Chris Beausire's Lit & Media Studies Experience

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Week 13 - Curate Yourself

Trying to find content that interests me is pretty difficult, because usually when I’m done with homework I’ll try to meet up with friends and get out of the house as soon as possible. One format that I watch occasionally are inline skate videos, though! I skate, and the way I learned to do so was by practicing a ton, plus watching skaters who are better than me. At home in Colorado, I have friends who play hockey and regularly inline skate, but here in Florida it’s a little rarer. Because of that, I’ve found communities for inline, online. The community is actually really great because roller skating has hit a pretty massive slump from it’s dominance in the 80’s to 90’s, so the people who still skate are the most passionate, skilled, and do it mainly for the fun of it. Everyone in the community really takes a lighthearted approach to skating and don’t take themselves too seriously, and because so little people inline skate, the groups you form are tight. Nobody cares about image or

Week 12 - Illuminated Page on Modern Media

I illustrated this illuminated page in order to shed some light on what I see as a fear of technology, that it's hijacking our minds. In reality, technology only allows more seamless communication, for us to curate a mediascape for others to escape into. We are technology, but technology amplifies our ability to reach/manipulate each other. They are two sides of the same coin, and can both be positive or negative.

Week 11 - Twin Peaks

I watched Twin Peaks as an example of long-form television. I was already watching the series, but I continued with an analytical eye. Twin Peaks is primarily a crime/mystery/thriller show, but has undertones of the supernatural. The fact that it’s a visual media allows new clues and information, being revealed by the characters, to be segmented per-week. The story unravels slowly, but as the plot wears on many characters in the town Twin Peaks take a part of the spotlight. Some episodes will focus on some characters, and another on a different group. Most of the time it will feature at least some of the main plot-line and police force characters, but oftentimes episodes will be sprinkled in where the director focuses more on secondary characters, on a more personal narrative. I think this is how Twin Peaks became so popular, and how it really took advantage of it’s format. Television, specifically long-form, gives the director enough time to tell an, if not longer, wider story. A la

Week 10 - My Favorite Thing is Monsters

My Favorite thing is monsters is a graphic novel unlike anything I had read before. It’s a very open, intimate story about a young girl’s self-image. It feels like we can see through her eyes in this comic, especially because of the illustrative style. They’re rough, and this can be jarring, but their very emotive and serve to show you the main character’s thoughts and opinions, including those on herself. She portrays herself as a monster, and this parallel, quite literally shown is very impactful for the reader. We are struck by the gravity that one’s image has on their self-esteem and how those themes fit into an unstable part of one’s life. Growing up is hard, and coming to terms with one’s self is even harder as it’s a part of that process. The way that this graphic novel is able to abstract these concepts through the drawings is really effective.

Week 9 - The Voice of Wes Anderson

I watched “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The Royal Tenenbaums”, three films by director Wes Anderson. Each movie showcases Anderson’s authorial voice, Budapest and Mr. Fox more-so than the Tenenbaums. These two movies are completely fictionalized, while “The Royal Tenenbaums” is in a more traditional building in a real city. Anderson’s later movies, one a piece of stop-motion animation and the other featuring a make-believe hotel, lend themselves to more imaginative situations, and therefore lends more freedom to the filmmaker to make many more creative choices with the filmmaking. In a world or a structure where the viewer is unfamiliar with the ‘rules’ of the universe, more can be done directorially before immersion is broken. This is important, because Anderson’s actors always behave strangely. By strangely, I mean speaking curtly and often formally, with long pauses. The dialogue is very secondary to the visual storytelling. It’s used to supplement the vi

Week 8 - Being Director of Photography for "The Graduate"

I read the screenplay for “The Graduate” and immediately was captured by the strange dynamic between Ben and Mrs. Robinson. I got a good idea of the framing of the two within the shots as I read their parts. What’s interesting is their emotional distance when alone, but their secret closeness when among an unsuspecting crowd. If I were the Director of Photography, I would shoot around these two characters during most interactions, regardless of if a tertiary character was speaking. These scenes are always about how Mrs. Robinson feels about Ben’s behavior around her family, or how he presents himself. I would attempt to shoot mostly at eye-level to get a level of intimacy, and get both character’s in frame at a time. These shots could be facilitated by one character having their back to the other, which works contextually because they try to maintain a sense of unfamiliarity when around Mr. Robinson or Ben’s parents. You could have interactions happening in the background, but have t