Installation Project Ideas

Alright, I've been thinking a lot about this installation project.

I think I've come up with a good idea- I want to make an interactive film-noir. Actually, I want to take a bunch of clips from old film-noirs and involve the audience in solving some sort of murder-mystery.

At first, I don't want the audience to know that it is interactive, and everyone will be sitting in their chairs in the audience watching the opening in the dark and hearing the sounds of a murder. Then I want to find a clip in which I can ask for help solving the murder and we can have lights traveling around the audience and land on somebody random and have them try to help.

So I would need to have one person to work the lights, one person to be the host for the night and have a microphone ready for the audience, and one person to play and pause the movie.

:)

Cucalorus

This weekend I went to the Cucalorus Film Festival. It was my first "official" film festival EVER and I was really excited to see what it would be like.

I brought my boyfriend along with me and we went down to Jengo's Playhouse Saturday afternoon. I admit, I had done some poor planning after waking up late and spending a lot of time eating french toast at Wagoner Hall. We arrived at the theater only about 2 minutes before showtime and found out that we couldn't get in. I was glad I still had the rest of the weekend to catch a show.

We ended up going back to Jengo's Playhouse that night to see the Pistol Nebula shorts block. We arrived much earlier this time and got in! The theater is tiny, tiny, tiny, but it was really cool to be involved with such an active audience. We ended up sitting in this couch on the floor of the theater that seemed like it might cave in or swallow us.

The night started off with a poetry reading about all of the different films on the schedule. To be honest, I didn't know enough about all of the names to get it entirely, but it was something new and a little silly.

The first film that was shown was my absolute favorite of the night (and possible favorite short film ever): The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting.

The film starts out in a fantasy-type situation and then transferred to reality where couples were discussing how they met. The hunter and the swan discuss this beautiful story where everything was fantastic and magical - while the other couple remembers meeting each other while throwing up during a party. This contrast between reality and fantasy was extremely funny in this situation, and I think the whole audience would agree because the laughter was pretty loud throughout this film.

The reason I liked this film so much because what it meant to me was that things don't have to be perfect and magical (and usually aren't). The couple that stays together says it best when they ask each other, "does it really matter" how they met each other? Of course, the answer is no. Often, we want these fantastical movie-like productions to happen in real life, but this usually isn't the case. The film not only pointed it out in a poignant way, but also put a funny spin to it.

The next film was Copier, which I also liked. The concept was creative (a copier that can make real duplicates of anything). The daughter is the protagonist, and is struggling with her parents deteriorating (or already broken) relationship. She decides to try to fix this by making a duplicate of her mother. Many people in the audience questioned how this would work out during the Q&A, but I thought that this did not have anything to do with the meaning of the film. It is not possible for her plan to work out, and eventually she finds that some things cannot be fixed, and maybe it is better to just move in with what you have.

Next, we saw Baby, which was the film that I thought about the most after watching. The film is about one girl who is sick with something, who meets a young man downtown and has a quick, mysterious affair with him - only for the night, that is. At the end of the film, we learn that the protagonist is HIV positive. The film ends with the man going home to his girlfriend, and his small daughter. This film said to me that people aren't always who they seem to be on the surface. At the beginning, it seemed as if the woman had everything put together and the man was a little sketchy, but at the end my perspective switched completely.

The Father was a short film that was really confusing to me. Still, I'm not exactly sure what went on in this film. It was cool that as the viewer we had to guess what was going on, but I did not like the style at all because the camera was incredibly shaky, going in and out of focus so much so that I didn't want to even look at the screen.

The Tourist was the last film of the night, and another favorite of mine. It was interesting to see how one guy was driven to (almost) kill somebody. It was a good mix of emotions, humor, and drama. My favorite part of this film was the setting. It really felt like you were in a small-town diner and the music and everything made the entire thing seem more real.

The night ended and I had a real appreciation for what filmmakers are doing all around the world. That night my boyfriend and I both agreed that we had seen films that were much more creative and interesting than anything we could have seen in the commercial theaters (which is pretty disappointing...) It was also just inspiring to know that it is possible to create a really fantastic short film and it is not something that is extremely difficult if you have a good concept.

Art House Reading Response

There is something kind of magical about seeing a movie in an art house. It's not because of the great quality - like the article mentions, they are known for their "squeaky, stained chairs, day-old popcorn, and watery coffee." People like watching films in art houses because they are unique, they have some sort of interesting style, and it's something you can't find anywhere else - like a well-kept secret.

The article goes on to describe the challenges behind what can be labeled "art house" or independent cinema. Sometimes it is used just to describe something that didn't come straight from Hollywood - it's not mainstream. But wider distribution of independent films in art house chains are changing this. I think this is a good thing, because smaller films have a greater chance of being noticed by lots of people. I know some people like feeling like they are the only ones who know about a good film, but I'd say it's better to share.

"Microcinemas" are really great because this changes almost any area to a makeshift movie theater with more of a community feel to the screening. These seem much more fun than the traditional "art house" cinema because they do not have the stigma of being snobby and it's more of a relaxed atmosphere. At my home school, the comic book shop right off campus would house some sort of small scary-movie night every once in a while, and this is what it reminds me of. It was one of my favorite places to watch a movie there because of the friendly atmosphere.

Music Video

Self-Portrait Project Ideas

For my self-portrait project, I have been trying hard to think of good ideas.

One thing I have thought of about my personality is how much movies and television affect me every day. If I ever watch a sad movie, the rest of my day I could potentially wander around in a terrible mood. On the other hand, if I watch a great and inspiring movie I will become motivated for the rest of the day!

It's like watching that one commercial where Sarah McLachlan is singing and all of those sick animals are being shown - I have to turn my head away.

I'm not exactly sure of how I want to express this in my video yet... :/

Assignment 1b: Response

I thought the "Painting with sound" project was a lot of fun. This was mainly because we had complete creative control over our project. I also really liked being able to edit with only one other person helping me (instead of 3 others... gets a little chaotic).

As far as what I learned... I learned how to create a feeling with sound. My project was "High-Speed Promenade" and my partner and I did what I could to create a feeling out of all of the different sounds together and make one piece. We chose what sounds we wanted first and really thought about how we wanted our piece to feel before we started. "High-speed" and "promenade" are kind of oxymorons and we knew that we wanted something to get progressively faster and faster, be a little bit off-beat, and also we wanted to have something a little bit musical in our piece.

In the end, I think we pulled it off. It was really interesting to hear the rest of the classes pieces and see how they used the sounds in different ways to create different feelings. I refreshed myself on the workings of Final Cut and the audio portion for editing, which was also helpful. This was probably my favorite project for this class so far.

Light observations

Inspirational photos

The first picture is inspirational to me because it is Vincente and Liza Minnelli. Not only is it cute, but Vincente Minnelli is one of my favorite directors and I love the lights hanging in the background.

I really like the photo above because the contrasting colors look so good together! I love the burnt orange against the foggy, misty sky.

Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick! Enough said.

The Sound of Music was the first movie I ever loved. This picture was one of my favorite moments because I love the cinematography and lighting.

Above is one of my favorite pictures. It was taken at my cabin in Minnesota and shows the silhouettes of my dad and I sitting on the dock.

Assignment 1a: Response

The first assignment for this class was fun and at some times, challenging. It was really interesting to learn how to use the equipment. I'd never used the H4n microphones or anything, but they were pretty easy to figure out.

I liked being able to meet a few of the people in the class during this project too. We all worked together pretty well, even though it can be hard to plan out everything with 4 people who have busy schedules. We all made sure to contribute and made a pretty good team, even when we didn't know exactly what we were doing.

As for the actual project, after recording all of the sounds and listening to them, I've found myself paying closer attention to sound effects and ambiance in the films I've watched recently. Just sound in general has become more interesting after this project.

However, the biggest thing I learned from this project didn't have anything to do with sound. The thing I realized is that it is incredibly important it is to pay close attention to directions! Our group recorded the sound, uploaded the files, and then managed to do a whole project putting together 10 minutes of a sound mix. We later found out that we did more work than we had needed, and had to go back and start the editing portion over again. It wasn't that big of a deal (for this project anyway), but I definitely learned from this.

Sound Journal

Outside the University Apartments

I was sitting cross-legged on the picnic table just outside the University Apartments. At first, there were a lot of sounds to adjust to - everyone seemed to be leaving for class. I heard the click of doors opening and closing and a person came by me every few seconds. I could hear the whir of bike tires and the smooth hum of skateboards as they went past me. It's the afternoon, and people seem to be a bit lazy as they shuffle past. A few people wearing flip flops pass by and drag their feet as their shoes make a soft, padded tapping against the sidewalk. If I really listen, I can hear some side conversations, like one about what two guys were hoping to eat at Wag for lunch. Soon, all of the people had disappeared and it seemed quiet. But then I noticed that there were bugs around that wouldn't quit buzzing. Suddenly, I could hear the air conditioning whirring for all of the apartments. I heard a little bird chirping every few seconds and leaves rustling in the nearby tree whenever it got a little breezy. I heard the construction off in the distance - clanking, knocking, banging, and metal scraping. I listened to all of this background noise and off in the distance heard someone sneeze in their apartment.

Artist Bio

Hi, my name is Amy and I'm a National Exchange Student from the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh. There I'm a Radio-TV-Film major and a journalism minor.

I'm originally from Minnesota, and really wanted to get out of the Midwest to live someplace that didn't have snow on the ground 6 months out of the year... It's always been my dream to live on the ocean and I am loving it in Wilmington so far. It was really hard to leave all of my friends and the safety of my own college, but UNCW has always been my dream school, and I'm really excited to finally be here.

I've always wanted to be involved in film. It started out with me watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang almost daily (my parents would fast-forward the parts with the creepy child catcher...) Then I saw The Sound of Music for the first time when I was 10 and fell in love with it! I watched every behind-the-scenes feature on that DVD and found out that day that there are people out there who make movies, and that's what I decided to do.

Ever since then, I've never looked back. I love film.

Camper Response

The difficulties of putting a label or name to Avant-Garde film is looked at in Fred Camper's article, "Naming, and Defining, Avant-Garde or Experimental Film". Camper described "six tests" to define whether a film can be defined as Avant-Garde, or experimental. While I agreed with most of the "tests," I think that Avant-Garde cinema is something that has to go on, in part, undefined. It is always changing and is something that is not mainstream and (usually) does not follow any rules. I do think that for the most part, the definitions were correct, but I don't believe that every film must follow the rules.

MacDonald Response

The article "Introduction to 'Avant-Garde Film'" by Scott MacDonald was interesting to read and find out how Avant-Garde film came about. Also, it is interesting to see how people react to Avant-Garde films since many people are not exposed until later in life. I agree that most people watching an Avant-Garde film will already have the traditional "Hollywood" movie as a frame of reference as to what a film "is." There are a lot of misconceptions about Avant-Garde films, probably because they are not completely understood and are more abstract than commercial films. Even these films cannot always be entirely understood, I think that's what makes Avant-Garde cinema so interesting.