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Hitbox Review: Concrete Genie - A beautiful creation
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TV Show Analysis: The Umbrella Academy (2019)
The Show Goes On as the UAA Theatre Department Takes to Virtual Performances By Jake Dye arts@thenorthernlight.org
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, UAA cancelled all in-person and oncampus activities. One of the programs cancelled was the theatre department’s production of “Machinal”, only a month before opening night. Students wouldn’t be able to get back onto the stage until the start of fall semester. Instead of live performances, the productions for the 20202021 school year are entirely virtual, filmed and edited, viewed online. “Fuddy Meers”, a comedy about a woman named Claire who wakes up each morning with no memory, was the first production to be released virtually. It was available to purchase and view from Oct. 30-31-Nov. 1, 2020. The shows can only be made available for a limited time due to licensing restrictions and royalty fees. Dr. Brian Cook, Chair of UAA’s Department of Theatre & Dance, said that publishing companies would likely never have allowed the release of filmed versions of their plays in a world without COVID. Coming up later this semester is Sophie Treadwell’s “Machinal”. The play loosely tells the story of convicted murderer Ruth Snyder, who was executed for the murder of her husband. “Machinal” explores the inequality faced by women in the 1920s. Dr. Cook explained that the play “provides context for why a woman might choose murder to escape her limited circumstances.” “Machinal” is currently being filmed, and details about when it can be watched
PHOTO COURTESY OF UAA DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE
Student and actor James Peritz played both Millet and his sock puppet Hinky Binky. The sock puppet was not required to wear a mask.
will be released on the UAA Department of Theatre & Dance Facebook page. Many of the students in UAA’s theatre program had never acted for a camera before. Student actor James Peritz described the difference between acting for the camera as opposed to the live audience, saying “we had to be more aware of how we’re facing the camera, how we look and making sure the camera is getting our best angles.” Students are handling the operation of the cameras as well as editing the films together. UAA graduating senior Brighton Coggins acted as both director of photography and editor on “Fuddy Meers”. Other production roles, like stage manager, sound designer and set designer
were also filled by UAA students. Tyson Hewitt, a professor at UAA during the production of “Fuddy Meers”, the first production released virtually, described other challenges that arose from translating the live performance into the recording. Hewitt mentioned the fight choreography had to be reworked, initially designed to make use of the whole stage, he said that looking through the camera “the fights were playing slowly and jumbled, where it was difficult to focus on the necessary pieces of action as they were happening.” Choreography was reworked to use “pockets” of the set, which the camera could move between, directing the viewer’s focus. Performing a comedy to an empty room was also a challenge for actors who suddenly weren’t getting the immediate feedback of a live audience. Those who were in the building had to actively try not to laugh, to avoid ruining a take. Hewitt admitted that he laughed more than once, though student actor Katia Holmes said Hewitt laughed around ten times. An aspect of the experience for the actors that is completely different due to the virtual format is the opening night. Rather than all the actors putting on the show for the public for the first time, they joined their families at home as part of
their own audience. Holmes described the experience “Watching my work on display after the fact was a total trip, but also kind of a cool experience to be able to watch my family’s reactions as the show was happening and give them direct insight as to what was going on.” An important part of translating the stage productions into the recorded shows was maintaining the identity of the stage. Peritz said that with both of the shows, they made an effort to “treat them as much like plays and present them as much… not like a typical film.” Dr. Cook said they are “conscious that we’re not making a film, but rather filming a piece of theatre.” The theatre and dance program at UAA was discontinued by the university in 2020. This means that no new or incoming students can select the major, and the program is only maintained to teach out existing majors. The current provost was not present during the discontinuation of the program, and Dr. Cook said they may be more open to proposals to keep theatre and dance at the university. This means the time to show support and demand for theatre and dance is now. Viewing information for Machinal will be available very soon. For more information visit the UAA Department of Theatre & Dance Facebook page.
PHOTO COURTESY OF UAA DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE
Actors wore transparent masks while acting, even during the filmed takes to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
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Movie Analysis: Goodfellas (1990) By Daisy Carter news2@thenorthernlight.org
A movie genre that I have never really explored is gangster movies. I have always wondered about the dynamic of these films, so my introduction to them was “Goodfellas”. You can watch the movie on Amazon Prime. “Goodfellas” was released on Sept. 21, 1990 and was directed by Martin Scorsese. This crime drama follows the story of Henry Hill who was associated with the Lucchese crime family. The Lucchese family was one of the five crime families and the Lucheese crime family was one of the wealthiest families from the 1930’s to the 1990’s. Although not an entirely true story, it follows a lot of the same reallife people. During production, Scorsese wanted to have real money in the scene where we are being introduced to Jimmy because it didn’t look real on camera. As expected with a mobster movie, “Goodfellas” is rated R for sex, nudity, violence and gore. The movie stars Robert DeNiro as James Conway, Ray Liotta as Henry Hill and Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito. The film won 44 awards and was nominated for 38. “Goodfellas” also won an Oscar for Best Actor in a supporting role. It was also nominated for five golden globes including, Best Motion PictureDrama, Best Director-Motion Picture, and Best Screenplay- Motion Picture. The movie’s budget was 25 million dollars but has grossed 46 million in the US.
Going into the movie I didn’t know what to expect. I think it was important for me, as a filmmaker, to watch it because it does have some iconic scenes that I had never seen before. I enjoyed the beginning of the film; starting out introducing all of the characters in the film because there are many. I thought out of all the characters to follow, it was an interesting choice to follow Henry Hill. I think my favorite part about the film was how it would pause and Henry would give some dialogue and insight to the scene. Doing this made the film more personal and it became more about Henry. I think my favorite moments of the movie were towards the end when everything seemed to be unraveling in itself. My favorite shot was when they were at the diner and got the call that their friend Tommy had been shot. The camera does something called a Zolly shot where the background slowly gets distorted. I think this added emphasis on the impending doom that James and Henry were about to face. I didn’t like the movie, I just don’t think mob movies are for me but I’m happy that I saw it. Do you have any recommendations on what films I should look into next? Send your suggestions to news2@thenorthernlight.org
IMAGE COURTESY OF CINEMORGUE
Goodfellas is one of the many films from award wining director Martian Scorsese.
IMAGE COURTESY OF WALLPAPER ACCESS
Goodfellas is one of the most well known mobster movies in cinema history
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Hitbox Review: Concrete Genie - A beautiful creation By Jake Dye arts@thenorthernlight.org
Developer: Pixelopus Release Date: Oct. 19, 2019 Platforms: PlayStation 4 For the majority of Concrete Genie’s runtime, it’s a simple game about painting. When the game adds more to its formula, it becomes more exciting for sure, but I almost feel like it loses something when it turns away from that simple, compelling act of painting. Taking place in Denska, once a bright and bustling city, now abandoned and covered in “the darkness,” negative emotion given form, players step into the shoes of a boy named Ash. Armed with a magical paint brush, Ash can literally paint the city back to life, using his creativity to restore light and power to the city. Friendly genies are drawn to life, and can help the player solve puzzles, while a gang of bullies patrol the streets, and have to be avoided. The story is pretty basic, but is well told. Ash is a likeable character, guiding the action, though he doesn’t get as much character development as the five bullies.
Each of the bullies has a past that is used to humanize them, though the game is very clear that this does not excuse their actions. The real stars of the show are the genies. Each is drawn by the player, and whichever features are added are impressively and expressively animated as they playfully interact with Ash and his drawings. The painting system is really impressive. To restore Denska, Ash has to paint the city’s walls to restore light. The player is given a lot of freedom to be creative and paint scenes with as much detail as they’d like. A growing selection of concepts are acquired in the form of sketchbook pages. This allows the player to select for example a tree, drawing any sort of line, straight or curved, to be the trunk, then watching as the branches and leaves grow into place. Everything drawn by the player is permanently maintained, returning to completed areas means seeing a bright environment covered in art. To light the town, any kind of paint can be used, the whole game could be completed drawing
PHOTO COURTESY OF PLAYSTATION
only grass, I was surprised how often I found myself switching between concepts and really drawing out a scene on the walls, even when I could have moved to the next location. A major plot event causes gameplay to change pretty significantly during the last third of the game. Suddenly, Ash is using his paint to actually fight the darkness. Skating around on a trail of paint, and launching red paint fireballs was really compelling at first, and a nice change of pace, but upon reflection I would have been happy if the game really were just walking around and painting walls. From a gameplay perspective, the radically dif-
Concrete Genie is a game about creativity and imagination.
ferent systems for movement and combat are really well executed, though I felt enemies had a little too much health, making battles feel a little drawn out. Concrete Genie is a celebration of creativity, and its low stakes make for a nice breath of fresh air. I constantly found myself taking the time to plan out and create art. Concrete Genie excels at making the act of making art easy and accessible, and it makes for a great, low impact distraction from pandemic life. Have any suggestions on what I review next? Send your suggestions to arts1@ thenorthernlight.org
PHOTO COURTESY OF PLAYSTATION
The art system in the game is remarkable, allowing almost any wall to become a canvas.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PLAYSTATION
Genies will interact with Ash, each other, and even artwork in lots of fun ways. Here, a genie cheers Ash on, and can be approached for a high five if the ball goes through the hoop.
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TV Show Analysis: The Umbrella Academy (2019) By Daisy Carter news2@thenorthernlight.org
With everything going on these past few months it may feel like the end of the world is close, but in this show, the end of the world just keep’s coming. The first season of “The Umbrella Academy” focuses on a super family trying to save the world. It was released on Feb. 26 2019, and was created by Steve Blackman and Jeremy Slater. The show, as a whole, has won 7 awards and has been nominated for 26. Some of the awards include two Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Special Visual Effects and for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program. This action adventure comedy is about an old comic book called “The Umbrella Academy”. Riginald Hargreeves adopted 7 special children all born on the same day and hour, but the women who gave birth to the children were not pregnant when the day began. These children grew up to have special abilities that he thought would one day save the world. All seven children were played by: Elliot Page as Vanya, Tom Hopper as Luther, David Casteneta as Diego, Emmy Raver Lampman as Allison, Robert Sheehan as Klaus, Aidan Gallagher as Five and Justin Min as Ben. Some interesting facts about the show is that My Chemical Romance frontman Gerald Way penned the original comic series. And since Aidan Gallagher is underage, due to child labor laws he
IMAGE COURTESY OF WEBP
wasn’t allowed to be in the gun fights so they used a body double. I was recommended this show a while ago but I didn’t really give it a chance because I didn’t think I would like the show, but I was pleasantly surprised. This is definitely a dark comic book type of show. I think a show like this benefits the more long formed episodes Netflix usually does. Since it deals with multiple timelines, the more long formed episodic format is a lot better than just a 25 minute episode format most shows go by. Something upon re-watching that I
The Umbrella Academy is about a family with extraordinary powers that will hopefully save the world.
like was how the plot of the first season is very comic book like. Usually in comic books the bad guy is obsessed with the superhero or has a vendetta against the superhero, and I like that format. I think it’s a lot more simple and refreshing as opposed to the second season’s plot. The second season focuses on the family dynamics and how they fit in the 1950’s America. I preferred the first season over the second season. I think they could have fleshed out Vanya’s character
a lot more since the audience is still trying to understand what her powers are. I think that the roles each sibling played in the second season was appropriate except for Vanya, I just would have liked to see her powers a lot more. So far there are only two seasons, but I’m excited to see a third. Do you have any recommendations on what TV Shows I should look into next? Send your suggestions to news2@thenorthernlight.org
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REPORTS
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UPD report: Feb 15 - 22, 2021 Total calls for service: 389 Unlock calls: 5 •
February 16: Assault in the fourth degree at student housing.
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February 16: False report/ false information at student housing.
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February 19: Theft in the fourth degree at University Center.
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February 19: Assault in the third degree at the Library North East Parking Lot.
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February 20: 2x Crisis Intervention at student housing.
All information is provided by the University of Alaska Anchorage Police Department.
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