6x1 Part Deux

If I were to create 6x1 part deux, it would involve a super project with all the assignments from 6x1 part one combined. One would have the option of letting the project be narrative-driven, music-driven, anything-driven, etc. I wouldn't mind meeting on a weekend again to film with the bolex, or show up earlier to work on stop-motion. I personally would have liked to film with the super 8 more. Also, for assignment one, going over new manipulation techniques for the super 8 that we didn't discuss in class would be cool.
Overall, if part deux is anything like part one it would be awesome. I really loved this class because it is not like any other film class I have taken. The assignments were extremely fun. I learned camerless filmmaking, got my hands dirty, worked with super 8, worked with 16mm, experimented with different mediums, became a mad scientist, messed with sound, lived through a 48 hour video race, jammed some culture, and managed to keep some of my sanity in the end. And I grew as a filmmaker in the process.

Stop motion = 1, because moving an object and then clicking a button to create a film is amazing. I brought stationary figures to life.
48 hour video race = 2, because it is such an adrenaline rush.
Bolex project = 3, because working with a bolex camera, and 16mm film is awesome, and you don't get to do that everyday. Plus creating sound for it was fun.
Elements project = 4, because I was able to get my hands dirty and create something without a camera.
Rhythmic edit = 5, I had more fun filming this than editing it. Editing was really tedious, but why am I complaining? It turned out awesome in the end.
Found Footage project = 6, I loved working on this project especially because I loved the subject, but its something I can do in intro to editing. BUT the culture jamming aspects that we learned from this project are crucial. They were only touched apon in my intro to editing.

Although I kind of slacked off toward the end of the semester, I enjoyed doing the blogs because they made me use my brain and really reflect on very interesting information directly related to our projects. It feels cool to be part of the blogosphere too.

The Yes Men

I like watching documentaries especially politically charged ones, so watching The Yes Men was great. These guys really have some guts to do what they do, but when you’re passionate about something then it doesn’t really matter what everyone else thinks. I personally thought that all the anti-corporate shit that they did was really inspirational, not to mention hilarious. I can’t believe the people in the room actually clapped for the “pleasure” suit demonstration, which was later sheepishly lauded in a newspaper article. Wake up and smell the damn coffee people.
I’m not a big fan of useless international corporations that say they are for the benefit of poorer countries when in reality they have a systematic bias towards rich countries, so I am happy to see that there are people out there like the Yes men. Satiric infiltration, it’s a very creative form of activism. 007 activism. That has a nice ring to it. Anyways, these guys were cut down with time and had to infiltrate these events on the go, so in that respect, project numero cinco ties in with this documentary. Our last project ties in better I think. These guys culture jammed the hell out of WTO, and that’s what I did to a much lesser extent with the fanta found footage that I worked on.
Another thing I was thinking about: Have these guys been sued for this? As far as I know, no. Then again, I would be LMAO if the WTO actually brought these guys to court. It would be more embarrassing to the WTO then it would be to the Yes men because it would show that they can’t control their own conferences, and plus it would draw popular reactions for the Yes men. U.S. Law on parody is probably what is protecting them.

Teatro Duro (rough translation)

I thought "The Rough Theatre" by Peter Brooks was a very interesting article. Although it was probably written years ago, what it says still holds true today. What's "popular" these days was not necesaily "popular" when it first came out. I am talking about documentaries, experimental film, anything non-blockbuster hollywood-esque. These to me are my rough theater, which more than not are playing at a small communithy theater, a small venue located on the second floor of a library, or a simple art house theater, hence the name art house cinema. They are the types of films you see at Jengo's playhouse. Yet, after enough rave, one of these films could evn reach Mayfaire.
Okay, let me continue to talk about the actual movies. As I said before, I believe that low-budget movies, independent film in general, documentaries, experimental film, etc. are my rough theater because they usually don't depict the same cinematography, special effects, or general quality that Hollywood films do. But because of their nature audiences forgive that. In fact their "roughness" might even enhance their subjects or their very nature. A shaky camera in a documentary bolsters the realism of the film. The 16mm of an experimental film will enhance a classic look if that is what you are after.
Even if there are inconsistencies in a film, yet everything else is well done, I will forgive it for the sake of film, and because it in many ways might mirror the "roughness" of my life.

Frijolero by Molotov

I Don't Wanta Fanta!

The Molotov Man

I read the Molotov Man article a while ago, but I never wrote a blog about it because I was blown away by to the point that I didn't know where to start or organize my thoughts, so I just figured I'd respond to it later. I have accepted the fact that I just need to let my thoughts flow. Seriously, this article is perhaps the most impactful article I have read all semester. Let me begin with Joy Garnett. I was sympathizing with her at the beginning of the article to tell you the truth. I didn't see anything wrong. She had taken an image and made it her own as well as all her supporters. Wasn't Joy helping Susan out in way by bringing attention to her photograph? Have not many images gone into the public domain after so many years? Perhaps, but what Joy had done was decontexualize the original image. That is the problem.

"Who owns the rightst to this man's struggle? The words continue to resonate in the room.

Meiselas was documenting the war in Nicaragua. In fact, she had documented a crucial moment in Nicaragua's history when this man is threw a molotov cocktail at the Somoza national guard garrison, "one of the last such garrisons remaining in Somoza's hands." The Sandinistas would soon after take power and govern Nicaragua for about ten years "and this image ended representing that moment for a long time to come". Meanwhile, this image of the Molotov man would reappear all over Nicaragua; on walls, on matchbox covers, on church pamphlets. Anyways, If I were Susan Meiselas, I would probably feel the same way about Pablo Arauz's context being stripped away. He had fought too hard to have his story turned into an image of an abstract riot. In the end I can't help but agree with Susan. We owe it to ourselves and our subjects to preserve the specificity of these images, so that everyone may known its history. Because those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it as Santayana once said. Just because you can manipulate an image doesn't mean you have to. And Susan's photo didn't need to be manipulated. Yet, I can't help but say that certain images/footage might benefit the public by being manipulated, or parodied. Parody. Now thats something to take into account. What if I want to send a beneficial message to the public by manipulating an image of George W. Bush, which might cause people to see him in a new light. For the good of the public.
Anyways, I'm still thinking about this. You know, my found footage video on Fanta was a parody. Soda is bad for you in general, and the types of marketing for this product is insanely over-the-top (fanta can chasing people), so I decided to make fun of it. Besides, its a subject that I don't think you can compare to the seriousness of Pablo Arauz and the Sandinistas.
By the way, there is a rock/hip hop band called Molotov from Mexico that is extremely popular for there politically charges songs. I wouldn't be surprised if they were inspired by the Molotov man.

I Want My Eggs Scrabbled with Cheese

I have never worked so fast in such a short amount of time in my life. I completed my project in about 10 hours (I only had one class that day). Honestly, I don’t know how I finished it on time. God must have felt sorry for me and slowed down time while I was working on the project. First of all, I didn’t really start my project until very early Wednesday morning for various reasons, one of them being the fact that I kept changing my idea beforehand. I must have changed it a billion times before I finally was satisfied with my scrabble idea. I felt that with scrabble pieces I could creatively put the Space odyssey quote into the project, which I did. And it allowed me to do stop-motion. Stop-motion = awesomeness. I ended up using my sister’s digital camera, and it hated me with a passion. I had to drive to Wal-de-mart and buy a new memory stick because her memory stick was full, and then I had to drive all the way to her house to pick up the charger because the camera died at noon. I also had used her cell phone to a shoot a 15 second clip of a book sliding across the floor, but Final cut only imported it as a single frame, which is why it is only a single frame in the project. It was part of the story I had in mind of a book of games sliding to my feet and me opening it up and suddenly seeing words appear on a page out of nowhere. As you can see in the video, it tells me that I must play scrabble in order to win the prize; the ultimate prize being the cheese sandwich of course. Anyway, if I had used the 15 seconds then my project would have gone over one minute, so it was all good in the end, or so it seemed… I went to the editing lab that afternoon and edited faster than I had ever edited before. The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy had me mesmerized. I had been studying Tchaikovsky in music history class which is why I had the song stuck in my head. I printed to video around 9pm and raced to Cheese sandwich. It played back fine during print to video, but I forgot to see if it actually printed anything. It didn’t. So, I was a little disappointed in myself. Shit happens. At least now I will never make the mistake again of not checking it. Anyways, I was just glad to be there and see everyone else’s projects which I thought were amazingly incredible. Every time I find it fascinating how people can take the same assignment and dish out completely opposite, yet fantastic works.
If I could change anything, I would have stop-motioned each word to the point that the words would have written themselves out smoothly, but I was worried that I would run out of time at the time. Oh and one more thing, I’m sure you can notice the chalk on the floor around the scrabble pieces. I didn’t have a tripod and it was the only thing I could think of in order to have the frame in the same spot the entire time. Haha.

My Answer to the 48 Hour Video Race: Scrabble with Cheese

Do Work!

I have not had too much time to think about the 48 hour video so I’m glad I can start brainstorming for this project through this blog. I think I am going to use a cell phone that I can take pictures with, and if it can film video too even better. Luckily my sister lives in town so I can borrow her cell phone. I think incorporating digital stills would not be a bad idea either because I could play with these by creating a pixilation like in 201. I also would love to do stop-motion animation again. It’s tedious, but I enjoy doing it. Including found footage is something I might do as well. Anyway, in class last week someone mentioned using a gameboy, which is an awesome idea, but it got me thinking about using an Etch-a-Sketch (oh, the memories of elementary school) to create images and then take still pictures with a camera. I can later create a pixilation with these pictures just like with the digital stills, but the sketches might be too faint to capture.
Two weeks ago during class we were given an item and we had to create a story it. When we were done we switched cameras and were given a new prop and we had to add on to the story that was filmed by another group who had a different prop. There were three groups, three cameras, and three props if that helps any to paint a clearer picture. It was kind of like that game where a line is added to a story as it goes down a row of people to create a series of barely related but comical situations. It was interesting to see that each group focused on a different genre of film per prop. My group tended to focus on action-thriller, and our three shots turned out pretty awesome…and made me look like a psychopath in all of three…haha. Anyways, it was good practice for the 48 hour video race since with whatever prop we are assigned I would like to create a narrative of some kind. In the meantime I will turn my brainstorm drive on high power before March 30th…because a theater without beer is just a museum (Bertolt Brecht). I love that quote.

The Saturday Shoot

Saturday’s shoot with the Bolex 16mm camera was an interesting experience. First of all, I have never had to go to class on a Saturday in my entire life, but since this was for a film class it was ok by me. When I arrived, everyone was standing underneath a tree by Hoggard Hall and it was raining. Everyone who was helping our group out was in costume -pretty outrageous costumes I tell ya-, and there was also a prop penguin. So, I just want to say thanks to Joselyn for bringing all that stuff because it added that finishing touch to the mise en scene. And also a big thanks for choreographing the dances. I wish we could have done the entire swing routine we had come up with, which brings me to the fact that we were jipped on the time constraint. Someone told our group that we only had 26 seconds to film and then someone else said that we had 56 seconds. We ended up filming 26 seconds while other groups filmed 56, which really pisses me off. Afterwards, while we were developing the film, everyone was a little worried that the footage was not going to come out well either, that it might be over exposed, but when I saw it projected I was like phewwww. It was fine. Now, when I edit the footage next week, I might be able to make up for the short time by adding slowmo, or reversing the footage as Andre suggested. Regardless, I still love the footage that we filmed even if it might be a little short. Just as important is the fact that I had fun doing it. The adreline rush that day was great, and sometimes creative juices flow faster when you know that you have a time limit, not to mention being at odds with mother nature as well. I loved the choreography ,and the camera movement was great. Sometimes its amazing what you can fit into one long take.

St. Louise

Watching the Scratch Film Junkies again after having done the elements project was interesting. You know, it was like seeing them in a new light because I had walked in their shoes. I had manipulated and scratched film like they had. I knew the process behind the image. At least some processes. Anyway, St.Louise was different in that it incorporated many symbols unlike the last film I saw. At the beginning there are images of body parts from a hospital diagram that cross the frame. Words, music notes, and scientific symbols also cross the screen. Rotating arrows follow. One can call it animated symbolism perhaps. Then suddenly appears a werewolf that is stuck in the sand at the beach. Wtf? Anyway, the incorporation of found footage was nice especially as different colors passed over making it look as if the film was tinted. Their work is full of color and many layers of paint that it makes me wish I had used more paint in certain sections of my elements project. This time I also noticed that they had scratched words into the film. Again, I enjoy their work and this film was just as if not more eye-tantalizing than the last film I saw. I wonder why they called it St. Louise?

Sound

“Projections of Sound on Image” by Chion was a very interesting article. One doesn’t realize the complex relationship that sound and image have to create the phenomenon of audiovisual illusion. We of course know intuitively that sound tends to enrich the image on screen in some way or another, yet it how (or lack of how) sound enriches the image is what I think Chion is getting at. He uses Bergman’s Persona several times to sight examples of the important usage of sound and image and it makes me what to rent the movie and watch it to see what the fuss is all about. A lot of what he discusses is incredible like how the ear analyses, process, and synthesizes faster than the eye…I guess faster than the speed of sound has a nice ring to it now. Anyways, this whole article reminds of the Dark Side of Oz, which is basically the name given to "The Wizard of Oz" when you listen to the CD "Darkside Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd at the same time. Apparently, if you start the CD at the MGM Lion logo screen you will notice that the music on the CD matches perfectly with the things that are going on in the movie. Beats and guitars match almost every movement of the characters in some parts. I guess this would be called temporalization according to Chion. Anyways, I can’t wait to experience this phenomenon tonight at Lumina. Gtg. Chao.

Creepy. Creative. Coraline.

So, this past weekend I went to go see Coraline at Mayfaire. It was visually amazing. Creepy, but amazing. The animation was brilliant and extremely detailed. Every strand of hair on coraline’s head was visible and they glimmered in the light. The other mother’s skin resembled cracked porcelian after she had her break down, and the first garden scene was elaborate with colors, lights, and shadows; it was a dreamland within a dream…
We originally were going to go see Slum Dog Millionaire that night, but we arrived kind of late for the show, so we decided on Taken, but it was soldout within seconds of getting in line. Our next choice: Coraline. I enjoy animated films, so this was my next choice. The creepiness started when it was revealed that Corline’s father who is named Charlie appears typing away at a computer and is later horrified after Coraline accidentally turns off an electrical switch. I thought to myself that that was me earlier typing away at an assignment that had been due that evening….and which caused us to be late for Slumdog… Also, one of the neighbors downstairs was called Miriam, my mom’s name…kinda of creepy too. If only my sister was called Coraline… Anyway, the story was nice and simple. Girl creates fantasy world to escape boring life and supposedly unloving parents only to discover that in reality reality is the best and less dangerous. It reminded me of Pan’s Labyrinth which also has a girl who escapes reality through an imagined world, but Pan’s Labyrinth is of course so much more intense and tragic.
The pace of the film was a little slow, but the visuals helped to offset that. The characters were enjoyable, inventive, and sometimes a little insane (April stuffs all her deceased pet dogs and has them all aligned on several shelves dressed as angels…they must die off pretty quickly). The most sly and creepy character is of course the other mother who is the perfect mom who has the perfect answer to everything…besides her button eyes, that in itself is creepy. Later on, her ultimate skeletal and dark transformation, reminiscent of Cruella De Vil, bolsters her creepy appearance and wicked nature, and in the end it is a battle to the death between her and Coraline.
As I was watching Coraline, I kept thinking about the stop-motion project we did last Thursday. It took forever, but it was so much fun to do. And as a result, I had a greater appreciation for stop-motion animation while watching Coraline. The animators obviously put in so much time and dedication into this film, and I have to say that it was worth it. I hope they feel so too.

Types of Animation

I enjoyed reading "Notes Toward a Theory of Animation." It gave me insight into certain things that I had not given much thought before. First of all, I grew up on Disney films and saturday morning cartoons, so animation played a big part of my life when I was a kid. In fact, I would even go as far to say that the 90s was the golden age of the Saturday morning cartoon. The storylines were better, the animation was hand-drawn and well done, not like the poor 3D animation shows you see today. I guess I am a little biased. Anyway, those movies and shows followed orthodox animation which includes configuration, specific continuity, a narrative form, and a unity of style. This is far from experimental animation which itself is very captivating, and which I have come to appreciate because in many ways it is the most difficult animation. It is an animation that is "more concerned with rhythm and movement in its own right as opposed to rhythm and movement of a particular character." Experimental animation rejects continuity. Its bias is more "aesthetic and non-narrative" (in the traditional sense). It can evoke emotions or ideas of the artist. The audience in most cases is forced to interpretate the animation on their own if not predetermined by the artist. One can incorporate music easily as well as many different styles depending on the personal vision of the artist. Indeed, it is animation that is more personal.
What struck me as one of the main advantages that experimental animation has over orthodox animation is the "presence of the artist." There is a relationship between the artist and the work and the "abstract nature of the films insists upon the recognition of their individuality." A relationship bewteen the artist and the audience is also mediated through the artist's work. In contrast, the industrial process of disney and anime animation deemphasizes the individual and focuses on the standard large number of animators. Nevertheless, I enjoy both orthodox and experimental animation. One is like prose and the other is like poetry as the author simple put it.

"It's ALIVE!"

When one thinks of filmmaking, the word cameraless does not come to mind. People don’t realize that as long as you have film than a movie can still be made. A few years ago I probabaly wouldn’t have believed it. But I know better now. Without a camera I can experiment more, use my creativity to my full potential and I love it. I feel like a little kid working with arts and crafts sometimes. The other day it even felt as if I were working on an incredible chemistry project when we dipped the film into the developer and the other liquid. And just being in the dark room and manipulating the film with those tiny objects feels like being in a laborartory. After all, we are learning experimental techniques and experimental is a word that evokes science, but it may be closer to words like new and trial. Out of a group of scientists, we are the mad scientists vying to create the next great Frankenstein. We already have the body parts (the film), the carving knives and stitches (paint, liquid, objects), and the high voltage device (the projector) in order to bring our Frankenstein to life….muhahaha!
In other words we are creators. I can be as creative as I want to in this class. And without a camera we are forced to be the most creative we can be. With a camera you know what the image is going to look like more or less depending on the editing. Yet, as cameraless filmmakers we can only imagine in our heads what our work will look like and that is makes it even more thrilling.

Breaking into Brakhage's Brain in "A Moving Picture Giving and Taking Book"

I think my brain just overdosed on the imagery and information that I just read from Brakhage. The last two pages especially took me for a spin because they read like poetry, evoking images of swirling paint’ evoking images of his films. It reflects what he presumes us as moving picture makers to be on the first page: poets. How poetic. I kind of like that.
Although this was a tough and long read, it at least refreshed my memory on things that I already knew and enlightened me on things that I didn’t know. His writing style was conversational for a lack of a better word and his tone was light-hearted and sincere which was reiterated every time he said “bless you, or him, or it.” He must have had fun writing this article. Anyway, the parts of a projector where a review for me, but it was interesting to see how terms can be changed or modified from book to book or filmmaker to filmmaker. He uses the word “shutter opening” instead of aperture or Iris, and he says “sprocket-wheels” when I just say sprockets, but he has a point. He also says “viewing gate” when I thought it was the film gate. Tomato, tomato, right? Anyway, I really enjoy is conversational style, but sometimes I thought it was a little too informal or he just didn’t explain things well because he confused me especially when he was discussing splicing. Base-to-base, emulsion-to-base? Why can’t it just be base-to-base, or emulsion-to-emulsion? Splice-bars? Cement?? They must have used that in the old days because if you used transparent splicing tape then there should be no problem. I think I read that section a little too fast. I did learn an interesting fact that the glue of splicing tape crystallizes into certain recurring patterns when heated with a iron J. Nevertheless, I love is “quit-reading” approach every now and then. This showed me that he really wants me to learn, take risks, experiment, and be a poet. As he wrote in the letter (which I didn’t completely grasp because of the jargon), “Follow you’re a muse meants” (the amount of puns in this article is ridiculous).
The section that probably enlightened me the most was the section on lighting. I am assuming what was discussed in this article is what we were going to do in class today. In fact, after reading the whole idea about manipulating the exposure in a dark room, I am even more thrilled about our rayogram class project. I will be on the hunt later for tiny objects that I can use for this. Hasta la vista.

Thoughts on "To The Beat"

“To The Beat” by the Scratch Film Junkies was interesting to watch and hear. There were so many shapes and colors passing before me that I felt like I was looking threw a kaleidoscope sometimes. It was like a funky colorful dream set to beats. Bigger shapes seemed to evoke louder beats and smaller shapes seemed to cause quieter beats and a quicker rhythm. I remember seeing a line cross the screen and as it did, a kind of drum-roll followed the line’s movement. Their name fits themselves nicely since besides coloring, they scratched the film. I believe it was super 8 or 16mm since the live action looked like footage from a home movie. If I remember correctly they might have used clear leader as well. Anyways, I like how they incorporated the found footage into the colors and scratches. It seemed that colors would reveal images and then frame them and then cover them up again. Interestingly, some of the images seemed superimposed over others as well. I also wondered if the filmmakers had tried to musically imitate what they had colored or scratched on the film, or if it was a track that happened to link up with many shapes and scratches by chance. The former seems more likely to me. Whatever the case, it was a great short. Before this class I never had the chance to manipulate actual film, so I am pretty excited about our first assignment. Now I can be a scratch film junkie too.