22.03.2016

“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.” ~ Frida Kahlo

When given the opportunity to piece together a one minute video containing every interesting thing about me, my first thought was to, yet again, try to contain extremely dense and large amounts of very short clips as I figured this to be the only way of actually capturing myself on camera given the constraints of the project brief and short time frame of the film itself.

The three sound recordings I chose were of myself picking a violin to create a simple, layered musical effect that would not only accompany the footage nicely, but symbolise my love for musical instruments. The notes however do not actually play a tune, they are chosen at random. I chose to do this to give the viewer a sense of curiosity as it would not sound familiar, but also to ensure that the sound did not distract from the footage.

The first frame is of me, my eye to be exact. I have chosen to do this to immediately create a sense of identity for myself. The extreme close-up and slow motion have been put together to create an intense and lasting image of me. The first thought that comes to mind when asked to create a self-portrait is physical appearance, however it is not the most important part and that is why I have chosen to only include my eye.

The frames that follow may seem ambiguous or misplaced, however they all do have their meaning.

The shots of the ocean water are from a rock pier at my favourite beach. This beach happens to also be the place I first started my filming endeavours as my very first short film was shot here. I have chosen to include this as filmmaking is my passion.

The next scene is a stop-motion clip including an image of a close friend of mine, who had played an important role in expanding my creative mind and served as a great source of inspiration for me during a difficult time in my life. The eyes that come across the scene and onto his face are those of another close friend, who has amazing creative vision. These two people helped me gain the traits I am most proud of today and are therefore completely necessary in my self-portrait. I used these images in stop-motion to create the sense of physically creating something, which would directly relate to why these people are so important to me. I also felt this created a level of texture to my piece.

My written text in this film is then incorporated, though very shorty, through the construction of an origami crane. The writing on the paper is of a letter to another important person in my life, who happens to practice intricate paper folding. What comes next is a combination of meaning: The Zippo lighter symbolises WWII and the 30’s-50’s. This happens to be my favourite era of history, fashion, culture and cinema. The burning of the letter and crane represent my stance on romance and the transient nature of most relationships.

The last scene is a combination of every other scene played back at a higher speed before the frame rests back on my eye. I have chosen to do this to change the tempo of, what had been so far, a very slow and simple piece, but also to recapture everything before closing the self-portrait with the same image it began with.

One other very important note: I film in black and white as an allusion to my favourite director, Alfred Hitchcock, and also as I believe colour can sometimes interfere with the meaning of a shot.

I feel the most successful part of my Self-portrait was the overall simplistic, poetic style I have chosen to work with. The downside to this and perhaps the least successful part of this project is that it makes inference of meaning very hard for the audience. If I could have done things differently I may have included a voice over to explain further the importance of each shot to create a story for the viewer, which would mean my self-portrait would become more understandable.

21.03.2016

“No one is as deaf as the man who will not listen.” ~ Proverb

John Cage’s 1952 performance of 4’33” involved sitting at his piano, and that was all. He did not play a note or make a sound, he just sat. His intention was to make the audience listen for his music, rather than just to hear. In the 7 minute piece re-enacted by William Marx, the audience applauds him to the stage and then they sit silently waiting for the music to begin.

“Everything we do is music.” ~ John Cage

The audience sits in silence even after minutes pass of Marx at the piano. As he opens and closes the lid of the piano the audience does not know whether to anticipate an actual musical piece or not. So they eagerly wait, and listen. All that can be heard are muffled coughs from the audience and the occasional creak of the piano stool.

What Marx and Cage have both set out to achieve is to evoke the action of listening in the audience. To listen requires focused attention and effort, while hearing does not. While the audience waits, they are listening, focusing intently on the musician to start, to make any noise. It is arguably the most listened to piece of music.

This boredom and Bernadette, they are to each other as piano keys are to strings. A mechanism doomed for reaction, beginning with one percussion. It begins a simple melody, one second to each key, seconds short and seconds long, seconds nonetheless. Those that are called tempo, a measure of a moment. To measure a moment rests on your tongue, Bernadette’s taste rested on none. No measure is a measure, congratulations if you have convinced yourself that nothing in this world exists. The unsteady hand of a timid child winds the jack in the box as the notes sound uneven and to no measure. But those notes themselves are lone moments. To measure a moment. How long do you consider a moment?

The Conscious Whale:

This is the recording of the first of four voice messages I was sent one very late night (or one very early morning), which reminded me of one very important thing: It is never too late to let someone know you’re thinking of them. Whether it be an out-of-the-blue memory that slaps you in the face when you breathe a familiar smell, hear a familiar song or for no reason in  particular. Whether it be someone you haven’t spoken to in years, have never spoken to or speak to on the regular, always look for an excuse to connect with someone.

Penelope’s Theme:

This recording is of me playing Penelope’s Theme from one of my favourite movies, “The Brother’s Bloom.”
This song is important as it combines my love for piano with my love for this movie.

Keep Them Even After They’re Dead:

Being a hopeless romantic with a slight hoarding problem for sentimental objects I find it near impossible to throw away flowers even after they wilt and rot in the water they have been drowning in for months.

18 Cranes = 18 Good Lucks:

Soon after hearing of the famous Japanese legend that creating 1000 origami paper cranes grants one eternal good luck I attempted to sting together the largest cohort of paper cranes the world had ever seen. I ran out of paper at 18 cranes.
This image represents my belief in sentimental attachment to ~things~ and how I feel surrounding oneself in said ~things~ can evoke nostalgia, protection and even good luck.

This Isn’t Even the Whole Collection:

My love for film started at a very young age. Every Friday night was “grab 7 DVD’s from Video Ezy” night. My love for watching soon turned into my love for creating.

The Bear Isn’t Relevant to the Story:

The hat seen above is a souvenir from the first real film I made.

07.03.2016

“Remember, authenticity is often shitty” – Chilly Gonzales

Media texts are now used as a tool for education and experience of knowledge that would not be available to most people otherwise. However, can the media experience of the outward world be compared to, or is it less authentic, than a physical and tangible experience of living these actions and obtaining this knowledge alone?

“Our perception of reality is an act of faith based on mere fragments” – Scott McCloud

As discussed in Scott McCloud’s ‘Blood in the Gutter’, human experience often lies in a faith that things are as they are; because that is what we are told or what we assume from knowledge that we already have, and what we believe we already know. The media offers a range of platforms that can allow people to assume that reality is what is portrayed through these texts, simply because it can also offer us knowledge that we already have. Are we too trusting of media representation of reality? If we are mislead by knowledge provided through media texts, does our experience of reality change? Does this mean our experience of the world is inauthentic?

07.03.2016

“our perception of reality is an act of faith based on mere fragments”

Scott McCloud’s ‘Blood in the Gutter’ discusses some important ideas on editing and, most importantly, the audience. Visual storytelling can be hard to achieve when one assumes the audience has no prior knowledge of anything ever, but this is never the case. As Scott McCloud wrote, “our perception of reality is an act of faith based on mere fragments”.

As humans we have this incredible ability to assume that something just is. This means that we do not have to show an entire character’s body in frame for the audience to know that it is there, nor do we have to be explicit in storytelling for the audience to understand what is happening on screen.

Subtlety is everything. Have a little faith in the audience to have a little faith in their fragments. They will almost always understand.

07.03.2016

“Editing is not merely a method of the junction of separate scenes or pieces, but is a method that controls the ‘psychological guidance’ of the spectator.” – Vsevolod Pudovkin

As discussed in our second Media lectorial ~ever~, editing is not simply placing one piece of footage next to another, but an entirely intentional and purposeful connection between two frames that, individually, may or may not mean anything. Through editing, however, these scenes become meaningful.

This definition of editing is evident in Dziga Vertov’s ‘A Man with a Movie Camera’. Vertov combines a number of camera shots that depict the everyday phenomenons in the modern city of Russia (during the 1920’s). Though the individual frames may not contain any meaning alone, alongside every other shot of Vertov’s these scenes create their own meaning, which may simply be to convey the demeanor of the Soviet Union at the time.

While this example is simplistic and ingenious for it’s time, it also provides a myriad of possibility for what editing could achieve; if the manipulation of meaningless shots through editing can create meaning, how can it change camera shots and footage already contain so much meaning? And how can editing in itself be used as a meaningful tool, ie long transitions as opposed to short transitions, superimposition of footage etc, and can an editing technique have a universal meaning?

07.03.2016

When given the task of creating a self-portrait through some short film clips, audio and photos, my first thought was to create dense, concentrated pieces of media that could contain every facet of my personality, interests and inspirations. Soon after realizing that this was impossible I had to narrow my options by looking for the most important aspects of myself, that I would want to be remembered by or known for.

My main goal with this task was to choose relatively unimportant objects or shots that held a much deeper meaning and that symbolized pieces of my personality that I believe to be important, for example: The rock climbing shoes do represent my love for rock climbing, but also my desire to inspire courage in others when faced with the unknown.