Earthquake

So Monday after class I saw that my mom was on facebook, so like Santiago told us to do, I asked her if she had ever seen the movie Earthquake. Expecting my mother to be a big help to me, she unfortunately was not. She told me she doesnt recall the movie, I started to tell her details from imdb, that the movie was released in 1974 and Charlton Heston was the lead, she still said that she had no recollection of the movie. She said that she probably has seen it but since it was such a long time ago she doesnt remember. I then proceeded to ask her if my dad has seen the movie. His response to me was "Yeah I saw the movie, but it wasnt one of my favorites so I dont remember, if it was any of the rocky movies or planet of the apes I could tell you all about that." So neither of my parents were any help of telling me about the movie Earthquake. And havent seen it myself or let alone heard of it before it was shown in class the only information I have to go on is that this movie was epic for its time, it was the start of all the disaster movies that we see today, such as 2012, the day after tomorrow, and so on. It was the first movie that used sensurround which was a sound system that made the theater actually feel that it was vibrating, like the audience was in the movie feeling the earthquake. 

Georges Méliès and Abel Gance

Georges Méliès was born in Paris in 1861. At a very young age he showed interest in the arts. He was a magician and in 1888 he bought the Theatre Robert Houdin in France. With that he worked as a showman doing magic and illusions. Méliès interest in film came after seeing the Lumiere brothers debut their cinematographe. Méliès is very important in film history because he is the creator of the film narrative and in a way developed special effects. The effects he first introduced were the split screen, double exposure, and dissolve. Méliès' most famous film was "A Trip to the Moon" which is known as the first science fiction movie. Méliès was also the first to make a film in color. 

Abel Gance was born in France in 1889. His parents urged him to have a career as a lawyer but from an early age much like Méliès was attracted to the arts. He first appeared on stage at the age of 19 and went to film in 1909. Gance formed his own production company in 1911 which is the year he also made his first film. He gained recognition with his film J'Accuse which was an anti-war film which featured battles from the end of WWI. Abel Gance's most famous film is Napoleon(1927). Napoleon was one of his most controversial film. It incorporated every film technique that was known and even some that were brand new. He explored panoramic views in Napoleon where scenes in the film tripled in size and using widescreen. Although Napoleon was such an epic film due to its length being 6 hours it was a box office disaster. 

The 1920's : Jazz, Blackface, and the Stock Market Crash.

Jazz was originated in America from African American slaves on plantations in the south during the late 1800s. Before it came to America it was widely popular in Europe. In the beginning of jazz it was mainly the blues, it was music of the slaves after their hard days at work on southern plantations. Jazz's home was New Orleans, where Ragtime music was formed. Many famous Jazz artists came from New Orleans such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Mortin. Since Jazz was popular in the south it soon started spreading to other parts of the country.

Blackface Performers were seen in shows called Minstrel shows. In the late 1800s and early 1900s it was unheard of for black performers to be seen onstage in America. Because of this white men had to put on make up to paint their faces black and used white makeup to emphasize black features such as theyre eyes and lips. If black performers wanted to perform in these shows they would paint their already black faces darker and perform acts about their racial stereotypes. Minstrel shows continued until the late 1960s when blacks took more action in fighting for their rights.

The stock market crash of 1929 was the beginning of the great depression.The stock market was looked at as a way to make money, if you invested in a stock you could have made millions. In the 1920's people started living more leisurely lives, men and women would go out and party. Women started changing the way they dressed and everyone started going to shows, clubs, bars and living the life. In the '20s people were expanding the way they were living with the high demand for consumer goods. All of this changed when the stock market crashed because it caused America to go into an economic downfall which is the great depression. People lost a lot of money because of the crash which caused everyone to ration what they had and not go out and indulge in leisurely activities anymore, so bars, clubs, shows, etc lost their appeal.

First Day of Class

Now that I am unquarantined from the UT network I can finally post this blog. I'm Rachel and I am a sophmore here at UT. I'm from Babylon, New York. My major is criminology and I'm not quite sure what I want to do in that field yet. The first day of Art 211 wasn't too bad. I didn't know what to expect seeing as it is a lecture class. I thought it was just going to be like an art history class with lots of papers to be done. Was I wrong, I like the idea of having to do projects and stuff, but my main concern is that I'm not very artistic or creative and never really have been. I'm looking forward to what we will be viewing and learning about in class. I love controversy so anything that Santiago shows probably won't bother me. This class will be very challenging for me because of my lack of art/creative skills. Hopefully I can make it through because I plan on doing my best.