saturday shoot

I thoroughly enjoyed the long shot assignment, Ever since then i have been obsessed with finding a Bolex camera. I like the way the film looks and enjoy the lack of technology with the camera. I have been watching ebay for bolex cameras that are in good condition and I can afford. I am interested in trying to do the entire process, filming, developing and the transferring to digital. having total control over the process.

ideas for 48 hour race

Not knowing what the mystery prop will be I focused on how I was going to capture the film. I found a child's underwater still camera and thought I would try shooting whatever the prop will be underwater.

scratch film junkies 2

St Louise - Watching this after working on our own cameraless piece I had a greater appreciation for the amount of time and intent that goes these films. I found myself trying to figure out what technique they had used during the sequences, especially the way their animation seemed to move horizontally, I had only dealt with it in a vertical fashion. I also like the use of stock footage, something I wish I used more in the 1st project. The rhythm of the film impressed me, I found this to be a challenge in the piece I did. For some reason I wrote crazy pig man but I do not remember why, I think it had something to do with the use of actually footage and opposed to purely hand manipulation. Although I do not foresee doing this type of film, I think elements of manipulation can be used to enhance narrative film form. I again use the example of tests, using different techniques and experimentation can lead to further creativity and expansion in the art of film.

Chion reading

Sound plays a huge role in influencing your interpretation of image. I am often impressed by the manipulation of sound in film. Chion's explanation of how sound affects the temporal and image the spatial I believe is very accurate way of articulating this phenomenon. His point on vectorization of sound I found especially interesting, although I understood this conceptually, I never really found the words to express this idea. One can look at an image, such as a painting for as long as the like to appreciate the aesthetics, but film is moving images and without sound giving you that added value of temporal rhythm it is easy to lose yourself in the images and construct your own temporal context.

Wells reading

Wells has some interesting points about animation. Growing up on mostly Saturday morning cartoons- big Wanner Bros. fan not so much Disney- I equate his notion of orthodox animation as a character based structural form and unorthodox as focusing on abstract form and rhythm in much the same way I respond to avant-garde vs narrative film. I respect the form as far as creativity and experimentation is concerned, but I still see them as "tests". I believe that our minds are either hardwired or conditioned to create connections through images and sound that create a story. When emphasis is on the media itself without attempting to create a narrative structure it is difficult for me to see it as a complete form, it is an element which can be appreciated in itself but falls short of constituting something for the mind to create concrete associations. Cell animation is extremely laborious and time consuming, before computer animation took over, traditional animation almost did not make it because of the vast amount time and resources it takes. So I do appreciate the creative effort involved with experimental animation, and I believe experimentation is essential to progression and creativity in structutral forms.

Direct Film Manipulation

I find this sort of hands on artistic manipulation of film very refreshing. The creative possibilities seem endless. I have no idea of what direction I am taking this but it does bring out the artist in me. Exploring film making in this fashion help losens the preconceived notion of what film should be. Looking at the film strip itself as a canvas, one can achieve a more organic and self aware art form. Thinking of color and how it creates its own resonance, you can juxtaposes images color and shapes to evoke a mood or inner experience much like a painting.

Synesthesia

Synesthesia is an interesting "condition" of the collision of our senses. Our perception of the world "reality" is based on information given to us by our senses. The assumption that our senses are mutually exclusive from each other reveal our limited understanding of the interconnectedness all things. Color has sound, sound has color is not so strange when you break everything down to our brains ability to interpret electrical impulses and assign meaning.