Bass’ work in logo design and movie title credit sequences spanned the latter half of the 20th century, with prominent work in each field. He worked closely with AT&T, designing not only the 1970 “bell” logo that was ubiquitous for a decade, but also, upon the divestiture of AT&T, he designed the original “death star” logo, unveiled in 1984.
(Source: techchannel.att.com)
The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated (by JaguarPunk)
Lucas - Lucas with the lid off
(Source: youtube.com)
I decided to make a few notes from Director, Ron Howard’s audio commentary of A Beautiful Mind. Some very interesting points and advice. Its pretty much me paraphrasing what is said. Might be the odd quote.
The characters from John Nash’s dilusions are almost always introduced by sound. The first time ‘Charles’ is introduced, the audience hears him caugh first, and then the POV (pretty much) camera shot of him, taken from where Nash is. —> Kind of makes sense.
Once he’s been introduced, Howard says they could shoot both Nash and Charles in the same shots, conventionally.
See Charles from POV first, before going to wide shot.
Deep down, a lot of people from the South have an inferiority complex, deep down wish they were British. Whatever that means!
Delusional reality and actual reality are on the same plane, so imaged and real characters appear in the same shot.
‘Flash of light’ (colour brightness/saturation) - represent ‘getting’ an idea.
Multiple parties gaining more than they’re losing, through cooperation.
Actors - what able to express and communicate without dialogue.
Unshaven Nash - his disease is effecting him in outward terms.
Complete change in the look of the movie
Two Visual objectives
Code breaking - see the ‘shapes’, indicated by a ‘flash’.
Don’t actually know much about Nash did with Government - says it was “research’.
Ed Harris (imagine character)- seen from Nash’s POV only.
Delusional characters giving character a sense of purpose, meaning and value.
Romantic life - visually prettier, warmer look. Potential for human contact and love.
Government life - Deeper shadows, harsher images
Rodger Deekins - cinematographer - Beautifully lit buildings.
Imagined characters - put Nash at ease. Telling him what he needs to hear. Seduced by the diseased/delusional side of life.
Circular steady-cam shot - ‘activate’ Nash’s engagement in the world.
Set design - none of the technology in the Government buildings would have existed at this time. Would have come 1960s (10 years later). Visually plausable, but a little too good to be true. Audience say, well “of course it’s not real”.
Didn’t want anything to be a give away - such as transplanting the micro chip.
Also meet Alicia (wife) from POV, so it’s not ONLY the delusional characters who are met from Nash’s view. She was initially introduced from POV in the classroom, also.
Younger, flirtatious girl.
Indication of paranoia - continuous POV shot runs from Nash looking at Alicia, to seeing imagined government characters. Clash between the delusional world destroying the hope/potential for love.
Movies often define themselves in Post production. All the planning and production is guess work, until start putting it together.
Strange establishing shot - gives sequence a pressure and an odd quality.
Horner’s music - subdued and interesting, and psychological. Rather than genre, tension music. Influenced by Russel’s performance. Behind his eyes, feel like the weather is changing.
Play with Nash’s POV, as things beging to get frightening, and he’s drawn deeper into his world, which is beginning to terrify him.
Good writing - funny moment. Comedic terms - “call back”. Alicia seems to understand Nash, so doesn’t respond in the same way other people have to what he says.
Meet a new character, Marcy, from Nash’s POV. Hear Charles again, before seeing him first from Nash’s POV before re-introducing him into the movie. Character represents ‘absolute’, ‘unconditional’ love.
Pigeons (CGI) aren’t responding to the Marcy as she runs at them.
Unshaven and finger to brow - symptoms/affects of schizophrenia. Things that the audience could easily dismiss as being acts of eccentricity, but later revealed as symptoms of the illness, including ‘gate’ in Nash’s walk.
Light reflecting on faces - add colour to shadows on characters’ faces - makes it romantic and beautiful. Talking about Love.
Lighting, tone, way things are approached.
Short clip of wedding only. Just confirms their love.
Tension undermining what ort to be an beautiful and romantic moment.
Delusional experiences - posting letters - initiated by POV.
Musically, not scoring it as an action sequence. deals with emotion, psyche, having been drawn into something this disturbing.
Hold on to credibility, to not loose the audience.
House room - warm and cozy, to contrast the previous, dark, tension of the scene.
Car chase scene - person with schizophrenia could experience something like that literally anywhere.
Present schizophrenia in a personal way. The characters represent feelings, emotions, needs - not clinical. People with schizophrenia have their own individual experiences, researched from lots of cases.
Separate camera angles, to keep intensity on Nash. The delusions have a hold on Nash and are threatening him.
Lighting, look, feel, is of the ‘cold war’ look, when Alicia enters room. Romance has gone.
If audience is seeing it as a ‘Spy movie’, wanting to keep loved ones away from danger. Lapsing into schizophrenia, can understand the sense terror and loss that Alisha is feeling. Camera pans from character to phone, indicating.
Introduce new set of characters. Are they real or not? Mix the POV etc. In this case are.
Example where somebody with schizophrenia is responding to people as though they are threats. Shot it in a threatening way - Nash’s emotional state.
See psychiatrist and delusion both from Nash’s POV. - Is it real?
First possible moment of realisation - Nash sees both Charles and Dr Rosen from his POV. Charles doesn’t speak but is visibly very upset - not sure why. Plus Dr Rosen is saying nobody there.
Search for the trust - scene not told from Nash’s POV. From Alisha’s. Tell the audience the trust - must trust/believe Dr Rosen. Alicia doesn’t totally trust him, neither does Nash.
About a wife trying to understand the trust, Dr trying to explain a disease. Camerawork very simple and honest.
In the writing - create a question. Would audience reveal everything?
Design of the walls, John’s research - Disconnected and strange, but mathematical, improbable but conceivable.
Camera tracks backward as Alicia walks forward into a setting, previously enhanced by Nash’s imagination, to reveal the true and full appearance. —> Creates tension. A goosebumps moment!
Keep questions alive, without playing any unfair tricks - audience wondering.
Emotional scenes (actors rehearsed a lot in advance to prepare, (but then didn’t touch it). Shot with two cameras so they overlap and capture true emotions without having to try to recreate them. 8-10 takes. Actors different intensity with each take. Director able to select most appropriate bits. Turning point for the film. Alicia explains to her husband.
Audiences didn’t want Nash to be ill, but would accept that it had all be a government cover up.
Shocking moment to understand the intense and threatening nature of the disease.
The real life John Nash actually looked away during an initial private- he had never seen it. His wife was upset by it.
Harsher, more disconnected images - moment the audience accept Nash is delusional.
Create tension - Imagined and real characters in same shot, but imagined walks closer to the camera. Real character mainly occupies right hand side of the screen, imagined occupies left.
POV from Nash, imagined character moved towards imagined to shoot her. POV camera ‘walks’ forward, so Nash can protect real character from imagined. Nash actually bumps real character, believing it was imagined. - Real potential for Nash to harm his wife.
Wide shot where the character should be, but isn’t as he’s imagined.
Turning point - Nash realises imagined characters can’t be real, applying logic - Marcy (young girl) “never gets old”.
Discussion between Nash and Dr. Scene is about Alicia (and audience) listening in on it. Imagined character interacts with Nash - Heartbreaking realisation that he is ill and still ill.
Actors voice - Laryngitis. Adds to the Alicia’s feeling of upset.
Character - beginning: Ambitious, driven by arrogance,
Moments that had previously haunted Nash, repeated by one of the delusional characters.
The excitement of delusional period is missed by Nash.
Music - Charlotte Church - voice of Alicia, supportive.
Cool concept of paying for things with a text. I presume the network provider charges you more for a premium number, then they pay the stamp provider.
Gas stove - tell temp by the size of flame.
Elec - cant tell temp. the stove may go red, but only after a long time and it only tells you the stove is hot, not HOW hot. —> Have to stand with hand over the stove to tell how hot it is.
“This leads to a general rule: interfaces should always give indication that lets the user know exactly what they’ve just done: turning the knob makes the flame grow. “
7-10 words per line. Seems a little short though, personally.
That sentence alone was 10!
Social media, trends, ideas, virals…
IMAC - apple
http://www.dandad.org/learning/commentary/apple-imac
“They turned the home computer from a dull grey technical box festooned by wires into a slick desirable consumer product.”
iMac’s look and feel derives inexorably from a fanatical obsession with functional integrity, detail, material and a relentless distillation of complexity.
It produces a contemporary style, but it’s a style mapped firmly by the classic aesthetic values of form, proportion, balance and composition.
iMac is a product, as Jony Ive says “with nothing that doesn’t need to be there”. It is utterly simple.
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