For this assignment I chose the cartoon Spongebob Sqaurepants. Usually in this cartoon they use very bright hues because it's generally a happy cartoon, nothing ever goes wrong except the usual Plankton trying to steal the Krabby Patty recipe. The hues in the first picture they chose were bright yellows, purples, and greens because the characters don't have a care in the world. They're just floating around blowing bubbles so they used these hues to create happiness. The second picture however, something tragic happens. Spongebob and Patrick take a train to a foreign place called Rock Bottom that is very scary and unknown to them and they can't figure out how to get back home. For this they still use the characters hues of pink and yellow, but they are faded. The background is very dark and uses grays and blacks.
The brightness and saturation are very different in these two photos. The first one is very bright and doesn't use any dark colors at all because it is a happy scene. The second photo uses all dark colors (besides the characters), but even the characters' bright colors are very desaturated and faded out.
They don't really use any shadows in Spongebob, but if they were to put shadows in these scenes there would be a lot more shadows in the second picture to resemble darkness and that they are in a scary place. The symbolism of the colors is that the darker colors resemble the scary, foreign place they are in. In the first picture the bright colors symbolize happiness which also puts you in these moods when you watch these specific scenes.
In the first picture the movements are very diagonal as opposed to the second picture all the lines are going parallel. There aren't many things in each scene so there are not many overlapping movements. The weight in the first picture I would consider light because it is using very easy colors to look at. The second picture is more contrasting with the different colors.
It's hard to tell if the director followed the 180 degree rule because the shots are very short and limited. Each shot is a somewhere new and with new actors. You can tell one place where he broke the 180 degree rule is in the second scene. When he shot the blue car, he shot it from the back end, then the very next shot you see the front end. It's confusing because one second the car is traveling away from you and the next it's coming toward you.
The director did follow the rule of thirds. He always has what he wants you to pay attention to in the right third. Whenever there is a car in the scene it's either traveling from the right third, going to the right third, or sitting in the right third. Sometimes he does break it and puts the characters right in the middle of the shot, but the scenes aren't supposed to be about the characters, you're supposed to be paying attention to the cars.
It's hard to decide whether the 30 degree rule is followed in this commercial because the shots are so short and limited. It seems like there are a few jump cuts in the commercial because there are some spots that it feels awkward, but the commercial and shots are short enough that they wouldn't be noticeable to a regular viewer.
If you pay attention to this commercial, the scenes that have multiple shots in them do seem awkward because they either have jump cuts or the example when the director broke the 180 degree rule. Overall I think the director did not pay attention to these rules when he was shooting a commercial unless there are different rules for car commercials.
For the song deconstruction song I chose two songs by Local Natives.
"Wide Eyes" by Local Natives
Listening Phase One:
Tempo: Vivace (lively and fast)
Source: Drums, bass guitar, lead guitar.
Groove: The groove is definitely coming from the clicks of the drums constantly going throughout the song.
Listening Phase Two:
Instrumentation: Drums, two guitars, distorted bass guitar.
Structure Organization: The song gets more intense as it goes on.
Emotional Architecture: The song keeps building with more things going on as the song goes on.
Listening Phase Three:
Height: varies, the guitar is very high but the distorted bass is very low.
Width: no panning.
Depth: five layers of instruments playing different things at the same time, makes the song very loud.
"Who Knows Who Cares" by Local Natives
Listening Phase One:
Tempo: Adagietto (Rather Slow)
Source: drums, bass
Groove: The groove is coming from the drums and keyboards.
Listening Phase Two:
Instrumentation: drums, two guitars, bass guitar, keyboards.
Structure Organization: The song gets more intense as it goes on.
Emotional Architecture: The song starts of very slow and then ends up rather fast towards the end.
Listening Phase Three:
Height: high
Width: no panning.
Depth: song starts off with very few layers then ends with a lot.
Between the two songs, I definitely like Wide Eyes better because it has a lot more going on in the song, there are many layers, and there is a constant drive behind the song. I purposely used the live performance for the second song because it shows you how many layers they use and personally I like the live version better even though the song quality is less impressive than the real version of the song. Another reason I like the live version is because you can actually see the audience's reaction to the song and what the musicians are putting into the song while they are playing it.
With both songs I don't think the lyrics are the main focus. I've been listening to these two songs for over a year now and still don't know all the words which is rare. Your attention is drawn more with what the instruments are doing. After looking up the lyrics, I like "Who Knows Who Cares" better because the lyrics are more relatable. The lyrics in "Wide Eyes" don't really make sense.
I feel like "Who Knows Who Cares" is the anthem of Local Native's album. It's slower than most of their songs but it still has a drive to it. "Wide Eyes" is considered their single for their album and is more upbeat than the rest of the songs.
My favorite parts of both songs would be the lead guitar. I like the clean sound it has opposed to the distorted bass in "Wide Eyes." Each song multiple guitars playing unique guitar riffs the whole time, both using the clean sound that you expect from Local Natives. Another thing I like in both songs are the drive of the drums. The drummer does not use typical drum patterns in any of their songs, so during the song you never tune-out the drums, they are always obvious and present whenever they are playing.
Overall "Wide Eyes" would be my favorite out of the two. Using unique instrumentation and multiple layers of all instruments keeps my attention on the song and I haven't gotten sick of hearing it yet.
