Long Day for a Long Take

Okay let me jump right in and cut to the chase.  Saturday...A day I didn't remember signing up to take a class, but it is no big deal I had to go to Saturday school for over a month making up work and time for missing two months of school due to having two major surgeries when I was younger.  With that said/written, because I didn't actually say anything, I had a good time with my group, which was group one, and also group three.  There was extensive brainstorming and rehearsals to the last minute we had to shoot.  Everyone worked well together, with a little time for playing around while different segments of the long take was being blocked.  

Time seemed to fly by fast when trying to figure everything out, then digressed when it came time for processing, drying, and transferring the film to video.
The one thing I would have to say about this experience and what I observed, is that when it is crunch time and the designated to  film time is coming to a close, the pressure is on and some people begin to panic, the freaking out begins and the people who panic start talking to  
other people like they are idiots.  I mean it is quite comical to watch, they underestimate their team members who they spent an hour and a half practicing the shoot, the only difference is, that the trigger to the  

film is being held down.
In the end I took a lot from this experience and I learned a great deal from my classmates and I hope I could have done the same for my counterparts.  And the one I hope everyone took from this experience is how to work well and effectively as a film team, and that was no competition on whose film looked the best, then I would say that they learned nothing at all.

 Poem Freestyle

Bolexin the sixteen
m&m
Batman stole the
redheaded bride
the wheel chair
was the camera's
glide.  Stop

wait for it,
clashing blown
up rubber water,
the kid reads the book
on dirty steps,
the surfer skates.
Frisbees and tennis
balls sore the wind
and clouds blacken

f-stop to two, hope
that's right, just roll
with it.  Seven
testosterone, and
the two ladies, none
get over, they're just
as strong.  The last take
this is it.  The monkey
stalks under the trees

in the pretend park.
The message is
Just Read.

48:00 to 0:00

Villanelle Number One

What filmless film could I create?
Without the camera snapping
Time clicks, what is my fate?

Unusual is the form
Thin is the air, a hand is grasping
What filmless film could I create?

 Race of the dawn is born
The heart accelerates its tapping
Time clicks, what is my fate?

What idea can be born?
A mind restless, immersed in napping
What filmless film could I create?

Like the sun blowing its horn
And the wind rapping
Time clicks, what is my fate?

What idea can be born?
Without the camera snapping
What filmless film could I create?
Time clicks, what is my fate?

48 Hour Video Ideas

Okay first of all this seems like it'll be FUN!!!!  Creating a film without any type of camera seemed bizarre when first reading the instructions, but whoever thought of a copy machine, scanner, or animation.  The only thing that I am worried about is the mystery prop.  Now I am just hoping that Andre does not bring anything that will, for example, make me cringe or make me run from the room screaming!  But hopefully the prop can be used in a more productive manner instead of scaring the living daylights out of me.

The idea I have for this video race, is to do some film manipulation, I find that is where my strength is, not that my work is better than anyone else's, but I feel more comfortable manipulating film than animating on film or even animation on the computer.  I have only taken 3D graphics so I can build a model, but making them move, lets just say that I am happy to have gotten out of 3D graphics and I swore I would never do something like that to myself again.

Soujuu 操縦

Sonnet Number One


purple ink squiggles the strip
concentration of the mind
forming imagination undefined
millisecond the hour of the tip
rhythms side brush the paint drip
imprinting the paper-clip find
straw needles rigid lines
oxidation blurs, the image rip
the red light exposed my fingers
the white light flashed
the film grain embossed
shapes now forever linger
though nothing ever lasts
frightening, the art that is lost


Response

It came natural for me, nothing pre-planned in my mind, I had an idea and I executed.  Did I make mistakes along the way?  Of course.  Like what you ask?  Like drawing my animation too big and then splicing the film strip upside down.  I also have found that my strength in film manipulation is the inking and texturing part, my partner Jon has a great strength in animation.


This is no easy job, film manipulation, even though I had nothing planned, it still takes major brain power to get the job done and also major patience.  For example, when we were left in the class room to ink the clear liter from 7:00 pm to 8:45 pm, I only achieved to ink fifty frames of nine feet of film.  I find that I am not satisfied with one layer, one color, one texture, I have my mother's philosophy to fill the page, leave no white, or in this case leave no film exposed.  And one would think that it would be easy to fill the space on such a small area....WRONG!  It takes some time, not something I can sit down and BS my way through, even in splicing, taking us about two hours to get everything together and then returning the splicer to only find out the we have the end upside down, going back to get the splicer and fixing more than one area.

The thing that I would have done differently is changing how I would have done the animation, I drew in with a thin sharpie and I drew the images as minute as possible, but the end result when it played on screen was far too big.  All in all I enjoyed this experience, it gets me to open my mind to other possibilities in film, almost like a mediation on the art while working on the art, but it helps me zoom in also on my documentary in process right now and I think of the aesthetics of my project.