Video Copilot

I can not believe how little I have been using after effects now. lol. after watching hours of tutorials it makes me feel like I was just looking at the surface and poking it with a stick. Many more hours of tutorials to go and lots of practice, but at least now I got ideas and understanding of some great digital methods to help work around stuff.

Studies of the day

So I watched Dororo. Breathtaking movie. It takes the cheesy road of kung fu. But it does not do it in an overly sickening method. I hate that stuff. Too damn unreal. But hear the mix of fantasy with what far fetched battle techniques are like a silver lining. Then my wonderful wife introduced me to the writings of Isaac Asimov, I read The Last Question. GOOD GOD DAMN! I mean that with all caps. That man was ahead of his time. May his goldenage works live on to onor him for all of mans time.

Studies

So I watched Avatar today as well as Planet 51 and Astroboy. Good stuffers. Makes me kind of miss the fine works of miniatures though. I did like that Planet 51 referenced a lot of cult movies. Yesterday I watched Hellraiser up to 5. Not sure if I wanna continue watching. Kind of hard to go back in time and show more story. Then again, Highlander gave it a shot. meh.

Writing

Oi. Just got done editing my prologue. Go 6 hrs for 5 pages. But learned a lot of where i was going wrong with it.

Films

Ok. So I watched Big Man Japan. Great movie I do have to say. Interesting...style. I was so into at the end that when it happened, I thought that I was on a bad acid trip cause it took me like a left hook. Either the director was out of money and had to come up with something, Ran out of story, or was on LSD. Jesus Christ it was off the wall. Then I watched Divine Trash. Great ass movie. Gotta watch more of John Waters now. Then I watched Jab We Met. Very interesting to see other styles that I haven't really gotten into in the past.

Film festival

Sent my piece A Dream To Remember to the Palm Springs Film Festival. So hopefully it gets in. Third one down. Woot! Just hope that it gets in. The rewards for winning are awesome. Hope that I get a placement, hell, I even hope that it gets in and not rejected. That would be nice. lol.

Final Paper

Micheal S. Dirnberger
Understanding directing methods through comprehension of components

I have been studying character development, lighting, color theory, how to direct actors/actresses hands on (be it balance of ass hole and friend), frame shots, sound editing and give motivation to cast and crew. An emersion in movies (Features, Shorts, Television, Anime, Reality T.V.) has been my primary means of study. Followed up by articles, advice, and direct interaction on sets. There are many sources available, be it looking at autobiographies from directors, films on the life of, articles, web based media and reviews. There are a lot of things that I wished to learn and get acquainted with.
So at first I started my research in reading articles on character development and story development. I.E. How to build characters, How to work through developing a story, building three-dimensional characters, as well as do’s and do not’s of stories. I looked at pieces that worked within confines of time and space of film and viewers to develop and enhance character and viewer interdependencies. In doing this I studied short narrative animations, and the ways that they work. I know that they are not true derivatives of “narrative film”, however, they do work to tell a story and focus on dialogue and tension between each character throughout a story. Such stories as:
Air a Drama about a wandering man searching for something lost from his past. Interdependencies of characters are developed in this show that move in and out of each others lives with background story weaved in bits and pieces throughout the episodes. It is a swift paced moving style of drama though it seems to drag out in times, but those moments helped in pushing the drama and the moments shared with the characters.

Utawarerumono an anime about feuds and war and the rise of a nation. This story centers on a man that is lost and has amnesia and the haphazard incidents that drives a village to create a new nation out of necessity. The conflicts they face are realistic yet at the same time fanciful giving food for thought on how to push beyond our reality into the suspension of disbelief.

Last Exile a story about the power of human endurance and ability to overcome. The story is an action drama that centers around two characters working for a means to an end. Through their journeys we are presented with other characters and can see the growth of dependency of each character on the story and their impact emotionally on the growth and psyche of the viewer.

These are series that I have looked at over the summer studying the way that they develop story and work with limited dialogue. I chose Anime’s that I believe are against popular culture and general television because of the different types of narrative that is built within each. Each part is a whole and yet they still have a greater telling. I also sampled many other Anime’s seeing what I don’t want to do in playing into niches of culture.
From here I looked at films like:

The City of Lost Children a movie that takes place in a twisted parody of reality using stilted cinematic like those implored in early cinema in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This showed me a different way to incorporate the old into something new while the director made it their own.

Reign Over Me, an emotional melodrama about two men reconnecting after 9/11. It is a journey of spirit and the ability to move beyond hardships and grow as individuals together.

Repo: The Genetic Opera is an opera that utilizes song in story to tell a story. It is a Goth opera to be specific. Dark currents of hate and envy play a large role in moving the story forward showing me the ability to use anger and hatred to tell a story.

Superman Returns is an action movie. This one helped me with looking at building a quiet intensity in film, while the moments of loudness are punctuated by the surrounding silence.

The Warriors, a movie about gang violence and the reach for piece that is lost before it has a moment to begin. The flight of the assumed would be assailants from the crime scene while being chased gives another type of avenue of insight in how to give information to the viewers while withholding from the characters.

These helped me to study a range of different types of contemporary films and their story development. Doing this helped me to further understand “Dramatic tension” in stories, as well as gain a footing on further understanding characters as well as usage of dialogue in moving stories forward. This left me with more questions then answers. Why depend so heavily on narrative to move the story forward? When is application of heavy narrative worthwhile? What is the type of narrative that I wish to portray and tell?
The answer to these is that it depends. What type of story am I trying to tell? That question starts me now down a list of ideas and criteria that I mentally check off of my list. Am I working on a recollection? Do I want to show the recollection? Or do I wish to have the recollection verbal with emphasis on the now, and the past’s influence on the moment at hand. Am I showing events transpiring to guide emotional tension? Or am I using it as a crutch or filler. This made me wonder if the path I was searching down was worthwhile as well as aiding to the direction I wanted my research to go. I decided that it was, but I needed to dig deeper.
So I decided to switch my research to that of visual development. I studied films like Rashomon a stark contrast visually built in black and white guiding the eyes through shadows and light.
Ran and its usage of rich colors of wardrobe, story set up, and extravagant set designs.
Tudors and its rich color and lighting of mise en scene.
Then to Amelie and its limited color pallet and color correction built firmly in balance of each mood of scene.
Blindness and its usage of black and white light techniques while using color and rich surfaces and textures.
Where the great works of Akira Kurosawa are very important to me in set design and build up, they are over the top and outside of the current range of work as a student…currently. The happy accident of seeing Amelie and Blindness gave me a spin on my heals as to telling stories. The first being visually stunning and heavily dependant on color and balance, and the latter dependant on the contrast between light and darkness as well as the characters need for each other. This started me in on the line of needing to understand color theory and lighting.
So we were given a discussion on lighting and the different techniques in class. This helped me realize how ignorant I was allowing myself to be crutched on the need for just 3 point lighting. So I decided to abandon it as much as humanly possible. In reading the color theory article off of the C.A.S. I went down the list watching the movies and their different techniques and usages of light. Again I went to Ran, and then watched Man in the Moon, The Shining, The Godfather, Chinatown, and Days of Heaven. These showed me how to have films built with saturated hue, complimentary colors, warm/cool colors, warm colors, contrast of saturated/desaturated colors, and limited color pallets. This helped me see the application of lighting in cinema and understand what I want to use.
While researching this I have also been watching films about films. I watched The Cutting edge, A Born Liar, Overnight, The Kid Stays in the Picture, and Kurosawa: A Documentary on the Acclaimed Director. These helped me develop a thorough understanding of the professional aspects and the type of stance that I need to have while working in the industry. It’s a lot like walking on eggshells on top of a wire over the Grand Canyon. Being firm on what I am wanting, and what I want for the shot is not being an ass hole. It is being a filmmaker. Not giving up till the take is the way I want it is within my rights. This lesson was learned first hand on my first project and I should have just dumped my cast, but alas I am still learning. This point was further pushed while watching Born Liar. The way that Fellinni worked with his actors and actresses was nerve racking for them. But almost every seen if not every seen is picture perfect for what he wanted. Trying to understand his work helped me with watching his movies. For though they are good, some do drone on I have found. Visually though, I cannot take my eyes away from them. So Juliette of the spirits became an influence heavily on what I wanted to do for a second project in regards to lighting, as well as Satyricon and its color. Per advise I also watched Cabaret in the means of helping me achieve my goal. Plus on advise I watched Cigarettes and coffee. The awkward silent tension of this film made me want to gouge my own eyes out with a soldering iron, but hey. It did help in what I was shooting and trying to take color to starkness as if in black and white. So now I have bridged into lighting that I feel I am growing comfortable with. While watching Satyricon I saw how lights were being used to enhance the set not overwhelm them. So now that I have toyed in using only gels, I plan on utilizing wardrobe and color schemes in moving forward with application of color theory and tonalities.
I have been working at being a regular at the local I.F.C. meetings. Here I am able to see first hand what other local Directors are working on and talk to them in-depth about their own processes in developing projects. Working in the community I have been learning first hand how to use and work in the community to network and trade working for work or assistance on projects. It’s not about having the money for projects; it’s now for me about making the connections for resources and trade labor.
These tools have come very handy. The IFC was most accommodating in helping me get a space for a decent rate and lend their voice to ideas on practices on the shoot. In working on my second project A Dream to Remember, I was tasking myself to build a story not heavy on dialogue in building the character, but as an assistant to the story. It was a second thought outside of how I wished to portray my character and those around her. This was I feel another learning experience for me. Once shooting was completed I had a visually stunning piece compared to the works that I had developed prior to it, and I believe that it carries the influences I looked at earlier and throughout the semester. That was the easy part for me. It was just getting myself under control of my thoughts and work step by step through what I wanted and directing my cast and crew in depth giving reasons for every action and setting them up with motives and artillery motives. The hard part was the sound design.
I have worked previously on sound, but nothing compared to the scope I was taking on here. Once I got started in it I wished that I had picked a lighter read. Of course I ignored this and stuck with the script feeling that if I was to learn anything from the experience it would be through the painstaking hours it would take in making the piece work to a level that I felt sounded natural to me. After days and weeks of recording and rerecording dialogue, I learned how to give advise on the sound and mood of the read. Where I wanted there to be a subtle shift in tonality. How to keep on pace with what is being worked on and to not skimp on thoroughness. I learned that mixing the audio separate was a task in and of itself real quick, and I had to rework the whole projects visual feel to get the audio to work. Good times, but hard ones in feeling like I had wasted time in completing edits without sound in mind. In truth it was not a waste though, nothing ever is, it is all experience moving forward. After lots of feedback I found out that my ruff for midterms was not the right tone of what people wanted. Yes the audio was still being worked out of its ruff stages, but I didn’t know how ruff till later on. The value of having a test audience I wish I had time for with each project before its due date. Not making excuses, because there are always people to have watch and listen,
But securing a target audience is difficult at best. After many more hours of sound design editing the process began to be a second nature sort of thing. In the end the mix down of audio actually brought the visuals back round to what I had originally intended the visuals to look like. Kind of wonderful to see the processes come full circle. Here in this project I learned to not bite off more then I can chew.
During this time of editing I also developed two other thorough stories that I was interested in shooting. So again the research process commenced. I watched Opera, Suspiria, 2046, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Hellraiser, Stranger Than Paradise, Wings of Desire, Faraway so Close, and A Simple Plan. These films helped me to grasp how horror was being done with color and worked in general, and story in black and white that was slow moving yet riveting and visually stunning. Pacing a story around these two different types of film was an undertaking for me at first. I wrote for man hours trying to develop plots and ideas that I felt would be good starting points for development, and versatility.
Into the marsh was the first one to begin the process of becoming a realization. Here I wished to create a story that was absent of verbal narrative. Just be visual and develop around a male figure with the victim being the viewer (the camera). I became fascinated with the identity of the fourth wall and self. I didn’t want it to be overpowering like in Funny Games. I wanted the realization of the camera as the viewer at the end of the piece. Try to make that connection from voyeur to participant a drastic switch. It was drastic and review did not like it one single bit. Parts were felt lagging and people wanted the feel sooner and more of a beat the viewer over the head sense. I conceded that parts were to long and reedited the piece. Personally I feel though that I hate how much our society feels they need to be spoon-fed. So on that portion of the critique I will not budge. I think that is an aspect of cinema that I do not wish to take part in no matter how people look at me or what I am doing. Another aspect that was huge for me was exterior.
All of my projects have either entirely or partially existed inside. So I felt that I needed a piece to exist in the outside where natural light is my only source by day and gels and soft lighting by night. Night shots failed miserably, and I found that clouds and the suns shift over time in the morning effects the finished product greatly. So where some scenes look blown out and shitty, those are points of interest with me in experimentation. As the old mantra goes, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. I broke the shit out of some eggs! It’s good though, because I know what I want to try in the future with exterior light.
On my final project I swung the pendulum in the opposite direction. I decided to do a piece in black and white attempting to work with the concept of time and the moment in cinema. All black and white, it was to be done in a dark place with complete control of the environment, lights, sound, and setting. I dicked away the setting, but it can be fixed after many more hours of editing and blurring in post. I felt very comfortable with this piece in the sense of working it. The trick was the postproduction work, but after the midterm project sound is second nature and fun for me. I limited my hand in trying to make shots static as my actress sat through her interview, and then hand held the camera in the moment of chaos to try and give it a wild feel. I think that it was successful in what I was trying to get at even though a lot for people didn’t get it at critique. But that is why people do multiple test screenings; cause my second group that didn’t know much about the project understood it.
From here though I have learned many wonderful tools and techniques through studies and test shootings. I have garnered a new appreciation for set design, shot set up, color of a piece, feel and tonality, story limitations and advantages, on set time management, and better ways to direct cast and crew. The best way that I have garnered the information to lead me to the point that I am at now is through a mixing of studies and a lot of field work in trial and error. Its one thing to understand the why and how, it’s a whole other beast to actually apply the knowledge. Each piece that I have been segmenting and studying for implementation is good, but the real test is application of them all and being successful, which I have yet to do and work towards each time. My handlings of these parts has increased I believe, and I am very aware of these factors now in even the budding of an idea that I put to paper. It’s an entire process not just bits and pieces and I am planning to go forward with this in mind. From here I plan on working more with camera handling and finding my specific voice in narrative cinema. I learned a lot from this semester, I am still learning from it each time I look or think about what I have studied and learned. This all leaves me wondering about where I plan to go within narrative in future endeavors. I am hoping that an introspective break will assist me in figuring this question out and the many others that I am sure of will pop up during this investigation of self.



Bibliography


Apple, Wendy, The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing, 2004, A.C.E.
Argento, Dario, Suspiria, 1977, Seda Spettacoli
Argento, Dario, Opera , 1987, ADC Films
Bausch, Richard, & Cassill, R.V., The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, 2006, W.W. Norton Company
Bazin, Andre, The Ontology of the Photographic Image, 1960, info not available
Binder, Mike, Reign Over Me, 2007, Relativity Media
Block, Bruce, The Visual Story: Seeing the Structure of Film, TV, and New Media, 2001, Focal press
Bousman, Darren Lynn, Repo: The Genetic Opera, 2008, Twisted Pictures
Burstein, Nanette, & Morgen, Brett, The Kid Stays in the Picture, 2002, Highway Films
Caro, Marc & Jeunet, Jean-Pierre, The City of Lost Children, 1995, Club d'Investissement Média
Chigara, Koichi & Reed, Kristi, Last Exile, 2003, G.D.H.
Coppola, Francis Ford, The Godfather, 1972, Paramount Pictures
Fellini, Federico, Satyricon, 1970, Les Productions Artistes Associés
Fellini, Federico, Juliette of the Spirits, 1965, Rizzoli Film
Fosse, Bob, Cabaret, 1972, ABC Pictures
Hill, Walter, The Warriors, 1979, Paramount Pictures
Hirst, Michael, The Tudors, 2007, Reveille Productions
Hornecker, Eva, Space and Place- Setting the Stage for Social Interaction, 2005, University of Sussex
Ishihara, Tatsuya, Air, 2005, ADV Films
Jarmusch, Jim, Stranger than Paradise , 1984, Cinesthesia Productions
Jarmusch, Jim, Coffee and Cigarettes, 1986, Cinesthesia Productions
Jeunet, Jean-Pierre, Amelie, 2001, Claudie Ossard Productions
Katsura, Kenichiro Utawarerumono, 2006, ADV Films
Kubrick, Stanley, The Shinning, 1980, Warner Bros. Pictures
Kurosawa, Akira, Ran, 1985, Greenwich Film Productions
Kurosawa, Akira, Rashomon, 1951, Daiei Motion Picture Company
Low, Adam, Kurosawa: A Documentary on the Acclaimed Director, 2002, BBC Arena
Malick, Terrence, Days of Heaven, 1978, Paramount Pictures
McNaughton, John Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer , 1986, Maljack Productions
Meirelles, Fernando, Blindness, 2008, Rhombus Media
Montana, Tony, & Smith, Mark Brian, Overnight, 2003, Black & White Productions
Mulligan, Robert, The Man in the Moon, 1991, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Mulvey, Laura, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, 1975, JAHSonic
Pettigrew, Damian, Fellini: I’m a Born Liar, 2002, Portrait &Cie
Polanski, Roman, Chinatown, 1974, Paramount Pictures
Raimi, Sam, A Simple Plan, 1998, Paramount Pictures.
Singer, Bryan, Superman Returns, 2006, Warner Bros. Pictures
Spence, Louise, & Stam, Robert, Colonialism, Racism, and Representation, 1977, Oxford
Wenders, Wem, Faraway, So Close! 1993, Sony Pictures Classics
Williams, Linda, Film Bodies.Gender Genre and Excess, 1991, University of California press
Wenders, Wem, Wings of Desire , 1989, The Criterion Collection.
Wong, Kar Wai, 2046 , 2004, Arte Productions

Nova project

We got our video up and about. Here is the link http://thewgbhlab.org/nova_video/future-evolution

New digital cinema

I think that it is interesting to see where nods are given where it can be due. The growth and influence of pop culture and trying to tailor work to the mass media is an interesting notion that it seems that we are all set to do. Not that we are willing to conform, but to experience and influence through reinvention is great. I hate to look at things as borrowing ideas and out right thievery of work. I think its more like sampling from my aspect. Much like a dj samples sound we sample techniques to reinvent the standards and limitations we face today. Kind of exciting to think of the possibilities of appropriation that sit at our finger tips. Text as images is a field that I think is still growing and will continue to do so well into 3-d cinema and push our relations with the written and spoken word. Tangible aspects and interaction like nodes through web based media is still growing and with the advent of site like youtube for poop culture and I don't know what the hell else people think on there and Vimeo for video artists and others along those lines allows for a great opportunity for visual artists to reach out and collaborate without having to wait till shows or festivals to become familiar with work and to create a dialogue of growth and resources for the artists themselves. To me I don't think there is such separation between visual and musical. I try to work and think of editing along the same aspects that I am now investigating scoring music for pieces. Like most movies we all have a feel to know when some action is supposed to happen based on prior ensembles that we have visually taken in. It is great to see how integral and prominent pieces are that work against this formula in developing stories. This read seams to echo a lot of ideas on what I have been reading in other articles. It just seems like video art is about to explode with growth and fruition in collaboration as it is becoming more and more a staple in culture. Not necessarily consumer culture the way it is now but to signs and signifers of ideas through visual and auditory implementation in effecting some sort of emotional response not driven by corporate moogling.

Writing

So I started getting my work out on the market today for feedback. Kind of exciting. So if you wanna read my pet project that I have been working on for the past 12 years, I will put up a link at the end of this. Kind of hard to imagine that I have been working on this in my spare time for so long. It excites me to remember when I put down the first letter to where it has grown now and how each exploration of the characters as helped shape who I am and help me find myself. I hope that you enjoy if you check it out. http://www.webook.com/project/Salvation-Vs-Damnation

working

So I recut some of my projects and did some more post work on them. Not to ban now I think. Then I watched some interesting films latel as well. I watched Ink, Thirst, A simple plan, and far away so colose. Great stuff. really made me more aware of different techniques to keep in mind while exploring what I want to do in regards to post house work on projects.

Work in progress

So I finished up shooting this morning on my final project. Got it all ruff cut together. Just gotta finish two projects tomorrow for finals that are due Monday. It's all looking good if I do say so myself.Get some sleep finally tonight and edit all day tomorrow.

Editing

So I have spent all day cleaning up audio and piecing together another video. trying something that I have not done before. So I am looking forward to the end result. Don't know how well its going to work, but the ideal in my head rocks out. So this shall be a wonderful experimentation. all I need now is large leather gloves, a cattle prod, and welding goggles....check. Here we go.

Screening

Just watched Hellraiser for the first time in a long time. One hell of a movie. Clive Barker is really twisted. God I love his films.

work.

Ok so I shot Friday one of my projects. Its starting to come along. Saturday I acted for Frank. That was a lot of fun and interesting to see the more developed and different directing ideas from last year. Pretty awesome. So right now I screened Zombieland and now I am screening A Simple Plan. Good stuffers. Then I gotta get back to editing my other video's. Wish I could post them, but if I am submitting them to festivals they can't be online. meh. What can one do.

more research

Just finished watching Wings of Desire. At the end it says to be continued. So i put that at the top of my queue. So excited! Why is it that Films have to be remade about every 10 years? I mean come on. There has gotta be a reason why an awesome movie is redone poorly...no?...really?...damn...So next on the list is stranger then paradise. Then off to sleep for more class and a long day of set building and shooting.

Mary had a little lamb

Why is it that when I look at horror films they exclude the human monster? Not the disfigured kind either. The kind that makes you shiver in your boots from fear of their possibilities and lack of inhibitions?

A man lies helpless on a floor. His arms twisted and mutilated into stumps up to the elbows. He tries to pull the weight of his body backwards into the cabinets at his back. His face is gaunt and ashen from the loss of blood. The pain and worry has left his mind. All he can think of is the meat cleaver hanging from the shrouded figures hand. His ears dully pick up the sound of his own breath and scraping bone against hardwood floors. Through the haze he hears clearly the cacophony of sound from the mans foot steps slowly inching ever closer, he whistles to himself Mary had a little lamb while blood drips unchecked from the cleaver and his fingers.
A child plays in her backyard happy and at peace. She chases her puppy around that her parents had bought her for her birthday. She named him Mr. Floppy in response to his golden fluffy coat and oversized ears that look as if they will carry him end over end after each step. The mother stands in her kitchen preparing pasta for dinner. She checks her watch unconsciously and sighs to herself. The front door opens and she turns to see her husband come in. He smiles to her and adjusts his oversized glasses as he sets down his briefcase. He walks over hugging her and kisses her on the small of her neck. He hands her a package of meat and apologizes for it taking so long. The family sits and eats the evening meal of spaghetti and meatballs. The meal goes well except for the misses finding a bone chip in one of her bites. Then the father walks his daughter and puppy up stairs to tuck her in for the night. As they leave the kitchen the daughter asks holding her fathers hand if he would sing her Mary had a little lamb again. He smiles at her adjusting the glasses on his nose squeezing her hand for comfort and tells her of course.




That to me is a true monster that deserves to be in that classification.

Horror flicks

So I have watched Faces of Death, Night of the Living Dead by George Romero, Henry Portrait of a serial Killer, From Dusk Till Dawn, the Day of the Dead, and Evil Dead with commentary. Working on that wonderful research of classic horror films for my piece that will be shot. Tomorrow I will soot test footage at the location that I am going to be using. We shall see how this turns out. It seems for the most art watching peoples reactions that I am watching these with that the key necessity is the psychological aspect. Maybe my idea of building a beautiful picture with comfort and then a moment of apprehension will be lack luster since it is not that intense of a situation. If I get my money in for school I will try and gorify it. If not then we shall use ingenuity to build the moment. I like ingenuity, but I feel that it ca only carry so far and cross into cheezynous (Gotta love making up words).

A day with death

Here are some notes on a ruff for another piece I wanna do shortly.

Here I sit looking through hourglasses of time. Each grain of sand I can look at for an eternity. For they sit suspended for all of time, yet, in the same breadth, are gone, silently I watch the grain fall to its demise. They do not fall of their own volition; they do not fall of mine. They do not greave the beat of the life that is left behind. The tumble of each grain shakes my world asunder. (laughs) (smokes cigarette.)Like thunder rolling against mountains I hear the grains interactions. I blink away the pain I feel for the loss of that moment. For it is one of many that fleet past. What is it like to sit with the life of someone in your hands you may wonder?
Dark. (lights and smokes cigarette.)
Eternal. (puts out a finished one)
Abhorred. (starts another)
Terse. (push in on mouth inhaling and exhaling)
Harmonious.
I have seen the coming and going of everyone that exists in the past, present, and future. I can look through my own glass and see the universe existing and dispersing. I was not always the way I am now. Over the millennia of time, I have grown in consciousness. Some may think that this is a good thing. For me it is not. To see the birth and death of everything is lonely. Life forms ask me when I come for them if there is anything in the life beyond this one. All I can tell them is “I don’t know”. I have never died, or ever will. I am to collect on the death of what is. Everything that I take weeps in its own manner in fear of the unknown. They cry asking me is it always so cold and lonely. My response is to hold their glass drained of sand and spread their time on the winds of eternity. I watched one day as a life was taken in stoic silence. All present at the life’s end starred at me with knowing eyes. They did not run in fear. They sat stoically. Peaceful. The loss of their consciousness of self was beautiful. There is nothing I can compare the passing of life to. For each moment of time is I in and unto myself.
I have sat and seen from the birth and destruction of atomic proportions to the simple dying of a breeze. That to me is the closest I can ever come to sadness. I take this form on your planet for that of the giver is already taken in your species. I am here to collect. Some may wish to know what my name is. I am called many things and nothing at all. For me there is no name, just a sensation. There are just some words that can only be carried through emotion. To understand is simplification into unfair proportions. The movement through existence outside of known time is my only consolation to what I am. (laughs) (smokes cigarette.)

Till we meet again. I will be watching you.

More readings

Just finished reading By Design. New Digital Cinema 2. Pretty good read and thorough about our visual technology and growth into multimedia. Keeps me wanting to push video boundaries.

reading

Just read up on stillness and the moving mage. Could have done without the psychoanalysis. Now reading the Fiction topics set of readings.

Mulvey

Good article on space and place of camera and its convention understanding with sexuality. Kind of annoys me to think that for putting something in for purely aesthetic coices or because I feel with my own creative choices it belongs there it could be taken into whatever contexts a person wants.

The Future of the Feature

I really like the theories employed and how I can see the need of technology still to change and seeing its progression. I still think that the Darma 95 group were a little...to forceful with ideas that they could not even follow. But one the less since its not total Dadaism its ok. Its great though to take their idea and create rules and guidelines and you know...actually follow them to the letter. It is interesting though to see how both digital cinema and film is developing. The imagery is so clear. There is still a definite different kind of feel between the two types. But they are both great in their own respective ways. Its nice to see where we have been, and with the advent of the red and the viper and many other types of cameras we will see more leaps and bounds in cinema. I don't think that we will reach the point where we can get film quality out of a digital camera that is pulled out of the mailbox to shoot. Would love to see it happen because then the bounds of feature cinema would be open and free. They are getting damn close now though.

Third project

Ok so it has changed cause I didn't feel like it was challenging enough. So now it will be a slow paced series of shots in a wooded location with a man grizzly and in what could be perceived as first man clothing. We are watching him working and watching around him. Then he pounces on us. My goal in this piece is to take the visuals and make them more of a perspective from the viewer as if they are actually there. Then it ends. but can't give up the ending. that would be cheating.

Proposal III

For my third project I am looking at either doing an installation that will run for an hours time or for a short delving into the struggle for freedom after being "abducted". The individual will have both arm and leg tendons cut so as to impede movement as well as mouth wrapped in duct tape. The focus of this is to emotionally drive the viewers. It will be a horror type of piece is my thinking. Researching currently for lighting and other techniques for this piece.

Woot!

Got a review of us on line from art-sounds!

http://review-magazine.org/2009/10/09/second-friday-4/#more-2925

progress

Ok. Just finished post on sound. It's as good as its going to get for now. Will definitely have to redubb it again. Plus watched peeping tom and 8 1/2 now starting stardust memories and work on my paper.

Stills not yet edited from todays production

2nd project

Just wrapped up shooting my second project today. Big round of applause goes out to the IFC for their support and assistance with a space to work in as well as my lovely cast and crew. The footage looks beautiful. Going to pull some stills and post them now.

DOOO! >.<

Just realized that I botched the spelling on my Blog name and stuff. lol.

work of today.

Well...Today I went shopping for gels and filters. Got a nice sheet of diffuser and 6 saturated color gels for mixing for lighting. Then I went to the crown theatre to talk to the staff about using the facilities for this Sundays shooting of work in preproduction. Fund out that there are three theatres there to look at. Got some phone numbers to call tomorrow in securing a space. Hopefully all works out in procuring one. Then I came home and watched the shit out of some movies on the suggested list from a critique on color theory. So I watched Cabaret last night and today Tokyo!, Roshomone, Days of Heaven so far. Some good times. I think I am about all filmed out for the moment. Still got 4 more to watch. Grr. Now going on line to look at Plays that I can use for this upcoming production. yay.

Color theory

Just finished reading the pdf on color theory. Going to go to Blockbuster here shortly to rent the list so I can watch a few of them and study the different implementations of color in theory practices on film.

Movies

Watched Cabaret last night. Brilliant movie. Boing to finish watching coffee and cigarettes in a few minutes.

Assignment 二

A woman goes to a play house to do a read for a spot in the show. It is her first time trying out outside of college. She as never applied to the "big leagues." She enters in applying for a small roll in the play to find that she is not cast as a lowly timed roll. but is given the lead.

I wish to push my workings with non direct verbal communication and the tension that can build and the story that can be read through props and character physical interactions and lighting. I want the main stage to be dark lit portraying a sense of aloofness using spots if I can to pull from techniques implied by Fellini in Juliette of the Spirits. Possibly pulling some of his visual ailments of the character as well. still mulling that part around.

Priority one is to build a project using hand held and tripod shots in constant movement with the characters direction possibly to guide the viewers eye. Total optical control while still maintaining subtly. Also work beyond my obsession of direct character vocal interaction as a mode to propel a story.

5 sets of 6 photographs telling different stories.

-Series 01: focuses on character development. Choose character from
one of your scripts. Avoid drama. This is where you will develop the
character through lighting, setting, expression, gesture, habit, etc.

A woman sits in her car surrounded by society. She feels pressured about contemporary life. She leaves her car and walks out of the city laughed and pointed at. She moves forward head held high. She comes along some railroad tracks and listens to the sound of the herds of people moving. She moves on away to nature and sheds her city clothes for those of her heritage of the native culture. She crosses paths barefoot rejoining with the earth.

Follow the journey of a doll and its love by its owner.


-Series 02: Create a simple narrative. (Read "Building the Story Line"
I will send soon) Set-up, Confrontation, Resolution. Once again
choose topic from one of your likely scripts. Remember you are
conveying the story through every element within the frame.

News cast room of this just in special report. Zombies are on the rise and he world is coming to an end. Reports roll in to the anchor and the subtext next to him counter minds what he is saying. Man sits panicking as the sounds of people dying rise around him, and then zombies over take him at his booth.


-Series 03: Produce a series of stills that convey a powerful sense of
time. A man waiting on death row, an accident. Focus on either
expanded or compressed moment.

An old man sits fishing on a long day. They catch nothing through the morning. They break for lunch and sit under a lone tree to eat. The old man stairs at his sandwich and talks of the first time he saw the birth of autumn only to see the child is listening to ear phones.



-Series 04: Produce a series of stills that convey a powerful sense of
place.


A homeless person sleeping on the streets. Cleans up others refuge taking care of the city. He is shunned, objects thrown at him. Still he moves on stoically.


-Series 05: Produce a series of stills that convey a powerful sense of
tone/mood/emotion.

Girl works hard at making a lovely diner for two. She toils and puts hr heart into the process. She sets the table throwing down rose petals for her other. She lights candles and adjusts the lights in the room to set the mood. She looks at her watch and realizes the time and checks her messages. Her parents are not going to be able to make it for dinner that night. Bridge club came up so they wouldn’t be able to make it for her birthday.

Immersion and Excess responce

It is wonderful seeing the different dimensions in which video installation is growing, there are still some aspects that I find hard to grasp from reading them alone. I think that articles can not do justice the exposure of being on site where the installation is. But still I find it fascinating to see how far people are trying to stretch from traditional film to what I would classify as existential. The problem for me is seeing things being limited to traditional narrative structure. I think it is a great avenue to explore, hell, I have tried doing installations regarding narrative. But I really like where the artists are breaking boundaries by dropping the narrative aspect and focusing on the levels that can go beyond the fourth wall per say. The redesign of the apparatus I feel is the greatest movement in video installation. Form has shifted and become so interactive now as well as moving past the standard traditional image to light theory and progression of sound. The web has played a part in the interactive media that has taken off. It is nice to see people using their environments of the every day person and incorporating them. Form can be formless, I love how people are working with lights and the sky removing the need for a screen. I feel that the screen is a limitation that needs to moved beyond. 3D art that scans and maps objects using sound and light to manipulate forms is just mind boggling to me. Making screens out of concrete, taking form that is permanent with an idealized image that is generally referred to as being a momentary response is phenomenal. I think that installation has moved far beyond the need for traditional forms like in Batman using shadow box method in projecting form on the clouds, using the environment as a screen. It is just great! Sculpture in the form of images to projections with physical interpretations are just interesting and take a level of ability with working in space that makes me wish that I can obtain such levels of formlessness. The artists presented in the article are great, but I feel that the article could be much better suited with direct imagery corresponding to what is being read. Thank god for Google! For it is a great tool in researching what we are reading.

Post wrap

So I have learned over night and after a good afternoons sleep, that envisioning something and then destroying it visually is quite detrimental to the psyche surrounding future projects. The Blind turned out looking like a bag of ass shot by someone that has withdrawals, audio done by a person with hard hearing, color balance that just all around sucked, and acting/dialogue that reminds me of what I envision happened with the actors trying out for the first dungeons and dragons movie that actually got turned down for the job. But all is not lost in this experience. Communication was gained and knowledge about the way what works best for me can be harnessed and still stick to what can be fun. The Fig rig is a beast of burden that I got stuck in my head would work best for trying on this project. Should have done test footage first with it to see where I stood with the equipment. I think I may address this necessity in the future with all projects. There are a million and one reasons going through my head as to why this turned into such a calamity, but the fact remains that I have ideas as to why it failed and then I have understandings as to why it was not a successful visual excursion. Critique was interesting regarding it, don't really remember much regarding how it was discussed. But it feels to me that it was more to the point of what was obviously done wrong apposed to how it could have been avoided or moved around in the future. I could be wrong on this notion, but that is just how it feels. For the most part I got some good feedback from Clair on how to work with my stories in the future, and a list of movies to watch to "help" visually. Alas I did learn a lot on set of what to do and what not to do, and when crunch time comes, well, thats a lesson still being learned with juggling the whole show. Not very used to being pushed down to the wire. For the most part I like working way ahead of schedule so that I don't rush myself. Then again, who doesn't enjoy doing that? Lack of stress? What? But like Cyan pointed out this factor is not likely in the field. There are ALWAYS going to be set backs of some sort. So now is as good of time as any to learn how to manage it. For that I am grateful for the experience. My phone isn't though. Ha ha ha. Over 600 texts sent out this week. Next a response paper and then some brain storming.

Proposal for The Blind

Working Paper Title:
The Blind
Proposed Topic(s):
Family emotionally separated by their inability to open up and see each other past their shields.

Purpose of proposed research (what is the significance of your investigation?):
This will be used as a tool in handling camera movements and angles to accentuate the mood tension and atmosphere within the story while being backed by audio emphasizing and aiding the story.

What is the relationship of the proposed research to your current work?
Start to build a dialogue between the camera and the actors/actresses. First step towards trying to build a three dimensional dialogue.


How does this research fit into the larger context of theoretical, historical, and conceptual and cultural issues?

Addresses Post war families and their dealings with short comings and fears that a couple may face, as well as post war trauma.

The Blind Sort fi\lm in Post Production now

The Blind

M.S. Dirnberger

05-11-09


























FADE IN INTERIOR HOUSE.
Early evening

Camera pans through house, details of textures of grain on wood, texture of the walls, and other surfaces that have their own visual interpretations. As well as descriptive items detailing the household’s comfort and happiness.

INTERIOR BEDROOM

MAN sits on his bed in rumpled clothing with a frumpy look about him. There is a knock at the front door and the man turns to regard its direction.

INTERIOR DININGROOM

A WOMAN sits at her dinning room table with tea sets placed and stirs from examining her cup looking up at the sound. She gets up and we are left looking at the table with cups sitting vacant at place settings.

Woman
(V.O.)

Oh, Bertie, how are you?

Bertie
(V.O.)

I’m just fine, thank you Isabel (woman). How are you and Maurice?

Isabel
(V.O.)

That's the reason why I called you over here. Please, please, come in and join me for a cup of tea. I was just setting the evening table.


INTERIOR BEDROOM IN HOUSE

As we hear Isabel and Bertie moving towards the dining hall, the man stands and camera follows him as he walks over to his dresser. Atop the dresser we see the camera pan as the man leads his hand over metals and ribbons sitting on top. He moves his hand over a pair of boots that sit dusty, the polish starting to lose its luster. The walls muffle the sound of Isabel and Bertie talking. The man strains his ear to hear the voices as he carries through his actions. Isabel ‘s laughter comes into focus.


INTERIOR DINING ROOM

Isabel laughs heartily at unknown joke and smiles warm heartily. Bertie smiles back with friendly affection watching Isabel’s body move with bubbly mirth.

Isabel
That was wonderful. You really should stop practicing law and become a comedian. I always loved your dry Humor. I wish that Maurice could have heard that one.

Bertie fiddles his thumbs in a self-conscious manner.

Bertie

True, but I don't like standing and talking in front of people.

Isabel suppresses a smile with a quivering lip and then looses her composure.

Isabel
Goodness, you really are too much. Here, two sugars right?

Bertie
Yes please, of course. By the way, where is Maurice?

Isabel clears her throat and starts off in a more serious tone.

Isabel
He’s upstairs taking his afternoon rest. He hasn’t been the same since his last tour.

INTERIOR BEDROOM IN HOUSE

Man Dresses slowly and methodically. He reaches for a brush on the end of a dresser and his hand stops short of the brushes handle, he clenches his hand and lets it fall back to his side limply.

INTERIOR HALL TO BATHROO TO HALL

He leaves the room and walks down the hall to a bathroom and washes his face and hands. He towels off and slowly heads back down the hall towards the stairs, a wraith in the evening night, silent as a whisper.

Isabel
(V.O.)
To tell you the truth I don’t know why he acts so morbidly depressed. We have everything here. He never complains, he never yells, he just…is (she looks off at a window). It’s as if the loss of his vision has taken his heart with it. And I feel that emptiness every time I look at him.



Bertie
(V.O.)
Please, be patient and kind to him. He’s a good person, and has been through a lot.

Isabel
(V.O.)
What about me? What about my suffering? Am I not allowed to be racked with grief?

Bertie
(V.O.)
Now, now, you know I mean no harm. You are right to have grief. I am not trying to make your feelings any less substantial. But try to think about his pain. He lost a child too.

Isabel
(V.O.)
Yes, but he has only lost the baby. I have lost them both.

INTERIOR DINING ROOM

Bertie
Isabel !

Isabel
What? Oh, I didn’t mean he’s dead. It’s just that when he talks to me, his voice just seems, so, dead. As if I am not there, that I am just another obstacle he has to maneuver blindly around.

Bertie
You’re not just an object to him. I can tell you that much on his behalf. You both have suffered a lot, and I’m sure he thinks that you are a great supportive person. Especially with the way you’ve been taking care of him. It’s only natural that you should feel slighted in emotions. He is in the dark in more ways then one now when it comes to how to help you. What is it that you really want from him?

Isabel
What could I want? I want to know my husband (Voice softens). I want him to love me.

Isabel starts to cry and Bertie pulls his chair closer to her. Consoling her.



Bertie
All these years, you two have been my closest friends. Time can only heal the wounds of past. The two of you are both right; there is no wrong side to be had. All I can hope is that you can see the truth of his love in the little things he does.

There is a noise and Isabel and Bertie look towards the door to see what it is. The camera pans to show Maurice (man) standing in the doorway. He rubs the tips of his fingers together on his left hand feeling his existence while his left hand rests on the wall feeling the existence of the rest of the world. Slowly he steps into the room and out of the evening's deepening shadows to stand across the table from the other two. The sounds of the room come into crisp awareness. A tree branch taps at the glass of one of the windows lazily. The Grandmother clocks ticking echoes heavily in the air.

Isabel
(Wiping tears from her eyes)

Oh, it’s you my love. I was wondering when you would wake up. I apologize. Did I wake you?

Marcel shakes his head in a slow fashion taking in the sound the air makes as it passes through his ears.

Maurice
(Softly)
No my love. You did not wake me. I have been up for a time, and thought it right that I should join you for tea and company.

Isabel
(Rustling her hands and her napkin.)

Take no worry of what has been said here. I was only Venting frustrations nothing more.

Marcel puts up a hand in a gentle gesture silencing Isabel.

Maurice
No. You have all the right in the world to feel as you do. Thank you Bertie for being such a good friend to us both.

Bertie mumbles to himself and gets up saying something about needing to use the bathroom.

Isabel sits impatient looking up at Maurice waiting for the agonizing time alone with him to pass. The tick of the Grandmother clock seemingly laughs about the passage of each moment.

Maurice
Isabel...

Isabel
Yes my love?

Maurice
I know that I have not always been the best of husbands by any means. I do wish to share my life and all of my love with you.

Isabel begins to cry again.

Maurice
Don't cry...ok, do cry let it all out.

Maurice walks over to sit in the empty chair by her side, gingerly feeling for its top. He then places his hands on Isabel 's shoulders. She looks at his hands and reaches to hold them. When she wraps her fingers around his, she notices his hands trembling.

Maurice
I know how badly you wish for us to be bonded together like we used to be. I miss those times too. I wish for us to get to know each other again.

Isabel
Maurice your hands! Is something wrong? Why are you shaking so badly?

Maurice
Just hear me out love, please. Before I begin to lose my resolve.

Maurice returns Isabel’s hand holding and lightly as a feather begins to take in every smooth plane and contour of her hands through his fingers. He gazes deep into her eyes and closes his lids.

Maurice
Close your eyes my love.

Isabel
What’s this about Maurice?! You’re scaring me.

Maurice
Shh....just close your eyes.

Isabel
(In a feathery voice)
No, what do you mean close my eyes? This is not like you at all. What are you doing?

Maurice
Please Isabel. Just indulge me one more time. I promise that I will not do anything bad. Just, trust me.

Isabel gives him a cross look and bites her lower lip chewing in thought. She looks into his Maurice’s blank waiting face and shrugs her shoulders.

Maurice
Now. Just let your arms relax. Good. Now let me guide your hands.

Maurice takes her hands and guides them up to his face and places her fingertips lightly over his forehead. He then takes his fingers and slides them up over her hands, down her arms, up her neck and onto her face. He begins to trace over her face like he did her hands. Isabel shivers as she moves her hands over his face in a similar pattern. Their breath comes in sharp labored bursts. Carrying the wait of all the words that could and could not be said.



FADE OUT TO BLACK.

reading

Readings on character development...check. Eni Meni miny mo. Time to read more!

Response to articles written by Dennis O’Rourke.

In Cannibal tours, the making of; I believe that his goal was to validate his endeavor in creating works like Cannibal tours through reassurance by names that he holds in esteem for their acclaim of his work. Then in the same breadth build a Dialogue with the reader regarding how and why the film came to pass while minimizing the naysayers. Confusion can be read in the fact that on page 3 discussing reinventing of documentary film as non-fiction entertainment films and then on page 8 saying that they are not documentary because they do not try to falsely state anything….On page 3 he calls his work artifice. Contradictory. The usage and symbolism of the words used in his article seem to be misinterpreted leaving any possible true guiding message ignored.
It is understandable that the creation of a piece is to be true to the events that unfold and that he does not know what is to happen till it is finished, and still the pieces of work he creates are to him separate from who he is because it was a journey of who he was. This is a fact that many can agree on feeling while creating work. I know I have felt this effect on shooting documentaries or doing research for shorts. Invariably though trying to compare himself to one of the “most respected” visual anthropologists of the 20th century I think is more then he should have bitten off. Where she was not right constantly in her works, she still tried to maintain a non-biased perspective of visual interpretations.
His work could be taken as a celebration of human spirit and ability. But the work this is regarding seemed heavily handed visually and verbally in painting the tourists as the cannibals. The people of New Guinea are shown as stressed and angry over the bidding wars shown, but in his article O’Rourke comments on how it is a game set up between the villagers and the tour group leaders to reincorporate the films of the 1940’s. Which is the truism? His statement of being part of the tour leads me to wonder why he did not incorporated himself into the piece since he viewed himself as one of the tourists.

Colonialism, Racism, Representation. I gotta get this out of the way now. The man flung around the word modernity like it was the word of the day. Please get off the soapbox and realize that Birth of a Nation was not about Native Americans, but rather the rightful rule of caucasians over slaved African descendents and how Lincoln was “wrong”. It is true that for a time a cultural belief was felt through interpretations of what movies show us. It still holds true today for some. But unlike what O’Rourke says, the place and usage of this as a tool has grown and adapted to hold truth to light where possible. It is no longer about the Director being the hero, or black stereotype to appease cultural need. It is about using tools to communicate to people of interest scoped to taste. Stereotypically speaking, guys watch action; woman watch dramas. This is the part that I do agree with is awry with how the international film system is set in labeling movies for guys who like movies and heart warming for the whole family generalization. Most cases are going to be based on location and social economical situations that very still in our cultural climate from region to region. For example the movie Milk was a hit in California rightly so, and limited theatrical release in fear most likely to populous response. I agree though that the situations revolving around “sensitive” topics are a ticking issue, but if work is being done respectfully of sides of the truth there should be less of a chance of biased reaction. So in turn I agree that we are far from powerless in influencing the cultural dichotomy of film and culture. Film is a representation of what is popular in culture at the time. Yes, a large amount of works created in the past are irreversibly wrong and hold effects that will outlast most of our lifetimes, however we do have to respect these types of works from a strictly anthropological study point as they are interpretations of how our story telling has matured working towards equality and non-biased representation. Form wise I think this article leaves one wondering what they are arguing for or against due to the fact that I know that I have not seen all of these films. Should I? Not by any means per this article because of there undo influence in harming the growth of our culture. So it leaves me thinking that formally explaining bits and pieces of these films that work towards the theory of this article may be misleading in themselves. Its layout was good in setting up arguments for itself. So that was a plus in trying to grasp the sections and meanings through out the article.

Working on storyboards and trying to work out a shooting schedule with my cast. So frustrating.

Work

Velcome to my blog. This is my first post...yay. Starting off weak, but that's ok. So yesterday after class I went to work again as a P.A. For a T.V. show called Friday Night Feud. There are quite a few of us that are working on the show from our school KCAI. So we all get along and are able to jump in the flow cause we are already comfortable with each other. It was a wonderfully long day of running up and down flights of stairs hauling monitoring equipment, setting it up, and then the fun part. Trying to get all the cables to work. Nothing like trying to sort through 8 lines of cable varrying from 200 feet to 600 feet. Then having to go round and check all the wireless recievers and make sure they were working properly. But as I have learned time and time again. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But that is the thrill. Having to think on my toes when the weight is on to figure out what is happening and trying to help sort through everything while acting as an assistant camera man on top of it all. All I can think to myself is that I gotta start somewhere. So I run my happy butt off trying to do the best I can in the hopes of moving through the chain learning as much as I can from everyone I talk to. The veriety of people working on these shoots are so diverse that its not just about making a show. To me it's about experiencing life and stories. This is my story and I think if you have made it this far into it, you may just like what I have to say in the future. Till next time, same bat time, same bat channel.