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.