3D Shoot

So I've had really mixed feelings about the 3D shoot. At first I was a little upset with the idea at first because since I can only see out of my left eye I actually can't see 3D, especially the red and blue 3D. I felt a little sad at first since I knew I was going to be working hard on something and I wouldn't be able to see it. I got over that pretty quickly though. I had a lot of fun with this project. I really enjoyed making all the props out of card board, and constructing a story around our ideas. I think my whole group had a lot of fun creating our story. I had a lot of fun acting in it as well, even though I'm not usually someone who's in front of the camera. Our group did struggle with our story ideas and also finding times that all of us could meet together, but we all pulled it together in the end. I hope that our film will come out well. I am anticipating some problems with editing, but I'm hoping they won't be too hard to fix. I suppose we will see when we come to that. I hope that our 3D will come across to the audience. Unfortunately I won't be able to see it, but I can just hope that it looks good.

The Rough Theater Response

Nothing is perfect, especially in art. If you ask any artist what they think about there work, there's always something they say they could do better. That's the beauty in art, though. I worked on a music video in my experimental class last year and the film ended up coming out super over exposed. Some of the shots we got didn't even show up. I was so disappointed, but my group and I ended up editing it together and working around that issue. I feel like the video still is good, even though it is over exposed. Of course I wish that it had come out exposed properly, but nothing can work out perfectly. We are only human, we can not create perfect art. On the stage there will never be a stage show that is completely perfect. Maybe a singer flubs a note, or an actor forgets his lines. That's what makes it so interesting, you will never see the same show twice. Everyone has imperfections, that's what makes the world unique, and that's what makes our art unique. Film makers who strive to create the "perfect," film, aren't creating films that are unique and different, but that are all following the same pattern. I think these are films that will become very boring. Perfection is overrated.

Long Take Experience

So I was really excited about the long take and I had a few different ideas when I thought about it. I was really excited when my group decided to do one of my ideas. I was also glad that they put in many new ideas of their own. I was really nervous about working with the bolex again especially since my first experience with one didn't go so well. I also was a little nervous about processing because I thought it might end up not turning out right. So when we worked with the other group I tried to figure out ways that we could time ours out right and make sure that we would make a good time. I also was trying to plan out how our shoot would go. I was excited to see the first group's film come out because I knew that we would be able to do it right after that. So we went out and blocked our scene and it timed out perfectly so I was really excited. I loved our story about the stalker who chases after the girl he likes, but also plans on murdering her. I think our take went really well and we had a really unique concept, especially shooting it mostly in point-of-view shots. I was thrilled with how our film came out as well. It looked really clear and also had good contrast. It did seem like the film had skipped a couple frames, but it wasn’t something I was going to panic about.

Cameraless Filmmaking

So if there is one thing I have to say about film manipulation it is time consuming! I was surprised how much longer it took than I was expecting. The animation was extremely time consuming and I also had a hard time fitting my drawing in the frame. I had a lot of fun doing the magazine transfer. I really enjoyed finding the images and putting them together like a puzzle. I didn't really like doing the bleaching and painting of the film strip. I found that part a little repetitive and tedious. Also after doing the contact printing and rayograms I was really disappointed that most of mine didn't actually show up. I ended up bleaching and painting those strips as well since there wasn't much on there. I was really disappointed that many of my beads, salt, and other items didn't show up at all. Overall I didn't do as well on this project as I had hoped. I really had high hopes for it, and I didn't feel like it went the way I wanted it to. I also wish that I had more time to work on it in class with the materials we had in class. Ethan and I had to find our own paints, and I'm not even entirely sure we got the right kind. I feel like if I had more time to work on this I would have felt a lot better about the final product. I just felt so rushed, and stressed about all these different projects that I barely have time to grasp a handle on them.

Projections Of Sound On Image Response

I find it really interesting how much sound and image can affect someone's perception of a piece. In most documentaries film makers use dialogue to go over different visions, and it can give the audience a different feel than if they did it a different way. Documentaries usually put the dialogue they want over specific images to make the audience feel a certain way. Sounds can also create a very odd feel. I remember watching a film one time where various sounds were placed over images, but the sounds and images did not go together. I remember feeling really conflicted on how to react to the film because the mixture of the strange sounds and images made me feel really uncomfortable. This really shows how much sound can affect a film. Music is also a huge factor into how an audience feels about things. In my editing class we saw how different people attached different scores to their pieces. It was really interesting to see how different the piece felt with having a different type of music. One group could have a serious sounding piece so it made the film serious, but another could have funny music and the piece had a completely different feel, even though they had the same footage. I also have done a little bit of experimenting with sound myself with my experimental class last year. I loved creating an entire soundscape, then putting the image to it. I thought it was interesting trying to put image to sound, rather than sound to image. Sound can really cause a piece to feel a certain way whether that is through dialogue, sound effects, or music, it causes the piece to have a specific feel to it.

Wells Animation Response

I've always admired cell animation since I learned everything it took to make an animation like that. I have always admired the effort and work that went into animation like that, but I had never really thought of different forms of animation other than narrative and experimental. This article really opened my eyes to many different forms of animation. For me I have always loved Disney's cel animation the best of all their films. I'm definitely not as fond of the newer 3D animation style. I also love experimental film, and the idea that animation and experimental can come together is amazing. I love how music and animation can also be similar to each other. I find it extremely interesting that animation can be composed, and have a rhythm just like music does. This makes me remember one of my favorite films from Disney, Fantasia, and as I see the film now it definitely is a more experimental film than the typical narrative. The film all together has no sound, except for in between music pieces. Even as a kid I always enjoyed watching how the animation and music worked together so perfectly. I always found it fascinating that someone could animate what they heard. I feel like I could watch fantasia a million times over because I enjoy watching the combination of music and animation. Fantasia does have some narrative elements within some of the songs, but overall I really see it as more abstract animation. Many of the animations are colored, and moved in ways that match the music perfectly. It fascinates me to watch this type of animation, and I wonder if maybe I could learn to do something similar to this. I would love to be able to animate my own vision from music.

Synesthesia

This article reminded me of the Art 101 class that I took last year. We actually learned about synesthesia in the class, but I don't remember actually calling it that. I think the combined forms of art to create a certain feel is extremely interesting. In Art 101 we discussed how a painting can be a realistic portrayal of something, for example a cat, and the fur on the cat could look so realistic that it could be touched. This is a form of synesthesia, the viewer sees the art and thinks it is realistic, and therefore wants to touch it. I think it's interesting that certain forms of art can trigger those types of senses. For me music by itself often triggers visual images in my head. That’s what makes me so interested in music videos, and just putting music and visual image together in general. I definitely found it interesting that synesthesia can be found in so many different forms of art. I really think it is interesting that color and music can also be correlated. I loved reading about the organ and how the color would coordinate with the octave of the note. I can see how those two coordinate because the lighter colors would be with a higher musical note. I love that all these different art forms can come together and be compatible with each other. Synesthesia will always remain present in any form of art, and it is interesting how different viewers can also get different reactions to different forms of art.

Norman McLaren Response

The film incorporated music with visuals perfectly. The images moved perfectly in sync with the music. The color also seemed to play a large part in the film; more color was present in the faster, more chaotic parts of the film. The color seemed to increase as the music increased in complexity. I felt very chaotic at the beginning and end of the of the film, and I saw the middle as more melodic and slightly narrative. It was very interesting visually. I often had a hard time pulling out a single image, and rather saw a multitude of images working together to pull the piece together.