earth, wind, water, fire

02.18.08

it's finally time to turn in our first project, the earth, wind, water, fire assignment. on the whole, i thought this was an incredibly interesting assignment. it exposed us to a lot of techniques used to make cameraless films, and they are all very interesting in their own right.

for the project, we decided to use some of our rayogram material for wind (the loose tea particles i used look strikingly like wind blowing), patrick painted with supplied inks for fire, i used magazine transfers to create the water section, and the earth portion was all-encompassing and present throughout, although mainly represented as brown throughout the film.

i found that i got the most intimate with the 100 frame animation section, as it really requires you to sit down and thoroughly think through what you are going to draw. as it turns out, it's a whole lot easier in your head than on film. my initial idea was a bit of strip to start the film, kind of showing the earth forming, starting as nothing more than a bunch of particles of dust and gas in the atmosphere, being drawn together to form a huge ball of fiery lava, eventually being cooled off (over thousands and thousands of years) by the atmostphere (enter the wind and rain elements), and turning into a suitable planet. then i tried to actually draw the planet starting with the formation of pangea, separating into the continents we know in present day, and actually doing a 360 degree rotation in that form (although i feel sure as though it didn't turn out like that. i suppose we'll see soon), and then drawing a simulated camera movement that "zooms" out to reveal the earth figure as the pupil in a mind's eye. perhaps just of the world itself. again, i know this is only going to be about four seconds long, and i'm interested to see how it turns out. the rest of that film strip i painted/drew/bleached on, kind of using as a "summation" for the project. using muddy type swooshes for the earth section in brown (incl. oils), wisps of dark blue for wind, wavy sponge paint in light blue (with overlaying waves drawn on) for water (also incl. oils), and complete chaos in red for fire. i used latex based paint on the emulsions side of the film, and drew on the base side with fine point sharpies.

splicing the film was an interesting experience too, as it took much longer and much more thinking through than i had assumed that it would.

again, i am interested to see how all of these projects turn out.


on another note, i thought the animation exercise we did in class on the 18th was great. forethought helps, but it's really being there and just actually executing the shoot that makes it happen. something like this takes practice, as you seem to run into problems along the way that kind of create themselves, ("how do you make pez levitate and "fly" through the air?") but it was great, and i can't wait to get the footage back into the edit lab to add sound effects and whatnot...

eating pes

02.11.08

i feel like this class exposes me to to the most interesting things.... although i spent nearly all of last class doing another rayogram, it was still a much different experiment than the first time around, as well as a definite learning process. (it's almost like guess and check, what works, what doesn't?)

i thought that the short films shown at the end of class from eatpes.com were absolutely brilliant. there is still some undefined aspect (in my mind) that makes me look at a film like that and think "hey, that looks totally easy to make. i could do that." and to still know deep down that it's an incredibly long, hard process that has taken years and years of practice. perhaps it is the simplicity and recognizability of the objects used. little toy planes, matchsticks, flowers, ornaments, yea sure, we all have that stuff lying around...

i got onto his website to check out some other of his works, and was a bit blown away. first off, at the number of commercials he has made for high profile companies, including nike, psp, bacardi, tic-tacs, and sprint, just to name a few (and just for the record, i really appreciated his tic-tac commercial, entitled "whittlin' wood"). secondly, at the sheer creativity behind his works, as well as the assumed versatility of the peanut. or the pee-nut. roof sex was an incredibly interesting film to watch, and i was surprised to learn during the "making of" video that furniture porn wasn't an original idea. go granny go! (although it's way too bad about the cat). his short shorts are great to watch too, my favorites probably being Moth and Fireworks.

things like this (and people like him) serve as the reminder to me that as with anything, but especially with film, the possibilities truly are endless. there is no need to stay within the lines of any creative boundary. all you need is insight, ideas, and a creative drive to create what you envision. and there you have it: magic.


also, a note on Well's "Notes Towards a Theory of Animation": i thought this reading was great. it was nice to have a bit of a side by side comparison of orthodox vs. experimental films, and i've read and re-read it just to remind myself again of aforementioned revelation. thanks.

class

02.04.08

i love this class. thats all it really comes down to. unlike many film classes i've opted to take, this class is much less about set structure, and much more about creativity. one of my favorite aspects of being a film major is the idea of being able to creatively push myself to limits that otherwise wouldn't be an option. of course, as with any curriculum, there are certain things you have to do to satisfy requirements, and contrary to popular opinion, film is not just an easy cop-out of a major. but amidst the rigid structure of such classes as editing and screenwriting (i.e. "you are going to edit this footage and make it viewable" or "you are going to write a screenplay"), 6X1 provides an opportunity to have a particular project to do, but to really take it in any direction you choose...

coming into this class (and a few of my other classes this semester) i honestly felt a little bit uneducated and unprepared. luckily for me, the guidance and openness of the instructor is strong enough to where that really doesn't matter. before i withdrew from school last january, 6X1 was a class i was enrolled in, and i had the opportunity to go to the first class, at least get an idea of what 'inking' and 'scratching' on film were, and get the first assignment. since then, and in hopes of returning to 6X1 at a later date, i've been marinating on the earth, wind, fire, water assignment.

so aside from being exposed to alot of really interesting, experimental films (and filmmakers) that i probably would have never heard of otherwise, and apart from learning alot of really necessary things that every filmmaker should know (how to load a film projector, how to process film, etc...) i've been exposed to all sorts of limitless techniques in the way of creating cameraless movies. [which really appeals to me. i'm an incredibly hands-on person, and enjoy not being limited in filmmaking to things such as actors, blocking, scripting, editing, so on and so forth]. thus far, i think the magazine transfer technique has been the most interesting to me. scratching on film, yes. inking, yes. even the rayogram makes sense, it's exposing film while manipulating what's on top covering the light, thus leaving a design underneath. but i had no idea that with just clear packing tape, some torn up magazine bits, and a bucket of hot water, you could make a movie....

this class has kept me on my toes creatively, pushing me to think in ways i never have before, and probably wouldn't otherwise. it's an interesting place to be, mindscape, moviescape, film as a landscape, and if i have to be anywhere at 10am on a monday morning, it might as well be here...

brakhage, on giving and taking

01.28.08

as an experimental filmmaker, stan brakhage is a genius. as a philosopher, brilliant. as a writer, wordy and a bit confusing. as a philosophical writer, fine perhaps. while reading brakhage's article "a moving picture giving and taking book" i was a bit disconcerted that his proposed audience were colleagues and student filmmakers. had he been writing to theorists and critics, albeit those with a concentration in film, his old-world style would have worked fine. although precise and understandable, i still thought that his style was a bit long winded and drawn out (i.e. in his explanation of the beloved sprocket-wheels, i thought it could have been half as long, twice as explanatory, and just as effective).

yet still, writing style aside, the information brakhage related is both helpful and necessary to a class like this. he reiterated ideas that are important in almost every aspect of filmmaking, especially cameraless. one point he made early on that i appreciated was when he outlined three important aspects of the moving picture process, and says, "...the success of the illusion of movement depends most critically upon the flips: those split-second interruptions between pictures... --were it not for those interruptions between pictures the pics themselves would blur into an unintelligible mass of lines." this served to me a reminder that all filmmaking, with or without a camera, is truly done frame by frame, and that each one matters. and that those small spaces of time while the shutter's "uneaten part of the pie" is over the gate is just as important as the opposite. there was also a nice review of the A.S.A. as related to film, f-stops, as related to light, (and/or the Nature of Light) which was nice, because this still is a concept that remains fairly confusing to me.

there were times when i thought that this article was perhaps a bit too outdated to matter as much as it does, but then i re-reminded myself that from the past can we learn much more about our present and future situations, so being exposed to ideas such as the splicing issues from back then that we don't really have to bother with anymore just builds a better understanding of the craft, from then until now.

all-in-all, though not a bowl of cherries to read, brakhage's "a moving picture giving and taking book" was a worthwhile and information packed article to read.


concerning class last week: i thought the workshop was very fun. i was impressed at the magazine transfer technique, both how easy it is and how limitless it is. it's amazing the things you can do when you don't limit yourself creatively. also, looking forward to this upcoming week, and using any number of other small objects to project onto film (and assuming that we'll be using the technique as outline by brakhage in his article?) so far, the things i have found to bring in: paperclips, thumbtacks, a nail, a spring, buttons, different and various pieces of textile, grain rice, tea from a tea bag, and a crushed up cream soda dum dum.

see you on monday.