Carolee Schneeman - Meat Joy Response:
The entire color scheme of the oranges really adds to the idea of meat and flesh, the way it eerily glows in that particular shade of orange under that light. Schneeman sexualizes and fetishes the idea of lust and meat. It's obviously a strong feminist piece by it's tone and imagery. The voice over overlaps between English and French, causing the viewer to have to concentrate on their known language. The cheesy music in the background and the smiles of the participants give the movie a happy-go-lucky feel while the underlying meaning is quite sinister, obvious in the way that dead chickens and fish are thrown on the participants.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
New Essay and Images
Images that represent the types of shots, feel, etc. I want to achieve:
Essay Rework into Pitch:
Scene 1: A close-up of a horse's eye, the sounds of heavy breathing from the horse. Switch to close up of human's eye and human's breathing. Close-up of human's mouth.
Scene 2: The time-keep calls out the 1 minute countdown mark. You hear countdown, starting with hearing all the numbers to skipping to counting down in tens, illusion of things speeding up. While hearing countdown you see the rider and horse anxiously pacing.
Scene 3: When you hear "10" in the countdown, the audio slows down to countdown the final 10 seconds. You see quick cuts between the horse walking around the startbox, the rider close-up fumbling with the reins, the time-keeper looking at the watch, the time-keeper yelling out the count, the horse entering into the startbox, the final 5 numbers being counted down followed by a slow-motion take-off of the horse from the startbox.
Scene 4: A sudden speed up to a tracking shot of the horse galloping to the first fence, a shot of the horse jumping over the first fence from the underside. A series of quick cuts between open galloping, jumping over fences, closeups on the rider and horse all in many different shots varying in angle and space.
Scene 5: After the final fence, a slow-motion shot from behind of the horse galloping towards the finish line.
Essay Rework into Pitch:
Scene 1: A close-up of a horse's eye, the sounds of heavy breathing from the horse. Switch to close up of human's eye and human's breathing. Close-up of human's mouth.
Scene 2: The time-keep calls out the 1 minute countdown mark. You hear countdown, starting with hearing all the numbers to skipping to counting down in tens, illusion of things speeding up. While hearing countdown you see the rider and horse anxiously pacing.
Scene 3: When you hear "10" in the countdown, the audio slows down to countdown the final 10 seconds. You see quick cuts between the horse walking around the startbox, the rider close-up fumbling with the reins, the time-keeper looking at the watch, the time-keeper yelling out the count, the horse entering into the startbox, the final 5 numbers being counted down followed by a slow-motion take-off of the horse from the startbox.
Scene 4: A sudden speed up to a tracking shot of the horse galloping to the first fence, a shot of the horse jumping over the first fence from the underside. A series of quick cuts between open galloping, jumping over fences, closeups on the rider and horse all in many different shots varying in angle and space.
Scene 5: After the final fence, a slow-motion shot from behind of the horse galloping towards the finish line.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
In Class Exercise 3/3
1. I would change my manifesto to be more exact. I discuss a few things I like and a few things I hate but I don't go into superb detail about the specific things I like and hate for the most part. This may be due to the fact that I have very few things I hate 100% of the time and the same goes for things I love.
I can't realize on my own what is working in this manifesto. I can say I believe that the reiteration of the idea of comedy is unnecessary and can be condensed. It would make sense if I was trying to drive home the idea of hilarity being the most important thing but I have no interest in making comedy my only genre; Therefore, to be correct to myself, I need to make it clear that the other things that are important to me like drama, excitement, etc. are not forgotten as it appears they have been in the current manifesto.
I realize there is not a real good correlation between my memory essay and my manifesto. I wrote about a memory that does not in any way, that I conceive at this point, deal with parody, satire, comedy, etc. It's not funny. I like making comedy but does that mean I have to make comedy 100% of the time? I'm not interested in just the silly. So I suppose it means I will have to change my manifesto to match this inclination or I need to find a new memory that matches the manifesto.
My essay video needs to be changed in the aspects of its drawn out nature. I'm a get to the point person and don't like all the extra fluff when it comes to visually representing stuff (however, i'm the exact opposite when it comes to writing. For some reason I can't tone down my fluff in writing.). I need to make this video pack a punch and go between scenes quickly to reflect the panic and awareness of surroundings. It needs to be punchy, not in a funny way but in an action-studded way. It needs to project anxiety and excitement, something I need to revise in my manifesto as this portion is not there and is extremely important to me.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Manifesto and Essay
Manifesto:
Destroy all strict, boring outlines.
Nothing is sacred and everything is subject to mutiny.
Nothing should have to follow the lines of a rigid square.
Comedy is a virtue.
Laugh at yourself.
Laugh at those around you.
Laugh at things that shouldn't be funny.
But you don't have to laugh all the time.
I love action, speed, and dynamic images.
I love to try to save everything I can.
But if it fails, be ready to chunk it.
Heartily eat the shit out of life and spit out the bits and chunks that should have made it.
All that is held sacred will falter.
Essay:
The beating of hooves on the ground could be heard out in the open field. A chill wind was blowing through but the temperature was acceptable. A time keeper called out a two minute warning, telling me it was time to wrap up my warm up. My horse was sparkling clean and we were dressed in our colors. After a few more fences, we finished the warm-up and proceeded to the start box as they called out the one minute warning. I checked my stop watch and set it; my heart was pounding uncontrollably - from the excitement, worry, and the previous warm up. The horse was standing by the start-box, me on his back, tightly gripped on the reins, waiting in anticipation. My feet wriggled in the stirrups as the time keeper counted down from thirty seconds to the final ten seconds.
The sweat was rolling down my face now. The horse was anxious with me, unable to stand perfectly still. At the last ten seconds, I walked towards the box and at five seconds walked in, slowly turning around as I heard "five, four, three, two, one" read out to me. At one, my heart dropped and with a "Go!" from the time keeper, the powerful legs of the horse took off, departing from the fence of the start box, cantering the first 20 yards to the first obstacle. For the duration of the ride, all I remember was the thunder of horse hooves and my voice in a combination of yelling and praising the horse, along with my legs pushing and pushing his strong legs forward. I remember I had to yell in order to keep myself breathing.
Finally, at the last obstacle, I could feel myself pushing and pushing and as the horse's nimble legs took off from the ground, sailing over the jump, he landed and my heart felt elated, knowing it was just a calm canter the finish line left.
Storyboard:
Destroy all strict, boring outlines.
Nothing is sacred and everything is subject to mutiny.
Nothing should have to follow the lines of a rigid square.
Comedy is a virtue.
Laugh at yourself.
Laugh at those around you.
Laugh at things that shouldn't be funny.
But you don't have to laugh all the time.
I love action, speed, and dynamic images.
I love to try to save everything I can.
But if it fails, be ready to chunk it.
Heartily eat the shit out of life and spit out the bits and chunks that should have made it.
All that is held sacred will falter.
Essay:
The beating of hooves on the ground could be heard out in the open field. A chill wind was blowing through but the temperature was acceptable. A time keeper called out a two minute warning, telling me it was time to wrap up my warm up. My horse was sparkling clean and we were dressed in our colors. After a few more fences, we finished the warm-up and proceeded to the start box as they called out the one minute warning. I checked my stop watch and set it; my heart was pounding uncontrollably - from the excitement, worry, and the previous warm up. The horse was standing by the start-box, me on his back, tightly gripped on the reins, waiting in anticipation. My feet wriggled in the stirrups as the time keeper counted down from thirty seconds to the final ten seconds.
The sweat was rolling down my face now. The horse was anxious with me, unable to stand perfectly still. At the last ten seconds, I walked towards the box and at five seconds walked in, slowly turning around as I heard "five, four, three, two, one" read out to me. At one, my heart dropped and with a "Go!" from the time keeper, the powerful legs of the horse took off, departing from the fence of the start box, cantering the first 20 yards to the first obstacle. For the duration of the ride, all I remember was the thunder of horse hooves and my voice in a combination of yelling and praising the horse, along with my legs pushing and pushing his strong legs forward. I remember I had to yell in order to keep myself breathing.
Finally, at the last obstacle, I could feel myself pushing and pushing and as the horse's nimble legs took off from the ground, sailing over the jump, he landed and my heart felt elated, knowing it was just a calm canter the finish line left.
Storyboard:
Monday, February 16, 2009
Time Project Assignment Write-Up
The idea behind this project was to create an infomercial/commercial about a product that is supposed to rewind time, dubbed Time in a Can. Conceptually and Technically, it was moderately difficult to pull off. The idea itself is so overdone that it's hard to have original content. An additional conceptual issue was making it comical. Technically, we dealt with a lot of issues concerning spaces, daylight, and shots. The spaces tended to be domestic but it was hard to control every aspect of the space within the frame. Since we were in a house, we had to move around and out a lot of items that were unnecessary to the space, especially in the kitchen. Daylight became an issue to shoot in for one of the scenes because I had no experience shooting outdoors. Finally, the shots became a major issue because aesthetically, most infomercials are plain and not very interesting. So, I had a lot of issues making the shot aesthetically pleasing without being extreme and unrealistic. The approach was to shoot all day on Sunday according to the schedule I drew up. Unfortunately, due to actor's personal conflicts we spent all the morning and early afternoon tending to other business so that we could get to shooting. Frustrations lied mostly with actor's availability continually switching. Overall, I learned much more about giving directions and cues and learning patience.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Quiz #2
1. key light, fill light, and back light
2. back light
3. key light
4. fill light
5. background light, gives background definition
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Rehearsal
1. Breakdown the Script to determine the following:
a. 3 actors, 2 male, 1 female. Versatile because they will have to do stunts and gesturing.
b. Male actor 1 will be in 4 to 6 scenes and Female actress will be in 4 scenes. Male actor 2 will be in 1 scene. Male actor 1's performance will be about 5 minutes in length for the final piece. Actual filming time will be around 3 to 4 hours. Female actress' final piece length will be about 5 minutes as well, filming time around 2 to 3 hours. Male actor 2's final piece will be about 15 seconds long and actual filming time will be about an hour.
c. There are 4 location requirements. One is outdoors and on a sleepy street and driveway. The other three are indoors in my own home. Power outlets are plentiful indoors. For outdoors, either a battery can be used or I can run an extension cable to the house.
d. 2 stunts - 1)Hit by a car, 2)Falling over on a bike. Expect several hours of rehearsal time to get this right.
e. Alien heads or makeup to make alien heads will be required. All other clothes will be regular average American type wardrobes.
f. Car, bike, TV, tin can, spray bottle
2.
11. In response to the rehearsal, I felt like there were major drawbacks and a bunch of minor things we could work around. My actors are extremely professional but my own demeanor is getting in the way. I've always had the issue of being silly on the set. I can be serious behind the camera but I giggle often in the scenes which is causing us to have a lot of retakes. This is a major issue considering our time constraints. I basically have two options in this situation. My first option would be to cast someone else for this role. My second option would be to collect myself beforehand. Because of the short time I have between rehearsal and filming the latter option is basically my choice.
Another major issue we have run into is the dog scene. I knew from the start dealing with animals was going to be difficult and possibly would not work. After many trials with the dog scene, I have determined that I am going to have to delete this scene. The only dog available for this shot is not cooperative. She follows basic commands but cannot stay on task long enough to get a good shot. This portion of the script will be rewritten.
The test shots were excellent. I was able to get the range and variety I had wanted and expected. Lighting overall needs help on the indoor scenes but the outdoor scenes are looking excellent. I am planning on using natural light coming through the windows for one of the indoor scenes but it still is too dark in the front. I need a good key light to illuminate the faces and figures of the actors.
Overall, the rehearsal was extremely successful and the actors understood their parts and really got into their roles (especially my stunt actor).
12. All scenes are okay to go except the dog scene is being deleted.
a. 3 actors, 2 male, 1 female. Versatile because they will have to do stunts and gesturing.
b. Male actor 1 will be in 4 to 6 scenes and Female actress will be in 4 scenes. Male actor 2 will be in 1 scene. Male actor 1's performance will be about 5 minutes in length for the final piece. Actual filming time will be around 3 to 4 hours. Female actress' final piece length will be about 5 minutes as well, filming time around 2 to 3 hours. Male actor 2's final piece will be about 15 seconds long and actual filming time will be about an hour.
c. There are 4 location requirements. One is outdoors and on a sleepy street and driveway. The other three are indoors in my own home. Power outlets are plentiful indoors. For outdoors, either a battery can be used or I can run an extension cable to the house.
d. 2 stunts - 1)Hit by a car, 2)Falling over on a bike. Expect several hours of rehearsal time to get this right.
e. Alien heads or makeup to make alien heads will be required. All other clothes will be regular average American type wardrobes.
f. Car, bike, TV, tin can, spray bottle
2.
11. In response to the rehearsal, I felt like there were major drawbacks and a bunch of minor things we could work around. My actors are extremely professional but my own demeanor is getting in the way. I've always had the issue of being silly on the set. I can be serious behind the camera but I giggle often in the scenes which is causing us to have a lot of retakes. This is a major issue considering our time constraints. I basically have two options in this situation. My first option would be to cast someone else for this role. My second option would be to collect myself beforehand. Because of the short time I have between rehearsal and filming the latter option is basically my choice.
Another major issue we have run into is the dog scene. I knew from the start dealing with animals was going to be difficult and possibly would not work. After many trials with the dog scene, I have determined that I am going to have to delete this scene. The only dog available for this shot is not cooperative. She follows basic commands but cannot stay on task long enough to get a good shot. This portion of the script will be rewritten.
The test shots were excellent. I was able to get the range and variety I had wanted and expected. Lighting overall needs help on the indoor scenes but the outdoor scenes are looking excellent. I am planning on using natural light coming through the windows for one of the indoor scenes but it still is too dark in the front. I need a good key light to illuminate the faces and figures of the actors.
Overall, the rehearsal was extremely successful and the actors understood their parts and really got into their roles (especially my stunt actor).
12. All scenes are okay to go except the dog scene is being deleted.
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