HopkinsCinemAddicts

Just Like Me

Katia Lund and Fernando Meirelles, the directors of City of God, produced a spin off television series called City of Men. The show follows the lives of two teenagers and best friends Acerola and Laranjinha; every episode deals with the various challenges the kids face while growing up in the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro. 

The episode, called Uolace & Joao Victor, follows a day in the life of two seemingly different kids divided by their place in the city. Uolace, better known as Laranjinha, is a black kid who resides in a favela. He lives life day to day, spending most of his time on the streets trying to find food to eat. His mother works two jobs to support him and only comes home on the weekends leaving Laranjinha to fend for himself. Joao Victor is a white kid who lives in an apartment complex right outside of Laranjinha's favela. He's not rich but lives comfortably (all though he would complain about his old and out of style nike sneakers). His mother is the opposite of Uolace's, she's overbearing and constantly nagging Joao Victor. It seems as if their lives couldn't be any different. This is established by Meirelles editing style at the beginning of the episode. 

Rio de Janeiro, Asphalt City (www.creativecommons.com)

In one scene, Meirelles presents the contrasting lives of the two characters. In one shot we see Joao Victor making dinner for his mother and himself. His food is healthy and natural and he takes great care while preparing his meal. Laranjinha's life is paralleled with Joao Victor's through hard cuts. One second we see Joao Victor in the quiet and comfort of his own home, the next shot wee see Laranjinha and his friend wandering the chaotic and frenzied streets trying to make money to buy food. When he finally makes enough money, him and his friend order a slice of pizza. By establishing these characters in such dissimilar settings, Meirelles is emphasizing how different their experiences are within the city. The interesting thing he does here is while establishing their differences, he creates a connection between the two using sound. The song Tempo Perdido, by popular Brazilian rock band Legiao Urbana, surrounds both characters. Joao Victor sings the song as he cooks, while at the same time, the song plays on the street that Laranjinha begs on. One can't help but question the motives of the director here; on one hand he can't make it any more clear how different the two kids are, but on the other hand he establishes a alliance between the two with the music.

 

Rio de Janeiro, dirt city. (www.creativecommons.com)

As the episode progresses, we begin to see the lives of these seemingly opposite boys come together through plot and editing. The boys symbolize the two faces of the city; the asphalt city and the dirt city. Both boys wake up everyday to the sound of police sirens, but from different perspectives. Laranjinha experiences it first hand, he's in the thick of it while Joao experiences it from his window. The episode presents this very interesting relationship between the two boys; though they come from opposite sides of the city, they are more alike than they know. The last scene of the episode is the one that brings the whole story together. We see Joao Vitor at night, staring out of the window at the favela. In voice over, he expresses his fear about his uncertain future. Under his window passes Laranjinha walking home late at night who in his own voice over expresses the same concern. Here, Meirelles does another very interesting thing with sound. As the kids come to the realization that they are alike, their voice overs beging to overlap eachother. They eventually end up saying the same thing, "What he doing awake alone at this time of night? He looks sort of lost. Just like me." This is the episodes payoff. In the end we see that they're both just kids. Despite all the hardships they deal with living in Rio de Janeiro, they face the same troubles. Growing up is hard to do no matter who you are.

 

All together now

Production Journal #6

I got my footage, I got my final cut pro, now it was time to put it all together. The editing process for this film was an approach I'd never taken before. I had 17 minutes worth of film footage to sift through and I had no idea where to start. I didn't know what I wanted to say, all I had were shots I loved and thought were interesting. So that's the first thing I did; I watched the footage several times and then one by one began to pull out shots that called out to me. Once I did that, I managed to narrow it down to just 8 minutes of footage. At this point my co-filmmaker and I had already aggreed we wanted to keep this project away from linearity and narrative. It was our chance to really try to experiment with movement, shapes, and space and create a piece wholly inspired by just those things. Well, as most things in life are, it was much easier said then done. I decided to approach it in an exclusively visual way; through the combination of movements and images that when juxtaposed flow together. The movement doesn't need to be fluid,I did include several hard cuts in the edit. What was really important was to find and combine the shots that had a sort of visceral connection between them.  

Tossed (2010) - A Dance for the Camera

As I edited, I tried my best to avoid thinking about it logically. I wanted to prevent myself from implying a kind of story or relationship through the editing. That is, of course, exactly what I did the first time. After looking at the footage for a while, I began to invent a sort of relationship growing between the dancers. There was one dancer who's movements tended to be more powerful and dominant than the other dancer; this was apparent through her dancing technique as well as the choreography she was told to perform. I soon began imagining a relationship between the two in which one girl completely controls the other; this began affecting the way I organized the initial shots I combined. Soon enough, after 7 hours of looking at my footage and trying to figure out what I wanted, I finally hit a wall. Editing is interesting in the way; you can never stop editing, you can always change something. The important thing to learn when to stop and walk away. 

When I finally showed my film professor my rough cut, the first thing he noticed was that this relationship didn't really work for the project. I soon realized that I was trying to create logic in chaos and that I had to chose one over the other. The style of choreography called for this anarchic non-linear and editing style, logic had no place there. Hearing this from my teacher sparked a new motivation and I was finally able to finish, making a dance for the camera I'm proud of.

If you'd like to see my film, please come and see it at the JHU Film & Media Studies student screening, Wednesday Dec 8th @ 6:00pm Gilman rm 50. There will be a reception afterwards! If you're busy that day, you can find it here online. 

 

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Diana. 

Tossed

Production Journal # 5

 

still from Untitled (2010) dancer Melissa Herchakowski

Today, I finally got back the footage I shot for my Dance for the camera class. This shoot was a tough one, so many things wouldn't go our way. For example, shooting was delayed because our choreographer needed surgery, it was hard to find dancers who could commit at the end of the semester, our locations were hard to lockdown. When we did find a location, the lighting situation was rough and we were worried everything we shot would be underexposed. But today I finally breathed a sigh of relief, our footage looks great! Some things worked and somethings didn't, but we captured some really beautiful images. I honestly don't know how we pulled it off.

still from Untitled (2010)- dancer Sarah DiNapoli

Before shooting, my co-filmmaker Lauren Carney and I decided we wanted to step away from the traditional approach we had taken in our previous class assignments. We had gotten into this routine of creating a narrative and linear dance for the camera. Though this is a very effective and worthy approach, it's very restricting. As a result, we spent a lot of time in the editing room closely matching every detail of the dance movements. This left us little room to play with our footage creatively during editing; our main goal was to create a consistent linear progression from start to end. For our final project, we had the opportunity to shoot on super 16 mm film which I think was the main impetus that lead us to think a little more about our options. The rare opportunity to shoot on a gorgeous film stock sparked a drive in us to be a little more radical. FIlm is so great that it would be a crime not to do something great with it. Also, there's no film to waste! It's not like digital where you can just shoot it over and over again. You only get one shot  with film, and you had better take advantage of it. In my opinion, film as a medium calls for experimentation. Its totally unpredictable, the image that is created depends entirely on how the light hits the film the instant it is exposed. I take this as a moment to just totally play around and try new things because there's a good chance you're going to create something beautiful and totally genuine to your experience with the film. With digital there's no opportunity for that. What you see is what you get; and while it is rightly convenient and more appropriate for some situations, it's not as exciting.

still from Untitled (2010)

The choreography we developed with Towson dance student Rachael Dimmock wasn't inherently narrative like our others had been, so we were totally open to experiment. During shooting, we didn't worry about capturing too many wide or establishing shots. Again, the coregoraphy as a whole wasn't as important this time around. The quality of the 16 mm b&w calls for close ups; the film has this amazing grain and texture that with the right lighting and framing could really capture something stunning. Anyway, from the start we were interested in approaching the editing in a simlilar way. Instead of putting peices to create a linear choreography, our goal is to cut up the shots and the order and create an interesting visual collage of our footage. It's not going to be just a mess of cool looking images meshed together either.We're not exactly sure of what we want to say with our footage yet, but just by looking at the footage and the various ways we captured the movement, there's an interesting visual relationship going on between the two dancers we shot. Hopefully our hard cuts and quick editing style will establish that. For now, I'm going to be juxtaposing and cutting together images that compliment each other purely visually, either through contrast, direction of movement, speed of movement,and character. If we can successfuly do that, I think the deeper connection and meaning will shine through. I'll keep you updated on the editing process. For now, enjoy this stills!

Diana

p.s. our Dance for the Camera will be premiering at Towson University this friday December 3rd @ 6:00pm. Come by and see the work created by talented Towson and Hopkins filmmakers. 

Movement

Production Journal #4

The most challenging thing in a dance for the camera for me is trying to finds new interesting way of capturing movement. A camera allows you to experience dance in a totally different way. The viewer is no longer committed to just seeing dance from one perspective. The camera can reveal the dance in so many different ways that the we could not imagine seeing in a traditional stage dance performance. A filmmaker can experiment with a variety of camera techniques; camera speed, angle, and framing are all simple but drastic ways one can change the traditional view of dance. Dance for the camera's are about more than just documenting a dance. The most intriguing dance for the cameras go to great lengths to find interesting new ways of presenting movement. 

Capoeira is an art form that consists of beautiful movements that many have attempted to experiment with on film & video. From countless amateur youtube videos to commercial productions, the capturing of capoeira dance movements has been attempted (some successfully, other not so) by many filmmakers. For those of you who don't know what it is, here's a brief introduction. Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that was created by African slaves in Brazil to learn how to defend themselves against their slave masters. While capoeira is a martial art, it also incorporates aspects of dance and music. As a result, capoeira movements are fluid, graceful, and acrobatic; but they are also dangerous. Capoeira became an expression of Afro-Brazilian culture; playing capoeira in the street was a way for slaves to keep their culture alive and united. Capoeira became a means for these oppressed people to cope with their situat ion and express themselves. Capoeira, while combative, is not about attacking and hurting the other person, it's a game. We call it jogando capoeira, which means playing capoeira in Portuguese. The beautiful thing about capoeira is it's all about movement and expression making it a popular type of dance to capture on camera.

  Dance Brazil dance company founded by capoeira Mestre Jelon Vieira (creative commons)

A recent commercial for a men's Dolce & Gabbana cologne experiments with an interesting way of shooting the movement of capoeira on camera. In the commercial directed by Baff Akoto, we see two capoeiristas (capoeira players) taking part in a game. The intriguing commercial is shot in extreme slow motion, every movement the capoeirista makes is elongated and stretched out for what seems like forever. The players are also shot in a variety of medium and extreme close ups. Every movement is emphasized because of it's slow speed; it's amazing seeing the shapes and swirls the dancers bodies make as they spin, kick and dodge each other. The tight framing of the shots also dramatizes the movement, the closer you get the bigger the motion looks. This a very interesting way of capturing the capoeira. These movements are actually high speed and very energetic; in other films and videos, it is usually presented through the use quick cuts and rapid editing to emphasize this energy. But Akoto does the exact opposite; the camera counters the speed of the movement but at the same time enhances it. Akoto is able to capture the sensual and smooth aspect of the game with the camera lens and really does a great job of it. The piece is beautifully shot and it presents the dance in a creative and innovative way. In the end, I realize that this dance for the camera is actually an ad; the funny thing is that it works! I have no idea what Dolce & Gabbana are selling here, but I want it.

The progression of a Capoeira movement (creative commons)

I have trained Capoeira for four years now and have never seen it that way Akoto's camera does. His commercial for me is an inspiration to find creative and cutting edge ways to capture movement in my own dance for the camera projects. This week I'm going to be working on my final project for the class. Time for me to start experimenting with movement. Next week, I'll update you on how the production of my own project is going. Until then, check out Baff Akoto's D&G commercial on Youtube. You can search, Dolce & Gabbana capoeira commercial and it's the first one on the webpage. The capoeiristas performing in the commercial are Mestre Poncianinho and Contra-Mestre Casquinha.

Until next time,

Diana

Collective

Production Journal #3

I recently got an internship working as a production assistant on an independent film being shot in Baltimore this month. I went in today for my first day interning and it was the biggest shoot I have ever been on. I've only worked on one professional production before and it was a very small budget. This shoot was different however; this was a large crew and everyone had something to do. It was interesting to see all the action and non action occurring; some people were running around back and forth on set and others sat there, simply supporting by being there if something were to possibly occur. Although some of these roles may seem like a waste of time, on film sets everyone is important. In my opinion the director is as important as the Director of Photography who in turn is as important as the assistant camera man, who is as important as the guy who brings him coffee to keep him awake. Everyone is vital to the smooth running of the set, and although it may seem like you're not doing much, just being there to help is enough. Sometimes just not doing anything and simply getting out of the way is also very helpful. Of course this a very idealistic view of what a production should be; there are horrible film sets to be on (thank goodness I haven't had to experience that...yet).This film shoot that I'm working on now is the biggest crew I've been on and seems that it's easy to get lost in the large group of people doing different things. I like this lost feeling,it's exciting to explore a new set and meet new people. Being on today's set made me reminisce about the more intimate shoots I've been on in the past.

Film Shoot (creative commons)

Two summers ago I worked on set during the shoot of Matt Porterfield's film Putty Hill. This shoot was the best kind of film to start working in; it was small and personal. I was working closely with my good friends, we felt like a family. No matter how long the working day was, or how grueling the task, I absolutely loved every second of because I believed in it. I was working with people I look up to and respect and I was doing something I loved. I could tell from the vibe of the shoot that this film was going to go far and it has. It is unrealistic to think that all of the film shoots I'm going to be working in the future will be like this; the producer of Putty Hill joked that something that would never happen again. But I disagree to some extent; of course you're not going to appear on hollywood blockbuster set and expect to get treated with any respect or dignity, but at the same time if you're doing production, you need to surround yourself with other filmmakers and artists that can become your go to crew.

Tomorrow I'm going to be helping on my friend (and fellow film major) Josh's senior project. It's exciting because our old film friends who have graduated are coming back just for the shoot. The production is a low key project, but everyone is interested in coming together to make a beautiful film. Before our friends graduated, we all promised each other to stick together and always support each other's film projects and life endeavors. Keeping this communication and contact is so important because these are the people you could potentially be working with. We've decided to form an official alliance between us and have created our own film collective.

I am Love

Io Sono L'Amore (or I am Love) is director Luca Guadagnino and leading actor Tilda Swinton's opus; it took 11 years to develop and shoot the project. The film follows the radical change and deterioration of an Italian upper class family called the Recchi's. At the beginning of the film, the grandfather and head of the family announces his retirement (due to a terminal illness) and leaves the family textile company and factory in the hands of his son Tancredi and grandson Edoardo Recchi. This decision instantly leads to a schism in the family; Tancredi is interested in progress and moving forward with the company through selling while Edoardo insists on keeping with the tradition of his grandfather and maintaining ties with the past. Throughout the film, Edoardo is unable to cope with the impending change occurring in this family; he senses the end of an era. The film itself manages to capture this loss beautifully. Beneath the perfect surface of this family lies the internal conflict of the past and future within these characters. Of course, I am Love is not just about death and destruction. As the title suggests, love has something to say. The film is about more than just loss and death. With the end of an era comes the start of another one; I am Love is about rebirth. The question is...what's love got to do with it?

With Love by. Sudarsham Vijayaraghavam (creative commons)

In an interview pubished by The Guardian, Guadagnino and Swinton discuss their own perspectives and ideas on love and loneliness and how they are reflected in I am Love. In the interview, Swinton states "I think the deal is that you are fully lonely, and the sooner we accept and embrace our loneliness, the healthier we are. Real love has nothing to do with that romantic idea of oneness, of distracting and healing each other from our loneliness. It's about witnessing each other as individuals and saying: I'll show you mine if you show me yours,". I am Love is born from this ideal and the characters in the film come to terms with this as the film progresses. We see love occcur in the story through the main character Emma Recchi's love affair with her son Edoardo's best friend Antonio. This ideal is perfectly captured through Guadagnino's direction and gorgeous vision.

The stunning and statuesque Tilda Swinton in the film Orlando (1993) Guadagnino's muse for Io Sono L'amore (2009) (creative commons)

Emma Recchi (played brilliantly by Swinton) is the perfect example of loneliness; her solitude is made apparent through her family life as well as through the environment she inhabits. Emma was "discovered" by an Italian art collector named Tancredi in Russia (her home country). Tancredi traveled to Russia to find his latest masterpiece and instead found Emma. After meeting, the two married and he brought her back to Italy; she hasn't returned to Russia since. Emma talks about how when she arrived in Italy, she had to learn to become Italian which meant dropping everything about her past. Her husband has given her all she has; the beautiful home she lives in, her family. He as even given Emma her Italian name; at one point she realizes she doesn't even know what her real name is anymore, only remembering the nickname "Kitiesh". The only things that define her are the objects that she owns and the environment that surrounds her. Emma Recchi is always perfectly put together. She lives in a beautiful but museum-like house, huge and full of things but emotionally empty. She has everything she would ever need and more, and yet she's in a cage. Throughout the film, Emma's image is constantly juxtaposed with art (especially with the architecture of Milan). Tall, gray, statuesque, and cold; Emma is nothing but a work of art herself, something to be looked at but never touched. She is the perfect trophy wife, beautiful and intelligent. But despite all of the things she owns, she's completely lifeless, she's set in stone just like the statues that Guadagnino compares her with. She is not her own person, she is defined by all of these objects and material things. She is lonely.

Costars Edoardo Gabbriellini (Antonio) and Tilda Swinton (Emma): lovers in Io Sono L'amore (2009) (creative commons)

No one really knows Emma, and at times she doesn't even know herself. It isn't until she meets Antonio that she is able to freely exist and just be herself. There is one scene in particular that really exemplifies this as well as Swinton's ideals about love being about experiencing another person and seeing them as an individual. The first time Emma and Anotnio get together and make love, Antonio begins sheding off Emma's clothes. One by one, Antonio removes all of the beautiful objects that define her; her pearl necklace, her wedding ring, her expensive Italian clothes. A shot reveals a pile of the objects that decorated her strewn on the floor. Emma stands there completely nude, she is exposed and yet she seems to be completely comfortable and natural. Now that she has done away with the materiality, she can finally just exist and be herself. The two lay on the floor side by side simply experiencing each other's presence, "witnessing" one another. It is at the moment that Emma begins revealing things about herself and her life before she became a Recchi. Her individuality is finally revealed. After Antonio and Emma's affair begin, Guadagnino begins juxtaposing her image with gorgeous shots of nature. We understand through the editing and juxtaposition of images that Emma has been reborn and is now her natural self. Antonio and Emma's relationship exemplifies Swinton and Guadagnino's ideals about love; Antonio and Emma aren't interested in the future, they are taking it one moment at a time. And in this moment, they are simply being. For them, this is what love is.

Sometimes all you can do is dance...

Production Journal #2

This week in our dance for the camera class, we were assigned to shoot a dance video that was inspired by the close up. I love this project because close ups really force you to think about the shots aesthetically. You also really have to work hard to puzzle the shots together because you want to create an understanding of the close ups as part of a bigger picture as opposed to beautifully composed individual pieces. My class mate and fellow filmmaker Josh Gleason shot a very beautiful dance for the camera that I want to share with my readers and with the rest of Hopkins Cinemaddicts. The project, which is called Loss of Clarity, was shot and edited by Josh and choreographed by Towson dance major Maria Jaen. For me, close ups are the most telling shots and I think Josh & Maria really revealed something special in this piece.

Still from Loss of Clarity, dancers Danielle Yarusso and Bernardo Ordas (Photos courtesy of Joshua Gleason) 

Loss of Clarity, somehow manages to capture a sort of narrative. It doesn't focus on trying to tell a story in the traditional sense of narrative, but after watching it I understood something bigger than just dancing. In the first shot of the video we see a girl looking frail, standing in the center of the frame. As the music starts, she suddenly breaks out and begins dancing wildly, her arms stretching and reaching outside of the frame. The close ups enhance her movement; it looks more exaggerated the closer the camera gets. Suddenly we are introduced to another character, a man who stands there with a pained expression on his face. The girl interacts with him, dances around him, even jumps on him, but no matter what she does he doesn't change his expression. We are made to understand through their movements and through their interaction with the camera that there is something going on between the two. Beautiful close ups of the characters reveal their contrasting personalities; she's constantly moving in and out of the frame completely free, only held back when the boy reaches out and grabs her. At the same time, he doesn't move very much and seems to hold back from expressing anything, only moving when she prompts him to. When the dance out of the frame, the shots reveal a dilapidated environment; something is falling apart here. Throughout the film, we see a cat and mouse game develop between them; the girl dances around the boy enticing him with her movements, the boy follows her at times even stalking her, she willingly falls into his arms and then suddenly pushes him away, and then she chases him again. The whole time, he looks so pained and she looks so fragile. While watching this painful back and forth, I wondered to myself, who would willingly play this horrible game with someone? Why would someone put themselves in a situation that will only end up in them getting hurt? Why does the boy keep following the girl if he knows that she's just going to push him away? Why does she push him away even when she wants and needs him? Then it hit me...everyone does this. There is nothing more sadomasochistic then the game of love. Josh and Maria just managed to capture the messed up relationships of so many people in this world. We watch a whole relationship bloom, evolve and then inevitably fall apart in a 2 minute dance for the camera. Brilliant.

 

Just two of the film's many beautiful close up shots. 

I think this project is a perfect example of the kind of film in which the meaning comes out through the final result. I don't think either the filmmaker or the choreographer meant or expected to capture such an interesting concept. Besides the beauty of the cinematography and the close ups which are more revealing of the emotion, I think there's something in the act of dancing that makes this film such a success. So many of the mainstream films we see today haven't been able to capture and describe the feeling of this situation as well as Loss of Clarity. Perhaps it's because the situation of these kinds of relationship is not easy to describe with words. Maybe it's this raw expression through movement that makes dance the best way do describe how it feels to be caught up in the game. I guess sometimes the only thing you can do is dance.

D.

p.s. Check out Loss of Clarity for yourself! Here's the link to Josh's vimeo page where you can find it. Enjoy. http://vimeo.com/15519019

 

Dance for the camera

Production Journal #1

This semester I'm taking a film production class called Dance for the Camera where a few of my fellow film majors and I collaborate with dance majors at Towson University to create dance films. Every week we are asked to work with choreographers and come up with an interesting way of capturing their dance on the camera. It's harder then you'd think; first off the camera's job is not to simply document the dance. The challenge of the class is to realize the wide opportunities film has to offer the medium of dance. A camera can give people a whole new way of looking at dance that a stage could never offer. Just taking the dance performance off of the stage and putting it in front of the lens opens up a world of endless possibilities. With film, we no longer have to worry about the placement of the dancers in relation to the stage or the audience. We are now free to move around in any direction. Film gives us a totally different perspective than seeing a performance on a stage does. This great freedom is one of the most attractive things about dance for the camera films. 

 
Stills from our project Elevator Music: boy and girl flirting

Of course, once the dancers get off the stage and in front of the camera, there is a much bigger environment to control which makes things a little more complicated. Location is one of the biggest things we need to consider when making a dance for the camera. The dancers I've met in class have emphasized their enthusiasm for getting out of the dance studio and experiencing dance somewhere different. In one of the projects my group made a few weeks ago, we decided to play around with location and experiment with how setting can manipulate and affect the dance. We decided to see what conflicts and interesting situations would arise from creating a dance based around an elevator; we called the project Elevator Music. It was really fun coming up with stories revolving around an elevator; we finally decided on a narrative dance for the camera that followed a girl and a boy who meet on an elevator. We turned the dance into a cat and mouse game where the boy chases after the cute girl in the elevator. They express their attraction for each other with their dance movements; the dance was choreographed to embody the curiosity and tension between the two. In the end the boy finally get's the girl, they both end up in the elevator together smiling as the elevator doors close. In terms of complications with the project, we were shooting in a functional elevator so every once in a while someone would call the elevator and the doors would close mid shot taking us to some random floor in the building. Though this did effect the length of our shoot (I think the elevator was called 10 times while shooting), we managed to pull it off and create an energetic and fun dance for the camera.

Dancers Maria Herdoiza and Nurney Mason dance battling on the elevator

Of course, the narrative route is not the only type of dance for the camera one can make. Some of the favorite ones I've seen are very abstract and don't necessarily follow a narrative. These more abstract pieces really work hard to evoke a certain mood or feeling through the choreography and the production. In my next project I want to explore this idea of approaching dance more abstractly. I'm especially interested in creating a visually complex and layered film that focuses on movement. I'm not exactly sure what I want to shoot, but as I develop this idea more, I will blog about it. Pretty soon I will post, Elevator Music to the blog but for now just enjoy the stills.

Until next time!

Duende

 

 

When I see a dance performance on a stage or on the street I especially enjoy seeing how much dancing means to the performers. For them it’s not a hobby, it’s life. Everything they do is surrounded around expressing themselves with their bodies. For these dancers, what they do is spiritual. The only film for me that has been able to capture this sense of spirit in dance is Tony Gatlif’s film Vengo (2000).

   

Flamenco Dancers (creative commons)

 

Vengo is a film entirety about the spirit of dance. The story follows Caco, a proud passionate man who’s the head of his gypsy family and neighborhood. As the leader of his clan he spends most of his time in a power struggle with the neighboring gypsy group. In addition, his beloved daughter Pepa has just recently passed putting him in a state of unbearable grief throughout the film. Besides the plot of the film, Gatlif discovers and explores the flamenco culture that runs throughout the community and the characters lives. Everyone knows how to dance and sing flamenco; and it’s not disingenuous. The dance is improvisation and spontaneity; it’s about expressing the soul and spirit through the movements.

The idea of spirit is explored throughout the film through the exploration of flamenco culture. This idea can be expressed through the idea of duende. Duende is an incredibly difficult concept to pinpoint and I owe all I know about to my older sister Laura who is a professional flamenco dancer. According to her, duende is a heightened state of emotion in which spirit possesses the flamenco dancer. It is in this trance like state in which the dancer does their best work authentically expressing themselves through the movements and music. It also said that duende is state in which one becomes closer to reaching a higher state of being (essentially closer to God). The characters in Vengo explore the rich and beautiful concept of duende. You can also tell that the idea of duende is of interest to the director because he explores it through other cultures besides flamenco. 

One quick scene in the film explains how important duende is for people within flamenco culture. In this moment of the film, three of Caco’s closest friends (who happen to be flamenco musicians) manage to find duende in the most unusual place. During a walk outside, one of the characters suddenly stops beside a tree; he begins walking towards the tree not stopping until he forces himself into the brush of the trees branches. His friends stop and follow him into the tree almost quietly understanding what he’s serarching for. The man listens to the leaves of the tree swaying with the wind. Finally he exclaims “It seems like this tree has duende”. Almost instantly he begins singing with the rythym of the wind and of the nature swaying around him, he has tapped into this spirit of duende. We see here that duende or spirit is everywhere for these people. Here we see duende as a natural thing that occurs outside of the realm of the film. It is everywhere in the world. 

Gatlif also explores this idea of duende within the characters and almost shows it as something everyone aims to achieve. One scene in particular expresses how Caco (the main character) becomes possessed with duende. The scene begins with the three elderly women that take care of the town watering Caco’s flower garden. The two of them comment noisily about the dying garden. One of the women comments on how it’s a “soulless garden that is fading away”. This is a complete break away from the scene discussed before where Caco’s three friends find duende in the nature outside of the church. Right away in this scene, Caco is being identified with the withering garden; his soul and spirit are fading away. The scene then shows us Caco who is still passed out cold on the bed in deep sleep. In the distance we hear church bells dinging and almost instantly a breeze lifts into the room causing the hanging emblem to spin in circles. Suddenly we are brought into Caco’s dream where he sees three Sufi women traditionally dressed performing the Sufi spinning dance. As the dancing get’s more frantic, Caco tosses back and forth in his sleep, physically disturbed by his dreams. Suddenly as if out of nowhere, Caco’s dreams become much more abstract. The physical shots become complex and layered through the use superimposition. A sufi dancer whirls in the background, superimposed on top of that are images of significant symbols in his life; the virgin mary that protects his daughter’s grave, the face of his favorite family members, etc. What we see here is Caco experiencing duende. The multilayered vivid images heavily contrast the fading soulless garden mentioned before. Gatlif uses chaotic editing techniques to visually represent this heightened state of emotion.

Sufi Whirling (creative commons)

 

For those of you who don’t know about this traditional Sufi dance known as dkhir, it is a type of meditation practiced by members of the Sufi religion. In this dance, they whirl around in circles hoping for the chance to reach a higher state of being. As the spinning goes faster and faster, the spinners get more ecstatic and ultimately evolve into a trance like state which is described as the path to getting closer to God. For me, this is very similar to the flamenco idea of duende. Both cultural groups are essentially reaching for the same thing; a chance to arrive at this trance like state that brings them closer to some kind of higher spirit. Everyone is looking for this spirit to lift them up and take them to a higher place away from the struggle and heartbreak of their daily lives. In the end, isn’t this what everyone is looking for? 

Summertime

Production Journal #7

I finally have my footage back and am getting happier with it everyday. It's funny, I was talking with my fellow film majors about how they usually feel after getting their film back and almost all of them said they are never fully happy with it. Whenever I get my footage, I'm usually too nervous to watch it all at once. I always end up fast forwarding through it just to make sure it doesn't look like a total mess superficially. If I see things I like I stop and watch it regularly. It always takes a few days for the results to sink in and it's only after that when I can say that I'm happy and ready to work with what I have. Right now, I'm at the editing stage and am very excited to take the plunge and start putting it all together.

Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now - Elizabeth Cotten

Now that I am in the stage of putting these very images together, I need to start worrying about what sounds should accompany the images. For the hula hoop scene, music was a big part of my imagining of it. As I see the sequence replay in my head and now on my screen, the only way it works for me is with Elizabeth Cotten's song Aint Got No Honey Baby Now accompanying it. The song is repetitive and constantly goes back to the main theme, it's cycle imitates the hula hoop going round. For this scene, I had to have this song to make it complete. At the same time, for practical reasons I want to avoid having popular music accompany my whole film. What then should I do with sound for the rest of my film? I decided that I wanted the film to have a voice. Now this voice doesn't necessarily have to be character or narrative driven, but I wanted to take the film as an opportunity to say something.

"They want the essence, the Woman is the essence..." The Subteranneans

For me, the film is about memory and dream, new born summer love, and rejection. I decided that I wanted to use sound as another means through which to express this. To do this, I want to use voice over as the way of communicating these feelings to the viewer. My job as a filmmaker is to be able to convey my ideas visually; writing is not my strong point (that's why I want to be a filmmaker, not a writer). I decided that the best way to get my point across was to collect written works or music that evoked how my characters felt. Jack Kerouac's novel The Subterraneans happens to be exactly what I'm looking for. The Subteranneans is viewed as Kerouac's most romantic work; the novel chronicles the romantic relationship between the protagonists Leo Percepied and Mardou Fox, a relationship based on one of Kerouac's real life affairs with a woman named Alene Lee. In the novel, Kerouac explores the fresh love between the two characters and the fickle nature of their relationship. This concept is what I want to be understood as the link that connects my characters. Sketches opens with a girl falling asleep who imagines a boy sleeping beside her; she looks longingly at his illusion. Is this love lost? Or is this young love? Totally exciting and new but painfully uncertain. I was able to find quotes from The Subteranneans that compliment the individual images as well as the film's general theme. I'm going to be working with my friend Will (who has a great voice) who will be doing the voice over.

 "...She lay like a mummy in the sheet and cast the serious brown eyes on me," The Subteranneans

 

While this film is about the easy going lifestyle of the summertime, I am in the middle of finals hell week making it. This film gives me hope for the near future, where soon I will be living easy. This is probably going to be my last post of the semester and I'd like to thank all of you readers for keeping track of my blog. I can tell you now that I will be back next semester with more blogging and it's going to be great. I'm traveling a lot this summer and am taking my nifty camcorder with me, maybe I'll have some good footage to post. Also,  I have a huge film idea for my senior film project, and I want you readers there with me the whole way. In the meantime, come see my film Sketches in it's completion this friday May 14th in the Mattin Center SDS room (at JHU) at 5:00pm. Many other student films will be playing as well, it will be wonderful. These are the filmmakers of the future! Come and support us. Till then, have a happy summer and I'll talk to you soon.

Diana

Sketches

Production Journal #6

 

I decided to name my project "Sketches" because it's a collection of images that are touched upon briefly, like an incomplete thought. It's is an exploration of these fragmented fleeting moments. It's like a sketchbook, but on film. I realize now that these images have occurred to me mainly while I'm in a state of being half asleep and half awake. They always come in this stage of my consciousness where my mind makes rapid connections between seemingly unrelated things; where my thoughts jumps back and forth between dream, memories, and real life. 

An unmade bed: The start of my film and the place where all of these images come to life.

The risky thing about this project is that the images, though totally concrete in my head, might not be possible to recreate. For example, this week I attempted to shoot my favorite image of the lot. The scene focuses around a girl who is hula hooping in an alleyway at night. This shot for me is supposed to bring ideas of warm summer nights where nothing seems to matter and you are just carefree. The woman stands alone in the middle of the alleyway spinning in circles, her mind off somewhere else; her yellow summer dress flows as she dances. This image, which is so simple and straightforward in my head, is actually quite difficult to pull of in real life.  In the shot, I imagined her to be illuminated by car headlights. I wanted her in the center of an extremely dark alleyway, lit by spotlights coming from some out of frame car.  This effect was hard to actually create because of the restraint of the media. First of all, car headlights are not nearly as bright as I had imagined. It was hard to get the parts of her body (like her face) as bright as I wanted them. If I wanted to add more light, I would be mixing to many different kinds of light sources that would create hell in the color correction process since I’m shooting on film. Nothing about this shot was simple. Still, it can go two ways. This shot could look terrible; grainy, dark, unrecognizable. Or it could be one of the most striking images I’ve ever created; I hope for the light hitting her on all the right spots, the hula-hoop glinting with lights as it spins in and out of the frame.

While I wait for that footage to comeback from the lab, I have gotten the first part of my film returned and am extremely pleased with the results. My attempts to make my film dreamlike have been successful. I realize now that a very particular mood links these visuals together. As I compiled the shots in my head and as I see them now, I keep thinking about summer days and nights where everything is carefree and easy. Spending all day outside or in bed lazing around. Spending all night with the people close to you; the warmth of the sun still on your skin. The calm and cool tones of the visuals circulate around this feeling.

Serene summer mornings

The other day, I was talking with my friend and fellow film major Carlos about expecting the worst when waiting for film to get back. After thinking about it for a while, we decided that because of the rise of digital, the unpredictable quality of film is becoming something that people aspire too; they're now more open to it's irregularities. Because of the experimental nature of my film, I am definitely more open to film's little blips and imperfections because they add to the surreal mood I'm trying to portray. In one of the shots, which I've included in a still below, an interesting thing happened that I've never experienced before. I was filming footage of summer nature and really wanted to get some sunbursts and light leaks on film, and what came out was something really extraordinary. In the shot below you can see that the sunburst registered as a rainbow on the film. The spotlight looks like it's coming from some UFO in the sky, a streak of multicolored light flashes down the frame. It's these really cool spontaneous moments that occur on film that I love, I didn't expect this but it's pleasantly surprising. These are the kinds of moments you could never get from digital which is available for viewing then and there. Though it's convenient and a hell of a lot less stressful, there's something exhilarating about waiting for your film to get back. Maybe it's the excitement from the suspense of the media; it's like waiting for christmas morning. You don't know what you're going to get, it could be coal (which I actually did get once) or it could be that puppy you've always wanted (which I'm still actually asking for).

Interesting rainbow effect in this shot...very unexpected

Again, all I can do now is wait for the rest of my footage to get back, and until then I can only keep my fingers crossed. Once I do get it back next week, I will post up the stills. Wish me luck!

Diana

Fuzzy Ideas

 

Production Journal #5

"There is no point to sharp images when you've fuzzy ideas," Jean-Luc Godard

I’ve got good news and bad news.

Bad news first. You know the film I’ve been planning and raving about for the past few months. Well production has pretty much gone down the drain. Due to scheduling issues it seems like I wont be able to shoot that project this semester. This is really disappointing for me and for many people who were invested in the film, but with so little time it’s just not gonna happen at this time. I believe this a story that needs to be told, so hopefully I’ll be able to go back to it eventually. What may seem as a total failure and pretty much the worst thing that can happen on a film shoot, after some thought I see this more as a blessing in disguise.

I now have total freedom. I have the chance to just express myself without limitations. No one to depend on, no scheduling issues to worry about, just a clean slate. I am starting to understand film as a very rare opportunity in which the filmmaker has total liberty to say or show whatever they want. I shouldn’t feel the need to be restricted by a narrative just because it’s what I’m “supposed” to do. Don’t get me wrong; I am totally interested in telling a story. But sometimes people need to realize that stories can be told in many different ways and my next story is not going to be told through a traditional narrative.

So I’m putting my previous project aside for another day. There’s no time to waste sulking about how things never go according to plan. It’s time for action.

Moving on…

Good news! My new idea is one that I’m very excited about. For as long as I can remember, I’ve experienced these unique moments where I see something that makes such an impression on me that the image imprints itself on my memory. These images can come from things I’ve seen in real life, they can be dreamed up, imagined scenes inspired by things I’ve heard or a piece of music. Whenever I experience these moments, I write down what I see in a little journal. As a result, I have a huge list of shots I’ve had in mind that I’ve always wanted to recreate on film but haven’t because the images don't seem related. This is what I want to explore in my next project. What if they did make sense? What if my subconscious purposely imprinted these images on me? Maybe they'll say something when put together. This really interesting theory was explored by some of my favorite artists and intellectuals in the Dada art movement. Tristan Tzara, the pioneer of the Dada art movement, explored this idea but instead of using images he used words.  

1927 Portrait of Tristan Tzara by. Lajos Tihanyi creativecommons.com

He juxtaposed seemingly unrelated words that when apart didn’t connect but when put together made perfect sense. He explored this in an activity he called creating a Dadaist poem. Try it, it seems silly but it actually works.

How to Make a Dadaist Poem

1. Take a newspaper

2. Take a pair of scissors

3. Chose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem

4. Cut out the article

5. Then cut out each of the words that make this article and put them in a bag

6. Shake it gently

7. Then take out the scraps one right after the other in the order in which the left the bag

8. Copy conscientiously

9. The poem will be like you

10. And here you are a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that is charming though beyond the understanding of vulgar.

-Tristan Tzara

 

Of course, the tools you use to make your Dadaist poem are not totally random. You cut the words out from an article that calls out to you for some reason. So to an extent, the words within it are chosen by you, they having some kind of meaning. I want to explore this same idea but with images that have called out to me. Hopefully when I combine them, they will say something like a Dadaist poem does.

Dashing Individulist by. Derrick Tyson flickr.com

Jean Luc-Godard said, “there is no point to sharp images when you’ve fuzzy ideas”. This is exactly the opposite of what I want my film to be about. I want it to become an exploration of these fuzzy ideas, and I think there’s a point to them.  All I have to worry about is creating the sharp images and let spontaneity rule the rest. Perhaps when I see the images together, I will have more of an idea of where it’s going. Until then, I’m going to continue pulling out random images from my head and putting them down on film.

 

Until next time,

D.

Easier said than done!

Production Journal #4

This week my film professor John Mann came up with an exercise that was to put us students as the filmmakers completely out of our element. In class, we discussed the phenomenon that most film makers or photographers hate being filmed/photographed themselves. I can tell you now, I am one of those people. There's a reason why I'm behind the camera and not in front. We were promted by our professor to behave as naturally as we could, to try to reveal some truth about ourselves to the camera by just being ourselves in front of it. The assignment seemed easy enough; to just be. But nothing was farther from the truth, it was unbelievably difficult for me. It made me uncomfortable, having the camera and a whole crew of people behind it watching my every move. As I stood there in front of the camera, my behavior felt almost forced and unnatural. I knew the camera was watching and I behaved accordingly. I tried to look my best; I straightened my posture, I nervously fixed my hair, my eyes awkwardly wandered avoiding the camera. Now if I could barely do this, imagine what it's like for my actors. 

I think this picture is pretty definitive of how tough it is for an actor to be natural for the camera. The director has it easy in this sense. Flickr, Creative Commons.

    The actors I'm using for my next film are all non-actors like myself, they've never had any experience in front of the camera. This exercise was very good for me because now I have a better understanding of what my actors go through as I work with them. I've put myself in their shoes, and they don't fit. Now I'll be thinking twice every time I tell Oscar or Jenn, "just be yourself". Easier said than done! As of now, I'm finalizing my shooting schedule, finding crew, and deciding locations to shoot in. Pretty much the most annoying part of pre-production, but it has to be done. As of now, it seems like my first shooting day is going to April 5th so I have about 2 weeks to get everything done! Wish me luck!

A picture from my camera phone of the Ritz Theater in Austin,TX where Putty Hill screened.

   Before I peace out, I had a fantastic experience over my spring break last week. I had the privilege of being able to go down to Austin, TX and see the film Putty Hill screen at SXSW. For those of you who haven't read my previous posts, Putty HIll is a film I crewed on last summer that was directed by one of my professors and good friends Matt Porterfield. The film had it's world premiere at Berlin International Film Festival last month and it just had its US premiere at SXSW last week. My roommate invited me down to her home in Brownsville in the south of TX (a border city), and we made a 6 hour road trip up to Austin to see Putty HIll for just a few hours. It was so exciting to finally see the whole film on the big screen. I was physically there during production and experienced the scenes first hand, and yet I had no idea what it was going to be like when the film was cut together. Hopefully, y'all (yay texas) will have a chance to see it in several upcoming festivals (it's playing all around the world). It will be screening here in Baltimore at the Maryland Film Festival in May, so try your best to check it out! 

Until next time,

Diana

p.s. Did I mention that I cried during Putty Hill? The movie is amazing.

It's alive! Jenn...

Production Journal #3

     This is part 2 if my previous blog where I posted about my actor Oscar and his audition for my next film project. Recently, I met with a potential actress or (non-actress) named Jenn who auditioned for the role of Oscar's girlfriend Olivia. Like Oscar, Jenn has never had any acting experience and I quickly reassured her that she should not worry about it. Similarly to Oscar's audition, I asked Jenn to go through the one scene of dialogue I had written and to read straight through it. Once she was able to get a feel of the scene and of her character, I asked her to put down the script and just talk with me in character. I wanted her to respond in any way she thought her character would and the result was something that I didn't at all expect.

Jennifer Saaty - Still from her audition footage

    When I originally wrote the script, the first dialogue scene between the couple was supposed to reflect their stressed relationship. My idea was that their interaction introduced the viewer to an already strained relationship. In the scene, Olivia (the main characters girlfriend) wakes up the hung over Oscar who has slept through work and is on the verge of being fired. The exchange between the two reflects how frustrated and jaded Olivia has become with Oscar and how she's at the end of her rope with him. My original idea was for the dialogue to be an angry back and forth between the two of them as she tries to convince him to get up and get back on track. The way I had it written, Olivia was so angry towards Oscar that I began to wonder why they have ever been together in the first place? It just wasn't believable, the dialogue had no human voice. What I really wanted to get across was that the two characters, though going through a rough patch, where sill in love with each other and were still hoping for things to get better. I wanted to express this through the films visuals and the physical gestures of the actors, but my dialogue wasn't expressing this and that needed to change. 

Sweet Jenn - Stills from Jenn's audition footage

    The second Jenn put herself into the role, everything changed. Her take on the character was sweet and tender hearted while still discontent with her boyfriend. She was able to humanize her character as well as Oscar's, just by being herself. I find this approach to the character and her situation much more powerful then I had originally written it because the contrast between the characters sweetness and the bitterness of the failing relationship I think makes a bigger and more realistic statement. 

    This wednesday, I'm going to bring both my actors together so that I can see how they interact with one another. If all goes well, I can make my final decisions on casting and move on to finally shooting the film. I'm also still working on the title. As soon as I figure it out I will let you know!

Diana

It's alive! Oscar...

Production Journal #2

    It's all happening! This weekend I met with my actor Oscar and we went over the script for my latest film project. We started off the audition with a direct read of the script. When I wrote the dialogue for the film, I decided that I wanted what the characters were saying to be totally natural and organic. I approached the script as a guideline; a skeleton the actors could use to build upon and play with. As Oscar read off of the script, it seemed forced and almost stiff. It was hard for him to get into the character. That's when I decided to do away with the script and just talk.I asked Oscar to put down his lines and just converse with me in character. This is when we made the most progress. 

 

Still from Oscar's Audition Reel - Oscar Gonzalo Aspillaga

     The character he's playing, who's also named Oscar, is a deeply complex and torn person. His life is slowly falling apart because of his inability to control his drinking. It's affecting his work and most importantly the relationship between him and his girlfriend Olivia who's becoming increasingly frustrated and is at her wits end. At the same time, his alcoholic dead-beat father is trying to get back into his life. Eventually, Oscar's denial of his drinking problem begins to dissolve as he becomes more and more like the father who he's spent his whole life rejecting. During the more improvisational part of the audition, Oscar was able to really open up to his character and try to understand him. It was great to see him take the character and make it his own in such a short period of time. Oscar has breathed life into this role and has brought the film into existence. Without actors the characters don't exist; they lay stillborn on the page. Now, thanks to Oscar, it's alive!

Oscar's audition footage - Check it our for yourselves!

    This friday I will be meeting with my friend Jennifer who's auditioning for the part of Olivia in the film. I will be recording the audition so that I can edit it and put it together as well. Expect it to be posted sometime over the weekend! 

Until next time,

Diana

Find your muse

Production Journal #1

    Ideas come and go in the most interesting ways. They appear like a stream of consciousness brought about by music, or some story you heard, or a dream. This time, mine came from a person. I stared at my good friend Oscar and something about him just clicked. Something about who he was and the way he was made me want to talk about him, to film him; I had found my muse. This is the first time for me that the subject came before the story. There are two filmmakers who work with this approach that have inspired me to experiment.

    Putty Hill (2010) Non actor Jimee Buchanan being himself. Photo by: Sophie Toporkoff. Courtesy of Matt Porterfield

    Filmmaker and Baltimore native Matt Porterfield is a director I look up to because of this kind of filmmaking approach. I had the privilege of working wth him this over the past few months casting and shooting his latest film Putty Hill. What I love about Porterfield as a director is his amazing talent for finding people who spark life into his characters and films. He has a tremendous amount of love and trust for his actors and it shows in the way he directs them and captures them on film. Porterfield sees them as more than actors; they are people with lives and stories and things to say. Putty Hill was not really scripted, it was a 5 page treatment that gave the actors (who were almost entirely non-actors) room to improvise and above all be themselves. The result: an interesting blend of narrative and realism in which real aspects of the actors' life come out. It's these intimate and heartbreaking moments of uncertainty that really pull me in. You're not sure if what they're saying is fiction or truth; it's total manipulation but you don't care and you want more. By the end you feel close to them, it's a brilliant way of establishing a connection between the viewer and the film. 

    In fact, Matt Porterfield's style reminds me of filmmaker Harmony Korine. In an interview about his film Gummo (1997), he stated.  "...I like to work with non - actors because they can give me what actors can never give me, they give themselves. When the magic comes out, they give you something that is very personal and unrehearsed."  This is exactly what Porterfield manages to do in Putty Hill and what I aspire to do in my next film project. 

 Gummo (1997) Actor Nick Sutton playing Tummler. Harmony Korine's inspiration for the film. Flikr Creative Commons

My film is about a few days in the life of a guy who's life is going down hill as he deals with pressures from his life and his estranged alcoholic father trying to get back into his life. At the same time, he seems to be going down the same booze fueled path as his father did. The film is very narrative but I want it to have this same realist quality that directors like Korine and Porterfield capture in their films. Part of the film is based on the real life experiences of my non-actor Oscar so I'm going to work heavily with him to create a script that is organic and natural. Once I take tome footage of him, I will post it so you can see what I'm talking about. 

till then,

Diana

p.s. Check out Matt Porterfield's film Putty Hill which was accepted into Berlin International FIlm Festival as well as SXSW! http://puttyhillmovie.com/

 

Lost Time (Diana)

Production Journal #6

The first thing any film student learns in school is that film runs in normal time at 24 frames per second. Usually, people take that as a simple matter of fact...that the human eye cannot detect any flash of an image that runs at less than 24 frames per second. This idea is even further neglected when entering the realm of digital where frames don't tangibly exist. Capturing someone on film is like seeing the world in slow motion. Every single twitch and movement is precisely documented on individual celluloid frames. All of these fleeting moments that not even the eye can detect are preserved. For example, to the human eye a blink lasts less than 1 second, it's fast and often missed. When we blink ourselves, our vision is virtually uninterrupted. We live on knowing that there is a small fraction of a second of obstructed vision, this lost time goes by and we barely miss it. But on film, the progression of the eyelids closing is caught in individuals frames, therefore elongating the process. Film has the ability to divide movement into this kind of progression, while we can only see action as a unified entity. These undetectable fractions of a second are frozen on film, making them visually available to us. The lost time is found in the film and it presents to the viewer a new and otherwise unnoticed way of seeing things. How great is it that film can uniquely present us with the ability to capture the world as we know it as well as the world as we've never seen it? 

She senses that something is wrong.  

This idea of 24 frames per second became very real for me while putting together my last project. As described in my last post, I shot my project Panic on b&w 16mm. Inspired by the great Stan Brakhage, I decided to scratch onto my film to try and capture the emotion of panic. The scratches were to represent the evil negative energy of anxiety that wakes up my subject and drives her into a horrifying panic attack. The film follows the progression of this girl sensing a bad presence and eventually giving into hysteria; by the end of the short her mouth gapes open as she screams. The scratches pour out of her mouth and eventually take hold, overwhelming the frame and distorting her face. At the end shot, I scratched her entire face out; I wanted to show that the girl has completely lost herself in panic.

Still from Panic...the panic won this battle

The process of scratching is where the whole 24 frames per second concept hit me. It wasn't until I began that I realized what I was in for. In order for anyone to see what I was scratching, I'd have to scratch it in 24 times for it to appear for just 1 second. Throughout the process, my comprehension of time was completely lost. As I edited the film ran according to the speed of my arm spinning the spool. There was no sense of minutes our hours, I worried that I was miscalculating everything and that I was spending all my time putting together something as short as a 1 minute film (which still meant 1,140 individual frames for me to scratch). All I had to comfort me was the solid and reassuring fact of 24 frames per second. In the end, everything worked out. My film was longer than 1 minute (ended up being around 2 minutes and 30 seconds = estimate of 3,600 individually scratched frames!!!), and it gave the emotional effect that I wanted; it succeeded in raising the heart rate of my classmates. Once I get my film processed and transferred digitally, I will post it online. Till then, stay tuned for news on my next experiment which is supposed to be a sound project (unchartered territory for me). Until next time!

Diana.

Who needs a narrative...Not Stan Brakhage! (Diana)

Production Journal #5

"Let it be the feelings that bring about the events. Not the other way"

Robert Bresson, Notes on the Cinematographer

Still from my next project Panic

It's really easy to get caught up in a storyline. Narrative has become so important in films today that it's hard to imagine a film without one. There are very few films that come out of mainstream hollywood today that don't have a planned out traditional plot. Unfortunately, many movies end up sacrificing the most important aspects of film in order to put all emphasis on the narrative. The visuals end up suffering as a result of this. The shots only purpose is for the revealment of plot information. There is no room or need for a creative eye therefore destroying the visual importance of film. For me, visuals are the most important. In order for me to really like a film, it has to engage me visually. The shots need to be dynamic and thought out; they have to have more purpose than just giving plot information (which is what most Hollywood blockbusters do). I want to see more! I want beautiful shots that move me. 

Maybe the best idea is to throw away all narrative and focus on the visceral visual experience of watching a film. This is what many avant-garde film directors have decided to do and so this week in class, we reviewed the works of many of these greats. The director that called out the most to me was Stan Brakhage. I was especially impressed by his great ability to capture an emotion or feeling without entering the narrative realm. I found myself most attracted to his films; his amazing ability to capture these raw emotions is moving. He is also a true filmmaker; the physical film is very important. You see this through the way he physically manipulates the film; by his scratching and painting directly onto the celluloid. I found that through the lack of story line or plot Brakhage was able to better focus on capturing the emotions that inspire him. 

As you can see, the theme of my week has been this idea of non-narrative. For my next project I was prompted to become inspired by these past great avant-garde filmmakers. I decided to honor Stan Brakhage and try to capture an emotion. I decided to try to capture the feeling of panic through film; to do this I used an actress and used some experimental camera techniques. I originally wanted to shoot in color. I wanted to experiment with color (as Brakhage did) and use it as an instrument for expressing an emotion. Unfortunately, I also wanted to scratch the physical film as well, but that was not going to be possible because that would require an extremely long and complicated process that I simply would not have time for in this 2 week deadline. So, I decided to shoot on black and white 16mm film which I could easily edit manually; good old scissor and tape holding the film together. I shot again on the old Arri-S camera. The shoot was difficult, but only because I was my own crew. It was difficult working the lights, using the heavy arri-s camera handheld, and directing my actress all at the same time. But I managed and the footage turned out relatively well. In terms of experimentation, I played with lighting and focus to represent the chaos and derealization one experiences when having a panic attack. I just got the film back, and will begin editing manually this weekend. I'm going to be adding scratches and perhaps coloring onto the film. For this project, I'm just going to let it all go.

 Stills from Panic: The slight defocus of the shot really throws things off and makes everything a little creepier; which is exactly what I wanted.

Next blog, I will try to include pictures of these same frames but with the scratches. Until next time.

Diana.

Taste the Rainbow (Diana)

Production Journal #4

Still from my last film Lovely Lane. The sky painted dome in the main sanctuary of Lovely Lane UMC.

Last week, I shot my first color film. Though it might not sound like a big deal, this is a huge step in my young and unexperienced filmmaking career. Before this, I'd only ever shot on 16mm b&w film. Though this isn't unexpected considering I've only made four films before this, I always found my self avoiding the color realm. There's just something magical about b&w. Maybe it's the striking contrast between the shades of dark and light. Perhaps it's the way it makes the light look. Or maybe it's the fact that everything; people, places, and things just look better in b&w. I am in love with b&w and somewhat hesitant towards color. For my last film, I was asked by my teacher to take Eisenstein's soviet montage and apply it to my own project. I decided to shoot at a church because they have a lot to offer aesthetically. To avoid complicating my film by making great Eisensteinian statements about religion, I decided to focus on the architecture of the church. Churches tend to have their own personalities and moods that I thought would be interesting to capture. I finally shot at Lovely Lane United Methodist Church. Lovely Lane is the oldest Methodist church in Baltimore and is well-known for it's gorgeous romanesque architecture. The second I walked into the church I was blown away. Its unique dome shaped sanctuary is awe inspiring. I was impressed the most by the sky painted on the dome's ceiling which is apparently astronomically accurate. The people at the church were very welcoming. One of the members was even nice enough to take me around and show me the church's nooks, crannies and secret passageways. I decided for this film that it was time for me to explore and experiment with color. How could I not? The church is saturated with it. The stained glass windows, the rich red and gold tones of the main sanctuary, the cool colors of the old chapel. It was time for me to let go of my inhibitions and taste the rainbow.

Still from Lovely Lane. The organ in the old chapel of Lovely Lane UMC.

It's funny because I used to have the complete opposite opinion of this. Ask the average person what they think about b&w films and they'll say they don't like them. Ask them, why? "Because they're boring". The plot could be perfectly engaging, the cinematography could be gorgeous, but for some reason the fact that it's b&w predisposes a film as boring. Many years ago when I was still a kid, I was one of those people. One Thanksgiving, my family and I were having dinner at a family friends house like we did every other year. Understanding that my sisters and I were children and that we'd eventually get bored of "adult talk", Michael (the head of the house) tempted us with a film. Instead of the usual Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the 1971 version...not that Johnny Depp nonsense) we watched every other Thanksgiving, he suggested we watch Cyrano de Bergerac, the 1950 film directed by Michael Gordon. When I saw the black and white stills on the back of the VHS box, I was instantly turned off. "Oh. It's in black and white? Boring." My sisters agreed. Michael assured us that the film was very funny and wonderfully made, but nothing he said could convince us. Poor Cyrano didn't stand a chance against the technicolored glory (and chocolate) of Willy Wonka. In the end we won, and despite the lecture we received from our mother later on for being difficult, we felt it was worth it. It wasn't until I saw the film noir Laura (1945) a few months later that I began to appreciate b&w films. Later on, I also began to take a photography class which shot in b&w. Soon enough, I was transformed and I found myself in love with b&w. 

 

 
Stills from Lovely Lane. The contrast and richness of colors are so beautiful in this church.

Now that I've broken through and seen the beautiful results color can bring, I'm definitely going to explore the color world more in my next project, a sort of homage to Stan Brakhage. Hopefully I'll be able to get some beautiful color images in this project as well. I'll keep you posted on how that's going.

Until next time,

Diana

a + b = c (Diana)

Production Journal #3

One of my absolute favorite parts of production is editing my footage. Putting together the pieces and making them whole; mixing and cutting each element till together they make a film. It's in this process where the film gets its power. Here's an analogy for you: the shots are words and editing is putting the words together to form a sentence. No one is going to understand what you're saying if you just say random words. Once you take the time to put the words together to express what you want to say, people will finally hear and understand.

Still from Trav'lin' Light: actor Jacob Israel Chilton

I recently spent 16 hours in the computer lab putting my last film Trav'lin' Light together. For two nights, I sat and stared at a computer screen for 8 hours looking at the same photographs over and over. Thought this may sound like an extremely boring process, it's everything but. It's exciting, thought provoking, and oh so satisfying when you see the final result. Editing is mathematical and very calculative. Though I vowed never to take a math class again once I graduated from High School, I love making a+b=c: putting shots together to create the whole film. I enjoy the puzzle of cutting film together. My eyes might not have appreciated the strain and my legs may have began to suffer from muscular atrophy, but it was totally worth it. 

For some filmmakers, editing is everything. In one of my classes, we've been discussing the works of the great Soviet Montage filmmakers Eisenstein, Vertov, and Pudovkin. To them, editing was the key to communicating certain things to the viewer. Eisenstein felt that creating conflict between images was the golden rule of editing and successfully putting together a film. My favorite kind of conflict he created was through intellectual montage; which is basically putting together images to get across some kind of intellectual (often propagandistic) message. For example, in his film Strike (1925), Eisenstein talks about a factory worker strike in pre-revolutionary Russia. In one climactic scene, he focuses on the violent and brutal manner the military used to stifle the strike. In this scene, he juxtaposes images of innocent workers, women, and children violently beaten and killed with some very atrocious images of a bull being brutally slaughtered (Eisenstein actually filmed a bull being killed - the guts and organs falling out are real). Of course, by putting these images together, one gets the idea that the military are treating these innocent people like animals. In result, the audience becomes further disgusted and outraged at what's going on. This scene is the perfect example of how he juxtaposed images to create some kind of idea or emotion. 

It's moments like this where I realize how manipulative film and editing can be and how vulnerable that makes us. At the same time, being an aspiring filmmaker, I got the power (menacing laugh)! For class, my next film assignment is to include Eisenstein's theory of soviet montage and editing in my own project. It's due next thursday, so once again you'll find me living in the DMC till then. It's very exciting though, I will be shooting in the oldest methodist church in Baltimore. Wish me luck, and I'll let you know how that goes down.

Until next time,

Diana P.

They're not all this fun! (Diana)

PRODUCTION JOURNAL #2

Still from my production for Trav'lin' Light (2009) - Actress Zippi Diamond having fun in the grass

Production time! Oh the stress! Anything can go wrong...the whole experience is temperamental. Anything is subject to change depending on the mood swings of both your talent and the equipment. Who knows when the camera will suddenly become unfocused and uninterested; ready to switch off, shut down, and explode. Did I mention actors do the same thing? Anyway, even in my small student productions, I've had quite a range of experiences.

From the way Moleque turned out, you would never guess the hell I went through during the production. Every day we shot, something went wrong! I either couldn't get a hold of my actor and we'd start hours late. Or the equipment would suddenly decide to fail me. The Arri-M camera I shot with is so old and complicated; the fact that it's labeled MADE IN WEST GERMANY is proof enough of this. Now don't get me wrong...the equipment might have made my production a thousand times harder, but it was all worth it. Working with 16mm film and the Arri camera is a completely different process and added a lot to the look of the film. It would not have been the same if I had shot it digitally. There's something about the physical process of film that is just so special that in my opinion digital just cannot capture. Besides that, we shot in the middle of the winter. My actor, Marquise Williams, is a skinny kid and no matter how many oreo's and candy bars I stuffed him with, no one could distract him from the cold. Being the good sport he is, he persevered and held on with his freezing cold fingers. Marquise is special and still managed to have a good time despite all the failures, but not many kids would add that on their list of fun things to do on a Saturday afternoon.

Berlin Wall (1989) - Arri-M made in WEST GERMANY. Surprisingly, not too long ago.

On the other hand...

For my last film, which I shot last week, the production ran surprisingly smooth. The film is called Trav'lin' Light (thanks Chet Baker!) and is about a young girl discovering a camera and experiencing the freedom of the photograph for the first time. The project is a photo-roman, which is a film made up of still photographs. Because of the nature of the film, the production was very small; I was the director, camera operator and sound recorder all in one. I shot the whole thing on a Canon Rebel, nothing too old or complicated. Everything I used was made after the Berlin wall fell. So, the equipment was pretty easy to handle. Besides that, my actress Zippi had a great time! This makes sense considering most of what her part consisted of was playing on a tire swing and running around taking photos. Still the shoot went flawlessly and we all enjoyed working together.

Still from Trav'lin' Light (2009)

So...in the words of my film professor Matt Porterfield on the last day of shooting his film Putty Hill this summer, "Enjoy it while you can! They're not all this fun."

Amen to that.

Diana.

p.s. If you wanna check out my Photo-Roman Trav'lin' Light...here's the link! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phczw0V0Cvo

No inertia for me! (Diana)

Production Journal #1

  

"So many fail because they don't get started - they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin,"

W. Clement Stone.

For me, the beginning is always the hardest. Starting; stepping out of the comfort zone of the thinking process and actually doing. Throwing myself out there, exposing myself and my ideas out there in the open for all to see. This stage of transition between possibility and action scares me the most. Sure, this idea could sound brilliant in my own head, but how will people react when they come across it? What if they hate it? What can I do? Panic!

The only cure I've found that can get me out of this state of inertia is finding something that inspires me; discovering that spark that can transform my idea into something visual, then eventually something tangible. This can be anything, a piece of music, something I heard, an image, an experience. This experience is the key to my engine. Without it, I wouldn't find the energy or drive to go forward.    

In my last film project Moleque (2009), something I saw drove me to take the idea out of the mind, expose it to the light, and document it on 16 mm film. I found the inspiration for Moleque one summer when I was in Dominican Republic visiting family. One day we stopped at a gas station where outside sat two young boys who were shining shoes for money. They waited there patiently for clients, but for some reason there was a sense of animosity between them. They were competitors after all, trying to survive in the cut throat business of shoe shining. They were both struggling to find clients to shine shoes for, in a beach town nonetheless were everyone wears flip flops. Feeling bad for their ordeal, my dad took off his shoes and gave them each one. Their worries were put aside for the moment, and they were happy. Satisfied with this solution and with the fact that they were temporarily getting along, they asked us to take a photo of them and we did.

 

Nagua, Dominican Republic (August 2008)

After going home, I contemplated using the experience as the premise for my next film project. Of course, I spent months thinking about it, but I couldn't manage to pinpoint exactly what I wanted. It had been a while since that day at the gas station, and I couldn't manage to visualize the thoughts in my head. It wasn't until months later when I was looking at pictures from our vacation that I came across the photo of the boys sitting on the stoop of the gas station. For some reason, the image struck me; it wouldn't get out of my head. I couldn't stop seeing that frozen moment where the boys smiled and laughed at their success, even if only for a short while. Eventually, the image became my inspiration for creating Moleque, which is about a young boy shoe shining on the street who unsuccessfully looks for clients.

Once I found my inspiration, I was able to put my vision down on paper and then bring it to life through film.

 

Still from Moleque (2009)

Some might see the final cut of the film as the end of the line. In my opinion, for a filmmaker the final cut is just the beginning. What is a film if no one sees it? No inertia for me! I quickly submitted my film into a festival before I let thinking get in the way.

Now that I've  finished with Moleque, the process is nowhere close to done. I've begun to move onto my next project which I'm going to be shooting this weekend. Here we go again! I wonder how this production is going to go down.

 Until next time,

Diana.

p.s. Fortunately for me, Moleque was accepted as a finalist for the student film competition in the Mid Atlantic Black Film Festival. The festival is in Norfolk,VA where it will be showing this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes!

Here's the link to Moleque (2009) on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNRwckVrt90