Reflections

This class was really fun.  It pushed boundaries and let us be extremely creative.  It not only opened me up to the world of experimental film but also to the idea of a film community.  I really feel like this past semester has really helped in pushing me to reach out of my comfort zone, take risks, and really become part of the film community.  As a filmmaker, I realize that you are going to make mistakes and to embrace and learn from them.  I’m extremely critical of everything I do. With that being said, I feel like taking this experimental class was an excellent choice for one of the first production classes I’ve taken.  I really loved the presentations. It got me so amped to hear about all of these talented filmmakers I didn’t know of and to hear about how they were related and what they were doing.  It was great to see how everything connects.  Also, hearing about people with weird ideas and running with them was amazing.  It really inspires me to push the envelope with what I want to do.  Speaking of presentations, I’m stoked that I researched Austin Film Society.  I had never thought about not being near an ocean…and it still freaks me out super badly…but I really want to go visit for an extended period of time or try to get an internship or something there.  It just feels so film involved and close knit.  There’s such a good vibe just from researching the film community in Austin that it’s hard not to want to go.  Overall, I loved this class and really learned a lot as a filmmaker.

COOCOO for Cucalorus!

Cucalorus was awesome!! My life kind of went on pause for those four days…but it was worth it.  I saw five short blocks, the soundwalls, and the Bus to Lumberton installation.  On top of that, I went to multiple parties and frequently hung out in the filmmakers’ lounge.  Because of spending so much time at this festival, I made contacts, friends, and became more familiar with the Wilmington film community.  Festivals have such an awesome vibe that it’s contagious.  The short blocks I saw were: Exceptional block, Comedy block, Twisted block, Dance block, and Social block.  My favorite was the Twisted block.  Those were so awesome. I feel like a slightly twisted person so that’s probably why. AND…you know what? The comedy shorts were horrible! The twisted ones were way better and funnier.  There was almost a riot outside the comedy shorts door to get in, and the films really fell flat for me.  The twisted ones focused on more black humor and oddball topics.  I also really like the dance blocks. Those were beautifully done and really made me appreciate the amount of work and detail that goes into dance.  However, my favorite thing during Cucalorus was the Bus to Lumberton installation.  It was so trippy and awesome. Everything was interactive. There was a legit band upstairs and a bar with free drinks.  There was so much going on that by the end of it, Zoe and I really couldn’t make out what was real and what was fake anymore.  It was insane. I really like Lynch and crazy installations, so this felt completely right to me.

Installation thoughts

     My art installation was taking the idea of layering film in a live, interactive atmosphere.  I really liked the idea of being about to watch the film grow and change while moving through the installation.  Honestly, the hardest part was the logistics of it.  Other than the original film of woods that I wanted to playing, the other steps in the process were just finding the equipment and making a game plan.  The set up was the hardest part for sure.  We practiced making sure everything would work how it was supposed to, but putting it all together in the right location was definitely hard.  That being said, I loved my team.  All of them were self-starters and really did a great job.  The one thing that I would change in the future would be the length of the cords.  We needed multiple cords and adapters in order to make it the correct size; however, that would have been too expensive for our budget.  We had to settle on just one cord for each layer, which were too short for the projectors to be able to play the video normal size.  Because of that, I really want to revamp the idea and present it again with a bigger layout and for a longer duration.  I still want to do my idea of making a short film out of the footage I took from it, but I think I might wait until I tweak it a little bit.  In the end, this was definitely my favorite project of the class.  It pushed our creativity and really ended the semester on an awesome note.

Class related and Cucalorus Game Plan

So with my self-portrait, I’ve realized that when thinking about my sound design, I’m now more geared to play around with actual sound effects and how these effects sound in different ways and at different times.  I am pretty sure that the first couple of projects in this class are the reason with this. It’s exciting to be able to view sound in a different way. I always thought sound was a little bit intimidating just because I really didn’t know much about it.  I really like the idea of putting sound effects in where they don’t belong to mess up the audience or create emotions that don’t seem quite right. Future projects…I guess the only project that’s left is the installation, which I’m super pumped on.  Playing around with multiple cameras recording reflections and layer live is something that I’d really like to play around with.  I’ve always wanted to record through water, paint, and other materials.  Making this idea into an interactive installation would be sick. It would take quite a few cameras and probably funds to pull it off, but I think if done properly, it would be really quite awesome.

So I’m bartending for Cucalorus. I’ll be hopping between the filmmaker’s lounge and Jengo’s. Hopefully this will put me in a good place to make some contacts.  What do I want to see? First off, I really want to go to the soundwall party. That’s going to be super fun.  I also want to see a lot of shorts blocks. I really dig those. I want to definitely see the comedy shorts Saturday night, the twisted shorts, and the weird shorts. I have to go see the bog bean shorts Sunday afternoon because of “The Cat Show”. It’s going to be great.

Self Portrait

Originally I wanted to mixed shots of nature that I love with a chaotic visually appealing section with soundbytes accompanied. I don’t know. I feel like I’m really diverse in the sense that yeah I’m totally out there and such a weirdo, but at the same time, I’m so intensely boring and calm. It’s just hard to take all of that and put it in a two-minute clip that represents me. I definitely have put this off until the last minute because I’m just so up in the air about it. After the Visions tour, I completely agree with using a story to show kind of how my mind works. That being said, hopefully it all comes together. Being extremely busy coupled with being undecided is a horrible combo. But alas, in we dive to create a self-portrait that conveys the normal side, love of simplicity, yet dark, cynical, chaotic, jokester that is me.