Bad Dreams

My group was pretty ahead of the curve with getting our filming out of the way, we've been done a week. Which is great, because I know we're all busy. I think we all worked really well together, everyone was a team player, and I think it's partially due to the community we've built in our class. We all have an idea of each other's strengths and exploit those, as they should be.

Because everything has basically gone digital today, film has become this whole new beast for me. Probably because it's still really unfamiliar. It's strange though, I don't own a digital still camera, so you wouldn't think moving film would intimidate me that much. Because I knew it costs so much for purchasing, processing, and transferring, I really didn't want to fuck up. Being the DP was kind of scary for me and I really hope everything turns out well. I was really paranoid a few days after the shoot and I kept on dreaming that none of the film came out.

I had this idea at the last minute to check out one of the Pentax cameras, to maybe use a supplemental footage, mix different genres. Because we were co-directors I thought it'd be cool to have Sheledy shoot from that camera, and me from the Super 8.

Things I'm really excited to see:

1) the super-8 film

2) the stills

3) I used the slow-motion feature on the Bauer a couple times (shoots at 40 fps)

4) the final product

Special thanks to Will for helping us out and owning a fucking cool furry hat.

Installation

I'm pretty excited to be on Chalice's crew for the installation project. I really like how her idea incorporated different mediums of performance art and cultures. It's going to be so cool when it all comes together. It's like a celebration of differences through our similarities as people.

I went to the performance of the Japanese taiko drummers earlier this semester, and it was so cool. I think since I have that visual and sound in my mind already, I can see so much potential for this installation. Especially when film is twisted in.

I thought it would be fun to direct an installation, and I did have some ideas floating around in my head, but at the end of the day I really didn't have the time. Installations aren't projects that you can squeeze by, or half-ass, and I didn't want to commit myself to a project I didn't have time for. So I'm really happy to be a follower this time around.

The Movies

This article could not have been assigned for my reading at a more opportune time. For a while now I've been frustrated with the Art House cinemas I'm familiar with in the Raleigh/Cary/Chapel Hill arena. Over the past 5 years or so there has definitely been a shift in movies exhibited at independent movie theaters, from unknown films to popular indie films. I can remember in high school driving 30 minutes to Cary just to see a particular film that wasn't playing anywhere else in the triangle area. I used to love going to blind screenings, basically paying to see a film that I knew absolutely nothing about. On school holidays I g0 home to Raleigh and it's a treat to be able to go see different films that probably won't come to Wilmington. Last Christmas I was shocked because the Rialto, Colony, and Galaxy, my main independent theaters were playing movies I'd heard of, nothing was new to me. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but there has been a mainstream shift of exhibiting films that are more palatable to an average film audience. I used to pay the $7 admission willingly, since I was getting a unique experience, now I simply won't. I'd just as well pay $1.50 (at the $1.50 theatre in Raleigh) to see a movie that has been out for a few months.

Alvin's article was published in 2007, which was two years after I graduated high school which makes sense. She contributes this mainstreaming to financial circumstances of the theaters, advancing and affordable home-movie technology, and the art-house subculture disintegrating.

While I don't understand all the costs incurred through running a theatre, I think that as a public we've become too demanding as audience members. I'm perfectly content not having stadium seating, reclining chairs, popcorn, slushies, and other nonsense that only distracts while watching a movie. I don't think mega-theatre owners know this. They get away with murder in the cost of ticket prices nowadays. Even worse, they are taking away student discounts on Friday and Saturday nights. I refuse to pay $9.50 for a ticket, that's ridiculous. All I need is a big screen and a movie projected on it. I think we need to go back to our theater roots, when it was neat to see a movie because it was on a larger-than-life screen. I can eat popcorn, get a movie for $1 at RedBox, and have a fine time in my living room. The only thing a theatre has that I don't, and won't anytime soon have, is a huge-ass screen, but that's not worth $8-9.50 to me.

I totally disagree that the art-house subculture is disintegrating, I think we're just annoyed. I hadn't heard of micro-cinemas until reading this article, and I think it's what I've been looking for. An opportunity to attend a blind screening again. To pay a reasonable ticket price for a film I'll really get something out of. I haven't been to a mega or art theatre in months, a boycott of some sort. I'll have to keep my eyes open for micro-cinemas. In fact, I really should attend more Cinematique screenings at Thalian Hall and support a local theatre.

DP- The 23 Flavorful Shots by M.

This blog will contain a little taste of my proverbial 201 vocabulary.

Lies.

Without getting into too much detail about our music video idea, the mise en scene is going to be fairly static. This means I WANT CAMERA MOVEMENT, DAMMIT.

Alas, I am going to mix it up a bit, I want wide coverage with static shots, close ups, extreme close ups (yes, I checked out the Bauer), long shots, all different angles, high and low, and eye level, I WANT IT ALL.

On to the movement bits: there's this cool little stream where we're going to film. I'm going to use it's curves, that stream will be crying by the end of the shoot, it will feel so used. 360 shots. And shots that ignore and rediscover our musician in the trees.

As far as compositionally speaking, I will destroy the rule of thirds and mold it into the rule of obliques.

I'm getting a little carried away. If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited about being the DP for our music video assignment.

Lost small birds in fields

I had a really hard time coming up with an idea for our self-portrait assignment. It was intimidating watching such good films last Wednesday, I felt/still feel the pressure.

I knew right away that I'd like to shoot on Super 8. So I've ordered the film off B&H, but won't get it until around the 17th of October, because the only companies who sell Super 8 film online are owned by Jewish people. Apparently they like to take off, stop everything for, a week and a half during at the start of October. Which means I don't get my film until the third week of October, swell. That does not leave a big turn around time for getting the film processed and returned to me. No worries though, I have a back up plan to shoot using miniDV and just altering the image after to mimic the Super 8 feel (not ideal, but works).

I wanted the concept for my self portrait to be something that was relevant at all times in my life. So I wrote a list:

a) I like open grassy fields

b) I envy birds

c) Being small

d) Trying to figure out where I fit in

I'm combining all of these elements into my self-portrait.

Fields are so liberating to me because they are so open and serene. At one of my childhood homes we had a huge front yard, which was grassy and open. That house was in Rwanda and my Mom used to warn me about this huge bird that was so big that it would carry me (selected because I of my small stature) away if it was hungry. So if I saw it, I was supposed to hurry inside.

I was so off the small end of the growth charts when I was young, doctors tried to convince my parents to put me on growth hormones. My mom thought that I was aware how much smaller I was than my peers, I wasn't really. Unasked, she took it upon herself to make sure I knew that small people had a place in this world too. So she'd buy me stupid shit, like a pillow that said, "Good things come in small packages." Or remind me that my little sister almost weighed as much as me, though 6 years my junior. She'd push sports like gymnastics, fencing, and horse jockeying on me because, "Small people succeed more because of their size." I can still fit into clothes I was wearing in 4th grade. What is amusing about all of this, is that my size has never bothered me, but I've always been aware of it because of my mother.

So that's the general gist of the storyline. I'm going to illustrate these ideas in a field, somewhere, with people, some chairs, and a super 8 camera. I'm going to play with angles and composition to exaggerate sizes. I'll have some shots where I'm alone in the field and others with people.

That's all I have so far, I'm still coming up with ideas.