Ideas for 48 Hour Video Race

I've had a few ideas about the video race. The one I am particularly fond of is the idea that I will use the web-camera of my laptop. Built into the monitor is the camera, if I open the program, I can click off single pictures. With a full charged battery, I, or with the assistance of another, can walk around or do stuff, while taking single pictures of myself. Thirty pictures will equal one second. I can do interesting stuff with mirrors and also a video picture within a video picture. I like shooting through a video screen. That way, I get multiple frames within a picture. I could use a cell phone camera for that. 

I wouldn't want to use a cell phone camera for the entire race, because I'm not sure how I would get my media from the camera itself. I've never been successful at that. Also, I don't like the look of a video camera phone. Pictures on a phone are too slow to take and wouldn't be feasible for the 48 hour race. 

I'm not sure what my theme will be, but I'm sure I'll come up with something soon. Overall, I just want to make a crazy inventive film. I like doing animation, not of still objects, but moving ones. Like myself or other people. It gives the film an interesting quality. 

Response to Saturday Shoot

I loved the one shot! It was one of my favorite events that I've ever done at UNCW. First off, the adrenaline was great. I really enjoyed being presented the problem of: we have 28 seconds of film, one take, and only an hour and a half. Pressure like that has always kept me creative. I thought our shot was particularly complex and ultimately turned out beautifully. We used shade from the rain as our inspiration, and came up with the idea of two lost lovers looking for one another. Our exposure was right on the money, I had brought a light meter, and the image was beautiful. I didn't enjoy seeing what the film looked like after slowing it down by half, because the video image became jumpy. However, having a camera of my own that is spring wound, this really inspired me to try to do more complex long takes. Ultimately, the rain was not a great bother, in fact it made it interesting. I want to do this again, I also really want to learn more about developing films on my own time. Andre, if you ever get the time, I want to learn more about exposing film at home, what type of film you need, etc. 

Scratch Film Junkies

Wow! What a film. These Scratch Film Junkies really know what they are doing. I really liked their use of colors, and how they were able to incorporate sound with their film. If I were to do mine more like theirs, I would include images, like preshot film, and then bleach and scratch on top of them. I feel that they were really good at creating depth. The use of layers really builds the film and really shows just how hard they worked on the film. 

Projections of Sound On Image

I really liked this article. It was informative and interesting at the same time. I had never thought of sound as a bridging mechanism. Not in the sense of bridging a gap in the cut, but in the sense of being a way to suggest a connection between two shots that would be meaningless together. Sound is something I haven't given a lot of credence to, but after reading this article, I'd like to learn more. It is interesting that our minds filter sounds in a completely different way than images. That would lead me to believe that it can be manipulated to a further extent than images. That means, it can have an even greater affect, because it can be tampered with more. Sound is something that is foreign to me. Though I hear it each day, I don't understand how acoustics work, this article definitely makes me want to learn more. Sound seems to play a bigger role in a feature film than I had thought. 

Theory of Animation

Let me start off by saying I don't like theories. Theory of relativity, not a fan. But in all serious, this theory of animation article was sort of interesting, but I felt that when it comes to speaking about something, I'd rather see a person's practiced work instead of their critique of other's. This article spoke heavily on Disney and their cel animation and I couldn't help but feel like the author was somehow "drawing" the conclusion that mass made cel animation lacks art. That experimental animation with its planned non-continuitity is in someway better. I had particular qualms with the section that said it is so much easier to create life-like characters in animation than colors and rhythms. To recreate the nuance of a human character is a very hard task, I think this writer completely ignores the complexity of Disney's cel animation. Rhythms and shapes have no life. In my opinion, they are much easier to draw. Therefore, this article completely critiques cel animation and has a strong bias. I can't explain just how much I disliked this pretentious article. 

But at the same time, it had some interesting notes about music. And I do believe that experimental animation has its own place along side the visual representation to music. Imagine what MTV music videos would be like!

I am a fan of cel animation, and with digital technologies, the nuances are becoming even better. Animation can be taken seriously. If the author wants us to believe that cel animation isn't art because it recreates life and instead should represent what we don't normally see, I disagree, but that's just me. 

Stan Brackage Response

This weeks reading was fairly interesting. I felt Stan's writing is sometimes to fluffy and abstract, and it often took me away from the reading and turned me to try and interpret his thoughts. His insight is very interesting. The information here helped present me with new ways of making films. Although I am not one to be the most comfortable with experimental techniques, I am always fascinated by the processing of capture pictures on photosensitive material. Therefore, the reading was very good because Stan was able to present new ways of using old techniques. I felt some of the information was redundant. This was a beginner's guide for someone who hasn't worked with film, I've worked a lot with film, but I still read it and thought he put it eloquently. I am really excited to do this in-camera exposure of small objects. I had never thought that I could do it this way. I also want to work more with salts and getting them to crystalize on film. Film is organic, so why shouldn't organic things be placed on them. Again, I like the readings but Stan Brackhage was too airy in his writing, it seemed self conscious, but ultimately, I think his films are self-conscious so they do reflect the artist. I want to further these experiments and see what new things we can do with these techniques. 

Scratch Film Junkies Response

Verbatim: "I really liked this. I liked how the image played in tandum with the sound, and the inclusion of found footage with the painted film was great. The music was hypnotic, and because the image was working with the sound, not against, it immersed me. I most enjoyed the veritcal lines that appeared in the middle of the piece. The lines would multiply as they were introduced from the sides. That was creative. The titles, with the film perforations, is a creative approach. Finally, I liked the end that reminds the viewer, "This doesn't mean a thing."