Maya Deren - Meshes of the Afternoon

This is definitely a film that must be watched the whole way through in order to be understood. She moves from using shadows, feet, and then a first person perspective to describe her character until she gets to the point where the audience sees doubles and triples and quadruples and then she begins to show her actual body. The cuts between the key and knife are interesting. The key seems to be the object that knows the truth. And even when he character discovers she is the one with the knife, it doesn't seem like the knife is the one to kill her directly. After smashing the head of the man with the knife which ends up being glass, and the shards fall in ocean, the shards seem to reappear at the end as the culprit of her death when the man follows the path she originally took at the beginning. Throughout the film she uses many disorienting shots, anything from the camera wabbling and following her around to extreme angles. There is no defined clarity about the details but in the end the events leading up to the murder are at least understood as to how they came about and what part they play.

Elevator Pitch

Idea #1-
A film about how to rewind time when you screw up, how you back-track on an issue and then re-do it. Specifically, falling down, dropping things, getting hit, saying the wrong thing, etc. and then re-doing it the way you had intended.

Idea #2-
A film about realizing the reasons why it takes one person longer to get up and go in the morning than another and another and another. A comparison on how people see it as they have plenty of time or they have no time at all.

Idea #3-
A child perceiving time as one little moment and concerned about their own little world versus an adult juggling their own time in addition to other people's, their time whizzing by.
While time is slowed for the people "on stage" the audience will perceive it as slower but are aware that their own time is running at the speed it always has.

Time Project - Proposals

#1 - Rearrangement of time, Undo Time
shot out of sequence
Assembly/birth of an object/organism filmed out of sequence
Flowers being reassembled, i.e. petals being formed back into the form of a flower
Makeup being applied
A child playing and getting hurt
Undo time - rewind time. If one doesn't like a current result, they can rewind time in order to fix that result. Not suggesting a time machine theme or anything but a small rewind to fix one small issue.


#2 - Exploration of why it takes one person/thing X amount of time to do something versus another person/thing
Morning routine for 2 or more people
Commute for 2 or more people
Maybe an exploration on the principle of how clocks move at a different rate based on altitude. A clock in a satellite moves at a faster rate than the ones on the ground.
Maybe use a different object to represent the clock principle.
Also maybe work with the principle that an object moving faster will age faster.

#3 - When time ends and begins in one person's perception versus the reality that time is continuous
i.e. Renaissance, Ice Age, etc. - small pockets of time in the grand scheme of the world's one time
Childhood, a small pocket of time versus someone who is still continuing on
Think The Matrix - time stops for one moment but the audience's time is still moving
Time slows down in the clip below but it is obvious to the audience that time is still going at a normal rate. The audience's time has remained normal while the actor's time moves at a mix between the audience's perception of time and a time that is perceived by the audience as slowed but to the actor's is still within their normal rate of time.

Critique 1/27

Your material choices or processes -
Chose to do a webcam video. Deemed animation unnecessary to the meaning and could not find a reason why it would have added to it. The process was more or less coming up with an idea and attempting to film it but the process forgot to include a message at first. After many failed attempts, I moved on to questioning myself why I was picking certain aspects or objects and what sort of significance it had.

Your conceptual process -
Tried to work on exploring feminine things, aspects of the female lifestyle. Concepts escaped me until I began to question what each objects typically means, what I think it means, and how it plays a role in the world.

What you want to communicate through your piece -
Wanted to make a brief film on disdain for the deceptive mask many women wear everyday.

Is this the result of your first try or were other attempts made?
Other attempts, YES, happened. First it was more based on the female body bathed in an eerie glow. That same lighting sort of remained after many failed attempts at getting a moody lighting. The switch to the makeup happened more or less after the body was too conspicuous and wasn't sending a message I was interested in or deemed strong.

Are those attempts present in the final work, or are they 'erased'?
Really, I don't think you can tell. They've been erased in my opinion.

Quiz #1

1. Mise-en-scene is everything that is in the scene. This is going to include things like decor, lighting, costumes, the acting/performance, and more. Narrative films often will change the afformentioned elments in order to intensify or undermine the significance of something in a scene. 

2. A scene is a segment of film that typically takes place in one time and one place more than likely with the same characters. A shot is a single stream of unedited images.

3. Editing is the manipulation of images to change the sequence of images to give the viewer different shots, move into a new scene, clarify a particular scene, intentionally miscommunicate a scene, etc. Editing allows the filmmakers to shorten a piece into a succinct film, getting across a huge amount of information in less time.

3 Transitions

a. wipe

b. iris

c. fade

Film 1 Write-Up

The idea behind this film was to explore feminine objects. I chose to pick something obviously feminine, in this case make-up. The idea was to represent a disdain for what is everyday for many women. Conceptual challenges were mostly how to make this representation without being too cliche (which I failed miserably at). Technical challenges were lessened by the fact that I own a Macbook and was able to maneuver my camera and not be confined to one space. However, that presented more issues because the options were now available. Lighting and decor was another major hurdle. What pissed me off more than anything else was that I had to refilm the entire thing because the shots angered me. I still hate the ones I have in the video I posted but the first one was absolutely hideous. I also accidently deleted some shots I had meant to keep. So what did we learn? Looks like I learned to be more careful and rewatch each shot before deleting.

4 Words

• Fuck
  
• Delete
  
• Snap
  
• Fly
  

You'd probably snap your spine if you tried to delete letters on your laptop while you fuck on the fly.

Freewrite

Everyone always asks what I want to do for projects and I am awful with coming up with ideas and I cannot stand how I am always expected to come up with something on the fly. Yet at the same time I suck at planning extensively, especially if there is no idea in the first place. Blue ribbon. I'm starting to get annoyed by cellphone vibrating. I can't think and my hands are shaking and for some reason I'm hitting all the wrong keys today. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. That seems to be the only button I'm hitting. I don't have any ideas!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCKIN' HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!! I should just do an entire film in which only profanity is used. I mean, think about it. Fuck is the perfect word. It can be almost any part of speech. It's possible to do an entire thing just using fuck. I'm sure that kind of project would go over greatly with the folks but I'm not here to make work for them so whatever, I guess. Dogbone. Cardinal. Chirpity chirp chirp. Alligator snapping turtle. Snap snap snap. I really hate snapping fingers. It may be the combination of just being annoyed by the noise and the fact that I really can't do it at all. That would be the worst soundtrack ever! Snapping!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Oh, and every other noise I hate. Talk about imagery and sound that just get under your skin. It might be difficult to actual make that though since I'd be cringing the entire time. 

Topics to Cover (Brainstorm)

So, there are a couple of things I'd like to include in my films this semester. I'm not sure if any of them are even worth doing but, hey, you can't know until you try, right? So, onto the list!

• I've got these shoes I'm just dying to use in something. I don't know what, maybe just a walking sequence or whatever but they're just interesting to look at because c'mon! Who has orange boots other than me? Just kidding...
• I want to deal with feminine things and possibly the female body.
  
• Everyone's gonna groan when they hear this but I wouldn't mind adding some of my dance stuff because it's not any sort of classical dance or even the urban stuff we're used to today. It's a type of club dancing that doesn't seem to make sense to anyone in the United States but I LOVE it. Here's some videos I've made in the past of me doing this stuff : VIDEO 1, VIDEO 2, VIDEO 3, VIDEO 4, VIDEO 5
• I think I might also like to do some filming at a few places. I know downtown might be a good place to incorporate into some shots. Maybe on the highway as well. I'm thinking the U of M campus, too.
• I know I like to do shots with a lot of movement from the person/object but I haven't really considered moving WITH the person/object. So, I'd like to potentially do work that's going get me some exercise as well.
• Not sure why, but I feel like I want to use an elevator and stairs for something...
• I know this is a music video but I like the shots. I like the extreme concentration on something in some shots and the shots that get below eye level. I also like the use of light. Not just lighting behind the screen but the lights actually used within the video.
  
  

So, I'm sure random stuff will come to me and I really feel bad that I can't just spill it all out now. I'm not good on the spot I suppose...

Inauguration

While watching Fox's coverage of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, I have to say that they need to have more established commentators. I have seen so many names of people with only a title such as "news contributor". Not to be unfair, but ANYONE can be a news contributor. I want some credentials here! I'm tired of hearing random person after random person making commentary that is not only blatantly obvious but even unnecessary. I don't need a narration of the layout of the inauguration when there is video of it on the screen.

Besides that, the inauguration itself was epic and historic. Epic, because, as all ceremonies go, it was extremely drawn out. However, for such a historic occasion, I will make an exception. And by no means was the ceremony tedious. While typically I find myself against all the flamboyant extras like music and poetry readings at ceremonies, this was a time I felt it was a perfect complement.

I wasn't surprised by the extreme amount of security provided for the ceremony, for Obama in particular. It sickens me how in the 21st century, there is still an extreme amount of racial hostility. At such a joyous occasion for our country, people still have to droll on about Obama being black as if it's a negative. BECAUSE of him being African-American, the other countries of the world are giving back a little respect to us. So, to the news stations who are "unbiased" and the citizens who still can't get past skin color - SCREW YOU.