Babysitter

I have re-edited the video. This final piece has better sound-effect.

Babysitter: Horror story reflection

Reflection:
As you can see in the video above, we have changed so much of the script. We made all of them die and didn't let the police came to rescue. We filmed this at Hannah's house and spent 3 hours to film all scenes.
There are two thing that we tried in order to make it horror-like. First thing is the fact that we filmed it at night. It is obvious that the horror film should be as dark as possible meaning it should be filmed at night. Second thing is that we created tension by sound effect, such as heavy breathing.
A bad thing or a mistake we made is that every scene was too short and there were less tension in it. For example, the scene where Yuvi gets killed in a toilet should be longer so that it will be more tense and scary.
Also, the modifications in the script might be a little bit too much, but we changed the story to make it more interesting and scarier.
To improve: Gradually increasing tension and the length are the key to success in horror films so I should add those features into our piece. I think Hannah's acting was excellent and should be regarded highly. 

Choreographed Nightmare to music

Member: Ayush, Daoud, Nikki and Yohei
Reflection:
This nightmare is based on the idea that anything is possible in a dream. Daoud is the one who have a dream and Nikki is his mother and Ayush and I are the monsters that appear in a dream. As you can see in the video, Daoud fights with Ayush and I, and eventually lose us. We thought that a dream doesn't have to be realistic or make sense so we did not include any story, but fighting.
We thought that someone that is related closely to the dreamer(the person who is having a nightmare) has to die in a nightmare and thus we made me kill Nikki in the play.
Nikki acted as Daoud's mother and it is understood when she put a blanket on him. She gets killed by me, but revives to wake Daoud up. Although things happening in front of Daoud does not make sense, nightmare doesn't have to make sense and should rather be obscure.
About the acting: I think we did quite well in terms of the quality of the fight and harmony of choreography and music. To be specific, Daoud's movement was very rhythmical and the way I fell down was unexpectedly well. In fact, I felt I did bad when I fell until I watched myself on the video above.
To improve, we need to exaggerate the gesture and move in accord with music.

Horror scene - 12-05-16

Script
Daniel: It's cold in here.
Ayush: Shall we go in?
Yohei: Do you have the touch?
Ayush: Here.
Daniel: OK. Let's go
-Door opens with squeaking sound-
Yohei: What's this?
Daniel: Looks like a painting?
-All explore the house-
Ayush: Oh, there is a bathroom.
-Ayush goes in and fix his hair-
Daniel: Oh my god. He is doing the hair again.
Ayush: Wait, there's something wrong with this mirror.
Daniel: What?
-Daniel goes in front of the mirror and moves arms randomly and Kabir (Daniel in the mirror) synchronizes simultaneously.
Daniel: See? There's nothing wrong with the mirror man.
-Daniel turns around and walk towards the exit of the bathroom.
Ayush: Daniel! Look at the mirror!
-Kabir(Daniel in the mirror) stares at Daniel-
Daniel: What!?
-Daniels turns around again and look in the mirror and checks that there's nothing wrong-
Daniel & Yohei: Are you OK ayush?
-Ayush is possessed and frozen-
Yohei: Hey, Ayush. -Touching Ayush's shoulder.
-Yohei also gets possessed and freezes-
Daniel: Ah, Guys? -Looking at Ayush and Yohei-
-Daniel looks back at the mirror and find himself(Kabir) going out of the mirror-
Daniel: What the... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
-Daniel runs away from himself, Ayush and Yohei and as they touch him, he also gets possessed.

-End-

Reflection:
I believe that the script and the concept were appropriate for the horror though the character should have described the house more and create the tension. If we can do the scene again, I will add more length in the scene when Daniel explores the mirror. For example, it would be good idea if Kabir stops coping Daniel's motion after he copied several times and Daniel gets puzzled and turns around after saying "See? There's nothing wrong."

New unit

PSA Reflection

Our topic is the bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a mental disease, which a patient repeats being depressed and manic continuously. It often leads a patient to commit suicide. The possibility a patient will commit suicide is 10% in a lifetime. It causes problems in relationships with other people as in the video and thus a patients often become lonely. Targets of the video above are patients of the bipolar disorder who barely realize that he/she has a mental disease.

The act was done by Niki and Hannah and they made the script. The filming took place in the entrance hall. They are sisters and their relationship breaks up due to the sudden change in Hannah's emotion. Madhav is a writer, editor and explainer and organized our work. I, however, did virtually nothing, except for the little bit of editing and a extremely short narrating. In fact, the acting scene that I took part in was somehow unrecorded and I could not take a part in the video, but it is a highly poor excuse I suppose and is not valid. To improve, we should be more emotional and show our facial expression and zoom in a face so that the audience will understand the seriousness of the disease. Also, we should have made it more realistic by filming it somewhere else, such as class room where human relationship easily breaks up. Lastly, I think the video should have been shorter because it is an advertisement and it cannot be very long.

PSA

Reflection:

This picture represents the scene where a student is being beaten by his teacher and his classmates are laughing about it. We made it realistic by making the student have broken glasses, which suggests that he got punched/hit in the eye. Good things about the picture is that each one of the group showed their emotions in their faces. To improve the quality of the picture, I think I need to decrease the members of the group and take picture with first peson's view or zoom in so that the face expressions are clear. The picture above is extremely low quality in terms of the angle and the ability to make people think deeply about the child abuse.

Reflection on 3 music videos

Tracey Chapman--Behind the Wall 
This song is about a domestic violence(DV), which is one of the major social issues. She hears the screaming of a wife and police saying " they can't interfere with domestic affairs.", but after a wife gets injured and ambulance came, police say " they are here to keep peace." So she is basically complaining of irony that police will not act unless it's too late. Her way of singing makes us think that she might have been a victim of DV. Although the song is extremely short, she explains the situation clearly and sings with deep emotion. 
Tori Amos--Silent All These Years .

This song is about rapes and it was written to give her voice to her inner rage at being raped. "Silent all these years" suggest that she has been quiet for what people have done to her, but not anymore. "Funny lip shape" is certainly the injury she got while being raped. To confirm the fact that the song is about rape, she says "boy you best pray that i bleed real soon", which means she might be pregnant. This song vaguely tells us that women who got raped cannot easily ask for help and she claims that is the main problem of the raping.

Pearl Jam--Jeremy 
This song is about a 16 years old student named Jeremy. He had really tough life since he was born and until he committed suicide in front of 30 classmates in English class. According to my research, he had been lonely for the entire life and had some psychiatric problems and his dad didn't care about him at all. Nobody knows what crossed his mind, but he shot himself in English class at period 2 in front of 30 classmates with magnum and died at the age of 16. Pearl Jam later wrote song about him to raise awareness of child abuse and youth isolation. 

Drama: Argument Play

15/04/2016
Script:

Man: Ah. I'd like to have an argument, please.
Receptionist: Certainly sir. Have you been here before?
Man: No, this is my first time.
Receptionist: I see. Well, do you want to have the full argument, or were you thinking of taking a course?
Man: Well, what would be the cost?
Receptionist: Well, It's 50 dirhams for a five minute argument, but only 80 dirhams for a course of ten.
Man: Well, I think it's probably best if I start with the one and then see how it goes from there, okay?
Receptionist: Fine. I'll see who's free at the moment.
(Pause)
Receptionist: Ahh yes, Try Mr. Barnard; room 12.
Man: Thank you. (Walks down the hall. Opens door.)
Angry man: WHADDAYOU WANT?
Man: Well, Well, I was told outside that...
Angry man: DON'T GIVE ME THAT, YOU SNOTTY-FACED HEAP OF PARROT DROPPINGS!
Man: What?
A: SHUT YOUR FESTERING GOB! YOUR TYPE MAKES ME PUKE! YOU VACUOUS TOFFEE-NOSED MALODOROUS FOOL!!!
M: Yes, but I came here for an argument!!
A: (stops shouting) OH! Oh! I'm sorry! This is abuse.
M: Oh! Oh I see!
A: Aha! No, you want room 12A, next door.
M: Oh...Sorry...
A: Not at all!
A: (under his breath) stupid idiot.
(The man goes into room 12A. Another man is sitting behind a desk.)
Man: Is this the right room for an argument?
Other Woman: I've told you once.
Man: No you haven't!
Other Woman: Yes I have.
M: When?
O: Just now.
M: No you didn't!
O: Yes I did!
M: You didn't!
O: I did!
M: You didn't!

O: I'm telling you, I did!

M: You did not!

Old man with mental problem: Why are you flirting with my wife!?

M: What?

Old man with mental problem: Why are you flirting with my wife!?

M: Who is your wife??

Old: Her!!(pointing at other woman)

    My lovely wife...(hugging other woman)

O:Hey!! What is wrong with you!? I'm not your wife!! Get off me!(pushing the old man)

Oldman and Man fights and man hits the old man with a pot and old man is knocked out.

Receptionist: What is going on here!? What was that noise!!? 

Angry man: What's happening here!? Hey that pot is mine!! Oh my god! It's broken into pieces!!!!!!! Tell me what's going on here!!

M: He says I'm flirting with his wife.(pointing at the old man)

Old man: She is my wife! She is my.......

Receptionist: She isn't your wife!! Your wife died 10 years ago! (to man)Don't worry. He has some mental problems.

Angry man: So you broke my pot.(pointing at the man). My grandmother gave me that!!! 

M: It's not my fault. That old man was about to kill me!!

Angry man argues with the man about the broken pot and old man argues with the receptionist about his wife and the stage light goes off.

Reflection: This script was made by my group. I like the script as it ends with intense arguments, which is the whole concept of the play. We sought to make it interesting and mysterious by adding a old man with metal problem in it. His role was actually very important because he is the one that brings chaos. The play is unique and entertaining, I believe, but it turned out that the play needed more length to explain the setting and what is going on because the audience looked puzzled about what;s happening and did not understand the situation.

First post for drama

Updated 23/02/2016

Description: This abstract musical composition was created by Yassin and I using cipher and minimalism. Ciphers are based on our names and words related to Asia. We used " Asian culture" as the stimulus and used instruments that were originated in Asia because John Cage was said to be interested in Asian cultures and philosophy, and we wanted to express what Cage were interested in and how Cage would express the culture if I was him. We instinctively came up with the Asian-like melodies, such as the one that is played as a background music in the video. The images in the video show the landscape and cultures of Asia. As Asia is a big continent we focused mainly on cultures East Asia, but there are some abstraction from South Asia, such as India.
Instruments we used:

• Koto
• Boys voice
• Shamisen
• Glass breaking
• Drum
• etc... 

Mid-way

Progress, 4th February

I have started creating  my own composition with Yassin and we already came up with some melody using ciphers and minimalism. We chose to use Asian traditional instruments because John Cage liked some Asian cultures and philosophy and we are inspired by him.

John cage, Philip Glass and Igor Stravinsky

Who is John CAGE?
John Cage was an American composer, featured for having a strange sense of sound. He said there is no such thing like silence because there cannot be empty space or smell-less things; There has to be something to sense. His famous composition "4 33" represents the idea of that. In terms of the influence to composers of younger generation, he was very influencing and changed musical sense of many. His musical compositions were based on abstracts and he sometimes referred to an abstract artwork. He is famous for using unusual instruments, such as sound made while boiling water and glass-crushing sound. His music is completely out of the box and creative though controversial. He is also known for using a lot of minimalism. Most of his composition includes constant rhythms and patterns.
"Sonatas and Interludes" is a collection of twenty pieces for prepared piano(a piano which makes different sounds due to an object placed on strings.) by John Cage. The pieces are clearly odd and full of originality, but it tells us that Cage was in an another musical world, which only few understood.

Collaboration with Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock is an American painter whose work is mostly abstract. Although his belief on arts was contrary to Cage's, they shared common adversary: ancient European theory and thoughts on arts, which were old-fashioned  and bound by rules. Pollock's works were done by randomly throwing the painting onto a paper. They came together to create new type of arts and shared their ideas through collaboration. They also expressed each other in their work.
The painting on the left hand side was done by John Cage advised by Pollock. It demonstrates the features seen in Pollock's work, such as the use of color. He uses White paint a lot. Musical compositions they created are constantly low-pitched and quiet, but it contained some sudden rises of volume. 

Who is Phillip Glass?


Phillip Glass is a classical American composer. He is said to be one of the most influential artist in late 20th century. He had studied music in University of Chicago. His compositions are varied in types. He created classical, orchestral and many other types of music. He produced the theme music of the movie"Fantastic 4". He mainly used wind instruments for the theme song, but he uses combo of voices, electronic keyboards, wind instruments, flute, etc...Collaboration with Richard SerraPhilip Glass once worked as an assistant of an American visual artist, Richard Serra in 1960s. Serra is famous for his minimalist sculpture, but he worked on other types of art, such as paintings and drawings. His sculpture mainly used curved lines and mainly made out of wood. The sculptures were huge and some of them are used as a part of building as shown on the left. Glass says Serra and he didn't discuss much about music and art, but he was welcomed to play his unusual music in Serra's gallery , which suggests that they acknowledged each other's originality. Reason why Glass decided to work with Serra is supposedly because he thought Serra's work possessed strong identity and when he put music into the sculptural environment that would be a real encounter. The compositions inspired by Serra were played by piano and were based on minimalism.Who is Igor Stravinsky?                                                                              Igor Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. As well as cage and Glass, he is considered as one of the most influential composer in 20th century. One of his quotes is " I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.", which justifies the other quotes " My music is best understood by children and animals". These quotes suggests that he didn't want people to understand his music, but he knew people will be inspired by his music in some way. His compositions are abnormal, weird and innovative to normal people like me. He created lots of orchestral compositions that tend to have silence every five seconds. He also used 12-notes serialism a lot. Compositions made when he was young were like a combination of traditional and modern music.Collaboration with Vaslav Nijinsky　　　　　　　　　　　　                                        Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer cited as the most greatest dancer of the early 20th century. He collaborated with Stravinsky through "The Rite of Spring"( A ballet by Stravinsky). It consists of several wind instruments and sudden rises of pitch and it sounds like symphony. The dance was designed and done by Nijinsky surrounded by few dancers walking around him and it involves many jumping and motion of arms. The dance is appropriate for the title of the ballet. However Stravinsky hated the dance.  　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  

Compositional techniques

Cipher: It is a method of transforming texts into a secret code, but in this case, it means a musical cryptogram, which is a sequence of musical notes that can be taken to refer to motifs of the music. Often times, artists refer to their friends' names as a motif of a musical composition.
For example, "BACH" will turn into BACB. H was transformed in to B because in German-speaking world, B-flat was named B and B-natural was named H.

Morse code: It is a cryptogram, which letters are transformed into short and long sound and the order of the sounds decides which letter sender wants to express. People use the code below for general uses.

Task: To create own cipher- explain it & perform it.

YOHEI → BDAEB according to the code below.