From this window, that lamp appears to have a ghostly double coyly peeking out from behind it. The window has tiny raindrops trapped in the screen and tiny dirt smudges that make it seem as if the light itself, hot and wood colored, were made of particles and splatters. The wet sidewalk looks like silvery alloy, which perhaps changes colors in certain lights. The water puddles and the distance and angle make it look distinctly curved, like the brass on a trumpet. The brightest reflections are matte while the shadowy parts are smooth.
Further down the sidewalk, there is less illumination on the concrete, t he silvery tones are less present, there is more of a coppery tone, with a little more brilliance. The buddles are not so much gray as black with copper outlines.
The white on the buildings trimming has a similar warm radiance, the coppery, maybe sepia tone, except that it has more reds. maybe from the bricks.
Chili pepper lights in the hallway. They are red except for three white/clear/amber ones and one green one to the right. These are some radical lights! The lights are around the door at the end a hallway see, and they are real smooth and reflective. Ergo, when you blur your eyes it's like there are two sets of lights. Nice ambiance going on in this hallway. The lights shine like starssss. They really make the rug pop, as well as totally keep this small butler man statue really creepy. Normally his eyes would be blue, but in this light the're black. Like the kid with that alien virus in the x-files movie, or Wes Borland of "I dId It AlL fOr ThE nOoKiE" fame. Other lights of mention in the vicinity are a nice blinking duo on the smoke detector, a strip coming from under the door, and the TV. The smoke detectors lights are LED green, blink every few seconds, yada yada yada. Not too much light there. Under the door is partially obstructed, not too powerful, still not much of a contribution to the color tone described so far. The TV on the other hand adds a dynamic opposition to the warm reds in the hallway. The room adjacent is filled with cold blues and whites which accent the green and blue couches/seating arrangements. I feel warmer than that room just by being in the red hallway, mere inches away. I wouldn't want to go in that room. Too cold.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Ass 1b
Whelp, it was a challenge. I've never used final cut before so I stumbled through it a bit. quite a bit actually. It worked out in the end though. I started out trying to do a beat, but it ended up being really tedious and frustrating trying to get everything exact, and it was pretty silly to try to do it with final cut rather than beat making software. The soundscape thing was slightly intimidating at first because I wasn't sure where to start, but then I realized that anything counted and it's pretty subjective and all, so I loosened up and got cracking. It's obviously a very intuitive process and actually reminded me of bleaching my film strip for 6x1. Impressionistic, very few rules. This wasn't as fun but that's because computers are so damn stupid. I mostly just played with cutting and expanding/condensing sound clips and a few echos/reverb here and there
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
CLANG! BANG!
My friend Trevor and I sometimes make music using mostly my voice and mostly his keyboard. He has a lot of music gadgets, but the oldest and fondest is his BOSS loop pedal. It is so simple to use, even a drunk idiot could use it. Some random noises here some keyboard beat hear, add a few harmonies, and voila. Something really cool out of nothing. Brian Eno said something brilliant about accentuating imperfections, and this is a perfect example. The most random and cacophonies combinations of sound can be beautiful when repeated.
When I got this assignment I was reminded of the loop pedal because that’s what most of my creative mic wielding has been. I was also reminded of the music video I have posted in this blog. I chose a lot of percussive sounds because they make for good beats. It was fun to throw a skateboard around and yell in a stairwell for homework.
When I heard the other assignments I realized all the other sounds I could have used. If I could do it again I would have come up with some more sounds to get beforehand and gone to a few more places.
For the Painting with sound I’m probably going to do some rhythmic editing of the sound. I’d like to incorporate a beat made from the sounds, and perhaps a simple melody. The beginnings and ends are going to be more ambient soundscapes that are less musical.
When I got this assignment I was reminded of the loop pedal because that’s what most of my creative mic wielding has been. I was also reminded of the music video I have posted in this blog. I chose a lot of percussive sounds because they make for good beats. It was fun to throw a skateboard around and yell in a stairwell for homework.
When I heard the other assignments I realized all the other sounds I could have used. If I could do it again I would have come up with some more sounds to get beforehand and gone to a few more places.
For the Painting with sound I’m probably going to do some rhythmic editing of the sound. I’d like to incorporate a beat made from the sounds, and perhaps a simple melody. The beginnings and ends are going to be more ambient soundscapes that are less musical.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
listening to one hand clapping
I'm sitting in my room. This is where I typically am, thereby I suppose it's a good place to pay attention to some noise. An air conditioning unit just kicked on. "uuUMMMM". The door just clicked from the other side so James must have gone to the bathroom. Faint tap of toilet seat. Guess it's a number two. Some people are chatting at the front door, but I can't hear what they're saying. It's a dude and a girl. Another girl must be down the way, I heard giggles. The air's ambient tone is defined by various pitches of insect and air conditioners. My room has clicks from keyboard keys. I can hear a slight air conditioner noise from the walls as well. Clicks of doors shutting outside is sporadic, but common. More girls chatting. Crickets. Air conditioners.
The elevator beeps me welcome, and the somewhat rattly doors close behind me. I heard a couple clicks above me, and the sound of someone bumping into a sheet of metal. That wobbly low tone. Their is the sound of air flowing and an oscillating whir. Faint. These are the most constant ambient noises. Girls voices from the hallway are reverby and indistinct, a door shutting, muffled. Voices sound like a softened version of the honk chairs make when they rub across linoleum. They peak and overlap in random clumps. The whir stopped and then a pause and the familiar sound of the elevator going down. Nice. Definitely, a steady hum and air flows. I should get off the floor. Its not publicly acceptable to conduct ones duties in an elevator.
Outside my neighbors apartment. Girls describing tequila shot. Several voices, different levels of far away. Someone wants to go to buddha school, this is funny. Someone wants to watch mean girls. The ambient tone is pretty boring, just the same oisen gas they always pump in. And they're out, walking away, pretening i wasn't eavesdropping; I was merely walking around with a laptop.
They're gone. The hallway is not the same. Pretty boring actually. I'm tapping my leg a little to make it interesting, rubbing my hands on the carpet. "shh.. shhh.. shhh..."
The elevator beeps me welcome, and the somewhat rattly doors close behind me. I heard a couple clicks above me, and the sound of someone bumping into a sheet of metal. That wobbly low tone. Their is the sound of air flowing and an oscillating whir. Faint. These are the most constant ambient noises. Girls voices from the hallway are reverby and indistinct, a door shutting, muffled. Voices sound like a softened version of the honk chairs make when they rub across linoleum. They peak and overlap in random clumps. The whir stopped and then a pause and the familiar sound of the elevator going down. Nice. Definitely, a steady hum and air flows. I should get off the floor. Its not publicly acceptable to conduct ones duties in an elevator.
Outside my neighbors apartment. Girls describing tequila shot. Several voices, different levels of far away. Someone wants to go to buddha school, this is funny. Someone wants to watch mean girls. The ambient tone is pretty boring, just the same oisen gas they always pump in. And they're out, walking away, pretening i wasn't eavesdropping; I was merely walking around with a laptop.
They're gone. The hallway is not the same. Pretty boring actually. I'm tapping my leg a little to make it interesting, rubbing my hands on the carpet. "shh.. shhh.. shhh..."
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Responses
To Mr. Richter:
Your wrong. And your purism is off putting. Pure art and originality seem more like metaphysical realms of theorists than issues of the artist. I like to think that the purer art is less concerned with doing it right than doing it. Your theories about film seem dogmatic. I completely reject your hypothesis that narrative film is not original like experimental or documentary. Narrative film is not subservient to literature and theater, but rather literature, theater and film belong to a class of art that utilize story, whereas experimental does not, per se. Though the imagination is in some ways completely free in experimental film, I feel like of all the possible juxtapositions of illusions of photographic motion that can be found or created and put on film are more myriad and exciting than any oversized fingers can scratch, bleach, paint, etc.
Writing essays about varying degrees of art purity is onanistic. Anything and everything can be art. Why should anyone care if film as a medium isn't being utilized optimally according to an abstruse philosophy? Why don't experimental film makers branch out from film and use paper instead and make flip books? While fun, the whole direct film manipulation shebang seems like novelty use of materials.
To Mr. MacDonald:
I appreciated your take on avant-garde as an alternative that expands the definition of film as a whole, rather than at the top of a hierarchy, as I interpreted Mr. Richter's essay. You addressed the confusion and frustration many people feel when confronted with film well. It isn't that they are stupid, it's that they aren't trained for it. Picasso wasn't accepted when he was experimenting with new forms, but now he is one of the most well known artists of all time. Context is key, and more exposure means that one has a better idea of what it is. If, in exposing the uninitiated to avant garde film, one shows them something they might be more excited by, then they would be more open and ready to explore other films in the "genre", ones that are considered to be of high merit by professors/critics etc. Jumping into certain experimental films is baffling and frustrating without proper previous exposure. There is no precedent to evaluate or understand the experience. The same is true for art. Without history, context and experience, what are the blocks and squares of color to someone used to representational images?
However, Mr. MacDonald, I found it a little difficult to understand this piece as a whole. I see that it is an introduction, but it seemed to switch topics halfway through, from generalizations about common perceptions about Avant-Garde to summaries of historical movements to a meditations on the Lumiere brothers and Muybridge. It seemed to drift and was hard to digest in parts because it drifted from what seemed like a thesis idea. I feel arrogant for calling you out on it, but, like, it's just constructive criticism. You'll do better next time.
To Mr. Camper:
Your list is superfluous. Each of these qualifications are examples of that done so far, and thus could easily and quickly become outmoded when Experimental film does what it does best, break rules. Experimental film, as I'll call it for convenience, should be called film poems or something to do with that, because the divide is basically whether or not there is a narrative. I think film can be catalogued the same way as literature. Narrative film, Poetic film, and Documentaries are analogous to Fiction, Poems, and Essays/Nonfiction. A few qualifications should be made (Pearl Harbor wasn't a documentary) but more or less these classifications make work because they are based on a simple criteria. Does it tell a story? no. Does it depict reality as reality. no. It's a Poetic film!! I can't find anything wrong with my system. If there are films that cross boundaries then these hybrids will be referred to by both, like in literature. What's that? You have a film that has elements of narrative, yet is expressive in a not quite definable way? Perhaps the habitat in which the narrative resides isn't stable and perhaps the film drifts from this and starts directly interacting with the viewer through visuals rather than through character? Well, we'll call it a Poetic Narrative. Bingo. Gold. Sold.
Basically what I'm saying is that all the conventional means of defining film modes define them cultural terms rather than what they are. I understand that when one says "experimental" it could mean anything from eternal sunshine to mothlight, from gummo to empire. These films have little in common except for having nothing to do with the dominant use of the medium. It's confusing to define them along these lines. It's inconsistent. Might as well call it "unusual film".
Your wrong. And your purism is off putting. Pure art and originality seem more like metaphysical realms of theorists than issues of the artist. I like to think that the purer art is less concerned with doing it right than doing it. Your theories about film seem dogmatic. I completely reject your hypothesis that narrative film is not original like experimental or documentary. Narrative film is not subservient to literature and theater, but rather literature, theater and film belong to a class of art that utilize story, whereas experimental does not, per se. Though the imagination is in some ways completely free in experimental film, I feel like of all the possible juxtapositions of illusions of photographic motion that can be found or created and put on film are more myriad and exciting than any oversized fingers can scratch, bleach, paint, etc.
Writing essays about varying degrees of art purity is onanistic. Anything and everything can be art. Why should anyone care if film as a medium isn't being utilized optimally according to an abstruse philosophy? Why don't experimental film makers branch out from film and use paper instead and make flip books? While fun, the whole direct film manipulation shebang seems like novelty use of materials.
To Mr. MacDonald:
I appreciated your take on avant-garde as an alternative that expands the definition of film as a whole, rather than at the top of a hierarchy, as I interpreted Mr. Richter's essay. You addressed the confusion and frustration many people feel when confronted with film well. It isn't that they are stupid, it's that they aren't trained for it. Picasso wasn't accepted when he was experimenting with new forms, but now he is one of the most well known artists of all time. Context is key, and more exposure means that one has a better idea of what it is. If, in exposing the uninitiated to avant garde film, one shows them something they might be more excited by, then they would be more open and ready to explore other films in the "genre", ones that are considered to be of high merit by professors/critics etc. Jumping into certain experimental films is baffling and frustrating without proper previous exposure. There is no precedent to evaluate or understand the experience. The same is true for art. Without history, context and experience, what are the blocks and squares of color to someone used to representational images?
However, Mr. MacDonald, I found it a little difficult to understand this piece as a whole. I see that it is an introduction, but it seemed to switch topics halfway through, from generalizations about common perceptions about Avant-Garde to summaries of historical movements to a meditations on the Lumiere brothers and Muybridge. It seemed to drift and was hard to digest in parts because it drifted from what seemed like a thesis idea. I feel arrogant for calling you out on it, but, like, it's just constructive criticism. You'll do better next time.
To Mr. Camper:
Your list is superfluous. Each of these qualifications are examples of that done so far, and thus could easily and quickly become outmoded when Experimental film does what it does best, break rules. Experimental film, as I'll call it for convenience, should be called film poems or something to do with that, because the divide is basically whether or not there is a narrative. I think film can be catalogued the same way as literature. Narrative film, Poetic film, and Documentaries are analogous to Fiction, Poems, and Essays/Nonfiction. A few qualifications should be made (Pearl Harbor wasn't a documentary) but more or less these classifications make work because they are based on a simple criteria. Does it tell a story? no. Does it depict reality as reality. no. It's a Poetic film!! I can't find anything wrong with my system. If there are films that cross boundaries then these hybrids will be referred to by both, like in literature. What's that? You have a film that has elements of narrative, yet is expressive in a not quite definable way? Perhaps the habitat in which the narrative resides isn't stable and perhaps the film drifts from this and starts directly interacting with the viewer through visuals rather than through character? Well, we'll call it a Poetic Narrative. Bingo. Gold. Sold.
Basically what I'm saying is that all the conventional means of defining film modes define them cultural terms rather than what they are. I understand that when one says "experimental" it could mean anything from eternal sunshine to mothlight, from gummo to empire. These films have little in common except for having nothing to do with the dominant use of the medium. It's confusing to define them along these lines. It's inconsistent. Might as well call it "unusual film".
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