So.. we have a blog where we have to do freestyle, so I figured I'd talk about something that I find amusing relating to a certain class and/or certain professor. In this class, a class that I was relatively excited about taking when I was at the senior level, has been a complete let down. Now I'll be honest, I have learned some things in the class. We have done a few assignments here and there and did a few workshops that I found could be helpful in the future. But our final (and only) scene to film (from here on out I will refer to it as a "project" so I don't get too heavy into details), given certain days and times to film during class time, isn't encouraged to be done as good as possible, but rather "dogma" style. It's more about "process" than "product". Understandable, but I think it is a little bit of both, not one or the other. I asked to be able to do my "project" at a different time and have more people/equipment to make it look as good as possible. I am getting ready to graduate in the Fall and I would like to have something to show. I have been in FST 302: Doc and FST 495: Doc, so this is a chance where I get to work with a narrative (other than other student films I have helped out on).
I just am bothered that when I was denied of not being able to do it on my own and it's not about the product, the reason why is because it is "not fair to others". "We don't have enough equipment," was another one... I think if a student should want to go above and beyond to try their best it should be encouraged, not denied. If I have the means of doing it the best I can, I should. It is fair game to any student in that class and you would hope they all want to do their best, and if not they are not going to care enough to get upset if someone who wants to do it well does. That is why in a class you have people that get A's and others F's. Not everyone is going to try as hard as someone else and I don't think that means what is "fair" or not. Everyone has a chance to do this, but we are restricted. I even asked if I could do it during my given time and then again, that way the professor could help with the process and then I could later finish whatever we needed and make it decent. This was still iffy, but I think I am going to do it anyway. I am here, paying for my education and have access to this equipment and other tools that in a few months I will no longer be able to use. I think I should have the right to do it as best as I can because it will help out in the end. I mean, what is the worst that will happen? Will I get a bad grade because I did something better than what was asked? Or at least tried to do something on my own so I could get experience? I am not really sure, but this next week is going to be interesting, that's for sure.
LWR
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Pablo Aravz: The World's Molotov Man
After reading both articles ("The Ecstacy of Influence and "The Molotov Man"), I have decided to focus on Pablo Aravz and the "Molotov Man" for my blog. Although I thought both articles were interesting, the "Molotov Man" made me think more and I think I took more out of it. The original picture, taken in 1979 by Susan Meiselas, was a depiction of a Sandinista throwing a molotov cocktail at a Somoza as they were leaving. The Somoza's were in control up until this point and on the day the photo was taken they were leaving power and the town in Nicaragua. Susan's original picture features Pablo holding the molotov in one hand and a assult riffle around his other arm. There are other people in the background. Pablo, then known as "Bareta," was doing what he was supposed to do for the Sandinistas. It wasn't a picture about a riot, but one of difiance. The Somoza's were already leaving so there was no fight or need to rebel.
When Joy Garnett got ahold of this picture she focused only on Pablo and only used part of his body for her painting. She focused on Pablo with just the molotov in hand. She used a picture that was for documentary purposes and decontextualized it for her own use. She did this because she was working on a Riot series that included many other pictures of people doing crazy things. She even said at one point one of the pictures she used was of a bunch of fraternity men jumping over fires. That picture didn't represent a "riot," probably just kids who drank too much and trying to have a good time. Susan's picture, once again, was not about a riot, but Joy took what she needed from the photo to make it "work" for her project she was working on. She used a variety of pictures, all of which I am sure she didn't get permission to use, but when she took them in her own way and modified them, decontextualized them, it became something completely different. Something new, and it was her creation. Just because she got the idea from Susan's photo doesn't mean she copied it or stole it.
Taking photos to use that were created for documenting and making them your own work shouldn't be an issue. It makes me laugh, actually, about this whole thing. I just watched a 15 documentary short called, "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" (made in 1986) and I bet that neither guys filming had to get permits to do this. They just brought their camera to the parking lot (and even inside to film the concert) and got away with it. Nowadays with all of the technology and scandals it seems like you have to go through a huge process for something that really shouldn't be that big of a deal. We are all people on this earth and we live in the land of the free so why is this an issue? It wasn't 20 years ago. With permission, copyrights, etc... its all blown out of proportion. I understand if someone makes a film that they want the rights to it or even write their own script it is theirs. Or if someone creates something and copyrights the idea, that is theres. But when it is something that is out in the open and free to one's own eyes, it shouldn't be an issue. Regulations are still unclear for most of this stuff and that is why Susan didn't sue Joy and probably would have lost the case even if she did. My favorite part of this article was when the author talked about "Well who owns the right to Pablo" and that is what it boils down to. If anyone should have claim over the picture, it should be him since he is the subject. Not the person taking it or modifying it.
Anyways, I liked how Joy's friends on the forum took the picture and spread it all over the internet and other ads, like promoting pepsi, because it helped show Susan, and I am sure other people as well, that it really isn't that big of a deal. No one should spend the money in court fees or anything else. If anything, Joy should credit Susan for the original photo, which she did, and call it a day. That's my opinion and I am stickin' to it.
LWR
When Joy Garnett got ahold of this picture she focused only on Pablo and only used part of his body for her painting. She focused on Pablo with just the molotov in hand. She used a picture that was for documentary purposes and decontextualized it for her own use. She did this because she was working on a Riot series that included many other pictures of people doing crazy things. She even said at one point one of the pictures she used was of a bunch of fraternity men jumping over fires. That picture didn't represent a "riot," probably just kids who drank too much and trying to have a good time. Susan's picture, once again, was not about a riot, but Joy took what she needed from the photo to make it "work" for her project she was working on. She used a variety of pictures, all of which I am sure she didn't get permission to use, but when she took them in her own way and modified them, decontextualized them, it became something completely different. Something new, and it was her creation. Just because she got the idea from Susan's photo doesn't mean she copied it or stole it.
Taking photos to use that were created for documenting and making them your own work shouldn't be an issue. It makes me laugh, actually, about this whole thing. I just watched a 15 documentary short called, "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" (made in 1986) and I bet that neither guys filming had to get permits to do this. They just brought their camera to the parking lot (and even inside to film the concert) and got away with it. Nowadays with all of the technology and scandals it seems like you have to go through a huge process for something that really shouldn't be that big of a deal. We are all people on this earth and we live in the land of the free so why is this an issue? It wasn't 20 years ago. With permission, copyrights, etc... its all blown out of proportion. I understand if someone makes a film that they want the rights to it or even write their own script it is theirs. Or if someone creates something and copyrights the idea, that is theres. But when it is something that is out in the open and free to one's own eyes, it shouldn't be an issue. Regulations are still unclear for most of this stuff and that is why Susan didn't sue Joy and probably would have lost the case even if she did. My favorite part of this article was when the author talked about "Well who owns the right to Pablo" and that is what it boils down to. If anyone should have claim over the picture, it should be him since he is the subject. Not the person taking it or modifying it.
Anyways, I liked how Joy's friends on the forum took the picture and spread it all over the internet and other ads, like promoting pepsi, because it helped show Susan, and I am sure other people as well, that it really isn't that big of a deal. No one should spend the money in court fees or anything else. If anything, Joy should credit Susan for the original photo, which she did, and call it a day. That's my opinion and I am stickin' to it.
LWR
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
My empty space... my rough theatre. x3.
First off, my computer sucks and I think I got a virus over the weekend so I am trying my best to do this without losing my patience. This now is my third attempt at doing this blog… Sorry if it is not as long as the others or what not… but I just am trying to finish it and get it posted at this point. Technology: love to hate it and hate to love it.
Onto the rough theatre. The article talks about the difference between the rough and the popular theatre. The rough theatre to me is like the basics of film making. It is a lot like 6x1 and the projects we do in the class. We scratch film, manipulate it, process it, and so on and so forth using the old methods to create a film. Films that would be considered experimental to most, but still a film. It is rough, much like the theatre described in the article. It is small, made up of tools and resources that are easily accessible. It is a place that doesn’t have the most eloquent seating and the stage is probably a small dirt area in front of the audience. Then there is the popular theatre. It is the more technical side of the film business and more popular. More people are familiar with it and it is what has the most success. The popular theatre has a huge stage, side balconies, and a huge area for seating for a vast audience.
My favorite part of the article is when it talks about the rough theatre, “If we find that dung is a good fertilizer, it is no use being squeamish; if the theatre seems to need a certain crude element, this must be accepted as part of its natural soil. At the beginning of electronic music, some German studios claimed that they could make every sound that a natural instrument could make – only better. They then discovered that all their sounds were marked by a certain uniform sterility.” I thought this was a perfect breakdown of the rough theatre as it talks about the dung being one of the tools that helped create this area and it worked. The dung, although it smells horrible, helped hold the sound from the instrument better than any other resource they could use. They took what they had and made it work. That is how I feel 6x1 is. We have six different projects and each one we use different resources provided, including our brains, to get creative and create our own version of the rough theatre. I am glad I got the chance to take this class and create my own rough theatre over and over, because before taking this class I probably would stay away from projects like this but now, it has opened up my eyes and I love it. I love my empty space.
LWR
Onto the rough theatre. The article talks about the difference between the rough and the popular theatre. The rough theatre to me is like the basics of film making. It is a lot like 6x1 and the projects we do in the class. We scratch film, manipulate it, process it, and so on and so forth using the old methods to create a film. Films that would be considered experimental to most, but still a film. It is rough, much like the theatre described in the article. It is small, made up of tools and resources that are easily accessible. It is a place that doesn’t have the most eloquent seating and the stage is probably a small dirt area in front of the audience. Then there is the popular theatre. It is the more technical side of the film business and more popular. More people are familiar with it and it is what has the most success. The popular theatre has a huge stage, side balconies, and a huge area for seating for a vast audience.
My favorite part of the article is when it talks about the rough theatre, “If we find that dung is a good fertilizer, it is no use being squeamish; if the theatre seems to need a certain crude element, this must be accepted as part of its natural soil. At the beginning of electronic music, some German studios claimed that they could make every sound that a natural instrument could make – only better. They then discovered that all their sounds were marked by a certain uniform sterility.” I thought this was a perfect breakdown of the rough theatre as it talks about the dung being one of the tools that helped create this area and it worked. The dung, although it smells horrible, helped hold the sound from the instrument better than any other resource they could use. They took what they had and made it work. That is how I feel 6x1 is. We have six different projects and each one we use different resources provided, including our brains, to get creative and create our own version of the rough theatre. I am glad I got the chance to take this class and create my own rough theatre over and over, because before taking this class I probably would stay away from projects like this but now, it has opened up my eyes and I love it. I love my empty space.
LWR
48 Hour Video Race... Flashbacks of FST201.
The picture to the left is an example of a picture I used in one of my FST 201 class that I edited in photoshop. I think I am going to try this technique for my whole project... I explain more in detail below.....
Assignment #5, the 48-hour video race, is what first interested me in 6x1. I saw all of the videos from last semester when I went to the screening for my FST 302 Doc film. I thought they were really cool and unique since the class couldn’t use any actual cameras or videos. At the time I wasn’t sure what 6x1 was but these minute films seemed really cool. I also spent time in editing lab working on my FST 302 Doc while Dustin was editing his 48 hour video race so he told me about it and he’s was amazing. I also helped Kyle with his when he did it. It was really cool seeing one of my friends write “cookie” in the air and take a photo of it, combining it with many others to make a story.
It reminds me of my days in FST 201 with Shannon, where before there was a time when FST 201 actually used real cameras, we had to shoot all of our project with digital photo stills all placed together to make a compelling story. At first I wish we could have used cameras to film with but this method helped me understand how film breaks down, frame by frame, and I think it was a good start to my film major. Now I get to go back to those days with this assignment and use types of media other than video or recording to do this. Since I enjoyed using my camera so much during FST 201 I have decided to use my digital camera for this project and do a combination of stills to make a story with the mystery prop and a cheese sandwich. I went to Jungle Rapids the other day and saw that they had three different booths to do photos but for 16 photos it was $3. So even though I think it would be unique and might have a cool turn out, I have to pass on that idea because of the cost. I also have a video recorder on my camera but I think that takes away the fun from the project because even though the quality is bad, it is still a way to record. Other ideas that we discussed in class like scanners once again can become to costly and right now I am not one to be spending much money. I am a broke college student, remember.
Another method that I am thinking about tying in with my digital photo stills is camera phone pictures. I have an application on my phone (no its not an iphone) that I can take a picture and automatically upload it online. So I can use a combination of phone photos and camera photos to make my project. I also think I might mess around with them in photoshop to see what cool stuff I can do to make it different from the average combination of photos. I think it will be fun and I can’t wait…. One more week! P.S. I feel like the mystery prop is going to be a baby toy or something… ha. Lets see if I’m right.
It reminds me of my days in FST 201 with Shannon, where before there was a time when FST 201 actually used real cameras, we had to shoot all of our project with digital photo stills all placed together to make a compelling story. At first I wish we could have used cameras to film with but this method helped me understand how film breaks down, frame by frame, and I think it was a good start to my film major. Now I get to go back to those days with this assignment and use types of media other than video or recording to do this. Since I enjoyed using my camera so much during FST 201 I have decided to use my digital camera for this project and do a combination of stills to make a story with the mystery prop and a cheese sandwich. I went to Jungle Rapids the other day and saw that they had three different booths to do photos but for 16 photos it was $3. So even though I think it would be unique and might have a cool turn out, I have to pass on that idea because of the cost. I also have a video recorder on my camera but I think that takes away the fun from the project because even though the quality is bad, it is still a way to record. Other ideas that we discussed in class like scanners once again can become to costly and right now I am not one to be spending much money. I am a broke college student, remember.
Another method that I am thinking about tying in with my digital photo stills is camera phone pictures. I have an application on my phone (no its not an iphone) that I can take a picture and automatically upload it online. So I can use a combination of phone photos and camera photos to make my project. I also think I might mess around with them in photoshop to see what cool stuff I can do to make it different from the average combination of photos. I think it will be fun and I can’t wait…. One more week! P.S. I feel like the mystery prop is going to be a baby toy or something… ha. Lets see if I’m right.
LWR
Sunday, March 1, 2009
On the Making of Fiberboard '72. (Bolex shoot)
Rain. Sweat. Dedication. Fun. More rain. Bruises. Losing my keys. Tons of wet clothes. And even more rain. All of these different words sum up my experience on Saturday with the one shot using the Bolex. It wasn’t the first time I used a Bolex (FST 302 doc for our parkour doc) so I didn’t get the chance to film but I don’t care, I just love shooting with the Bolex. I love the black and white grainy look; it reminds me of the 1920s and 30s and silent films. But anyways, on to the shoot…
So we started out helping Joselyn’s group with their project which was full of choreography and crazy dance moves all around. What made it even better was Joselyn’s costume box as I think it helped everyone get more excited and establish a “character” to portray in the shot. I feel bad though because we rushed the timing on it because we thought we only had 28 seconds to shoot when really we had a whole minute. Even though we did rush through it and every rehearsal we moved a second faster, I think the turnout was still really awesome and in editing they will be able to do some cool stuff to make it that much better. I just want to go on the record and say I wasn’t one of the ones to tell them to speed it up but when someone said 28 seconds I thought it was right because we were underexposing, or speeding up the film rate, so I thought the film would process faster… in my head it made sense but I was wrong. We all make mistakes though, and like I said their footage was still pretty good, even with the f-stop being off and the processing not turning out exactly as well as it could have.
After we helped them though we started our project. We were going for a Vietnam flashback. We wanted to have a couple, lovingly together, and when the woman finds out the man is a vet (Even though he was wearing a army jacket), she rages and proceeds to chop him, then beat him up with the fiberwood. She is running from his past and from the war. After we see this action, we see the Veit Cong in the woods creeping out. We go back to the girl who sees the man getting back to his feet and going after her. She escapes though. All of the Viet Cong emerge from the forest and chase after the man who was in war, he can’t escape it. The girl makes one final strike at the man and she is able to leave him and his past alone, as he will forever be tied to the war and unable to escape the battles he once took. Ok, so that is my personal meaning of it all, and it can be understood if watched closely or several times, but I believe the message is clear. I just want to say thanks to Joselyn for helping us out and being the female lead. Everyone should watch out for her tiger strike… it’s pretty crucial. After we shot it and processed (which it turned out well), we watched it in the negative version and I am satisfied with it. We only did two rehearsals before shooting as well so I think for only trying this out three times we nailed it. I can’t wait to take the footage into Final Cut and change the image to a positive and add sound and other craziness. This was probably my favorite assignment we have done so far because we all worked together as a class to help each other out and the ideas for the projects were great. It made the day entertaining, even with the rain. I know we probably won’t have time to do it again but I would have loved to do this without rain, I think we could have had a better turn out and more people willing to help. But by the end of the day everyone was wet and tired and we just wanted to get done with it all and get some food. One idea was even to just go to taco bell and film us eating tacos because we were so hungry. But we toughed it out and filmed what we planned. Like I said, be on the lookout for Fiberboard ’72, it’s gonna be an instant classic.
LWR
So we started out helping Joselyn’s group with their project which was full of choreography and crazy dance moves all around. What made it even better was Joselyn’s costume box as I think it helped everyone get more excited and establish a “character” to portray in the shot. I feel bad though because we rushed the timing on it because we thought we only had 28 seconds to shoot when really we had a whole minute. Even though we did rush through it and every rehearsal we moved a second faster, I think the turnout was still really awesome and in editing they will be able to do some cool stuff to make it that much better. I just want to go on the record and say I wasn’t one of the ones to tell them to speed it up but when someone said 28 seconds I thought it was right because we were underexposing, or speeding up the film rate, so I thought the film would process faster… in my head it made sense but I was wrong. We all make mistakes though, and like I said their footage was still pretty good, even with the f-stop being off and the processing not turning out exactly as well as it could have.
After we helped them though we started our project. We were going for a Vietnam flashback. We wanted to have a couple, lovingly together, and when the woman finds out the man is a vet (Even though he was wearing a army jacket), she rages and proceeds to chop him, then beat him up with the fiberwood. She is running from his past and from the war. After we see this action, we see the Veit Cong in the woods creeping out. We go back to the girl who sees the man getting back to his feet and going after her. She escapes though. All of the Viet Cong emerge from the forest and chase after the man who was in war, he can’t escape it. The girl makes one final strike at the man and she is able to leave him and his past alone, as he will forever be tied to the war and unable to escape the battles he once took. Ok, so that is my personal meaning of it all, and it can be understood if watched closely or several times, but I believe the message is clear. I just want to say thanks to Joselyn for helping us out and being the female lead. Everyone should watch out for her tiger strike… it’s pretty crucial. After we shot it and processed (which it turned out well), we watched it in the negative version and I am satisfied with it. We only did two rehearsals before shooting as well so I think for only trying this out three times we nailed it. I can’t wait to take the footage into Final Cut and change the image to a positive and add sound and other craziness. This was probably my favorite assignment we have done so far because we all worked together as a class to help each other out and the ideas for the projects were great. It made the day entertaining, even with the rain. I know we probably won’t have time to do it again but I would have loved to do this without rain, I think we could have had a better turn out and more people willing to help. But by the end of the day everyone was wet and tired and we just wanted to get done with it all and get some food. One idea was even to just go to taco bell and film us eating tacos because we were so hungry. But we toughed it out and filmed what we planned. Like I said, be on the lookout for Fiberboard ’72, it’s gonna be an instant classic.
LWR
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