HFC S2016: Term Paper: Sequence Assignment

(The following post is in regards to the semester's Term Paper and this week's Homework Assignment for the Term Paper - for the weekly lecture topic 'The Industrial Revolution' and comments scroll down to the next blog post directly following this post)

In the past weeks you have reviewed you film and begun to research your city, the locations depicted in its scenes and identified important sequences that deserve further study, exemplify our city/cinema linkage, and/or demonstrate the power of film and urban places.

As an example of this study I offer up the following example utilizing the first film in Sylvester Stallone's iconic franchise - Rocky.

Firstly, Philadelphia offers us plentiful information in terms of maps, history, culture, and urban spaces. Secondly, the film utilizes these spaces explicitly in many of its sequences. Finally, the combination of these elements allows us to access - or even better - create maps, visit actual sites (physically or through the magic of Google Street View you can go straight to 2313 South Lambert Street, Philadelphia), to facilitate support and back up our thesis that the film and city pairing reflect upon and communicate characteristics of each other (aka the city is not a mere backdrop but a character).

Example Sequence + Analysis:
Rocky is perhaps the quintessential film/city combination. The personality of both the main character and the characteristics of the city are inextricably linked and reflect upon each other.

Rocky, a down on his luck boxer a loved personality in his small neighborhood longs for a chance at a crack at a big shot fighter. In spite of his situation he utilizes his neighbors, their stores (notably his neighborhood butcher's frozen meat for punching bags), and the space and architecture of the city itself to train himself for the climactic moment.

This is epitomized best perhaps in the iconic sequence which follows Rocky on a run through most of the city culminating in a run down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and up the Art Museum Steps. The run starts in Rocky's small south Philadelphia neighborhood and yours through the industrial rust belt  areas of the city which, like Rocky, had fallen on hard times ultimately leading to the sunny green parkway with flags flying. This space is one of the largest and most celebratory spaces in the city (a larger sunnier urban parkway than most other east coast cities including NYC).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NubH5BDOaD8

The scene doesn't end there, in perhaps one of the most iconic sequences in cinematic history (which necessitates the invention of an entirely new piece of film equipment -the steadicam- to record!) Rocky sprints up the steps of the Art Museum in a single tracking shot. The frame of the camera starts close to Rocky as his runs across the street  and slowly pulls back as he gets higher, by the top of the stairs Rocky has gone from a pedestrian on the street to a arms reaching skywards in triumph on par with the silhouette of the city as the camera slowly rotates around him showing City Hall and the city's then brand new funicular district sporting new ever taller skyscrapers.



Throughout the movie Rocky and the movie have been tied to each other; In this moment The city and Rocky are in effect a reflection upon each other. In their history, personality and personal triumph.

This is either made more astounding, or completely unbelievable after some research into the film locations, neighborhoods and scenery depicted in Rocky's Run. Native Philadelphians will quickly realize that Rocky is shown first in South Philly, then in the train yards bordering North Philly and the Northeast, suddenly he is shown across the city at the river before running down the parkway to the finale.

Either Rocky has just completed over 30 miles of running (and truly deserving of his celebration) or Hollywood has condensed the city for cinematic effect - critics remain divided but either way the linkage between the city, the character and its cinematic depiction is strengthened.

Next Steps:Making these observations we can now ask questions and begin to assemble supporting material for further information analysts and reference.

• Re-watching the sequence note particularly valuable stills to capture for illustration
• Researching the sequence note locations for filming: where are they? What do they display? What meaning is there for showing them specifically and/or in the sequence they are shown in?
• How is the city depicted? How does the camera move? How do the characters interact with it?
• What did these locations look like then? What do they look like today? Find imagery - what can be learned from it?
• Mapping the route or locations what other information can we find? Are the rail yards chosen because of distance? Their look? Their linkage to an industry that has been lost? Some? All of these reasons?
• What history should I know about these places in the city (why they are here or are the way they are) that will enrich my watching of the sequence? (Information on Philadelphia's proud history of manufacturing and self made industry lent it one of its early nicknames "workshop of the world" since at one point a majority of items fabricated utilized tooling or machinery crafted or designed by or in Philadelphia)
• Are there other sequences in the film to support this?
• Should I drive to south Philly and see the neighborhood? When is the market open to see the frozen meat? Should I run the steps of the art museum? (The answer is YES)
• (For those not doing a city that is easily accessible) what other imagery, documentation, views can I access that will give me insight into the particular city? Street view? Another film? Other media? Spaces in the city I am in that are similar?
• Most importantly: what academic resources can I cite when making these observations? (To include in and build my Bibliography)

Term Paper Homework Assignment for Next Week 9Due April 6th @ 9 PM EST):1. Please choose one sequence of your film and dissect it similarly to the example given above - min 500 words.
2. Write your analysis and include at least three images or film stills which exemplify the sequence you are discussing.
3. Provide at least one additional image which is not from the film
4. Provide three resources of any academic type which will help elucidate more information for your analysis that you can utilize either as a direct reference or for background information.
5. Submit this text, imagery, and reference information as an organized single PDF file via email to Prof. Hart no later than next Wednesday April 6th at 9 PM EST


Some links to resources used in this posting:
Map of the run:
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2013/09/18/rocky-training-run-rocky-ii/
Stair running sequence:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NubH5BDOaD8
Images of Rocky running
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2015/12/creed_like_every_rocky_movie_is_remarkably_clear_eyed_about_poverty_in_philadelphia.html

HFC S2016: The Baroque

This week's topic of study is a stylistic, intellectual, engineering, social and cultural vaulting forward the Baroque.

As we move closer to the end of the semester - and continue moving towards more contemporary history - the 'echoes' of design ideas will start to have more notable implications on the city around you. We have been looking for these echoes all semester long, and will continue to, but where the echoes may have been traces they will become more pronounced, and can be interpreted in increasingly different ways.

To further add to the stew of history, layers of time, design and thought each contemporary time period builds on it's own interpretations of the past. Just as the Romans built up from Greek and Etruscan culture, just as Medieval cities organized themselves around the bones of the Roman Empire, and the Renaissance revitalized and re-engineered itself - the Baroque took the flourish and energy of knowledge found in the Renaissance and in a critical mass of design, art, skill, talent, and exuberance applied the eras of the past, reinterpreted and expounded on them. This period in history saw ideals of design formulated in the Renaissance promulgate across western culture, seeding cities with ideas. However these ideas where most prominently enacted in buildings, sculptures, monuments, highlights of thought speckling the landscape of the city. The Baroque (in addition to being characterized by the lavish detailing of its architecture and art) saw the application of ideas not just scattered but spread across broad swaths of numerous cities and towns. The Renaissance renewed the sense that thought and planning could effect and shape spaces - the Baroque saw this rigor applied in a modern sense at a new level.

Rome, our old friend, serving yet again as our experimental barometer of city design, saw it's landscape transformed yet again during the Baroque period. There are various examples to choose from but perhaps the most approachable transformation is the landmark of St. Peter's Bascilica.

Variations on the design of St Peter's Basilica in Rome from it's initial planning to final form, through the hands of various designers.

The building that stands today was conceived of in the mind of a very Renaissance Michelangelo, which was transformed as it was built and completed into the image which has lasted until today with it's very Baroque fronting piazza.

Superimposed images showing he various uses and changes that have be built over the course of Rome's history - including etruscans, roman republic, roman empire, the first edition of St Peter's, and the current, Baroque space that currently occupies the space -  Normally we think of cities as static and unchanging, when in fact they are slowly and constantly evolving!

  This urban space creates a very important clearing and gateway - breathing room between the fervor of the streets and the church entry but at the same time does not separate it from the city instead lacing it into the neighborhood. This idea, and design was brought about by one of the most Baroque minds, perhaps of all, Bernini. While we are discussing St. Peter's let us not forget to mention Moderno's facade a design with a foot in both worlds which translates between the two designs (piazza + basilica), minds (Michelangelo + Bernini), and eras (Renascence + Baroque).

Baroque is best understood by being in the space and moving through the spaces as it is made up of shifting proportions, three dimensional sculptures and buildings which push and pull at the streetscape. Architectural visualist Piranesi (whose work we have seen earlier) published a series of very famous veduta or 'Views' of the city of Rome - a kind of Google Street View of his own day. Look at this example of St Peter's, below:

Google Street View allows us the power to 'walk' around in many of these spaces and expeirence Baroque space the way it was intended - by moving through it in a constantly changing and designed urban perspective.

Here are some suggested spaces to help you formulate your answers for the lecture - Hint tour the spaces on your computer, and utilize them as a reference or other spaces in your answers!

• Piazza Navona (the shape of the former Roman circus track that existed there, noted for it's church facade and fountains)
• Piazza del Popolo (Piazza of the People, entrance to Rome from the north)
• Ponte Sant'Angelo (Bridge of the Angels)
• Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain - a ceremonial and celebratory fountain - a Baroque take on the town well)
• Piazza di Spagna (The Spanish Steps, another well known frequently photographed landmark)

Your well known weekly task: read through lecture 16 and its questions + engage with your classmates, per our standard terms.

Please post your answer, in a well written paragraph(s) to the question in the lecture here at this post.

All comments are due by Monday March 28th.

HFC S2016: City/Film Combination: Rome and Cinema OR Roman Cinema

Now that we are well into the semester you have built up a base of information, critique, critical analysis and an ability to look deeper into

In this semesters' term paper you are selecting a movie which engages with and utilizes a city during the plot (not just as a backdrop but as an active and engaging element which drives the plot forward - either throughout the film or in an explicit and notable set of scenes) - examples include Rocky and Philadelphia (probably the best example - Rocky would not be the same movie without Philly!), Roman Holiday and Rome, Amelie and Paris, the Battle of Algiers and Algiers.

Rome has often been the setting for a variety of movies which take advantage of the city's spaces not just as a cinematic backdrop but as places of character interaction where the structures of the city and the spaces within it are fully used by the characters - sometimes in rather extreme methods. In perhaps the most explicit and famous example of this during the the film Roman Holiday actor Gregory Peck tricks actress Audrey Hepburn into believing a sculpture of the city has amputated his hand! (interestingly enough while the script had called for the characters to have this back and forth Gregory Peck breaks the fourth wall in his prank of Hepburn).

Continuing our study of Rome and cinema let us look at the movies depicting Rome in the Roman era in one of the most iconic spaces of the city - the Colosseum - as showcased in the movie Gladiator. Work on this movie involved exhaustive and extensive research and recreation of the likely conditions, decoration, and function of the famed Roman edifice. The movie depicted in greater detail than ever before presented the social, societal, and urban functions and space of the iconic building as the beating heart of not just the city but the capital of an immense empire. The grandiosity, the splendor, the engineering feat, the enormity of the space (at the time the largest building of it's time and the largest capacity stadium for centuries until the industrial revolution) comes across in the movie and plays an active role in embellishing the characters. Commodious, the Roman Emperor, is given extra swagger and importance parading through the streets and arriving at his imperial box draped in rich decor, while the sweat and fight of the Gladiator character is made all the more visceral as he battles lions, other warriors, all under gaze, cheers and jeers of the roman audience.

Several scenes (presented below via youtube links) offer demonstration and illustrations which elucidate this thesis. Watch the imagery and think about the vocabulary developed thus far this semester and how it can be applied here - bringing groups of people together in a settlement, sacred and profane space within the city, sacred etruscan sites, roman organization and engineering.

In this sequence the Gladiators enter the arena from the lower dungeon spaces where training and equipment is held, suddenly crossing the threshold they are front and center in the spectacle of the space, the close dark spaces of the stone hallways contrasting against the wide open golden sunlit spaces of the arena. The grit, sweat, and tense energy are palpable. This was the entertainment of the age, not unlike a 3D movie with CGI special effects of today - and the designers of the Colosseum continually added to and changed the infrastructure of the arena - adding trapdoors, hoists, and new spectacles of show to entertain their audience, in this scene mounted chariots ride into the arena in a mock historical battle of Egyptians versus infantry.

The grandeur of the promenade street of ancient Rome leading up to the Colosseum from the Roman Forum is on full display as the Emperor Commodious arrives at his celebratory games at the arena. The imperial colors - purple - a very expensive and difficult color to produce in that time are unfurled and lavishly draped, immense crowds and marching soldiers demonstrate how big an event this is (in comparison to the paltry crowds in the smaller arenas shown earlier in the film) this is no doubt the Super Bowl of its time.

In a watershed moment in the film, just before it's climatic finish, the Emperor and the Gladiator meet on the arena floor - the scales of the empire clash in the ultimate pairing of the sacred and the profane spaces and personalities - The Master and Slave, the Entertainer and the Entertained, the Ruler and Subject. There some historical truth here, one of roman Emperors did in fact battle in the Colosseum - which was considered an outrageous and scandalous (imagine the president deciding he will be playing quarterback in the Superbowl!) Likely the emperor never met a Gladiator in this manner - but cinematically this scene would not be half as powerful without the setting of the biggest arena in the world surrounding it on all sides while the camera rotates around the characters.

When choosing and reviewing, and re-reviewing your film/city you will need to closely watch the film, select key sequences (such as these) to analyze and call attention to key moment and details that illustrate your knowledge (beyond mere plot summary) and you will have to augment your arguments by researching both the city and the creation of the film (utilizing maps, historical city data, and cinematic production information) to support your own thesis.

If you have not already you will need to select a film/city combination and email your choice to Prof. Hart and begin watching (and re-watching) your film while taking screen captures, notes, and beginning to select key sequences to utilize in your paper.

Since you will need to view your film multiple times over the remainder of the semester it is highly recommended that you purchase a copy of the film (Blu-ray, DVD or digital download) so that you can review the film as needed and to the fullest extent necessary.

HFC S2016: Lecture: Rome and the Romans

This week it's all about the Romans.

View of the Colosseum during the Renaissance by architect and etcher Giovanni Battista Piranesi (we will look at his work again during our discussion of other epochs of the city of Rome) - done as a series of etchings and prints made into a book showcasing not only the state of the roman ruins but also imagining maps and the extents of gilded age of the Roman Empire.

Last week we had a discussion on the Roman precursor culture, the Etruscans. This week we delve into Roman culture as it affected the idea of 'the city' - an idea and organizational structure that spread across Europe as the empire expanded.

Rome was the home of the Roman Empire, but being a city with roots older than the Republic or empire it is roman in its architecture but not in its form or planning (which are more true to the Etruscan roots!) However the grandiosity of Rome is more viewable and able to be experienced more easily than ever through modern technology - see this link for a fly through of a 3d rendering of the city - As you watch be critical: What urban elements can you see which are decidedly etruscan? What are Roman?

Something to look for is Roman Empire's organizational ability - infrastructure, armies, politics, and city planning. Roman legions were divided up evenly in sizes, and housed evenly in blocks, these blocks extended in turn structured the encampments and permanent structures around the encampment. As the legions spread the will of the empire, so did this organization. Many famous European cities have their roots initially serving as built up areas around the legion's camp providing services to the garrisoned soldiers.

But this is only one means of influence, the highly rigorous structures of the roman empire interfaced with existing terrain and human habitats - most famously in Rome itself, the Tiber River and the seven hills of Rome. Rome as a city existed and grew organically in a flotsam of expansion, later roman city planners would redevelop in an attempt to reorganize the hierarchy of streets into an ordered whole (watch this closely, because these attempts do not end with the Romans, hint hint for future lectures). Other existing cities had roman additions, sections, portions or 'new' towns designed added or expanded during their roman citizenship as well (Paris traces its history to a small permanent roman settlement, Frankfurt's central market square still exists where its Roman market stood - both of these examples where small roman settlements which have since grown to the large cities of today).

The Roman legion's famously encamped in large gridded tent-cities, which would gradually be made more permanent depending on how long the soldiers were stationed, it makes sense then that these military settlements formed the nucleation point of new civilian habitations, and may cities in Europe, and the Mediterranean grew from these early grid camps. Looking for the right patterns in aerial photography it is possible to find the shape and size of a original grid in the neighborhoods of a various towns and cities. One example is the town of Timgad located in what is present day Algeria.

The city of Timgad, located in what is now Algeria, shows it's Roman roots in this plan which shows both the built and 'ghost' blocks of where the initial legion encampment was placed which later became brick-and-mortar dwellings. For more information and satellite imagery and another example of a roman era grid settlement check out this link.

Read through lectures 13 + 14 + 15 and their questions (mandatory) + engage with your classmates, per our usual terms (class participation).

***When possible, please delineate your answers for each lecture with a separate post***

Questions for lectures 13 + 14 are below, questions for lecture 15 are included in lecture 15.

Optional Extras:
Can you see today where the city guard was encamped, just outside of the city of Rome (the roman army was not allowed to enter the city)? How is this different from the other roman plans for the city?

Can you find any other cities like Timgad that might have started or show the remnants of their Roman-grid plan? What other cities or towns, not mentioned in the lectures, have a Roman organization, echoes or ghost-planning in them? Explain why you think it is of roman influence and provide a link to imagery or a map pin so others can see.

For example Turin has elements of the roman grid plainly visible (marked in the image by the super imposed square) in this image from the late Renaissance and early Baroque era:

All comments are due by Monday, March 21st.

HFC S2016: Lecture 11+12: Enter the Etruscans

An exterior exposure of a Etruscan Tomb

Last week we discussed the City of Delos, and how it became a new idea for city organization. This week we continue on our historical look, but rather than just look at an organizational plan we are also interested in the effect a culture can have on its place.

Interior of an Etruscan tomb (a different location than pictured at start of post)

The Etruscans are probably most noteworthy for the inspiration of a progeny culture we know as the Romans. Combined with the perhaps more well known connection to the Greeks, Etruscans lived on the same lands (and for a time alongside the Romans) an occupied and began building permanent traces and manifestations of organized society - and culture. Not just Temples, or permanent military encampments, but also homes for cultural institutions, ideas about building methodology, and developing their own expression of style. Etruscans served as a precursor and a competitor that would eventually push the younger Roman culture to the forefront.

Ultimately history tells that Etruscan society was slowly adapted, enveloped and became a part of an ever expanding Roman Empire - but not before laying foundations which can still be read if you look closely. While reading the lecture, look to see if you find Etruscan influences, not just on the Romans (f.y.i. our next section of study) - has the Etruscan influence has reached even further?

Again, here is another suggested question (optional) you may consider while reading, to get the gears turning:

Are there elements in our urban environments that you might trace to an Etruscan influence?

Comments are due Monday Mar 14th