Upstream Color 

What makes upstream colour a nonlinear film? Use Rombes' piece 'Nonlinear' and specific examples from the film to help you flesh out your response. 

         Unlike the majority of blockbuster films, upstream color searches to connect the audience through different sensory outlets. This movie goes beyond the power of language and communicates through brilliant editing and other audiovisual cues. What makes this movie to intriguing and unique is it’s power to relax the audience’s mind and simply go along with the plot. I simply let myself amerce in the hunting plot, and what this did was give myself room to understand better the sort of vastness of existence in our inner nature that is portrayed in the movie. The only way I could really enjoy this film was to let the plot happen indulge myself in the details and the subtle beauty.  This resulted in my understanding of the symbolism rather than searching for the understanding of what was actually happening on the screen.

            This film is non linear not only because of the way it was edited as Rombes piece seemed to imply but every single medium utilized seemed to be non-linear making it more difficult for some to understand and follow, however in my opinion this was what drove the piece. The muted images, melancholic soundtrack and sporadic flashes of images developed the plot in a poetic dreamy flow. Rhome’s passage of Non-linear editing mentioned that this concept was  “Written on the cusp of the digital and Internet revolution, Nonlinear captures the chaos of the times” (Rombes, p.73). I think that this movies does just this, it delves deeper into modern relationships, how humans connect and how often it seems like it is controlled by some inexplicable force. To me this lack of glue or cohesiveness made total sense of the chaos of love. I cannot be certain that was the intent of the movie but I am sure that everyone has a different interpretation of the meaning behind the nonlinear editing and overall plot.

            Furthermore I think that this movies goes deeper into who you think you really are, when you are stripped of your current identity.  The worms are just a sort of universal symbol of anything that could strip you of your identity, in my opinion it could have been anything; a drug a natural disaster or anything of the sort. It explores the concept of feeling lost dazed and trying to reassemble the pieces. The actress that played Kris captured this beautifully through her body language and facial expressions.

           So many of my classmates would question the movies asking 'what was the point of this movie', and to me the purpose was for you to make your own interpretation of the symbolism. The purpose was for the audience to potentially revisit it and take a beat to reflect upon the thematic of the overall movie.

Sources:
Rombes, Nicholas. Cinema in the Digital Age. London: Wallflower Press, 2009.

HUNGER

For this Journal Entry I decided to film myself instead of writing. I have always had a hard time expressing myself orally so I though it would be an interesting experiment for me. I found it striking how I never really seemed to finish my thoughts fully and would quickly move on to a different topic. I guess I sometimes get so lost in my thoughts and forget to say things out loud. Nevertheless I had fun doing it and every take I took (about 8 or 10 of them) were really different despite my detailed outline I had written for myself. I think this one touches on most of my points I wanted to get across, it is a little lengthy, so my apologies. 

Press Play and Read

In this journal entry I will be exploring the concept that Zizek mentioned in the first video watched in class, he was discussing how balance does not sustain the world but catastrophe is where things emerge. Although I had never looked at catastrophe in this sort of light the more I reflect upon that statement the more it seems to resonate with me. Of course I would never want to inflict catastrophe on anyone but Balance does not foster innovation, the way that catastrophe does. Balance simply does not push us as humans to surpass our limits. Catastrophe challenges our system our problem solving skills and overall development. I think that catastrophe brings about new opportunities and although an apocalypse may bring death and misery to many it may bring about new opportunities as well. This slide show signifies catastrophe quite obviously through floods, hurricanes, alien invasion, asteroids, zombies etc. However the music is where these opportunities are portrayed. I choose the music for one very specific reason, because the ominous soundtrack to me has some grain of hope of positivity within the score, maybe even peacefulness. The music represents the eye to storm to me, I found it fitting, to my idea of an apocalypse.

I think so many people are so fascinated by the concept of an apocalypse  because these virtually fabricated visuals spark people’s own fear of death and destruction. These are imaginary paradigms, fantasy, but because it literally hits so close to home it creates this sort of inner pandemonium. Stirs this unimaginable fear, but I have never been drawn to this genre.  Maybe because I have somehow never been one to fear death, this may seem like an ignorant thing to say but I have done my fare share of risky things. I have free climbed off of cliffs in the Grand Canyon, solo trekked in the Himalaya mountain range, worked in slums of India and never did I ever stop and think this may be the end of me. Sure it is important to make safe choices but in the end, for me if you don’t take a chance and try and push yourself to do things outside of your comfort zone I don’t see the point of living. This “capitalism” pre destined path is simply not for me. I need to be stimulated by things that challenge me and things that are unique and different…or at least that’s what I thought. Once again when reflecting on an other of Zizek’s philosophies of the “freedom of choice” horizon or spectrum set by capitalism. Everything is set for you everything is pre determined and perhaps that’s what scares me the most, more than death. Just thinking about my lack of choices now makes me feel trapped.

I hope you enjoyed my entries/experiment! Have a wonderful summer and thank you for pushing me to think outside the box. As a finance student it is rare for proffs to give us that liberty, so thank you for everything!