Week One (A)

"Who influences you as a creative person?"

My sense of creativity has been shaped by countless individuals of vastly different styles. Having been formed by such varying influences, I like to think my creative style is discernible from most people's, blending quiet optimism with a humorous cynicism. These are the sources that have influenced me the most as a creative person.


1. The Black Dahlia Murder (band)

While I listen to numerous genres of music, my most preferred type includes spine-snapping bass drums and brain-exploding guitar solos. You can call them melodic death metal or deathcore, metalcore or whatever crazy genre you can make up, but you can't deny that The Black Dahlia Murder are some of the most talented musicians in the American death metal scene.



Like most modern death metal bands, The Black Dahlia Murder utilize tension and release extensively. While other bands employ more release through the use of slow parts with lots of empty space (my best explanation of "breakdowns"), The Black Dahlia Murder has a more European style with much more tension
and less release. In the song I embedded, "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse", the releases are subtle, occurring during the chorus, and less noticeably during the changes in the verses when the drummer slows his speed on the snare drum. By changing the pace of the music, the tension that had been built up during the faster parts is released, giving the listener a feeling of resolution.

2. Tetsuya Nomura (and Final Fantasy)

One of my biggest influences in majoring in digital media is the Final Fantasy franchise. The character designer of the games since Final Fantasy IV (according to Wikipedia at least), Tetsuya Nomura, has created some of the games (and a movie) that influenced me to become a media major.



In this trailer, and in a good number of the Final Fantasy cutscenes, characters are put into a believable (albeit stylized and cartoony) environment, but are shown performing feats that are totally impossible in our world, creating a strange sense of contrast and affinity. In this example, for instance, the environments could easily be imagined in our world. The cars, statues, skyscrapers and many other things are not that different from what we see in our own lives, creating an affinity for the viewer. However, the physics in Final Fantasy are in direct contrast to our own. Most likely, you'll never see someone materialize a sword from thin air or teleport halfway up a building when you're walking down the street.



Advent Children was what got me to seriously think about a career in digital media. I'm still amazed by how believable and polished the movie is, and by the idea of an entire movie done entirely by CGI (featuring a more realistic world than what most animated movies create). The plot isn't as strong as the visuals, but the movie is still an accomplishment by all means. The communication in this movie is mostly didactic, instead of active. The movie directly gives the viewer the information it conveys, instead of inviting the audience to actively absorb the message.