In Case You've Never Heard...

As the predecessor to television, radio programs have many commonalities in structure and content to TV programming, although the way program storyline is presented to the user. On OTR.com, all of the Internet audience is able to listen to a variety of radio programs from decades ago. After listening to Captain Midnight - The Perada Treasures, Episode 1, it is interesting to look at the program's characteristics that are still a part of popular entertainment.

Aside from the obvious variance in visuals, there are plenty of things that radio and television share characteristically. Without the visual presentation of the scene and setting, it is essential that the announcer set up the scene and give story background at the beginning, just like how television programs recap the previous episode at the beginning. Character stereotyping is something done in entertainment to help the audience immediately 'know' the character without having to say very much, but in radio, the stereotyping is even stronger. The Spanish character in this episode has a terrible accent, most likely not a person of hispanic origin at all, as there is no need anyway because the audience cannot see the speaker.

Advertisements are still prominent, except, in radio, the ads are done by the announcer and are at the beginning and end of the program, instead of throughout the program. A fifteen minute show, Captain Midnight ads feature one sponsor and a plug for the show's fan club. The ending ads do not introduce new commercials, but recap the same sponsor. Interesting enough though, programs has fan clubs and free incentives for fan viewers, just like we have today. Although now one can go online and register for these, the announcer tells the audience that to join the Captain Midnight club, all you have to do is go down to the local store to sign up on paper.

First Impressions of Earth

As a child of Generation Y, the Internet has been the technological consumer product that has played an integral part in my personal development. I may be partial in saying this, as I am going into a computer-based field, but this medium has exposed me to a world I would not have seen otherwise. Web sites like YouTube have made production more accessible to the American population and have enabled whole new genres to emerge. Its so hard to believe how far the Internet, and the computer, have progressed in their short lives. While this was my helper in cultural development, for generations before me, the television was the invention that changed how people got their information and entertainment.

After interviewing my grandmother, the 81-year-old Dawn Frojelin, I have come to connect the relationship I have with the Internet to the relationship she had with the television when she was young. TV was not something that everyone could originally afford. The first time she saw a broadcasted video  signal was, like many, in a department store. In 1947, all that was available for consumers were televisions with seven inch screens that displayed on black and white images, but she still "couldn't believe it; we expected it to be something on the wall that used a projector," just like the way the movies work. When her family for a TV for their own home, approximately one year later, the set only received one channel from the Chicago area, and the only programs available were about news and wrestling. The most famous early programs were produced in New York, too far away from the signal. Only on a trip to the big city was she finally able to see shows such as 'I Love Lucy,' which was one of the ones that was making up pop culture at the time. Color television was the next step in innovation, and in 1967 when the family got their first full color set, the Ed Sullivan Show and entertainment & situation comedies were now available to the American audience. "None like them today!" she exclaimed over the phone.

Flip-Book Project Comments

Chris - I liked how you used a silhouette of a man as your character; it made if feel real, but like a cartoon, fitting with this project. He seems to be eaten alive by the cloud and then end and I was wondering if this was one purpose.

Erin - My favorite part of your animation was the circles that go up the page, and the transformation to a bird and then a tree. Good use of the flip-book transformation idea.

Maria - I really liked the classic use of the stick figure motion, like when the character is on the skate ramp. It calls to mind the common form of flip-book animation which is the stick figure on post-it notes.

Brian - Good use of storyline. Love the colors of the music notes and the idea of them being dissolving objects that we can actually see.

Juan - Your piece did well in getting a message across to the viewer, although I am not sure what that message is meant to be. I like how there are only 3 colors; this also seems to help the message get across because the color was obviously thought out to emphasize certain elements.

Cody - Your animation was my favorite. The small figures make it seem like they are more integrated with the media, coming to life from the text on the page. The writing on the edge of the pages added something to the notion of using multiple pages and the sparing use of color really made things pop.

Sabrina - Liked how the bucket empties the water into the scene! Like Cody's, this seems to help it seem like the animation is more a part of the book, coming from the pages.

Kimberly - Liked yours, but I wish you had done more with the writing of the text! This was probably the most interesting part because it was text overlaid on the text of a book.

Arielle -  Your animation also used a text as an animation, which I really liked, but it was hard to tell what you were trying to write. The letters should have held for a few frames longer so that the transitions didn't happen so quickly.

Michelle - This is the perfect medium to have a person live in a fantasy land! Love the writing of your name at the end of it; makes it feel like you are more connected to the piece.

Lauren - I like your spray can character! Wish he had been brought back at the end. The graffiti characters were really well done and work great with the text on the book pages.

James - The flowy brush strokes were what really made this animation for me. Your scenes did seem to change rather quickly and I wish you had held onto one idea for longer.

Nakota - Your animation did something that no other animation did: perspective. The use of the landscapes really helped with the notion that the people were walking about on the plane, and that some people were on different planes.

On-Screen Debauchery Emerges

When talking pictures first began, many people didn’t believe that the medium would become such a big part of American culture. But, the technology progressed, cinema started to have narrative stories that played on people’s fantasies or their own realities, and Americans went to the movies by the hordes. The first color picture, The Wizard of Oz, told the story of the fantasyland that a young Midwestern girl dreamed of. It had elements of the unreal mixed with the actuality of the Dust Bowl and depression that Kansas’ residents were dealing with in 1939. Likewise, thirteen years later, Singing in the Rain let viewers into the more-relative fantasy of the movie production.

Then along came A Clockwork Orange, and Stanley Kubrick threw a reality all too real into the faces of his audiences. While he follows the fantasy-mixed-with-reality mold, the reality he shows is not the reality that your average moviegoer encounters on a regular basis, and it is most certainly not what he or she is used to seeing in cinema. Although a completely unplanned connection (watch McDowell explain the scene below), the infamous ‘Singing in the Rain’ scene calls upon the first musical film in such a way that would never have been imaginable even when the song was composed. As the Droogs invade the home of one English couple, they proceed to rip apart the home, although looking for nothing in particular. Alex and his goons proceed to rape the wife in front of her husband while both victims are bound, gagged, and beaten. Reality of this scene is that there are members of society that commit these crimes, but these occurrences are ones that are pushed to the backs of our minds, kept under wraps, and not openly displayed to the public. Controversy was maybe a part of Gone With the Wind, but even this controversy was written for film—it was published years before. Kubrick rode the success of his previous film, 2001: Space Odyssey, to break the boundaries of what moviegoers can handle visually. It is no exaggeration to say that he is the one who blazed the trail so that programs depicting gore and violence, such as CSI, can now be show to the American audience. He is the one who allowed for true reality to be shared with America.

Early Motion Pictures

The Great Train Robbery (1903) is a cinematic feat in many respects. There had been many innovations in the in film-making up until this movie, since the first 'moving pictures' were showcased by Thomas Edison in 1891. Going back to the classical invention of the perspective, you can see in the film that the director was trying to include the audience in the scenes. The camera is placed focusing along the lengths of the train and to a slight offset in the opening scene. Towards the end, horses run toward the camera, as if they're coming out at the audience. Depth is created when the bank teller appears through the wall, letting up know that there is more to the building than just the room we are shown.

Technologically, this piece embraces the "slight-of-hand" tricks that were coming of age in film. An image of a passing train can be faked by overlaying the image of a passing train in the style of Georges Melies, who can be considered the father of modern day special effects. Other tricks including faulting film for a second to replace a human with a dummy to fake a death and smoke tricks for fired guns.

Using these elements in the production allows for a better story to be told. By suggesting that the environment extends beyond the screen, the audience becomes part of the production, embracing the characters and the narration. The robber at the end really hits home with this idea when he breaks down the 'fourth wall' that separates the audience with the story on screen.

The Impossible Feats of Stop Motion

To start with a disclaimer, the following post is written by my good-girl self.

As I started watching this animation, all I could think was 'How did this guy get away with it? Its broad daylight and he is working with graffiti that stands three-stories tall.' Although I am sure this is not what the artist hoped viewers would take away from the piece, he can rest assured that these thoughts were heavily outweighed by the emotional response that always happens whenever I view a stop motion piece.

Street art is genre in its own right because not only are the pieces unique in their images and ideas, but the surroundings of the piece work in symphony with the paintings. The textures of the surfaces, such as worn cement and brick, can give life to simple images. Often painting are done on top of each other, adding even more to the piece along with a strong sense of craftsmanship. As you will see, part of the captivation can lie in faint effect that a paint trail can leave behind; you can literally see when the character has been.

Blu is an Italian street artist who creates large-scale painting on the sides of buildings. One of his most famous pieces that has gone viral in the Age of the Internet is Muto, a stop motion animation that transforms still graffiti paintings in living creates, able to accomplishes feats impossible by man. It is evident in the character's way of transformation that the artist has a sort of fascination with surfaces and how they can make up objects. Boxes multiply into an elaborate honeycomb design, spewing out into the streets of Buenos Aires.

Blu not only uses the surface textures of these South American buildings, but he really integrates the 3D environment when the character interacts with paper. Biting and tearing at the pieces, it is hard to not imagine how all of these was accomplished. Taken still by still, the seven minute and forty second long piece would have taken months to complete.

SIDE BAR: These two were probably my favorite, and deserve to be shared.

Origins of an American Rebellion

The origins of jazz music can be traced back to the African-Americans in New Orleans. Originally, the city was split in two, with black Creole musicians and higher class citizens on the east side of town, and freed black citizens to the west side of Canal Street. The Creole musicians had been classically trained in the Parisian conservatories. When segregation laws forced the Creoles to move with the American musicians who performed blues, ragtime, hymns, and spirituals, the two types of music eventually fused together to include some of the more classical instruments, such as the violin. The proclaimed inventor of jazz, Jelly Roll Morton, has been recorded talking about how classic European dances such as the waltz and polka were able to be transformed into jazz. In his article "The Origins of Jazz," Len Weinstock discusses how the transformation from ragtime to jazz was to simply add an underlying 4/4 beat to ragtime's 2/4 rhythm.

After the abolition of slavery, black men were able to find work as performers in dance and marching bands, and these instruments also became the standard for jazz music. Ragtime and jazz worked its way into the vaudeville acts the travelled the country as well, and as prohibition was enacted, jazz became the music of the rebellious crowds within the speakeasies of cities such as New York and Chicago. Now hearing the music in entertainment venues around the city, the genre took off, becoming part of popular culture and the Jazz Age was in full bloom.