As I continue to try and film, I increasingly feel like the theme of my movie might be too melodramatic. I've been filming scene ideas for another storyline, which takes on the idea of creating an opposite world where we operate the most basic parts of our lives completely differently.
A couple different scene ideas:
Beginning with the idea of someone being born and automatically put into a box.
Switch to sitting in a classroom, all the way up to college, and then have a line of people come out to receive their diplomas, all with boxes on their heads, each receiving an "educated" stamp on their box-forehead.
A family sits in the living room, watching TV. There's a box around the TV, boxes on all of their heads.
Someone sits down, takes off the box, and starts to cut it apart, and put it back together in a different way.
The world turns topsy-turvy.
Sounds work completely different. As someone walks down the stairs, it sounds like splashing water. Dropping the keys on the counter, it makes the sound of breaking glass, etc.
People eat with the table upside-down. They also eat with their hands.
Everyone takes showers outside in the rain.
Plucking the guitar strings, each one makes the sound of a woman's voice.
Instead of everyone sitting down in the living room to watch TV, they hang up a different painting everyday in the same spot on the wall and observe it.
The person who originally took apart the box reverts back to it. Instead of trying to make a completely different shape, the person tries to make something completely different out of the box. They paint it, cut holes in it, and parts to it, but the original box shape remains the basis.
I'm having a harder time developing this subject to what I want it to be. With parts of it, I feel I have the same problem as with my haikus - they all point to an interesting concept, but don't delve farther than that. I think the overall storyline has a lot of depth and meaning to it, but its individual parts still need to be developed...
I've been filming scenes for both ideas, and plan on taking the one I don't use for the 3rd project, developing it, and using it as footage for my fourth film.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Alternative History
I've been thinking about assignment three continuously since it was assigned and rented a camera this weekend to do some sketch recording. I've got several scenes I've been experimenting with and am centralizing the story around reversing bad experiences with intimacy, depression and phases of self-inflicted withdrawal.
I'd like to delve deep into this one, turning it into almost a repentance, and fiddle a lot more with various concepts of symbolism and allusion.
A few different shots I have planned out:
- someone repeatedly taking pills, showing a daily routine. I want to reverse the footage so that the person is spitting them out, until a sink fills entirely with pills, and I shoot them spilling out onto the floor.
- a woman is sitting on a chair, and a person begins cutting off her clothes with scissors. Her sweater, her blouse, her bra, until she's naked
- a man's hands reaching up around a woman's body, starting at her hips and going up around her stomach. There will be a trail of black, dirty smudges from where he put his hands, using soot or some kind of residue.
- a woman pulling an orange or an apple from her skirt, cutting it up, distributing the slices to faceless people until she has nothing left
- the woman is standing under an umbrella, crying, and lifts up the umbrella to look up under the rain, and the raindrops blend in with the tears to make them indistinguishable
- glass filling with liquid, over and over again being dranken, and filling up again
- blurred shots and in and out blackness, walking up stairs, suddenly in another spot
- woman cleansing herself, water pouring over her, down her face and body
- she's crying, and a man kisses her tear
- she wears cut up clothes all sewed up
- she takes a whole apple/orange and eats it to herself
Haven't experimented with sound yet, have mostly brainstormed about video shots... so that's the next step.
I'd like to delve deep into this one, turning it into almost a repentance, and fiddle a lot more with various concepts of symbolism and allusion.
A few different shots I have planned out:
- someone repeatedly taking pills, showing a daily routine. I want to reverse the footage so that the person is spitting them out, until a sink fills entirely with pills, and I shoot them spilling out onto the floor.
- a woman is sitting on a chair, and a person begins cutting off her clothes with scissors. Her sweater, her blouse, her bra, until she's naked
- a man's hands reaching up around a woman's body, starting at her hips and going up around her stomach. There will be a trail of black, dirty smudges from where he put his hands, using soot or some kind of residue.
- a woman pulling an orange or an apple from her skirt, cutting it up, distributing the slices to faceless people until she has nothing left
- the woman is standing under an umbrella, crying, and lifts up the umbrella to look up under the rain, and the raindrops blend in with the tears to make them indistinguishable
- glass filling with liquid, over and over again being dranken, and filling up again
- blurred shots and in and out blackness, walking up stairs, suddenly in another spot
- woman cleansing herself, water pouring over her, down her face and body
- she's crying, and a man kisses her tear
- she wears cut up clothes all sewed up
- she takes a whole apple/orange and eats it to herself
Haven't experimented with sound yet, have mostly brainstormed about video shots... so that's the next step.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Mi Haiku
Exploring outside will be essential for this project. The notoriously dismal weather of Seattle will be perfect for a dreary poem.
The spontaneity of this project will be really, really fun to explore with. I think it's all about going out and finding a perfect moment to film, and I have some ideas about what to search for.
When reading some of the haikus, I gained strong recollections of moments when I would just stop and tilt my head for a second, thinking, "huh." Just really admiring the affectionately ironic parts of life, or a sudden recognition of beauty in an ordinary moment.
I like the idea of a spiderweb that appears in a corner eave one day, in all of its complexity and obvious time-consuming effort, and then getting destroyed by something in a second (perhaps by my stick):
spiderweb all night to make
a second and
it's torn by my stick
and another on an incessant dripping from a leaky faucet - how lazy we can be when all it would take was a minute's time to fix
drip drip of the sink
one turn of the wrench
it'd be fixed
The spontaneity of this project will be really, really fun to explore with. I think it's all about going out and finding a perfect moment to film, and I have some ideas about what to search for.
When reading some of the haikus, I gained strong recollections of moments when I would just stop and tilt my head for a second, thinking, "huh." Just really admiring the affectionately ironic parts of life, or a sudden recognition of beauty in an ordinary moment.
I like the idea of a spiderweb that appears in a corner eave one day, in all of its complexity and obvious time-consuming effort, and then getting destroyed by something in a second (perhaps by my stick):
spiderweb all night to make
a second and
it's torn by my stick
and another on an incessant dripping from a leaky faucet - how lazy we can be when all it would take was a minute's time to fix
drip drip of the sink
one turn of the wrench
it'd be fixed
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Assignment 2: History and Structure of Haiku
Doing some research on haiku, I've found that the common definition includes a few factors. The setup for film haiku will be quite different, of course, but it'll be interesting to allude to the formal written structure of a haiku.
First is the basic format of syllables:
7
5
7
The next is that it includes a season word, or reference to the natural world, a nature sketch in words.
Commas, hyphens, elipses, and implied breaks are important between each line.
They can be as short as an individual 7-5-7 "renga", or be sets of up to 100.
The purpose of a short haiku is to be short, exasperated: can be said in one breath, expresses a moment's sponteneity. An
"intimate sharing of an ordinary moment".
Where all of life is summed up in those few seconds of words. Haiku is largely connected to Eastern philosophy and Buddhism, the goal of enlightenment... It has a very suggestive nature. D.T. Suzuki, an important person in the spread of haiku to the western world, explained the purpose of its ambiguity:
"When something is too fully expressed, there's no room for suggestion."
One of the original haiku writers was a painter, seen clearly in his ways of purposefully arranging scenes in words.
In Japanese, the original language of haiku, the 7-5-7 syllabic pattern is comparable to rhyme in the English language. Some writers have translated Japanese haiku into English by discarding the 7-5-7 pattern and illustrating the idea through rhyme instead.
Many contemporary poets have tried their hand at writing haiku; however, many of them do so in a largely uninformed manner, straying from the highly nuanced and complex nature of the art of haiku. In order to be effective, I see, it's important to become familiar with at least some of the history and prose of haikus, and try to understand its power in complexity.
I've checked out a book from Jack Kerouac, the "On the Road" author I loved and learned while haiku researching was a major Beat haiku artist at the head of the "haiku movement" that hit full-on in the early 60s. I like the take he took on haiku, making it his own, taking advantage of its spontaneous nature that implied depth within a perfect simplicity. He tossed out the 7-5-7 syllable format, saying western haiku didn't need it, just three lines that "say a great deal". I find that most of the haikus I fumbled through seemed to be overly symbolistic, esoteric... like they were trying too hard, and were far too vague. Kerouac's haikus are beautifully simple and convey a universal feeling, free of the triteness my cynicism seems to pick out easily in many other haiku. He said specifically that haiku ought to be:
"Very simple, and free of all poetic trickery."
Here are some of my favorites:
Useless, useless,
the heavy rain
Driving into the sea.
Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway.
Evening coming --
the office girl
Unloosing her scarf.
Some other ones I found online:
The bottoms of my shoes
are clean
from walking in the rain.
Glow worm
sleeping on this flower -
your light's on.
Snap your finger
stop the world -
rain falls harder.
All day long
wearing a hat
that wasn't on my head.
First is the basic format of syllables:
7
5
7
The next is that it includes a season word, or reference to the natural world, a nature sketch in words.
Commas, hyphens, elipses, and implied breaks are important between each line.
They can be as short as an individual 7-5-7 "renga", or be sets of up to 100.
The purpose of a short haiku is to be short, exasperated: can be said in one breath, expresses a moment's sponteneity. An
"intimate sharing of an ordinary moment".
Where all of life is summed up in those few seconds of words. Haiku is largely connected to Eastern philosophy and Buddhism, the goal of enlightenment... It has a very suggestive nature. D.T. Suzuki, an important person in the spread of haiku to the western world, explained the purpose of its ambiguity:
"When something is too fully expressed, there's no room for suggestion."
One of the original haiku writers was a painter, seen clearly in his ways of purposefully arranging scenes in words.
In Japanese, the original language of haiku, the 7-5-7 syllabic pattern is comparable to rhyme in the English language. Some writers have translated Japanese haiku into English by discarding the 7-5-7 pattern and illustrating the idea through rhyme instead.
Many contemporary poets have tried their hand at writing haiku; however, many of them do so in a largely uninformed manner, straying from the highly nuanced and complex nature of the art of haiku. In order to be effective, I see, it's important to become familiar with at least some of the history and prose of haikus, and try to understand its power in complexity.
I've checked out a book from Jack Kerouac, the "On the Road" author I loved and learned while haiku researching was a major Beat haiku artist at the head of the "haiku movement" that hit full-on in the early 60s. I like the take he took on haiku, making it his own, taking advantage of its spontaneous nature that implied depth within a perfect simplicity. He tossed out the 7-5-7 syllable format, saying western haiku didn't need it, just three lines that "say a great deal". I find that most of the haikus I fumbled through seemed to be overly symbolistic, esoteric... like they were trying too hard, and were far too vague. Kerouac's haikus are beautifully simple and convey a universal feeling, free of the triteness my cynicism seems to pick out easily in many other haiku. He said specifically that haiku ought to be:
"Very simple, and free of all poetic trickery."
Here are some of my favorites:
Useless, useless,
the heavy rain
Driving into the sea.
Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway.
Evening coming --
the office girl
Unloosing her scarf.
Some other ones I found online:
The bottoms of my shoes
are clean
from walking in the rain.
Glow worm
sleeping on this flower -
your light's on.
Snap your finger
stop the world -
rain falls harder.
All day long
wearing a hat
that wasn't on my head.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Progress Report: Light and Shadow
ASSIGNMENT 1 : Light & Shadow
Create a 90 second, in-camera edited, silent B/W experimental study of "light and shadow." Must feature an experimental optical in-camera effect such as camera obscura, heat distortion, split-screen using mirrors, glass mattes, etc. 12 day project completion cycle.
This assignment should be interesting, to say the least. Its completely basic, eliminating sound, color, or even a necessary storyline - but the optical effect is kind of throwing me off.
To brainstorm I began by looking through my entire house for any objects that were reflective, refractive, or translucent. I kept my eye out for items in particular that had interesting textures, had concave and convex shaping, or were multi-faceted and complex. This yielded a whole variety of objects: glass bowls, cups and jars, steel pots and pans, spoons, knives, glass cooking pans, CDs, cd cases, a disposable paint tray, mirrors, water bottles, jewlery, a sequin pillow, wax paper, and seran wrap. I also scrounged up light sources: a swivel lamp, a flashlight, a lighter, or bulbs installed around the house. Then I experimented with the different objects and lighting, seeing what sort of reflections I was able to make, what kind of light patterns, or how I could distort the overall image. I didn't have a video camera at the time, but wanted to see the product through a camera lens, documented in a way I could publish online, so I took still photos of the creations. Here are some of the more interesting of the images I came up with:
This came from holding up the disposable paint tray (which was translucent, and had a bubbly texture) in front of a fluorescent light bulb, moving the tray back and forth, slowing down the shutter speed, and capturing motion in the picture. The next few are from the same technique, using different motion patterns.
I also used the video recording function on my camera for this one; I can't post it on here unfortunately, but it looked aweome, like there was electricity sparking and circling all around the lightbulb.
This is the moving reflection of the bottom of a frying pan.
I filled up a glass pan with water and got some pretty neat effects (above). When I shot from underneath the pan looking up, I got some of the coolest distortion I've seen yet (below).
It's unfortunate that I can't post the videos I recorded on here, because those ended up being fascinating; one I took was of a moving light refracting off a crystal doorknob, another was the world through the same water-filled pan as the last picture, but you could see the rippling and various distorting as the water moved in front of the scene.
Other ideas I want to explore:
Using tin foil. Placing the video camera on a tripod, setting up a piece of glass in front of it, and tracing objects within the scene with black paint to give a simultaneous 2-D and 3-D feel. Using multiple mirrors to reflect an image several times within the shot.
Using distortion through water was one of the most promising finds I discovered from this experimenting. I want to see how I can incorporate the interesting light patterns and motions I created with a watery-distorted effect.
Next step: renting cameras for Thursday and Monday.
Create a 90 second, in-camera edited, silent B/W experimental study of "light and shadow." Must feature an experimental optical in-camera effect such as camera obscura, heat distortion, split-screen using mirrors, glass mattes, etc. 12 day project completion cycle.
This assignment should be interesting, to say the least. Its completely basic, eliminating sound, color, or even a necessary storyline - but the optical effect is kind of throwing me off.
To brainstorm I began by looking through my entire house for any objects that were reflective, refractive, or translucent. I kept my eye out for items in particular that had interesting textures, had concave and convex shaping, or were multi-faceted and complex. This yielded a whole variety of objects: glass bowls, cups and jars, steel pots and pans, spoons, knives, glass cooking pans, CDs, cd cases, a disposable paint tray, mirrors, water bottles, jewlery, a sequin pillow, wax paper, and seran wrap. I also scrounged up light sources: a swivel lamp, a flashlight, a lighter, or bulbs installed around the house. Then I experimented with the different objects and lighting, seeing what sort of reflections I was able to make, what kind of light patterns, or how I could distort the overall image. I didn't have a video camera at the time, but wanted to see the product through a camera lens, documented in a way I could publish online, so I took still photos of the creations. Here are some of the more interesting of the images I came up with:
This came from holding up the disposable paint tray (which was translucent, and had a bubbly texture) in front of a fluorescent light bulb, moving the tray back and forth, slowing down the shutter speed, and capturing motion in the picture. The next few are from the same technique, using different motion patterns.
I also used the video recording function on my camera for this one; I can't post it on here unfortunately, but it looked aweome, like there was electricity sparking and circling all around the lightbulb.
This is the moving reflection of the bottom of a frying pan.
I filled up a glass pan with water and got some pretty neat effects (above). When I shot from underneath the pan looking up, I got some of the coolest distortion I've seen yet (below).
It's unfortunate that I can't post the videos I recorded on here, because those ended up being fascinating; one I took was of a moving light refracting off a crystal doorknob, another was the world through the same water-filled pan as the last picture, but you could see the rippling and various distorting as the water moved in front of the scene.
Other ideas I want to explore:
Using tin foil. Placing the video camera on a tripod, setting up a piece of glass in front of it, and tracing objects within the scene with black paint to give a simultaneous 2-D and 3-D feel. Using multiple mirrors to reflect an image several times within the shot.
Using distortion through water was one of the most promising finds I discovered from this experimenting. I want to see how I can incorporate the interesting light patterns and motions I created with a watery-distorted effect.
Next step: renting cameras for Thursday and Monday.
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