To Be Alive – A Conversation With The Universe
In class, when this project was first introduced, I immediately knew what my end goal was: I wanted to create something that conveyed happiness. At first I thought of compiling different songs into one to create a new one and be able to tell some kind of story through it, but I soon realized it would not be possible for me to make something that was actually good to listen to since I had no experience with song editing and only had a week. That idea was scrapped, but I wanted to create something in the media space, so I decided on a video.
I wanted to make something that fit my initial desire to make something that was joyful, so I began looking through my playlist, and I found “I’ll take care of you” by Tyler, The Creator, and it just felt like the right song to use. I then wanted some kind of narration that would further help me choose where to begin looking for clips, and I remembered The End Poem, a poem which is displayed for a player once they kill the Ender Dragon and essentially ‘beat’ the game Minecraft. The poem describes a one sided conversation where the universe or the creators of the game are providing a transition for the player as they go from simulation to real life, encouraging them as they did in the game to take agency of their life, to look inwards for light, to face the darkness inside them, to allow themselves to be loved and spread love. This was exactly my goal for this edit. I wanted to highlight the good parts of life, but not ignore that life does have its bad parts. I wanted, however, to give the message that these bad parts weren’t dead ends and that there was a way out, and that was love.
I had my audio done at this point; the Creator would be the background with an overlay of a narration of the End Poem. Listening to the audio, I saw I had a clear template of what type of clips to get. I wanted to use movie clips and, as the poem played, match clips to whatever it was saying at that moment. I knew I wanted the first clip to be from Call Me By Your Name since I feel that that movie is very dreamy, and the beginning of the section of the poem I used refers to dreams. I spent time searching for the perfect clip I felt fit what I was looking for, and I inserted it into a cap cut to start editing. I also wanted a quote that the viewer could look at while the beginning clip was playing, and I landed on “ To continue being alive is also an art,” by Abbas Kiarostami. I felt this quote was really perfect, as art is a complex thing, something ambiguous that can have a different meaning and look slightly different for each person looking at it, which exactly depicts what life is. Art also has its light and dark aspects, and it is what comes together to make a perfectly shaded and realistic image, which also perfectly describes life as having its moments of light but also moments of darkness, figuratively and literally. After deciding on the type of clip I was looking for each quote, I organized them into a list and, with the help of my friends, brainstormed different movies that could be a good representation of each quote. After many hours and days of searching for individual clips in these movies that went well with the words in the poem and carefully editing them into place, making sure the clips were not too long, of good quality, and that the words matched, I was finally done.
What makes what I created original is that it conveys a new message. The individual movies, songs, and lines used in this poem all had their own purpose, their own message, but I believe that I brought them together and gave them a new meaning. I got inspired by the previous edits I saw of different topics. I combined what I learned from them and transformed them into something of my own. I think my plagiarism is not really plagiarism, I used clips, songs, texts, from others to make it, but I changed and combined them into something different than their original form, and I also cited each of them and gave credit at the end of my work, which I think makes it not plagiarism.
Credits
Directed/ Produced By Cristiane Dos Santos
“To continue being alive is also an art.” Abbas Kiarostami
Soundtrack
Written End Poem Julian Gough
Narration of End Poem Fort Collins Productions
“I’ll take care of you” (Song) Tyler, The Creator
Clips Credit
Beginning clip Call Me By Your Name (Movie)
10 Things I Hate About You (Movie)
“And the universe said I love you” Saving Face (Movie)
The Half Of It
10 Things I Hate About You (Movie)
“And the universe said you have played Heated Rivalry ( TV Show)
the game well” Challenders (Movie)
Jennifer’s Body(Movie)
“And the universe said everything you need
Is within you” Legally Blonde (Movie)
Bottoms (Movie)
“And the universe said you are stronger
than you know ” Hidden Figures (Movie)
5 Feet Apart (Movie)
“And the universe said you are the daylight”
Juno (Movie)
“And the universe said you are the night” The Fault In Our Stars ( Movie)
Avengers (Movie)
Friendly Rivalry (TV Show)
“And the universe said the darkness you All the Bright Places (Movie)
fight is within you” The perks of Being a Wallflower (Movie)
Little Miss Sunshine (Movie)
“And the universe said the light you The Great Flood (Movie )
seek is within you” Eternity (Movie)
The Pursuit Of Happiness (Movie)
“And the universe said you are not alone” Call Me By Your Name (Movie)
Titanic (Movie)
Avatar (Movie)
“And the universe said you are not separate Adults (TV Show)
from every other thing” The Last Of US (TV Show)
“And the universe said you are the universe Afterlight (Movie
tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code ET (Movie)
Oppenheimer (Movie)
Clairebell (TV Show)
Waves (Movie)
Little Women (Movie)
“And the universe said I love you because you Atypical (TV Show)
are love” Boots (TV Show)
Queen Charlotte (TV Show)
The Fallout (Movie)
Me Before You (Movie)
Stranger Things (TV Show)
His & Hers (TV Show)
Never Have I Ever (TV Show)
A Special Thank You To My Friends For Helping Me Put This Together
Perla Christina Encarnacion Rivas
Alyssa Wicks
Thank You.