When I think of the film Brazil shown last Friday, it seems to me that sometimes I wish I could break out of the reality of my own particular era and enter into a different and bizarre world as entirely as this movie allows through telling stories. Becoming immersed in a world and environment standing in such contrast to my own day to day life, and yet seeing in that place amazing parallels to aspects of humanity or culture is amazing to me. At the very same time, you are allowed to enter into a situation you can barely comprehend and yet come away questioning the world you are familiar with. It gives you a chance to perhaps look with a new perspective the things that before just blended into the background.

Perhaps it is a sad truth that the times when I walk away from a movie actually having to think about and process what I saw are so rare, that I grow excited when they occur. Some of the images from this film were certainly disturbing. Perhaps even more disturbing than the grotesque images were the lives and places the characters lived in. It all felt so cramped and claustrophobic. The main character worked in tiny cramped rooms and travelled home through cramped areas to reach his small box of an apartment. All of nature and beauty were removed so that there was this incredibly frustrating blandness to life. The fantasy sequences shown throughout the film give some outlet to this dark world as well as show a very interesting look into how the character views himself, or at least how he would like to be. The ending of this was quite intriguing to me. Even though the character is left in a chair having been tortured beyond imagination, the walls that enclose him fade to clouds and the music starts to play, which felt to me that with his mind now broken, his fantasy world had become his reality. For whatever reason after all the disturbing images, the last image and music left me feeling free, yet slightly confused. In the end, for whatever reason, a bit of confusion feels good to me, because what fun would it be to know everything anyways?

The concept of space and how things are organized on the screen in the pursuit of capturing a certain feel for a film seems to show most distinctly the difference in storytelling in visual versus written form. The idea that telling a story in a visual medium has completely different rules and methods of communicating than telling a story through writing fiction may seem quite obvious. However, since this is the first time I have had to learn and live out those differences on a day by day basis, this is becoming frustratingly clear to me.

Due to the fact that all my previous endeavors at storytelling had been through writing, I was used to that form of storytelling. It seemed to me a very natural way of translating story from pure idea and thought into a tangible form. Communicating my thoughts into writing has seemed more natural to me than communicating my thoughts into verbal form. In any event, I was used to story in written form.

Translating story to visual storytelling seems to be a completely different process. It is like attempting to translate one single language into two separate, distinct languages. There are different ways of communicating emotions and evoking reactions from the audience. There are different ways of emphasizing certain characters, events, or other important story elements. The rules are very different indeed. This is beginning to reveal to me that at this point, I do not know much. New concepts of visual storytelling are bombarding me day in and day out so far this semester. Interestingly enough, each one of those shows me how a story as an abstract concept is not the same regardless of what medium you are using. Whether using word or image, the essence of a story is wrapped up in the manner in which it is told, and the realization that I don't know much does not make me want to quit. Instead, it motivates me to always keep learning, one day at a time.

When thinking about the ideas of contrast and affinity, I first began to think of this principle in terms of characters in a story. One way to emphasize the main character in your story is to introduce another character with opposing traits. The opposing traits that are chosen and emphasized serve to bring out certain aspects of the main character and help to show who that character really is by putting him or her under pressure. After showing this character with opposing traits, another character can be introduced with similar traits as the main character has. This similar character can, in some way, be very separated from the main character, so that instead of the similar character blending into the main character, only the similar traits are emphasized. In this way, using the technique of contrast and affinity, the message of the story that you are trying to get across to the reader will come through more clearly.

Another thought that comes to my mind when thinking about this is the idea of the emotional tone of a piece. You can start with a character and introduce him or her to the audience in a way that they grow fond of that character and begin to care about what happens to him or her in the future. Then the conflict comes and that charcter begins to fall more and more into their own darkness and despair. This darkness lasts long enough, with hints of hope along the way to keep the audience following along, so that the affinity of the darkness begins to become painfully familiar. At the climax, light suddenly bursts forth into the darkness, blinding the audience with such contrast that they cheer for the main character who went through such turmoil.

The visual components: space, line, shape, tone, color, movement, and rhythm. As I read this chapter and as we discussed it in class, it began to bring up an issue that has been growing more and more in my mind this semester. This is the fact that the visual aspect of making films does not just naturally flow from the story. Developing and creating the story is only part of the picture. Creating pleasing and effective visuals is a whole other skill that needs to be worked on on top of being a good storyteller.

When I write a story, I suppose that there is the story itself as an abstract entity as well as the artistic crafting of words in an effective way. However, I have been writing so long that the crafting of words to fit the story in my mind just seems natural. It is a medium too I suppose, one that I am quite used to.

While I still start out with that abstract story idea in my mind, translating that from idea to image is quite different from the translation of idea to word. I am beginning to learn what my strengths and weaknesses are in this new method of storytellings, as well as what storytelling elements transfer from writing to animation and which do not.

The realization that there is so much that you do not know and so much that you need to learn can be a little intimidating at times. In the end though, it is exciting and motivating to strive for the level that you have not yet attained. You can see where you are, imagine where you will be, and step by step, watch yourself progressing towards an amazing future. It is funny how a concept as basic as the visual elements could remind me of such a thing.

This time around, I'll be rambling on my thoughts about the idea of a Christian's responsibility in terms of what kind of art should be attached to our names, which was the topic of discussion last week.

This is a subject I have dealt with and thought over a good deal to be honest. I grew up on "Christian music." As I was reaching the end of my teenage years, I stopped stressing over how I did not fit in to our typical American Christian youth culture and instead began to feel quite disturbed at how shallow it really is. We thrive on praise and worship songs which begin to sound all the same to me as musical and lyrical depth seem to be absent. Why should stringing a bunch of "praise Him" and "holy holy holy" phrases together with a generic upbeat melody have anything to do with my relationship with God? People down here on planet earth are living, hurting, loving, and being forgotten and ignored. Now there is some inspiration for powerful art that brings pleasure to God.

Another example of this idea of what is truely "Christian art" has come up in my life. When I create an image with a cross in it, like the one I did for my church pictured here, I feel a strong reception and encouragement. However, other images I create, which are more powerful artistically and emotionally in my eyes, never seem to enter into the discussion. I have wondered why I tend to get the feeling from time to time that the difference between amazement and indifference in reactions to my images depends soley on whether I spend a few minutes to place a cross in it or not. Should the significance of my art really depend on that?

Here is one final personal thought on this issue. When I am writing stories, I find myself trying to figure out what kind of overall message I want my piece to portray as well as how I will accomplish that through the story. When it comes to my faith in God affecting how I write my stories, I have struggled with what is the best road to take. In the end, the most fundamental issue is crafting a strong story that reaches out to the humanity of the audience in the way that I want it to. If I create a story or an image that gives me inspiration and could inspire others, then I have to believe that God is smiling down on me. Although, I suppose throwing in a 'praise Him' and a 'holy holy holy' or two couldn't hurt.