Blog Post #4

 Foreground visible, leads viewer's eye to subject, and the foreground and background create a frame within the frame. Each third of the image contains something different. Background indicates limited but large amount of space.

 Frame within the frame. Subject is in the middle, but subject's body and arm of the chair are at an intersection. Clutter of mis-en-scene creates a sense of claustrophobia.

 Foreground and background are visible. Horizon one third of the way up the image. The lines made by the porch direct the viewer's eyes towards the background--out of focus, suggestive of vast space and height. Subject at an intersection, partially in focus, close but separated by a small amount of foreground. 

 Subject at intersection. Background more in focus. Unlike previous shots, there is no house to suggest a location- cat, porch, and trees vaguely suggest a house and backyard. 

 Subject at intersection. Lines follow gaze of subject. Out of focus flowers and ground create limited sense of space.

 Subject at intersection. Railing creates a line directed towards the subject. Trees and sunlight mimic the subject. Frame very uncluttered, a lot of attention on subject.

Subject at intersection. Flow of motion/action throughout each third of the frame. Indistinct background emphasizes subject and action rather than scenery.  

Subject at intersection. Cluttered mis-en-scene creates a frame within the frame, but lack of focus and proportion emphasizes the subject and suggests both a large and small amount of space.

Different Shots

establishing shot

long shot

medium shot

close shot

extreme close-up

lower shot

higher shot

depth of field shot

Blog Post #1

Personally I don't see anything as pre-ordained. The very idea of pre-crime--being able to predict the future--is just like Minority Report; science fiction. I read Emerson's "Fate" last year in AP English, and because of the amount of time and effort we put into analyzing it I feel inclined to draw from that essay: decisions that people make are inevitable, and the thought process that leads up to those decisions make illustrate just how inevitable they really are, but nobody can predict what exactly those decisions are going to be.

Ignoring polytheism for a second, it is noteworthy that Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother directly because he is told that he will do that and tries not to. Although trying not to do something (fleeing fate) most of the time doesn't lead to doing that thing (fulfilling fate), it does inevitably lead to doing another thing. So with free will, personal responsibility, brain chemistry being the means and fate being the end; the "means" can be predicted and the "end" cannot.

For example, while I was taking pictures for the Sophomore Journal I knew that that was what I was doing, but I did not know if it would be something that I could rattle away on my college app or if it would lead me to join Associated Press or if would make me get sick of photography and dabble in some other hobby. As a high school student, if I were to work towards a particular outcome in my distant future--perhaps I want to get a PhD in archeology and spend the rest of my life lecturing at museums and universities--I would inevitably either lose interest or veer off course towards another self-made ideal of my fate. Our fate is unknown, and thinking about it makes us even more hopeless.