For some reason the quality looks horrible but you can still get the idea...
Monday, December 12, 2011
Experimental: Looking Back
Well, it was a crazy semester but I am still alive! This class was wonderful. I took this class purely for fun, and fun it was. Experimental helped me to break out of my shell as a filmmaker, I pushed myself to really go for it and try new styles of film. The self portrait project was definitely something I would not have done on my own, however, I am proud to the end results and I believe my message come through well. At the very least, it looked cool! Ha.
The music video was my favorite project of the semester. I LOVE LOVE LOVE shooting with film and I had never shot on Super 8 before so that aspect alone was just magical. Being the cinematographer, I was quite nervous, what if the exposure was off or the film did not load right and we were left with nothing?! (AHH!!) Thankfully, everything was fine. Even with very little time for preproduction Chris and I were able to come up with a very interesting plan. By using a bit of camera trickery, matting, and LOTS of planning we were able to execute a simple but awesome video (in my opinion).
I was also very happy with how the installation piece turned out. With so many things that could go wrong, everything went smooth. Visually the piece was beautiful and the message/ crowd interaction was great also. Since we were the first to go people were a little shy but I think it was a great icebreaker for the night! As I was watching what people were doing to our two "technology trance" actors, one of whom was my boyfriend and the other a great friend, I was thinking "oh gosh, I hope they knew what they were getting into by agreeing to be in the installation" and also a little worried that I might be single by the time it was done! HA! Just kidding. Kind of. Any who, I was very pleased about how it all turned out.
The soundscape project and even the sound and light observation exercised we did gave me a much greater understanding and appreciation of them. I though it was extremely interesting how much the emotions of the soundscapes changed once we add the photographs to them, weird. Gathering sounds for the sound library allowed me to be creative about creating sounds, which is something I had never done before. I am confident that I could accomplish it on my own in future projects too.
Overall, we had a great semester. I learned a lot about my classmates, some I knew but got to know better and some I had never met before. I always looked forward to seeing what everyone else had done with their projects. It was really cool how different everyones work was even though we had the same assignments. I created friendships, memories, and overall knowledge and experience with filmmaking that I will never forget. Thank you Shannon for another fabulous semester!
The music video was my favorite project of the semester. I LOVE LOVE LOVE shooting with film and I had never shot on Super 8 before so that aspect alone was just magical. Being the cinematographer, I was quite nervous, what if the exposure was off or the film did not load right and we were left with nothing?! (AHH!!) Thankfully, everything was fine. Even with very little time for preproduction Chris and I were able to come up with a very interesting plan. By using a bit of camera trickery, matting, and LOTS of planning we were able to execute a simple but awesome video (in my opinion).
I was also very happy with how the installation piece turned out. With so many things that could go wrong, everything went smooth. Visually the piece was beautiful and the message/ crowd interaction was great also. Since we were the first to go people were a little shy but I think it was a great icebreaker for the night! As I was watching what people were doing to our two "technology trance" actors, one of whom was my boyfriend and the other a great friend, I was thinking "oh gosh, I hope they knew what they were getting into by agreeing to be in the installation" and also a little worried that I might be single by the time it was done! HA! Just kidding. Kind of. Any who, I was very pleased about how it all turned out.
The soundscape project and even the sound and light observation exercised we did gave me a much greater understanding and appreciation of them. I though it was extremely interesting how much the emotions of the soundscapes changed once we add the photographs to them, weird. Gathering sounds for the sound library allowed me to be creative about creating sounds, which is something I had never done before. I am confident that I could accomplish it on my own in future projects too.
Overall, we had a great semester. I learned a lot about my classmates, some I knew but got to know better and some I had never met before. I always looked forward to seeing what everyone else had done with their projects. It was really cool how different everyones work was even though we had the same assignments. I created friendships, memories, and overall knowledge and experience with filmmaking that I will never forget. Thank you Shannon for another fabulous semester!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Installation Update
Our creative juices are flowing for the installation project! After getting feedback from last weeks class, as well as, brainstorming and planning more as a group, we have come up with some pretty cool stuff. We are still going with the clashing characteristics of the people with their eyes glued to the television and the dancers behind the screen. As long as our peoples pull through and everything works out like we hope, its going to break down like this...
We plan to have hopefully three (but we will settle for two if need be) people sitting in chairs facing a television that with be hooked up to a camera that is pointed directly at the people sitting. So basically the people sitting will be staring at themselves on the television, who are sitting and staring at themselves. They will NOT break eye contact with the television and will be as still as possible. They will show no emotions except for the completely numb looks with lethargic and glassed over eyes. They will remain like this during the entire installation.
While the couch potatoes (people staring at the tv) are sitting and staring, we will have three silk screens surrounding them. One will be behind the television and the other two will be on either side of it making a 3 sided cube or possibly more of a fan shape depending on how much space we have (we need enough space for the audience to easily walk through). Each screen will be set up and secured with C-stands. Directly behind each screen (on the outside of the installation- not where the audience will be walking) will be a person. There will be one light from an Arri kit behind each person silhouetting them and transferring their shadow onto the silk screen that will be visible to the audience. The person in the middle will (hopefully) be a guitarist who will be playing low key, mellow chords on the guitar. The movement of the guitarists hands and body will be visible, however, his face and identity will not. The other two screens, that will be on either side of the guitarist, will be female dancers. The dancers will be calmly moving their body to the smooth tunes with complete fluidity.
Though we have most of the installation worked out, we are still trying to figure out ways to really get the audience involved. I think it would still be pretty darn cool without any audience involvement besides them simply walking through, however, it would make it MUCH better if there was some way to connect everyone.
Overall, our message is to represent how the growth of technology and the media has completely taken over the younger generations lives. It is my hope that the juxtaposition of the mindless people starting at the television against the creativity of music and dance will illustrate that representation. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I am ALL ears! I can't wait to see how everyones installation turns out!
We plan to have hopefully three (but we will settle for two if need be) people sitting in chairs facing a television that with be hooked up to a camera that is pointed directly at the people sitting. So basically the people sitting will be staring at themselves on the television, who are sitting and staring at themselves. They will NOT break eye contact with the television and will be as still as possible. They will show no emotions except for the completely numb looks with lethargic and glassed over eyes. They will remain like this during the entire installation.
While the couch potatoes (people staring at the tv) are sitting and staring, we will have three silk screens surrounding them. One will be behind the television and the other two will be on either side of it making a 3 sided cube or possibly more of a fan shape depending on how much space we have (we need enough space for the audience to easily walk through). Each screen will be set up and secured with C-stands. Directly behind each screen (on the outside of the installation- not where the audience will be walking) will be a person. There will be one light from an Arri kit behind each person silhouetting them and transferring their shadow onto the silk screen that will be visible to the audience. The person in the middle will (hopefully) be a guitarist who will be playing low key, mellow chords on the guitar. The movement of the guitarists hands and body will be visible, however, his face and identity will not. The other two screens, that will be on either side of the guitarist, will be female dancers. The dancers will be calmly moving their body to the smooth tunes with complete fluidity.
Though we have most of the installation worked out, we are still trying to figure out ways to really get the audience involved. I think it would still be pretty darn cool without any audience involvement besides them simply walking through, however, it would make it MUCH better if there was some way to connect everyone.
Overall, our message is to represent how the growth of technology and the media has completely taken over the younger generations lives. It is my hope that the juxtaposition of the mindless people starting at the television against the creativity of music and dance will illustrate that representation. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I am ALL ears! I can't wait to see how everyones installation turns out!
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