Reading #3

The Bordwell reading talks about the recent Scorsese movie, Hugo, with great emphasis on the secretly major character in the film, Georges Melies. Melies was a great early filmmaker, and an inspiration to the industry/movement as a whole. According to Bordwell, the film is obviously a cleaned up version of the story (as Melies actually had 2 wives, etc.), but it actually does a pretty good job of accurately depicting the life of Melies, and his importance to the film industry. On a somewhat different, but related note, it also talks about the automaton in the film and how the film makers were not good enough tinkers to make an automaton like the real one and had to use magnets to simulate the effect.

The Meadows reading talks about Architecture (as place and space), and its relation to the abstract narrative. It uses the example of the Acropolis, and how it conveys a narrative of "power, freedom, and a sense of proximity to a god that watched over the city". Meadows talks about perspective, and how an architecture may not have its intended effect if the viewer is standing in the wrong place. Buildings are designed to account for this (logical entrance, forced path, direction, etc.). It talks about 1st vs 3rd person, and 2d vs 3d imagery. Meadows claims that architects are just the narrator for buildings. How we see the world is often defined by what is hidden from our view (walls). On the other hand, visual cues pull our views together. All in all, regardless of your medium (book, movie, video game, building), it is important to stay on top of what the viewer can see and how they see it if you want your story to come across as intended.