6 x 1 part dos

If I could be part of 6 x 1 part 2 I would be so lucky and I would bring lucky charms to every class, I will start by saying that first off.  I would love to see a lot more film work from the department and I know how both the Silva's are fighting for celluloid.  Film is not dead.  I would love to incorporate scratching, toning, and animation into one project like make them correlate and then watch them on a screen with three projectors.  I would like to see more film camera work.  The long take day was my favorite day because you gave us so much freedom as long as we return with the footage.  I really just want to work with film which is why I am so upset that Andy Hulse is leaving.  They cut his program and he is leaving and good for him.  And I am pissed that Hulse never showed up to class.  All winter break I was excite because I thought I was going to get to meet him and work with him on little projects and he would shed some of experience over my head and I would learn from someone Shannon told me to look out for.  Things never quite work out the way you expect them to.  I really want the second part of 6 x 1 to expand to sequels to all the projects we have already worked on.  The art of making one minute films is really incredible and I wish that more festival films where one minute or less.  You never get bored watching a one minute film because if you feel you are getting bored you just blink and it is over.  I really enjoyed the freedom of the class and can say that the Silva classes are the ones I got the most out of, even intro to editing helped me and I became a much better editor since being outside of that summer class.  I apologize for how rotten I was in that class to Shannon.  I had some family problems that I made sure to keep to myself but the misery I had inside of me I was sure to spread like manure.  Back to 6 x 1, I would like to have one narrative project where a story has to done in voice over.  I think more students should take more chances in their projects.  Everyone seems to make the same film which isn't the teachers fault at all.  We still talk about the days of Intro with Shannon where everyone had a bum in their silence film involving a stolen pie. Anyways, 6 x 1 was a great class and I am happy to have spent it with the new father.  I guess this is my last class with the Silva's.  You guys were the most influential throughout my film school career and I appreciate your willingness to help me and applaud your ability and your patience in dealing with me.  Sometimes it seems I can be difficult just to be difficult.  Thank you guys for teaching me to just keep working and keep producing no matter what because great ideas are only ideas until they are turned into art.  Finally, I thank you and hope to see more work from the Silva's in the future where ever I may be.  I think Toltoy said, "Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs.  This state of mind is not common, but is essential for right thinking."  Well thank you for showing me that.

48 hour race

Wow, well what can I say that hasn't already been said?  The 48 hour film race was intense as shit and I am so glad that it is over.  Not true in fact because I loved it and found that the time constraints weren't too bad.  I thought that there was some really great ones in the mix.  I really enjoyed the atmospheric nature of Emily Sheetz work and how Landon and Jos both used the same song.  It is difficult to make a one minute without laying a song behind it.  I was excited to see all of my friends and I only know the people in 6 x 1, joke that isn't far from the truth.  This project was great because it made sure that I would see everyone in the class at the lab.  I was really annoyed that we had to view the projects after the Cheese Sandwich Film Festival but once we started I realized that I was a sour puss and that the atmosphere was perfect.  The darkness, alcohol was flowing, condoms were in the back if you needed them.  The stage was set is all i'm trying to say.  I used Taylor's digital camera as my source of image capturing and it was easy as pie.  I called Tyler Nisbet to come in and hold the camera for me.  I had a whole scene set up with my roommate who is also named Tyler but he chicken out.  He has two blonde wigs and I wanted to make us gay roommates that loves cheese sandwiches.  It would start with me working out and trying my best to be really masculine.  That isn't always easy.  Tyler  would be very fragile and tender to the naked eye, but he is devilish I assure you.  He would suggest a moonlight picnic and make us cheese sandwiches.  I would then masturbate into his sandwich that he made with wheat bread so some reason that I am unaware.  This way it would distinguish his sandwich from mine own.  We would go out by the pond behind my apartment and I would look up at the stars as he would bite into the sandwich.  He tastes something funny and opens it and states, " My god, it's full of stars."  I would still be looking at the sky and kind of take it as is thinking that he is just pointing out the obvious.  So later that night the camera would enter his room and we would be having intercourse.  I would be wearing the blond wig.  The darkness would only show our silhouettes and the audience would think that the wig wearer would be the more feminine Tyler.  The next shot would be on feet.  Underwear would drop to the feet showing that someone was on the toilet.  That person would stand up and look into the toilet seeing semen submerged.  This character would be the masculine me.  I would then say OOOOO.  Now I understand what Tyler was talking about and I am the fool.  But he didn't want to do it so I went on to make a less offensive film.  The clean up from the film I made was quite a task.  I had to scrap Ranch dressing off the bathroom walls, what I missed ate through the paint.  There was sour milk along the toilet and egg shells sat in our tub for at least a week.  My roommates hardly noticed.  I was all out of rice puddle for which I used it as a match on action from licking my knuckles clean of fake seamen (believe what you want to believe) and was bummed because they are kind of expensive and should last longer but once you pop.   Am I right? Trust me, I'm right.

Freestyle

All day I have been in my room staring at a book my ex-girlfriend gave me and all I can think of is the urge I have to burn it.  It is called The Glass Castle and it is written by Jeannette Walls.  It is a memoir of sorts and is about her life on the streets.  My ex always considered herself an intellectual, which is why she always read the books on Oprah's book club list.  The girl is as shallow as a tide pool.  One good thing she did for me was she started buying me biograpghies and autobiographies.  Of course much of what is said is untrue, fabricated, or exaggerated but it is at least an incite on events that took place in the past.  Anyways, this stupid girl got me thinking about how important our stories are and why I love documentaries so much.  Some documentaries are not very good and they get old fast.  It is really difficult to sit and watch talking heads for a long period of time if the story isn't captivating.  Yesterday I watched the story of Ali vs. Frazier and I was impressed by the story I had heard so often but somehow learned more from this documentary from all the sports shorts I'd seen on ESPN before.  The archive footage was incredible and it went play by play with commentary from some of the sport's most eccentric characters.  Joe Frazier was a big part of the documentary and he is really beaten up.  Of course, Ali can't stop shaking but Frazier still took a lot of punches to grow into a weather skin suit of armor.  Some of my favorite movies are based on real stories.  Raging Bull is one of those films that if it is on tv I have to watch it no matter what my plans were before, things have changed, Raging Bull is on.  Raging Bull is shot in a documentary like style and it really makes the film come off as real and authentic.  Just like when songs are sang in the first person and don't like about we or they and tell someone else story. A film that is playing tonight for free at Lumina is shot in the documentary style as well, the new film The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourick or however you spell his name.  They shoot most of the scenes handheld and have an arrangements of following shots that make the audience feel like they are witnessing the life of a washed up wrestler not a film that glorifies his failures.  The more documentaries I watched the more I liked films that did not have such an ensemble cast like Robert Altman films.  I still love Robert Altman but my style has drifted from his.  Paul Thomas Anderson takes a huge amount of visual and narrative influence from Altman.  I think all his movies are impressive but his best are his most recent because he starts to move in on the human soul of individuals.  In Punch Drunk Love he focuses on the loneliness, trepidation, and cowardice or Adam Sandler.  His most recent work, There Will Be Blood was nearly a perfect film, maybe it was, I will look at it more as the years go by.  He isolates the greed, abandonment, and sadness for one man that leaves the audience with an insight of a tortured man.  Documentaries focus on the problems inside the bigger problems and I think that is what good film does as well, not always but for 600 words it does.  Thank you very much and I will see you Thursday.

The Rough Theater

The Rough Theater is the roughest ass shit on da market son, fo shhow.  The Rough Theater is still theater, but it has an edge.  Ok Ok lets start from the beginning of the two page article and maybe I can get this right.  The author focuses first on the design of theaters and how they are all about allowing interaction with people.  People love theater for the meeting place to talk about poltics, culture, art, sex, alcohol leading to sex, needing sex and not seeming perverted, so it is basically like college with grown ups.  Architects come into major theaters and try to figure out what the perfect design could be and what will allow it to become the most successful.  I am not sure what is more prestigious, The West End or Broadway but I know some of the theaters on Broadway are beautiful and others are a little run down.  I really hope that I can stretch 600 words out of this small article but I will do my best.  Theater is not always rich people going to see renditions of William Shakespeare plays.  The article discusses the positives of rough theater in the back allies where bums do drugs and get hand-jobs and I frequent to catch them doing both...and sometimes participate but never uninvited.  Ok, so it is always the big plays like Avenue Q that saves the theaters and keeps butts in the overpriced seats but it is the small off beat theater that gives playwrights a chance to learn and build their arsenal and hone their craft.  I really love some off beat theater but a lot of times I go and I can't stand it but if you are serious and are willing to work then you deserve a chance just not always at the highest level until you have proved yourself.  One of my favorite movies is finding neverland and it is about the playwright that wrote Peter Pan.  He brought children into the theater and with them brought life to a dying art.  At the time it was really taboo and at first the regular trained theater goers did not like what they saw.  People get used to the safe stuff and do not want to pay hard earned money for stuff they might not enjoy.  Seasoned theater goers do not want to see actors that change their accents and moods to suit the mood of the audience which is sometimes an aspect of rough theater.  They did tests and proved that theater goers are trained to focus and find mistakes, they do not understand when things are not completely consistent.  First time viewers who were in this case jail birds had no trouble following the changes and loved when the actors played to the audience.  I am listening to Nick Cave and just watched a movie he wrote called the proposition and thought it as really good.  I am a sucker for Westerns.  I saw Oklahoma at the Hippodrome, an overpriced theater back home and liked it but was not thrilled with it.  It was well done but I would have loved to see something else if I had the choice.  Nick Cave is big into making soundtrack like music and got into music through rough theater.  Is this true?  probably not but I am trying my best here to make it stick.  Rough theater is the breeding ground of artists and sometimes the home of great art.  It is worth taking a chance and buying a ticket to small venues with good atmospheres, you could get laid which we all love unless you get paranoid of where people like that have been.

The Yes Man

Yes, this documentary is not to be confused with the 2009 comedy starring Jim Carey, this shit is fo reale.  This is one of the best political documentaries that I have ever seen.  I am sure you and Shannon have seen a lot more than I have so you may laugh at that statement but I really really really enjoyed.  Its funny because it reminded me of a Jim Carey movie, The Truman Show.  The Truman Show is without a doubt the most fucked up movie of all-time.  Ed Harris is the director of a corporate reality t.v. show starring Jim Carey who was bought as a child and brought up in a make believe town with make believe people.  They are all actors pretending to be his friends and family.  When Andre first put on the movie I was a little confused on what the purpose of the Yes Man was.  I thought they were just internet activists trying to mess with the hypocrisy of the Bush administration.  I am not a political person what so ever.  In fact, I am a little ashamed at how apathetic I am towards issues that are so important.  I think it might be because I am from a closed family where no one gets in or out.  This is sometimes a bad thing.  But, even I think that what the Bush administration did was pretty awful and we as America look pretty stupid for not finding someone better the second go around even though the other candidates were terrible.  Anyways, I thought what they were doing was incredible and incredibly fucked up.  They were lying to powerful people, pretending to be people they weren't and the best part they were exposing how flawed our system truly is, which was not comforting.  I thought that both men, actually everyone including the costume designer, but definitely the two main activists were very dedicated.  I do not think I have the balls to go in front of people knowing that I could get in trouble and do it over and over again.  I loved how they shaved their heads to look professional.  I do not know if they are gay lovers but that aspect was really entertaining.  I was impressed to see people backing them.  It was a real struggle to find funding which is kind of like being an independent filmmaker.  I think it would be nice to be Stephen Speilberg in the sense that anytime you get an idea and want to create it then you can go to Dreamworks for the money.  If you some reason they said no, which I don't see happening because he basically owns it, he can say Fuck off, I'm using my own money because I have Jaws.  Anyways, I really did appreciate what the Yes Men were doing.  In this blog we have to discuss why the Yes Man documentary is important to look at in relation to our 48 hour film race.  Everything these men did was a race to create something and pull off the impossible.  Do the film race was incredible and I am so happy we didn't do it during exams because I heard horror stories of sleep deprivation from the class last year.  In your defense, everyone said it was a great time though.  That was one of my favorite projects and the restrictions made it even better.  In the words of Todd Berliner, speaking the words of Orson Welles, "If you believe Orson Welles, (pause for dramatic effect...this worked in a room full of students) and be careful if you don't.  The greatest art comes from under the greatest restrictions."  I for some reason thought that was bull shit until I was watching a few movies from the HUAC period and realized they are all good even though they had to deal with incredible restrictions.  The Yes Man had restrictions, the greatest one being time.

John Lethem

I just read the article Ecstasy of Influence by Johnathan Lethem and it was really good and that is important because it was kind of long.  Lethem is a great author.  I have read two of his novels, Motherless Brooklyn, which Ed Norton has the rights to and is trying to get off the ground, and The Fortress of Solitude.  Both were great works that included aspects that I have seen before.  It didn't take anything away from the stories because as different people can be, sometimes we face similar problems.  The main character in Motherless Brooklyn has turrets syndrome.  My little brother had turrets syndrome and he means the world to me, so I read books that incorporate it. Lethem makes the argument that society believes that once something is created it is completely the creators.  Bob Dylan used the world around him to create his music.  Neil Young has had one number one hit song, Heart of Gold.  Heart of Gold is off his album Harvest.  Young had created plenty of songs that were nothing like Dylan's.  Dylan was incredibly successful at the time and Young moved to Nashville to record an album with an entirely new crew of studio musicians.  Heart of Gold and Oldman became huge hits.  When Dylan heard the songs of the radio he flipped out.  He believed if they sounded like his songs then they better be his songs.  But everyone knows that Dylan has been influence by artists like Woody Gutherie.  Vladimir Nabokov's most successful novel is Lolita, which it turns out is to be taken from a German author during the Great War.  Lolita is ranked as the fourth greatest novel of the 20th century by the Modern Library.  Lolita has been made into a movie twice, once by the great Stanley Kubrick.  Nabokov believes that his greatest achievement is the translation of Eugene Onegin.  Much of the world's work is influenced by other great art.  Many of the most beautiful films I've seen are found footage projects.  Much of the greatest artists are influenced by other great art, not always void.  Maybe there is something to be said for all the films that are considered to be modern masterpieces are really European remakes.  I was watching The Birdcage with Robin Williams the other day and in the beginning it states at the bottom that it is based on the French film by some other name.  So where does it all lead, I think in the right direction as long as producers and artists do not rest in safety of remaking already successful art.  Much of the art that is taken from another artist is used as a critique towards society or oneself.  I do not like it when a rap song is made out of a classic blues or rock song because I think that is like standing on the shoulders of great men and cashing in their chips.  But maybe you could make the argument that it is exactly like what we are talking about.  I thought the strongest part of the article was with the music game.  Muddy Waters wrote a song that was very similar to one previously written by the great Robert Johnson.  Waters said that the song flowed right out of him even though it was similar to a song he had heard before.  Maybe the idea of being original is not important but the expression one achieves by the process.  I am sure that what Aaron Valdez has done has also been done by someone else but it does not make him any less of an artist.  I don't think the same can be said for your most recent work Andre, that stop motion underwater with the fish, my god that was awesome what ever it was.  When you're born into a society that makes everything up as it goes along it is impossible to create something completely original without creating your own language, which is an idea.

The Molotov Man

This was the most interesting article that we have had to read so far this year.  I did not expect to get a little history with the article but I did and it flew by.  I am not saying it made me want to join a cause or anything but seeing someone so passionate about something is absolutely incredible.  Look in the Mototov man's eyes and you see his fury.  Look at his chops and you see his outdatedness.  I was a little confused with the two authors and both of those authors being primary sources but I reread the article and I got it.  How the article was split was really confusing.  I would read a sentence and the next one would not make sense because it really continues on the top of the page on the other side, not the big paragraph right beside it.  The painter, Joy Garnett, took photos off the internet and put them in a folder because she is cool like that.  She went back and began to filter through the ones she wanted to recreate via canvas.  I never thought of doing that but it is very clever.  The original Molotov Man was almost 6 feet talk which is too small if you ask me.  I kind of see myself as a tall strong beautiful political figure.  Oh yes oh yes.  Joy Garnett painted plenty of pictures and got a gallery to have a showcase and so she went to get permission to use the photos.  She went to some money hungry bitch that had her lawyer write a lot of threatening letters about suing and that she wanted 2000 dollars for licensing and additional fees.  Garnett's art became tainted.  Someone online found the photo and out it on his webpage and it opened the flood gates.  The bottle that the Molotov Man threw happened to be a fucking Pepsi.  Can you believe it?  I thought Coke was huge down there but no it was Pepsi.  So Pepsi goes ahead and sues the fuck out of Joy Garnett.  She is taking it from all angles.  All she wanted to do was painted a picture depicting human emotions and find a way to make it a critique of society, which would have made it ok like our found footage projects.  Which by the way I did a found footage project for Shannon in intro to editing and I was thinking about cutting it down to a minute.  What do you think?  Being a pain in the ass, the original photographer decided to write an article to defend herself and her photo.  She did not want the image to be changed in any way because she believed it took away from the art of capturing a moment in time when humans are pushed to the extreme.  So "Joywar" began.  I had no idea that the image was taken so long ago and all the problems began in 2003 if I remember correctly.  The original photographer, Susan Meiselas ended up not suing and taking any money from the artist but put up a good defense for her herself which I've kind of already explained.  They went back and found the Molotov man would owns his own truck, so apparently he is rich.  The image was been used as symbols for many political uprising in Nicaragua.  The man's real name is Pablo Arauz.  What really bothered me was that Arauz had his image sold.  The article did not touch on the fact that Arauz never gave permission for the picture to be taken or used.  It reminded me of Apocalypse Now where Dennis Hopper keeps going around Marlon brando and Brando wants to crush him like a bug.  It makes me wonder if someone took a photo of me on the toilet and then printed it and then I became the face of a joke political party called the dumbshits.  Maybe I did not want to be the image of such an organization and I would not want my face on billboards or t-shirts.  Everything seems to be on a case by case basis and in this one I think everything turned out alright.

48 hour ideas

This is probably going to be the most difficult blog topic yet because writing 600 words is difficult in the first place, I mean we are only in college Andre.  The 48 hour race to produce a respectable 1 minute film seems like a great idea right now but I am sure that when it is a race and I am scrambling to find ideas and props and people to be in the film...I will be completely fine because that is how I do all my projects.  That was a joke I am always prepared you can tell by the quality of my work.  That might also be joke.  I saw a bunch of cool ideas from last years class and really enjoyed the stop-motion films.  I was pretty impressed with the creativity of people like nate rudolf and Dustin Klein.  I think Dustin used the camera on his apple laptop, which I might steal from him depending on the prop.  I usually like what Dustin does but his technical competence is far and away better than my own.  My computer does a similar camera but it is not a laptop and I would be limited to film in areas that have outlets.  I am really tired of seeing films shot in the seahawk village apartments.  I live in one of the fine quality pill boxes.  I just shot a film last year with Tyler and Taylor and the apartment looks like every single one you will fine in every other student film.  Time is actually something that seperates the quality of the projects and I worry my sound will suffer for it.  Nate Rudolf used a digital camera, I think he shot it in black and white, which I am almost always a fan of.  Nate had taken around 200 pictures and the movement was smooth and beautiful.  I think a digital camera would take a while to do but is probably the direction I would like to go in.  I would like to make my life like a Billy Joel song.  What?  I would like to make a piece about the lack of Air Wick air freshers in my roommates rooms.  I have two and it is not because I am a ladies man and they would not come in my room if it smelled bad alright because they would come in no matter what it smelled like and some of the smells we make are not always pleasant.  They are five dollars at any local conglomerate supermarket.  They plug right into the wall and you can buy refills so it is not a big deal to change them or a wear on your wallet.  I could do a remake of Forest Gump where everyone else is slow and Forest finally understands how difficult he is to deal with day in and day out.  I could also do a reenactment of the many civil war battles with my camera phone and have a truce between the south and the north and an Indian comes out of the wood work to offer the mystery prop as incentive to let them keep some of their land.  Then both sides come together to hate the Indian.  When you think about it, Dances with Wolves really did not tell the Indians story well enough where people stop taking advantage of them.  I mean they got here first and we just took it.  They were nice to us and then we took it.  They helped us survive and then we took it, we took it all.  So yeah I think that is it.  I will use a digital camera or camera phone and shoot a one minute film where the north and south finally agree on something...the brutual useless awful killings of an innocent people.

Long shot

The long shot.  It is everything in narrative that I want to accomplish.  Orson Welles said that the long shot separates the men from the boys.  I was really really really excited to work on 16mm film for the first time.  Every single film experience has brought strange events.  I have never had film turn out quite as I wanted it 2.  It was raining, we were all ready for it.  We created a story around it.  The rain would add to the creepiness; the loneliness of the main character.  Taylor was going to be the DP and I the actor.  There was no need for a lot of direction.  My character would be drench in rain while carrying an umbrella.  To add the character he would have a high-step tip toe.  I wanted to make it look like the Cabinet of Dr. CAlligary.  Tyler thought I was being French which I don;t understand but whatever.  It was a lot of fun finding a location.  It just so happened to be right next to another group.  Our project was better haha.  Joselyn's group had a mean dance routine that had a resemblance to a good West Side Story.  They had a lot of fun playing in the rain.  We rehearsed and rehearsed until it our time was right around a minute.  We shot it at the last minute and laughed about all the time it took to do something so simple.  We ran in and developed the film and it was shit.  Useless and it was our fault.  Light is the most important aspect in cinematography and without it there is no picture.  Andre didn;t think it would come out and he was right, he always seems to be when it comes to my failures.  We had to do a reshoot after the two other groups were finished with their projects.  We had to do it off the cuff and it was shit.  I really hate DV but cant seem to do well with film.  I will do better next time by making sure I understand the F-stops and amount of light coming through the aperture.  Taylor is a good DP and Marcus is a good Dolly pusher.  I bet he could push some drugs, seriously.  I am really happy with the effort we made just not the results we had.  All the groups came out with something that was pretty good.  I can't believe that they are cutting 6 by 1 next year.  That is straight bullshit.  Everything will be digital video and a film degree is a lie.   Since using a dolly, I no longer want to do a static shot unless it is completely called for.  I am pretty sick now and I am not blaming it on the shoot but if I had to I guess I could.  I am glad that Andre gave us another chance.  If we only had more light, our first project would have been beautiful.  The crane shot was incredible but it didn't turn out.  The 360 degree arc was pretty amazing too but everyone thought we were doing a remake of The Dark Knight.  The animation turned out pretty well.  I can't decide which project I want to edit.  I guess the I will wait and see what Taylor wants to do because I trust her.  To get 600 words, I am currently listening to Ray LaMontagne and wearing only underpants and socks.  I am drinking Pepsi and recently had a bagel.  

Scratch Junkies Dos

This project from the scratch junkies was hands down, incredible, baby baby.  I really enjoyed the rooms atmosphere to tell you the truth.  It was at the end of class, they are not short you know, and everyone wanted to leave and Andre started it up.  The music came on and the room immediately perked up.  Rob's lips were closed tighter than an old lady's purse.  I guess you could say that he was lost in the moment, like a wrinkle in time kind of deal but not as moving because it is Rob were talking about.The beat started and it got funky.  The coloring was amazing from what I can remember.  I can't seem to figure out how to get into the system for 6 x 1.  I hope you are getting these posts or I am fucked for the class.  The editing was quite funny when it lined up with the music.  The song was called St. Louise and the beat is totally tits, I dig it like a garden.  For some reason I thought that this project was much more fluid.  It just moved and was completely rhythmic.  I guess that is why you showed it to us before we had to do our rhythmic editing project, which I enjoyed doing last night.  The entire 6 x 1 class was in there and I think everyone had problems printing to video.  I looked up the scratch junkies on youtube.com and couldn't find much material.  Is there a third installment of the scratch junkies?  I found a lot of sound that had a nails on a chalkboard type of feel, but nothing worth watching.  I want in the scratch junkies gang.  I wonder if I screwed up would they scratch my throat, not killing me but severely annoying me.  Annoying me enough to the point of quitting, not before destroying all of their projects.  Although, I think they are great, I do find pleasure in destroying the progress of others.  It is funny to watch their faces change and go through the cycle of emotions.  The first project really didn't get me into scratching.  I knew it must have take a lot of time to do frame by frame.  Then I did one for myself and then I respected it even a little more.  Once I saw how little I had done in such a long period of time, I thought the scratch junkies were a little better than before.  Once I saw my work on a big screen, in front of my peers haha, well then I thought to myself, you have to be a special person to be a scratcher full-time.  I see myself doing more scratching in the future, in between projects and school work.  Film is so expensive that you better have a good idea of what you want out of it before you start scraping the emulsion from the strip.  This St. Louise project seemed to create a narrative with the rhythm.  It didn't say anything or tell a story, but I felt like it progressed and I was there with it.  Those are the experiences that are really worth having.  If I had to give a professional grade to the project I would give it a 90/100.  It lagged in certain sections, which is fine, slow stuff can be fun, Shannon taught me that, but I think it could have been cut down a little.  That's what the classes have taught me is that everything could be cut down.  Words are just words, they don't create the atmosphere, which creates the feeling, which is what you remember when the viewing is over.  The scratch junkies are alright in my book.  Writing about them isn't exactly easy because your opinion gets old after a while.  

Sound Recording

The article by CHion is about how sound adds value to your project.  Ingmar Bergman, or whatever his name is, used sound to manipulate the emotions of the viewer.  This is called added value by Bergman.  I just bought a movie of his called Autumn Sonata.  After reading this article, I am a little worried that it will not be as enjoyable as Persona was the first time watching it.  Now I can't watch Persona without thinking of how sound adds the suspense and emotion to the image and isn't all that great to begin with.  This article, like most of the articles Shannon made me read really destroyed the films I thought were great before film school.  It is like reading a book when your a teenager and swearing it is the best book you will ever read.  This happens a lot with pop music as well.  You go back and read or listen to the piece of art ten years later and it is complete shit.  I want to bring up an instant this year where Shannon ruined by viewing pleasure.  I was in a theater watching Slumdog Millionaire.  The movie was pretty fantastic.  It draws a lot of it's visual style from Latin American film.  I was shocked to hear a bunch of people in the theater talking about how Indian it was and how they had never seen a picture like it before. It was completely fucking Hollywood in style except for the end where they dance.  The thing that bothered me the most though were the chase scenes.  Every chase scene there were drums and other instruments manipulating the emotions of the viewers.  I felt like a fucking puppet and had to find a way to get over it.  I have no idea who should win best director this year.  They are all good but none of them great.  I'm sure a lot of my other teachers really were blown away by the classical style of the films this year but after the tutelage of the Silvas I am becoming a little bit of a cynic.  I believe the movies were pretty good but none changed my life.  Give the credit where the credit is due.  A lot of hard work and innovated ideas went into the top films, but the constant layering of music underneath the image totally upsets me now.  Thanks Shannon.

Welles

Today, in my screenwriting 1 class with Chip Hackler, we watched the 1998 animation feature The Iron Giant.  It is one of the first movies by Brad Bird.  Brad Bird has done a few other Disney animation features and made bank, most likely.  Like most of the kids in our class, I grew up on Disney animation.  I remember them being excellent in quality and story.  I believe that the stories are a little weaker, now that I have gone back and watched the majority of them over again.  Shannon always used to talk about how they were complete propaganda.  I'm starting to see that as being true.  This is story, The Iron Giant, looked like Cold War propaganda to me.  The quality of high-budget animation has come a long way in a short period of time.  The other day I watched the classic The Rescuers.  The picture quality was so bad I almost turned it off.  Bob Newheart was very funny, like always.  Anyways, the more I look into Disney animation the weaker they appear, just like Shannon said they would.  So there goes my childhood but I guess that is okay.  Chip and I talked about your new animation short and he couldn't stop praising.  He said you just won some award at the Black Maria Film Festival or something, so congratulations.  I know some of my facts are wrong on that but anyways.  The article discusses the different forms of animation and it's history in American movies.  The first animation appeared in movies as a intense relationship between animation and live action.  Welles writes, "The early development of the cartoon form was characterized by an overtly signified tension between animation and its relationship to live-action.  This resulted on many occasions in films combining animation and live-action, of depicting the creation of animated character by the artist who drew it, and the activities of the animated character within the working environment of the artist."  Animation has split into two ways.  There are major pictures of full animation movies that have become large teamed projects (orthodox) usually complying with the realist range of movement and time.  Not much imagination if you ask me.  Richard Linklater made a movie based off a Phillip K. Dick story that was Rotoscoped.  That was pretty cool, but Kenau Reeves was in it, so it was ruined.  Welles discusses the distinct styles of animation and the theories behind it.  He is for experimental animation.  Instead of speaking the language of movies it speaks the language of art.  It is understood through rhythms, colors, sounds, and in-fluctuations.  Most orthodox animation follows a narrative structure where experimental animation is more on an interpreted path.  Continuity is less of a problem for abstract animation.  It doesn't matter if you play by  the rules because you are creating your own world.  The process of animation is explain a little in the beginning.  Today, pencil and paper is used much less than computers, amazing right.  For orthodox animation configurations is very important.  Welles writes, "Most cartoon figures 'figures,' i.e. identifiable people or animals who corresponded to what audiences would understand as an orthodox human being or creature) despite whatever colourful or eccentric design concept related to it, i.e. Donald was recognizable as a duck whether he wore a sailor's suit or khaki togs and a pith helmet!."  It was very important to keep things understandable and boring to sell.  My guess is that Welles is Canadian because he spells his words strangely.  The orthodox animation must have specific continuity, a narrative form, evolution of context, unity of style (boring), absence of the artist, and dynamics of dialogue.  If you want to create art but make it like a factory processes cheese, then animate in the orthodox style.  But if you want to create great art and put your stamp on everything you create then experimental animation is the way to go.  I just saw the movie Igor.  It is an animated movie about the hunchbacks of the world.  I thought the story and animation was quite bad.  It had John Cusack in it so I expected big things but got little.  I was very upset and still have a little fire inside me from the experience.  I will make animated better than that tonight.

Sundance

Camera-less Filmmaking

I have had a decent experience making cameraless films up to this point.  The truth is, other than the majority of the projects I have done for Shannon, I have no never made a cameraless film.  The ones I made for Shannon were never very good.  I am not very technical at thing, especially filmmaking.  Now if we mean cameraless filmmaking in the way of not using any type of camera, digital, film, or HDV, well then I haven't made anything really except the little experiment we did on the first day of the class.  I would like to try that again because I didn't take it seriously enough to get an outcome I was pleased with.  I really want to try and make a film using nothing but wax but I don' think that would work.  The wax would probably ruin the projector and the wax would not be translucent enough to see through on film.  Last week was a ball.  I took a Xanax before class and was all over the place.  I was barely moving but I became focused on making a soup.  I had a medicine bottle for of discount migraine pills, listerine breathe mint strips, a leaf, and a pen full of ink.  The process became so fascinating and it must have been rude to be making during class, I am sorry but I felt like a little kid that found shit in the sandbox.  For some stupid reason, I played with that sandy turd and loved it.  In the beginning I took a pen and drew all over the pills.  I painted them royal blue with the ink from my pen.  I then took the side of a beer bottle cap and filed the pills down into a fine powder.  The powder was a beautiful blue.  I then would spit in the cap and lay a strip of listerine mint into the mix.  I stirred it would the end of a pen and it was fantastic.  I made the turd into a beautiful gem.  It smelled, but it was mine.  I'm pretty sure Rob wanted it.  He kept trying to take my stuff.  I think it was you Andre that told me to kick his ass, good advice.  Over the weekend I felt bad for what I had done and visited him in the hospital.  He acted up again so I spit on him. No harm, no foul.  We are friends again.  I went back and tried to make the substance sticker.  I know for a boy, you wouldn't think this would be hard and you know what, your exactly right.  I broke the pen and poured the remaining ink in the cap and mixed it.  I had to add about four pills to get the consistency right.  The mixture became hard and I wouldn't have to worry about dropping it.  I hadn't made a mess like that in days.  The table was covered in white powder, not what you think, and ink, exactly what you think.  I went to bathroom and got some paper towels and cleaned it up.  Although I left a little stain on the soap dispenser, which I hoped you would not see.  Don't worry, I went back today and someone had cleaned it off.  If it were you that cleaned it off, I'm sorry, I owe you big time.  I understand that if you let yourself go crazy with the chemical stuff you will died, see Stan Brakhage.  I was really impressed by the experiment we did in the black box.  I had no idea how easily light could effect film.  I knew you weren't supposed to expose it long but you just flipped the light on and off and it created something incredible.  That honestly is about it when it comes to my cameraless filmmaking.  Taylor and I are moving slowly but are extremely excited to see what we can created this weekend on our projects.  

Brakhage

This weeks assignment is to read a portion from the book a moving picture a giving and taking book by the great experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage.  Stan Brakhage is an amazing filmmaker.  I remember discussing his influence with Professor Palmer and especially Shannon last year.  She told me that Martin Scorsese has a watercolor picture done by Stan Brakhage that hangs behind his desk on his wall in his office.  By the way I finally got the movie Badlands so tell her I said it was well worth the wait.  Anyways I decided to do a little research on the man that will be telling me about scratching and dying celluloid.  So just little bit of what I learned is that Brakhage was a strictly non-narrative filmmaker.  His interest of mythology and symbolism comes out in his experimental work.  One of the similarities between Andre and Shannon and less known Brakhage, all three filmmakers preacher production no matter what.  Even if it is shit you are creating and that is the most important thing.  Making things that will be around even after we are not.  Watching Badlands, I wanted to find some of the techniques discussed in class and in the book but I found none.  I was watching a little short clip of Tim Burton stuff and found a lot of stop motion which is interesting.  David Fincher uses a lot of the scratching technique in the opening sequence in the movie Seven.  I find it amazing when mainstream directors can use experimental techniques in their major motion picture and have millions of people across the world see stop motion, in camera editing, or scratching on film. Brakhage was a singer which doesn't surprise me.  In his writing, his personality jumps off the paper or in this case the screen.  He is intelligent as hell.  He went to Dartmouth College on scholarship but then decided to drop out and pursue filmmaking which is quite bold, especially the direction of filmmaking he wandered into.  Brakhage discusses the importance of loading film into the projector and gives plenty of basics in the screen on film. Before screwing around with film in Andre's class, I had no idea how easily the stuff can break.  Apparently I don't know my own strength because I tore the film strip in half.  Brakhage explains that sound speed moves at 24 frames per second through the projector.  Much like Andre and Shannon, Brakhage discusses the difficulties and potential down falls in production, but he never wants the student to not try something.  You cannot learn until you have failed.  It is a terrible example but I believe you can't learn from watching, you have to do.  Like I've ridden to Philadelphia probably 50 times in my life, but I never really knew exactly how to get their until I started driving, taking wrong turns, finding different ways around Pennsylvania until I was conformable with the area.  Brakhage discusses the use of lighting, both natural and artificial.  He talks about daylight lights and other colored lights which we are learning about in Tools and Techniques which thank you again Shannon I ended up getting into the class and it is helping me tremendously.  Brakhage discusses the techniques of places the film into the projector and lighting your film.  He says to throw you light meter out which I found to be amazing.  Glen Pack would shit his pants if he heard someone say that in front of him.  Brahkage discusses the basics of film machines to produce honest art.  What I got out of this article is that anyone can use a camera and projector and know how to use lighting effectively if you take the time.  The machine are just technology, never let the technology create your art use the technology to create your own worlds.  Keep on Rocking in the Free World.

Sundance Kid

Scratch Junkies

I really enjoyed the short film by the scratch junkies.  After having Shannon as a fabulous professor (can't wait for that baby), I know that film must have taken a long time to finish.  The scratching was really impressive around the central figure in the frame.  I honestly didn't enjoy the music very much which took me out of it.  After a while I was just focusing on the scratching and then got a small kick when the music and picture matched up.  This truly was an experimental picture not just a narrative with atmospheric moments.  I really enjoyed the designs but I became a little bored.  I started looking for patterns and then began to slip.  My ADD kicked in after 3 minutes and I wasn't paying as close attention to anything anymore.  After it was over I was impressed but became side tracked in the process of viewing.  I look forward to making my own short projects with cutting up film and making designs.  I really like the reaction from the audience.  It was neat hearing people react, some people really enjoyed it and other did not and they weren't shy about it either.  Overall I enjoyed it but wouldn't want to watch it again.  O and please tell Shannon thank you thank you for getting me into Terrence Malick films.  Every time I feel like I finally found a movie for me and instead of rushing out and telling everyone I keep them to myself haha they are great.  Anyways I guess this is my first entry.

Sundance Kid