Stanley Kubrick is one of the most influential directors in cinematic history. From his crazed habits of perfecting his takes to his ingenious layout when he films, he is my inspiration when it comes to the fine arts. From “A Clockwork Orange” to “The Shining”, he never fails to deliver top quality cinemas. But the best thing about Stanely Kubrick is his methods of filming. He is a persistent, cunning, and sometimes rather insane when it comes to developing a film. He harasses his actors quite often only to have them fit their mood into the characters they play. One of the most notable actors, Shelley Duvall, was harassed and bullied occasionally by Stanley Kubrick in order for her mood to fit with the character she was assigned which was Wendy from “The Shining”. Stanley Kubrick, even being known as one the greatest directors in cinema history, wasn’t perceived to be as great as a friend. He was disliked by other directors, writes, and actors due to his strange and unusual nature. But his actions and his methods, the way I see it, is definitely a work of art. Through his sheer persistence in taking charge with most of the development of his film, to doing a huge number of retakes for one scene in some of his movies, this insane genius never falters into making his work of art perfect in his image.

This video summarized Stanley Kubrick and his work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsPL_ByPXpM

Reflection: While going down South Congress, I noticed a lot of buildings and sceneries that I think was laid out really well. The most satisfying picture I took was a pool from a hotel that had a great sense of symmetry of the layout of the pool, repetition from its organized chairs and blankets, and closure from its fountain spraying water into the pool, making a shape.

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For my pictures, I chose the concept of shapes, patterns, and repetition. It’s actually satisfying to observe an object, picture, or even a company’s logo because of its intriguing way of displaying its use of shapes and patterns. It begins to dawn on me that our basic constructs of civilization heavily relied on the use of shapes and patterns from simple yet complex structures like the Roman Aqueducts to the use of patterns and repetition with irrigation canals back in the old days.

Favorite Pictures:

1. The main points in each article indicate that entrepreneurs and artists have something in common. It’s their dedication to their work and ideas.
2. There are always limitations and sacrifices to be made in life. They learn to balance what they want to do and what they can do in the meantime.
3. Yes. Artists and entrepreneurs always try to persevere when they take a fall or two. It’s not a matter of avoiding failure because failure is inevitable for everyone. What really matters is accept failure, learn from it, and keep going.
4. Artists take great passion in their work. If artists don’t take great pride and love what they do, then why bother being an artist
5. I couldn’t think of anything to add to the list

Grit test:

1. My grit is 3.75. It said that I’m grittier than 70% of the US population
2. Do personally assigned projects that correlate to my interests.

I try to take photos people normally wouldn’t have taken and try to visualize them in my own way to see if I could fit or at least create a sense of meaning with the photos. A good example for one of my photos is a shot of a fence in a parking lot of a local church. The fence doesn’t seem to be very effective as it doesn’t completely close the perimeter of the parking lot. As silly as it looks, I view it as a moral test. The fence serves as a sign saying that the parking lot clearly not meant to trespass but it also has a large opening for people to walk through freely. It offers anyone a choice whether they should enter the parking lot or don’t.

Another example is the Chase Bank sign. I noticed that the sign only had one letter set alight but the rest were not. It would seem pointless to have all those letters up and only lighting up one of them. But then I thought about life itself and how hardships is a common thing. The Chase bank has probably been going through tough times and business isn’t going their way or their light bulbs went out and simply don’t have the resources to fix them. But they still lit up what light bulbs could work and resume business hours like it seems that they were not willing to give up so easily.

For the Amy Tan TED video, it was really interesting for me to hear from someone who took a deep dive into the general idea of creativity. For me, creativity is just taking inspiration of something and using that inspiration to create something of your own. The idea that creativity is more than just that seems baffling. Before I clicked to watch the TED video, I thought to myself, “Really, this woman has dedicated her time to explain to us where the essence of creativity hides? Seems pointless to me.” But for the sake of my assignment, I watched it anyway. The longer I watched, the more I think about what she was talking about. The way she interprets childhood trauma as an added feature to someones’ creative thoughts was, in my opinion, understandable and in some ways, relatable. Her talks about her own understanding and interpretation of where creativity originates or hides have often times had me pausing the video and sit trying to understand what the hell she’s trying to explain. But right when I start to have an idea of what she’s explaining, she brings up another topic and throws me off, leaving me asking more questions than answering them. I was in that state throughout the video up until the last few minutes of it. Her final conclusion blew my mind. It was really interesting to know that creativity alone has a complicated and sophisticated process that is difficult to explain.

For the Nicole Larazzo reading, I have read many articles and papers that relate to what Nicole Larazzo’s subject on the idea “Why We Play Games” but this one has been one of the most detailed ones compared to what I’ve read. I have been playing video games ever since I was only 3 years old and I haven’t got the chance to think about why I play. I mainly just assume that I play games just because I’m bored and there’s nothing else to do but this reading helped me expand my understanding as to why I play video games. According to their four keys, I’m possibly a range between the “Hard Fun, Easy Fun, and “The People Factor”.