thoughts on project 1d

well this is a tough one, because we aren't actually fully finished yet (and will probably continue to work right up to the deadline) but so far, so good.

brandon smith is great to work with, as he is both very knowledgable and talented. but, true to form, our schedules haven't coincided much and therefore we haven't done that much work together. the initial stages were all done together, in which we essentially got together, picked out the pictures we wanted to use, establishing our theme (isolation as the major), and started laying framework. he wanted to do a lot of work in after effects, which is totally cool with me, but i'm much less capable there than in fcp. not wanting him to have to do most of the work, i decided to take it upon myself to lay the background, thinking that anything he animated could be layered on top.

working solo (and now at my house, thank god, because the lab is too far away and too stifling for me to do good work in. minus the soundscape, i think i pulled that one off pretty well in there...) i started editing the pictures together. first step - pull the pictures i wanted to use that i think portrayed our theme (we had done this together, but i had to start from scratch since i couldn't transfer the project from the lab to the house.) second step - cleared by you, dylan, and jordan, reverse the order of the soundscape. third step - what the hell is it i'm trying to do here?

what i learned when i started putting the pictures together is that this is a "story" of sorts about distortion, about being unsettled, and being haunted, by where you are, where your trying to get to, and where you can't be. the first part (set one, as i named it in my fcp sequence) is a country vs. nature fight concerned solely with physical location, although when its not right inside your head, it's not going to be right no matter where you live. the second part is much more abstract and internalized.

as opposed to making the picures "match" the sound rhythmically (which would have been nearly impossible anyways, as set two has no clear or definable rhythm) i spent alot more time focusing on texture. strange, no? the texture of the picture. and how color plays a part in the story. early on in set one, and without warning, i became compelled to turn everything blue, a color theme that will last throughout the film nearly until the end, when other colors start showing up. but it's this color, or lack of, that is one of the main themes of the film as far as feeling goes. this distance, and isolation, and coldness. i've been playing with lots of different effects, stylization. also, repeatedly been using all three shots of the same subject to create the illusion of motion and/or confusion. i can't tell which.

regardless, it's been a fun (albeit time consuming) project, and i'm excited to see what the final project will look like. after i put the final touches on set two, part two, brandon will get his hands on it all and do his thing, then we're meeting up to finish it all. highly looking forward to tomorrow, and screening all of them.

(sorry for my lapse into sentence fragments. it just felt right)

self-portrait ideas

this is going to be a running list, that i will add to continually, and is, of course, merely an outline and proposed ideas:

all theory, no action
-will be very abstract in form
-montage-esque
-perhaps delve into childhood, but more or less focus on the state of now
-will include sound bites from certain movies
-will include pictures from my past (past speaks for the present?)
-will include video, shot specifically for this project
-will include audio of me reading from selected journals and thoughts that actually made it onto paper

background selection/initial construction
-much like my dreams. or daily reality. (?) abstract, nonsensical, and connective. very strange.
-montage-esque. (again. highly important. all i know.)
-having second thoughts of including audio of myself. i never like how i sound on video, i think that would lead me to be less happy with the final project. maybe instead it'll be a hard copy (to be read by viewer) in conjunction with music?
-will include the major battles i've fought in my life, which have, by far, led me to "me" more than anything else
-essential goal: to splash my brain (and heart) into a timeline in fcp, then cut it up and make it watchable

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it's turning into something very different. like a puzzle, how it all comes together, when you just let it.
10.16.08 00:00

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fuck! it just came to me. and thats what its called. not it just came to me. fuck! you'll see it later.

much different than i thought.
12:11

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ok, so this is beginning to be much different than i had originally, (or secondly) thought... my first idea was ok. my second idea was my favorite. and now, whats its shaping up to become is not exactly what i had in mind... i don't hate it, but i don't love it. due to time constraints, idea two is out of the question. i tried it, but i would have to do another entire shoot, and then start editing... and since the project is due in T-minus 6 days, thats pretty much impossible. (i have had huge problems with both, thus far) i'm not all that far into the editing process, but since i'm supposed to be moving this weekend, theres just no time. plus, tony's equipment request reply said "OK Jordan" and lo and behold, i get there today, and... no mics! i'm not sure why the universe (or tony) doesn't want me to finish this project, but it's getting a bit frustrating... anyhow, like the second ideas theme, i'm kind of having to let this project take its own shape, and go in the direction it wants, while i just act as a moderator. i just hope it ends up ok.

10.31.08 9:04 pm

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oh shit! ok, so... last night, after i posted that last comment, i made some serious changes. like, to the whole thing. since up to this point, most of my 'action' (referring to the theory/action balance) has been from behind the camera and not yet into FCP, it's not a huge deal. because it's not like i've scrapped tons of hours of editing. part of the reason i haven't started editing yet is because i wasn't fully happy with what i had. so... since my project relies on the audio (meaning i have to get the audio track down before i can really get to the video track, for a few reasons) and i was never happy with what the audio was turning into, i switched it up. i had the right idea last time, but i did the wrong thing. so this time, i figured out what the idea actually was, and did that instead. (sounds simple right? yea, not in my life...) so, now that i'm finally on the right track (and it's already freakin' saturday. geez) i gotta pull this one off quick. so, amidst a rather severe sinus infection (NOT good for my audio recording, very nasal) and a move into a new place, i guess we'll see...

p.s. per your comment, about making it about one idea or one event... i just don't know if i could do that... although maybe, the one idea is actually about how weird i am...

11.01.08 9:22am


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so, i'm finally starting to put this shit together....after hours and hours of recording, importing, and sifting through everything i just recorded (and when it's about 15 hours of footage, thats tough. plus, i just hit "capture now" and so everything is named the same thing) i'm getting a bit jaded. but finally, starting to build up the landscape. audio first, then video. and i guess we'll see where it goes... right now, it's becoming a bit of a technological vs. natural landscape, centered around my dad's death (what would be my pre- and post- life wars). strange. who knows...

11.03.08 3:40am

thoughts on project 1b

i thought that creating the soundscape was a great project. it's true, i had never before spent so much time focused on sound, as typically the image is the predominant focus of "movie-making." it really put into perspective how important sound is/can become/should be, and the great lengths you can take an idea like that to.

joselyn and i had alot of fun doing it, although due to our crazy schedules, we weren't actually able to work with each other a whole lot. but what was great is that our different styles of work worked out wonderfully with us as partners. the idea of the soundscape kind of scared me at first, because i was thinking "what will i do with an entirely blank slate, and 160 sound effects?" well... joselyn solved that, because she laid most of the foundation. built up to three minutes, but in no way an actual soundscape, she spent alot of that time taking bits and pieces of sound, expanding and condensing them, reversing them and chopping them up, and doing who knows how many other different things. so by the time i got in there, there was already an awesome amount of stuff for me to play around with. so thats what i did... i had the task of picking out the highlights (some of which i'm still not sure how she actually created) and then making into a little bit more of a "story" for your ears, including sound mixing (lots of tweaking of levels, adding fades in and out, etc....) and creating fluidity. and so once we had our basic soundscape, we took turns finessing it into what became our final project.

the creation process was really fun. there were times in the editing lab when i had to leave, but really didn't want to because i was getting so involved in what was starting to happen in the timeline. but, it was an incredibly time consuming project, as i probably spent 10-12 hours in the lab just on my own.

but in the end, it was all worth it. i think our final product was very close to our initial vision (? - translation into auditory sensation: audition?) of what we wanted, and i feel like we certainly achieved the creepy and disturbed feeling of a doll hospital.

can't wait to see how the final projects turn out!!

thoughts on project 1c

great, great, great. this is the first time i've ever actually played with still photography. in a professional manner, at least. (although i have taken over 150 pictures in one night with my digital "cheat" camera. disgusting, isn't it?)

our group decided to shoot at night. we missed our intended shots of super-slow-shutter-speed fire-spinning, but found some interesting material none-the-less up at the juggling gypsy. then we went even further downtown. a lot of our material was typical "everyday" stuff. a rock, a dumpster, a urinal, etc... we didn't shoot the rolls separately, either. instead, we just found what we liked, decided if it would be better as a realism picture or an experimental picture, and went from there. that gave us free range to pick our subjects based on what we liked, and not what we needed.

hands on experience with the camera and the light meter were great, and much needed. there was an ever-present fear in me that nothing would come out (i'm so used to instant gratification with digital cameras!) but luckily, the prints looked great. after the first few pictures, it became very easy to understand, and the process was less about what settings to use, and more about compositing and framing and the like. the only confusion was over the f-stop settings, because when set on a 2.8, for instance, it was only one click down to a 2, but two clicks to get it to where it looked like a 4. but setting the f-stop at a 4, it was one click up to a 5.6, but two clicks down to a 2.8. we ended up just having a set method and sticking to it, so at least it was all done the same.

our group was fun, everybody worked great together (especially considering that we shot from 11pm-2am), and everybody pulled their own weight and contributed equally.

plus, we got to see jamie downtown at the soapbox.

since then, i have asked my sister if she's interested in selling me her SLR camera. it's 35mm. she said she would just give it to me. great news! can't wait :)

b&w pictures

realism





ansel adams photography has always been some of my favorite. i thought these pictures were striking. and from what i can tell, there was no manipulation.



i though this picture was amazing. the photography is great, of course. but the expression and the feeling of the child is beyond words. it's contentedness, with a kind of "fuck you" non-chalance. in the words of a child, of course.


experimental



i doubt these trees actually appear like this, although i'm not exactly sure what the artist did here. but it's still a great picture.



this is a picture that one of my best friends took of me. i was standing in my kitchen, and feeling a bit camera shy. i never asked him what he did, but i'm guessing it had something to do with the shutter speed, among other things.

light

my backyard at twilight

i'm sitting in my backyard. the sun is starting to set, but it's still light outside. it was an overcast day, so the glow of the evening isn't as golden as it is blueish-grey. everything seems kind of dim. the sun is fully out of view, but there is still a bit of sunlight glinting off of the pool. the whole thing takes about 30 minutes, where it goes from being light outside to becoming almost totally dark. crevices and cracks are the first to go, as the details fade out, and the underbrush becomes invisible, and black. the finely tuned details that are so alive in the light, like a single leaf on a limb, become "erased" by the darkness. the grey twilight is a bit of a let down, as i was hoping for some purples and oranges and such, but for now it will do.


the dentist office

i hate the dentists office anyways. the drilling and the scraping and the unnecessary amount of time you have to say "aaaahhhhhhhh." add the lights and its doubly as bad. i'm laying in the office chair. overhead are typical ceiling flourescents. four of them in my room alone, with four bulbs in each. thats already 16 bright blue bulbs burning my pupils. on the far side of the ceiling, opposite the door, there is a row of decorative lighting, with six extensions, each encasing what seems to be normal, 60 watt lightbulbs. behind me overhead are two more built-in-ceiling lights. ? thats twelve lights. in one room. ridiculous. but then, it gets worse. to add insult to injury, they pull that terrible big mobile light down right over my face and turn it on, searing my corneas. i can literally feel my rods and cones going crazy.

the lighting is so heavy and saturated, that there is literally nothing you can't see. it makes me feel overexposed. the sterility of the room is heightened, and normally matte surfaces become reflective. it's so strange.


my room at night

it's 11pm, and i'm sitting in my room. i have one light on, which is a blue, 40 watt bulb in a floor lamp. the light is angled towards the ceiling. my door is cracked, and a little bit of light is coming in, thrown off from the bathroom. there is also a lit candle, flickering slightly, because there is no wind. by far, the most overt source of light is the computer screen i am currently staring at. the blue light is nice. it casts a sort of mellow green glow. the lamp it's screwed into is also home to hanging hats and purses. one hat, with a fuzzy brim, is creating some very interesting and textured patterns on the wall. another hat, a fedora, is making a shadow about twice as big as itself, and i can recognize at least five different "layers" of shadows. since the light is so low, it's effect fades drastically across the room (although my room is only about 9' in width). the light is hitting my lamp shade, and casting an angular (and still blue) shadow onto my bed. i glance at the glass of water next to my computer mouse, and catch a glimpse of the reflection of the candle behind me on the bookshelf. i also take note of the mouse now. it's got a red light coming from the bottom of it, that you can see via the clear bottom of the mouse and the reflection on the old, brown, wooden desk. looking at my mattress, there is one part in the middle, about a foot in length, that is "lit up" with light, but i can't tell what source it's coming from. it must be the cracked door. my carpet is lit up with blue, but fades fast to pure black when it comes to the underside of furniture. i hope there's no monsters under my bed, because now would be perfect timing...

thoughts on project 1a

i thought that this sound effects project was a really great experience. first off, just the idea arising of the importance of sound was good. it is all too often that our senses become dulled from any angle.

also, i had never spent much time playing with a shotgun mic, or taking into account all of the things one must do when attempting to record not just sound, but sound effects (i.e. get the clearest and cleanest recording possible.)

we had a few different "scheduling" issues, so although it wasn't the way we wanted it to be done, we were incredibly pressed for time when it came down to actually recording the sounds. there was about a four hour window on tuesday (the day before it was due) to get the sfx recorded, not to mention post-production (which was virtually inevitable, again, mainly because due to a time crunch, we had to record looser and cut down later.) but... it worked out (we got the camera! yay!) and went to my house straight away to start working on it. we decided that my shed was the quietest and roomiest place to record most of the sounds, although we did use my garage for a few of them. we had lists prepared, and a good bit of props to use (which we did) so once we started actually recording, the process was fairly fun and easy.

at one point, taylor and russ had the camera over my fence, trying to record my neighbors talking and their dog barking as an ambient noise. when you have the headphones on, it's amazing the tiniest little details that the mic picks up. for instance, almost inaudible by me, the sprinkler in my neighbors yard was picked up wonderfully by the mic.

just in case anybody was wondering, the pepper dialogue came from taylor and myself sniffing pepper. we were trying to sneeze. (voice based sounds were the hardest to come up with.) i had been sneezing ALL DAY LONG because of allergies, until, of course, it's time to record something like a sneeze. and so i was trying to waft pepper fumes into my nose to provoke a sneeze, and it didn't do anything except make my nose burn. so then taylor tried, but still to no avail. alot of the pepper dialogue is us joking around (it did get pretty funny), and the actual sneeze sfx recording is a forced one from taylor. so the conclusion: pepper leaves a burning ball of feeling in the back of your throat, but does not actually make you sneeze. we even tried ground pepper. don't do it.

but as a group, we had alot of fun, although i think we all wished we had had some more time to go to a few different places at least. it was a good time to get some hands on experience recording my own sound effects (something i've never done) and an interesting experience, to say the least.