Download - T206 Midterm
Lee Sanders
T-206 Midterm Project
Song: Born To Run
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway american dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway 9,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin out over the line
Baby this town rips the bones from your back
Its a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while were young
`cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run
Inspirational/Visual Aesthetic
The song “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen gives the listener various scenes of trapped
youth. It gives the sense of a small town that has all ready shown all its colors, and the two
young people in the song feel that they need more out of life than the town has to offer. They
have grown tired of the mundane of their daily lives and they feel a calling to break free. My
visual inspiration is a picture from the film Friday Night Lights. It is a film about a small
town’s high school football team in Texas. For this town, these 14-18 year olds are treated
like celebrities and also suffer the pressures of professional football players. The whole theme
of the movie is about growing up too fast and finding that you have your whole life ahead of
you while at the same time also being past your prime. For these young men, football is their
whole life. The moment their football careers are over, they find that they have lost their
sense of purpose. This particular picture is from a scene in the film when the main characters
have completed their senior year season and have felt like they have outgrown their own
shoes. They realize that they can either move on and move out, or be part of the town’s cycle
of washed up football stars that live and work in the same place they grew up and root for
their old team. The town becomes a trap for them and I found that the visual and the general
mood of the song had a very similar tone of the need to break free.
Design Process/ Explanation:
When listening to “Born To Run” by Bruce Springsteen, I wanted to convey the sense
of the transition from being trapped to being free. The song does this in a way where it has
slow verses but begins to build for a rousing chorus. I wanted to find a place that felt like a
prison to me, and what better place to start than my cramped room. When the sun begins to
set in the afternoon, the light brings attention to my blinds. I found that the use of horizontal
and vertical lines in the shot bring a very clear illusion to jail or a sense of confinement. The
open fields beyond the window work particularly well to show the freedom outside.
To convey the “claustrophobic” mentality that the youth’s feel in their small town in
the song, I went to my workspace to show a living area that is very cluttered with little room
to move around in. I used a high angle shot to make this area feel inferior, just as the youths
in the song find their town to be inferior. I wanted to amply the effect of being bigger than
where you live by looking down on the living space.
What’s “Born To Run” without a pair of Nikes as a visual? This is not as cheesy or as
literal of a metaphor as it may sound. I put them on the door handle because I wanted to
convey a sense that they are just waiting to be used, but have not been put on just yet. Again
using a high angle shot, I wanted to portray a sense that the viewer is in control they have the
power to put on the shoes and run away. The aesthetic is about that desire to break free, not
the actual act of doing it. I wanted to give a message that says “The shoes are there. What are
you waiting for? Put them on and run.” The question is not how they should leave their
hometown, but when.
My next picture is a shot of an open door. This was particularly tricky because I
wanted a very specific contrast between light and dark. It had to be very bright outside and
very dark inside because I wanted to evoke the simple human emotions of good and bad
(light and dark). I had to play around with the lights and wait for the right time of day where
the light would not shine into the house but it would still be bright outside. I was able to get a
sort of “light at the end of the tunnel” shot that I was very pleased with. Obviously the
symbolism here is that the town in the song is represented as a bad place by the dark tones as
an insider looking out. The world beyond is covered in light and looks much more appealing.
Finally the last shot is of an open road. I went on Jordan and debated whether I
wanted a high angle shot looking down the street or a low angle shot looking up the street. I
eventually went with a slightly low angle shot of the street going up and curving. I went with
the street going uphill because I wanted to convey the sense that these people still have a
mountain of life to climb because they are young. Looking at the street sloping down gave
too much of an “all downhill from here” mentality that I felt clashed with my aesthetic. I also
had to find a particular point on the street to find where it curves out of the shot. I did not
want to have a straightaway because I felt that the uncertainty at the end of the road was an
important visual to include. In this picture, the viewer is both free and uncertain about what is
ahead.