Rating the videos

I have recently completed all my video assignments so that I am able to rate all of them on the grading scale Andre wanted. As I mentioned in a previous blog I was a little hesitant about the timing of the videos and was very nervous that I would get them done but that is beside the point. I would rate my most favorite as the cameraless filmmaking project. It was very interesting to me to make a film that did not require any kind of camera. It was a different kind of experience that I really enjoyed. Next on the list would be Bolex Long takr. I liked the fact that we only got to do it with one take so it required more rehearsing than the other videos because we only got one crack at it. I kind of like working under that pressure. I also really liked the different quality the video came out in. Third I would have to say would be the multi-plane animation. WHile not a great artist when it comes to drawing I enjoyed the use of stop motion to create animation. It was always something I was interested in but never thought I would get the chance to do it. I actually want to buy a camera that we used to experiment with. My fourth favorite would be the found footage assignment we had for our last video. I really liked the fact that we got to have a lot of freedom with this video and could be extremely artistic with it. While mine did not turn out as good as I wanted to I was able to get a message across I feel strongly about. Number 5 on my list would be the 48 hour video race. I stressed out about this project a lot but once I did it I really liked how it came out and how it forced me to think outside the normal realms of film. It was really cool in the end and i was frustrated that I really stressed out about it and didn't enjoy it as I should have. The last was definitley the rhythmic editing piece. I didn't hate anything about the piece really but I did not love anything about it either. It was neat to do and easy and I liked choosing music for it but it just felt more like a chore than an artistic project for me at times. All in all I loved the class though and wish there was a second part that I could take.

If I could design 6 X1 part 2

If I could design 6 X 1 part 2 there would not be too many things I would have changed. I really enjoyed the amount of projects the class had. TO be honest at first when I got the syllabus I was a little worried. If anything in part 2 I would like to do another cameraless film and maybe a a little more time on some other types. I would like to have worked on another stop motion project but maybe be able to take the cameras home and work on them for like a week or so. I would have liked to explore that a little bit more. I would not like to do another film that required us to use no film camera that we did for the 48 hour video race. I loved the idea of a video race especially with a prop but I was so worried about what I was going to do it was really stressing me. I love film and that took away from it. In the end it turned out okay i guess but I just really did not enjoy it. All in all I loved the class and if there was a part 2 I would probably take it. I'm just not sure what I would add to it besides just maybe a project less and more time on some of the ones we did just with some variations. Different themes or tools would be great.

Mystery Workshop Star Wars

Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars. I do not for the life of me get the fascination with this film. I enjoy it and it is fun to watch but what are people so obsessed with it for? I really have a hard time wrapping my head around people obsessing over anything. That being said I did think the Star Wars idea was kind of cool to do. I see that people love the movie and there are legions of fans for it so to have people do something like this was a great idea. My group did Luke SkyWalker (no clue if I spelled that right) getting sucked into the pit of garbage. We shot it and it came out pretty decent but I'm not sure if we submitted it or not. It was not save on my hard drive and am not sure if the other persons did send it. I also love the idea that it is only done in 15 second increments. When the final product is put together and actually shown it will be really neat to see the fun that fans had doing it and how many there were. If it was done in 1 minute increments or even 30 seconds I think it would just be a little too much. 15 seconds to me shows just enough and alows people to have fun with it. SOme will probably put a little effort and some may even be pretty well done but the contrasting is what will make the film. I liked the assignment and wish I could do it for Blade Runner or A Clockwork Orange or something like that. Any kind of cult movie would be fun. Thats why, even though I really do not get the Star Wars LOVE i get the cult fun of re-doing the film this way. Good assignment, or workshop.

Rough Theater

Rough Theater. At first I was unsure what this meant but now I do and not sure what to say. I had a friend growing up that had a projector and we would use this big blank wall he had down in his basement to screen these huge movies and watch them with our friends. It seemed really fun because it was almost like being in a theater because it seemed so big to us. It was a great time because we could watch any movie we had on it. We watched older films we never saw in the theater on it to try to get the big experience. It wasn't quite the same as a movie theater but it still created a great effect.

Another type of 'rough theater' that I have experienced again was when I was younger. Every summer was spent at the country club my family belonged to in Buffalo. And at the end of every summer the life guards would put a big projector outside after the end of the summer dance and show pictures of the kids that were taken throughout the summer. It was fun seeing the pictures of us diving and swimming and playing tennis. The lifeguards and kids would all get up and say something about the photos and who was in it and funny stories pertaining to it. It was one of the best parts about the summer. I'm not sure if that qualifies as a 'rough theater' but it was one of the first things I thought of when I heard what the assignment actually was. I miss the summers at the country club a lot because I met most of my really good friends there and those pictures were always of my friends and me.

Re-do Yes Men post

Okay, so I guess I responded to the wrong post for Yes Men and now it seems to make a lot more sense. In the movie (from what I remember, it was a couple weeks ago since I watched it), actually to be completely honest I do not really remember it. I do remember watching it and thinking these guys are retarded. But that is just my opinion. I could not for the life of me fathom why these guys were doing it. I understood the point of making people look like idiots right in front of them or even to just prove a point on what people were willing to go along with sometimes. They went to a lot of trouble for it though and , if not for the movie, they were really the only ones laughing. All this time and money spent on a joke nobody got was kinda odd but to each their own I guess. Still trying to figure out how it applies to the found footage project we are going to be doing though. MAybe it was shown in regards to the fact that these guys are able to put different clips and statistics they find in front of people to make a point. Actually I still really do not get it. The movie was beyond me and not really sure how it applies. The guys in the movie found nothing really. They made stuff up and showed it to people and then giggled to each other. Sorry but still at a loss even applying it to the right project. I hope I do not get deducted for that.

Mystery Men

To be perfectly honest i did not really enjoy Mystery Men. I thought it was entertaining and funny some times but kind of annoying a lot of the time. THese guys spend all this time and money for what? to make some college kids mad and make a point to themselves. I got it, the general public is kinda dumb. I've know common sense is not that common for awhile. anyway, how it relates to the 48 hour video race i am not sure. i'm guessing it is a race against the clock and having to come up with different ideas to make something come across that makes sense. thats about all i could think because i know sometimes they came into problems and had to think on the fly and were up late doin their project. they had to improvise and come up with weird ideas which we will in turn have to do when given our mystery prop and little time to make a movie without a film camera. they also made points without a camera. maybe that had something to do with it but probably not the more i type this. i'll stick with the fact that they had to improvise and were on tight time schedules as we will be.

Molotov man and Ecstacy

molotov man was an extremely interesting article. I agree with both sides, if there are even two sides to what people ar saying about Molotov Man. I can see Joys side of here being able to reproduce an image in such a way, especially from a documentary picture, and turn it into her own art. It is tough to draw a line in the sane with this issue because Susan does bring up good points with saying that while artists do and can have that power it may not always be right because if someone is fighting for a cause and an artist somehow takes away froma depiction of that cause,I do not believe Joy did that, then why do it. for arts sake? what about the greater good and who is the judge of it? it is a tough debate and a very interesting article. i also loved joy's paintings.

The Ecstasy of Influence was a great(long) article. I always think about if people are influenced by others are they plagiarising because we as students need to cite everything. I understand why but when did people stop being original because for me it seems that ideas are always recycled in every form of art. there does not seem to be real originality. people tend to get influenced by things in the past, what they see or hear or taste, etc. and make it their own. artists have been doing this since the beginning of artists. Michaelangelo's David is not an original piece of art. it is a man. Men is nothing new but the way he did it was the art. Great article because I think about that all the time especially when people say "oh Avatar was not original" so what. it's how it was done and shown that mad it fun and special and unique.