Bronze Star

This is Rodney Shields, company factotum, combat veteran, my father.


My biggest curiosity about my dad is how he came to earn a Bronze Star while participating in the United States' Middle Eastern military campaign. I am unsure as to whether or not he would tell the story in front of a camera, but that would be my goal. As the interviewer, It would be my job to generate a comfortable atmosphere. I would attempt to accomplish this with some less delicate and intrusive questions.

Rodney Shields was born September 21, 1953 to Wilbur and Ruby Shields. He has a brother and two sisters. His third sister died when he was younger in an unsolved suicide/murder mystery. He has always been a mechanical minded man as his brother and he started rebuilding a car at age 13. By age 16, the old Studebaker ran and this would be his first car. 
He joined the Army in the early 1980's at the age of 29. He stayed in the Army for just over 30 years, doing several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He received the U.S. Bronze Star, an accolade awarded to distinguish servicemen for heroic or meritorious accomplishment. After retiring from the Army, Rodney took over a communications installation project for Lockheed Martin, and headed back to the Middle East as a civilian. After three years of civilian contract work, and seven total years in the Middle East, Rodney returned to Indiana. He now is a warehouse foremen at Morrison Industrial Equipment where one can find him rebuilding motors, fitting hydraulic hoses, or researching how to fix obscure forklift models.


Questions
(In no particular order)


As a traditional American meal enthusiast, what did you eat in the Middle East for seven years? 

What were the circumstances surrounding you starting to rebuild a car at the age of 13?

Did you enjoy the mechanical aspect of building the Studebaker?

 How did that process affect your mentality moving forward?

What is your knowledge into your sister's death?

What was your experience/outlook towards institutional learning while in school?

What is your outlook on your long transition from liberal to conservative political disposition?

How did time in the Middle East Affect this transition?

What are the circumstances surrounding being awarded a Bronze Star. 

What does the Bronze Star mean to you?

Director of photography, reporting for duty.

The bar location will be the Phoenix Bar & Grill in Mishawaka. I just received the notification clearing us to shoot there on Sunday, the 26th of February. 

 

The Stage will be that of the Louise E. Addicott and Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall in IUSB's Northside Hall

Here are some horrid thumbnail sketches of the opening scene, from the beginning of the song to the beginning of the first verse.

Style Book

Similar Perspectives to Bedroom Scene

The next photos are similar to the color pallet of the bedroom/bar sections.

Similar to Bar Perspectives

Similar to band section perspectives

Here is almost the exact opposite of what we are going for.

Emotion Video: Indecisive

Indecision Video from Ryan Shields on Vimeo.

Emotion

We have all gone through indecision in our lives. Given the modern consumer lifestyle, we are overwhelmed with options to choose from in every category. A reluctance to make a decision causes us to hesitate and waste time. Philosopher Robert Plutchik places indecision in his general emotional theory in between apprehension and anticipation. Here are 10 photographs that attempt to capture indecision in action.

Music Video Analysis

        

Music Video Analysis

Mastodon

Asleep in the Deep

         

Directed by: Skinner (http://www.theartofskinner.com), Shane Morton (http://www.silverscreamfxlab.com) and Video Rahim (https://musicvideorahim.com)

Creative Direction: Mark Szumski and Gina Niespodziani

Produced by: Shane Morton and Hey Beautiful Jerk (http://www.heybeautifuljerk.nyc)

Story and Character Design by: Skinner

*PRODUCTION:

SILVER SCREAM FX LAB
Creatures, Sets and Puppeteering by:
Shane Morton
Chris Brown
Sarah Cherney
Clay Croker 
Torrence Greene 
Victoria Kelly
Tom Pietch
Jason Feeman

Construction Department:
Rick Doucette 
Scott Fowler 
Dusty Mumma

AXIOM LIVE MEDIA 
Director of Photography/Camera Operator: Tim Reis
Assistant Camera/DIT/ B­cam Operator: John Manfredi
Key Grip/Lighting Designer: Michael Bremer
2nd AD/Best Boy Grip: Mike Morgan
Best Boy Electric: Billy Bolton
Production Assistant: Paul Katzman
Visual Effects Supervisor: Gina Niespodziani

*POST PRODUCTION

HEY BEAUTIFUL JERK 
Visual Effects and Animation by: 
Dengar
Joey Deady
Gina Niespodziani 
Mark Szumski
Mark Rubbo

Edited by: Gina Niespodziani and Jeremy Baumann
Color Grade: Ricart and Co.

Skye (the cat)
provided by Star K9
Owner/Trainer: Tracy Sargent
Wrangler/Trainer: Jenn Gagne

Production Coordinator: Ashley Simpson 

Assistant to Skinner: Hal Rotter
Assistant to Mr. Morton: Madeline Brumby
Assistant to Video Rahim: Ashley Simpson

Analysis

As we all know, cats are people. This is one of the lesser concepts found in Mastodon's music video for Asleep in the Deep. This music video is a conceptual narrative that follows a cat on an adventurous vision quest.  

Asleep in the Deep uses the rhythm of the song to use as cut points throughout the entirety of this video. The tone and color starts calm and cool and warms up for the rising action, only to resolve back to cool tone and color. A harmonious blend of practical and digital effects were used in production. This video was designed by Skinner, and is in his art style.

Concept/Story

The concept and story revolve around a linear story with conceptual elements. A cat called Skye leaves his sleeping owner and travels out of a kitty-door and begins the journey. He travels a little before reaching a cave. 

In the cave, Skye comes across a primitive sub-city of puppet men. These creatures are engaging in a ritual and offer him a drink from a ceremonial milk dish.

Upon drinking from the dish, Skye encounters a psychedelia-type state of consciousness. This allows him to unlock a wormhole inside the cave. 

He goes in. 

   The psychedelia intensifies and Skye himself becomes a distorted puppet version of himself. His visions become more prominent and he eventually meets an amphibious king whom has a hookah much like the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. The king blows hookah smoke into Skye's face. The cat's visions persist as he wanders around this psychedelic realm. He follows a flying sword to a rat or squirrel tied to a stake. Skye immediately uses some gained powers to release the little creature, and the rat-squirrel rides on Skye's back to a volcano tower where a congregation led by a three-faced yeti. The rat-squirrel launches himself at the yeti, knocking both he and the yeti into the volcano. The action resolves as Skye travels back through the worm hole and eventually back to his sleeping human's lap.

Production

The cuts, especially in the establishing scene, use drummer Brann Dailor's kick and snare drums as the videos rhythm. To signify the change from reality to psychedelic fantasy, the camera utilizes some dutch angles, otherwise it uses traditional framing techniques. Deeply saturated hues with abstract line work in the art-style of Skinner are found throughout the video. There are 5 different puppet types: Skye, the primitive-men, the amphibious king, the rat-squirrel, and the three-faced yeti. 

Steady use of particle fields and atmospheric effects aid in the psychedelia mode of most of the video. 

Bio, Influences, and Intentions

My name is Ryan Shields and I am in my senior year here at IUSB. I have had a hell of a collegiate journey thus far. After an abysmal high school campaign, I started doing commercial concrete work for a company called Ancon. I would work physical labor jobs in the trades for five or so years, until I got my sixteen year old self's dream job, Guitar Center. Unfortunately my sixteen year old self was a moron and Guitar Center is a terrible company. Finding myself broke and largely unqualified in the eyes of decent employers, I decided to invest in college. When I read about the Integrated Media Studies BFA, I knew it would be the most personally rewarding path to an undergraduate degree. I have been producing amateur level media for years, from videos to music to short stories. This degree path has allowed me to engage in an industry that I felt I always belonged to. I am in the IUSB Honors Program and I will have a minor in Business Marketing. I will most likely attend Graduate School down the line.   

I enjoy many forms of media. I have been reading much in the past few years (trying to make up for about a decade with minimal reading of books). I am currently on the final book of Stephen King's magnum opus, The Dark Tower. I am also almost finished with The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a brilliant and hilarious read. In an agreement with my girlfriend, I began the Harry Potter series recently and much to my surprise and delight, It is a terrific story (I will begin The Chamber of Secrets after I finish Dark Tower). I am still convinced that A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin is the greatest story ever told and am still waiting rather impatiently for The Winds of Winter to release. 

I have been obsessed with the music of Ramin Djawadi recently. He does the score for the HBO adaptation of Martin's novels, Game of Thrones. He also composed all the music for HBO's Westworld and the video game Gears of War 4 as well. Djawadi is a brilliant composer.

My favorite movies include American Beauty, Boogie Nights, Birman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Wayne's World 1 & 2, among others. 

Here is a link to my vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user57195026