3 Dimensional gettin phreakyyy

This was a unique assignment for me in the fact that we had to design our own set AND shoot in 3D. I had never done either (technically.) Our group drew mockumentary, disaster, and horror as our genre, so naturally we were prompted to tell a tale of the abominable snow man. With the concept of rough theatrer, we used the boxes to build an igloo. We also built a snow man costume using boxes. Im excited to see the finished product - the snowman bursting through the boxes will make a fun 3D affect. Not sure I want to see my face in 3D though... We each talked to the camera for a documentary feel of us stranded in the Alaskan winter tundra.

Long Take Shoot

Long take was fun. I helped group 1 with their shoot, which consisted of a very long can telephone conversation. I helped clear out the crowd and keep the string centered. They then helped in our shoot. We used Casey as an actress and Chris sacrificed his dry clothing to be thrown into the fountain between Luetze and Morton. I was on camera and we decided to shoot as a POV from me. It was at times difficult balancing this and racking focus at the same time, since I turned it to infinite when Ryan came over to snatch my purse. TJ was unable to be there for the shoot but showed up in between games when he could. I actually had fun doing this shoot, despite it being a Saturday class. We had freedom of creativity and it turned out pretty good. Now we just have to edit it!

48 hour video race say werrrd

I've never participated in a video race before but some of the sample given were really inspiring. The one using glow stick liquid that animated a sunrise was AMAZING. I would love to do something like that. Instead it has inspired me to do an animation (one of my favorite assignments so far). Of course I would need to animate using a digital camera rather than film because I wouldn't have time to process all of it perhaps. I'm not sure which direction I'll be headed with the content but I would like to take this approach to it.

Assignment 1

Assignment one was a very unique experience, as a class assignment, and as a filmmaker.
Ryan and I each experimented with the tasks. My favorite technique we used was the magazine transfer. I knew we could alter film in the other ways, but magazine transfer was new to me and it was fun to find wacky designs to put on our film. Not to mention, it was easy to do. My second favorite of course was the scratching. I made designs and animations with that, and would have rather that counted because I wasn't good at drawing with markers (too thick). Ryan and I also used a lot of bleach but had a hard time getting it to soak through. We determined this was because the bleach was old, so now I know to get new bleach for it to have the full affect. I actually didnt enjoy the rayogram as much as a I thought. Mainly, because my strips didnt come out well. Ryan's did and I really liked the affect of twisting the film strip over it. Overall, it was a fun project. So many techniques learned in one!

The Rough Theatre

Okay..so....WHAT? I guess I am supposed to read that with an artsy fartsy mind, but film studies has done some of the opposite to me. I cant help but to break down everything into a literal sense and kill the magic. SO anyway... I believe what I was supposed to get out of this that even created sounds and images must trace the raw original for it to be realistic. This is a good thing to keep in mind while film making, especially during narrative projects, if that the direction it's headed.

SoUnD

So what I gathered from this reading is that sound is way more important than what I thought it was. I always knew it was important, but when it comes to score, it could potentially have more of an affect than some visuals. Chion says "The ear analyzes, processes, and synthesizes faster than the eye" so does this mean than sound should come first? Like in a scary movie...maybe that split second of loud noise before you see the scary image is really what scares us. It all works together. I've always remembered M.Night Shyamalan to use sounds more than images to create tension. I will keep this in mind when I choose sound devices in my work, and the potential importance of it.

Animatioooon

The Wells text proved to be interesting. The old time animation has so many processes to it, but today's also consists of computer technology. I'm not sure which is more complicated. I know that during my recent 100 frame animation, I struggled with the free hand drawing of it. I could not make the images match. I'm sure it will come out less than stellar, in which case I will just claim it to be experimental. I also found it interesting that each animated character was designed with a humanizing characteristic (donald duck, sailor outfit). I never noticed that before, I guess because they were already humanized in my eyes. The evolution of animation needs more credit than what we usually hear about.

Cameraless Filmmaking: My experience so far

When we started this class, it was described that we were going to partaking in cameraless filmmaking. I had ideas of ways this could be done, but not a knowledge of how it could be done. Manipulating film strips was something I never rally looked into, but it's turned out to be fun and has prodded at my abilities in creativity. My favorite technique (so far) was using magazine clips to pasted onto the film. I honestly did not know I could do that, and now I feel inspired to make my own.  Last week I painted and scratched the film while my partner worked with rayograming, and I am looking forward to working with rayograms. Since we aren't far in the semester, I know there are more techniques to perfect when deciding how to make an experimental film. As for for, I am engaged in the class and enjoying every week. Next is the pinhole camera!

Synestheeeeesia

This was an interesting read, though it was not the first time I had heard of such condition. One of my friends (a cellist) claims he experiences these symptoms while playing the cello. He described it a seeing flares of color when playing or hearing music. His symptoms were similar to those described by Anne Salz in the Wiki post. It's hard for me to imagine this actually occuring. And I have to admit, I wish I saw what was described. But since I can't, this music video for Ljosio by Olafur Arnalds has always been what I envisioned the experience to be like (more or less). Enjoy.

Initial Reactions

My words, reacting to our first film shown in 6x1.....

"I found this tedious to watch, and somewhat annoying. However, I think it had a lot to do with the music. The music was in no way enjoyable and I'm just thankful that I'm not hungover right now. I realized this around halfway through and tried to imagine electronic or trance music to it. I imagined it more psychedelic at that point and then could appreciate the images more. I liked the pace of it and the artwork was great, especially the geometric patterns throughout."