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!