This week was rough. I had a total of 21 assignments across my classes this week and between those, my time in synchronous classes, doctors appointments, and my job, it just was not possible for me to get everything done. This week I was able to do my two audio assignments, listen to the radio show, and watch the videos linked in the weekly page.
I had a lot of fun with my two audio assignments though; both of which allowed me to analyze music in my life. First, I did the Reverse It assignment to rearrange the Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack to create a new ending that I think it needed. Then I compared Britney Spears’s version of “…Baby One More Time” with a darkwave cover of it by Dead on a Sunday to talk about how instrumentation and vocal tone can change the whole emotion and meaning of a song even when it uses the same lyrics. I also tuned into Wednesday night’s edition of DS106 radio for the last two episodes of “Limetown” and wrote my reflection on how impactful little auditory clues can be throughout a story
I’m having a great time with the content of the class, but the sheer volume of the workload is not meshing well with the rest of my classes and schedule. I will literally be working on work for all of my classes for 5+ hours a day including weekends and I’ve got a 15 credit course load. My other classes have honors, writing intensive, and speaking intensive designations and are almost all 300+ level classes and none of them are nearly as heavy on the workload, but the combination of each of them with this class has been incredibly challenging.
This assignment had me so excited! My friend Ross has a band, Dead on a Sunday, where he often creates gothic/darkwave/industrial covers of popular songs outside of those genres, so I had so many options for this! It was so difficult figuring out which of his covers to pick because I love all of them. However, I wanted to go for what my mind perceived as the biggest dichotomy between genres, which led me to selecting Dead on a Sunday’s cover of Britney Spears’s iconic song, “…Baby One More Time”.
The original version of “…Baby One More Time” was released in 1999 and is one of the most iconic Y2K era pop songs. Musically, the use of wah-wah guitar and EKG machine bass slaps contribute to that classic Y2K sound and Britney’s vocal style gives it a seductive, upbeat pop style. The lyrics are describing the wanted return of a former lover and that combined with the musical styles described above give the song a desirous and covetous tone.
When looking at the Dead on a Sunday version, it is much more synth heavy and turns this pop song into a darkwave song similar to that of Depeche Mode, The Cure (Disintegration era), and Twin Tribes. The bassline is much more prominent and it’s complimented by higher pitched wistful synth. Vocally, rather than being seductive and desirous, Ross’s tone of voice create a new sense of desperation and almost hopelessness. For example, if one lyric from the song were to be selected to sum up Britney’s vibe, I would select, “Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know that something wasn’t right here. Oh baby, baby, I shouldn’t have let you go, and now you’re out of sight”, but for the Dead on a Sunday version, I would select, “My loneliness is killing me, I must confess I still believe. When I’m not with you, I lose my mind. Give me a sign”.
Personally, I prefer the Dead on a Sunday version. Part of it is general musical bias as I am more drawn to the sounds of goth/darkwave music (I mean, I was raised in the scene and work in it myself, so it’s personal), but I also feel like that desperate yearning emotion that accompanies Ross’s iteration of the song is much more fitting with the meaning behind the lyrics. I felt like I was able to connect with the song so much more with his version.
For the live listening session this week, I participated in the Wednesday session which consisted of the last two episodes of “Limetown”. It took me a couple minutes to acclimate to the plot and what was going on since I hadn’t heard the prior episodes, but once I was able to distinguish the voices, I felt like I could easily decipher what was going on. The biggest thing, of course, was analysing the auditory cues. I found it so fascinating to really make myself think about how just a simple instrumental backing track can change a whole mood and make the listener feel with the characters. I also loved the use of auditory cues to relay setting, like when Lia and Diedre were outside, you could here the ambient outdoor sounds. When they moved to the car, the ambient noise was absent, their voices were clearer, and audio editing made it slightly resonant to cue that they were in a small space where sound was bouncing off all around them. I had to tune out for the last 10 minutes as I had to go to my acapella rehearsals, but I felt like in the 50 minutes that I was listening, I got a lot out of it in terms of the impact and use of music, sound effects, and general sound mixing.
I love a good musical and in terms of the soundtrack, I think Dear Evan Hansen is super catchy and musically well done. That being said, the plot has always kind of irked me.
To simply summarize the plot for those who don’t know: Pretentious awkward boy doesn’t have friends, but has a crush on the brooding stoner kid’s artsy sister. When brooding stoner kid k1lls himself, pretentious awkward boy sees an opportunity to get close to the artsy sister by fabricating a friendship with brooding stoner to make himself look good for being his “only friend”. The notion of pretentious awkward boy being such a good guy for being “friends” with brooding stoner kid and “keeping his memory alive” by starting a big campaign around it to stay close with the artsy sister spreads and becomes a really big deal. The facade doesn’t last though. Everyone finds out and is rightfully super pissed. Pretentious awkward boy sings a sob story guilt trip song that’s basically “I’m such a good guy, I didn’t mean it to be bad! I’m just a lil awkward and I don’t know how to behave”, and everyone else is just like “well he didn’t mean it so it’s actually fine” and it ends on that happy note.
That’s what bothers me. This guy really fabricated months of emails and a whole friendship with a dead kid for sympathy points and because he wants the artsy sister and then when people got upset at this, he throws a temper tantrum and tries to excuse his behavior because he “had good intentions” and he’s just weird (Sound familiar? …Elon…) and everyone just goes with it. It reminds me of all the people that excuse abusers because “he’s such a nice guy, he would never do something like that”. So what if Evan Hansen’s scheme didn’t work out? What if everyone else stood their ground on why they were so upset? I decided to use the Reverse It assignment to rearrange the soundtrack to change the order of events in the musical and change the ending which, in turn, changes how the songs could be interpreted which I will discuss below.
A Breakdown of the New Song Order
“Anybody Have a Map”: This song has to remain at the start because it’s the only song with Connor (Brooding Stoner) still alive, so it would make no sense to randomly revive a dead kid with no context or reason
“Sincerely, Me”: I moved this song up to be the second song to make the friendship fabrication start ASAP after Connor dies. I also felt like the email fabrication coming before the storytelling to Connor’s family made it seem a bit more schemed and twisted.
“For Forever”: The plan is in place, the fabricated emails are set, now Evan is all prepped and ready to move in on Connor’s family and get the sympathy and hero points from all of them, especially Zoey, (artsy sister).
“If I Could Tell Her”– Evan is literally making up things Connor has said about Zoey to further his story, except this is basically like a weird stalker song because all the things that “Connor” has said about Zoey “to Evan” is actually just all the tiny details that Evan has noticed because he’s hyper-obsessed with her and has been wanting to say to her. He can’t even admit that those are his feelings about her and instead brings her false hope that her she and her late brother actually had a different kind of relationship.
“To Break in a Glove”– Next on the manipulation list is Connor’s father who is mourning the fact that he never had that traditional father-son bond, but Evan continues his game and steps in to act as the son and give Connor’s father the chance to have that relationship. Connor’s father is overjoyed about this, but little does he know, none of this is real.
“Disappear”– Evan is so deep into his own plot that he’s almost believing it himself and has a “conversation” with Connor that inspires him to start “The Connor Project” in his supposed memory which is really just to give him more hero points with everyone because his story has spread throughout the community. He’s basking in this newfound love and attention and it only makes the story spiral deeper taking everyone he’s twisted and manipulated with him.
“You Will Be Found”– Evan’s story has reached the masses and this is his big inspirational message to everyone for more sympathy and hero points, but again, all of this is still one big lie. A complete fabrication of the life of a dead kid. His real story, his real struggles were all completely erased and no one knows it. They think this is his story. Everyone is made the fool by Evan while he stands on the pedestal.
“So Big/So Small”– Evan’s mom reminisces on past struggles and she connects with him. The original meaning of this song was to show unconditional love that she has towards Evan after she finds out everything is fake, but in this rearrangement, it’s her feeling for Connor’s mom who has lost her son and connecting with Evan to show him that she is proud of him and will always love him and protect him. She doesn’t want to lose him like Connor’s mom lost Connor.
“Waving Through a Window”– Originally, this song served as an introduction to Evan being the awkward outcast who didn’t really have friends and no one noticed him, but for the purposes of this version, I feel like this song acts as a bit of breakdown for Evan. Worrying his story will fall through, doing everything he can to not garner suspicion. He has to keep the facade alive, but subconsciously, he knows he’s a fraud. He knows he doesn’t deserve any of this. I see this song as his external presentation battling his subconscious where the verses are his external and the chorus is his internal.
“Only Us”– Zoey comforts Evan as she can see he’s doubting himself, but she still doesn’t know the truth, so she thinks he’s doubting that she likes him. She still believes that his story is the real him and reassures him that she wants *him* and they can be there to help each other.
“Good For You”– Uh oh, the secret is out. His best friend Jared helped with the initial fabrication, but never expected nor wanted this to blow up into a big deal and feels like Evan has left him in the wreckage, his mom is heartbroken and upset as Evan has treated Connor’s family as his own and neglected her in the process, and his friend Alana who worked on the Connor Project feels betrayed and strung along.
“Requiem”– This song was initially Connor’s family singing about him, but I think this can easily be twisted to make it the family’s reactions to learning that Evan blinded them to the truth and that everything has been a lie. Zoey mourns the relationship and feels that Evan is a monster who completely toyed with her heart and her vulnerability from her brother’s death. Connor’s dad feels betrayed as he tried to give Evan the life and relationship that Connor didn’t get to have only for none of it to be right. Connor’s mom is in denial. She is in such shock and grief that she is hoping that the truth is actually the lie and that Evan’s story is what’s real when it isn’t.
“Words Fail”– Evan is facing the consequences of his own actions, but is almost giving a non-apology. It’s a sob story of “I didn’t mean it, I thought I was doing you all a solid, I didn’t know that I was out of line because poor me doesn’t have any friends, so actually you shouldn’t be mad at me, you should feel sorry for me”.
If you want to listen to this version of Dear Evan Hansen, here is the playlist!
I used Spotify to pull up the soundtrack and from the soundtrack, I put all the songs in a playlist in the order of my new version, so I could play around with different possibilities. As shown in many of my past blog posts, I love to analyse the tiniest little details and I love to find varying ways to interpret things; it’s a big reason why I’m a psych major. I’ve known this musical since it came out, so I was already really familiar with the songs and the plot, but this gave me the perfect chance to essentially personify my thoughts on Evan’s character. I have never pitied him, I’ve never been able to justify him and I hate that the other characters could and did do that.
This week was a bit better than the last. I missed the daily creates this week, but I got pretty much everything else. Time and balance have been the issues for me. Figuring out how to get everything done for this class while also staying on top of my psych and English classes and vice vice versa. I felt the amount of assignments for this week was more manageable than last week for sure.
This week, a running theme for me was color. My design thoughts and Corpse Bride color analysis especially focused on how color is used and the impact it can have; the Corpse Bride analysis was my favorite assignment I’ve done so far. I also introduced my course character, Lenore Glaphyra by creating a business card and showcasing her favorite song lyric; I felt decent about these creations. Similar to last week, if I had more time in my schedule, they would’ve been much more intricate.
My photoblitz was the last thing I completed, mainly because I was hoping my flareup would ease by the end of the week, but it didn’t. Nevertheless, I powered through. It took me longer than 20 minutes as a result, but I felt happy with the results.
I was a bit concerned about the Photoblitz challenge at first because while I thought the creative aspect sounded intriguing, the time limit was my worry due to the fact that to find everything I needed for my prompts, I had to walk around campus and move quite a bit. I have some physical disabilities that have been flaring up this week, so I did end up taking longer than 20 minutes because I had to take breaks to regulate my heartrate and stabilize my joints. However, I was very pleased with my prompts and think the final product turned out well.
Something RustedUnique Texture and PatternStone, Water, and CloudsForced PerspectiveConstruction1:1 RatioContrast (Life and Death)
I felt like all of these prompts were a perfect opportunity to highlight some of my favorite natural spots on campus like the amphitheatre and the bridge to Seacobeck. I loved getting to walk around, hang out, and really analyze what was around me. It did take me longer than 20 minutes, but I needed to make sure I was accommodating myself and not stressing my POTS flareup too much. I think this is definitely something I would do again, though!
For my third choice assignment, I felt inspired by the favorite song lyric assignment, especially with my course character, Lenore, in mind. She works in a music based subculture, so music is something holds very dear and close to heart. I went on a deep dive through all my playlists in search of the perfect lyric for her that would work as her favorite. I ended up settling on a ” ‘Come, devil, come’ she sang, ‘Call out my name’ ” from the song “Farewell Wanderlust” by The Amazing Devil. I felt like this lyric symbolized the way she battles and faces her inner demons and her past on a daily basis as it’s something that lives with her and always will, so instead of trying to push it away, she confronts them head on.
The next part of the assignment was to superimpose the lyrics over a background that represents the lyric. I chose a photo I took of the aurora we saw over campus last autumn. On the surface, it may seem like the background has no connection with the lyrics, but I used it very metaphorically. The thought process was that the aurora is something that is always happening somewhere in the world, it doesn’t often happen here, but it is always in existence. Sometimes it lasts in the sky for a long time, sometimes it stays for the blink of an eye. You may not know when you’ll see it again, but you know you probably will in one context or another at some point. I felt like that fit with the idea of Lenore’s inner demons and the confrontation of them. Sometimes the internal struggles lay dormant. They still exist, they just aren’t making an appearance. And sometimes they shine bright at the surface.
With the background and lyrics selected, I hopped onto Canva and put it all together. I chose a font that was sophisticated and elegant, but with a text effect that showed layers to symbolize all the different parts of Lenore under the surface. I also used some little elements like emphasis markers and devil horns to add character to the lyric and to attempt to visualize the way Lenore perceives the lyric in her mind, with extra emphasis on the “Call out my name” to show her unwavering demeanor towards confrontation.
I had fun thinking about all the little details and putting this together. It’s not the most intricate creation, but I think what really rings through is the symbolism and meaning behind each creative choice and how it relates to Lenore.
There were a lot of topics regarding design that were covered in these articles and videos, but the elements that stuck with me the most were color and typography. As someone who has done my fair share of graphic design as an event runner and social media manager for all sorts of organizations, color and typography are always something I’m very conscious about, however, I could never synthesize and summarize my thoughts to describe why. These articles and videos really helped me understand my own mind and thoughts, specifically the videos of the movie poster expert and the Stranger Things font, and the article about Chip Kidd’s book.
I’ve always been a bit more in tune with my understanding and perception of colors in my design as I’ve always found that to be one of the key context clues in media to relay messages and tones. In fact, I dove into this in my Corpse Bride color analysis. Despite this being something I consider myself to be pretty in tune with, there were certain themes I had never really thought about. For example, how often blue is used for thriller movie posters or how different uses of negative space can convey entirely different messages.
Typography is the one I’ve always struggled to describe. I’ve always been aware of the influence it can have, I can understand that the tone and mood can change with a font, but up until now I haven’t been able to articulate why. I found the Stranger Things video particularly interesting as I always felt like I recognized the font, but couldn’t place it. It always had a retro feel, but after watching the video and seeing some of the other uses of that font that inspired the creation of the title sequence completely shifted my perspective and provided a much deeper nuance to the whole vibe especially knowing what the show is about.
So, while I’ve created my course character, I haven’t been able to get the writeup posted yet. Nevertheless, I thought that since this week’s theme is visuals and trying to relate them to our course characters that a business card would be a great way to introduce my character, Lenore Glaphyra, a femme fatale self-made gothic event promoter. Networking and connection are basically her whole thing as an event runner and promoter and she’s incredibly skilled with it as well.
I created her business card to showcase her personality and add in some slight subliminal messaging. The colors and fonts keep with the gothic theme, but I wanted to incorporate spiderwebs surrounding the border to symbolize the schtick of creative, charismatic networking. In old myths and stories, spiders are cunning, persuasive, and ingenious. Their webs are literally made to catch anything and everything the spider needs and that’s exactly what Lenore does with her networking skills. I also used the splice text effect on Canva to show depth as well as something lying below the surface. This symbolizes Lenore’s past which haunts her (also shown with the addition of the ghosts); she’s more than meets the eye and she wasn’t always the person she is now.
Business card for Lenore Glaphyra, femme fatale
This design was pretty simple, but it took quite a bit of planning and thought to make sure the messages I wanted to use were shown in a way I felt fit in with Lenore’s aesthetic as well as her internal character traits. It wasn’t very difficult, I know Canva well, but it did consume quite a bit of time.
After going through multiple pages of visual assignments, I was struck with a bolt of inspiration when I saw the rainbow showcase assignment. I immediately thought of my favorite movie, The Corpse Bride, which is so important to me that I have a tattoo dedicated to it and paraphernalia of it can be found throughout my room at home and my dorm. Tim Burton has always been known for his stylistic and aesthetic choices and it rings true with The Corpse Bride especially as Victor and Emily go between the land of the living and the land of the dead. Burton has used color in this film to showcase levels of societal structure and independence and the feelings associated with it. There are three main settings throughout the movie: the land of the living, the land of the dead, and the land of the living when the dead rise and walk the earth. Each of these settings have their own unique color schemes that reflect the feelings and atmosphere with the characters.
The movie begins in the land of the living where everything is monochromatic desaturated blues and greys. This reflects the boring, mundane routine of daily life especially with the constraints of society on everyone. We see this repetition in the opening credits where there is the sound of a ticking clock and visuals of the townspeople engaging in their jobs. One person is just sweeping the ground back and forth in the same spot, another is just chopping off fish head after fish head, and so on. Everything is dull, emotionless, tedious and it must go “according to plan” as the Everglots and Van Dorts sing in the opening song about Victor and Victoria’s arranged marriage that is being held to fit with the standards of marrying for status rather than love which implies strict levels of rigidity and no freewill.
Assorted stills in the land of the living in Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride (2005)
After Victor meets Emily and they travel down to the land of the dead after the misunderstanding of their accidental marriage, the viewer is met with a shocking vibrancy. The land of the dead is incredibly saturated and colorful and everyone is doing their own thing and having fun. There’s no real rules, no structure, no routine, everyone is just “living life” and enjoying themselves out of the constraints of the land of the living. Everyone is joyful that Emily finally found a husband and they celebrate upon her arrival with Victor much to his immense confusion. Bright greens, blues, and purples dominate with other colors throughout. The transition from the land of the living to the land of the dead can be compared to the technicolor shift in The Wizard of Oz where everything in Kansas is greyscale, but Oz an explosion of color. In the case of The Corpse Bride, this is to showcase freedom from the monotony of life.
Stills from the land of the dead in Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride (2005)
After Victor and Emily hatch a plan to bring the dead to the land of the living for them to actually wed, they all crash Victoria and Lord Barkis’s wedding and chaos ensues; the living meets the dead, social constraint meets independent freewill. The results in the colors of the land of the dead to leech into the land of the living to showcase a clash of the two worlds. However, towards the end when Barkis’s plan is uncovered and subsequently foiled, peace is achieved. The color reverts to a palette similar to the beginning in the land of the living, however, the colors are a bit more saturated to showcase an acceptance and an embrace of life rather than an apathy towards it.
Top 3: Stills from when the inhabitants of the land of the dead rising to the land of the living (Burton, 2005). Bottom 3: Stills of the end of the movie when balance is restored (Burton, 2005).
I had so much fun with this assignment. This movie means the world to me and I love to talk about it and analyze it. I’ve been wanting to sit down and do a color analysis for a while now, and this gave me the perfect excuse to do it and write all my thoughts down. It’s really fascinating to see the impact that color has on our views and the message that is being relayed and this movie in particular uses color palette so well. I used the description of the assignment loosely as the original description was to just pick examples of colors in the film or show of my choosing and explain why those examples were chosen, but I felt like a color analysis was more appropriate as color is used for a reason not just for viewing pleasure.
