Monday, August 31, 2009
Philosophia et Ars
I found it quite interesting, in Empire of Dreams, that George Lucas was so heavily influenced by various philosophical topics and writers. While it was certainly obvious that the Star Wars films were pieced together from a variety of religious and philosophical traditions, I had never realized that Lucas had spent a period so heavily engaged with such things. I feel that philosophical questions can often lead to some very thought-provoking storytelling. Questions and themes found in philosophy can really connect to people's intellect and their concerns, involving them in the movie instead of just making them a spectator. As a philosophy major, I have encountered a few different texts that would make some rather interesting components or bases for stories that I think I might like to tell. By injecting philosophical ideals into film, art, or literature, we can jump from sharing ideas and arguments with the academic types to engaging and enriching the masses with a more accessible medium.
Inglorious Basterds
Over the weekend, I made the trek to Savoy (involving a ride in the trunk of a car) to see Quentin Tarantino's latest offering, Inglorious Basterds. I loved this movie. First of all, it involved killing a whole mess of Nazi's, which I pretty much never tire of. But, in addition, the movie was, in typical Tarantino style, a masterful blend of a multitude of what would normally be considered conflicting elements. The anachronistic soundtrack, the bold (and suddenly shifting) credit text, the oddly placed voiceovers and textual overlays all combine with such an artful discord as to reach a uniquely grating harmony. My friends did feel that the first half was fairly slow, however, I did not find it at all that onerous. There isn't a whole lot to the film as far as theme or character development, but that's not the reason we watch such movies. For a visually interesting, fun, Nazi-killing ride, it's worth the $6.50.
Inspirations
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo -- Greatest story I've yet encountered
- William Shakespeare -- His use of the language is simply unmatched
- Immanuel Kant -- One of my favorite philosophers on ethics and liberty
- Tom Clancy -- For a good story with great technical detail and accuracy, there are few better
- Tom Hanks -- With few exceptions, if he's involved with it, I will like it
- Firefly -- a real "could have been" that had some really intriguing details
- Star Trek II and Star Trek VI -- Love the revenge themes in these
- Indiana Jones -- The classic flawed action hero
- The Last of the Mohicans -- One of my favorite movies, captures the romantic sentiment
- The Princess Bride -- Classic adventure and serious themes conveyed through perfect comedy
Lucasfilm Page Analysis
Alright, let's just jump right in to this, shall we?
As it is the first in the assignment list, I figured it would be best to start out with the Lucasfilm page analysis. Navigating from the main screen (highly visually interesting in itself) to the "Divisions" section, I found my way to the intro page for Industrial Light & Magic found at http://www.lucasfilm.com/divisions/ilm/.
At first glance, the page presents itself immediately as spartan, clean, and futuristic. Grey, silver, and white dominate the page, the content sandwiched between large gray slabs on either side. The narrow view it creates focuses and condenses the fairly meager amount of information, giving it more apparent volume than a full landscape layout would. The body itself is shiny and new, reminiscent of the science fiction interiors one might encounter in Kubrick's 2001 or in the immaculate hallways of Star Wars' Cloud City.
The Lucasfilm logo is small and understated, black on white, with a faint shadow to give it depth; it is neighbored by simple black titles for each of the primary sections of the site. A light grey box sits below the top bar, with a bold, greyscale gradiated title proclaiming that I have found the Divisions section of the site. Below this heading are lightly contrasted headings leading to the various sub-organizations within the Lucasfilm entity. To the left is one of the few splashes of color on the page, a comic-book style illustration depicting an integrated visual montage of a dinosaur, Indiana Jones and friends, and a man jumping through an inferno, representing projects that the company has worked on. The same illustration can be found on the Lucasfilm main page, tying the the two together as a unit.
Set within the grey box, below the Divisions headings is a panel, brushed aluminum in appearance that displays a large Industrial Light & Magic logo on the far right, neighboring a brief description of ILM's accomplishments in a neutral sans-serif font. The right portion of the panel is curved, bordering an image of X-Wing fighters approaching the Death Star. The station itself in the picture fades from normal at the top to a faintly green grid skeleton at the bottom, calling attention to the computer graphics capabilities that ILM presents to its customers. The photo is captioned in white letters crediting ILM for the scene.
As a whole, the page comes across as professional and informational with only subtle hints to the colorful, creative worlds that Lucasfilm is responsible for. Everything about the page is sparse, from text to graphics. It contains only small suggestions for further exploration into the dedicated sites it links to. It is more a simple map than a guidebook, pointing the way to more detailed information, but presenting little solid knowledge of the subject.
As it is the first in the assignment list, I figured it would be best to start out with the Lucasfilm page analysis. Navigating from the main screen (highly visually interesting in itself) to the "Divisions" section, I found my way to the intro page for Industrial Light & Magic found at http://www.lucasfilm.com/divisions/ilm/.
At first glance, the page presents itself immediately as spartan, clean, and futuristic. Grey, silver, and white dominate the page, the content sandwiched between large gray slabs on either side. The narrow view it creates focuses and condenses the fairly meager amount of information, giving it more apparent volume than a full landscape layout would. The body itself is shiny and new, reminiscent of the science fiction interiors one might encounter in Kubrick's 2001 or in the immaculate hallways of Star Wars' Cloud City.
The Lucasfilm logo is small and understated, black on white, with a faint shadow to give it depth; it is neighbored by simple black titles for each of the primary sections of the site. A light grey box sits below the top bar, with a bold, greyscale gradiated title proclaiming that I have found the Divisions section of the site. Below this heading are lightly contrasted headings leading to the various sub-organizations within the Lucasfilm entity. To the left is one of the few splashes of color on the page, a comic-book style illustration depicting an integrated visual montage of a dinosaur, Indiana Jones and friends, and a man jumping through an inferno, representing projects that the company has worked on. The same illustration can be found on the Lucasfilm main page, tying the the two together as a unit.
Set within the grey box, below the Divisions headings is a panel, brushed aluminum in appearance that displays a large Industrial Light & Magic logo on the far right, neighboring a brief description of ILM's accomplishments in a neutral sans-serif font. The right portion of the panel is curved, bordering an image of X-Wing fighters approaching the Death Star. The station itself in the picture fades from normal at the top to a faintly green grid skeleton at the bottom, calling attention to the computer graphics capabilities that ILM presents to its customers. The photo is captioned in white letters crediting ILM for the scene.
As a whole, the page comes across as professional and informational with only subtle hints to the colorful, creative worlds that Lucasfilm is responsible for. Everything about the page is sparse, from text to graphics. It contains only small suggestions for further exploration into the dedicated sites it links to. It is more a simple map than a guidebook, pointing the way to more detailed information, but presenting little solid knowledge of the subject.
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