Rush Post #6

Night Mail's audio was difficult to understand, so it was not entirely clear what was taking place. It is sort of easy to infer that the mail train acts as the life blood of daily English life. Without the nightly deliverance of mail, business transactions (at this time in history) would have grinded to a halt. Levers play a part in to that sentiment. The wrong turn of the wrong lever at the wrong moment could muck the whole system up. The largest part that levers play is in giving instructions to the trains and changing up the directions of the tracks (this is seen about 2 minutes in to the film as well as 7-9 minutes). This mechanization lends itself to the national identity of a country that wants to appear on the cutting edge of technology. Smaller levers pop up in the background of film, on phones (5 minutes in)and used to catch/retrieve the bags of mail from the side of the tracks (18-19 minutes in).

Rush Post #5

According to Dictionary.com, militarization is to equip something or someone with armed forces, military supplies, or the like. In the case of the film Triumph of the Will, however, a secondary definition becomes more apt. Militarization can also mean to imbue with militarism. This concept is strong in this piece of propaganda. It can been seen all through this film. From the national flags plastered on to every surface, the hundreds of troops who have long call-and-responses memorized, the perfect military style buzz-cuts on every young male, the chaotic fervor created by the appearance of the military leaders. Nearly everything shows the military influence that Hitler imbued his version of Germany with. This plays in to what we refer to as the Gaze. This piece emphasizes the fervor in which the people followed a charismatic leader and how easy it would be to be sucked in to the energy that followed the Nazi party in it campaign to reclaim Germany.

Rush #4

For my final project I am thinking about writing the analytical paper or helping out with the Citizen L project. I am leaning more towards the paper as I am not sure of the time that I can afford to give up in the next couple months with the prep for my senior project, grad school applications and my other course work. As for topic, I am not sure what I would do. There are two things bouncing around my head, talking about the credibility and message on temporary art that is highlighted in Exit Through the Gift Shop or about the couple religious documentaries that I have had to watch this semester. Just not sure yet on the topic.

EDIT: OCTOBER 19, 2011 AT 12:55 AM

I think I figured out what I actually what to do for my final project. Originally I wanted to do a creative project, in filming a short documentary on the process of a theater production from the viewpoint of a designer. It is the thing that I live for and would love to share it with others. Unfortunately, it is an incredibly long process and started long before spring semester of last school year ended. So I didn't think that I could do what I wanted until I was talking about it today with some other students who are in the other film class. They suggested I story board my ideas out and write a type of proposal for it, including photos for the tech process that I took.

Would that work as a creative project for this class?

A series of story boards detailing my process for Oo-Bla-Dee accompanied by a short proposal with what I hope to achieve showing this experience to people who are unaware of the theater process.