More on Jessie's Girl

Rick Springfield was one of the most popular Rock and Roll singers of the 1970s and 1980s.  His most popular and well-known song is Jesse's Girl, which was released in 1981.  The song became a #1 hit in Australia and the United States.  It also won Springfield a Grammy Award in 1981.
Springfield also performed the song on General Hospital, on which he played Dr. Noah Drake 

Springfield wrote the song about an experience he had in college. Most songwriters choose write about their personal experiences. This song deals with only one simple situation, which is being in love with someone that is in love with someone else.  Most people have had someone in their lives that they had strong feelings for and they couldn't do anything about it because they were in a relationship already.  That's the feeling that Springfield gives in his hit song.  In his college days, he was smitten with his friend Gary's girlfriend. He wanted to use Gary's name in his song but changed the name of the guy to Jessie after seeing a girl with that name on her jersey.  Springfield did not want to let his friend know about his feelings for his girlfriend, so he simply changed the name of the man in the song.

The video follows the formula of most videos where they show band and story scenes.  The shows scenes to where Springfield is watching the happy couple and him feeling low when he breaks his bathroom mirror.  In between the story scenes, the band is shown performing the song in front of the brick wall.  Each story and band scene runs one after the other, which is what most music video do.

The chart below shows the different parts of the Rick Springfield video.  It explains how the video works and what the lyrics are supposed to mean.

Codes Visualized	Illustration	Amplification	Disjuncture
Lyrics	The song illustrates a man's desire to be with his best friend's girlfriend	The smashing of the mirror represents the fustration has for wondering why the object of his affections doesn't want him	None
Music	The band consist of Springfield as the lead singer and guitarist, a second guitarist/ backup singer, and a guy on drums	"Patty Is Jessie's Girl". the writing on the wall represents what the narrator of the song wants, which is Patty	None
Performance	The band performs in front of a spray-painted wall. Sometimes the band is seen with Springfield or he plays it himself.	Other than the scenes in front of the brick wall, the video shows Springfield watching his friend and girlfriend.  Shows that he envies what his friend has.	The video shows the band performing with Springfield in between the scenes of the story

Rick Springfield-Jessie's Girl

Rick Springfield (1949-) was one of the most popular rock and roll singers of the 1970s and 1980s. He was a former member of Zoot from 1969 to 1971 before making it big as a solo artist.  Springfield is also an actor who played Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital.

The song that most people remember from Rick Springfield is Jesse's Girl, which was released in 1981.  The song is about a case of unrequited love.  A man who falls in love with his best friend's girlfriend.  At the start of the video, Jesse (played by Steve Antin) is shown spray-painting "Patty Is Jessie's Girl" on a nearby brick wall as Springfield watches on. Most of video shows Springfield and his band performing the song in front of that same wall.  He deeply wishes that she was with him instead even though it appears that she doesn't know that he exists.  This is shown in a scene where he attempts to go to talk with the girl, but she and Jessie walk away from him without saying a word.  Springfield is left wondering why she doesn't like and breaks his bathroom mirror after seeing her image.  Knowing that someone you love is in love with someone else is a terrible feeling to have, Springfield felt the same way when he wrote the song.  The song became a #1 hit in Australia and the United States.  It also won Springfield a Grammy Award in 1981.  Springfield later performed this song as his Dr. Noah Drake character on General Hospital when Drake has to fill in for Eli Love (also played by Rick Springfield).  Jessie's Girl helped Rick Springfield become a mega-superstar.

Springfield wrote the song about an experience he had in college. Most songwriters choose write about their personal experiences. In his college days, he was smitten with his friend Gary's girlfriend.  The three of them were in a stain glass course together.  It was later revealed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he does not remember her name and that he was never introduced to her.  He wanted to use Gary's name in his song but changed the name of the guy to Jessie after seeing a girl with that name on her jersey.  The identity of Springfield's inspiration remains a mystery to this day.

Fred Moore

Fred Moore (1911-1952) was an animator that worked for Walt Disney.  Moore had very little training in art, but he was able to work his way in Disney very quickly.  He is best remembered for redesigning Mickey Mouse for the 1938 movie, Fantasia.  The look that Moore gave Mickey in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is still used in the movies and games that Mickey appears in today.  During Moore’s brief life, he constructed his Fred’s 14 Points of Animation.

1. Appeal in drawing.  The drawing has to be appealing to someone that isn't your mother
2. Staging is process of selecting, designing, adapting to, or modifying the performance space for a play or film
3. Most interesting way?  It needs to catch the audience's interest and not your mother.
4. Is it the most entertaining way?  Can this be entertaining to the audience.
5. Are you in character?  The character should be acting out of it's personality
6. Are you advancing the character?  Establishing personality and it's involvement in the story.
7. Is this the simplest statement of the idea of the scene? This should be simple for the audience to understand
8. Is the story point clear?  Audience needs to understand what the story is about
9. Are the secondary actions working with the main action?  Do the secondary actions and the main actions go together
10. Is the presentation best for the medium?  The medium creates the animation
11. Does it have 2 dimensional clarity? How well the viewer can see what needs to be noticed.
12. Does it have 3 dimensional solidity?  Objects have to be 3 dimensional
13. Does it have 4 dimensional drawing?  This includes drag and follow through
14. Are you trying to do something that shouldn’t be attempted?  This is when animators try something risky with their animation like showing the top of Mickey's head

The Illusion of Life

The Illusion of Life was written by Thomas and Johnson.  An illusion is best defined as a distortion of the senses and it's created by the imagination.  Illusions are also hallucinations and mirages,both which you can see with your eyes  The illusions are created in the minds of humans based on the experiences that someone may had.  Animators often base their creations on their own imaginations and possibly their own life experiences.  Life is what people make of it and everyone has a different story. Their works can be either about themselves or someone that they know.  From their own imagination and illusions, animators can help advance their creations to make them more real to the audience.

Ecomimic Techniques To Animation

Animation uses nine economic techniques, which were designed to create emotions in the audiences that watch the films.  The emotions are shown through the characters and the scenery:

1. Rear View

Sometimes feeling better is imagined more than they could ever be shown in detail. This perspective showing the backs of the characters allows the audience to dream along with the characters.  Looking at two lovers in the distance is an example of rear view. The audience cannot clearly see their faces, but their posture shows that the couple is truly in love.

2. Shadows

The shadows are usually associated with suspense and drama. They are used for a variety of purposes from adding interest and variety to saving time from having to draw detail. The shadows are often used on the villains of the film. If they are shown as silhouettes, this lets the viewer focus on the eyes, sharp teeth, or other traits they may have. 

 3. Shadows Over the Character

This technique is used to convey excitement or anxiety. The situation is more fully conveyed with the addition of the main character’s reaction to the event.  If they see that something bad happening to someone else or see something coming at them, the character will show a startled reaction.

4. Overlays

 This involves having a character partially hidden by other objects. It can be used to add a sense of panic or frenzy.   Overlay is also used to portray an intimate feeling. Objects that block the action gives the viewers a feeling of closeness and privacy.

5. Dramatic Layout

This is when scene around the character conveys as much or more emotion than just the character. A scene with large shapes and downward sloping hills may give the character a depressed feeling. It could happen when a character is crying over something bad that happened to them or someone that they truly love.  Small shapes and bright colors have the ability to make the character look mighty and powerful. 

 6. Pictorial Shot

This is a background with a strong mood. Romanticizing an object can help to layer emotions. An example of this kind of shot is a peeking view of the princess through an open window. The animators can romanticize a character by adding things like flowers or other things meant to make a character look more beautiful. This captures the feeling of hope that would be hard to show in any other case.

7. Effects Animation

Animation forms from nature can establish a mood either by symbolism or showing what the character sees. Examples would be falling rain, a storm, approaching fire will quickly create strong feelings. Bright colors, sound effects, and movement help to convey a variety of emotions.

 8. Held Drawing with Camera Moves

Sometimes one strong character expression is all that is needed to convey emotion. Instead of moving the character, animators will move the camera. This will give out the feeling of activity. Simply moving the camera adds movement and life to a still image.

 9. Offstage Sounds

This is when the sounds can build images in the imagination of the audiences. They can cause the viewer to imagine more than could possibly be drawn.  An example would be when magical characters would cast some kind of spell. The sound effects that go with the magic makes it seem more real.

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