Friday, June 17, 2011

6 Films Showdown!



Alright, so I definitely feel like every film I made in this class was vital to becoming a more confident filmmaker. With that being said, I liked all the projects, I felt some measure of pride in their completions, etc. Without further ado:

3D, Long Take, Cameraless, Animation, Pinhole, Video Race

6. [Long Take] There's a couple reasons why I'm picking this last. First of all, I was out of town for a wedding and I was unable to participate in a group for this, and I really didn't get to mess with the sound because Jake had a very clear vision and was on top of it. Then, when I filmed my footage I ran into a couple problems with my film doing its best impression of an accordion and mucking up the exposures a bit on the second half of filming, AND no bumble bees flying around in flowers which I was thinking was going to look the best on 16mm. That being said, I did enjoy my independence with the project, particularly in developing it (even if I had to ignore flights of panic about my video race project being due later that day). There's a great sense of astonishment and pride for me when the film develops and images burst through white and black.

5. [Pinhole] One of the reasons why Long Take is up higher on the list is the same reason that Pinhole is. With film, you sometimes have to forfeit a feeling of control, and I was unable to control the destiny of my film. If I had intended to take pictures of direct sunlight then I would have succeeded admirably. Sadly, that was not my intent. However, the editing/installation part of this more than made up for my feeling of being a pinhole camera failure. That was fun, unique, very relaxed atmosphere.

4. [3D] The acting part was awesome. It reminded me of being in high school drama again, and the props and  set pieces made out of cardboard really made the whole project for me. I also really liked how the content of the film really came together on the spot. However, scheduling issues and the annoyance of trying to figure out After Effects hampers the experience a little. All forgiven when I throw on my 3D glasses and watch all the projects in an impromptu fort.

3. [Animation] All right, the next three aren't marred as much by me stressing about logistical things needlessly. I really loved how the animation came out, and I feel pretty happy about the work I put into the sound design. Also, any excuse to use old Nintendo music from Donkey Kong in a stop motion animation project is awesome. If I have one complaint its that because of the grain of the film, the image doesn't come out quite as crisp as I would like. The pixallation looks awesome, but there's something about our animation that just looks a little muted.

2. [Cameraless Filmmaking] I loved this assignment. I think I was in the classroom working on it all week, when everyone else was waiting until the last couple of days, simply because it was really satisfying to work on it. The animation part was annoying though. I'm no drawing animator, and I'm a pretty poor scratching animator too though I can get away with it more. I'll definitely be coming back to painted film, I'm a little obsessed with the transformation from film strip to projected image there, such a beautiful process.

1. [Video Race] I was assuming up until recently that cameraless would easily be my favorite assignment in the class, and maybe it still is, or maybe this is a tie. However, at the moment, I'm pretty satisfied with this project. I still want to tweak it, and I'm thinking about extending it and employing some cameraless in that new version. However, with cameraless I just barely got at a concept which was of interest to me (in my 15 seconds of water) and here I got to focus on a concept that I found engaging a bit more thoroughly. I also got to see how the thinnest shred of an idea became a legitimate project within the course of 24 hours (I worked on my other two projects right up until class time so I was unable to take full advantage of the 48. AND I shot and developed 16mm during that 24, so that's kind of cool). Oh, and scanned images are beautiful, holy god. The transition to video doesn't quite do it service, though color correction helps.

Okay, that's it. Thanks for the class. It kills. Looking forward to 495.

Note: I'll try to get the 16mm footage I shot up on this post when I get a chance.

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