CPS - Wk6 - CharacterEventPlace

Theme: Character – Event – Place

Context:

The best example possible to depict in this exercise is human. Human is born into this world and depending on the surrounding factor such as culture, beliefs, education, etc., their development in traits and characters (personalities) vary to respond to the inevitable events in their lives.

Composed of patterns of distinct thoughts and emotions, personalities manipulate how a person do and say things in particular ways. They influence the person’s cognitions, motivations, and behaviours in various situations. Although personality is psychological, some research suggest that it is also channelled by biological processes and needs. Without proper education, disciplines and trainings following a moral guideline, personality can be deteriorated and corrupted according to any wicked temptations. Self-control ensues as a result (Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004).

“It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be”. – Albus Dumbledore

Throughout life, when human grows up, they become aware of choices and options. They will have to decide based on what they know and their willingness to take risks (benefits of the doubt). Professor Dumbledore tells this quote above to Harry trying to make the boy believe in himself. Background, upbringing, bloodlines are not what to define someone. People decide on their own to pick a side being better or worse. They cannot blame their circumstances because hardships are merely catalysts to push them to engage with the happening. Take Hermione for an example, she is a muggle-born witch. Hermione’s positive efforts and patience towards prejudices help her to become as clever as she is. Her potentials are explored and exploited through her challenging process of development.

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em” is a famous line from Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.

Au contraire but not objecting completely the message Professor Dumbledore, once in a blue moon, there are babies who are born with important destiny, notably almost all Zeus’ heroic sons. The genetic factor plays significant roles as well in a person’s development. It is similar to cell’s memory. In Asian culture, bloodline is crucial for all family. They believe that by preserving the bloodline, they can also preserve the greatest traits of the family and the culture in order to achieve better things or to surpass others for survival within the brutally conservative society (Chee, 2010).

On the other hand, destiny works in a strange way. One day, one can be ordinary and the next day, by a random chance, one gets to be special. The majority of story plots about this topic imply that the main character will follow their destiny. Events happen during their journey. They engage and interact to solve problems and form relationship. At the end of the story, they turn into something. It is shown that they are not what they think they are.

Bibliography/References:

Tangney JP, Baumeister RF, Boone AL. (2004), “High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of Personality”, PubMed.

Chee. KT (2010), “Identity and Ethnic Relations in Southeast Asia: Racializing Chineseness”, Springer Science & Business Media.

Darrel, 2016, “Temptation, Personality, and What to Do About It”, 16personalities, Viewed on Oct 15th 2019 < https://www.16personalities.com/articles/temptation-personality-and-what-to-do-about-it>

Method:

Human’s life passes by very fast as time flies. We often do not pay attention to some events or just temporarily forget them due to the overwhelming busy demands in our lives. I need something with a fast pace, emotionally moving sounds and striking visual in a short amount of time, presumably less than a minute. I use free stock footages for the visual. There is a dispute about how our brain replays our lives like video footages at our last moment of living so I decide to make a music video.

I revisit some music lessons to better understand tempo. I choose piano because it is easy to compose music since it is less complicated and more fundamental than most instruments as in practicing music theory in my opinion.

Pablo de Sarasate and Niccolo Paganini are my main musical inspiration for my song.

Program used: After Effects, Adobe Audition and Virtual piano: https://virtualpiano.net/ - I don’t draw music notes. I write code. My computer keyboard is my MIDI.

Response:

The video supposed to be 30 seconds long but as I edit my song, it has escaped my attention that the duration has been cut down 4 seconds shorter. It has been quite a challenge to clip and match the footages at the right beats and tempo. The footages are already short. I must pick the impactful moment and get rid of the rest. I add effects as transition and extension for some parts.

I want to create a sense of universal so I leave out a black scene at the end, hopefully the screen will work as a mirror reflecting viewers. I add a word and decrease its opacity to get the attention of the viewers. That may be a lowkey trick that will not work perfectly well because different computer has different display quality and it can possibly ruin the idea of a mirror.