Month: March 2016

Project Brief 1 – Creative Self Portrait

Posted on by ryanrosenberg

This self-portrait aims to present what I consider to be the most crucial facets of my identity; experience, growth and interest.

Image: Experience
There are very few things I like. There are many things I hate. The photos below are completely unrelated in nature. However, they all share the fact that they caught my attention. These are my immediate reactions:

Positive

Forest_RyanRosenberg_08032016

* Solitude, Escapism, Miserablism

Egg_RyanRosneberg_08032016

* Absurd, Adventurous, Enchanting

Ambivalent

Facebook_RyanRosenberg_08032016

* Hilarious, Depressing, Oxymoronic

Drinks_RyanRosenberg_08032016

*Aesthetics, Indulgence, Vice

Negative

Yellow_RyanRosenberg_08032016

* Obnoxious, Superfluous, Loud

InspirationalMessage_RyanRosenberg_08032016

* Laughable, Repugnant, Cringeworthy

Video: Growth
Each video was created to document/explore the process and pursuit of progression; this is symbolised through movement.
Facing The Day: No time to waste, the real evil is distraction
Journey Into The Unknown: It is important to venture into unchartered waters if one is to grow
Nightwalk: It is important to take time to reflect in a peaceful setting

Interest: Sound
Sound is the my most important outlet. Here I have recorded three different sounds:
* 230355: Sound that I choose to consume
* 152832: Sound that I have created
* 144953: Everyday sound that I both listen to and am influenced by

Week 1 – Workshop: My Problems With The Justin Bieber Video

Posted on by ryanrosenberg

After a self-imposed Bieber Ban™ (out of disgust, rather than addiction), I was forced to watch and listen to one of his newer music videos, the profound  ‘Love Yourself’, from his latest masterpiece ‘Purpose’. After watching this in my Workshop, it was fair to say I was not impressed. Here are my problems with the video:

1) It was utterly predictable
Ten seconds in I was saying “here we go”. From a narrative point-of-view, you could tell how this was going to unfold; man wants her attention, man can’t get her attention, man moves on, etc, love yourself. From a physical point-of-view, I was bored. This whole robotic style of dancing is overused and an exercise in tedium (literally). Try harder.

2) It was incredibly pretentious
“It’s all based off of love. And love isn’t ‘you do this for me and I’m going to do this for you’, that’s not what love is. Love is ‘I’m going to do this for you ’cause I want to do this for you'”. The moment those words were spoken I naturally cringed. So contrived, so ostentatious, so cheesy. And I’m not even going to bother dissecting the ‘Love Yourself’ note at the end of the video.

3) The iPhone ‘trick’ didn’t impress me
I was surprised with how my class responded to this; I think I was the only one who was not even slightly impressed. Once I saw the two iPhones placed next to each other, I knew what they were going to do. It was excruciating having to watch and wait for the ‘big reveal’, as it had already been revealed. This was truly a shame, because it was the only moment of the video where something relatively interesting could have occurred (eg. have one iPhone in the frame, then pan to the other at a different angle).

4) The choice of video was an obvious ploy to show Bieber’s more ‘human side’
I’m all for celebrities giving opportunities to those who don’t get widespread recognition, however, I don’t like it when they are doing it disingenuously. The idea to use a dance video of two virtually-unknowns was clearly a decision made by Bieber’s PR team to make Bieber look generous. Justin Bieber does not make any creative decisions (despite the video listing him as the ‘Creator’) and anybody who falls for this PR stunt has no idea how the mainstream entertainment industry works.

Trigger Warning: This video contains distressing material