Interview with Jonathan

Interview with Jonathan

The Quay Brothers

The Quay Brothers make creepy art.

I opened the glass door to see the exhibit and there was a section of about 15 people sitting and standing to watch one of the films.  The screen showed a woman writing something and she looked very distraught.  The atmosphere was dark and moody.  The film gave me a sense of nausea because the editing was sporadic and seemed neurotic.  I walked left to follow the path and there was a display where you peeked into a glass circle to see a freaky little creature figurine.  On the left was another film and to the right were paintings and other works of the Brothers.  I remember a screen showed commercials done by the Brothers Quay.  They had a hand in making their style known in all types of media like installations and commercials like cereal commercials and other product placement.  My favorite installation was a miniature bedroom with a huge fake bug under the bed.  There was humor and creepiness in that since the bedroom was nicely made and didn't look that dirty but the bug was just gross.  There was also a stage production of "Pinocchio" and it was very violent.  I watched the scene as Gepetto tried to look for Pinocchio and he got lost at sea. There were these big sheets that the actors held up to wave around as if it were an ocean.  Pinocchio was depicted as this big gangly, humanoid puppet and the actor was very flexible and tumbling around the stage.  The sense of that scene was a garish, gothic style compared to the more pleasant style of the Disney version.  The whole exhibit had dark flavors and the Quay Brothers were very skilled in different mediums.

Bruce Le's Mise en Scene video

Medp 160 Blog Post #2: Mise-en-Scene

“The Thing” by Matthijs van Heijningen

The opening scene of the movie, “The Thing” consists of three men in a yellow jeep driving in the snow of Antarctica.  They fall into a crevasse and see an alien ship at the bottom.  Before they fall, the two men laugh about an obscene joke and the third man is listening to a sonar radio with headphones on.  The atmosphere of the first shot is a feeling of isolation in a vast snowy landscape.  It is a way of foreshadowing the events to come later in the film.  When these men go on the expedition, they will encounter life-threatening aliens without the help of the outside world.  The tone of the film is imminent danger at all times.  They joke and then the third man hears a sound on the radio and they stop and the ice breaks, causing them to hurtle towards the pit.  They look with awe at the alien ship in the darkness.  This is a very eye-catching and interesting way to open the film.  Viewers can see that there is a mystery to be solved and whatever is inside the alien ship is dangerous.  The sound is quiet and peaceful at first and then changes to ominous and foreboding.  The lighting is important because the opening seconds are so bright with shadows on the snow and then there is bleak darkness when the jeep shines light into the crevasse.  Changing from a bright scene to a dark scene is drastic and powerful.  I think the opening scene is successful in catching viewers’ attention because of the contrasting composition and pacing of the actors’ demise.

My Artist Statement

My curiosities lie within the wacky, hilarious, and edgy side of life. The studies of music and literature interest me even though I have yet to become a professional in either field. A good friend showed me the allure of museums and art galleries, so I also like to see the world through artistic eyes.
I am influenced by creepy things like H. R. Giger works, funny things like South Park, and charity work. I would love to live everyday being a do-gooder like the character in "Amelie." I like Guillermo Del Toro, Satoshi Kon, and Tyler Perry. I love getting addicted to "Top Chef," "Bizarre Foods," and "Moyashimon Returns."
My bookmarks are Joystiq, Siliconera, Allkpop, Toastyfrog, and Dannychoo. Games that I like are rhythm action, RPGs, fighting, and survival horror.
A lot of these things are rare to find and unknown the masses. I like reading stories about underdogs because they are thought to be losers and then turn out to be winners. People keep telling me that nobody has figured life out perfectly. So everyone is sort of stumbling around trying to survive.
I am a writer that is searching for the truth about writing. My writing will be necessary or it will be unnecessary, depending on the results produced in the coming months. If there is a story I have to tell in my immature, sporadic mind, then I pray to the heavens that it will be a good one.
I’m interested in showing that autobiographical graphic novels portray the importance of self-realization among all distractions.

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