last blog!

This is how I rank the projects from my favorite to my least favorite:

1. Long Take - This was my favorite project because we got to be involved in every single aspect of it. While it was hot and we were hungry, I loved being able to shoot, process and transfer the film. It was fun seeing everyone in costume, being able to help out with everyone elses project, and being able to get out of the classroom on a nice day and shoot outside on campus.
2. Video Race - I was really worried about this one, but i actually loved it because i actually liked being almost forced into doing stop motion. I know I could have shot video with my phone or computer, but I always wanted to try stop motion, and this was a really cool way to have to do it.
3. Found Footage - I skipped intro to editing, so I had never made a found footage project before this. I was really excited about it and I had fun going through movies and picking out clips. I chose a theme that I really enjoyed, and I just loved working through it in my head. As it turned out, I had to narrow my idea down so much to fit it into one minute, but I really liked the idea of the project and I would have liked to make a longer one with my original plan.
4. Rhythmic Edit - I love to edit, and therefore I loved this assignment. It was fun to have such a strict restraint and have to figure out how to work with it. It made it kind of like a game, and it was a nice break from having to just do boring continuity editing.
5. Multi-Plane Animation - I rank this fifth, but that isn't because I didn't like it, but more that all the other projects were so awesome that this had to go somewhere. I really liked the idea and originality of this, but I wish it was a little more structured. It was kind of a free for all, and I think that since we didn't necessarily have to plan in advance, we ended up wasting a lot of time and film doing stupid things once we ran out of ideas. I also wish we had used the multi plane thing more to our advantage.
6. Cameraless Filmmaking - Ehh.. I kind of didn't like this project. Since it was the first one, I felt like I was completely lost the whole time, I had no idea what to do, how to do it, or anything. I think if this was later in the semester, I would have been more confident because I would have had a better understanding of the nature of the class and what our responsibilities were in and outside of the classroom. In the end, I thought it was cool how they all turned out, but during the assignment, it just scared the crap out of me.

6x1...2

hmmm. If i were to design part two to 6x1 I would make a project that allows us to shoot on film, develop it, and then use techniques from the cameraless filmmaking assignment to add to it. I know we got to use other peoples film strips for the cameraless project, but it would have been nice to be able to revisit those techniques later in the semester when we had more experience and had a better sense of what could be done when combining different methods of filmmaking.

I would also make a claymation type project in 6x1 part 2. I did a version of that for my video race project, and it would be cool to have a structured assignment for it. it was really fun, and i would love to learn technical things to help with that sort of animation.

I would also like to have more "rough theater" experiences on days that our projects are due. i loved watching our video races in the fort, and if there were other cool ways to view our finished projects, it would be really awesome.

I would also like to do a project using the regular 8 camera where it is more of an experimental project that requires us to uses geometric shapes, because the way it is projected with four frames in one is already kind of geometric and experimental in itself, and it would be fun to try to use that to our advantage in an experimental, one minute film.

Mystery Workshop Response

hmmm. Well, I have to admit, I'm not a big Star Wars person. I did like the concept of it though, it is a really cool idea to take apart a classic like that and have the fans remake it. I wish that kind of thing was done more often with other movies as well. We also didn't really get to finish it, though as I understand Brandon did finish it on his own and posted it, which is cool that we got ours in there.

I don't know if the fort building event counts as part of the mystery workshop, but as it was a mystery to me before class I suppose I'll write about that too since we haven't done the 3D camera making yet. I thought that was one of the coolest ideas of the whole semester. The best part was that it was completely random, and had nothing to do with the video race, it was just awesome. It was so much more fun to watch our projects that way. I wish we could sit in there every class, but maybe with chairs, or yoga mats or something.

I'm really excited about the 3D camera workshop as well. I went to a workshop for 3D film making at Cucalorus, but I can't believe we get to actually do it ourselves!

Okay, now that I've actually done the 3D camera workshop I can blog about that. I really liked it a lot. Now that we did it, I almost wish we hadn't done the Star Wars thing because I felt that we didn't have enough time to really figure out the process of making it 3D in After Effects. I really liked how it turned out on our last class, and I know that it was necessary for Andre to fix it up outside of class, but I wish that we had had the time to figure that out ourselves incase we ever wanted to try it in the future. I thought it was awesome though, and it should definitely be done in future classes!

My Rough Theater

When I was thinking of my own "rough theater" experiences, a few examples came to mind. One was a night in high school, with the Varsity soccer team. We were having a "bonding" night, and we all got together at one of their houses. The girl's parents had arranged a surprise for us, and so when it was around midnight, we were all called outside. They had set up a projector to shine on the side of their neighbor's white house, with a really scary movie all ready to go in the projector. There were folding chairs and blankets and benches set up all along the driveway, and the family even had one of those old fashioned huge popcorn makers churning out popcorn for us. It was a scary movie that I had seen before, but I had never seen it outside at like midnight. Every time a bat flew by or a car honked, everyone flew out of their seats, completely terrified. It was probably the coolest experience I've ever had watching a movie. The outdoor setup was perfect for the type of movie we were watching, and I enjoyed the movie so much more in that context. It was amazing that it was actually scarier in the dark outside, when I saw it originally in the dark movie theater.

Another example that I remembered pertained to music rather than film, but the same idea applied. I was at summer camp sitting on the beach around an enormous bonfire. Now, I have a firm belief that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is better around a fire. Food tastes better, conversation is better, and music sounds better. There were two guys there with guitars, and they ended up playing "The General" by Dispatch for us. I am a fan of Dispatch, so I have many of their albums, and I saw their reunion concert in Madison Square Garden a few years after this bonfire. As awesome as the concert was, I was shocked that my memory of hearing "the General" at the bonfire was better than this huge awesome performance at Madison Square Garden. I didn't think anything could top Madison Square Garden, but as it turned out, these two guys in their twenties sitting on logs at a campfire in Upstate New York did in fact top it in my mind. The acoustics weren't great, it wasn't played as perfectly as the band obviously, and they didn't even know all of the words, but the experience of it all with a fire cooked hot dog in my hand was immensely more powerful than hearing it in an arena with thousands of other people.

The Yes Men

I love this movie! I had already seen it, but it was interesting to see it with the idea of recycling/reusing/reworking footage in mind for our last project. The Yes Men seems to use that idea in a very creative and innovative manner. Instead of taking video clips from various sources to create a found footage product, they took the idea into a website template. They took an image, a format, an idea, and put it into another context. As in many found footage videos, the new website was a critique of the owner or subject of the old website. Just as in found footage films of various news footage or clips of a single person, it is easy to change or complete remove the context and turn it into something else. The Yes Men created that idea by taking the context of another organization's website, duplicating it, and then critiquing it with in the template of the old site.

I found it very interesting to see how many people don't actually read the WTO's website. It is amazing with all of the information on the internet and the well known fact that scam sites are easy to create and catch people with, that a person wouldn't be more careful about their research. It seems that people think the internet is the answer to everything, and that it is just as reliable as a library book, which is obviously not the case. I can't believe that if a group was going to invite an important speaker from the WTO, they wouldn't read the website at the very least to gather information to ask him about, or in this case to make sure that the site is authentic.

As far as the movie goes, I'm obviously glad that they could pull it off, because it made for a great movie, and I thought their way of fighting for a cause was really interesting and down right hilarious. It was a really cool way of taking material, adjusting the context, and adding a statement or cause to it.

Molotov & Ecstasy response

I thought the Molotov reading was very interesting. I absolutely loved that it was written by both people involved in the story, rather than written by just one person who is attempting to tell both sides. At first, I was angry that Susan Meiselas was making such a fuss about Joy's use of her photograph. She clearly changed enough things in the picture to adapt it to her own artistic needs, and even agreed to credit Susan for the influence. Also, shouldn't it be an honor to want other artists to appreciate your work so much that they would attempt to recreate it? I thought Susan was crazy. But then once her side of the story came into view, I started understanding her point of view as well. She all of a sudden didn't seem so unreasonable, seeing as she has allowed her photograph to be reproduced under many different conditions. It makes sense that she doesn't want to tarnish the glory of her subject by making the context unknown. However, in the end, I still agree with Joy. Personally, I actually like that the context was taken away for the painting. That makes the emotions and power behind the picture universal, and everyone can relate to it and interpret it as they wish. Many people could be inspired by the intensity in a variety of ways that would never be possible if the context remained in the painting. I also think Joy's alterations were okay because of the fact that the photo still exists. If people want to see a documented moment in history, they can look at the photograph, but if people want to see an interpreted piece of artwork that has been stripped of everything but the raw emotion, then they can have that too. The best thing about art is that it can be interpreted in a thousand different ways, and I think everyone should be allowed to express themselves as they wish, as long as they are respectful of original artists that they borrow from.

I thought the Ecstasy reading was also interesting, because it came at the subject from a different angle and made me think about it in a different way. After reading this article, I feel like unless you are kept in a basement your whole life, you can't NOT be influenced by other works of writing, art, or visual media. As film students we are always told to watch as many movies as we can to learn from others' techniques, styles, and mistakes. So naturally, some of those techniques may appear in work of our own. is that wrong? If everyone had to come up with something brand new every time they painted, filmed, or wrote, we would have run out of material long ago. I thought the example of Bob Dylan was good because he used lines from literature in his songs all the time, but should he really be punished for being educated and well read? I think giving credit where credit is due is very important, but I don't think people should get so selfish and isolated about their work. Art should involve everyone in a community, whether it is a town, city, state, nation, or the world.

Saturday Long Take

I thought the saturday shoot was so much fun! The weather was absolutely beautiful, maybe a little too hot, but so much better than cold and rain. It was probably the only situation where I would actually enjoy having a four hour class on a saturday afternoon. I liked that everyone was eager to help everyone else, and that everyone was really into the assignment with props and costumes and stuff. It makes the day a lot more fun when people are excited and working really hard regardless if it is their project or someone elses. That was also cool because we have all been working with the same few people all semester, so it was also really nice to get to know the other people in the class that I've never really worked with before.

I really loved that we had an 8mm camera going around getting "behind the scenes" footage. It is so cool getting to not only use film, but so far three different size film cameras this semester. I've used the bolex before and failed miserably, so this was really exciting to get a second chance and especially to develop it ourselves and be able to see the results right away. It makes the project mean a lot more when we are involved in every single aspect of the process from start to finish.

It was also really refreshing to be able to really get out of the classroom, out of kenan, and be able to really put what we've learned to use wherever we wanted on campus. I was so excited that the weather worked out so that our group could use the flower preserve. I'm surprised that the preserve isn't used more often for student films, but I'm glad that we got a chance to use it. The only thing that I didn't like about the shoot was that it was really hard to stay focused and enthusiastic for four hours in the heat with no food. I wish we could have all chipped in for pizza or I wish I at least brought a snack or drink. I guess it would have been hard to get pizza since we were working pretty much the whole time. Overall, I had a great time and I can't wait to edit our project!

48 hour video race

hmmm. So when I first heard that we couldn't use any type of camera, I have to admit I kind of freaked out. However, after talking it through in class, I feel a little better about it. I wish I had a better still camera because I would love to do some stop animation for this project. I may still try it with the camera I have, or maybe I'll be able to borrow one from someone else. I definitely want to use animation for at least part of it, if not most of it. I'm just learning animation now in the Modes of Animation class (as you know, Andre) and its exciting that I have a chance to apply what I've learned to another class already. I like how hand drawn animation looks, and I wanted to use my new photoshop tablet for it, but since the tablet just broke my computer, I'm not sure how well that is going to work out. I also think using my camera phone might look kind of cool because my camera has pretty crappy picture quality, which I think could actually add a cool dynamic to parts of my project. Another option I have is my webcam on my mac, but that might seem too boring. I don't think I want to use any film strip techniques (scratching, rayogram etc) because quite frankly, I'm sick of cameraless filmmaking, and I just need a break. I like having those techniques now, but I just need a break from them.

I really like that we have a time limit of 48 hours. Normally, I never sign up for those contests because I always just have too much other stuff going on (school stuff especially) and I just don't have time. Also, those contests are often times in groups, and all of my film friends have just as much work to do as I do. Therefore, I think its really awesome that I am being forced to do this for a class. I've always wanted the experience of it, and so its really cool that its being incorporated into the work that I already have to do anyhow. Im also glad that I can do it alone, because sometimes it gets tiring having to always coordinate with group members, and when we only have 48 hours, luck really has to be on your side for a group to coordinate in only 2 days. I hope to make my project into a somewhat narrative story, but I don't feel that it needs to be completely logical. I think it will be a really fun experience and I'm looking forward to doing it!

Scratch Film Junkies response 2

I liked this one SO much more than the film we watched on the first day. I'm not sure if this is because I now understand the process of cameraless filmmaking better, or just because this film appealed to me more. It's probably a little of both. I loved the textures that were created in the film, and I wish I had done whatever they had done for my project! I liked how the white and black lines and patterns acted as a connecting theme throughout.

I thought the music choice was awesome. It really enhanced the rhythm that was already in place by the images. The music was really catchy and made the images appear to be almost dancing. I liked the rhythm a lot more than the first Scratch Film Junkies film we saw because the patterns stayed on the screen a little bit longer, which gave me much less of a headache than when patterns only cover like five frames at a time and it all flies by way too fast. The colors incorporated were so rich and exciting, and they added their own energy to the film.

The live action was incorporated better in this film than the last. Again, I'm not sure if it just caught me off guard on the first day of class because this was an entirely new medium for me and I wasn't expecting to see live action in a totally experimental film, or if I just liked the way it fit in with this film better. I thought the kid holding the video camera was really cool. It had a slightly reflexive feel to it, ironically calling attention to the process of camera filmmaking in the middle of a cameraless film. It seemed to show that there are many different aspects of filmmaking that can be incorporated into any type of film, regardless of a film's given label.

Watching this film right after finishing my own cameraless film project made me realize how difficult this form of filmmaking is. I never thought "well its just scribbling on a film, its so easy," but at the same time, I never expected it to be so difficult to make a film look really good. Its not hard to make a film this way, but it is very hard to make it beautiful, moving, or powerful, which is a similarity with camera filmmaking that I did not anticipate, or even consider before this project.

Chion Reading Response

I liked this article. While some of the things that were discussed seemed kind of like ..duhh.. to me, other points were things that i've never considered before, or technical things i didn't even know. I felt that I could definitely relate to the feeling of playing a film without sound. As an editor, I enjoy placing all the visuals together before I start with the soundtrack, but no matter how much I like the visual sequences that I create, there is nothing more satisfying than adding the "explosion" sound effect, or the perfect tune that you have been impatiently waiting to add throughout the entire visual cut. I don't think that this means the images are worthless without sound, but even in the silent era, there has always been a need for sound to accompany a film.

I thought the difference that was brought up between empathetic and anempathetic music was very interesting. Everyone can recognize how much empathetic sound/music can have an effect on the audiences emotional response to whatever is happening in the film, but I never considered sounds such as the shower continuing to run in Psycho as its own category, with its own effect on my response as well.

The technical differences between the recognition of seeing and hearing was pretty cool, but I don't think I'd ever use that to make short cuts in a film as the article claims was done in Star Wars. That just seems like a stupid thing to do, since they already had the footage they needed to actually show the door open. However, I did agree with the three ways that sound can temporalize an image, and I find it to be a very useful and successful technique in film.

Theory of Animation Response

I thought this reading was pretty interesting. I've never thought of animation with the same categorical breakups as live action. I always thought of film genres as narrative, doc, animation and experimental. This reading really brings forward the idea that animation has most of those categories all by itself.

I also thought the criteria for defining "orthodox" vs. "nonorthodox" animation was interesting as well. This made me realize how similar the animation that I grew up watching was to the live action film that I watch now. They both had characters that had defining traits, personalities, and voices. Both had linear plots with a beginning, middle, and end, and followed the classical hollywood style in which editing is made to be invisible.

One difference that is strange to me is that with big directors in live action films, the style and artistry of the director is generally intended to be known, regardless of what company they are working under. For example, Hitchcock has many stylistic choices that define his own artistry as a director, whereas Wells argues that with major animation, the individual artistry of a Disney artist or Warner Bros artist is meant to be hidden under the encapsulating style of Disney as a company.

One thing that I didn't like about the article was that to me, it seemed that Wells was implying that orthodox animation is "worse", for lack of a better word, than unorthodox. I thought it was strange that he seemed to be comparing the quality and artistry between the two areas. To me, neither is better or worse, they are just different ways of animating, and both fulfill different needs of different animators.

Cameraless Filmmaking

As a non-experimental filmmaker, this assignment was very much an introduction to many things for me. At first, this project seemed extremely overwhelming, multifaceted, and very confusing. There were so many different aspects to the project that by nature were left ambiguous that does allow for a lot of creative freedom, but at the same time the lack of structure was rather scary for me. However, after last class when I was able to sit in the classroom and have an uninterrupted block of work time, I now feel much better about the project. Now that there has been more discussion about the project, I understand what I need to do better and it seems much more feasible now.

I really enjoyed making the 100 frame animation. I liked having a clear goal of what I wanted from the first frame to the last frame. It was nice to take a break from everything and be able to sit for a couple of hours and draw, paint, and listen to music. I am looking forward to using the darkroom next class, as well as trying other techniques on the film stock.

Overall, I have gotten over my initial reaction of chaos and confusion and I am now really enjoying the project and looking forward to seeing the final product.

Synesthesia Response

I found this reading to be kind of difficult to comprehend. I did find it interesting to read about medical studies that show possible connections between neurological synesthesia and historical artists. This is a type of art and inspiration that I have never considered before, and it was interesting to read the stories of the artists' experiences.

There were some examples that I felt like I could someone understand, but some of them seemed a little too abstract for me. The story behind the Vision piece was something I could imagine happening, because we all see shapes and colors when our eyes are closed, and maybe the experience is different during a process such as acupuncture. The piece titled Vivaldi however, was way beyond anything I can imagine being plausible. I cannot imagine listening to an orchestra or any music for that matter, and coming up with a painting like that. I cannot imagine certain notes feeling like certain colors or a particular pattern to be painted. It is kind of neat to read about people that do have these unordinary experiences, especially when this connection has been studied and has intrigued artists for hundreds of years.

To The Beat response

I thought this film by the Scratch Film Junkies was pretty cool. I specifically liked the patterns and colors schemes that were used throughout. I thought that the live footage mixed in was better in some places than others, specifically the shots in the beginning were really cool with the live action intertwined. The shots mixed in at the end however I thought were less impressive, maybe because they seemed too random and abstract for me to appreciate. While the title was indicative of the use of sound, I was nevertheless happy with how the music and the images were linked; beating together in some places, while existing in comfortable separation in other places.

Overall, I liked it a lot more than other experimental projects that I've seen.