Posts Tagged ‘Rome’
It’s a scream…
They sell popcorn, justify the “reach-around hug,” and just generally make an audience’s hearts beat faster– screams are a critical element in the motion picture formula. But screams aren’t easy. As Science News reports, it’s all about chaos theory…
Filmmakers use chaotic, unpredictable sounds to evoke particular emotions, say researchers who have assessed screams and other outbursts from more than 100 movies. The new findings, reported May 25 in Biology Letters, come as no surprise, but they do highlight an emerging if little-known area of study…
By exploring the use of such dissonant, harsh sounds in film, scientists hope to get a better understanding of how fear is expressed, says study coauthor Daniel Blumstein of the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Potentially, there are universal rules of arousal and ways to communicate fear,” says Blumstein, who typically studies screams in marmots, not starlets.
Blumstein and his coauthors acoustically analyzed 30-second cuts from more than 100 movies representing a broad array of genres. The movies included titles such as Aliens, Goldfinger, Annie Hall, The Green Mile, Slumdog Millionaire, Titanic, Carrie, The Shining and Black Hawk Down.
Not unexpectedly, the horror films had a lot of harsh and atonal screams. Dramatic films had sound tracks with fewer screams but a lot of abrupt changes in frequency. And adventure films, it turns out, had a surprising number of harsh male screams.
“Screams are basically chaos,” Fitch says…
A true, harsh scream “is not a trivial thing to do,” Fitch says. In fact, capturing a realistic, blood-curdling cry is so difficult that filmmakers have used the very same one, now found on many websites, in more than 200 movies. Known as the Wilhelm scream, it is named for the character who unleashed it in the 1953 western The Charge at Feather River.
By way of illustration, this YouTube video: three minutes of the Wilhelm scream through the years…
As we put our hands over our ears, we might recall that there was lots of screaming on this date in 455, as the Vandals entered Rome, which they plundered for the next two weeks.
Just the facts, ma’am…
Source: GoComics
Looking for an antidote? Well there is Fora.tv (with Long Now seminars, TED Talks, and other delectables)… and now, nearly 1000 non-fiction films (and growing) in dozens of categories, available for one’s pleasure and edification at Documentary Heaven.
source: UC Library
(On the other hand, if one wants to find any sequence from any film, one might amble over to AnyClip— thousands of films indexed so far; thousands more to come. Tres cool….)
As we search for the verite in cinema, we might recall that it was on this date in 37 CE that Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus– aka Caligula– became the Roman Emperor, following the death of his great-uncle Tiberius. Caligula reigned until his assassination three-and-a-half years later by members of his own Praetorian Guard; the first two years of his tenure were marked by moderation– but accounts of his reign thereafter paint a portrait of cruel, extravagant, and perverse tyranny… leading many historians to suspect that Caligula succumbed in his last months to neurosyphilis.
No Hat, No Cattle…
Dallas, January 1978 (a club once owned by Jack Ruby)
From The Selvedge Yard, a blog that your correspondent regularly enjoys, “Vicious White Kids– the Sex Pistols Take on Rock ‘N Roll & the South.”
Read the entire instructive tale, see other photos, and check out the live Dallas performance footage here.
As tap our toes to “Anarchy in the U.K.,” we might recall that it was on this date in 321 that Roman Emperor Constantine I decreed:
On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.
… and dies Solis— day of the sun, “Sunday”– became the day of rest throughout the Roman Empire… and ultimately, the West.
Constantine (Capitoline Museums)
Lifestyles of the Rich and Fictional…
Home of Gerald & Ellen O’Hara, Katie Scarlett O’Hara, Suellen & Carreen (Gone With The Wind) 2007, India ink and graphite on vellum, 30 x 42 inches.
For artist Mark Bennett, it’s all about the context… pushing his pens into corners that the cameras can’t reach, he provides floorplans for the homes of famous movie and television characters, from the O’Hara’s to Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson; from the Jetsons to Jeannie.
As we wrestle with Zillow, we might recall that this was a bad date for Roman republicanism: on this date in 42 BCE, Brutus’s army was decisively defeated by Mark Antony, Octavian, and their troops at the Second Battle of Philippi in the Roman Republican Civil War. Brutus, who’d joined Cassius in the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar two years earlier, committed suicide.
Brutus, resting before the battle (source: Heritage History)
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Just kidding…
Every National Lampoon cover. (Thanks, Boing Boing)
As we ponder parody, we might recall (in keeping with the theme of the issue illustrated above) that today is the Feast Day of St. Artemius Megalomartyr (AKA, Artemios of Antioch, Artemois the Greatmartyr, and Shallita). Artemius was one of Emperor Constantine the Great’s generals. During the reign of Julian the Apostate he became a fanatical Arian heretic, hunting and persecuting monks, nuns and bishops, including St. Athanasius… But Artmius had a revelatory experience, converted to orthodox Christianity– and turned on the pagans who’d previously been his allies. Captured and accused by “heathens” of destroying idols, he met a tortured end– which may well have involved boiling oil– in 363.
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