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.