You Turn Me On...Visually :-)

When we were instructed in class to blog about what inspires us the first thing that came to mind was nature. I have never been a big 'outdoorsy' person. I love sports, but as far as camping, and hunting, and anything else that requires being outside for a tremendously long time, I'll pass on. However, I do love natural aesthetics. Despite my lack of excitement for physical interaction with nature, I feel most serene and connected with God when I am outdoors.

As far as I can remember I have always loved sight-seeing and looking at great architecture. Granted, at four years old I probably didn’t understand what architecture was, but I’m willing to bet I held some sense of appreciation for sky-scrapers and buildings that stood larger than life to me. I attribute those fantastic structures to great architects, and since God is the creator of all things, he is the ULTIMATE architect. I just came to this conclusion a few years ago, but I see the world as a masterpiece, despite how cliché it sounds. So, whenever I feel like I am at my wits end, life is too much to handle, my mind is clouded, the walls are caving in on me, or I just want to relax- I like to go to the beach.

In undergrad I used the beach as my escape haven, my prayer closet, and my vacation. Tybee Island was about 30 minutes from campus and I would just go randomly to look at the water. I appreciate all landscapes and sceneries: volcanoes, valleys, savannahs, marshes, mountains, clouds, deserts, etc… but my favorite of all are beaches. I think the beach is the perfect combination of land, sea and sky. I appreciate it because as far as your eye can see is nothing but water and sky, and who else could construct something so majestic and beautiful except a Great God.

I have said all of this to say that I am inspired visually by natural landscapes and formations, and when I look at films I tend to search for them. I appreciate the earth’s rawness and cleanness. I tend to favor things that cannot be constructed or crafted by man and I enjoy very wide outside shots that acquaint the audience with the environment.

One movie in particular that portrays this without one single spoken work is BARAKA, by Ron Frike, which in fact may be my favorite documentary (even though I don’t know if it’s technically a doc, but I assume it is because it has no plot, and no narrative). Frike did a tremendous job at evoking emotion by pure imagery.

 

I tried to upload my favorite scene from Blood Diamond when they hike up the mountain, but this blog wont find that video on the upload option so here is the link

Life series by Discovery Channel executes pure clean shots like something I have never seen before.

Love him or hate him- Mel Gibson is a BEAST!!!!!!!!!!! Apocalypto may be the best movie ever made. This movie is phenomenal and he did an amazing job at capturing the true essence and beauty of the jungle.