Mert's Blog

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When I first heard about Alison Kobayashi’s work “Say Something Bunny” I was curious and slightly confused by it. I first thought to myself “why would anyone go through all this work?” but after witnessing the performance, behind the scenes work, and Alison’s own comments about the project I realized that this experience is a once in a life time opportunity to truly learn the importance of sound and being exposed to history like never before. I couldn’t even imagine how she started this project while having so little resources to work with. Despite only having sound to work with Alison, made an impact with this project showing the importance of sound. While doing my own Sound Walk for class I was able to picture images inside my head without actually seeing them due to my creativity and past experiences. I see that “Say Something Bunny” is like a very complex Sound Walk project where by just using audio she was able to manipulate our creativity and past experie...

Crime and Punishment is one of those documentaries where not only does it inform you but it changes your outlook on life. I know that in Queens there is a lot of police activity going on even if it is not as extreme as seen on Crime and Punishment. Ever since the increase of ICE presence in Queens there has been countless stories of cops in the area acting on the same protocol as ICE. Ive heard about police officers stepping down because of the tasks they are given but I never knew the in depth analysis of the situation. This documentary different than others because you can obviously tell this was done with hear from what was shown on screen and the Q&A. This shows a whole different perspective of the NYPD. The documentary did a well job of showing  the internal conflicts of the NYPD including the police on police harassment through specific events going through the officers lives it really made it seem like the viewer was there witnessing the event. Maing did a very good...

For this assignment I picked a scene from one of the most under rated films I have seen. A few people think that this movie just doesn't have what it takes to be a solid action film but with its emphasis on silence (audio), pauses, and still shots the specific scene shows that you don't need much to create one of the best scenes from a movie in recent history. To give a quick description of the scene Ryan Gosling who is "The Driver" is set to pick up two guys from a heist and escape through police trouble. Every item that is zoomed into to give it a close up shot shows importance in the next scenes to come. The drum like beat in the background of this scene provides the sense of action almost like a fast heart beat the background sound makes the scene even more tense without the use of words or actions. Most of the shots in the beginning of the scene is a close up or an establishing shot with barely any movement in them to provide a brief glance of the setting a...

Link to the Interview

         I chose my neighborhood of Sunnyside, Queens for my Soundwalk. It was 5pm in the afternoon I just got off the 7 train and decided that the corner outside the train station was the best location. Standing on the corner the first thing I heard was a group of high school kids talking about a recent exam they took and this gave me a quick flashback of my time in high school. I then decided to walk around the block and I hear different groups of people speaking all kinds of languages ranging from Spanish to Urdu. This reminded me of why I love my neighborhood so much. Its mix of different cultures makes everyday a new learning experience.   Going back to my original location I hear a big knife rapidly chopping up something accompanied by a sizzling noise. I can also hear all the cars honking and speeding down Queens Boulevard. There was a Russian couple sitting near the train station and a few more students march around the sidewalk wa...

Usually interview style documentaries don’t catch my interest very often however, the way that the film was formatted was the perfect way to get the message out while keeping the interest of the viewer. The casual tone that was set throughout the film helped the viewer really understand what’s going on by keeping a calm steady pace. Not hearing the question but just the answers made it seem like a personal conversation from the thoughts and memories of the refugees. The handheld shots and the really personal conversations bring out the psychological play on the viewer and to put emphasis of the matter at hand. This film really made me change my view point on interview style documentaries, especially the part where the refugees had to turn to technology in order to meet with their family members just because of their political beliefs also is very relevant in the United States. By the angle of the shots when interviewing them and the lack of music really helps the f...