Sci-Fi

 I am sorry world but my knowledge of Sci fi is actually rubbish. The list of ‘films to watch’ is nearing roughly 150 and I think I won’t get through them until at least next year! However with the addition of this ‘Box of Broadcasts’ website there is an actual chance I might see at least some of them.

    Despite not really knowing many of the references in this lecture I still found some parts inspiring.

Some of this lecture was about digital vs analogue photography. The gist i got was that ‘digital photography is heartless because it is just pixels’ which in the end can be edited one by one to create photogaphs that never existed. But is this such a bad thing? Sometimes the juxtaposition of things that never existed together can be the thing that makes it so interesting, as with binary opposition two opposing ideas found together are generally more remarkable than something you would find the norm. 

I do appreciate however the effort and strain that can go into getting the ‘perfect’ non-photoshopped shot.

Take Jay Fine who waited more than 40 years to photograph lightning hitting the statue of liberty. 

Only on his 82nd shot and 2 hours waiting did he manage to take this amazing picture. 

In the seminar we discussed our favourite Sci Fi characters and why we liked them. If it counts as Sci Fi I really like the character of Frank from Donnie Darko.

Why do I think this character's appearance is so successful?

• Eyes: As Ivan explained the manipulation of a characters eyes can be the most disturbing thing about it. You cannot see into Frank's mask and so are looking into 'dead' eyes. Even when he takes the mask off one of his eyes is injured and bleeding.  

• Texture: I think the surface and texture of the mask is really effective as some parts reflect a lot of light leaving other in shadow, emphasising the skull-likeness of the mask.
• Mask-Generally people dislike masks. They conceal the real person beneath, mean you can't properly tell what someones reactions are or you can't read their expressions. This works well on the character of frank as it makes him more mysterious.
• Emphasised teeth-Makes you think of vicious animals, especially paired with rabbit ears it makes me think of some kind of ancient sabre toothed rabbit.