Ryan Gosling eating cereal, Firewatch and Alabama Shakes

1. "Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal" (Vine Collection 2013-2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkpCP9R1Jjc

Here we have a Vine collection from a few years ago, where a man places a spoonful of cereal in front of Ryan Gosling onscreen, and Gosling reacts in various levels of disgust and sadness. I find this Vine collection quite funny, just for the fact that somebody thought to do it in the first place. Yet, it's interesting how we can take a scene from a film which is either dramatic or upsetting, yet add a layer of cereal and it becomes something humorous. On a sadder note, the creator of this Vine collection actually passed away at a young age, yet Gosling responded through his Twitter account by posting a video of himself eating a bowl of cereal (as a tribute to the creator). This shows how platforms such as Vine can be used to leave legacies (even though Vine no longer exists, the collection is on YouTube for the foreseeable future), and also how platforms such as Twitter can be a way of reaching stars, such as Gosling himself.

2, "Firewatch" (Video Game, 2016)

 I chose Firewatch as one of my examples, as it really stands out to me as a beautiful video game. The colours are stunning, and it's incredibly aesthetically pleasing to play and to roam around the virtual world. Moreover, continuing on from discussions of immersion in class, Firewatch is successful in really emphasising your autonomy whilst playing the game. Whilst being able to choose decisions for your character in the present moment, you can also choose what he has done in the past and how this affects his life now. For example, you discover that Henry (the protagonist who you play as) has a wife at home who has developed early on-set dementia, and you can choose whether one night he went out to the bar with his friends, or stayed home and looked after his wife. Your decision alters your relationship with her now, and I think this is really interesting in terms of character development. Rather than simply being concerned with what your character is doing at the present moment in time, you have access and control of his memories and past, taking on a fuller embodiment of the character and taking on a greater emotional connection to the character you are playing as. 

3. "Sound & Color" by Alabama Shakes (Music Video, 2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faG8RiaANek 

I like how music videos have become like mini films, and have their own narratives, and whilst the majority of people are there to listen to the song, you also get this accompaniment of image and sensorial qualities. This video always stands out to me as particularly striking, with the distinctive beats co-ordinating with the movements of this mysterious figure onscreen. I particularly like when the man's bare feet touch the ground for the first time, and you can almost feel how cold it is on your own feet. Even though we don't know who the man is, what he is doing, or where he is, it is still an enjoyable experience to see the images onscreen move with the rhythms of the song.