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.

Light Journal Numbero One

A little before 8:00 p.m. on the volleyball courts near Seahawk Village

The sun is starting to set and the great mellon ball of orange and yellow is beaming in my eyes.  We are standing at the same height so it is like a faceoff, I'm betting he is going to win.  The sun shines down in eight distinct rays of white and cream.  The shadows are harsh and look German expressionist off the large (but cheaply built buildings).  The sun casts a large shadow panning across the pond and on into the forest (very small forest.)  My sunglasses are useless now as the sun is dropping faster then I can pick the grass.  It is magic hour now, the beautiful period where the sun is set and the moon casts it's light across the entire atmosphere around us.  The trees around me are dark and have a black tint, instead of the beautiful pine green North Carolina is known for.  The sky is a dark blue with shades of white and purple.  The lights in the parking lot are starting to flicker, doing there best to produce the artificial light that people like myself seem to prefer.  Shades of sliver glare off the black water like the Chesapeake Bay does at night.  The dirt piles around me are dark and the sand I sit in starts getting cold.  The lights slowly come on and every third car blends in with the falling darkness.  The sky lines are slowly fading away and the glimmer of shine starts to dull.  The white of the sidewalks turn into a light shade of gray.  I sit and watch as magic hour fades away for another day and darkness descends over the desolate campus.

Sound Recording

My sound recording process began by being too lazy to take responsibility and get a camera and equipment from Tony.  We decided to set up a meeting for Friday morning, but I had to miss it.  Oliver Twist was singing my name that night and when the house beat takes you, you just got to go with the flow.  By the way Trojan condoms are terrible.  I take that back, the her pleasures aren't that bad.  By the time we all realized we were going to miss this meeting at the Fisher Center, we discovered we had no equipment and would not be able to get any until tuesday.  This was a very sobering moment.  For a class that is so important bombing the first project wasn't really an option.  Will told us that he had class all Tuesday night and that he wouldn't be able to make it but I called him an obscene amount anyways.  Sometimes I like to just be a pain in the ass.  I think he has forgiven me so I can laugh about it now.  Jamie and I decided to get together that night (really late) and do some sounds.  We did mostly sounds that could be created with metal.  We wanted a really demonic sound scheme.  I think we got what we were looking for.  Jamie has an ability to make sounds with his throat that no machine could ever duplicate.  We met up with Will and started working on new sounds and ended up with a strong soundtrack to the night and early morning.  Will is much better at Final Cut then either of us, he saved us a lot of grief the next day when time started to run out.  Overall, I really enjoyed working at weird hours with two pretty werid but awesome guys.  I know I know it sounds kind of gay and it was.

Sound Journal

7:06 a.m. Tuesday September 2, 2008

The crickets outside are loudest animal on the planet.  I lean my head against the cool wet window and listen to the sound of the machine running in the mechanical room next door.  The sink drips but I refuse to walk over and tighten the knob because the back of my hand will rub against the grimy plates I've refused to move.  Cracks fill the bathroom as the pipes that run up and down the walls are cooling off from the hot shower I took an hour ago.  Jake is in the next room, not snoring but breathing loud enough for me to hear and possibly worry about asbestos.  Some new pop band singing the new teen angst anthem is leaking from my snoring roommates bedroom.  Little buzzing rumbles across the floor as the people downstairs are waking up to get their showers.  The static fades in and out on the old muted television.

Sound Journals

Saturday August 27th, 2008

My apartment at 9:38 p.m., the shit is popping off and i've been drunk since Thursday night.

The floor is squeaking with every movement.  I don't even have to move my feet just shift all that weight I have.  The short and stiff rug sounds like a busy hornets nest as the countless women stumble their way over to me.  I'm sitting on the cheap IKEA chair, directly across from the window that is already fogged up.  As I open the window I can hear the sound of the rain drying on the pavement.  Tyler is in the back talking non-sense to some latin girl that is out of his league.  Jake is having sex with a girl he just met from ECU.  Not kidding and she wears too much make-up.  If I listen close enough I can hear her skin scolding her for allowing a pound of baloney to be laid across her face.  The sheets make a soft shifting noise because Jake is gentle.  I taught him that.  The t.v. is on but I'm doing my best to drown it out.  The Bucket List is on and I don't feel like crying right now.  Maybe I should add the soft whimpering on my allergies that have bothered for the past week.  Savannah bursts out laughing after spilling her beer all over the table.  This I can't drown out and can't understand why she feels this funny.  Neil Young's voice softly pours out from the crack beneath my door.  The sound of footsteps transferring from the hardwood to the rough carpet makes the sound of idiot's thinking.  My neighbor keeps bending her old sunglasses that she got from Wal-Mart but is ready to pawn off that they are designer.  She must be nervous because the squeaking of the breaking plastic gets louder the more my roommate Ryan hits on her.  The only sound I can focus on repeatedly is the sound of my breath exhaling out of my lungs as I swallow the cheap vodka from the beer pong cup I decided to rinse out.  Fuck it, the number one way to get herpes is sharing beer pong cups but this is college, I only have a few more years left might as well take something with me.

TS

My Precious

My Manifesto

 

I became interested in experimental film through the heroin scene in Baltimore.  Street rats handing out flyers promoting these awful shorts that made no sense.  They play a lot of art house films and avant-garde movies in Eastern Baltimore, about ten minutes down the road where used needles line the streets like flowers.  The show 'The Wire' sparked an interested in film for me.  Until seeing a show being filmed, wrapped up,  and broadcasted on HBO, film seemed to be a world away.  The people seemed to be too glamorous and the minds behind the camera too complex.  My mother made me watch Marlon Brando movies and the films by director Eliza Kazan.  I fell in love with films shot in black and white.  The shadows of black and white films played well into my black humor.  Experimental film allows a director to express the tortures that build deepest in the corners of his or her soul.  The only rule you need to follow is that there are no rules.  You can do whatever you want as long as you make it work, even if you don’t it is your baby; only you have to be satisfied with it because no one would ever truly understand what every second from beginning to end actually means except the person who poured themselves into it.  Actually, that is debatable too.  Experimental film is a way to take an art form where typically many people work one project together, working on something to reach one specific goal and make it completely yours.  These films are a way for the director to become an absolute control freak.  You can’t rely on anyone in this world to get it right, so do it yourself.  We are all Caesars of our projects; make your own world where no one can touch you.  The first article by Hans was on the right track.  Hollywood movies are a boring craft.  I still enjoy them more than any other medium but who cares.  Richter discussed how literature has turned visual and every author writes with the idea of a movie deal.  I typically read old Russian novels cause you get to paint your own picture, all the details are there.  Richter also explained the use of documentary style in experimental, especially with the Russians.  If you grew up in the time of Sputnik I understand, but trust the Russians.  The next article is by Scott MacDonald and it explains the simple stuff of Avant-Garde.  I think everyone in this class has already read this with Kruel or Berliner.  It talks about how Avant-Garde is beautiful if you only give it a chance so please don't give up on it.  I think most Avant-Garde filmmakers couldn't give a shit if most people gave up on it.  Avant-Garde film can be pretentious and boring, but now and then a filmmaker can make something so pure and beautiful it is truly moving.  The idea of visual poetry is an art form that few creative minds can steer away from.  I almost refused to reread this last article because I believe that it is completely wrong.  It gives rules to an art-form that should remain rule-less and ruthless.  By the way, this is all bullshit.    

 

TristanSomerset