Journey Towards Organization

Cathy Cook
Photo Courtsey of http://www.woodlandpattern.org/niedecker/presenters.shtml#cook

Cathy Cook, a very talented filmmaker took time to visit out class and share with us her experience with creating film.  Her inspirations for each piece she showed us struck me as intriguing.  She started several films off of an idea, from a poem, or visual that intrigued her and found or created the rest of the video to go with it.  Particularly her film Fire, where she took the images of a fire and built from there.  Originally as she was explaining this to us, it struck me as abnormal.  Why would you focus on one little thing to get the ball rolling?  Then I realized that often a small idea is generally what people use to get started, but they just tend to have applicable objects, images, or subjects readily available that they want to use.  This method, for me, often just creates a mass of information that isn’t always clear.  The advice Cook provided us with about using lists really hit me as something I should do in order to become more organized.  It is a technique that can help set out ideas in front of a person, as well as lead to a storyboard. 

Storyboard Template
Courtesy of: http://www.the-flying-animator.com/storyboard-template.html

Although a storyboard seems unneeded for something so small, many commercials use them (just a few are shown on this site Cathy showed us).  Storyboards are good way of showing other collaborators how shots are set up, or even composers what is going on, before you have film, in order to create film or an idea.  This is incredibly efficient and seems as if it can create something a lot more meaningful without the added hassle or chaos.  The tips Cook provided us promise to be very useful in creating a work, but also promise to be helpful for receiving funding for anything (even non art related) that I might choose to pursue in the future.  Thank you Cathy!

Gilardi's Hidden Images

    Deb Brehmer's lecture on Bernard Gilardi's paintings and her experience with them was a very unique experience.  She was able to view all of his works, his notes, and everything, in good condition, and really get the feel for the artists vision from one area without having to search as widely for her resources.  It is wonderful that she was also able to get a lot of the information (practically most of it) that went along with the art. This was an incredibly unique opportunity because it allowed her to influence the way in which Gilardi's work would be shared with the public without any preconceived ideas. Her experience really allowed people to see that anyone can become an artist if they work at it.
    Gilardi had very intriguing aspects to his paintings of a sort of religious fantasy and little things about his life.  It really shows how adding small aspects of your own life or some symbolism can really add meaning to the work of art you are creating and the idea you are trying to get across.  Speaking with Brehmer about this along with a few other artists, we agreed that Gilardi must have been very well versed in many things and that he had done his research on the things he added to his painting.  His addition of some elements show it is possible and perhaps easy to frame elements of the real world, but it seems they all will have bias.  They will be influenced by the way the artist shows them, which seems as if it no longer makes it part of the real world, but part of the artist's world.  One of my favorite examples of hidden "real world" images in art are the "Easter Eggs" hidden in Disney films which seem to be making up for the earlier controversial "inappropriate for children" images that appeared in earlier films.  The "Easter Egg" images have had a lot of thought put into them.  In truth, the art is really shaped by what you see when you observe it.

This is A timed Test

This is A timed Test

Take A Moment

     For this project, I intended to create a short film about taking a moment out of your busy schedule to just breathe and collect yourself because more could get done.  In the end it developed into (this!) the idea of taking a minute for yourself to relax, whether before, during, or after a busy day because it will just help.  This change happened because of editing and because it seemed to become overall stronger.  I was the subject of my film which caused some difficulties in filming.  The main drawback was no one was there for most of the shots to tell me to stop and re-shoot because I wasn't in frame or I had done something that just looked strange on camera.  Another minor drawback that I quickly worked my way around was leaving the camera while I drove off in a car.  I offered to take a friend shopping if she would let me set up the camera, hit the button, and make sure no one stole it while I drove away.  This was helpful because the camera guard was also able to follow the shot for a bit.  The only problem was they didn't know exactly what my vision was, so several re-shoots were required.  Another problem was camera placement.  I realized that a lot of different things go into shooting for a film.  You need to make sure the shot is set up properly and this is really hard if you are your own subject.  I managed most of my shots with the use of a tripod, which in one case was basically essential for getting the shot.
     Editing this video proved far better than the last (the computer cooperated for one thing).  I had all of my shots planned, so the only thing I had to do was sort through them for the part that I wanted, most of them I only had to cut out me turning on and off the camera.  The transitions in between the title and the end scene worked a lot better than normal cuts would have.  They caused it to flow much better than if they had just been cut in.  The editing of what I consider the memory sequence caused the film to have a different feel than when it was in color.  The color just made it look too busy, and although it was what I was going for, the "dreamy" effects made it more seem like a cup of tea was great after a long day.  I did wind up debating between diegetic and non-diegetic sound.  I finally decided upon non-diegetic sound  because it seemed to get the point across better and music didn't really seem to fit.
    The trickiest part of this project, was creating a film with meaning in 6 days.  It wasn't the easiest thing in the world and overall, I feel I could have done much better if I had even 12 days.  There is no easy way to film a lot of material and then have to go through it and cut it down in 6 days.  I tend to feel different every time I watch something, which caused me to change the plans I had for specific clips daily for 3 days.  I am happy with the final result because my idea really evolved from shooting to editing to finalizing.  I am looking forward to the future when I might have more time to make a video and can really have the ability to concentrate on it without the thought of finals looming overhead.

Take A Moment

A short film about taking the time to relax.

Tearing My Hair Out

  

Creating videos from existing videos, really brings to light how important paying attention to copy write law is.  It was something very interesting to explore, and caused me to watch a lot of videos and pick out specific parts before I really sat down to work.  This made the editing process a lot easier.
 One thing that confuses me about copy write law is that I'm not entirely sure why writing (about literature or science) allows so much "copying" but in commercial art it seems so taboo, I personally would be flattered if someone started copying my work.  
     When I first started on Saturday I was having problems with Final Cut Pro X, so I decided to give myself a break and come back to it on Sunday.  On Sunday, the video editing went very well and very quickly because I knew what I wanted to do.  The problems started when I tried to do anything fancy.  I couldn't add titles or effects.  Final Cut would stop responding and then it would basically crash.  The first few times I lost all my work.  Then I tried reformatting my external hard drive (I backed up the data of course)  If all had gone according to plan I would have been done at 10pm and comfortably in bed by 11, but here I am, in the lab at 2:13am trying to salvage yet another attempt at my project so I don't have to start entirely from scratch again.  You may ask, why didn't I save my project as I went along.  I did.  Several times in fact.  Turns out what I did save wasn't a good file (although when it finally would save and work, it was the same format). 
   For projects like this, technology can be incredibly useful and at other times, you just want to chuck things against a wall because they seem entirely hopeless.  It really puts a hamper on getting things done if technology decides not to cooperate.

Update: After finally convincing the computer to agree with me at about 4:30am, I produced this gem, uploaded it to Youtube, and now can finally go to bed.  The picture you see above is only one of many examples of absolute and utter frustration Final Cut Pro was providing. 

Unfortunately there are currently some errors in the gadgets available for viewing YouTube videos in your blog, but when they are working, expect to see an embedded video, otherwise for now, my video is here and on YouTube.

Mungo Thomson's [Copy Last Blog Title...Insert Here]

Photo Credit: http://mungothomson.com/project/silent-film-of-a-tree-falling-in-the-forest/

   

    I can think of no better title for this blog post and Mungo Thomson's work than The Art of Exhibition, which I've already used last time, so I thought I'd elaborate a bit on whose Art of Exhibition it was.  Thomson's artwork is very much on the art of exhibition, which when looking at his website is not very obvious from the projects he has posted.  In a lecture he gave in the HAMMER Lecture Sereis, an exhibition in his own right, he talked about how his work was exhibited.  His work, by nature, is very scarce online whereas some of the other artist's presented on, such as Ryan Trecartin, used the internet and more modern media to exhibit their works and even add meaning to them.

   Although Thomson's art is often distributed and  not available for viewing online, shows he wishes for the art of his exhibitions to remain in the exhibitions themselves.  His Coat Check Chimes 2008, installed in the Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York  really expresses that his exhibits are meant to be interacted with and it is all about the art of the exhibit.  Not only did he do this specifically for this area replacing all of the 1,200 wooden coat hangers with his own, but used it to bracket his exhibit and admitted, if you don't check a coat, you don't see it although you might hear it.

   His exhibition of Silent Film of a Tree Falling in the Forest, 2006 really had interesting contrast with our Watching exhibit.  He made the room dark while ours was white, he made it a little harder to see the main focus of the piece, while we made it accessible.  Thomson shows there is a huge art to exhibition, which people may not realize is present in the work of other artists.  Their exhibition decisions of, "Do I put it online?"  "I am putting it in a museum!"  "I want people to come and see it, I'll only put teasers online", really share something about their art and the way they want it viewed.  Thomson is really able to express this idea in his art.