JAWS: Better Music Than Movie

As I was preparing the commentary on my music project, I had an epiphany: The music of Jaws tells a better story than the film itself does. So, I went on YouTube and I watched a clip once with sound and once without sound. Try it; you'll see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucMLFO6TsFM

Speilberg's adaption of Benchley's novel would be nothing without William's accompanying score. There are two plot lines running in the music; in fact, I could complete an entire plot chart on the theme song. There is an exposition, where the hook is established. Rising actions as the prey plot is introduced and elaborated as the predatory hook beats in the background, getting louder and louder. Finally, the battling tunes climax in a loud beat, but the only surviving notes are the two tell-tale notes of the hook: DAH-DAH, that calmly swim/fade away.

And the winner is....

It's very interesting how a song can truly have a plot, how notes alone can tell a story based on the emotions they create.

The Jaws theme song uses flat/sharp notes alternated with natural notes to create the suspenseful hook, which clearly is the basis to this song, as well as the underlying current of panic during the movie.

Compelling? Hell, yes! Almost any person in the world could identify this song just from the feeling it creates. That's powerful!

Music to my ears...

Of course, as an English teacher, I am automatically going to compare music and writing. The parallels are unending. While the "hook" in an essay is presented immediately to get your attention, this isn't always the case in music, but either way a feeling is immediately created. This hook can be threaded throughout the essay to create a feeling of flow and remembrance of the hook that got you interested in the first place. It's interesting to listen to a piece of music as though it is a piece of writing and see how similar notes would be like similar words, ideas. The flow of each, with intro, body, conclusion are symmetrical also.

Either way, the main objective is to get your reader involved, get your reader interested. Boring arrangements of notes are just like boring arrangements of words. While each word/note on it's own is just a word/note, when combined, there is the ability to created compelling thoughts. It's the arrangement of both that makes pieces compelling.

This comparision reverberated in my mind as I listened to the "What Makes Music Good?" shows. Every last thing that Composer Robert Kapilow said could have been translated into the critiquing of a writing teacher. The focus on how each note put together, even as simple as they may be, can create a compelling feeling, image in the reader.

Design for Contractors & Teachers--I'm on this one!

Alright...I went to town having NO idea what two stores I would choose for this project, not to mention that I was scared to death of getting kicked out for taking pictures. I figured inspiration would come to me at some point, and it did. During the remodeling of our house we spent much, much time in several stores: Menards, Lowe's and Home Depot. Since I hate Home Depot and refuse to set foot in that store, I decided I was left with two stores that I often frequented.

These stores were perfect for this project. I can't tell you how many times my husband and I debated the interior--and exterior--design of these stores. When price was not the deciding factor of which store to shop at, design was.

Our local Menards is a horribly designed store. We hated going there. They decorated in horrible colors--red, yellow, orange, green--and the whole store glowed an aged yellow. The signs are often handwritten and they sell generic junk on the end of their aisles. They shelves were disorganized and they sold weird, misplaced items like Bar-B-Que sauce in the heating and cooling department.

Then, there is Lowe's. When you walk into the store you are immediately welcomed by warm colors of blue and gray. The store feels like it was designed to invite you in and make your shopping experience the best it can be. Their is not clutter of junk attached to the end of each aisle, nor is there a yellow hue enveloping everything. It just LOOKS better. Also, all of the product is located inside the store, whereas Menards had a make-shift area outside where you had to dig through piles to find products.

All of this design reminds me of how I need to focus on design in my own classroom. While the interior design of my room is partially dictated by the administration, I strive to make my room as comfortable as possible. While it can be cluttered at times, and I will work on that, especially after this unit, I post interesting work and information along the walls. There is art work hanging on the walls that do not have cabinets. I try to take this vast, sterile space and turn it into a space where students can still concentrate and learn, but also work together and feel relaxed. Instead of the straight rows of desks/tables, I have arranged my tables in several squares, a large one around a smaller square, to encourage community, encourage discussion and working together. I feel this is much more comfortable and inviting than the typical face-forward desk arrangement. The students like it too, though they admit they can't get out of participation when we're grouped this way. There is NO way to avoid eye contact!

After this unit, I want to spend some time in my room just thinking about how to improve the interior design. I want students to feel compelled to learn in my room, not forced. Hopefully during our PD day on Monday I can take the time to assess my room and the effectiveness of it.

Compelling or Not Compelling--that is the question.

It’s obvious that we can be compelled in a variety of ways: photography, video, interior design architecture. But, the common variable in all of these mediums is one thing: emotion. No matter how one is compelled, the end result is always some sort of emotion, ranging from sadness to hatred to love. And, have we not all felt these emotions previous to this specific compelling experience? Isn’t the end result of configuring these compelling experiences always the same? How can it be unique if has been done/felt before? And along these same lines, has the same experience not already have been created? Are we not mimicking similar experiences that we’ve had? Our goal is to elicit these same feelings, just from a different method? In one of my creative writing classes, I had to read a book by Stephen King that reiterated the fact that everything has already been written. Every character, every storyline, and every emotion to be elicited—they have been written before. We may rearrange these elements and repackage them, but in the end, it has been done before. The guttural emotion that is the end result of our work has been done before…it has been felt before. I’m not sure how this translates into creating compelling experiences, but I am reminded of this fact constantly in this course. Obviously, whatever I am trying to create has been done before. In fact, when I do create something, it is based off something that has compelled me in the way I want my audience to be compelled. When we take pictures, we arrange them in a sense that we have seen before, where that arrangement worked and moved us. It’s the same with video and especially design…we work at it, but are always modeling the effective work of others. If I think about this too long, I see how this same principle applies in all areas of my life.

Also, along these same lines of insane questions, can we truly create a similar experience so that our audience can empathize, rather than sympathize with the predicament presented? Is not their emotion based on experiences they have had? If I show a picture of an animal, is not that person’s personal experiences—or lack there off—with that animal indicative of the emotion they will or will not experience? What is compelling to one person or group of people may not be as compelling to another. For example, I can show a movie of sweet, innocent deer grazing in a field and while one person may be experiencing a cut, cuddly feeling, the next person may very well be getting excited and twitching his trigger finger. How can we truly gage the effectiveness of a compelling experience?

Before I had a child, I was always moved by stories involving kids or a mother’s pictures, stories, videos, etc. it was cute…but now…I am compelled. In any and every area involving children (especially mine). I cry like a baby in movies where my emotions tie back to my son. I never would have cried like that before being a mother. The same can be applied to when I got married. My emotions have evolved to suit my life. However, if you are not in a similar situation, you will not feel the same, you will not be compelled along the lines that I am. So, how can we judge the compelling factor of a work without a broader range of audience?

One more—I have had several students tell me that the movie Johnny Darko changed their lives, was the best movie ever. I figured a movie that important had to be good right? WRONG! I felt that was the worst movie ever, a complete waste of my time. However, I still get students remarking on how moved they were by that movie. I DON”T GET IT! And I tried…I really, really tried. I find NOTHING compelling in that movie. But…thousands of people do. So, even though I was not moved by this movie, how can we say it is not compelling when many, many others will argue that it is?

Imaginative Bridges: Nature or Nuture?

"One thing I love about stories--in both movies and literature--is the
ability to align yourselves with the characters and identify with their
emotions. Some people (like my husband) can't/don't (I haven't figured
out which is correct) do this, and this makes me sad. They can't FEEL
the story."

Okay, I am quoting myself, but please, don't think I take myself too seriously. I'd just like to continue the conversation. And here's why:

I finally got my husband to take me to see Avatar, a world-renowned phenomenon that I wanted to experience. I could tell after the first 10 minutes, my husband HATED it. The following argument ensued:

Why! How could you hate this movie that was 1) a marvelous work of art and 2) a brilliant metaphor for a thousand lessons about love, survival, racism/oppression, greed, preserving natural resources, etc.

He HATES science fiction. Ok..I can understand, It's not for everyone. But can that really stop you from seeing beyond? from empathy? from aligning your emotions to the story and identifying with it?

In my case, no. Nothing stops me from identifying with a story in either film, literature, or a guy on the street--maybe this is a trait of an English teacher? I abstain from watching "heavy" films that I know will cause me to hurt for several hours or even days after watching them. For example, I refused to watch P.S. I Love You for 2 years after it's release. I know I would cry, and when I did watch it, I was heartbroken for about 2 days. When I watched that film, I could FEEL the pain. I missed MY husband, who was just at work. I cried more than any character in the movie. Yes, I am deeply affected by stories. Not just love stories. War Stories--I cried in the theater and felt a mixtures of sadness and terror in my heart for days after watching We Were Soldiers. Amistad--the injustice weighed down my heart for weeks.

I carry the emotion of whatever I watch (or read) much longer than just the duration of the movie (or book). My husband, however, cannot comprehend this attachment. He is the one who leans over as I'm crying during any movie or and says "It's just a movie." He looks at me like I'm crazy (not that it's ruled out) and rolls his eyes. I question this lack of connection often, more for an understanding of WHY he doesn't put himself in the shoes of the characters. I know that some of my students must feel this way. If only I could understand WHY he isn't affected like I am, maybe I could unlock the key to understanding why kids --and my husband--don't read anything for entertainment. If there is no connection, what investment would anyone put towards something?

My biggest question is if he DOESN'T feel empathy (or sympathy) or if he CAN'T. Are some of us just born more "sappy" than others? Why can I understand how the characters feel and find some symbolism that applies to my life in every movie I watch and book I read? And why can't he? Is he physically incapable? Or is there some magic switch deep down that can be flipped?

And how deep does this go? If this same trend follows the imaginative bridge into other areas, what else isn't my husband interested in that he should/could/would be if it wasn't for this disconnect?

I wonder, for the sake of my husband and all of my students, what CAN'T you feel? If I could anser this and find the key to unlocking that ability to identify with information, imagine the improvements I could make in education.

Film & Television

This has been an interesting unit. My minor is in communications and in previous years I have taught journalism and communication classes at the high school. I LOVED THESE CLASSES! They gave me the freedom to teach the same ideas in new ways. Everything had the ability to be more compelling, and not being tied down by benchmarks and testing requirements, we had FUN! I did a unit on televised journalism, focusing on the Edward Murrow era where television played a HUGE part in the perceptions of Americans during the Communist "scares". We watched Good Night and Good Luck and discussed how the importance of television and the impact Edward Murrow was allowed to have because of it. Had journalism been limited to print, he never would have been able to speak out against McCarthy.

I also taught a small movie unit that focused mostly on the technical aspects of film, such as angles of shooting, lighting, zooming, panning, use of color, etc. Again, I loved this unit. We read about various techniques used by directors and editors and then watched Big Fish (directed by the brilliant Tim Burton), which uses every technique we discussed. Students were amazed and loved to discuss the effects made by these techniques. I always used these techniques as a metaphor for writing techniques. It was a great way to show them the difference the techniques--in both film and writing--can make.

A third unit I still do in my English classes is the Super Bowl Commerical unit. We discuss the various propaganda techniques employed by producers and the effect it has, both on the commercial and the audience. Then, they have to apply these same propaganda techniques in their persuasive writing. These bridges are pretty concrete for my students during this unit. Once they see the techniques in action, it's easy for them to literally put them into words.


Our class focus this week reminds of the unit repeatedly. I never thought of these units as "compelling". I was just excited to be doing something new with my students. Now I've been reminded to using film and television to create imaginative bridges and not only enhance my students' learning, but also as a visual metaphor for elements in their writing.

Compelling Video