Round Robin

The Dragon and the Bird Kingdom

A dragon spots a bird and tries to fry her, but flies higher than there was oxygen for fire, and dies. 

The flock rejoices! The dragon that terrorized them is dead and it is all thanks to the runt everyone made fun of.

It then became apparent that the birds should choose their new king.

The crows decided to make this one guy named Chad their king.

Crow King Chad ordained that every crow must wear pants. This outrage caused his usurpation.


Group Response

Just like The Exquisite Corpse, Round Robin was very collaborative and could not be done alone. Doing the Round Robin reminds you of many other collaborative projects including, the production company hitRECord, the documentary Life In A Day and the art of remixing songs. With song mixes in particular, the original piece is reconstructed into something never meant by the original author. DJ Spooky emphasizes this. You take something, reimagine it then “juxtapose, fragment, flip the script.” Every round we did this and the end result was very different then the person before could have imagined. Because there were different minds and voices in each part of the stories, the form, content, narrative and theme tended to change but each story complemented the one before. There is no telling how it will end up. Writing such short stories made it so the reader had to fill in the gaps. This made it easier for the next person to write the next part and continue it on in a unique way. It is interesting to see how each story connects and the things people chose to connect and continue through. If the order had been changed, the stories would have been very different. Round Robin gave me a greater understanding of the collaborative process. Collaborative projects are meant to inspire and make an original idea better though the use of multiple perspectives. When you build something together you become connected.

In addition to being highly collaborative, it was a uniquely self-revealing project, which gave insight into the mind and imagination of each individual.  Much discussion could be had based on the similarities and tendencies of each individual to continue each distinct story in a certain way.  For example, while contributing to five different stories, one writer may tend to one specific theme or plot direction overall.  While the process lead to out-of-the-box thinking, perhaps it shows that what resides outside the box is what exists deepest in a person’s cultural background and traditional beliefs.

It was interesting to see what stories looked like as they went by. Since we only got to see one picture per story, it was awesome to wonder how the story had become what it was. It felt like a really good exercise for the mind to imagine how a story could possibly get to some weird points. It was kind of fun to try and come up with something creative in hopes that the person after you would laugh or smile at the picture that you sent them. Obviously they were not stories to send to Hollywood or anything, but they may have sparked some ideas for some of us.

Working as a group was also a helpful thing to experience and learn. We could have been a little bit more organized at the beginning to help us all make sure we were doing the right stories, but other than that, we worked hard to work out any problems that we faced. I’m glad that we were able to experience that since it is something that we will have to deal with all the time in the real world. It is good to see that we can handle something like this maturely and respect each others work.

Music Mosaic: "The Moldau" by Bedrich Smetana

These images are sequentially ordered based on the musical movements existent in the above-mentioned piece.

 Independent Joy

 Joy in Seeing a Bit of Reality

 Independence of Adolescence

 Joy in Routine

 The Paradigm Shift -or- Something's Missing

 Selfless Love/Desire

 Parenthood -or- Infancy Reprise

 Familial Trial

The Third Act, Death, and Finale

These images are my work in association with the orchestral piece titled "The Moldau" by Bedrich Smetana.  They are, in a sense, sequential, as they are a reading of the musical journey that the composer takes the listener on.  This reading is highly subjective, and is exclusively what came to my mind as I listened to the piece several times.

Annie Dillard's article, "Seeing" addresses the child-like spontaneity of art that truly caries something unique and/or touching.  In my images, I tried to tap into what made the music's auditory nature so interesting, and I think that it really shines right at the first movement.  The introductory notes have a sense of childhood to them, which always made me feel like a small person discovering an ordinary thing for the first time.  There is something wonderful about the world when you first see it and experience it for yourself.  Therefore, I tried to capture that in the first two images, as a child is born, seizes life with all available strength, and finds joy in seeing the subtleties of ordinary life.

The following images contrast the idea of dynamic space and flat space.  Several photographers utilize deep space to increase the feeling of adventure.  The third image is the adventure of an adolescent that is oblivious to danger.  The fourth image is plastered against a flat surface to accentuate the routine life style of a young-professional adult.  The juxtaposition of these two styles draws upon Danny Cohen's work on films like The King's Speech.  He often plays on the emotional depth of deep space as well as the mundane or ordinary feeling of flat space.

As the archetypal subject of the journey continues, he senses a lacking feeling, which lead him to true romance.  Both of these feelings are portrayed in the music, as there is an emptiness, and then a sound of slow and enjoyable melodic lines [around 6:20min.].

Finally, the narrative comes full circle with the reprise of the infant's theme, represented by the images of fatherhood.  The music is faster than the last time this theme was featured, which accentuates the joy of both infancy and fatherhood while simultaneously suggesting the stressful nature of the latter.

Familial stresses such as finances, raising an adolescent, and marital conflicts represent the sound featured at about the 10:00 minute mark of the piece.  The final image [11:10min. to end] takes the spirit of the old man through death and onto resurrection.  I used motifs of color throughout the images to suggest certain patterns and emotions such as energy, jealousy, and more.

I hope that there is more to read into why I used certain color, line quality, contrast, etc. which the reader may draw upon to understand some of my thoughts behind these works.

Thinking and Writing: Into the Woods and Mormon Audiences

Disney's newest Christmas release, Into the Woods, challenges contemporary audiences and readdresses archetypes in what may be a troubling fashion for many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This doesn't mean that there are not many valuable themes contained within the story and its telling; nor does it mean that it is a "family film". However, the nature of the narrative may lead to many misunderstandings about the themes and messages of the film, the story being didactic in many ways. Despite these misunderstandings from audiences everywhere, it is indisputable that much can be gleaned from this worth-while film, and it should not be dismissed.

The audience reception of the film was surprisingly split, receiving about 58% positive response from viewers according to rottentomatoes.com. The most popular complaint thus submitted about the film so far has been the pacing, as the film resolves all conflicts approximately eighty minutes in, and then continues to heavily complicate plot-lines, dragging on, resulting in viewer boredom. I must submit that should Disney have decided to fade-out when everything in the film reached the point to "happily ever after" that not only would this film have lost all individuality and them, but it would have ended without saying anything significant at all. It may even be argued that the film would have been totally immoral with such an ending, seeing as up to this point nearly every principle character in the film engaged in ethically questionable activities in order to obtain what they desired. However, what the film does as it continues past what seemed to be a resolution is show all of the subsequent consequences of the characters' actions up to that point, and then teaches us all a true lesson.

In the film, the Baker and his wife want nothing more than to have a child of their own. When the Witch offers them their own child, they accept with the condition that they must retrieve certain ingredients from the woods for the Witch intended for making a magic potion. On the way, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack (the one that climbed the bean stock), Cinderella, and Prince Charming all play roles in the plot-which is far too complicated to summarize here. In short, several characters lie to, steal from, and deceive each other in attempts to obtain what they most desire. In the process, several of the younger ones learn new things, and start advancing towards adulthood. This is a key theme of the film, that would be totally lost should the film had ended when many believed it should have. The trouble arises because members of the audience may react in one of two inappropriate ways. First, they may be drawn to overlook the mature themes of the film, and feel free to show it to their young children, assuming that because they see no questionable content therein, that it is therefore acceptable for all audiences. The other mistake would be find it irreconcilable due to its complex themes, label it evil, and reject the film as a whole. What a mistake that could be.

Should parents buy into the idea that this is a family film, they could risk certain misunderstandings occurring in the younger minds which are unprepared to deal with such themes as adulthood, sex, oppressive parenthood, and independence. Children will reach a point where all of these topics will be relevant to each of them, and should be discussed and talked about. However, there is a time for such discussions, and there is time also for innocence, obedience, faith, and even coddling. I would in no wise call this a film for children, although it has something to do with childhood. If there were a need to specify an intended demographic, this is a film for young adults and especially parents of children.

If the opposite position is taken, and the whole film is rejected in an attempt to shield everyone from such topics—none of which necessarily lead to evil discussions, then many positive lessons could be missed, which stand to enlighten our minds and please our hearts. I personally felt very humbled by the narrative, and inclined to try and understand and forgive others, especially family members. I would even go as far to say that it was a film that I needed to see at this time in my life.

Coming back to how members of the Mormon faith will likely react to this film, I would predict that most will fall into one of the two examples iterated above. In the end, I believe that while it is not a family film, or a film for all members of the family, it is a family film in the sense that the intrinsic values of the film, when discussed, will promote healthy growth and reflection within any family. Furthermore, is it possible to say that the artistic discussion of mature themes, handled tactfully and appropriately is wrong or dangerous? And will Satan be thwarted or benefited by our fear to talk about real human trials and experiences?