Self-Portrait

I worked on this project for a while now and am finally finished with it.  I really enjoyed the process of making it.  I think it turn out ok.  What I really like is that it is complex only in relation to me.  What I mean is that every single frame is followed by a related image that is properly cropped.  What I really like is that no one will understand the project completely except me.  When I look at it I wonder if it is a portrait of tradition, with me representing an image of the people before me but the ability to be my own person.  It leans towards determining the innocent and destructiveness that we all seem to go through.  I couldn't decide if I am guilty or innocent but decided to end on a shot of my brother and cousin to represent innocence.  I fade out to show that I am getting there and there is still time to correct problems I've caused and let go some of the weight I carry on my shoulders.  A few people asked me what it is about and I gave a few answers.  Some were pretty intricate and others I was tired and gave simple blunt answers and I don't think that either are wrong.  I believe that everyone's project will be similar in this way.  None of us are simple people.  I thought with going with the family side I wouldn't reveal much about myself, but I guess we will see because I always see myself in the people I displayed.  If I could go back I would do the project completely different.  I don't know how mine will compare with others but if it is similar in design to any others I will be pretty upset.  If I got the chance I would go back and I would shoot a small narrative about my life as a child.  I would have the cameraman keep rolling while I was thinking in between scenes.  I would cut up all the out-takes and mess ups.  All the space in between the things I create and I would make that my self-portrait.  I think those were the times I was most honest.  Overall, I had a lot of fun and I think it is the best job I have done with editing.

TS

Feed me the Fire Baby

Hey everyone (Shannon)

I don't know if we have to blog but since I love it so much I will.  Our group for the last project will be meeting after class on Wednesday.  Russ, Jordan, Kristian, Emily, and I finished up shooting for the commercial.  Everyone was very helpful and I can't wait to start editing that shit and making the most bad-ass vid to ever be circulated on youtube.  I have spent the last few days recovering from hangovers, breaking girls hearts, learning that screenwriting classes probably cripple any chance you have of being a raw artist, and drinking sparkling red grape juice.  It isn't very very on the tummy which I have found out the hard way believe me.  I am working on my self-portrait and it is coming along alright but there is always room for improvement and never enough time to make it perfect.  If you know anyone in the department that is good with lighting please let me know and I will contact them and ask them to do lighting for the movie Dependence that Taylor, Russ, Dylan, and I are doing next month.  Expect big things....I'm out.

A Night at the Movies

The four page article you had us ready was about the indie scene and art house theaters that are typically found in downtown areas in big cities.  The author of the article, Rebecca M. Alvin starts the article strongly by mentioning how the scene has gotten out of control.  Much how audiences of the folk scene reacted when Bob Dylan turned to Rock-n-roll, the corporation has taken over something honest and turned it into a method for making money.  Her biggest examples of this are Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ (30 million dollar budget) and Al Gore's documentary on Global Warming.  Both did extremely well in the box-office.  They had stars and big budgets.  Indie is turning out to be not so indie anymore, its just the cool thing to do.  I feel like we fight for freedom and then when we get it, it doesn't feel like freedom anymore.  The indie scene is starting to blend with the mainstream.  The solution for bringing the independent movies out of the spotlight and back to the small theaters where cinephiles or people that are devoted to cinema can get back to honest film viewing.  These little areas for film viewing are called Microcinemas.  They are backwoods and small venues that show films that are true to their independent nature.  They are usually films that are done by one person and sometimes are more geared towards boredom instead of entertainment.  These microcinemas are moving away from the big cities are moving into rural areas.  Microcinemas are the new sector for independent film exhibition.

Music video

I think we are planning to do a video on the band midnight poncho.  They are from friends with Russ and he is in contact with them now.  I am the DP on the project and I am very excited to shoot on film.  I am looking over how to get the camera through Tony.  We are planning to meet next week and discuss the overall vision of the project.  I think we have a strong group of brains for this project.  I will try not to goof off and or forget the film or camera.  This will be an interesting project cause it will constantly be moving and changing.  I am ready to get the camera and start figuring it out.  I know Jordan is very good with cameras so he will be there to help me when I start to freak out.  Russ has chosen an interesting band to focus on.  Get ready for something amazing Shannon.

Self-Centered

The project with Taylor went very well.  I work very well with her because she isn't afraid to tell me an idea is bullshit and ignore my ramblings.  She is great with tuning out my madness and dealing with my moods, whatever I seem to send her way.  She had great ideas and did a lot of the work behind the scenes.  She put plenty of hours in the labs when there weren't many people around to notice.  I think the project came out as a trapped piece.  It is dark and distorted with a sense of captivity.  Many of the shots turned out to be cage-like, juxtaposing with shots that represent an escape or open road.  After we finished we starting talking about self-portraits and how we wanted to go about it.  I know I can't look at myself in the mirror without seeing the influence of my family.  I come from a large family that all lives around each other.  I grew up without close friends but was necessarily unpopular.  My brother, who is actually a cousin from Mom number 2 (my moms sister that I've always understood to be Mom number 2) would always buddy around in school and come home and create worlds on the farm.  My grandparents are the foundation upon which my family is built.  My aunts and uncles seem a lot more like second and third mothers and fathers.  I went home and gathered up a bunch of photos of my family.  Some of them portraits and others moments in my life that I've been surrounded by the people in the circle, the only circle I completely trust.  I want to call my self-portrait Glass Bottom Boat and have it be a slide shot of the people and times that have shaped me into the person I am today.  I want it to be in color to show the life that they have brought me.  I then want to shoot myself with a green screen, watching the slide show go by like the viewers.  I will be small and in black and white to represent without these people and times I am just like everyone else.  I want to show the razors edge we walk between being self-destructive and how you have the ability to change but not always the desire.  The person you always knew yourself to be isn't necessarily the person you've become now that your outside of the family nest.  It will show the ways in which I have succeeded and some of the ways in which, I feel to this point, I have failed.  Recognition of the fact that you are original only in the sense that you are a product of those who allowed you to be original.

1b

What was it like to work with Russ?

This is a tough one because I didn't like the kid much before we started.  I think I was much more difficult to work with on this project.  I would show up about 10 to 15 minutes late every time we made an agreement on meeting times.  Russ and I hadn't much experience with Final Cut Pro, or at least he hadn't (I'm just bad at it.)  Things took a lot longer than I thought they would.  When we would set two hours out of the day to work on something, it would take at least four.  Russ is ambitious and always willing to go the extra mile.  I was very impressed with his taste and work ethic.  There are a couple of changes I would make if I could go back but overall I am very satisfied with the work we did.  I found this project more enjoyable then the first one.  Every night there was a crazy hippie named Dustin in the lab, he is actually a genius and got us out of problems the entire time.  By the end of the project, I started to remember how to use Final Cut.  I was pretty amazed with the sounds you can create with the effects on Final Cut.  I did not really think we could make anything out of what we were given, I was wrong.  Experimental has really allowed me to explore all aspects of filmmaking.  I enjoyed working with Russ very much but will not miss him.

TS

Light Journal Numbero Dos

Same Day at around 12:00 a.m.

The light is beating down on me as I sit outside of Dobo.  Judging by the people walking in and out of this science building, it doesn't look like light is what these people need.  They need sleep and plastic surgery.  The sun hangs in the sky like an orange burning through the corner of a piece of paper.  It is too bright for me to look at without my Ray Bans on, which I start wondering, do they make me a sell out?  Tom Cruise would be proud if he weren't such a fucking douche.  The light reflects off of all the students sunglasses and bike wheels.  Limbs of the trees are shining green and brown.  The only shadows around come the small bushes and the structure I am sitting on here, none of which are big enough for me to find relief.  The lights that line Chancellors are off but the glass or plastic that houses the lights shine like they have just be cleaned.  The black on the light poles looks bleached and it's age is shown.  Mother Nature is the greatest power.  The sun hangs to my left, so that side of my face burns like I'm at the beach.  I feel the sun start melting my skin.  The sun overpowers the pastel colors of chalk, where the stupid sorority girls and frat boys of Surfer University decided to scribble dumb sayings on the concrete I walk on.  There is a sharp glare that is coming off the building Cameron.  The clock-tower is clearly visible, my eyes just aren't good enough to read the time.  The dirt in the cracks off the sidewalk show up like mascara.  The needles that line the edge of the sidewalk shines like a brown haired girl who uses an expensive conditioner.  Straight-up, it is bright as fuck out.