animation and such

Back when I took Intro to Film Studies with Dr Kreul we learned a bit about avant-garde and experimental filmmaking. In class we watched McLaren's "Begone Dull Care" among others, and to be honest with you, I was just not impressed by what I saw. I found it quite boring and monotonous, and just did not understand what the big deal was. Ironically enough, when we watched the same short in class yesterday I had a new found respect for what I saw. I don't know if it's just my maturity in the program or the fact that I understand more about just how hard it is to create something like that, but I really enjoyed "Begone Dull Care" this time around. It got me thinking about the techniques he used to make it and just how hard it must have been to get the timing of the objects down with the music. I happily retract my previous statements about it's lack of creativity and monotony.

My favorite piece that we watched was the one with the two clay figures at the table. I was amazed at how smoothly the figures flowed into each other and how intricate the detailing must have been. I think I could have watched those figures morph into one another all day-that's how fascinated I was. I can't imagine the steps he took to make those figures intertwine. I would be interested in finding more out about the making of that.

Watching all of the short pieces in class helped me to put our next assignment in perspective. I have no previous experience with this type of animation so I look forward to seeing what my group comes up with.

water and air

I would like to think of this as my semi-inspiration for the water portion of the elements project. I want to try doing some more magazine transfers in a wave like effect and then have that lead into an abstract representation of the deep sea. I plan on using "cool" colors, such as purple, green, blue and perhaps some pink. I also want to incorporate some sort of fish on my film strip as well. I might cut out fish from a magazine or just do some orange to represent them. Not sure yet. As for my other element, air, I plan on keeping the film strip "light" as in colors and amount of material on the strip itself. I want there to be something continous about the strip so I have included some swirls in silver and blue sharpie that I have magazine transfered over top of. I am a big "less is more person" and like simplicity over adornment, so I plan on keeping things creative and interesting but without using 12 different techniques and 85 colors. To me, air is clean and crisp and I want to convey that in my film strip.

brakhage

Even though I found this article to be very wordy and technical at times, I enjoyed his writing style and the humor he included every so often. Here are a few things that stuck out to me as I was reading:

• The begninning pages served as a good refresher because he went over film leader types, emulsion and base sides, how a projector and viewer works and what the differences are, and later on in the article he went over f-stops and other important facets of photography and the camera.
• I thought it was interesting that in his side story about Melies and Pathe (couldn't figure out how to include accent marks on those names), that Pathe commented that "moving pictures were not for entertainment but for serious scientific purposes and to be used only as a recording device." I can't imagine someone thinking that about moving pictures seeing as how prominent they are in the entertainment world.
• In the part on splicing I found his method of "roughening-up" the film to be pretty interesting. When we spliced with tape in class it seemed so easy, and then to hear him talk about all of the problems and technicalities of splicing made me think twice on the process.
• Another line in the text that stuck out to me was him saying "synchronism is synonymous with aesthetic perfection." I never really thought about it but that holds very true to these types of works.
• My final point of interest was in his discussion of daylight and tungsten films. While I was semi-familiar with them from previous classes, reading about how colors will transform onto the different kinds of films was neat. For example, the fact that manufacturer's put the "sky" or blue color into Tungsten film so that without you adding a filter the colors will render more naturally.

colors and techniques galore

Wow. Yesterday's class was a bit overwhelming yet exciting at the same time. I feel we accomplished a lot in the short amount of time we were in there. Good to know I finally have a class where I don't need to look at my watch every 5 minutes to see how much time has passed.

Starting with the collage project….I am very interested in seeing my film projected on the screen (and secretly hope that it doesn’t mess up the projector because there are a few air pockets in it I think). The pages I used from People magazine were chosen either because they had a vibrant color that I liked, a texture that would be cool, or a small image or word that stuck out to me. I began by putting my “favorite” images, colors, etc on the tape and then filled them in with other random things. One of my favorite images that unfortunately got a bit destroyed was this etching of a very emaciated bride. I don’t know why I liked it so much but I figured because she was so skinny she would be the perfect size for the film. She would have been if I didn’t accidentally cut her in half. Oops.

I didn’t flip over the tape to look at it while I was making my collage because I wanted it to be a surprise. I was very happy with my finished product. Apparently I am horrible at cutting in a straight line so the next part was a bit trickier. Instead of having five strips of matching length I had four and two halves. That made it take a little longer to strip them of the excess and place them on my film. I also had to try and trim up a few strips because they were too wide (thanks to my unique cutting techniques). Next time I do this I will make sure that I cut them right the first time because it was quite the pain to have to go back and cut a wet, gooey piece of tape.

As for the earth, water, fire, air project, I am taking air and water. I started with the air strip first and used silver and blue sharpies to create a continuous, what I consider, breath of air across the frames in silver. I highlighted with blue. I plan on incorporating some type of texturized gold to the frames by dabbing of Sharpie with paper towel or using some type of nail polish. I want to keep the air film strip “light” so to speak, and simple because I feel that is the best representation of air.

As for water, I plan on going with a cool color scheme of green, blue and purple. I want it to be full of textures and vibrant with color. I also want to incorporate some orange in there which will represent the idea of fish throughout the film.

Thoughts on our first class

I thought I would check back in and write a little more about my first impressions of the class and the practice project we did. I took a few photography classes in high school where we would shoot and process our own film, so I am semi-familiar working with film stock itself. While we had a few projects that involved painting, texturizing, etc, I never actually applied anything to the film stock. I was a little hesitant at first with my practice strip until I realized that there was really no right or wrong way to do it. I worked primarily with a razor and a push pin. For the most part I was just doodling and making designs, but I also tried to make some consecutive designs, shapes, activity across multiple frames. However, after seeing how fast the film goes through the projector I'm not sure that my efforts for continuity will be noticed. I'm interested in seeing my work on the big screen just so I can see how it all pans out. It will help to give me a better idea of what I can/can not do.

testing, testing, 1-2-3

This is my first official blog so I hope it all works out! I am not very tech-savvy so we'll see how good at this I am.

As for the class itself, I can't wait to get into the projects we will be doing this semester. This class allows for a different kind of creativity and art then some of the other production based classes I have taken, so I'm very excited. I'm not really sure what to expect just yet but I did enjoy messing around with the film stock today and just getting a feel for what can and can not be done. I already have a few ideas for our first assignment but am still a little confused as to what exactly we are going to be doing with the medium itself. I'm sure it will all fall into place once I start working with the materials. I am a very big texture and color person so I definitely know I will be able to incorporate some great things into the project.

I look forward to seeing where this class takes me : )