Proposal

For my proposal I have chosen a piece that is currently in production and has been in production for almost a year. The piece is currently titled “Lake Drive”. The piece deals with the intervention of time. It takes myself and the camera man roughly around 22 minutes to complete the initial drive, but when the edits are added you travel an entire 12 months in the span of 22 minutes. The goal of this piece is to disorient the viewer’s perception of time. By combining all the months, the path and duration stay the same but the times change. The viewer should be taken for a ride through the seasons of Milwaukee in one car trip. The trip will start with one season and then flow into a random or highly contrasted season. All seasons will be displayed from the same angle in the vehicle with the same mount and framing.

-Dusty Vollmer

It's all just a big narrative anyways...

On a very simple level, a narrative film would be considered any film that tells a story. With that said I could see the argument in saying that "Duck Soup" provides an intervention into narrative film with the fact that all of the stunts and skits that they have laid out, are laid together with script to provide a story. I would say that it is an intervention into narrative due to the fact that it is obvious that these skits where put together before there was a story. I'd assume that the story was loosely woven around the acts or performances that they felt they wanted to display, and in this manner they are offering a different strategy, if you will, on storytelling. The acts that they perform, merely build the background of the specific players or actors in question. These types of Marx Brothers films rely heavily on the foundation of the characters themselves and the stories usually are second to the performers themselves.
On the subject of suggesting that the film, "The Way Things Go", is a narrative, I would agree that it suggests that there is a linear plot to the film. I would only go as far to say that this is linear film as opposed to non linear film only because it is apparent to the viewer that this film is following a path of sorts. In this case it is almost recounting the events of this "Rube Goldberg" type setup. Looking back I would say that calling this an intervention into narrative film would be an interesting take on the film itself, however I try to avoid being concerned with the labeling of projects. The more I keep typing the more I like considering this film as an intervention, mostly because I think that the strong linear feel to the film would back up many points made to say that it is indeed narrative. I now believe that it is narrative. Seriously though, everything is narrative to the viewer, because the viewer creates memory of what they see and in this way they are creating their own story, if they choose to recall the information that they have stored as a memory. Mood alone would dictated the narrative of their memory itself.
Well that's it, becoming a little florrid.

Interventions of memory

I believe that James Benning's film, One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later, is a good example of intervention involving memory. The film begins with images that are matched to their correlating audio and then 27 years later the same shot is presented with the corresponding audio from 27 years ago. The audio in this case poses itself as a place mark on a visual memory map, if you will. The audio triggers memories that were created 60 minutes prior and causes your mind to recall visual events. The visual events that are displayed in your mind's eye are visual representations of what you stored as a memory to your reaction to the visual. Your mind stores the memory of the audio and then searches to match the original audio with your original visual memory which is also combined with the current visual display, creating a new memory unique in it's self. So, in this way, James Benning has created an intervention of conventional memory making, by evoking your visual memory to recall an event that corresponds with the same audio.

Barbie Liberation Organization

- The Barbie Liberation Organization was formed in 1989.
- Circuit boards had to be trimmed, a capacitor moved, and a switch re-engineered.
- The dolls had stickers that instructed the buyer to call their local TV station.
Your LIST OF THREE must include:
a statement about WHAT constitutes their practice. (what do they do?)
The Barbie Liberation Organization takes the Teen Talk Barbie and swaps the Talking Duke G.I. Joe’s voice boxes. This way the products say things that were intended for a different audience.
- WHAT is the goal or target of their practice
The goal of their practice is to change the message that Barbies are putting out to the youth. They want to break the norm of the degrading comments that Barbies spew. They also want to make people aware of what children are being influenced by.

Sunlight

I would say that sunlight was the main character in "Love's Refrain" by Nathaniel Dorsky. The reason I say this is that it is the most frequently featured item, to me, in the film. Whether the sunlight is creating a reflecting, a shadow, or just by it's self, it is the most frequent item in the film and due to the in class discussion, that would make it the main character of this film. When I noticed all the shadows present I started to think that shadows would be the main character, but I continued to think about what makes shadows and I eventually realized that a good portion of the shots in this film used natural light ie the sun. I also thought about the way the glass was used to misconstrue the viewers ideas of what they were viewing, and after a moment's ponder, I realized that that was indeed sunlight again.
Sunlight.

Spiral Jetty

I was confused at first as to why the piece included this man running the path of the Spiral Jetty. The more I thought about it the more I began to see why it fit. Throughout the piece you see a lot of machinery creating this piece, with the occasional human, but for the most part you see machines and nature. At the end you see this person running the path, and in a way it is displaying the connection between this piece of art, the earth, and humans. It would be a different piece with out the presence of a person. It definitely displays the connection between people and the work of art.

Flying ant

At first when I thought of this table top project I thought of using an idea that I had in a dream. The dream was, everyone in the class having their own mirror, and by a few couple turns, we (the audience) would be able to explore the entire room thru the use of hand held mirrors. This was the plan, until I was informed that the class would not be present during filming, which makes sense. Next obstacle…We viewed some pieces from previous classes. There was a piece that involved a mirror and a similar concept. I then decided to keep the concept of exploring the room with mirrors, but I decided just to change a few variables to affect the general feel of the piece. The variable that I changed was the lighting. I simply turned off the lights. This effect technically is only strong when showed along with other table top pieces. In all I was merely trying to explore the space of the room.

Upon arrival to the shoot, I realized that the people or persons I had made contact with about assisting myself in the angling of mirrors had not shown. I was lucky enough to have the assistance and collaboration of one Derek Ison and one Matt Wodenka. This piece really would not exist if they had not been present. This project also would not have happened had it not been for the extreme patience of Sarah Buccheri. I guess you could say that my professionalism was definitely down in this piece, only due to the fact that I didn’t make it to any of the practice times. I definitely had a specific visual guide in my mind, but making people see the same idea was a tough sell. Once it started coming together, the people involved definitely had the feeling that this could be redone and made better. The end result was interesting due to the guest appearance of two friendly flying ants that were confused by the lights. The timing was off, but then again it was sort of on the fly. I liked how it turned out, but I think it would be better with mechanical stands, motors, larger mirrors, ambient sounds, and outdoors. I definitely have a passion for exploring mirrors. I personally believe that they are a cheap gateway to an unexplored space.

You Tube

While searching You Tube, I found a piece that I will use to relate to Alex Bag's "Untitled Fall 95", click here to view it.
I chose this piece because it definitely has that homemade feel to it and it also parodies other films. In this piece the creator simply uses editing to make a simple chore interesting. When the creator of this piece puts on his sunglasses he transforms himself into another character this reminded me of when Alex Bag would switch into character using different hairstyles. In this You Tube piece it almost seems as though the creator is poking fun at action movies being over dramatic, I believe this is reminiscent of Alex Bag poking fun at 1-900 number commercials. Both these artists used minimal amounts of props to create a feel that would take the audience out of the room that they were viewing.

Authorship

Just right off the bat, I would say a definite example of authorship and not, would be the "One white one black" and the black and white piece with the two gray dogs. The one white one black piece, in my opinion, should not be considered and authored piece. It should be considered a documentary. The white dog in this case is the obvious dominant male. This attitude is standard for dominant males. This piece could be repeated with virtually any two litter mates. I've done, but not filmed, this with my dog and his brother. *Taken out of context, that last sentence could be misconstrued*
The piece with the two dogs following the tennis ball is an example of authorship, because there is direction.
I guess in all, I would consider direction and authorship together in this case.

Thank you for your time.

Originality

After class on Monday I was feeling pretty down considering that I had just watched a piece that had a minimalists view of the idea I had posted on here. It was the guy with the hand mirror and the digital camera. I get the idea, however I had planed on making my presentation more professional. None the less the idea and point was made, and for the sake of not being considered a...., I have decided to change my plan. I really wish I had not known about that project. I'm sure I could still do it, but personally I wouldn't be comfortable. Not that this is about comfort, but originality is important to me.
New idea:
I still want to stick with mirrors, however now I was thinking about turning off the lights in the room and using the mirrors in the exact fashion that I posted previously, however now the main character of the piece will be a beam of light. I will use a clip on light attached somewhere nearby, aimed at the bottom mirror. The light will then be reflected to the satellite mirrors standing by. I think I will fashion a coated cover to go over the bulb itself. The end product will look like a black screen with a large white circle and then smaller circles appearing in different areas. I will keep the previously stated concept, I will just change the variables of light.
In the end, I think this will be a more focused approach to exploring the depth of mirrors.

How come I always need mirrors?

So, I figured out what it is that I want to do for the Table Top Show!
I'm going to place a mirror angled under the camera. The first shot will be of where ever the mirror 1 is pointed. Next, someone holding mirror2 will enter the picture holding mirror2 directly back at mirror1, they will slowly adjust mirror2 until the next person holding mirror3 enters the shot, the second person will then adjust mirror3 until you see the next person, I will continue this to the halfway time marker, the last person at that time will angle back to the person before them and that person will follow suit until it gets back to mirror1 under the camera. I thought of this in a dream, which usually means it won't work.
Early predictions:
I won't find enough mirrors
The angles won't work
The mirror under the camera will have to be huge (I really don't want to remove my closet door)
The images in the mirrors will get smaller and smaller
To make it work properly I would have to zoom each time a mirror is entered(which we can't do)
The mirrors will be too small
Natural hand movement will make it impossible to determine what's in the shot

I've thought of other ideas, but I really really want to shoot this...I will definitely have to practice this...
How come I always need mirrors?

Where am I gonna find these mirrors...I wonder if they have some in some in a drawing class... there has to be... a self portrait class? Or something.

Dog dies, hilarity ensues...

Honestly I cannot get over the comment that Althea Thauberger received for "Songstress", when the "critic" said that it was nothing more than a music video. I think that person nailed it right on the head. I guess what I took away from her visit was that, there might be works that you produce that people misinterpret or just plain old don't understand, but that can't stop you from continuing on. I've had a view pieces that I've shown to friends and family that just missed altogether. That feeling that comes over you like, "what the hell did I just spend all that time on?" I could definitely see where she has a background in photography; just by the way the scenes were framed. Most of the shots looked like post cards with a moving image on them. I also like how she used a crew from the theater in "A Memory Lasts Forever"; it definitely gave the outdoor scene a sort or "fake" look to it. I think I might look into photography courses before I move on.

Deadpan

4'33", I want to do the remix of that...It would just be someone shouting "remix" throughout the 4'33" of the recording. I'll see if I can interest Lil' Jon in the piece. When I think of deadpan I think of comedy. Comedy and expirimental film, that would be something interesting. I was also thinking about art, as in who decides what is art. This subject confuses me in a way. Why are these pieces considered art? Is it because enough reputable names say that it is? Or is it irrelavant anyways. I like the latter. I guess if these creators set out to create art, then they probably created crap. I like to believe that these pieces were created to expiriment and not to entertain. I know we are supposed to be writing about deadpan, but just imagine that I am typing this in deadpan tone...there mission accomplished. Every monday, I leave the theater in a weird funk. The pieces that I have veiwed tend to put me in a different mood. They seem to make me view my surroundings in a non-objective way. They seem to invite me to view the present, from a new perspective. Not quite sure of these feelings just yet, but they definetly affect my stress level in a positive way.

snowed in

Well, we didn't have class due to the blizzard that hit. So, I guess this will be about the pieces we saw on Monday. The Great Pumpkin Race...need I say more. That would have been a time to be a comedian. You could actually judge how funny something was going to be, just based on how far the actor or actors wanted to take the stunt. They had to have dragged a live donkey through a good portion of those situations. Even "stage magic" at that time was still pretty difficult. I wonder what PETA would have done if they remade that scene with the guy pulling on the donkey. Lead shoes...uh. Oh, and then there was A+B in Ontario. I thought it was an interesting idea. I like the idea of just filming everything and then just figuring it out later. I couldn't stop looking at the background in that film, it was definitely a window into the past. I also like when they are on the beach and all the people are laying on their towels and just in amazement over these two people filming each other on the beach. Today that would just be a normal scene, well, almost.

-me

In between comments

Yesterday I had a friend tell me that they were going to leave PSOA after this semester to "finish up" at a more commercial type school in L.A.. This made me wonder what I would be doing right now if I had stayed in Southern California. I would probably working on another movie, I would be watching my name on the credits of Iron Man...Would that bring me satisfaction? Is that really important to me?That's when I remembered why I left in the first place. Having no creative outlets and not being able to grow as an artist and always being controlled by a test audience or what some exec defines as good cinema...is not where I want to be. Money can be tempting at times, but in the case of "The Decision" it is apparent that artistic freedom was more tempting...
Not sure why I posted this...I guess it's like one of those letters you write to someone and then rip up...
I do miss the weather though...

Professional vs amateur

Professional vs amateur... This subject has become difficult to differentiate due to the fact that there are so many different types of genres of film. How would you describe professional. To me, professional, implies that there is money involved. So, is that to say that films should be deemed professional by the cost of production? Or, should films be judged individually by the viewer. For someone to deem a film professional or amateur, there would in some way a comparison to another film, which is quite unfair because no two films are exactly alike. When it comes to the matter of professional vs amateur, I tend to say, "who cares". If a film set out to have their main objective be that they are viewed as professional, then the film, mostly likely is not even worth watching. A film should be taken for it's raw content and not viewed to be judged.

-Dusty

Up and running

This is just so the screen doesn't look so empty...Enjoy.