Installation

The main concept behind the video is to disorient the audience and evoke some sort of reaction out of them. When I thought of how to do this, I immediately thought of the Jordan Belson films that Josh showed us in class and how they made me feel. I want to recreate that with After Effects, but I also want to channel in some datamoshing to further disorient the viewers. 

The datamoshes would involve textures that start out similar to the cloudy atmosphere of the Belson-esque sequence and then evolve into more rough and dirty textures while the soundtrack becomes more frantic and the performers bring out pots and pans to bang. This idea was brought up by James, but at the beginning of the video after everyone has been administered their drugs, we would have a short 20-30 second swirly intro (the type that once you're done staring at it your vision becomes blurry and morphed) with melodic music. I liked this idea since it would get the audience into the right frame of mind for the rest of the video. After the most frantic part of the presentation, I want the camera that was filming the viewers' reactions to be projected up on screen. Hopefully that will bring things full circle and emphasize the demonstration's effects on the audience. 

I'm mostly concerned about the technical aspects like the camera filming the audience's reaction getting projected after, and if the audience will have a good reaction. I'm also concerned about not getting the right look for the video, since datamoshing can be very finicky and doesn't always come out the way you envision it. The time frame is also a big factor, since I won't be seeing any of my group from Tuesday night until the afternoon of the showing, there's not as much time to work with them as I thought I'd have. It is a little stressful, especially with things in other classes going on at the same time so this will be a big challenge, but I have high hopes that everything will work out.

Cucalorus

Cucalorus was an amazing experience and I'm happy that we were forced to go for this class, because who knows if I would've gone otherwise. Apart from having constant trouble with my pass and getting tickets, I loved every aspect of going out and seeing these films. I had a lot of trouble at City Stage for some reason because my pass kept breaking the app that they were using to scan the bar code, so I'm not sure if we were supposed to get tickets or not, but they would just be like, "Alright you're good, don't worry about it." I only got 3 confirmations in emails for tickets, and those were all from Thalian, so I probably could've seen more without a problem, but I decided that'd be pretty messed up.

I went to go see A Short History of Decay and Willow Creek on the first night, and I was very pleased with both of them.  A Short History of Decay was 1 of 2 of the movies I saw that wasn't "found-footage" or fake-documentary style. It was a very cute film that had me laughing really hard one minute and then depressed the next. At first I wasn't sure about the acting, it seemed kind of unnatural and stiff, but as the movie went on I began to get more and more immersed and the acting seemed to get a lot better. Stylistically, it wasn't anything special, but it made up for that in narrative. The humor and the message about family and illness are what made me really like this film. Also, seeing all of the familiar locations around Wilmington was pretty cool. 

Willow Creek was probably my favorite film of the ones I saw at Cucalorus. For this one too though, I wasn't sure at first if it would be any good. The beginning 10 minutes or so had me kind of iffy but once things got rolling, I was really into it. When the director, Bobcat Goldthwait, talked before the movie and told us it was found footage, I regretted choosing it, but Willow Creek pulled off found footage in a way I'd never seen before. It was fantastic. I think in part because some of the interviews with the townspeople were entirely real, and then the rest of the film felt just as real. The first half pretty much had me constantly laughing, and then there's a shift followed by a freaking awesome 19 minute long take that had me on the edge of my seat. Paranormal Activity doesn't hold a candle to the amount of suspense that Bobcat created in that scene. After his hilarious Q&A after the movie, I walked away appreciating the film even more. Definitely my favorite night of the festival.

On Friday, I saw The Sacrament. Now I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this one. On the one hand, the cinematography was amazing. On the other, it was found footage/fake-documentary style (where the cinematography is never that perfect) and I just didn't think it was the best choice for presenting the story. Going into it, I knew it was a cult movie, but when I saw the Kool-aid being prepared near the end, I kind of groaned on the inside like "Are they really just turning this story into a fictional retelling of the Jonestown massacre?" Well, it turns out after the Q&A that it was his intention to tell the story of Jonestown but to allow people to see the side that it wasn't a mass suicide, but rather a mass murder. I can understand that, because some people don't realize that these people were pretty much forced into killing themselves and if they resisted they were shot down. My other gripes would be the acting, which lacked in many scenes, and the entire absence of anything important or exciting happening for the first 45 minutes. Even though it was supposedly "found footage" style or documentary like, there were many shots that would've been impossible if they had stayed true to that throughout the entire movie. These narrative motivated shots kind of annoyed me because they weren't consistent and left me wondering what type of movie this was supposed to be. It also took me out of the realism because I kept thinking, "Where does this other camera exist in the world of the movie, if the main camera is focused on something else simultaneously?" Later on during the Q&A, the director made a lot of emphasis on how important realism was and how hard he had tried to make the movie seem realistic. I suppose he succeeded though with more casual viewers because I brought my roommate along and at the end he told me he thought the whole thing had been a real documentary.

Sunday night I saw See You Next Tuesday and $50k and a Call Girl, A Love Story. See You Next Tuesday was a very surreal experience. The acting was fantastic and I loved how the movie was shot. Most of the scenes were pretty dark, which I guess kind of reflected the dark comedy in the movie. It was hilarious in this weird, "Who does that!?" type of way. The family is quite dysfunctional and it was really entertaining seeing the dynamics between the pregnant sister, the lesbian sister, and the recovering drug addict mom. The only flaw I can think of was how when it ended I wanted to keep watching and see what happened to the family.
$50k and a Call Girl, A Love Story was another fake-documentary style movie and while it didn't annoy me as much as it did in The Sacrament, I still wish it had been done differently. I guess making movies that way is much cheaper, given how common it seemed to be at Cucalorus. The movie itself was really funny but also dynamic in that it showed a lot of serious moments and balanced the two out pretty well. Something just seemed a little off though, maybe it was the acting or the pacing, but I was taken out of the realism of the movie quite a bit. Yet when it was over, there were several people surprised to see that the main character hadn't actually died, since he was there to do the Q&A.

Overall, I had a great time at Cucalorus and would love to go again.

Blog Photo Exercise

I took this photo awhile back and I've always identified with it and it's been a favorite of mine because of its minimalism.

Self-Portrait

For my self-portrait, I want to do something that has to do with my empathetic side. I'm always putting myself in other's shoes and trying to see how they would feel in a certain situation. It doesn't always seem like a two-way street though. I can have feelings for someone and I know that they'll never care enough to think a certain way about me, and this self-portrait can be about dealing with that. 

So I want my film to be about a "pet rock." Maybe "pet" isn't the right word to describe it, but the idea is that it's something I care for that ultimately can't give anything back to me. I want to set up elliptical events that are an allegory for my last serious relationship. There are things from that in the past that I think link well with the theme I'm going for. It might appear to be somewhat of a narrative but the events don't necessarily happen in order, although there will probably be a clear beginning and ending. I might play around with that in editing and see how I like it though if I switch the order up. I’ll actually be in the video, and this rock will be with me. I’ll talk to it some, spend time with it, care for it, enjoy its company, resent its company, be by myself, carry it with me in my pocket, etc. 

I’m also toying with the idea of varying the size of the rock to represent the different levels of emotional drain; the heavier it is, the more it drags me down with it. The rock might appear to come closer to me sometimes, or even have a pareidolia effect where it seems to take on human traits. In the end it’s still just a rock and I’m better off without it and the illusion of having someone there for me. Then I’d like to close with sitting with a couple friends, as opposed to the rest of the video where I’m the only visible person.

Art House

While reading this article, I developed a strong urge to want to go to one of these microcinemas. It would be really cool to get to see more unknown films and have engaging discussions about them. I definitely relate to what Rebecca Alvin said about her experience at a Grizzly Man screening where she asked what people around her thought about the film only to get the response, “It was okay, but I wanted to see more bears.” This is usually what happens when I go see movies with friends, although the films aren’t of the art cinema type.

I also kept thinking about wanting to run one of those microcinemas as I was reading the article. I would find a film made by a local filmmaker, then maybe make some snacks for the screening and relate it to the film if I can, then get about 15-20 people that want to come see it, charge them $5 each, a small fee more if they want some treats, have a discussion after the screening hopefully with the filmmakers present, and boom. Fun night for everyone involved. It doesn’t even seem like it needs to be anything official either, which I guess would lend more to the art house feel of it all. I would probably only even charge until I made back up the cost of the projector, and then reduce the fee allowing it all to go to the filmmaker. This reading coupled with my research on Amos Vogel and Cinema 16 is sparking a big interest for me in these small screenings and film gatherings.

Community

I’ve learned quite a bit this semester about collective filmmaking and the film community. The presentations given so far have given me a good idea of how filmmakers worked together in the past and learned from each other’s styles and techniques. Taking inspiration from other’s works and molding your own identity out of it is an important part of how art evolves. Now with the internet, it’s much easier to see other people’s work and explore new methods and innovations. There are forums and various websites where people can go to watch and discuss film. It used to be much harder to find other people and then figure out a way to show films and talk about them. I think it’s pretty cool that some of the most well known experimental filmmakers were friends or connected in some way.

This brings me to my next point: groups. It can be super difficult to get schedules to mesh with group members, what with class and work and extracurriculars. The bigger the group gets, the harder it is to find a time where every person can meet up. When our blank roll came back for 1c and we had to reschedule last minute, I unfortunately wasn’t able to make it to the reshoot. I was pretty bummed but there wasn’t much I could do in that situation, even though we had tried to get started on the project as early as possible. I really hope the music video gives us a better chance to work in groups because it’s really fun to collaborate and build off of what other people are doing. 

Assignment 1c Response

Working with film for the first time was definitely a very interesting experience. It didn’t really seem like any of us knew what exactly we were doing, like we had an idea, but it was difficult at first. We spent a lot of time in the library trying to get one shot to come out perfect. We fumbled with the light meter a lot and weren’t really sure if we were using it right because we were getting weird readings. Looking back, it was obvious we just didn’t have enough light. That shot ended up not even making it onto the CD we got from the processing place, which was very frustrating. 

When it came to be my turn to take my shots, someone suggested the bicycle rack and I thought that was a great idea. I crouched down and got into position and tried to line up the composition to look as nice as I could. I waited for the distance to be measured and the light meter to be read before turning to the appropriate settings on the camera. I happened to get really lucky with how the first shot turned out; someone riding their bike just happened to poke into the frame at just the right time. I photoshopped that bike into the shot that was one stop up, because I liked the contrast more in that one. My second photo went about the same way and we had really gotten into the hang of things as a group at this point. I took an extreme close up of some leaves with raindrops on them that I thought would make for a great photograph. Jake’s blog post goes into great depth about the bracketed photos of the leaves and explains it better than I could: http://chamelinexperimental302.blogspot.com/2013/09/light-observations.html#comment-form

I liked the challenge that shooting on film brought compared to taking pictures digitally. It almost seems artificial and too easy to shoot digitally now, compared to the more organic way of taking pictures with a film camera. You actually have to pay huge attention to what you’re doing because if you mess up, you can’t just go back into the camera and delete it. You actually just wasted money if you messed up a shot on film. I guess wasted is the wrong word there… It’s more of a learning experience messing up with film. You probably won’t make that same mistake twice!