Please visit my Online Portfolio here.

Welcome to my page. I am Alan Broome, and I love watching movies and studying their artistry.

While listening to a podcast, I overheard a portion of an interview with composer John Williams as he discussed his work on the score for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (George Lucas, 1999). In the last scene of the film the entire population of the planet Naboo is celebrating its victory over the bad guys, and the film’s score reflects the mood of the characters, bombastic and party-like. Williams casually mentioned that, in order to provide an undercurrent of dread to the celebration and to help identify Senator Palpatine as the “Phantom Menace,” he pulled in the Emperor’s Theme from the Return of the Jedi soundtrack, played it faster, and changed it from a minor scale to a major scale. Once I realized that Williams made that creative choice, I was astounded at his talent (I know, saying John Williams is talented is like saying that the sky is blue.) and by the way he could create totally different moods from the same piece of music.

A few years later, I decided to enroll in classes at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, GA, in order to finish my Bachelor’s degree. My first class at the school was an Introduction to Film class with Steve Rybin, who taught me the language of film. He taught me that the ability to speak and understand that language opens up a new way of not only viewing films, but of appreciating them on an artistic level, of analyzing them and marveling at the creative choices, like the one that John Williams made, that go into making them. I could now see how Alfred Hitchcock’s camera movements drew me into the action of his thrillers while Yasujiro Ozu’s stationary camera helped keep me focused on the family dynamics of his films.  Dr. Rybin and my other film professors, Stacy Rusnak, Lyndsay Gratch, and Danielle Williams, helped me see that film is a powerful tool for not only entertaining audiences but also for portraying the experiences of people outside of my own culture and experiences.

My hope is that I can contribute in some small way to the discipline of film theory, or, at the very least, to show other people how film, as well as other forms of art, is a means to help us understand and appreciate other people’s views of the world. Art in any form, whether it is painting, music, or even the culinary arts, is a two-way street. Not only is it an avenue for sharing one’s own creative talents and experiences, but it is also a pathway into the artist’s soul, allowing us to see the world from that person’s point of view.

This blog is my attempt to contribute. I started it as a class project as well as to create a portfolio for my academic work. I hope to keep it fresh and current as I continue to share my thoughts and opinions on film, of course, but also on other aspects of me, including my love of the Star Wars franchise and my trips to Walt Disney World. Please click on the links accompanying the graphics on the left to view my favorite Youtube channels; each one provides tremendous insight into the field of film appreciation. Please remember: we are gathered here today to view this film called Life. While the view from my seat may be a bit different from the view from your seat, we both paid the same ticket price, and we both hope the movie doesn’t suck.