Imagine-Asian?

First of all my title has little to no relevance to what I'm about to write, I just thought it was hilarious, and the first time I laughed out loud to a film article, no offense intended.

This was a great article because it took me through so many different opinions that I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to believe myself. During the first page or so I was thinking, "This is bullshit, I'm not a film geek, I don't do this art-cinema crap, There's no money in it." Then I realized that Rebecca was talking about the very thing that pisses me off about filmmaking. Great content gets overlooked and not talked about anymore these days. This random vomited collection of movies contaminates the film market and appeals to all the stupid people while all of us sit and squirm and wish we could do something about it.

'The spirit of the art house' combined with money making possibility is what I'm looking for in film. There Will Be Blood I feel is a perfect example and gives hope to us all. Beautiful work that somehow gets noticed even by simpletons and earns some real dough is what I want out of a film-oriented life. You may call me a dreamer, but I want art, content, skill, notoriety AND bucks to fly the hell out of films I work on (everywhere).

I want microcinemas to expand to gigantocinemas while still containing the same community and respectful aspects of small-town arthouse theatres. And then I woke up...

Crew Call

Finally...collaborative filmmaking. I've been looking forward to this music video project but did not think to expect different crew positions. I've worked on set before. It was for Nelson Oliver's Honors Thesis, and the film was a 20ish minute short about the 1898 Wilmington Race Riots entitled: "The Red Cape."

I've already had experience with grip/gaffer/dolly grip/PA/extra work which is why I wanted to dive into the position of cinematographer. But then again, so did everyone else, so the luck of the draw ruled me out there. As Shannon was saying in class, the Grip/Gaffer job is going to take more artistic and hard work than any other position, BITCH! I'm ready...

I Don't Even Know Myself

For the upcoming Self Portrait project, I'm drawing blank. The harder I think of what I want to do the less I understand myself. Maybe I should make the project be exactly about that; the fact that I just go with the flow and have no large ambitions as of yet. I found that living life structured and how society and culture expect you to live your life only defeats the purpose of living in the first place. I'd like to do something like an "anti-culture jam." I don't know if I'd actually film something or just use found footage to express my extreme dislike of almost every part of this world. Whatever I'm going to do, I'd better figure it out fast.

Painting with Sound

This was probably one of the hardest projects I've done in a while. For some reason, I guess my brain just doesn't work in the way it needs to in order to create a successful soundscape. Emily and I had some trouble getting started and there was a slight learning curve for me, mainly concerning how to do in-depth sound editing on Final Cut. I looked at the project more rhythmically than abstractly. I kept finding myself thinking along the lines of creating a narrative out of sounds, only to remember that was exactly what we were not supposed to be doing. It ended up being all about patterns and repetition and learning through trial and error which sounds went good together and could envoke some sort of feeling or meaning.

I really enjoyed the screenings of everyone's projects in class. Although I couldn't exactly 'paint' an abstract image in my head while creating my own soundscape with Emily, I could definitely close my eyes and imagine all sorts of things while listening to everyone else's. Bravo to everyone's hard work that went into these projects.