Projects, rated.

1 = favorite
6 = least favorite

1.  Stop Motion Animation
2.  Cameraless
3.  Rhythmic Edit
4.  Bolex
5.  Crowdsourcing
6.  Freestyle

So let me start off by saying there wasn't any project that I really hated.  I found all of these projects valuable, because they either required that I learn a new technique or use a technique I already knew in a different way.  I appreciate that required experimentation, and I enjoyed each one in some capacity.

Stop Motion: was definitely my favorite!  I really enjoyed my group mates (Chris and Tommy), and I think we made a good team, even if it did take us a really long time to finish.  The final product turned out way better than I expected, and I'm kinda proud of it.  That was my first stop motion animation I've ever done, and it was super fun to learn something new.

Cameraless: I also liked the cameraless a lot for similar reasons - it was a fun way to learn a new technique.  We learned how to physically manipulate film, and I embraced the randomness of it.  Plus we did the photograms and learned to develop film at this point, which I'd only done once before, probably like ten years ago in some photography summer camp.

Rhythmic: I was a little wary of the rhythmic edit, but I turned out to be really pleased with how my portrait of Kyle came out.  The fast cutting, which I would normally consider too jarring and not okay to do, turned out to capture the subject well.  And I just love editing in general.

Bolex:  I think our group was a bit too big (four people) and I just didn't get the same sense of "satisfaction of creation" from this project.  But I do love shooting on Bolex, and I thought our extra sensory element (the Miracle Berry pills) was a hit.  The screening in class of all the projects was pretty fun.

Crowdsourcing: This isn't a project that stands out in my mind when I remember the class, perhaps just because the actual process was just coloring.  But I think it's a great first project, and it's awesome that I got to contribute to Cybergenisis again before it wrapped up.  And once I got into it, the coloring was really rhythmic and relaxing.  It was nice to be able to consider something "productive" that would normally be just me wasting my time while I should be doing homework.

Freestyle: I list this one last just because it was really annoying and frustrating for me to come up with my own idea and then have to stick with it when creating the film three weeks later.  I chose to create a film using masks, similar to a cinemagraph GIF kind of feel.  I'm happy with how my project turned out, though, and I'm glad I chose something that forced me to learn another new technique.  I feel like masking is something that I could explore more just using a free afternoon to create another 30 second or 1 minute film.

What is your rough theater?

My rough theater is dancing.  I used to dance at a studio and do all kinds - ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, even a tiny bit of character or baton.  But now that I'm in college, I haven't really kept up with all of that training because it takes so much time and practice that I'm now spending on other things.  Instead, my chance to dance is when I go out to parties and clubs with my friends.  I'm not a big fan of grinding or twerking or whatever, I just kind of like to jump around and wiggle and not really think about it.  I probably look stupid.  But it is so fun, especially when you are with a group of people that likes to dance in the same stupid, free way that you do.  It's especially great when you get those people that are obviously not very prone to dancing jumping right along with you.  My ideal fun time would always include dancing.

R1: Synesthesia Responses

I've always found synesthesia fascinating since I first figured out it existed when I was in middle school.  It is bizarre that some people have another sense - or maybe just an enhanced one - that makes them see the world completely differently.  So listening to Daniel Tammet speak is cool and fascinating, don't get me wrong - I just feel like I am missing out on his though process.  To him, these little details and perceptions are integral.  To me, his connections are a bit alien.  At least cymatics, if weird, is a bit easier to visualize.

I have at least one friend who I know has synesthesia - chromesthesia, actually - and another experiences ASMR.  I like talking to them about the connections they form because this thing that shapes their life is completely absent in mine.  For example, my friend with chromesthesia is a musician, and he loves to surround himself with anything orange because that is the color he sees when he plays his favorite chord.  It's amazing that a mind can do that.

Response to Bolex Assignment

I am happy with the way our Bolex shoot turned out, but it took us way too long.  We couldn't meet beforehand to figure anything out, so the day of the shoot we kind of had to brainstorm and shoot all in one go.  Because we'd only have one chance to capture it and we felt it wasn't very well planned, I think that it took too much time for us to just make a decision and shoot it.  But I think it turned out fine.

I love shooting with the Bolex.  There is something about having its weight in your hand and feeling it wind and then dunking your film in the chemicals and watching the images magically appear that is especially satisfying to me.  I wish I could just go shoot random stuff more often, just for the practice and process.  Plus I feel like the Bolex is prone to those "happy accidents" kind of situations - like when you are shopping, but you don't really have in mind what you want, and then you find the most amazing coat in the back of a shop you normally never go in that you wear for the next five years and really like.  Or something.

We've already chosen our sensory element, and I want to keep it a secret so I'm not going to post it here, but I will say that it is subtly disorienting and extremely weird.  So we wanted to capture that same feeling in the visuals shot on the Bolex.

Response to Assignment 2

I enjoyed the cameraless assignment a lot.  There is something about physically working with film that is especially satisfying.  It's also fun to treat the assignment like a kind of experiment - we're all just kind of guessing about what might work or look cool, and we had no clue how it would turn out until the end when we projected and recorded it.

I thought the things that I had the most control over and expected to turn out (the photograms and animation) actually end up being less interesting than the random stuff that I did (bleaching and painting).  I like the "happy accidents".  I do wish that we had thought to turn the sound on the projector for our recording - I loved hearing the delayed warble of the audio track as another element in Becca's group's project.

Media Fast Vlog Reflection

R3: Soundscapes Response

I found this week's reading intriguing because I definitely don't think about the minutiae of sound as much as I should.  Especially in film, it's so important - the sound mix can make or break a movie.

Schafer's distinction between "noises" and "sound" and how our appreciation has changed over time is thought-provoking.  I suppose that our lives today are cluttered with noise.  I actually find that I prefer noise to silence in general, especially when I am trying to concentrate on something.  When I study I prefer to be in a public place with some background noise - not jackhammering or anything like that, but just normal conversation.  As I write this right now, I'm listening to one of those trickling fountains at Port City Java on my left and some people pretending to be brainstorming for a class project but actually just complaining about it.  (??)  Maybe I should reevaluate my habits...

The Japanese idea of protecting soundscapes as mentioned in the Schafer article is fascinating.  I never really thought about the idea of considering sounds as an endangered resource and protecting them, much like we might do national parks.  This is even cooler because these sites were chosen by the citizens themselves.  I've never really given much thought to noise pollution before, but it really does affect how you feel.  Vacuums and kitchen fans immediately annoy me.  Loud, harsh, screechy sounds like nails on a chalkboard make me kind of nauseous.  Trying to talk to someone while there is loud music or a TV in the background completely distracts me.

I remember going to one of the Smithsonian museums and seeing this modern art project that had a camera trained on the sky outside, and had a mechanism that made a tone depending on the darkness or lightness of the image.  So it would slowly change pitch throughout the day, and you could sit there and listen to how it would change its hum as clouds or plans passed by its sensors.  That is probably one of my most favorite sounds I've ever heard.  Ocean waves are another top one.  Both of those are instantly calming.  Maybe I should be looking for more stuff like that.  It's kind of a zen-like idea.

R2: Crowdsourcing Response

Crowdsourcing is definitely an awesome, unexpected use of the technology that has been created in  the last ten or fifteen years.  Listening to Jimmy Wales talk from 2005 about the wisdom and care that he took setting up Wikipedia as an open source platform is fascinating.  Even after ten years, Wikipedia is still one of the most ubiquitous and useful sites on the Internet...I couldn't even count the number of times that I have used it.  And I agree, it is way better than the Encarta 2004 on CD that I remember using in elementary school.  So many different people donating their time and knowledge to Wikipedia has created something that, like the "What is crowdsourcing?" article mentioned, is of much bigger scope and better quality than one company or group of people could fathom.  And it was also done much more easily and much more quickly.

Although things like Wikipedia and Amazon Mechanical Turk have been around since the early to mid-2000's, I feel like "crowdsourcing" has kind of become a buzzword in the past five years, for better or for worse.  Crowdsourcing projects are more numerous that I realized, once I stopped to think about those I could name.  I'd argue that Apple deciding to open up their app store to independent developers is a form of crowdsourcing - it definitely gives smart phone app consumers more choice and quality.  And then there are even more practical uses for crowdsourcing, like calling for volunteers to comb through images to find the missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370 or SETI's crowdsourced search for extraterrestrial life.

Now, it's almost expected that any friend who is working on a new film, potato salad recipe, or any other kind of project will blast on social media, "Please donate to my Kickstarter!"  There are a lot of Youtube videos and even some feature films that celebrate the ability to join many geographically discontiguous Internet users together in new ways, like Nat Geo's Life in a Day time capsule documentary, The Johnny Cash Project website, the virtual choir, Tiffany Shlain's Let it Ripple series that we read about, etc.  I hate to say it, but it's getting to the point where it is almost gimmicky - sometimes these projects just become virtual noise, featured on Youtube's homepage, blasted on Facebook, or (if they are really past their prime) featured on Good Morning America for a day and then gone from the collective Internet meme radar forever.  Companies are even crowdsourcing their advertising with Instagram picture hashtag contests that encourage users to post their own pictures of their products.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying these ideas aren't cool or unique or worthy, just that there are a lot of them.  I wonder if crowdsourcing as an art form is really here to stay, like Tiffany Shlain says, or if it is just a fad.  Even for the more practical applications, it is still questionable.  Will Wikipedia exist forever?  It requires constant upkeep.  It makes me wonder what the "next big thing" in digital technology workflow will be.

St. Louise

Response to "St. Louise": https://vimeo.com/34493486

Thoughts:
1.  I've always loved this style of film manipulation.  To me it looks so planned and purposeful even though I feel like a lot of it is just experimentation and randomness.  Purposeful randomness.
2.  Cool how it goes to the music.  Was that planned or just kind of works with the way the images move?
3.  Want to learn how to do the more coordinated movements, like the words going across the screen.
4.  After about one or two minutes, this can get a little nauseating when viewed up close.  Too much quick stimuli.
5.  I wonder what the film strip I made last class will look like!  What other techniques did they use here we didn't do?  Painting, letters....?
6.  Pretty rad.