Thursday, April 23, 2009

6x1 part deux

I wish there was a 6x1 part 2 because I would sign up for it without a doubt as soon as I could and then maybe audit it every year after that. I think that if you had a follow up class then it would only strengthen my skills and knowledge of making fantastic experimental films and cameraless films. That would be great, to get a better understand and practice, learn more about, hand painting on film, animating straight onto the film and understand what the outcome of each stroke would be and each move, color, how it would look with it's projected. And the rhythmic edit was probably my favorite and even though I know I could do that on my own in my own time to make movies but when I have to do it for class it's more motivating and creatively stimulating. The super 8 animation is probably also at the top of my list as being the most awesome and I would really like to do that again in a class room setting, with you there to make sure that what we are filming is actually going to come out.  I tried to do a stop animation for my 48-hr vid race but it didn't come out as well, the lighting was way off and so was the focus and everything who knows.  I think that it is helpful to learn these techniques of stop animation and camera less film making when you have the tools and supplies accessible to you. The last two film projects that I've worked on haven't turned out what I thought at all and i know that if I was in class or had someone one around with much more knowledge and confidence than it probably would have come out better.  
I'm really stoked that 6x1 is going to continue to reign the experimental production side of film studies, and i wish that I could be here when you do expand to follow up 6x1 class, I know that you are full of ideas and techniques to teach us it just depends on if the school has the budget and if there were enough students interested, it's hard to believe but it's true. 

Yes Men

The yes men were totally awesome for what they do in the world of the media and crooked politics! They make it look so easy to scam a bunch of intellectuals that are suppose to be hearing speeches by scholarly politicians! They totally joke on everyone that "believes" in our government, and it's international relations.  
Their documentary relates to this found footage project because they are using other people's identities or work as their own credit to achieve pranks and scandals.  A lot of culture jamming filmmakers use clips from news and media, politics and celebrities to make them look stupid, which they usually are. I found in my project that it really wasn't very hard to achieve that, usually new anchors will just say stupid stuff like they are asking you to cut it up and make a culture jamming short film mocking them.  It's insane, the way the way that our media and government works, and to think that the yes men can get away with everything they do and lie about, it shows that with the internet you never really know how true your resources are. 
I think that this kind of filmmaking and activism in the media/film community is super important to reflecting on how we perceive all the media that streams in daily.  
I enjoy watching really good edits to found footage and culture jamming projects, I think they are funny and witty, and aaron valdez is amazing! I think that it is kind of a joke for intellectuals that cuts back at deceiving and melodramatic news shows, and reality shows, and anything really that is going on in entertainment.  It's hard to relate to those people that get sucked in to the mindless and trivial world of entertainment, I'd much rather see it piece together, getting a straight point across and bashing on the media news crews at the same time. 
It was hard for me to get started on this project because I couldn't grasp a solid concept or theme for what i wanted to do.  I don't keep up with the media/entertainment either so it was hard to relate something that is recent and interesting. It didn't take long though once I got on youtube and just checked out popular videos in recent news and i got an idea and easily reached one minute...I think i achieved it well. It just came so fast, and I feel like I got alot of extra footage that i could have made at least a 3 min cut, it probably would've gotten boring by that point though, who knows.  

Sunday, April 19, 2009

about that Molotov man

I think that art should be shared and celebrated without the involvement of money sucking lawyers. I mean really, why is everyone always trying to make a buck, pick a fight, and gains rights to some shit that should be welcomed and respected! The painting is a representation of the photograph by Susan and I feel that she should be credited, but just as Susan can sell prints of her photograph I think that Joy should be able to legally sell her artwork prints. I think that it is really ridiculous the amount of greed in this world today and it really does detract from the purity and expressiveness that is art.  I feel like artists should work together to create pieces and movements that can show their conceptualization of a subject in all ways possible.  A photograph says one thing, and a painting can create another emotion. One person can see it one way and another something totally different.  We are all unique and we should work to coexist and accept each others artistic style and ways of expressing that.  I like to look at other art work to gain inspiration for myself, often times copying something to look exactly like another work of art.  I don't sell it but I still celebrate it as my own.  It is my own interpretation of what the original piece was.  I feel like if we were all forced away from using other people work as an example to work from or gain inspiration than it would restrict the amount of people and personalities that could have come together over it. I feel like they dealt with the situation well, and it probably was just the lawyer that wanted to pick a fight and make some money because that's all this world is about.  
This is completely relevant to the project that we are working on right now, the found footage edit, and I am having a lot of trouble trying to develop a concept that I feel good about and will come across well and clean, and I just don't know.  I don't feel like I keep up enough with the media to really get a good topic to make my film on. I could see myself completely copying something that someone has already done like Valdez or PEZ and not even knowing because I'm not in the loop.  Anyways though I feel like whatever I would create, whether the footage is archived or already been worked into some culture jamming collage, it would still be unique to me.  That's pretty much my moral is that everything that I create even if it is a recreation is unique to me and my style. It's up to me to interpret and express art in my own way whether is is similar to someone elses or not.  People should look for the differences and try to understand them and just recognize that they are there before assuming that two things are copies of one another therefore they have the same meaning. Art is always evolving in it's content and it's meaning.  there is no clear, universal definition of art that everyone can agree on, the human element is what determines their our meaning of the word art, along with what works and what doesn't. so don't worry about it!