Deanna Yurovich Blog #1

January 31st Clips

Bunny:
After first watching Bunny, the animated short was slightly depressing. After realizing that the rabbit was actually the wife in the marriage that is shown, it was very sad. The short portrays life as more depressing than life. The wife is left a widow and seems to just be living each day out until her last. This bug shows up and does nothing but annoy her while she is trying to bake, but was it really a bug annoying her or was it an angel leading her home to her husband?
She is shown waking up to her oven shaking a bright light coming out of it. She then sees the same bug come out and decides to follow it in. While this can seem slightly morbid, going into an oven, I believe that she actually passed in her sleep and this is her moving forward into the afterlife. The darkness of the house shows how unhappy this rabbit was, but then the brightness and weightless feeling the afterlife is gives a feeling of happiness. The filmmakers did a great job in portraying her despair and then her happiness to be reunited with her husband in the picture.

Northfork:
Northfork had a few interesting scenes. The shot of the church and the priest talking about how they are all angels, but they use their wings differently. The priest is shown with a beautiful mountain scene with blue skies and roaming cows. I believe the roaming cows can be seen as the people having to move, because when the camera pans out it is shown that the church is about to be moved to another town. Another scene with the coffin on top of the car with clouds hanging over the mountains. This time the mountains are not as beautiful, they are sad. The coffin and the ominous clouds show that the family has this sadness hanging over them, but the fact that they are moving forward shows that they understand life goes on.

Paris, Texas:
Paris, Texas has many different scenes we watched, but I want to focus on two; the one of Travis walking across the bridge and the one of Travis and his wife being reunited.
While Travis is walking across the bridge the theme of going against the man made path is apparent again. He is walking horizontally on the screen while the rest of traffic is going up and down the screen. What is also amazing is the fact that it is one shot following him getting closer to someone that is preaching. While watching I found myself wondering when he would actually run into this man, then when it was taking a long time I was wondering if it was his mind talking. The long walk that the audience follows Travis making helps give the feeling of how long his journey actually is. He also has is binoculars on, which shows us that he is still looking for something, but what?
Then in the one where his wife realizes it is Travis, the fact that he asks if she can turn off the light to see him sounds dumb, but the audience understands due to their circumstances. They are so close, yet cannot have the face to face interaction that they have been waiting for. There is a point where they are meshed together as one to show that they are being reunited. The camera work and positioning in these frames are some of the most symbolic ever.

Pink Floyd’s The Wall:
The main scene I want to look at is the “We don’t need no education.” This is interesting to watch because it is real people. I think when real kids/people play a part it makes it in this case more eerie. The fact that the children are turned into consumable meat shows that the bad is trying to portray how all are trained to be faceless and in the end turn into a herd of cattle and just do what they are told.
Another scene is the provocative flowers. It shows that love/hate relationship that many lovers seem to have in those times and possibly even today. The woman is portrayed just like the band members had seen it; suffocating and they hold the men back. It amazes me to see an animation have so much meaning, which could be very disturbing.