Memphis video contest submission

memphis storyboard draft

national blackout day

"my memphis" contest idea

simply a high energy tour of my favorite places in memphis - in the manner that dave attell hosted Insomniac on comedy central

places to hit

main street art galleries
overton park and mca
cooper young area
bartlett bike trails


this will be a focus on myself within these spaces and interacting with them. at the same time, i will be narrating the journey, like dave attell always says at the end of insomniac "quick, there's one last place we have to go; come on!!"

i'm aiming for a humorous feel that would come across simply through all of the high energy.

development

today i video'd my vote on the way to school

will post up in a minute


the national blackout day project is going ok. i didn't get all the footage i need over the weekend. main thing missing is a good train shot. i actually saw a coal train go by, but i was too slow to shoot it.

National Blackout Day pre-production

lighting candle


going to brush teeth


back in the bedroom


read until falling asleep


location shot: train tracks

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the next project

thinking about routines and monotony

idea 1
Time lapse shot of my bike ride to and from school on a loop. i'm always going the same route for no reason. i would get at least three good takes at different times and put them together so the loop seemed more like a day by day documentation.

idea 2
Time lapse shot of immaculate conception church on a sunday, from inside and from outside if possible. i would need a lot of tape. i think it would be cool to see a church service in fast motion, and/or of people coming and going for all the different services that day.
i would want to project this footage next to time lapse shots of other places where people go on sundays - the park, the zoo, downtown, etc.
hmmm.. keeping the battery going would be a challenge. i could have a friend cycle charges and bring the fresh battery out to the shoot whenever it died.

idea 3
more time lapse. hit record every time i sit down at my computer or tv for a few days. i spend a lot of time at the computer especially. the shot would be from the side so you couldn't see what was on the computer screen. i might even set up a backdrop so all you see is a person in a space, facing one direction for a long time.

idea 4
move a bunch of boxes into a room and then move them back out. non time lapse

Luncheon Hymn

assignment writeup:

this project is about contrasting literal and symbolic imagery relating to the spectacle of catholic communion. everything from the absurdity of preparing a sandwich in the manner that a priest prepares communion to the holy mustard appearing out of nowhere in a "cheesy" way and then becoming invisible again on the sandwich, to part of the stage being visible behind the actor, to the camera being turned off at the end is meant to reference different aspects of how i feel the catholic church fails to deliver real substance (this notion of course is most obviously demonstrated by the fact that a fat sandwich and full glass of milk is quite literally an enormously greater amount of substance than a stale, quarter sized piece of bread and a sip of wine).
as a former alter boy myself, i used to be part of the "behind the scenes" action during communion in my own church. it was interesting to gain that perspective because without it, the whole ritual appears to be a sort of magic show. for example, to an audience member, when the priest holds up the bread wafer or the chalice of wine, bells ring apparently out of nowhere. in reality, an alter boy is kneeling behind the priest just out of view from the audience ringing those bells until the priest lowers the "offering".

shooting a video that relies on having perishable food in the shot at all times sucks. after about two hours, the cheese looked slimy and disgusting; luckily, it doesn't look that bad in the video, but all the food i bought for this had to be thrown away at the end of the shoot when i was planning on having groceries for a week.

project 3 idea

Outline and storyboard a video that utilizes audio while strictly considering copyright.

for this project i want to record myself reading a poem i wrote and combine that audio track with video of me eating a sandwich. i will play organ music on my keyboard to go along with the poem, especially the singing part.

Luncheon Hymn

Lettuce prey
I say to my sandwich
Before I take a bite

[kneel]

Beef, I am not yet ready to receive you
But with a grid of spicy brown I shall be set

[sing]

Bread of rye
You satisfy
My true appetite

Time for milk

project 2 assignment write up

i ended up waiting about three hours for one of the cats to use the litter box. then, right after i handed the camera off to jeremiah, my cat had diarrhea all over the place.

other than that, i think my shoot went pretty well. i wanted to have a bunch of hand held shots, but i also decided to do the acting myself; obviously that didn't work out. i only got one shot of sifting and dumping the crap into the trash can, so i'm hoping it works out.

anxious to see what my edited footage looks like..

quiz 2

3 point lighting

key light - the strongest light. usually at a about 7 o'clock in relationship to the subject (looking from overhead).

fill light - a less strong light, typically placed around 4:30 in relationship to the subject. this light helps to drown out really strong shadows created by the key light.

back light - this light is also weak compared to the key light. it points toward the area behind the subject, lighting up background space and creating a greater sense of depth between the subject and the environment

when outside, how can you lower some high contrast/strong shadows?

use a bounce card to cast light on the dark areas of the subject

storyboard

after this point, these shots will repeat from the beginning but will go by quicker until there are only three or four different second-long shots on a loop by the end

instructional video ideas

how to:

-clean a litter box, or take the shit out
close up shot of cat
medium shot of cat; we see the cat is pooping
medium shot of person fanning/holding nose
shot of litter box from above. there are lumps in it
grab a garbage bag and take the box outside
sift and dump all the crap into bag, then dispose
bring clean litter box inside
everyone is happy

other ideas:

-travel
shot of finger on spinning globe
google research the country
shop for deal on plane tickets
click buy now
maybe appropriate video of airport and plane interior shots

-build a campfire
supplies
technique

-practice good oral hygiene
rinse
scrape tongue
floss
brush with toothpaste
listerine

-change a bicycle tire
when it goes flat

-install a peephole
in your door to look at people

-create a .gif from a movie
choose the scene you want to capture
export as image sequence
open in photoshop or imageready
optimize the animation

-coding
a simple html/css page

-pack a backpack for camping
what to bring

oh boy.

http://www.5min.com/Video/Making-Marriage-Work-27299535

i've seen this guy before on tv i think.. but can't remember what i was watching at the time. he has it all figured out. if everyone would just watch this video there would be no more divorces.

other cool videos i found:
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-To-Address-Islamic-Fundamentalism-27297450

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Encourage-Faith-in-Todays-Youth-27297818

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-To-Move-A-100-Year-Old-Church-6649624 oh this one is awesome. lol

manifesto rough draft

In making a movie:
Character comes first, always.
Consider content above all else; the movie must serve a purpose greater than entertainment.
Eliminate predictability/bourgeois/hollywood formulas/storybook endings.
It should not contain unnecessary scenes.
No movie magic or over-romanticization. No Cocteau.
No soundtrack music added in post production.
Artificial sound effects may not stand in for, enhance, or replace actual sounds from production.
The movie must be revolutionary or have aimed to be so from its initial conception.
Credit no one's name for more time than another.
No scrolling text credits.

thinking

describe an ideal mode of filmmaking

what works? what things do i dislike or hate in movies, whether content wise or in production techniques

come up with a sort of manifesto or blueprint to moviemaking of my own.

quiz

white balance is when you tell the camera what is actually the color white in the scene you're shooting; this is often done by holding a solid white card in front of the camera. after the camera makes this adjustment, every other color in the scene looks more accurate to reality because they are all based relative to the truly white areas.

genre research and example

Drama films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between.

Dramatic themes often include current issues, societal ills, and problems, concerns or injustices, such as racial prejudice, religious intolerance (such as anti-Semitism), drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the corruption of power, alcoholism, class divisions, sexual inequality, mental illness, corrupt societal institutions, violence toward women or other explosive issues of the times. These films have successfully drawn attention to the issues by taking advantage of the topical interest of the subject. Although dramatic films have often dealt frankly and realistically with social problems, the tendency has been for Hollywood, especially during earlier times of censorship, to exonerate society and institutions and to blame problems on an individual, who more often than not, would be punished for his/her transgressions.

Sling Blade

character through lighting

hostile


vulnerable

project 1 - completed

on place


With this project my intention was to portray a shift in perception of a place through age. I chose to document and juxtapose images of my preschool and the church I was raised in because religion played a leading role in my childhood but is now the subject of a growing resentment in my adult life. As a three-year-old, unaware of what the word "christian" even meant, I was enrolled into First Christians preschool and had been attending church regularly even earlier than that.

Blissfully ignorant at the time that I was being brainwashed and trained to promote a belief system I knew nothing about, the majority of this video represents my younger self, a care free individual simply observing an environment around him with no function to serve other than to be a school and playground. The end is a glance back from the present day, with the knowledge and wisdom I feel I've accumulated thus far, seeing Christ the King church for what it really is to me - a place devoted to the practice of controlling young and old minds alike to live in fear, guilt, naivety and confusion until the day they die, all based on a bunch of lies.

project 1 - ideas

1.) things in little rock: the first schools i went to - shooting locations where i had some of my earliest memories. the playgrounds might be completely different now.

2.) the church i was raised in - maybe record the congregation reciting the catholic creed (in mumbles) and lay the audio track over a video tour of the places in the building i remember most and other places from my childhood like my backyard, the soccer fields, jr high, high school, in a sort of timeline by age. audio track could fade to barely audible by the end.

3.) outdoor spots: shoot the trek up pinnacle mountain, maybe looking at my feet or some weird angle the whole time until reaching the top where you can see most of little rock. or bike trails in bartlett - create a helmet cam.

4.) the place inside the body. first person view of normal daily activity/routines. maybe some sort of internal dialog voiceover that seems disconnected from the things that are happening on the screen, as if the mind were not controlling the body, the way i felt the first time i got high.. that was some scary shit.

5.) find home movie footage of my house from a long time ago and recreate the same angles and shots from that footage in my house today. play both simultaneously side by side

project 1 - freewrite on "place"

place? place. time and space. memories of places i've been that i can see in my head are sometimes tied to what things i thought about during the time i spent there. my preschool is anger and frustration at snack time; i didn't get enough animal crackers and juice. who would be satisfied with just two bears and a penguin? my kindergarten classroom floor is a grid of nap mats and the lights are off, as i try to force myself to have dreams of pretty girls going down slides into pools of whipped cream, just like on the tv show "what would you do?" hosted by mark summers. what a lucky man. i remember a joke for my backyard during sixth grade, it was: "hey andrew, you just missed the french open" because jonathan and courtney had just made out in my dad's hot tub during truth or dare and andrew, who loves tennis, missed it because he was late to the party. i don't remember who said the joke, but they also threw skittles at Hans as he hid under a table with his tail between his legs.

What is "a sense of place?" What does it mean to be a person in a place? How do people shape places, and how are they shaped by them? Can places be in our minds as well as etched in the physical landscape? Are our identities a kind of place, in and of themselves?

in a way, the only 'place' a person can really ever be is inside his or her own body. the movie being john malkovich springs to mind - at the end when he became a prisoner inside another person's head seems a strong example of this. even within one's own body is like a sort of imprisonment.