Final Project

The Teleporting Hallway of Death from John Romano on Vimeo.

Blog #4 Museum of Moving Images

My trip to the Museum of Moving Image this week was a memorable one. It was my first time visiting and I thought it was very nice. The tour guides there were very knowledgable and when we started our tour they had informed us about the history of the building. As we made our way into the museum we stopped along the way viewing old TV’s and learning about how film was viewed on them. At first rich people had them in their homes but eventually TV’s made there way into every home. We then made our way deeper in and got to view the thaumatrope and zoetrope which was cool because we learned about these devices in class. We learned that these devices work by creating moving images with high speed movements and adding little bit of darkness to create the effect. The coolest and most interesting part of the museum that we got to see was the Feral Fount. The device spun and used a strobe light to create movement between the objects. The objects act the same as a flip book where every section of it moves “page by page” or in this case row by row. Its like a stop motion picture in a sense. The strobe light is absolutely necessary in this piece because it allows our brains to process what is going on section by section. We also got to see how prosthetics are made and why they are used. This was also cool and in a way explains how movies are all a big illusion.

Blog #3 Relationships Between Shots

The scene opens up with a long shot and zooms in turning the shot into a mid shot. These two shots show the area as the actor steps into the frame and ducks to fill the whole frame with his body. He walks closer towards the camera (approaching the dinosaur that we know is in the area because of the scene beforehand) and the shot turns into a closeup showing his face and the emotions he is feeling. 

Then the scene does a 180 and cuts to another mid shot showing movement in the bushes (almost a POV of the actor) indicating that the dinosaur is there in front of the actor. The camera then immediately pans down to a close up of the actor's hand putting his hat on the log in front of him. It then repeats the same sequence cutting to another mid shot of the dinosaur and panning back to a close up of the gun in the actor's hand. This sequence allows the viewers to know the distance between the actor and the dinosaur and shows the actor getting ready to kill the dinosaur. 

As the close up of the actor setting up the gun happens the scene then cuts 180 degrees again to another mid shot of the actor setting up the gun as It slowly zooms into his face to show his distress. Then the camera cuts down showing the actor perform the same action as he finishes setting up the gun but this time we are back to facing the dinosaur. 

Again another 180-degree turn is made and we are facing the actor again as he put his gun up and gets ready to shoot the dinosaur. The camera then cuts to the same scene but does another 180-degree turn and this time we view the same action as an over the shoulder closeup and we are able to see the dinosaur in the distance. 

It then pans to an extreme closeup to the side of the actor's face to set up the next shot and as it does this another dinosaur comes out of the bushes to attack him. The scene then turns 180 degrees to a closeup shot of the actor almost like a POV of the dinosaur looking at her prey. 

The scene then cuts to a mid shot of the actor getting attacked and then cuts to a mid shot of him getting eaten. The final scene cuts to a closeup of a snake and pans to the right to a closeup of the original dinosaur that the actor was hunting. Bringing the audience back to the original view of the dinosaur the actor was hunting. 

The editing is set up this way intentionally. It is showing the view from both the actor and the dinosaurs perspective and is allowing viewers to see what the actor is doing and looking at in a chilling and thriller way. It helps with the suspense of the scene. It gives us this almost western duel vibe and in the end takes us by surprise when the second dinosaur pops out. The camera angle sets up the scene as if there were only two subjects (the actor and the one dinosaur) It was intentional to create that surprise attack that the actor was unaware of and that the audience was surprised by. There were a lot of exmaples of matched action in this scene as well as 180 degree action. 

Interview with Daniel

Soundwalk

As I walked out of my house Sunday evening the first thing I heard was the sound of a car zooming down my block. The sound of the engine roaring and the tires on the ground were loud and really grabbed my attention. As the car pulled away and the noise from It faded the area seemed more quiet and peaceful. Birds were chirping in the trees and the wind was hissing in my ear. I made my way up the block towards a park by my house and as I walked I heard the tree leaves moving in the wind. As I approached the park I immediately heard the sound of handballs hitting against the handball court wall. The thud of the ball hitting the wall was so distinct. I also heard the people running around as they played. While hearing the handball game go on I also heard people playing basketball. The ball bouncing on the floor and hitting the metal rim of the basketball hoop was pretty loud. When I passed the basketball courts I made my way down towards the playground. There I heard little kids laughing and playing with one another. They were screaming and talking to each other as they played. The day was cold but sunny and people seemed to take advantage of that. When I passed the park I reached an intersection and heard a bunch of cars moving by. While I stood to wait for the light to turn I still heard in the distance the park noise. All the people in the park making noise were still there in the distance. Really focusing on the sound was a different experience. I heard every little thing that was surrounding me. The cars, the people in the park, and even a person who walked past me with his dog. I heard the dog's chain rattling as the dog walked by me. It was a weird experience because I never noticed how many noises I heard while just walking around my neighborhood.

A slow Monday

A slow Monday from John Romano on Vimeo.

Artist Statement

Hi! My name is John Romano and I'm a Hunter College student living in Queen, NY. I major in Media studies and I plan to learn as much as I can to better my work. I am very much into photography and photo-journalism. The first time I picked up a camera I knew I wanted to take photos and videos of the world. I was always interested in History and Science class as a kid and as I got older. I loved learning about the world and exploration. Learning about wildlife and Marine Bio always interested me because they were different from things you experience day to day. I've always watched documentaries and seen pictures from artists about the environment and thought that the world was a beautiful place needed to be explored. Knowing that I wanted to take photos and videos of the planet we live in came to me because of my fascination with the world. I always loved watching the National Geographic channels and watching them just made me want to get out there and record these places, animals, and people myself. Photographs by Ansel Adams also really fascinated me. I love the landscape shots he took and I wanted to go out there and try taking photos like that myself. I also love to travel and see things that many people cannot say they've seen. By taking photos I hope to show people these wonderful places that the world has to offer. Helping to keep the environment preserved was always a big deal to me as well. I'm a big believer in keeping the environment clean and preserving natural habitats for animals. Because of all this most of my work today consists of wildlife and landscape photography. Being an artist who works mostly with photos and videos, I have taken it upon myself to show people how beautiful the world we live in really is. Through my artwork, I hope that I can show people how beautiful the world is and hopefully help persuade them to make changes to save the environment.