Day 1 Screenings

So, we were supposed to blog about the Melies and Pike screenings... I enjoyed the Melies screening more, I loved that it was in French, so I couldn't focus on the words just the scene in front of me and spent the whole time wondering whether the narrative was at all connected to the actual scene. Usually, I tend to appreciate more things that are/seem to be from a different time, so I inwardly smiled at the characters in fast forward, the primitive special effects, and the costumes, and it pretty much blew me away when I found out that the set was actually painted in greyscale. Throughout the video, I couldn't help but continuously wonder how the piece would change if I could actually understand the words.

As for the Pike video, Global Groove, I guess the two main aspects of the film were that it was longer than it needed to be, and the use of every special effect he could find was overwhelming. It was all very new, so I would see how it was exciting at the time. My favorite part of the whole piece was the soundtrack, not the whole thing, but some of the songs (cant remember them right now). All in all, Pike did a good job of portraying the idea of a 'global' community, what with the sensory overload and recognizable images of locations and cultures around the world.