem completely nonsensical:
Apparently this film came about as a result of the Seances link above. While shooting the scenes necessary to create the unique films on that website, the filmmakers realized they could also shoot enough material for a feature film. They found the synopses for 17 films, ranging from educational films to feature films, whose footage had been lost to time, and then tried to reimagine what they might have looked like. Segments from each film are stitched together like nesting dolls: an educational film on the subject of bathing becomes a submarine adventure as the camera descends into the tub; a film about a woman who falls asleep while being held captive in a cave dissolves into the story of a lounge singer stalked by African jungle vampires .
Each story has its own unique visual style, varying primarily in color, texture and camera movement. The lighting changes somewhat as well, but the key light is often hard and visibly moving. (An article on the film states that a lot of it was illuminated by a fresnel that was set on full spot and held on a stick above the camera.)
Each story’s subject matter is completely surreal and implausible, and yet the visual styles are so abstract that we buy into each storyline without much thought beyond, “Wow, this is out there!” Just as the script is unreal, so is the lighting and the camerawork.
Take a look at a few stills from the movie. None of them are particularly realistic, but each tells a story on its own.
Each “film” in The Forbidden Room is completely absurd. That’s the fun of it. But each film also has its own look that feels like a throwback to a past era when the look of film itself was more obviously removed from reality. Those looks set the stage for the filmmakers to push reality farther and farther away, and get away with it.
Many filmmakers craft their own realities that allow them to tell the stories that they prefer to tell. Sometimes they use the same techniques for different results. Stanley Kubrick loved single-point perspective and used it to tell some very dramatic stories:
Wes Anderson uses single-point perspective to tell brightly-colored children’s stories for grownups:
Both directors tell very different stories, and yet this type of framing is an integral part of how each does so. It is part of their “brand.” This kind of framing and staging is completely unnatural, but that unnaturalness is how they prefer to interpret stories for their audiences.
You won’t have any doubt as to when you’re watching a Guy Maddin film. His style is unique in that it is completely unrealistic, but largely based on the lack of realism found in films made when the medium was very, very young.
Audiences love all of these looks. Reality is a lot more interesting when viewed through an artist’s eyes.
Early films were shot in black and white and primarily lit with hard light from above. The look was unnatural but that abstraction gave artists room to construct the visual reality that best suited the story. Color introduced the opportunities for new layers of abstraction, from the mundane (blue moonlight) to the hyperreal (silvery cyan moonlight) to the impressionistic (purple moonlight from “One from the Heart”). Since then we’ve seen a return to grittiness, hyper realism, naturalism, more abstraction, and the current trend for what I call enhanced realism. The trend, though, seems to be toward abstraction, as the cleanliness of digital imagery, and the opportunity to experiment with vintage looks afforded by apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic, push us to interpret imagery more strongly than in recent memory. I regularly shoot projects with vintage lenses or through funky diffusion materials, and most recently I shot a project on Master Primes at T1.3 in order to turn backgrounds into expressionistic washes of light and color.
I’m perfectly happy to head in that direction. It’s addicting. And when I see images like those above, my fear is that I may not have the chance to push my work that far. The Forbidden Room is, ultimately, an art project, and I make my living shooting commercial projects. It’s hard to push companies into taking chances like these with their brands. I see this happen every once in a while, but not often. Still, given the move toward using older lenses and generally “messing up the image,” I hope to be able to do work like this someday.
After all, those of us who become cinematographers don’t typically become such in order to capture the world as it is. We want to put our spin on it. That, after all, is what stories are: events shaped by perspective.
Our perspective.
Art Adams Director of Photography
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