karenkarenbobaren

2011-12-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

Blog #10

All in all this class gave me a great new perspective on filmmaking. Prior to this I had only taken one undergraduate class related to film, and I felt that we did not focus much on the techniques of filming. However, this class gave us hands-on experience with the camera and every week we learned different techniques.

In addition, the examples that were shown in class were extremely helpful because it gave us insight on the possibilities of camera angles, lighting, camera filters, crowd sourcing, etc. One of my favorite videos that were shown in class was "Sugar Water" because it showed the interaction between split-screen cameras and allowed me to see the possibilities of cinematography beyond the realm of the traditional Hollywood filming techniques.

Furthermore, creating this blog allowed me to keep track of my thought processes and ideas for each project. Looking back at my previous posts, I realize how much thought was put into my work, how I came about formulating these ideas, and what kinds of difficulties I encountered.

2011-11-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

Blog #9

So for our Cultures of Participation project... the tetris idea didn't work out. There were too many difficulties:

1) Time crunch

2) Not enough participants

3) Inconsistent camera sizes

4) Inability to transfer videos

5) Rendering time (takes too long)

6) Editing individual videos

7) THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

8) Finals

We were really disappointed because the idea of the tetris project had us extremely excited, but hopefully we will be able to do a project similar to that in the future.

So instead we took a completely different approach. We used the people who were actually willing to film (since many of the people who said they were willing to help on facebook didn't actually send us videos) and had them do whatever they wanted in their two minutes of fame. We used the idea of "play" and interaction with the video camera so many people used filters and morphing techniques. The concept is that nowadays peoples' perception of play is completely different to the perception of play back in the day--people used to do a lot of outside activities but today many peoples' version of "play" revolves around technology (mainly their computers). In addition the music we used was very light-hearted and playful to contribute to the ambiance of the piece.

All in all the project was fun and people were very helpful (despite not being able to pull through with the tetris idea). Enjoy! :)

2011-11-30T12:24:00.000-08:00

Blog #8

Cultures of Participation

For my group project we decided to create a crowd sourcing project similar to the video that was presented in class ("Water Flavor--Sour"). Initially, we wanted to create the SuperMario game and have the characters running through each screen, but soon realized that based on the time crunch it would be impractical to do something that intricate. Instead, we decided to create a tetris game that eventually loses and says "GAME OVER" at the end. We got this idea off of seeing a stop-motion video of post-it notes that resembled a tetris game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5iaqLww9Z8

Also, we created a facebook page and invited our friends via the internet to see who is willing to help us out. This is a great and efficient way to gather volunteers without having to physically being with the other people.

In addition we were thinking about having people submit their videos by uploading them onto a youtube account that we created just for this class. We would give them the username and password (in a private event so that others can't mess around with it) so that video transfers will be much more efficient.

The idea of this project is to see how many people would be willing to contribute to one cohesive piece and how far people are willing to go to help out. This piece will hopefully work out despite the time crunch and intricacy!

2011-11-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

Blog #7

Out of Place

So for this week's idea I wanted to play with the idea of cinema verite.

"Cinéma vérité (French: [sinema veʁite], "truthful cinema"; English: /ˈsɪnɨmə vɛrɨˈteɪ/) is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. Many therefore see a paradox created by drawing attention away from the reality of the camera and simultaneously declaring the discovery of a cinematic truth."

(Source: Wikipedia)

For the exquisite corpse project, I used the same idea of creating character with the camera movement, almost as if the camera is used as the eyes of the beholder and was very interested in the effects of disorientation that this technique accentuated. So for this project I decided to focus more on the inconsistency of the scene cuts, therefore creating a sense of contradiction, incongruency, and discord.

Before creating my project I decided to look up some videos that inspired me to formulate my idea:

Alice in Wonderland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePD7XiQ6Ox0

Maya Deren "At Land"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnC5ID8Q-HI

Shotgun Joe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjfOi6-WW3c

I really liked the idea of creating an old black and white film because it seems that the poor quality and lack of color contributes to the ambiance of uncertainty.

In addition, my project had many places where I utilize the lack of color and bad quality to zoom into something black and zoom out into a completely different room. All of these scenes were created indoors, and the goal of the video is to create a sense of not knowing where you are. After watching clips from "Alice in Wonderland" (yes I know, another Disney reference :D) I was inspired by the inconsistency of our dreams: we can be one place at one moment and a completely different place at another.

During the process of filming, I decided to start off staring straight up at the ceiling, as if the person behind the camera woke up in a foreign location and is looking around in confusion. Throughout the video the person behind the camera seems extremely lost, looking for clues as to where they are and why his/her location keeps changing.

All in all this project was very fun to film. I hope the transitions weren't too obvious because I wanted the inconsistency to be noticeable yet smooth. Hope you guys enjoy it!

2011-11-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

Blog #6

Temporal Shift

For this project I had many difficulties deciding how I to approach the idea of "temporal shift." I was contemplating creating something that had the opposite effect of how stop motion is create. However, with the limited number of people who were available to help me, it was virtually impossible to execute.

Next, I was thinking about creating a stop motion OUT OF a video. Sounds strange, doesn't it? I wanted to take an original video that I created and slowly take screen shots of each scene and see if I could create smooth transitions into other videos based on what was on the screen shot. However, this took way too much time because taking a bunch of pictures and transferring them into the computer took much less time to do than taking individual screen shots on the computer.

I started looking up more examples on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWM0FNPZSs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nszW4J9vdY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bmpFCwZbwM

So instead, I decided to just stick with the traditional stop motion effect. This took forever. FOREVERRRR. I literally had to do everything in slow motion and take a picture every two seconds... this part was extremely frustrating. I had initially created a stop motion video with post-its and stuffed animals, but when I got to only around 30 seconds of footage (12 frames per second) my camera ran out of battery, and I was at home in Los Angeles without a charger. Yes, I was extremely frustrated.

But things worked out, as I decided to used my macbook photobooth to take the pictures instead because I had no other option.

If you pay careful attention, I added a lot of transitions/editing in my piece that may or may not be noticeable:

0:14

0:47

0:51

1:00

1:10

1:14

1:20 -- my clothes changed behind the blanket I was folding!

1:23 -- my clothes changed AGAIN behind the towel I was folding!

1:29 -- straw hat transition back to daylight

2:06 -- edited out some unwanted material

2:11

2:24

2011-11-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

Blog #4

Exquisite Corpse

This project was very interesting and at times slightly difficult to work out because file transferring is really tough, so we decided to have a meeting to put together the first part of our video. For the next part of our project, we will either meet up again or post our videos on Vimeo.

First, before I could start my project, I did some research:

Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver (from the original French term cadavre exquis) or rotating corpse, is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled.

Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. "The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun") or by being allowed to see the end of what the previous person contributed.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Also, I looked up some videos examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pot2Wu5_T9o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJODflIBAZs&feature=related

Blog #5

EDIT-----------------

For my group, we started out telling each individual person to create their 1 minute videos without looking at the others' videos. Oddly enough when we first met, our videos matched well, and we decided to compile them from daylight to nighttime because the videos seemed to all have the theme of "time of day."

Next, we decided to have each person create another one minute video on their own based on the videos that were already seen in the beginning. I noticed that each team member in my group decided to stick to their initial video "ambiance," whether it included many vibrant colors, daylight, strobe lights, or even utilizing the "cinema verite" effect to create an eerie effect (like Paranormal Activity :D).

The video came out great--It seemed to tell a story. Whereas I had expected it to come out looking completely random and out of place, the video created a sense of a daily routine. The cycle started and ended with restroom scenes of washing hands or brushing teeth in the morning, and in between things began to look darker and more towards the idea of nightlife.

Also, another thing that I noticed was that our video used a lot of music to go with the light movement. This definitely added a finishing touch to the piece because the only videos that had music were the ones that showed nightlife, whereas the mundane routine videos in the restroom had no music other than the sound of water, clock-ticking, etc.

The only difficulty was finding a way to transfer files. Vimeo took a very long time to render our individual pieces (and it was Halloween weekend in addition to midterm week) so the compilation of our work had small issues. However, one of our teammates, Elaine helped us work things out because the file transfers were taking too long and decided to compile the rest of the videos. Thanks Elaine! :)

2011-10-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

Blog #2

Culture Jamming:

Source, Remix, Transformation

Before I did my brainstorming for my project, I decided to look more into the actual definition of a remix video. Initially, I wanted to create a political remix based on Obama's speech on healthcare. I looked up the formal definition of a political remix and found this:

Political remix: combining mass media & popular culture
Source: http://remixable.wikia.com/wiki/Political_remix
"Political remix video is part of a long-standing tradition of cultural resistence. In political remix, film/video/sound form mainstream media is appropriated and reworked in order to denature, detourn, or recontextualize the material.
Political remixes can e irrelevent, disturbing, comic, cynical, and/or downright foolish - the range is as broad as the voices of those equipped to "speak back" to mainstream media in this fashion."

Next, I decided to research what Obama's healthcare speech addressed.

What does the current plan do?

Stop companies form denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions
Control premium hikes to avoid massive spikes in healthcare costs
If you have health insurance through your employer and you like your plan, you can keep it.
If you're uninsured, you could receive a tax credit to help pay for coverage if needed -- part of the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history
If you have Medicare, the plan guarantees that your benefits will not be cut, and the Medicare Trust Fund will be extended for more than 9 years
If you buy your own insurance, there will be new protections form insurance company abuses and tax credits will make coverage more affordable.
If you're a small business owner, you'll receive new tax credits that make it easier for you to provide coverage for employees if you choose to do so.

Before I decided to change my idea completely, I had this proposal:

For my project I would like to address the political issues in the U.S. government by implementing comedic relief and simultaneously relating it to popular culture. By using clips of Obama's speech on healthcare as well as clips from Tupac's song, I will create a remix that essentially creates a more light-hearted and comical perspective on an enormous issue that affects us as individuals.

The structure of my video will take clips from the original speech that are strategically placed in accordance with the lyrics to the song to create satire.

Blog #3

EDIT..

I soon realized that my knowledge on politics is limited, and it would be pointless to create a satirical video on an issue that I know only very little about.

So...

I decided to change my topic to an issue that I had previously written a paper on: the portrayal of hypersexuality in men's fragrance commercials.

The following is a paragraph from my paper:

"Men and women alike have unanimously been misrepresented by advertisements that essentially dismantle and dehumanize them, subsequently disseminating negative portrayals of society. The ostensible facile and prepossessed depictions of society, as portrayed in men’s fragrance commercials and advertisements, generate social standards that encourage one’s obsession over body image and social ranking, assume heteronormativity, and normalizes hypersexuality as a result of utilizing the fragrance product."

Hypersexuality. DINGDINGDING, that will be my topic. I recalled watching a couple of Axe Fragrance commercials that were ridiculously hypersexualized, portraying women as over sexualized beings who crave the touch of men through a mere spray of the product.

For my video I decided to combine scenes from several Axe commercials strategically to create a sense of fear. For the music I utilized Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" theme song, which is one of the renowned classics of horror films. By remixing the video in this manner, I have created a comedic video that creates a completely different perspective on the advertisement--instead of displaying hypersexual women, my remix shows horrifying man-hunting beasts who are out for the kill. Enjoy! :)

Contemporary Art?

2011-10-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Blog #1

So what exactly does it mean to be a contemporary artist? What a difficult question to answer.

The interesting reality is that we often analyze and critique contemporary art, but seldom think about the simple idea of what it TAKES to create art.

While i was clearly stumped on this question, I decided to do some research and found this: (http://arthistory.about.com/od/current_contemporary_art/f/what_is.htm)

Answer:

This is an excellent question, and one that isn't asked often enough. Presumably, this is another one of those art definitions we are all supposed to know - most likely by osmosis, or some other telepathic means, because (heaven forbid) you wouldn't want to ask a "stupid" question at some Art World function. (Well, you might, but I wouldn't. At least, not ever again.)

Anyway, the answer is divinely simple. Contemporary just means "art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetimes". In other words, contemporary to us.

Now, of course, if you are 96-years old and reading this (By the way, congratulations, if this describes you. Way to keep up with the times!), you can expect a certain amount of overlapping between "Contemporary" and "Modern" art in your lifetime. A good rule of thumb is:

Modern Art: Art from the Impressionists (say, around 1880) up until the 1960's or 70's.

Contemporary Art: Art from the 1960's or 70's up until this very minute.

...And here I was thinking that contemporary art and modern art and the same. Clearly, I made my vlog entry on the spot with no editing or tools to accompany me. I wanted to create a video that gave my answer prior to frantically googling wikipedia answers and dictionary definitions of what "contemporary art" is. The idea of my video is to show the response with the previous understanding that I had about contemporary art... which was limited.

I had considered making a video log entry that literally had me read out of a text book because I had really no idea how to answer this question. What exactly DOES it take to be a contemporary artist? That is a really difficult, ambiguous, and extremely controversial question. So I decided "what the heck, I will just wing it and tell the camera what's on my mind."