Hell yes

This is probably my favorite t.v. show on right now.  Genius british comedy on adult swim.

Meshes in the Afternoon Response

Maya Deren did a good job on keeping the viewer attentive yet still searching.  The camera angles at times would tilt as the actress supported the loss of balance by falling in the opposite direction.  Very good job on causing disorder and confusion.  I could not grasp a definite meaning to the movie or what was to be gained except that it was some sort of a dream/memory loop.  What i found funny was that the first time she ever tries to open the door after knocking, it is supposed to be locked but she slightly opened and shut the door on accident.  Or perhaps this was intentional and the viewer was to understand that she perhaps did not need the key yet used it anyways.

Selling My Movie Like a Used Car Salesman

Ha my ideas aren't fully developed enough to find the foundation i would prefer for confidently selling them but I'm willing to b.s. for a class project.

1.  Developing film takes one hour at and is terribly boring.  Unless you are Gary, who gets, in a car wreck, rolls Walgreens into a river, swims to shore to find a sunbathing Gypsy with magical powers, gets attacked by summoned rats, and infected with rabies, only to make it back in time to pick up his developed film.  How's that for an hour?

2.  Would you ever consider it possible for an hour to last only a moment.  Not only in your own mind but time changes for everyone around you as well.  In my film "The Terminal" Chuck encounters this first hand.

3. Blah.. boring documentary don't worry about it.

One last idea before i go to sleep. I may just be delirious right now cause it's 4 am, but this seems thought provoking at the moment. I could film an entire episode of 24. This would be an time lapse representation of a one hour television show that is representing 24 hours. I guess i'll find out when i wake up whether I still think this would be cool.

More Time Ideas.

I can't sleep so i'm going to write up a few more ideas that are mulling around in my head. One aspect to consider is how i want the audience to feel about this hour or how the video will inevitably make them feel. Secondly, I also want to consider the use of transitions to show time pass. Even with transitions it would be nice to use actions that are well known to take about an hour. This could include a candle burning down about halfway, the literal use of a clock (most likely not used), and my favorite thus far, getting film developed at Walgreens. I could film someone simply walking in, giving film to a clerk, the cut to them returning and paying for the film.  Pretty simple idea if i can't figure anything else out i like more.

One other idea i had that could either inspire thought or aggravate is to just film a plane landing. Many travellers understand that this is when one may need to reset their watch, thus gaining or losing at least an hour or more.

Critical thinking on Time

How can i think about time without considering Einstein's theory of relativity? I can't. To put it simply, time moves slower on objects in motion. There is no reverse in direction, yet if one could possibly move fast enough time itself could possibly stand still or even reverse.
Keeping in mind that time itself is an abstract idea (which is probably why i don't get along well with it), how do I show one hour of time through a video piece not equal to one hour? I'll just list three ideas so that i will be prepared for class.

1. Show video from the standpoint of a moving object. The video would end up being shorter than an hour because time is acting slower on the camera and still showing about an hour of motion outside the vehicle or object.

2. Film a moving object from a stationary point. This could turn out badly for the video would be longer than an hour and perhaps painful to watch. The object would take longer to reach an hour.

3. This final idea is more of a considerable approach. I could film a time lapse video of one hour of a candle melting. The only difference from the generic time lapse that our teacher warned us about is that it would move in reverse. Still not sure how clever this idea seems, but hopefully i can come up with some more by class tomorrow.

First Video

Finally got it posted to youtube. So here it is.

Critique 1 Write-up

Material choices were slightly tied with my concept.  I just wanted to experiment with mixing still images with animation and i used the idea of Hypnagogia to demonstrate this.    Hypnagogia is a Greek term referring to the state in between sleep and dreams.  For me this state happens usually when i'm waking up after a one hour nap and freak out cause i saw spiders dropping on me from the ceiling.  The long pauses on the still scene hopefully add to the idea that reality seems mundane compared to when dreams affect it.  This paired with a quick succession of images at the end should help for contrast.  Although the video has a fairly silly tone I still feel it was a successful experiment.  i just want to give the same feeling i have when i wake up to a skewed reality.  The sound of news droning in the background  with a shrill scream could hopefully be added later to help the piece.

There were a few other images i cut due to time constraint, and i couldn't figure out how to reverse video using photoshop animation.

Quiz #1

1.  Not going to lie i completely forgot to read.

2.  A scene is a full filming with different camera angles at one setting and a shot is the footage from one camera instance in the scene.

3.  Editing is the arranging of different camera footage into a chronological or narrative order. By use of transitions.  Transitions that are most often used are the fade from one camera to another, the immediate cutting of one camera to another, and the use of elements in the footage to change between cameras (such as a bus passing with new camera angle following).  Most other transitions, such as fly-ins, tend to look a little cheesy.

Four words

satirizing

awkward

chill

retarded

Oftentimes all one can do is chill while retarded people make awkward attempts at satirizing life.

Freewrite

So let's start this shit.  I have a lot of ideas for my own videos it is just a matter of organizing and narrowing them all down. First, i love the thought of satirizing life itself.  I find life hilarious at times even at times when it is not appropriate at all.  Awkward situations are often brilliantly represented in some of my favorite shows such as The Office, Reno 911, and Flight of the Conchords.  Not only is the acting done well, at times it is even evident that the cinematographers are mocking the filming styles of reality t.v.  Often times the funniest situations are ones where everyone is completely serious.  For instance the new "Chill. Don't kill." ad campaign for memphis i find extremely funny.  Mainly because the editors were completely serious about their topic and it's pretty retarded.

Inspiration for the Semester

This semester i hope to gain knowledge to help me edit my own videos with a high level of professionalism. I watched a few of the past class videos and it inspired me to research my own concepts further. i know that the average human has a short attention span so frequent camera changes showing a variation of angles is fairly necessary. The best videos often had the highest quality sound and since I am also in Sound Acquisition and Editing i hope this will help tremendously.

Inauguration

I had about an hour to watch the inauguration before having to go back to class. Hundreds of thousands of people were lining the streets of Washington to get a glimpse of President Obama. I'm not big on traditions for at times they can promote a misguided feeling of rationality, yet i was awed by the nostalgia of it all. The news reporters, as usual, tried their best to make things as interesting as possible, pulling stories out of every little detail of the parade. Apparently it is a big deal whether or not the President exits the limo and walks to the White House. I doubt this detail makes any relevance to the success of a Presidents term in office, but the media exaggerates most anything to gain viewer attention.