Ideas on a self portrait

Right now I have two ideas warring in my head.

My first idea is to get 25 different videos of me hitting record and then doing a self portrait in some sort of visual medium (chalk, charcoal, pencil, computer, my own blood etc) -- then to stack these videos 5x5 and put them all on the screen at once -- starting at the same time and then ticking out one by one.

I like this idea because it explores the notion of artistic expression, it is complex and it is helplessly postmodern. All three of those things fit with me, I believe.

My other idea is to play with the idea of hand-drawn stop-motion animation. Stop motion has always been close to my heart -- the first videos I ever did were stop-motion on my mother's old movie camera. I used to spend 5 hour sitting in front of my whiteboard and photographing simple animations to share with my friends on youtube. If that isn't the essence of my artistic spirit, I don't know what is.

With animation I want to play with the idea of permanence -- using pen to make drawings and not allowing myself to discard or erase anything from any of my drawings. I'm also toying with the idea of self-reflexivity (I may have just made that word up) -- by labeling the number of each drawing (1/24th or possibly 1/12th of a second) and writing the time of completion. That way you could literally watch the hours drip away as the animation progresses.

Either way, i'm excited for this project. It's not that often that you are forced to go out and make whatever you want -- to toy with the raw materials of cinema and simply create without pressure or judgement. It's definitely taking me back.

PS -- Here's an example of my old stop-motion stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d0c6diWHM0

or this claymation I did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rN_cQKRYY8

Locations and Talent confirmation for Music Video Project

Bonfire -- Kyle's Back yard.
     Charter Dr. Wilmington, NC 28403

Bathtub -- Carson's Apartment (bathroom)
     On Campus Seahawk Crossing Building 3

Room that is dark -- Carson's Apartment (main room)

Bellevue Cemetery -- Sunday morning 7:00 - 9:00am (Wilmington)

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Talent: Logan Chaucer (singer of Blue Footed Boobies)

My visions for our music video

As director for the music video, the brunt of the creative force must come from me. That alone is quite daunting. I must take a song and, seemingly out of nowhere, create a concept.

With Can you Feel, I first latched onto the word "fire," which arises throughout the song. But of course, where I found real creative inspiration was in the brainstorming--in working out vague concepts into slightly less vague concepts.

I started with fire because 1) I like fire and 2) the song mentioned it and 3) Fire is an interesting visual element. Then I went to graveyards because 1) I like graveyards and 2) Death seemed to be a nice, cool counterpoint to the heat/passion of the fire.

While listening to the song second by second I hit my first stumbling-block 20 seconds in when the guitar really kicks in. How do I represent that powerful musical element? The obvious answer would be to show the guitar itself -- to show the strings which are making the sound. But of course I like the answers that are not obvious the most and so I thought, "How can I represent sound without showing sound in a literal sense?" and then I came upon the idea of using the disturbed surface of water.

I like the improvisational tones of my idea. I like that the fire and the water -- two things that we as filmmakers may influence but cannot control -- get to be a part of the film in the moment as much as we are. I like that I am leaving room for ingenuity, spontaneity and flexibility to thrive within my vision. My only fear is that the loose skeletal structure of my plans will collapse when put under pressure.

As director I've found that there is always that fear. That fear that your project will collapse and it will be your fault. You will be a creative failure. You will let down your group and yourself. You will let down every filmmaker who has successfully created a work of art (or shart). But it all comes with the trade, I suppose. I'm cool with crippling existential fears at this point. Me and them are real good buddies.

A Response to "Arthouse to 'Microcinema'"

While I have a special place in my heart for smaller, independently owned theaters which show movies that are off the beaten path while still being mildly main-stream, I'm not sure I'm sold on the concept of the microcinema. The concept of going to a smelly old trailer and sitting around an old TV set watching an usual (and probably bad) film with some random crazed cine-nerds just doesn't sound like my idea of a good time.

In this internet age, I would much rather find my own obscure films and invite friends over to see them with me in the comfort of my own home. But I guess I am pretty antisocial. And I definitely support independent and experimental film on principal. Perhaps i'm just a hater.

Response to Assignment 1C

What I learned from working with film:

    1) Film is finicky and mildly terrifying: The suspense of opening up the camera, not knowing if the film spooled in correctly -- and knowing that if it didn't your photographs are ruined -- is rather unwelcome. While some of it's temperamental nature may be attributed to the fact that our equipment is old, I think some of it is also simply the nature of film as a medium.

    2) Film is forgiving. When compared to shooting on a DSLR, I found the exposures to be more forgiving in terms of accuracy and depth of image. When shooting digital, you do not have much lee-way with how you set your camera. Here, all three of the bracketed images were usable in some sense. This is most likely because the dynamic range of film is greater. Of course, this is counteracted by the fact that one can immediately see and rapidly take photos on a DSLR.

    3) Film is exciting. Despite my cynicism and love of digital I must admit that it was exciting to shoot on film. I think part of that goes with my general lack of experience with and knowledge of film. It feels (to me) less like an understandable process and more of a magically mystery. When I would release the shutter I was not quite sure what was going on chemically. On top of that the suspense of taking the pictures and having no idea what they will look like until they are developed. That's fun too.

What really excited me about this assignment was not necessarily the film, but the methodical process used to get images with the camera. I really enjoyed measuring each shot with the measuring tape, to know that I am in focus without a doubt, using the sekonic to get all sorts of data on light readings and then finally taking the photo with the desired stops. It -- somewhat ironically -- felt a lot less like experimentation than the manual setting on my DSLR does. When i'm using manual on my DSLR I can take a picture, see the outcome and adjust accordingly.

In short, I guess I felt more professional and less amateurish. Plus, when the senior citizens at my job back home ask me if I actually used film in film studies I can tell them "yes, I did."