Blog Post: The Final Frontier

My VERY biased review of our assignments.

6) Freestyle- Although I love the creative freedom, I would have liked to have possibly spent the class time exploring another film outlet that is foreign to me.... like FLxER. (side note: thank you for sharing FLxER with us, as brief as it was) I felt like my final freestyle project was something I could have done before my gained knowledge from the class.

5) Rhythmic Edit- I loved loved loved the outcome of this project, just wished the difficulty was a little higher or harder. Weird I know. Maybe I am just crazy.

4) Anaglyph 3D- I truly liked this project. I only put it at #4 because the outcome wasn't my favorite. Group projects are challenging. I must say that this project is one that I got truly inspired from and will try to incorporate an experiment with.

3) Bolex Long Take-  Bowties are cool. Bolexs are cooler. Felt like I gained lots of knowledge about the camera (enough not to be scared of it). I like that I got to experiment with something completely foreign and mostly unattainable to me.

2) Muti-plane Animation- No elements of this project should be changed. I liked the creative freedom as well as the element of creating separate soundtracks.

1) Direct 16mm Film Manipulation- There is something so fascinating about playing and manipulating actual film stock. Felt we had creative freedom with structure. An experience I've already shared out of excitement with multiple humans. Learning+Enjoyment= happy college student.

Thank you Andre (and classmates ) for such a unique class experience!

Captain's Log- Blog Six

The Rugged Theater

I found this discussion and reading very engaging and I want to expand on that dialog. In the Rough Theatre, there is this mention of finite "performance". A performance that adapts to its audience. They are not laughing at the high brow jokes- you add in a fart to get their attention. Film does not have this quality. A movie is a movie (unless you are at a rocky horror showing) and that movie doesn't adapt to fit the audience's demands. There is no choose your own ending or joke movie theaters.......yet. But with "experimental" / non-traditional filmmaking there is an adaptation aspect. Between the filmmaker and the medium. A filmmaker can approach the project in a traditional way, such as planning, storyboard, ect. But the medium is the master (or the audience). The ink doesn't dry correctly, the "one take" gets over exposed, wind blows off the paper sky of your stop motion animation,  the printer ink smears, and so on. The filmmaker (or performer) has to adapt his performance to continue the show. Side note: cameraless filmmaking can most definitely be a finite "performance" as one play through the projector is most likely all the filmstock can muster. Filmmaking may not have the same special interaction between performer and viewer, but it does have a interaction between a creator and the medium. This class has brought this to my attention and have made me realize that in the "film world" that I exist in, a finite film performance is a special rarity. No control Z, no After effects to fix a mistake, just a filmmaker and his paintbrush. 

Captain's Log- Blog Five

My Experience with Cameraless Filmmaking

This project has been awesometacular!!! This was the project that I found most enticing on the syllabus and I was definitely not disappointed. I loved the hands on aspect of actually creating the film. I also enjoyed learning about  film and the film process itself. Dark rooming (is that even a term?) is very interesting. I found painting and inks to be my favorite techniques to work with and animation the most challenging (but also the most rewarding).  Yes, a fancy program can do all of these techniques in a third of the time, but I believe that the actual creation process adds value to the film. But maybe I'm just a hipster. Also programs just create artificial renditions of these techniques. Watching the film project was very rewarding (as well as stressful and anxiety enduing, I swear it was gonna break). It only played properly after we fixed how our reel was rolled, sorry Andre !!! (You even said there is always one group in every class... we were that one). I was surprised how much "abuse" the film stock could take. I never knew you could punch holes and paint with acrylics on film and it would still play! Guess I always thought of film as a delicate object that you handle with extreme care. I don't really see me using these techniques directly in my future projects (mostly because of lack of resources), but I can see it influencing my style. Especially the look of scratches, gain, and magazine/newspaper print. 

Captain's Log- Blog Forty Two

72 Hour Media Fast

The day before embarking on my media fast I started mentally preparing myself for 3 days of, to put it frankly, hell. Now having completed the fast I wouldn't necessarily call it hell, more like an moderate annoyance. Day one started off normal....for about 15 minutes until I reached for my phone to check messages, likes, and comments of the night gone by. Stopping myself after unlocking the screen, I embarked to take a sad, musicless shower (which probably resulted in less water consumption). My morning commute downtown to my internship seemed to drag as my air conditioning was my only companion. The rest of the day went on as usual except for when my phone would buzz and I would instinctively pick it up only to mentally stop myself and return it to its pocketed home. Pausing here to talk about how much of my media consumption is just pure instinct. Wake-up= laptop to check school email, Bored=phone, awkward= phone, doing something cool=phone, seeing something cool=camera... and so on. Also questions...so many unanswered questions without the aid of google. One of the most annoying thing about this fast was watching the tiny red number (indicating notifications) get higher and higher each day on my social media apps. My mind filled with curiosity/mild panic of the "important" events and conversations I was missing. Day two and Day three continued much like day one, normal with the occasional impuse/ instinct to grab at my phone/Mac to listen to a podcast, music, or fill a dull/awkward/boring moment. Many moments passed were I found myself blanking out in thought as I stared at a wall or others on their phone waiting for something non-digital to take place. Nights were challenging at first- a night normally filled with television,web searches, youtube, and article reading had to be substituted (mostly with comics, which proved challenging after night one as I ran out of new issues). I learned that a lot of my interactions/connections with my friends are centralized around media. Would I consider doing this again? Possibly, only if I find myself being swamped or consumed by social media/ media as I occasionally do. It was a breath of fresh air as well as a trial of determination. 

Captain's Log- Blog Three

I found this week's "readings" to be quite thought provoking. The video "Listen" (starring the man with the fantastic hat), Acoustic Ecology, and the conversation with R. Murray Schafer (which I thoroughly enjoyed) both sparked the idea of stopping and not just hearing sounds but listening to them. Listening for those "drone" sounds. Such as in my room right now, if I wasn't pausing to direct my attention to my hearing I wouldn't hear my bunny munching on her dinner, or my fan that is constantly running, because those are my "every-night" sounds. The sounds are too boring for me to constantly acknowledge. Funny thing, when my friends come to stay, they often ask how can I sleep with such a loud, constant hum? It's my drone soundscape, so integrated into my life. I discovered or re-discovered these sounds during the "listen" ending. Sound regulation and copyisation (possible made-up word) intrigues me. I support the preservation of "natural sound environments" but I also support innovation, which unfortunately often is noisy. Sound "copyisation" is a topic that, I'm risking sounding uneducated here, is just plain dumb.  Justin Boyd seems to be a pretty innovative guy. Using his batman hearing and love of sound he explores and manipulate soundscapes. Filmmakers should approach creating film soundscapes with a similar passion. We as filmmakers are taught to use sound and the absence of sound to improve our narratives. We create fake noises and manipulate the crap out of sounds to create our false worlds. Perhaps, we should attempt to master the art of listening to natural soundscapes and strive to mimic it within our works, when possible and appropriate.

Captain's Log- Blog Two

Synesthesia / Cymatics

Cymatics 

Plainly spoken, this is wicked awesome. Truly eye candy (and mind candy) as Mr. Grant states. It reminds of those necklaces/bracelets you can get that are plastic 3d wave files of submitted recordings. Sound as wearable art. The idea that sound creates these intricate patterns is a bit shocking (more like surprising). I want glasses that would allow me to see people talking as long, dancing patterns from their mouths. Would make long lectures more intriguing. I would like to explore more, especially the scientific side. Also some of it seems like forms of fake entertainment enjoyed on the u.s.s. enterprise.

Exposure moves to Contemplation (Synesthesia) 

I know the textbook definition of Synesthesia. I've been taught it, I've been tested on it, but I have not truly examined it. My reaction or interaction to this week's "readings" is quite different than expected. Although, I will never truly know what living with Synes.... (I'm going to abbreviated as S from now on) is like, I never really wish to. It seems to be intriguing/wonderful in theory. It's easy for us norm humans to think of it as Alice in wonderland like or from the Dorothy perspective of seeing land in color, but in actually I'm starting to see it as cumbersome and a major hindrance. Mr. Daniel Tammet (so hard not to write David Tennant) seems mega smart and encourages my thoughts that I don't wish for permanent S.  Full contemplation of Tammet is a bit beyond my reach. Hypothetically,  if I was given a opportunity for a temporary experience of S. I would most likely except, despite my pessimistic views, just to satisfy my basic human nature.

I put this here because purple Broccoli (or is it Cauliflower?) would have been awesome to 5yr.old me 

Captain's Log- Blog One

My personal response to the "hand-painting" film  (my unedited stream of consciousness)

• Tempo of the images are pleasurable despite its often fast pace.
• I found understandment despite the embarment of images. I could see the images but not recall them after.
• Music starts as primary, my main focus, then moves to secondary, I forget it or zone it out. I think this is most likely due to its consistency vs. the images inconsistency.
•  A roadtrip, journey, movement from one location to another
• The colors are calming despite chaotic
• The stopping of dancing scratches for "clearer" footage upset me, more like disturb my relaxed viewing.
• Everything blended together despite my brain saying nope.
• One thing leads to the next. Mixing
• Pleasurable. Tranquil.