To Those Who Actually Read This

I'm going to be keeping up this blog but pretty much how I it started in the first place; for the screening log and occasional reviews. I guess I'm saying that if you're staying here in blog world, so am I. Then again I kind of like the idea of posting to nothing. Like this- here is a sentence that no one will ever read.

Films Seen, December 2009

I’m going to be adding to this post as I see ‘em, so check back if you’re interested

first viewing unless otherwise stated, - seen on video, / internet or computer viewing, + projected DVD or VHS, v video piece, s short, m medium

-Boys Don't Cry (Kimberly Peirce, 1999): 78, third viewing
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson): 90; I might be overrating this but I don't care, I can't remember the last time a film made me laugh so hard. Oh, and it's pretty much perfect
/The Heart of the World (Guy Maddin, 2000): s
+Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955): 56, second complete viewing
-The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998): 70, down from 78, thrid viewing
-Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978): still 68, third viewing
-The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005): 74, third viewing
-The Carter (Adam Bhala Lough): 52
Christmas Carol- 2D (Robert Zemeckis): 38
-The Polar Express (Robert Zemeckis, 2004): 60, third viewing
Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie): 25
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman): 50
-The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957) 58
-Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950): 65, second viewing
-A Day at the Parade (Dennis Woodruff, 2000?)
-It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946): 62, second viewing, first in 10+ years
-Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen Gene Kelly, 1952) 69, second complete viewing

For Jonathan

Saw this today when I was out shooting

More MFA stuff

Here's a link to MassArts photo program and apparently it's landscape city over there

MassArt Photo

An Arguement for loneygirl

(Between my last post and some wierd need to write comes this literaturary masterpiece. Kind of just ends, but ehh)

I love lonelygirl15, but more as form than content. Over the past two years I have been watching various episodes of the series. I’ve only seen about fifty or so and with numbers in the 500 range that’s not many so I would hardly consider myself an expert. Also, I watch them out of order but more on that later. What interests me about lonelygirl is the soap-opera nature of the storytelling. I mean, there’s so much pulp you can literally taste it. The first season is pretty much a direct address video blog of Bree, the catalyst of the narrative. I was always surprised by all the haters saying that the video blog was fake and that she’s not a real person, because what are so ‘real’ about all the other young-girl-talking-about-herself videos. It’s not like they are private conversations filmed without their knowledge. These girls broadcast themselves on a public forum and are in control of both image and content not unlike the creators of lonelygirl. Who’s to say that what we’re seeing is not a falsehood as well, or more accurately a construction of an identity that they want to be perceived as.
The second and third (though by that time lonelygirl starts to become a little too self aware) is where things get good, and also where I consider the pulp to be. Although shot with a handheld camera and having all the ear marks that would signify authenticity like camera shake, blown highlights, and touching focusing, the videos are very staged. But in a weird way lonelygirl doesn’t really go out of its way to hide that fact. The acting and dialogue is too good to be ‘natural’, and really it’s not even acting. It’s more like playing or even in another sense pretending. They sit around and talk and pretend to be concerned, angry, interested, troubled, and happy. They’re embracing roles not unlike other ‘real’ YouTube videos out there. The fact that it’s just done with a handheld and on YouTube is probably equal parts economics and following the form of the given medium they have chosen to work within.
The characters presented are so wrapped up in their own lives/stories that the outside world barely exists to them. The narrative moves forward with little guiding principal of logic, but more on the strength of its own conviction. The narrative is raised to a level of importance that is so high that EVERYTHING matters and the most illogical or impossible acts and decisions make sense in the lonelygirl world. That is what interests me, the fact that this story moves on its own power alone.
To expand on my lonelygirl interest (no, I’m not letting it go) is the way it can be viewed. In thinking on how artist are addressing/using the Internet, specifically in thinking of video channels like YouTube, I was reminded of an article I read in comment of the film Afterschool. (This is a must, and I mean MUST see. I saw it at AFI fest last year but the damn thing isn’t out on video. If you’re one of those people who knows how to download movies…) The essay, using Raymond Williams’s argument from his book Television, comments that the Internet expedites the effect that movies and television have on our perception. In thinking of a newscast, he points out that the formal arrangement plays something like War in Iraq/three dead in crash/buy a Ford/shop at Ralphs/Lakers win/local weather/stay tune for late night. On this level everything is fundamentally equivalent and the Internet provides this effect greater and faster, but the article adds two important elements as well; thinking time and interactivity. It stated that compared to movies or television the Internet is slow because it typically doesn’t just keep coming. It requires decision making, the user is in control of what they see and also the rate at which they see it. Unlike television, you can watch something on the Internet and stop to think about it without the next video coming right at you.
So, how does this relate to lonelygirl? With lonelygirl I can watch the episodes in any order I want, and not only that but start and stop them as well. This is preferred because it takes the story out of the equation. Like early surrealist film watching techniques it can jump into a story mid-narrative and leave at the first sign of boredom or when the story becomes too clear. I’m able to focus more on how it is told, picking up on fringe elements rather than focusing on the narrative and as stated before this is just my kind of pulpy pleasure.

YouTube at BCMA

direct adress, ha!!, this says it all and got it done in under a minute

An Arguement for Beauty

Beauty isn’t about just looking good. I don’t get excited about every color photo or lens flare that I see. The photograph has to evoke a sensual experience within me to become beautiful and here is where the split between classroom and myself takes place. Generally during crit. and discussion we talk about images in relation to rules of composition, artistic intent, ‘how did they do it’, or even in nitpicky ways like there’s some small element in the background that’s distracting. While all these are valid they only account for vision which, let’s face it, is a blunt instrument. Like a camera, vision cannot account for anything other than what’s in front of it. It is through our other senses where meaning, interpretation, and value take place. We do this all the time in everyday life. Clothes feel good just as much as look good, food is informed by smell as much as taste, and who hasn’t experienced music with the power to move you emotionally. So why is it when we talk about photos all we can say is whether it looks good or not? We need to re-remember how to ‘see’, not just with our eyes but through our entire body. In creating my own work or viewing others I want photos that feel as much as look good.
Let me use these examples as a starting point. I’m confident in assuming that everyone has encountered images of pornography. With their ability to cause physical arousal, this sort of bodily response is not uncommon in other types of images as well. Photos of war or even something like surgery can cause the viewer to turn away, the body protecting itself physically unable to look at the image. Or think of cook books and food ads with the images so appealing you can almost taste it. These sort of carnal responses, though regularly experienced, are considered too base (or at worst, manipulative) to be taken seriously. However, it is just such responses I value the most. I have experienced the physical sensation of sex, bodily pain, and fine dinning. I understand these images not by learned knowledge but by actual experience. My vision is informed by an entire history of carnal knowledge and is being called upon to create and give meaning to what I’m looking at. Vision is not something separate from our other senses.



Hands down this is one of my favorite photos. (Side note: Ryan McGinley is without a doubt a ‘cinesthetic’ photographer. By all accounts I should be in love with the guy, and in individual instances I am. There’s just some nagging feeling that prevents me from wholly embracing him. I think it’s the quasi-documentary approach. Just because they’re nonprofessionals doesn’t mean they’re not actors or maybe I’m being too serious that his photos, specifically I Know Where the Summer Goes, aren’t really to be taken as snapshots. I haven’t come to terms with this by any means but I digress..) The subject matter couldn’t be more simple, girl in the back of a moving truck taking a drink from a styrofoam cup. Of course, that’s not what the photo’s about. I’m unsure about where to start not wanting to establish a hierarchy of elements, but lets go with movement. Taken from the inside of the bed of the truck the outside world is passing by in a blur. Although not ‘readable’ you can establish through context and inference they are driving through some desert like landscape. While the figure is sharp and still, her hair is being blown over the top of her head. Taken at eye level next to the girl the camera’s eye becomes mine and now I am in the back of the truck as well. The power and speed of the truck can be felt, the wind passing through my hair as well. Most likely its late afternoon, the warmth and glow of the light is apparent. Not only is this girl passing in movement with the landscape but her skin is taking on the warmth and color of it as well with the blue of the truck and shadows played below the flat blue sky. The chill of the wind is getting mixed up with the warmth of the setting sun. As a fair skin person I can feel the sun and the subsequent burn it will cause. While looking at this photo my mind wanders off. I begin to recall road trips. The boredom of being a passenger and having the time to contemplate all that’s around me. Exhust, dirt, pavement, dust all colliding into one familiar smell. The girls drink, positioned in a blank cup, is whatever you want it to be- water, soda, road soda. She can even become my girlfriend as I watch her while we share this drink. Why not? All answers are valid. The longer I look at the photo the deeper I enter into it and it's the world outside of me that becomes a blur.
Now I’m not stupid. I know I can’t really feel the wind or sun, taste the drink, and I’m not even in the desert but at home. What I do have is a real sensual experience from my own life I can relate to. Informed by this my mind and senses are activated by the photograph. This image is transcendent to me. In a way it’s what I love about photography, this ability to capture something that is fundamentally unshareable. But I can totally see someone reading this (maybe you) and thinking, “Whatever. I don’t give a fuck about the quality of light.” or “You’re joking, right? It’s a two dimensional object it doesn’t work like that.” or “Whatever. If I want to experience that I’ll just go on a road trip myself.” It would be dismissive but that person would have a point. These types of images don’t just hand you a sensual viewing experience or even try to convince you of their power. You have to be a willing participant to enter into this type of exchange. Engaged with the image objectivity and subjectivity lose their charity and I am lost, melting into the image. Now someone can study it, understand it, and even respect this point of view without completely agreeing with it. Then again, these sort of photos automatically ‘click’ for others who need no convincing and have been on the lookout for images such as these most of their lives.
What do I think? Beauty is internal, something personal that stems from a lived body. Beauty is carnal responses, a multi-sensual experience where we ‘touch’ and are ‘touched’ by it. Beauty is willingly entered into and, then again, can hit you unexpectedly. Beauty is a space to construct your own theories, engaging with art and the world on an intuitive level. Beauty goes beyond vision.

enjoy

And countless, countless images from films

so hero

He writes a song a day. Yes numbers game but are you that productive for no reason?

take a deeper look

Asger Carlsen has the best (and stranger) images that I have seen in quite some time now.

Asger Carlsen

Thank You Amanda

So I'm finally getting around to doing something digitally, color correcting scans. I know I'm like the absolute last person to figure this out, but yeah, curves, fucken A!! I've also found it's way more heplful (for me, for now) if I have a finished color print to reference so I pretty much know the light-dark range and color tendency.

i know i keep saying this

I'm learning about so much good stuff I barely have time to stop and think about it before I need to move on to next weeks reading. Expect an essay on Phenomenology and how it can be applied to the photographic image soon. In the mean time I'll leave you with this.

checking in

Making a stop motion (kind of, more a static camera movement of light motion video) for my theory class and doing BFA stuff. Hopefully something 406b related on here by the end of the week.

Films Seen, November 2009

I’m going to be adding to this post as I see ‘em, so check back if you’re interested

first viewing unless otherwise stated, - seen on video, / internet or computer viewing, + projected DVD or VHS, v video piece, s short, m medium

-The Conscience of Nhem En (Steven Okazaki, 2008): s
The Box (Richard Kelly): 52, but an enthusiastic 52
The Men Who Stare at Goats (Grant Heslov): 42
+Street of Crocodiles (Brothers Quay, 1986): s
+Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1929): s
-Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
+Duck Season (Fernando Eimbcke, 2004): 80
-City of Lost Children (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1995): 53
+Hide and Seek (Su Friedrich, 1996): m
New Moon (Chris Weitz): 46
2012 (Roland Emmerich): 28
-Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, 1995): oh man
-Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004): oh man; together the best afternoon I've had in a long long time
+Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki, 2004): 64, for now

Finally

I don't know why this took me so long to find, it was right under my nose the entire time. I'm going to burn this to a disk and watch it through my DVD player in one sitting.

MFA stuff

I'm been looking into grad schools that might be a good fit for me and in conversation Columbia came up. Many of the 2009 graduating class deals with issues of self-identity but worked out through other people, usually family. So I don't know, maybe I could see myself there. If you want to take a look at the work, then click the link. On the site itself click the names to see the images, at the end of each they have an artist statement so at least you have some context for the work. Yeah, a lot of back clicking but how else are you going to see this.

http://mfaphotothesis.com/

Senior Show

12 new set ups, 10 of em in the last 3 days

I'M A SHOOTING MACHINE!!!!!

Some Times You Eat the Bar...

and some times, well, you trip over it while jumping. If I only had this on film otherwise fuck this location

Antichrist

Antichrist (Lars von Trier)

As the title suggest, Antichrist is an interpretation on Nietzsche. 'Antichrist', as a book, denounces Christianity as both a belief and practice, AND as a ethical-moral value system. As base humans we have an instinctive nature of survival, but Christianity subverts these instincts and forces us to adopt one of meekness, humility, and pity. Nietzsche saw this moral framework of Christianity as oppressive and called for a ‘transvaluation of values’. To Nietzsche, this transvaluation of values is possible when resentment of the lower classes to the superior becomes so great that they find compensation only in imagining or creating a different moral code.

Stop reading if you don’t want to know what the movie is about, Significant Spoilers Ahead

The film plays out this trajectory through the wife. Responding to the death of their son whose falling is intercut with the wife’s organism. Later we find out that she witnessed the event, taking ‘masculine’ pleasure rather than ‘acting like a mother’. Although, yes, these events do take place you can’t think of them as specifics, but as a system of logic operating on images rather than plot to work through psychological issues. Lars von Trier states he usually identifies with his female leads, the abuse and suffering is representative of his perspective on the oppressed, the subsequent action resulting as a response to enforced helplessness inflicted upon from patriarchal society. The husband ‘treats’ her from a clinical distance, as a problem to be solved not as his wife who would need love and understanding. From von Trier’s perspective this distancing causes her to take on these patriarchal myths about women (murderous, irrational, close to Satan, and one with nature) as the only escape route in which she can retain power. This is something see finally ‘understands’ from her research being able to see the representations of Gynocide (get it) in a new light.
In thinking of his past films this is a common theme for von Trier. These vicious creatures that his female protagonists become are not a conformation of dominant Western ideology, but a response and reaction against oppressive patriarchal society. The film is not to be taken literally (the animals, the acorns, a cabin named Eden, I mean, come on) but as an externalizing of psychological turmoil. In that respect, the husband’s final admission that the three sisters (cosmic deities) are not real can be taken as a realization that his own system of beliefs in psychoanalysis were based on false understanding. That he was not curing but creating a condition that lead to insanity. He kills his wife, thereby destroying any incompatibility in his way of thinking. What’s truly scary is that he (the larger He) survives and, as the final shot tells us, the cycle continues. Now, does that mean the film ends up being misogynistic or is von Trier fucking with us? That is the controversy surrounding this film, so check it out and come to your own conclusions.

i wasn't that wild about where those things are

Between school and instructor furloughs, starting tomorrow after digital I don’t have class or any other obligation for a literal week. Not only that, but nothing is imminently due when I come back. I would be a fool not to acknowledge this was make it or break it time. If I can get my projects under control and ahead of the readings I might be OK for the rest of the semester. I’m on the verge of a verge and this is exactly the sort of thinking and working time I needed. So here’s a list; I’m spelling it out in no particular order. Here is every little thing I have to get done in the week. If I put it up in some sort of public sphere then I’ll get it done in not wanting to look like some fucken idiot who can’t complete a task he knows he needs to do.

-Get the rest of the beginning BFA show shots done to see if concept will work
-Paper proposal for seminar and gather research material
-First drafts for grad school applications
-At least 5 quadrants shot
-First essay for blog
-Readings for theory classes
-Get new inner tubes for bike
-Watch films (from another list) for shot ideas and modes of representation

Link to my Project

I put a link to my project in the side bar; it's titled Satellite Project. I'm going to be updating and adding quadrants every week so check back once and awhile and watch me on my journey towards aesthetic nirvana.

AMANDA!! Look at Me

Wound Footage- Thorsten Fleisch, view it here

Here’s the video I was talking about. The set up is this- Film footage sent through a projector is being shot digitally. The film ends up jumping the sprockets, getting stuck and melting. Here is where the first sign of noticeable digital video comes in. Overwhelmed by the intensity of the projector light, video had a noticeably hard time rendering (is that the right word?) the blank image. Digital noise and artifacts become present over a blank screen of white. The video even drops frames. Film regains its hold, and the intent becomes clear. First a film degradation, then a digital one, and last both happing together. Geometrical RGB squares and lines meet with the more organic scratches, marks, and color fades of film. I like the idea of purposing messing up digital video, but when I was talking about this piece I kind of remembered it as a Kaufman-esque metajoke where the viewer thinks the ‘real’ video is just playing poorly like a fucked up DVD. I forgot how logical the work was but that’s not a complaint.

midterms? naw man i already ate

so i shot in three different quadrants today, here is a quick pic from each. i'm thinking of not printing anything for the midterm because what's the point, these are not thought of as individual prints and my final form will resemble something more like a book. i'll try to see if i can get something on the web or that sort of format

Quadrant 17; image #3, 12521 Brookshire Downey 1:23pm

Quadrant 3- image #2; back corner of strip mall on NE corner of Bellflower/South Lakewood 3:06pm

Quadrant 6- image #4; 462 Silva Long Beach 4:13pm

Film Reviews, kind of

9 (Shane Acker) 64- Humans destroy the world through the misuse of technology, machines have taken over, lone scientist trying to fix mistake… Nothing ‘new’ about this film but form and context are more interesting than usual. Although no live humans are present, 9 takes place within the real world, that is to say Earth. Artifacts of human existences remain (broken down buildings, but also smaller items like stained glass windows, buckets, scissors, candles, books, etc.) and coupled with the extreme attention to detail of the CGI and sound design the film enters into the uncanny (a la Toy Story) where you forget this is essentially a cartoon. The scientist is the true hero, showing not only that one person can make a difference but also place the responsibly of a solution back on the people who created the problem. Would like to make the case that each different numbered creation is some extension of the scientist but the argument is kind of thin and simply reduces people into simplistic characterisation.

Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer) 48- or my changing position on Jesse Eisenberg. Thinking back to what to what I said about Adventureland, I unfairly compared Eisenberg to Cera. Both have this under-the-breath/in-the-margins style of dialogue (just know that Hugh Grant has been doing this for years churning out consistently funny rom-com; Music and Lyrics and others.), but where Cera uses his as a wise-ass passive aggressive form of engagement, Eisenberg’s comes from a place of simple frankness. His is more of a dry wit, a monotone delivery of a statement of facts. Also I feel that his characters are much more independent/free thinkers than Cera’s outsider, timid turtle approach. It’s the difference between an eccentric and someone who’s just socially awkward. Oh, you want to know about the film itself. I didn’t find it all that funny and kind of long even at 80 mins. Even in the ‘end of days’ people still form white patriarchal heterosexual relationships, and were they really that stupid to think turning on all the lights and rides at the amusement park wasn’t going to attract every zombie in the area. Did anyone else find the sequence where they destroy the Native American store slightly racists?

Surrogates (Jonathan Mostow) 44- *In a world where people actually live as their avatars any ‘real’ connection to the outside world is loss*. Movie only gets interesting when Bruce Willis disconnects himself, allowing an actual human to rub up against the synthetic ones. Wasted what could have been a good premise (why I’m still surprised these Hollywood action films do that is beyond me, but one day I’ll find one that doesn’t and be fucken all over it) where the outer world literally reflects peoples inner states with traditional roles of gender, race, age, and class no longer apply. Chase sequence in human resistance camp somewhat good with a Burtynsky-esque environment of discarded shipping containers. Which reminds me I’ve seen like three different post referring to Manufactured Landscapes, has anyone even bothered to watch it, the second half is dead boring.

Blood Simple (Joel Coen) 53- If you don’t think you’re influenced by the people you surround yourself with know this- the Coens were living with Frances McDormand and Sam Raimi when they made this.

Star Wars (George Lucas) who cares- Watched it for completionist reasons. (My brother and me are working backwards through AFI’s top 100 list. Shit got in the way and we pretty much have been at a stand still for like two years only recently picking back up.) To be honest I wanted to skip it. Of course I’ve seen it, well more than once, and outside of historical and cultural importance I’m just kind of ehh about it. Thirty minuets in I realized that this film is unratable and, even more so, throws my whole rating system into relief. How do you rate something where you’ve sen more references and parodies than the thing itself? Can I admire something without really liking it? Where does this film stand amongst others, or in other words, how do I establish value, by historicist? formal considerations? context? theoretical issues? personal preference? Few quick thought though- I never realized how much non-human dialogue there is esp. in the first half. Why does everything I thought I knew have some weird pronunciation, Millenium Faulcon? The end award sequence has apparently become some kind of cornerstone and that’s not a good thing.

redcat, monday, BE THERE

Ken Jacobs (one the biggies when it comes to post-war experimental and avant-garde cinema) is going to be screening some work this Monday night. From what I can tell it's not film or video based but a manipulation of projectors and other material creating pure light based abstraction. It's one of those space specific one time only events, the art object itself cannot be saved or duplicated. I get out of class around 630 and pretty much bouncing to the blue line, so if you're on campus and what to join be my guest. It starts at 830 and is seven bucks for students.

Website information here

more music based inspiration

Between Amanda's post and my own interest I remembered this video from awhile back. This is early Bad Dudes when Daniel Brummel (guy on right with afro and guitar) was still with them. Their music is very video game based, think 8-bit and snes RPG's, but (and i got into an arguement about this) it's not from any individual games per se. It's inspired from a style of music that is most often synthly made and highly repetitive. They perform around the Los Angeles area sometimes but that's a big sometimes, usually at the smell. They also have a fair amount of music out and if you searched hard enough I'm sure you can find the zip files.

Maps Ahoy!!!

Brought to you by scotch tape and American ingenuity

So I finially got my map constructed. Next I will be making these cresent moon shapes much like this shape, ( , all over the map radiating out from Lakewood. I'm going to be making these marks somewhat intuitively/quickly not being to concerned about placement, most likely I'll try to make some kind of aestheticly pleasing pattern over the top. I don't know this map well at all so I don't think I'll be too inclined to give myself favorable placements, aka easy locations to visit. Along this ( shape I will place dots indicating exactly where to take the photo at, the number of dots will be determinded by the first lottery number in the newspaper that day, locations will not have dots ahead of time but be placed on day they will be visited. Each photo will be taken with the same focal length lens, around the same time of day (I'm thinking like between 11-3), pointing back towards Lakewood. This way my own interperation of the landscape is taken out of it. I like this compromise between elements I'm in control of and ones I'm not.

2 or 3 things i learned by having a gallery

-You need two, not three, inch screws or nails
-If you saw my frames and thought they looked good then go to:
The Framing House Design
942 N Broadway #101B
Los Angeles, 90012
213-621-0295
-Don't worry about the unevenness of the walls or the scuffed up floor, if people are focusing more on that than your work you have bigger problems
-When it comes time to spackle and repaint the walls best to bring your own paint brush, I can almost guarantee the ones in the equipment room will be dried out and useless

zzzzzzz

Totally slept through my alarm and woke up like a half hour ago, aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Films Seen, October 2009

I’m going to be adding to this post as I see ‘em, so check back if you’re interested

first viewing unless otherwise stated, - seen on video, / internet or computer viewing, + projected DVD or VHS, v video piece, s short, m medium

The Argentine (Steven Soderbergh, 2008): 60
Surrogates (Jonathan Mostow): 44
Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer): 48
+La noire de... (Ousmane Sembene, 1966): m
+Can You Seen Me (Brian Bress, 2005): v
+Rock Your Body (Brian Bress, 2005): v
+Rock Cowboy (Brian Bress, 2006): v
+Brian Quest (Brian Bress, 2006): v
+Portait Room (Brian Bress, 2006): v
+It's Been A Long Day (Brian Bress, 2009): v
+Status Report (Brian Bress, 2009): v
Guerrilla (Steven Soderbergh, 2008): 65
Che (entirety): 58; the sums are greater than the whole here
-Last Days (Ben Russell, 2004): s
-Extra Terrestrial (Ben Russell, 2004): s
-The Tawny (Ben Russell, 2003): s
-Michoacan: La Muerta/El Traidor (Ben Russell, 2006): s
-Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977): grading/viweing- who cares
-Julia (Erick Zonca, 2008): 82
Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze): 63
+Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1964): vm
+Better Luck Tomorrow (Justin Lin, 2002): 74; second viewing, amateur acting and short run time keeps this out of the 80s
+Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929): masterpiece
Antichrist (Lars von Trier): 60
-Encounters At the End of the World (Werner Herzog, 2007): 66
-The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh): second viewing, still 77

Put on the Hat, and the Overalls...

Jonathan Mann, aka GameJew, is a personal hero of mine and a major source of inspiration. I found out about him in late 2007. He was doing these videos on ScrewAttack about his excitement of the release of Nintendo’s new system the Wii. (The Angry Video Game Nerd started there too if that means anything to anyone.) The videos were awesome in the kind of way when passion and energy far exceed talent. I always had the feeling that he became frustrated on not becoming one of those viral sensations after that. Well, he burned through a few personal sites and now can be found on Rock Cookie Bottom where he embarked on this ridiculous song a day project. I probably should devote some more time talking about his style of songwriting and the implementation of the jingle but for now here’s a quick introduction; I’ll save that for another post.
X-Play musical can be viewed here

Maps

So I might have the map problem under control. If you go to usps.gov, get to their store, and scroll down to Map Locator (middle of screen) you can pretty much download a map of what ever you want. The problem is they are sectioned off so to get the coverage area I'm going to need I'm looking at like 30+ zip files to download, print, and puzzle back together. I still might mash up different maps but will be keeping with 'offical'/governmental kinds (usgs, AAA, state, civic, whatever). Right now the method is either going to be disorder on an ordered map or order on a disordered map.

Stupid Scale Shifts

Maps I have are not really lining up, deciding if this will be a problem or just roll with it

Tall Can Weather

Proposal

Name
Neighborhood Watch (tentative title)

Description
To create a book on my hometown of Lakewood, taking a look not only at the city itself but where it is in the Los Angeles/Orange County region.

Concerns
This book will not be some sort of chronological history, personal history, or even a history at all. Ideally I hope that through content, juxtaposition, and sequencing the book will be productively open-ended and ambiguous, leaving ample room for interpretation on the part of the reader/viewer. ‘Open text’ is going to be my big issue here.

Technical
The use of Photoshop to process/edit/color correct/whatever. In creating this book and compiling different images, I’m interested in different syntaxes and what they can add to the meaning of an image or sequence. The book will comprise of straight digital images (no composites), and scans of negatives both color and B&W. Along with this I plan on the use of actual scans; that is scans of found objects (flyers, mailers, civic swag, things found in the street,…) and images in magazines, newspapers, books, or even scans of photographic prints. A scan allows for a high quality rendering of low relief detail and relates back to the physical object that it was taken from. I’m also going to need to (re)learn InDesign for layout purposes.

Formal
Well, book form for sure but that’s a little too general. Right now I’m not sure what ‘larger form’ the book will be (art book, strange surrealist found object, corporate document,…). This project will be broken up into two different parts. By the midterm I will have the (calling it) satellites done, and by the final a finished book. The satellite side of this will be a smaller ‘report’ type of document describing Lakewood’s position in the LA/OC region. By choosing three specific points within the city I will move out in concentric circles, and on each, taking twelve photos at even measurements (think numbers on a clock) pointed back in the direction of the center point chosen. I’m giving myself free range within the boundaries of the city, but outside I wanted to set up a system that would lead to as little personal interpretation on the surrounding area as possible.

Artist
Walter Benjamin (specifically The Arcades Project), Tom Anderson (specifically Los Angeles Plays Itself), Jonathan Mann, Paul Graham, The Adventures of Pete and Pete

Readings
Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscape, Looking At Los Angeles, Holy Land- D.J. Waldie, various readings on Ideology and Soviet montage, Andre Bazin

Grade
Grade determined by the quality of the final product.

Goals
-To find a balance between shooting/gathering visual information and time to make a meaningful sequence out of it.
-To start the satellite project this week and come to some conclusion on how to present it.
-Learn InDesign
-Learn what goes into creation a book

Papa-Paparazzi

yale kids are cooler than you

George Awde

Colin Smith

Ka-Man Tse; I would recommend her website (although it's a little under construction)

http://www.tsewhat.com/main.html

Caitlin Smith

Stylistically similar, kind of, but they admit as much (just look at the show title), and NO they are not just dicorcia clones because he is a clone himself they are just part of a specific school of thought on photography, NO you couldn't mimic him (trust me) you don't have the resources or chops, and YES i think some of these photos are pretty much perfection

Photography is Easy, Photography is Hard

(The text was written for the Yale MFA photography graduation book – Yale MFA Photography 2009: We Belong Together)

It’s so easy it’s ridiculous. It’s so easy that I can’t even begin – I just don’t know where to start. After all, it’s just looking at things. We all do that. It’s simply a way of recording what you see – point the camera at it, and press a button. How hard is that? And what’s more, in this digital age, its free – doesn’t even cost you the price of film. It’s so simple and basic, it’s ridiculous.

It’s so difficult because it’s everywhere, every place, all the time, even right now. It’s the view of this pen in my hand as I write this, it’s an image of your hands holding this book, Drift your consciousness up and out of this text and see: it’s right there, across the room – there… and there. Then it’s gone. You didn’t photograph it, because you didn’t think it was worth it. And now it’s too late, that moment has evaporated. But another one has arrived, instantly. Now. Because life is flowing through and around us, rushing onwards and onwards, in every direction.

But if it’s everywhere and all the time, and so easy to make, then what’s of value? which pictures matter? Is it the hard won photograph, knowing, controlled, previsualised? Yes. Or are those contrived, dry and belabored? Sometimes. Is it the offhand snapshot made on a whim. For sure. Or is that just a lucky observation, some random moment caught by chance? Maybe. Is it an intuitive expression of liquid intelligence? Exactly. Or the distillation of years of looking seeing thinking photography. Definitely.

“life’s single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can admit to in a lifetime, and stay sane”
- Thomas Pynchon, V

Ok, so how do I make sense of that never ending flow, the fog that covers life here and now. How do I see through that, how do I cross that boundary? Do I walk down the street and make pictures of strangers, do I make a drama-tableaux with my friends, do I only photograph my beloved, my family, myself? Or maybe I should just photograph the land, the rocks and trees – they don’t move or complain or push back. The old houses? The new houses? Do I go to a war zone on the other side of the world, or just to the corner store, or not leave my room at all?

Yes and yes and yes. That’s the choice you are spoiled for, but just don’t let it stop you. Be aware of it, but don’t get stuck – relax, it’s everything and everywhere. You will find it, and it will find you, just start, somehow, anyhow, but: start.

Yes, but shouldn’t I have a clear coherent theme, surely I have to know what I’m doing first? That would be nice, but I doubt Robert Frank knew what it all meant when he started, or for that matter Cindy Sherman or Robert Mapplethorpe or Atget or… so you shouldn’t expect it. The more preplanned it is the less room for surprise, for the world to talk back, for the idea to find itself, allowing ambivalence and ambiguity to seep in, and sometimes those are more important than certainty and clarity. The work often says more than the artist knows.

Ok, but my photography doesn’t always fit into neat, coherent projects, so maybe I need to roll freeform around this world, unfettered, able to photograph whatever and whenever: the sky, my feet, the coffee in my cup, the flowers I just noticed, my friends and lovers, and, because it’s all my life, surely it will make sense? Perhaps. Sometimes that works, sometimes it’s indulgent, but really it’s your choice, because you are also free to not make ’sense’.

“so finally even this story is absurd, which is an important part of the point, if any, since that it should have none whatsoever seems part of the point too”
- Malcolm Lowry, Ghostkeeper.

Ok, so I do need time to think about this. To allow myself that freedom for a short time. A couple of years. Maybe I won’t find my answer, but I will be around others who understand this question, who have reached a similar point. Maybe I’ll start on the wrong road, or for the wrong reasons – because I liked cameras, because I thought photography was an easy option, but if I’m forced to try, then perhaps I’ll stumble on some little thing, that makes a piece of sense to me, or simply just feels right. If I concentrate on that, then maybe it grows, and in its modest, ineffable way, begins to matter. Like photographing Arab-Americans in the USA as human beings with lives and hopes and families and feelings, straight, gay, young, old, with all the humanity that Hollywood never grants them. Or the black community of New Haven, doing inexplicable joyous, ridiculous theatrical-charades that explode my preconceptions into a thousand pieces. Or funny-disturbing-sad echoes of a snapshot of my old boyfriend. Or the anonymous suburban landscape of upstate in a way that defies the spectacular images we’re addicted to. Or… how women use our bodies to display who we believe we should be, Or…

“A Novel? No, I don’t have the endurance any more. To write a novel, you have to be like Atlas, holding up the whole world on your shoulders, and supporting it there for months and years, while its affairs work themselves out…”
- J. M. Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year.

And hopefully I will carry on, and develop it, because it is worthwhile. carry on because it matters when other things don’t seem to matter so much: the money job, the editorial assignment, the fashion shoot. Then one day it will be complete enough to believe it is finished. Made. Existing. Done. And in its own way: a contribution, and all that effort and frustration and time and money will fall away. It was worth it, because it is something real, that didn’t exist before you made it exist: a sentient work of art and power and sensitivity, that speaks of this world and your fellow human beings place within it. Isn’t that beautiful?
By Paul Graham

color color

Images taken off my tv

City of Ember (Gil Kenan, 2008)

City of Ember takes place in an underground city, a fact spelled out to us but one the characters are not aware of. So, a point so obvious it must be said out loud, none of the film is shot with natural light. The two main color schemes of the film are the warm tungsten based earth tones of the city (all deep reds, oranges, and browns), and the sickly florescent glow of places like pipeworks (all greens and blues). Out from these backdrops other colors like light blue, green, and bright red just pop off the screen. With the setting being a city surrounded by darkness the film uses black as punctuations. All of Embers streets and alleys become not necessary dead ends but black holes leading into the nothingness. The city experiences ever increasing blackouts and on three separate occasions the screen goes completely dark. Flashlights and flares are often used through out the film, craving out environment detail in otherwise black areas.
Whats nice is that Ember is in the framework of a kids film so it’s always moving forward, concentrating on how scenes play for emotional impact rather than being entranced by how it looks. The city is definitely run down but rather than revel in it the film is content to just show you the city in passing glances. The film is gorgeous and those moments pass so fast if you’re not paying attention you’ll miss it. The politics of the film are perfect too, with children not only being the ones who care enough to save the city but picking up on the past activism that their parents gave up on, both through death and defeat. Oh, and it 95 min. which is pretty much my favorite action movie runtime.

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I really don't print digitally, come to think of it I don't even have any personal digital prints. So here is an image I took awhile ago and never did anything with.

Before

After