Bonnie Gross: “Night Mayor” was a very interesting short. It took me a long time to fully understand what was happening, and after watching the entire thing I am still a bit confused. There were some things that I really enjoyed and there were some things that I was not too fond of. I personally loved the lighting in the short and some of the creative angles and shots. On the other hand, I had some problems with the quickness of the shots. The lighting by far was the coolest part about the short. The fact that the entire short is in black and white, made the task of lighting even more difficult. Every take had a different lighting scheme. This is a very complex task to plan every single one of those short takes. I noticed the lighting especially in the workplace when he and his family are working on the machine. It very much seemed like you were within the chaos and lights when all around their face, as if the machine were real and on in front of them. There were a bunch of different Dutch angle shots that were really interesting. The lighting and strange angles only added to the strange atmosphere of the short. The quick shots definitely added to the creepy ambiance of the short. Although each image had very good lighting and great composition, they were a bit confusing. As I mentioned earlier, the short was hard to follow in the beginning. Each shot was very well placed and planned, but maybe the story needed to be explained a little bit more. Overall the cinematography was amazing, and definitely gave a specific mood within the viewer.
This short was very confusing and in my opinion I really did not like it. Maybe because I did not understand what was going on is the reason behind me not liking "Night Mayor." At first I could not understand what he was saying and then once he identified where he was from I could understand his accent a little more. I had to look up what the Aurora was again. I would have liked to see the Aurora in colors since its beauty comes with all of it magnificent illumination but that would defeat the purpose of the black and white movie.Also, at first I thought this was going to be a scary movie, and since I really don't like scary movies, I was kind of closed minded from the beginning.
Some of the things that were interesting in the short was other than being in black and white, it was not really focused, the shots were blurry throughout the short. The other aspect of the short that intrigued me the most was that each shot was not on the screen for a long period of time. They were little snippets of information and images that told the story of the piece. I guess Mr. Maddin chose to do that so we can further understand the characteristics of the aurora
Lastly, it was a shame that the governments had to shut everything down. Even though the government did not exactly know what was going on, they had to shut it down anyway. I think that portion of the story was clearly executed.
I felt very dazed and confused at the short. This was probably the intention that the director had in mind. At the first few times when the old man says, "Night Mayor," I immediately tied it with the word nightmare. After hearing the title pronounced this way, I viewed the short in a different context. I put my mind in the mode of watching a nightmare.
The feeling of a nightmare was achieved in this short. It was black and white, jumbled scenes, and did not make much sense. This is how people dream. We do not know where we started or what we are getting into. We just ride the dream out until it is finished. That is the same thing with "Night Mayor."
The shooting and the lighting were very successful for the intended purposes. It gave it an eerie, creepy tone that was very unsettling.
Overall, I do not love nor hate this short. It is something that film students need to be exposed to. Techniques used in the short can be applied to a student's work.
This was, as mentioned many a time, pretty confusing, in a narrative way. But narrative really wasn't particularly focused on; the director seemed to be aiming at a dreamlike feeling, and by jumbling up most of the images in spastic collages of harsh contrast black and white, this effect was achieved pretty effectively. It remains entertaining to watch, if only for its interesting visual subject matter, making use of a wide range of objects to focus on and effects to apply to what's happening on screen.
That being said, it doesn't seem like this had a really fleshed out concept behind it. It definitely looks consistent, and has a strong visual design, but what's going between any two shots is often only tenuously linked to anything else. An interesting artistic style, but not particularly something that would fall under the category of cinema.
Night Mayor is a truly bizarre short that I can’t say much about. While I disliked the plots of some of the earlier shorts far more than this one, this was probably the only one that was truly painful to watch. I admit I feel rather unnerved after watching it. The story seems interesting, albeit overly-simplistic, with the narrator going on and on about playing the tuba, and “listening” to the aurora borealis.
The music and sound effects were discordant and eerie, adding to the strange tone of the short. The swift transitions of the images, along with the random, repetitive visual effects hurt my eyes to watch. The ending was awkward and goofy.
All told, it was a very strange short video that reminds me that, while genius is often strange, being strange doesn’t necessarily make it genius.
I had to make sure this was actually filmed in 2009 after the first few minutes. The semi focused images that lay underneath the hazy lights and white noise just seemed like a bad trip from the 40's. As for the narrative I had nothing to go on but the short description under the play box. I don't think he was "broadcasting" things. It looked like he was teleporting them. It was easy for me to follow the little actions being performed but trying to connect scene to scene to make a comprehensive flow slightly hurt my brain. However, when I can follow the quick cuts I do enjoy that style.
Night Mayor had me confused from the very beginning. I thought the lighting and quick cuts were cool. I also liked the black and white. As far as the story is concerned, I have no idea what is going on. I think that this is the most confusing short we've watched this semester and it's probably my least favorite.
The Night Mayor is defiantly an art film. It had overlapping images, flash transitions, and confusing storyline. Half way through I started getting a headache then the flashing transitions made me nauseous. I don't know what this film was trying to get across but it caused me to have physical reaction (headache and nausea). I don't particularly like art cinema I find it to weird and deep?
The whole thing to me was confusing. Something about northern lights and images being projected to his canadian friends? the government took it down because it was interfering with the telephone lines? I just didn't understand it. what was the point? What about the northern lights? Why were they building this teleprojector thingy?
I thought it was put together pretty well. I liked most of the shots especially the one with the girls on the the phones (towards the end).
The word I would use to sum this short would be raw. While there is a message and a plot, the only thing I could hope to take from this piece is the talent found in the rawness of the short. It has the feel of old propaganda, the quick cuts and pans that consist of flashing background images. The music and narration only adds chaos to the unchecked raw emotion. The one scene I enjoyed the most is when the narrator is talking about “aurora” and the image is of things exploding in reverse along with bright flashes of what looks like dynamite or fireworks. Very visually appealing. I can tell where the plot is going but it is such a slow progression that it feels like it could be narcissistic in terms of its willingness to be interpreted. If it is not giving the middle finger to the audience then I absolutely am unsure of its real intent. -andrew wallace
Night Mayor was every bit of the word interesting. Although it was not my favorite short so far in the semester, I do applaud the effort int the overall appearance and technical aspects of the film. Honestly I did not grasp to the concept of the story and had to read the description underneath to get some type of understanding, but even then I was still confused.
On the ground of technical and visual aspects, I liked the black and white look along with the glow and flashes among various shots. Also, the transitions and sudden changes from frame to frame was something that was pretty popular in this short. The consistency among frames and effects were pretty good as well in my eyes.
Overall I enjoyed the short in some ways even though it was not my favorite.
This short was very unusual, and reminded me of Stan Brakhage, a filmmaker I did a project on last semester. This film had incredibly unexplainable beautiful cinematography. It was so quick paced that it keeps the viewer on edge, and also makes every image seem just as important as the next. I enjoy this type of filmmaking although I couldn't watch hours and hours of it.
The film was fairly new, although it had the look of a very old film. I found this very charming and it made the piece feel timeless, as if it were a statement of humanity not just the story of one man. The film had an aura of some sort of incredibly deep meaning hidden inside of it that the viewer has to discover. I think maybe the creator of this film had the idea and didn't have the meaning fully thought out but he knew it had one, and that viewers would create their own. I really appreciate that kind of art.
I can't get over how beautiful all of the shots were though, their use of light and the way certain shots blended into others. It was quite the spectacle. Although like I said, I couldn't have watched it for too much longer without feeling like I needed a break. It was a very interesting, thought provoking short that almost hurts your eyes and mind as you try to understand it. I think art like this is a great addition to all types of art.
I found the short night mayor to be different then what we have been watching each week. First it was different because of the lighting. Night mayor was filmed in black and white and the light sources were constantly changing throughout the film. I enjoyed this, however, it was hard to watch and gave me a head ach. I did not believe the black and white film went with this film because throughout the film he was talking about the night ski or something to do with space which is known for it's beauty in color. Next besides from the lighting, the story line was very different. I found it confusing and hard to follow throughout the short film. Between both the story line and the lighting I found this short the least of my favorites of the films we watched so far.
Steven Hiott I thought the short as a whole was interesting. I am not gonna pretend that I could exactly follow the whole thing, but what I could understand seemed to be complex and well thought out (that is if it is actually supposed to mean what I perceived it to mean). I always like to see different kinds of films, and the black and white gave the film a cool grainy feel that some how kept it feeling modern at the same time. The lighting was all over the place and many of the scenes were too quick. This is one of the reasons I had trouble understanding the film as a whole. The narrator's voice was eerie but it did not bother me as the film progressed.
Bonnie Gross: “Night Mayor” was a very interesting short. It took me a long time to fully understand what was happening, and after watching the entire thing I am still a bit confused. There were some things that I really enjoyed and there were some things that I was not too fond of. I personally loved the lighting in the short and some of the creative angles and shots. On the other hand, I had some problems with the quickness of the shots.
ReplyDeleteThe lighting by far was the coolest part about the short. The fact that the entire short is in black and white, made the task of lighting even more difficult. Every take had a different lighting scheme. This is a very complex task to plan every single one of those short takes. I noticed the lighting especially in the workplace when he and his family are working on the machine. It very much seemed like you were within the chaos and lights when all around their face, as if the machine were real and on in front of them. There were a bunch of different Dutch angle shots that were really interesting. The lighting and strange angles only added to the strange atmosphere of the short.
The quick shots definitely added to the creepy ambiance of the short. Although each image had very good lighting and great composition, they were a bit confusing. As I mentioned earlier, the short was hard to follow in the beginning. Each shot was very well placed and planned, but maybe the story needed to be explained a little bit more. Overall the cinematography was amazing, and definitely gave a specific mood within the viewer.
Nia Barnes
ReplyDeleteThis short was very confusing and in my opinion I really did not like it. Maybe because I did not understand what was going on is the reason behind me not liking "Night Mayor." At first I could not understand what he was saying and then once he identified where he was from I could understand his accent a little more. I had to look up what the Aurora was again. I would have liked to see the Aurora in colors since its beauty comes with all of it magnificent illumination but that would defeat the purpose of the black and white movie.Also, at first I thought this was going to be a scary movie, and since I really don't like scary movies, I was kind of closed minded from the beginning.
Some of the things that were interesting in the short was other than being in black and white, it was not really focused, the shots were blurry throughout the short. The other aspect of the short that intrigued me the most was that each shot was not on the screen for a long period of time. They were little snippets of information and images that told the story of the piece. I guess Mr. Maddin chose to do that so we can further understand the characteristics of the aurora
Lastly, it was a shame that the governments had to shut everything down. Even though the government did not exactly know what was going on, they had to shut it down anyway. I think that portion of the story was clearly executed.
Calvin Ross
ReplyDeleteI felt very dazed and confused at the short. This was probably the intention that the director had in mind. At the first few times when the old man says, "Night Mayor," I immediately tied it with the word nightmare. After hearing the title pronounced this way, I viewed the short in a different context. I put my mind in the mode of watching a nightmare.
The feeling of a nightmare was achieved in this short. It was black and white, jumbled scenes, and did not make much sense. This is how people dream. We do not know where we started or what we are getting into. We just ride the dream out until it is finished. That is the same thing with "Night Mayor."
The shooting and the lighting were very successful for the intended purposes. It gave it an eerie, creepy tone that was very unsettling.
Overall, I do not love nor hate this short. It is something that film students need to be exposed to. Techniques used in the short can be applied to a student's work.
Mike McGee:
ReplyDeleteThis was, as mentioned many a time, pretty confusing, in a narrative way. But narrative really wasn't particularly focused on; the director seemed to be aiming at a dreamlike feeling, and by jumbling up most of the images in spastic collages of harsh contrast black and white, this effect was achieved pretty effectively. It remains entertaining to watch, if only for its interesting visual subject matter, making use of a wide range of objects to focus on and effects to apply to what's happening on screen.
That being said, it doesn't seem like this had a really fleshed out concept behind it. It definitely looks consistent, and has a strong visual design, but what's going between any two shots is often only tenuously linked to anything else. An interesting artistic style, but not particularly something that would fall under the category of cinema.
Night Mayor is a truly bizarre short that I can’t say much about. While I disliked the plots of some of the earlier shorts far more than this one, this was probably the only one that was truly painful to watch. I admit I feel rather unnerved after watching it. The story seems interesting, albeit overly-simplistic, with the narrator going on and on about playing the tuba, and “listening” to the aurora borealis.
ReplyDeleteThe music and sound effects were discordant and eerie, adding to the strange tone of the short. The swift transitions of the images, along with the random, repetitive visual effects hurt my eyes to watch. The ending was awkward and goofy.
All told, it was a very strange short video that reminds me that, while genius is often strange, being strange doesn’t necessarily make it genius.
Hampton Bradshaw, by the way.
DeleteJoel Jarvis:
ReplyDeleteI had to make sure this was actually filmed in 2009 after the first few minutes. The semi focused images that lay underneath the hazy lights and white noise just seemed like a bad trip from the 40's. As for the narrative I had nothing to go on but the short description under the play box. I don't think he was "broadcasting" things. It looked like he was teleporting them. It was easy for me to follow the little actions being performed but trying to connect scene to scene to make a comprehensive flow slightly hurt my brain. However, when I can follow the quick cuts I do enjoy that style.
Matt Leddo
ReplyDeleteNight Mayor had me confused from the very beginning. I thought the lighting and quick cuts were cool. I also liked the black and white. As far as the story is concerned, I have no idea what is going on. I think that this is the most confusing short we've watched this semester and it's probably my least favorite.
Ellen Schwartz
ReplyDeleteThe Night Mayor is defiantly an art film. It had overlapping images, flash transitions, and confusing storyline. Half way through I started getting a headache then the flashing transitions made me nauseous. I don't know what this film was trying to get across but it caused me to have physical reaction (headache and nausea). I don't particularly like art cinema I find it to weird and deep?
The whole thing to me was confusing. Something about northern lights and images being projected to his canadian friends? the government took it down because it was interfering with the telephone lines? I just didn't understand it. what was the point? What about the northern lights? Why were they building this teleprojector thingy?
I thought it was put together pretty well. I liked most of the shots especially the one with the girls on the the phones (towards the end).
The word I would use to sum this short would be raw. While there is a message and a plot, the only thing I could hope to take from this piece is the talent found in the rawness of the short. It has the feel of old propaganda, the quick cuts and pans that consist of flashing background images. The music and narration only adds chaos to the unchecked raw emotion. The one scene I enjoyed the most is when the narrator is talking about “aurora” and the image is of things exploding in reverse along with bright flashes of what looks like dynamite or fireworks. Very visually appealing. I can tell where the plot is going but it is such a slow progression that it feels like it could be narcissistic in terms of its willingness to be interpreted. If it is not giving the middle finger to the audience then I absolutely am unsure of its real intent.
ReplyDelete-andrew wallace
Brandon Brown
ReplyDeleteNight Mayor was every bit of the word interesting. Although it was not my favorite short so far in the semester, I do applaud the effort int the overall appearance and technical aspects of the film. Honestly I did not grasp to the concept of the story and had to read the description underneath to get some type of understanding, but even then I was still confused.
On the ground of technical and visual aspects, I liked the black and white look along with the glow and flashes among various shots. Also, the transitions and sudden changes from frame to frame was something that was pretty popular in this short. The consistency among frames and effects were pretty good as well in my eyes.
Overall I enjoyed the short in some ways even though it was not my favorite.
Lauren Musgrove
ReplyDeleteThis short was very unusual, and reminded me of Stan Brakhage, a filmmaker I did a project on last semester. This film had incredibly unexplainable beautiful cinematography. It was so quick paced that it keeps the viewer on edge, and also makes every image seem just as important as the next. I enjoy this type of filmmaking although I couldn't watch hours and hours of it.
The film was fairly new, although it had the look of a very old film. I found this very charming and it made the piece feel timeless, as if it were a statement of humanity not just the story of one man. The film had an aura of some sort of incredibly deep meaning hidden inside of it that the viewer has to discover. I think maybe the creator of this film had the idea and didn't have the meaning fully thought out but he knew it had one, and that viewers would create their own. I really appreciate that kind of art.
I can't get over how beautiful all of the shots were though, their use of light and the way certain shots blended into others. It was quite the spectacle. Although like I said, I couldn't have watched it for too much longer without feeling like I needed a break. It was a very interesting, thought provoking short that almost hurts your eyes and mind as you try to understand it. I think art like this is a great addition to all types of art.
I found the short night mayor to be different then what we have been watching each week. First it was different because of the lighting. Night mayor was filmed in black and white and the light sources were constantly changing throughout the film. I enjoyed this, however, it was hard to watch and gave me a head ach. I did not believe the black and white film went with this film because throughout the film he was talking about the night ski or something to do with space which is known for it's beauty in color. Next besides from the lighting, the story line was very different. I found it confusing and hard to follow throughout the short film. Between both the story line and the lighting I found this short the least of my favorites of the films we watched so far.
ReplyDeleteSteven Hiott
ReplyDeleteI thought the short as a whole was interesting. I am not gonna pretend that I could exactly follow the whole thing, but what I could understand seemed to be complex and well thought out (that is if it is actually supposed to mean what I perceived it to mean).
I always like to see different kinds of films, and the black and white gave the film a cool grainy feel that some how kept it feeling modern at the same time. The lighting was all over the place and many of the scenes were too quick. This is one of the reasons I had trouble understanding the film as a whole. The narrator's voice was eerie but it did not bother me as the film progressed.