POV of a story told

POV stories strategy class

I wanted to investigate what makes a good and bad movie. What criteria’s creates a movie watchable and interest?

With the introduction of the digital world, movies have become an art form more and more people can exercise. We are in an age that anything is possible to create and show on the big screen.  What people find interesting is very individual. Some may enjoy an action packed film with lots of explosions and others might be suited for emotions combined with drama. We choose and enjoy movies according to our own personality, it is almost like asking what is your favorite candy and you will get different types of answers.
Yet with most movies, even thou the genres might be different there is a universal concept of what makes it good and bad.

A lot has to do with the structure and execution on that particular piece.

The movie Godfather (Godfather 1) by Francis Ford Coppola, hit the storm during the early 1970’s. With acting, script and a whole introduction to the American Italian culture people was introduced to a new world of filmmaking. It’s still regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made and there is a reason for it. As mentioned before, the way it was produced had never been done before. With a new movement of creating films in a way to be more realistic, documenting each aspect of American lives at that time, lead to a new way of experiencing movies. I believe that the most important part with the movie that made it such a strong case was its simplicity combined the introduction of new elements. Still today we can enjoy that movie because of its straightforward story and creation of iconic movie figures. It has been adapted and cited by many movies afterwards. It’s a movie that will carry on for generations because of its popularity in our culture. Marlon Brandon’s character as Vito Corleone created that initial spark of success. Whether it was because of he put paper tissues in his mouth or shoe cream on his hair the character gave a first glimpse of how an American Italian mob boss looks like. For me those kinds of small details, simple but still complex story and execution of the movie created an interest.

The other movie I thought to compare, that almost goes into the opposite direction is The room by Tommy Wiseau. What makes it not preferable to watch is how the director tries to create a piece that falls apart in all areas. When creating something, whether it’s a drawing piece to cooking food, you have to know how it works. There is a reason if you fry an egg too long that it will taste like shit. The same thing can apply to making a movie. Not knowing how to film, finding good actors or a script that has a story, which one can follow, the outcome can be disastrous. Sometimes there are pieces that are made for us to not really understand what is going on. Those movies break the barrier of a simple production and create something that is really a piece of its own. But doing that requires a great knowledge how to make movies and pleas able for the people. The room tries to create an atmosphere where one says, “I have created this masterpiece” does not happen. Its poor execution and technique of filming permeates lack of knowledge. Sure the movie has been crowned as the Citizen Kane of bad movies and this cult following for fans that ridicule it. It managed to create an interest because of the bad execution but it’s far away from being a piece that could be named as a proper movie. It only attracts people who find it terribly made and amusing rather than what it was meant to be in the beginning, a dark drama film.

Steal like an artist.

The word originality has such an impact among us that we try to aspire it for all means. The countless creations we see today all wants to achieve that one status of being original, yet claiming to be it can only be created by the audience or if you have the confident yourself to proclaim it. But what is really original? With our current form of society we can easily witness how everyone is getting more and more creative, thus limiting the gap of being original. People have thought that this state we are in is not good since all we see is a pastiche culture emerging. At the same time does it really matter?

In Austin Kleon’s TED talk he mentions how people have taken ideas from previous works and created something new out of it. This process has been executed throughout the ages, but it hasn’t reached the same level of awareness due to problems of finding the source. With today finding any information or the answer to who made what can be done with a simple mouse click.

I completely agree with what Austin Kleon talks about. All artists have from the start taken something. From the first moment when we are exposed to anything that made us interested into a thing we apply that into whatever we create. It could be anything, from getting inspired by Picasso paintings and then becoming the new famous painter. Our style, our way of thinking comes from our preferences in the world.

When I have been working a project, I usually take the first idea that emerges from my head. Additionally I also research about different types of artwork that talks to me. So I then try to join my idea with the research I have done and add an extra flavour of spontaneous, execute it and see what was formed. Many times I have failed with projects but I have also succeeded the same amount.  I always watch movies, read, look at pictures when I am going to create something and from all those time I spend doing that I take small pieces from each artwork and put it into mine.

To put this into reflection, when I studied photography we got an assignment on “identity”. The first thing I had in my head then was a box. I didn’t now what to do with it, but a box it was. So I then started sketching and wanted people in it. I wondered how could I use people with and a box and incorporate it with the theme identity. So after remembering the book 1984 by George Orwell I had my idea finished. I wanted to create a feeling where we today pass by each other like drones and mind our own business. Even tough we are passing each other by we got one thing in common, and that is that we are one unity. Skin colour, nationality, gender, preferences does not matter. I wanted to show how we are so caught up in our world and forgets how beautiful life is.

The project was successful, I managed exhibit them and sell to a person owning a gallery.

Without knowing about the book 1984 it wouldn’t be possible for me to have done that assignment in that way. So being influenced by other peoples work is important, only then can you create something by yourself. Austin Kleon said that we are all mashes from our parents, and grandparents, but we are also different. 

From the project "Identity"
Copyright Jonath Mathew

18 things to creativity

18 things to creativity

The Huffpost article about 18 things creative people do differently highlights several important ways of interacting with creativity.

What can be pinpointed in this article is how creativity, on a personal level, is not solely based in one specific way. To fully grasp and express your creativity at a high level and understanding it, one has to perform creativity in several ways. Of course this does not have to mean that following all 18 ways of creativity will reach you to the ultimate way of working in a creative sphere.

After reading the Huffpost article there where some steps where I felt familiar with.

The first one is the daydreamer. As mentioned in the article, the daydreamer finds a solution or comes up with an idea when their minds are at a different place. I lost the count at how many times I have done that. During lectures, to walking down the street or when I am engaged in a conversation with a friend, I have reached answers or solutions to either an assignment or work when I have daydreamed. It’s really hard to explain how this works, but to put it into simple terms, all brain activity shuts down for 1-3 seconds and the solution to any problems I might have had appear without even thinking about it. In this case it is important to let time befriend with you. For example one time I had a photo-shoot for Vice Magazine. When I pitched my ideas on what kind of pictures I wanted to take they denied it first. So instead of trying to force myself of rewriting my ideas I let it pass for a day or two. During that timespan I made sure that I was occupied with something else. What happened, since I knew that daydreaming helps me, was that the day after, while hanging around with my friends, I stopped listen to them, shut all “brain activity” and daydreamed.  Within seconds a solution to improve my first idea to the photo-shoot appeared. I made sure that I wrote down some words that would help me remember it. Afterwards I let it be for a couple of hours and when I came home I started to rewrite everything and pitched it again to the magazine. This time they went with my idea and was successfully published at their website.

There are several more ways of creativity in the Huffpost article that I follow and work through. I personally do not follow one way; I make sure that I follow as many as I can. The daydreamers path to creativity was just one that I found interesting. I have on many occasions followed “They observe everything” (I do that constantly, almost everyday) “They people watch” (Since I enjoy a great time working with people and analyse them) “They follow their true passion” (If you do not enjoy your work you cannot fulfil it to the fullest).

At the same time, some ways of creativity does not work for me and that is good. Too much of something would eventually lead to an overload.

 

These pictures are some from a whole
series I did for Vice Magazine.
The idea I came up with was "Good Morning"
Copyright Jonath Mathew

Moodboard for Project 2

For the following project I will focus on showing my creative field in form of photography.
A project containing a theme will cearly be thought out. C-Obscura stands for Camera Obscura which was the original term for a camera.

Reflection essay 4 Craigslist Ad

Craigslist ad

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Assignment 3 Reflection essay

“Governments decide they know best and they’re going to tell you what to do”
- Sir Ken Robinson

Does today’s education system kill creativity? The question is indeed a bold one and understanding if this is true or not relies on your own experience and thoughts.

Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk about this subject raises several questions, which is pinpointed on my own personal opinions. Education and knowledge are two vital ideas in our existence. It is through those two factors we as humans can evolve and understand one another. Yet what happens when there is a subjective way of educating people? Will it then be regarded as a nourishing fragment for our way to develop?

I agree with Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk about how education system kills creativity. It strips down the vivid and curious thoughts you have as a child and transforms your mind into a routine-based drone. At the same time it is necessary to have subjects that emphasizes on regular matters, such as math and language but what we have in today’s education system is a way to make sure that if you want to succeed as an astronaut, achieving for an acting career or become an artist you probably will have the teacher or even your parents saying; “That’s sweet but you should study to become a doctor or an engineer.

Another argument that I fully agree with Sir Ken Robin is the matter on how we are afraid to be wrong. It is obvious that children needs to know what is right and wrong, you cannot go and steal or break down all the glasses in the house, but when we build up a system that mentally punish us for being wrong, we create a fear of failing. The best way to know something is to make sure you got it wrong at the first place. If you accidently smashed your thumb when hammering you know till the next time that you need to go easy. Being wrong should be something that is not as frightening as it sounds like. 

Following up on another topic Robinson mention is his reflections on education. I found it interesting on how he explained education is taught according to the needs of industrialism. The present education curriculum is forms us into workers for the society. Once again it is important to have people who work in industries or else our whole system would fall apart. However if you have too many people educating in works that are safe to get, then those subjects that where thought to be creative and unusual would diminish. Hence it would limit the creative workspace. An example that I am familiar with is how the education system works in Kerala, India. 

Kerala has the highest rate of people reading and writing in the entire country. The education system is one of the best and the growing amount of educated people is on levels never seen before. People all over the world really hunt people that come from Kerala for work. Yet the setback in this case is that people coming from Kerala lack the ability to take on a manager role or inventing new ways of improving the state. They mainly work in fields of engineering, doctors, and nurses, professions that are vital and necessary. But when it boils down to creative work, artist or entrepreneurs they often hire foreign people. Thou the state of Kerala has improved a lot and almost has eliminated poverty in a country that is both developed and under developed, the lack of creativity leads the state to a stop. 

There are more to Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk that I agree with and could go on forever. If we at a young age would have teacher who where encouraging and stressing on the factor that failure is not that bad and take advantage of it we would have a river of new inventions. At the same time, with everything else, too much of one thing is not good, if we only had actors then who would be the cameraman? It is a fine balance of what we need and what we want that needs to be put out on the table. Right now we are only following the needs and not the wants.

Visual Representation

Simple but rebellious, condescending but humble, creativity is greasy, shitty and a fantasy at the same time. The collage I created is not complicated, nor artistic, but it explains my line of working in the simplest matter to achieve a personal satisfaction. I work in a straight line and challenge it.