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.