Creative Influences

The main reason that I chose to pursue video as a major is because to be an artist with a camera allows one to capture anything they love.  And for this reason there are so many different routes that can be taken with a video production major.  I know that the job market does not allow picky-ness when it comes down to specifics, however at some point in my career I would like to work with both music videos and movies.  A director who has dabbled in both is Director Marc Webb.

Since 1997 Webb has been making music videos for many artists ranging from Backstreet Boys to Matisyahu.  Some of his work in music videos that may be recognizable are My Chemical Romance's "Helena," Fergie's "Clumsy," and All American Reject's "Move Along."  All of which spent their fair share of time on TRL's music video countdown (back when that existed.)  Marc Webb's first feature length film was released in July of 2009, it was titled (500) Days of Summer, and is one of my favorite movies if not my favorite.

My favorite characteristic of Marc's work is his usage of color.  I love the way that color can convey so many things like emotion, contrast, and character.  In his music videos and in his feature film Marc shows his mastery of the usage of colors, especially when conveying Contrast and Affinity.  A perfect example is Regina Spektor's "Fidelity" music video.

Spektor is singing about how she has held her self back when it has come to falling in love, and to accompany this Webb creates an entirely black and white scene excepting only her skin and hair color.  Spektor's entire outfit matches the setting as well as the outfit of her lover which doesn't yet have a body to fill it, creating affinity between these two characters and the setting.  Black and White in the case resembles blandness and lack of excitement, suggesting that not loving anybody fully calls for a bland relationship.  The two characters display affinity because they are wearing the same colors, representing the fact that they are in the same boat.  Since the male character isn't really there and we just see his outfit that represents him, it draws the comparison that Regina isn't really there either and that they are both just carrying on their relationship and lives without really living it.  That is until the end when we see a turning point symbolized by Regina throwing a white and black heart necklace to the floor (no longer "protecting her heart truly") before the man-less outfit that is kneeling before her in a proposal-like position.  As it crashes to the floor it explodes into colors, representing Regina's decision to engulf herself in love or "love somebody fully"as she would put it.  The color not only creates an incredible visual contrast, but demonstrates the contrast between being cautious and allowing love to take over.  The man appears in his once empty clothing, representing the life that wasn't there before, as the two proceed to have a color fight that looks way more fun in contrast to the activities they were doing in the black and white scene.

(500) Days of Summer also displays Webb's expertise with color usage, however what it really excels in is Tension and Release.  From the very beginning of the movie the narrator states, "This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story" and immediately tension is created. When the audience hears that it is a story of Tom meeting the girl of his dreams Summer, they do not want to hear that it isn't a love story because that is against what is expected.  Webb carries the tension through the first scene which is a breakup scene, not really what you want to see in the beginning of a relationship, however we do realize that this is not the first day of Summer because of the clever graphics that introduce each scene with a corresponding day.  The tension is alleviated when we reel back to day 1 and see the first time Tom lays eyes on Summer, and then in the days following attempts to pursue her as any male protagonist would in the average story of boy meets girl.  This is the release.  The art of this movie is that the audience is constantly going back and forth between tension and release as the movie jumps back and forth between different points in the relationship between Summer and Tom.  One minute Tom will be dancing and singing to "You Make My Dreams Come True," and in the next second the day will change to a number like 325 and Tom will be shown stepping out of the elevator to work devastated by the lack of Summer in his life.  But no need to fret, the movie ends with release, just not in an expected way.  And this is merely how the movie captures tension and release as a whole.  The characters and awkward interactions also master the art.

This is the full length preview of the movie which obviously does not have the same affect that the whole movie does, however the sound clip used of the narrator's introduction shows how tension is set up from the very beginning, and we see some of the tension and release in the dialogue.  Especially within the conversation that Tom and Summer have about nicknames.

What inspired me most to go into video is the ability to create something worthwhile.  If I do anything, what I want most is to create something with a valuable message or a deeper meaning which is what a lot of media lacks these days.  An artists that inspires me in this respect is Lupe Fiasco.  Even though he is a musical artist and not a film maker, he is still a creative influence because he strives to fill his music with content that actually matters.  He speaks out politically on issues such as racism, rape, poverty, and always encourages his listeners to think and speak out for themselves.  

Lupe's work shows the difference between Didactic and Active Themes.  I personally would want to create movies with active themes that call for the audience to make up their own minds about what they are viewing because this encourages thinking and coming to one's own conclusions, as opposed to just effortlessly comprehending what is being told.  In most pop music listeners are just being told what to think, which is a didactic approach.  For example in Ke$ha's song "We Are Who We Are" the listener is being told "Tonight we’re going hard/ Just like the world is ours/ We’re tearin’ it apart/ You know we’re superstars/ We are who we are!"  There is nothing more to consider, that is that.  Ke$ha and her gang are going hard with glitter and torn up stockings and they are superstars.  There is nothing left for the audience to think about, it is just given to them. Lupe Fiasco however, is very active in his lyricism, and "Streets On Fire" is a song that represents this.

The song refers to a disease that is taking over, and that we do not quite know the cure: "no pill can heal the ill of this/ sickness some are still in doubt of its existence".  Everyone is blaming someone else for its creation, "some say a morgue, some say the skies, some say the floors/ whores say the nuns, nuns say the whores" and as a result we just do not know where it has come from.  Lupe then goes on to outline how all of the information about this disease is somewhat hidden.  My brief explanation does no justice to the actual lyrics, but it is evident that Lupe is letting the audience figure out a lot for themselves.  What exactly is he talking about? A lot of listeners on the internet have identified the "disease" to be AIDs, which makes complete sense, however since Fiasco does not explicitly state this the answer is left to the listener.  These lyrics are brilliantly crafted to make the listener think about so many different things, and this is the active approach that I want to take when I create my own art.