So, today was final crits.  I felt that my video was well received and that I am going in the right direction with my filmmaking.  Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback and support through the process of getting from point a to completion. 

Action or non-action.
The movement of a moment repeated.
Finding a foothold
in the every day art of being.
The momentum of one versus
the neck-and-neck speed of a crowd.

Where is the dividing line between
what one sees
and where they are going?
How does one get back home
to the peace of mind

and comfort of
being in the pole position?

Splendid isolation
versus
artistic alienation.
Observation of
something anyone could see
viewed though the perspective

of a
moving

shifting
dirty lens...

After trying to come to compromise between where I felt the project should go and what the consensus was... it is tentatively done.  Whittled down from ten possible chapters to one fast paced channel surfing 3 minute movement.  It is still to early for me to give my verdict, but I am not happy right now.  It is miles away from my intention of making a twenty minute visual/ musical extravaganza.  It is instead a brief reasoning/ manifesto in text; a midnight with "nothing on" as a visual; and short bits of what could otherwise have been good musical compositions.  The song that was included in its entirety is defiantly the strongest.  This may or may not make the compilation I have in mind of my film/ video work.  I feel that the process from today has ran its course and need some time to focus on what direction it actually should go.  Maybe even more has to go... I have several drafts, but it just seems like in this situation that less may be more... I'm eager to see what every one thinks of this last step.

Alas, there will be no squirrels to be found....

No more squirrels.  I've got a plan and it involves many high-tech bird feeders.

Some moves will be classic...

Some moves will be "plus"...

ANd of course, PRIMOS.  Please note the CD.  It is important to the squirrel busting.

Now if I could just beat those KILLER ROBOTS!

I wanted to do research on abstract art, in many mediums.  I had asked myself, "How do painting, photography, music, and film/ moving image intersect?  Where is the resonince of harmony?"  I went to a bookstore in Pittsford and start a search though the art/ criticism section. I found what I was looking for:  Late Writings by Clement Greenberg.       

The section that caught my attention was the subheading "Picture Making" in his essay "Detached Observations".  It dealt with "picture making, not just picturing or depicting.... As abstract art has shown, any kind of mark, any kind of inflection on any kind of surface, can serve to make a picture." (Greenburg p63).

He goes on to venture opinions on abstract painting, sculpture, photography, and film.  He maintained that being a good painter is important to making good abstract art, what ever the medium actually being utilized.  While I'm not exactly an amazing painter, I felt encouraged that the most successful part of the film had utilized moving image excerpts of one of my paintings surfaces. I was moving in the direction I wanted to go before I even realized it.  

I'm sorry I didn't touch on Greenberg's observations of "heavy" and "light" arts, his comparisons of various mediums and cultural outlooks for different points of perspective, his take on straight photography.  I am not doing a book report, but relating what I took away about abstraction for this film project.

     After deliberating the form my film will take, I have realized that I need to take more "chance" out of the mix. I have also realized that my tendencies to revert to "stock footage" image making tend to run rampant if I am not self-conscious about my decision making.  My solution for both of these problems lay in an seemingly obvious place: abstraction.  

     I consider the first two vignettes turtles that drifted away on my path across the stream toward the finished project.  Keith's comment about harmony really hit it for me.  I need to compose all of the parts, visual and audio, in concert.  Gathering random bits and making a collage is fun, but I don't think I have been achieving the desired effect.  I need to realize my deeper intentions.

     I see this new approach as a return to form of sorts. I have been drifting away from painterly/ abstract/ visual texture explorations for a while.  I should be embracing the desire to abstract and be compositional.  

     The third vignette was compositional on many levels.  It contained audio text that set the tone for the music, and in turn, the visual.  This created a harmony that the jolting camera work and jump cuts of the more representational, gathered "stock footage" lacked.  The music was made primarily as an exploration of new resources, and was successful in that area.  The idea for the film from here on in is a more controlled composition of abstraction.  -__-__-__----

I have completed several synth compositions that could be in this project. Two short vigenyetts are done, City and Before Autumn.  City is all footage I shot driving around downtown Rochester, and Before Autumn is all green leaves.  

I plan to work on music tomorrow, if not shoot some video.  

I also have some 16mm stock that I plan to shoot and hand process soon.  I have 3 scenes that I want to shoot in film.  One is going to have meditations as I film the beach of Lake Ontario.  Maybe I could do that tomorrow.  Another is a model posing, sort of Edie Sedgwick style, in black and white... I don't have a model yet, but I'm looking.... The final one I want to do is a pseudo-performance, where I'm playing instruments in a big room (maybe the gallery) but the music has little to do with the performance.

        The short film collection tentatively titled Hear::See will have its construction documented in this blog.  The overall piece will consist of short, independent vignettes.  Each vignette will have an audio composition in concert with the moving image.  

         I am attempting to be more experimental in my film and music making.  Some possible vignettes are as follows:

         1. City-  a collection of images from cities with a minimalist music accompaniment.

         2. Autumn Approaches-  trees and ambient music

         3. Vista of a neighborhood-  my neighborhood and a composition

         4. So Many Fields-  a collection of fields set to a composition 

         5. Blank Room-  a pseudo-performance shot in 16mm in a blank room

         6. A Bit of Nothing- abstract camera work with space musical accompaniment 

         7.  Inland Sea-  waves and beach of Lake Ontario in the fall. Incidental meditations

         8. Pictures of You-  a stop motion piece from made from my digital photo archives

         9.  This Years Model-  b&w of model with music

        10.  Bridges-  Shots of and from bridges