Editing Analysis

One of the most interesting ways that editing is used in media is the use of it in reality television. Although I do not watch a lot of reality television, one of my guilty pleasures is watching Real Housewives, one of the most infamous reality television series currently airing. It does not matter what franchise of the series, if it is Real Housewives, then I watch it. However, it is quite obvious that the editing of series such as Real Housewives does not always genuinely reflect what happened during filming. I have noticed this even before studying for this course, and I am sure many critical viewers notice the same. Specifically with the trailers aired for season premieres or finales. I re-watched a couple of trailers from Real Housewives of Atlanta and Real Housewives of New York, the first recently finished airing their latest season and the last is currently airing. In the trailer for Real Housewives of Atlanta, just like in many trailers, one of the housewives yells in the face of an anonymous bystander that "She is not doing well, bitch!". This scene was turned into an array of memes before the season even aired. As a viewer, I hypothesized which housewife she was yelling at and how bad the altercation was going to get. However, the latest episode contained that scene, and it is proof that the editing displayed the scene in a much more dramatic tone that it actually was. In "reality", she was simply quoting what she would say to another housewife to a random friend who happened to be at the party. She was not actually yelling the now infamous line to anyone, just practicing for a fight that never happened. Editing obviously knows that viewers gravitate towards drama, and they used it to their advantage. In relation to how the composition of the remainder of the trailer went, it is edited seamlessly in the trailer as if all of the argument went down at once. The housewife that loyal viewers would assume was being yelled at in the previously mentioned scene is shown afterwards, but in a completely different scene with no relation to the argument shown. In essence, the show is editing random clips together into one composition to attract viewers but it does not do so in a way that is truthful to the events themselves.

Final Project

For my final project, I decided to take a comical approach to the little things that happen throughout one's days that are annoying. It basically turned out to be a narrative video of a girl having a bad day while being stuck at school all day. I wanted it to be funny but also relatable to those who go to Hunter. https://vimeo.com/216583205

Audio Project

For my interview, I opted for the subject of the conversation to organically continue from my partner Livia's interview. She interviewed me about an internship I had completed a few months prior. Rather than cutting the conversation and interviewing her about another topic, I picked up the my interview where hers left, and asked questions in response to her previous answer. My goal was for it to seem like an organic conversation developing between two friends, combined with comedic sound effects for laughs to put a casual and simple twist on the audio project. https://soundcloud.com/austin-havens-bowen/audio-project-final

Soundwalk in Astoria, Queens

Astoria, Queens is the NYC neighborhood that I have called home for nearly five years. Ask me to visually describe my favorite block or the shabby Chinese restaurant interior on the corner and I could write an essay, but going on a sound walk around the neighborhood enlightened another sense, the sense of hearing. Many keynotes were persistent as I nativagted my way through Astoria, from my front door into the tree-lined streets bustling with natives and transplants from all over. The keynotes I discovered my ears to always get distracted by are not specific to Astoria, but could be heard in any neighborhood in NYC at almost anytime. Car motors running as I walked past a line of impatient drivers halted at a redlight, horns blaring constantly the second the light illuminates green, and the occasional ambulance siren soaring through blocks at a time. All of these sounds, the sounds most New Yorkers loathe and have grown custom to ignoring, sound so much more harsh when intentionally listened to. Rather than evoking the sounds of a well polished orchestra ensemble, the combination of these sounds sound like a heavy metal rock band attempting to wake up their worst enemy. All car horns and sirens aside, I discovered soundmarks the deeper I got into Astoria. For instance, as I walked passed a giant high school, I heard an alarm sound, which lead to an eruption of doors slamming open as metal on metal action released excited teenagers and a roar of laughter and inaudible conversations filled the mice quiet street. A high school this large in a neighborhood this eclectic created sounds much louder than a high school like the one I attended. As I walked back towards my home in this neck of the woods, another sound I noticed for the first time was the sound of dog's claws scratching against the pavement, a sound that became more apparent once I noticed the multitude of signs about cleaning up after your dog and the contrast of piles of dog poop along the way. The sound of the dog's claws was unique in that it made me feel a texture through the creation of the sound, like scrapping nails on a chalkboard. Perhaps both the keynotes and the soundmarks my ears tuned in to can be heard in any NYC neighborhood, or any neighborhood at all, but to me they are the sounds of my home, Astoria, Queens.

Define A Place Project

Livia and I defined the place of Hunter's auditorium. Focusing on the vintage characteristics of the theater, including the restroom sign and red velvet curtains, we contrasted those charming details with the deteriorating effects of time, including graffiti on the balcony and leaking ceilings. To contrast this beauty and ugliness of a place that seems as if it were forgotten, we made creative decisions such as shooting scenes out of focus and using Billie Holiday as background music which evokes the feeling of nostalgia that abandoned theaters embody.

Austin and Livia's Define a Space Project from Livia Horn-Scarpulla on Vimeo.

Artist Statement

Chesterfield, Virginia is a large suburban county just outside of the state's capital, Richmond. This is the area in which I grew up and it is essentially a carbon copy of the majority of America's suburbs. Rooted with subdivisions where one house mocks the neighboring, and the infestation of shopping centers and outdoor malls all contain the same stores and restaurants as the next, the diversity and uniqueness is not quite as vast as I prefer to be surrounded by, and even those subtle unique characteristics are deteriorating to pave way for another subdivision of two-story homes and franchised restaurants. All considering, I knew from a young age that Chesterfield or Richmond may be where I am from, where I was raised, but it is not intended to be my home forever.

New York City has been my home since I moved here just one month prior to starting my freshman year of college at School of Visual Arts. New York City, a place where despite gentrification and the abundance of Starbucks and Chase banks, embodies diversity, vast artistic elements, and beautiful components in both the people and the little details hidden all around.

Directly influenced by my surrounds, including my past in suburbia, my present in the city, and any traveling around the country and world that I have experienced in between, I find the beauty of these places to be what navigates my visions and inspires me.