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.