Thursday, July 08, 2004
Chapter III could turn dark...
I want(ed) my blog to go in a different direction, one that concentrated more on writing. Beyond journal entries. Testing out actual, honest-to-god writing.
Today, clicking around and discovering a host of new literary or literary-type blogs. Like this one.
Now I just feel like draining a bottle of scotch.
Today, clicking around and discovering a host of new literary or literary-type blogs. Like this one.
Now I just feel like draining a bottle of scotch.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Celebrity
Last week on vacation, I helped my friend shoot a film. He runs a film festival and he is an experimental filmmaker.
What is experimental film, you ask? One filmmaker told me, "Experimental films are films that have no commercial value whatsoever." (She was considered a majordomo because she sat on the board of about a billion film festivals and, it was rumored, formerly knocked about with Andy Warhol. Her film was about Lesbians who liked to burn each other with lighted cigarettes.)
Oh, but I think that definition is limiting. Experimental filmmaking is using film in any non-narrative, non-traditional way and can encompass both the subject and the process. You could shoot the whole roll pointing it at the kitchen sink or a tree in the backyard. You could have something that looks like it might contain a story -- but it won't. Or you can poke holes in the frames, or piss on it, or bury it in dirt for ten years. It could be silent, or have "white noise," or have sound completely unrelated to the image. Or all of the above.
The only rule is there are no 'rules'. Once those brain cells kick in (or start being killed off, ha ha!), there are no limits. And people do.
To me, it is the abstract art of the movie world: Blow the whole roll on the kitchen sink or piss on it if that's what floats your boat; Its goal is the responses these images then evoke with the audience. The reaction is personal and will depend on the individual's mindset that moment.
The response might be extreme annoyance that you've been sitting in the dark watching a tree for a half hour. But... maybe you'll start to notice something about trees, or about that particular tree, that you hadn't considered before. Maybe you'll start thinking about man's treatment of nature, or the environment and... well, I suppose you get the idea.
Yeah. A lot of artsy bullshit.
The subject of my friend's film is his trips following Madonna concerts. (To date, he has been to five and the summer has just begun!) He uses a hand-held 16mm camera, with automatic and manual settings. There are 24 frames to each second of film, and my friend is taking mostly frame-by-frame shots, like a camera, varied intermittently with longer bursts. The bulk of the footage so far: Guys. When the film is shown, it will seem as though it is, literally, raining men. Cool...?
Hmmm... During the trip, the 'boiz' as we're called these days all started to look alike. An unending sweet tooth of cuteness. Looking at them all through a viewfinder, they began to seem detached. I had to wonder what these people were like. Did I have anything in common with them? I suspect it will seem even more alien when it jumps to film. I wonder if that's what my friend intended... Cool!
Sitting on a bench, looking at a perfectly still, candle-colored moon, a 'boi' appeared. "Hey, you're cute. Want to come back to my room?" (Yes, it happens just like that in P-town.) He looked like he had his arms blown up with a bicycle pump.
"I'm just walking around and sitting here."
"Nobody is 'just walking around' at two in the morning in Provincetown. You can't bullshit a bullshitter."
"I'm sorry, but I am." and you're blocking my view. I saw some cute couples on the trip -- they looked happy, holding hands and singing along with Madonna. Or eating ice cream. Or feeding each other in restaurants. (Ok, maybe that was a bit much.) They make it look so easy.
But it's not easy.
"Here, take the camera, you can shoot some stuff."
My friend will be disappointed. Industrially-lit parking complexes with advancing swarms of ant-people. Glassed lobbies with out-of-focus formshifting mobshadows in the foreground. Over- or underexposed frames depicting back lanes: Brilliant white fences, black-shuttered cottages, rose bushes, blue skies. That is my experimental film.
What is experimental film, you ask? One filmmaker told me, "Experimental films are films that have no commercial value whatsoever." (She was considered a majordomo because she sat on the board of about a billion film festivals and, it was rumored, formerly knocked about with Andy Warhol. Her film was about Lesbians who liked to burn each other with lighted cigarettes.)
Oh, but I think that definition is limiting. Experimental filmmaking is using film in any non-narrative, non-traditional way and can encompass both the subject and the process. You could shoot the whole roll pointing it at the kitchen sink or a tree in the backyard. You could have something that looks like it might contain a story -- but it won't. Or you can poke holes in the frames, or piss on it, or bury it in dirt for ten years. It could be silent, or have "white noise," or have sound completely unrelated to the image. Or all of the above.
The only rule is there are no 'rules'. Once those brain cells kick in (or start being killed off, ha ha!), there are no limits. And people do.
To me, it is the abstract art of the movie world: Blow the whole roll on the kitchen sink or piss on it if that's what floats your boat; Its goal is the responses these images then evoke with the audience. The reaction is personal and will depend on the individual's mindset that moment.
The response might be extreme annoyance that you've been sitting in the dark watching a tree for a half hour. But... maybe you'll start to notice something about trees, or about that particular tree, that you hadn't considered before. Maybe you'll start thinking about man's treatment of nature, or the environment and... well, I suppose you get the idea.
Yeah. A lot of artsy bullshit.
The subject of my friend's film is his trips following Madonna concerts. (To date, he has been to five and the summer has just begun!) He uses a hand-held 16mm camera, with automatic and manual settings. There are 24 frames to each second of film, and my friend is taking mostly frame-by-frame shots, like a camera, varied intermittently with longer bursts. The bulk of the footage so far: Guys. When the film is shown, it will seem as though it is, literally, raining men. Cool...?
Hmmm... During the trip, the 'boiz' as we're called these days all started to look alike. An unending sweet tooth of cuteness. Looking at them all through a viewfinder, they began to seem detached. I had to wonder what these people were like. Did I have anything in common with them? I suspect it will seem even more alien when it jumps to film. I wonder if that's what my friend intended... Cool!
Sitting on a bench, looking at a perfectly still, candle-colored moon, a 'boi' appeared. "Hey, you're cute. Want to come back to my room?" (Yes, it happens just like that in P-town.) He looked like he had his arms blown up with a bicycle pump.
"I'm just walking around and sitting here."
"Nobody is 'just walking around' at two in the morning in Provincetown. You can't bullshit a bullshitter."
"I'm sorry, but I am." and you're blocking my view. I saw some cute couples on the trip -- they looked happy, holding hands and singing along with Madonna. Or eating ice cream. Or feeding each other in restaurants. (Ok, maybe that was a bit much.) They make it look so easy.
But it's not easy.
"Here, take the camera, you can shoot some stuff."
My friend will be disappointed. Industrially-lit parking complexes with advancing swarms of ant-people. Glassed lobbies with out-of-focus formshifting mobshadows in the foreground. Over- or underexposed frames depicting back lanes: Brilliant white fences, black-shuttered cottages, rose bushes, blue skies. That is my experimental film.
Closed For Repairs
Vacations are good for sorting through all kinds of baloney.
Changes -- including a redesign of this site -- are coming soon. Comments on graphics will be appreciated...
Changes -- including a redesign of this site -- are coming soon. Comments on graphics will be appreciated...