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.