Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Filmmaking today is ___________________.
Filmmaking today is in a state of decline due to the re-establishment of a new Hollywood studio system. Creative main stream films are becoming next to impossible to find.
Big impressions.
The stop.look.listen exhibition of video works at the Haggerty Museum was not only inspiring to me as an art student, but interesting to me on every other level outside of academia and art. This was because most of the pieces effectively made comments on our society as a whole. A lot of artist attempt to spread messages about society through their art, and most of the time, at least for me, it falls on deaf ears. This is because they is because they try to hard, they go to the extreme. I'm a huge fan of subtlety, it's the little reminders that make the biggest imprint on mind. Just give me an inch, don't worry, I'll take the mile. That's why my favorite works from the exhibition were Predator and Prey, by Janet Biggs, and Untitled (The Michael Jackson Project), by Rodney McMillian.
Untitled (The Michael Jackson Project) features an African American man in white clown make-up lip singing to a song by Gladys Knight titled “Try to Remember”. The title of the piece, as well as the image, almost says it all. It's really a very simple, yet impeccably layered. He's an African American, however he's in a simple t-shirt and painted in a weird version of “white face”. He's a man, but he's passionately mouthing the words of a song sang by a famous female singer. It's an exercise in contradictions, much like are society, which is also an exercise in contradictions. The music adds another layer. It's a very good, and amazingly written and performed song. Watching the video performance and listening to the song invokes an emotional response that I don't think either would be able to achieve alone. Predator and Prey is another powerful piece, that shows it's true content in simplicity. We watch beautifully captured images of polar bears, a horse, a eagle, and a swimmer. At first the imagery alone captured me, but then I realized what all of these things had in common, they were all in captivity. That's when I really started to pay attention, and I noticed the intensity of the sound, the pounding of the horse's hooves pounding against the ground, the sound of the eagle, and the music. The music, along with the realization of captivity, gave me the feeling of being trapped and wanting to escape the confines I was in at all circumstances. This is what the piece was trying to convey.
Overall I learned a lot at the exhibition, it was an unforgettable experience that has made huge impression on me.
Untitled (The Michael Jackson Project) features an African American man in white clown make-up lip singing to a song by Gladys Knight titled “Try to Remember”. The title of the piece, as well as the image, almost says it all. It's really a very simple, yet impeccably layered. He's an African American, however he's in a simple t-shirt and painted in a weird version of “white face”. He's a man, but he's passionately mouthing the words of a song sang by a famous female singer. It's an exercise in contradictions, much like are society, which is also an exercise in contradictions. The music adds another layer. It's a very good, and amazingly written and performed song. Watching the video performance and listening to the song invokes an emotional response that I don't think either would be able to achieve alone. Predator and Prey is another powerful piece, that shows it's true content in simplicity. We watch beautifully captured images of polar bears, a horse, a eagle, and a swimmer. At first the imagery alone captured me, but then I realized what all of these things had in common, they were all in captivity. That's when I really started to pay attention, and I noticed the intensity of the sound, the pounding of the horse's hooves pounding against the ground, the sound of the eagle, and the music. The music, along with the realization of captivity, gave me the feeling of being trapped and wanting to escape the confines I was in at all circumstances. This is what the piece was trying to convey.
Overall I learned a lot at the exhibition, it was an unforgettable experience that has made huge impression on me.
Knocked Up, Knocked Down.
I chose to write about, and discuss Jessica's Winter's review of Knocked Up. This caught my eye because my friends tend to think this movie is one of the holy grails of comedy. In fact, they probably believe the screenplay was etched in the back of the same stone tablets as the Ten Commandments. To say the least I don't agree with their views. While it does provide some laughs, if your in to that type of humor, I'm not, there are way two many flaws in the film for it to be the intelligent comedy most people seem to believe it is. I was interested if Jessica would side with me or my friends who are worse than prepubescent teens.
Winter looks both sides of the argument and at times she has some kind words for the film. She stated “it’s a reliable laugh factory, it really loves babies, etc. “, but overall her review was slightly on the negative side. She tended to agree with me, or I with her, on a lot of the problems with the film. For one it's filled with a bunch of crappy, vulgar, one liners. They just don't do it for me, it obviously works for some people, like my friends, but sadly not for cool, hip people, like myself, and Jessica. Also there just aren't any likable characters in the film for me. The male leads were annoying and the female leads were weak on personality and character, and also had somewhat stereotypical 'women' attitudes. The most interesting character for me as well as Jessica is the bouncer. She says “Craig Robinson as a philosophical club bouncer whose soul-searching monologue comes out of nowhere and deserves its own movie.” Indeed, it was the only time I laughed with the movie, and not angrily at the movie.
This articled interested me because Jessica was one of only a handful of people who felt the same way I did about Knocked Up. Now I ca prove to my friends that I am not alone in the world.
Winter looks both sides of the argument and at times she has some kind words for the film. She stated “it’s a reliable laugh factory, it really loves babies, etc. “, but overall her review was slightly on the negative side. She tended to agree with me, or I with her, on a lot of the problems with the film. For one it's filled with a bunch of crappy, vulgar, one liners. They just don't do it for me, it obviously works for some people, like my friends, but sadly not for cool, hip people, like myself, and Jessica. Also there just aren't any likable characters in the film for me. The male leads were annoying and the female leads were weak on personality and character, and also had somewhat stereotypical 'women' attitudes. The most interesting character for me as well as Jessica is the bouncer. She says “Craig Robinson as a philosophical club bouncer whose soul-searching monologue comes out of nowhere and deserves its own movie.” Indeed, it was the only time I laughed with the movie, and not angrily at the movie.
This articled interested me because Jessica was one of only a handful of people who felt the same way I did about Knocked Up. Now I ca prove to my friends that I am not alone in the world.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Act/React
The Act/React exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum was a wonderful experience. It expanded my mind and my beliefs on what art can be, and what it is. No longer am I restrained to the thinking that art is something that can only be enjoyed from afar, looked at from a distance, or listened to. With these installations I was able to interact with the art on a more personal level, and that gave me a new depth of perception. Scott Snibble’s ‘Deep Walls’ and Janet Cardiff’s ‘To Touch’ are two pieces of art work that prove to be a perfect example of my new found dimension of understanding.
Scott Sniblle’s Deep Walls presents you with a projection of multiple people, and once you step into certain area you’re recorded and also become part of that projection. Now your image is there playing on a loop with other images surrounding you, which are also playing on a loop. You become a part of the artwork yourself, which almost makes you feel as if you’re the artist and now your work is on display. You’re the creator who helps to interrupt and finish the artwork. In the same vein Janet Cardiff’s To Touch works very much in a very similar way. It doesn’t take video of you and project you onto a screen, but what does happen is just as extraordinary. You’re placed in front of a dated wooden table, and depending on where you touch the table, you get to hear different noises. Again, just as in the previously stated piece, you feel as if you’re the artist and the creator, and this your art to finish. It gives you a personal connection. That feeling of controlling isn’t something that can be replicated in traditional art pieces. It’s unique experience that helps you feel what the artist was trying to explore because now you’re exploring, either consciously or sub consciously, the same thing they were.
The Act/React installation provides a level of interaction that brings no only closer to the artwork, but closer to the artists themselves as well.
Scott Sniblle’s Deep Walls presents you with a projection of multiple people, and once you step into certain area you’re recorded and also become part of that projection. Now your image is there playing on a loop with other images surrounding you, which are also playing on a loop. You become a part of the artwork yourself, which almost makes you feel as if you’re the artist and now your work is on display. You’re the creator who helps to interrupt and finish the artwork. In the same vein Janet Cardiff’s To Touch works very much in a very similar way. It doesn’t take video of you and project you onto a screen, but what does happen is just as extraordinary. You’re placed in front of a dated wooden table, and depending on where you touch the table, you get to hear different noises. Again, just as in the previously stated piece, you feel as if you’re the artist and the creator, and this your art to finish. It gives you a personal connection. That feeling of controlling isn’t something that can be replicated in traditional art pieces. It’s unique experience that helps you feel what the artist was trying to explore because now you’re exploring, either consciously or sub consciously, the same thing they were.
The Act/React installation provides a level of interaction that brings no only closer to the artwork, but closer to the artists themselves as well.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Art Journals Part II: Representing Cinemascope.
Cinemascope is a very quirky online journal that covers contemporary media. It's a journal that features writers who take pride in their quirky, and independent artistic attitudes. Yet, despite it's quirkiness (that's not a bad thing), it still can appeal to an average reader who just picks up the journal and jumps right in. The journal covers both narrative, and experimental films, as well as North American, and international films. They also provide articles about film festivals, books, dvds, etc. There are two articles that stood out to me as a great representation of the meat and bones of this journal. The first was an article dedicated to taking a look at the career of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Yes that's right, you didn't read wrong, and to prove it I'll write it again, the international 80's action movie icon, no not Steven Segal, but Jean-Claude Van Damme! The other article takes a look at the independent and experimental film festivals of past and present.
Time and Hour: for the melancholy mastery of Jean-Claude Van Damme by Christopher Huber is an entertaining and enlightening look into the career of the Belgium born actor. The article is wrapped around a movie that JCVD is currently filming. The movie is sa omewhat sarcastic autobiographical film about an action superstar down on his luck. Ironic, right? Right? Yes it is. From the article:
“(“I’m too old for this shit,” ) sighs a slightly disgruntled Jean-Claude Van Damme after the amazing and amusing one-take action scene launching JCVD, the remarkable contraption directed and co-written by sophomore French director Mabrouk El Mechri. This tragicomic meta-movie ingeniously weaves a dash of fact into tongue-in-cheek fiction, with surprisingly moving results”.
You can't make this stuff up, well maybe you can, after all we are talking about fictional narratives aren't we? The rest of the article traces JCVD career over the past two decades as he goes from a small production martial arts actor, to a international superstar, to where he currently finds himself, the direct to DVD graveyard buried next to another familiar action name: Steven Segal. The quirkiness it takes to choose to write a full length article about Van Damme represents what I think is a very important aspect of this journal.
The other article, Damn Dirty Apes: Dead Festivals in the USA, Jim Finn discusses his experiences with experimental film festivals He talks about how in the mid to late 90's, and early in the new Millennium, the advances in video technology helped to foster many small film festivals that took place on collage campuses and small art houses. The eventual death of these festivals was to due to media artist being offered gallery opportunities, the invention of online video websites such as youtube.com, and just not having enough money in the budget to continue. However, in the end, Finn believes that early film festivals and their failures have paved the way for some of the better ones today.
I look forward to reading more issues of this interesting journal, and being entertained as well as being informed.
Time and Hour: for the melancholy mastery of Jean-Claude Van Damme by Christopher Huber is an entertaining and enlightening look into the career of the Belgium born actor. The article is wrapped around a movie that JCVD is currently filming. The movie is sa omewhat sarcastic autobiographical film about an action superstar down on his luck. Ironic, right? Right? Yes it is. From the article:
“(“I’m too old for this shit,” ) sighs a slightly disgruntled Jean-Claude Van Damme after the amazing and amusing one-take action scene launching JCVD, the remarkable contraption directed and co-written by sophomore French director Mabrouk El Mechri. This tragicomic meta-movie ingeniously weaves a dash of fact into tongue-in-cheek fiction, with surprisingly moving results”.
You can't make this stuff up, well maybe you can, after all we are talking about fictional narratives aren't we? The rest of the article traces JCVD career over the past two decades as he goes from a small production martial arts actor, to a international superstar, to where he currently finds himself, the direct to DVD graveyard buried next to another familiar action name: Steven Segal. The quirkiness it takes to choose to write a full length article about Van Damme represents what I think is a very important aspect of this journal.
The other article, Damn Dirty Apes: Dead Festivals in the USA, Jim Finn discusses his experiences with experimental film festivals He talks about how in the mid to late 90's, and early in the new Millennium, the advances in video technology helped to foster many small film festivals that took place on collage campuses and small art houses. The eventual death of these festivals was to due to media artist being offered gallery opportunities, the invention of online video websites such as youtube.com, and just not having enough money in the budget to continue. However, in the end, Finn believes that early film festivals and their failures have paved the way for some of the better ones today.
I look forward to reading more issues of this interesting journal, and being entertained as well as being informed.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Field Reports, Part Two: Surveying Art Journals
The art journal I will be following this semester is:
Cinema Scope
http://www.cinema-scope.com/
Cinema Scope
http://www.cinema-scope.com/
Field Reports, Part One: Art Encounters
When viewing the film "Bear Garden" which I saw in class, and comparing it to any one of the films I saw of Robert Schaller,one word comes to mind: Kinetic. The kinetic energy within these films are completely off the chart. That's the relation they have to each other. As a viewer making an independent interruption, I felt like all of these experimental films were making expressions about the kinetic energy within society, within their lives, and within our very own lives as viewers.
In all of Robert Schaller's films there was this extreme amount of motion. Along with this motion there was multiple quick cuts, and quick edits. Going back and forth with the camera, fade ins/outs, cross fades etc. In particular “Life As A Bee”, showed us the audience, what it's like to be a bee. We were dropped right into the first person prospective of this insect. It took us from flower to flower at extreme paces, always in motion and never stopping. The three projection film featuring the dancer was another work that was obsessed with the idea of motion. As the dancer moved across the screens we're entranced by her actions. This kinetic energy runs through all of his films, this sense of motion, this sense of energy, to me in my opinion, feels like en expression of life.
“Bear Garden” is in the same mold of Robert Schaller 's motion experimentation with film. We're placed again in a fist person view and thrown around. We're having an experience in movement, we're forced into another body, not out, to witness first hand what these movements feel like. “Bear Garden” isn't as always as fast and furious as Robert's films, but it definitely has similar ideas about how to express energy and movement.
Both filmmakers are dealing with the idea of expressing the Kinetic energy in life. At least that's the feeling I get when I watch their films together.
In all of Robert Schaller's films there was this extreme amount of motion. Along with this motion there was multiple quick cuts, and quick edits. Going back and forth with the camera, fade ins/outs, cross fades etc. In particular “Life As A Bee”, showed us the audience, what it's like to be a bee. We were dropped right into the first person prospective of this insect. It took us from flower to flower at extreme paces, always in motion and never stopping. The three projection film featuring the dancer was another work that was obsessed with the idea of motion. As the dancer moved across the screens we're entranced by her actions. This kinetic energy runs through all of his films, this sense of motion, this sense of energy, to me in my opinion, feels like en expression of life.
“Bear Garden” is in the same mold of Robert Schaller 's motion experimentation with film. We're placed again in a fist person view and thrown around. We're having an experience in movement, we're forced into another body, not out, to witness first hand what these movements feel like. “Bear Garden” isn't as always as fast and furious as Robert's films, but it definitely has similar ideas about how to express energy and movement.
Both filmmakers are dealing with the idea of expressing the Kinetic energy in life. At least that's the feeling I get when I watch their films together.
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